A PYRAMID ON THE PRAIRIE
I was reading the newspaper recently and I learned something. Did you know that between Laramie and Cheyenne, just off of I80 is a pyramid on the prairie? WOW Wyoming has it all doesn’t it? The Ames Monument was completed in 1882 at a cost of $65,000. The 60-foot high granite pyramid built by the Union Pacific Railroad Company stands on the highest elevation of the original transcontinental route. You can find it in the nearby plains in the ghost town of Sherman. American Indians once said playful spirits flitted amongst the balancing rocks of Vedauwoo. Viewed from atop Turtle Rock, the Ames Monument looks like a pinhead on the blond landscape with the smoky blue spread of the Rocky Mountains to the south and the Snowies off to the west.
The state considers the monument that lays south of Vedauwoo and Interstate 80 a postcard stop. Those who get curious after spying the brown sign drive up the long gravel road, park, get out, snap a photograph and point the car back to the highway. On most days, the wind pushes hard, making picnicking unpleasant.
Marking the highest point on the railroad, it was something for travelers passing through Sherman to look at. So people quickly forgot it when the town died after the railroad's board of directors was driven away in bankruptcy and its new leader relocated the track.
It could be Wyoming’s monument to the Gilded Age. In 1983, the Union Pacific donated it to the state of Wyoming, but today, the state does little to promote it. But if the Legislature approves a bill early next year, that could change.
"It's an absolute gem that we need to figure out how to do more with," said Todd Thibodeau, a planning consultant for the Department of State Parks and Historic Sites. "I don't know if there's anything like it in the whole country, to be honest with you." If funding is approved, the site will remain a postcard stop, but visitors will be able to hear the story of the great railroad that transformed the West, the two brothers who built it and the scandal that brought them down.
Hopefully the funding will be available and we won’t lose this unusual piece of history.
The state considers the monument that lays south of Vedauwoo and Interstate 80 a postcard stop. Those who get curious after spying the brown sign drive up the long gravel road, park, get out, snap a photograph and point the car back to the highway. On most days, the wind pushes hard, making picnicking unpleasant.
Marking the highest point on the railroad, it was something for travelers passing through Sherman to look at. So people quickly forgot it when the town died after the railroad's board of directors was driven away in bankruptcy and its new leader relocated the track.
It could be Wyoming’s monument to the Gilded Age. In 1983, the Union Pacific donated it to the state of Wyoming, but today, the state does little to promote it. But if the Legislature approves a bill early next year, that could change.
"It's an absolute gem that we need to figure out how to do more with," said Todd Thibodeau, a planning consultant for the Department of State Parks and Historic Sites. "I don't know if there's anything like it in the whole country, to be honest with you." If funding is approved, the site will remain a postcard stop, but visitors will be able to hear the story of the great railroad that transformed the West, the two brothers who built it and the scandal that brought them down.
Hopefully the funding will be available and we won’t lose this unusual piece of history.
posted by Connie Webb at 2:33 PM
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