Resources of Albany County, Wyoming

BANCROFT
LIBRARY

<•

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

RESOURCES

OF

ALBANY COUNTY,
WYOMING

1913

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toi

RESOURCES

DIRECTORS.

H. D. Beemer Jacob Berner C. S. Greenbaum A. E. Holliday

A. C. Jones H. G. Knight, President H. A. Gish

Fred A. Miller C. D. Spaldin?

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

W. H. Holliday Jacob Berner James M. Christensen

H. A. Gish, Treasurer J. E. Winslow, Chairman

R. W. Innes. Secretary

The Laramie Chamber of Com-
merce offers some statements
of facts for the information of
tourists, investors and home-
seekers. It will be a pleasure
to furnish you with detailed in-
formation upon any of the re-
sources of Albany County.

LARAMIE
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Office, Connor'Hotel Building

LARAMIE, - - WYOMING

ROBERT W. INNES, SECRETARY

1913

ALBANY COUNTY
WYOMING

As'L.3

ALBANY COUNTY NEEDS

Men of push and brains to aid in the development of rich
farming lands, for stock raising, dairying, hog raising, poul-
try raising, truck farming, and small fruit farming reap
golden harvests.

Capital to develop our deposits of soda, lime and sand
^particularly adapted to manufacture of glass), bentonite, as-
bestos, and natural deposits of Portland cement; coal, oil and
natural gas ; gold, silver, lead, copper, iron, graphite, plumbago
and other minerals with which the plains, hills and mountains
abound.

The development of our large and valuable tracts of timber
lands.

INTRODUCTION.

In presenting this pamphlet to the public, the Laramie
Chamber of Commerce fully realizes the futility of telling all
there is to say relating to the resources of Albany County in
one small book. The purpose of this publication is simply to
direct attention to a few of the resources and advantages of
this county, in the belief that they will be of interest to the
tourist, investor and homeseeker.

Albany County invites you, whether on pleasure bent, or
seeking to better your condition, and it is the purpose of the
Laramie Chamber of Commerce to see that accurate represen-
tations are made for the guidance of all who seek to avail
themselves of the boundless opportunities of this large and
prosperous, but thinly settled part of the state of Wyoming.

All authorities unite in stating that Albany County can
support in happiness and prosperity at least fifty thousand
more people. The lands are fertile, water abundant, transpor-
tation facilities good, roads among the best anywhere, scenic
attractions worth traveling across the country to see, excellent
climate, an invigorating atmosphere, and many other advan-
tages which are worth while. Conditions are far more favora-
ble for success than in any of the older, thickly populated com-
munities.

All who look to Albany County for a future home should
remember, however, that the same qualities of industry, pru-
dence and perseverance are required for success here that
would be needed anywhere. No one should come to Albany
county expecting to "get rich quick", to achieve success with-
out work and well applied knowledge. Above all, no one
should come to Albany County expecting to find immediate
employment in any line. When you come, bring enough funds
to provide traveling and living expenses for a considerable
period while you are visiting different localities and searching
for the opportunity which appeals to you and in which you
have confidence ydu can succeed. Do not build up false hopes
of fabulous affiuence and easy life without work.

A warm welcome into churches, schools, fraternal organi-
zations and other societies, and into the large hearts of the
western people awaits every new citizen who comes to Albany
County with the honest purpose of achieving independence
and making a home.

ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING

Albany, as one of the southern tier of counties in the state,
has some advantages in its location and topographical features
which have not been fully discussed in any publication of this
kind. The total area of Albany County is 3,248,640 acres,
about one-third of which is listed for taxation. Tax valuation
for 1912 was $14,873,790.96. In 1910 the population of the
county was 11,574, two-thirds of whom live in the City of Lar-
amie, which is the third city in size in the state. This leaves
approximately one per square mile living in the country, and,
according to the last census, the average size of Albany County
ranches was over 2,300 acres. The Laramie range of moun-
tains extends the whole length of the county on the east and
the Medicine Bow range cuts through the southwest corner.
Between these ranges of mountains there is a large body of
arable land on the Laramie Plains which depends for its water
supply on the Big and Little Laramie Rivers, with their tribu-
taries, and Rock Creek. To the north there are some devel-
oped ranches along the North Laramie River, which runs
south of Laramie Peak, the highest point in the Laramie range
of hills. Laramie Peak has an altitude of 10,000 feet. The
Medicine Bow Mountains, west of Laramie, reach an altitude
of 13,000 feet and supply the perpetual snows which make the
Laramie Rivers perennial and supply irrigation water for the
larger canals on the Laramie Plains and in Laramie County to
the east. On the eastern border of the county the Sibylee,
Chugwater and other streams supply water for many stock
ranches and small farms which are located in valleys among
the Laramie Hills. The mean elevation of the county is placed
at 6,500 feet, but the larger part of the agricultural lands are
close to 7,000 feet above the sea. The Laramie Plains cover
approximately one-half the area of Albany County. It is a
high plateau of comparatively level land, varying in altitude
from a little less than 7,000 feet on the north to almost 8,000
feet on the southern boundary. This plateau has the appear-
ance of a basin, as it is partially surrounded by the two ranges
of mountains named above. The plains are crossed from south
to north by the Union Pacific railway.

The' Laramie, Hahns Peak and Pacific railroad runs
through the county from Laramie to the west. The Denver,

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 9

Laramie and Northwestern railroad, now under construction,
will also pass through the county from south to north. Alto-
gether there are about 150 miles of railroad in the county.

We have excellent country roads to all parts of the county
upon which it is a delight to travel, with team or auto.

A number of important irrigation ditches have been con-
structed to divert water from the large reservoirs in the
county. Since all the water available during the irrigation sea-
son was appropriated, it seemed that development must neces-
sarily cease. The far-sighted thought otherwise, however.
Through the fall, winter and early spring months millions of
cubic feet of water rolled down the river channels of the coun-
try, rinding its way to the ocean to be forever lost to man.
"Why not conserve that water and let it down in times of
scarcity ?" was the thought of those who gave the matter study
and investigation. Surveys were made, and a number of natu-
ral reservoir sites were located ; ditches have been run to these
sites, grades, dams and other structures have been built, and
when all the present undertakings are completed — many of
them being already completed — more than half a million acre
feet of water will be impounded each year to be turned loose
upon the barren plains when the water is needed for the growth
of plants.

The different projects and the acre feet capacity of the
reservoirs are given below. For the benefit of those not famil-
iar with irrigation terms, the following explanation is given —
an acre foot is the amount of water that will cover one acre
one foot in depth, and is considered sufficient, with the natural
rainfall in most sections, for the .irrigation of one acre of land
for one year.

Acre
Feet.

Rock Creek Conservation Co 210,000

James Lake Project 40,000

Hosier 40,000

Laramie Development Company 20,000

Laramie Water Company —

Lake Hattie Reservoir 133,000

Bell Reservoir 62,000

Bath Reservoir 37,ooo

Glendevey Reservoir 45,ooo — 275,000

Land.

There is still considerable government land in the county
open to homestead, desert claim, or reclamation under the
Carey act. The reader should understand that government

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. n

lands which are open to entry require considerable expendi-
ture of capital, as water must be secured before the soil may
be placed under a high state of cultivation. Developed ranches
can be purchased at from ten dollars to seventy dollars per
acre, though lands have greatly increased in value with the
beginning of better cropping systems and the general- in-
crease in our agricultural development. We will endeavor
to give authentic data of climate, farm crops, live stock and
irrigation which will indicate the possibilities of more com-
plete development. Albany County needs more farmers and
ranchmen, and the 'fact that all those who are now living on
ranches in the county are highly prosperous is most encourag-
ing to the newcomer who would make his home in this section
of the state.

Location With Regard to Market.

This county could hardly be more advantageously located
in relation to market for its produce. Live stock shipments
may be sent directly to any of the great Missouri River mar-
kets, to Denver or Chicago. The surrounding country to be sup-
plied with farm produce is very large and as yet the produc-
tion has never been equal to the demand. Flour, butter, cheese,
eggs, poultry, fish, potatoes, vegetables, small fruits and meats
are shipped in in enormous quantities, while land, water and
climate are all suitable to the production of these things at
home. All that is needed are farmers and manufacturers to pro-
duce them at home. To the south is the great North Park
country, which must depend on outside producers for its agri-
cultural supplies. The surrounding mountains and mining
camps and towns all supply the best of market, and because of
the distance of our agricultural lands from others, prices for
farm produce are better than in the outside general market.
For example, potatoes are always worth from 30 to 50 cents
more per hundred than they are at Greeley or Denver, because
potatoes from these regions cannot compete without paying
that amount of additional freight tariff.

TOURING IN WYOMING.

To the automobile tourist there are few spots that afford
more enjoyment than Wyoming.

Entering the state at Pine Bluffs, on the eastern bound-
ary line, there is a succession of beauty spots and points of in-
terest until one leaves the state at Evanston, having covered a
distance of about 475 miles, .and doing it, if one cares to go

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 13

after the record, in about twenty-six hours. However, if one
really wishes to go some, there are places where the automo-
bile puts the blush to the fastest express train. One has only
to choose and he will find on this trip just what he wishes.

The transcontinental tourist will find much of interest in
this journey. He will find that he has been gradually climbing
since crossing the Missouri or Mississippi river until he reaches
Sherman Hill, a few miles east of Laramie, the steepest climb
of the journey. At other points in the Rocky Mountain range
he will find rifts in the mountains that make the journey less la-
borious, but none more inspiring and enjoyable. He climbs
steadily until the crest is reached, and then he plunges down-
ward, finding a down-hill trip, so far as altitude is concerned,
until the waters of the Pacific lave the wheels of the auto.

Along the way every convenience is found that one could
hope for on a journey. From Sherman he gains a fine
view of the Laramie Valley, lying on either side of the Lara-
mie River, upon which the roads are good more days in the
year than in any section of the west. The valley is forty to
fifty miles wide, and one hundred and twenty-five miles long,
smooth and level, the roads being mere trails across the surface,
lying on gravel and free from mud, soft places and other ob-
jectionable features. These trails, some of them, are as old as
the day when the buffalo and red man roamed the valley ; oth-
ers of later date, made when the white man became an inhabi-
tant of the region, are wonderful examples of natural roads.
Laramie lies well on the transcontinental route from the east
to the west, affording alike an easy stage from Pine Bluffs and
Denver and a safe harbor when one desires rest from the fa-
tigue of a long journey. It is easily accessible, the distance
between Laramie and Denver being ordinarily covered within
six or seven hours, and more rapidly if one cares to speed his
machine, and all the way through a rich section of country,
passing through some excellent towns and cities, paralleling
some of the finest railroads in the west ; mountain scenery no
finer in the United States ; crossing mountain streams teeming
with trout ; in the region of wild game that will tempt in sea-
son. Rich farms and extensive ranches, where the tourist will
be brought into touch with the most hospitable people on
earth — the true Westerner, who has nothing too good for the
stranger within his gates, with open heart and hand extended,
friend to friend, whose fame is noted for caring for those who
need care, and whose benison is sincere when the parting
comes and the stranger speeds on his way.

From Laramie, one of the most important points on the
transcontinental route, through the Rocky Mountain region.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 15

good automobile roads radiate in every direction. Here will
be found a road leading to Walden, where lies one of the most
remarkable coal beds in the world,and through primeval iorests
of virgin pine. To Douglas there is another excellent highway,
opening into an 'oil region that must in time make Wyoming
one of the most noted states in the Union. Westward there
is a good highway to Medicine Bow, made famous through
Owen Wister's splendid western novel, "The Virginian",
thence to Fort Steele, Rawlins, the Continental Divide, Rock
Springs, and Green River, where one passes from the slope to-
wards the Gulf of Mexico to the slope whose waters flow into
tiie Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California, the divide being
imperceptible, so gentle the slope at this point. Westward
one crosses the great Red Desert, a vast plain seemingly bar-
ren, but abounding with animal life in season, and hundreds of
thousands of sheep nibble the soft forage wrhich nature has
provided.

We pass through Rock Springs, another vast coal area,
where some of the best grade of coal in the west is mined. From
this point a road diverges towards Yellowstone National Park,
that wonderland of the world, whose beauties are becoming
more and more attractive to the people as this newer mode of
travel is open to them. The road passes through some won-
derful scenery before reaching the park, and there one is lost
in wonder at the majesty of creation in the mighty upheavals
that at one time brought the great sea that once covered this
section of the earth, to the present tremendous ridge of granite
that extends from the north to the south. The Park is a play-
ground for those who would "See America first", and one of
the best roads lies through Laramie, Rawlins, Rock Springs,
the beautiful Eden Valley, and Pinedale, thence to the Jackson
Hole and into the southern limits of the Park.

