page_title: Chugwater, Wyoming
section_title: The Chugwater horse called "Steamboat"
hierarchical_section_title: Chugwater, Wyoming / The Chugwater horse called "Steamboat"
context_page_description: Chugwater is a town in Platte County, Wyoming, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 212.
context_section_description: The iconic black horse named "Steamboat", who was the model for the bucking horse and rider motif on Wyoming license plates, came from the Tyrrell ranch located near Chugwater, and was given to the Cheyenne Frontier Days organization by the ranch's general chairman, Ace V. Tyrrell. As a young horse, Steamboat sustained a nose injury, requiring removal of a bone fragment from a nostril, and as a result, developed a sound resembling the whistling of a steamboat whenever he bucked.
  Steamboat was first ridden at a Frontier Days rodeo in 1909, by Clayton Danks (1879 – 1970) who was then working as a ranch hand in the Chugwater area, and was stabled for many years south of Chugwater near Cheyenne, in an historic barn owned and maintained by Mike and Linda Holst. The Wyoming license plate logo, showing Steamboat being ridden by Danks, is the longest-running license plate motif in the world.
  The famous horse died in 1914, and is buried in Frontier Park in Cheyenne near bucking chute number 9, the only horse to be so honored with interment on park grounds.  In 1975, Steamboat was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, and in 1979, into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs.  Steamboat and Danks are also on the logo for the University of Wyoming, and on the Wyoming state quarter.
caption: Wyoming State Quarter
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