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The Pathfinder Dam Historic District consists of various features associated with the construction and ongoing operation of the dam, including the spillway, emergency gatehouse, cableway powerhouse, dike, dam tender’s house and barn, and a quarry. In 1904 the location of the Pathfinder Dam was selected as part of the North Platte Project to allow the irrigation development of eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska. Today the North Platte Project provides full service irrigation for about 226,000 acres and supplemental irrigation service for an additional 109,000 acres. Pathfinder Dam is also notable as it served as a field laboratory to test a new dam design methodology called the Trial Load Method of analysis developed by the Reclamation Service and engineer George Wisner.