USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume I > Part 56
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If the reader will now take a map of Wyoming and trace the original boun- daries of Fremont County as above described, he will discover that the county at first included all the present counties of Fremont and Park and that of Big- horn and Hot Springs counties lying west of the Big Horn River. The county was named for Lient. John C. Fremont, who first visited this section of Wyoming in 1842 and ascended the mountain that bears his name, located in the western part of Fremont County. He afterward rose to be a general in the Union army at the time of the Civil war.
The act creating the county provided that it should remain under the jurisdic- tion of Sweetwater County until organized, and that all Indian lands within its borders should become a part of the county when the title to said lands should be extinguished. A further provision was that the county should be organized whenever 300 or more resident taxpayers petitioned the governor, who should appoint three commissioners to organize the county. The com- missioners appointed to conduct organization were : H. G. Nickerson, B. F. Low and Horace E. Blinn, all residents of the county.
At the first county election Robert H. Hall, A. J. McDonald and Horace E. Blinn were chosen commissioners; James J. Atkins, sheriff; and James A. McAvoy, clerk. Robert H. Hall was born at Sacketts Harbor, N. Y., in 1852, and came to Wyoming about the time he reached his majority. In 1877 he located in Lander, where he engaged in the cattle business. Of the other early commissioners little can be learned.
James J. Atkins, the first sheriff, was born in Wisconsin in 1853. He came to Dakota Territory before he was twenty-one years of age. A little later he located at Lander and became interested in stock raising.
James A. McAvoy, the first clerk, was born in Ohio in 1842 and came to Cheyenne, Wyo., in 1868. The next year he went to South Pass, where for some time he was engaged in mining. In 1873 he settled on Willow Creek, within the lines of the Wind River reservation. He and Samuel Fairfield later opened the road from the timbered lands on the Popo Agie River to Lander.
John Luman, who was the first cattle raiser in the county, was a native of Virginia. He came to Fort Bridger soon after the close of the Civil war and was there employed for some time by the post sutler. He then settled in what is now Fremont County, where he held several local offices.
Another early settler was John D. Woodruff, who was born in Broome County, N. Y., in 1847. When only about nineteen years of age he joined a company of emigrants bound for the West and a few months later was in the
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mining district near the South Pass. Young Woodruff became well acquainted with the country and acted as guide to Generals Crook and Sheridan when the site of Fort Custer was selected. He was several times called to act as guide in the Indian campaigns that followed the Civil war.
Maj. Noyes Baldwin, one of the best known of Fremont County's pioneers, was born in Woodbridge, Conn., in 1826. He served in a Connecticut regiment during the war of 1861-65, where he received his title of "Major," and soon after the close of the war came to the Wind River Valley. He was the leader of the party that discovered gold at the South Pass, the others being Henry Ridell, Frank Marshall, Harry Hubbell and Richard Grace, and perhaps two or three others. These men founded South Pass City in October, 1867, the oldest town in Fremont County. Major Baldwin was engaged in trading with the Indi- ans in the Wind River Valley for several years and was one of the first set- tlers in the City of Lander.
One of the first public buildings erected in the county after its organization was a jail. By the act of February 15, 1886, the county commissioners were authorized to sell this building and use the proceeds in the construction of a new courthouse and jail, the balance of the cost of the building to be raised by an issue of bonds not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars.
Topographically, Fremont County occupies the "crest of the continent." The Wind River Range, which forms part of the great Continental Divide, passes through the western part from northwest to southeast; in the southeasten part are the Granite and Green mountains and the Antelope Hills; and along the northeastern border are the Owl Creek Mountains. Fremont Peak, the highest mountain of the Wind River Range, has an elevation of 13,570 feet above the level of the sea. Along this range numerous streams find their source. Those on the east side flow into the Wind River, their waters ultimately reaching the Atlantic Ocean. while those of the western slope flow into the Green River and find their way to the Pacific. The waters of a number of these streams have been taken for irrigation, with the result that some of the finest irrigated farms in the state are to be found in Fremont County.
The county is rich in mineral resources. During the first five years after the discovery of gold at the South Pass, about seven million dollars' worth of the precious metal was taken from the mines, and a considerable amount has been taken out since that time. A few years ago improved mining methods were introduced in the gold fields of this section and ores yielding a value of only ten dollars per ton have been developed.
