Cody Middle School Student Dies at Dam

The Cody community is mourning today after the death of a teenager at the Buffalo Bill Dam Sunday.

The Park County Sheriff’s Office yesterday confirmed that a 13-year-old deliberately jumped from the top of the dam Sunday afternoon around 4:25 p.m. According to a press release, the boy was visiting the Buffalo Bill Dam Visitor’s Center with his family when he climbed up onto the railing on the east side of the dam and leaped some 350 feet into the Shoshone River.

Park County School District 6 is offering students the opportunity to speak with counselors this week about the death of the Cody Middle School student. CMS and the Park County School District have established a crisis team of counselors from the district at the middle school and the high school for any students or staff that are affected by the death of the young man.

School administrators also asked for parents’ help to dispel any rumors or possible misinformation that may spread with an event of this nature.

And in light of recent events, the CMA Church’s Student Ministry is inviting all middle and high school students and parents who are struggling with questions surrounding suicide to join them this Wednesday, May 8th from 7-8:30 pm for dinner and a presentation.

This is the first and only time in the dam’s 119-year history that anyone has deliberately taken their own life by jumping from the dam, although seven people died during its construction.