A big battle is coming in 2026 between all the states in America. The battle is for attention, and the stakes for tourism are high.
It is America’s 250th birthday next year and Americans across the country will be looking for one-of-a-kind adventures that can lock in something legendary to celebrate.
Every state, meanwhile, already has an America250 Committee working on plans to deliver unique experiences that showcase the nation’s history.
That includes Wyoming, which launched its committee last year with $2 million in support from the Wyoming Legislature for projects across the state to showcase Wyoming’s place in American history.
It’s going to be a dizzying array of things to do, from one corner of the Cowboy State to the other, with everything from Oregon Trail rides to cowboy poetry. If it’s iconic and Western, Wyoming has it. And a small army of people are already working to polish it all up so it shines like a silver rodeo buckle for the 250th anniversary of America’s birth.
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Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints walk along the Wyoming Mormon Trail near Lander, reenacting the trek of their forbearers who passed through during the 1800s while journeying toward Salt Lake City. (Jon G. Fuller via Alamy) 
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Grand Teton National Park’s growing popularity with tourists means more visitors are taking in Wyoming’s picturesque Mormon Row. The National Park Service is planning upgrades to the area to keep up. (Getty Images) 
Squaretop Mountain and Green River Bridger Wilderness, Wind River Range Wyoming (Getty Images)
Wyoming Not Yet A State
Wyoming wasn’t even a state when America signed its Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. But it still has some mighty big advantages when it comes to lassoing the attention of 250th tourists in America.
“What we’re seeing now is people really showing an interest in America’s history and what it means throughout every state,” Wyoming Office of Tourism spokeswoman Piper Singer told Cowboy State Daily. “But I think Wyoming just has a unique story with having Yellowstone being the first National Park, Devils Tower being the first National Monument, and even having women being granted the first right to vote in the United States.”
Leveraging that for the 2026 tourism season has already begun, Piper added.
“We have put together a really robust paid media strategy to elevate every single program and event that’s happening in 2026, just to make sure we’re having greater eyes on what’s to come,” Singer said. “We know this is such an important milestone, and not only Wyoming’s history, but United States history. So, we’re just making sure this is part of our greater ecosystem of our marketing plan going into next year.”
Pick A Trail, Any Trail
Wyoming firsts are just the beginning when it comes to the iconic American West history that Wyoming has to offer for 250th tourism.
Almost all of the major trails that took settlers West run right through Wyoming — the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, the Pony Express, California, Overland, Cherokee and Great Western Cattle Trail.
“You can already go to Casper and take an Oregon trail ride,” Singer said. “Who can do that in any other state? That’s just like pretty incredible.”
Along the way, there are also famous landmarks like Independence Rock, where thousands of settlers paused to write their name and sometimes messages on a huge granite outcrop that is 130-foot tall and can be seen for miles.
Independence Rock took its name from a party of fur trappers led by William Sublette, who camped there on July 4, 1830, to celebrate Independence Day. It was also one of the most noticeable landmarks west of Fort Laramie.
Speaking of Fort Laramie, the historic site has already been featured in a video game about the Oregon Trail. In the game, as in real life, Fort Laramie was a place where people could make decisions about their journey, including buying more supplies or resting up.
Despite his reputation and prolific outlaw career, Butch Cassidy was only incarcerated once, from 1894-1896 in the Wyoming Territorial Prison in Laramie. He had been pinched for grand larceny for horse-stealing. 
Buffalo Bill's The Irma Hotel in Cody. (Courtesy The Irma Hotel) 
Clay Gibbons holds up a photo, then invites participants of his 2024 tour to take a look at the photo and then at the scenery, and see if they aren't standing right where the photographer who took that photo stood. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
The entrance to Old Trail Town in Cody. Founded in 1967, the entire 6-acre complex functions as a museum of Old West structures, artifacts and graves. (Andrew Rossi, Cowboy State Daily)
Follow That Cowboy
The tourism gold mine doesn’t stop there, though. There are famous people to follow around as well. Mountain Men like Jim Bridger, Kit Carson and Jim Baker, and outlaws like Butch Cassidy, George Flatnose Curry, Harvey Logan and the Sundance Kid. All of them crisscrossedthe state, although not for the same reasons.
There are famous and colorful cowboys, too, who made Wyoming their stomping grounds, like Buffalo Bill Cody with his Wild West Show, or C.B. Irwin with his outlaw horse, Steamboat, who was the star of early Cheyenne Frontier Days, which began in 1897 and continues today, laying claim to being the world’s largest outdoor rodeo.
Colorful cowgirls like Annie Oakley came to Wyoming from time to time and performed in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. Others, like Calamity Jane, simply called the state home.
