Wyoming5

Bullet holes can still be seen in the door of the Rivers Saloon.

Our next stop was a return to the Buffalo Bill Dam, the tallest dam in the world when it was completed in 1910. It was originally called the Shoshone Dam as it was built on the Shoshone River. However, it was renamed for William "Buffalo Bill" Cody in 1946.

The reservoir behind the dam. It is 684,000 acre feet of water.

Drilling to find bedrock for the foundation began in the spring of 1904. It took 6 years to complete the project. Three builders went broke and 7 men were killed during construction. 82,900 cubic yards of concrete were used to build the dam and no reinforcing steel was used. It is a concrete arch-gravity dam, 70 feet wide at the base and 200 feet wide at the crest, with an original height of 325 feet. In 1985, 25 feet were added to crest of the dam, raising it to 350 feet. By today's standards, it is a very small dam but was used as the prototype for Hoover Dam, near Las Vegas.

The dam is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was named a National Civil Engineering Landmark in 1973.

Of course, no western town is complete without a gunfight so at 6:00 each evening, during the summer months, the Cody Gunfighters stage a 30-minute drama. Ann was heartened when Wild Bill Hickok (the emcee for the evening) called for the "presenting of the colors" and told all the men to remove their hats for the singing of the national anthem. The taped music was from Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. It was pretty special.

Of course, no wild west show is complete without a floozie!