ABSTRACT
The summer-season tourism businesses, most economically beneficial to the state, would obviously require the most time to resume full-scale operations and possibly increase the income they provide the state. Like much of the modern world, the expansion of leisure time for the great majority of Wyoming people, coupled with increased mobility, has allowed recreation and tourism to flourish. From the end of the fur-trading era around 1840 until the arrival of the first railroad in 1867, a number of important changes occurred in recreation, traveling, and tourism. When Wyoming entered the 1970s the twin activities of tourism and recreation had established a number of trends. The introduction of winter-tourist money into the Wyoming economy came largely from travelers, alpine skiers, ice fishermen to a small degree, and a few other wintertime sports persons. Although in less numbers than in summer, truckers and travelers on Interstate 80 continued to use Wyoming’s facilities.
