The Golden Triangle
The sagebrush steppe was once North America's largest ecosystem. Today, less than half remains. In western Wyoming lies the crown jewel.
The Triangle
The Inhabitants
Humans discovered the bounty of this place as early as 12,000 years ago. Their descendants became the Eastern Shoshone, Cheyenne, Crow, and Shoshone-Bannock, who have lived on this land for thousands of years.
A petroglyph of an elk etched in the sandstone cliffs at White Mountain, 25 miles south of the Golden Triangle. The petroglyphs are thought to have been made between 1,000 to 200 years ago. Photo courtesy of Wyoming Outdoor Council
For the Eastern Shoshone, the Golden Triangle was a connection point to other areas, according to Nathaniel Barney, cultural and spiritual advisor for the Eastern Shoshone Tribe. It was part of their annual migration pattern as they followed game to the Teton Mountains and what is now Pinedale. Three thousand Shoshone would camp a few miles east of the Triangle between hunting trips, he said. They also passed through the Triangle on the way to fisheries near what is now Rock Springs.
In addition to the important role the Triangle played in the Eastern Shoshone’s movements, the Triangle itself provided a variety of resources. They hunted the buffalo, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep there. “Plants added another dimension of resources,” said Barney. The Eastern Shoshone harvested plants from the Triangle for food and seasoning. They wove sagebrush branches into baskets. “It may look like nothing, but the amenities were the plant sources and the water sources,” he said, referring to the often over-looked sagebrush steppe.
“It may look like nothing, but the amenities were the plant sources and the water sources.”
The Shoshone weren't alone. Other tribes, including the Northern Arapaho, traveled through and around the Triangle on their way to what is now Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Range to harvest medicines and to hunt, according to Eugene Ridgely Jr., a member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe.
By the 19th century, European-American settlers came to this area. Many passed through on the Oregon, Mormon, California, and Pony Express trails that crossed the Triangle. The skyrocketing traffic decreased the bison herds and inflicted violence upon the indigenous people living there. Facing increasing persecution, the Eastern Shoshone ceded much of their territory—including the Golden Triangle—to the United States in exchange for peace, land elsewhere, and payment, or at least the promise of it. You can read a much more detailed chronicle of this important point in history here .
The settlers who remained found the land in the Golden Triangle too infertile and rugged for farming, yet lush enough to raise livestock on. Ranching became the primary land use and remains so today.
Cattle graze on a ranch allotment in the Golden Triangle. Photo: Evan Barrientos/Audubon Rockies
The Land: Quality and Quantity
A Vanishing Ecosystem
In many ways, the Golden Triangle is the “last best place” for the sagebrush sea. Less than half of this ecosystem remains. Each year, another 1.3 million acres are lost across North America.
This is Your Land
The Golden Triangle, while known by few, belongs to us all. Ninety-three percent of it is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management or the state of Wyoming. This means that anyone can roam its miles of sagebrush hills, plains, and meadows.