About twenty miles south of Lander there is a large deposit of high grade iron ore, which will certainly be utilized at some period in the future. when the pro- duct of the mines can be transported to the markets. Other valuable mineral deposits contain sulphur, alum, high grade clays, cement and fine building stone.
It is a fact worthy of note that the first oil wells in Wyoming were sunk in Fremont County and called the attention of the outside world to the vast possibilities of the Wyoming oil fields. The county also has a large area of valuable coal-bearing lands, but the development of the deposits began only recently. In 1910 the largest coal camp, located at Hudson, a few miles below Lander on the Popo Agie River, shipped 104,140 tons. Since then the shipments
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have been greatly increased, the coal going to po'nts along the Chicago & North- western Railroad as far east as Omaha.
Notwithstanding the mining interests are of importance, farming and stock raising are the leading occupations. In 1910 the county reported 32,460 head of cattle, 378,000 sheep, and 10,000 horses, the total value of the live stock in that year being given as $7.864,000. As new lands are constantly being brought under irrigation, the agricultural development is going forward at a rapid pace.
The greatest drawback to the progress of Fremont County is the lack of transportation facilities. The Chicago & Northwestern, which runs from Lander down the Popo Agie Valley, and the Chicago, Burl'ngton & Quincy, which traverses the northeastern part of the county, are the only railroads. When one stops to consider that it is about one hundred and twenty-five miles across Fremont County ; that the county is about nine times as large as the entire State of Rhode Island, and that it has only about one hundred and twenty-five miles of railroad in all, the need of transportation lines may be readily seen.
In 1915 the population of Fremont County was 9,633, and in 1917 the assessed valuation of property was $12,985.999. Of the twenty-one counties of Wyoming, Fremont stands fifth in population and eighth in the valuation of property. The principal towns and villages in the county, with their population in 1915. are as follows: Lander ( the county seat), 1.726; Atlantic City, 218; Dubo's, 142; Hudson, 428; Pinedale, 83: Riverton, 803: Shoshoni, 278; South Pass City, 83.
GOSHEN COUNTY
Goshen is one of the new counties created by the Legislature of 1911, the act creating it having been approved by Governor Carey on the IIth of February of that year. Section i provided: "That all that portion of the State of Wyoming, bounded as hereinafter in this section set forth, is hereby erected, created and made a county of the State of Wyoming, by the name of Goshen: Commencing at a point on the boundary line between the State of Wyoming and the State of Nebraska, where the township line between townships 30 and 31 north intersects said houndary line, and running thence south along said boundary line between the State of Wyoming and the State of Nebraska to the township line between townships 18 and 19 north ; thence west on said township line to the section line between sections 33 and 34. in township 19 north, range 65 west of the sixth principal meridian; thence north along the middle section line of range 65 to its intersection with the north boundary line of Laramie County; thence east along said county boundary to the place of beginning."
The act further provided that when the county was organized it should be a part of the first judicial district, and that it should be attached to Laramie County, from which it was taken, for Legislative purposes. Goshen County is about thirty miles wide and a little over seventy miles long. It contains nearly twenty- two hundred square miles and is bounded on the north by Niobrara County ; on the east by the State of Nebraska : on the south by Laramie County, and on the west by the counties of Laramie and Platte. The North Platte River enters the county from the west, about twenty miles from the northwest corner, and flows in a southeasterly direction until it crosses the state line into Nebraska. Along this stream there are about fifty thousand acres of irrigated lands, and in the county
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there are some thirty-five thousand acres upon which dry farming is carried on successfully. The state owns an experimental farm near Torrington, the county seat of Goshen, where tests are made of pasture grasses and grains and methods of feeding live stock are demonstrated. This farm was established in 1915.
The United States Reclamation Service has established in Goshen County one of the greatest irrigation enterprises in the West, the Government dam at Whalen being the initial point of the Interstate canal on the north side of the Platte River and the Laramie Canal on the south side. Both these canals run into Nebraska, watering in Goshen County alone 100,000 acres of land and a much larger area in Nebraska. The combined length of the two canals is 250 miles and the cost was about ten million dollars. The cost of the Whalen dam was over one million dollars. The Fort Laramie Canal was nearly completed during the season of 1918 and water is supplied by this canal to the Goshen Hole settlers. The Inter- state Canal was completed in 1915.
