Wyoming Place Names
At the beginning of publication of the
Wyoming Place Names series in the April 1942 Annals of Wyoming,
readers were invited to send in corrections and additional
material supplementing that contained in the files of the State
Historical Department. While some responded, in order to insure
complete satisfaction on the part of the Staff as to the
authenticity of that presented and the remainder of the material
to be published, it was felt arrangements should be made for
further verification of it. Therefore, the names of towns were
separated by county and a member of the State Historical
Advisory Board in each county, or a historically minded citizen
in counties where no Board member resided, was asked to verify
the data submitted. While all lists have not been returned to
date, the additions and corrections presented by the following
persons have been arranged and are presented here : Struthers
Burt (S. B.), Moran; Charles Oviatt (CO.), Sheridan; Fenimore
Chatterton (F. C), Arvada, Colorado; Dr. Herbert O. Brayer (H.
O. B.), Denver; Mae Cross (M. C), Piedmont; Hans Gautschi (H.
G.), Lusk; Perry W. Jenkins (P. W. J.), Big Piney; Mrs. Dora
McGrath (D. McG.), Thermopolis; Alfred J. Mokler (A. J. M.),
Casper; Mrs. Minnie Reitz (M. R.), Wheatland: Russell Thorp (R.
T.), Cheyenne; P. W. Spaulding (P. W. S.), Evanston.
BAIROIL,
Sweetwater County. Named for Charles Bair, a prominent sheep man
of Billings, Montana, who financed and promoted the first oil
development in that district. R. T.1
BESSEMER, Natrona County. Established
in 1888. At the first election in Natrona County in 1889,
Bessemer was a candidate for the county seat. Six hundred
sixty-seven votes were cast, but the county commissioners
declared that more than three hundred of them were illegal and
the vote of the entire precinct was thrown out. It is name not
known.) A. J. M.
BIG PINEY, Sublette County. The names
given to the three streams that empty into Green River within a
few rods of each other were North Piney, Middle Piney and South
Piney. North Piney, being the largest, was called Big Piney. The
first post office was at the Mule Shoe Ranch near Green River
but later was moved to the home of Daniel B. Budd on the bank of
North Piney and was called Big Piney Post Office. This was
followed by the town. The first settler was Ed Swan and Otto
Leifer in 1878, followed by A. W. Smith and Daniel B. Budd in
1879. The post office dates from 1882. P. W. J.
BISHOP, Natrona County. Named for
Marvin L. Bishop, an early day postmaster of Casper, who had his
sheep-shearing pens at this point. A. J. M.
BUCKNUM, Natrona County. Named for
Charles K. Bucknum, an early day mayor of Casper and owner of a
sheep ranch near the railroad station where the town was
established in 1905. A. J. M.
CAMBRIA, Weston County. Named by
Kilpatrick Bros., railroad contractors, who constructed the
Burlington Railroad through Wyoming and developed the first coal
mine at Cambria on the Burlington in Wyoming. Named after Welch
coal mines. R. T.
CASPER, Natrona County. The town was
established in the early summer of 1888, and was named after
Fort Caspar, a military post first established in 1858. The site
of Fort Caspar was called Camp Platte from 1840 to 1847. When
the Mormons passed through here in June 1847, they built and
operated a ferry across the river, and then the name was changed
to Mormon Ferry or Mormon Crossing. Louis Guinard built a bridge
across the river at this point in the winter of 1858-59, and the
name was then changed to Platte Bridge Station. Lieutenant
Caspar W. Collins was killed by Indians near the fort on July
26, 1865, and in October of that year Major General Pope ordered
the name changed to Fort Caspar. When the town of Casper was
platted by the land department of the Fremont, Elkhorn and
Missouri Valley Railroad Company, the engineer, in the original
plat, used an "e" in the last syllable instead of an "a". After
many deeds for town lots and other important documents had been
issued, all spelled with an "e", a request was made to have the
spelling changed, but it was considered that the change would be
too expensive. A. J. M.
DANIEL, Sublette County. Named for
and by T. P. Daniel when the post office was located at his
store on the present site in 1904. P. W. J.
