The association was formed in 1884 and incorporated in 1926 in a small pioneer cabin located on the Wyoming State Fairgrounds in Douglas; the Wyoming legislature appropriated funds for construction of a museum at the same location in 1956, and the association expanded its facilities in 2013 to add the Ruthe James Williams Center.

Circa 2012 the association recognized a need to increase the size of their meeting facilities and display space for historical artifacts.

James Williams' parents were pioneers who made their home in the Douglas, Wyoming, area in 1917, and gave birth to her in 1919.

[4] Williams was a member of the Wyoming National Guard, stationed in Fort Lewis, Washington, when Pearl Harbor was bombed in December 1941.

When James Williams died in 2008, she bequeathed Wyoming Pioneer Association a significant piece of her estate.

The Wyoming Pioneer Association expended the bulk of those funds to construct the Ruthe James Williams Center.

"We now have a Memorandum of Understanding with State Parks and Cultural Resources and the Wyoming Department of Agriculture that allows us the flexibility to open, use and showcase the historical buildings, which are the original Pioneer Cabin, two school houses and the Grist Mill, to do a lot more with the old buildings and more in creating the complex.

[9] The museum also displays the bib overalls from 1979 ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductee stock contractor Charles Irwin.

In 1839 Hunton was born in Madison, Virginia and served in the American Civil War prior to relocating to Wyoming.

He died September 4, 1928, at 89 years of age and was buried in Cheyenne, Wyoming with only a small white stone with his initials marking the spot.

[11][12] Association member and Cheyenne resident, Beverly Holmes, and retired Army Colonel Bob Fesack worked to facilitate the new marker, using Hunton's Civil War records to apply to the Veteran's Administration for the gravestone.

[12] Prior to the ceremony, there was a presentation at the Wyoming National Guard Museum, where retired U.S. Army Colonel Bob Bezek shared Hunton's military history.

[13] In 2016, the association granted its second Historical Restoration Award to a community who refurbished a cemetery in Niobrara County, Wyoming.