At Evanston one enters the Wasatch Mountains and very
shortly crosses the state line into Utah. One cannot but admit
that every foot of the way has been full of interest. Some of the
finest fishing in the world is found on the trip. At Laramie the
streams are filled with trout stocked annually by the
hatcheries maintained by the state, assisted by the govern-
ment. Wild game abounds through the mountains — elk, deer,
antelope, bear, mountain lions, and game birds, both on land
and water.

Scenic beauty spots are everywhere. Mountain climbing,
fishing, hunting, trapping, boating and strolls among the deep
pine forests, bring one very close to nature.

Is it to be wondered that the transcontinental tourist has
discarded the stuffy Pullman for the more comfortable and

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 17

exhilarating automobile, seeing things on his trip that he
never dreamed existed as he flitted along, covering the distance
from ocean to ocean in the fastest time possible?

It is the coming pleasure tour and every day adds to the
wealth and knowledge to be gained by travel through one's
own country, over good roads ; the sweet, pure air filling one's
lungs, and the steady hum of the automobile engines making
glad music to the tired mind.

LARAMIE, WYOMING.

Laramie, Wyoming, is a city of 8,500 population, situated
on the Union Pacific main line of railroad, 573 miles west of
Omaha. Altitude 7.145 feet. Has an average of 300 days of
sunshine during the year. The winters are ordinarily dry and
bracing and the summers are ideal for work or pleasure, while
the spring months are usually cool and moist. The fall months
are nearly a perpetual Indian summer.

Laramie is the county seat of Albany County and the See
City of the Episcopal Church in Wyoming. Here is located
the University of Wyoming, with its several colleges, includ-
ing the State Normal School, the School of Mines and Engi-
neering, the Agricultural College, and the United States
Experiment Station.

A special, annaul congressional appropriation of $5,000.00
is set aside for the breeding, feeding and development of the
various breeds of sheep.

Laramie is pre-eminently a City of Homes, where more
families own their own homes than is common in Western cit-
ies, and is properly called the educational center of Wyoming.
In addition to the University, there is an excellent system of
public schools with fine school buildings, including a modern
high school building erected in 1910.

A well equipped free library supported by public taxation
contains 16,000 volumes and has an average of two thousand
five hundred regular applicants for books. The library works
in conjunction with the schools in the city and county. The
culture and consequent moral influence of a well sustained
library more than compensates for the time and expense in es-
tablishing and maintaining such an adjunct to the educational
institutions of a city.

Building Association.

The Albany Mutual Building Association has had an act-
ive part in the building of homes in Laramie for the past 25
years. Authorized capital, five million dollars. Number of

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 19

shares outstanding, twelve thousand, of the par value of $200
each. Total bills receivable, $877,697.90.

Banks. .

First National Bank Capital, $100,000.00

Albany County National Bank Capital, 100,000.00

First State Bank Capital, 100,000.00

Postal Savings Bank.

Churches.

The following religious organizations own very good
church buildings, viz. : The Catholics, Episcopalians, Meth-
odists, Baptists, Presbyterians, German Lutherans, Scandina-
vian Lutherans, and the Swedish Mission Church. Christian
Science has many highly intelligent advocates in county and
city.

Special Orders.

The Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Elks, Ea-
gles and Moose each own fine or very creditable lodge build-
ings. .

Hotels.

The most important always to the traveling public is the
hotel facilities of towns. In this particular Laramie is exceed-
ingly fortunate. Four very good hotels furnish the city with
hotel accommodations far exceeding such accommodations in
many larger towns.

Few tow'ns, if any, of equal population, have as fine streets,
as many miles of concrete sidewalks, or a more complete sys-
tem of sewers. The Laramie River, one of the largest and
most beautiful of mountain streams, flows by the west side of
the city. The health of Laramie is as nearly perfect as pure
air, pure water and the best sanitary conditions can make it.
Therefore the death rate probably is lower than in any other
town in the United States.

Theaters.

Two theaters, one modern in every particular, secure the
finest attractions in the theatrical line as well as in the movies.

Fire Department and Water Supply.

The city has an up-to-date, paid, fire department with a
complete alarm system.

The present water supply is from a large spring at the
foot of the hills about two miles east of the city and at an alti-
tude of 125 feet greater than the average level of the city.
This maintains a gravity pressure of about 45 pounds, ever

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

21

ready in case of emergency and for domestic use. The flow
of said spring is about 1,800,000 gallons every twenty-four
hours. The water is first run into a cement reservoir near the
spring and from there conveyed to and throughout the city in
heavy iron pipes. The use of this water is free for all pur-
poses within the city.

Bonds have been authorized for the purpose of securing
the water from another spring of equal flow. Thus is secured
for many years to come a bountiful supply of pure spring water
for domestic use.

The great areas of hay lands and highly nutritious grasses
in the valleys of the Laramie rivers make this point an ideal
place for stock yards for feeding stock in transit ; there being
an average of more than 10,000 cars of cattle, horses and sheep
fed here in transit over the Union Pacific railroad each year.

Great reservoirs and irrigation canals are being con-
structed to be supplied from the waters of the two Laramie
Rivers and from Rock Creek that will bring many thousand
acres of fertile land under cultivation. The irrigation works
above referred to have been constructed at the cost of several
million dollars, making possible agriculture and stock raising to
an extent unexcelled in any part of the country. Unimproved

Carnegie Public Library.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 23

lands are offered at tempting prices compared with irrigated
lands in other states.

Plaster deposits lie in practically unlimited quantities near
the city and supply two large plaster mills with material for
the shipment of hundreds of carloads of cement plaster each
year.

The railroad facilities are the Union Pacific and the
Laramie, Hahns Peak and Pacific, the latter opening up a sec-
tion of wonderful resources in southern Wyoming and north-
ern Colorado.

A fair statement of the varied resources of Albany County
and the country tributary to Laramie, contributed by the most
reliable authority, is the basis for the contents of this pam-
phlet.

A careful perusal will, we believe, lead to many profitable
investments and point the way for the establishment of many
prosperous homes in this part of Wyoming.

Among the most prominent industries are the following :

Three large automobile garages,

The largest plant on the line of the Union Pacific rail-
way for cutting and storing ice and icing refriger-
ator cars,

Stock yards, where over ten thousand cars of stock
are fed each year,

Two plaster mills,

Planing mills,

Tie preserving plant,

Packing plant,

Two greenhouses,

Three livery stables.

Tannery,

Electric light and heating plant, fully equipped to
furnish power to manufacturers seeking locations,

Flour mill and elevator,

Creamery,

Two daily and weekly newspapers,

Steam laundry.

Educational Advantages.

In the present stage of our civilization, a matter of much
importance to the man who is building a permanent home is
easy access to both common schools and institutions of higher
education. In seeking a location, then, the possibility of get-
ting near the seat of the State University, is a matter of
weight to thinking men. This is a real advantage to the

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 25

man or family seeking a farm or ranch in Albany County.
Laramie is the seat of the State University, with its several
colleges, where studies suitable to the individual taste
of the student may be selected. While this is a public institu-
tion, belonging to the state at large, there can be no question
about the favorable influence it produces in the community,
and many will choose living in town or country near this in-
fluence if they find there other advantages which insure their
general prosperity.

Education is becoming so practical, and is proving such an
essential to the greatest success of the individual, that every
intelligent man is coming to a realization of the value to him
of getting all the learning possible for himself, as well as
providing every opportunity for his children.

Not only does the University supply opportunity for
rounding out and finishing the education of the young people
in its classical, literary, scientific and technical colleges, but
here also is the Agricultural College and the Government Ag-
ricultural Experiment Station, with long and short courses for
instruction for young people who devote all their time to ac-
quiring information, and for older people as well, who are too
busy with the affairs of life to more than keep up with the
progress of the times. In the short courses farmers and
stockmen can in one or two weeks get hold of the latest infor-
mation which can be made of practical use in their business
affairs. •

The Wyoming Experiment Station, supported by federal
appropriations, is for research in agriculture. When it was es-
tablished twenty-two years ago agriculture was very new in
Wyoming. The arid region and irrigation farming were then
only beginning to be developed, and it may be truthfully said
that the success of cropping under correct methods of farm

Experiment Station Stock Farm, Laramie.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 27

practice as demonstrated by the Station has been no less than
a revelation to all who have learned of it. Without knowing
anything about the facts in the case, there has been a prejudice
in the minds of many against attempts to develop crop farming
in Wyoming. This has been due to two general misconcep-
tions. First and foremost, there were the personal interests at
stake of the few large stockmen who were waxing rich
through the occupation of vast sections of free range. These
men were jealous of encroachment by settlers who began to
develop smaller ranches, and felt it to their interest
to put everything in the way of settlement and development
which they legitimately could. Before them the Indian
tried to prevent the white men from making use of his game
country, because it interfered with his method of living. This
condition has passed, and our best men now realize the value
to the state of settlement and the development of our rich ag-
ricultural resources.

The second cause of slow development, which may be
slightly dependent upon the first, was a prejudice against the
general appearance of the country, due to lack of information
or intelligent foresight in regard to its possibilities. The arid
region — the short-grass country — all appeared so entirely dif-
ferent from conditions in the humid east that- the first settlers
could see no future for the country except one of general deso-
lation and abandonment. True, there were very Small sec-
tions of the arid region in Utah, California and Colorado where
the first irrigation development was proving the success and
superiority of irrigated agriculture, but it took actual demon-
stration arid ocular proof in Wyoming, especially at our higher
altitudes, to convince the people that here was a rich oppor-
tunity for the agriculturist. That live stock would thrive on
the rich grasses of the range and fatten on the native hay pro-
duced by irrigation of the river bottoms was known. The Ex-
periment Station and those ranchmen who have attempted
cropping have obtained absolute proof of remunerative farm-
ing, and this pamphlet will contain nothing but authentic data
of such resources.

Twenty-two Years' Data.

The Experiment Station has been demonstrating many
farm problems ; is now and will continue to study every agri-
cultural question and freely supply the information to those
who will make practical use of it. Its advantage to those who
are raising stock or crops can only be appreciated by coming
into contact with it or studying the publications which report
the results of investigations.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 29

Climate and Weather.

The health and happiness of a people, as well as their suc-
cess in agriculture, is so closely related to the climate and
weather of a region, that we make a brief summary of Albany
County weather phenomena. At the University complete me-
teorological records have been kept since 1901. These include
records of temperature of the air and soil, relative humidity,
dew point, precipitation, wind movement, barometric pressure,
evaporation, etc. Along with this record are data of frosts,
time of planting and harvest, and those crop and plant studies
which, taken together, give a good summary of climate condi-
tions. In general the climate is characterized by great dry-
ness of the atmosphere, with a consequent large percentage of
sunshine, cool nights, and never excessive heat during the day,
while, contrary to what would be expected, the minimum tem-
peratures at Laramie have not been so low as those either
north or south of us. There is a large amount of air move-
ment, but because of the high altitude and lightness of the
atmosphere, there is seldom any damage resulting from wind,
while the cool air is always kept pure and filled with elec-
tricity and ozone, which give it a snap at once energizing and
delightful. The largest amount of rainfall comes in the spring
and summer, when it is most useful to the farmer, and the falls
and winters are so dry and open that bicycles and automobiles
are used the year around. Seldom during the twenty-two
years for which we have records has the maximum tempera-
ture, even for a single day, during the summer, reached 90 de-
grees. The minimum temperature during that time has been
as low as 42 degrees below zero, which occurred in February
of 1905, but as will be noticed in the table of maximum and
minimum temperatures, the thermometer has seldom reached
minus 30 degrees, and these cold spells seldom last more than
a single day. The principal characteristic of the weather in
the nature of single storms consists of an occasional heavy
wind during the winter and spring months, sometimes accom-
panied by snow. Such storms never last more than two or
three days and the stock losses even' on the open range, since
we have begun to observe the weather, have been very slight.
There is an occasional heavy dashing rain sometimes accom-
panied by fine hail, but only two seasons in fifteen has any
damage occurred to crops by hail storms. Late frosts can be
expected in the spring until the first of June and killing frosts
in the fall can usually be expected the first week in September.
On this account, and because of the cool nights, corn and
vines cannot be successfully produced, but any of the more
hardy crops, which will stand a degree of frost in the spring,

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 31

such as grains, root crops, flax, buckwheat, alfalfa, etc., are
very successful. All the grass crops and grains reach great
perfection, producing large yields of the very best quality.
High up in the mountains the precipitation is greater, and
on the range and in the forests the snow is stored for summer
irrigation. It seems that all the factors of climate tend to
produce quick growth and most nutritious stock foods. Chem-
ical analyses of our forage plants indicate that they are unusu-
ally rich in protein, and digestion trials have shown them to
be highly digestible. (See Wyoming Experiment Station bul-
letins on Chemical Composition and Digestibility of High Al-
titude Forage.) The cool weather is also favorable to the lay-
ing on of fat and our hay-fed cattle are often sold on the mar-
ket as corn-fed beef. The springs are very short and as that is
the rainy season it is sometimes difficult to get plowing done
and crops in sufficiently early. It is, therefore, necessary to
fall plow and adopt other methods of farm practice suitable to
the soil and climate. Herewith are published two tables which
give the main factors of climate in our temperature arid pre-
cipitation. It will be noticed that the mean monthly precipita-
tion curve is identical with the needs of the growing season.
The distribution of the precipitation could not be better for
the agriculturist:

Postoffice Building:.

