Shoshone River

---

title: "Shoshone River" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["rivers-of-wyoming", "tributaries-of-the-yellowstone-river", "rivers-of-park-county,-wyoming", "rivers-of-big-horn-county,-wyoming"] description: "River in Wyoming, United States" topic_path: "general/rivers-of-wyoming" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshone_River" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary River in Wyoming, United States ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox river"]

Field	Value
name	Shoshone River
native_name
image	Unpaired stream terraces.JPG
image_caption	South Fork Shoshone River in Park County, Wyoming, 1923.
map	Bighornrivermap.jpg
map_caption	Map of the Bighorn River basin including the Shoshone River
subdivision_type1	Country
subdivision_name1	United States
subdivision_type2	State
subdivision_name2	Wyoming
subdivision_type5	Cities
subdivision_name5	Cody, Wyoming, Powell, Wyoming, Lovell, Wyoming
length	100 mi
discharge1_location	below Buffalo Bill Dam
discharge1_min	59 cuft/s
discharge1_avg	1037 cuft/s
discharge1_max	17300 cuft/s
source1_location	Absaroka Range, Wyoming
source1_coordinates
mouth	Big Horn River
mouth_location	Lovell, Wyoming
mouth_coordinates
basin_size	2989 sqmi
::

| name = Shoshone River | native_name = | name_other = | name_etymology = | image = Unpaired stream terraces.JPG | image_caption = South Fork Shoshone River in Park County, Wyoming, 1923. | map = Bighornrivermap.jpg | map_size = | map_caption = Map of the Bighorn River basin including the Shoshone River | pushpin_map = | pushpin_map_size = | pushpin_map_caption= | subdivision_type1 = Country | subdivision_name1 = United States | subdivision_type2 = State | subdivision_name2 = Wyoming | subdivision_type3 = | subdivision_name3 = | subdivision_type4 = | subdivision_name4 = | subdivision_type5 = Cities | subdivision_name5 = Cody, Wyoming, Powell, Wyoming, Lovell, Wyoming | length = 100 mi | width_min = | width_avg = | width_max = | depth_min = | depth_avg = | depth_max = | discharge1_location= below Buffalo Bill Dam | discharge1_min = 59 cuft/s | discharge1_avg = 1037 cuft/s | discharge1_max = 17300 cuft/s | source1 = | source1_location = Absaroka Range, Wyoming | source1_coordinates= | source1_elevation = | mouth = Big Horn River | mouth_location = Lovell, Wyoming | mouth_coordinates = | mouth_elevation = | progression = | river_system = | basin_size = 2989 sqmi | tributaries_left = | tributaries_right = | custom_label = | custom_data = | extra =

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Buffalo_Bill_Dam_downstream_face.jpg" caption="[[Buffalo Bill Dam]] on the Shoshone River, September 2007"] ::

The Shoshone River is a 100 mi long river in northern Wyoming, 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 Range to the vicinity of the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park, and the South Fork, which originates at the southern end of the Absarokas.

References

References

1. "Little Big Horn College Library".
2. {{Gnis. 1594293. Shoshone River, USGS GNIS
3. Mattes, Merrill J.. (1962). "Chapter IV: "Colter's Hell": A Case of Mistaken Identity". Yellowstone Association & Grand Teton Natural History Association.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::