Wyoming History Groups Go Their Own Way After Finalizing Split with State Society

The original story by Renée Jean for Cowboy State Daily.

Two of Wyoming’s biggest players in preserving the state’s past are officially striking out on their own.

The Wyoming Historical Foundation and WyoHistory.org say they’ve finalized their separation from the Wyoming Historical Society and are now moving forward together as independent partners.

“The future of the Wyoming Historical Foundation and WyoHistory.org is looking great,” Foundation leader Ann Chambers Noble said. “We’re thrilled that the split has been finalized.”

For years, the Historical Foundation served as the Society’s main fundraising arm, building an endowment to support its work. That fundraising paused during the internal disputes earlier this year. Now, with the breakup complete, the Foundation plans to restart fundraising — with WyoHistory.org as a major beneficiary.

“We’re gearing up to help them raise money again so they can get back to doing what they do best,” Noble said. “That’s hiring great historians and editors to research and write Wyoming history.”

WyoHistory.org editor Kylie McCormick said the organization is wrapping up existing projects with the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office, including work on the Contexts of Wyoming History series.

“These are excellent academic, book-length works that many people don’t realize are free online,” she said. “We’re repurposing chapters into shorter WyoHistory articles to shine a spotlight on that work and fill gaps in our online encyclopedia.”

Next up: full nonprofit status for WyoHistory.org, which will make it completely independent for the first time since it launched in 2010. During the transition, both the Wyoming Historical Foundation and the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming are serving as temporary fiscal agents to ensure transparency.

The pace of publishing is also picking up after slowing during the nine-month separation talks. McCormick said they may even exceed their usual two-articles-a-month pace thanks to a backlog of material and new funding.

One recent highlight dives into a 16-hour crime spree in 1955 that began in Kemmerer and sparked a manhunt across southwest Wyoming.

Later this year, WyoHistory.org will also roll out a special “Founders” topics page, spotlighting men and women of diverse backgrounds who shaped Wyoming in politics, exploration, education, the arts, agriculture and industry. Oral histories from the American Heritage Center will be paired with the project.

“And we’re also working with Wyoming educators to build lesson plans around all of it,” McCormick said. “So students can really think about civic duty and what it means to contribute to their communities.”

Wyoming Historical Society Executive Director Aley Philp said the organization supports WyoHistory.org’s move to independence.

“The Historical Society is incredibly proud of its role in nurturing WyoHistory.org from its inception,” she said. “This change reflects the site’s success and expanded needs. We fully support its path to becoming an independent nonprofit.”

The split traces back to early 2025, after the Society missed a key tax filing deadline, leading the Wyoming Secretary of State to administratively dissolve the organization in December 2024.

By May, about 100 chapter members signed a no-confidence letter accusing Society leadership of improper meetings, bylaw changes that limited member voting, and sending cease-and-desist letters to critics.

In June, the Society took the dramatic step of cutting loose all county chapters, saying the move would allow local groups more independence. Critics, including former preservation official Milward Simpson, called the move unprecedented and damaging.

“This is not how you play with people, particularly in a small state,” Simpson said at the time.

As the internal conflict played out, state agencies also pulled away.

• In August, Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources ended its partnership with the Society on Wyoming History Day.
• In September, the state also took over full control of publishing the Annals of Wyoming, a historic journal that had been tied to the Society for decades.

The Society said it plans to launch its own independent quarterly history magazine, though no start date has been announced. Meanwhile, the state-run Annals of Wyoming is expected to return under State Parks’ direction in January.

For now, the Foundation and WyoHistory.org are focused on rebuilding momentum and expanding access to Wyoming’s past.

With fundraising restarting, nonprofit status on the horizon, and new content rolling out, both groups say the turbulence of the past year is behind them — and a new era of independent Wyoming storytelling is just beginning.