Horses, oxen and other draft animals had been the transportation mainstays for eons. Then came railroads, transforming the society, culture, and economy of the United States. Earliest railroads operated in Britain, but in 1828, the first passenger railway began service in the eastern United States. With New York City prospering with the completion of the Erie Canal, Baltimore investors turned to the latest in technology to compete. In 1827, the Baltimore and Ohio company was chartered and, the following year, Baltimore businessmen, surveyors, and engineers set about building the B&O Railroad, laying the first commercial long-distance track and building the first passenger station. By 1840, railroad companies throughout the East had laid 3,328 miles of track, all of it east of the Mississippi River. By 1860, the trackage reached 28,000 miles.

As early as 1830, pamphleteers argued for a transcontinental railroad. Railroad travel was still a novelty. New York merchant Asa Whitney, having made and lost a fortune as an importer from Europe, took a long voyage to China in 1844. There, he became involved in the developing China trade, making a substantial fortune from shipping goods from Canton to Europe. Familiar with steam railroads and their increasing prevalence in America, he proposed building a transcontinental railroad. He argued that a coast-to-coast railroad would speed up the China trade, making it possible for American merchants to compete against Europeans for imports of Asian goods into Europe. In essence, the railroad would serve as a shipping short-cut for China goods bound for European customers.

It was in the time of "Manifest Desitny" and Whitney viewed his proposal as a means of making America the center of world commerce. He knew that private investors could never afford to take the risks and provide capital for such a project. Consequently, he asked his senator to introduce a bill in Congress seeking a 60-mile strip of land along which the railroad could be built, the excess lands sold off to finance the line’s construction. Congress tabled the measure, but for the next six years, Whitney continued to lobby for his plan. Tied up with debates over slavery and other sectional issues, Congress ignored Whitney’s proposals. In 1851, after Congress defeated his plan again, Whitney gave up, returning to private life. Defeated in his efforts to build a transcontinental railroad, he succeeded in getting such a proposal into the public discourse.

Five years later, a civil engineer named Theodore Judah headed the first construction of a railroad in California. During the building, Judah became more convinced that in order for California to remain prosperous, it needed to be connected to the rest of the nation by railroad. In 1859, he traveled by sailing ship to lobby Congress on his idea. When he returned later that year, he organized a company and set out to find a route over the Sierra Nevada mountains, a major obstable to eastern travel from California. He enlisted investments from four Sacramento businessmen—Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, and Leland Stanford—who would later become known as the "Big Four" when they became primary shareholders in the Judah venture.

Prior to Judah’s lobbying visits, Congress had debated the potential for a transcontinental railroad, but politics intruded when it came to deciding where the route would run. It seemed that each member of Congress had a preferred route that would benefit his constitutency. Consequently, in 1853, Congress decided to remove the location decision from "politics" by passing an act authorizing a series of Pacific Railway surveys. The surveys would be conducted by soldiers in the U. S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers and, once the reports came back, Congress could make the route decision based on the route merits and not "politics"

When the surveyors each reported back to Congress, each favored his own route. Further, the politicians continued to favor their regions. Jefferson Davis, formerly a senator from Mississippi (and later President of the Conferderacy), wanted the southern route while Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri favored the route beginning in St. Louis. While Congress continued to consider proposals for a railroad coast-to-coast, nothing came of the plans. Congress and the rest of the nation were mired in sectional conflict that broke out as the Civil War following President Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860.

With none of the members from the seceding states of the South remaining in the Congress and after strong lobbying from Theodore Judah, both the House and Senate passed a Pacific Railway Act in 1862. (Ironically, the measure became the law the same week as the Homestead Act, another measure that had been tied up due to Southern opposition). The Civil War both made it possible to pass the act and to locate the general route of the transcontinental railroad.

The first Pacific Railway Act contained several elements that Asa Whitney would have recognized. First, the federal government would grant a right-of-way, 400 feet wide, along which the track would be laid. Further, the railroad would receive a huge land grant. The federal government would provide every odd-numbered section ten miles either side of the tracks. Initially, some members of Congress thought the railroad should be given a ten-mile strip straight across the country along the right-of-way, but critics pointed out that with such a choke-hold on a solid swath of land would give the railroads substantial power. If the federal government were to retain every even-numbered section, it would be able to monitor the railroad and make

sure it was not impeding settlement or exercising monopoly powers. (The result of this decision remains with Wyoming residents today as a later section on land will describe).

