Where Am I To Go

Eyegore's Curiosities and Monster Museum in Cawker City, Kansas indulges curiosity as you discover their one-of-a-kind collection of peculiar gifts and oddities.

A reconstructed 1865 military post located at a major river crossing on the Oregon, Mormon Pioneer, California, Pony Express, and transcontinental telegraph trail corridor. Explore central Wyoming’s regional history museum, featuring exhibits on prehistoric peoples, Plains Indians, ranching, the energy industry, and the City of Casper as well as the western emigrant trails and frontier army.Fort Caspar Museum collects, preserves and exhibits materials related to the history of Fort Caspar, the City of Caspar, Natrona County, and central Wyoming.

Fort Caspar Museum

4001 Fort Caspar Rd

Casper, WY 82604

307-235-8462

In loving memory of Loren Alberts, whose heart and passion was to share the world and it's many wonders through his vision and voice, inspiring kindred spirits to seek the adventure of a wonder-filled journey.

Welcome to the National Historic Trails Center Foundation! We are a nonprofit organization and all exhibits are owned, maintained and upgraded by the foundation. Come see us today!

Our Mission - Promote and preserve the heritage surrounding the pathways to the West, and to foster appreciation, insight, and understanding.

Our Vision - Be dedicated to providing archival and educational programs, to increase public awareness of the historic trails, to enrich cultural lives of residents and visitors, and to encourage tourism.

The National Historic Trails Center Foundation represents the non-profit side in a Congressionally mandated partnership with the federal government through the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM owns this amazing facility and staffs the highly trained interpreters. The Foundation created and owns the world-class exhibits you find inside the Center!

The Foundation's role is to maintain these exhibits, updating and improving them as needed. These exhibits have seen many, visitors young and old. They have been touched by thousands of hands and enjoyed by guests from all over the world and especially by Wyoming school children!

It is the Foundation's mission to promote and preserve the heritage surrounding the pathways to the West and to foster appreciation, insight and understanding of the greatest voluntary human migration in the history of the world. Across the Mormon Pioneer, the Oregon, the California Goldrush and the Pony Express Trails, an estimated 500,000 American emigrants traveled seeking their various destinies.

We celebrate these historic trails aiming to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of tourists as well as the residents of our local community. The Foundation Board of the Directors and I hope you will bring your family to the Trails Center soon! We are thankful for your continued support of the Foundation and ask that you consider contributing financially to the legacy we are preserving. Your general donation and/or participation in our Write Your Name in History project provides for the future and protects the heritage of Wyoming history! If you would like to know more about having your name or the name of a loved one engraved upon our rock wall, please inquire at [email protected] or call at 307-265-8030.

In loving memory of Loren Alberts, whose heart and passion was to share the world and it's many wonders through his vision and voice, inspiring kindred spirits to seek the adventure of a wonder-filled journey.

We have been buying and selling antiquarian and out of print books since 1990. We have over 70,000 titles in stock in our open bookshop.

You may call or text any day to schedule an appointment or you may catch us by chance.
307-330-4127 or [email protected]

In loving memory of Loren Alberts, whose heart and passion was to share the world and it's many wonders through his vision and voice, inspiring kindred spirits to seek the adventure of a wonder-filled journey.

The Old West comes to life at the Hot Springs County Museum & Cultural Center!

Belly up to the original Hole In The Wall bar where outlaws from the Hole-In-The-Wall gang once sat, including the infamous Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid! Though spirits are no longer served to patrons, it is a great place to sit and imagine the sights, sounds and smells that once surrounded this icon from the past.

Walk through an old town setting where you can peer through the doors and windows of an old general store, doctor and dentist offices, a reconstructed jail, a newspaper and print shop, barber shop and much more.

Explore one of the largest arrowhead collection. Also in the collection is an original petroglyph carved by early Native Americans.

Do paleontology and geology strike your fancy? The museum also houses several prehistoric artifacts consisting of plant and animal fossils, as well as part of a leg bone from a wooly mammoth. If the geology of this region interests you, we have an amazing display of rocks and minerals from the area including a very large quartz geode.

This history of Hot Springs County would not be complete without honoring our veterans. We have cases full of artifacts from area soldiers who served in several conflicts over the years.

https://thermopolismuseum.com/podcasts

In loving memory of Loren Alberts, whose heart and passion was to share the world and it's many wonders through his vision and voice, inspiring kindred spirits to seek the adventure of a wonder-filled journey.

