The Beaver Creek Ranch represents the twentieth-century sheep raising industry in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. It was continually occupied from 1916 through 1994 and represents the typical sheep raising practices of the times, including transhumance, the seasonal cycle of trailing sheep to high mountain pastures in the summer and back to lower elevations in the winter. Brothers Jesse and Alvin Schoonover, raising sheep on neighboring ranches, were among the most successful stockmen in Johnson County and the Powder River Basin. The name Beaver Creek is the historic name of the ranch and served to differentiate it from Alvin Schoonover’s neighboring ranch on the Powder River. From 1951 to 1994, the ranch was owned by the Harriet family; Simon Harriet was a Basque sheepherder and represents the second phase of the ranch’s history. During the Harriets’ tenure, small numbers of cattle were also raised, but the ranch was always predominantly a sheep raising operation and at times led Johnson County in the size of its flocks. The ranch complex consists of a grouping of residence-related and agriculture-related buildings, all constructed between 1916 and the 1950s. The buildings are generally of modest wood frame construction, representing mass vernacular architecture (as opposed to architect-designed), typical of a Wyoming sheep ranch. The ranch complex also represents a typical ranching layout that includes a sheep shearing shed with numerous historic graffiti from ranch hands, and a series of fencelines and corrals for the management of livestock surrounding the buildings.

The Blue Gables Motel is eligible under Criteria A and C at the local level of significance. The roadside accomodation is located in Buffalo, where motor courts and motels were an important part of the local economy due to the town's location on U.S. Highway 16 (US 16), a route for recreational travelers across the Big Horn Mountains and to the national parks further west. It is therefore eligible under Criterion A in the areas of commerce and recreation/entertainment. The use of log cabins and "western design" as well as the eponymous name that referred to the gable-roofed cabins, makes the property an example of where architecture was used to capture the attention of the traveling public. For this reason, the property is also eligible under Criterion C for architecture. It is an excellent example of the cabin court expanded to provide the amentities of a more modern motel. The property conveys the early period of construction and the expanded motor court during the 1950s and 1960s and, more importantly, a roadside accommodation during the height of the post World War II travel boom.  Therefore the period of significance is from 1941 to 1967.  

The forty bridges in this thematic study are the best of their types which were still in use on the state and county road systems in Wyoming when the study was completed in 1982. Selected from a statewide survey of all functional vehicular trusses and arches using a specific evaluation criteria and methodology, most represent superlatives of their generic engineering types (i.e. truss configuration and connection types) while typifying bridgebuilding and transportation trends in the state. All were built in the first three decades of the twentieth century (1905-1935). Although bridges were put up during the earlier periods of overland wagon emigration, they had not begun to proliferate in the state of Wyoming until the early twentieth century with the emergence of the automobile as a principal form of transportation. All the listed bridges display a remarkable homogeneity of construction and operational histories. Generally, county-built trusses were contracted through competitive bidding among several Midwestern bridge erectors and built from standardized designs using prefabricated components. After creation of the Wyoming Highway Department in 1917, the role of the counties in truss bridge construction diminished. The later highway department bridges were typically designed from standard plans maintained by the department and built by local contractors from components fabricated in the same Midwestern foundries.

One feature that all steel truss bridges shared was their versatility. Quickly erected, they could also be dismantled and moved if necessary. Many county road bridges in Wyoming had begun service as railroad bridges, sold or given to the counties as obsolete structures. Similarly, early highway bridges which had become unsuitable to handle increasing volumes of traffic were sometimes replaced with new trusses, with the older bridges demoted to places along less traveled roads. After World War II, new trussbuilding was rare in Wyoming. Today trusses have been largely superseded by more sophisticated engineering designs and are seldom erected. The remaining highway and roadway truss bridges are remnants of past technologies, whose numbers are continually dwindling through attrition.

