REPORT

OF

THE GOVERNOR OF WYOMING.

WYOMING TERRITORY,
EXECUTIVE OFFICE,
Cheyenne, November 10, 1883.

SIR: Much of this report has been written with a view to providing the Interior Department with such information concerning Wyoming as is constantly sought after by men of various classes, such as the intending emigrant, the capitalist with an eye to investment, the invalid seeking a climate which may benefit him, and the statistician and public man. There have been embodied in the following pages, therefore, lists of territorial and county officers, as men competent to furnish information respecting their localities, or their offices and their records, to those who may wish to make inquiries by letter.

The plan of the report is, as nearly as possible, a record of fact. The facts themselves, when of a character requiring special facilities for observation or special training for accurate description, have been generally ascertained from those whose business it is to be conversant with the subject treated. The chapter on geology and mining has been made up from data given by the territorial geologist; the statistics relating to the live-stock interests of the Territory were obtained from the secretary of the Wyoming Stockgrowers' Association and other gentlemen prominently interested in the industry; the clerks of the counties have sent in the schedules and other data given under the names of the counties; the facts with respect to the climate are from the pen of one of the oldest-established physicians of Wyoming, and from the Signal Service officers.

WYOMING.

The following brief paragraphs contain a summary of the salient and comprehensive facts regarding Wyoming:

The Territory adjoins Utah and Colorado on their northern borders, Montana on its southern border, Dakota and Nebraska on their western borders, and Idaho and Utah on their eastern borders. Its area is nearly 100,000 square miles. It is one and a half times the size of New England.

Its population is about 35,000, more than one-half of which is in the towns on the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, with its branches—the Oregon Short-Line and the Denver Pacific—the only railroad in Wyoming.

Stock raising is the chief industry, comparing with all others about as 90 per cent. to 10; $30,000,000 is invested in 800,000 head of cattle, and $2,800,000 in 750,000 head of sheep.

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Capable men estimate the cultivable land of the Territory at 8,000,000 acres. As yet, however, farming is done on a limited scale, and no farm produce is shipped from the Territory.

The mean elevation of Wyoming is 6,400 feet above the sea-level. The Rocky Mountains traverse the Territory from the northwest to the south-east in irregular ranges. The general face of the country is mountainous, interspersed with extensive plains. In soils there are extremes, from desert lands to loams of the first quality.

The climate is remarkable. The air is pure, light, and dry. The average rainfall in Wyoming is not one-fourth that in the Mississippi River Basin; irrigation is therefore depended upon for the raising of crops. The winters are open; there are but few snow-storms, and the strong winds which form a feature of the climate usually clear away the fallen snow in a few days. The nights in summer are uniformly cool; the thermometer seldom marks above 90° in the day.

The precious and superior metals are found widely distributed over Wyoming. The mines are, however, not far developed as a rule, and the output of bullion is inconsiderable.

Gold has been found in the Wind River, Seminoe, Shoshone, Medicine Bow, Laramie, and other ranges of mountains.

Silver has been found in the Snowy range, at the sources of the Green River, in the mountains near Cummins City, in the hills on the Platte River above Fort Laramie, at Rawhide Buttes, and on the Running Water.

Copper is found at many places in the Medicine Bow, Seminoe, and Ferris Mountains, near Rawlins, in the Laramie range, at Hartville, Whalen Cañon, Rawhide, Running Water, and in numerous other districts. Mines have been developed with great promise at Silver Crown, Hartville, and Rawhide.

Iron occurs in the Laramie range north of Laramie City, at Rawlins, in the Seminoe Mountains, and elsewhere. As yet there have been no manufactures.

Graphite is found in the hills north of Laramie City and northwest of Fort Laramie.

Sulphur is found in large bodies south of Evanston.

Soda is in "lakes" near Laramie City, and in the Sweetwater Valley. In both localities the deposits are about to be utilized in manufactures.

Common salt of excellent quality is in the unorganized county of Crook, west of the Black Hills.

Magnesia is found near Rock Creek.

Fire-clay is found in many localities.

Mica is found in the mountains northwest of Fort Laramie and in Albany County.

Coal in vast quantities is found in almost every part of the Territory, the veins being from 4 to 40 feet in thickness. A great deal is taken out annually by the Union Pacific Railway Company.

Petroleum of the best lubricating kind is found in large quantities in the central part of the Territory.

Granites, marble, limestone, sandstone, and slate are found in great variety.

There are large rivers, with numerous tributaries, so distributed as to water nearly every section.

Over vast areas, the soils produce the most nutritious grasses, though there are considerable tracts of sandy lands, in most of which, however, cattle are grazed with profit.

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More than one-fifth of the Territory is covered with timber, the growth of which, however, is in some portions scattering.

With the building of railroads, the surveys of which have in some cases been begun and in others completed, it is certain that Wyoming is about to enter upon a new era of progress. While advance has been made in the past chiefly in connection with the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, through a part of the Territory probably the least attractive in material resources, and with live-stock grazing, the most rapid settling up of other parts with a large population, together with a vast development of wealth, is confidently looked forward to when railway facilities are opened to the oil, timber, soda, copper, gold and silver, and farming districts of the interior.

GEOGRAPHY.

A LIST OF CITIES, TOWNS, CAMPS, FORTS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, AND MINING DISTRICTS OF WYOMING; THEIR ELEVATION, AND AN INDEX TO THEIR LOCATION ON THE MAP—A GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE TERRITORY—PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS.

The altitudes given in the following tables are from Gannett's Lists of Elevations. "U. P." signifies that the places named are on or near the Union Pacific Railroad. The township and range given, one may refer to the map and at once see the situation of any place. When a geographical name occurs in the body of the report, reference may be made to the list and then to the map, and a familiarity be gained with the geography of Wyoming.

CITIES, TOWNS, CAMPS, AND FORTS.

<table><thead><tr><th>Names.</th><th>Township.</th><th>Range.</th><th>Altitude.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Archer</td><td>U. P.</td><td>14</td><td>65</td><td>6,035</td></tr><tr><td>Aspen</td><td>U. P.</td><td>14</td><td>118</td><td>7,809</td></tr><tr><td>Almy</td><td>U. P.</td><td>16</td><td>120</td><td>6,820</td></tr><tr><td>Atlantic City</td><td></td><td>29</td><td>99</td><td>7,666</td></tr><tr><td>Barrel Springs</td><td></td><td>16</td><td>73</td><td>6,854</td></tr><tr><td>Baxter</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>6,300</td></tr><tr><td>Bitter Creek</td><td>U. P.</td><td>18</td><td>99</td><td>6,675</td></tr><tr><td>Black Butte</td><td>U. P.</td><td>18</td><td>100</td><td>6,548</td></tr><tr><td>Boleter</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>4,325</td></tr><tr><td>Brady</td><td>U. P.</td><td>16</td><td>117</td><td>6,758</td></tr><tr><td>Bryan</td><td>U. P.</td><td>18</td><td>109</td><td>6,323</td></tr><tr><td>Buffalo</td><td></td><td>51</td><td>82</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Buford</td><td>U. P.</td><td>13</td><td>70</td><td>7,808</td></tr><tr><td>Camp Brown, old (Fort Washakie)</td><td></td><td>35</td><td>161</td><td>5,447</td></tr><tr><td>Camp Brown</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>5,498</td></tr><tr><td>Camp Stambaugh</td><td></td><td>29</td><td>99</td><td>7,767</td></tr><tr><td>Camp Walbach</td><td></td><td>15</td><td>70</td><td>6,449</td></tr><tr><td>Carbon</td><td>U. P.</td><td>22</td><td>80</td><td>6,758</td></tr><tr><td>Carter</td><td>U. P.</td><td>17</td><td>115</td><td>6,530</td></tr><tr><td>Cheyenne</td><td>U. P.</td><td>14</td><td>66</td><td>6,075</td></tr><tr><td>Cheyenne Signal Bureau</td><td>U. P.</td><td>14</td><td>66</td><td>6,058</td></tr><tr><td>Church Buttes</td><td>U. P.</td><td>18</td><td>113</td><td>6,298</td></tr><tr><td>Como</td><td>U. P.</td><td>22</td><td>77</td><td>6,691</td></tr><tr><td>Cooper's Lake</td><td>U. P.</td><td>19</td><td>74</td><td>7,061</td></tr><tr><td>Creston</td><td>U. P.</td><td>20</td><td>92</td><td>7,026</td></tr><tr><td>Dana</td><td>U. P.</td><td></td><td></td><td>6,878</td></tr><tr><td>Deer Creek Agency, abandoned</td><td></td><td>20</td><td>75</td><td>5,000</td></tr><tr><td>Devil's Gate</td><td></td><td>29</td><td>86</td><td>6,028</td></tr><tr><td>Egbert</td><td>U. P.</td><td>14</td><td>62</td><td>5,307</td></tr><tr><td>Encampment Meadows</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>8,171</td></tr><tr><td>Evanston</td><td>U. P.</td><td>15</td><td>120</td><td>6,870</td></tr><tr><td>Fairbank</td><td></td><td>27</td><td>66</td><td>4,620</td></tr><tr><td>Fillmore</td><td></td><td>21</td><td>90</td><td>6,885</td></tr><tr><td>Fort Aspenhut, abandoned</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>7,630</td></tr><tr><td>Fort Bridger</td><td></td><td>16</td><td>115</td><td>6,753</td></tr><tr><td>Fort Fetterman</td><td></td><td>33</td><td>72</td><td>4,973</td></tr><tr><td>Fort Halleck, abandoned</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>7,800</td></tr></tbody></table>

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MINING DISTRICTS.

<table><thead><tr><th>Names.</th><th>Mineral.</th><th>Township.</th><th>Range.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Laramie County, No. 4</td><td>Gold, silver, oil</td><td>45</td><td>62</td></tr><tr><td>Platte Canon, No. 7</td><td>Copper, silver</td><td>29</td><td>66</td></tr><tr><td>Silver Crown, No. 8</td><td>Copper</td><td>15</td><td>70</td></tr><tr><td>Bromell, No. 9</td><td>Gold, silver</td><td>13</td><td>77</td></tr><tr><td>Douglas Creek, No. 5</td><td>Gold</td><td>14</td><td>79</td></tr><tr><td>Centennial, No. 10</td><td>do.</td><td>15</td><td>78</td></tr><tr><td>Kawlins, No. 1</td><td>Copper, iron, coal</td><td>21</td><td>87</td></tr><tr><td>Seminoe, No. 6</td><td>Gold</td><td>26</td><td>85</td></tr><tr><td>Lewiston</td><td>do.</td><td>29</td><td>81</td></tr><tr><td>Natrona, No. 2</td><td>Oil</td><td>21</td><td>84</td></tr><tr><td>Laramie Peak</td><td>Silver</td><td>27</td><td>70</td></tr><tr><td>Clarke's Fork</td><td>Gold</td><td>57</td><td>105</td></tr><tr><td>Rawhide, No. 11</td><td>Copper</td><td>30</td><td>64</td></tr><tr><td>Hurricane</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Sand Creek</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

The following table is made up from the tables of hypometric areas and mean heights contained in the Lists of Elevations of Henry Gannett, M. E.:

WYOMING.

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th>Square miles.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Area between 3,000 and 4,000 feet</td><td>3,000</td></tr><tr><td>Area between 4,000 and 5,000 feet</td><td>19,000</td></tr><tr><td>Area between 5,000 and 6,000 feet</td><td>20,000</td></tr><tr><td>Area between 6,000 and 7,000 feet</td><td>24,000</td></tr><tr><td>Area between 7,000 and 8,000 feet</td><td>17,000</td></tr><tr><td>Area between 8,000 and 9,000 feet</td><td>7,200</td></tr><tr><td>Area between 9,000 and 10,000 feet</td><td>4,300</td></tr><tr><td>Area between 10,000 and 11,000 feet</td><td>2,300</td></tr><tr><td>Area between 11,000 and 12,000 feet</td><td>900</td></tr><tr><td>Area between 12,000 and 13,000 feet</td><td>100</td></tr></tbody><tfoot><tr><td>Total number of square miles in Wyoming</td><td>97,800</td></tr></tfoot></table>

The mean height of Wyoming above the sea-level is 6,400 feet.

The geography of Wyoming was so well described by Governor Hoyt, in his reports of 1878 and 1881, that his chapter on the subject is reproduced herewith:

GEOGRAPHICAL.

The Territory of Wyoming embraces all that portion of the United States lying between the forty-first and forty-fifth parallels of latitude and between the one hundred and fourth and the one hundred and eleventh meridians of longitude west from Greenwich. It has an area of very nearly 100,000 square miles (more exactly speaking, 97,883)—as great as the areas of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey combined, or more than one and a half times as great as that of all New England. Geographically speaking, it is a region of plains and mountains in alternation, with numerous streams of water traversing it in every direction.

While the eastern portion belongs to that vast division of the West known as the Plains, being a continuation of the plains of Nebraska, much the larger proportion, indeed nine-tenths of the whole area, lies within the Rocky Mountain region. This, however, conveys a very incorrect idea of the geographical features of the Territory. For, strictly speaking, the whole Territory is a region of vast plains, relieved by numerous broken and detached ranges and spurs of mountains.

Commencing at the southeast corner—the part first touched by the Pacific Railway—we first encounter the Laramie Range, which extends in a northwesterly course nearly 200 miles. It is this range of mountains that is crossed by the Union Pacific Railroad at an elevation of 8,242 feet, and which has its culmination in Laramie Peak, near its northern extremity. Its width, with straggling flanks and spurs, varies from 15 miles to 40.

Proceeding westward along the southern boundary, after crossing the southern portion of Laramie Plains, we next come to the Medicine Bow Mountains, which project into Wyoming about 50 miles and have a lateral extent about half as great. Crossing the valley of the North Platte, which with its little tributaries occupies a breadth of 10 or 15 miles, we come now to the main chain of the Rocky Mountains, so called—a chain consisting of an almost continuous, but, nevertheless, broken, series of ranges

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extending thence through Wyoming in a northwesterly direction into Montana and the British possessions. Stragglings portions of these mountains are interrupted by streams of water, some of which are tributary to the Platte and flow eastward, finding their final outlet in the Gulf of Mexico, while others are tributaries of Green River and flow westward and southward into the Colorado, and finally into the Pacific Ocean. Beyond the broad valleys of Green River, which has a southestern edge of Utah, the Colorado course through the southwestern portion of the Territory and crosses the Colorado line exactly where that State corners on Wyoming and Utah, five degrees of longitude west from the eastern boundary of Wyoming, we touch the northern edge of the Uintah Mountains and the Bear River Mountains, which also lie mainly in Utah but extend northwesterly into Idaho.

Returning now to the western base of the Laramie Range, and tracing a course westward and north of the forty-second parallel, after crossing the Laramie Plains, nearly 100 miles in breadth, an east and west range of mountains is found, which, constituting the southern wall of the Sweetwater Valley, deserves to be called the Sweetwater Mountains, but which, in fact, bears several names, to wit, Sweetwater, Seminoe, and Ferris. They are not more than 3 to 15 miles in breadth from north to south, including the elevated plateaus between their scattered spurs; but in length they stretch across three degrees of longitude. Beyond their western extremity is an open and somewhat broken country, 60 to 70 miles across, being the valley of Green River. West of this, and bounding it, are the Wasatch Mountains, part of an extensive north and south range, belonging mainly to Idaho, but lapping over upon the western border of Wyoming perhaps 40 miles for a distance north and south of over 100 miles.

