Big Piney, WY

Big Piney is a Sublette County town in western Wyoming, with 395 residents in the 2020 census. Daniel Budd and Hugh McKay stopped here in the winter of 1879 with a herd of cattle and stayed near the Piney Creeks, making Big Piney the county’s oldest permanent settlement. Budd opened the first post office in his home, then moved it to a general store; a schoolhouse followed in 1887, and the town incorporated in 1910.

Ranching shaped the early valley, while oil drilling brought a later economic wave after discoveries in the 1920s. The Green River Valley Museum keeps that layered past in seven buildings filled with local exhibits, and the Sublette County Fair brings ranch, livestock, food, and community events to the town each summer. Big Piney’s winter reputation is earned: the high desert brings long, cold seasons that sit alongside short summers and wide-open pasture. Big Piney is a Wyoming town where Piney Creek, ranch history, oil, a museum, and the county fair all meet under a big western sky.