USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume I > Part 55
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A COUNTRY HOME IN WYOMING Flag Ranch, nine miles south of Laramie. Residence of Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Homer.
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mica, kaolin, natural soda and cement, asbestos and a fine quality of building stone. Many of these deposits are practically untouched and the value of the mineral wealth concealed in the mountains and gulches of Albany can only be conjectured.
BIGHORN COUNTY
The territory comprising the present County of Bighorn was originally in- cluded in the counties of Carbon and Sweetwater. When created by the act of March 12, 1890, it contained a much larger area than at the present time. The boundaries as defined by that act were as follows :
"Commencing at a point where the northern boundary line of Wyoming Ter- ritory intersects the thirty-third meridian of longitude west from Washington; running thence south along said meridian to its intersection with the crest of the Rocky Mountains or Continental Divide, separating the waters of the Yellow- stone and Snake rivers; thence in a southeasterly direction along the crest of said divide to its intersection with the eleventh standard parallel north; thence east along said standard parallel to its intersection with the crest of the moun- tain range dividing the waters of Wind River on the south from the waters of Greybull and Wood rivers on the north; thence along the crest of said divide between the waters of the last named streams and the crest of the divide be- tween the waters of Wind River on the south and of Grass Creek and Owl Creek on the north, to a point on the crest of the said last named divide at the head of the south fork of Owl Creek; thence down said Owl Creek along the north boundary of the Wind River or Shoshone Reservation, to its intersection with the channel of the Big Horn River; thence southerly along the channel of said last named river to its intersection with the boundary line between the counties of Johnson and Fremont, as now constituting the same, being the line of 43º 30' north latitude; thence east along the said line of 43º 30' north latitude to its intersection with the range line between townships 41 north and ranges 85 and 86 west; thence north on said range line through townships 41 to 51, inclusive, to the crest of the Big Horn Mountains, the same being the divide between the waters flowing into the Big Horn .River on the west and the waters of Powder River and Tongue River on the east; thence in a northwesterly direction, fol- lowing the crest of said last named divide, to the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude, being the northern boundary line of Wyoming Territory; thence west along said forty-fifth parallel of north latitude to the place of beginning."
As thus originally created, the County of Bighorn included all the present county of that name, Park and Washakie counties and most of the county of Hot Springs. It was reduced to its present dimensions by the creation of the three above named counties in 19II.
Section 2 of the act creating the county provided that commissioners for organizing it should not be appointed before February 1, 1892, and that when a petition for organization should be presented to the governor, "there shall also be presented to him, before he takes action thereon in appointing such commis- sioners, proof, by affidavit or otherwise, showing that the counties of Fremont and Johnson, respectively, will have left within their boundaries, respectively, after the complete organization of said Bighorn County an assessed valuation
John Ovvero
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of property amounting to the sum of $1,600,000, and in Bighorn County to not less than $1,500,000."
Described in language unencumbered by legal phraseology, Bighorn County is bounded on the north by the State of Montana; on the east by Johnson and Sheridan counties; on the south by Washakie County; and on the west by the County of Park. Its area is 6,768 square miles, or 4,330,520 acres, occupying the great agricultural region known as the "Big Horn Basin," and it is one of the rapidly developing counties of Wyoming. Fully 80 per cent of the land in the county is available for farming or grazing and the numerous streams furnish excellent water for live stock and for irrigation. About the beginning of the present century, some eight hundred Mormons came to this county from Utah and entered into an agreement with the state authorities to irrigate 18,000 acres. This contract was carried out and two years later there were 200,000 acres under irrigation. In 1910, the year before the county was divided, official statistics showed that Bighorn had 60,000 cattle, 350,000 sheep and 15,500 horses, the total value of these animals being over three and a half millions of dollars. In horse raising it led all the counties of the state in that year and it was one of the three highest in cattle raising.
There are large areas of oil lands in the Big Horn Basin, some of which have been developed with profit, especially near Byron, in the northwestern part, Bo- nanza, on the No Wood River, and near the Town of Greybull. In the last named field the wells yield gas as well as oil. This gas has been piped to Basin, the county seat, where it is used for fuel. The oil found in the county is of superior quality and commands the top price in the market on account of the large per- centage of gasoline it contains.