32 RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

Masonic Temple.

Albany County Court House.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. -33

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RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 37

Building Material.

A most important consideration to settlers in parts of the
arid region is that of obtaining suitable building material for
farm buildings and fences either free or at a low cost. The
conditions in Albany County are more favorable in this regard
than in many parts of the west, and the laws governing forest
reserves and state lands favor the actual settler in a way which
makes it possible for him to obtain free timber for his own use.

One of the largest bodies of growing timber in the state is
that of the Medicine Bow Forest Reserve, in southern Albany
County. This is directly tributary to the Laramie Plains area,
and settlers are given free permits to cut timber for building
purposes or for mining, and to remove dead or down timber
for wood, fencing or other use. The Wyoming law allows set-
tlers on public lands who have insufficient supply of timber on
their own claims to cut timber on lands owned or controlled by
the state, for their own use, but not for sale or to be otherwise
disposed of. Most of the ranchmen in Albany County con-
struct their buildings from logs which they obtain free from
forest reserves or state lands, and posts, poles, bridge timbers,
wood and timber in large amounts is available and easily ob-
tained. In the mountains west of Laramie there are a number
of sawmills operating under permits on the forestry reserves
which supply a large variety of building material to the Lara-
mie market. One of these mills manufactures lumber of suffi-
cient value to have received recognition in a medal granted at
the Portland Fair.

Sandstone and limestone are abundant and easily obtained
along the base of the Laramie Hills, and a granite of a quality
which received recognition at the Chicago Exposition is easily
available. In the vicinity of Laramie are two piaster mills
which are manufacturing plaster and stucco cements in large
quantities. At the present time a movement is inaugurated to
start Portland cement factories near Laramie, as materials for
this purpose are abundant. Limestone of great purity is
burned at Laramie for the making of ordinary plaster and the
new brick plant is making pressed brick of such quality that it
is shipped as far as Omaha for use in large buildings.

The Medicine Bow National Forest.

The Medicine Bow National Forest embraces an area of
eight hundred square miles in the region tributary to Laramie.
About two-fifths of this area (300 square miles) is in Albany
County. The forest is administered by the federal govern-
ment, necessitating the employment of a permanent and tem-
porary force varying from ten to one hundred men, depending

38 RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

on the time of year. The office of the Forest Supervisor and

his immediate assistants is in the federal building in Laramie.

The resources of the Medicine Bow National Forest are

many. It supports a stand of timber aggregating about two

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5#.j

and one-half billion board feet, valued conservatively at six
million dollars, from which an excellent quality of pine lumber
has been manufactured for the past forty years, affording
building material at low prices for the improvement of farms
and the building of houses. The price of lumber at the mills
ranges from $12.00 to $18.00 per thousand feet. Railroad tie

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 39

and lumber operators have purchased from the government
and sold locally millions of feet of timber, the production of
these classes of material forming one of the chief industries of
the region. Ranchers and others in and near the forest obtain
free firewood, building and fencing materials amounting to
nearly a million board feet a year.

On the forest there is range for 8,700 head of cattle and
horses and 80,000 head of sheep, and local stockmen utilize this
resource under permit from the federal government. The
prices paid at the stock markets for livestock shipped from this
range speak for themselves in declaring the value of the forage.

The Gold Hill, Rambler, Centennial and Keystone mining
districts are located within the boundaries of this forest, and
constitute one of its chief resources. Mining and prospecting
are carried on within the forest under the same laws applying
to the unreserved public domain.

Streams such as the Little Laramie River, and many oth-
ers, whose waters form the basis of the agricultural develop-
ment of the region, have their heads in the National Forest,
and the forests protecting their watersheds and regulating the
streamflow are guaranteed the protection of the government.
There are thousands of undeveloped electrical horsepower in
these same streams.

Not the least of the resources are the camping, hunting
and fishing opportunities. Deer abound in many parts of the
forest, and occasional bear, mountain lions, bobcats and small-
er animals attract the hunter. Delightful camping places are
numerous and easy of access. The region about the Snowy
Range is particularly attractive, and large numbers of camp-
ers visit this country throughout the summer. There are
summer hotels near and at Centennial, from where transporta-
tion may always be secured by wagon and horseback to the
higher points.

The fishing in the Little Laramie, Big Laramie, Rock
Creek, Douglas Creek, and other nearby streams is too well
known and appreciated to need advertisement. In the moun-
tain lakes about the Snowy Range there is excellent sport, par-
ticularly in Brooklyn and Towner Lakes. The Forest Service
has stocked many of these lakes with eastern brook trout, and
will replenish them and stock others each year.

The Medicine Bow National Forest boasts of one of a
very few completely equipped "seed-extracting plants" in the
United States. This plant has been erected at Foxpark at a
cost of nearly $10,000, and is used to extract the seed from the
lodgepole pine cones to be used in reforesting denuded
forest lands throughout the region. Each year the

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 41

ranchers and others living in or near the forest collect and sell
to the Forest Service quantities of pine cones. An inspection
of this unique plant is well worth a trip from Laramie over the
Laramie Plains railroad.

The Medicine Bow National Forest is one of the assets of
the region. It is administered by the government at no cost to
the state or county, and each year 25 per cent of the gross
receipts returns to the counties through the State Treasurer
to be expended on roads and schools. In the fiscal year ended
June 30, 1912, Albany County's share was nearly $5,000. In
addition to this, there is another 10 per cent expended on
roads, and in the spring of 1913 $1,800 will be spent on a road
across the range from Centennial to Tenmile, which will form
a short and scenic highway from Laramie to Saratoga.

It is to the people that the national forests are most valu-
able. They do not belong to the government officials in Wash-
ington, nor to the local -forest service, but to the public, and it
is the public who are most interested in their perpetuation
and protection. The government maintains a protective force,
and spends thousands of dollars each year in constructing
roads, trails, telephone lines, and other protective features.
Without the full co-operation of the public, however, protec-
tion must fail, and the disastrous fires in the northwest in 1910
showed what might happen to the valuable forest resources
of this country. The government welcomes and invites the
fullest use of the national forests for development and recrea-
tion purposes, asking cooperation in return, and the observ-
ance of such simple rules' as the following:

1. Be sure your match is out before you throw it away.

2. Knock out your pipe ashes or throw your cigar or cig-
arette stump where there is nothing to catch fire.

3. Don't build a camp fire any larger than is absolutely
necessary. Never leave it for a short time without puting it
OUT with water or dirt.

4. Don't build a camp fire against a tree or log. Scrape
away the needles, grass, or anything inflammable from all
sides.

5. Don't build bonfires. The wind may come up at any
time and start a fire you cannot control.

6. If you discover a fire, put it out if possible; if you
can't, get word to the nearest forest ranger or state fire war-
den as quickly as you can.

7. Leave your camp in a sanitary and neat condition
when you leave. Unburied refuse and garbage are unsightly
and unsanitary, and may spoil the camping place for the next
party.

42 RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 43

LIVE STOCK.

It is hardly necessary in this pamphlet to repeat the 19/10
statistics of the number of head of different classes of live
stock on the farms, ranches and ranges of Albany County.
In 1912 our live stock had an assessed value of $1,461,204.

Perhaps no county has made greater or more important
advance in the improvement of its stock, in better manage-
ment, care and feeding, and certainly none has won more hon-
ors at live stock shows and large expositions. Substantial win-
nings have been niade at the International Livestock Exposi-
tion at Chicago for a number of years upon both sheep and
cattle ; at the Alaska- Yukon Exposition at Seattle upon sheep ;
at the National Western Livestock Show at Denver upon cat-
tle and sheep, and at numerous state fairs over the country
upon sheep.

Range men are adopting better methods of management,
caring for their stock in pastures and on the ranch, using cor-
rals for their sheep instead of leaving them in the open with
the sheep wagon, and raising winter feed to bring their flocks
and herds through the few winter storms in better condition
than on the open range.

Medals and prizes have been won from time to time upon
range wool and fleeces in competition with America.

One of the largest horse ranches in the west is located in
northern Albany County, and there are several associations of
ranchmen who have purchased imported Belgian sires and
others who own good. Percheron, Shire and Coach stallions.

Hogs in Alfalfa, Blackburn Ranch.

44

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 45

A few are now raising swine which are found highly remunera-
tive fed on home-grown produce, and there is still room for
considerable development in the swine industry, for in our
high, dry climate they can be kept free from disease and other
troubles, and our highly nitrogenous foods produce bacon and
other products of first quality. Of other classes of stock in the
county, there are a few Angora goats and a few years ago a
man in the mountains west of Laramie made quite a success
of the manufacture of cheese from goats' milk.

Stock Feeding.

Heretofore the principal feeding done has been the win-
ter fattening of cattle on native hay. Within a few years,
however, a number of ranchmen have taken up lamb feeding
with alfalfa hay and corn, which is shipped in, and more re-
cently with field peas, after the method followed in the San
Luis Valley, in Colorado.

Dairying in Albany County.

A discussion of the subject of dairying and its possibili-
ties on the Laramie Plains resolves itself at once into a con-
sideration of two questions. Is the business profitable, and is
it practicable? A brief study of the industry, keeping those
points in mind, will at least enable us to judge intelligently as
to the merits of the business.

That the dairy cow is a profitable converter of farm crops
into human food is shown by a table taken from "Henry". In
it is given the amount of food, suitable for man, returned by
the different classes of farm animals for 100 pounds of digesti-
ble matter consumed :

Marketable Edible
Product Solids

Animal Ibs. Ibs.

Cow (milk) T39-O 18.0

Pig (dressed) 25.0 i $.6

Calf (dressed) 36.5 8.1

Poultry (eggs) 19.6 5.1

Poultry (dressed) 15.6 4.2

Lamb (dressed) 9.6 3.2

Steers (dressed) 8.3 2.8

A study of these figures gives us something of an idea of
the possibilities of the dairy cow as a machine for changing
hay and grain into human food. Give her 100 pounds of di-
gestible matter and she will return to you eighteen pounds of
edible solids, practically all of which are digestible.

46 RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

Ice Houses, La ramie River.

Union Pacific Railway Company Passenger Station.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 47

The pig, which stands second on the list of food producers,
is a valuable asset to the dairy farmer. Pork production and
dairying go hand in hand, for the man who has skim milk to
be utilized needs pigs to aid him in disposing of it to the best
advantage. Skim milk and alfalfa hay will winter brood sows,
and pea pasture is extremely valuable in fattening rations.

Thus we find that the dairyman may have what we might
term a side-line in pigs, fitting in well with his scheme of dairy
farming, and in these two classes of stock he has leading food
producers.

From the standpoint of maintenance and building up of
soil fertility the dairy cow is kept at a profit. In marketing a
ton of butter we dispose of about 30 cents in fertility value,
while a ton of alfalfa hay, sold, represents approximately $9.00
in fertilizing materials taken from our soils. Let us feed our
hay to milk cows, market butter, and by a careful application
of manure, build up the richness of our soils.

Markets are an important consideration when profits are
being investigated. Dairymen of the Laramie Plains have
good market facilities. An up-to-date creamery located in the
City of Laramie furnishes an outlet for both milk and cream.
Prices range high enough to make the business, properly con-
ducted, remunerative. Mr. Sterzbach, manager of the cream-
ery company, estimates that an average of $1.90 per hundred
pounds is paid for whole milk. He figures that at least 40,000
pounds more butter is needed to supply the local trade, and
states further that there is much contingent territory orders
which could be filled from Laramie were the dairy products
available. With all local demands filled there would still be
the eastern and western markets, and Elgin prices could be
depended upon throughout the year.