Additionally, the act offered bonds to be issued by the federal government, repayable to the federal government within 30 years with the government holding the first mortgage on the railroad to guarantee repayment. No minerals were included in the first act—the federal government kept all minerals except for "earth, stone, timber and other materials for the construction" in the 400-foot right-of-way. The act provided for $16,000 in bonds to be granted by the federal government for every mile of railroad construction. Recognizing that construction over the Rocky Mountains would require substantial outlays, the act allowed for double and triple that amount for the foothills and mountainous areas, hence $48,000 per mile to build through the mountains.

Two groups were very interested in the terms of the first Pacific Railway Act. The first, the "Big Four" (Stanford, Huntington, Crocker, and Hopkins), wanted to build west from California to the east, following Judah’s plan and surveys. A second group, organized by speculator Thomas Durant, sought the federal charter to build from the east to the west. The act spelled out how this second group would be organized—as a federally-chartered entity known as the Union Pacific Railroad Company. Unlike the "Big Four’s" Central Pacific Railroad, the Union Pacific, by virtue of its federal charter, included five federally-appointed directors on its board. The act also allowed a third company, the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Railroad, to begin building to the west on the same terms as the other two companies.

While the land grants seemed generous, several aspects of the first Pacific Railway Act caused few investors to race to put money into the enterprises. One, the law stipulated that the federal government retain first mortgage on all construction once bonding was authorized. The enterprise promised to be enormously difficult and if any of the companies failed, the investors would be standing in line behind the federal government for return of their investment. Further, the companies had no rights to minerals except for the immediate construction materials.

Company officials tried valiantly to gain shareholders and to sell the expensive bonds, but the initial offerings did not encourage investment from prudent investors. Consequently, the companies returned to lobby Congress for better terms in 1864. The result was passage of the Pacific Railway Act of 1864. Actually, a series of amendments to the first act, the 1864 law made investment in the railroads much more attractive. First, except for "precious metals" such as gold and silver, the railroads would receive rights to all minerals (except gold and silver), not only along the 400-foot right-of-way but underlying the "checkerboard sections"—those odd-numbered sections of land ten miles each side of the track. Further, the act extended the land grant to 20 miles each side of the track and made the federal government be the second mortgage holder in event of default on the bonds.

Capt. Howard Stansbury’s expedition had pointed out the presence of coal in what is now western Wyoming in 1849. The new terms favored locating near these mineral lands—given that locomotives on the transcontinental line would be coal-fired.

The eastern beginning point for the railroad was determined by President Abraham Lincoln. A former trial lawyer. Lincoln had worked closely with railroad companies and made a considerable fortune as a result prior to his election. He favored a place that he had visited—Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the relatively new town of Omaha, Nebraska, across the Missouri River.

The entire history of the Union Pacific is beyond the scope of this brief account, but the railroad became the reason for the creation of Wyoming Territory. One key figure in the railroad was Grenville M. Dodge (1831-1916). Dodge served as a member of Congress from Iowa, a general in the Civil War, and most important for Wyoming, as chief engineer of the Union Pacific during the construction phase. Dodge is credited with locating the route across most of Wyoming (Samuel Reed was in charge of the establishing the route from Green River to Salt Lake City). His most celebrated achievement, by most accounts, was finding "the gangplank"—a natural "bridge" over the Laramie Mountains (then called "the Black Hills") lying between Cheyenne and Laramie. Dodge also located and laid out the town of Cheyenne in July, 1867, and later determined the sites for Laramie and Rawlins as well as smaller towns across southern Wyoming.

Dodge, who wrote an account of his role in building the Union Pacific, worked closely with company officials, including Thomas Durant, the irascible company founder, and the Ames brothers. Heirs to a fortune made by selling shovels to miners and the Union Army during the Civil War, Oakes Ames (b. 1804) and his younger brother Oliver (b. 1807) were important investors in the Union Pacific. Further, Oliver Ames was Union Pacific Railroad president while his brother Oakes Ames served in the U. S. Congress, representing a district in Massachusetts.