Returning again to the eastern boundary and sweeping across the remaining portion of the Territory even to the northern boundary, we find, first, the Black Hills, about one-third of which lie on the Wyoming side of the Dakota line, and, together with the Little Missouri and the Wolf Mountains, both of which are north and south ranges of high hills, occupy much of the northeastern corner of the Territory. Passing westward over the beautiful valleys watered by the Powder and its tributaries, occupying a breadth of 50 to 100 miles, we come to that magnificent range the Big Horn Mountains, a range 30 to 50 miles in breadth and having a length of nearly 150 miles in Wyoming. Beyond flows the Big Horn River, having a course nearly due north in general terms, and, with its tributaries from the west, occupying a north and south basin 50 to 100 miles in width. Beyond and southwest of this belt are found the Owl Creek, Rattlesnake, and Wind River Mountains; the last-named being the most extensive, and having a direction southeast and northwest corresponding to that of the Rocky Mountains in general, of whose main chain it forms a part, and extending from near the western end of the Sweetwater Range a distance of some 200 miles into the Yellowstone National Park. West of this lie the upper basins of the Green and Snake Rivers; the two being separated by short east and west spurs known as the Gros Ventres and the Wyoming Mountains, connecting the Wind River Range with the Wasatch, already referred to as constituting for about 100 miles the western wall of the Territory.

It will appear from this general description of the position, course, and extent of mountain ranges, that they are widely distributed over the Territory, leaving large areas of valley and plain.

As the plains themselves have an average elevation of about 6,000 feet above sea-level, it may be inferred that many of the higher peaks have a great elevation. * * *

The Territory is thus, in general terms, a vast expanse of undulating plains, rising, some very gradually and others abruptly and irregularly, into mountain ranges having a northwesterly and southeasterly course, and marked here and there by elevated spines and lofty peaks, the intervening lower levels being broadly grooved or deeply furrowed in every possible direction by many important rivers with their numberless tributaries.

Viewing the Territory still more broadly, we find lying within its east and west boundaries portions of some important ranges of the Rocky Mountains, all having the same general direction, to wit: first, the Black Hills, in the northeast corner—which, however, requires some license of speech to call it a range, as it is rather a cluster of low mountains sloping down to the southward into the upland of Northwestern Nebraska, and cut off on the north by the plains and valleys intervening between the Little Missouri and the Powder Rivers, although resumed again under the name of Powder Mountains; secondly, the range made up with like important interruptions, of the Laramie and Big Horn Ranges; thirdly, the broken and scattered mountains known as Snow, Elk, Seminoe, and Rattlesnake, which, taken together, have the same general course; and fourthly, the range composed of the Wind River, Sweetwater, and Sierra Madre Mountains, and constituting the backbone of the great Rocky Mountain range in general.

The Bear River Mountains, lying on the western side of the Territory, with the Tetons, farther north and lying on the very boundary, might almost be said to form a fifth range parallel were it not that they have a more north and south course and

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run into the main range last above mentioned, thus becoming a spur thereof rather than a range proper.

Between these five ranges there are broad expanses of plains, valleys, and basins, not wholly continuous in all cases, but nearly so, since only the second and third intervals are interrupted by transverse spurs of any importance. The first interval, plains country to the southward, with the Platte, Cheyenne, Belle Fourche, and Ponca Rivers crossing it, but with broken elevations, known as the Wolf and Panther Mountains, at its northern extremity.

The second interval consists of the Laramie Plains, the plains at the head of Powder River, and a broad region considerably broken, but traversed by many streams immediately west of the Big Horn range.

The open region next west is more narrow and more interrupted by mountain spurs and scattering elevations than any of the rest. Still, at the headwaters of the North Platte, the Sweetwater, Beaver, and Wind Rivers there are large areas of fine open

The interval between the Wind River, Sweetwater, and Sierra Madre Mountains (northern extension of the Medicine Bow of Colorado and Wyoming) on the east and miles in width at the southern boundary of the Territory, or rather at the base of the southern boundary of the Yellowstone National Park. With the exception of this branches, the entire region is traversed by the Green River and its numerous tributaries.

WATERS OF WYOMING.

Perhaps no other portion of the United States west of the Missouri River is so well watered. Being not only a portion of the continental divide, and hence a grand many minor sheds affording drainage in every other direction. Thus the central, the North Platte and its great affluents, the Big and Little Laramie and the Sweetwater, with their numberless branches, waters which at length, after flowing first into the Missouri through Southeastern Nebraska; Northeastern Wyoming, by the Tongue, Big Horn, Yellowstone, and Snake, which make their way through the Missouri through Southeastern Nebraska; Northeastern Wyoming, with its many branches flowing into the Yellowstone; the middle-northern and northwestern portions, the northeastward into the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, respectively; the rivers which are at once the largest and most important, as watering very large areas, are the North Platte, Powder, Green, and Big Horn.

The North Platte has its source in the North Park of Wyoming and Colorado. It flows northward nearly 150 miles, to where it receives another considerable stream, the Sweetwater, whose origin is in the Wind River Mountains, and whence, by a grand curve, it sweeps northward around the head of the Laramie Range past Fort Fetter, and thence in a southeasterly course to Fort Laramie, where it is increased by 400 miles, and, besides the small streams which flow into the Green are strongly alkaline; Bitter Creek (through whose valley the railway passes for a considerable distance) not only lower than the great body of the lands on either side that the area which can be watered by it is less than might be supposed—less than I had myself supposed prior to somewhat extended observation.

The Green, although a very considerable river, with a deep and strong current, has with the help of Bear River and the Snake, it drains and supplies the southwestern or two of the small streams which flow into the Green are strongly alkaline; Bitter Creek (through whose valley the railway passes for a considerable distance) not only lower than the great body of the lands on either side that the area which can be watered by it is less than might be supposed—less than I had myself supposed prior to somewhat extended observation.

It should be remarked before passing, however, that the channel of the Green is so much lower than the great body of the lands on either side that the area which can be watered by it is less than might be supposed—less than I had myself supposed prior to somewhat extended observation.

The Big Horn is a splendid river. It is formed at its head by the Wind, Little Mountains, and all of which are remarkably sweet water. Farther down to the

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northward it receives, on the east side, from the Big Horn Mountains, Badwater, Painted Rock Creek, Shell Creek, and the Little Horn; on the western side, and from the Shoshone Mountains and the Yellowstone National Park, the Owl Creek, Gray Bull, and Stinkingwater. The entire area thus watered is perhaps one-eighth to one-sixth of the whole.

The Powder River has its origin in the southern extremity of the Big Horn Mountains and in the highlands which divide its headwaters from the little streams emptying into the North Platte above Fort Fetterman, receiving as affluents from the west Willow Creek, Dry Fork, Crazy Woman, and Lodge Pole. Being closely flanked by mountains on the east, it receives no streams from that side.

CITIES AND TOWNS.—The principal cities and towns of Wyoming are as follows:

Laramie County.—Cheyenne, the capital of the Territory, has a population that is estimated as between 5,000 and 6,000. The stockmen or the Territory make it their headquarters, and many of them have built handsome residences in the city. It is also the business center of Wyoming, a large wholesale trade being conducted with the range country. It is the terminus of the two main divisions of the Union Pacific Railroad and the junction of the Union Pacific and Denver Pacific Railroads. Cheyenne has a handsome opera house, substantial school and county buildings, good hotels, compactly built business streets, and a thorough system of water supply. The city is lighted with the electric light, both of the arc and incandescent systems. It has a telephone exchange well patronized, and two morning daily papers, each issuing a weekly edition. In the two years just past, improvements have been made in Cheyenne that are estimated to have cost a million of dollars.

Hartville, Fairbank, and Millersburg are small towns on the North Platte River. They owe their existence mainly to the copper mines of the locality, and population rises and falls with seasons of briskness or dullness at the mines.

Sun Dance and Sand Creek are small farming settlements in the as yet unorganized county of Crook. Sun Dance has, with its neighbor ing farms, a population of 300 to 400; Sand Creek has a smaller popu- lation.

Albany County.—Laramie City is the county town and the center of trade for the Laramie Plains. Its population is about 4,000. The Union Pacific Railroad operates large rolling-mills in Laramie, and is now building works for the preparation of soda for the market. Laramie City has a daily newspaper, the managers of which issue also a weekly edition, and a weekly newspaper. The city is situated on the banks of the Laramie River, by which it is well watered. It has many comfortable homes and some fine business blocks.

Cummins City is a mining town, the population in 1882, as indicated by its vote, being about 300.

Sherman, the highest point on the Union Pacific, is a railroad town, with about 200 people.

Carbon County.—Rawlins, the county town, has a population of about 1,500. Rawlins has a tri-weekly newspaper, railroad shops, several banks, good public buildings, and is improving rapidly.

Carbon is a Union Pacific Railroad mining town, sometimes having as many as 500 miners engaged at mining coal.

Warm Springs is a small settlement, the center of about 250 people.

Sweetwater County.—Green River City, situated on the Green River, which is at this point about 75 yards in width, has a population of 800 to 1,000. It has a weekly newspaper.

Rock Springs, a coal-mining town on the Union Pacific, has a popu-

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lation dependent upon the employment given by the railroad. Sometimes it reaches 800.

Lander City, in the Wind River Valley, more than 100 miles north of the railroad, is the center of a population of about 500. It is a farming settlement.

*Unta County*.—Evanston, the county town, has a population of 1,500. There are coal mines in the vicinity, and some progress is being made in agriculture in the neighborhood. Evanston has a weekly newspaper, several banks, and fine churches and public buildings. To the north and west is a farming country.

Almy is a mining town, where coal is got out for the Union Pacific Railroad.

*Johnson County*.—Buffalo, the county town, has been built up within the past two years. It has a population approaching 500 and is making rapid strides in improvement.

## CLIMATE.

### A DESCRIPTION OF THE CLIMATE OF WYOMING—TABLES OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS TAKEN IN A SERIES OF YEARS.

**CLIMATE.**—The following lucid explanation of the causes which govern the climate of Wyoming, with a description of the climate and its effect upon various diseases, is taken, by permission, from the writings of Dr. George W. Corey, of Cheyenne:

Although a great deal has been said in late years in a desultory way about the climate of the Rocky Mountain regions, the subject is probably less understood than tirely unlike that of the States east of the Missouri River or that of the Pacific Northwest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Those regions are designated as having marine climates, being more fully under the influence of the great oceans than are the highlands, with their present latitude and altitude, were subject to the same climatic east of the Mississippi River, four-fifths of this important division of the country would be uninhabitable on account of the rigor of the climate. But the influence of the great elevation of these regions, and even the high latitudes of portions of them, giving them a climate extremely healthful and pleasant, more so than that of the Atlantic coast of the continent at the sea level, in the same latitudes. It is a fact well understood that degrees of latitude, or the distance of any given region from the equator, does not absolutely control its temperature, nor the other physical conditions that go to make up its climate. The western coasts of the continent in the northern hemisphere are found to be warmer than the eastern. This fact is due to example of the difference in the temperature between the eastern and western shores. The most remarkable The difference between Eastern Asia and western North America and Europe.

The whole of Europe may be said to be in high latitudes. Madrid, in Spain, is a compared with that of other portions of the globe in the same latitudes. This is very mild, Gulf Stream coming in from the heated regions of the tropics, whose influence of the malial waters constantly leave its western shores.

The surface of Europe gradually rises from its western coast until we reach the bases of the mountain ranges of the interior. The soft balmy winds heated by the similar to this prevail upon the western coast of our continent in a less marked but very considerable degree. The great equatorial current of the North Pacific Ocean— is analogous to the Gulf Stream of the

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Atlantic. The warm waters and warm humid winds of this vast tropical stream, constantly coming in upon the western coast of our continent, give it a mild, equable climate. To what extent this warm breath of the tropics influences the mountain regions, and the great plains in the interior of the continent, we shall attempt to show. The effect of this great tropical current of the Pacific Ocean upon our western coast is, however, modified by conditions not met with on the western coast of Europe. Most important of these, and more important than all others, are the mountain ranges along our western coast. The Coast range, so called, is low and of no consequence. The Sierra Nevada range is by far the most lofty and rugged, having but few passes, and those very high. It extends through nearly the whole length of the State of California. Its western slope is covered to a height of 8,000 feet by a dense forest, which is succeeded by naked granite and perpetual snow. It shuts off most perfectly the mild climate of the coast from the interior. East of this mighty wall, through the central portions of the State of Nevada, from the mud lakes of the north through the Humboldt desert and the great salt valley which extends to the south line of the State, and on south to Death Valley, in California, this whole region is extremely arid and barren. The small amount of moisture that surmounts the lofty crests of these mountains does so from January to May each year—during the rainy season of California, and during which time all the rains of this region fall—5 to 10 inches annually. At about the fortieth parallel of north latitude the influence of the Japanese current begins to be felt. This fact is evinced by the rapid increase of the rainfall of the immediate coast, as we advance to the north from San Francisco. It is also evinced by the fact that all along the coast, as far north as Victoria, the annual temperature is only a trifle lower than that of San Francisco.

The tropical winds accompany the Japanese current many thousands of miles; and as they approach the land their temperature is so rapidly lowered that vast quantities of rain are precipitated upon the immediate coast, the average amount at Astoria for a single year being equal to a sheet of water 7 feet 2½ inches deep. These warm winds passing over the great plateau, through its valleys, along its mountain flanks, across the comparatively low and broken rocky range in Montana and Wyoming, and out upon the great plains, give these vast highlands a climate not only habitable but extremely salubrious and pleasant.

Being centrally located in the mountain and plains region of which we have spoken, and north of the isothermal line of 52°, Wyoming will require little special attention on the subject of her climate further than what has already been said. The great South Pass, situated near the western boundary of the Territory, about equally distant from its north and south boundaries, has a very decided influence on the climate of the interior of Wyoming. The valley of the Sweetwater and the extensive basin of the North Platte are very fully influenced by the warm winds from the Pacific coast. * * * There are no other peculiarities in reference to the climate of Wyoming worthy of mention, except it be the increased rainfall in the Black Hills.

Clouds approaching them have their temperature lowered, and a very considerable greater rainfall occurs here than on the surrounding plain, 20 to 25 inches falling annually. The same conditions obtain in the Big Horn Mountains and the Wolf Mountains, where very extensive forests of pine are found. * * *

The most striking peculiarities of this (Wyoming's) climate are the extreme dryness of the atmosphere and the great daily range of temperature. The season of greatest relative humidity is from October to April, and again from April to October is the season of least relative humidity; the atmosphere of July being the driest of the whole year. The greatest daily ranges of temperature occur during the season of the driest atmosphere.

These climatic conditions seem to have a controlling influence upon disease, catarrhal affections prevailing most during seasons of greatest humidity of the atmosphere, while diseases of the bowels, such as diarrhea and dysentery, prevail while the air is driest and the greatest daily ranges of temperature occur. Catarrh, or, as it is popularly called, cold, is the most common disease here, as it is everywhere in this latitude. When special regions of the air passages are attacked the disease is designated accordingly; cold in the head, or coryza, quinsy, or tonsillitis, laryngitis, or bronchitis. Quinsy is very prevalent and embraces much the larger proportion of all the cases of sore throat. While catarrhal affections of the upper portions of the air passages are extremely common, inflammatory diseases of the lungs, such as bronchitis, pneumonia, or lung fever, an pleurisy are extremely rare. Intermittent fever, or ague, never occurs here except in persons who have lately arrived in the country from malarious districts either east or west. There is, however, a species of remittent fever, called mountain fever, which is indigenous and is a very severe disease. It prevails most in autumn and early winter following dry summers, but may occur at any season of the year. Some physicians report a great many cases of this disease which are simply bilious attacks and have no resemblance to the "mountain fever" what ever. Bilionsness, or "bilious attacks," are extremely common and prevail most during the spring and summer months and are speedily cured by remedies that promote

20

*History and present condition of the industry.*—The business has grown in thirteen years, from small beginnings, until cattle by the thousand roam in every valley and drink from every stream in the Territory. Previous to 1870 a trial of the experiment of cattle-raising in Wyoming was prevented by two obstacles, one apparent and the other real. It was believed by stockmen whose herds grazed on the plains south and southeast of Wyoming that the severe storms occurring here during the winter and spring would prevent the grazing of cattle in safety the year round in this region. The occupancy of a large part of the Territory by hostile Indians at that time also deterred stock-raisers from bringing in their herds. In 1870 and 1871, however, several men largely engaged in the business elsewhere sent herds of Texas and Colorado cattle to Wyoming grazing grounds, nearly all of which not only lived through the winter, but showed a hardiness and an increase of weight in the spring greater than would have been looked for had the herds remained on the ranges from which they had been taken. Encouraged by the success of the pioneers, other stockmen in succeeding years drove cattle in large numbers to the plains and mountain parks of Wyoming. The subjugation of the warlike savages and their subsequent removal to reservations made way for more herds and gave to the business greater security. As time passed, it was observed that no disease ever materially decreased the number of cattle in Wyoming; that year after year grass grew abundantly and in the fall dried, or, in the language of stockmen, "cured," without being cut and gatheno greater than in Texas, hitherto regarded as the best grazing country in the United States.

