The Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) exists to promote the preservation of cultural resources while also exploring all possible alternatives for preservation of the historic and cultural resources of our state. Established by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966,  every state has a SHPO office which has certain responsibilites under this act. NHPA also provides the basis for the operating philosophies of the SHPO offices along with their legal responsibilities in the historic preservation process. Wyoming SHPO operates under the aegis of the State Parks and Cultural Resources Office and has offices in Cheyenne and in Laramie, where the cultural records office is maintained.

In addition to its other obligations, Wyoming's SHPO promotes awareness of the state's cultural resources through Archaeology Awareness Month, by providing technical expertise to the Certified Local Government agencies in each county, and by maintaining a list of archaeological and historical consultants. SHPO recently completed  a comprehensive statewide historic preservation plan and is currently working on creating historic context studies for different aspects of Wyoming's historic past. 

AHW has worked with SHPO closely in the past, including helping them to develop their recently enacted protocol for working with the BLM and by encouraging the legislature to allocate sufficient funding for the completion of the historic context studies. The acting director of Wyoming SHPO is Turn on JavaScript!.