by building the dam here, it provides flood control to the g, thef reddin largest in shasta county, and all the way to the bay area. you want to look for that natural basin. at shasta, they found three sides that would be potentially good sites and this was selected as the best because of the size and proximity. control.provide that this is the lobby to the power plants. in the early days of construction and when the dam was finished, this was open to the public. you are able to use this as a central place to visit shasta dam. after 9/11, we were not allowed to bring the public into this area, so it was closed. in 2008, we were able to open back up to the public for the full tour of shasta dam. when we redid the room, we maintained the marble originally placed, the doorways, the furniture from the nearly -- early 1950's. we kept it because it is cool to bring you back into the day when it was first operational to the public. it takes you back to that early 19 fifties place. -- 1950's place. we like to talk about the construction of shasta dam. it was built in 1938 to 1945, so the depres