Around town
Where the Kootenai meets Libby Dam
Libby Dam holds back the Kootenai River to form Lake Koocanusa, a reservoir that reaches from Montana into British Columbia.
One river with two familiar views
From the road between Libby and Troy, the Kootenai is a moving river. Upstream at the dam, the water opens into Lake Koocanusa. The two views belong to the same river and tell different parts of its story.
How the dam became part of the landscape
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started construction in 1966, completed the structure in 1972, and brought the first commercial power online in 1975. The Corps’ Libby Dam fact sheet covers the project’s history, flood risk management and power generation.
For visitor information and current access details, see the Corps’ recreation page. The river comes up again in our story about the drive between Libby and Troy.