The Glines Canyon Power Plant is historically significant for its association with the evolution of power plant design and contributed to the development of the automation of hydroelectric installations. In addition, as one of the last dams within the state to be constructed solely for the purpose of power generation, it marks the closing of an era which characterized early hydroelectric development within Washington State.

In 1992, Congress passed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act and the National Park Service, along with many partners and stakeholders, is currently engaged in restoration efforts; removal of the dam, along with its counterpart eight miles upriver, is scheduled to begin in 2009.

This dam was removed starting in 2011 as part of the Elwha River Restoration Project.

This removed the former Lake Mills an artificial, mountain lake fed occupying Glines Canyon in the Elwha River in the Clallam County area of Olympic National Park. It is also called Elwha Reservoir and was created by a hydroelectric power dam which was built in 1926-27 by Washington Pulp & Paper Corp. The reservoir was named for E. M. Mills, who promoted pulp and paper plants on the Olympic Peninsula and at other points in the Pacific Northwest.