High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Shasta Dam (called Kennett Dam before its construction) is an arch dam across the Sacramento River in the northern part of the U.S. state of California, at the north end of the Sacramento Valley. The dam mainly serves long-term water storage and flood control in its reservoir, Shasta Lake, and also generates hydroelectric power. At 602 feet (183 m) high, it is the ninth-tallest dam in the United States and forms the largest reservoir in California.