El Dorado El Dorado El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden one"), originally "El Hombre Dorado" ("The Golden Man") or "El Rey Dorado" ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish Empire to describe a mythical tribal chief ("zipa") of the Muisca native people in then Spanish colonial province of Colombia, who, as an initiation rite, covered himself with gold dust and submerged in Lake Guatavita. The legends surrounding El Dorado changed over time, as it went from being a man, to a city, to a kingdom, and then finally to an empire. A second location for El Dorado
El Dorado Lake two pre-existing smaller reservoirs: Bluestem Lake and the original El Dorado Lake. The original El Dorado Lake was built on Satchel Creek in 1927 as a water supply for the community of El Dorado. Bluestem Lake was built on Bemis Creek in the 1950s. The dams of both reservoirs were breached during the building of the larger El Dorado Lake and their waters subsequently inundated. The remnants of Bluestem Lake's dam are still visible in the Shady Creek arm of the present-day reservoir. El Dorado Lake is located at (37.8472402, -96.8230838) at an elevation of . It lies in the