The Shoshoni plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
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−23° on Nov. 13, 2014, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1931. Next is −12° in 2000.
Shoshoni’s center stands about 4,830 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,730 ft to 5,090 ft, a difference of 360 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Birdseye Mountain, about 7,500 ft, 15 miles north.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Wind River Formation (claystone), from the Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old.
The section below crosses 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 14×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Claystone. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 17 mi of the line.
Sand, unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Gravel. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone. Age: Cambrian to Permian, 252 to 542 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Clay, silt, sand. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 0.7 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in Shoshoni reaches the Gulf of America by way of Boysen Reservoir, the Wind River, the Bighorn, the Yellowstone, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 3,340 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Oahe, Lake Sakakawea, Lake Sharpe and Lake Francis Case.
1,170 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Shoshoni; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Shoshoni has a cold desert climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 1° in January. A normal year brings about 18 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 8 inches of water.
On November 14 Shoshoni normally reaches 44° and falls to 20°. The record high is 68°, in 2016; the record low −12°, in 2000. The most rain on this date, 0.12 in, fell in 1991.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1931 at Shoshoni, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