Transportation charges on cream shipped into Laramie
by express are not excessive. An average of twenty-five cents
would cover the cost of sending in a ten gallon can of cream
from near-by points. Empty cans are returned free.

In the matter of shipping dairy products to distant points
the dairyman works at an advantage. He ships a highly con-
centrated product on which the carrying charges are bound to
be less proportionately than they would be were he to send
hay, grain or live stock.

Delivering milk or cream at the creamery means a long
haul from some parts of the Laramie Plains. Yet this diffi-
culty can be largely overcome through co-operation. One
team can easily do the delivering for a neighborhood.

Settlers in this section who enter the dairy business find
land values much less than they are in most of the older

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 49

states. This means less fixed capital upon which interest must
be figured. Yet our lands are productive. The 1911 Year Book
of the Department of Agriculture gives the average yield of
corn in the United States as 23.9 bushels per acre; oats, 24.4;
barley, 21.0 bushels. Corn may be beyond us, but our irrigated
sections will certainly show improved yields of oats and barley.
Barley is coming to be recognized as a wonderfully good corn
substitute.

Wherever the dairy industry has gained a foothold we find
a prosperous community. With increased land values the
tendency is toward dairying. Why? Because as has been pre-
viously indicated, the dairy cow heads our list of domesticated
animals in her ability to convert field crops into human food.
Hence the man with high priced land turns to her for aid in
financing his big investments.

Star Valley, a section of our state with climatic conditions
much like those of the Laramie Plains, is today demonstrating
the possibilities of the dairy business. Settlers in the valley
were having difficulty in making both ends meet, until they
began to keep milk cows. Today one finds evidences of pros-
perity on all sides in spite of the fact that the valley is fifty
miles from a railroad and cut off from it by a mountain range.
Most of the cattle are not of the highest type, yet herd improve-
ment is under way.

What of the practicability of dairying for the. Laramie
Plains? That it 'is a workable proposition, those who have
studied the question will testify. Climatic conditions are not
unfavorable. We can grow all the necessary feeds. With
alfalfa, field peas, roots, oats, barley and rye at our disposal,
what more do we need? Silos are no remote possibility, for
alfalfa, field peas, oats, etc., make silage material. Market
facilities are good with both local and distant field inade-
quately supplied.

In short, we have the requisites necessary for successful
dairying. It remains with us to make the most of our opportu-
nities.

Why has an industry both profitable and practicable been
so woefully neglected? In the first place, we object to the
work connected with the dairy business. That it is confining
no one will deny. Milking twice a day, week in and week out,
grows irksome. What business is without its drawbacks and
what success worthy of the name is attained without effort and
sacrifice?

Many of us have lacked in appreciation of the dairy cow
as well as in knowledge of the subject and so have hesitated to
embark in the enterprise. Your state university, good dairy

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 51

papers and a wealth of dairy literature are all at the disposal of
those interested.

Enough has been said to give you a glimpse of our possi-
bilities. An intelligent utilization of our advantages and
hearty co-operation in the development of the dairy industry
will do much toward adding to the prosperity of our valleys.

CROPPING RESOURCES.
Forage Plants.

Several of the older writers on alfalfa made statements
that it would thrive at any altitude below 6,000 feet. On the
Experiment Station farm at Laramie we early demonstrated
that the conditions were favorable to the production of alfalfa
at altitudes of over 7,000 feet, and now there are some exten-
sive fields along the rivers and under the irrigating canals.
Where the conditions are favorable for its growth, alfalfa is
pronounced, without reserve, the most valuable fodder plant
under cultivation for the arid region. It is so highly esteemed
in other places that eastern farmers are overcoming the diffi-
culty of growing it under humid conditions, and it is becoming
an important crop in almost every state. Its points of
advantage over other hay crops are : First, its large yield per
acre, returning two to three times the amount secured from
native hay; second, its hardiness and permanence after get-
ting started, standing drouth well and giving maximum crops
until at least seven or eight years old ; third, its high nutritive
value, any kind of stock making flesh and fat upon it, and
fourth, its fertilizing value, for instead of impoverishing the
soil, it enriches it by fixing free nitrogen from the air, leaving it
in fine condition for other crops. While alfalfa is one of the
easiest plants to grow, it requires methods of culture which
are suitable at our high altitudes. The first farmers who tried
alfalfa in Albany County did not succeed, but since adopting
the press drill with which to plant the seed and putting it on
good soil, where water does not stand too near the surface, we
have never failed to secure a good stand. Full instructions for
sowing alfalfa, its management, and curing the hay, may be
obtained by addressing the Director of the Experiment Sta-
tion. As an indication of the cropping qualities of alfalfa on
the Laramie Plains, we quote the data of yields on the Station
farm which were published in Wyoming Station Bulletin No.
43. The report is given for separate fields. Acre Plat 8 was
planted to alfalfa in the spring of 1894, producing a crop the
first year from seed of 1,967 pounds of cured hay. The second
year, 1895, it was harvested August 6, giving 5,019 pounds, and

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 53

the second crop, September 24, 2,557 pounds, making the total
yield a little more than three and one-half tons per acre. In
1896 only a partial crop was secured, but it was cut July 7 and
September 8, yielding 2.34 tons. In 1897 the first crop, cut
July 16, yielded 3,860 pounds, and the second crop, September
9, yielded 3,860 pounds, or approximately 3.86 tons for the
season. In 1898 it was cut first July 14, yielding 4,759 pounds,
and the second time September 8, yielding 3,909 pounds, a total
of 4.33 tons. The average for four years is a little more than
3% tons per acre. On Acre Plat 18, which is a very shallow
piece of land underlaid with gypsum, the yield for three years
was from 1.8 to 3.5 tons, the average being 2.47. Acre Piat 27
gave an average yield per season of 3% tons per acre. Turk-
estan alfalfa, the seed of which was supplied by the Depart-
ment of Agriculture, gave average yields of 3.81 tons cured
hay per acre. At our high altitudes the alfalfa produces very
fine leafy stems, and recent studies of its chemical composi-
tion and digestion experiments show that it is richer in
protein and more highly digestible than the stemmy hay pro-
duced at lower altitudes, as reported by other investigators.
Fourteen experiments to determine the duty of water on al-
falfa showed that it was supplied with sufficient irrigation
water if the land was covered from 0.98 foot to 3.1 feet deep,
making the duty of a cubic foot per second continuous flow of
an irrigation season of four months of from 78.5 acres to 249
acres.

The great fertilizing value of alfalfa is shown by a care-
ful experiment carried out by the Station and reported in Bul-
letin No. 44. The fixation of nitrogen by alfalfa overcomes the
principal difficulty with arid soils, and a rotation of crops in
which alfalfa is one practically solves the fertilizer problem
over a large part of the west.

Where alfalfa is used in rotation with other crops the tex-
ture and richness of the soil is improved and the land is kept
highly productive, providing, of course, it is not poor in min-
eral plant foods, which are usually abundant. A good rotation
for Albany County is, beginning with the virgin soil : First
year, oats; second year, potatoes, with a small amount of
stable manure if it is available; third year, alfalfa, sown on
the potato ground without replowing, having it harrowed and
leveled. The alfalfa may be left on the land three, five or eight
years, and then plowed up for wheat, oats, barley or potatoes,
putting it in these crops two or more years.

Pure farming for hay alone is remunerative, for there is
always good demand; with the introduction of lamb feeding
and more up-to-date management of other stock, the demand

54

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

is increasing. Alfalfa brings from $6 to $14 per ton, which in-
sures good returns for our lands, and if rotation is practiced, it

g

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•38

e| I

is probably a fair estimate to place the value of the fertilizer
added to the soil at from $30 to $35 per acre. The following

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 55

is a summary of our results with an experiment to determine
the fertilizing value of alfalfa.

At our high altitude the true grasses find a natural home,
and there are few areas in other parts of the west which are so
well grassed with native species, or which produce range and
pasture equal to ours.

No class of forage is becoming more important than the
Canadian Field Pea. The method of using it is to allow the
crop to ripen in the field and fatten lambs by allowing them to
run within hurdle fences or by herding them on the fields.
They get both the grain and roughage, which will finish them
for market in from eighty to one hundred days, producing a su^
perior class of mutton. From eight to twelve lambs can be
fed upon an acre. The fertility of the soil is continually im-
proved and the returns per acre in the trials which have been
made have given good net profit.

Farm Crops.

The small grains are more generally grown in Albany
County than any other crop. Wheat, oats, barley, and rye in
our congenial soils and cold climate reach great perfection.
Winter rye can be grown either with or without irrigation and
in rotation with alfalfa, wheat, barley and oats produces yields
which are highly remunerative.

Wheat.

There is always a good market for the wheat which is
grown in the county. At no time has the supply been equal
to the Demand, and the flouring mill in Laramie has been com-
pelled to ship in wheat to supplement the home-grown pro-
duct.

The average yield of wheat for ten years' trials upon the
Experiment Farm at Laramie was 25.5 bushels per acre.
Yields have been reported as high as eighty bushels. With
the better kinds of wheat and proper handling, farmers obtain a
yield of twenty or thirty bushels to the acre.

Oats.

Oats have been more largely grown than any other crop.
For our conditions, oats and flax are the best crops to grow
the first year after breaking sod land. The yields obtained,
the quality of the crop and the length of straw have often been
a matter of surprise to our own farmers. Wliile the Experi-
ment Station has investigated the oat crop by growing many
varieties, testing nearly all the sorts known and trying vari-
ous amounts of seed, etc., no special report has yet been

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 57

made of the oat experiments. A banner crop of oats was
produced during the season of 1905 on the Millbrook ranch.
Mr. E. J. Bell gave a ranch dinner, which was attended by
United States senators, the high officials of the state and
county and of the Union Pacific railroad. Not one of these men
who had been interested in farming all their lives ever saw such
a crop of oats as that growing on seventy acres of the older
cultivated land. The oats stood higher than the backs of the
horses and were very thick and heavy. A section of the field
measured and harvested to determine the yield gave a crop
of 107 bushels per acre, machine measure. Computed from
the weight of the crop at 32 pounds per bushel, the yield was a
fraction more than 137 bushels per acre.

Oats may be considered a sure crop, and even when put
in too late to ripen the grain, the oat hay cut when the grain
is in the milk is a valuable feed, especially for horses.

Barley.

At the great Chicago Exposition in 1893 a large barley
merchant from Liverpool stated that if he could obtain such
barley as the samples we were showing there from our Sta-
tion farm, he would give 50 cents more per bushel for it than
any barley he had purchased. He thought its quality unex-
celled, and the white color due to our bright sunshine and
lack of discoloring rains made it especially desirable for
brewing the pale ale so popular in England. We have always
believed that we could grow barley on an extensive scale for
export. At St. Louis in 1904 we obtained a grand prize on our
grains and the group jury recommended it especially on an
exhibit of forty-four varieties of barley grown at Laramie.
The feeding value of barley has been demonstrated by lamb
feeding experiments, which have shown it equal to or better
than corn for finishing for market.

tin No. 71 of the Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Sta-
tion. We have grown brewing barley weighing 56 pounds
per bushel, the standard being 48 pounds^ and samples
of hulless feeding barley have weighed as high as 67 pounds
per bushel. The maximum yields of varieties in 1896, which
wrere planted in small areas, was a little more than 77
bushels per acre for the Winter six-rowed and the Algerian No.
2. The next year the largest yield was 58 bushels by Man-
churian. The next year Kilma barley yielded at the rate of
87Vo bushels. The following season Scotch barley in a half-
acre plat yielded 77.3 bushels per acre. While we have little
computed data from which to estimate average yields, it is
probable that, under ordinary conditions of soil and cultivation,

RESOURCES OP ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 59

brewing barley will average from 50 to 60 bushels per acre and
hulless barley from 20 to 30 bushels. With fertilizing or on
alfalfa land these yields may be doubled.

Potatoes.