The Denver & Billings Line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway system runs north and south through the central portion, following the course of the Big Horn River. The principal stations in the county on this road are Cowley, Frannie, Basin (the county seat), Greybull, Lovell and Manderson. At Frannie, in the extreme northwest corner of the county, a branch leaves this line and runs in a sonthwesterly direction to Cody, Park County.
In 1910 the population of Bighorn County was 13,795 and the assessed valu- ation of property was $15,942,567. By the organization of three new counties the next year both the population and assessed valuation of property were de- creased. According to the state census of 1915 Bighorn reported a popula- tion of 6,815, and in 1917 the property valuation was $9,135,482.
The Bighorn County Farmers' Fair Association, organized some years ago, was reorganized in 1916 and in 1917 conducted the "biggest and best fair ever held in the county," attracting visitors from the adjoining counties. A new courthouse was completed early in 1918, at a cost of $65,000.
CAMPBELL COUNTY
Campbell County occupies the upper valleys of the Bellefourche and Little Powder rivers, in the northeastern part of the state. It is one of the new counties, having been created by an act of the Legislature, approved February 13, 19II. In the organic act the boundaries are thus described: "Commencing at a point on the northern boundary of the State of Wyoming where the range
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line between ranges 68 and 69 west intersects said boundary ; thence west along said northern boundary of the State of Wyoming to a point where it intersects the line forming the east boundary line of Sheridan County; thence southerly along the said east boundary of Sheridan County and along the east boundary of Johnson County to a point formed by the intersection of the said east boun- dary of Johnson County with the north boundary of Converse County; thence east along the said north boundary of Converse County to its intersection with the range line between ranges 68 and 69 west ; thence north along said range line and its variations to the place of beginning."
The county was named in honor of John A. Campbell, the first governor of the Territory of Wyoming when it was organized in 1869. It has an area of over four thousand square miles, much of which is well adapted to stock raising which is the principal industry. The territory comprising the county was first made a part of Laramie County when the latter was created by the Legislature of Dakota Territory in 1867. A portion of it was included in Albany County by the first Territorial Legislature of Wyoming, and in 1875 it was embraced in Crook County, where it remained until erected into the County of Campbell.
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad passes through the central por- tion of the county east and west, with stations at Gillette (the county seat), Cro- ton, Echeta, Felix, Kier, Oriva, Sparta, Minturn, Rozet and Wessex. South of this railroad the country is sparsely settled. The population of Campbell in 1915 was 2,316, and in 1917 the assessed valuation of property was $6,363,463. It is the twentieth county in the state in point of population, and nineteenth in wealth.
CARBON COUNTY
The first Territorial Legislature of Wyoming passed an act, to take effect on January 1, 1870, Section I of which provided: "That all that portion of Wyo- ming Territory described as follows, be and is hereby organized into a county by the name of Carbon, to wit: Commencing at a point one-half mile east of Como Station on the Union Pacific Railroad and running thence due north to the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude; thence west along said parallel to the line of 107° 30' west longitude; thence south along the eastern boundary of Carter (Sweetwater) County, namely the line of 107° 30' west longitude, to the forty-first parallel of north latitude; thence east along said parellel to a point due south of the point of beginning; thence north to the place of beginning."
As thus created, the county contained all that part of Carbon west of the line dividing ranges 79 and 80 west, except that portion lying west of the line 107° 30' west longitude; the western three-fourths of Natrona County; the greater part of Johnson and Sheridan; and a strip about eighteen miles wide across the east side of Bighorn and Washakie counties. The boundaries were adjusted by subsequent legislation so that parts of Albany and Sweetwater were added to Carbon. On the north Carbon is bounded by Natrona County; on the east by Albany County ; on the south by the State of Colorado; and on the west by Sweetwater County.
