Today there are three interpretive panels set on individual stone bases next to the Ames Monument. Before, a large wood marker installed by the state in the mid-twentieth century stood at this spot. The modern interpretive panels replaced the large wood State marker shortly after it was removed. When I visited the monument in July, 2013 I was “between markers”. Too late to see the State marker and too early to read the interpretive panels. The bases for the interpretive panels were there, but no panels to read. If I got there a year or so earlier, the large wood State marker would have been at the foot of the monument behind the present day interpretive panels.Marker Information
Name: The Ames Monument
Type: State Archives, Museum and Historical Department 4' x 6' wooden sign
Year Erected: 1960's
Location: Albany County, Wyoming
Location Coordinates: 41.131074, -105.398004
Waymark of the old State marker from waymarking.com
Information on Interpretive Panels from the Historical Markers Database
Marker Inscription:
The Ames Monument
Completed in 1882 at a cost of $65,000, this monolithic, 60-foot high granite pyramid was built by the Union Pacific Railroad Company. It stands on the highest elevation (8,247 feet) of the original transcontinental route. Until 1901, when the railroad was relocated several miles to the south, it passed close by the north side of the monument where once stood the railtown of Sherman.
The monument serves as a memorial to the Ames brothers of Massachusetts. Oakes (1804-1873) and Oliver (1807-1877), whose wealth, influence, talent, and work were key factors in the construction of the first coast to coast railroad in North America. The contribution made by Oakes was especially significant, even though in 1873 he was implicated in a scandal relative to financing the construction of the railroad.
Ames Monument was designed by the distinguished American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1896). Located further west than any of his works, this memorial typifies the Richardsonian style by it energetic, elemental characteristics. His love for native construction materials is demonstrated by the monument's great, rough-hewn granite blocks, quarried from "Reed's Rock" one-half mile west. A Richardson biographer has called the monument "Perhaps the finest memorial in America...one of Richardson's least known and most perfect works." The bas-relief medallions of the Ames brothers were done by the prominent American sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
Map showing locations of State marker, 1882 railroad grade, and Reed's Rock
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