History of Dubois, Wyoming

Dubois, Wyoming was originally known as Never Sweat due to its warm and dry winds. However, the postal service found the name Never Sweat unacceptable so Dubois was accepted, named after Fred Dubois, an Idaho senator at the time. In protest, the citizens of Dubois rejected the French pronunciation, instead opting for Du with u as in Sue; bois, as oi in voice. The accent is on the first syllable.

The first occupants of the mountains and valleys surrounding what is now Dubois were the members of the Mountain Shoshone, who included the Wind River area in their regular annual migrations from the Great Plains through the mountains of Yellowstone and beyond.

The area was visited regularly by the Astorians and other fur trappers and hunters in the early 19th century. The mountain man Jim Bridger visited the area on a number of occasions. The first homesteaders arrived in the late 1870s. In 1913, the town expanded with the addition of a hotel, a bar, and a general store, anticipating the arrival of Scandinavian lumber workers brought there by the Wyoming Tie and Timber Company the following year. (All of these structures are still standing.)

St. Thomas Episcopal Church was founded in 1910 by Reverend John Roberts, an Episcopal missionary who served the Native American tribes on the Wind River