Best of Wyoming

Celebrating one of the nation’s first Reclamation Land and Dam Projects, the Homesteader Museum features the pioneering spirit that built a western town and turned barren sagebrush fields into fertile land.  With hundreds of exciting vintage displays, the museum has been described as “the best hidden treasure in Wyoming!” Step into homesteader cabins, let your kids climb aboard the Burlington Northern caboose and experience exhibits that will take you back in time.

Come learn about Homesteading History!

The Mountain Plains Heritage Park is a unique crossroads of the history of the American West. Across this park land many different cultures have lived, traveled, and traded, each leaving a distinguished mark on the land. The park typifies the spectrum of harmonies and conflicts between cultures and nature. Today the park provides for the many interests and abilities of visitors to consider the past and enjoy the present.

Located at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains on the confluence of three high plains creeks, this land has been the common ground for many Americans:

The Cowboy Carousel, manufactured at North Tonawanda, New York in 1925, ran for 63 years on Gillian’s Fun Deck in Ocean City, New Jersey. The horses that are now on the carousel are fiberglass reproductions of original wood carvings by local renowned Buffalo artist and wood carver, Bill Jennings.

The Sheridan College in Johnson County Art Gallery is located in the college commons at 235 Main Street in Buffalo Wyoming.  As you enter the main doors, walk down the stairs to reach the commons area.  The current display is from the collection of Todd Cornell and is titled “20 years in China” Artwork that he collected during his time there is currently on display and will continue to be shown through the end of May in the commons of the college.  Todd will also be teaching Chinese 1010 for Sheridan College in Johnson County in the fall of 2013.

In May of 1900, pharmacist Jim Gatchell opened a drugstore in Buffalo, Wyoming. That facility became a regional landmark for over fifty years.  An avid historian as well, Gatchell was acquainted with many famous and colorful characters from the Big Horn Mountain – Powder River Basin frontier area.

A burst of color hits the sky at dawn when hot air balloons inflate and loft off !! Spectators at the launch site witness the event as the balloons drift upwards around them. A fantastic event you don't want to miss.

The Hot Air Balloon Rally is the third weekend in July. They try to take off at dawn if the weather permits.

For more information visit http://www.rivertonchamber.org/visit .

The rare and valuable Stewart Collection of clothing, toys, tools, weapons and other artifacts was donated in 1996 to Central Wyoming College by Pat Stewart of Lander and her son, Lynn Stewart, of Dubois.

Wyoming’s Wind River Country is home to the seventh largest Indian reservation in the country. Encompassing more than 2.2 million acres, the Wind River Indian Reservation is home to the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho tribes.

Visitors to the area can go to powwows and museums to learn more about the local culture, or can recreate on thousands of acres of vast, unspoiled reservation lands with special permits. 

The Robert A. Peck Arts Center was built in 1983 and is one of the finest visual and performing arts facilities in the region. The facility has several performing spaces, including the 942-seat theater, a music rehearsal hall, and a black box theater/dance studio. The theater is fronted by a 6,000 square foot gallery space which leads into the Art Wing.

Open year 'round, the Pioneer Memorial Museum is located on the Wyoming State Fairgrounds in Douglas, Wyoming. The museum collects, preserves, interprets and displays historical and cultural materials related to the westward expansion, to Wyoming pioneers in particular and the west in general.

Wyoming Public Media captured the oral history of Wyoming’s families, farms and ranches during the 2012 Wyoming State Fair. WPM set up a booth giving away fans for the hot summer day and did a live broadcast with Grady Kirkpatrick’s Morning Music featuring an acoustic performance from Wyoming’s Chancey Williams and the Younger Brothers Band.  WPM recorded Wyoming Oral Histories of fairgoers that stopped by to chat. Enjoy a few of these engaging stories on the link below…

State Fair Interviews

High Plains Old Time Music Festival is a two-day competition with the largest variety of categories in the region.  Some of the categories include: fiddle, vocal, banjo, vocals, piano, variety and guitar.  Preliminaries are on Saturday and the finals are on Sunday.  Over $3,000 will be offered in cash and prizes!  The dates for this year are April 13 and 14.

Crossroads of a Nation Moving West

Originally established as a private fur trading fort in 1834, Fort Laramie evolved into the largest and best known military post on the Northern Plains, before its abandonment in 1890.  This “grand old post” witnessed the entire sweeping saga of America’s western expansion and Indian resistance to encroachment on their territories.

For a nice history of Fort Laramie, visit the National Park Service web site.

The Eastern Wyoming College music department consists of two instructors, three performing ensembles, and many enthusiastic students. Michael T DeMers is the director of the music department and together with Janet Howard they instruct multiple academic courses in music for both music majors and non-majors alike.