This thematic study includes twelve post offices owned and administered by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) throughout the State of Wyoming. These include the Basin, Greybull, Douglas, Lander, Torrington, Thermopolis, Buffalo, Kemmerer, Powell, Yellowstone, Evanston, and Newcastle Main Post Offices. The buildings represent a continuum of federally constructed post offices allocated to the state between the turn of the century and 1941. The buildings exhibit a variety of styles and sizes but maintain a common demeanor representative of the federal presence. All of the buildings were constructed from standardized plans developed from guidelines provided by the Office of the Supervising Architect in the Treasury Department. Variations in design styles reflect both the transition in the design philosophies of the Supervising Architect and the requirements developed in response to the Depression. These variations in design, as well as functions are also somewhat related to the communities in which they were placed and reflect the economic, political, and governmental context of those communities.

The Buffalo Main Street Historic District contains historically significant buildings primarily dating from 1900 to 1932. This one and a half block district extends diagonally along Main Street at the heart of the larger commercial area. It is divided midway in the block between Fetterman Street and Fort Street on the north. Clear Creek, originally the impetus for locating Buffalo at this site runs under Main Street just south of this boundary. Angus Street serves as the southern boundary. Buffalo's buildings are typical of other commercial structures constructed in Wyoming and the West during the same period, and are representative of the cattle industry's recovery from weather, political battles of the 1880s and 1890s, and the trend for growth experienced at the turn of the century. Facade details represent a simple stylistic approach to commercial design. Most of the buildings are constructed of brick, a few are stone, and some have been stuccoed. The buildings in the Buffalo Main Street Historic District represent a prosperous commercial area supported by the agricultural base of the upper Powder River Basin in northern Wyoming.

The site of Cantonment Reno is in the northeast quadrant of Wyoming, in Johnson County, and on the west bank of the Powder River about 25 miles east of the town of Kaycee. Today no structures remain of the cantonment that was important for a short period of two years during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. From 1876 to 1878 Cantonment Reno served the United States Army as a supply post in a campaign to force the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe from their last great hunting grounds. Close to the eastern foothills of the Big Horn Mountains and on the western fringe of the Powder River Basin, it was purposely located within those hunting grounds, along a major north-south line of transportation and communication called the Bozeman Trail.

Although no physical structures remain of the once expansive supply depot, numerous, shallow depressions in the ground are evidence of their former existence. It is known that over 40 major log structures were built at Cantonment Reno during just the first period of construction under the direction of Captain Edwin Pollock of the Ninth Infantry. Storehouses, a hospital, huts for officers and enlisted men, outbuildings, stables and corrals were built of logs hewn from cottonwood trees that grew in a belt along the bottomland of the Powder River. In the fall of 1877 a second period of construction was begun at the cantonment with the arrival of three companies of the Fifth Cavalry from the campaign field. New buildings completed by early December, 1877 included three barracks, three mess rooms, three large cavalry stables, one quartermaster's stable, an additional office, a new guard house, a corn building, and a carpenter's shop. At peak strength the post contained 358 men, a large garrison by Wyoming military post standards.

The ultimate dissatisfaction of Pollock and his troops with their earth-roofed huts caused the captain to request from his superiors a sawmill, along with permission to look for a good source of timber. This led to eventual abandonment of the post and establishment of what is today known as Fort McKinney, located on the Clear Fork. By July 15, 1878 most of Pollock's men had left the Powder River post for the site of the new post. The army had vacated Cantonment Reno by the end of 1878.

The Johnson County Library Building is situated on the northwest corner of the County Courthouse grounds. It was built in 1909 of native stone. It is a fine example of the Neoclassical style of architecture. On January 28, 1909, the local newspaper of Buffalo reported that Judge Parmalee had returned from visiting libraries in Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming. He said that Andrew Carnegie had agreed to provide $12,500 for erection of a library building in Buffalo, if the County would furnish the site and $1,250 a year for maintenance. Citizens of Johnson County agreed, and a portion of the Courthouse grounds was donated by the County Commissioners upon which to build the library.

