Monica Taylor Lee of Cheyenne was hiking in the Swiss Alps with family for her 15th wedding anniversary and 50th birthday when she saw something totally unexpected.
On the outside wall of a mountainside restaurant, she saw a Wyoming automobile license plate from Laramie County, U.S. of A, along with plates from other states like California and New Hampshire. All of them were flanking a Route 66 highway sign.
It was a display one would expect at any Americana-themed U.S. diner, not in the middle of the wilderness in Switzerland.
The restaurant’s name is the Berggasthaus Marmorbruch and is situated along a beautiful hiking trail in Grindelwald, which has been an important tourist destination for the Swiss Alps since the 19th century.
The restaurant itself was closed for the season, so Lee and her family couldn’t go inside to try any of the home-style Swiss food the restaurant’s website boasts, or ask about the license plate.
When she returned home, though, one of the first things Lee did was send a shout-out via a Cheyenne Facebook group with a photo of the license plate.
“If anyone from Cheyenne recognizes this plate number,” she wrote, “just know that it is living its best life in the Swiss Alps!”
Lee told commenters that she highly recommends the hike those traveling in that part of Switzerland, and her only regret is her visit was a week too early for the restaurant to be open.
The surprising part about finding a Wyoming license plate in the Swiss Alps to her was that it came from Laramie County, which is designated by the first number on the plate (2).
“Like, everyone goes to Jackson, so I imagine that someone coming from Switzerland, if they’re coming to Wyoming is going to Jackson,” she said. “They’re skipping the rest of this amazing state to go to what everybody in the world knows about, and that’s Jackson and Yellowstone.”
So the fact the plate was from Laramie County, where she herself lives, was awesome.
“That’s where I was like we’ve gotta take a picture,” Lee said.
Alan Schneider collects Wyoming license plates. Here he shows Cowboy State Daily one of the plates in his collection. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
This 1955 plate from Albany County is a keeper thanks to all the fives. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Cheyenne Frontier Days plates were produced through the 1960s, but then were stopped, making them highly collectible. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Plates from other states are popular too. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
International Tourists Love Wyoming Plates
While some of the people posting on Lee’s Facebook post speculated that someone from Wyoming must have been hiking in the Swiss Alps, others suggested it might have come from a European traveler, maybe even the restaurant owners themselves.
Several posters noted seeing Wyoming plates in other countries like Japan, Lisbon, Italy, France, Scotland and even Haiti.
In fact, it turns out that Wyoming plates are quite popular with international and domestic tourists in general, said Bruce and Dawn Bristol, owners of Our Place in Cheyenne, which sells a variety of household kitsch, as well as a very healthy selection of automobile license plates from various states, including Wyoming.
“License plates are one of our biggest sellers through the summer,” Dawn told Cowboy State Daily. “We have tourists who will bring in their list of different places they’ve been to, and they will come in here to try and find the ones on their list that they don’t have yet.”
Dawn believes the license plate Lee saw was probably bought by a European traveler, maybe even the restaurant owners. She bases that on the number of international tourists she sees every summer who are looking for license plates from Wyoming and other states.
But it’s not just international tourists.
“There’s lots of people who, you know, collect all the states, or they’ll collect certain numbers, or they’ll collect certain years,” Dawn said. “And Wyoming plates, with the bucking horse, are one of the most popular.”
Our Place even has a regular customer from New York who calls from time to time to find license plates from Native American reservations.
“He came in here one day and we had quite a few tribal plates at the time, and he bought all of them from us,” Dawn said. “And he has called me several times from New York to ask if we have any more, and we have sent him a few.”
Dawn has a small collection of plates of her own that aren’t for sale. Among them are highly collectible Cheyenne Frontier Days plates, which were only made up to the 1960s.
License plates are lately getting harder and hard to find, and they’re growing more and more expensive.
“We have one that came from my husband’s grandpa, and it sold at auction for more than $3,000,” Dawn told Cowboy State Daily.
I’ll Take $15,000 For The Pair
That may sound like a lot of money, but license plate collector Alan Schneider of Cheyenne has seen them go for even more than that.
“The most expensive pair of plates I’ve seen purchased was a pair of 1914 unused license plates, and they sold for $15,000,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “That was for the pair.”
Schneider specializes in Wyoming plates and considers himself to be a small collector, compared to others he’s seen, who have filled up entire houses with license plates on every wall.
Older plates with low numbers are the ones most likely to go for high dollar amounts, he said.
But sometimes, a collector is trying to finish out a particular set for, say, a birthday year.
Or they might want a plate to match a particular year of vintage car.
That can sometimes inspire a higher dollar amount than usual.
Plates that have fun letter combinations are also highly valued. Like, for example, the 1955 plates for Albany County. The county number for that plate is five, which makes for a license plate that’s special because of all the fives.
Our Place in Cheyenne sells a wide variety of Wyoming license plates to collectors, many of them international tourists. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
More Wyoming plates for sale at Our Place. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
A 69 plate for a 1969 vehicle. This plate is Wyoming's new design just recently available. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
A test plate produced so that a committee could get a look at colors and design of proposed plates before settling on a final design. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
These license plates with metal tabs were issued for a short period of time for new vehicles and are very hard to find. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Cardboard Wyoming Plates Among The Rarest
Even though Schneider considers himself a minor collector, he has paid $1,500 for a pair of 1916 Wyoming plates.
And he has also filled up quite a few walls of his own home with Wyoming license plates.
“So, I’ve got three walls in my garage and they’re all covered (with plates), and I’ve got a room in my basement that’s got four walls that are covered, and another room in my basement that’s got two walls completely covered,” Schneider said. “I’ve got lots of plates on the walls.”
Schneider’s collection includes some of the rarest plates in the state, like the ones that were printed on soybean cardboard during World War II, and the 21-day plates that used a metal tab, which were briefly issued just for new car purchases.
“Those are really hard to find,” Schneider said. “Particularly the cardboard ones, because a lot of people had them on farms and livestock would eat them.”
Schneider already has the new state license plate for his collection. He’s not worried about the fact the plate has no scenery. It’s still got the bucking horse, and that’s the important thing.
“I actually don’t mind it,” he added. “It is different. I mean, they’re finally putting the Wyoming flag on there.”
The only quarrel he has with the new plate is the letters after the county number.
“It distracts from the uniqueness of the plate,” he said. “Because every plate will have a P or a T on there, and that’s also used for toll roads down in Colorado.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
