Featured Topics

Indigenous People in Wyoming and the West

Women’s Suffrage and Women’s Rights

Crime Spree Across Southwest Wyoming

On March 4, 1955, Charles Billings began a 16-hour crime spree across southwest Wyoming that left two men dead and terrorized multiple communities. Starting with a burglary in Kemmerer, Billings murdered Albert Maffei, wounded two others, kidnapped a teenager in Evanston, killed Deputy Sheriff Ed Phillips, and was ultimately killed in a shootout with law enforcement in Green River after taking a family hostage.

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Reborn in Robes

Founded in 1915, the Second Klu Klux Klan spread rapidly across the United States in the 1920s—including in Wyoming. Governor Nellie Tayloe Ross and prominent historian T.A. Larson claimed that the Klan did not have much influence in Wyoming, but newspaper records show otherwise. Uncover the hidden truth of Klan activities in Wyoming.

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Who was Lucretia Marchbanks?

Lucretia Marchbanks experienced her first gold rush as an enslaved woman on the California Trail—it wouldn’t be her last. After the Civil War, gold rushes again brought her west, to Colorado and finally Deadwood, where she found fortune and fame. Learn more about a self-made woman’s journey from slavery to ranch life in Wyoming’s Black Hills.

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The 1959 Lake Hebgen Earthquake and its Effects on Yellowstone Park Geysers

On August 17, 1959, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake at Lake Hebgen, Montana, dramatically affected Yellowstone’s geysers 236 miles away. Giantess Geyser erupted for 100 hours straight, 289 springs became geysers, and bears sought shelter with humans at Old Faithful Lodge. Read about this remarkable geological event.

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The Snow Chi Minh Trail: Don’t Blame Lady Bird Johnson

Wyomingites are well acquainted with the legendary stretch of Interstate 80 between Laramie and Walcott Junction. We have our own white-knuckle memories of that road or know of someone who has been caught in white-out conditions. This 77-mile stretch of Interstate 80 is notorious for fierce winter winds that blow the snow across the highway creating treacherous conditions.

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Crime Spree Across Southwest Wyoming
Who was Lucretia Marchbanks?
The 1959 Lake Hebgen Earthquake
The Snow Chi Minh Trail: Don’t Blame Lady Bird Johnson

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Legacy 101: How Wyoming Remembers Nellie Tayloe Ross

By American Heritage Center Historian Kail Moede

Editor's note: The following post originally appeared on "Discover History," the blog of the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center. We’re pleased to share it with our readers as we mark the 101st anniversary of Nellie Tayloe Ross taking the oath of office as Wyoming's and the nation's first woman governor on January 5, 1925.

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