The act creating the county provided for its organization by the appointment of the following officers: A. B. Donnelly, E. V. Upton and Robert Foot, commis- sioners; George Doyle, sheriff ; William R. Hunter, probate judge and ex-officio
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justice of the peace; Thomas J. Williams, county clerk and register of deeds; H. C. Hall, superintendent of public schools; Robert Foot, justice of the peace for the Fort Halleck Precinct, and a Mr. Hinton, justice of the peace for the Carbon Precinct. The county seat was located at Rawlins Springs "until removed according to law."
Among the early settlers of Carbon was Perry L. Smith, who came to Raw- lins Springs in 1868. He was elected county commissioner at the first election after the county was organized and was twice reelected, serving three consecu- tive terms; was elected county clerk in 1874; served in the legislative sessions of 1879 and 1881, and was territorial auditor during Governor Hale's administra- tion.
James France, a native of Pennsylvania, came to Wyoming in 1868, when he was about thirty years of age. In 1869 he took charge of a branch store opened by H. C. Hall & Company at Rawlins, and from that time until his death he was identified with the history of Carbon County. From 1871 to 1885 he was postmaster at Rawlins and served several terms as county commissioner. In 1882 he engaged in the banking business, with which he was connected for the remainder of his life.
John C. Dyer, discoverer of the mineral paint deposits at Rawlins, was born in Washington, D. C., in 1845. He came to Cheyenne in 1867 and followed the Union Pacific to Rawlins. There he became associated with George Ferris, who discovered the first mine in the "Ferris District," and was active in developing the mineral deposits in all parts of Carbon County.
Isaac C. Miller was born in Denmark in 1844 and came to America soon after reaching his majority. In 1866 he located at Omaha, but after a short time removed to North Platte. He came to Rawlins in 1870 and the next year engaged in mining at Hahn's Peak. After about two years he began raising cattle, in which line he became one of the most prominent in the county. Mr. Miller was sheriff of the county from 1880 to 1884 and in 1890 he was the democratic candidate for state treasurer at the first election after Wyoming was admitted into the Union.
According to Rand & McNally's Atlas, the area of Carbon County is 8,029 square miles. The surface is broken by mountain ranges, between which are rolling plains and fertile valleys, the altitude varying from 5,000 to 12,000 feet. In the north are the Ferris and Seminoe Mountains, northeast of which is the Shirley Basin. In the southeast are the Medicine Bow Mountains, and the Sierra Madre range is in the southwestern part. Between the two last named ranges flows the Platte River with its numerous small tributaries, forming one of the best stock raising districts of the state. In 1910 there were 52,600 cattle, 380,000 sheep, and 10,450 horses in the county, valued at over three million dollars.
Next in importance to the live stock interests comes the mining industry. The name "Carbon" was given to the county on account of its immense coal beds. Some of the most productive coal mines in the state are operated by the Union Pacific Railroad Company near the Town of Hanna. The output of the Carbon County coal mines in 1910 was nearly six hundred thousand tons and since then it has been greatly increased. The county also has rich oil fields, copper, gold and iron deposits. In the Ferris, Seminoe and Shirley ranges, in the northern
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Hon. Michael Murphy John Madden
Hon. Joseph P. Rankin Tom Sun
Boney Earnest Ilon. James G. Rankin
George Wright John Foote
Benjamin F. Northington
CARBON COUNTY PIONEERS
Vol. I-33
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part, the amount of iron ore has been estimated as high as two hundred and fifty million tons. Near Encampment, in the southern part, the Rudefeha copper mine was discovered by a sheep herder and after being only partially developed was sold for $1,000,000. It was then capitalized by an eastern company for $10,000,000 and the smelting works were erected. Other valuable mines in the Encampment District are the Rambler, Battle and Copperton.
The Saratoga Hot Springs, with a temperature of 135º Fahrenheit, are located in the Platte Valley. The waters of these springs contain sulphur, salines and calcareous salts, closely resembling the famous European springs at Carlsbad, Marienbad and Aix la Chapelle. Their curative properties in certain diseases have been demonstrated, and the location of the springs, surrounded as they are by mountains, in a valley where the streams abound in trout, is an ideal place for a health resort.