The transcontinental railroad running through Wyoming afforded, and still affords, quick and ready transportation of cattle to Chicago. As from Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Utah, the freight rates paid by Wyoming stock-growers are small. As the knowledge of the from cattle diseases, security from hostile Indians, certainty of grass for known, capital was attracted to the Territory for investment in cattle.

The prices for beef rose rapidly at the Eastern markets for several years previous to the shipments of 1882 of cattle from this range. As a consequence, the business of the summer of that year was characterized in Wyoming. The men who had ventured into the business were then richly rewarded for their enterprise. While the prices of beef prevail marketing of Wyoming cattle has continued to yield a very high percentage of profit, and sales of herds on the range have been made at

Formerly large herds of cattle were driven every year to Wyoming from Oregon and the Territories of the Pacific slope, but these drives from the west have now almost entirely ceased. The drives have greatly diminished. But during the past summer thousands of Cattle of the Territories west and north of Wyoming were usually accustomed to a climate fully as severe as that which they encountered that cattle brought to this range from the Mississippi River basin must arrive early in the summer in order that, before the advent of winter's

21

*Associated management.*—The Wyoming Stockgrowers' Association, organized eleven years ago, including, as it does, in its plan the management of those interests of the stockmen of the region which all share alike, has aided in the rapid growth and the maintenance of a healthy condition of the industry. Through its instrumentality, cattle shipped to market, or brought to the Territory, are inspected; theft of cattle is in a large measure prevented, and the yearly gathering of herds by their respective owners is arranged systematically. The association has become a powerful body, its president, Hon. Joseph M. Carey, asserting at its last annual meeting that it represented $100,000,000. It now embraces every county in Wyoming, part of Southwest Dakota, and the two westernmost counties of Nebraska. It has on its list the names of nearly 300 members. It holds an annual meeting in Cheyenne every spring. It is regarded by the stockmen of the United States as a model with respect to work and organization. Its officers for the current year are: J. M. Carey, president; Andrew Gilchrist, vice-president; Thomas Sturgis, secretary; A. H. Reel, treasurer. Executive committee: J. W. Snyder, W. C. Irvine, F. E. Teschemacher, Laramie County, Wyoming; David Hunter, W. H. Parker, Sioux County, Nebraska; John M. Adams, D. Sheedy, Cheyenne County, Nebraska; J. H. Pratt, H. A. Blair, Johnson County, Wyoming; Robert Marsh, Charles D. Motley, Albany County, Wyoming; A. C. Beckwith, Jesse Knight, Uintah County, Wyoming; Frank Earnest, James G. Rankin, Carbon County, Wyoming. Brand committee: A. Gilchrist, G. B. Goodell.

The cattle shipments of the present season are in about the same volume as those of last year. The number of cattle inspected for the season of 1882 was—

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th>Head.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>At Council Bluffs, covering shipments over the Union Pacific Railway, including the Julesburg extension</td><td>166,215</td></tr><tr><td>At Pacific Junction, over the Burlington and Missouri Railroad</td><td>14,936</td></tr><tr><td>At Clinton, Iowa, over the Sioux City and Pacific Railway</td><td>9,686</td></tr><tr><td>At Saint Paul, over the Northern Pacific Railroad</td><td>25,007</td></tr><tr><td>At Miles City, shipped by Missouri River</td><td>1,498</td></tr></tbody><tfoot><tr><td>Total</td><td>217,342</td></tr></tfoot></table>

This does not include any inspection at Kansas City (which in 1881 amounted to 50,000 head), as it was not deemed advisable to keep an inspector at that point during the season. The inspection shows an increase of about 52,000 head over that of 1881.

The inspectors found in these shipments and reported to owners, when members of the association, 1,465 head of stray animals of a net value of about $66,000.

The marked feature of the business of the year 1882 was the increase of the estimated value of cattle per head on the range, the rise being from 25 to 33 per cent. above the figures of 1881.

With regard to the probability of the continued profitability of cattle-raising, the Hon. Thomas Sturgis, secretary of the association, made the following remarks in his annual report made to the association at its meeting April 2, 1883:

> Taking a comprehensive view of the various factors which form the problem of supply and demand, and the facts as to the relation the consumption of beef now bears to the production, your secretary feels justified in making the prediction that the prices of beef and the yaues of breeding cattle will be maintained, if not increased, and that an era of continued prosperity awaits the cattle interests of the West, and especially of our own Territory.

*How cattle raising is conducted.*—Changes in the methods of conducting the business of cattle-raising in Wyoming have gradually taken place

22

in the course of the past twelve years. The first herds driven into the Territory were composed almost entirely of young steers, and the profit in grazing them accrued simply from their increase of flesh. Later, a larger proportion of cows was brought with incoming herds, and calves were raised on the range. Next, the introduction of bulls of high grade prompted their owners, desirous of preventing them from roaming with cows other than those in their own herds, to erect fences, usually of barbed wire, on that part of their range near the location of their ranches. Finally, men have taken up land under the United States laws, fenced in it, and are raising cattle precisely on the plan adopted east of the Missouri River, excepting that instead of feeding their cattle corn they feed them hay.

By many times the largest number of cattle in Wyoming, however, are still raised on what may be termed the open-range system. Under it a herd of bulls, steers, cows, and calves are permitted by their owner to roam at will over the plains during the greater part of the year.

In following this system, in Wyoming, a man entering upon the busi-
ness of stock-raising, if he begins with a new herd, proceeds in the fol-
lowing way: Let it be supposed that he is starting with a capital of
$150,000, which will enable him to own and manage about 5,000 head of
cattle. During the past summer he would have had opportunity to
purchase, say, 2,000 head of steers at Dodge City, Kans., or Ogalalla,
Nebr., just arrived among the annual "drive" from Texas. They would
be one, two, and three year olds, and would have cost him $18, $22,
and $26 a head. He might, in addition, have purchased 1,000 head of
Wyoming steers and cows, of the same ages, at an average of $28 to
$30 a head. From Iowa or Missouri he could have imported 2,000 head
of young cattle, which, by the time they reached his range, would have
cost him $22 a head. Under the rules of the Wyoming Stockgrowers'
Association he would be obliged to place on his range at least five bulls
to every hundred head of female stock, and, assuming that one-half his
herd—2,500 head—were females, his bulls would number 125. A herd
of about 100 head of broncho horses, familiarly known here as cow ponies,
purchased at an average price of $40 a head, with 6 or 8 work-horses
would complete his working stock.

In order to be able to distinguish his cattle from those of all other stockmen, his first care would be to burn upon them a brand differing in form from all others in use on the Wyoming range. Before legally using any device whatever as a brand, he would be obliged to record the one he had selected at the county clerk's office in the county wherein his ranch was to be situated. Having selected his brand, it would be submitted to the brand committee of the Wyoming Stockgrowers' Association, and if they found that it did not resemble any brand already recorded, or did not infringe upon the laws which the Territorial legislature has passed relating to the subject, he could proceed to employ it in marking his cattle.

The stockman, in selecting the location of his ranch, would take up
a tract near a running stream where there was sufficient meadow land
upon which to raise hay for his 108 horses. He would build a log house
for the accommodation of his herdsmen on the banks of the stream, or
perhaps by a spring of water running from the foot of a bluff near by.
He would engage an experienced foreman, at a salary ranging from $80
to $200 a month, to take charge of all the work to be done on the range
or at the ranch in connection with the care of his cattle. A man of
capital entering upon the business would find great difficulty in practi-
cally managing his herd, and soon discover that a good foreman at a

23

fair salary was a most profitable investment. Except in the season of
gathering the cattle together, he need employ only as many herders—
"cowboys"—as are necessary to drive cattle about on the range occasion-
ally or to make improvements on his ranch.

His cattle branded, his cabin finished, his stables erected, his corrals
built, his provisions, wagons, and mowing machines at his ranch, his
foreman installed in charge, his cowboys hired, his cattle put out in
herds to graze at such places on the adjacent plains as the grass is most
promising, the stockman's fall work would be to put up hay to feed his
ponies during stormy weather. Winter life on a ranch is much the same
as farm life in the East. Calves coming out of season may be cared for,
weak cows fed hay, fences repaired, and similar work done. In Wyom-
ing there is in every winter at least one storm, and sometimes several,
characterized by a terrific wind, a very low temperature, and a heavy
fall of snow. But these storms are not "blizzards," in the sense in
which that term is used in Minnesota. Seldom do all three features of
the storm occur simultaneously, and rarely does the storm continue for
more than three or, at most, four days. During its prevalence cattle
on the plains move, or, as is said here, "drift" in a direction with the
storm, which in Wyoming is uniformly southeast. By spring some cat-
tle will have drifted from their original grazing grounds a great way—
in some years as great a distance as 150 miles. During and after such
storms cowboys are sent to points where cattle may assemble in num-
bers too large to be supported by the grazing to scatter them or to turn
them back toward their range.

*The round-up.*—The chief event in the work of the stockman's year is the "general round-up." When winter is over and green grass is again to be seen everywhere on uplands and lowlands, the owners of herds grazing in one valley, or between the same streams, unite in gathering their cattle together, so that each stockman may separate those of his brand from the rest, drive back to his range those which have drifted away from it, and brand the calves that may have already come. Later in the season every stockman has a "calf round-up" in his own neighborhood, at which he collects and brands his own calves. Still later he rounds up the heavier cattle, for the purpose of sending them to the Eastern market, whence they are sent to the consumers.

It is interesting to trace the operations of the general round-up. At
the spring meeting of the stock association, in Cheyenne, committees
are appointed to organize all the round up parties which are to work
upon the ranges represented in the association. One committee is ap-
pointed to arrange for each round-up party, the members of a committee
being some of the owners of the stock grazing in the district for which
they plan the work. At its meeting last April the stock association
provided for twenty-two round-up parties, which gathered the cattle
ranging over at least 100,000 square miles of territory. The following par-
agraph, taken from the advertisement of the association announcing ten
round-ups, indicates the area of country worked over by a single party :

*Round up No. 7.*—Laramie Plains round-up will meet at the lower bridge near McGill's ranch, on the Big Laramie River, June 1, proceed to work the country between the river and Black Hills divide as far south as Red Buttes; from thence work in two divisions, No. 1 continuing as far south as Twin Mountains, thence back to Diamond Peak, working the Boulder and intermediate creeks up to the source of the Big Laramie River. Division No. 2 will proceed from Red Buttes across the Big Laramie, working up to Cummins City, Fox Creek, and Centennial country, behind Sheep Mountain and between the Big and Little Laramie Rivers; thence in their order Mile Creek, Seven-Mile, Four-Mile, Cooper, and Rock Creek and its tributaries; thence back to Big Laramie, working down-stream to Canon, Duck Creek, and Laramie Peak

LETTER
A4
L

24 REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF WYOMING.

country; thence through Antelope Basin on to the North Laramie, working Sheep Creek and Little Medicine, into Sherley Basin; thence back by Freeze-Out Mountains to the mouth of Medicine Bow Creek, working up said stream to its source, including Hampton and Dana Meadows, between Pass Creeks and Elk Mountains; thence to Wagon Hound Creek, finishing on Foot Creek.

Foreman, Rufe Rhodes; foreman of No. 1 from Red Buttes south, Wm. Landaw.

On the day and at the place appointed for its meeting the round-up party assembles. There accompany a party from six to fifteen wagons, the stockmen owning the herds in the route of the party's work each sending one wagon, while those who expect to gather only cattle which have drifted from other ranges send from one to three men, who use the wagons of the round-up, in common with the rest, to carry their bedding, branding irons, extra saddles, &c., a favor which they in turn perform on their own range for men not accompanied by wagons. A round-up party traveling with ten wagons has a force of about ten cowboys and a cook with each wagon. Every cowboy has a "string" of six to nine ponies. At night the ponies belonging to the party staying with each wagon are herded together and watched by details of cowboys, who relieve each other at intervals of about three hours.

As early as 3 o'clock in the morning a round-up party is astir. A foreman directs the work. He attempts to round-up in a day all the cattle grazing in a certain area between the uplands dividing two streams, or some similar natural division of the country. He sets out on horseback, followed by the cowboys who are to take part in the business of the day. He directs some of his men to ride out upon the "divides," while other parties are sent along valleys, gulches, and meadows, with orders to drive the cattle to a point where the round-up centers. In the course of a morning's round-up a cowboy frequently rides from 30 to 40 miles, and before noon he is obliged to return to the herd of ponies, which has been driven after the party, and saddle up another of his string. Three or four ponies are often ridden down in one day by a single rider.

The cattle having been collected from the area of country which the round-up foreman desires to cover in a day, they are brought to a standstill in the open plain in several herds of moderate size. The work of taking the cattle of each owner from one of the herds is then begun. Experienced cowboys ride in among the cattle, and, selecting the animals bearing their employer's brand, drive them out of the general herd and form others, each composed of cattle representing one ownership. This work is called "cutting out." The men not engaged in cutting out are employed in "holding" the herds. The foreman of the round-up has supervision of the work and sees that cattle are claimed only by the men entitled to them.

When cutting out has been finished at one general herd, another is "worked" in the same manner, and then another, and so on until all the cattle driven in during the day's round-up have been inspected and separated.

*Estrays and mavericks.*—When the cowboys have taken from the herds all the cattle belonging to their respective employers, there are usually a few cattle left over. These are estrays and mavericks. Both classes are disposed of under regulations of the Wyoming Stockgrowers' Association.

Stray animals whose owners are unknown, and which are of a marketable weight, are taken up, shipped, and marketed. A report of the fact is made to an association inspector, and the proceeds are remitted to the secretary of the association, who keeps an account of the money for the purpose of turning it over to the owner of the estrays, should

25

he be found. But if by the time of the next annual meeting no one has claimed the purchase money, it becomes part of the general fund of the association.

A "maverick" is an unbranded calf away from its mother. The custom among stockmen, recognized by the rules of the association, is to brand a maverick found on the general round-up with the mark belonging to the largest female herd in the neighborhood. Each stockman claims a certain part of the grazing grounds of the Territory as his, in the sense that his is the largest female herd in the neighborhood. This partition is, of course, made only for such time as the pastoral system shall be the only one carried on in the locality. A newcomer is not thought to be entitled to yearling mavericks on his range until the expiration of at least a year, as his cows have, it is assumed, only young calves.

The ground covered each day by a round-up is in some localities so nearly the same year after year that inclosures have been made, for the purpose of branding calves quickly, at the points where the day's round-up centers. Branding is done in the following manner: Cattle of a single ownership are driven within a "corral," where a fire has been made, at which branding-irons are heated. A man rides among the cattle, and throws a noose, formed at the end of a stout rope about 20 feet in length, over a calf's head or about one of its hind feet. The other end of the rope is then secured around the pommel of the rider's saddle, and the calf is led apart from the herd to a spot near the fire. It is then thrown to the ground, its ears cut or slit in a certain manner to indicate its ownership, and its brand is burned in its hide.

