Dam on the Yellowstone? No you didn't
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No You Won’t: Yellowstone Evades Damming Efforts
It first started in the 1920s when irrigation interests wanted to place a dam at the outlet of Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park. Citing the high spring flows run as a torrent and most of the water is wasted and washed downstream, irrigators wanted a dam for consistent flows. However, devoted conversation, led by Horace Albright and Steven Mather, fought such a dam and one was never constructed. These devoted few saw the benefit of a free flowing river. However, that was not the end of the story. In the 1970s the demand for more water for irrigation rose again. And this time around flood control to reduce the risk of damage to newer houses downstream was a major reason for wanting a dam to be built. The later dam would have been at the mouth of the small canyon just south of Livingston, called Allenspur by the locals. If this dam would have been built water would have backed-up all the way to Emigrant.
