Shoshone River facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Shoshone River |
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South Fork Shoshone River in Park County, Wyoming, 1923.
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Map of the Bighorn River basin including the Shoshone River
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| Native name | Aashilitshia, "Stinking River" Aashbikkaashée, "Grass Lodge [Shoshone] River" |
| Country | United States |
| State | Wyoming |
| Cities | Cody, Wyoming, Powell, Wyoming, Lovell, Wyoming |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Main source | Absaroka Range, Wyoming 44°30′04″N 109°11′02″W / 44.50111°N 109.18389°W |
| River mouth | Big Horn River Lovell, Wyoming 44°51′44″N 108°12′17″W / 44.86222°N 108.20472°W |
| Length | 100 mi (160 km) |
| Basin features | |
| Basin size | 2,989 sq mi (7,740 km2) |
The Shoshone River is a 100-mile (160 km) 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 through are Cody, Powell, Byron, and Lovell. Near Cody, it runs through a volcanically active region of fumaroles known as Colter's Hell. This contributed to the river being named on old maps of Wyoming as the Stinking Water River.
The current name was established in 1901 due to popular demand.
West of Cody the river is impounded in Shoshone Canyon by the Buffalo Bill Dam, created as part of the Shoshone project; one of the nation's first water conservation projects. A number of hot springs along the Shoshone were drowned by the reservoir. Upstream of Buffalo Bill Reservoir the Shoshone splits into the North Fork, which follows a long canyon down from the Absaroka Mountains to the vicinity of the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park, and the South Fork, which originates at the southern end of the Absarokas.
