Photograph by United States Bureau of Reclamation, Public domain. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
Buffalo Bill Dam
Built in 1910. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
From the record
“Buffalo Bill Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Shoshone River in the U.S. state of Wyoming. Originally 325 feet (99 m), it was the tallest dam in the world when it opened in 1910; a 25-foot (7.6 m) extension was added in 1992 in one of the numerous changes and improvements to the structure and its support facilities, which include two full-time power generators and two seasonal operations added between 1920 and 1994, and a 2.8-mile (4.5 km) irrigation tunnel completed in 1939.”
Wikipedia article Buffalo Bill Dam, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 38 National Register listings published here for Park County · listed in 1971 · category: Structure · built in 1910.
National Register reference number.71000890- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Fires near this property
89 since 1992
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 89 fires within 5 miles of Buffalo Bill Dam
between 1992 and 2020, burning about 278 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 3 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Recreation and ceremony
29
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
22
Debris and open burning
13
Fireworks
8
Misuse of fire by a minor
6
Natural
5
Arson/incendiarism
3
Power generation/transmission/distribution
1
Equipment and vehicle use
1
Railroad operations and maintenance
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
12 workings within 5 miles of Buffalo Bill Dam: 7 unknowns, 3 occurrences, 2 past producers.
None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gypsum-Anhydrite, Dolomite, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Cody, the town this property stands in, in 31 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 10 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 5 wildfire, 4 flash flood.
The reports record 5 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
A thunderstorm rapidly developed to the south of Cody and tracked north over the city producing heavy rain and copious amounts of small hail. Hail drifts were measured in feet in some areas with a few low spots accumulating close to six feet of hail. The hail prevented the heavy rain from draining easily and water accumulated on area roads. Several business owners in downtown Cody reported minor flooding as the water piled up in the streets, especially along Sheridan Avenue. A bakery had water on the floors and in the basement and a gift shop flooded.
Strong thunderstorm winds blew down trees onto power lines that caused power outages to 400 customers. A maximum wind gust of 68 mph was reported at the Powell airport.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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