The Ames brothers, Durant, and others were responsible for setting up a company they called Credit Mobilier that would handle the actual construction of the railroad. It was a separate company from the Union Pacific that would operate the rolling stock once the line was finished and contract with the builders for the job. Through various maneuvers, Credit Mobilier billed the UP for construction work, the UP would submit the bill to Congress to demonstrate they needed additional bonding funds, and Congress obligingly would authorize payment. The Ames’ were on all three corners—Oakes in Congress, Oliver as UP President, and both on the Credit Mobilier board. The founders gave or sold stock cheaply to members of Congress and other influential people.

The financial antics allowed for the Credit Mobilier investors to receive millions from cost overruns and improper billing. Cost overruns may have run as high as $60 million over the real costs of construction. In 1872, after the railroad was completed, the Credit Mobilier scandal rocked Congress and the financial community. Oakes Ames was censored and forced to retire from Congress while his brother also was disgraced. Both men died soon after the scandal, Oakes in 1873 and Oliver in 1877.

In the following decade, family and friends helped finance a memorial to the two brothers to recognize their role in building the first transcontinental railroad. They hired H. H. Richardson, the foremost architect of his day, and the result was the Ames Monument, a 60-foot pyramid built on the highest point of the railroad, on the summit between Cheyenne and Laramie.

Once the Civil War ended, railroad construction began in eastern Nebraska.

Meanwhile, 500 miles to the west, survey crews led by Grenville Dodge, James Evans, and Samuel Reed, were weighing the options to cross the Rockies.

One route seemed obvious at first—the Oregon-California-Mormon Trail route through central Wyoming, over South Pass and southwest to Utah. Surveyors, however, thought there were greater benefits to the "Overland Trail" route—used by Ben Holladay’s stage line. The distance was shorter by more than 60 miles and, important to fueling a future railroad, the more southern route lay close to known coal beds. Further, federal bonds would triple in amount once the "mountainous area" was reached. That would happen some 200 miles closer at the "Black Hills" (Laramie Range) on the southern route than where they began along the Oregon-California Trail route, near South Pass.

Yet, for all of its value as the starting point for higher bonds, a critical obstacle for track layers remained—the "Black Hills" (Laramie Range) west of Cheyenne. Once Dodge discovered "the gangplank" and demonstrated how Dale Creek Canyon could be traversed by a testle, the Overland Trail route gained the advantage. By the summer of 1867, the Union Pacific survey crews had staked out much of the line across Wyoming, ensuring that the ground was sufficiently level for locomotives unable to handle steep grades. Even four percent was excessive (four feet increase in every 100 feet raise in elevation, explaining why the route passed in a long loop to the north of Elk Mountain and the Snowy Range, a major deviation from the stagecoach line that followed more closely today’s Interstate 80 route in that area.

Surveyors came first, followed by "graders" who prepared a relatively level surface with gentle grades on which to lay the rails. Then came the track layers, followed by the locomotives and train operators. Some 5,000 men worked on the Union Pacific in the various capacities. Rarely were all located at the same point along the railroad line. Nonetheless, thousands more people congregated just ahead of the "end-of-tracks" in places that became known as "hell-on-wheels" towns. Seeking to take advantage of railroad builders’ thirsts for liquor, gambling, and women, business operators in these towns expected to make fast money at one location and then, when the tracks continued building west, move quickly to the next town up the line and set up business there.

On the Fourth of July, 1867, Grenville Dodge camped at the future site of Cheyenne. A few days later, he and his survey crew laid out what would become a division point on the railroad and Wyoming’s capital, some 500 rail miles from Omaha, the railroad’s eastern terminus. As a division point, the town, unlike most "hell-on-wheels" towns, would have some permanence. The town grew rapidly in less than two months. Nicknamed "the Magic City of the Plains" due to the phenomenal grown, Cheyenne already had a post office, a newspaper, several professional offices, numerous saloons and other gaming houses by the time the tracks were built through town in September, 1867.