Potatoes succeed in all parts of Wyoming and form one of
our most important and valuable farm crops. They seem
capable of adapting themselves to all our conditions of soil,
climate and altitude. Good yields have been obtained in places
up to 9,000 feet above the sea, and even where light frosts
are frequent during the growing season. The phenomenon of
sufficient cold to produce ice along a stream in mountain
valleys and still leave uninjured as tender foliage as that of
potatoes has often been observed. It would seem that the ra-
diation in our' clear atmosphere is sufficient to cool the al-
ready cold water below the freezing point, while foliage on
higher ground is protected by warm layers of air and the heat
absorbed during the day. At altitudes above 7,000 feet pota-
toes often produce fair crops without irrigation, even with our
limited amount of rainfall. We have never recorded the gen-
eral failure of a crop. The Experiment Station has carried
out extensive investigations with potatoes and is able to give
authentic information about this crop. Fifty varieties were ex-
perimented with through two seasons, and the average of so
many gives reliable data. Potatoes on different soils gave
yields on millet stubble to 99 sacks per acre ; on timothy land,
96 sacks ; on red clover, fall plowed, 80 sacks ; and on wheat
stubble, 60 sacks. Where these potatoes were fertilized with a
thousand pounds of bone meal per acre on this land, the seed
having been treated with corrosive sublimate for scab, the
yields were as follows : Alexandre Prolific, on millet ground,
117 sacks; timothy ground, 107 sacks; clover ground, 126
sacks; wheat ground, 112 sacks; the average being 116 sacks
for this variety. Charles Downing gave yields of from 94
sacks on wheat ground to 132 sacks on the millet ground, the
average being 117 sacks. Koshkonong yielded from 85 sacks to
141 sacks, the largest yield in this case being on timothy
ground, the average yield being 117 sacks per acre. Where
different crops have been plowed under, the average yield of
50 varieties in 1896, at Laramie, was 94 sacks per acre.

The season for potatoes, as given in this bulletin, is:
Time of planting, May 10 to June I ; time of harvest, Septem-
ber 20 to October 20 ; time of first killing frost, September I
to September 10. The quality of our potatoes attracts gen-
eral attention. Anyone who has tried potatoes which are
grown at our high altitude with proper irrigation always testi-

1

i

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 61

fies to their splendid cooking qualities and agreeable flavor.
Never have enough potatoes been grown to supply the de-
mand, and on account of superior quality they always bring the
best market prices. They do not grow so large as at lower
altitudes with longer season, but are of excellent size for
cooking purposes. The largest potatoes we have raised of any
variety in the experiments above cited were seven to ten
pounds for twelve tubers. Four varieties weighed ten pounds
or a little better for twelve potatoes, but the average size of
the largest tubers have weighed from one-half to three-fourths
of a pound.

Other Field Crops.

Flax has succeeded admirably in Albany County, giving
maximum yields of about sixteen bushels per acre. This is
considered a good yield, of this crop. In feeding experiments
has been shown the value of ground flaxseed for fattening in
connection with alfalfa and root crops.

Buckwheat produces well and is a shor|t-season crop
which will fit into our agriculture when we have mills to pro-
duce the meal.

Turnips.

Turnips as a field crop are not sufficiently appreciated.
The conditions of soil and climate are eminently favorable to
the growth of turnips. At lower altitudes, where the seasons
•are long and warm, turnips cannot be sown in the spring for a
fall crop, as they become strong and unfit for either table use
or stock. There is no difficulty of this kind here, for, though
the roots grow to a large size, they never become strong.
Turnips are highly prized in England as a stock feed, to be fed
with hay or grain for fattening beef. Here, where there is so
little feed of a succulent nature, turnips for stock would be
invaluable, and well repay the expense of growing for that
purpose. No other crop that we have tried will give so many
pounds of feed per acre. The average yield of twelve varieties,
sown with drill, was 60,578.8 pounds, or 30.3 tons per acre.
The expense of raising them is small. A safe estimtae with the
yields we obtained would make the expense of producing the
turnips, exclusive of harvesting and hauling, at 50 cents per
ton, or less. This would be cheaper than hay, and much
cheaper than any other stock feed which can be obtained here.
While the nutritive value of turnips is low, they will be found
a valuable feed in connection with hay or grain.

Rutabagas or Swede turnips can be grown with the same
success, and are more valuable as feed than the white varieties.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 63

Vegetables.

Practically all garden vegetables do exceedingly well in
Albany County. The flavor is unexcelled.

Parsnips, carrots, salsify, beets, onions, radishes, cabbage,
kohl rabi, cauliflower, lettuce, garden peas, beans, etc., pro-
duce abundantly and the quality is of the first grade.

Fruits.

On the open plains, without wind breaks or other protec-
tion, tree fruits cannot be grown, but in the sheltered valleys,
along the streams or in town hardy varieties of apples and
crabs succeed, and Morello cherries are being produced by
Mr. Jacob Lund. Mr. Lund's ranch is on the Laramie River,
28 miles west of Laramie, at an altitude of approximately
7,400 feet. His orchard of Wealthy apples and cherries bear
fruit every year. Several people in town have raised apples
and good crops of crab apples. On the Sibylee, notheast of
Laramie, Mr. Edwin Moore has a fine apple orchard. He
showed a number of varieties at the fairs last fall and took the
prize at the State Fair at Douglas for the best display of crab
apples from any county.

The small fruits which succeed are strawberries, currants
and gooseberries, which will live and bear without being given
winter protection. Raspberries and dewberries will produce if
the canes are laid down and covered with earth for winter pro-
tection, as is practiced in Colorado and other parts of the arid
region.

One of the Sources of Supply of Rock Creek Conservation Company.

64 RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

St. Matthew's Cathedral.

Presbyterian Church.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 65

GENERAL GEOLOGY OF ALBANY COUNTY.

To be brief, Albany County may be described as a broad
basin forming the Laramie Plains, bounded on the eastern side
by the Laramie Hills uplift and on the western side by the
uplifts of the Medicine Bow range of mountains. The longer
axes of both of these mountain ranges and the trough of this
great basin or sinclinal fold is from southeast to northwest, in
common with the general direction of the entire Rocky Moun-
tain chain.

On the easterly side of this grand valley or basin is a
range of mountains known as the Laramie Hills, or Laramie
Mountains, sometimes called the "Black Hills" in the early
writings concerning this locality. This chain of mountains
lies east of the main line of ranges which form the great
Rocky Mountain Chain of North America and extends from a
point near the Colorado-Wyoming state line in a general direc-
tion west of north along the Albany-Laramie County line to a
point in the northeastern corner of Albany County at Laramie
Peak, whence this range turns north of west and again passes
into the high table lands and smaller hills of central Wyoming,
Laramie Peak being the highest and turning point of this entire
uplift, having an altitude of 11,000 feet; trie general altitude
of the range varies from 7,000 feet to 9,000 feet above sea level.

The Laramie Range consists essentially of a- huge core of
archean granites extending throughout the entire length of the
range and flanked on either side by the later sedimentary for-
mations which slope at a varying angle away from the main
central uplift, showing the Cambrian shales and Carboniferous
limestones immediately overlying the granite. These are suc-
ceeded by the red beds of the Triassic, the clays, limestones
and marls of the Jurassic, and the sandstones, clays and shales
of the Cretaceous to the Tertiary clays and other later forma-
tions occuring north of the range in the main Platte Valley.
These latter, however, will not be discussed in this paper, as
the Laramie Plains consists essentially of the upper Cretaceous
formations, and the only Tertiary deposits are small isolated
islands occurring near the northern limits of this county and
are not important.

These formations and their general relation to the moun-
tains on which they lie are shown in the accompanying sec-
tion, by the late Prof. W. C. Knight of the University of Wyo-
ming, across the Laramie Basin, but at different points in the
Laramie Plains region in eastern Carbon County and western
Albany County there are a number of smaller uplifts, where
the underlying formations have been brought to the surface
in a limited area, causing a local change of dip of these forma-

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

n X

rl

t^

8 §

II

tions. Where these are commercially important they will be
discussed later in this paper.

The Medicine Bow Mountains, on the western side of the
basin and in the southwestern corner of the county, are the re-

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 69

suit of a series of uplifts occuring at various times along the
length of the range, the main uplift forming the present back-
bone or crest of these mountains, and extends in a northwest-
erly and southeasterly direction.

In connection with this main range are a number of smaller
and evidently later uplifts known as Jelm Mountain and Sheep
Mountain on the south and Cooper Hill and Elk Mountain on
the northerly end, these latter mountains lying in Carbon
County. Jelm Mountain and Sheep Mountain are evidently
uplifts similar to the eastern range, or Laramie Hills uplift,
and show a similar red granite as a core with the sedimentary
formations lying thereon on either side of the mountain, and
appearing again on the western side of the Centennial Valley
lying on the eastern slope of the Medicine Bow Mountains.

The Medicine Bow Range shows these same red granites
in many places, and with them are associated gray granites,
schists and similar rocks. These form the ranges proper, but
near the central portion of the range in Wyoming occur what
is known as Snowy Range, forming the highest point of the
Medicine Bow Range. Here the formation consists of quartz-
ites, trachytes, porphyries and similar rocks, the whole range
affording an intensely interesting field of study for the eco-
nomic geologist.

The ranges extend south into Colorado, and there is a
great deal of the territory included in these and adjacent ranges
which are naturally tributary to the Laramie Basin region, and
where conditions similar to those here described will be found,
on investigation, to obtain at these points.

West of the Medicine Bow Range is the broad valley of
the North Platte River, and west of the river lie the Sierra
Madre Mountains in southern Carbon County, where the
famous Ferris-Haggarty and Doane-Rambler mines are lo-
cated, and, with the ranges of the Medicine Bow Mountains
are popularly known as the Grand Encampment* Copper Dis-
trict, which together form the principal copper producing lo-
calities of Southern Wyoming. These regions are covered by
a bulletin by the State Geologist, copies of which may be had
by applying to the Geologist at Cheyenne.

MINING IN THE MEDICINE BOW MOUNTAINS.

Mining in this region has been carried on since the first
Spanish explorers worked their way northward along the
Rocky Mountain Range from their landing places on the
Mexican coast, as traces of these ancient workings have been
found, together with old tools, weapons and other articles in-
dicating the presence of these the earliest pioneers. These

^m vi

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 71

ancient workings are supplemented by others dating from
the first emigrant train across the old Julesburg-Pass Creek-
California trail. These prospectors were either killed or peri-
odically run out by the Indians for many years, even after the
Union Pacific railroad was built through in 1867.

In 1868 gold was discovered in Moore's Gulch, a small
tributary of Douglas Creek, and while there is some evidence
that gulch mining has been carried on in the lower tributaries
of Douglas Creek at much earlier periods, this is the first well
authenticated discovery of pay values in what is now known
as Medicine Bow Mountains, though Hayden m his ''Report of
the Territories, 1867-8-9," says that "valuable specimens of
ores and placer gold" had been brought to him from the
mountains southeast of Fort Fred Steele, and known at that
time as Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow Mountains, but
there is no record of any prominent or permanent discovery
made at this time.

Following the discovery of gold in Moore's Gulch, placer
mining became very active and continued for a number of
years, some of the gulches being worked for many years by
crude methods and produced a great deal of gold, but there
is no present way of determining the total amount produced.

The first lode claim located in Albany County of which
there is any authentic record was the Morning Star claim, now
known as the Douglas mine on Douglas Creek, which was
made in 1870, and since that time lode mining has continued
with frequent activities in the different camps of the district,
notably at Centennial, where the Centennial mine was opened
up in 1876; the Keystone at Keystone in 1878; the Cummins
camp at Jelm in 1879, leading up to the discovery of copper in
the great Rambler mine in 1900, and since that time mining in
the Medicine Bow has become a permanent and profitable fact.

The Medicine Bow Placer Districts.

It is not too much to say that every stream which heads
on the eastern slope of the Medicine Bow Mountains in Wyo-
ming contains placer gold and that nearly every gulch on this
slope will yield some return to the prospector with shovel, pick
and pan. Neither is it too much to say that every gulch and
stream in this locality has been tested in this manner and a
number of streams, especially Douglas Creek and its tribu-
taries, have been found to carry the yellow metal in commer-
cial or paying quantities.

To the early prospector, whose outfit consisted of a couple
of burros, a pick, shovel and gold pan, a little grub and a blan-
ket, pay dirt means only gravel easy to get at, easy to pan and

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

High School Building.

East Side School.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 73

with a sufficient number of large nuggets to enable him to
make a day's pay .whenever, he came on a stream. The man
who followed him considered as pay dirt any gravel which
warranted the quick building of rough board sluices and rif-
fles, with the additional facilities of a small ditch which could
be constructed before the washing season allowed active work
in the creek beds. Placer enterprises of this sort are neces-
sarily few^ and short lived, and they were followed by the com-
pany which constructed larger and longer ditches than their
individual predecessors, and installed a giant, with long ditches,
and flumes at the base of the pit with a string of riffles long
enough to catch any stray particles of gold that might other-
wise escape.

