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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.
The Shoshone Project became
one of the first federal water development projects undertaken by the
newly formed Reclamation Service, later to become known as the Bureau of
Reclamation. After Reclamation took over the project in 1903,
investigating engineers recommended constructing a dam on the Shoshone
River in the canyon east of Cody.
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.
To excavate the dam abutments
on the sheer walls of the canyon, workmen hung from "spider
lines" connected to cableway towers. A riveted steel bridge was built
across the canyon at the dam site for use in handling concrete.
Because there were no natural
deposits of sand and gravel near the site, both had to be manufactured
from granite. Clean pieces of granite weighing from 25 to 200 pounds were
hand-placed in the concrete. The boulders make up about 25 percent of the
masonry of the dam.
Buffalo Bill Dam was
Reclamation's first high concrete arch dam. When completed in 1910 it was
the highest dam in the world at 325 feet. It was 108 feet wide at the base
and 10 feet wide at the top. Its crest was 200 feet across.
Because of its historical
significance, Buffalo Bill Dam was added to the National Register of Historic
Places in 1973. It is also a National Civil Engineering Landmark. |
