Book Information

• $22.00 paperback
• 182 pages, 8.5×11 in
• 141 color photographs
• Available August 24, 2026
• ISBN: 979-8-9939600-5-0
• Subject: Wyoming History, Western Essays, Photography

Order your advance copy here:

In recognition of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, this book features 76 objects and places, each of which points to an important event or an ongoing activity, a movement or an economic development that was significant in Wyoming’s history. Short essays by noted historians and regional experts are accompanied by photographs ranging from personal items and clothing, to vehicles, buildings, and natural sites that played an important role in the shaping of the territory that is now known as Wyoming.

Included is a brief overview of Wyoming’s history, written by Kylie L. McCormick, Tom Rea, And Cecily Zander, illustrated with several historic maps. This beautiful book is part of the Wyoming 250 celebrations that commemorate Wyoming’s history, places and people.

Compiled by
Editor
Paul V. M. Flesher
Director, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
Editorial Committee
Cindy Brown, Wyoming State Archives
Kevin Ramler, Wyoming State Museum
Cecily Zander, Ph.D., Department of History, University of Wyoming
Gretchen Henrick, Buffalo Bill Center of the West
Tom Rea, WyoHistory.org

Sponsored by the Wyoming Semiquincentennial Task Force, the Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources Department, and the University of Wyoming

The 76 Objects and Places

• • Rocky Mountain Rendezvous
  • Devils Tower (take a look)
  • Esther Morris, the Nation’s First Female Justice of the Peace
  • The Dale Creek Bridge on the Transcontinental Railroad
  • Nellie Tayloe Ross: Wyoming’s and the Nation’s First Female Governor
  • Joseph M. Carey’s Senate Desk Keys: Wyoming Statehood Unlocked
  • Jim Bridger’s Map
  • Wyoming Statehood Flag
  • Origins of the Wyoming State Flag
  • Yellowstone Computer
  • Wolf Crate
  •  Great Blue Spring of the Lower Geyser Basin, Firehole River, Yellowstone, 1872 by Thomas Moran
  • Old Bedlam, Fort Laramie
  • The Fetterman Fight Bugle
  • Minuteman Missile
  • Skiing in Wyoming
  • Wyoming’s Most Iconic Symbol: the Bucking Horse and Rider
  • The Lincoln Highway
  • Heart Mountain and the Crow Tribe
  • The People’s House
  • The Snow Fence: Keeping Wyoming Open since 1868
  • Como Bluff
  • The Sheep Wagon
  • Old Main: Home to Wyoming’s University
  • The Medicine Wheel/Medicine Mountain National Historic Landmark
  • Steam Whistles in the Coal Country of Southwestern Wyoming
  • The Murals of the Camp Douglas Officers’ Club
  • The House that Held Community
  • How the Hot Springs Became a State Park
  • The Vore Buffalo Jump
  • Remediation and Reuse in Casper, Wyoming: The Amoco-BP Refinery Property
  • Yellow Dog
  • Grace Miller, Her Side Saddle and the Jackson All-Woman Town Council
  • C. Penney and the “Mother Store” of his Nationwide Chain
  • Cheyenne-to-Deadwood Stagecoach

• • The Apsáalooke People and the Bighorn Mountains
  • The Mochila made the Pony Express Possible (take a look)
  • Independence Rock
  • Redwood Water Tower
  • Chinese Couplets
  • Gebo, Wyoming: The Coal Mines and the Railroad (take a look)
  • Grand Encampment Aerial Tramway
  • Potter’s Bull and the Early Cattle Industry in Wyoming
  • The Eyes of Wyoming’s Chinese Dragon
  • Indigenous Land Rematriation Through Buffalo Restoration
  • Jim Bridger’s Rifle
  • Oldest authenticated Sheephorn Bow
  • George Wellman’s Pistol: A Nickel-Plated .45-Caliber Double-Action Colt Model 1878
  • Wyoming’s Arrows and the Transcontinental Airway
  • Chris LeDoux’s Bucking Machine
  • Segregated Schools for Mexican Americans
  • Just Us: Ledger Art meets the Modern West
  • The Mountain Bike
  • South Pass City and the Carissa Mine
  • Star Valley Rock Church
  • Guernsey State Park Museum
  • Glendo Dam, Platte County, Wyoming
  • Thomas Molesworth, Furniture, and Western Functional Art
  • The Humble Beginnings of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne
  • The Root Cellar at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center
  • The Dawn of Woman Suffrage in Wyoming (take a look)
  • Lucretia Borgia: Buffalo Bill’s Buffalo Rifle (take a look)
  • Crowheart Butte
  • NOLS: A Unique School
  • The Bells of St. Matthew’s Cathedral
  • The Cowboy Hat
  • Oregon Trail Ruts
  • Peace through Strength: The Achievements of Chief Washakie
  • Tim McCoy’s Western Stock Saddle
  • Free Land! The Carey Act, Irrigation Projects, and Twentieth Century Homesteading
  • Jim Bridger’s Vest
  • The Jackalope
  • The Wyoming State Constitution
  • The Virginian and Wyoming as the American West
  • Trona: Wyoming’s White Gold
  • The Bar from the Hole-in-the-Wall Saloon