The crossing at Crazy Woman Creek represented a significant juncture in traveling the Bozeman Trail. The flat terraced bottoms above the creek afforded a desirable campspot to emigrant travelers. The campspot also provided the scene for one of the more dramatic White-Indian encounters along the trail. During the morning of July 20, 1866 an escorted wagon party of five wagons, two ambulances and four mounts under the command of Lt. James H. Bradley were ambushed by a substantial number of Indians. Attacked while the train was midstream, the military party beat a hasty retreat to a defensible position on the creek bank. Forming a circle configuration the party repelled repeated attacks, including one nearly successful attempt to use a nearby ravine to infiltrate the wagon corral. They remained under attack until a party was able to escape and obtain water from the nearby creek. Revived by the water the besieged group was able to hold out until a unit of 100 infantry approaching from Fort Carrington (later Ft. Phil Kearny) forced the Indian attackers to retreat. Two soldiers were lost and most of the detachment suffered wounds.

In 1876 the Crazy Woman Creek campsite again became the focus of military operations along the Bozeman route. The campaign under the command of General George Cooke encamped at the creek during the third of three major drives up the trail during that year. In this final drive against the Northern Plains tribes Colonel Ranald Mackenzie and his party of scouts and soldiers departed the Crazy Woman Creek camp to attack and destroy the major Cheyenne encampment in the Bighorn Mountains.

The Dry Fork of the Powder River trends eastward just before its confluence with the main Power River drainage. In a gap between two prominent north-south trending ridges the Dry Fork tributary features a wide dispersal of trail ruts. Lying on both the north and south sides of the Dry Fork of the Powder River these trail ruts appear throughout the open flood plain of this tributary of the Powder River. Immediately adjacent to the trail ruts on the Dry Fork's northern side was the Powder River Station. On the ground evidence for this station is lacking, although its location has been verified through historic documentation. A grove of cottonwood trees mark the station's location on the river terrace.

The conflict between the United States army and certain tribes of High Plains Indians intensified during and after the Civil War, reaching a climax in 1887. In March, 1876 Colonel Joseph Reynolds fought Crazy Horse in an engagement on the Powder River with inconclusive results. That summer a standstill battle was fought between the same Indian leader and General George Crook at the Rosebud. The most famous engagement, however, was that between a combination of Indian forces and General George Custer, resulting in the annihilation of the latter at the Little Big Horn. Crook continued his campaign against the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho in the fall and winter of 1876, fighting the Battle of Slim Buttes in September. His strategy changed from one of open confrontation to one of seeking out bands of Indians in their winter camps. At that time of the year Indians did not normally seek warfare and were splintered into various bands as they prepared to supply themselves for the season. The mobility of the warrior was thus impaired by the presence of his family and possessions. The army objective was to attack an Indian village, capture their ponies and destroy their winter's supply of food and fuel, their tipis, weapons and utensils. With their subsistence and means of subsistence gone, the Indians would then have little choice except to surrender. Such was the plan behind the assault on a Northern Cheyenne village that took place in the Big Horn Mountains on November 25, 1876.

The Dull Knife battle is well-documented in a number of sources, one of the most interesting accounts being that of Captain John G. Bourke of the Third Cavalry. On a cold day in November, 1876 scouts sent out by General Crook discovered a band of about 1400 Cheyenne under chiefs Dull Knife and Little Wolf camped in the upper valley of the Red Fork, one of the headwater streams of the Powder River.

The year 1876 saw intensive Indian campaigns extended by the army across the whole Northern Plains region. Troops came from posts in the Department of the Platte and swept most of the hostile Sioux and Cheyenne Indians out of present Wyoming, and participated in major engagements in southern Montana as well. By the time the campaigns drew to a seasonal halt in January of 1877, plans were under way for a series of military posts to provide bases from which the troops could prevent the Indians reoccupying their old hunting grounds. One of these posts was located on the west bank of Powder River, opposite the mouth of Dry Fork, and called at first, ''Cantonment Reno.'' Soon renamed ''Fort McKinney'' in honor of Lt. J. A. McKinney (killed in the battle with the Cheyenne on Red Fork of Powder River, November 25, 1876), this post was occupied through the spring of 1878. After considerable study, it was abandoned because of poor water, wood and forage supplies nearby, and the name transferred along with the troops to a new site on a broad terrace above Clear Fork of Powder River where that stream exits form the Big Horn Mountains. The new site was occupied and construction activities under way in July of 1878. The post at peak of development consisted of barracks for seven companies of troops, at least 14 structures for officer quarters, stables, warehouses, laundress quarters, a hospital, bakery, offices, and auxiliary structures.