The next step in the hydraulic history of a camp is the
installation of numerous mining devices by associations of
owners which endeavor to work the ground "worked out" by
the gold pan and small ground sluice methods by sundry and
various patent "processes' and "machines" guaranteed by the
inventor to be the only thing ever really accomplished by the
miner and which usually stands as a melancholy monument to
misdirected energy among the willows, and a too blind faith
in the works of man.

The Medicine Bow placer districts have passed through all
of these stages and now are again coming to the front as a
field for intelligent enterprise, "backed by sufficient capital for
commercial operations, and under careful direction will cer-
tainly show profitable returns. The presence of gold in these
creek bottoms has never been doubted or denied. Every
placer enterprise that has ever been conducted in these moun-
tains has shown the presence of gold in the lands worked, and
some of the enterprises have been conducted profitably to the
extent of their capital and equipment, ceasing to work when
they reached a point where they could not make it a success
with the means at hand.

The Eastern Medicine Bow Water Shed.

This would practically include every stream which heads
on the eastern slope of the Medicine Bow range of mountains,
and without burdening the reader (for the present) writh a
catalogue of the small creeks of the region, these may be
classed as the tributaries of the Medicine Bow River at the
north end of the mountains, the tributaries of the Little Lara-
mie River at Centennial and the central part of the region, and
those of the Big Laramie River at the southern end of the
county in the Jelm Mountain vicinity. Add to these the tribu-
taries of Douglas Creek, which rises on the southeastern slope

74 RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

North Side School.

West Side School.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 75

of the Snowy Range, flows in a southerly course to within six
miles of the Wyoming-Colorado line, then turns abruptly west
and flows into the North Platte River in Carbon County. This
creek, with its tributaries, drains the southwestern slope of
the Medicine Bow range, and on this creek and its tributaries
are found the principal gold-producing gravels which are noted
in this section of Albany County.

Numerous placer workings are also found at the head of
Pass Creek on the north; Brush Creek and French Creek,
which head on the western slope of the same vicinity as Doug-
las Creek, and to a lesser extent in South French Creek and
Mullen Creek, and in outline these rivers, creeks and their
tributaries may be said to cover the water shed of the Medi-
cine Bow range in Wyoming.

The Douglas Creek Placer Mines.

These include all the placers which may be found on
Douglas Creek and its tributaries-. Gold was first discovered
in this district by Iram M. Moore in what is now known as
Moore's Gulch, one of the tributaries of Douglas Creek, in the
fall of 1868. The district was then organized and called Doug-
las Placer District, Mr. Moore being elected its first president
and Captain John Metcalf its first recorder. The principal
work was done in this district in 1869, and, though nothing
but the ordinary sluice box, rocker, long torn and gold pan
were used, about $8,000 worth of gold was taken out of this
gulch in that spring. It is given on good authority that many
washings yielded from $2 to $2.50 to the pan and many nug-
gets were found weighing from 5 to 20 dwts.

Douglas Creek proper, is about thirty miles in length,
and the greater portion of its length has been located for pla-
cer, together with its most important tributaries, which are
Lake Creek, Muddy, Spring, Keystone, Beaver Gulch, Horse,
Gold Run, Joe's Creek, Moore's Gulch, Dave's Creek, Ruth's,
Elk, Bear and Willow Creeks. The district may be stated to
embrace an area fifteen miles long and ten miles wide, and lies
forty-five miles due west from Laramie.

The Douglas Creek flats vary in width from 50 Uri,ooo
feet. Operations may be carried on in this district for six or
seven months in the year, the working season beginning about
the middle of April and closing about the middle of Novem-
ber. The water varies in each creek, but may be given as run-
ning from 6,000 miners' inches during high water in the spring
down to 1,500 miners' inches at low water in August and Sep-
tember in main Douglas Creek, and the general fall of these
creeks varies from 20 feet to 125 feet to the mile.

Buildings of the University of Wyoming.

Buildings of the University of Wyoming.

78 RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

Those who are best informed on the. actual working condi-
tions of these creeks state that about 25 per cent of gold in this
district is coarse and that a few of the nuggets taken out have
considerable .quartz attached to them. Nuggets have been
taken out in the. different portions of the district that weighed
from 16 to 68 dwts. each, but the majority of the gold is in the
shape of finer particles varying from fine or flour gold up to
flat nuggets an eighth of an inch long. The greater portion
of the gold is found deposited on the bed rock, which varies in
different portions of the district, but it is generally of a granitic
nature and usually shows considerably decomposed or weath-
ered. The auriferous gravel beds are from three to fifteen
feet in thickness, averaging about five feet. There is no pipe
clay or hard cement to interfere with the successful washing
of the gold, unless it be small deposits noted locally in some
places. The gravel and wrash consists of the decomposed,
broken and washed detritus of the surrounding hills, and the
formations consist principally of granite, diorite, schist, quartz-
ite and slate, the boulders varying of course in each locality,
with the usual amount of quartz, sand and black sand, the latter
resulting from the crushing of the black oxides or iron which
occur in many of the formations of this locality.

Platinum has been found in a number of these placers,
usually associated with the black sand, and metallic platinum
has been found in a number of instances.

LODE MINING IN ALBANY COUNTY.

Geology of the Medicine Bow Range.

The Medicine Bow Range consists of a core of granite,
with smaller islands and spurs of the same material showing
both in and through the associated metamorphic formations.
The granite is usually of a reddish feldsitic variety, in many
instances much altered and showing little quartz or mica, but
in others showing a predominance of quartz, forming gray
granites, and frequently showing strong evidences of meta-
morphism, especially in the outcrops, and which is usually
limited in extent.

The metamorphic formations consist principally of Ai-
gonkian schists, usually lying on the granites and having a
varying dip and trend or direction in different localities. These
schists are of a number of varieties, some of which are local
or limited in extent, the usual schist being a fine-grained black
mica schist, and fine-grained horn-blende and tourmaline
schist in bands varying from a few feet to several hundred
feet in width.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 79

Associated with these varieties have been noted muscovite
or white mica schists and gneiss, and amphibolite schist in
various localities.

The dike rocks are locally called "diorite," but have been
identified and classified by the United States Geological Sur-
vey as belonging to the Gabbro rocks. Several varieties have
been noted. These dykes vary in size from a few inches thick
to a huge sheet several hundred feet in thickness, and generally
lie conformably with the adjacent schist and quartzite, having
the same trend or direction and the same dip, but instances
are noted where the dykes cut across the formation at a vary-
ing angle, and are noted in the granite near the New Rambler,
on Douglas Creek. Associated with the schists and diorites
are ledges or bands of quartzite and slates, which lie conform-
ably with the including schists, as far as now known, and are
usually of considerable extent.

It is noted that in many instances the foregoing rocks
(schists, dyke rocks, quartzites and slates) often show an ex-
tensive and sometimes a complete metamorphism, and change
from their original condition, leaving only the structure as a
means of identification, the composing materials being replaced
by silica and lime.

The dyke rocks usually show a weathered and softened
condition in the vicinity of the schist alteration, but this is
often local and does not affect the main body of the rock.

The Snowy Range, in the Medicine Bow Mountains, is
distinct in formation from the adjacent country, and consists
of trachite and quartzites, with an occasional dyke of porphyry.

On either side of the Medicine Bow Range the upper
carboniferous limestones are noted, with the succeeding sedi-
mentary formation dipping away from the main range until
covered by the wash of the valley.

Mineralization.

The mineralization may be said to be general throughout
these formations, but varies in quantity and composition in
each locality.

In the granites, schists, dyke rocks and quartzites are
found bunches, streaks and veins of the different forms of iron
and copper, both oxidized and base, varying from a tiny crystal
or speck to a huge mass a number of tons in weight enclosed
in the adjacent rocks, and which may or may not be part of or
related to the body of ore.

Ore Deposits and Ores.

In a district as little developed as this portion of the
Grand Encampment country, it is evident that the precise ore

8o RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

Residence of Hon. W. H. Holliday.

Edward Ivinson Residence.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 81

conditions may not be fully understood until greater depths
have been reached and some of each class of ores and ore
deposits fully exploited.

At present these are understood to consist of two classes,
viz. : ores found in the hard, unchanged formation, the diorites
and unaltered schists, associated with a vein quartz, as at the
Blakeslee and Verde properties, south of Battle, as distin-
guished from the ores found as a contact deposit between two
different formations, as at the Ferris-Haggarty and Doane-
Rambler mines, and a fissure deposit, as at the New Rambler,
on Douglas Creek, in the gray dioritic granite. The former
may be termed original ores and the latter "secondary ores,"
or ores of replacement.

In the first case, sulphides of copper are found in the out-
crops, with but little change beyond the shallow surface
oxidization of the specimen, staining the adjacent rock with
iron oxides and copper carbonates, often leaving the un-
changed sulphides covered only with a thin film of oxides.

In the latter case, the sulphides are encountered at "water
level," viz. : the level of permanent underground water, vary-
ing in depth in different localities and covered by a capping of
iron oxides, known as the "iron cap," the "gossan" of the Cor-
nish miner. This cap is usually a light, soft and porous brown
oxide of iron, or limonite, sometime silicious, and associated
with the limonite are noted forms of hematite or red oxide of
iron in varying quantity.

Throughout the district have been noted a number of
huge ledges of oxidized iron, notably at the Gertrude and the
Hidden Treasure, near Battle, and on Iron Creek and French
Creek, in the Medicine Bow Range. The cappings of these
ledges are usually a very hard, silicious, red hematite, which
gives place with depth to the softer iron oxide forms, more or
less stained with copper.

In many instances the iron cap contains thin scales of na-
tive copper and shows stains of the green carbonate of copper
or Malachite and some blue carbonate of copper or Azurite.
Small amounts of Chrysacolla or silicate of copper are often
found, as well as some of the rarer forms of the oxidized cop-
per minerals, noted later.

The principal ores are the yellow pyrites of copper or chal-
copyrite and "peacock copper" or Bornite, and the Coveliite
ores of the New Rambler. Some phenomenally rich copper
glance or chalcocite has been struck, mostly near the surface,
as in the Keener-Price at Battle, the Doane-Rambler and New
Rambler and many other places, but in each case the deposit
has been limited.

82 RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

Residence of E. D. Hiskey.

The J. T. Holliday Residence.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 83

The works so far have shown that the ores immediately
succeeding the oxidized ores underlying the iron cap are very
rich, often running from 35 per cent to 49 per cent copper in
carload lots, as shipping returns have shown, but this is evi-
dently a secondary enrichment, due to the leaching of the iron
cap above and gradually gives place to the lower and more per-
manent grade of ore that is reached as depth is gained.

It is evident that the permanent ores of this district, when
opened up by deep workings, will prove to be a low grade
Chalcopyrite ore, suitable for treatment by a concentrating,
roasting arid smelting process.

Gold Hill.

This covers practically all the camps lying along the
Snowy Range and the Albany-Carbon County line, a number
of them being in each county.

The Laramie, Hahns Peak and Pacific Railroad runs to
Centennial, Gold Hill and Medicine Bow district.

Elk Mountain.

This is the most northerly of the ranges comprising the
Medicine Bow Range in Wyoming. In common with the most
of these ranges on this eastern side, the sedimentary limestones
of the Upper Carboniferous period lie on the schists and gran-
ites of the earlier formations, and at the Elk Mountain M. &
M. Company's property, on the north side of Pass Creek, the
ore is found at or near the contact of these formations.

This ore, in the upper workings, is copper glance, oc-
curring in bunches common to this ore, but in the lower work-
ings is giving place to chalcopyrite, which is becoming more
common as depth is reached. At the outcrops the usual iron
oxides were found staining the limestone, with some glance
and a great deal of green copper carbonates as a stain.

Centennial and Jelm Mountain.

These camps are located on the east slope of the Medicine
Bow Range, th'e former having been prospected for gold al-
most exclusively.

Centennial, on the line of the Laramie, Hahns Peak and
Pacific railroad, has shown some remarkably rich ores, and the
half dozen properties now working in this vicinity are making
good showings and will be heard from later.

Jelm Mountain is located south and east of Centennial,
near the Colorado- Wyoming state line, on the Big Laramie
River, and mining has been going on there for some years,

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 85

i

development work having been done on a number of properties
and mills erected.

