Wyoming History

33 years ago this week, one of the worst spring storms in Wyoming history dumped nearly three feet of snow on the Cowboy State. The snow began falling on April 25, 1984, and didn't let up for three days. But wind was the biggest problems...

April 21st marks an infamous anniversary. 146 years ago today, in 1871, John Boyer was the first man to be legally executed in Wyoming. Prior to Boyer, several outlaws had met the end of the noose due to vigilante justice, but this was the first legal hanging ever carried out in the fledgling territory...

With all due respect to Curt Gowdy and Dave Walsh, who are legends in their own right, Larry Birleffi is the greatest sportscaster in Wyoming history. This week, Birleffi, who passed away in 2008, would have celebrated his 101st birthday...

Millions of years before the University of Wyoming and Colorado State began the Border War, there was a different kind of rivalry in the rockies; a battle for survival between dinosaurs on the Front Range. Wyoming's official state dinosaur Triceratops roamed the high plains nearly 65 million years ago...

As Christians across the Cowboy State prepare to celebrate Easter, here's an amazing gallery of photographs from the Wyoming State Archives featuring some of our most historic churches. There are over 400 pictures of churches in the State Archives Photo Database...

By all accounts, John Winchester wasn't very popular. Luckily for him, the few people he did know had a good reason to attend his funeral...or so they thought. In the early 1960s, Winchester purchased the property surrounding Sister's Hill, several miles west of Buffalo, Wyoming, in the Bighorn National Forest...

There are many legendary saloons here in the Cowboy State. Some of them even have a few bullet holes behind the bar. Amazingly, one of Wyoming's most historic watering holes proudly boasts 56 bullet holes in its building. Since 1893, the Cowboy Bar and Outlaw Cafe has hosted thirsty gunslingers, bandits, gamblers, vagabonds and tourists in the tiny town of Meeteetse...

The poet John Dryden famously wrote that "dead men tell no tales". Clearly, he never visited Wyoming. Here in the Cowboy State, the legends of the old west are still alive, including some who continue to leave their mark from beyond the grave...

Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch calls Colorado home, but his mother is a Wyoming native.

According to Beer Advocate, there are now 29 breweries in Wyoming. Here's a toast to one of the Cowboy State's original beer makers, the legendary Casper Brewing Company. Casper Brewing was the second business in the state to produce their own beer...

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here's a tribute to some legendary "Patrick's" from here in the great state of Wyoming. Nic Patrick - In 2013, Patrick was working on his ranch near Cody when he was attacked by a grizzly bear. After fending off the animal, he walked a quarter mile into town to get help...

Independence Rock was a pit stop on the Oregon Trail. It is astounding to think the ground is the same land where over half a million souls crossed the state.