Wyoming river geography question

It's Wyoming, it doesn't have to make sense. The Wind River is listed as a tributary to the Bighorn River, but it looks like it just changes name, south (upstream) of Thermopolis. The Bluestone River flowing north from North Carolina does a similar name change to the New River, which becomes the Kanawa River in West Virginia. Keep in mind the "New" River is part of the ancient Teays River which is the second oldest river on Earth after the Nile. Go figure.

That's the way it is here in Warrenton Virginia one road three different names depending on where you are
With that and mind I might get to visit Wyoming this summer.
I'll bring maps from several different publishers to see which one gets it right.....

They fixed it on Google, it’s the big horn river from Boyer res through Thermopolis. Crisis averted.

Prior to 911 re-naming conventions, a few miles from my house Kirkville Road intersected Kirkville Road.

Travis, that’s the explanation I would have guessed. Not always easy to know that it’s the same river, when you stumble on different parts of it before maps, let alone satellite info. I think it probably happened a lot, but usually one name was more well-known than the other or something, so the whole river took one name.

I have no explanation for the insane business of EW and NS streets bearing the same name. That’s just stupid. I’m also still shaking my head over certain addresses I used to visit on “west East Street.”

And some people in Wyoming are still complaining about how Big Government changed all that.

The name of the Bighorn River has old roots in Crow oral tradition. It is not accurate history to credit the name to some Euro-American explorer. As I understand it, among the Crow, the tradition was told that if the name of the Bighorn River was ever changed, the Crow people would cease to exist. Of course, Indigenous interests are often ignored — despite the fact that the Crow, Lakota, Cheyenne, and other Indigenous Peoples considered places like the Bighorns and Black Mountains ("Hills") to be sacred in their oral traditions.

Regarding the Wind River, recent archeology has shown that "Sheep-Eater" Shoshones have inhabited areas of the Wind River Range for several thousand years. Were the Big Wind River and the Little Wind River also names derived from Indigenous Peoples' oral traditions? It would not surprise me. Why is the "Wedding of the Waters" located a mere 200 yards outside the Wind River Indian Reservation? And who believes that John Colter really "discovered" the mountain range?

Historically, Bighorn Sheep were not the rare and threatened species they are today. They were numerous enough to have sustained a band of Shoshone people back through perhaps thousands of years. And Bighorn Sheep were numerous enough to Crow people (and others) to name the Bighorn River for them.


These days we often recognize that place names may derive from derogatory treatment of Indigenous Peoples or from the disgrace that slavery is to our national heritage. So we are changing the official names or taking down the monuments erected for Confederate leaders, slave holders, Indian fighters and so on.


But maybe there is a reason to leave the names as they are, lest they mean something to us someday. As I keep learning, the Bighorn Mountains are not the mecca for backpackers that the Wind River Range is. But I'm not so sure my Indigenous neighbors would see it all that way. And maybe someday we won't either.