Two Buttes Reservoir Dried Up, Hurting Fishing and Outdoor Plans

A 700-acre reservoir in southeast Colorado has gone completely dry, wiping boating, fishing and wildlife-viewing trips off the map at Two Buttes Reservoir State Wildlife Area about 35 miles south of Lamar.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife declared a public fish salvage at the site in October 2025 as falling water threatened fish populations, then rescinded the emergency order after the reservoir dried out in late March 2026. The shutdown leaves spring and summer visitors with no reservoir water to launch a boat, cast for warmwater species or watch waterfowl around the basin.

Two Buttes Reservoir is fed by Two Buttes Creek, an intermittent prairie stream that depends on storm runoff, and CPW says the lake can dry completely during extended drought. That makes the site one of the clearest examples in southeast Colorado of how quickly recreation access can disappear when the sky stays dry and the runoff never arrives.

Jim Ramsay, a CPW aquatic biologist, said the reservoir has dried out three times in his 20 years working the area. He recalled it being bone dry in 2013 before major storms filled it to 30 feet within a week, and he said that water lasted about eight years before the next dry-up. Ramsay said the most recent big storm that filled Two Buttes came three or four years ago.

When it holds water, the reservoir can be a serious draw. Ramsay said it has supported largemouth bass, wipers, saugeye, channel catfish, bluegill and crappie, and that when full it can become one of the best warmwater fisheries in Colorado. Brian Marsh, a CPW property technician, said there are not many fishing opportunities in the far southeast corner of Colorado, which makes Two Buttes a big deal for local recreation.

The loss also reaches beyond one lake. Ramsay said visitors come from the Front Range, Oklahoma and Kansas, giving the reservoir real regional pull and helping the local economy. The dry basin leaves that traffic looking for other options across the plains.

For now, Black Hole Pond below Two Buttes Dam remains the nearest fishing alternative and continues to offer angling even while the reservoir itself stays dry. Two Buttes Dam, built in 1909 and 1910 to irrigate nearby farmland, was sold to the state wildlife agency in 1970, and the reservoir no longer serves irrigation. What once functioned as an agricultural project is now a stark reminder that on the southeast Colorado plains, one dry winter can erase a whole season of outdoor plans.