New Fork - Boulder, Wyoming
Posted by: 
brwhiz
N 42° 42.199 W 109° 42.911
12T E 605226 N 4728669
New Fork was a small community that existed to support trade on the Lander Cut-Off of the Oregon Trail.
Waymark Code: WMAF2K
Location: Wyoming, United States
Date Posted: 01/07/2011
Views: 2
The small ranching settlement of New Fork was established by John Vible and Louis Broderson in 1888 near the New Fork and East Fork Rivers. Both men were Danish emigrants who had come to America in 1884. The two men pooled their meager resources into an informal partnership. They planned to file on homesteads in the upper Green River Valley in order to raise cattle and to start a mercantile business by locating a store close to the Lander Cut-off of the Oregon Trail. The partners then built a small log structure which served as the store, trading post, and living quarters. The location became known as New Fork. A large portion of their early trade involved Shoshoni and Bannock Indians who regularly migrated through the region between reservations established for them east of the Wind River Mountains and in Idaho in 1868. The partners stocked their store by making regular wagon trips to Evanston for supplies. A post office was established for the New Fork community on March 1, 1888, located about six miles from the Vible and Broderson store. On February 4, 1891, Louis Broderson became the postmaster and the post office was located at the New Fork location. In August 1888, New Fork was established as a polling place with an estimated 20 voters, and near the end of that year, the New Fork School District No. 17 was established.
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