Modern Day Marco Polo #472: Dave Houser Papers

Published March 11, 2025 at 6:00 AM MDT

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Photograph taken on the island of Aruba by Dave Houser, from Westways magazine, June 1995. Box 13, Dave Houser papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

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Newspaper article featuring Dave Houser. Box 17, Dave Houser papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

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Photograph of penguins taken in Antarctica by Dave Houser. Box 13, Dave Houser papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

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Photographs taken in the Greek Isles by Dave Houser. Box 19, Dave Houser papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Dave Houser’s life has been full of adventure. Houser was born and raised in Cody, Wyoming and got his start traveling on family vacations across the West. He earned a degree in journalism in 1968 and worked for a while in communications for Coca Cola and Pepsi. Then, in 1980, he turned his passion for travel into a new career as a freelance travel photographer and writer. Some of his travel experiences have been hair raising.

In Burkina Faso his jeep was ambushed by baboons. In Papua New Guinea he started a riot after showing a native chief a Polaroid photo of himself. And in Hati he was almost run over by a sportscar driven by soon to be deposed dictator Jean-Claude “Baby-Doc” Duvalier. In Benin he came across the world’s “largest witchcraft shopping center” which consisted of a whole row of shops selling bat wings, snake venom and more.

Houser has journeyed to all 50 states and more than 150 countries. See thousands of travel photographs and articles in the Dave Houser papers at UW’s American Heritage Center.