DUBOIS — When Marion Taylor talks about America, there’s a little catch in her voice that she just can’t help any more than she can help how her eyes start misting over.
That was doubly true Saturday on a flag-lined main street in a tiny Wyoming mountain town, where thousands gathered to celebrate America’s 250th birthday by watching one of the nation’s most unique parades.
Each year, Dubois fields something few towns or cities of any size could manage — a parade of roughly two dozen military tanks and other vehicles, hand-picked by National Museum of Military Vehicles founder Dan Starks to tell a sweeping story of American freedom.
“This means something to me because I wasn’t a natural born U.S. citizen,” Taylor told Cowboy State Daily. “I immigrated from Canada as a child and we were so — I can almost cry, thinking about it.”
The memory that came flooding back was a much smaller, quieter parade when she was being sworn in as a U.S. citizen at 19 years old.
“I was living in Missouri back then, and we went to St. Louis to the big courthouse,” she said.
Taylor said she remembers Wold War veterans at the courthouse as a color guard for the ceremony.
Taylor’s eyes light up when she talks about how Dubois celebrates the Fourth of July.
“Last year we had 3,000 people here winding the streets for the parade,” she said. “And this year, I think it’ll be the same, or maybe more. Everybody wants to come to the Dubois parade because we have the military vehicles.
"It’s the most unique parade in America.”
That uniqueness doesn’t come without logistical headaches. Shutting down a state highway, even for a short time, takes serious coordination with the Wyoming Department of Transportation.
“They give us a set amount of time to close the road and get the parade through,” she said. “But we still get it done.”
Last year, Mother Nature stepped in with her own deadline, splashing onlookers with a sudden storm that came blowing down the mountain.
“The wind was blowing dirt in our eyes and taking people’s hats and chairs and everything,” she said.
People came back anyway, she added with a proud smile.
It’s the tanks, she acknowledges. They are just irresistible.
Each tank or military vehicle offers a different slice of American history, spanning an 80-year period. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Each tank or military vehicle offers a different slice of American history, spanning an 80-year period. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Each tank or military vehicle offers a different slice of American history, spanning an 80-year period. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Each tank or military vehicle offers a different slice of American history, spanning an 80-year period. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
A Rolling History Lesson
For the crowd lining both sides of U.S. Highway 26 through Dubois, also known as Ramshorn Highway, the tank parade is pure spectacle — and they love it.
The roar of the engines rumbling down the streets and echoing off the Wind River Mountains as they belch diesel smoke is what it’s all about.
For Starks, though, the spectacle is actually a carefully chosen curation of American military history.
“On the lineup of vehicles, the first thing I like to have is an array,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “And each year I like to include vehicles that people haven’t seen before.”
Among this year’s standouts was an M110 self-propelled Howitzer, a hulking piece of bristling Cold War history to send rolling down the street.
“It’s the biggest howitzer, the largest diameter howitzer,” Starks said. “They’re firing the largest shell of any howitzer in the U.S. military inventory, and it was capable of firing a nuclear projectile.
"So, that’s pretty cool.”
Not all the vehicles are about shock and awe.
Starks wants the convoy to tell a coherent story, one that teases people and encourages them to want to learn more.
This year’s biggest teaser was a World War II halftrack named Krystyna, with a special story pulled from the shadow world of espionage.
Krystyna was “a daring Polish aristocrat,” Starks said.
“She was Winston Churchill’s favorite World War II spy,” he said. “This halftrack was restored over in Europe by a group that had particular connections with the Polish military and knew the story of this Polish spy … and decided to name this halftrack after her.”
Dubois has but one hour for its big military tank parade. It’s an hour that turns the pages of history, with vehicles normally only seen behind museum ropes.
Bringing them out to an American main street in a small town like Dubois is something Starks believes happens nowhere else in the country.
“It’s not that nobody else has a military vehicle in a parade,” he said. “I’m sure there are plenty of military vehicles here and there, but nothing like this.”
It’s the depth and breadth of those military vehicles, spanning 80 years of history, that’s unmatched.
“I haven’t verified it, but I’ve been around a long time and I’ve worked with lots and lots of people,” he said. “And I consistently hear nobody else does this.”
Matt Burrell found this flag online when he was looking for something to commemorate this year's Fourth of July. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Steve Burgess, Dubois, offered flags and pinwheels, as well as mints, to people gathered in Dubois for its Fourth of July parade. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
A huge flag was hoisted up on a crane over the streets of Dubois on Saturday, where a crowd of thousands awaited the tiny mountain town's signature military tank parade. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
The parade begins in Dubois, where thousands gathered to celebrate America. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Big Flag For Big Birthday
The people who come to watch Dubois Fourth of July tank parade are just as varied as the military convoy itself.
One family from Riverton, for example, stood out from the crowd for the unusual flag they were waving around.
It was not just large, but also proclaimed America 250.
Matt Burrell found the flag when he was searching around online for something special to mark the occasion.
“I didn’t know what yet, but then I saw that right off the bat on Amazon,” he said. “And I said, ‘That’s it.’”
Burrell showed up in Dubois last year on a whim with his two young children. This year, it was not just a plan, but a full-blown getaway.
They stayed in the KOA campground, which impressed them with its indoor swimming pool, as well as activities like gold mining for the kids.
“You buy a bag of dirt and you can run it through the water and do the whole process,” he said with a chuckle. “I don’t know if you ever find anything like gold.”
But fun was the real gold he was looking for.
Not Too Sick For America 250
Not everyone in the crowd was feeling their best.
A woman from Casper admitted she’d been sick for two weeks and was still on a mostly “bland cracker diet.”
The thought of staying home for America’s 250th, though, was unimaginable.
“I’m old enough that I can remember the 200th anniversary in 1976 and how special it was and how lucky I felt, even back then, at a child’s age, just to celebrate,” she said. “And here we are again.
"I know America’s not perfect. I know we have our problems. But it’s still the absolute best place in the world. And Wyoming is the only place I ever want to live.”
Most years, she and her family go to Cody’s famous Stampede Parade for the Fourth of July, but this year they made a deliberate pivot to Dubois to see the tanks.
“We wanted to experience the tanks and the military display, honestly,” she said. “Dubois is absolutely just outstanding. So beautiful.”
Each tank or military vehicle offers a different slice of American history, spanning an 80-year period. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Each tank or military vehicle offers a different slice of American history, spanning an 80-year period. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Before the parade begins, the tanks in the parade are staged at Dan Starks' restoration shop. People are invited to climb in the tanks and can even get free rides in a tank. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
A Table Of Flags And Big Ideas
On one corner of main street Dubois, a man named Steve Burgess offered a simple card table draped in red, white, and blue and piled with free flags, whirligigs, and mints.
“I love this country,” he told Cowboy State Daily, gesturing to the table. “This country has been good to me and my family, and I like to celebrate along with everybody else and give out flags and whirlybirds and mints and just enjoy the day.”
This was the third year Burgess offered patriotic accessories set out on what looked like a handmade, crocheted tablecloth.
“I did not make it,” he admitted. “I bought it at the Op Shop — Opportunity Shop. St. Thomas Episcopal Church runs it.”
Burgess had gone there specifically to find a tablecloth, but wasn’t expecting to find something quite so perfect.
America’s 250th is special to Burgess because the miracle still persists, despite all the tensions and challenges.
“We’ve got a great country in spite of some of the differences we share,” he said. “Long story short, it’s the greatest country in the world and it’s survived 250 years. History says our nation should not be here, that it should have run its course in about 200 years.
“Well, we’re 50 years over what the expectancy is throughout history. So that’s a win, and it means that a lot of people sacrificed for the freedom that we enjoy to this day, and I do not take that lightly.”
People From All Walks Coming Together
For Kevin and Josh Gentile of Casper — father and son, Navy and Marine Corps service, respectively — America’s 250th birthday is something they feel deeply.
“Both of us have served our country,” Kevin said. “He did four years in the Marine Corps, and I did four years in the Navy. I felt it was important to serve my country if I’m going to enjoy its freedoms.”
Kevin remembers America’s 200th birthday in 1976, and seeing another one with his son is beyond special.
The National Museum of Military Vehicles, meanwhile, is “mind-boggling.”
“The freedom, the country … this is the greatest country in the world, as far as I’m concerned,” Kevin said. “And this (parade) is just a great event to celebrate that.”
Kevin loved what he saw in Dubois — people from all walks of life coming together.
“You hear about all the controversies that are going on,” he said. “But here we are, and people are happy, people are friendly. It’s a really great thing. It makes you feel good to be here.”
(Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
A patriotically dressed musical group serenaded people in Dubois walking up and down the Main Street while waiting for the parade to begin. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
The 'Genius' Of America
For Taylor, who has watched both America 200 and now America 250, the real strength she sees in the country isn’t that everyone agrees all the time. It’s that they don’t, and yet still find ways to work together.
“If you love this country, you’re going to come together,” she said. “I used to work for a lady who was very left, and we were great friends.”
Taylor’s friend made great homemade sourdough bread, while Taylor made all the fillings.
“We never got in each other’s way,” Taylor said. “I had her do the salads and she made the bread. I made the sandwiches, and the special, and I baked the desserts.
"We got along so well, and we were different political realms completely. I was right, she was left, but we didn’t care. We’re still friends.”
Her takeaway from that as an American is simple.
“You don’t have to get mad at people because they’re a different affiliation,” she said. “Just agree to disagree, that’s it.”
Disagreement Built America
Disagreement, Starks said, is part of what built the country that America is now.
Though today, the Founding Fathers are often referred to as though they were of one mind and one body, the truth is they were men who had vehement disagreements with each other over a range of divisive issues, from slavery to federalism, he said.
Their “genius,” Starks said, was working together in spite of that and creating a new country where the principal remains all men are created equal.
“People think, ‘Oh the country is going to hell because look at all the divisiveness,'” Starks said. “But that’s just typical. That’s what happens in a country like us, that has as many different people, with so many different life experiences, different backgrounds, different values.
"What we hold in common is the value of being Americans and the value of finding a way to thread the needle and get an acceptable path through all these differences. That’s what we’re celebrating today.”
And that’s what Starks saw on full display as he drove one of his own military vehicles in the small-town parade that shuts down a state highway every year so history and freedom can roll down a main street in America and celebrate everything that makes it great.
It’s a spectacle that tells a story in steel and diesel and thousands of human voices, like the immigrant who still cries when she remembers a World War color guard escort when she became a citizen.
Or a woman too sick to eat much more than crackers but who can’t miss America’s 250th birthday. Or the veterans who gathered to cheer tanks rolling down the streets of town for a country they loved enough to serve in the military.
This 250th Fourth of July, one thin slice of America in Dubois, Wyoming, offered a larger glimpse of a nation that can still come together and celebrate when it really matters.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