Prominent American Indians whose story became part of the state include Sacajawea, who some historians believe lived out the remainder of her days in Wyoming, and Chief John Washakie, who was among the most successful native leaders of the period.
All of these things add up to a treasure trove of tourism opportunity for America’s 250th in and of themselves. But the 250th is also landing at a time when Western culture has already been trending in popularity.
That, in some ways, gives the state a huge advantage for nabbing 250th tourists, who have already been primed by popular television shows like “Yellowstone” and “Longmire” to seek out Wyoming.
Free flags, Fireworks, And More
In some senses, fighting for 250th tourists isn’t drastically different than any other year.
“It really feels like we’re not doing anything new, because this has always been the foundation of Wyoming,” Singer said.
But there are more people working on it across the state for the 250th, and they’re working with an eye toward new activities, new attractions, and new historical exhibits that tell the state’s story in new ways.
Wind River, for example, is working on an app-based scavenger hunt, while the Grand Encampment Cowboy Gathering is working on a two-day celebration of cowboy music and poetry.
Murals are coming in Thayne, oral histories in Elk Mountain, and two Civil War cannons will be restored in Big Horn County.
Linley Palazzolo, superintendent of Edness Kimball Wilkins State Park, is working on a virtual Oregon Trail walk, which will share milestones along the trail as people complete their 10,000 steps a day.
That activity will also be supplemented with real-life hikes along the Oregon Trail during 2026, so that people can walk portions of the actual trail and see some of the indelible ruts that wagons carved on the land and left behind.
Free flags will be given away in some communities, exhibits on immigrant families are planned, and veterans are being highlighted at the Wyoming Territorial Prison.
So far, close to 40 different projects have been awarded grants from one end of the Cowboy State to the next, and grant money is still available through Dec. 31. That means more projects are likely still on the drawing boards.
A website called Wyoming250.com has already been created to start tracking everything, and a few opportunities are already posted — like educational trunks that encourage youths to go hands-on with historical artifacts.
A large American flag is displayed by dozens of volunteers during the opening ceremonies of the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. As states gear up for America’s 250th birthday, Wyoming is planning a huge statewide Westen blowout. Old West icons, outlaws, historic trails, and a slate of uniquely Wyoming events will call to tourists seeking Western adventures. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily) 
As states gear up for America’s 250th birthday, Wyoming is planning a huge statewide Westen blowout. Old West icons, outlaws, historic trails, and a slate of uniquely Wyoming events will call to tourists seeking Western adventures. There's nothing more Western and Wyoming than the Daddy of 'Em All, the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily) 
As states gear up for America’s 250th birthday, Wyoming is planning a huge statewide Westen blowout. Old West icons, outlaws, historic trails, and a slate of uniquely Wyoming events will call to tourists seeking Western adventures. Here, the state's Native American roots are celebrated during Cheyenne Frontier Days. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily) 
The opening ceremonies for the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo features a parachuter wiuth a large "Don't Tread on Me" American flag. As states gear up for America’s 250th birthday, Wyoming is planning a huge statewide Westen blowout. Old West icons, outlaws, historic trails, and a slate of uniquely Wyoming events will call to tourists seeking Western adventures. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily)
Goodbye Boys, If I Never See You Again
Many of the projects are being done with an eye to future tourism, beyond the 2026 celebration year.
Like the Kaycee Fight marker that Hoofprints of the Past Museum Curator Laurel Foster is working on, to mark the location of Nate Champion’s death in the Johnson County War.
That’s an iconic period of history when Wyoming cattle barons made up a hit list of accused cattle rustlers and then hired assassins from Texas to come to Wyoming and kill everyone on the list.
“They had already gotten away with (murder),” Foster said. “So, I think that emboldened them. And they’d seen it done in other places successfully.”
Marking the location helps ensure the site of Champion’s death is preserved for posterity, Foster said.
“We always go there on our Johnson County War tour, and we tell people about the history and that’s one way of preserving the history,” she said. “But it would be better if it was actually marked. That’s important for posterity, because at some point, maybe 50 years down the road, I’m not here. Other people aren’t here. We don’t do the tour.”
The marker, Foster hopes, will draw more tourists to Kaycee to see the location where Nate Champion wrote his last words.
“Well, they have just got through shelling the house like hail. I heard them splitting wood,” Champion wrote. “I guess they are going to fire the house tonight. I think I will make a break for it when night comes, if alive. Shooting again. It’s not night yet. The house is all fired. Goodbye, boys, if I never see you again.”
In that, Foster sees the archetype of many a Western hero — something she believes tourists won’t be able to get enough of for America’s 250th celebration. The fact that they can come to Wyoming to see it up close and personal is tourism gold, not just next year, but for many years to come.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
