A history of Big Piney,
since 1879
Postcards, papers and photographs of Big Piney from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Big Piney is the oldest settlement in Sublette County. It was founded in 1879, when rancher Daniel B. Budd and his partner Hugh McKay came with a thousand head of cattle from Nevada hoping to ship them, but got caught instead in severe winter weather in the Green River Valley. The following year, Dan Budd relocated his family to what became Big Piney.
The town was named after Big Piney Creek. The creek took its name from the pine trees growing along the banks of the creek.
Cattle and oil have traditionally been the two primary industries for the area.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Big Piney’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewHouse, 1941: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Big Piney
See all 1 →Big Piney, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Big Piney is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Big Piney has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Circle Ranch in Big Piney, 3.4 miles away.
Big Piney and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as House (1941) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.