West of Cheyenne, however, was one of the biggest challenges for the UP, the 8,242-foot summit of the mountains and, just west of it, Dale Creek Canyon. The gangplank solved problems with the steep grade on the eastern flank of the hills, but the canyon required more work. Track-laying crews waited in Cheyenne while Dale Creek Trestle was built during the winter of 1867-68. Some 700 feet long and 127 feet high, it was the highest railroad bridge in the world at the time. The trestle had to be built of wood, almost entirely imported by rail from the Midwest.

The pause did not affect surveyors laying out the route west, graders working on rights-of-way, or tie hacks supplying railroad ties from the forests west of Laramie, but the work delays for the track layers led to winter months in Cheyenne where boredom and excess leisure time led to fights, excessive drinking, gambling, gunplay and, eventually, to vigilante justice. Nonetheless, the several months of business activity helped cement Cheyenne’s permanence. By the time the bridge was completed in April 1868 and the tracklaying crews had reached the new town of Laramie (just a mile to the north of Fort Sanders, founded five years earlier to garrison soldiers protecting the Overland stage route), Cheyenne merchants were putting up wooden and brick buildings to replace the tent-like "structures" universally preferred in the early months. Near Cheyenne, the army built Fort D. A. Russell (later renamed Fort Warren and today, Warren Air Force Base) as protection for the railroad. It was one of several such forts built, in essence, as another federal subsidy for the railroad—free protection for its workers.

Dodge located the townsite for Laramie on the "Union Pacific checkerboard section" that was located roughly from the railroad tracks currently run through town, east to 15th Street and from present Spring Creek to Fremont Street.  Other parts of Laramie were on the checkerboard sections retained by the federal government and later homesteaded or kept, until the end of the 19th century, as part of Fort Sanders Military Reservation (south near the present site of the Cavalryman) or the territorial prison (now the Wyoming Territorial Park).

Rails reached Laramie in early May 1868 and the first train pulled into the newly established town on May 9, 1868—just one year and a day before the entire line was completed across the continent. Just as in the case of Cheyenne and several other Wyoming towns, a newspaper was published at "Fort Sanders" and "Laramie" just as the town was formed. It was the Frontier Index, the third newspaper published in Wyoming (the telegrapher published a newspaper at Fort Bridger in 1863 known as the Daily Telegraph and an earlier "paper" was "published" by soldiers at Fort Laramie called "The Chugg Water Journal.") Legh Freeman, the Frontier Index publisher, was a former "galvanized Yankee" who loaded his printing equipment onto the first train to an "end-of-tracks" town, set it up, and began publishing until the tracks moved further down the line. The Frontier Index came to an ignominiously end at Bear River City later the following year when Freeman wrote a scathing critique of vigilantism. He was run out of town, his "tent" destroyed and his press thrown in the nearby river.

Like many of the other towns established by the railroad, Laramie suffered initially from a lack of law and order. In fact, M. C. Brown, the first mayor of Laramie, resigned after three weeks, complaining that the town was "ungovernable." Through a series of lynchings, vigilantes steadily retook control of the "lawless element" in the town, hanging four men and running much of the "unruly element" out of town.

Laramie’s lawlessness was not unique. Throughout the area, there was a total absence of territorial government. Just the previous year (1867), Congress separated what is now Wyoming from Dakota Territory. The new territory, however,

existed only on the books. Because Congress established territory at the time President Andrew Johnson was being impeached, Congress did not wish him to appoint the territorial officers. Consequently, the positions remained vacant and the territorial was unorganized until after President U. S. Grant became President in the spring of 1869, two months before the railroad was completed across the west.

After laying rails over the summit, named "Sherman Hill" in honor of General William T. Sherman, the U. S. Army commander and friend of Grenville Dodge, the rest of the track-laying across southern Wyoming was relatively easy. The rest, too, for the railroad, was very profitable because they were being paid in "triple bonds" as though the mostly flat, treeless plains were "mountainous" the entire way to the Utah border.

Meanwhile, threats of Indian attacks lessened along the southern route, particularly after the federal government met with Lakota and other tribes and agreed to close down the Bozeman Trail in exchange for the Indians allowing railroad construction to the south. The Shoshones to the west signed the second "Fort Bridger Treaty" in 1868, through which the federal government seemed to be reasserting the tribes’ claims to vast stretches of what is now western Wyoming. The first treaty, the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1864, had granted even greater land area to the tribe.

