On March 10, 1972, Governor Stan Hathaway appointed nineteen Wyoming citizens to the Wyoming Bicentennial Commission to organize the state's participation in the nation's 200th birthday celebration. At its organizational meeting, held March 15, 1972, the commission elected Peggy Simpson Curry its chairperson, Charles Margolf its vice-president, and Mary Hendey its secretary-treasurer. Charles "Pat" Hall was employed as executive director. The commission was created by executive order of the governor and no enabling legislation was created by the legislature. All members served at the discretion of the governor.

In August 1972, the commission applied for a federal seed grant in the amount of $45,000 to pay for operational expenses. At this time, the commission also adopted by-laws and rules regulations that would be in force throughout its five years of existence. During the first year, membership remained constant, and twenty-six major projects were presented to the commission for possible funding through federally matched monies.

Among the proposed celebration efforts were two flamboyant ones: a six hundred foot pyramid made of pulverized cars in the Red Desert, and a 400 acre relief map of the United States to be situated at South Pass, Wyoming. Resultant comments to this latter proposal were that wildlife in the area, such as antelope and deer, might drown in the map's Atlantic Ocean, while livestock would devastate the national forests grazing the grass down to the roots.

Projects that were endorsed by the commission at its last meeting in 1972 included an American Indian arts and cultural center on the Wind River Reservation, a museum of natural history at Devils Tower National Monument, a grassland prairie park at Thunder Basin near Newcastle, and a Wyoming Bicentennial Park near Casper.

Previously, a proposal to create a bicentennial park at Independence Rock had been presented to the commission by the Wyoming Recreation Commission. In 1973, an interpretive study was completed, outlining the proposed park and required easements. A year later, Laramie sculptor Robert Russin proposed a $75,000 project consisting of two figures, one of a Native American and the other of a mountain man, to be erected at Independence Rock. Conflicts in funding and land purchase negotiations resulted in the figures' placement in front of the Wyoming Travel Commission's headquarters at Cheyenne. But finally in 1973, title to the twenty five acres surrounding Independence Rock was acquired by the state and the proposed park was ready for development.

As a service and funding agency, the Wyoming bicentennial Commission facilitated the impetus and coordination for all Wyoming communities and interest groups to have an opportunity to participate in the nation's bicentennial with $500,000 in funds from the American Revolution Bicentennial Association. Matching monies and efforts were directed toward such projects as creation of commemorative stamps and coins, bicentennial jade jewelry, coloring books for children, films and slide shows, participation in a national wagon train reenactment, as well as the printing of 3,000 "Bicentennial Passports to Wyoming" which included brief histories and sketches of sixty-four communities in the state.

To finish the Wyoming Bicentennial Commission's activities and agenda, a final report was prepared and published in 1978. The report detailed the commission's history, project accomplishments, and expenditures.