Magic Reservoir

The home for fish depends on the snow. In dry years the reservoir runs nearly empty: in 2021 the Big Wood Canal Company shut the dam's gates on June 10 with Magic at about four percent, after twenty-seven days of irrigation, the shortest season since 1977. Fish and Game then lifts catch limits below the dam so anglers can take trout before the river and the Richfield Canal go dry. It did so in 2020, 2021 and 2022, and again in July 2026 with the reservoir under eight percent.

What the plaque says

Magic Reservoir Water from deep snow that falls on high mountain ridges north of here is stored each spring in this reservoir to irrigate farm land near Shoshone and Richfield. Big Wood River flows past some hills that separate this valley from a broad plain of lava and windblown soil, and this border area provides an excellent storage site for more than 190,000-acre feet of irrigation water. Magic Reservoir, created in 1910, provides recreation opportunities and a home for fish and wildlife in a desert setting. 413 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Magic Dam — 12 mi
• Wood River Mines — 13 mi
• Bannock War — 22 mi