Wyoming history brought to life under current plans for Capitol Interpretive Exhibits
Oct. 21—CHEYENNE — Anyone who walks through the tiled floors of the Wyoming State Capitol can't help but feel awe at the building's Victorian-style architecture.
The Capitol is a popular place for school tours, where students get to walk through the Senate and House chambers, marble hallways and the Historic Supreme Court Room.
The WayFinding Subcommittee is currently tasked with designing new updates to the Capitol that will enhance visitors' experiences. The subcommittee's ultimate goal is to bring Wyoming history to life, and has considered projects that include virtual drone footage of the dome, interactive touchscreen walls and new maps with layouts of the building.
"The effort that has gone into this project so far cannot be understated," subcommittee co-Chair and State Auditor Kristi Racines said during the State Building Commission's meeting on Oct. 11. "The project is coming together really, really nicely at this point."
Racines said the committee has held 20 meetings so far to work on the Capitol Interpretive Exhibits project. Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, who also co-chairs the committee, said the past two years of work on this project shows a "deeply ingrained sense of appreciation" for this Wyoming historical landmark.
"When you think about, before 1890, what the people of Wyoming did to build this building in the first place, it's just such a remarkable story," Landen said during the Building Commission meeting. "We want it to be done well and done right."
Plans for the interactive exhibits, new signage and maps have not been finalized, as development of these new additions is still in process.
Wyoming Capitol Historic Voices
Tired of reading signs with long passages about historical events from a hundred years ago? This new interactive display will bring those stories to life.
Wyoming Capitol Historic Voices is a project where virtual characters tell the story of significant events in Wyoming history, and all the visitor has to do is "knock" on their door.
The display of a life-sized, high-resolution touch screen resembling a door is embedded in the wall, complete with an elevated threshold to symbolize a doorstep. The visitor "knocks on the door" and a virtual character will open it, prepared with a monologue to share "their unique historical perspective on significant moments in Wyoming's history."
Characters may be found standing in an office, in front of the Capitol during reconstruction or outside in the vast Wyoming landscape.
The visitor would choose from any topic, with pending story topics including women's suffrage, the first female governor, Wyoming Capitol construction and the formation of the Wyoming government. Each story is short — about 30 seconds to a minute long — and at the end of the monologue, the visitor is encouraged to select from other doors to hear more stories.
Dome drone virtual tour
The Wyoming State Capitol is one of only a handful of capitols with a golden dome. Unfortunately, for security and safety reasons, access inside the dome is closed to the public.
WayFinding Subcommittee members believe, however, that visitors should have some type of virtual access. Their solution was to capture a virtual tour of the entire Capitol via drone video.
Footage provided by the drone starts outside the building before entering the Capitol, weaving through the tiled halls before zooming its way through the dome. The user would also be able to manipulate the camera to further explore inside the dome.
"The sky's the limit with this footage in the ways it can be used," Racines said.
Smaller but significant improvements
New signs, vinyl window clings and bronze-framed maps are also proposed additions to the building. These enhancements will help visitors better find their way through the labyrinth of levels.
A bronze-framed, two-sided map of the Capitol will be placed near the main entrance of the building, displaying a blueprint layout of each floor with labeled rooms. The Capitol map is currently designed to be 5 feet tall and 2 feet wide, with a graphic layout of each level.
There are also plans to mount maps in the center lobby and south lobby of the Herschler Building, which will display the floor plans and list the levels of each lobby.
Other small additions to the Capitol include vinyl clings placed on exterior windows at each of the five entrances to the Herschler Building, which would name the lobby and department offices located within the lobby, new delivery street signs along 24th Street and limited use/limited application signage placed near elevator banks, with a directory inside the elevator.
Hannah Shields is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's state government reporter. She can be reached at 307-633-3167 or hshields@wyomingnews.com. You can follow her on X @happyfeet004.
