The Shoshone Project is an irrigation project in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

. The project provides irrigation for approximately of crops in the

Big Horn Basin The Bighorn Basin is a plateau region and intermontane basin, approximately 100 miles (160 km) wide, in north-central Wyoming in the United States. It is bounded by the Absaroka Range on the west, the Pryor Mountains on the north, the Bighor ...

, fulfilling the vision of local resident and developer

Buffalo Bill Cody William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), known as "Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but he lived for several years in ...

, who hoped to make the semi-arid basin into agricultural land.

Buffalo Bill Dam 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 ...

on the

Shoshone River The Shoshone River is a long river in northern Wyoming in the United States. Its headwaters are in the Absaroka Range in Shoshone National Forest. It ends when it runs into the Big Horn River near Lovell, Wyoming. Cities it runs near or thr ...

impounds water for the project in Buffalo Bill Reservoir. In addition to its role in irrigation, the project provides flood control on the Shoshone and generates power, using the height of Buffalo Bill Dam, once a world record, and the considerable fall of the river through Shoshone Canyon to generate

hydroelectric power Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

. Chief crops in the Big Horn Basin are sugar beets, alfalfa,

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

oats The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human co ...

, corn and beans.

Establishment

At the end of the 19th century

settled in his namesake town of

Cody, Wyoming Cody is a city in Northwest Wyoming and the seat of government of Park County, Wyoming, United States. It is named after Colonel William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody for his part in the founding of Cody in 1896. The population was 10,066 at th ...

, buying much of the surrounding lands. Cody promoted a plan to use the waters of the Shoshone to irrigate the plains of the

Bighorn Basin The Bighorn Basin is a plateau region and intermontane basin, approximately 100 miles (160 km) wide, in north-central Wyoming in the United States. It is bounded by the Absaroka Range on the west, the Pryor Mountains on the north, the Bigho ...

extending eastward from Cody. Franklin Wheeler Mondell, later U.S. Senator from Wyoming, filed for the first water rights in 1893 but was unable to follow up on his project. Cody and his partner Nate Salisbury obtained a permit to irrigate using three canals, but were in turn unable to construct the necessary infrastructure. Cody and local promoters again obtained water rights to irrigate from the state of Wyoming in 1899 and attempted to build a private canal, but lacked sufficient resources. Following the passage of the

Reclamation Act The Reclamation Act (also known as the Lowlands Reclamation Act or National Reclamation Act) of 1902 () is a United States federal law that funded irrigation projects for the arid lands of 20 states in the American West. The act at first covere ...

in 1902 the state urged the Department of Interior to take over the project. The federal government-backed Shoshone Project was authorized in 1904 by Secretary of the Interior Ethan Allen Hitchcock, based on the 1899 Cody-Salisbury permit. The project started the same year, administered by the

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 ...

. Work on Buffalo Bill Dam started in 1905. The small Ralston and Corbett dams were completed in 1908. Buffalo Bill Dam (known as Shoshone Dam until 1946) was completed in 1910 at a cost of $1.4 million, at a height of , then the tallest dam in the world. The dam's height was extended by another to in the 1990s, significantly expanding reservoir capacity. Land was opened for settlement near Powell in the Garland Division, with extensive agricultural development by 1918. The Frannie Division was opened at about this time. The Willwood Division was opened to development between 1927 and 1938, while the Heart Mountain Division was not opened until 1947.

Administration

The project is administered in four divisions: * The Garland Division, with of irrigated land, receives water diverted into the Garland Canal by the Corbett Diversion Dam on the Shoshone, downstream from Buffalo Bill Dam. The canal has a capacity of . The Garland Division is administered by the Shoshone Irrigation District, directed by local water users. * The Heart Mountain Division, with receives seasonal output from the Heart Mountain Powerplant, which discharges into an inverted siphon crossing the Shoshone River. The Heart Mountain Canal transports the water to users at a rate of . Portions of the Heart Mountain Canal were built with labor provided by the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

from camp BR-72. Japanese American internees from the

Heart Mountain Relocation Center The Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, named after nearby Heart Mountain and located midway between the northwest Wyoming towns of Cody and Powell, was one of ten concentration camps used for the internment of Japanese Americans evicted ...

worked on the canal in from 1942 until May 1944. Work was finally completed in 1947. * The Frannie Division, with receives water from the Garland Canal through a branch canal, the Frannie Canal, which is long and carries . * The Willwood Division, with receives water from the Willwood Diversion dam on the Shoshone, downstream from the Corbett Diversion Dam. The Willwood Canal extends for and can deliver water at .

Power generation

Waters impounded by Buffalo Bill Dam operate four power plants, two close to the dam's base and two others operated by water piped from the dam, taking advantage of the height change through Shoshone Canyon to place the power stations in the flats beyond the mountain canyon. The original powerplant, the Shoshone Powerplant, and what was initially intended to be a temporary Heart Mountain Powerplant, were supplemented and upgraded with the dam's increase in height from 1992-1994. Shoshone Power Plant WY1

* Shoshone Powerplant: Originally built in 1922, the Shoshone Powerplant is located in Shoshone Canyon from the base of the dam, and operated until 1980. Units 1 and 2 came on line in 1922, Unit 3 in 1931. Installed capacity was 6.012 MW. All three units were shut down in 1980, worn out from fifty years of service. 1 and 2 were decommissioned and left in place, while 3 was replaced with a new 3 MW Francis turbine unit that started operation in 1992. The plant operates with a head of . * Buffalo Bill Powerplant: The Buffalo Bill Powerplant was built concurrently with work to increase the dam's height by in 1992. The plant, located in Shoshone Canyon downstream from the original Shoshone Powerplant, operates a Francis turbine rated at 18 MW on a head of . * Heart Mountain Powerplant: Located at the outlet of the Shoshone Canyon Conduit, the Heart Mountain Powerplant was built in 1947 as a temporary facility. It was rebuilt concurrently with the dam heightening project and is operated on a seasonal basis. It operates a 5 MW Francis turbine on a head. Located near a geothermally active area, construction of the tunnel proved difficult, with fumes contributing to the deaths of two construction workers in 1937. * Spirit Mountain Powerplant: The Spirit Mountain Powerplant receives pressurized water through a conduit. It primarily functions to dissipate the pressure in the conduit before it enters an open canal, generating power as a byproduct. The unit operates a Francis turbine generating 4.5 MW on a seasonal base load basis, with a head. It was built in 1994.

References

External links

Shoshone Project
at the Bureau of Reclamation
Shoshone Project History
at the Bureau of Reclamation
Shoshone Irrigation District
focusing on the area around Powell, Wyoming {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Wyoming United States Bureau of Reclamation Irrigation Districts of the United States