Although one of the smaller counties of Wyoming. Goshen takes high rank in the production of live stock. In 1917 there were 40,563 head of cattle assessed for taxation, over twelve thousand hogs, some sheep and horses, the total value of domestic animals in the county amounting to over two million dollars, or about one-third of the total assessment.
Along the north bank of the Platte River runs the Lincoln & Billings division of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway system, and the most densely populated part of the county 's along the line of the railroad. Torrington, the county seat, is situated on this railroad in the eastern part of the county. Other important railway stations are Lingle, Fort Laramie, Vaughn and Whalen. Fort Laramie is situated on the old Fort Laramie military reservation in the western part, where many of the stirring scenes of Wyoming's early days were enacted.
In 1915 Goshen County reported a population of 5.035, and in 1917 the assessed valuation of property was $6,062.773. an increase of $757.977 over that of the preceding year. While thirteen counties of the state reported larger population, and nineteen showed a larger valuation of property in 1917, only five showed a greater percentage of increase in the taxable property. In 1916 the superintendent of public instruction reported fifty-five schoolhouses and eighty-nine teachers in Goshen County, and the commissioners have recently completed a $40,000 courthouse, which was paid for entirely by contributions from the citizens.
HOT SPRINGS COUNTY
The County of Hot Springs, the smallest of the State of Wyoming, is situated northwest of the center of the state in the valley of the Big Horn River. It was created by an act of the Legislature, approved by Governor Carey on Febru- ary 9. 1911, with the most irregular boundaries of any county in the state, over a page of the statutes being necessary to record the legal and technical description of the boundary lines. Generally speaking, it is bounded on the north by Park and Washakie counties ; on the east by Washakie: on the south and southwest by Fremont ; and on the west by Park. The county takes its name from the Big Horn Hot Springs, located on a state reservation a little east of the center of the county, and the territory of which it is composed was taken from the counties of Fremont, Bighorn and Park.
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The springs from which the county derives its name were long known to the Indians as possessing curative properties in certain diseases, and they are believed by physicians who have examined and tested the waters to be the greatest medicinal springs in the United States, if not in the world, in cases of rheumatism, kidney trouble, blood diseases and eruptions of the skin. The largest spring flows over eighteen million gallons of water daily, with a temperature of 135° Fahren- heit. Jim Bridger was probably the first white man to bathe in the waters of these now noted springs. The old Bridger Trail from Fort Fetterman to the Montana gold fields crossed the Big Horn River at the mouth of Owl Creek, five or six miles below the springs and the trains, for which Bridger was the guide, used to leave the trail at the ford and spend a few days at the hot springs, while their horses recruited on the luxuriant grass of the surrounding glades. Subse- quently cowboys built some rude bath houses and sometimes wintered there. But it was not until the completion of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad that the springs began to be widely known.
Years before Hot Springs County was organized, cattle men drove their herds into the Big Horn Basin, and the industry still flourishes in the county. During the year 1917 about four hundred and fifty carloads of cattle were shipped from the stations on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad to the markets at Omaha and Chicago. Sheep also are raised in large numbers, so that it may be said that the live stock business is the leading one of the county.
Rich coal fields have been opened at Gebo, near the northern boundary, at Crosby, a short distance southeast of Gebo, the Ray Mines twelve miles northeast of Thermopolis, the Hoyt Mines, sixteen miles northwest of Thermopolis, and there are large coal deposits on Owl Creek and Cottonwood Creek that have not been touched. The Gebo Mines shipped 300,000 tons during the year 1917. Short spurs of railroad have been built from the main line to the mines at Gebo and Crosby.
This county was the scene of remarkable oil discoveries in 1917, and so rapid was the development that a pipe line was constructed and a local syndicate entered into a contract to deliver 500,000 barrels of oil from the Warm Springs Dome near Thermopolis to the Midwest Refining Company. Early in 1918 scores of wells were being sunk in different oil domes of the county, which was then recognized as being one of the great oil producing sections of the state.
