Buffalo Bill Damn, Wyoming Is 110 Years Old

110 years ago on January 15, 1910, it began.

The construction of the Buffalo Bill Dam near Cody, Wyoming.

It might not have been a good day to start. The thermometer showed 15 below zero.

The damn is located about six miles west of Cody, Wyoming. You'll love driving through the tunnels alongside the water, with openings in the rock that let you see the damn.

The reason for building the damn was to catch and direct water for around 90,000 acres in northwestern Wyoming to irrigated farming.

While people did want to live in that area, is very dry out that way. They just needed to direct the water to where they wanted it to go.

William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and a group of investors formed the Shoshone Land and Irrigation Company, founded the town of Cody. They were the ones who purchased the land and acquired the water rights.

But the project was going to cost more than the investors had.

So the Wyoming State Board of Land Commissioners asked the Federal Government for help. The rights were transferred and the dam was built.

The damn is 325 feet high and, at the time, was the highest dam in the world

Photo Credit: Construction of Buffalo Bill Dam in progress, circa 1908, is archived at the American Heritage Center. https://digitalcollections.uwyo.edu/luna/servlet/s/4u242i