The work of rounding-up usually takes place in the morning and that of branding calves in the afternoon. The cowboys of different herds assist one another in branding, and the work is done with great rapidity.

Thus it will be seen that the business of raising cattle on the open range is well systematized in Wyoming. As nearly as possible the rights of stockmen are cared for under the laws of the Territory and the regulations of the stockgrowers' association. The stockman just entering upon the business is a sharer in the combined action and the customs based on the experience of the men who have been for years following the occupation.

There is, however, at this stage in the progress of the industry a drawback facing a man of capital who wishes to begin stock-raising by setting up a ranch and starting a new herd in Wyoming. Although it can hardly be said that the Territory is everywhere fully stocked with cattle, it is a fact that the more desirable ranges are generally occupied, and a man taking into almost any locality a herd of 5,000 cattle would meet with some difficulty in securing what are termed range rights from his neighbors. If a season of shortage in the grass crop were to follow, his annoyances would be considerable, and the driving of his cattle over a large area of country in pursuit of food might be attended with loss.

An estimate of the cost of keeping a herd must necessarily depend upon several contingencies, and can only approximate to the true figure. Taxes, for example, vary in the different counties of Wyoming. The work of rounding-up is more difficult and requires more men in some districts than in others. Provisions are cheaper near the railroad than at points 200 miles away. The cost of keep per head decreases with the increased size of the herd. While it is commonly said that 5,000 head of cattle may be managed at an annual cost of $1.25 a head, a herd of 10,000 will cost no more than $1 or even 90 cents a head.

["26", "REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF WYOMING.", "Large cattle companies.—The obvious cheapness and safety in the man-\nagement of large herds on the range, as compared with small ones, has\nled of late years to the formation of a number of companies, each with\na heavy capital, and owning herds numbering thousands. Among the\nlargest of the companies incorporated in Wyoming are the Union Catt-\tle Company, capital $3,000,000; the Swan Land and Live Stock Com-\npany, capital $3,000,000; the Powder River Cattle Company, capital\n$1,500,000; the Searight Cattle Company, capital $1,500,000; the Stand-\nard Cattle Company, capital $1,000,000; the Converse Cattle Company,\ncapital $500,000; the Luke Voorhees Cattle Company, capital $500,000.", "In some instances these companies were formed by the consolidation\nof the interests of several herd owners, for the purpose of cheapening\nthe cost of keeping the cattle and taking other advantages in managing\nlarge herds; in others, men owning large herds sold them, in whole or\nin part, to incorporations. During the past few years a great deal of\nforeign capital has been invested in the stock of companies engaged in\ncattle-raising in Wyoming.", "As an example of the calculations of experienced managers of large\ncattle companies, the following, made by Hon. Luke Voorhees, is given.\nTaking the composition of a herd of 11,688 head on the range last\nwinter to be 6,370 cows, 750 bees, 1,400 two-year-olds (two-thirds\nsteers, the rest heifers), 2,600 yearlings (half steers and half heifers),\n425 bulls, 43 one and two year old bulls, and 100 other cattle not classi-\nfied, he believed there would be branded the present year about 5,000\ncalves, which would increase the herd to about 16,688 head.", "There have been no sales lately of good graded cattle for less than an average of $30 per head all round, which gives a value to the cattle of $430,000, after deducting a 6 per cent. dividend for the current year, or $30,000.", "The herd is expected to increase from year to year in the following proportion:", "<table><tr><td>6,360 cows: end of the first year,</td><td>2,544 heifers, 2,544 bull calves.</td><td>1883.</td></tr><tr><td>7,140 cows: end of the second year,</td><td>2,677 heifers, 2,677 bull calves.</td><td>1884.</td></tr><tr><td>9,187 cows: end of the third year,</td><td>3,444 heifers, 3,444 bull calves.</td><td>1885.</td></tr><tr><td>11,810 cows: end of the fourth year,</td><td>4,430 heifers, 4,430 bull calves.</td><td>1886.</td></tr><tr><td>14,946 cows: end of the fifth year,</td><td>5,605 heifers, 5,605 bull calves.</td><td>1887.</td></tr><tr><td>18,981 cows: end of the sixth year,</td><td>7,118 heifers, 7,118 bull calves.</td><td>1888.</td></tr></table>", "18,981 cows, 5,605 heifers two years old, 7,118 heifers one year old = 31,704 she cattle, at $30 = $951,120.", "<table><tr><td>Sales end of first year, 750 beehves, at $40 each</td><td>$30,000</td></tr><tr><td>Sales end of second year, 1,400 beehves, at $40 each</td><td>56,000</td></tr><tr><td>Sales end of third year, 2,417 beehves, at $40 each</td><td>96,650</td></tr><tr><td>Sales end of fourth year, 2,543 beehves, at $40 each</td><td>101,720</td></tr><tr><td>Sales end of fifth year, 3,272 beehves, at $40 each</td><td>130,840</td></tr><tr><td>Sales end of sixth year, 4,209 beehves, at $40 each</td><td>168,360</td></tr></table>", "<table><tr><td>Receipts from sales of beehves</td><td>583,600</td></tr><tr><td>Total expenses, six years</td><td>42,000</td></tr><tr><td>Profits above expenses</td><td>541,600</td></tr><tr><td colspan=\"2\">There remain on the range—</td></tr><tr><td>Two-year-old steers 5,605, less 5 per cent.</td><td>5,325</td></tr><tr><td>Yearling steers</td><td>7,118</td></tr><tr><td>12,443 steers, at $30 a head</td><td>12,443</td></tr><tr><td>31,704 she cattle, at $30 a head</td><td>$373,290</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>951,120</td></tr><tr><td>44,147 head on the range, worth</td><td>1,324,410</td></tr></table>", "It will be observed that, in the above table, of the 425 bulls mentioned in the general schedule of cattle on the range, and the increase of the bull herd to the end of the sixth year, there is no estimate. The annual loss of steers, though rated in the", "REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF WYOMING.", "27", "table at 5 per cent., will not be over 1 per cent. The remaining 4 per cent. makes up the necessary increase of the bull herd from year to year, and hence the value will be considerable at the end of the sixth year, or in five years at least 1,000 bulls, worth $40 each = $40,000.", "The method of estimating the annual increase of cattle in the preceding table is as follows:", "By adding together the number of cows the amount is 6,370; ten off=6,360. Estimate 20 per cent., 1,272, as failing to calve in 1883, and the result is (6,360 less 1,272) 5,088 calves—2,544 heifers and 2,544 bulls.", "Second year, 1884: Add to the said 6,360 cows of 1883 half (1,300) of the 2,600 yearlings (half heifers and half steers) mentioned in the schedule, which become cows in 1884, and you have 6,360 added to 780, 60 per cent. of 1,300 two-year-old heifers (40 per cent., 520 of said 1,300 being deducted), which amounts to 7,140 cows for 1884. Deduct 25 per cent., or one-quarter (1,785), as failing to calve, and you have 7,140 less 1,785=5,355 calves, 2,677 heifers, and 2,677 bulls.", "Third year, 1884: Add to the said 7,140 cows of last year 60 per cent. (1,527) of 2,544, the heifers of 1883, now cows, leaving 40 per cent. (1,017) of same, and you have 7,140 + 1,527 = 8,667, which sum added to the 40 per cent. (520) deducted in 1884, now full three-year olds, gives 8,667 + 520 = 9,187 cows the third year, or 185. As before, deduct one-quarter (2,299) as failing to calve, and the result is 9,187 less 2,299 = 6,888 calves, 3,444 heifers, and 3,444 bulls.", "For the fourth year, or 1886, add to 9,187 cows of last year 60 per cent. (1,606) of the 2,677 heifers of 1884, now cows, and add to that result the 40 per cent. (1,017) deducted from the 2,544 heifers of 1883, and you have the number of cows for 1886, 11,810.", "Losses, &c.—The proportion of losses to be expected on the range annually, the condition of cattle the present year, and other interesting facts are given by Col. A. T. Babbitt, manager of the Standard Cattle Company, in the subjoined paragraph:", "Losses last winter, 3 to 5 per cent.; as usual, old cows. Percentage of loss as compared with last year, double. Condition of stock as good as average in the spring. Shipments of beehves rather less. The influx of cattle in large numbers, shipped by rail from Iowa, Mississippi, and other States eastward, illustrates the truth of the rail from Iowa, Mississippi, and other States

28 REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF WYOMING.

under the desert-land act a tract a mile and a quarter long and three-quarters of a mile wide may be filed upon.

A married couple, the wife being able to enter 640 acres under the desert land act, can get possession of 1,760 acres, sufficient to support several hundred of cattle. If, say, three men having means sufficient to make the payments at the land office necessary when filing upon lands under the four acts referred to, join their entries along a stream of water, they will have grazing land enough for at least a thousand head of cattle. They will be put to the expense of erecting fences around their lands and sheds to protect their herd against violent storms, but that done, their business will, it is thought, be put upon as safe a basis as is cattle-raising in Iowa.

This plan of keeping cattle within an enclosure, and feeding them hay in winter, is being carried out by the Wyoming Hereford Association on its ranch, situated 6 miles east of Cheyenne. The pasture lands owned by the company border Crow Creek for a distance of several miles. About 50 tons of hay were cut in the past season, but the cattle have since grazed in the meadows, the strong, close-set grass growing rapidly. The meadows average perhaps a half a mile in width. High but broken bluffs rise to the north and south, the cattle finding shelter among them the greater part of the winter. Nothing, however, is risked as to weather in the management of the herd of pure-blood Hereford stock now grazing on the ranch. A barn, with stall room for 100 head, has been built, in which some of the first of the bulls and cows, with young calves, will be fed during stormy weather. Open sheds are provided for the rest of the herd as shelter at such a time. All will be fed hay while the ground is covered with snow. The amount in ricks is sufficient to feed the entire herd four months, double the length of time that snow has ever been known to lie on the ground in this part of the country.

The herd numbers 400 bulls and cows. For one of the bulls the company has been offered $5,000, and for another $3,000. The value of the herd is nearly $200,000. The manager believes it to be the largest and most valuable herd of thoroughbred cattle in the world. The stock of the association is held by the Swan Brothers and Messrs. Boulter and Morgan. The herd was imported from England to Wyoming last summer, being in charge of Mr. Morgan, an experienced Hereford grower, while on the way. The other gentlemen named were among the earliest to venture into the cattle business in Wyoming.

While the importation of so valuable a herd to this Territory is interesting in itself, the method by which it is being grazed, fed, and sheltered is one which may be followed safely and economically with cattle of ordinary grade. The man who takes up land as above described and raises cattle by this method will find himself possessed of the following advantages: His land will be gradually enhancing in value and his herd increasing in number; his beef cattle may be sold early in the year, before the fall of prices which always takes place in the summer and fall. Here is an instance in point:

On December 2, 1882, A. C. Beckwith, of Evanston, Wyo., weighed 200 head of cattle, and ascertained their average weight to be 1,174 pounds. They were fed on alfalfa hay until April 14, 1883. The average weight of 105 head shipped on that date for Chicago was 1,205 pounds, a gain of 121 pounds each in 128 days. These cattle were two-year olds last spring. In Chicago they were sold on the 25th of April at $5.70 per 100 pounds. The buyer of them bought at the same time some corn-fed cattle raised at Geneseo, Ill., paying $5.75 a hundred, a

29

difference of only 5 cents between alfalfa-fed Wyoming cattle and corn-fed Illinois cattle.

*Statistics.*—In round numbers the statistics of Wyoming's cattle business for 1883 may be put down thus: Stock, 800,000 head; value, $30,000,000; shipments, 200,000 head; value, $9,000,000 to $10,000,000.

*Wyoming's pastoral advantages.*—The following excellent summary of the pastoral advantages possessed by Wyoming was made in 1878 by his excellency Governor John W. Hoyt:

> Careful inquiries concerning the interest of stock raising and grazing in other States and Territories have led me to the conclusion that the advantages of this Territory as a pastoral region are without parallel.

> While a mountainous region, Wyoming's ranges are so broken, scattered, and interspersed with valleys and table-lands, as well as flanked and buttressed for the most part by sloping strata of the more recent rock formations, that one in crossing the Territory in almost any direction would find it difficult to believe himself in the midst of the Rocky Mountains. While the average altitude of the Territory is about 14 miles above the sea-level, and mountain peaks appert with eternal snow are visible from almost any point within its boundaries, it has certain physical features and surroundings which give it a peculiar and very desirable climate.

> As a result of these favorable conditions of fertile soils and tempered climate, almost the entire surface of the country, plains and lower mountains as well as valleys, is clothed with nutritious grasses. In some districts, as in portions of the Green River Basin, in the section south of the Sweetwater Mountains, and in several others of the central area between the Sweetwater Valley and the southern extremity of the Big Horn Mountains, the grass is scattering and insufficient for cattle-grazing, and even in some of the richest valleys, as well as in the midst of plains embraced within chosen cattle ranges, that ever-ready plant the sage-brush (*Artemisia tridentata*) has taken the ground and holds the supremacy. But in these less desirable localities there is often enough of grass to afford sustenance to considerable numbers of cattle, while the tender sort of sage-brush is also relished by them.

> Throwing out the exceptional districts altogether and excluding the mountain ranges, either barren or covered with thick growths of timber, and there remains an aggregate area larger than the whole of New England upon which there is growing an abundance of the most nutritious grasses, an area capable of sustaining and fatiguing millions of domestic animals. Connect with this fact of primary importance that remarkable distribution of water which renders it possible to open innumerable ranches and cattle ranges, which makes almost every square mile of pasturage available; that peculiarity of the surface, undulating, with valleys, "draws," canons, bluffs, and hills so distributed and related as to afford to the herds in nearly every locality protection from storms on the one hand, and on the other secures to them a certainty of food on the ridges made bare (if the storms be snow) by the winds after it is past; that absence of winter rains, so hard upon cattle and so destructive to sheep unhoused; that extraordinary dryness and lightness of our snows which prevents their ineresting and insures their drifting from the ridges and hillocks, so that stock are never long without easy grazing; that no less remarkable dryness of the atmosphere which gives to it the property of a non conductor of heat and electricity, so that the exposed animals better retain their animal heat and keep their vital forces in full reserve; and, last of all, by no means least, that peculiarity of the autumnal season which cures the rich grasses so gradually and perfectly that all winter long they are as standing hay, and even much better, for the ripened seed they retain upon the stalk makes them more like grain—associate all these important advantages, unequaled, as I believe, and you have in Wyoming the finest pastoral region in the world.

> Besides all these advantages, it is proper to bear in mind that along nearly all the streams there are moist lands, upon which is annually produced an abundance of the taller grasses suitable for hay, so that practically every ranchman or owner of herds is able to put up hay in almost any quantity for his work-horses, his sheep, should he have any, or such young and tender cattle, blooded or native, as would be better for a little special care.

*Contagious diseases of cattle unknown.*—The British consul-general at New York recently wrote to Acting Governor Morgan, during the illness of the governor, inquiring "if pleuro-pneumonia or other disease existed among the cattle of Wyoming Territory."

The acting governor requested Hon. Thomas Sturgis, secretary of the Wyoming Stockgrowers' Association, to furnish the desired information,

30 REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF WYOMING.

and the following letters, strongly indorsed by the acting executive of
the Territory, were transmitted to the consul-general:

WYOMING STOCKGROWERS' ASSOCIATION,
SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
Cheyenne, Wyo., June 11, 1883.

DEAR SIR: I am in receipt of your favor of the 5th instant, containing a request from the consul-general of the British Government in New York for information as to whether pleno-pneumonia or any other fatal contagious disease exists among the cattle of this Territory.

In reply I am happy to be able to state positively that these bovine surcharges are
unknown here.

Searching examinations, conducted under the auspices of this association, by the highest professional talent, and extending over a period of many months, have been made in all parts of the Territory. Among the millions of cattle grazing on these plains opportunities for investigation are numerous, and many post mortems have been made, but invariably with the above result. In this connection I beg to hand you a letter on this subject from Prof. James D. Hopkins, D. V. S., the Territorial veterinarian, to whom I referred the matter.

In doing this I cannot refrain from congratulating the people of this Territory that, through the wisdom of the seventh legislative assembly, they have a system of veterinary inspection probably unequaled, and certainly unsurpassed, by that of any State in the Union—a system that not only protects the vast cattle interests here, but which enables the Territory, through its official representative, to speak upon these topics with that accuracy and certainty which carries conviction.

It each of the States between us and the Atlantic had adopted such a policy, Amer-
ican beef products would no-day be free from the suspicion of disease, and that this
liberality, both of mind and money, should have been shown by the young Territory
of Wyoming must command the admiration and arouse to similar efforts those older
and richer communities.

Very truly, yours,

Hon. E. S. MORGAN,
Secretary and Acting Governor.

THOMAS STURGIS,
*Secretary Wyoming Stockgrowers' Association.*

CHEYENNE, WYO., June 9.

DEAR SIR: Replying to your inquiries, made for the information of the representa-
tives of the British Government in New York, as to whether contagious pleno-pneu-
monia, or other contagious disease, exists among the neat cattle in Wyoming Terri-
tory, I have to state as follows:

During the past twelve months I have personally examined the condition of cattle
over the greater part of the Territory. I have visited all points where disease of any
kind was manifesting itself, and have made careful autopsies in all cases deserving
attention. My inspection has covered many thousand head, including not only the
herds indigenous to Wyoming, but all cattle of both sexes which have been brought
in during that period from other States and Territories for the purpose of improving
the native breeds.

I have in no instance found any symptoms of contagious pleno-pneumonia or any
other contagious disease, and am able to state with confidence that none such exist
to-day, and that there is no evidence that they have ever been known here in the
past.

Respectfully, yours,

JAS. D. HOPKINS, D. V. S.,
*Territorial Veterinarian.*
Hon. THOMAS STURGIS,
*Secretary Wyoming Stockgrowers' Association, Wyoming.*

CATTLE SLAUGHTERING.—The success of men engaged in slaughtering cattle at Chicago, and shipping dressed beef to the eastern cities, has within a year or two stimulated Wyoming cattle-raisers to make inquiries as to the probability of a successful issue to a like industry carried on at points on the railroads in this Territory. As a result, two slaughtering companies have been incorporated, each having its own plan of operations. Several gentlemen, prominent as managers of the

31

Powder River Cattle Company, carry on the business of slaughtering at Sherman, and the Wyoming Meat Company is now building its slaughter-houses at Cheyenne.

The advantages of shipping dressed beef to the east from a point a thousand miles west of Chicago, as compared with shipping live cattle, are, a saving of the shrinkage which occurs in the case of the living animal in transit, a saving of the wages of the men who attend live cattle on the railway journey, and obviating the loss by death of animals in transit, and a saving in freight charges.

The plan carried out at the slaughter-houses at Sherman has been to kill only during the season when range cattle are in the best condition; to store the beef at Sherman until late in the winter or in the spring, when prices of beef are highest in the east, and then to ship the meat to eastern markets. The company does not freeze its meat in the store-rooms, but depends upon the dryness and purity of the atmosphere at the altitude of Sherman—more than 8,000 feet—to preserve dressed meat sweet.

The Wyoming Meat Company, composed of experienced butchers and stockmen, will cover in its operations whatever pertains to the grazing, raising, slaughtering, and marketing of cattle, sheep, game, &c. The managers of the company believe that every advantage existing in Chicago with regard to the disposal of the offal, hides, &c., of slaughtered animals will be found here. Hides, they think, can be freighted east at less rates by car loads than when they are part of the living animals. The unsalable portions of the carcass can be utilized here as feed for hogs. Bones may not fetch as good a price in Cheyenne as in Chicago, but such products as neat's-foot oil will find a ready sale at better prices than are obtained east of the Mississippi. The company's managers have received encouragement from the Union Pacific Railroad Company. During the season of shipping northern range cattle to the east the railroad is taxed to the utmost to afford facilities for stock transportation. If, instead of the heavy freight business of the few months of the cattle shipping season, with a much lighter demand for cars during the greater part of the year, there were a steady shipment of dressed meat, in about equal quantities month by month, the railroad company would be much the gainer. The railroad is now provided with refrigerator cars of the lastest design.

The Wyoming Meat Company is not yet fairly at work, having been incorporated only in the past summer. Its success, however, is regarded as certain, and its business is looked upon as one which, as an industry carried on by various persons at many places in the Territory, will grow to limits only to be restricted by the number of cattle raised in Wyoming.

SHEEP HUSBANDRY.—The following, with a few changes, is from a former report of Governor Hoyt:

It is safe to estimate the number of sheep now in Wyoming at up wards of 750,000. Next to the cattle business ranks sheep husbandry. It was later in getting a start, because the latitude and altitude of Wy- oming appeared to render it doubtful. The experiment has been well tried, however, and this branch of pastoral industry is now steadily growing in favor. In fact, it has already gained an important rank. It has the disadvantage of requiring a little more care and watchful- ness, and the per cent. of loss from storms, disease, and accident is somewhat greater. But, on the other hand, it admits of beginning with much less capital, and is said by many who have herds of both cattle and sheep to be really more profitable under proper conditions.

32

Very little loss is sustained on account of disease. The dryness of the soil not only prevents the foot-rot, so common East, but sheep affected with it when brought here are readily cured, in fact speedily recover without applying any remedies. The only contagious disease known here is scab, and this with proper care never kills, and is readily cured.

From a gentleman who now manages a number of sheep ranches, with flocks aggregating 25,000 head, I gather the following facts touching the usual mode of procedure in stocking a ranch in a quite moderate way, together with the profits of such an enterprise. The smallest number with which an economical beginning can be made is 1,500 head. It will cost no more for improvements and help to manage this number than to manage 1,000. The beginner will carefully select his range with reference to feed, protection from storms, water, and meadow land. If he would commence with 1,500 head of Mexican sheep his improvements—cabins, corrals, &c.—need not cost him over $500. He will buy picked white yearling ewes of the desired number at about $2 per head, delivered on his ranch; locating them late in October, care having been taken to put up a few tons of hay.

Many flocks go through the entire winter without a particle of any feed but grass, but the provident husbandman will put himself on the safe side. To the desired number of ewes he will add merino bucks in $20 per head. The whole flock will require but one shepherd. The increase will amount to about 85 per cent. of the whole number, and will be worth to him about twice as much per head as the original flock. The shearing will cost him 6 cents per head, incidentals included. The yield of wool from the Mexicans will be about 2 to 3½ pounds "in the dirt"; from the bucks, about 15 pounds per head. The profits will of year the Mexican wool has brought 12 cents per pound; product of the flock of 1,500 sheep, purchased as above and managed on shares, the ing the product and the increase, he had netted 60 per cent. per annum, operations, until now he and his partner have 25,000 head of sheep and success.

To make the whole matter more clear, I give the following restate-ment of the cost and profits of establishing and managing a ranch with 1,500 head of sheep during a term of two years.

The loss allowed on following statement (10 per cent. per annum) is much larger than will occur from disease or natural deaths, but it has accidents that occasionally occur in severe winter storms:

<table><thead><tr><th colspan="2">FIRST YEAR.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Cost of improving ranch</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Cost of 1,500 picked white yearling and 2-year old Mexican ewes, at $2.</td><td>$500 00</td></tr><tr><td>Cost of 30 Merino bucks, at $15</td><td>3,000 00</td></tr><tr><td>Cost of hay that may be used</td><td>450 00</td></tr><tr><td>Cost of incidentals</td><td>100 00</td></tr><tr><td>Pay of herder, at $25 per month</td><td>25 00</td></tr><tr><td>Board of herder, at $10 per month</td><td>300 00</td></tr><tr><td>Cost of shearing 1,350 head (original 1,500—less 150 lost), and 30 bucks at 6c. per head</td><td>120 00</td></tr><tr><td>Interest on above amounts at 12 per cent.</td><td>82 80</td></tr><tr><td>Total cost, expenses, and interest</td><td>549 34</td></tr></tbody><tfoot><tr><td></td><td>5,127 14</td></tr></tfoot></table>

33

STATE OF ACCOUNT AT END OF FIRST YEAR.

<table><tbody><tr><td>Value of 1,350 2-year old ewes, at $2.25 each</td><td style="text-align: right;">$3,037 50</td></tr><tr><td>Value of 30 bucks</td><td style="text-align: right;">450 00</td></tr><tr><td>Value of improvements</td><td style="text-align: right;">500 00</td></tr><tr><td>Value of clip from 1,550 Mexicans (3 pounds per head), at 15 cents</td><td style="text-align: right;">607 50</td></tr><tr><td>Value of clip from 30 bucks (15 lbs. per head), at 15 cents</td><td style="text-align: right;">67 60</td></tr><tr><td>Value of the 85 per cent. increase (1,275 at $1.25)</td><td style="text-align: right; border-top: 1px solid black;">1,593 75</td></tr><tr><td>Total inventory</td><td style="text-align: right;">6,256 25</td></tr><tr><td>Deduct cost, expenses, and interest on investment</td><td style="text-align: right; border-top: 1px solid black;">5,127 14</td></tr><tr><td>Profit end of first year over and above 12 per cent.</td><td style="text-align: right; border-top: 1px solid black;">1,129 11</td></tr></tbody></table>

STATE OF ACCOUNT AT END OF SECOND YEAR.

<table><tbody><tr><td>Value of original Mexicans, reduced by loss to 1,215 head, at $2.25</td><td style="text-align: right;">2,733 75</td></tr><tr><td>Value of Merino bucks, now 50, at $15 each</td><td style="text-align: right;">750 00</td></tr><tr><td>Value of 1,147 cross yearlings (1,275, less 10 per cent. loss), at $2.50 per head</td><td style="text-align: right;">2,867 50</td></tr><tr><td>Value of improvements</td><td style="text-align: right;">750 00</td></tr><tr><td>Value of clip from 1,215 Mexicans, 3 pounds each, at 15 cents</td><td style="text-align: right;">546 00</td></tr><tr><td>Value of clip from 50 bucks, each 15 pounds, at 15 cents</td><td style="text-align: right;">112 50</td></tr><tr><td>Value of clip from 1,147 grade yearlings, 6 pounds each, at 21 cents</td><td style="text-align: right;">1,445 22</td></tr><tr><td>Value of 1,034 lambs (85 per cent. of 1,215), at $1.25</td><td style="text-align: right; border-top: 1px solid black;">1,292 50</td></tr><tr><td>Total inventory</td><td style="text-align: right; border-top: 1px solid black;">10,498 22</td></tr></tbody></table>

From this deduct:

<table><tbody><tr><td>Cost of 23 additional bucks, at $15 each</td><td style="text-align: right;">$345 00</td></tr><tr><td>Cost of additional improvements</td><td style="text-align: right;">250 00</td></tr><tr><td>Labor</td><td style="text-align: right;">450 00</td></tr><tr><td>Hay</td><td style="text-align: right;">100 00</td></tr><tr><td>Cost of shearing 2,412 head, at 6 cents</td><td style="text-align: right;">144 72</td></tr><tr><td>Interest on inventory end of first year, $6,256, at 12 per cent.</td><td style="text-align: right; border-top: 1px solid black;">750 75</td></tr><tr><td></td><td style="text-align: right; border-top: 1px solid black;">2,040 47</td></tr><tr><td>End of second year's business</td><td style="text-align: right;">8,457 75</td></tr><tr><td>Deduct first year's inventory</td><td style="text-align: right; border-top: 1px solid black;">6,256 25</td></tr></tbody></table>

(Second year's profit above 12 per cent., compound interest). 2,201 50

The above table is computed from a start in Mexican ewes, as in early days we had to depend largely on New Mexico for our supply of ewes for breeding, but at the present time there are plenty of first-class high graded Merino ewes that can be purchased for about $3 per head that will shear 5 to 6½ pounds of wool (in the dirt), worth 18 to 25 cents per pound, which will pay a larger percentage than an exhibit based upon Mexican sheep.

It can readily be seen that the third and fourth years and each successive year will grow more profitable as the young graded sheep mature and the flocks increase in size. The larger the flock or number of flocks under one management the less expense per head for taking care of sheep—2,000 to 3,000 will as well range in one band with one herder as 1,500 will. Again, when a large number is under one management the flocks can be so selected that each size and sex can run together, the hardier taking the outside and most exposed ranges and the weaker can be kept together on richest ranges.

HORSE RAISING.

Of late years many Wyoming ranchmen have been turning their attention to horse raising. The business can be conducted here cheaply, horses being allowed to graze all the year round. The statistics given elsewhere with relation to the number of horses raised in the Territory

7068 WYO—3

34

shows a rapid increase in the industry. Prices cannot be quoted, however, as is the case with cattle. Some idea of the confidence with which the success of the industry is regarded may be gained by a knowledge of the venture of Post, Brown & Lawrence, as conducted on Pole Creek, 14 miles north of Cheyenne. The senior partner of the firm is Hon. M. E. Post, banker, and Delegate to Congress from Wyoming. Messrs. Brown and Lawrence are citizens of New York City, who have had long experience as dealers in horses on a large scale, and who, after visiting many of the States and Territories, have chosen Wyoming as the region affording the best conditions for the business of horse raising. The ranch has on it 1,750 head of geldings and mares, and 500 colts will be branded in the course of the present year. A number of stallions on the ranch have been imported from Normandy. The firm have leased a very large tract of land from the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and have just completed the building of three new ranch barns, with corrals, &c., along Pole Creek. An inspection of the horses at the ranches is gratifying to any lover of horse-flesh, as they are nearly all large and well formed, and many of them are the offspring of superior imported stallions. The number of imported horses is soon to be considerably increased. The mares and geldings are herded separately, the visitor to the range being able to see several herds scattered over the range on the upland slopes lying back of the bottom lands which border the stream. The scale on which business will be conducted on this great ranch will, when the arrangements in view are fully perfected, hardly be surpassed in America.

I am indebted to Hon. N. R. Davis, of Cheyenne, for the following pages on the breeding and growing of horses in Wyoming. Mr. Davis is engaged in that business and competent to speak on that subject from long experience:

The breeding and grazing of horses may be styled the coming industry of Wyoming. As the water and meadow lands are rapidly being settled and fenced through for cattle ranges for lack of water or the obstruction by fence to the drift of cattle in winter storms, and these old cattle ranges are now being largely stocked with a storm, the shelter of a hill or bluff being all he requires in the severest weather, when cattle must either move with the wind or perish.

The demand for horses for saddle use on the ranges is very large; there is a ready sale in the spring of the year for three and four year old colts broken to saddle at horses of 15 to 15½ hands, in pairs, broken suitable for buckboard or buggy teams, at $250 to $350 per span, and for work horses weighing 1,100 to 1,400 pounds at from $150 to $300 each. At present the supply is not equal to the home demand. Some experiments have been made in shipping horses raised in Wyoming to Eastern markets, which have met with fair success, and so soon as our supply is in excess of the home will come to us from the East who will buy our colts by the car load at three years old. In the Eastern markets. It is a well known fact that a sound horse is the exception in the States, while here unsoundness of all kinds is very rare in home-raised horses, and their feet are almost invariably good.

Improved horses on our ranges, which have been furnished with well-bred stallions, are valued at from $60 to $100 per head, including the stallions. Stock horses in bands of from 100 to 500 head driven from Texas, Oregon, Idaho, or Nevada, may be bought at from $30 to $50 per head, the price varying according to the quality of the stock.

The breeds of stallions most used are the Norman, the trotting horse, and the running horse, each kind having its advocates who claim it to be the best adapted for the range and to produce the most salable colts. There are many first-class stallions progeny must largely increase the reputation of our stock when they go abroad.