Troops from Fort McKinney and neighboring posts were responsible for keeping the lately-hostile Sioux and Cheyenne from reverting to their old way of life in a vast region. They were supposed to keep the friendly Crows and Shoshoni from resuming their intermittent warfare with tribal enemies, and to prevent the Arapahoe from becoming embroiled with settlers and other tribes while officials pondered their disposition. They did this work well. They guarded communication lines that included the ''Rock Creek Stage Line'' which provided mail, passenger and express service from Rock Creek on the UPRR to Terry's Landing on the Yellowstone. They built and maintained the first telegraph line into the Powder River country.

Fort Phil Kearny, near the present day town of Story, Wyoming, was established July 15, 1866 as the headquarters for the Mountain District, Department of the Platte, under the command of Colonel Henry B. Carrington to protect emigrants traveling the Bozeman Trail north to the gold fields of Montana. The fort was constructed at the eastern base of the Big Horn Mountains in the very heart of Sioux country. Among the many actions fought in the shadow of Fort Phil Kearny were the Fetterman Massacre in which Capt. William J. Fetterman and 80 men, pursuing a hostile party near the fort, were led into an ambush prepared by the Indians. No one in Fetterman's command survived the battle. In August 1867, on a small plain a few miles west of the Fort, the Wagon Box Fight occurred. A detail of 32 woodcutters and guards were attacked by a large force of warriors under Chief Red Cloud. Firing from within a corral of wagon boxes and using the recently issued breech loading rifle, they beat off successive charges until relief came from the Fort. Under the Fort Laramie treaty of 1868 all military posts along the Bozeman Trail were abandoned. The last troops left Fort Phil Kearny during the summer of 1868 and the post was burned to the ground by native forces.

Westward expansion began with renewed vigor at the close of the Civil War. The discovery of gold in southwestern Montana resulted in great numbers of emigrants, miners, and adventurers seeking a direct route to the diggings. From Fort Laramie on the North Platte River, parties heading for the Montana gold fields began to use a new trail that went north along the eastern base of the Big Horn mountains and then turned west to Virginia City. This route became known as the Bozeman Trail, named after John M. Bozeman who had guided a number of emigrant parties over it in 1863 and 1864. The new road cut directly through the heart of a region regarded by the Sioux as a sacred hunting grounds. Resenting the intrusion of the whites, the Indians began to wage a relentless war against any who ventured north of the Platte. Forced to provide protection for travelers, the government established, in direct contradiction to the wishes of the Indians, a chain of military forts along the Bozeman Trail.

During the summer of 1866, Colonel Henry B. Carrington of the 18th U. S. Infantry led a force of 700 men into the Powder River country to begin construction of the new posts. Carrington's part reached Fort Reno on June 28, 1866. Originally called Fort Connor, the post was located on a high plateau on the banks of the Powder River near the mouth of Dry Fork. Fort Connor had been established on August 14, 1865 by General Patrick Connor during the Powder River Expedition of that summer. November 11, 1865 the Fort's name was changed form Connor to Reno in honor of General Jesse L. Reno, killed September 14, 1862 at the Battle of South Mountain. The post was a crude affair with a warehouse and stables surrounded by a rough cottonwood log stockade and the quarters of both the officers and men were without protection. The buildings possessed earth covered roofs and dirt floors. Company C and D, 5th U. S. Volunteers, and Company A, Omaha Scouts, garrisoned the fort during the winter of 1865-66 but upon Carrington's arrival they were mustered out of the service and departed ''without a single regret''.

