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A Cheyenne Getaway
With its very name evoking the Old West, Cheyenne sits at the crossroads of I-25 and I-80, less than two hours north of Denver. Its historic riches are well worth a weekend getaway. more...
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Art Studios: 3-day Itinerary
A quick lesson in Wyoming's art history reveals that Conrad Schwering, Thomas Moran and Archie Teater, among others, all lived and painted here. Teater came to Jackson Hole in a covered wagon in 1928 and was one of the few Western artists to enjoy fame during his lifetime. Since then, his studio/shop has moved around Jackson's Town Square several times. It's now JC Jewelers, where you can stop by for a look and imagine Teater sitting inside, painting away. more...
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Battles, Bandits and Mystery
Traveling around Wyoming today isn't the quickest – the state is the country's 9th largest in terms of area with just over 97,000 square miles (more than Ohio, South Carolina, Maryland and New Hampshire combined!) and getting from one side to the other is a full day of driving. It is easy compared to what travelers had to endure a mere 100 years ago: Indians controlling major thoroughfares and outlaws running amuck. more...
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Bed, Breakfast & Battlefield
Most of the major Indian-military battles in Wyoming occurred during the 1860s in the Powder River Basin as Northern Plains tribes rebuffed efforts to establish forts in their territory. In August of 1865 troops led by General Patrick Connor attacked a camp of Arapahos at a site that is now a town park in Ranchester. more...
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Child & Inner Child's Guide to Dinosaurs
For a day at least we've traded our real lives to play paleontologist with the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis. more...
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Christmas in Cheyenne
The historic façades of downtown Cheyenne are the backdrop for a holiday celebration that has something for tots, teens and travelers of all ages. Activities for Christmas include everything from horses to Harleys and a Russian ballet. The Plaza in downtown Cheyenne sets the stage for more than a month of Christmas and holiday celebration when the oversized cowboy boots that have graced the area are ornamented by holiday decorations and a Christmas tree that will be lit during a ceremony on Nov. 18. more...
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Close Encounters of the Wyoming Kind
While two of 2005's biggest movies were set in Wyoming – the Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain and the Robert Redford drama An Unfinished Life – they weren't filmed here. Close Encounters of the Third Kind was, though. As was the classic western Shane and the 2006 family-friendly Flicka. And parts of Rocky IV. And episodes of TV's The Amazing Race and The Bachelor. The list goes on. more...
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Cowboy Cosmopolitan
Try not to feel too sorry for me, but cruel editors have actually sent me to far-flung places like Istanbul, Hong Kong and Barcelona. And then, once there, these same cruel editors made me shop. Even with all of these adventures in distance shopping however, my favorite stores are ones I stumbled upon at home in Wyoming. Yes, shopping in Wyoming; shopping of the kind you won't find anywhere else.
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Frontier Days - The Old and New West
Cheyenne Frontier Days, the world’s largest outdoor rodeo, launched modestly when Wyoming truly was on the frontier. more...
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Heritage & the High Life
The L.A.-area family we met on our sleigh ride had just flown in for a few days of frosty fun in Jackson. They'd heard Jackson Hole offers everything from big-time skiing and snowboarding to world-class wildlife viewing, shopping and culture, and they weren't disappointed.
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High Plains Hauntings
Our little tour group walked somberly down the steps from the forlorn Death Row building at the Wyoming Frontier Prison in Rawlins. "This place is much worse than Alcatraz," said a British man who had recently visited the famous California jail. more...
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In Search of Black Beauty
There's still a lot of the Wild West in Wyoming that, fortunately, no longer extends to shootouts at sundown on Main Street. The authentic wild reveals itself in the blooms of silvery lupine, the splashes of trout and, in a kind of yesteryear mysticism, the gallop of mustangs across the vast landscape. more...
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Jackalope Junction
The story goes that the very first jackalope was created by a Douglas taxidermist. But is that reality or myth? You see, if the first jackalope came from the inspiration of an animal stuffer, how come the animals have been known to sing harmony with cowboys riding the range? And why is there now an annual hunting season on the critters? Did they take on a real life after creation like Alice's friends in Wonderland? more...
