A Hidden Bookstore Thrives Along Wyoming’s Open Road

After living in Wyoming for most of her life, it’s easy to assume there are few surprises left on the map. Yet tucked along a stretch of highway near the Sweetwater River is a place many lifelong residents still haven’t discovered: a used bookstore and farm known as The Mad Dog and the Pilgrim.

Located at Sweetwater Station—an unincorporated spot without its own zip code or population count—the bookstore stands as a quiet rebuttal to the familiar story of independent retailers disappearing from rural America. Stocked with more than 70,000 titles, The Mad Dog and the Pilgrim sits where the highway cuts through sagebrush, crosses the Sweetwater River, and climbs Beaver Rim.

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The Mad Dog and the Pilgrim began as a traditional urban bookstore in Denver, Colorado, where it operated for a decade. Open six days a week, the shop offered free coffee and fresh-baked cookies—amenities that drew regular visitors but not always buyers.

Three years ago the owners, Polly Hinds and Lynda German, were interviewed by the Daily Yonder, a site that spotlights rural America. The story goes:

Hinds, a literary academic, and German, an avid climber and adventurer, decided to combine their shared love of books and wide-open spaces. In 2001, they relocated themselves—and their entire bookstore—to Sweetwater Station.

The move took five months. Hinds and her family made three trips per week from Colorado to Wyoming, each time driving a 20-foot box truck loaded with roughly 1,200 boxes of books to fill around 57,600 cases.

Though she once expected Western Americana to dominate sales, the store’s strongest category has been poetry—a surprise that has held true for two decades.

In an era when rural storefronts continue to empty and convenience often replaces connection, The Mad Dog and the Pilgrim endures as a testament to patience, place, and purpose. At Sweetwater Station, books are not commodities but companions, chosen with care and shared with intention. Hinds and German have built more than a bookstore—they’ve created a living archive shaped by wind, history, and human curiosity. Along this remote stretch of Wyoming highway, their shelves remind visitors that some stories, like some towns, survive not by keeping up with the times, but by staying true to themselves.