Centennial celebration of Wind River Canyon highway slated for Oct. 1

A ceremony to celebrate the 100th anniversary of highway transportation through Wind River Canyon is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 1.

The 10 a.m. ceremony will take place at the Lower Wind River Campground picnic shelter along the Wind River near the canyon highway tunnels. Anyone interested in Wind River Canyon is welcome to attend.

Following an opening prayer, attendees will hear a few words from Brooks Jordan, Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites and Trails district manager of Hyattville; Winslow Friday, Wind River Intertribal Council-DOT director of Ft. Washakie; Micheal Baker, Wyoming Transportation Commission commissioner of rural Thermopolis; Darin Westby, Wyoming Department of Transportation director of Cheyenne; and Jackie Dorothy, Wind River Canyon historian. Dorothy, her husband and son live in Wind River Canyon. Following Dorothy's talk, attendees will be invited to walk on to U.S. 20/Wyoming 789 to cut a ribbon symbolizing the beginning of the next 100 years of transportation in Wind River Canyon. A prayer will close the ceremony.

Motorists should expect a 10-minute delay about 10:20 a.m. Oct. 1 while the ribbon cutting ceremony occurs.

Construction of a highway through Wind River Canyon was an idea about 2015, an idea picked up by then-Wyoming Governor John Kendrick, who served in Wyoming's highest political office from 1915-1917.

"I believe that the canyon route is an entirely feasible one and that when the money for building it is available, it will become one of the best scenic routes in Wyoming," Kendrick said while he was Wyoming's governor.

Work began in June 1922 on the new Yellowstone Highway through Wind River Canyon (U.S. 20/Wyoming 789). The new highway route was chosen to replace the more challenging Birds Eye Pass route over the Owl Creek Mountains.

Construction of the highway through Wind River Canyon was completed two years later, over-budget. The completed highway was 12 miles long, and at the time, was the most expensive road project in America. The price: $750,000.

The first automobile passed over the new Yellowstone Highway in Wind River Canyon on Jan. 22, 1924. The official year-round opening of the highway happened in October 1924.