Lake De Smet | |
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Location | Johnson County, Wyoming |
Coordinates | 44°27′58″N106°44′18″W / 44.4661701°N 106.7383183°W [1] |
Surface elevation | 4,570 feet (1,390 m) [1] |
Lake De Smet is a lake located in Johnson County, Wyoming. It services Johnson County with water for industrial, agricultural, and municipal uses. With a maximum depth of 120 feet, and a capacity of 234,897 acre feet, Johnson County is responsible for 68.27% of its annual maintenance and operation costs, while the state of Wyoming covers the other 31.73%. [2]
First described by Pierre-Jean De Smet, a Jesuit priest, in a letter dated August 24, 1851, it was a highly saline lake capable of housing only limited aquatic life in its early years. Throughout its history, it changed hands multiple times, with its owners including Levi Leiter, Reynolds Mining, and Texaco. In 1865, the Powder River Expedition passed by the lake during its military operations against various Native American people, including the Lakota Sioux, the Cheyenne, and the Arapaho. The Lake Desmet Segment of the Bozeman Trail is located around a mile west to the lake.
Natrona County is a county in the U.S. state of Wyoming. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 79,955, making it the second-most populous county in Wyoming. Its county seat is Casper.
Kingsbury County is a county in the U.S. state of South Dakota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,187. Its county seat is De Smet. The county was created in 1873, and was organized in 1880. It was named for brothers George W. and T. A. Kingsbury, descendants of the colonial English Kingsbury family in Boston, Massachusetts. They were prominently involved in the affairs of Dakota Territory and served as elected members of several Territorial Legislatures.
Buffalo is a city in Johnson County, Wyoming, United States. The city is located almost equidistant between Yellowstone Park and Mount Rushmore. The population was 4,415 at the 2020 census, down from 4,585 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Johnson County. The city has experienced an economic boom due to methane production from the Coal Bed Methane Extraction method used in the Powder River Basin and surrounding areas. However, with the decline of methane production, Buffalo's population has stabilized since the 2010 Census. Even though energy is a vital part of its economy, agriculture, tourism, and recreation are three other major components. Buffalo is located at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains.
The North Platte River is a major tributary of the Platte River and is approximately 716 miles (1,152 km) long, counting its many curves. In a straight line, it travels about 550 miles (890 km), along its course through the U.S. states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska.
The Green River, located in the western United States, is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. The watershed of the river, known as the Green River Basin, covers parts of the U.S. states of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The Green River is 730 miles (1,170 km) long, beginning in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and flowing through Wyoming and Utah for most of its course, except for a short segment of 40 miles (64 km) in western Colorado. Much of the route traverses the arid Colorado Plateau, where the river has carved some of the most spectacular canyons in the United States. The Green is slightly smaller than Colorado when the two rivers merge but typically carries a larger load of silt. The average yearly mean flow of the river at Green River, Utah is 6,121 cubic feet (173.3 m3) per second.
Independence Rock is a large granite rock, approximately 130 feet (40 m) high, 1,900 feet (580 m) long, and 850 feet (260 m) wide, which is in southwestern Natrona County, Wyoming along Wyoming Highway 220. During the middle of the 19th century, it formed a prominent and well-known landmark on the Oregon, Mormon, and California emigrant trails. Many of these emigrants carved their names on it, and it was described by early missionary and explorer Father Pierre-Jean De Smet in 1840 as the Register of the Desert. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark on January 20, 1961 and is now part of Independence Rock State Historic Site, owned and operated by the state of Wyoming.
The Medicine Bow Mountains are a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains that extend 100 miles (160 km) from northern Colorado into southern Wyoming. The northern extent of this range is the sub-range the Snowy Range. From the northern end of Colorado's Never Summer Mountains, the Medicine Bow mountains extend north from Cameron Pass along the border between Larimer and Jackson counties in Colorado and northward into south central Wyoming. In Wyoming, the range sits west of Laramie, in Albany and Carbon counties to the route of the Union Pacific Railroad and U.S. Interstate 80. The mountains often serve as a symbol for the city of Laramie. The range is home to Snowy Range Ski Area.
