Washakie County, Wyoming
Washakie County, formed in 1911 and named for the Shoshone Chief Washakie, continues to rely upon energy and agriculture as its main industries.
Annette Hein is a geology student at Casper College and lives near Casper, Wyo. She recently took third place in the essay competition New Frontiers in Astronomy and Cosmology sponsored by the University of Chicago. Her writing has appeared in the Casper Star-Tribune and Casper Journal.
Washakie County, formed in 1911 and named for the Shoshone Chief Washakie, continues to rely upon energy and agriculture as its main industries.
The abundant vertebrate fossils of the Green River formation in western Wyoming have been known to science since the 1860s. Most are fish, buried in lime-rich mud at the bottom of freshwater lakes about 50 million years ago. Fossil Butte National Monument, west of Kemmerer, Wyo. was created by Congress in 1973 to protect a site extremely rich in these fossils.
Bessemer, Wyo., on the North Platte River west of Casper, was founded in 1888 but disappeared after failing to win the status of county seat of the brand-new Natrona County in 1890.