In 1915 the population of Carbon County, as given by the state census, was 8,412, and in 1917 the assessed valuation of property was $16,622,257. It is the sixth county in the state in population and wealth. The main line of the Union Pacific Railroad crosses the county east and west a little north of the center, and the Saratoga & Encampment Railroad runs from Encampment to Walcott, where it forms a junction with the Union Pacific, hence the transpor- tation facilities of Carbon are above the average of the Wyoming counties.
CONVERSE COUNTY
Converse is one of three counties created by the Legislature of 1888 in the passage of an act entitled "An act making divers appropriations and for other purposes." It was vetoed by Governor Moonlight and on March 9, 1888, was passed over the governor's objections and signed by John A. Riner, president of the council, and L. D. Pease, speaker of the house. The section of the act relating to Converse County was as follows :
"All that portion of this territory described and bounded as hereinafter in this section set forth, shall, when organized according to law, constitute and be a county of this territory by and under the name of Converse, to wit: Commenc- ing on the eastern boundary line of this territory, where the same is intersected by the forty-third degree and thirty minutes of north latitude, and running thence south along the said eastern boundary line of the territory to the township line between townships thirty and thirty-one north; running thence west along said township line to the eastern boundary line of the present County of Albany ; run- ning thence south along said eastern boundary line (of Albany County) to its intersection with the seventh standard parallel north; running thence west to the western boundary line of the present County of Albany; running thence north along the said western boundary line of the present County of Albany to the forty-third degree and thirty minutes of north latitude; and running thence east along the said forty-third degree and thirty minutes of north latitude to the place of beginning."
The act also provided that the county should be a part of the first judicial district, should constitute the ninth council district, the eleventh representative district, and should be attached to Albany and Laramie counties to form the twelfth representative district.
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As established by the above act, the County of Converse embraced all the present county of that name and the County of Niobrara. It was named for A. R. Converse, who was born in the State of Massachusetts in 1842 and came to Cheyenne in the fall of 1867. There he established the first house furnishing store in the city. Two years later Francis E. Warren became a partner in this business. The partnership lasted until 1878, when Mr. Converse retired from the firm to devote his attention to his cattle business, having opened a ranch on the Chugwater in 1875. He organized the National Cattle Company, of which he was the executive head until 1884, when he disposed of his interest and organized the Converse Cattle Company, with a range on Lance Creek, in what is now Niobrara County. The capital of this company was $1,000,000. Mr. Converse was treasurer of the Territory of Wyoming under Governor Thayer's administration. He died at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City on June 9, 1885.
Converse County is bounded on the north by the counties of Johnson, Campbell and Weston ; on the east by the County of Niobrara ; on the south by the counties of Platte and Albany ; and on the west by the County of Natrona. Platte County also forms a portion of the eastern boundary of that part of Converse sit- uated directly north of Albany County. The county has an area of 6.740 square miles, or 4,313,600 acres, much of which is irrigated and some of the finest farms in the state are in this county.
Topographically, the county is made up of the spurs and foot hills of the adjacent mountain ranges and of rolling plains interspersed with numerous streams. The North Platte River crosses the western boundary a little south of the center and flows in a southeasterly direction until it leaves the county near the southeast corner. This river furnishes most of the water used for irrigation. The La Prele dam, near Douglas, the county seat, waters about thirty thousand acres. The natural bridge, one of the scenic wonders of Wyoming, spans the La Prele Creek a short distance below the dam. Near Douglas, the county seat, there is a large oil field, in which both oil and natural gas have been found and the latter has been used for both fuel and lighting purposes. There are also rich coal deposits near the city. The finest coal west of the Missouri River is found in the Shawnee Basin, in the southeastern part of this county.
