Boysen Reservoir
Encyclopedia
Boysen Reservoir is a reservoir
Reservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...

 formed by Boysen Dam
Boysen Dam
The Boysen Dam is a rockfill dam on the Wind River in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The dam lies at the head of Wind River Canyon through the Owl Creek Mountains in western Wyoming and creates Boysen Reservoir. It is owned by the U.S...

, an earth-fill dam on the Wind River
Wind River
Wind River may refer to:One of several rivers in the United States:*Wind River *Wind River , a designated National Wild and Scenic River*Wind River , called in Inuit Gui-guok-lok*Wind River...

 in the central part of the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

. It is near the town of Shoshoni
Shoshoni, Wyoming
Shoshoni is a town in Fremont County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 635 at the 2000 census. The town is named for the Shoshone tribe of Native Americans, most of whom live on the nearby Wind River Indian Reservation...

 in Fremont County. The dam was constructed between 1947 and 1952 at the mouth of Wind River Canyon
Wind River Canyon
Wind River Canyon is a scenic Wyoming canyon carved out by the Wind River. It is located between the cities of Shoshoni and Thermopolis and is a popular stop for visitors to Yellowstone National Park. It is accessible by U.S. Highway 20 and Wyoming Highway 789. It was designated as a Wyoming Scenic...

, just upstream from a previous dam that had been built by Asmus Boysen in 1908 on land he had leased from the Shoshone and Arapaho tribes. The dam and much of the reservoir are physically located on the Wind River Indian Reservation
Wind River Indian Reservation
Wind River Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation shared by the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes of Native Americans in the central western portion of the U.S. state of Wyoming...

.

Boysen Dam Railroad Tunnel

As a result of construction of the dam a major railroad track that connected Billings, Montana with Casper, Wyoming would be flooded. A new track would have to be laid. This new track starts near the new dam where a 1 1/3 mile tunnel carries the tracks under the dam, under parts of the lake and around the edges of the reservoir.

Boysen State Park

Surrounding the reservoir is Boysen State Park, run by the state of Wyoming. It includes 11 campgrounds spread around the reservoir and nearby area. The reservoir is a popular sporting area with numerous species of fish including walleye, perch, crappie and several species of trout.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK