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The North Platte River that flows through a portion of Platte County, Wyoming, lent its name to the new county carved from Laramie County in 1911. Prior to the late 1800s, with the exception of Native Americans, trappers, and some ranchers, few people chose to remain in the territory. Travelers who crossed the windswept prairies followed trails headed for the lush farmlands of Oregon or the goldfields of California and the Black Hills. In 1883,
...7) Laramie
While it was still part of Dakota Territory, the town of Laramie was founded in 1868 with the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad. Laramie's placement on the high plains at an elevation of 7,200 feet has
not made for an easy existence, but the hardy ranching families and cowboys, with their cattle hunkered down against the winds and snow, survived in spite of their harsh surroundings and even thrived in this unique eastern Wyoming town. This
...8) Rock Springs
9) Lander
Before Lander became a town, the area had already been the summer hunting grounds for numerous Native American tribes, seen a few rendezvous, and had become a freighting hub. Supplying goods for the miners in the South Pass area and goods for the cavalry and natives at Fort Washakie, the freight wagons rolled year-round. When the Lander townsite was plotted in 1880, the main road remained wide enough that a 20-hitch team could turn around. As more
...10) Gillette
There is an old saying that the Powder River was "a mile wide; an inch deep; too thick to drink; too thin to plow," and yet it was fought over many times in the early settlement of northeastern Wyoming. The lure of free land attracted tough pioneer families and rowdy outlaws to the new town of Gillette. Bars and brothels competed with schools and churches for the cowboys of some of the largest cattle and sheep ranches in the state. The coal that
...11) Cody
12) Powell
A historic and folkloric path that meandered from Canada to Mexico, the Outlaw Trail was used by outlaws such as Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and the James brothers. Following existing Western routes such as the Oregon Trail, the highway connected towns and natural hideouts essential for bandits escaping the law. Some in Western communities were sympathetic toward the outlaws. Many, like Cassidy, were seen as Robin Hoods, fighting for common
...17) Sundance
Sundance, in the northeast corner of Wyoming, may not be the only place with that name, but it is the original Sundance—the place where the Kid got his name. There was no settlement of any sort when Crook County was created in 1875. The town was founded in 1878, named after the mountain that stands south of town where the Plains tribes held their sun dance ceremonies. Sundance is not that different from the many other small towns that sprang
...18) Weston County
In his Annual Report of the Territorial Geologist to the Governor of Wyoming 1890, Louis D. Ricketts wrote, "The coal of this district has little other use than that of supplying a local market." Years later, nothing could be further from the truth. The United States uses approximately one billion tons of coal a year, with about 390 million tons coming from Campbell County, Wyoming. Since large-scale commercial coal production began in Campbell
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