CHEYENNE — Harvey Deselms’ first trip to Colorado Springs to plan the move of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s monumental bronze sculptures to Cheyenne made one thing clear: It’s going to take more than a moving truck.
The largest sculpture out front, the one he calls “The Champ,” will require a crane. There’s inscribed marble around its base to contend with, and all of the outdoor bronzes will also have to come off their pedestals before making the trip north.
“It’s going to be a lot of manual labor,” Deselms told Cowboy State Daily.
He and Carey Hosterman have made an initial assessment of the collection, with another visit planned soon to work through more details.
They plan to bring the bronzes to Hosterman’s Cheyenne facility for repairs and renewed patinas before reinstalling them at the PRCA’s new home in the newly approved Hitching Post business district.
Moving the cowboy art is just one aspect of a monumental effort to move the PRCA's longtime headquarters 170 miles north along Interstate 25 to Wyoming's capital city, home of Cheyenne Frontier Days.
An Aggressive Timeline
Deselms’ road trip to the PRCA’s present home in Colorado is just one assignment of many in a behind-the-scenes effort that will turn a sheep pasture into an operating museum and headquarters by early 2029.
Wyoming has approved $15 million for the project, matching a $15 million commitment from Cheyenne LEADS to build out the campus.
Building such a campus is one challenge. Having the facilities ready to turn over to the PRCA by December 2028 is another.
“They’re going to have to do a site plan,” Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins told Cowboy State Daily. “They’re going to have to design the roads and the drainage and all of those types of things to city standards. So that’s left in front of them.”
Building designs and permits are still to come as well, he added.
“So there’s lots and lots of steps left,” he said. “And to do all that by the timeline that’s there, that is an aggressive timeline.”
That might be one reason why, when the Cheyenne City Council approved the Hitching Post business district’s zoning, land use, and annexation on Monday, it found itself approving both a preliminary and a final plat at the same time.
Collins said approving both at the same meeting isn’t something he’s seen often, but agreed it indicates just how many processes are underway right now.
LEADS Executive Director Betsey Hale said combining steps wherever possible is just one of the tactics her team is using to keep the PRCA project on its aggressive schedule.
“Some people would say, ‘You got a lot of plates in the air,’” Hale told Cowboy State Daily. “I got a lot of plates, and a lot of silverware, and a lot of cups and glasses, and everything’s in the air. It ain’t just the plates.”
Reassuring for Hale is that all of the pieces are part of a matched set.
“It all slots in together, and it looks nice,” she said.
Everything All At Once
Behind that “matching” set are nearly 40 consultants working on everything from civil engineering and planning to legal matters, accounting and finance.
Volunteers serve on design and oversight committees. Meetings sometimes happen three times a week. And there is daily communication between LEADS and PRCA.
Efforts like those by Deselms and Hosterman are taking place across many different sectors, all of which must come together to meet the ambitious December 2028 deadline.
“There’s progress every single day on the project,” Hale said. “There’s communication that’s always happening every day.”
Some of the biggest milestones are already in the rearview mirror, she added.
“We finally have an approved design,” Hale said. “The Architecture and Construction Committee, which represents both LEADS and the PRCA, last week approved a design, and we’ve hired the contractor. FCI has been awarded the contract.”
Clearing the zoning, annexation, and land-use plan amendment Monday was the last big hurdle for pre-development work, Hale added.
“Now all we need to do is just get out there, break ground for the road, get the infrastructure, the sewer and the water started,” she said. “The city has approved the road design, so we’re really excited about that, and the approval of the sixth penny was a big win for the Hitching Post district to have that funding for infrastructure.”
Voters approved that sixth penny in August.
What’s Next
The next phase will put that simultaneous approach to work on the ground.
MOA Architects out of Casper is handling design work and FCI will handle construction. With an overall design approved, the next stage is to prepare construction documents.
LEADS still must put the road, sewer and water construction package out to bid, but Hale said she’s expecting that road work could start as early as this year.
An initial haul road will provide construction access while crews develop permanent infrastructure and work advances on the PRCA buildings, Hale said.
Some road work can continue through winter, she added. Crews can prepare the infrastructure and put down gravel then wait until spring to lay asphalt.
Asked how much room the schedule allows for weather, Hale said the team has ways to make up time, including adjusting crew size once the construction season opens again.
“There’s also so much we can do even in a pretty busy winter,” she added.
Getting Ready For Visitors
While the construction team prepares the campus, tourism officials are working to construct a different kind of infrastructure.
International travelers and motor-coach groups plan their trips 18 to 24 months ahead, Visit Cheyenne’s Jim Walter told Cowboy State Daily. That means conversations with those markets need to begin now — well before the museum’s construction has even begun.
The surrounding Hitching Post District won’t be fully built when the PRCA arrives, he added. So Visit Cheyenne must also prepare to get those visitors into downtown, existing restaurants, and other local businesses.
“From our standpoint, the Visit Cheyenne board will have an in-depth discussion about all this at our December board meeting,” Walter said. “We’ll start to lay out a strategy for how Visit Cheyenne is going to help the community capitalize on this influx of tourists and the opportunity that this whole project is going to bring.”
Western District Beyond The Museum
Offers of help are also coming in from all over the state, Hale added, as are ideas to fill up the 780-acre Hitching Post district.
“Just having the support of the city council, the county commissioners, the state Legislature, the governor’s office, all of the elected officials — I mean we’re still getting folks saying, ‘What can we do? How can we help?’” she said. “It’s exciting.”
She’s particularly excited about all the ideas pouring into the Facebook page set up to collect thoughts from people across the state and beyond. Some of the ideas already on the drawing boards are an indoor arena, hotel and convention facilities, western retail and a “mare” motel.
“We want everybody to participate,” she said. “We want everyone in Wyoming to give us their ideas. I’d rather have a big list and cut it back than not have any ideas.”
Now’s the time to dream big, Hale added. The PRCA wants to see that the Hitching Post District is developing in the right direction as it prepares its move.
“The PRCA has made it very clear what they would like to see in the park,” Hale said. “Because they’re moving their fans, their folks, school kids. They’re going to move their employees there. They want to make sure everything is going to be celebrating and really feed the entire campus.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
