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NR By County Test (3)

West of Cody

 

Brian Beadles
Historic Preservation Specialist
(307) 777-8594

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  • Buffalo Bill Dam

     
     

    Read All About It:

    Construction of the Buffalo Bill Dam was completed in 1910. The Dam is a concrete arch placed near the head of the Shoshone River Canyon. The Dam stands 325 feet high, measured from bedrock. Its hydraulic height is 233 feet; its width at base in 108 feet and at top is 10 feet. The length at the crest is 200 feet and the elevation there is 5,370 feet above sea level. A measured 82,900 cubic yards of concrete were poured during the dam's construction. The reservoir standing behind the dam is also named Buffalo Bill. It has a capacity of 439,800 acre feet of water with a shoreline of about 20 miles.

    The Buffalo Bill Dam is one of the earliest achievements of the Bureau of Reclamation and was built in the ''Arch and Crown-Cantilever Method.'' The original name was Shoshone Dam. The entire project, including irrigation canals extending into Montana 70 or more miles from the dam site, watered lands, powerplants, spillways, and diversion tunnels, is named the Shoshone Project. Almost three decades after its construction the title of dam and reservoir was changed by Act of Congress to Buffalo Bill. This was done in order to honor the memory of Col. William Frederick Cody better known as Buffalo Bill. The building of Buffalo Bill Dam cost $1,000,000. Its value and significance to the local area and the State of Wyoming includes the value of annual crops raised on almost 100,000 acres of rich agricultural lands, the wealth resulting from industrial and municipal waters made available, and the further wealth resulting from electric energy furnished to individuals, communities, and industries.

    Buffalo-Bill-dam
     

     

    Date Added to Register:
    Thursday, August 12, 1971
     
    Location:
    West of Cody
     
    County:
    Park County
     
    Smithsonian Number: 
    48PA76  

     

  • Colter's Hell

     
     

    Read All About It:

    Colter's Hell is an almost inactive geyser district occurring over approximately one square mile of terrain occupying and fanning out from the mouth of the Stinkingwater River Canyon. The geyser activity has been dwindling during historic times but there are several accounts of its appearance during a more active period. John Colter, explorer and fur trapper, provided verbal descriptions based upon his exploration of the area during his winter journey of 1807-1808. Another ''mountain man'', Joseph Meek, was in the area in 1830 and left a description of the place. Another description of Colter's Hell came through the remembrances of Chief Plenty Coups of the Crow nation about the Chief's childhood during the 1840s when his village camped above the banks of the Stinkingwater River and he and the other Crow children watched the geysers play. Colter's Hell is significant for its relationship to a man who figures prominently in the nation's history and legends, and as the first location within Wyoming to be subjected to recorded exploration by a white man.

     
    Colters-hell

     

    Date Added to Register:
    Tuesday, August 14, 1973
     
    Location:
    West of Cody
     
    County:
    Park County
     
    Smithsonian Number: 
    48PA77  

     

  • Pagoda Creek

     

     
     

    Read All About It:

    National Register form available upon request.

     

     

    Date Added to Register:
    Friday, December 22, 2017
     
    Location:
    Wapiti
     
    County:
    Park County
     
    Smithsonian Number: 
    48PA853

     

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