The population of Hot Springs County in 1915 is given in the state census reports as 3,191, and in 1917 the assessed valuation of property was $6,591,102, an increase over the assessment of the preceding year of $1.751,461. This was the largest proportionate increase reported by any county in Wyoming, being almost 37 per cent. Thermopolis, the county seat, is the only incorporated town in the county. Along the line of the railroad are located Minnesela, Lucerne and Kirby, all thriving villages, and the mining towns of Gebo and Crosby are both lively places.
JOHNSON COUNTY
On December 8. 1875, Gov. John M. Thayer approved an act of the Territorial Legislature creating a new county from the northern part of Albany and Carbon counties, to wit :
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"All that part of the Territory of Wyoming bounded and described as follows, shall be erected into a county to be known by the name of Pease, as hereinafter provided : Commencing at the northwest corner of Crook County ; thence south along the western boundary line of said county to the southwest corner thereof ; thence west along the line of 43° 30' north latitude to the Big Horn River; thence down the latter stream to the southern boundary of the Territory of Montana ; thence east along said boundary line to the place of beginning : Provided, That all the country embraced within the limits of boundaries of said county, shall, for judicial and all other purposes, remain and constitute, as now, part of the counties from which the same is proposed to be taken, respectively, until organized as here- inafter provided."
The original boundaries of the county included the present counties of John- son and Sheridan, and that portion of the counties of Bighorn, Hot Springs and Washakie lying east of the Big Horn River. At the time the county was created by the Legislature there were not more than a score of white people living within its limits. During the winter of 1875-76, the Sioux Indians were constantly com- mitting depredations upon the frontier settlements. The campaigns of Generals Crook, Terry, Custer and Gibbon in 1876 improved the conditions and in the spring of 1877 the Indians were made to retire to their reservation. Then the actual settlement of the county was begun.
To Elias N. Snider is given the credit of being the first permanent settler in Johnson County. He was born in Ohio in 1842 and in 1877 became the post trader at Fort McKinney, near the present City of Buffalo. About two years later he acquired a tract of land and engaged in farming and cattle raising.
Maj. B. J. Hart came soon after Mr. Snider and took a claim where Buffalo now stands. He was elected the first probate judge when the county was organized and later was elected to the Lower House of the Legislature.
Stephen T. Farwell was appointed a justice of the peace before the organization of the county. He aided in organizing the county in 1881 and in 1884 he was elected probate judge to succeed Major Hart. When Wyoming was admitted into the Union in 1890, Mr. Farwell was elected the first superintendent of public instruction.
Frank M. Canton, one of the most active of the early settlers, was born in Virginia in 1854. When about fourteen years of age he went with his parents to Colorado. A few years later he entered the employ of William Jamison, of Montana, as a cowboy, and in 1877 he came to Wyoming, first locating in Cheyenne, but soon after in Pease (now Johnson) County. As a detective for the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association he arrested a number of horse and cattle thieves, some of them "bad men," and in 1882 he was elected sheriff of Johnson County.
The first white woman to settle in the county was Mrs. Alice D. Foster, who came to Wyoming with her husband in 1878, settling on a claim where Fort Philip Kearny formerly stood, near the northern boundary of the county. Mrs. Foster died at Phoenix, Ariz., in April, 1918. She was a sister of Hiram Davidson, of Cheyenne
The act creating the county provided that it should not be organized until five hundred or more qualified voters, residing therein, should petit on the governor to appoint commissioners for that purpose. By the Act of December 13, 1879, the name of the county was changed from Pease to Johnson, in honor of Edward P.
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Johnson, United States attorney for the Territory of Wyoming for several years, whose death occurred in October before the change of name of the county. In March, 1881, Governor Hoyt appointed commissioners and the county was organ- ized according to law.
On March 5, 1884, the governor of the territory approved an act of the Legis- lature authorizing the county commissioners of Johnson to purchase or receive by donation a site in Buffalo for a courthouse and jail, and to issue bonds in any amount not exceeding thirty thousand dollars, bear'ng not more than 8 per cent interest, for the erection of the building, at the same time levy a tax of two mills on the dollar for the purpose of paying the principal and interest. Under the pro- visions of this act the courthouse was erected.
