USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume I > Part 57
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Laramie County, as established by this act, extended from the one hundred and fourth to the one hundred and seventh meridians of longitude west from Greenwich, and from the forty-first to the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude. It included the present counties of Laramie, Albany, Goshen, Platte, Converse, Niobrara, Weston, Campbell and Crook, the eastern two-thirds of Sheridan, Natrona and Carbon, and nearly all of Johnson.
The first Legislature of Wyoming Territory was convened on October 12, 1869. During the session Governor Campbell approved acts creating five coun- ties, one of which was Laramie. The western boundary was then fixed where it is at the present time, but it extended from the northern to the southern boundary of the state. The act took effect on December 13, 1869. Section I reads as follows: "That until the first general election, to be held in this terri- tory on the second Tuesday in September, A. D. 1870, and until their successors are elected and qualified, the following named persons are hereby declared to be the county officers of Laramie as hereinafter stated, viz .: County commis- sioners, L. Murrin, H. J. Rogers and George D. Foglesong; sheriff, T. J. Carr; judge of probate. William L. Kuydendall; county clerk and ex-officio register of deeds, John T. Chaffin ; coroner. C. C. Furley, M. D .; surveyor, S. H. Winsor ; county attorney. H. Garbanati : county superintendent of schools, Rev. H. P. Peck; justices of the peace-Pine Bluffs, D. C. Tracy : Cheyenne, William Baker; Fort
ORIGINAL HOMESTEAD OF F. S. KING
Later summer headquarters of F. S. King Brothers Company, 14 miles northeast of Laramie on headwaters of the Main Chug.
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
Laramie, Frank Gates; constables-Pine Bluffs, William Rowland; Cheyenne, A. J. Mead; Fort Laramie, Gibson Clark."
In the chapter on Cheyenne mention is made of quite a number of the early settlers in Laramie County, but there were a few others deserving of notice. A. H. Swan settled in the county in 1872. Two years later he was joined by his brother, Thomas Swan, and the two bought the herd of cattle belonging to H. B. Kelley and established a ranch on the Chugwater. In time they became the largest cattle owners north of Texas. They organized the Swan Brothers Cattle Company, which at one time owned over two hundred thousand head of cattle and forty ranches. George T. Morgan, an Englishman, visited Wyoming in 1876 for the purpose of interesting cattlemen in the Hereford stock. Two years later he came again, bringing with him a herd of Hereford cattle, and he was employed by the Swan brothers as manager of the "Wyoming Hereford Association," which at one time controlled a range of 40,000 acres ..
Hiram S. Manville, another large cattle man, was born in Massachusetts in 1829 and came to Wyoming when he was about fifty years old. In 1881 he became associated with A. R. Converse in organizing the Converse Cattle Com- pany, with a capital stock of $500,000: A. R. Converse, president : W. C. Irvine, vice president ; James S. Peck, secretary and treasurer ; H. S. Manville, general manager.
Others who located in Laramie County while Wyoming was still a territory were: Harry Oelrichs, Thomas W. Peters, T. B. Hord, John Chase, A. C. Campbell, A. T. Babbitt and H. E. Teschemacher. A. T. Babbitt organized the Standard Cattle Company. Mr. Teschemacher served in both houses of the Territor al Legislature and was a delegate to the constitutional convention in 1889. He and his brother Arthur were the owners of six large ranches in East- ern Wyoming.
The first term of court ever held in Laramie County began on Monday, March 2, 1868, Chief Justice Asa Bartlett of the Dakota Supreme Court presiding. This was the first term of court held in what is now the State of Wyoming.
By the act of December 16, 1871, the county commissioners were authorized to purchase or receive by donation a site for a courthouse and jail in Cheyenne, and to issue bonds to the amount of $35,000. "or so much thereof as may be necessary." to erect the building, the bonds to draw interest at not more than IO per cent per annum. The courthouse and jail were completed the following year, at a cost of $47,000. A little later the county hospital was built, at a cost of $21.000.
