The rift between Wyoming’s historical groups appears to be growing with Wyoming Historical Society giving all its county chapters the boot, telling them to go their own way.
In a memo dated June 10 sent out to all members, Wyoming Historical Society President Beki Speas said the change to the organization’s structure is necessary to foster growth for the society.
“This shift reflects a larger vision — one that ensures local historical groups can operate with greater autonomy, flexibility, and local control over their missions and management,” she wrote. “Each organization will now have the opportunity to establish itself as an independent nonprofit entity, shaping its own future while continuing to preserve and share Wyoming’s history in ways that best serve their communities.”
That means the chapters will have to seek nonprofit status on their own, and that the society will no longer provide any administrative oversight to the chapters that had been part of their organizational structure for decades.
“We remain deeply committed to supporting all Wyoming historical organizations across the entire state through programming, educational resources, and marketing assistance,” Speas wrote. “Our future relationships with local historical societies — many of which were formerly known as chapters — will be those of affiliates, rather than overseers.”
The new structure will allow the Wyoming Historical Society to expand its mission statewide, Speas added.
“We truly believe that local control is the best path forward, allowing historical societies to tailor their operations to the needs of their communities, while still benefiting from WHS’s expertise and support,” she wrote. “This is an opportunity for growth, not retreat — an opportunity to ensure Wyoming’s rich history continues to be preserved and celebrated without bureaucratic restraints limiting its reach.”
The letter has Speas’ signature as well as the digital signature of its other board members, who are listed as Hailey Sorg, Greg Luhman, Heidi McCullough, Nancy Tabb, Dean King and Terri Geissinger.
Unprecedented Move
Milward Simpson, who is the nephew of the late Wyoming U.S. senator, Al Simpson, told Cowboy State Daily he’s never seen anything like what’s been happening with the Wyoming Historical Society in all of his years working under two Wyoming governors. It was his role during that time to oversee several cultural and historic preservation agencies, including the State Historic Preservation Office, State Museum, State Archives, State Arts Council, and the State Archaeologist.
“They’ve done a lot of harm to one of the only statewide, nonprofit cultural organizations, and one of the oldest,” Simpson told Cowboy State Daily. “And I don’t consider anything that this organization has done since all of the mass board or executive committee resignations to have been above board and legitimate, because it was counter to their own bylaws to just appoint new members to replace all of the ones who resigned.”
The latest move, ousting its county chapters feels like a slap in the face for the entire state’s historical community, he added.
“It’s shocking to me that they would try to make this look like it’s just kind of growing pains, or something, he said. “I ran, for a couple of years, a nationwide nonprofit, membership-based organization, and we had affiliates and regional chapters kind of similar to the Historical Society structure.”
Forcing out individual chapters the way Wyoming Historical Society is doing would have been unthinkable to him in that role.
“The overall organization, just as here, was the umbrella for these other organizations, so they didn’t have to go out and pay for and manage their own 501(c)(3),” Simpson said. “That is expensive and time-consuming. (Something like this) is almost unheard of, and it should be something that would be avoided at all costs. So I’m very skeptical that the society members would have voted to kind of blow up this decades long, effective structure.”
It also has not, in his opinion, transpired in anything like the Wyoming way.
“This is not how you play with people, particularly in a small state,” he said. “The last straw for me was when I heard that one of our most esteemed people who works in historic preservation in the state’s history, Lucille Dumbrill, was given a cease and desist letter. I can’t imagine they would have been this disrespectful if they knew she’s one of the only people in the history of the state who was appointed by the President of the United States to be on the Advisory Council on Historic preservation.”
Dumbrill was also instrumental in founding an endowment that supports the annual Wyoming History Day, which has been a signature activity of the Wyoming Historical Society.
The Audit
Wyoming Historical Society and its longtime fundraising arm, the Wyoming Historical Foundation, had been fighting since at least February, with the latter calling for an audit. Foundation President Ann Noble told Cowboy State Daily the audit was something the Foundation was willing to pay for.
But instead, in March, Wyoming Historical Society severed the relationship with the Foundation and the two organizations are now speaking only through attorneys, as they negotiate the fate of the endowment fund that had been supporting Wyoming Historical Society.
The fracture didn’t stop with the Foundation, however. WyoHistory.org, which has operated under the umbrella of Wyoming Historical Society, announced it too is leaving. It plans to become a separate 501(c)(3) of its own.
Founder Tom Rea told Cowboy State Daily his attorney had advised him not to discuss any details of the breakup while things are still being negotiated.
Amidst all of that, in mid-May, a number of members from the society’s chapters sent in a joint no confidence statement, questioning a long list of things, including meetings the group said had been held without proper notice, as well as one meeting that had taken place without a quorum. That meeting was to appoint a fifth member, so the group would have a quorum. Additional appointments followed that, to fill other vacancies on the nine-member board.
Noble said recommendations for new members are supposed to come from the nominating committee, not the executive committee.
The no confidence statement also questioned a recent vote changing the bylaws, which the letter signers said had taken place without proper notice to all members and utilized an online voting mechanism with questionable security that disenfranchised those members who lacked computer access and/or proficiency with such technology.
The letter writers also took issue with cease-and-desist letters to members who were asking questions about the Foundation separation and highlighted concerns about the Annals of Wyoming, which hasn’t published anything since last fall.
Moving On
Linda Fabian, who retired as executive director of Wyoming Historical Society in 2023 and who is a current board member of the Platte County Historical Society, said the breakup is a sad moment.
“For me, the foundation that built the society is crumbling right before our eyes,” she said. “Without any regard or respect for the people who were the rocks and the solid people behind building the society since its inception in 1953 to now.”
Fabian added that she sees little value in her chapter continuing its membership with the society anymore, given everything that’s transpired.
“I’m shocked at myself for saying that, because throughout my entire career with the society, I encouraged chapters to join and to roll their dues into what’s expected from the society,” she said. “We were a collective unit that worked together. But now, when I read that letter, and I reread it, and I keep seeing just that they’re kicking all of the chapters out … and we’ll now be known as affiliates.
“We don’t need them,” Fabian concluded.
The involuntary ousting of historical society groups will be the subject of an upcoming board meeting for the Platte County chapter, Fabian added.
“My recommendation is going to be that we just be independent,” she said. “And the really wonderful thing is we can keep that $40 (per member) that we’ve been sending to the State Historical Society for years.”
Fabian said keeping $45 as opposed to just $5 per member and sending the rest to the society will enable the Platte County historical group to do more things locally. With 85 members, their statedues to Wyoming Historical Society tallied up to $3,400. That money will no longer be headed to the state society, under Fabian’s recommendation.
“We help people write nominations to get their buildings on the National Register,” she said. “A few years ago, we moved an old school into town, and we had to have a fundraising effort for that. So we can do a lot of wonderful things like that.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
