The Wyoming State Museum is celebrating the state’s 125th anniversary of statehood with a new exhibit, which takes a look at Wyoming’s history through artifacts from each decade.
It starts with the present and works its way back. Each week a new decade is unveiled. Some of the items on display include an original state line divider on the Lincoln Highway, a football commemorating the 1968 Sugar Bowl, and a 1950s flood light from the state’s first television station KFBC.
Mark Brammer with the Wyoming State Museum says the exhibit is meant to celebrate the state. But he says it doesn’t shy away from darker moments in Wyoming’s history, like the Cokeville Bombing, the 1988 Yellowstone Fires, or the murder of Matthew Shepard.
"It’s all part of the story of Wyoming. We don’t like to remember parts of it of course but we have to because it’s there. So we do our best to just tell what happened through stories we might know or through artifacts that have been donated," he says.
The final artifacts from the 1890s will be installed on the state day celebration July 10th.