DICKIE, Hot Springs County. Named for
and established by David Dickie who was born in Scotland and
came to Wyoming via New Zealand and San Francisco in 1884. He
engaged in the sheep business along the Union Pacific Railroad
until 1896 when the range became crowded and he started to
British Columbia, driving his sheep to that region. He
transferred his sheep across the ferry at the old town of
Thermopolis and planned to next cross the bridge at Meeteetse.
Instead, however, he purchased from Harry Gunther the L. U.
Ranch, which had formerly been owned by Governor Baxter, and
later added to his holdings. D. McG.
DIETZ, Sheridan County. Named for the
Dietz brothers, Charles, Frank and Gould, who developed the
Dietz coal mines on the Burlington Railroad in Sheridan County.
R. T.
ELK MOUNTAIN, Carbon County. Named
after Elk Mountain, the peak at the north end of the Medicine
Bow Range and a few miles southwest of the town. F. C.
ENCAMPMENT, Carbon County. U. S.
Troops, under the command of General Johnston, on their way to
Salt Lake City were snowed in near this point and encamped there
for a considerable time. The place was named Grand Encampment.
F. C.
FORT BONNEVILLE, Sublette County.
Fort Bonneville was built in 1832 by Captain B. L. E. Bonneville
but was abandoned within a month when he moved to Salmon River
for the winter. It was here that the Rendezvous of 1833 was held
and the fort definitely described by W. A. Ferris in his
journal. P. W. J.
HAT CREEK, Niobrara County. Named
when a detachment of soldiers was sent to establish a fort on
Warbonnet Creek in 1875. Thinking that they were on the right
location when they got to Sage Creek, they built their dugout
fort on the site of what became old Hat Creek Stage Station and
Post Office and called it Hat Creek, short for Warbonnet.
Warbonnet Creek is in Nebraska near the Wyoming line and the
error appears obvious. H. G.
JACKSON, Teton County. Named for
Jackson Lake which had been named for Captain David E. Jackson
who was in the region with William L. Sublette in the early
1800's. S. B.
KNIGHT, Uinta County. Named by the
Union Pacific Railroad in honor of Judge Jesse Knight, Judge of
the Third Judicial District of Wyoming, who showed the railroad
engineers how to change the line to avoid the very steep grade
on Aspen Hill and the feasibility of the present Aspen Tunnel.
F. C. and P. W. S.
NATRONA, Natrona County. So named
because of the soda (natron) deposits near there. A. J. M.
OIL CITY, Natrona County. So named
because of the drilling for oil in that vicinity in 1880 by S.
A. Aggers who hailed from Oil City, Pennsylvania. A. J. M.
PIEDMONT, Uinta County. Means ''foot
of the mountains" and was taken from the Italian language. P. W.
S. and M. C.
PINEDALE, Sublette County. Named by
Charles Peterson in 1899, when the first post office was opened
at this place, for the pines along the stream. Pine Creek. The
town was incorporated in 1912 and was made the county seat in
June 1921. P. W. J.
POWDER RIVER, Natrona County. Named
for a branch of the Powder River which in turn was named for the
dark powder-like quick sand that is found along its banks and in
the channel. A. J. M.
RESHAW, Natrona County. Named for
John Reshaw, a Frenchman, who built the first bridge across the
North Platte River in central Wyoming on the Old Oregon Trail.
English pronunciation is Richards. A. J. M.
RIVERTON, Fremont County. In 1905 Mr.
Fenimore Chatterton found that Montana was about to secure the
right to divert all the water of the Big Horn River which would
leave no water for reclamation of the 300,000 acres in the ceded
portion of the Shoshone Indian Reservation. He immediately went
to Washington and applied to the Secretary of the Interior
Department for a permit to construct the necessary canals and
reservoirs and to lay out a town site on the one hundred sixty
acres where the town of Riverton is now located, all work to be
done prior to opening the lands for settlement. He met with
refusal, but when the lands were opened, the one hundred sixty
acres designated by Mr. Chatterton were set aside as a town
site. On August 14, 1906, the land was opened and persons who
had previously located at Shoshone to await the day moved in and
proceeded to survey and stake the blocks and lots. A group of
Lander citizens opposed to the establishment of the town tried
to stop the survey; not succeeding they induced the Indian Agent
at Ft. Washakie, Mr. Wadsworth, to use U. S. Troops to run
people off the town site. After ten days Mr. Chatterton had the
matter straightened out through telegrams to Wyoming Senators,
and the citizens returned. Meanwhile the Lander group asked that
the town be called Central City and the Northwestern Railroad
named its station Wadsworth. Authorities in Washington settled
the question by naming the post office Riverton, as being
significant of its location on the bank of the Wind River. F. C.