The railroad, led by Grenville Dodge and the other surveyors, was responsible for laying out many other towns—Rawlins, named for Dodge’s friend and fellow Civil War general, John A. Rawlins; Green River, laid out at a point where the railroad constructed a bridge over the river by the same name; Evanston, named for fellow surveyor James Evans. There were coal mines opened at points along the line where the fuel could be mined and supplied to the coal-fired steam locomotives—places like Carbon and Rock Springs. And there were many more. Some, like Benton, Bryan, and Bear River City, were temporary towns where speculators bought and sold building lots for hundreds of dollars only to discover later that the railroad had no plans to include rail facilities at the site. As quickly as they grew, they disappeared into where they had begun—dust and sagebrush.

A few smaller places did have utility for the railroad. They could be fuel loading stops or places where cattle could be loaded onto livestock cars for shipment to market. Some other "towns" were little more than water stops where the railroad built water towers for the steam locomotives that required refilling every 50 or so miles.

The tracklayers, working six days a week from dawn to dusk and who had hammered "ten spikes per rail," and had laid "400 rails per mile," finally finished at Promontory Point, Utah, on May 10, 1869. There the Union Pacific line met the Central Pacific (the line of the "Big Four" and Theodore Judah) that had built from California to the east.

The nation celebrated what some people believed was the greatest engineering achievement of the age and the country was united by rails for the first time. But the impact of the railroad on Wyoming was even more profound. Without it, there would have been no need for Wyoming Territory—or for the state.

An Act to aid in the Construction of a Railroad and Telegraph Line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. . . .

Be it enacted, That [names of corporators]; together with five commissioners to be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior... are hereby created and erected into a body corporate... by the name... of "The Union Pacific Railroad Company"... ; and the said corporation is hereby authorized and empowered to lay out, locate, construct, furnish, maintain and enjoy a continuous railroad and telegraph... from a point on the one hundredth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, between the south margin of the valley of the Republican River and the north margin of the valley of the Platte River, to the western boundary of Nevada Territory, upon the route and terms hereinafter provided...

Sec. 2. That the right of way through the public lands be... granted to said company for the construction of said railroad and telegraph line; and the right... is hereby given to said company to take from the public lands adjacent to the line of said road, earth, stone, timber, and other materials for the construction thereof; said right of way is granted to said railroad to the extent of two hundred feet in width on each side of said railroad when it may pass over the public lands, including all necessary grounds, for stations, buildings, workshops, and depots, machine shops, switches, side tracks, turn tables, and water stations. The United States shall extinguish as rapidly as may be the Indian titles to all lands falling under the operation of this act...

Sec. 3. That there be... granted to the said company, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of said railroad and telegraph line, and to secure the safe and speedy transportation of mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores thereon, every alternate section of public land, designated by odd numbers, to the amount of five alternate sections per mile on each side of said railroad, on the line thereof, and within the limits of ten miles on each side of said road... Provided That all mineral lands shall be excepted from the operation of this act; but where the same shall contain timber, the timber thereon is hereby granted to said company...

Sec. 5. That for the purposes herein mentioned the Secretary of the Treasury shall... in accordance with the provisions of this act, issue to said company bonds of the United States of one thousand dollars each, payable in thirty years after date, paying six per centum per annum interest... to the amount of sixteen of said bonds per mile for each section of forty miles; and to secure the repayment to the United States... of the amount of said bonds... the issue of said bonds... shall ipso facto constitute a first mortgage on the whole line of the railroad and telegraph...

Sec. 9. That the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Railroad Company of Kansas are hereby authorized to construct a railroad and telegraph line... upon the same terms and conditions in all respects as are provided [for construction of the Union Pacific Railroad].... The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California are hereby authorized to construct a railroad and telegraph line from the Pacific coast... to the

eastern boundaries of California, upon the same terms and conditions in all respects [as are provided for the Union Pacific Railroad].

Sec. 10 ...And the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California after completing its road across said State, is authorized to continue the construction of said railroad and telegraph through the Territories of the United States to the Missouri River... upon the terms and conditions provided in this act in relation to the Union Pacific Railroad Company, until said roads shall meet and connect...