Charles Marion Russell (1864–1926) masterfully captured the art and soul of the American West as it was transforming before his eyes. While he fulfilled his dream of an authentic cowboy life in Montana, he was also gifting the world with an inspired visual record celebrating Indigenous culture, Western narratives, grand landscapes, and majestic wildlife scenes. While his art is considered historic, his spirit is timeless.

In loving memory of Loren Alberts, whose heart and passion was to share the world and it's many wonders through his vision and voice, inspiring kindred spirits to seek the adventure of a wonder-filled journey.

A Kansas City tradition since 1899, the American Royal is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose mission is to be the nation’s leader for food and agriculture education, events, and engagement. The American Royal provides opportunities for nearly half a million youth and adults from around the world to engage in high-quality events and experiences, including nationally competitive livestock shows, the world’s largest barbecue competition, regional and national equine shows, youth and professional rodeos, and elementary and secondary education outreach. Support from partners, members, and volunteers help the American Royal achieve its vision of a world where food and agriculture are celebrated, and all generations are committed to its future.

In loving memory of Loren Alberts, whose heart and passion was to share the world and it's many wonders through his vision and voice, inspiring kindred spirits to seek the adventure of a wonder-filled journey.

April 3, 1860: The first rider was to leave St. Joseph at 5:00 pm. However, the mail had been slowed up in Chicago for transfer to Hannibal, Missouri. A train was stripped down with no passenger cars at Hannibal. Once the mail arrived there, the train rolled across the state at a record speed to St. Joseph. It finally arrived around 7:00 pm and the mail was rushed to the stables where the first rider, Johnny Fry awaited. The mail was placed into the specially made mochilla saddle and at 7:15 pm a cannon was fired alerting everyone Fry was on his way to the river. Cheering crowds waived at Fry as he made his way through streets of St. Joseph. Once at the river, Fry boarded a ferry which took him and his horse Sylph across the river to Kansas where he rode at breakneck speeds for 90 miles before another rider took over. In Sacramento, at noon, the first rider, Harry Roff, took off with the eastbound mail.

In loving memory of Loren Alberts, whose heart and passion was to share the world and it's many wonders through his vision and voice, inspiring kindred spirits to seek the adventure of a wonder-filled journey.

In the late 1870's, non-Indian settlers of Forks Prairie came by way of rivers and trails from the Pacific and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, as the overland route from the east was nearly impenetrable forest.  Trails were the main means of travel for early settlers along the coast and in the interior Olympic Peninsula.  The life of a settler was tedious.  "Proving up" on their homestead claims was a primary goal since improvements were required within a specified number of years.  Hunting and fishing were often pursued in fall and winter months to supplement the homesteaders' gardens and livestock.  Hay, oats, grain, fruit and vegetables grew well on the prairie.  The first dairy cows were brought in by schooner in 1870 via Neah Bay by Luther Ford.

Though it was a center of commerce, growth came slowly to Forks.  A post office was established in 1884.  A newspaper was started in 1890, and the town was laid out in 1912 on a homestead - remaining barely a block of buildings into the 1920s.  Electricity came in 1923, and the first bank in 1930.  And, the town did not incorporate until August 7, 1945.

Before 1900, timber in the West End was mostly cleared by settlers and small-time loggers using ox teams.  Companies logged at Clallam Bay and Port Crescent on the strait in the 1870s.  Timber baron Michael Earles, later developer of the first Soleduck hot springs resort, set up booming logging camps at the turn of the century at Crescent Bay and went along the strait - and many settlers from Forks worked in these camps.  Merrill & Ring would begin to log in the Pysht River drainage northwest of Forks in 1916.  World War 1 and its urgent demand for airplane spruce brought the West End into focus for its stands of Sitka spruce among the largest in the Hoko River drainage north of Forks.  In 1918 the U.S. Army built 36 miles of railroad track from Port Angeles west to Lake Pleasant.  This staged large-scale logging in the West End.

Disasters proved an unlikely road to Forks' boom years in the 1970s, when the town earned its reputation as "Logging Capital of the World" - through the '21 Blow, the Great Forks Fire in 1951 and the Columbus Day Storm of 1962.  In the 1970's you could "make a couple of calls and have a good job" in the woods.  The town's population doubled to over 3,000 that decade from a remote collection of farming homesteads into a booming timber town.

Our museum offers a look into the rich history of homesteading, farming and logging in the Pacific Northwest, presented in a log cabin structure built by talented local volunteers and the High School Carpentry Class of 1989.  Come share this rich history with us and help to preserve the memory of those who have gone before us.

In loving memory of Loren Alberts, whose heart and passion was to share the world and it's many wonders through his vision and voice, inspiring kindred spirits to seek the adventure of a wonder-filled journey.