English: Title: Ayres Natural Bridge in Converse County, near Douglas, is considered one of Wyoming's first tourist attractions

Physical description: 1 photograph : digital, tiff file, color.

Notes: Forms part of: Gates Frontiers Fund Wyoming Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.; Credit line: Gates Frontiers Fund Wyoming Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.; Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer.; Purchase; Carol M. Highsmith Photography, Inc.; 2015; (DLC/PP-2015:069).; But for the Indians who first lived in this country, the rocky arch above the waters of LaPrele Creek was a deadly place. A young brave had been struck by lightning and killed while hunting the canyon; thus began a legend that an evil spirit called "King of Beasts" lived below the bridge. When white settlers realized this, they used the bridge as a place to escape from Indian attacks. Early-day mountain men lived in caves nearby, and Mormon settlers built cabins nearby in the 1850s. In 1882, the ages-old formation finally got a name, after Alva Ayres a teamster who had settled the land at the bridge.