The Eastern Shoshone Tribe recently debuted $30 million worth of upgrades to Shoshone Rose Casino on the Wind River Reservation in Lander, Wyoming. The expansion, aimed at creating an upscale feel, includes a 61-room hotel with an indoor heated pool and hot tub. Just outside the pool area, a fire pit and seating venue overlook the majestic Wind River Mountain Range.

“We were going for an elegant facility,” Soshone Business Council chairman Darwin St. Clair Jr. told The Ranger.

The hotel booked up quickly, thanks to the casino’s successful marketing efforts, St. Clair added.  

The soft opening of the renovated casino and hotel on September 30 involved blessings and drum songs. The official grand opening is slated for October 14, when the tribe anticipates the indoor pool and surrounding landscaping will be completed, and 425 gaming machines will be installed.

The tribe opened Shoshone Rose, its first gaming facility, on the Wind River Reservation in October 2007.

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The upgrade comes a few months after the tribe named its new general manager: Sheila Matt, former CEO of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ S&K Gaming in Western Montana. "We're bringing unique games to the floor that nobody else in the state has," she told The Ranger.

The expansion of Shoshone Rose Casino was made possible with a loan from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, a tribe well-known for extending loans and grants in Indian country.

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