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| Completed
in 1882 at a cost of $65,000
this monolithic 60-foot high granite pyramid
was built by the Union Pacific Railroad
Company. It stands on the highest elevation
(8,247 feet) of the original transcontinental
route. Until 1901, when the railroad was
relocated several miles to the south, it
passed close by the north side of the
monument where once stood the rail
town of Sherman.
The monument serves as a
memorial to |
implicated in a
scandal relative to financing the construction of the railroad.
Ames Monument was designed by the distinguished American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886). Located further west than any of his works, this memorial typifies the Richardsonian style by its energetic elemental characteristics. His love for native construction materials is demonstrated by the monument's great rough hewn granite blocks quarried from "Reed's Rock" one half mile west. A Richardson biographer has called the monument "Perhaps the finest memorial in America...on of Richardson's least known and most perfect works." The Bas-relied medallions of the Ames brothers were done the the prominent American sculptor, Augustus Saint Gaudens. |
Oakes and Oliver, like the Great Sphinx of ancient Egypt, have had their nose shot off.
Monument Road, Albany County, Wyoming, USA
Date created: Tuesday, December 05, 2000
Last revised:
Wednesday, August 22, 2007 05:51 PM