WYOMING - A land defined by dramatic landscapes and rugged independence, holds a unique challenge for visitors: its place names. The state’s map is a linguistic minefield, full of anglicized Native American terms, forgotten French explorations, and local pronunciations that deliberately defy the spelling.
While names like Cheyenne and Togwotee cause trouble, one small town epitomizes the "Wyoming Twist" by openly rejecting its foreign origin: Dubois.
The Champion: Dubois
Correct Pronunciation: Doo-BOYZ (or Doo-voice)
Dubois, a remote community along Horse Creek near the Wind River Range, is the ultimate tourist trap. If you pronounce it the way you learned it in high school French, you are instantly marked as an outsider.
- The Trap: The name is derived from the French surname DuBois, which should be pronounced Deh-bwah.
- The Local Legend: The town was supposedly named after Senator Fred Dubois of Idaho. When citizens received the approved post office application with the French spelling, local lore suggests they willfully mispronounced it in protest of the postal service overriding their original choice of the Shoshone name Tibo.
- The Result: To this day, the locals insist on the Anglicized pronunciation: Doo-BOYZ, putting the stress on the first syllable and making it rhyme with words like "Sue-voice" or "Doo-boys."
The Runner-Up: Native American & French Traps
Many of Wyoming’s most beautiful geographic names are also its most challenging, forcing visitors to ignore what they see on the page.
- Popo Agie
- The Trap: Popo Ah-Gee
- The Correct Way: Puh-POE-zha
- Context: This river and wilderness area has a beautiful name meaning "beginning of the waters," but its pronunciation is a genuine word stumper, completely unintuitive.
- Meeteetse
- The Trap: Meet-eet-see
- The Correct Way: Muh-teet-see
- Context: This Shoshone name means "meeting place" or "nearby." The trick is to keep calm and sound it out, ignoring the first double-'e' which usually confuses people.
- Gros Ventre
- The Trap: Gross-vent-ree
- The Correct Way: Grow-VAHNT
- Context: This French name (for a river, mountains, and wilderness area) means "Big Belly" and requires a soft, nasal French pronunciation that is difficult for English speakers to manage.
The Capital City Test: Cheyenne
Even the capital city is a pronunciation test, though the error is less jarring than the intentional mispronunciation of Dubois.
- Cheyenne
- The Trap: Chee-anne or Chy-enn
- The Correct Way: shy-ANN
- Context: The name, which comes from the Lakota language, requires the stress to fall heavily on the second syllable. Locals instantly notice when visitors soften the second syllable or attempt to emphasize the first.
The ultimate rule of thumb for Wyoming is this: if a place name looks French or Native American, trust your ears, not your eyes. When in doubt, just stick to Doo-BOYZ.