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 covered by the reservoir formed by its construction. The dam is part of the
Shoshone Project, successor to several visionary schemes promoted by Cody to irrigate the
Bighorn Basin and turn it from a semi-arid sagebrush-covered plain to productive agricultural land. Known at the time of its construction as
Shoshone Dam, it was renamed in 1946 to honor Cody.