The story
Kirwin lies high in the Absaroka Mountains southwest of Meeteetse, at nearly 9,200 feet, named for a prospector who found gold and silver on the surrounding peaks in the 1880s. It was always a small, hard-to-reach camp, with maybe 200 people at its peak around 1905, working mines strung along the steep valley of the Wood River.
Its end was sudden. On February 5, 1907, an avalanche roared off the mountain into town, destroying buildings and killing three people. Most of the remaining residents left within weeks, and the camp was effectively abandoned.
Kirwin has one more curious footnote. In the 1930s a dude ranch operated nearby, and aviator Amelia Earhart, who loved the country, had a cabin under construction there when she vanished over the Pacific in 1937. The unfinished log walls still sit near the townsite. A conservation purchase in 1992 put the area in public hands, and stabilization of the surviving buildings began in 1999.
What remains today
Weathered log and frame buildings, mine works, and the low unfinished log walls of Amelia Earhart's cabin, stabilized in a remote mountain basin.
Questions from the field
- Why was Kirwin, Wyoming abandoned?
- An avalanche struck the town on February 5, 1907, destroying buildings and killing three people. Most survivors left within weeks, and the isolated camp never recovered.
- Is there really an Amelia Earhart cabin at Kirwin?
- Yes — Earhart had a cabin being built at a nearby ranch and never finished it before she disappeared in 1937. The low log walls still stand near the townsite.
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
Stamp your passport
Check in at Kirwin — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.
File a field report
Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.
Add photographs
Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Kirwin's permanent record.
No field reports yet — sign in to file the first.
Primary sources for this record
- — USGS GNIS feature 1600733
- — WyoHistory.org (Wyoming State Historical Society) — Kirwin
- — Meeteetse Museums — Amelia Earhart in the Wood River country