This spring, the Wyoming State Historical Society plans to launch a new online database of oral histories from around the state. 

The database will be a catalog of Wyoming’s oral histories, categorized by criteria such as historical events, as well as where to find the recordings. 

Project Director Barbara Bogart spent over a year tracking down the stories from the state’s museums, private collections and libraries.

“I could have relied on email or telephone or mail, and I found a lot of material that I don’t think I would have found if I had simply mailed or emailed or even telephoned. I discovered somewhere between 2,500 and 3,000 oral histories in the state. That’s a lot,” says Bogart.

She says the oral histories include audio recordings of people sharing their life stories and their memories of Wyoming history. 

The database is a relatively low-budget project, funded by grants from the Wyoming State Historic Records and the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund. 

Bogart says she hopes to make it available to the public in the next few months.