. Laramie has the best transportation facilities of any county in the state. The Union Pacific, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Colorado & Southern all center at Cheyenne, which city is the most important railroad center in the state. Altogether there are 181 miles of railway in the county.
In 1915 the population of Laramie County was 14,631, as shown by the state census of that year. The United States census of 1910 gave the county 26,127. The decrease is due to the creation of Goshen and Platte counties by the Legis- lature of 1911. The valuation of property in 1917 was $25,190,855. While much of Laramie County's imperial greatness has departed with the organization of new counties from its original territory. it is still the wealth'est county in the
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state and stands second in population, being exceeded in the latter respect only by the County of Sheridan.
LINCOLN COUNTY
On February 20, 1911, Governor Joseph M. Carey approved an act of the Wyoming Legislature containing the following provision: "All that portion of the State of Wyoming described and bounded as hereinafter in this section set forth is hereby created and formed a county of the State of Wyoming by the name of Lincoln County. Said Lincoln County shall be bounded as follows, to wit :
"Commencing at the point where the present boundary line between the coun- ties of Sweetwater and Uinta crosses the township line between townships 18 and 19 north; running thence west along said township line to its intersection with the west boundary line of the State of Wyoming; thence north along said west boundary line of the State of Wyoming to its intersection with the south boundary line of the Yellowstone National Park; thence east along the south boundary line of said Yellowstone National Park to the intersection of sa'd boundary line with the present boundary line between the counties of Bighorn (Park) and Uinta ; thence south along the present east boundary line of Uinta County to the point where said boundary I'ne intersects the line between town- ships 18 and 19, the place of beginning."
Lincoln is one of the large counties of the state. Its length from north to south is about one hundred and eighty miles, and its width is fifty miles, giving it an area of about nine thousand square miles. The surface is greatly diversified. In the northern part is Jackson's Hole, or the "Big Game Country." Jackson Lake, a beautiful body of water, is drained by the Snake River, which flows in a southwesterly direction into Idaho. The great bend of the Green River passes through the southeastern part, and in the southwest the county is watered by the Bear River and its tributaries.
West of the Snake River are the Teton Mountains, which are among the highest of the Rocky Mountain system. South of the Tetons along the western boundary of the county lie the Snake River and Salt River ranges, and south of Jackson's Hole is the Gros Ventre range. There are also a number of isolated peaks, such as Mount Moran, Virginia Peak, Bald Mountain, Mount Leidy, Hoback Peak, etc. Between the mountain ranges are beautiful, fertile valleys, where stock raising is carried on successfully. In 1916 the county stood first in the number of cattle and fourth in the number of sheep. More than eight hundred carloads of sheep and three millions pounds of wool were shipped from the county during the year.
Trappers, fur traders and passing emigrants were the first white people in what is now Lincoln County. Fort Bonneville, an account of which is given in an early chapter of this work, was built in 1832 near the junction of Horse Creek and the Green River. The site of this old fort was marked by the Oregon Trail Commission on August 9. 1916. Placer gold was found on the south fork of the Snake River at an early date and was worked by adventurous prospectors. One of these, Jack Davis by name, held onto his claim in the Grand Canyon until his death in 1915. The actual settlement of the county did not begin, however, until a few years after the close of the Civil War.
Vol. 1-34
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
In 1868 Beckwith, Quinn & Company took up a tract of 15,000 acres in the Bear River Valley, about fifty miles north of Evanston, and engaged in stock raising on a large scale. The first agricultural settler was Justin Pomeroy, who located a claim on the Fontenelle Creek in September, 1874. In that same year John Bourne, with his wife and four children, drove over from Cache Valley, Utah, and settled where the Town of Cokeville now stands. Mr. Bourne made a living for himself and family by trapping and selling furs. Soon after his arrival Sylvanus Collett and his family settled in the vicinity. Bourne and Collett had long been acquainted, having crossed the plains with the early Mormon emigrants. A Mormon colony settled in the Salt River Valley in 1877.