Sec. 11. That for three hundred miles of said road most mountainous and difficult of construction, to wit: one hundred and fifty miles westerly from the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, and one hundred and fifty miles eastwardly from the western base of the Sierra Nevada mountains... the bonds to be issued to aid in the construction thereof shall be treble the number per mile hereinbefore provided... and between the sections last named of one hundred and fifty miles each, the bonds to be issued to aid in the construction thereof shall be double the number per mile first mentioned...

Jan. 1, 1868 [Wednesday]: Just got Discharged from Government Service by reason of an order from Washington. Discharging all employees at Fort Sanders DT [Dakota Territory]. Did not enjoy myself very much today but had to do the best I could in this part of the Country. Went to hear a Serenade in the evening at General Gibbon’s Quarters. It was a great treat for me. Weather Cold and Clammy. Kept in the House Most of the time. Concluded it about the best place to be.

Jan. 2: Went to work to help to put up a barber Shop. Got it done and then the man found out he had no Money to pay us. felt a little vexed about it. Worked some on a Meat House and quit for the day. Weather Cold and a heavy snowstorm raging and everything looks very dismal….

Jan. 3: Another Change in affairs, our cook got discharged and started for Cheyenne, so we have to cook for ourselves, rather tough but we have got to stand it...

Jan. 4: Weather Cold and Stormy. not much excitement in Camp. everything very dull and I am beginning to get discouraged. Think some of going back to the States to try a civilized life once more. Went to see about a contract to get out Rail Road ties. did not like the price so would not go into untill i [sic] looked around a little more.

Jan. 5 [Sunday]: Did not pass a very pleasant day. most of the boys has left and our quarters are very lonesome without them, wont stay here much longer. Got a job to finish a house on the Little Laramie. expect to go up there tomorrow Morning and I am very glad of it for I am tired laying around here and want a change. do not know how long we will stay up there. Heard that we were to be hired again at this post by Government do not know how true it is.

Jan. 6: Got up very early and started for Mantils2 Ranch on the Little Laramie River to finish a house. Had a very Cold ride of it but finaly arrived all right. Made a bargain for the Job. Commenced it but did not do a great deal as the weather cold to work out doors. Laid on the flor [sic] of the ranch but being tired out slept sound.

Feb. 29: Got our Ice House ready for the Ice. expect to commence to fill it soon if the Ice gets good. Weather getting colder. hope it will so that we can get good ice. Went down the river on a little foraging expedition and it proved successful. got back rather tired.

March 1, 1868: Made my regular trip to Fort Sanders. heard considerable talk about the discovery of gold at dale City.3 good deal of excitement about it at the post. do not take much stock in it myself. seen several of the old Carpenters. Most of them loafing. times dull. Weather cold and Windy. Got back to camp all right….

Mar. 5: Home at last— got the roof on our Cabin at last and commenced to live. find a great deal of difference between it and our wagon cover tent. do not have quite so much dirt to eat but we can get along without that luxury or we try. our stove smokes some but we do not mind trifles. Wind still blowing hard. Indications of a storm.

Mar. 6: Went up to Sanders to get a grate for our stove. had to make one myself. Came to the conclusion that I was not a very good blacksmith. Times dull up there. expect lively times when building commences at Laramie City….Heavy snow storm raging all day.

Mar. 7: Living in good shape. enjoy our Cabin very much and find that we can live far more comfortable that we could at the post—and a great deal cheaper. nothing like having a home if it is a log cabin on a prairie. Weather cold and stormy….

Mar. 9: Nothing to do. was not in a hurry getting out of bed and had a good comfortable place to sleep. Fixed a targate [sic] and practiced some with my rifle. Made some very good shots for a green hand. Capt Metcalf and Jimmy Vine visited

us today.4 did not stay long. Weather getting pleasant again.

Mar. 16: Did not have much to do today so I took a trip up to Sanders to see how things looked up there. found everything very dull. all waiting for the new town to commence. think they will sell lots soon. Some talk of a new post going to be started at North Platte crosing [sic]. 5 hope they will for I would like to go up there to work. Weather rather cool.