The two years that followed saw troops from Fort Reno engaging in the routine duties of garrison life interspersed with more exciting moments involving Indian warfare. The Fort never came under direct attack from the Indians but encounters with them occurred regularly throughout the area and along the trail to the north and south. The Indians frequently ran off stock, both civilian and military, harassed the emigrant trains, and killed a number of individuals who had wandered from the safety of their respective groups. Unlike Fort Phil Kearny, Fort Reno never gained widespread publicity, notoriety, or folklore fame. This was due in large part to the fact that troops from Fort Reno never participated in any major encounters. Fort Reno's role consisted primarily of insuring that the southern section of the Bozeman Trail was kept open and passable.

Throughout its existence Fort Reno experienced numerous additions, improvements and modifications in its physical layout. Connor's men first built a small stockade of cottonwood logs about 120 feet square. The eight to ten inch logs were set four feet deep in a trench leaving a wall about eight feet high. Inside the stockade was built a quartermaster's and commissary storehouse. Other buildings put up outside the stockade during the fall of 1865 included two barracks, two officers' quarters, a post hospital, shops, teamsters quarters, and two sutler's buildings. Under Carrington's command in 1866 a log stockade was placed around the unprotected garrison buildings complete with log bastions on the northwest and southeast corners. A sturdy adobe commander's quarters was also built during 1866. In 1867 Commander Van Voast relocated the entire west stockade line, tore down the old bastions, and built three new hexagonal blockhouses, a new square bastion, and relocated several of the gates. The construction of a guardhouse and additional warehouses rounded out the improvements. Apparently no further building was done at Fort Reno prior to abandonment in 1868. In accordance with the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, Fort Reno was abandoned in August of the same year. Shortly after the military left, the entire post was destroyed by fire. Bodies left in the post cemetery were later reinterred and placed at the Custer Battlefield National Cemetery during the 1880s. The grounds that comprise the Fort site have generally returned to a natural prairie sod cover.

Located in north central Wyoming 20 miles northwest of Buffalo nestled into the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains, the HF Bar Ranch is a working cattle/dude ranch complex consisting of 36 buildings predominately of rustic frame and log construction built primarily between 1898 and 1921. Wyoming state senator and U. S. congressman, Frank Horton, with the financial backing and capital of his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Chicago investment banker, Warren Gorrell and his wife Demia Gorrell, purchased the 1890s homestead in 1911. Warren and Demia Gorrell and their four children spent most of their summers at the HF Bar Ranch between 1911 and 1929. While the Gorrells continued to reside principally in Chicago, the Horton family lived year-round in Wyoming, as Frank Horton managed the day-to-day operations of the Ranch. Throughout this period, Warren and Demia Gorrell continued as the major stockholders, financial backers and supporters of the HF Bar. With the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Warren and Demia Gorrell sold their shares in the HF Bar Ranch, and associates of Frank Horton purchased them. The HF Bar Ranch is significant as an intact example of a working dude ranch in continuous use for nearly 100 years. It is one of the best remaining representatives of similar operations which flourished during peak years of the cattle ranching frontier, then turned to dude ranching in the face of economic difficulties. The ranch is associated with the state and locally significant tourist industry which brought wealthy easterners and Europeans to the West. Their influence subsequently enriched the social, intellectual, cultural and economic climate of the entire region.

The Holland House, constructed in 1883 along the town's main street by successful rancher William H. Holland, was one of the first brick residences built in Buffalo, Wyoming and is a good example of a late Victorian vernacular brick house. The house is significant for its association with the settlement of the town of Buffalo and because of its association with the lives of the Holland family who were active participants in local government during both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The forty bridges in this thematic study are the best of their types which were still in use on the state and county road systems in Wyoming when the study was completed in 1982. Selected from a statewide survey of all functional vehicular trusses and arches using a specific evaluation criteria and methodology, most represent superlatives of their generic engineering types (i.e. truss configuration and connection types) while typifying bridgebuilding and transportation trends in the state. All were built in the first three decades of the twentieth century (1905-1935). Although bridges were put up during the earlier periods of overland wagon emigration, they had not begun to proliferate in the state of Wyoming until the early twentieth century with the emergence of the automobile as a principal form of transportation. All the listed bridges display a remarkable homogeneity of construction and operational histories. Generally, county-built trusses were contracted through competitive bidding among several Midwestern bridge erectors and built from standardized designs using prefabricated components. After creation of the Wyoming Highway Department in 1917, the role of the counties in truss bridge construction diminished. The later highway department bridges were typically designed from standard plans maintained by the department and built by local contractors from components fabricated in the same Midwestern foundries.

