History of Laramie

Interested in learning more about the history of the Laramie area? Learn more below about our western roots, heritage, settlement, and more on how the town of Laramie, Wyoming became what we know today.

NORTHERN ARAPAHO AND CHEYENNE (1600-1878)

By the early 1700s, Arapahos were in what became Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. They acquired horses in the 1700s, adopted the Plains Indian horse-and-bison hunting culture, and expanded further south and west. By about 1811, Arapahos allied with Cheyennes and the two groups often traveled and hunted together in the central Great Plains. After signing the Horse Creek Treaty of 1851, the Arapaho and Cheyenne shared land encompassing one-sixth of Wyoming, one-quarter of Colorado, and parts of western Kansas and Nebraska. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 left the Northern Arapaho without a land base, and by 1878, they were placed with the Shoshone in west central WY, on the Wind River Reservation.

Teepee

JACQUES LA RAMèE (1815)

THE OVERLAND TRAIL (1862-1869)

Jacque La Ramée and other trappers came to this region and worked the streams for beaver from 1817 until 1843. General William Ashley’s trappers traveled part of the future Overland Trail route in 1824-25, Jim Bridger knew of the route by 1835, and John Fremont camped along it in 1843. The Cherokee used it to travel from Oklahoma to California in 1849, for which it became known as the Cherokee Trail. Local tribes gathered ash for bows and held ceremonial dances in the nearby mountains to cure diseases. The use of ash for bows are said to be “good medicine” and this phrase gave the mountains, and later the national forest, their name: Medicine Bow.

Overland Trail

"Wagon Train on the Overland Trail. Stagecoaches, covered wagons, and wagon trains made their way across the prairie west of Laramie during the period the trail was in use” – Wyoming Travel Commission Photo. "Photo was taken on the Overland Trail between Elk Mountain and Mill Creek.” – University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center

TRANSPORTATION HISTORY (1820-TODAY)

Elmer Lovejoy

Elmer Lovejoy set out to build his own “horseless carriage” 1886 in Laramie, Wyoming. – University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center

Travelers along the Oregon, Mormon, Pioneer, California, and Overland trails went across Wyoming in the central and southern corridors around 1840s, ’50s, and ’60s. As many as half a million people may have traveled this corridor in the 19th century. To many, the environments of the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, and Great Basin seemed like another planet, full of strange and alien landscapes. Transportation through the years from the Overland Stagecoach, Union Pacific Railroad, Lincoln Highway, Early Air travel, Snowy Range Scenic Byway, and Interstate 80 make Southeastern Wyoming a fun place to take a road trip even today!

FORT SANDERS (1866)

A frontier military post built on July 19, 1866; Fort Sanders was originally named Fort John Buford. It was later renamed in honor of Civil War General William P. Sanders. Constructed mostly of wood, most of the fort deteriorated over time. Some of the original guardhouse stones west of Highway 287 and a powder magazine east of Highway 287 are all that exist today. Erected to protect the Overland Trail travelers and workers constructing the Union Pacific Railway from hostile Indian attacks, the remnants of the old fort can still be seen three miles south of Laramie.

Ulysses S. Grant and Party at Ft. Sanders

Photograph of Ulysses S. Grant and Party at Ft. Sanders – University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center

LARAMIE HELL ON WHEELS (1868)

UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD (1868)

Union Pacific Railroad track construction crews connected Laramie to the east coast on May 4, 1868. Passengers began arriving the same day and a regular train schedule was established less than a week later. The railroad brought in civilization, inspiring residents and newcomers to build a town out of the "hell-on-wheels" style tent city. Laramie was Union Pacific’s western hub, but the company moved on when the first transcontinental railroad neared completion. Visitors can tour Depot Park to get up close and personal with the area’s ironclad history.

Wyoming Station

Wyoming, Wyoming Station: Where the Little Laramie River joins the Big Laramie, west of Bosler Junction, Wyoming.

WYOMING RANCHING (1862-TODAY)

Ranchers

Ranching outside of Laramie. Branding Calves on the open Range. 1890-1918

The oldest ranch in the county was the one started by Philip Mandel along the Overland Trail line (probably in 1862). Other ranches along the Laramie Valley included the Bath Brothers Ranch, which began in the spring of 1868, when Herman Bath and his immediate and extended family immigrated to the Wyoming Territory from Germany. Today, the Bath Brothers Ranch is over 150 years old and remains in the Bath Family. In 2006 the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office reinstated the Wyoming Centennial Farm and Ranch program, which seeks to honor Wyoming farms and ranches that have remained in the same family for more than 100 years. In 1947, Laramie’s first Jubilee Days Rodeo took place in celebration of Wyoming’s statehood. Rodeo’s roots and the cowboy culture run deep within Wyoming’s Wild West history.