The Jelm district is close to the Colorado state line and
distant about thirty-five miles in a southwesterly direction
from Laramie. Encouraging work is being prosecuted here
by several companies. The Laramie River, in close proximity
to which the active properties are located, flows through the
center of the district and affords an unfailing water supply for
both milling and mining operations. The ores are gold and
copper-gold, the camp having become known upwards of thirty
years ago, when the Gold Hill mine was quite extensively
worked for its gold ores. Of late years, more attention has
been given to the copper deposits, and considerable bodies of
low grade ore have been opened up. Owing to the limited
means of a majority of the operators, rather desultory work
has been carried on, but the indications are now that several
companies will be able to extensively prosecute developments
henceforth.

THE LARAMIE CEMENT PLASTER INDUSTRY.

There are a large number of gypsum deposits in Wyo-
ming which vary in composition from pure crystal to gypsite
powder. The Laramie cement plaster is made from a de-
posit of gypsite just south of that city.

The Geology of the Laramie Gypsite Deposit.*
The Triassic formation, or "red beds" as it is commonly
called, which is exposed all along the eastern side of the
Laramie Plains, contains a great deal of gypsum and one strat-
um of considerable thickness near the bottom of the formation
and only a little above the sandstone and limestone of the
Permian and Carboniferous. This bed was struck in the Uni-
versity artesian well at a depth of 595 feet and the Permian
sandstone at about 800 feet. The Red Buttes gypsum rock is
found in this formation and doubtless the gypsum outcrop
could be found at almost any point along the eastern side of
the Laramie Plains within a half mile of the limestone and
sandstone exposures which form the western slope of the
Laramie Mountains. The silica and limestone washed down
from these exposures have mixed with the disintegrated gyp-
sum of the Triassic beds and have'been deposited in depressions
of the plains, forming numerous beds of gypsite or gypsum
earth. These deposits can often be detected by the whiteness
of the soil and the peculiar vegetation, which consists of
clumps of grease-wood

"Compiled from a bulletin by Profs. Slosson, Moudy and W. C. Knight, of
the University of Wyoming.

86 RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 87

Gypsite, or the material from which cement piaster is
made, contains besides the gypsum some 20 per cent of other
material, such as clay, sand and limestone. The composition
of the different products on the. market is very variable and
cannot be supposed to be alike in their value and use, but
what difference a greater or less amount of lime or silica or
magnesia has on the working of the plaster has not been de-
termined. The action of these substances as a whole is to
retard the time of setting and reduce the strength as com-
pared wih pure plaster of paris.

The Laramie gypsite bed has an average depth of about
nine feet. From a few inches below the surface to about
seven feet it is pure gypsite powder, then comes a red layer of
five inches, and below this a foot or more of the white gyp-
site powder resting on gravel and red clay. The plaster
material is as fine as flour, requiring no grinding or even
sifting. It is plowed, harrowed and scraped up, calcined and
loaded on the cars.

The Manufacture of Cement Plaster at Laramie.

Plaster of paris and a fine quality of stucco have been
made at Red Buttes, near Laramie, since 1889, and since 1897
the Consolidated Company have been putting on the market
a plaster made from the ground gypsum rock.

The Laramie cement plaster is made from the deposit
above noted, which covers about 180 acres and has been
worked since 1896. Annual output, about 2.500 tons.

Composition.

The composition of pure gypsum, from which the plaster
is made, is as follows :

Calcium sulphate 79. 1 % 100.0 parts

Water 20.9 26.4

100.0 126.4
And of pure plaster of paris :

Calcium sulphate 93-8% 100.0 parts

Wrater . . 6.2 6.6

100.0 106.6

The composition of the finished cement plaster is as fol-
lows :

Water , 6.93%

Insoluble residue (silica) 5.50

Alumina, A12O:{ 59

88

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 89

Lime, CaO 37.1 1

Magnesia, MgO 1.45

Sulphuric acid, SO3 43-37

Carbonic acid (by diff.) 5.05

100.00
These may be combined as follows :

Water 6.93%

Insoluble residue (silica) 5.50

Alumina, A12O3 59

Magnesium carbonate 3.04

Calcium carbonate 7.86

Calcium sulphate 73-73

Calcium oxide 2.35

100.00
There was a trace of iron but too small to determine.

Crushing Strength.

The crushing strength of the three kinds of cement as
marketed with about same time of setting is as follows :

Red Buttes cement plaster, without sand 5200

Laramie cement plaster, without sand 4065

Agatite cement plaster, without sand 355o

The Red Buttes plaster contained numerous soft spots
where the plaster did not set, owing to imperfect burning.
These were not found in the Laramie and Agatite plasters.

Although the individual particles of plaster are heavier
than water, yet a bushel weighs 64 pounds, or 95 per cent as
much as a bushel of water. A block of the cement plaster after
it is set and dry, containing 50 parts sand per 100 parts of
plaster, has a specific gravity of 1.5 compared with water. A
cubic foot weighs 93.5 pounds. The sand used had a specific
gravity of 1.5 and a ten-quart bucket holds 29.5 pounds.

ALBANY COUNTY COAL MINES.

The following data on the coal mines of Albany County
are taken from a bulletin on "Coal Resources of Wyoming/'
by Prof. L. W. Trumbull, University of Wyoming, 1906:

The county has no large mines. For years there has been
a small amount dug for local consumption. In fact, what was
probably the first mine in the state was opened by the Denver
and Salt Lake Stage Company in 1865, near where the old
Overland Trail crosses Rock Creek. The coal was used for
blacksmithing and was carried to other points on the trail for
this purpose.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

But a small portion of the county is underlain by Laramie
rock. The most southern point at which coal has been found
is on the hills to the north of Centennial Valley. Here coal
of inferior quality has been dug at various times, but the coal
strata are so bent and crushed, and are tilted so against the

mountains that the coal is much broken and slacked. It may
be that farther to the east good coal can be procured at depth.
In digging a deep well on Mill Brook, coal was cut at 300 feet.
One six-foot and one three-foot vein were passed through, but
so far as known no samples of it were saved, so that nothing is
known regarding its quality.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

Coal is being dug for local use among the ranchmen in
Coal Bank Hollow by the Monarch Coal Company, who re-
port a production of 500 tons during 1904, which was sold
at $2. This opening is in section 8, township 19 north, range
77 west, and shows ten feet of coal. On Rock Creek the Dia-
mond Cattle Company have an opening in section 7, township
19 north, range 78 west, which shows six feet of coal. This
opening produced 200 tons in 1904, which sold at $2 at the
pit mouth. At this point the strata are nearly horizontal, but
farther down the creek the country is much faulted. Coal can
undoubtedly be opened up at different points nearly as far
down as the Diamond ranch house, but it will not be in large,
continuous bodies, owing to the faulting. This coal is of the
Laramie age.

At a point a mile south of Rock River the railroad cut
shows a thin seam of coal in older rock. At one time a slope
was driven to open this older coal near Harper and several
feet of good coal was exposed, but a sudden rush of water
drove the workmen out and the opening has since caved. No
data are obtainable regarding it.

Table of Approximate Analyses of Albany County Coal.

NAME OF MINE

Water

Volatile
combustible
matter

Fixed
carbon

Ash

Sulphur

Total
fuel

Brown

11 85

34 65

47 . 30

6 20

1.25

81.95

Brown (1894)

11.25

36.85

45.00

6.90

1.13

81. ST.

Chase

14.50

34.50

44.75

6.25

1.03

75.25

Rock Creek

14 40

34 90

39 70

11 00

74 CO

Rock Creek

11 50

32 40

49 70

6.40

82.10

Dutton

11 85

34 65

47.30

6.20

81.85

CLAYS, SHALES AND MARLS.

Reference is made in the general article on "The Geology
of Albany County" to the later Cretaceous formations which
compose the Laramie Plains, and in nearly all the recognized
divisions or periods of this age are found materials suitable
for commercial use, in some cases so pure as to require little
or no additional material to become marketable products.

One of the most remarkable of these is the deposit of
marl in the Niobrara Cretaceous formation that outcrops at a
point eight miles southwest of Laramie and extends in a south-
easterly and northwesterly direction along the range in com-
mon with the other formation exposed.

This marl is suitable for making Portland cement, is nearly
pure and a greater portion of the deposit can be made into
ce^nent by simple calcination and the remainder rendered
suitable by addition of a little lime which also outcrops in
this vicinity.

I-

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 93

Prof. L. W. Trumbull of the University of Wyoming
states that the composition for commercial purposes is as
follows :

Carbonate of lime 75%

Silica 10%

Alumina . 6%

Small amounts of iron etc. which vary.

This deposit is most available at the above point, where
it is fifteen feet thick, where it is practically uncovered for a
width of 1,200 feet and extends with other formations along
the range, where it outcrops at various places and under
various conditions.

The shales of the Fox Hill Cretaceous are utilized by the
Wyoming Pressed Brick Company of Laramie for the raw
material for their brick, which are rapidly becoming commer-
cially important. The shales are mined at a point two and one-
half miles west of Laramie, are at present hauled by team to
the yards in town, ground and puddled and made up into two
classes of brick for the general market. The present capacity
of these yards is 1,500,000 bricks for the season, which can be
doubled at any time.

These brick are of a beautiful red buff color, stand a test
of 5,400 pounds per square inch and weather splendidly. The
South Omaha passenger depot on the Union Pacific railroad is
built of these brick, and other prominent buildings. The brick
are quoted at $9.50 and $15 per M., f. o. b. cars, Laramie. Dr.
A. B. Hamilton is secretary of the above company.

The clays of the Fort Benton period attain a commercial
importance in the utilization of the "soap clays" or "Benton-
ite," which occur in massive beds at Rock Creek and other
points in this county. These clays have been mined and
shipped for years by Mr. William Taylor of Rock Creek, and
there are other deposits in that vicinity. This clay contains,
by analysis, silica, alumina, magnesia, iron, sulphur and water,
samples having shown over 89 per cent silicate of alumina, 3
per cent magnesia, i% per cent lime and sulphur, I per cent
iron and 6 per cent water. This clay is used as an adulterant,
as a filler in paper making and medical purposes, being worked
up and sold under the name of "antiphlogistine" after being
known and used for years by Indians and stockmen for the
general purposes of this medicine.

Other clays there are up and down this range and other
ranges, and these three materials are only given to show the
vast variety found here and the opportunity that exists in
these scarcely known and certainly little worked fields for the

94

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

man who has made these materials his practical study and
who knows their cash value when properly handled.

BUILDING AND LIME STONES.

Building stone of nearly every desired kind, from granites
to the softer sandstones, lie east of Laramie along the Laramie
Hills and in well-nigh endless quantity.

Two miles east of the city, on a spur of the Union Pacific
railroad, are the quarries of limestone which supply a number
of the sugar beet factories of Colorado with the pure limestone
so necessary to this process. Their beds extend along the
range northerly and southerly for about ten miles or more and
are practically pure lime, running as high as 96 per cent car-
bonate of lime. During the season of 1905 40,000 tons of this
limestone were shipped to the sugar beet factories and 10,000
tons for commercial use. Comment on the advantage of this
limestone for burning lime and other purposes is unnecessary.

SODA DEPOSITS.

The soda deposits of Albany County consist of two groups
of lakes — one located about twelve miles southwest of Laramie
and the other twenty-three miles southwest, the first group of
lakes being owned by the Union Pacific Railroad Company ;
the second by the First National Bank of Laramie and an Eng-
lish party.

Laramie Electric Co. Light and Power Plai

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 95

These lakes have been operated and soda used since 1873.
The lake§ contain probably 100,000,000 cubic feet of crystal-
lized sulphate of soda, and in places the deposit of soda is
twelve feet thick.

In 1876, at the Centennial Exposition, a solid cube con-
taining over 200 cubic feet of crystalline sulphate of soda was
exhibited. At the World's Fair in Chicago a cube fully as
large was shown ; also another of the same extraordinary size
was exhibited at the St. Louis Fair.

The chemical analysis is as follows :

Water 54.98

Sulphate of soda 44-55

Chloride of calcium 43

Chloride of magnesia 04

These are the most wonderful deposits of soda in the
world, only waiting for some person with capital to come and
open them up.

FIELD AND STREAM.
Summer Resorts and Camping Facilities.

From the city limits of Laramie the plains undulate to the
base of the Snowy Range upon the south, to the Medicine Bow
Mountains upon the west, to the Laramie Range upon the east
and to Laramie Peak and Elk Mountain upon the north, it is
in these mountains and hills, and in the valleys of the streams
which find in them their sources, that one discovers every-
where spots of which the charm appeals to every heart and
tempts the most staid and prosaic and most unromantic of
beings into expressions of keen appreciation. Here the great
golden eagle, soaring and wheeling in the clearness and bright-
ness of the summer blue, looks down upon many a nook and
hollow which has never yet, perhaps, known the tread of man.
There are forests here and glades which are as they were be-
fore Columbus led the way into the glowing west, and which,
since the red man followed into their quiet recesses his
wounded game, have seen little of men other than an occa-
sional prospector, hunter or trapper.

