Your Guide
Meet Mike Kuzara
Some people study a place. Mike has spent a lifetime living it.
Placeholder: Historic Kuzaraville or Big Goose Creek area photograph
Deep Roots in Sheridan Country
Born Into the History
Mike grew up at Kuzaraville — a small settlement founded by his grandfather, George Kuzara, in 1900 near a natural crossing of Big Goose Creek along Higby Road. Before U.S. Highway 87 was built in 1933, this area was part of the primary wagon and early motorcar route north out of Sheridan.
At its height, Kuzaraville was a genuine community: a commercial bakery, butcher shop, blacksmith shop, ice house, smoke house, saloon, grocery store, gas station, coal miner cottages, ranch outbuildings, and a 62-volt Delco generator — all connected to George Kuzara's Star Mine and the life of the surrounding country.
Most of those buildings are gone now. But Mike's memories and his family's connection to that land remain part of who he is — and part of what he brings to every tour.
A Lifetime in the Region
The Roads Became Part of the Education
Mike has lived in Sheridan, Lander, Dubois, Clearmont, and Dutch Creek. Early in his career, work with line construction contractors and the Bell System took him throughout Wyoming and Colorado.
He later spent 31 years with Range Telephone, covering eastern Sheridan County, portions of Johnson and Campbell counties, and stretches of Rosebud and Big Horn counties in Montana. Decade after decade of driving those roads gave him something no guidebook can replicate: a working knowledge of the back roads, ranches, small communities, coal camps, river crossings, and landscapes that most visitors never see.
Much of what Mike knows about this country, he knows because he drove it, worked it, and lived in it — not because he read about it.
More Than 25 Years of Historical Tours
Picture This Country Before the Roads Were Here
"Picture this country before the roads and buildings were here."
Mike has been conducting historical tours for more than 25 years. His approach grew naturally from a lifetime of knowledge — not from a curriculum or a certification program.
He doesn't simply drive visitors from site to site. He helps them understand why historic routes followed certain terrain, how rivers and creek crossings shaped travel, how forts related geographically to one another, and why battles and military movements happened where they did.
He helps visitors picture the country before the roads and buildings were here. That's the difference between visiting a battlefield and truly understanding one.
That lived knowledge is backed by decades of serious historical study. Mike maintains a large personal library of regional history reference books and has spent years reading deeply into the military, Native American, ranching, and community history of northern Wyoming and southeastern Montana. He serves as President of the Big Horn City Historical Society, is a member of the Montana Historical Society, the Jim Gatchell Museum in Buffalo, and the Fort Phil Kearny / Bozeman Trail Association, and is a past secretary of Westerners International. These aren't credentials he leads with — they're simply part of how seriously he takes the subject.
What It's Like to Tour With Mike
No Script. No Rush. Plenty of Stories.
Mike is conversational, curious, and flexible. There's no fixed script and no rigid schedule. If something catches your interest, he'll slow down. If you have questions, he'll answer them — and probably add a few things you didn't think to ask.
He's informal and often humorous. He's more interested in helping people genuinely understand what they're looking at than in rushing through a checklist of sites. Visitors who come expecting a standard tour usually leave having had something quite different.
And when the conversation turns to deep time — the geology, the ancient landscape, the long arc of this country's history — Mike is comfortable there too. He's been studying it long enough to know where the stories connect.
Mike's View of Sheridan Country
A Place That Stays With You
Mike values the scale of this landscape — the Bighorn Mountains, the open country, the small-town character of Sheridan and the communities around it. It's a place with genuine friendliness and a pace that's different from crowded tourist destinations.
A visitor from England once looked across the landscape and said it simply:
"All this vastness makes one feel insignificant."
— A visitor from England
"Well, That's My Story and I'm Stickin' to It."
Mike has been part of this landscape his entire life. His grandfather built a community here. He worked its roads for decades. He's been sharing its history with visitors for more than 25 years. When you tour with Mike, that lifetime comes with you.
"And at 87 years old, I really was sad when all of those dinosaurs died!"
Ready to See Sheridan Country With Mike?