Mar. 17: "Saint Patrick’s Day in the Morning." Went up to Sanders for a "walk." found things somewhat livelier. Paymaster there paing [sic] off the troops. plenty Money flying around and lots of the soldiers on a spree. all seem to feel well. Got a job from blackburn [sic] and expect to go to work at Laramie tomorrow morning. Weather cold and stormy.

Mar. 18: Commenced working for Blackburn6 at the new town of Laramie. did not do much as the wind was very high. heard that the company was going to commence selling lots soon. I hope that they will for that will make evry [sic] thing lively. Weather rather cold and very high Wind but there are indications of fine weather. hop [sic] it will come.

Mar. 19: Worked half of the day at Laramie framing a house. business beginning to look a little brighter and I think times will soon be good. If not, there will be a grand "Skidaddle" from this part of the Country for people are getting discouraged about this place. The R R Company are waiting for a permit from Washington to sell lots. expect it soon. Weather cold and windy.

Mar. 20: Working at Laramie but if they do not soon commence to sell lots, will run out of a job. hope they will soon begin for I do not want to lay around much. [Plenty?] houses ready to go up, if the town was ready. Weather a little more pleasant but windy.

Mar. 21: Sweet Saturday has arrived again and having worked hard all day, I feel like having a little rest but having a little business to attend to at Sanders, I was obliged to walk up there. Got back about tired out. Weather warmer….

Mar. 22 [Sunday]: Did not do much travelling for I was determined to enjoy this sweet day of rest. remained at our "Cottage by the Laramie" all day and had a very pleasant time of it and got well rested. all ready for another week’s work. Weather warm and pleasant. hope it will remain so….

Mar. 24: Now we have got it. another violent snowstorm. Could not go out to work, therefore I’ve had to stick close to our Cabin and found it to be a good institution in a storm. the other Carpenters that are in tents and shake ups must have a "bitious" time of it. I Pity them poor Cusses.

Mar. 25: Storm continued to rage fearfully all day. Kept close by the ranch and did not mind it much, but come near being snowed under. it beats anything that I ever seen in my life and I do not care about seeing any more storms like it. Cannot see any thing out of doors 10 feet from the house.

Mar. 26: Weather moderated considerable and we managed to get out of our hut, but had a good deal of shoveling to do first. sun come out fine and made things look better. Went up to Sanders, had a very hard walk of it through the snow. Nothing new up there. Got back all right but felt rather tired.

Mar. 27: Went to work at Laramie and got the frame dug out of the snow. it was rather mean work but it had to be done. Lots not on market yet, all waiting anxiously for them to be sold. heard that they were going to begin shooting last night at the town. false report, no one shot. Weather quite pleasant.

Mar. 28: Got near all done that we can do until the lots are sold. heard that the [town?] was going to be removed to the Little Laramie Crossing. hope they will do that or something else to make the times better. Weather very pleasant.

Mar. 29 [Sunday]: Another day of rest has arrived and I enjoyed it very well. did not go far from the ranch. read all day and was well rested….

Mar. 30: Finished up what work I’ve had to do on the fram[e] so we will have to wait until the lots are sold before we can do any more to it, hard telling when that will be. if not soon, then good by Laramie plains [plans?]. Weather getting a little cooler….

April 1, 1868: Started on a hunt to the Black hills7 but a snow storm commenced and we had to put back for our Cabin and remained there the rest of the day. Storm continued all day.

April 2: Weather still stormy. Oh, what a place for wind and storms and I hope I will not have to stay here next winter, everything looks dismal and nothing doing. Went out with a party hunting. Chased some antelope black-tailed deer but they were so wild we could not get near them. got some sage hens and came home.

April 3: Felt so tired after yesterdays hunt I concluded not to leave home today. got a book and read all day and got well rested ready for another expedition. Nothing doing at Laramie. no lots sold yet. Weather Moderating….

April 6: About tired laying idle but cannot help it for there is not anything to do. No lots sold at Laramie yet and we can not go to work until they are. Heard that Gen. Sheridan and Angus [Augur?] was expected at Sanders and Augur had the town papers with them.8 I hope it is true. Went up to the post and got my "dog." Weather warm but wind rising….