SARATOGA, Carbon County. Here are
located the medicinal hot springs once used by the Indians. In
the early 1870's William Caldwell homesteaded the land on which
the springs are located, built a two room log cabin and a two
tub bath house and became the postmaster of "Warm Springs." In
1883 Fenimore Chatterton, post trader at Fort Steele,
established a general store at this point and a little later a
town site was laid out on both sides of the North Platte River
and named Saratoga after Saratoga Hot Springs, New York, to
which the springs bore a similarity and because of the great
popularity of the latter.2 F. C. and H. O. B.
SEMINOLE, Natrona County. Should be
Seminoe. The name ''Seminoe" became attached to the Lajeunesse
family from the fact that Basil Lajeunesse, father of Mitchell
and Noel, married a Snake Indian woman, "Ciminau" by name. The
whites pronounced it Seminoe, and the Seminoe Mountain derived
its name from Ciminau-Basil Lajeunesse. (See Mokler's History of
Fort Caspar, 1939, p. 16). A. J. M.
SHANNON, Natrona County. Named for P.
M. Shannon, president of the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Company,
the first company to develop the Salt Creek oil field. A. J. M.
SHERIDAN, Sheridan County. Named
after General Philip A. Sheridan. C. O.
SNYDER, Natrona County. Named for Ora
Snyder, first postmaster at that place. A. J. M.
SODIUM, Natrona County. Located at
the Soda Lakes from which it derives its name. A. J. M.
STORY, Sheridan County. Named after
C. P. Story, former real estate man in Sheridan who several
times was elected mayor of his city and died in office in 1931.
C. O. 2.
STROUDS, Natrona County. Named for
Joshua Stroud who homesteaded on the land four miles east of
Casper before the C. & W. R. R. was built into central Wyoming.
A. J. M.
SUN, Natrona County. Located sixty
miles southwest of Casper and named for Tom Sun who was among
the first of the pioneers to homestead in the Sweetwater
country. A. J. M.
SUNRISE, Platte County. Named by
Lieutenant Eaton of Fort Laramie who, while inspecting copper
deposits with John London and H. T. Miller, remarked that a rise
over which they walked afforded a good view of the sunrise. M.
R.
SWAN, Carbon County. Located just
north of Saratoga and named for Will Swan, cattleman. Now a
''ghost town." H. O. B.
TENSLEEP, Washakie County. The name 'Tensleep"
means ten sleeps from either the Platte or Yellowstone and
refers to ten days' travel by the Indians. C. O.
THERMOPOLIS, Hot Springs County.
Named by Dr. Julious Shulke and Joe McGill, the latter a student
of languages, for its proximity to the hot springs and taken
from the Greek words therme and polis meaning "heat and city."
D. McG.
UVA, Platte County. Named for an
early brand. M. R.
WALTMAN, Natrona County. Named for W.
D. Waltman. A. J. M.
WAMSUTTER, Carbon County. Formerly
called Washakie Station on the Union Pacific Railway, the name
was changed in 1885 to Wamsutter in honor of an old Indian
chief. The change was made because of the errors arising in the
delivery of freight destined for Ft. Washakie. Taken from the
Carbon County Journal, September 5, 1885.3
WOLTON, Natrona County. Named from
the fact that it was the center of sheep shearing for this part
of the state. A. J. M.
Back to Wyoming
Footnotes:
1. Persons who checked the
lists of place names are given credit by placing their initials
after each name explanation. Refer to names given in
introduction above. Ed.
2.
An item in the Cheyenne Daily Leader of June 23, 1882,
states, "Mr. Caldwell of Warm Springs is in town... He says
before long he intends to have the Warm Springs of Wyoming the
Saratoga of the West."
3. Received from Mrs. Agnes
Wright Spring.
Source: Annals of Wyoming, Volume 15,
April 1943, Wyoming Historical Department, Cheyenne, Wyoming.
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