The most consequential vote in Wyoming history?

How a 1921 bond election changed the Big Horn Basin forever

May 10, 1921 may be one of the most important dates in Wyoming history. On that day, voters approved a statewide road bond that would bring tens of millions of dollars to build a modern highway system. Every county in the state passed the measure by a margin of more than three to one.

It was a bold decision, and not just by politicians or business leaders. It was farmers, ranchers, factory workers, and schoolteachers who showed up at the polls. They voted to improve daily life, to move goods to market, to get children to school more safely, and to bring outside dollars into their communities. More than 100 years later, the results are still visible.

The 1921 “Good Roads” bond helps explain why Cody now has more than 1,500 hotel rooms, why the Big Horn Mountains offer thousands of campsites, and why communities like Greybull continue investing in tourism, including projects like a new multi-million dollar dinosaur museum.

It also brought more complicated changes. In 1921, towns like Frannie, Gebo, Ralston, and Manderson supported their own grocery stores, auto shops, clothing stores, and doctor’s offices. Today, most of those are gone. At the time, nearly 100 elementary schools operated across the Big Horn Basin. Today, fewer than 20 remain.

The push for roads in 1921 was about more than convenience. It was about survival and opportunity. For much of Wyoming, especially in the Big Horn Basin, the goal was clear: bring travelers and their dollars into the state and into Yellowstone.

With the state flush with funds and the goal clear, every Wyoming community wanted a piece of the action and created a new set of serious questions.

If you’re building a road west through the steep canyons of the Big Horn Mountains from Dayton, which route do you choose? Do you carve a path through the rugged Shell Canyon, or take an equally difficult route through Kane and on to Lovell? And do you also take on the challenge of building a road from Buffalo to Ten Sleep, facing the same obstacles of weather, cliffs, and unforgiving terrain?

How do you get tourists from the fast-growing states of Utah, Nevada, and California into Yellowstone? Do you follow the winding roads over the Owl Creek Mountains, or do you blast a route through the Wind River Canyon, bringing them past Thermopolis and its famous hot springs on the way to Cody?

And most importantly, do you combine all the resources of the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Wyoming Highway Department to build an unforgettable two-lane highway from Cody into Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin?

The answer to these questions became: “all of the above.” By 1924, workers from across Wyoming and around the world were involved in massive public works projects, the kind we rarely think about today as we drive past them at 60 miles per hour.

In the Big Horn Mountains, the state highway department surveyed every possible route and, in many ways, tried to keep everyone happy. With only about 120 days of workable weather each year, multiple crews pushed forward at the same time.

While the road from Dayton to Burgess Junction was under construction, from the east, massive switchback projects climbed from the west through Shell Canyon and from Kane, all working toward a meeting point at the top.

From Ten Sleep to Buffalo, communities rallied behind the effort. “Good Roads” dances raised money, and volunteers rode buses into the mountains to spend long days shoveling deep snow by hand to get the projects started sooner. Slowly, mile by mile, routes through the narrow canyons began to take shape.

Dynamite was the name of the game as skilled workers blasted a highway into the cliffs along the east side of the Wind River, carving a perilous route that, 100 years later, still sheds rock and stirs debate about safety and permanence.

And finally, with all those roads pointing to Cody, it all came down to the most important road of all, a safe, permanent highway connecting Cody to the Yellowstone entrance, over Sylvan Pass and into the heart of the park.

A route envisioned by Buffalo Bill, it required a remarkable feat of engineering to carry cars and travelers through a valley so narrow and steep that unique corkscrew bridges were built. In the end, it allowed a schoolteacher from Florida or a steelworker from Pittsburgh to drive a Model T west and experience the majesty of Old Faithful or see wildlife they had only imagined, all on smooth, safe roads.

And then, in 1925, a project began more than 400 miles away that did more than any advertisement in an East Coast newspaper ever could: construction of Mount Rushmore.

Now the pitch practically wrote itself: bring your family west, see Mount Rushmore, stop at Devil’s Tower, cross the Big Horn Mountains, spend a night in Cody, and see the great Yellowstone National Park. And if you talked to the right people, you might even find your way to a quiet drink in one of the hidden bars or speakeasies tucked around the Basin.

Next week, we’ll look at the challenges of building four massive public works projects at the same time, and how the towns of the Big Horn Basin were forever changed by the 1921 bond election.