Fossil Island at Fossil Island Golf Club

Fossil Island Golf Club sits in the high desert of southwestern Wyoming near Kemmerer, a small town known primarily for its rich fossil beds and coal mining history. The course was designed by Dick Phelps, a regional architect who worked primarily in the Rocky Mountain states during the latter decades of the twentieth century. The layout occupies terrain characteristic of this part of Wyoming—arid, windswept, and marked by the kind of dramatic elevation changes and exposed geology that define the region's landscape.

The routing takes advantage of the natural topography, with holes that move through sagebrush-dotted terrain and reveal long views across the surrounding basin and range country. At over 7,000 feet in elevation, the course plays firm and fast for much of the season, and wind is a consistent factor in club selection and strategy. The design reflects the practical constraints of building and maintaining golf in a remote, high-altitude environment with limited water resources.

Fossil Island serves a small local membership and visitors passing through this sparsely populated corner of Wyoming. The club operates as a straightforward community amenity rather than a destination facility, offering golfers in the area a place to play amid the stark beauty of the high desert. The course provides a genuine taste of golf in the American West, where the landscape itself is the primary feature and conditions demand creativity and adaptability.