Recreation and Places of Interest

When the explorer John Frémont first saw the mountains of Wyoming in 1842, he remarked that it seemed as if “Nature had collected all her beauties together in one chosen place.” Each year countless visitors to Wyoming must agree, as they enjoy its magnificent forests and parks, use its excellent facilities for camping, climbing, and hunting, or fish along its crystal-clear streams. Wyoming’s Wild-West past heightens its color and interest. The state is one of the most popular vacationlands in the United States and a mecca for all Americans who relish the outdoor life.

National Parks and Forests

Two of the most famous and spectacular parks in the United States are located in Wyoming. Yellowstone National Park, the largest and oldest in the nation, has most of its acreage in the state. Grand Teton National Park is located directly south of Yellowstone. The federal government also manages nearly 3.8 million hectares (9.3 million acres) of forestland in Wyoming. Four national forests, the Shoshone, Medicine Bow, Bridger-Teton, and Big Horn, lie wholly within the state. Five others, Targhee, Wasatch, Black Hills, Ashley, and Caribou, have additional acreage in other states. All nine forests permit hunting, fishing, picnicking, camping, and boating. In addition, Wyoming has a number of national recreation areas, wilderness areas, and wildlife preserves, the most famous of which is the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole. The magnificent Bighorn Canyon, near Lovell on the west slope of the Bighorn Mountains, is missed by many visitors, but is easily viewed from paved highways in the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.

State Parks

The state of Wyoming maintains several recreational facilities. The world’s largest hot springs are located at Hot Springs State Park, at Thermopolis. In the mid-1990s Wyoming had 22 state parks and historic sites. Many of the parks have facilities for fishing, boating, camping, and picnicking. The largest is Boysen State Park, in central Wyoming.

National Monuments and Historic Sites

The National Park Service administers two national monuments in Wyoming. One, Devils Tower National Monument, a volcanic rock formation near the Belle Fourche River, is primarily of scenic interest. The other, Fossil Butte National Monument, near Kemmerer, contains the fossils of fishes that lived in the area about 50 million years ago, when the region was a seabed. Fort Laramie National Historic Site recalls Wyoming’s vivid past, for many of its buildings were used in the l9th century when Fort Laramie was the most important military post on the Oregon Trail. The state of Wyoming has also restored or rebuilt a number of forts important in Wyoming’s history. These include Fort Bridger, founded in 1843 by mountain man James Bridger, and Fort Fetterman, built in 1867 and named after an army officer who had been killed by Native Americans in the previous year. Platte Bridge Battlefield, on the Oregon Trail near Casper, and Connor Battlefield Historic Site, near Sheridan, mark battles of 1865. South Pass City, near Lander, is a ghost town that has been restored by the state and attracts visitors interested in life in a gold-mining town of the late 1860s.

Other interesting places to visit are Independence Rock and Register Cliff, landmarks on the Oregon Trail for l9th-century pioneers, thousands of whom inscribed their names on them. Hole-in-the-Wall is a gorge 56 km (35 mi) long in central Wyoming that long served as a hideout for outlaws some of whom ended up in the Territorial Prison in Laramie.

Sports and Leisure

Wyoming’s mountains, plains, forests, lakes, and streams offer ideal conditions for all types of outdoor recreation. Hiking, hunting, camping, boating, fishing, horseback riding, golf, and tennis are popular activities. Trapshooting, rifle, and pistol clubs are common, and skiing has developed into a major recreational activity. Wyoming’s ski areas include Jackson Hole, in Teton Village; Snow King Mountain, in Jackson; and Meadowlark, near Worland. Dude ranches—resorts at which visitors participate in traditional cowboy activities—and rodeos are also popular. Cheyenne Frontier Days is one of the largest rodeos in the world and draws the finest rodeo stock and riders.

Museums

The University of Wyoming Art Museum in Laramie features contemporary art, American art, and a diverse array of ethnographic material. The Wyoming State Museum and the Wyoming State Archives are in Cheyenne. The state maintains historical museums in Fort Bridger and South Pass City, the Wyoming Pioneer Memorial Museum in Douglas, and the American Heritage Center on the University of Wyoming campus. The Buffalo Bill Historical Center and the Whitney Gallery of Western Art are located in Cody. Western art is also exhibited at the Bradford Brinton Memorial, in Big Horn, and the National Museum of Wildlife Art, in Jackson. The Wyoming Territorial Prison in Laramie has been restored with state and local funds, and is a popular attraction for visitors with an interest in the Old West. The prison is part of the Wyoming Territorial Park, which includes the National U.S. Marshals Museum and exhibits provided by other groups. Fort Laramie National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service, attracts those interested in the history of the Oregon Trail, Pony Express, and United States Cavalry. In Pinedale, the Museum of the Mountain Man features exhibits about life in Wyoming before the opening of the Oregon Trail.

Source: MSN Encarta: Online Encyclopedia