The profits of horse raising are affected so largely by the judgment of the owner in buying his first stock, and in the selection of his stallions, and in the economical

35

management of his property, that it is almost impossible to say what the average profit is; but it is safe to say that with a good knowledge of horses and strict attention to the business there is no class of range stock which will so well repay the investment of a moderate capital, say $20,000. With ordinary success it will pay 20 per cent.; some men make much more, others less. The cost of raising a three-year-old colt will vary with the cost of mares and stallions and the size of the herd from $15 to $40, and breeding will cost from $10 to $15 more. This estimate allows for feed of stallions the year around and for feed of colts while breaking. At other times the colt is on the range, and, the mother is never fed. It is well established that horses, unless worked, do not require to be fed at any season in Wyoming, that they will subsist and do well on the range till they are from fifteen to twenty years old.

Horse breeding has in the past been overshadowed by cattle breeding. The immense profits and the facility with which great sums of money could be invested and managed in the latter have caused most stock men to overlook the finer business, which required more care, skill, and judgment for its management; but many men whose means did not admit of an investment in cattle have tested the business and have invariably made money. But the cattle range must from its nature always be on the frontier. Like the old-time trapper and hunter, it follows close to the Indian as he retreats from civilization. Horses present too many temptations to the red man to be safe on the outer edge of the settlements, but they will make use of the abandoned cattle ranges for many years to come.

## MINERAL RESOURCES.

GOLD, SILVER, COPPER, OIL, SODA, IRON, COAL, AND OTHER MINERALS.

**THE PRECIOUS AND SUPERIOR METALS.**—There is not a mountain range in Wyoming but that shows the existence of gold, silver, copper, or lead. Wood and water are abundant in nearly every mining district; the natural roads are excellent; good coal is found in vast quantities in every county. A few mines managed by competent men, backed by sufficient capital, will start the mining interests of Wyoming on the high road to development.

**GOLD AND SILVER.**—Although gold and silver were discovered along the old emigrant trail many years ago, yet this Territory has not taken a prominent position as a bullion producer, owing—

First, to the Indian troubles.

Second, to the fact that the region adjacent to the Union Pacific, the only railroad in Wyoming, is not rich in the precious metals.

Third, to the reputation that the Territory has gained with many of being wholly a grazing region; and

Fourth, to the unusual mining strikes which have been made in regions adjacent to Wyoming, and which have attracted the miners who otherwise might have prospected here.

The first gold discovered in Wyoming was found on the old emigrant trail near the Sweetwater River, in the locality now known as the Lewiston mining district, near which are situated South Pass, Miner's Delight, and Atlantic City. These camps lie within 5 to 10 miles of each other, at the southeast base of the Wind River Range, and 125 miles north of the Union Pacific Railroad, with which they are connected by a daily stage running from Green River, Sweetwater County. Gold was discovered in this locality in 1867, and since then lode and gulch mining have been carried on with varying success. The rock consists of old gneissoid and granitic schists, having a strike of about N. 43° E. and a sharp dip, E. 75° to 90°. The gangue consists of granular broken quartz stained red and brown at the surface by the decomposition of iron sulphurets, which by conversion into limonite has deposited its gold in a free condition. Owing to this decomposition the surface ores have been worked with considerable profit, and modern methods would make it profitable to work the ores below the 100 to 150 feet levels.

36

The veins are well defined and true fissure, but require skill in following, as the ore is more or less faulted.

Prospects throughout the region, from the Lewistown district along the Seminoe and Rattlesnake ranges, show similar formations with a profitable amount of pay ore when worked by men having the necessary capital and experience. In the Seminoe Mountains the veins carry considerable lead and silver.

The Bramel district is about 35 miles southwest of Laramie City, on the east flank of the Medicine Bow range, and just over the range from North Park, Colorado. The range is an antiel manual composed of gneiss, hornblende, often dioritic schists, quartzitic schists, and argillites, with granites and eruptive diorites. The veins are variable, quartz and schists running with the formation, and quartz veins cutting the general formation at about 30°. The ores are copper carbonates and pyrite, gold, both free and in iron pyrite, and some lead. Very little valuable work has been done deeper that 50 feet, but the width of the veins, from 3 to 30 feet, their well defined character, and the amount of gold—from $5 to $50 per ton—warrant a development that only capital can give.

Douglas Creek district is on the west side of the Medicine Bow range, and about 15 miles from Cummins City, in the Bramel district. The general formation and character of the veins are the same as those just mentioned. Effective work has been done, especially by the Keystone Company, and it has been proved that the veins will pay a good profit on the necessary investment.

In the Silver Crown district gold is found associated with the copper in small quantities, and is also extracted from small veins of decomposed quartz that occur in the granite near the line of contact with the limestones that lie alongside the mountain range.

The output of gold for 1882 was estimated by the Territorial geologist at $5,000; for 1883, thus far, about the same amount. The silver output was not reported.

COPPER.—There has been greater activity in mining for copper in Wyoming during the past two years than for any other metal.

*Silver Crown district.*—The existence of mineral deposits at a point about 22 miles west of Cheyenne has been an established fact for fifteen years, and a great deal of prospecting has been done in that period over the country thereabout. Considerable money was from time to time spent in sinking experimental shafts, and, while some copper ore was found throughout the district, at one or two shafts the presence of a good deal of ore was developed. Last May ore was found in the Adams Copper King, owned chiefly by a company of Iowa men and operated by work. The present development is a shaft 90 feet in depth, with a cross-cut at 80 feet of 32 feet in a northerly direction and 27 feet in a southerly direction. The cross-cut runs through a body of solid copper ore, and at neither end has the wall-rock been reached. In the shaft native copper was struck at a depth of 22 feet, and all subsequent work has been through ore. Below the levels which have been run from the shaft considerable bodies of sulphides of copper have been encountered. The owners have decided to run to a depth of 200 feet before deciding upon a method of treating the ore. The average quality of the ore to a depth of 80 feet will probably exceed 15 per cent. copper. Below the percentage will be much greater. The owners of the mine have shown a conservative policy in their methods of management, especially in de-

37

veloping their property before deciding how the ore shall be treated. They expect to show by next spring a mine that will take a first-class position as a copper producer, and that will have a highly beneficial effect upon the camp and the Territory.

Three miles north of the Adams Copper King is the old Metcalf mine, now the Colorado. It shows a strongly-defined vein of copper pyrite—chalcopyrite. A tunnel has been run in over 100 feet through ore. Complications in management arising from differences in views on the part of owners, and difficulties in operating the small furnace at the mine, have prevented its proper development. The property is regarded by experts as possessing decided value.

*Rachide.*—In this district prospecting has been as actively pushed forward during the past two years as in any other part of Wyoming. The result has been a large number of promising finds. The Michigan, in Muskrat Cañon, has shown up an unusually large body of a good quality of ore. Considerable work has been done on it and on other mines of the locality. As yet, however, no smelting works have been erected, though, judging from the ownership of the large mines, steps will soon be taken to supply this want. Those who are interested in the district express the strongest faith in its success. The character of many claims in this and other camps will be determined in the course of the next year's work.

*Platte Cañon.*—The district in which operations have been carried farthest. For several years the prospectors at work a dozen miles northwest of Fort Laramie, not far from the Platte River, had been encouraged by finding extensive deposits of copper, when, in the summer of 1882, capitalists came forward and decided to erect smelting works in the district. They were built on the north bank of the Platte, at the lower mouth of the Grand Cañon, and on the 7th of December last their first furnace was put in blast. Difficulties incident to the initial operations of such an enterprise were met with, but up to October 1 of the present year more than 1,000,000 pounds of copper bullion had been sent east by the company owning the works—the Wyoming Copper Company. The coke, provisions, &c., for use at Fairbank, where the smelting works were situated, were hauled by wagon from Cheyenne, a distance of more than 100 miles. The company is now experimenting with a chemical process for reducing its ores, and, pending the result, have shut down their smelting works. Their mines, however, are being worked by a force of men, as usual. The Sunrise, their principal mine, has yielded more than 3,000 tons of ore already. The Village Belle and the Green Mountain Boy are also well-developed mines. In the Hartville district, or, more properly, the Platte Cañon mining district, where the mines mentioned are situated, are a great many prospects and partly developed mines, showing a wide area over which copper deposits are distributed in the vicinity.

*Other districts.*—Prospecting for copper has been going on in many parts of the Territory, with varying success, but no ore has been shipped, except as above mentioned. In one district near Rawlins are to be found native copper and carbonates. Copper has also been found at the head of Grand Encampment Creek; at a point southwest of the base of Laramie Peak; in the Laramie Peak district, on the north and east sides of the range; near Inya Kara, Crook County; at several points on the southeast slope of the Wind River Mountains; in a newly discovered district in Uintah County, between the Oregon Short-Line and the Union Pacific Railroad; at Bagg's Hole, south of Rawlins, near

38

the Colorado line; and, associated with lead and silver, in the Clarke's Fork region.

OIL.—The following data have been kindly furnished by Prof. S. Aughey, Ph. D., LL. D.:

According to the census reports there were produced in the United States—

<table><tr><td>Crude kerosene, barrels</td><td>24,235,081</td></tr><tr><td>Total value of raw material used in the production of kerosene, such as barrels, storage tanks, &c.</td><td>$34,999,101</td></tr><tr><td>Total value of manufactured products, such as illuminating oil, lubricants, residual products, &c.</td><td>43,705,218</td></tr><tr><td>Amount of capital invested in refining, &c.</td><td>27,325,746</td></tr></table>

According to the report of the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, the whole amount of productive oil territory in that State is only 39 square miles. Large areas have been prospected, and much land is held for its supposed wealth in oil, but the really productive acres are very limited in the greatest of all the oil-producing States.

What the oil area in Wyoming really amounts to has not yet been determined, either by prospecting or by geological investigation. One company, however, has already located 16 square miles of oil territory. Other companies and individuals have also located considerable quantities of oil lands. Geologists who have most carefully examined the Wyoming oil territory are of the opinion that it covers a much larger area than that of Pennsylvania.

It is well known that the illuminating oils are the least valuable and important. The great body of the oils of Pennsylvania are of this class. These, in the crude state, sell at $1 per barrel, and often for much less, ranging from 2 to 3 cents a gallon. The lubricating oils, which have greater body and much higher specific gravity, sell for from 14 to 20 cents per gallon at the wells, surpassing the former in value from seven to ten times.

The Wyoming oils have been pronounced by the best practical chemists in England the best lubricants yet discovered on the globe, being the first mineral oils that surpass sperm-oil for such purposes. These oils are nearly related to some of the best Russian and Rangoon oils. The oils there have been producing for 2,000 years and give no evidence yet of exhaustion. Like the Rangoon oils, the Wyoming oils appear near the surface, and while districts of the Territory will no doubt contain oil at considerable depths, the greater part of the area thus far located shows these carburetted hydrogens in springs, from which they escape at or near the top of the ground. As these oil lands are, in physical characteristics, so closely related, not to the Pennsylvania, but to the inexhaustible Rangoon oil fields, they must, as soon as development begins, be the foundation of immense wealth to this Territory.

In a report made last year to the officers of the Rocky Mountain Oil, Mining, and Transportation Company, which has made extensive oil locations in Wyoming, with the purpose of their development, Professor Aughey fully described the oil fields of the Territory. From it the following facts are derived:

The Shoshone oil basin occupies section 13, township 32 north, of range 92 west, of the sixth principal meridian. It is 78 miles from the Union Pacific Railroad, immediately north of Point of Rocks station. The extent of the basin from which oil spontaneously escapes is over 60 acres. Over this area there is, in many places, a large amount of hardened oil. At the place where the wells and reservoirs are located at least from three to four acres are continuously underlaid by it. On

39

the top of this hardened crust of oil there is alluvium 5 feet in thickness. The oil crust is from 18 inches to 3 feet thick. Wherever it is destroyed from any cause, so that an opening can be forced through it, oil begins to rise directly from below. The oil is intensely black; the coloring matter is inseparable by any process yet tried, except in the results attained by distillation. The oil has had many and exhaustive trials as a lubricant, among them being on the Pullman cars of the Union Pacific Railroad. Professor Aughey calculates that there are millions of barrels of oil in the Shoshone basin.

The Beaver oil basin is situated 35 miles directly east of the Shoshone. In many respects this basin differs from the Shoshone. This is true in regard to the oil, the physical appearance of the region, the character of the springs, and the geological age of the rocks from which the oil emerges. At one point the ground is covered with oil crust over an area of several acres. In a well, sunk near the center of the basin, 6 feet square and 12 feet deep, which was full of water with oil floating on top, there was such an emission of gas as put the whole well in computation. It was boiling, as if placed over a gigantic furnace. An in calculable amount of gas was escaping. Jets appeared on almost every square inch of surface. Wherever water was standing, gas in greater or less quantity was constantly escaping. A lighted newspaper put to a jet of escaping gas produced a brilliant illumination. At several other points oil crust, in one case 10 to 20 inches thick, was upon the ground. Mr. H. K. Taylor, of Cleveland, a chemist for the Standard Oil Company, has stated that, with the Seminoe oil, the Beaver oil will make a splendid axle oil. It was also the best natural oil for cylinder stock he ever saw. The basin is very much larger than that at Shoshone.

The Rattlesnake oil basin is 35 miles directly east of the Beaver. The basins different from either already described. Long lines of "hog back" hills characterize the region. Four creeks have cut canons through the hog backs, and where they pass through a certain geological group the oil springs and other oil phenomena occur. It is evident that the oil that comes out along this line of nearly four miles must be connected in some subterranean basin. As it comes out along all these creeks and hog backs, it is of the same gravity, consistency, color, and odor. The only explanation is a common source, and if so nothing could afford it but a vast underground reservoir, approximating four miles in length and at least from three to four hundred feet in width. It is believed that the oil of this basin could be made to play a most important part in giving body to lighter oils, when they are manipulated for lubricating purposes.

The Seminoe oil basin lies between 25 and 30 miles east of the Rattlesnake basin. Although the surface indications do not extend hereover so wide an area as in the basins already described, there are some facts which still indicate a very large storehouse of oil in this basin. It was observed that, in sinking a well, the amount of oil increased with every foot of descent. A few hundred feet of boring would certainly result in a very large yield. Of all the Wyoming wells, the Seminoe produces the most kerosene, though it is also remarkably well adapted for making lubricating oils, by mixture with high gravity Rattlesnake oils.

From these descriptions, it is evident that all the kinds of oils and their products, in common use, can be obtained from these Wyoming basins.

The oil fields have been visited during the past two years by a number of capitalists, representatives of companies formed to develop them,

40

and scientific gentlemen. The building of a railroad in the region would be followed by their rapid development.

In addition to the fields above described, there are others which, although less well known, are worthy of attention. Beginning on the eastern side of the Territory, there is an oil district in the vicinity of Jenny's stockade. One or more wells were sunk several years ago, and, though not worked efficiently, have produced ever since then. It is not known how extensive the field is, but oil appears in it at several points some distance apart. As there is an extensive deposit of salt in the same locality, and coal in large quantity a short distance to the north, it is inferred that this is a large petroleum district.

Passing westward, quite important oil springs are found at the head of Powder River, on the border between Johnson and Carbon Counties. They have been located by an organized company of the Territory, and are expected to have an early development.

Passing over the districts described by Professor Aughey, the next area of oil appears in Uintah County, a number of springs occurring near Aspen and Hilliard. Two wells were bored in the district some years ago, but one failed to yield in any large quantity and the other was abandoned, after $3,000 worth of oil from it had been sold, on account of the insufficient supply of oil it was yielding and the cost of oil transportation. It is believed by competent experts that the wells were injudiciously located and that the district may yet prove to be an important oil center. Steps have recently been taken which promise an early development.

**Soda.**—The famous soda lakes of Wyoming will soon supply the source of a profitable export trade from the Territory, the owners of the deposits both in Albany County and in Carbon County being now engaged in preparations for making their soda available for the markets of the United States.