Star Valley, west of the Salt River range, was settled in the '70s. Emil Stumpf and William White established salt works near the present Town of Auburn, and hauled their salt over the old Lander Trail, which crossed the valley, to the mining camps in Idaho and Montana. Ox teams were used and the salt was sold at from forty to sixty cents per pound. Other early settlers in the valley were George and William Heap, Jay J. and Albert Rolph, John Hill, Moses Thatcher, David Robinson, Jacob Grocer, James and Samuel Sibbetts, Charles Smith and James Francis. Most of these pioneers belonged to the Mormon colony mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
In the latter '70s D. B. Budd, A. W. Smith, Cyrus Fish, D. B. Rathbun and a few others located on the Green River, about where the Town of Big Piney is now situated. The first permanent settlers in the Jackson's Hole country were John Holland and John Carnes, who took claims there in 1883. This part of the county has been widely advertised through the work of Stephen N. Leek, whose pictures of wild animals and articles on "Big Game" have been published all over the country. Mr. Leek came to Lincoln County in 1888.
Reference has already been made to the importance of Lincoln County's stock raising industry. But the live stock interests are not the only business attrac- tions. Coal mining is carried on extensively, mines being operated at numerous places in the southern part, near the railroad, and many of the known deposits are yet untouched. Copper mines have recently been opened near Cokeville and Afton, iron ore, graphite and manganese are known to exist in large quan- tities, and the county has immense phosphate beds, which at some time in the future are certain to be developed. Phosphate is now shipped in small quantities from Sage and Cokeville, and oil has been discovered in several places.
The people living in the southern part of the county find transportation facilities in the Oregon Short Line Railroad, which leaves the Union Pacific at Granger in the western part of Sweetwater and runs in a northwesterly direction into Idaho. Those living in the northern part are less fortunate, as they have to journey into Idaho to reach the division of the Oregon Short Line Railroad that has its southern terminus at Victor. Better railroad accommodations are the great need of the county, and the immense value of the undeveloped natural resources is an invitation to capitalists to supply this need.
Lincoln County was named in honor of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth Pres- ident of the United States. In 1915 its population was 13,581, and in 1917 the assessed valuation of property was $16,856,331. It is the third county in the state in population and fifth in property valuation. Of the sixty-eight incor- porated towns in Wyoming, according to the census of 1915, nine were reported
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NATRONA COUNTY COURTHOUSE, CASPER
POSTOFFICE, CASPER
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
from Lincoln County. These towns, with their population, were as follows: Kemmerer ( the county seat ), 1,481 ; Afton, 673: Big Piney, 141 ; Cokeville, 305; Diamondville, 1,018; Jackson, 204: Marbleton, 67; Opal, 65; Sublet, 524.
NATRONA COUNTY
Three counties were created by the Territorial Legislature of 1888 by an act entitled: "An act making divers appropriations and for other purposes." This act was vetoed by Governor Moonlight, but was passed over the veto. One of three counties is Natrona, the boundaries of which were defined as follows:
"Commencing at a point on the seventh standard parallel north, at its inter- section with the western boundary line of the present County of Albany ; thence west along said standard parallel to its intersection with the western boundary line of the present County of Carbon; thence north along said last described boundary line to the southern boundary I'ne of the present County of Johnson ; thence east along said boundary line of Johnson County to the northwestern corner of the present County of Albany ; thence south along the western boundary line of said County of Albany to the place of beginning; being all that portion of the present County of Carbon, Territory of Wyoming, lying north of the seventh standard parallel north."
The county is almost square, be'ng about seventy-two miles on each side, and according to Rand, McNally's Atlas, it has an area of 5.353 square miles. The southern end of the Big Horn Mountain range touches the northwest corner. Farther south is the Rattlesnake range. The Granite Mountains lie across the boundary between Natrona and Fremont counties. In the southeastern part are the Casper, Haystack and Clear Creek ranges, and in the southwest corner between the Sweetwater River and the southern boundary, is an elevation called Fort Ridge. The remainder of the county consists of plateau lands and rolling plains, watered by the Platte, Sweetwater and Powder rivers and their tributaries. Natrona is therefore well adapted to stock raising, the plateaus, mountains and narrow valleys affording both winter and summer range, while the irrigated lands in the broader valleys offer splendid opportunities for farms and stock ranches where forage crops can be raised in abundance. The county has a high rank as a producer of both sheep and cattle. In 1910 the value of live stock was $3.400,000.
