Clean and cozy, travelers often said of their stays at Little America outside of Green River. For generations, the quaint little brick lodges offered more than just lodging. It was a self-contained oasis for the weary traveler with gas station, restaurant, cocktail lounge and gift shop.
Now the hotel’s brick lodges, rebuilt after a 1948 fire and standing for nearly 80 years, are being torn down.
“The hotel’s gotten kind of old,” the hotel’s general manager Spencer Riggs said. “And there’s a lot of repairs that are needed — so many repairs that it’s not cost-effective anymore. We’re working on some other plans and ideas, but for now we’re removing the hotel portion.”
Last week, community members from the hotel and sit-down restaurant were invited to haul away furnishings from the shuttered hotel and restaurant. A bittersweet gesture, they were free to anyone who could come and get them and haul them away.
Though the hotel rooms and the associated pool are vanishing, Little America itself is not going away, General Manager Spencer Riggs told Cowboy State Daily. The business will lean into its travel center business and its RV park for future growth.
Other plans for the site’s future are still being sorted out, and Riggs was noncommittal about whether a new hotel could be among possible futures.
“We’re in a planning stage right now,” he said. “So, I don’t have any announcements of future plans, only that we plan to continue Little America going strong, particularly in our travel and fuel center business. That’s going to remain strong. The RV Park business is going to remain strong.”
Additions to those businesses will be considered as needed to “best fit the needs of our guests,” Riggs added.
The stuffed emperor penguin on display at the Green River Little America started its journey to Wyoming from Antarctica alive and died during transport. The plan was to keep a living penguin at the hotel, but it was doomed from the start. But that didn't stop the hotel from adopting the penguin as its mascot. 
Little America Wyoming is a mandatory stop for many travelers across Interstate 80, even if it's just to fuel up. (Little America Wyoming via Facebook) 
The classic Little America penguin is a nod to the resort's inspiration, Admiral Richard Byrd and the Little America outposts in the Antarctic. (Little America Wyoming via Facebook) 
The classic neon of Little America in the 1950s and 1960s. (Little America Wyoming via Facebook) 
The stuffed emperor penguin on display at the Green River Little America started its journey to Wyoming from Antarctica alive and died during transport. The plan was to keep a living penguin at the hotel, but it was doomed from the start. But that didn't stop the hotel from adopting the penguin as its mascot.
Little America, Little Oasis
For many travelers passing through southwest Wyoming Little America was more than just a gas stop. It was literally salvation in the high desert, and the end of its hotels marks the end of an era.
Wyoming resident Gene Bryan recalls the time he and his family were caught in a Wyoming whiteout along that stretch of lonely highway. He was in the sixth grade at the time.
“It was a terrible mess,” Bryan said. “And my dad was probably as good a driver as any whoever drove a vehicle. He was in the trucking business all his life, so he knew how to drive in every possible kind of condition.”
But even he knew there was no beating a whiteout like that.
They needed a place to pull over, sooner rather than later. Imagine their relief when the friendly, warm glow of Little America suddenly appeared.
“We were more than happy to see that,” Bryan recalled. “Boy, you talk about coming up at the right time.”
From Sheep Camp To Roadside Legend
Today, Little America owns properties in Cheyenne, Utah and Arizona, but the Green River location is at the heart of its origin story, a story that couldn’t be more iconic Americana.
The story used to be told in full on placements in founder Stephen Mack Covey’s restaurant. It started one cold Wyoming winter night when Covey was herding sheep in this “dreary” section of southwest Wyoming.
“I became lost in a raging northeast blizzard,” he wrote in the story. “And I was forced to ‘Lay Out’ all night at this exact place where Little American now stands.”
The 50-mile-wind never let him forget he was all alone as the temperature sank to a deadly 40 below. It seemed to Covey that the long night would never end.
“Oh, how I longed for a warm fireside, something to eat, and wool blankets,” Covey wrote. “I thought what a blessing it would be if some good soul would build a house of shelter of some kind on that god-forsaken spot.”
It became something of a prayer during that long night, and then a promise. If he got through this long night, he was going to build something here so that no one else would ever endure a night like this one.
Covey kept that promise not long after seeing Admiral Byrd’s photos of his “Little America” camp in the Antarctic in 1929. Covey was so inspired by that camp, he decided to name his modest motel of 12 cabins Little America. Covey also built two gas pumps, a cocktail lounge, and a 24-seat cafe to go with his motel.
The price of a burger when Covey opened was 35 cents, a gallon of gas cost 16 cents and an ice cream cone — a grand 5 cents.
In honor of Byrd’s Little America camp, Covey also adopted the penguin as his logo and official mascot. He had a friendly, waving penguin that greeted travelers as a tribute to Byrd.
