Cool storytelling about the Yellowstone River dam that never was. Back in the 1970’s conservationists banded together and fought hard to against building the Allenspur Dam, a 380-foot-high earthen structure that would have plugged a narrow gap in limestone cliffs south of Livingston and flooded nearly all 35 miles of Paradise Valley. This dam would have provided water for coal development in eastern Montana and obliterated one of the West’s premier trout fisheries. Great story and one that should give current conservationists a bit of wind at their back:
“This story is not of a river lost, but the story of a river saved. The Yellowstone River is the longest un-dammed river in the lower 48. Had it not been for the foresight of key individuals, the spectacular Paradise valley, would be underwater and the downstream communities would dry like the river itself.”