The Sacandaga River is a 64-mile-long (103 km) river in the northern part of New York in the United States. Its name comes from the Native American Sa-chen-da'-ga, meaning "overflowed lands".
Cloud Peak is the highest peak within the Bighorn Mountains in the U.S. state of Wyoming.
Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport is eight miles east of Rock Springs, in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States. It is operated by the Rock Springs-Sweetwater County Joint Powers Airport Board, with a total of five members, two appointed by the City of Rock Springs and three appointed by Sweetwater County. The airport has twice-daily United Express flights to Denver International Airport.
Union Pass is a high mountain pass in the Wind River Range in Fremont County of western Wyoming in the United States. The pass is located on the Continental Divide between the Gros Ventre mountains on the west and the Wind River Range on the east. A triple divide exists nearby, where water may flow to the Mississippi River, Columbia River, or Colorado River. The pass was historically used by Native Americans and early mountain men including the Astor Expedition in 1811 on its way west. On the return trip, fearing hostile Indian activity near Union Pass, the Astorians chose a southern route and discovered South Pass.
Geneva is an unincorporated community in on the eastern edge of Bear Lake County, Idaho, United States, near the Wyoming border.
Wyoming has one of the highest wind power potentials of any state in the United States. In 2019, Wyoming had wind powered electricity generating capacity of 1,589 MW, which produced 9.85% of its electric generation, with an additional 3,753 MW under construction. However, the wind generation in that year was Wyoming's third-lowest in the 2010s. By 2020, wind capacity increased to 2738 MW and 8448 gigawatt-hours of electricity were produced from wind in 2021, more than double 2019 production. Additional wind capacity and needed transmission lines are under construction or planned, despite political headwinds from Wyoming's strong coal and oil sectors.
Shoshone Lake is a U.S. backcountry lake with an area of 8,050 acres with an elevation of 7,795 feet (2,376 m) in the southwest section of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. It lies at the headwaters of the Lewis River, a tributary of the Snake River. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believes that Shoshone Lake is the largest backcountry lake in the lower 48 states that cannot be reached by a road. The Yellowstone Caldera is located within the lake.
The Sierra Madre Range is a mountain range in the western United States, located in south-central Wyoming and north-central Colorado. Geologically, it may be considered an extension of the Park Range of Colorado. South of the Great Divide Basin, the US Continental Divide runs along the Sierre Madre high points. Its western basins drain into the Colorado River and its eastern into the North Platte River. Buck Mountain, elevation 11,396 feet, is the highest peak in the range and lies within Colorado. Bridger Peak, elevation 11,004 feet, is the range's highest elevation in Wyoming.
Missouri Buttes or Little Missouri Buttes are located in Crook County in northeast Wyoming on the northwest flank of the Black Hills Uplift. The buttes are 3.5 miles (5.6 km) northwest (N60°W) of Devils Tower between the Little Missouri and the Belle Fourche rivers.
Pierre-Jean De Smet, SJ, also known as Pieter-Jan De Smet, was a Flemish Catholic priest and member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He is known primarily for his widespread missionary work in the mid-19th century among the Native American peoples, in the midwestern and northwestern United States and western Canada.
Humpy Peak is a peak located in the Uinta Mountain Range in northern Utah. It is approximately 27.56 miles (44 km) south of Evanston, Wyoming and 21.29 miles (34 km) east of Coalville, Utah. The summit has an elevation of 10,875 feet (3,315 m).
The Lake Desmet Segment is a one-mile long set of trail ruts that are a well-preserved portion of the Bozeman Trail in Johnson County, Wyoming. The ruts are located about a mile west of Lake Desmet on the down slope of the hill overlooking the lake. This portion of the trail is on private property, so permission is required to visit.