Cody Dam

We stopped and saw the Cody Dam. Damn fine piece of work.

In 1897 and 1899 Colonel William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody and his associates acquired from the State of Wyoming the right to take water from the Shoshone River to irrigate about 169,000 acres of land in the Big Horn Basin. They began developing a canal to carry water diverted from the river, but their plans did not include a water storage reservoir. Colonel Cody and his associates were unable to raise sufficient capital to complete their plan. Early in 1903 they joined with the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners in urging the federal government to step in and help with irrigation development in the valley.

Construction of the Shoshone Dam (later called Buffalo Bill Dam) started in 1905, a year after the Shoshone Project was authorized. Engineers were faced with seemingly insurmountable physical challenges, among them deep granite canyon which made the work difficult and the remote location which made it hard to secure and keep construction workers. Another constant challenge was the Shoshone River which did not always schedule its flows to coincide with work on the dam. One year half the annual runoff occurred during a 30-day period, making work almost impossible. At one point the river cascaded over the top of the unfinished dam at the depth of 17 feet.