As dignitaries gathered at a remote area south of Cody to mark the official groundbreaking of the Wyoming Shooting Complex, they were confident they had picked the right spot.

“When you look at that view, and when you see the country that is there,” Gov. Mark Gordon said at the Saturday event, “you realize this is going to be world class.”

State officials like Gordon, who backed the project and the local boosters who landed it in Park County, reiterated their high hopes for the facility on Saturday, reaffirming that they intend to make it a mecca that draws professional shooters from across the globe for high-end competitions.

“The opportunities are unlimited,” said state Sen. Larry Hicks, a Baggs Republican and a Powell native who spearheaded the endeavor. “They’re only bounded by our own imagination.”

The State of Wyoming has already made a big commitment to the endeavor, with lawmakers approving $15 million worth of funding over their past two sessions. And on Saturday, that commitment was backed up by the Civilian Marksmanship Program, which announced it will provide up to $10 million to the complex to match other private donations.

The federally chartered and perhaps lesser-known nonprofit hosts shooting competitions and gun training and it’s been looking to spread West from its base in Alabama.

Given Wyoming’s culture, the state’s support of the project and the location near Yellowstone National Park, “this shooting complex offers an opportunity that is simply unmatched,” said Fabian Lobera, the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s chief operating officer.

Beyond the financial support, the organization also plans to provide technical input on the design of the complex’s ranges to ensure they’re ready for top tier contests, to open a store in the complex’s event center stocked with rare, historic American firearms, and to partner with the Buffalo Bill Center of the West on educational opportunities.

Wyoming Shooting Complex CEO Patrick Giles called the newly announced partnership a “game changer.”

Though the Civilian Marksmanship Program is a national organization, Wyoming had a bit of an inside track: Lobera lives in Lander and is one of the nonprofit’s 11 board members, former Fremont County Attorney Ed Newell, lives in Green River.

“We are joining our resources with this community’s passion to ensure that this range achieves a prominent status as a destination shooting facility here in the West,” Lobera said.

The roughly $20 million complex is set to include courses for sporting clays, other shotgun disciplines and 3D archery, long and short ranges for rifles, and bays for action pistols, multiguns and archery, all spread across 2,000 acres of state-owned land 10 minutes south of Cody. Plans also call for an event center that will include a retail space, classroom, catering kitchen and multi-purpose conference hall with indoor archery and air gun shooting lanes.

Complex leaders intend to open the facility next year and say the events they’ll host will eventually bring in $14.8 million worth of annual spending.

Years of work

The genesis of the complex came roughly five years ago, from a conversation between Sen. Hicks and Nephi Cole of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Hicks said the Legislature had just passed its “Second Amendment Protection Act” while other states were driving away shooting sports with an “anti-firearms mentality.”

Cole floated the idea of a state shooting complex and Hicks ran with it. He got the support of Gordon and then the Legislature, which approved the project in 2023.

A state task force was then assigned the job of picking a site. Amid a heated competition, a Cody-based group of volunteers wound up coming out on top over a team from Gillette.

“I’ve always thought that if Park County was serious about this, they’d be awful hard to beat,” Hicks told the Tribune. “And these guys came through with the best business plan, the best site, the best committee.”

The senator said he couldn’t imagine how many hundreds of hours the volunteers put in on the proposal.

Rep. Art Washut of Casper, who served on the site selection panel, said the task force was looking for a community that was already a draw, had a reputation for being hospitable and a can-do attitude. But mostly “we wanted a ‘wow’ factor,” Washut said, and they found it in Cody.

“When we got out of the truck and toured that facility, that piece of ground out here, that the Hoodoo Ranch had been leasing for their cows, we got out of the truck and said, ‘Wow,’” Washut recalled, and he said the members were similarly impressed with the Park County group’s business plan.

Legislative backing

However, that wasn’t the final word on the subject, as the full Legislature still had to release the $10 million it had previously earmarked. The House and Senate both included the funding in their versions of the supplemental budget in 2025, but the dollars suddenly came into question when the two chambers couldn’t agree on a variety of other items. That kicked off a scramble by project backers, who ultimately found a way to deliver the money. The Legislature approved another $5 million in this year’s budget, although Sen. Tim French, R-Heart Mountain, was among those opposed to the additional funding pushed by Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell. 

Hicks said the complex drew broad support that ranged from “some of the most hardcore Freedom Caucus folks” to Democrats.

“It was one of the few efforts in the last few years [where] there was just no party politics involved, there was no internal … within the party politics involved,” he told the Tribune. “It was either you could see a good thing and wanted to do something for the state and the country, or you couldn’t, just lacked the vision.”

The project still has its critics. Some, including a minority of lawmakers, have argued the state is improperly treading into the realm of private business. Others have raised concerns about the development’s potential impact on the area’s wildlife. And some critics have contended that the state has higher priorities for its dollars.

The Park County Telegraph, a satirical news site, sarcastically “reported” in January that the Wyoming Freedom Caucus would reconsider the state’s funding for schools “if they rebrand as ‘shooting complexes.’”

Bringing it home

At Saturday’s event, Rep. Paul Hoeft of Powell said he had some doubts about the concept at first, but was won over by Hicks.

“In or out of the Legislature, I’m going to support this every way I can, because this is a destination,” Hoeft said. “If other places in the country aren’t willing to support our firearms industry, right here in Park County, in Cody, Wyoming, we’re going to bring it home.”

Beyond its scenery and hospitality, “Cody is dead center, that bullseye for the gun business in Wyoming,” Gordon said, drawing a line from city founder Buffalo Bill Cody to its current firearms manufacturers. “And I’m going to argue it is going to be really a center for the entire nation.”

The governor and Wyoming’s senior U.S. senator, John Barrasso, joined with others to help toss the first shovefuls of dirt at the site and fired the first ceremonial shots on Saturday afternoon from an M1 Garand. In a later news release, the Park County Travel Council described Gordon and Barrasso’s volleys as “The Shots Heard Round Wyoming.”

“I know it’s a celebration here locally,” said state Sen. John Kolb of Rock Springs, “but believe me, this is something for the whole state.”

Lots more work

While Saturday was a celebration, Wyoming Shooting Complex Chairman Glenn Ross noted there’s still lots more work to be done. The road to the complex — which the Park County government is building at a cost of up to $750,000 — is still under construction and fundraising is ongoing. 

The Civilian Marksmanship Program’s “challenge grant” must be matched dollar-for-dollar by other donors within the next three years and Ross said complex leaders will strive to match the entire amount. 

He encouraged those attending a reception at Yellowstone Regional Airport to consider making a contribution. A glossy handout listed options ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 with naming rights to venues and buildings also available. However, Ross said any donation amount is welcomed — especially since every dollar is being matched by the Civilian Marksmanship Program.

Like other speakers, Ross noted that getting to this point has already taken a lot of persistence, cooperation and hard work.

“This groundbreaking,” he said, “marks the moment when our ideas and dreams transition to become a reality.”

Organizers are aiming to open the Wyoming Shooting Complex by mid-2027. For more information, or to donate, visit shootwyoming.com.