4 Wacky Wooden Buildings in Wyoming: 50 States of Wonder - Atlas Obscura

50 States of Wonder
4 Wacky Wooden Buildings in Wyoming

Picture Wyoming during its Wild West days. Once your mind wanders across the epic landscapes and into town, the mythic scene you might imagine—the saloon, the general store, the bank—will likely consist of wooden structures, ones thrown hastily up as settlers headed west in search of mining wealth, land, and work on the expanding railways.

As it became the stuff of legend, accounts of the Wild West turned into tall tales, often conveniently overlooking the scale of the violent displacement of Native Americans. But as the period’s impact on the West is very real, it’s no surprise that the most unusual structures in Wyoming are wooden buildings that date from the frontier era or hearken back to it.

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Come for the cowboy caviar, stay for the historical dance hall. D. Vinzant/CC BY-SA 4.0
Dance Hall

1. Woods Landing Bar & Cafe

A saloon built on rugged terrain in 1927, Woods Landing is a place where where you can dine on rocky mountain oysters (among other fare) and then dance on a floor that will put a literal spring in your step. The saloon served as a de facto community center for Norwegian immigrants who arrived to provide timber for the railroad industry (you can still order gooey Scandinavian chocolate cake), and the man who built it placed 24 boxcar springs underneath the dance hall’s hand-hewn logs to give it its signature bounce. (Read more.

9 WY-10, Jelm, WY 82063

The mad-hatter architecture is visible from the road. Paul Hermans/CC by-SA 4.0
Dream Home

2. Smith Mansion

The dizzying Smith Mansion is rumored to have been constructed over a mine shaft, by the hands of a madman, or as a perverse joke—but the truth is that it is simply the work of a man who could not stop building. What started as a simple cabin became a singular structure that, while not open to the public, is visible from the highway and serves as a local landmark. (Read more.)

2903 N Fork Hwy, Cody, WY 82414

Per the Wyoming State Historial Society, this is "one of the last wooden tipples left in the West." breaingram/Atlas Obscura user
Abandoned Mine

3. Aladdin Coal Tipple

Once a railroad and mining town that drew cowboys and their herds in the late 1800s and early 1900s, tiny Aladdin, Wyoming, is now best known for a general store that recalls that bygone era. And just outside of town, behind a fence whose signage warns, “Structure in IMMINENT DANGER of collapse,” stands the old coal tipple, the nearly toppling structure that used to dump coal into railcars and transport it to the region's gold mines, powering a boom-and-bust economy. (Read more.)

Aladdin, WY 82710

You won't spot ships on the horizon, but the view is fantastic. exploringwithesch/Atlas Obscura user
Indoor Treehouse

4. The Crow's Nest at the Old Faithful Inn

Old Faithful Inn is a national landmark within a national park, a historic lodge fit into picturesque surroundings. Inside, a snaking stairway ascends 76 feet to what seems to be an indoor treehouse that leads up to the roof and its grand views. 

This jumble of stairs and catwalks is collectively called the Crow’s Nest, designed by the then 29-year-old architect Robert Reamer. According to lodge lore, he designed the Crow’s Nest in line with a childhood fantasy of his. In the lodge’s early days, a full orchestra would assemble in the faux treehouse to delight dancers and diners below. (Read more.)

3200 Old Faithful Inn Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190

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