The sulphate of soda deposits, lying 12 miles southwest of Laramie City, are the property of the Union Pacific Railway Company. There are several lakes within a short distance of one another, one of the largest having an area of 56 acres. The depth of the soda crust varies, reaching in some places 10 to 15 feet. The entire body of these deposits is estimated to contain about 50,000,000 cubic feet of chemically pure crystallized sulphate of soda. The railroad company is now erecting furnaces at the lakes, by which the soda will be prepared for use.

The lakes of bicarbonate of soda lie at two points on the banks of the Sweetwater, in the middle of Carbon County. The four Du Pont lakes are close to Independence Rock, and are 440 acres in extent. The Wallace and Morgan lake occupies an area of 220 acres, at a point 20 miles west of Independence Rock. It is in one solid body. Two years ago the owners of this deposit sent about half a ton of the soda to a glass manufacturer in Pittsburgh to be used experimentally in a factory. The conclusion was arrived at by those performing the experiments that glass could be made with the soda in its crude state.

The soda lakes of Wyoming have been well described as "bodies of solid soda several feet in thickness, the product of an endless series of evaporation of water bringing to their basins soda salts in solution."

Some years ago, Col. S. W. Downey, of Laramie City, wrote of the Wyoming deposits of soda:

> The soda consumption of the United States amounts to some 250,000,000 pounds a year, all of which is imported at an outlay of about $47 in gold per ton, at seaboard, besides the duty, which is, I believe, about 20 per cent. ad valorem, making $56.40

41

per ton. Here is a staple article which is imported at an outlay of $7,000,000 annually, whereas we have within our borders the material for its production in greater purity and abundance than it exists elsewhere, and there is no reason why we should not supply the domestic demand and also foreign markets.

It is expected that before the close of another year the soda in the Sweetwater Valley will be finding its way to eastern consumers, the manufacture of caustic soda, soda ash, and articles of commerce the chief ingredient of which is soda, coming within the scope of the work planned by the railway company noticed elsewhere in these pages as building a road from the Union Pacific to the Yellowstone Park.

**Mica.**—Mica occurs at the southern end of Laramie Plains, near Diamond Park, and in the Wind River country, but it has not been worked sufficiently to determine its character. It is found at many points along the mountain ranges in Laramie County, but these prospects, also, have generally not been developed sufficiently to indicate their value. At some points, however, a considerable amount of mica of excellent quality has been found, which is free from iron and other impurities. A party of Brooklyn and New York capitalists recently purchased a deposit in Whalen Cañon, 20 miles north of Fort Laramie, and are shipping plates to the eastern market. The property promises to yield large quantities of mica, equal to that found in the Eastern States.

**Building materials.**—A great variety of granites, including nearly all shades and varieties, are found in the various mountain ranges. The Oakes Ames monument, at Sherman, and its medallions, show the quality of the material at that point. Samples of granite from many parts of the Territory have been sent to experts in the East, and their testimony is uniform as to its quality, beauty, and durability.

The sandstones and flagging found at Fort Collins, Colo., are already well known to the people in communities to the eastward. The same varieties are found in Wyoming on the extension of the same slope. Sandstone, capable of a fine polish, and varying from a white to a rich brown, is common in every county. Limestone is equally abundant. At places, such as the Centennial mining district, there are excellent qualities of durable marble. There is one ledge of marble on the Laramie Plains, near Cooper Lake Station, which is 100 feet in thickness, and may be traced for miles.

**Gypsum**—Is quite commonly distributed throughout the Territory. It occurs in abundance on the Laramie Plains, along the entire north flank of the Laramie range, in many places in the Sweetwater Valley, on the eastern slopes of the Big Horn range, in the central and northwestern parts of Crook County, and in many localities in the southern part of Sweetwater and Uinta Counties. It is almost uniformly pure, and occurs in the massive and crystalline forms.

**Fire-clay**, of excellent quality, is found in connection with the coal series throughout the Territory.

**Coal.**—To name the localities in which coal is found in Wyoming would be almost to set down a list of its geographical nomenclature. It is believed that a fifth of the entire Territory is underlaid with more or less continuous beds of it. Mines have been worked for years along the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, at Carbon, Rock Springs, and Almy, the production being several hundred thousand tons annually. It is used by the railroad company and by the towns along the line of the road. Within a few years, fine bodies of coal have been opened at the roadville, on the Oregon Short Line, the quality being superior to that of the mines at Almy. Large bodies of coal lie in the Sweetwater Valley, extending from that region along the Platte, outcropping at Old

42

Fort Casper, Fort Fetterman, and showing at Shawnee Creek as an eastern boundary. Considerable coal lands have been located on the Shawnee Creek, pending the building of the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad, it being the first coal found on the line of the road west of the Missouri River. From this line north, throughout Johnson and Crook Counties, a large number of beds have been opened. They are capable of supplying any future demand as these counties develop. No analysis of these beds in the north of Wyoming has been obtained, but the quality of the coal in Southern Wyoming may be judged of by the following analyses:

COAL FROM THE DEPOSIT AT CARBON.

<table><tr><td>Carbon</td><td>Professor BAILEY.</td></tr><tr><td>Volatile</td><td>49.72</td></tr><tr><td>Ash</td><td>35.48</td></tr><tr><td>Water</td><td>6.00</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>6.80</td></tr></table>

SEVEN MILES EAST OF COOPER STATION.

<table><tr><td>Water</td><td>Dr. F. A. GENTH, of Philadelphia.</td></tr><tr><td>Volatile</td><td>9.28</td></tr><tr><td>Carbon</td><td>39.12</td></tr><tr><td>Ash</td><td>47.04</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>4.56</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>100.00</td></tr></table>

POINT OF ROCKS,

<table><tr><td>Water</td><td>Dr. GENTH.</td></tr><tr><td>Volatile</td><td>8.54</td></tr><tr><td>Carbon</td><td>30.60</td></tr><tr><td>Ash, white</td><td>52.34</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>8.52</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>100.00</td></tr></table>

ROCK SPRINGS,

<table><tr><td>Volatile</td><td>Dr. GENTH.</td></tr><tr><td>Coke</td><td>42.62</td></tr><tr><td>Ash</td><td>54.88</td></tr><tr><td>Sulphur</td><td>11.00</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>00.50</td></tr></table>

COOPER CREEK.

<table><tr><td>Moisture</td><td>Dr. GENTH.</td></tr><tr><td>Volatile</td><td>9.28</td></tr><tr><td>Carbon</td><td>39.12</td></tr><tr><td>Ash, yellow, brown</td><td>47.04</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>4.56</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Sulphur</td><td>100.00</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>1.38</td></tr></table>

SEPARATION,

<table><tr><td>Volatile</td><td>W. ASHBURN.</td></tr><tr><td>Carbon</td><td>48.00</td></tr><tr><td>Ash</td><td>50.57</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>1.43</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Water</td><td>EVANSTON.</td></tr><tr><td>Volatile</td><td>7.00</td></tr><tr><td>Carbon</td><td>5.83</td></tr><tr><td>Ash, reddish</td><td>42.00</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>45.00</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>6.00</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>7.46</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>100.00</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>100.00</td></tr></table>

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ROCK CREEK.

<table><tr><td>Carbon</td><td>61.34</td></tr><tr><td>Sulphur</td><td>2.00</td></tr><tr><td>Volatile</td><td>35.16</td></tr><tr><td>Ash</td><td>1.50</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>100.00</td></tr></table>

Iron.—The largest deposit of iron as yet discovered in Wyoming is the Iron Mountain, situated just north of Chugwater Creek, about 13 miles above the point where the stream leaves the hills. The mountain rises about 600 feet above the stream bed, is irregular in form, but has a somewhat oval-shaped outline. It occurs intercalated in the granite, standing nearly vertical, with the walls in places sharply defined; this is the case in the cañon, where the dark iron body resembles a broad dike, which rises to the top of the cañon wall. Frequently large masses of granite are nearly incased in the iron, and again the iron body juts out into the surrounding granite. The main deposit of iron is nearly a quarter of a mile in length, with a strike a little to the west of north and east of south. To the north the main deposit terminates somewhat abruptly, but southward it crosses the cañon, and may be traced cropping out through the granitoid rocks with the same general strike for nearly 2 miles. Still farther to the south considerable deposits again make their appearance, but much smaller than the Iron Mountain, and, like the latter, have been held for valuable mineral bodies. Professor Richards, of the Institute of Technology in Boston, gave the following results:

<table><tr><td>Ferrous oxide</td><td>24.55</td></tr><tr><td>Ferric oxide</td><td>48.97</td></tr><tr><td>Titanic acid</td><td>23.18</td></tr><tr><td>Sulphur</td><td>0.03</td></tr><tr><td>Residue insoluble in acid</td><td>2.15</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Metallic iron</td><td>53.33</td></tr></table>

The high percentage of titanic acid has as yet stood in the way of attempts to smelt the ore in these deposits. The beds could be easily mined, and are well located in reference to a market. Means may yet be found for their profitable reduction.

Iron occurs elsewhere in many localities, in what quantities has not yet been developed. An important deposit lies near Rawlins. It is a red oxide, and is used as a paint, the scene of operations where it is taken out being popularly known as "the paint mine." The deposit has passed into the hands of the Union Pacific Railway Company, and will, it is to be presumed, be worked to the capacity of its market. The company has used the ore as a paint on its cars, and its officers have given their testimony to its preservative properties.

There are other iron deposits in Wyoming worthy of mention. At a number of points there are valuable beds of red hematite, some of which lie near the line of projected railroad lines. These deposits are sure to come into use as soon as economical means are found of reducing the ore, and there is sufficient Rocky Mountain demand for the product.

WYOMING'S EXHIBIT AT THE DENVER EXPOSITION.—At the Mining and Industrial Exposition held at Denver in the summer of 1882, and again in the summer of 1883, the exhibit of Wyoming was one of the centers of attraction. It occupied a space on the main avenue of the grand building, the area being 24 by 37 feet. It was enclosed with

44

cases containing specimens of minerals and pyramids of coal, soda &c., walks of course being left between them. Inside of the rectangle was a column of coal 20 feet in height, surmounted by a golden eagle, from whose feet spread streamers of bunting connecting with the show cases and pyramid corners. The pyramid at one corner was of gold and silver ore, at another was one of fine hematite iron, at another one of wood, and at the fourth one of sulphate of soda. Around the central monument of coal were smaller pyramids of copper ore and bullion, sheep pelts, building stones (including granites, marbles, syenites), and the skins of mountain lions, buffaloes, bears, coyotes, wolves, &c. The rest of the space was occupied by tables loaded with glassware filled with graphite, asbestos, mica, kaolin, mineral paint, petroleum, bicarbonate of soda, glass sand, magnesia, gypsum, sulphur, cement, fire clay, and salt. Connecting the tops of the cases were arches bearing various statistics and legends, such as, "Eight million acres of land easy of irrigation"; "Finest stock region in America—the most nutritious grasses, abundance of water, superior climate; some $30,000,000 already invested"; "700,000 head of cattle"; "450,000 head of sheep"; "5,000,000 acres of forest"; "Vast resources"; and "Liberal laws." On the top of the cases and arches was a fine collection of the game birds and animals of the Territory.

The effect of this fine exhibit was to attract general attention and admiration on the part of visitors to the exposition. More than that, it brought to Wyoming last summer a number of prominent mining engineers and capitalists, who came for the purpose of examining mining regions of the Territory. The commissioners, Ex-Governor Hoyt and Territorial Geologist G. E. Bailey, were frequently called upon to grant interviews to men of means and experience who contemplated investing in Wyoming mines. To the gentlemen named, and to Mrs. Bailey, who had charge of the exhibit in the past summer, the Territory owes its thanks for their intelligent labors.

## RAILROADS.

### THE RAILROADS OF WYOMING AND THOSE IN PROSPECT.

**RAILROADS.**—Wyoming has to-day the Union Pacific Railroad running through its extreme southern part, and parts of its branches, the Oregon Short Line and the Denver Pacific. The other routes herewith mentioned are of proposed lines.

**The Union Pacific.**—When this road was built, sixteen to eighteen years ago, the object of its promoters was to complete at the earliest date possible a transcontinental line in conjunction with the Central Pacific Company. It was run in as direct a line as easy grades and low passes would permit from Omaha to Ogden. The probability of opening up a country which, by means of local traffic and travel, would increase its profits was a minor consideration. The result is that to-day the road carries little from Wyoming save cattle, wool, and coal. That part of the Territory lying in the middle and northern thirds, as contrasted with the southern third, is known to contain, by a very large percentage, the greater quantity of the resources whose development will have a tendency to attract population and enrich the Territory.

The Union Pacific Company some years ago surveyed a road from Cheyenne to Fort Laramie, a distance of about 100 miles, the county of Laramie providing for the payment to the company of $300,000 in case the road was completed before January 1, 1884. None of the road

has been built, but during the present autumn a surveying party is at work locating a line from Fort Laramie to Fort Fetterman along the south side of the North Platte River. A road from Cheyenne to the middle of Wyoming by these routes would be of much benefit to the Territory.

**A railroad from the Union Pacific to the Yellowstone Park.**—Col. D. H. Wallace, of Pennsylvania, John R. Bothwell, of New York, and A. J. Bothwell, of California, representing a syndicate of capitalists, have spent several weeks of September and October of the present year in the region between the Sweetwater River and the Yellowstone Park, examining the country with the view of building a railroad through it. A corps of thirteen engineers is now engaged in making a preliminary survey for the road. As now planned, the line will run from a point on the Union Pacific road between Rawlins and Medicine Bow north to Seminole; thence along Sand Creek to the Sweetwater River, near Independence Rock; thence to the Du Pont soda lakes; thence along the Sweetwater, passing by Devil's Gate, to Wallace and Morgan's soda lake; thence, still following the Sweetwater, to a point near the Government bridge; thence north, crossing the Beaver Bluffs, near the line of the present stage road; thence down the Beaver to Wind River below Fort Washakie; thence into the park by a route not yet settled upon. The engineers have begun work at the north and are working southward. The company is working with ample capital. It is the first to begin work in a part of Wyoming most promising of rapid development, touching with its line, as it will, gold, copper, and iron districts, perhap the most extensive oil and coal fields in America, vast areas of grazing country, valuable soda lakes, and large bodies of timber. The road is expected to carry to the Yellowstone Park a large proportion of its summer visitors. This, however, is but a small share of the business resources of Western and Northwestern Wyoming, looks forward to the expected from the enterprise. The company, organized to develop the Wyoming, and heads toward the farm lands and timber belts of Oregon and Washington Territory. It is completed for a distance of nearly 400 miles, nearly 100 miles being in Wyoming.

**The Oregon Short Line.**—The construction of the Oregon Short Line is the most important undertaking of the Union Pacific Railroad Company since the completion of the main line. The road begins at Granger, on the line dividing Sweetwater from Uinta County, 876 miles west of Omaha. It crosses in a northwesterly direction the southwest part of Wyoming, and heads toward the farm lands and timber belts of Oregon and Washington Territory. It is completed for a distance of nearly 400 miles, nearly 100 miles being in Wyoming.

