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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings

	ATLANTIC CITY Wyoming
Location: Fremont County, on an unpaved road, about 22 miles south of Lander.

One of the most significant mining camps in Wyoming, Atlantic City sprang up in 1868, the year after prospectors from nearby South Pass City discovered the Atlantic Ledge. Before long about 300 prospectors were living in a camp on Rock Creek that came to be known as Atlantic City. Surrounded by gold lodes and placers, the town grew to a population of 2,000, and boasted Wyoming's first brewery and an opera house. Because of Indian depredations, the residents demanded a garrison, and in 1870 the U.S. Army established Fort Stambaugh, about 1-1/2 miles away. By 1878, however, the town had been abandoned, even though seven mills were still in operation. Today the gray, weathered buildings are deserted and vacant.

	CHEYENNE Wyoming
Location: Laramie County.

Cheyenne, the cow capital of Wyoming, originated in 1867, when the Union Pacific Railroad selected it as a company townsite. Settlers rushed in even before the railroad began to sell building plots. Within a matter of months, the population was 4,000, and thousands of tents, shacks, dugouts, and covered wagon boxes lined the streets. The arrival of the rail line late in the year attracted a new variety of settlers. Because of the lawlessness, the citizens maintained a vigilance committee until the rail line moved west in 1868 and much of the transient population traveled along with it. That same year the town became the county seat of the newly organized Laramie County.

By 1869 Longhorns were arriving in the vicinity from Texas, and the next year the first Wyoming cattle were loaded at Cheyenne for the European market. By the mid-1870's the Cheyenne Plains had been stocked; the Wyoming Stock Growers Association founded; and Cheyenne was the capital of a vast cattle-ranching region. English cattlemen settled there and formed the Cheyenne Club, which made policies affecting the cattle industry throughout the West. The town outfitted prospectors going to the Black Hills and provided them with stage transportation. By 1880, the population was 3,456; by 1897, 10,000. Cheyenne today is the capital of the State. The annual Frontier Days Celebration commemorates its early history.

Main street of Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, in 1869, the same year that the first Texas Longhorns arrived. A typical cowtown, Cheyenne boomed after the Union Pacific Railroad founded it, in 1867. Courtesy, National Archives.

	DOUGLAS Wyoming
Location: Converse County.

In 1886 the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railway announced plans to extend westward from Chadron, Nebr., up the Platte River. Settlers, in anticipation established "Tent Town" on the banks of the Platte River, just north of its confluence with Antelope Creek. The town soon had three streets and many businesses, including a newspaper. When the railway decided to locate the station and the associated townsite 10 miles east of Fetterman on the opposite side of the river, the inhabitants moved to the new location, which was named in honor of Stephen A. Douglas.

In 1887 Douglas became the county seat. Because of the abundance of water and the fine grasses in the region, in the 1880's many cattlemen founded ranches, on which Texas Longhorns soon grazed. After the disastrous winter of 1886-87, many large ranches failed and the population of Douglas dwindled from 1,500 to 400. Homesteaders took over some of the cattle lands, and agriculture as well as the cattle industry came to support the town.

	ENCAMPMENT Wyoming
Location: Carbon County.

Trappers used the site of Encampment as a rendezvous and camping ground. In 1877 ranchers settled in the area, and 2 years later prospectors found small quantities of copper. In 1897 a prospector established a copper mine that sparked the boom in the area and reinvigorated the towns of Ellwood, Battle, Rambler, Copperton, and Dillon. In 1899 the Rudefeha Mine began operations near the site of Encampment, or Grand Encampment as it was first known. As soon as it proved successful, a townsite was laid out close to Grand Encampment Creek. George Emerson promoted the town in the East. He also formed the North American Copper Company and bought the Rudefeha Mine, renamed it the Ferris-Haggarty, and sold thousands of shares of stock.

Between 1903 and 1908 the population of the booming town reached 2,000. In 1905 a smelter that had been erected in 1899 was enlarged, and an independent company started constructing the Saratoga Encampment Railroad to link the town with the main line of the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1906 fire destroyed a mill at the smelter and the town began to decline. By 1908, when the railroad line was completed, the smelter had closed, and the drop in copper prices forced mine after mine to cease operations. The same year the Ferris-Haggarty Company was indicted for overcapitalization and fraudulent stock sales, and within 3 years the population of the town was only 200. After that time, the town became a ranching center. Several buildings from the boom days are still standing.

	LARAMIE Wyoming
Location: Albany County.

The first settlements near the site of Laramie, in the 1860's, were road ranches along the Overland Trail that supplied hay and emergency provisions to stage companies, freighters, and emigrants. When the Union Pacific Railroad built its line along the west slope of the Laramie Mountains early in 1868, a tent town of 500 residents grew up on the bank of the Laramie River. The railroad company platted a townsite and sold lots. The first train brought the transients that had been living in Cheyenne, but Laramie did not long remain the end of the line and in only a few months had a far more stable population. Late in 1868 the Dakota Territorial Legislature created Albany County and made Laramie its seat, but before long the increasing lawlessness in the town forced the legislature to dissolve its government and place it under the jurisdiction of the Federal courts. This status continued until 1874, when the Wyoming Territorial Legislature reincorporated the town.

In 1868 only a few cattle belonging to the road ranches grazed on the Laramie Plains, and within 2 years the road ranchers left the country or turned to cattle breeding. In 1871, however, Texans arrived with herds of Longhorns. Stories of the rich Laramie Plains reached the East, and wealthy Englishmen acquired choice ranches in the area, built mansions in Laramie, and organized many clubs. After the "crash" of ranching in the 1880's, most of them left, but a few stayed on. For a time miners recovered some gold in the mountain gulches west and south of town. The modern city of Laramie is proud of its historical heritage.

	SOUTH PASS CITY Wyoming
Location: Fremont County.

After several unsuccessful mining attempts along the Sweetwater River, in 1867 prospectors discovered placers of gold. Others rushed in and established South Pass City. Soon having a population of 700, the town included 5 hotels, 3 meat markets, 2 bakeries, 4 law firms, and 13 saloons. By the end of 1868 the population had risen to about 4,000 and the town had become the seat of Sweetwater County. By 1872 it was the largest in the Territory, but mining declined and within 6 years it was a ghost town; it lost the county seat to Green River, and most of the mines were abandoned. About a block of buildings have survived. Some of the false-fronted stores date back to the 1860's. A handful of people still reside in the town.