A series where we take a #lookback at the stories and history of our community, brought to you by Mick Pryor, Financial Advisor with Edward Jones.
Central City, Wyoming is a town lost to time. A name certainly not known, it was once the rival to the town of Riverton when lands were ceded from the Wind River Reservation.
The year of 1906 was quite an eventful one, with the railroad activity and opportunities for settlers to come and claim land under homestead rights. Alongside this, new towns came into being like Hudson and Shoshoni. In August of 1906, we see first mention of a possible townsite at the Big Bend of the Wind River as C.H. King received permission from the Department of the Interior to build a storefront in this area, as Mr. King had been setting up stores in tandem with railroad development across the state, including in Casper and Shoshoni.
Mr. King was far from the only person trying to capitalize on this area. A group of men in Lander came together to create a new company they called the “Lander Locating Company”, whose goal was to help settlers locate land claims that they noted could be irrigated by private enterprise. E. J. Farlow was the president of this group, with Roy McAdams as the secretary and also Newton H. Brown, Robert H. Hall, R. F. Webster, Tom Gray and Guy Higby. McAdams, Brown, and Hall all had experience in surveying land.
At nearly the same time, a man named Forest M. Gill and several others put in a petition to the Interior Department to request that 160 acres be set aside for the purpose of a townsite, under the law at the time known as ‘squatter’s rights’, and a portion of land near the Wind River was withdrawn to be set aside for a townsite, near the big bend of the Wind River. Mr. Gill lived in Shoshoni, and ran a newspaper there known as the Shoshoni Gazette and the other petitioners were not named, though likely Shoshoni residents as well.
Alongside the opening of the Reservation lands and the excitement of the potentials, it was uncovered that the state had contracted with a company backed by Chicago businessmen to build a system of irrigation to which they were going to require settlers to use as they would not give permits to irrigate from the Wind River to settlers themselves. The businessmen (incidentally, two men of the Morton family, of the salt empire) and state officials involved were seen by many as being a large impediment to any new potential settlers and infringing on their rights to irrigate their lands as they saw fit. This was reflected in the different groups vying to build a new town at the government given townsite.
The opening day, August 15th, drew in people excited for a chance to get a claim of land, as the day was for the lottery drawing of who could get first claims. There was also some confusion as to when people could actually go onto the land to locate a claim, either on opening day or if they had to observe the 60-day rule from the President’s proclamation. Since the land was also on the Reservation, Indian agent Major Wadsworth had to request clarification from his superiors on if he still needed to patrol and keep anyone without a permit off Reservation land.
Unfortunately, since there was confusion over this, many people did in fact go over to the area of the new townsite the day of August 15th in an attempt to stake out a town lot claim (or two). Some people banded together, there was mention in the newspapers of surveyors assisting, and cars and horses were on hand to help settlers rush lots. All of these people thought that they could, under squatter’s rights, be legally able to start claiming lots. Around 500-600 or so people met near the new townsite the evening of August 14th and took a vote on how to best proceed with lot claiming, with E. H. Rathbone, another newspaperman, leading the meeting alongside Newton Brown. The article in the Clipper about the incident notes that the Shoshoni group that had petitioned the government for the townsite tried to state that they deserved the chance to pick lots first, but were promptly denied by the rest of the people there. The votes were instead in favor of a lottery system like the land opening, with everyone coming back at 9:00 in the morning of August 15th. Before this could happen, some people snuck out in cover of darkness and staked lots, and by the time the morning came the troops from Fort Washakie had arrived to clear the land per Major Wadsworth, with orders from Washington, D.C. stating that they must wait until October 15th. The soldiers from Fort Washakie and even the militia from Lander were over in the area of the new townsite for several days, while trying to ascertain who had jurisdiction of the area, be it state, county, or federal.
As arguments over when people could claim lots, how many they could claim, and how to hold them started becoming larger issues, it grew into two camps of people. On one side, the petitioners with F.M. Gill who were working towards the Riverton Townsite, and on the other were a group trying to vie for a Central City townsite, a separately platted townsite from Riverton but in the same area laid out by the federal government.
Tensions ran somewhat high between the two groups, with Lander newspapers generally calling the townsite ‘Central City’, noting people who were going over and setting up stores while things developed. The Riverton group was doing the same, and everyone was trying to maintain control over their lots with temporary shelters, tents, or actual buildings. Tensions could and did spill over into the different newspapers of the area, with the Wind River Mountaineer and the Shoshoni Gazette in particular exchanging words or accusations against each other. This was greatly apparent in one issue of the Wind River Mountaineer from August 24th, 1906; while arguing when it can legally be settled before October 15th, who has legal jurisdiction (federal vs county), the newspaper was calling some people ‘lot jumpers’ as people were vying for plots and contesting who has entitlement to them. Same newspaper states after people were cleared out by the troops on the 15th, a group from Shoshoni came in and set up a townsite group of elected officers and were drafting certificates for the lots to be handed out. Since the contingency of the Central City people had returned to Lander, they were unaware of this at the time and were upset to see another group trying to gain an upper hand without their input.
This progressed into the group backing Central City to ask a local judge, Judge C. E. Carpenter, to become the trustee for Central City and petition on their behalf for a patent in order to get Central City officially and legally recognized. This eventually led to litigation in October, with P.B. Coolidge representing the Riverton townsite and L.E. Winslow the opposing townsite of Central City, for permission of the Riverton Townsite to incorporate. Ultimately, the Riverton Townsite was able to apply for incorporation in October of 1906.
Riverton was incorporated and elected its first town officers in November, with W. E. Young elected as the first mayor of the town, and the first order of business was straightening out the ownership of town lots. There was still litigation over this, and Young applied for proof on the townsite in March of 1907. The official patent for the town came in August of 1907, and the townspeople could apply for deeds a year after the patent was issued.
Central City ultimately became not a town of its own, but merely a distant memory that is mostly forgotten.
Next up for the Fremont County Museum
Oct 4, 6pm at the Lander Community Center, “Rare Relics Roadshow” Wind River Cultural Centers Foundation
October 15, 6pm at the Riverton Museum, “Fremont Haunts w/Alma Law” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speakers Series
October 17 & 18, 6-9pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Halloween Night at the Museum” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
October 18, 5:30 with the Riverton Museum, “Downtown Riverton Haunted Trek” Wind River Visitors Council Adventure Trek Series
October 24 & 25, 11am at the Dubois Museum, “Kids Corner: Spooky Halloween Characters” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
October 25, 2pm at the Riverton Museum, “Fall Fun Fest”
October 25, 3pm at the Dubois Museum, “Annual Halloween Carnival
Thru December, 9-5 at the Riverton Museum, “History Day Exhibits” Shoshone Schools
Call the Dubois Museum 1-307-455-2284, the Pioneer Museum 1-307-332-3339 or the Riverton Museum 1-307-856-2665 for detail regarding their programs.
The Dubois Museum, the Pioneer Museum in Lander and the Riverton Museum need your financial support. In the current economic environment, the museums are more reliant than ever on donations from the private sector to continue to provide the quality programs, collections management, exhibits and services that have become their hallmark over the last four years. Please make your tax deductible contribution through the Wind River Cultural Centers Foundation www.windriverccf.com or by sending a check to Fremont County Museums 450 N 2nd Rm 320 or taking it directly to the museum you choose to support.