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and the Chicago & Northwestern rail- roads follow the course of the Platte River through Converse County, the former on the north bank and the latter on the south bank west of old Fort Fetterman. The principal railroad stations are: Douglas, Careyhurst, Fetterman, Glenrock, Glencross, Lockett and Shawnee. The population in 1910 was 6,294, which in- cluded also the present County of Niobrara, which was set off from Converse in 19II. In 1915 Converse reported a population of 3,626 for the state census. The assessed valuation of property in 1917 was $9.927.722. Fifteen counties in the state reported a larger population in 1915, but only nine showed a larger prop- erty valuation in 1917.
CROOK COUNTY
This county, named in honor of Gen. George Crook, was created by an act of the Legislature approved by Governor Thayer on December 10, 1875. Section I of the act fixed the boundaries of the county as follows: "Commencing at the
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northeast corner of the Territory of Wyoming; thence south along the boundary line between said territory and the Territory of Dakota to the forty-third degree and thirty minutes of north latitude; thence west along said latitude to the 106th meridian of longitude west from Greenwich; thence north with said meridian to the southern boundary of the Territory of Montana; thence east along said boundary to the place of beginning; Provided, That if by reason of any treaty with the Sioux tribe of Indians and any act of Congress any part of the Terri- tory of Dakota shall be included within the limits of this territory, the same shall form and constitute a part of the aforesaid county."
Crook County, as thus established, was taken from the counties of Laramie and Albany and embraced the present counties of Crook, Campbell and Weston. It was reduced to its present dimensions in 1911 and is now bounded on the north by the State of Montana ; on the east by the State of South Dakota; on the south by Weston County; and on the west by Campbell County. Its area is a little less than three thousand square miles and a mean altitude of about four thousand feet, being in the lowest part of the state. It is therefore particularly adapted to agriculture, especially as it has an average annual precipitation of twenty-four inches. Years ago, when farming in many parts of Wyoming was unthought of without irrigation, the farmers of Crook County were gathering abundant crops, watered only by the natural rainfall. Wheat, oats, rye, corn, garden vegetables and small fruits can all be raised with profit in this county.
Stock raising is another leading occupation. In 1910 the county reported 76,175 head of cattle, 202,216 sheep, and was one of the foremost counties in the state in the number of horses, the value of live stock in that year running well over three million dollars.
Coal measures underlie about one-half of the county. The best developed mining district is in the vicinity of Aladdin, which town is the terminus of the Wyoming & Missouri River Railroad. In addition to the coal deposits, gold, sil- ver, tin, copper, lead and manganese have all been found in different sections, some of them in quantities that could profitably be worked but for the lack of transpor- tation facilities. Besides the railroad above mentioned, the only other railroad in the county is the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, which crosses the southwest corner. Kara and Moorcroft are the stations on the latter. Sundance, the county seat, is located southeast of the center of the county, at the base of Sundance Mountain and near the source of Sundance Creek.
One of the natural curiosities of the United States is seen in Crook County. It is a basaltic formation rising to a height of 1.300 feet above the surrounding country and is called the "Devil's Tower." This marvelous freak of nature is situated on the Bellefourche River, a little west of the center of the county, on a reservation set apart by the National Government.
In 1915 the state census reported a population of 5,117 in Crook County, and in 1917 the property was valued for tax purposes at $17.357.255. These figures show the county to be thirteenth in population and fourteenth in wealth of the Wyoming counties.
FREMONT COUNTY
Fremont is the largest county in Wyoming, having an area of almost eleven thousand square miles. On March 5. 1884. Governor Hale approved an act of
CROOK COUNTY COURTHOUSE, SUNDANCE
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the Territorial Legislature creating Fremont County with the following boun- daries: "Commencing at the northwest corner of Sweetwater County ; running thence south on the western boundary line of said county to the boundary line between townships 26 and 27 north ; thence east on said township I'ne to a point 107° 30' west from Greenwich, being the western boundary of Carbon County; thence north along the said line of 107º 30' of longitude to its intersection with the line of 43° 30' north latitude, being the southern boundary of Johnson County ; thence west along said line of 43° 30' north latitude to the Big Horn River ; thence down said Big Horn River to the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude, being the boundary line between Montana and Wyoming; thence west along said forty-fifth parallel of north latitude to the place of beginning."
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