Johnson County is situated northeast of the center of the state. It is bounded on the north by Sheridan County : on the east by Campbell; on the south by Con- verse and Natrona; and on the west by Bighorn and Washakie. According to Rand & McNally's Atlas, the area is 4,175 square miles. It is watered by the Powder River and its tributaries, which have been used to some extent for irriga- tion purposes. Coal of a fine qual'ty is mined in large quantities about a mile from Buffalo, and there are deposits of oil, gold, silver and quicksilver within the county, but the principal industry is stock raising, many cattle, sheep and horses and some hogs being exported every year.
The Wyoming Railroad is the only one in the county. It runs from Buffalo to Clearmont, Sheridan County, where it connects with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. Buffalo is the county seat and principal town. Other towns and villages of importance are Barnum, Kaycee, Kearney, Mayoworth, Trabing and Watt. In 1915 the population was 3.238, and in 1917 the assessed valuation of property was $7,272,918, an increase of over 10 per cent above the assessment of 1916. Johnson stands eighteenth of the counties of the state in population and fifteenth in wealth.
LARAMIE COUNTY
Laramie County occupies the southeast corner of the state. It is bounded on the north by the counties of Platte and Goshen ; on the east by the State of Ne- braska ; on the south by the State of Colorado ; and on the west by Albany County. It is sixty-four miles in length from east to west, and its greatest width from north to south is about forty-five miles, giving it an area of a little less than three thousand square miles. This county was first created by the Dakota Legislature, the governor of that territory approving the act on January 9, 1867. When thus established, Laramie County included all the present state of Wyoming, except the triangle west of the Continental Divide and north of the northern boundary of Sweetwater County.
On Friday, September 27, 1867, the settlers in the county met at the city hall in Cheyenne for the purpose of perfecting the county organization. H. M. Hook was called upon to preside and James R. Whitehead was chosen secretary. A resolution was adopted that the boundaries of Laramie County "be the same as those established by an act of the Legislative Assembly of Dakota Territory. approved January 9. 1867."
W. L. Kuykendall, L. L. Bedell and Thomas J. Street were appointed a com- mittee to divide the county into three election precincts, and an election was
F. S. KING RANCH, NEAR CHEYENNE
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ordered to be held on the second Tuesday in October for county officers, two representatives to the Dakota Legislature, a delegate to Congress, and to locate the county seat. At the election on October 8, 1867, J. S. Casement received a majority of the votes cast for delegate; J. R. Whitehead and Charles D. Bradley were elected representatives ; C. L. Howell and M. H. Hissman and W. L. Hopkins, county commissioners; W. L. Kuykendall, probate judge; Thomas J. Street, district attorney; D. J. Sweeney, sheriff; J. H. Creighton, register of deeds : L. L. Bedell, treasurer; James Irwin, coroner ; J. H. G'ldersleeve, superin- tendent of schools; F. Landberg, surveyor. Nineteen hundred votes were cast and Cheyenne was declared the county seat by a substantial majority.
In the fall of 1867 the miners about the South Pass and the settlers in the neighborhood of Fort Bridger organized a county, to which they gave the name of Carter. The boundaries of this county were not definitely fixed, and even if they had been ever so carefully described, the organizers of the county could not have enforced their declaration, as they were acting without the authority of law. However, the Dakota Legislature recognized the county by an act approved on December 27, 1867. Messrs. Bradley and Whitehead, the repre- sentatives from Laramie County, succeeded in securing the passage of a supple- mentary act (approved on January 3, 1868) fixing the western boundary of Laram'e County at the one hundred and seventh meridian of longitude west from Greenwich.
The supplementary act also named new county officers, to wit: Benjamin Ellinger, P. McDonald and - Beals, county commissioners; J. L. Laird, sheriff ; William L. Morris, recorder; W. L. Kuykendall, probate judge; J. H. Gildersleeve, superintendent of schools; S. H. Winsor, surveyor ; John- son, coroner ; A. B. Moore and A. W. Brown, justices of the peace; F. Masterson, constable. These officials remained in office until after the territorial government of Wyoming went into effect.
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