Boysen Dam
| Boysen Dam | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Country | United States |
| Location | Fremont County, Wyoming |
| Coordinates | 43°25′02″N 108°10′39″W / 43.41722°N 108.17750°WCoordinates: 43°25′02″N 108°10′39″W / 43.41722°N 108.17750°W |
| Status | In use |
| Construction began | 1947 |
| Opening date | 1952 |
| Construction cost | $18.5 million |
| Owner(s) | U.S. Bureau of Reclamation |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Type of dam | Rockfill |
| Impounds | Wind River |
| Height | 220 ft (67 m) |
| Length | 1,143 ft (348 m) |
| Elevation at crest | 4,758 ft (1,450 m) |
| Width (crest) | 30 ft (9.1 m) |
| Width (base) | 919 ft (280 m) |
| Dam volume | 1,527,386 cu yd (1,167,770 m3) |
| Spillways | 2 |
| Spillway type | Concrete chute and river outlets |
| Spillway capacity | 26,300 cu ft/s (740 m3/s) |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Boysen Reservoir |
| Total capacity | 952,400 acre·ft (1,174,800 dam3) |
| Active capacity | 802,000 acre·ft (989,000 dam3) |
| Inactive capacity | 150,400 acre·ft (185,500 dam3) |
| Catchment area | 7,700 sq mi (20,000 km2) |
| Surface area | 19,560 acres (7,920 ha) |
| Maximum water depth | 117 ft (36 m) |
| Normal elevation | 4,732 ft (1,442 m) (max) |
| Power station | |
| Turbines | 2 |
| Installed capacity | 15 MW |
| Annual generation | 37,856,600 KWh |
The Boysen Dam is a rockfill dam on the Wind River in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The dam lies at the head of Wind River Canyon through the Owl Creek Mountains in western Wyoming and creates Boysen Reservoir. It is owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and furnishes irrigation water supply to the Bighorn Basin as well as providing flood control and hydroelectric power.
The first dam to be built at the Wind River Canyon site was actually in 1908, when Asmus Boysen supervised the construction of a small concrete run-of-the-river structure that generated 710 kilowatts of electricity. This early dam, located just downriver of the present Boysen Dam, silted up by 1925 and was removed in 1948. As early as 1904, the Bureau of Reclamation also made investigative forays into the area for the construction of a dam, although a final report was not completed until 1942. Initially, by a suggestion of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Boysen Dam would be built right over the site of the old dam, but the location was changed to about one and a half miles (2.4 km) upstream in order to reduce cost.
Preliminary work for construction of Boysen Dam was begun on September 9, 1946 and included the installation of government buildings, an employee camp, warehouses, electrical transmission lines and the relocation of U.S. Highway 20 and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railway to bypass the construction site. The contract for the dam itself and the rerouting of the rail line was awarded to the Morrison-Knudsen Company for $13.9 million. Most of the preparatory work including foundation excavations and the various camp facilities were completed by the end of autumn 1947, and official groundbreaking was on September 19 of that year.
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