Krishnamurti Lake
Krishnamurti Lake was, and still presumably is, an artificial lake created on Farid Creek, which flowed beside the portion of the county road coming from Antelope to "downtown" Rajneeshpuram. It was the second artificial lake on the ranch, the first, Patanjali Lake, having been created by the ranch's previous owners on Kabir Creek. The two creeks met downtown and went on to flow into the big river downstream, Radha River, or the John Day River.
Patanjali lake was created in a place which lent itself easily to the possibility. Krishnamurti Lake was more of a stretch, requiring far more resources: people, equipment and money. Fortunately, resources were available, and since there was a strong need for a reliable source of a lot of water that would demonstrably not impact neighbours' water supplies, this project was born.
This project was so high-profile that it could not only be seen from the county road, it submerged the county road; the road had to be relocated a hundred feet higher. No one passing through could miss the point. And those who took bets that it would take impossibly long to fill up lost. It filled in six short weeks.
Sw Satyam Anando tells the story of building the dam in Osho News. A snippet:
- One of the major "rational" complaints against establishing a city in this desert was the lack of water. Some environmentalists and neighboring ranchers insisted that there was barely enough to take care of existing needs. Any further strain would lower the underlying water table.
- Our planners insisted that there was enough water if only we could catch it before it ran down the steep hills towards the river taking the precious topsoil with it. The Beaver crew worked in the main and side creeks cutting down junipers that stole water and building small check dams. The ponds they made slowed the rush of water and reduced erosion.
A few facts about the dam and lake: it was 45 acres, its capacity was 330,000,000 gallons and the height of the dam was 80 feet. For creek restoration and erosion control, one million willow trees were planted along the creeks, which would both hold the soil and retain some water for the whole ecosystem, and two hundred check dams were built.
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