Construction of the dam created Pathfinder Reservoir which provides water storage for 226,000 acres (910 km2) of irrigation in Wyoming and Nebraska.

[2] The dam is named for General John Charles Fremont, who had explored the area in 1842 and was nicknamed the "Pathfinder of the West."

Between these facings was a core of irregularly-shaped granite blocks of up to ten tons in weight, bedded in mortar and quarry tailings.

A natural channel was enlarged and straightened to form an uncontrolled spillway on the north side of the dam.

A more ambitious plan was proposed in 1903 by the newly established Bureau of Reclamation to dam a site below the confluence of the Sweetwater and the North Platte.

Eventually, the construction contract was awarded to the Geddis and Seerie Stone Company of Denver, for an initial sum of $482,000, later rising to $626,523.52.

Difficulties with the construction of an upstream cofferdam, created by the contractor's improper blasting of loose rock from the canyon walls, led to the first delays.

Unusual summer rains filled the reservoir, overtaxed the spillways and threatened to overtop the unfinished auxiliary dike south of the dam, possibly allowing the river to cut a new, lower channel and potentially leaving the damsite dry.

The potential overtopping gave rise to sensational stories in Denver newspapers and caused annual nervousness in Casper downstream for a number of years thereafter.