A 34-year resident of Wyoming, the Rev. Warren Murphy is one of Wyoming’s senior Episcopal clergy. He has served parishes in the ranching communities of Dixon and Baggs, historic Atlantic City, Lander, Cody, and Fort Washakie—on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Murphy most recently served as director of the Wyoming Association of Churches, Wyoming’s only statewide ecumenical organization.

Murphy says he was compelled to research and write On Sacred Ground to tell the story of how religion and spirituality played a role in the history of a place we today call Wyoming.  “Wyoming has a rich and fascinating past, and so much of it was shaped by the diverse religions and faiths of the people who have called it home,” Murphy said.

This is a history that begins with Wyoming’s first people and continues into the present day—from mountain men and Chinese coal miners to Mormon settlers, missionaries and pioneers of the conservation movement inspired by the spirituality of Wyoming’s wilderness. On Sacred Ground also examines the role of spirituality upon some of the state’s major historical events such as the 19th century so-called Indian wars, the arrival of the railroads, the Johnson County War, the Heart Mountain Internment Center, and the spiritual connection to the recent environmental movement.

The book highlights well-known Wyoming residents including Jim Bridger, Chief Washakie, Butch Cassidy, William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Gov. Nellie Tayloe Ross, retail pioneer J.C. Penney, conservationist Tom Bell and Matthew Shepard. The book also explores the contributions of religious figures such as Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, Father Jean Pierre DeSmet, Brigham Young, Sheldon Jackson, Bishop Ethelbert Talbot, John Roberts, Frank Moore, Maggie Kahin, James Reeb and Elizabeth Claire Prophet.