Some of the most profitable oil fields in the state have been developed in th's county, over two million barrels being reported in 1915. Other mineral resources are natural soda, which gives the county coal, copper, asbestos and gold and silver in small quantities. Among the natural wonders are the Alcova Hot Springs. on the Platte River, about ten miles from the southern boundary. The waters of these springs are said to possess great medicinal virtue in the treatment of rheumatism and kindred diseases,
Two lines of railroad-the Chicago & Northwestern and the Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy-cross the county east and west through the central portion, following the Platte River from the eastern border to Casper. the county seat, where they diverge slightly to the northwest and follow that course into Fremont County. The principal towns are situated along these lines of railway, the most important being Casper, Bucknum, Cadoma, Natrona, Talona, Waltman and Wolton.
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
In 1915 the population of Natrona County was 5,398, and in 1917 the property was assessed at $19,074.557, placing it the eleventh county in the state in popula- tion and fourth in wealth. Only one county (Hot Springs) showed a greater proportionate increase in the assessed valuation of property over the assessment of 1916.
NIOBRARA COUNTY
This county, which takes its name from the r'ver flowing through the southern portion of it, was called into existence by an act of the Wyoming Legislature, approved on February 14, 1911, providing that: "All that portion of the State of Wyoming described and bounded as hereinafter in this section set forth, is hereby created and formed a county of the State of Wyoming by the name of Niobrara County : Beginning at a point where the north line of Converse County as heretofore constituted intersects the dividing line between sections 27 and 28 in township 41 north, range 67 west of the sixth principal meridian ; running thence south on section lines to the south boundary line of Converse County as it now exists; thence east along said south boundary to the east line of the State of Wyoming ; thence north along the boundary line between the State of Wyoming and the states of Nebraska and South Dakota to the southeast corner of Weston County, that is to say, to the boundary line as heretofore existing between the counties of Weston and Converse; thence west along the boundary line as heretofore existing between the counties of Weston and Converse to the place of beginning."
Niobrara, as thus created, 's about forty-two miles wide and sixty-two miles long. It is bounded on the north by Weston County; on the east by the states of Nebraska and South Dakota; on the south by Goshen and Platte counties and on the west by Converse County, from which it was taken. The surface 's a rolling plain, sloping toward the east. The northern part is watered by the Cheyenne River and its affluents, one of which is composed of three streams, viz .: Crazy Woman Creek, Old Woman Creek and Young Woman Creek. In the southern part is the Niobrara, from which the county derives its name.
The territory of which Niobrara County is composed originally belonged to the Sioux, Northern Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians. Their title was extinguished by agreement with representatives of the United States on September 26, 1876. About that time the rush to the gold fields of the Black Hills was at its height and a stage I'ne was opened from Cheyenne to the mines, passing through what is now Niobrara County. Many of the Indians were dissatisfied with the relin- quishment of their lands to the paleface race and began committing depredations upon the stage line. One of these early tragedies occurred in what is now Nio- brara County. Jake Harker was engaged in carrying the mail from the stage station on Hat Creek to Camp Robinson. On one trip he failed to return with the mail and a searching party was sent out to ascertain what had become of him. H's dead body was found and the fact that his scalp was missing told the story of another Indian depredation. The mail sack was also found cut open and the letters scattered around Harker's body.
That happened only a little over forty years ago. Men are still living in Wyoming who can recall the stirring events of those early days and relate the
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changes that they have witnessed. Niobrara County is now the home of hun- dreds of dry farmers, who ra'se abundant crops of wheat, oats, potatoes and small fruits. Stock raising is the most important industry. According to the state anditor's report for 1916, there were then in the county 30,000 head of cattle, 51,452 sheep and 8,803 horses, the total value of live stock being nearly two millions of dollars.
