“Ambitious” might be the only word big enough to describe Wyoming’s birthday party for America’s 250th.
Instead of a single day of fireworks and fanfare, the Cowboy State is building monuments, commissioning new music, and mapping out trail rides that will outlast the holiday itself.
This year’s Fourth of July is less one-off party and more permanent invitation to explore the Cowboy State’s place in the American story, from one corner of Wyoming to the next.
From Buffalo to Newcastle, Cody, Dubois, Evanston, Jackson, Gillette, Casper, Cheyenne and more, communities are finding wildly different ways to extend that invitation and have fun doing so.
Runners will wolf down hot dogs on every lap of a 1.776K in Buffalo, for example, while in Cody people can raise a beer stein to toast America with an America 250 Pale Ale. In Newcastle, crowds will gather at the Weston County Courthouse steps to hear President Teddy Roosevelt’s 1903 speech brought to life again.
In Cheyenne, concertgoers will hear a symphony orchestra piece written just for Wyoming by Hollywood composer Jeff Lippencott, timed to a fireworks display over the Capitol’s golden dome.
Just down the street, four bronze panels have just been installed to tell the state’s history for at least the next millennium.
Two C-130 jets from the Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Airlift Wing will take to the skies Saturday morning, each going in a different direction. They’ll pass over 16 communities at roughly 1,000 feet and 200 knots for a Fourth of July salute before reconvening in the middle and roaring back into Cheyenne at 1 p.m. for a Capitol flyover.
In Dubois, the usual tank parade that draws thousands to this tiny mountain town is on, but it will be preceded Friday with some live vehicle demolitions and firepower demonstrations at the National Museum of Military Vehicles — a noisy day any true tank fan should adore.
We’re All Americans
Not all of the plans are noisy.
New Mexico transplant Khristin Kaske has come up with her own idea for Cheyenne’s celebration.
She’s repurposed an old archway once used for her wedding into a red, white and blue selfie station for America’s 250th and put the word out: “Hey, ya’ll come!”
“I love to craft, so the decorating corner is just fun,” she told Cowboy State Daily.
The idea started in November with a fall setup followed by Thanksgiving and Christmas. Kaske enjoyed it so much, she took herself to Hobby Lobby for its big after-Christmas sale and stocked up on decorations for every season.
“Their Christmas is all different colors,” she said. “So I could get stuff for any upcoming holiday.”
She also watches for cool stuff from thrift stores and yard sales, as well as cruising craft-store aisles for clearance items.
So far she’s done Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day and now, America’s 250th. Next up will be a selfie booth for Cheyenne Frontier Days.
Kaske isn’t home much in the daytime, but she knows the selfie booth is popular.
“I see lots of footprints out there,” she said. “And when I’m home, I do see people coming over and taking pictures.”
She’s put up a shepherd’s hook with doggy bags so people can bring pets — and so far, her visitors have all been considerate guests, cleaning up after their pets and helping to take care of this free resource.
That warms her heart, especially for the Fourth, because this is a time when she feels, no matter how crazy, we need to remember that we’re all Americans first, second, and last.
“We still have a lot to be thankful for in this country,” she said. “Doing things just like this, for example. Being able to have the freedom to put up decorations and expressions. I think it’s important to hang onto the reality that we still have a lot of freedoms.”
Echoes In Bronze
A similar sentiment has inspired Wyoming’s latest bronze installation, which will be the 99th in Cheyenne’s Capitol Avenue Bronze series.
Four new bronze panels will be placed on the corner of Capitol and 22nd Street, each telling a different chapter of Wyoming’s place in America’s 250 years, according to Cheyenne and Laramie County America 250 Chairman Nathaniel Trelease.
“The challenge was that Wyoming didn’t exist in 1776,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “So what we decided to do was take America’s founding principles and reflect how they echo in Wyoming history.”
That’s where the installation’s name, "Echoes: Wyoming at America 250", comes from.
The first panel depicts Wyoming as it was at America’s birth, 250 years ago, with all manner of wildlife hiding in a forest scene. A moose turns its head toward a wolf, which appears to be eating something, while deer scamper and play in a dreamy, far-distant background. There are beavers and birds and more — but it will take considerable time and study to find them all.
Another panel traces Native American trade routes and the great overland trails that funneled settlers west through Wyoming. A third focuses on the state’s economic development. Mines are started and railroad tracks laid, even as explorers such as Lewis and Clark came to map out the newly added western territories.
The fourth panel highlights Wyoming’s trailblazing role in women’s suffrage and early civil rights as the first state in the union to allow women to vote.
In it, Judge Esther Hobart Morris hands a flag with 44 stars to Wyoming Gov. Francis E. Warren, while in the center, Wyoming’s soon-to-be first female Wyoming governor Nellie Tayloe Ross watches women ascend steps to cast their votes. Louisa Swain, the first woman to vote in Wyoming, is depicted casting her ballot, along with a handful of other women lining up right behind her.
Ross, Warren and Swain are all among bronze statues in the Capitol Avenue Bronze project, Trelease said. And that’s part of what the bronze panels aim to accomplish — tying together the many disparate pieces of Wyoming history scattered along the avenue for one coherent story of how Wyoming has come to matter so much to a country that began its life long before the territory was a state.
It’s a story that, unlike fireworks and parades, won’t fade with the sunset. It will last at a thousand years or more, Trelease said.
“This is leaving a visual footprint of where we were in 2026 for the Jubilees that will come in 50 years, 100 years, 150 years,” Trelease said.
250 Years In 76 Objects
While the bronzes will give visitors a history they can see and touch, American Heritage Center’s Paul Flesher is working on a version that people can hold in their hands.
The book, tentatively titled, “Wyoming’s History in 76 Object”, will use photographs of carefully chosen artifacts to tell the state’s history. Some of the artifacts are small. A coal mine whistle, for example, and a battered cowboy hat.
Others are large. Historic landmarks such as Devils Tower, for example, or the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s old Yellowstone supercomputer.
“We’ll talk about buffalo and horses and cattle and sheep,” Flesher said. “And we’ll hit the railroad, the transcontinental railroad, and we’ll talk about the oldest buildings in the state.”
Each object chosen for the book comes with a 400-word essay, giving just a thumbnail sketch of its history.
“We couldn’t possibly include everything,” Flesher said. “So the question became, what objects best capture the role Wyoming has played in America’s history?”
And which items serve as the best invitation to explore and find out more. The book will debut as an e-book sometime in July, with a print edition to follow.
“The e-book will allow us to continue to make this available for years to come, even after we sell all of the printed copies,” Flesher said.
A New Happy Trail
Just as the bronzes and book are meant to last, so, too, the “American Patriot Hymn,” written by Hollywood composer Jeff Lippencott especially for Wyoming.
The three-movement work weaves narration from John Quincy Adams as well as portions of a poem attributed to Samuel Adams into a sweeping orchestral score meant to capture the grand sweep of Wyoming history.
Lippencott, who lives in Alpine, credits Wyoming’s wide-open spaces for helping inspire his symphonic work, including Grand Teton Suite and Pasturelands.
Even some of the state’s most adventurous America 250 plans are designed to stick around, such as the four-day 250 Trail Ride, which began in Evanston and follows a 500-mile, off-road route to Cheyenne, arriving just in time for the Fourth of July festivities.
Organizers have told Cowboy State Daily that the trail will become official with this ride, and will be available for future trailblazers who want to experience Wyoming in a unique way.
Taken together — the bronzes, the book, the music, and even the new trail — it all says the same thing. Wyoming doesn’t just want to throw a 250th birthday bash.
It wants to leave footprints that will still be visible when the next big anniversaries roll around.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
