Laramie
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and county-seat of the Union Pacific, and the Colorado, Wyoming and Eastern railroads; 58 miles N. W. of Cheyenne, the State capital. It is the trade center for a large stockraising and mining section; and is also posits of gold, silver, lead, graphite, antiengaged in manufacturing ; has large demony, cinnabar, and other minerals, and inter, which are rved unward, se the front of the ay black, the up- Miant reflections. the under-paris at a foot. It is over fields and us in the air, ery, from which very forregarded as the and inseparable important, and FENG nero of the Le divided into a whole city; & certain porda of the counand v. xi: 25), gods a wooded plain, Golf and 170 ade in sebaceo, bout 32,000. orated Spanish ich was Ferdiacher, the first boane, for the title of ams extinct century. Th am of Castil hom tis Mist, the five v eni- edited Lege "Hills and etc. rks, 1893. 287; ange LA the f was and as th Mains cal nt is press the ain The and enne, artic oil," ng in See othe stern Wel Gre tak-and carry of other, for goods, the owner hea States bles vari- ta s dis- M 700 petit lum er dis-lea Of the tic erenti- da of the $50 in Po it laramount Sc called S ng eleco more It is a y, and 10 , how- o The bark nvalue, T he com- ti pentine, t bstance, in d when ( called T rom the c of the o another c the Rus-v in 1826. y girl in or a time wey, M.; e greater literary ced "Ouz ips in the rolling mills and machine shops. It is the seat of the State University, the State fish hatchery, and the State penitentiary; contains public and college libraries and St. Joseph's Hospital; and has electric light plants , wa waterworks, several newspapers. Pop. (1910) 8,237; (1920) 6,301.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 Laramie had just shrunk, from 8,237 people in 1910 to 6,301 in 1920; the 2020 census counted about 31,400, and the town now sits on Interstate 80 rather than depending on the Union Pacific alone. The University of Wyoming, listed almost in passing, is now the dominant institution and the state's only university, with enrollment in the neighbourhood of the whole 1920 population. The claim that Laramie held the state penitentiary was already stale: the old territorial prison closed after Wyoming's penitentiary moved to Rawlins, and the building is preserved today as the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site. Outside Wyoming the name is now most often associated with the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard and the play written about the town's response.
Written for this edition, 2026.