Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-18
LAST WORK ON BIG CODY Dam
Wyoming Town Celebrates Compile
ton Of Monster Project
LAKE FOURTEEN MILES LONG
Reservoir VIII Have Capacity 20
Water $4,000 Acres OF Land
for Two Years-on site
Of Ancient Lake.

CODY, Wyo., Jan. 17.-(Speclal)-ThC
citizens Of Cody and the Shoshone valley
are celebrating the completion OF the
immense government dam just above this
city, for today thd last bucketful Of ce-
ment was dumped on the huge structure
and smoothed into place amid the cheers
of the workmen and several hundred en-
thusiastic citizens, who were present to
witness the event. The celebration was
continued throughout the day and far
into the night in Buffalo Bill's town, al
though II was entirely Informal.
The big dam finished today is the high
est structure Of its kind in the world. II
is S2S feet high, eighty feet long at the
base, 200 feet at the top, and more thar
100 feet thick 1t will impound water suf-
ficient to irrigate 1872, 900 acres Of land for
two years and will create a lake four
teen miles long and three miles wide, with
a maximum depth Of over 200 feet. -Four
years have been required to complete the
work. A smaller dam, known as the
Corbett diversion project, was completed
last year. This lower dam is of concrete
and designed to raise the water Of the
shoshone river about fourteen feet, carry
ing it to and through a tunnel over three
miles in length to the main canal Of the
Shoshone project. The next unit in the
big project win be the construction OF
the high line canal, which win take water
direct from the big reservoir and dis
tribute 1t to many additional acres in the
immediate vicinity of Cody.
On site of Ancient Lake.
The completion of the big dam today
paves the way for the restoration of an
ancient lake proven to have existed thou
sands of years ago. When this lake over
flowed, the water gradually wore a pas
sageway through the solid granite noun
tain and in the course of numberless cen
turtles formed a gorge eight miles In
length and several hundred feet deep
leaving the lake bed dry. Behind the
solid mountain of masonry just completed
by the reclamation service the angry flood
waters of the Shoshone river will be held
until once more the ancient lake is created
this time to be held for the use and
benefit of the settlers on $4,000 acres OF
land.
Before work could be commenced on the
dam, the government found it necessary to
construct a wagon road through the almost
inaccessible gorge worn by the river. In
many places this roadbed is tunnelled
through the rocky sides of the granite
walls, and for several miles the road was
blasted out of the. sheer granite face OF
Rattlesnake mountain. This road now
forms the first eight miles of Cody's
magnificent route to the National park.
An entire year was required to complete the
wagon road.
Capacity of Huge Reservoir.
The storage capacity of the big reser-
votr will be 456, 900 acre feet. The main
canals will be sixty miles in length and
the laterals $50 miles. Only the flood
waters of the Shoshone river will be i'm
pounded, and it is estimated that 1t will
requir two years to fill the lake TO its
capacity, although the project has a drain
age area of 1880 square miles. Many fine
r~anchks-now the property of the govern
ment-win be completely submerged by the
impounded waters.
The first American TO visit the vicinity
Of the Shoshone dam was John Golfer.
He had been with Lewis and Clark on
their famous trip of exploration to the
northwest, but on the return trip left the
party to trap and hunt on the Upper Mis-
souri,. Later he Joined a party under Lisa,
the eUterprising Spanish explorer, and ac-
companied 1t to the Big Horn river. Two
years were spent in hunting and trapping
on the Big Horn and it's tributaries, and 1t
was while here that Golfer discovered the
Shonsone canyon and the nov famous hot
mineral springs at Cody. Golfers stories of
the wonders Of the region now incorpor-
ated in the Yellowstone park were received
in derision by trappers and traders with
whom he later associated and it was
nearly fifty years before that now ia
nous region received official notice and
exploration began.