Goshen Community Theatre was started in 2002 by a group of people who love live theatre. The Theatre puts on two major shows each season, usually a musical in the Spring and a play in the Fall. In June each year they host a Children's Theatre Workshop for kids age 8 - 15. The workshop runs for about a week ending with a production by the kids. They work on making their own costumes and set pieces as well as learning lines, songs, and choreography. The Goshen Community Theatre is a non-profit organization, and the majority of the people who work on the productions do so as volunteers.

The Homesteaders Museum is located one mile north of the Historic Oregon Trail in the old Union Pacific Train Depot, which opened its doors to passengers and freight in 1925. They are one of two Spanish style depots still remaining in the area and are included in the National Register of Historic Places. The museum is home to hundreds upon hundreds of manuscripts, documents, photographs, artifacts and various other Homesteading memorabilia that tell the story of the settlement of Goshen County.

Born in 1867 in the path of the transcontinental railroad, the Union Pacific crews arrived as they laid the tracks westward. Cheyenne soon laid claim to a higher status than older Wyoming settlements such as those at Fort Laramie, Fort Bridger, and the mining town of South Pass City, changing Cheyenne from a village to a city in a matter of months. The seat of the new territorial government was established in Cheyenne in 1869.

The CSO formally organized in 1954.  After many successful years as a community volunteer orchestra, the symphony converted to a professional orchestra in 1981.  The new vision for presenting higher level performances required employing a professional music director and conductor, selecting musicians through auditions and raising sufficient funds to pay for their services.  At this same time, a dedicated group of Cheyenne residents recognized the need to replace school and church venues with a specialized event center for the presentation of the performing arts.  Their tireless campaign rai

The Esther and John Clay Fine Arts Gallery hosts dozens of shows throughout the academic year, showcasing artists from the college, community and nation.

The gallery is located in the Fine Arts Building. It is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday and is free to the public.

Upcoming Events  2013 Visual Arts

Tasting Boundaries

Featuring multi-media sculpture experience artist Lea Zoltowski Ertzby
January 22-February 22
Reception: Thursday, January 31,

The People’s House

In 1904, 14 years after achieving statehood, Wyoming built its first governor’s mansion, a modest house compared to the large dwellings built in other parts of downtown Cheyenne. The Historic Governors’ Mansion is located at 300 E. 21st Street, just five blocks from the State Capitol in what was, at the time, a middle class neighborhood.

Discover all 27 specialty landscapes – there truly is something for everyone. There is always something in bloom either inside the solar greenhouse or on the Grounds.

Sustainability at the Gardens

In 1993 the Union Pacific donated the depot building to the City of Cheyenne and Laramie County, and stabilization of the building was begun a year later.  Since then, the building has undergone various stages of an extensive rehabilitation project.  The first floor now houses the Cheyenne Depot Museum and a brewpub/restaurant.  The upper levels house offices for various city and private concerns related to tourism, economic development and the museum.

Listen to a bit of Virginia Dale history on the Wyoming Public Media Wyoming Stories link.

The Virginia Dale stage station, made of hand-hewn logs, is among the most important structures in Larimer County dating back to 1862 when the Overland Stage Company relocated its line from central Wyoming to Colorado. It served as “home” station where passengers could stop, rest and get a meal. It is the only one left in the United States in its original condition on its original site.

Since 1998, "Vertical Dance at Vedauwoo" has been an end-of-summer favorite with local audiences, with the natural rock formations at Vedauwoo offering a spectacular setting for the dance, which covers the entire performance area and connects the land to the sky. Created by UW faculty members Margaret Wilson and Neil Humphrey, the site-specific vertical dance choreography features UW students dancing on rocks both near to and far away from the audience.

Upcoming Events:

From the Ashes: A Cinderella Ballet (DANCE)  

The Laramie Plains Civic Center is proud to host The Gryphon Theatre. The venue plays host to numerous events, ranging from local community productions and events to unmatched national and international touring productions and concerts.

The Theatre's unique history and charm add to its iconic status as one of Wyoming's premier performance venues.

For information on The Gryphon, please click HERE.

The Laramie Mural Project was formed as a collaboration between local artists, the University of Wyoming Art Museum and the Laramie Main Street Alliance in order to enhance public art in historic downtown Laramie. For the past two years, with financial and in kind support from the Guthrie Family Foundation, Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, Laramie Beautification Committee and City of Laramie, local artists have created large scale murals on blank walls downtown.

Laramie resident Mark Jenkins returned to Wyoming after climbing Mount Everest in May 2012.

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The University of Wyoming dedicated its new Visual Arts building January 20, 2012.

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