Named for the Shoshone Indians who once held sway over this part of the Great Plains, the forlorn town of Shoshoni (pop. 635) sits at the junction of US-20 and US-26, at the southeast edge of the Boysen Reservoir. Though it doesn’t look like much if you just race through, Shoshoni does have one excellent reason to stop: the Yellowstone Drug Store (307/876-2539), 127 Main Street, at the center of Shoshoni’s block-long business district. It sells the state’s best milk shakes and ice cream floats at the ancient-looking soda fountain.
Between Shoshoni and Casper, the only attraction worth mentioning is the odd geology of Hell’s Half Acre, a 300-acre concentration of grotesquely eroded stone south of US-20 amid the arid badlands landscape. (Scenes in the movie Starship Troopers were filmed here in 1996.)