One feature that all steel truss bridges shared was their versatility. Quickly erected, they could also be dismantled and moved if necessary. Many county road bridges in Wyoming had begun service as railroad bridges, sold or given to the counties as obsolete structures. Similarly, early highway bridges which had become unsuitable to handle increasing volumes of traffic were sometimes replaced with new trusses, with the older bridges demoted to places along less traveled roads. After World War II, new trussbuilding was rare in Wyoming. Today trusses have been largely superseded by more sophisticated engineering designs and are seldom erected. The remaining highway and roadway truss bridges are remnants of past technologies, whose numbers are continually dwindling through attrition.

The Jameson site (48JO2) is located in the eastern foothills of the southern Bighorn Mountains in Johnson County, Wyoming. The site sits along the Middle Fork of the Powder River where the river has cut a passage through the Red Wall – a long, northwest-to-southeast escarpment of red sandstone and shale (Burk and Thomas 1956; High and Picard 1967). This location is a passageway that divides the Red Wall and connects the Bighorn Mountains in the west to the Powder River Basin to the east. The Jameson site, therefore, is positioned in a natural travel corridor that humans have likely used throughout prehistory. Based on radiocarbon dates, the site was occupied at various times between the Middle Plains Archaic and Protohistoric periods. The site has been tested with recent investigations focusing on a hearth feature dating to the Late Plains Archaic period. Feature 1 is comprised of an intact ~55 cm diameter hearth with associated stone tools, bison bone (Bison bison), and thousands of pieces of chipped stone. Other artifacts found on site include a cache of sticks wrapped in cordage, a bark bundle, shell beads, chipped stone artifacts, and fire-cracked rock. The stick cache, hypothesized to be a set of gambling sticks, and bark bundle date to approximately 250 14C years BP. Incised rock art panels and at least one hand spray have also been identified within the site boundaries. The site is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion D based on intact cultural deposits and associated rock art and perishable items, all of which have the potential to address ongoing research questions.

The Johnson County Court House, constructed in 1884, is a good example of the Italianate style of architecture. Many of the early photographs of Buffalo, Wyoming, show the Johnson County Court House, a beautiful two-story red brick building, towering over ox teams on a muddy Main Street. This is one of the oldest structures standing in the state of Wyoming, was the sixth county courthouse to be built, and is the second oldest courthouse in Wyoming retaining its original character and still used as originally designed.

First ascending and then descending the hilly topography near Lake Desmet, a discernible set of trail ruts make up this segment of the Bozeman Trail. The downhill set of ruts, thought often faint, can be found on the down slope side of the hill overlooking Lake Desmet. This segment features parallel sets of ruts as well as a trough formed by the wagon traffic. The segment is 1.1 miles in length.

The cornerstone of the Methodist Episcopal Church, also known as the First United Methodist Church, was laid August 17, 1898, and placed within the stone were a Bible, a hymnal, a copy of the Church Discipline, several church papers, and some coins. The church was dedicated on May 28, 1899, having been built by Pastor E. J. Robinson and members of the congregation. The ornamental features and details of the exterior combine with an especially functional plan of the interior to provide beauty, comfort, and convenience for the worshipper. The interior of the church follows the Akron plan, which typifies many Methodist churches in the West. The emphasis in this plan, developed in Akron, Ohio, is on good acoustics, sight lines, and flexibility, along with the focus on the pulpit and communion table. The elevated platform for preaching is placed in the corner of the audience room, with the seating in circular pattern. The plan was originated and developed between 1879 and 1885 by George Washington Kramer, upon the suggestion of the father-in-law of Thomas A. Edison.