 It impounds the North Platte River for hydroelectric power.Owned and operated by the Bureau, it stands as part of the Kortes Unit of the vast Pick–Sloan Missouri Basin Program less than two miles downstream from the Bureau's larger Seminoe Dam.The riverine reservoir it creates, Kortes Reservoir, has a water surface of 83 acres and a volume of 4,765 acre-feet confined to the narrow Black Canyon, which is not stocked with fish and has no boat ramp facilities.