The remote community along Horse Creek wanted their own post office. The nearest one at that time was 65 miles away at Fort Washakie and would continue to supply their mail that arrived by stage and rider.
The federal rules stated that the settlers needed an original name that did not resemble the name of any other post office in the territory of Wyoming.
In 1889, one year before Wyoming became a state, Charles Smith submitted his original post office application with the name Tibo written in black.
The Town Of Tibo
According to Esther Mockler, in her book the “Recollections of the Upper Wind River Valley,” tibo is the Shoshone word for "stranger" or "white man," which was the Natives' affectionate name for their Episcopal priest, Father John Roberts.
Father Roberts was also the priest for the homesteaders along Horse Creek so they chose the name to honor both the priest and the Shoshone tribe he served.
However, the application was amended in red to read Dubois. Apparently, someone or the postal service itself found the name of Tibo unacceptable.
Who Named Dubois?
It was claimed by some unnamed sources that Wyoming Governor Joseph M. Carey named the town Dubois after his friend Fred Dubois, an Idaho Senator. At the time, both men were serving as territorial representatives in congress.
At the Dubois Museum, a notebook compiled by amateur historian Mary Back has her notes from an interview with James Moore. He told her that in 1890, Hugh Yoeman (Hewie Youmans) was the postmaster who named it after Senator Dubois of Idaho.
In the 1994 Wind River Mountaineer magazine, it was claimed that Postmaster Smith could not write so it was why Youmans really ran the post office that year although official records say otherwise.
Some reports also say that Dubois was on the post office commission and submitted his own name rather than the chosen name of Tibo.
Dubois’ surname was pronounced "deh-bwah" and historian Leo Graff said Dubois hated it when people pronounced the "-bois" suffix as "boys." It was well known that he found the mispronunciation insufferable.
In protest, legend says that when the application was returned with the name Dubois, the citizens retaliated by willfully mispronouncing the name.
An Old-Timers Account
William “Billy” Simpson was 21 when Charles Smith submitted the application and his own account differs from this narrative.
In 1937, he was a lawyer in Jackson when he was approached by the Casper Star Tribune and, as a former pioneer of the area, was asked how Dubois got its name. Simpson claimed that the name was his idea.
“In regard to the early history of Dubois, I think I know more about it than any man now living,” wrote Attorney Simpson.
When he first arrived in the area, there were no settlements between O. M. Clark’s place and the mouth of Sand Gulch. The first settlement made at the mouth of Horse creek, he said, was by Charlie Peterson and Charlie Smith. Smith lived on the unsurveyed land south of Horse creek where Dubois is now.
Smith lived in a 20-by-30 cabin, Simpson recalled, and later constructed a kitchen on the south of this and lived there during the winter of 1886-1887. Settlers along the Wind River packed the mail for a year from Fort Washakie to Charlie Smith’s house. There was no official post office to receive the mail and Smith decided to apply for one.
When the question of a name came up, Simpson claimed that there was much discussion on what to call their area. Those present at this meeting, as he recalls, were Charlie Smith, Charlie Peterson, Hewie Youman, a trapper by the name of Jackson, himself and an old French trapper whose name he could not remember except that he had seven or eight dogs.
Various names were suggested and during the discussion Simpson said he suggested the name Dubois. The old French trapper, who Simpson described as very excitable, immediately expressed himself in part French and part English how beautiful such a name would be.
“I remember distinctly his exclamation – “The woods, the woods,” and this name was placed in the petition for the name of the Dubois post office,” Simpson said.
Simpson explained that the name of Dubois came to him because, before he came to Wyoming, he knew a family living on the Big Thompson River in Colorado. These “old-timers” went by the name of Dubois and the father was, at one time, the county clerk of Larimer County, Colorado
The name Dubois is of French Huguenot origin and, according to geneanet.org, is a topographic name meaning “from the wood” hence the excitement of the French trapper who shouted out “the woods!”
A petition was then drawn up, and Simpson said he was quite confident it was in his handwriting, asking for the establishment of a post office and the name was added of Dubois.
“This petition, as I remember it and as I think the records will so show, was sent to Joseph M. Carey, territorial representative in congress at that time,” Simpson said. “In due time the post office was established, and Charlie Smith was the first postmaster on the Wind River.”
“In 1888, when my family came to Wyoming, we located at the mouth of Jakies Fork,” Simpson concluded. “The post office was removed to that point and my mother was appointed postmistress and held that office until the family removed to Jackson Hole.”
Simpson was not asked why the town was pronounced as Doo-boys rather than the proper French pronunciation. One theory is that it was just the Wyoming way of saying the name as different cowboys and settlers came into the region with their own dialects.
However, Dubois got its name and pronunciation, remember that when you visit Wyoming, it is “Doo-boys” and considered an insult if you call it “Deh-bwah.”
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
