Pilot Butte Dam (National ID # WY01381) is a dam in

Fremont County, Wyoming Fremont County is a county in the U.S. state of Wyoming. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 39,234, making it the fifth-most populous county in Wyoming. Its county seat is Lander. The county was founded in 1884 and is name ...

. The earthen dam was constructed in 1926 by the

United States Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and opera ...

, with a height of 64 feet (19.5 km), and a length of 55 feet (16.8 km) at its crest. It provides offstream storage for flood control and irrigation water as part of the larger Riverton unit of the extensive

Pick–Sloan Missouri Basin Program The Pick–Sloan Missouri Basin Program, formerly called the Missouri River Basin Project, was initially authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1944, which approved the plan for the conservation, control, and use of water resources in the ...

. The dam is owned by the Bureau, and operated by the Midvale Irrigation District. The reservoir it creates, Pilot Butte Reservoir, has a normal water surface of 1.4 square miles (3.6 km²), and a maximum capacity of 36,900

acre-feet The acre-foot is a non- SI unit of volume equal to about commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, irrigation water, and river flows. An acre-f ...

. Recreation includes fishing (for trout, ling, and crappie, etc.), hunting, boating, camping and hiking.

References

{{authority control Dams in Wyoming Hydroelectric power plants in Wyoming Reservoirs in Wyoming United States Bureau of Reclamation dams Dams completed in 1926 Buildings and structures in Fremont County, Wyoming Bodies of water of Fremont County, Wyoming