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John Colter
One of "nine young men from Kentucky" who accompanied Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their explorations of Louisiana Territory, John Colter became one of the expedition's most adept hunters. He was about thirty years old when the expedition set off in 1804, stood five feet ten inches tall, and looked out at the world through piercing blue eyes. more...
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Museums of the Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail stretches more than 2,000 miles from Independence, Missouri, to the Willamette Valley of Oregon, and today, more than 150 years after the first wagons rumbled over the land, there are more miles of trail to be seen in Wyoming than any other state. more...
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Owen Wister, An Early Wyoming Dude
"That region is the country I have loved best in the world. Were there any part of my life I would live again, it would be the time spent there." Such were the words of Western novelist Owen Wister regarding Jackson Hole, in a 1929 letter to a prominent resident. more...
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Panning for Gold
It's easy, Joe Ellis assures me as the warm morning sun glints off Willow Creek's waters. But gazing through the gin-clear waters at the pebbled creek bottom, I'm not so sure I'll be good at panning for gold.
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Ride With Buffalo Bill
Inside the newest museum at Cody's Buffalo Bill Historical Center, it's not difficult to ignore the few dozen other people there. My full attention is devoted to the wildfire raging in front of me... not to mention the two wolves that are in danger of getting caught in it. Lights simulate the fire and sound effects create a realistic crackling and crashing of falling trees. An elk bugling drowns out the snufflings of bears. It even smells like fire. more...
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Steak Your Claim
Nothing stokes a hearty appetite like an adventure-filled day in the great outdoors. Whether riding horseback along the Continental Divide or rafting the Snake River, Wyoming visitors often find they get hungrier here than they do at home. more...
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Storming the Fort
The first fort in Wyoming was started as a fur trade post in 1834, known as Fort John. Located near the Laramie River, it had become Fort Laramie by 1849 when the military took control. The fort's grounds just west of the town of Fort Laramie in southeast Wyoming have an open parade ground surrounded by military-era buildings. One structure, Old Bedlam, is the oldest standing building in the State of Wyoming. At or near Fort Laramie, fur traders, overland emigrants, the frontier army and Indians gathered as they came to trade, work and meet. more...
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Tale of Two Tribes
The Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Indians share the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming, but these two tribal nations have distinct histories and cultures. more...
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The Power of Powwows
Powwow is the steady thump of beaters on a hide-covered drum, a cadence of mixed voices singing in Arapaho, Shoshone, Crow, or Lakota, and the sweep and swirl of men and boys wearing brightly colored regalia, of young girls with fringed shawls, older women dressed in buckskin, even tiny tots in beaded moccasins and creamy white buckskin outfits. Begun as a ritual gathering of spiritual leaders and medicine men, powwow is now a social event. more...
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The Story Behind Story
Wyoming has many evocative place names. Ten Sleep. Freedom. Chugwater. Then’s there’s Story, where visitors usually want to ask: So, what’s the story behind Story? more...
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Trainspotting
Wyoming's place in railroad history is secure, and the opportunities for watching trains and train crews in action are legion. Southern Wyoming's development is linked with the Union Pacific Railroad. It laid tracks westward across the state in 1867 and '68 in a race to build the first transcontinental railroad. more...
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Wyoming Ghost Towns
Wyoming's South Pass City boomed with the discovery of gold in the late 1860s, but as mine work dried up, so did the city. Unlike many such boom towns in Wyoming, it would not fade into oblivion – thanks to the government making it into a state historic site. Today, visiting Wyoming's ghost towns like South Pass City and the Grand Encampment District give color to the settlers' tales of triumph and those laced with defeat. more...
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Wyoming through Time - Dinosaurs to Pioneers
Although it has little history as an actual state (after all, it's only been one since 1890), the territory that is today Wyoming goes way back. Way, way back. more...
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Wyoming's Best Bars and Roadhouses
Although you won't find Butch Cassidy sneaking out a saloon's back door (like he used to in Baggs) or an innkeeper poisoning patrons with arsenic to steal their gold (like Polly Bartlett in the mining town of South Pass City), Wyoming's bars and saloons are still full of the Wild West – not to mention modern-day quirkiness and characters. Follow this three-day driving itinerary to experience some of the state's most interesting places to saddle up (and I mean that literally if we're talking about The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar in Jackson) and grab a cold one or just gawk at these Wyoming watering-hole wonders. more...
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