Roadside History, Now on Your Screen: Wyoming’s Monuments and Markers Map

October 7, 2026

By the Wyoming Monuments and Markers Program and WyoHistory.org

stone column with bronze plaque embedded; plaque text reads "Commemorating the passage of the Custer Expedition to the Black Hills 1874 / Dedicated by the Historical land Commission of Wyoming, July 1940
The stone monument near Sundance carries a plaque from the Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming, which acquired, marked and preserved historic sites around the state from 1927 until 1959. Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources photo. Click on image to enlarge.

Wyoming’s historical markers are now easier to find than ever. The Wyoming Monuments and Markers Program has refreshed its interactive Monuments and Markers Map with updated locations and a more user-friendly design. Travelers can plan a route around the markers, teachers can bring them into the classroom, and history lovers can explore them from home. Explore the map at Bit.ly/WyoMM.

Chances are you’ve driven past one of these markers: a stone cairn at a rest area, a wooden sign at the edge of a sagebrush flat, a plaque on a canyon overlook. Each one tells you what happened where you’re standing. The map gathers them in one place, so you can find them before you set out.

Behind each of those markers is the Wyoming Monuments and Markers Program, which oversees the statewide system. The markers cover Indigenous history, the historic trails, the growth of communities, notable individuals, and the land itself. 

Three markers show how varied those stories can be.

In northeastern Wyoming near Sundance, a stone monument marks the passage of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s 1874 expedition to the Black Hills. More than 1,000 soldiers and civilians set out from Dakota Territory that July, partly to find out whether the rumors of gold were true. Their reports brought prospectors pouring into the Black Hills, despite the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 reserving those lands for the Lakota. Sixty-six years later, in July 1940, the Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming dedicated the monument. Today it stands as a record of the expedition, and of what Wyoming chose to commemorate in 1940.

roadside sign hung from a wood crossbar that says, "Wyoming;" text on sign is titled "Sheep Mountain" and describes the geology of the areay
The Sheep Mountain marker near Greybull, with the ridge it describes in the distance. The fold runs about 15 miles and exposes rock layers ranging from 66 million to 360 million years old. Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources photo. Click on image to enlarge.

Near Greybull, a sign explains the long ridge on the eastern horizon. Sheep Mountain, it says, is a textbook example of an anticline: rock layers that once lay flat, folded upward more than 1,000 feet by forces deep in the earth’s crust. The folding began around 66 million years ago, about when the dinosaurs died out. The mountain’s present shape took form over the last 3 million years as rivers cut down through the surrounding land. A local group, the Big Horn Industrial Development Corporation, provided the sign to help travelers understand the landscape they were passing through.

In Sweetwater County, the “Art Gallery of Time” marker looks toward Flaming Gorge, which John Wesley Powell named for its brilliant red sandstone. Powell set out from what is now Green River, Wyoming, on two voyages down the Green and Colorado rivers through the Grand Canyon. The first, in 1869, was mostly exploration. The second, beginning in 1871, gathered scientific data and produced the first maps of the upper Colorado River drainage. The canyon walls he passed record far more time than any human story. Rocks near the overlook are about 49 million years old, while those near today’s Flaming Gorge Dam are nearly 1.1 billion years old.

Wyoming’s historical markers have a long history of their own. The first monuments went up before statehood. In the decades that followed, the Oregon Trail Commission, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming and a series of state agencies all worked to mark the state’s historic places.

roadside sign title "Art Gallery of Time" perched on the edge of a landscape of rolling hills with exposed strata. The sun is setting in the background.
Sunset at the “Art Gallery of Time” overlook in Sweetwater County. Powell’s second expedition produced the first maps of the upper Colorado River drainage, the basis for much of what geologists know about the region. Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources photo. Click on image to enlarge.

Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites and Trails has run the program since 2017, with help from other state agencies, tribal nations, local governments, historical societies and volunteers. Together they research new markers, install them and look after them for years afterward. They also work to keep the history the markers tell accurate and representative of all of Wyoming’s people.

You can help, too. Volunteers can take part directly through the Stewardship Program, which monitors the condition of monuments and markers around the state.

To learn more about the Monuments and Markers Program and other programs of the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources, visit wyospcr.wyo.gov.

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