Today Riverton today is a bustling town of commerce. Many residents of west central Wyoming come to Riverton to shop and relax. With everything from native crafts and bazaars to national retailers, Riverton is a commercial city.

Rendezvous City
As the site of the fur trade's 1830 rendezvous and 1838 rendezvous, Riverton played host to many of the legendary names of the mountain man era. Jim Bridger, William Sublette, Kit Carson, and Jedediah Smith are only a few of the legendary trappers and traders who met here in 1838. The most impressive of these was the 1838 event, which drew as many as 300 people including mountain men and traders, Native Americans and missionaries to a bench of cottonwood trees at the confluence of the Big Wind and the Little Wind. For several days, they traded and celebrated a season of trapping the mountains.

Riverton, Wyoming, is home to the annual 1838 Mountain Man Rendezvous with a living encampment, games of skill, food and dancing. Riverton lies at the confluence of the Big and Little Wind Rivers. This is the only rendezvous site that remains on original ground. The 1838 Rendezvous reenactment each summer features men and women who demonstrate skills that were used by the mountain men that have otherwise been virtually lost through the decades.

Ranching
Soon after its founding, the Riverton area was promoted heavily in the East as a "farming paradise". One of the last major homesteading 'openings' held in the United States, this development had all the drama of the Old West - greedy Eastern speculators, railroad expansion, claim jumpers, land races, feuds and shoot outs. The Army was even called in from Fort Washakie to keep the peace.

From these wild and wooly beginnings, Riverton has developed into the agricultural and commercial hub of Fremont County. With a farm/ranch agriculture base, the Riverton area is a major producer of top-quality cattle and horses, alfalfa hay and sugar beets.

1838 Rendezvous | Boysen Driving Tour | Boysen State Park
Castle Gardens Driving Tour | Relaxing Lifestyle
Riverton Attractions | Wind River Heritage Center