Our staff and volunteers welcome school groups of any age and size. We are happy to provide guided tours of exhibits and include educational activities, discussions, and documentary films. Tours are customized based on the age group and specific fields of study. Our tour options include but are not limited to the following:
• Outdoor Adventures
• Virtual Tours
• Classroom Presentations
• Traveling Education Trunks
Fall / Winter Hours (Labor Day – Memorial Day Weekend)
Open 10am – 4pm, Tuesday – Saturday
Closed on Sundays and Mondays
Summer Hours (Begins Memorial Day Weekend)
Open 7 days a week 10am – 4pm
Special Closure Dates
Closed October 11: Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Closed November 11: Veterans Day
Closed November 25: Thanksgiving Day
Closed December 24 & 25: Christmas
Closed December 31 & January 1: New Year’s Eve & Day
10 Bighorn Lane, just off the main street in beautiful Dubois, Wyoming next to the Dubois Historical Museum. Look for our big, bronze ram, “Ram Country.”
Adults ages 18 and over: $6
Youth ages 8 – 17: $3
Children ages 7 and under: free admission
Seniors (age 60 and over) and Military: $5
Youth Groups (8 or more): $2
Current Members: free admission
School Groups: $2 per student (scholarship opportunities available). Please contact us to set up your tour by calling 307-455-3429.
You’ll explore panoramic views of snowcapped mountains, forests, rocky ridges, and windswept grassy slopes in the Whiskey Basin Wildlife Habitat Area. One of the first things you’ll notice is the rolling up-and-down landscape with boulders strewn everywhere, these features arranged so thanks to the glaciers that covered this region 10,000-15,000 years ago. As you ride the road along this glacial roller coaster, you will approach Whiskey Mountain, home of the famous Whiskey Mountain bighorn sheep.
Make sure to scan the hillsides for wildlife, which may include elk, mule deer, badger and coyotes, as well as hawks and eagles.
On the face of a nearby boulder is a carved image described as Water Ghost Spirit. It was etched by those who are considered to have been the ancestors of today’s Shoshone Indians, the Sheepeaters.
The citizens of Dubois have always felt great pride for the proximity, accessibility, and successful endurance of “our” herd, the Whiskey Mountain herd of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. In the late 1980s, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department was considering building a small-scale sheep observatory with interpretive signage in the Whiskey Basin Wildlife Habitat Management Area. Around the same time, the Louisiana-Pacific lumber mill, which had been the primary engine driving the Dubois economy for decades, was faltering.
The mill was forced to close in 1988, leaving the townspeople to wonder if their economy was facing imminent failure. Dubois needed something to encourage tourists to stop and stay in Dubois. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department also wanted an avenue for public education. One citizen suggested the construction of a bighorn sheep-themed visitor center directly in town rather than in the Whiskey Basin Wildlife Habitat Management Area. In a remarkable effort of cooperation, a partnership developed that included a broad spectrum of private-sector and public-sector groups.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the town of Dubois, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Wild Sheep Foundation (formerly the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep), the Nature Conservancy, the National Wildlife Federation, and many other entities and individuals contributed dollars, resources, talents, and guidance to construct the National Bighorn Sheep Center. The Center was opened to the public on July 3, 1993.
