BIG PINEY — From 400 books and nine checkouts on opening day in autumn 1926 to hosting this weekend’s traditional Fall Festival, the Big Piney Library is celebrating a century of service to its community. The institution turns 100 years old this weekend, and Sublette County residents and visitors alike are invited to the party, said Tawnya Miller, the Big Piney Library Manager since 2019. “We’ve made our Fall Festival celebration bigger,” Miller teased about Saturday’s festivities, which were compared to “a Hallmark movie” by one of last year’s attendees. “We’ve got over 50 vendors. We have carnival games, bounce houses, face painting, a photo booth, a trail mix bar, s’mores,” and much more, Miller said. There will be take-and-make crafts for adults, live music by local musicians throughout the day, museum tours, a hot chocolate station and food trucks on site. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Sublette County Library event without a book sale.
The Big Piney Library has hosted the Fall Festival for 11 years, taking breaks only during the COVID-19 pandemic and a recent move. The event always coincides with Big Piney’s Homecoming and the Hall of Fame inductions. “It’s really just a nice day to come out and mingle with the community. We have something for all ages down here,” Miller said. Two blocks on Budd Avenue and a block on Fish Street surrounding the library will be closed, allowing festival-goers extra room to roam.
“We wouldn’t be able to do an event like this with all of our volunteers and partners,” Miller told the Roundup ahead of Saturday’s Fall Festival.
The Big Piney Library Fall Festival and Centennial Celebration takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside of the library this Saturday, Oct. 3
A community institution
“Obviously the library started with a collection of books,” Miller said, “But we offer so much more than that now. We have programs for all ages, from story time to senior outreach. We have adult programs; craft events are very well attended. We have trivia night, book clubs, a crochet club, after-school programs for younger kids and teenagers. And we have the Teen Dungeons and Dragons program,” Miller explained.
Additionally, the Big Piney Library offers tech support. A technology specialist on staff “spends a lot of time in one-on-one meetings with patrons, helping them with their phones or on the computer.” The library also offers services like copying, faxing, scanning and emailing. “We’re sort of the heart of the community down here.”
The Big Piney Library has moved several times since it got its start a century ago inside the walls of the Community Congregational Church, but it remains exactly what its founders intended it to be—“a place created for and supported by its community.”
A small group of Big Piney residents is responsible for starting the library. They worked with Reverend Archibald Best to collect, house and circulate the books out of the church. Oscar Pipe built the glass doors used to protect the books, and Mr. Anderson, the school’s school teacher, along with his students, built the bookshelves. When it opened to the public, the library had 400 books in circulation, nine of which were checked out on the first day. In 1958, the library relocated to a small building near Burney and Company’s Grocery. Shelves and books were added, along with gas heating and lighting. That same year, the Board of Sublette County Commissioners established the Sublette County Library Board and appointed Reta Carr as a librarian. Having grown even more, the library moved again in 1963, this time to the back of the former bank building, which was then, and now, used as Big Piney’s Town Hall. Within four years, the collection and number of patrons doubled, a summer reading program and story hour were implemented, open hours were expanded, and a library assistant was hired to help the librarian. In 1974, a new library was built across the street at the old Post Office. Seventeen years later, an addition was completed and Carrie Anderson was appointed as the Big Piney librarian. During her tenure, Anderson introduced computers, added bar codes to the books, and issued new library cards to patrons. When Debi Morely took over as Big Piney Library Manager, she oversaw the planning and construction of the current library on Fish Street.
In 2021, the Big Piney Library underwent a major renovation, during which most library materials were relocated to the Big Piney Recreation Center. After 10 months, the newly renovated interior of the Big Piney Library at 106 S. Fish Street was unveiled to the public in December 2022.
