Wyoming Highway 173
state highway in Hot Springs County, Wyoming, United States
Wyoming Highway 173 (WYO 173) is a short 1.61-mile (2.59 km) state highway in Hot Springs County, Wyoming, United States, south of Thermopolis. It connects U.S. Route 20 / Wyoming Highway 789 (US 20 / WYO 789) with County Route 31 (CR 31).
Route description
WYO 173 begins at an intersection with US 20 / WYO 789, just over one and a half miles (2.4 km) south of Thermopolis. From its western terminus, SYO 173 heads southeast on Buffalo Creek Road along the south bank of the Bighorn River. At 1.42 miles (2.29 km), WYO 173 crosses the river via the CQA Four Mile Bridge which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Two-tenths of a mile (0.32 km) later, after Buffalo turns east and WYO 173 becomes South Yellowstone Road, the highway reaches its eastern terminus at the north end of CR 31. CR 31 continues southwest along South Yellowstone Road for another 1.6 miles (2.6 km) before ending at US 20 / WYO 789.
History
The original Four Mile Bridge, which carried WYO 173 over the Big Horn River, was completed in 1928 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of a forty-bridge collection that illustrates steel truss construction. It was offered for sale by the Wyoming Highway Department in 1987 ahead of a planned replacement. The project to improve WYO 173 and replace the bridge was part of a 1984 agreement to eventually transfer control to Hot Springs County, but the county government declined to assume responsibility in 1993.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Wyoming Highway 173” is state highway in Hot Springs County, Wyoming, United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Wyoming, Highway and state, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “state highway in Hot Springs County, Wyoming, United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2508926. Authority coordinates are 43.614, -108.220. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1928, 1987, 1984 and 1993.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Wyoming Highway 173”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Wyoming Highway 173 primary sources, Wyoming Highway 173 archive and Wyoming research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Wyoming Highway 173”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Wyoming Highway 173” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.