The Chicago & Northwestern Railroad runs through the southern part of the county along the N'obrara River, with stations at Lusk (the county seat), Van Tassel, Manville, Jireh and Keeline. Large numbers of sheep and cattle are shipped from those places every year. Niobrara has a good public school system and at Jireh is a college that offers opportunities to the young people to acquire a higher education than that afforded by the common schools. Oil was discovered in the county in 1917 and the fields are being rapidly developed.
In 1915 the population was 3.488, and in 1917 the property was assessed for tax purposes at $6,463.414. The increase in the valuation over the assessment of 1916 was a little over twenty per cent, only two counties in the state showing a greater ratio of increase than Niobrara, which in 1918 stood seventeenth in population and eighteenth in wealth, when compared with the other counties of Wyoming.
PARK COUNTY
The history of Park County as a separate subdivision of Wyoming begins on February 15, 1909, when Governor Brooks approved an act of the Legislature creating the county with the following boundaries :
"Beginning at a point where the north boundary I'ne of the state 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 Moun- tains or Continental Divide, separating the waters of the Yellowstone and Snake rivers ; thence in a southeasterly direction along the crest of said d'vide to its intersection with the eleventh standard parallel north: thence east along the said standard parallel to its intersection with the crest of the mountain range separating 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 between the waters of Wind River on the south and the waters 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 Indian Reservation to its intersection with the south boundary of township 44 north, range 103 west : thence east along said township boundary to its intersection with the thirty-second meridian of longitude west from Washington : thence north on said thirty-second meridian of longitude west from Washington to its intersection with the township line between townships 45 and 46 north ; thence east along said township line to its intersection with the range line between ranges 100 and IOI west; thence north along said range line to its intersection with the township line between townships 46 and 47 north ; thence east along said township line to its intersection with the range line between ranges 99 and 100 west; thence north along said range line to its inter-
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
section with the township line between townships 47 and 48 north; thence east along sa'd township line to its intersection with the range line between ranges 97 and 98 west ; thence north along the range line between ranges 97 and 98 and its offsets to its intersection with the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude, being the north boundary line of the State of Wyoming; thence west along said forty- fifth parallel of north latitude to the place of beginning."
When Hot Springs County was created on February 9, 1911, a portion of Park was taken to form the new county. As at present constituted, Park County is bounded on the north by the State of Montana; on the west by the Yellowstone National Park and Lincoln County ; on the south by the counties of Fremont and Hot Springs ; and on the east by Bighorn and Washakie counties. The county received its name from the fact that it adjoins the Yellowstone National Park. Its area is about five thousand four hundred square miles, much of which is mountainous, but well adapted to grazing. Consequently, stock raising is the leading industry. The state auditor's report issued in 1916 gives the number of cattle in Park County as 22,485 ; sheep, 112,647 ; horses, 7,084; and the assessed valuation of these animals as $1,427,461.
A large percentage of the agricultural land in the county is under irrigation and since the beginning of the present century there has been an almost marvelous increase in the number of new settlers. The county is drained by the Greybull, Shoshone and Clark's Fork, all of which flow in a northeasterly direction and are fed by numerous smaller streams.
Coal is found generally throughout the Big Horn Basin, a large part of which lies within the limits of Park County, in veins varying from six to thirty feet in thickness. Many of the farmers obtain their fuel from the outcropping of these coal veins near their land, the only cost being the digging and hauling. There is no doubt coal enough in Park County to supply the State of Wyoming for generations to come. Oil has been found near Cody and at some other places, and is pronounced by geologists to be of a very superior quality. In the Kerwin and Sunlight districts, gold, copper and silver ores are found, some of which have been developed, and on the north fork of the Shoshone River there are large deposits of sulphur. Other minerals, such as mica, gypsum, building stone and asphalt, are known to exist in large quantities and some day, when better transportation facilities are provided, all this mineral wealth will be given to the world. At the present time (1918) there are but forty-eight miles of railroad in the county-the branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy that leaves the main line at Frannie and has its western terminus at Cody.
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