April 10: Went up to Sanders. found business as usual. very dull. No lots sold at Laramie yet. do not think that they ever will be sold. Almost made up my mind to leave this place. …Weather getting colder and Wind Rising….

April 14: Got up early and started for the hills. Weather fine when we started but after we got there, it was very stormy and could not hunt much. got about 3 miles from our camp and made a fire. sat there until the storm abated a little and started for Camp. Met two large Bears and had a glorious hunt after them and finally made "bruin" give up the ghost, but had a tough time of it before we killed them. left them and got to Camp, proud of our days work. put in a rough night. it was so cold.

April 15: Took the Mules and started for our Bars had some fun getting them on the Mules’ Backs but was near froze in the operation. got back to camp with them and started for home. Could not stay any longer the weather was so cold. Got home all right but rather tired.

April 16: Dressed our Bears and cooked some. found it first rate Meat. Going to tan the hides. Think I will keep mine for to remember my first bear hunt. …. Weather cold and windy. Heard that the lots at Laramie were to be sold on next Monday. hope it is so….

April 18 [Sunday]: Three cheers. Great preparations for building at Laramie lots

to be sold on Monday next, sure pray. everyone feels good about it, no more loafing I hope for this reason for I have got enough of. Weather getting warmer.

April 19: "All quiet on the Laramie" but think there will be stirring [?] times this week. remained home all day very lonesome. Weather plesant [sic].

April 20: Lots at Laramie sold and everything looks like business and building is commencing at a fast rate. hope it will continue so all summer wages will be good. Weather fine and warm.

April 21: Had to go up to the post so I did not commence work but expect to tomorrow. people flocking into Laramie very fast. expect that they will commence shooting soon. Heaps of gamblers and pickpockets arriving daily. Weather Comfortable.

April 22: Commenced to work on Freeman and Wright building.9 Worked all day and at night felt better by far than if I had loafed. quite a lot of foalks [sic] in town and all sorts of outfits coming in every hour. buildings going up very fast. Weather warm.

April 23: Had a chance of another job but had plenty of work without it. Got Freeman’s frame put and getting along well with it. Heard of an Indian raid on some graders at rock creek.10 did not hear all the particulars. Weather a little cooler

April 24: Commenced work in the morning but was stopped by a snow storm. had to quit untill noon worked the rest of the day. Seen a fight in town. they came near shooting but was stopped but do not think it will be long before someone is killed.

April 25: Weather very pleasant worked all day and was glad when night came for I was tired. cars expected here in a short time. Then look out for [biz?]

April 26 [Sunday]: Welcome sweet day of rest. Went to town to see what was going on. seen a great many drunken Men and a good many wanted to fight, but they did not make it out. some drew their revolvers but did not use them. Oh, it is a horrid place. nothing thought of a sunday excepting gambling, and fighting Weather very warm

April 27: Laramie increasing in size very fast. buildings going up in every direction and every indication of it being a lively place for some time to come. Working every day and feel first rate. got the building near done. Weather Lovely.

April 28: Thought I was gone up to day but thanks to providence, I was saved. was working in the second story of the building when a "tornado" struck it and down she went. I managed to jump before it fell. there was one man hurt but not very bad. Wind high. Cleared away the ruins. ready to go to work again.

April 29: Commence to put up the building again. Got along very well but things were badly mixed. would sooner build a new one than work at the old one. every thing full of nails. Weather pleasant. Got a letter from L. T. Bray.

April 30: Got our building near up again and glad of it. had some heavy work at it. Another week [sic] whirl wind came along and upset another building. did not hurt ours this time. Town flourishing.

May 1, 1868: Got our building as far along as it was when it blew down. will soon have it done. More Indian trouble at Rock Creek. several men scalped by them. none here yet. Weather warm. worked all day.

May 2: Wind blew very hard. did not work but of a day. Met Cap. Metcalf and went electioneering for "City" officers for Laramie but it did not amount to much as the General declared it null and void. Laramie is in full blast and every thing is Moving lively. Cars expected here tomorrow or next day.

May 3: Cars in sight but will not get in to day short of [?]. Hardy, the prize fighter, was shot at Laramie to day by the deputy sherrif [sic]. not dead yet but cannot live. town filled up with Gamblers Pickpockets and robbers. Weather plisant [sic].