Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
NORTHERN WYOMING NEWS/Sean Mortimer A party of representatives from the Wyoming Department of Transportation, the Shoshoni and Northern Arapaho tribes, and others involved in the history and continued work on the Wind River Canyon highway hold up a ribbon across the road near the Lower Wind River Campground while tribal education coordinator Ivan Posey cuts it to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the highway on Oct. 1. Wind River Intertribal Council Department of Transportation Director Winslow Friday was one of several speakers there to celebrate the occasion, and he said, "I'm very honored to stand here today in this celebration. The way I look at it, this canyon has served as passage for my ancestors and other indigenous peoples who have occupied the area for thousands of years. I look forward to continue the great relationship with WyDOT to continue our commitment to safety, and our future endeavor of developing an alternative route to bypass the canyon."
Hot Springs County Historian Jackie Dorothy speaks about the history of the Wind River Canyon highway during a celebration of its 100 year anniversary on Oct. 1 at the Lower Wind River Campground.
WyDOT Director Darin Westby visits the Lower Wind River Campground to speak during the celebration of the 100 year anniversary of the Wind River Canyon highway.
Tribal education coordinator Ivan Posey says a prayer to begin the ceremony to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Wind River Canyon highway on Oct. 1, while WyDOT Public Relations Specialist Cody Beers and WyDOT Director Darin Westby bow their heads.
Governor Brooks and Engineers at the dedication of the Yellowstone Highway, 1924
October 1923, the tunnels being built in the Wind River Canyon.
October 1924, Governor Brooks (second from left) and engineers at the dedication of the Yellowstone Highway.
A ceremony to celebrate the 100th anniversary of highway transportation through Wind River Canyon was held Tuesday, Oct. 1.
The ceremony took place at the Lower Wind River Campground picnic shelter along the Wind River near the canyon highway tunnels.
Following an opening prayer, attendees heard a few words from Brooks Jordan, Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites and Trails district manager of Hyattville; Winslow Friday, Wind River Intertribal Council-DOT director of Ft. Washakie; Micheal Baker, Wyoming Transportation Commission commissioner of rural Thermopolis; Darin Westby, Wyoming Department of Transportation director of Cheyenne; and Jackie Dorothy, Wind River Canyon historian.
Dorothy, her husband and son live in Wind River Canyon. Following Dorothy's talk, attendees were invited to walk on to U.S. 20/Wyoming 789 to cut a ribbon symbolizing the beginning of the next 100 years of transportation in Wind River Canyon. A prayer closed the ceremony.
Motorists were delayed about 10 minutes while the ribbon cutting ceremony occured.
CONSTRUCTION
Construction of a highway through Wind River Canyon was an idea about 1915, an idea picked up by then-Wyoming Governor John Kendrick, who served in Wyoming's highest political office from 1915-1917.
Dorothy, in a history of the canyon wrote, "Hot Springs County Attorney Fred E. Holdrege was armed with facts and figures, according to the Thermopolis Record, and supported his arguments in a way that did not leave room for contradiction. He stated, 'If this were Colorado instead of Wyoming, the highway, instead of finding a way around, would go directly through the great canyon south of this city!'"
"I believe that the canyon route is an entirely feasible one and that when the money for building it is available, it will become one of the best scenic routes in Wyoming," Kendrick said while he was Wyoming's governor.
According to a history from Dorothy, a few remote ranchers protested that they didn't need a road and didn't want to pay a new tax for one since they would never own a vehicle. The town founders, however, were desperate for an easier route for autoists to reach the inaccessible town of Thermopolis and met personally with these protesters, trying to explain the importance of these new contraptions.
Work began in June 1922 on the new Yellowstone Highway through Wind River Canyon (U.S. 20/Wyoming 789). The new highway route was chosen to replace the more challenging Birds Eye Pass route over the Owl Creek Mountains.
Dorothy said, "In 1915, it was a dangerous, long trip to get to Thermopolis over the Wind River Canyon in your automobile over Birds Eye Pass. Some even failed in their attempt to drive over the pass and abandoned their Model T's rather than take the treacherous path ever again. During the more passable summer months, the alternative was to ride the stage which ran from Shoshoni to Thermopolis daily, taking 12 to 14 hours to get passengers to their final destination."
Construction of the highway through Wind River Canyon was completed two years later, over-budget. The completed highway was 12 miles long, and at the time, was the most expensive road project in America. The price: $750,000.
The first automobile passed over the new Yellowstone Highway in Wind River Canyon on Jan. 22, 1924. The official year-round opening of the highway happened in October 1924, according to WYDOT and historian Dorothy.
Dorothy wrote, "Howard Jackson, deputy sheriff of Converse County, was one of the very first autoist to drive down the new 'Canyon Boulevard.' He told the Casper newspaper that it was a harrowing drive, 'I'll bet many old women will faint and drop into the bottom of the car as they go through those tunnels and come out suddenly onto a shelf hung two or three hundred feet above the water where you can look straight down into a raging river, and then look straight up for half a mile and find that you are hung up there in mid-air as it were.'"
More on the history can be found online at http://www.wyodaily.com.
