Cody area highway to be renamed for wild horses

Entire route also likely to be named for Medal of Honor recipients

Posted 2/19/19

A Cody area route will soon become the “Wild Horse Highway” after the proposal drew more ayes than “neighs” in the Wyoming Legislature.

In passing Senate File 112 last …

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Cody area highway to be renamed for wild horses

Entire route also likely to be named for Medal of Honor recipients

Posted

A Cody area route will soon become the “Wild Horse Highway” after the proposal drew more ayes than “neighs” in the Wyoming Legislature.

In passing Senate File 112 last week, state lawmakers agreed to name a roughly 30-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 14/16/20 — from Cody city limits to just east of Emblem — after the McCullough Peaks wild horse herd that roams along the road.

The bill now sits on Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon’s desk for final approval.

State Sen. Hank Coe, R-Cody, and Rep. Sandy Newsome, R-Cody, shepherded the bill through the Legislature at the request of the nonprofit group Friends of a Legacy (FOAL), which advocates on behalf of the McCullough Peaks herd.

“A highway designation is the least we can do in recognition of the impact wild horses have had on our shared history and tourism-based economy,” Coe said in a Friday statement. “People come from around the world to view these descendants of Buffalo Bill Cody’s herd and this designation will only help attract more people to the area.”

In introducing the measure to her colleagues on the House floor last week, Newsome called the McCullough Peaks herd both a “national icon” and an “emblem of the American West.”

She said renaming the stretch as the Wild Horse Highway will “promote another rather unique tourist attraction, therefore encouraging visitors to spend more time in Park and Big Horn counties.”

Beyond drawing attention to the horses, Newsome said the new name will also encourage travelers “to pause and admire the open terrain and badlands of the Big Horn Basin.”

Although there are many wild horses around the state, “I don’t know that there could be a better highway designated for this and get the right promotion out of it that Cody can provide,” said Rep. John Winter, R-Thermopolis.

However, after breezing through the Senate on a 26-2 vote, the measure drew some opposition in the House, passing by a narrower 36-22 margin on Wednesday.

Local Reps. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, and Jamie Flitner, R-Greybull, voted against SF 112.

In an email, Flitner indicated that her no vote stemmed primarily from concerns with the “unsustainable” way that the Bureau of Land Management is managing wild horses across the West. While local herds appear to be relatively healthy, Flitner said many herds are overpopulated — starving and damaging the range; the federal government spends tens of millions of dollars each year managing wild horses, with more wild horses in government holding facilities than in the wild.

“While we all enjoy seeing these beautiful animals, the general public needs to understand the real story of the wild horse in Wyoming and the United States,” Flitner said.

Beyond those concerns, Flitner noted that northern Big Horn County is home to another wild horse herd — in the Pryor Mountains north of Lovell — that was not included in the bill.

“The good folks in Lovell who celebrate those animals … count on tourism dollars and interest in that herd just like Cody,” Flitner said. “I don’t want to divert attention away from the [Pryor] Mountain herd knowing it is equally as important to the Lovell community.”

There was very little debate on the bill; Flitner said she didn’t speak out of respect for her fellow Big Horn Basin lawmakers and the people in Cody who proposed the Wild Horse Highway.

The only negative comment made on the House floor came from Rep. John Eklund, R-Cheyenne, who asked “whether too much signage might kind of clutter the roadway up a bit.”

Eklund noted that another piece of pending legislation would designate all 532 miles of U.S. Highway 20 in Wyoming as the Medal of Honor Highway, including the Emblem-Cody route.

Senate Joint Resolution 9 is part of a nationwide effort to have the entire coast-to-coast highway named in recognition of current and future recipients of the Medal of Honor.

The rare award is only bestowed on military members whose valor goes above and beyond the call of duty; only about 3,500 veterans — including 17 with Wyoming ties — have received the award since it was created by Congress more than 150 years ago.

SJ 9 cleared the Senate on a 29-0 vote and appears to be headed to similar approval in the House.

A companion piece of legislation, House Joint Resolution 10, would designate the places where Wyoming’s Medal of Honor recipients were born or buried as Medal of Honor cities and communities.

If approved, the Medal of Honor Highway would be the second local route to be named for military service members: U.S. Highway 14-A between Powell and Cody was declared to be the Wyoming Veterans Memorial Highway in 2011.

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