Byrd was so taken by this he decided to return a little admiration. He offered Covey a real live emperor penguin, which was sent to Wyoming on a boat by way of Boston.
The poor penguin, unfortunately, died not long after its ill-fated arrival in Wyoming. At the time, no one really knew what kind of care a penguin needed to survive.
The penguin's stuffed remains have been displayed at Little America near Green River ever since, as has a second stuffed penguin, which resides at Little America in Cheyenne.
The diner is packed in this vintage photo. (Renée Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
There are plenty of reminders of Little America Wyoming's history, which goes back to 1934. (Little America Wyoming via Facebook) 
Little America's penguin mascot looks on from the hotel lobby. (Renée Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
The only new addition to the Little America sign was a sign with Eddie Shumway’s name. The sign is located on Highway 120 in the Owl Creek region. Motorists can view it on their way to Cody from Thermopolis, Wyoming. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
Eddie Shumway with his daughter, Kimberly, and grandkids before the sign was hoisted up and put into place along Highway 120 between Cody and Thermopolis. (Courtesy Eddie Shumway)
Changing Times On I-80
Covey did have a flair for marketing. He placed a whole string of billboards at regular intervals along I-80, telling travelers just how far away Little America was from them, as well as a final billboard warning them that if they passed his little I-80 refuge by, there would be nothing else to help them for many, many miles in either direction.
Times, however, are changing, Bryan acknowledged.
While he and his wife have always made a point of stopping at Little America on their many travels, that stretch of highway is no longer the endless ribbon of deserted land that it once was when Little America began.
“There’s so many more new properties along I-80 anymore,” he said. “Their mission just probably doesn’t exist anymore. It was never a destination, it was always a way station, and it couldn’t market itself as anything but as an oasis.”
In fact, Bryan somewhat typifies the trends shaping Little America today.
He and his wife typically travel in an RV, and don’t stay at hotels anymore. They do make a point of stopping at Little America any time they pass by to fuel up their RV, check out the gift shop, and eat in the travel stop’s restaurant. But then they are back on the road again, to their destination.
Bryan, while sad to see the hotels torn down at the site, probably understands better than most how difficult it can become to save an aging hotel.
“I went through that a little bit with Paul Smith at the Hitching Post,” he said. “Paul worked so desperately to keep that upgraded … Trying to get financing for an old property, there just aren’t very many financial institutions that will finance something like that. I know that’s something Paul ran into constantly.”
Growing Tourism In SouthWest Wyoming
Sweetwater County Travel and Tourism Director Jenissa Meredith told Cowboy State Daily she’s not concerned the disappearance of the hotels means that Little America will disappear.
“It’s a little bit of history lost,” she said. “But the fact they’re investing is a good sign that they’re optimistic about the future. And we work actually very closely with them and they have been a great partner for a lot of years.”
What Meredith sees is necessary re-invention, to accommodate changing travel plans and visitor preferences.
“There are so many amenities in Rock Springs, in Green River, that the lodging was no longer the bulk of their business,” she said. “So it’s been in a phase of evolution for what they envision for the future. I think they’re going to kind of reimagine that going forward.”
Meredith is optimistic they will find their place in things, with tourism in southwestern Wyoming on the rise.
“Even though industry has kind of shifted downward as far as our lodging occupancy in recent months, our tourism lodging occupancy has increased in the last few years,” she said. “Tourism is doing well in this corner of the state, and with the investments they’ve made in that travel center and in the RV Park, they’re really, really optimistic about the future.”
The RV Park, Meredith added, is an amenity that was needed for southwest Wyoming tourism.
“We need as many of those as we can get along I-80,” she said. “And that’s been very successful for them.”
The Penguin Will Remain
Little America will retain its post office, and therefore its status as its own kind of city, Riggs said.
“We still have private residences, our own zip code and post office, so all of that remains the same,” he said. “The only thing that’s different is that there are no longer hotel rooms for overnight.”
There were some small apartments that were removed along with the hotel, but those employees were able to move to larger places, he added.
“The future is bright as Little America, with a lot of options ahead of us,” he said. “The travel center here is the biggest and nicest (travelers) will find anywhere across Wyoming. I think people should stop in and see all of the new things we have done, the big new playground, which is significantly bigger than it was before.”
The historic billboard signs that used to be in the restaurant have been relocated to new homes throughout the business site.
Most important of all, perhaps, the penguin has a new and more visible home. It now resides in the travel center, where the dollar ice cream cones the business has become known for are also still available.
“The penguin is actually seen by many more people now than it was before,” Riggs said. “All that will continue and remain, and we will only get bigger and stronger.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