Down in the. valleys are dotted everywhere the ranch
homes of the cattle men and the sheep men, now for the first
time being transformed into farms and scientifically irrigated
areas, under the awakening impetus of the knowledge of the
true worth of the land and climate. From every mountain
peak there is obtainable a view of timber and rocks, of valleys
and plains, which ten times over repays the trouble of the
climb. Everywhere the eye finds nothing but the delightful

96 RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

Trout Fishing Is a Popular Sport.

a "Wil'd Goose CW Near Laramie. •

Hunting Is a Pastime All Enjoy Here.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 97

and restful smile of Mother Nature at her best while the lungs
drink deeply in an air which is as exhilarating as sparkling
wine and the body responds to the bracing and vitalizing in-
fluences of the perfect pureness, wholesomeness and freshness
in all its surroundings.

Mountain Climbing.

To those to whom the exertion necessary for the climb is
not irksome, or who will trust themselves to the honest care of
a well-broken pony or painstaking burro, there are higher
points to be reached from which the reward obtained in far-
extending view is more than trebled. There are summits
within comparatively easy reach, from which a large part of
southern Wyoming and northern Colorado can be scanned.
There are fields of eternal snow within three hours' climb of
the railroad ; there are brilliant patches of alpine flowers grow-
ing in the hot sun along the edges of snow-banks; there are
lakes above timber-line, fed by snow-fields, in which the
speckled and rainbow trout fairly teem, arid it is possible to
leave Laramie by train in the morning, reach some of the high-
est peaks, fish in the most promising of those lakes and return
to Laramie for dinner in the evening.

Some of the Best Fishing in the World.

Down the mountain sides and through the valleys every-
where the streams rush and wind. Deep pools and whirling
back-waters, reaches of rushing water and quiet stretches of
brush or rock-shadowed bottom afford an ideal home for the
trout. Here the gamiest of their species,' the speckled, the
German and the Rainbow, live in numbers unlimited, and
grow to attain a size and fierceness undreamed of by those
who have never fished in such waters of the Rocky Moun-
tains.

Every stream and every runlet will yield up its leaping
and wriggling treasures to the persistent fisherman, while the
larger streams will pay a goodly toll — a toll which sometimes
means a thirteen-pounder to the lucky — and skillful — man, and
which is not hard to exact within the limits of the city of Lara-
mie itself.

Curiosities of Nature.

Albany County has more to offer than the grandest of
scenery, the purest of air, the most sunny skies, the most
tempting of camping places and fishing resorts. Within its
borders are some of the finest natural curiosities in the shape
of wind and water eroded rocks to be found in America.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 99

Twenty-five miles south of Laramie, reached by one of the
best roads in the state, are a number of natural features as
have made certain localities in Colorado famous the world
over. Here for eight miles is a succession of natural sculp-
tures, monuments, pinnacles, wind worn caves, lions' dens and
figures resembling animals and human beings; here are many
mysterious piles of rock which need no vivid imagination to
conjure into monster fortifications and cities of some long-for-
gotten race, and here also are the most numerous traces in the
state of the aboriginal tribes, which, before the advent of the
white man, made this region of natural wonder and beauty
a favorite camping place for religious ceremonies. Indian
paintings and remains of Indian camps there are in plenty,
and after every wind and rain storm, the sand and rock crev-
ices will yield up many beautiful specimens of chipped flint
arrow and spear heads to the diligent searcher.

Geological Study.

As a field for the most profitable study of geological fea-
tures, Albany County offers great inducements. From within
its borders some of the most remarkable specimens of gigantic
fossil reptilians have been unearthed, as have also some very
beautiful specimens of smaller extinct animals. The slopes
of the mountains and hills offer unlimited opportunities to
study closely nearly all of the most important formations
known in the Rocky Mountain geology.

Transportation Facilities.

Albany County is famous for its splendid natural roads.
From the City of Laramie the highways, for the most part of
gravel, stretch in every direction, affording a splendid means
of reaching any part of the county by automobile, bicycle,
stage or wagon. Most of the summer resorts run automobile
stages during the summer from the City of Laramie, or have
arrangements made by which automobiles may be obtained.
The Union Pacific railroad crosses the county from southeast
to northwest, and Laramie may be easily reached from any
part of the United States. The Laramie, Hahns Peak and Pa-
cific Railroad runs south from Laramie into Colorado. It has
opened up a perfectly marvelous summer country to the trav-
eling public, and a region which will also become a winter
resort. Not one of the many tourists and summer visitors who
have tasted of what the Centennial Valley and the mountains
which surround it have to offer, has gone away without mak-
ing a vow that he will come back again whenever he has the
opportunity.

ioo RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

The Kuster Hotel.

Johnson Hotel.

RESOURCES 01? ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

101

The. Laramie Plains line crosses many streams, all well
stocked with trout, and with numerous ranches occupying the
valleys, whose owners are glad to make provisions for the wel-
fare of fishermen and tourists, either by accommodating them
in their homes, renting cottages, or affording camping grounds.

From the prosperous little town of Centennial, from Al-
bany ten miles further south, or from any of the ranches and
resorts in the Centennial Valley, there lies close at hand a
world of mountains, valleys and streams which must be seen
to be appreciated. Every mile of road or few feet of climbing
presents a thousand new charms to the observer, and every
yard of water has its speckled or rainbow-hued tenant on the
lookout for a choice morsel.

Generally speaking, there are good accommodations, good
camping grounds, and the best of fishing and scenery every-
where within reach of the Laramie Plains line. For those
who wish to go further afield, to the wonderful North Park
region, or to the thickly wooded slopes of the Platte Valley,
across the mountains, there is a daily stage running from Al-
bany to the ranches and resorts in those regions.

A tourist can leave Laramie in the morning by the daily
passenger train of the Plains Line and reach the Platte Valley
or North Park before 4 o'clock in the afternoon. He can leave
Laramie in the morning by the same train and reach the sum-
mit of the Medicine Bow Mountains by noon, returning to eat
his dinner at Laramie in the evening.

All the tributaries of the Laramies, as well as all of the
streams which have their source in the Medicine Bow Moun-
tains, afford the best of fishing, and are kept well stocked up
by the fish hatcheries at Laramie and Saratoga. The North

117 and 119 First Street. 107 and 109 Thornburgh Street

The Phillips Hotel.

102 RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

Platte River is one of the best known places for big trout in
the Rocky Mountains, eleven and twelve-pound rainbows
being by no means uncommon, and from six to eight pounds
being plentiful.

Other streams in the county, such as Sand Creek, in the
South, Horse Creek, Crow Creek and Chugwater, in the east-
ern portion, and the North Laramie in the north, are well
stocked with several species of trout. All streams can be
easily reached, and everywhere there are ranches whose own-
ers are glad to take care of visitors.

The fishing season is open from May I5th and the fish will
bite at any time except directly after a freshet. Many of the
ranchmen keep their tables supplied with 'the delicacy all
through the summer season.

Flies that take well are : Coachman, light and dark royal,
brown and gray hackles, professor, queen of the water, jungle
cock, abbey, black gnat and cowdung.

Camping parties will find good facilities for outfitting at
Laramie, or can easily reach from there any point in the county
selected.

Summer Resorts, Ranches and Camping Places.

Among the resorts and ranches which make a specialty of
caring for visitors, the following may be mentioned :

The Temple Rock Ranch, twenty miles southwest of Lar-
amie, can accommodate four to six in the house, provide tents
and splendid camping grounds. The owners will provide
meals for campers, also well broken saddle horses and driving
horses. Guides can be hired. The fishing is good, there is
sage chicken, duck and rabbit shooting in season. Eight miles
to timber. Indian marks and arrow heads are very plentiful.
N. Lundquist, proprietor.

The Cooper Resort at Jelm, in the southeastern part of
the county, offers all possible accommodations to visitors.
Will provide rooms and board, camping grounds, saddle
horses, guides, etc. Good fishing, close to the mountains. F.
D. Cooper, proprietor.

The Mountain View Hotel, Centennial. On line of the
Laramie Plains Railroad. In center of Centennial Valley.
Best of fishing. Close to the mountains. Within easy reach
of the mountain lakes. Rates $1.50 per day, $7.00 per week.
Gus Sundby, proprietor.

The J. H. McNealy Ranch, at Albany. At upper edge of
the Centennial Valley. Can care for twenty to thirty visitors
at a time. Saddle horses and teams for hire. Guides furnished.

RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING. 103

Good fishing in several streams. Splendid scenery. Rates,
350 meals, 350 beds. J. H. McNealy, proprietor.

The Schroeder Hotel, Gleneyre, Colo. Within easy dis-
tance of Laramie by stage or automobile. Situated in the
mountains at junction of Maclntyre Creek with Big Laramis.
The best of fishing. Splendid scenery. Can accommodate
twenty visitors at a time. Guides and conveyances furnished.
Rates, $2.00 per day; $35.00 per month. Henry Schroeder,
proprietor.

The McCasland Ranch, Cowdry, North Park. Can be
reached by the Laramie Plains railroad or by automobile from
Laramie. Best of fishing and hunting. Situated in the moun-
tains. Can take care of all who come. Saddle horses and
conveyances furnished. Rates, $1.75 and $2.00 per day. Frank
McCasland, proprietor.

Wright Ranch. Fillmore. Twenty-four miles from Lara-
mie on the Laramie Plains railroad. Can accommodate ten to
twelve visitors and provide camping grounds for others. On
Little Laramie and close to foot of mountains. Saddle horses
and teams. Rates, $2.00 per day, 35c per meal. Special rates
by the week or month. G. L. Wright, proprietor.

Gregory Ranch. One-half mile from Centennial. Close
to foot of mountains on North Fork creek. Can take care of
any number of fishing and camping parties. Can accommodate
twelve visitors in house, and provide meals as required for
others. No charges made for camping grounds. Splendid
fishing. Hunting in season. Charges $1.50 per day for room
and board. C. M. Gregory, proprietor.

Baily ranch. Near Centennial, upon the North Fork
Creek. Can furnish room and board for ten persons and
board for twenty. Good camping grounds near the house.
Charges $1.50 per day; board alone $1.00 per day. Mrs. J. D.
Baily, proprietor.

The Boggs Ranch. Situated one mile from Albany on the
Laramie Plains Railroad. Can accommodate six persons in
house and provide meals for others. Good camping grounds.
Prices $1.50 per day, or $7.00 per week. Alick Boggs, pro-
prietor.

The Buckeye Ranch. Situated in Centennial Valley two
miles from Deerwood and three miles from Centennial. Can
accommodate ten at a time. Rates, 35c per meal or $1.00 per
day. Excellent fishing close to the house. Mrs. Chas. J. An-
derson, proprietor.

Lovett Ranch, Jelm. Easily reached by stage or automo-
bile from Laramie. At foot of Jelm Mountain. Big Lararnie
River provides the best of fishing and runs through the ranch.

IO4 RESOURCES OF ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING.

Mountains surround ranch. Can accommodate any number.
Rates, $2.00 per day, $10.00 per week, $35.00 per month. G.
W. Lovett, proprietor.

Sundby Ranch. Within walking distance of Centennial.
Splendid fishing. Near Snowy Range. Special rates upon
application. Rev. N. G. Sundby, proprietor.

Duck Shooting.

There are numerous lakes in Albany County which are
celebrated throughout the state for duck hunting. The most
important of these are the Hutton Lakes and Bamforth Lakes,
either of which may be reached by auto from Laramie within
a half or three-quarters of an hour. Any day, during the game
season, the experienced sportsman can bag mallards, canvas
backs, and red heads, as they are found by hundreds upon
these lakes the year around. The reservoirs which store water
for irrigation make excellent shooting lakes and many a good
bag has been brought to the City of Laramie from these.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

The material for this pamphlet was collected from many
sources and compiled at the request of the Laramie Chamber
of Commerce.

It is believed to present the real facts of Albany County,
and this body is particularly indebted to Prof. H. G. Knight,
Director of Experiment Station; Mr. A. D. Faville, Animal
Husbandman ; Mr. Aven Nelson, Botanist and Horticulturist ;
Mr. T. S. Parsons, Agronomist, and Hon. W. H. Holliday
and many others for the information furnished.

J. E. WINSLOW,
Chairman Executive Committee.

Secretary.
Laramie, Wyoming, June I, 1913.