Buffalo Bill Dam
| Buffalo Bill Dam | |
|---|---|
Buffalo Bill Dam from within Shoshone Canyon
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| Official name | Buffalo Ridge |
| Location | Park County, Wyoming, US |
| Coordinates | 44°30′06″N 109°11′03″W / 44.50167°N 109.18417°WCoordinates: 44°30′06″N 109°11′03″W / 44.50167°N 109.18417°W |
| Construction began | 1905 |
| Opening date | 1910 |
| Operator(s) | U.S. Bureau of Reclamation |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Type of dam | Concrete gravity arch |
| Impounds | Shoshone River |
| Height | 350 feet (110 m) |
| Length | 200 feet (61 m) |
| Width (crest) | 10 feet (3.0 m) |
| Width (base) | 108 feet (33 m) |
| Dam volume | 87,515 cu yd (66,910 m3) |
| Spillway type | Concrete lined tunnel through left abutment, radial arm gates |
| Spillway capacity | 84,725 cu ft/s (2,399.1 m3/s) |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Buffalo Bill Reservoir |
| Total capacity | 869,230 acre feet (1.07218 km3) nominal, 623,557 acre feet (0.769146 km3) due to siltation |
| Power station | |
| Hydraulic head | 265 ft (81 m) |
| Turbines | 1 x 3 MW Francis turbine, Unit 3 in Shoshone Powerplant 1 x 18 MW Francis turbine in Buffalo Bill Powerplant 1 x 5 MW Francis turbine in Heart Mountain Powerplant and 1 x 4.5 MW Francis turbine in Spirit Mountain Powerplant |
| Installed capacity | 30.5 MW |
| Annual generation | 91,114,580 KWh |
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Buffalo Bill Dam
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| Location | W of Cody on U.S. 14 |
| Nearest city | Cody, Wyoming |
| Built | January 15, 1910 |
| NRHP Reference # | 71000890 |
| Added to NRHP | August 12, 1971 |
Buffalo Bill Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Shoshone River in the U.S. state of Wyoming. It is named after the famous Wild West figure William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, who founded the nearby town of Cody and owned much of the land now covered by the reservoir formed by its construction. The dam is part of the Shoshone Project, successor to several visionary schemes promoted by Cody to irrigate the Bighorn Basin and turn it from a semi-arid sagebrush-covered plain to productive agricultural land. Known at the time of its construction as Shoshone Dam, it was renamed in 1946 to honor Cody.
The 325 feet (99 m) high structure was designed by engineer Daniel Webster Cole and built between 1905 and 1910. At the time of its completion it was the tallest dam in the world. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and named a National Civil Engineering Landmark in 1973. The land around the reservoir is maintained as Buffalo Bill State Park.
The dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam, 70 feet (21 m) wide at the base and 200 feet (61 m) wide at the crest, with an original height of 325 feet (99 m). The concrete structure measures 108 feet (33 m) deep at the base, tapering to 10 feet (3.0 m) at the crest, with a volume of 82,900 cubic yards (63,400 m3) of concrete. It is anchored into Pre-Cambrian granitic rock on either side. The spillway is an uncontrolled overflow weir on the south side, 298 feet (91 m) wide, dropping through a tunnel in the left abutment.
With the authorization of the Shoshone Project in 1904, Buffalo Bill Dam became one of the earliest projects of the new Bureau of Reclamation. The ambitious project involved the construction of one of the first high concrete dams in the United States. Work began immediately, with drilling for geologic investigation starting in July 1904 and continuing for ten months. Work proceeded concurrently on the construction of an access road up the narrow canyon from Cody. The chosen contractor, Prendergast & Clarkson of Chicago, started work in September 1905, building a camp for workers and starting on a diversion dam, which was to divert the river into a wooden flume, through a tunnel and out through another flume to rejoin the river bed. Two men were killed in the construction of the tunnel. A June 1906 flood destroyed the flume. The delay caused the Bureau of Reclamation to suspend the contractor's contract and to call upon the contractor's bonding company, the U.S. Fidelity and Guaranty Company, to ensure the completion of the work. Little work was done until March 1907. Another flood in July damaged the diversion dam again. Working conditions were harsh, leading to the first strike in Wyoming's history in November, in which workers demanded and received three dollars a day from USF&G.
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