Laramie WY - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

The waymark coordinates are located at the City Hall.

Union Pacific's Garfield Street Bridge over the UP Railyard in downtown Laramie. The UP RR is the reason the town developed where and when it did, and the UP Laramie Yard is still a vital part of the economy for this city.

The American guide writers were clearly entranced with the wild and wooly history and sassy attitude of the folks in Laramie, because they wrote A LOT more about Laramie than they did about the state capitol of Cheyenne!

From the Oregon Trail Guide:

"[page 85] LARAMIE, 92.4 m. (7,165 alt., 8,609 pop.), seat of Albany County, lies at the eastern edge of an extensive plateau known as the Laramie Plains. It is an outfitting point for hunting and fishing excursions into the nearby mountains and valley, and a trade center for cattle and sheep ranches and oil fields. The town was named for Jacques [page 86] La Ramee, a French-Canadian free trapper who in the early 1800s operated in the territory that is now Wyoming. He is said to have been killed by Arapaho Indians in 1820 or 1821. His name appears frequently in the American Fur Company correspondence.

The Indians of various tribes that formerly roamed over this area left many artifacts behind them; in the city are a number of extensive private collections of primitive weapons found in the neighborhood.

By 1866, when Ben Holladay s stages were running over the Cherokee Trail on fairly regular schedules, increasing numbers of emigrants followed the ruts worn by the swaying vehicles, and a military post, Fort Sanders, was established not far south of this point for the protection of travelers.

When, early in 1868, the Union Pacific R.R. tracks were nearing the big Laramie River, a small settlement appeared at his place, the inhabitants living in tents, sheds, and shanties, or in the open.

In April the Union Pacific R.R. Company began the sale of lots; within a week more than four hundred were sold or contracted for. Ten days later more than five hundred structures had been erected; some were built of logs, some of crossties with canvas tops, and some of rough lumber.

On May 9 the rails were laid through the town. The next day the first train clanked in and iron rails, crossties, ploughs, scrapers, tents, lumber, and provisions were unloaded. Peddlers also arrived with packs of notions, cooking stoves, crockery, tinware, and liquor. On the same train, riding on flatcars with their household goods, came men, women, and children.

Within three months Laramie s population was about five thousand. A temporary town government had been organized in May and a mayor and trustees elected. After three weeks, however, the mayor had resigned and the rest of the government disintegrated, leaving the inhabitants free to settle their difficulties with revolvers and knives. By August, 20 law-and-order citizens had formed a vigilance committee, which within a week hanged a young desperado called "The Kid." The hanging merely served to stimulate the ruffians to new endeavors ; they boasted that they would run the town to suit themselves. Violence increased and a new vigilance committee with three or four hundred members was formed. They planned a complete cleanup, to be accomplished by simultaneous raids on all the notorious hell-holes and by the hanging of the leaders of the peace-breakers. On October 18, 1868, the members of the squads began to gather, one by one, in the saloons and dance halls to which they had been assigned. Unfortunately, an impatient vigilante in the group sent to care for a dance house called the Belle of the West fired a shot prematurely; the alert ruffians immediately grasped the significance of the presence of those who ordinarily shunned their company. In the ensuing affray three men one from each faction and a neutral were killed and 15 were wounded. Three of the leading ruffians were [page 87] captured and immediately hanged from telegraph poles; the next day Big Steve, another badman, received the same treatment. After this affray many of the desperados moved on to other places, but a few allied themselves with the forces that wanted order and became blatant advocates of public virtue.

Out of the vigilance committee was evolved another local government. Late in 1868 the Legislature of Dakota Territory, of which Wyoming was then a part, approved a charter for Laramie and appointed a mayor. But the first legal government was no more successful than its predecessors, and in 1869 the legislative assembly of the new Territory of Wyoming revoked the charter and placed the town under the direct jurisdiction of the Federal Government. Under this regime order was established. On December 10, 1869, the Wyoming Territorial Legislature enacted a law granting suffrage to women, and in March, 1870, the first jury panel in the Territory containing women members was drawn here. Many important newspapers and periodicals of the day sent correspondents and special artists to cover the event. Five women served on the grand jury and six on the petit. The latter jury convicted a man of manslaughter.

In 1873 Laramie was re-incorporated under an act of the Wyoming Territorial Legislature. The town's position aided its development from a terminal camp to a trade and industrial center of importance in the area. Four oil fields are operated within a radius of 50 miles. Today Laramie is a city having many comfortable homes and attractive gardens.

At the corner of 3rd and Garfield Sts. is the SITE OF THE BOOMERANG PLANT, now occupied by a warehouse. The office of this newspaper, which was founded in 1881 by Bill Nye, was in the former hay loft of a livery stable; at the first-floor entrance was a sign with the direction: "Twist the Tail of the Gray Mule and Take the Elevator." Nye, whose given names were Edgar Wilson, came to Laramie in 1876 and opened a law office. In the course of his life in this town he served as justice of the peace, superintendent of schools, councilman, editor of the Sentinel, and postmaster. The Boomerang was founded as an organ of the Republican Party in the State, but it soon became nationally known because of Nye s brand of humor. In time Nye went to work on the New York World and later formed a lecture and writing team with James Whitcomb Riley. In 1886 the two men produced Nye and Riley s Railway Guide. The authors announced : "What this country needs is a railway guide which shall not be cursed by a plethora of facts or poisoned with information. In other railway guides pleasing fancy, poesy, and literary beauty have been throttled at the very thresh old by a wild incontinence of facts, figures, and references to meal stations. For this reason a guide has been built at our own shops and on a new plan. It will not permit information to creep in and mar the reader's enjoyment of the scenery."

Book: Oregon Trail Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 85-87 Year Originally Published: 1939

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/29/2009 Benchmark Blasterz visited it