**The Central Pacific.**—The Central Pacific Railroad of Wyoming has filed its articles of incorporation within the last two years with the secretary of Wyoming Territory. Parties of surveyors have been at work in Uinta and Sweetwater Counties, on a line with the Sweetwater River, giving rise to a general belief in Wyoming that the Sioux City and Pacific road, building from the east westward, will form a junction with the Central Pacific building westward, thus completing a transcontinental

45

["46", "REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF WYOMING.", "nental line equaling any other in directness of route, and running a\nroad through the middle of Wyoming which will assist materially in\nopening up a good farming and mining country.", "*The Wyoming and Montana.*—A map was received at the land office last summer, showing the surveyed line of the Wyoming and Montana Railroad. The line begins at Fort Steele, Union Pacific road, and runs parallel with the Platte River to the Seminoe oil springs. Work has not yet been begun upon it.", "*The Sioux City and Pacific.*—The terminus of this line at Valentine, Nebr., is more than 150 miles east of the Wyoming boundary line, but the surveys of the company have been carried more than 150 miles into Wyoming. The general manager and the chief engineer of the road visited Wyoming last summer, and passed over the proposed route of the road. They decided that there would be no difficulty in building as far as the mouth of the Sweetwater, 100 miles west of Fort Fetterman. The quantities of copper, oil, coal, timber, and soda promise a rich return for the money invested in a road to be built in this region.", "*The Milwaukee and Saint Paul.*—This road, now extending a branch toward the Black Hills, will, it is thought, eventually run through Northern Wyoming.", "*The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy.*—From Cheyenne to the nearest point on this road is but 65 miles. It is believed that as soon as a northern outlet, independent of the Union Pacific, is provided at Cheyenne, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy road will connect with it.", "AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES.", "THE FARMING SETTLEMENTS OF WYOMING—THE AMOUNT OF CULTIVABLE LAND—\nIRRIGATION COMPANIES.", "AGRICULTURE.—The stage at which farming as an industry has arrived in Wyoming may be best understood by the statement that the Territory exports no farm products whatever. Yet it may be safely said that this condition is the result of accident and circumstance rather than that this condition is the result of accident and

48

*Irrigation companies.*—Within the past two years the following named companies have filed articles of incorporation with the secretary of the Territory all having for their object the reclamation of desert land. The operations of one of these companies will extend over about 50,000 acres. The smallest will probably extend over 2,500 acres. If the average amount of land irrigated by these companies is 10,000 acres, their incorporation indicates nearly 200,000 acres of farming land in process of reclamation by companies in Wyoming.

January 25, 1882: The Hurlbut Creek Ditch Company.

January 25, 1882: The Upper Goose Creek Ditch and Irrigation Company.

March 8: The White and Jackson Creek Ditch Company.

April 3: The Big Piney and Prairie Dog Ditch and Tunnel Company.

April 14: The Trabing Ditch Company.

August 21: The North Piney and Prairie Dog Irrigation Canal and Tunnel Company.

August 23: The Wyoming Five-mile Ditch Company.

November 13: The Upper East Side Goose Creek Ditch and Irrigation Company.

December 24: The Wyoming Improvement Company.

December 9: The Chugwater Ditch and Irrigation Company.

December 11: The East Side Ditch and Irrigation Company.

June 18, 1883: The Hellman Ditch and Irrigation Company.

August 10: The Wyoming Development Company.

August 21: The Rutledge and Hellman Ditch Company.

September 22: The North Platte Irrigation and Ditch Company.

October 3: The Goshen Hole Ditch Company.

October 5: The McKuen Ditch and Reservoir Company.

The tracts of land which these companies intend watering, or are already watering in some cases, lie mostly in Laramie and Johnson Counties. The streams from which they take their water are Horse Creek, Chugwater Creek, Laramie River, and Platte River, Laramie County, and Goose Creek, Prairie Dog Creek, Clear Creek, and other smaller creeks, Johnson County.

QUESTIONS OF PUBLIC POLICY.

THE PUBLIC LANDS—INDIANS—THE YELLOWSTONE PARK—SALARIES OF TERRITORIAL OFFICERS—ARTESIAN WELLS—THE UNITED STATES MAIL SERVICE.

THE PUBLIC LANDS IN WYOMING.—The several acts under which citizens of the United States may acquire agricultural land of the public domain contemplate it as unoccupied and open to the settler. The number of acres which can be legally taken up and occupied by a single citizen in Wyoming is 1,120. This amount comprises an exercise of rights, crops cannot be raised without irrigation to be taken up by the citizen upon his reclaiming the land from the desert and cultivating it. A wife may also, under the same act, get possession of 640 acres, thus enabling a married couple to control 1,760 acres.

The grazing of cattle on the range, as it is conducted on the plains of Wyoming, requires a much larger area of land for each herd-owner than laws. Much of the grazing land he utilizes is not worth to him a title of the minimum price fixed by the Government for its public land. The

49

provisions of the land laws with respect to the number of acres which one citizen may gain possession of, and the periods of residence and the proportions of the entries to be cultivated necessary to a proving up, are such that a conveyance of title in his range to him from the United States is an impossibility.

In some parts of Wyoming stockmen have erected fences upon the public lands, with no desire, it is generally declared by them, to prevent intending settlers from occupying the land and farming it, but from the requirements of their business.

Within the limits of the land grants made by the United States to the Union Pacific Railroad Company, many stockmen have leased from the company a number of sections of land, each a mile square, for grazing purposes. The alternate sections, still a part of the public domain, are in general of the same character as the railroad land, namely, uplands without water. From the point of entrance of the Union Pacific road into Wyoming, at the Nebraska boundary line, to the point where the road leaves Wyoming and enters Utah, a distance as the road runs of at least 450 miles, the amount of land within the railroad company's 20-mile limits now farmed does not bear the proportion of one one-hundredth to the land within the same limits used by cattle or sheep owners for grazing purposes. The stockman that is desirous of utilizing the sections of land which he leases from the railroad company cannot run a fence around them without including the alternate Government sections. In doing so, he very rarely interferes with the land claims of any other citizen.

Another example of the manner in which public land in Wyoming came to be inclosed may be found in the case of settlers who took up land along a stream of water. The filings earliest entered at the land offices of the Territory were almost uniformly for lands situated in Southern Wyoming. These lands lay at a great altitude, but were not far from the only railroad in the Territory, and the settlers on them were secure from the incursions of hostile Indians. In this region of late springs and early frosts, the land served excellently for the raising of grass, while the experiment of raising grain crops was believed to be extremely hazardous. In building a fence to inclose his tract, the settler was induced to run it out upon the plains as far as the middle of the uplands dividing the stream upon which he had settled from the one running next to it—in some places a distance of miles. He reasoned that no other settler could wish to take up the waterless high lands he thereby inclosed as a range for his stock, and that in time the Government might afford him some lawful means of gaining possession of it. If he did not use it, it would remain for years unoccupied.

The practice of fencing having been begun, it spread rapidly, especially in districts occupied by small herds. Many stockmen, however, erected fences, whose interests had prompted them to hope for an open range; but they argued, if they did not inclose a tract large enough for their use, their neighbors would inclose the land on which their herds ranged and cause them to reduce the number of cattle in their possession to the proportion of the land they owned.

Thus, in defense of fencing in public lands, men have urged that in doing it they were driven to it by a necessity of their business, or were obliged to do it in self-protection. In one case it was done because of the impossibility of inclosing railroad lands for grazing purposes without inclosing with the same fence the alternate Government sections lying within the tract surrounded by the fence. In another case it was done because the land fenced could be used for no purpose whatever

7068 WYO—4

["50", "REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF WYOMING.", "except grazing, and because it was hoped the Government would finally\nlease or sell such land to the men owning the tracts lying contiguous\nto the nearest streams. In another, it was done because, fencing hav-\ning become general in one locality, each grazier must fence in enough\nland for his herd or be driven out of the neighborhood.", "The Government has, during the past year, been interposing its au-\nthority for the prevention of the unlawful erection of fences upon the\npublic lands in Wyoming. Last January, Hon. M. C. Brown, United\nStates attorney for Wyoming, received instructions directing him to\nproceed at once against ranchmen who had fenced in and were unlaw-\nfully occupying Government lands, and had cut hay therefrom. Mr.\nBrown was directed to notify them that the fences must be removed.\nHe was also directed to institute suit for the value of the hay. Mr.\nBrown thereupon began the work of notifying the various persons who\nwere affected by the order, requesting them to remove their fences at\nonce.", "That part of the instructions relating to prosecuting stockmen for\ncutting hay on the public lands was afterward rescinded.", "In accordance with his instructions, Mr. Brown brought a suit in\nequity, in the first judicial district court of Wyoming, Judge J. B. Sener\npresiding, against certain stockmen for erecting and maintaining a fence\nupon Government land. It was the first case of the kind ever brought\nup in the courts of the country. In August Judge Sener issued a de-\nree that the defendants \"discontinue the use of the lands so unlaw-\nfully intruded and encroached upon, and restore them to their former\nand usual condition.\" In rendering his decision in this case on the fence\nquestion, Judge Sener said:", "> The unlawful fencing of large tracts of the public lands constitutes, first, a great public wrong; and secondly, a public nuisance; and thirdly, it is in the nature of a purpresture at common law, and so is remediable and relievable by the all-power- with right, equity, and justice than any mere remedy at law or a resort to the physical force of the War Department.", "To assist to a clear understanding of the situation in Wyoming with\nrespect to unlawful occupancy of the public lands therein, it should be\nstated that the proportion of Government land fenced in to the entire\narea of the Territory is very small. When, however, the land lying\nalong a stream of water—that which is taken possession of by settlers\nunder the land laws—is fenced in, the adjacent uplands, amounting\neverywhere to ten or twenty times the area inclosed, is rendered use-\nless for all purposes. No man will take up land in Wyoming unless it\nis watered.", "It must be said, with emphasis, that, with the exception of a few law-\nsuits, no collisions of any kind have been provoked in the Territory\nbetween its citizens as a result of a difference of interests as regards\none of respect for law. The hope is often expressed that Congress, in\nits wisdom, may provide measures by which grazing lands may be law-\non the part of the men who have fenced in tracts of Government land.\nhave made upon it. Publicity is frequently given to the statement that\nfarming purposes, and proceed to take it up under the laws, it can be\nno occupied.", "Since the practice of fencing in Government land began in Wyoming,", "REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF WYOMING.", "51", "and especially during the pendency in the courts of the case referred\nto, the citizens of Wyoming of all classes have been engaged in dis-\ncussing the public land problem with an activity prompted in part\nby direct self-interest and in part by interest in the future of the Ter-\nritory. At present the question affects most closely the stockmen. The\nfarming class is as yet small, the northern part of Wyoming, the last\nsection settled, containing more agricultural land than the rest of the\nTerritory. The land laws in existence fulfill the purposes for which they\nwere framed wherever there is an area of agricultural land large enough\nto support a settlement of farmers. There are large tracts in Wyoming,\nhowever, which admit of grazing only, and a permanent and lawful\noccupancy of them must be brought about by other methods.", "The following paragraphs are extracts from the report of the surveyor-\ngeneral of Wyoming for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1883:", "Standard parallels have been extended (in Wyoming) for a total distance of 1,238 miles. The exterior boundaries of 628 townships have been surveyed and established, the total length of which is 5,828 miles. The section or legal subdivision lines of 662 townships, embracing an area of 14,853,452 acres, of which 1,263 acres are mineral lands, have been surveyed, amounting to 38,693 miles.", "The eastern portion of the lands subdivided consists chiefly of grazing lands on the North Platte and Cheyenne Rivers and their confluents. The northern surveys embrace valuable agricultural and grass lands in the valleys of Powder River and its tributaries, branches; the middle portions in the valleys of the Sweetwater and its trib

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with September 30 in each year, excepting 1883, the time in that year reaching September 15.

INDIANS.—Although there have been no hostilities with Indians for several years in Wyoming, the settlers, especially stockmen, in the northern part of the Territory have been annoyed by bands of reservation Indians roaming at large over the public lands, professedly on hunting expeditions.

The stockmen of Northern and Northeastern Wyoming have Indian reservations on three sides of their grazing country. On the west is the only reservation inside the Territorial boundary lines, that of the Shoshones and Arapahoes, where there are about 2,000 Indians. Just across the Montana line are several thousand Crows, having an immense country of their own. East of them live 610 Cheyennes. In Dakota, 40 miles from the Wyoming line, begins the Sioux Reservation, with its 25,000 Indians.

It is the custom of the Indian agents to give to parties of Indians permits to leave their reservations and hunt on the public domain. The stockmen of Northern Wyoming have frequently during the past two years sent information to the officers of the Wyoming Stock Association of depredations committed by such Indians on the range. During the past twelve months they have complained that the annoyances were becoming worse, and that hundreds of Shoshones, Arapahoes, Crows, Cheyennes, Gros Ventres, Bannocks, and Sioux have been leading a gypsy life in the vicinity of their ranches. They assert that the Indians live for protracted seasons in localities where there is little or no killed by them for food, are increasing every year, and are now so great the evil if no action is taken with that end in view by the Indian Bureau.

The officers of the Wyoming Stockgrowers' Association have made the following statements: They have incontrovertible evidence that the ranchmen on the ranges of Powder River, the Belle Fourche, Dry Cheyennes, Big Horn, and Little Missouri are often visited by parties of Indians, who beg from them, and sometimes by parties who rob them. Last winter there were cases in which Indians, remaining in Wyoming until late in the season, were prevented for some time by heavy falls of snow from returning to their reservations. In the interim they lived upon cattle. There have also been frequently-recurring cases in which bands of Indians have visited ranches and forced the herders to deliver up all the provisions and ammunition on the premises. Again, Indians in a state of want, have visited ranches and offered to prostitute their women for food.

Another complaint made by settlers in Northern Wyoming is that bodies of Indians occasionally enter districts where game is still comparatively abundant, and slaughter elk and buffalo for their hides only. A law of Wyoming prohibits its citizens from killing game altogether during a part of the year, as well as from killing more than a food supply at any time. A game society, comprising leading men of the Territory, has been energetically carrying out the provisions of the law, the which Indians hunt in immunity from the law. Thus white settlers are obliged to respect the law and refrain from killing more than a few head of elk, or deer, or antelope, while Indians may travel a distance of hundreds of miles from other Territories and exterminate Wyoming herds

of game. This may not only be conceived as a remote possibility. The fact has been published more than once in the press of the Territory.

The officers of the Stock Association look upon the incursions of the Indians on their stock ranges much in the same light as would the Indians and their commissioned protectors regard raids of stockmen on reservations. There is this difference, however: The stockmen contribute very largely, through taxation, to the maintenance of the Territorial government, and are rendering the public lands useful to mankind by utilizing their pastoral advantages.

Correspondence has been carried on between the Wyoming Stockgrowers' Association and the Indian Bureau on the subject of stockmen's losses through Indian hunting parties, the result of which has been highly unsatisfactory to the interests of the people of the Territory. On the authority of the latter party, it is said that it is now the intention of those who are oftenest the subjects of the depredations referred to to arm their herdsmen and drive the Indians away from their ranges. The situation is therefore regarded with concern by the class involved, and calls for prompt action on the part of the Indian Bureau.

THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.—The government, management, and proposed extension of the Yellowstone Park have been so fully discussed throughout the country in the past two years that anything more than a representation of Wyoming's claims in the question is deemed unnecessary in this report. Features in the course of events which provoked the discussion referred to were: The assumption on the part of the neighboring Territory of Montana that life and property in the Park would be safer and game better protected if the Park were placed under the jurisdiction of a county of Montana; the lease of parts of the Park to a company of New York capitalists for hotel purposes; the introduction of a bill in Congress providing for an extension of the Park in Wyoming; and the subsequent placing of the entire question in the hands of a Congressional committee for investigation.

On the part of Wyoming, the following is submitted:

1. An area comprising nineteen-twentieths of the Park is in the Territory of Wyoming, subject to its laws. One-twentieth is in Montana and Idaho, subject to their laws. The act organizing Wyoming placed within it, as part of the Territory, the area which became nineteen-twentieths of the Park when it was organized, years after the formation of the Territory. The question arises whether the provisions of the act incorporating the Park gave to the latter an existence separate from the Territory of Wyoming, as was the case when the District of Columbia was taken from Maryland and Virginia, or simply withdrew the public lands comprising the Park from settlement, as is the case with Indian reservations. Civilians indicted for crimes committed on military or Indian reservations in Wyoming are tried in the civil courts of the districts in which the alleged crimes were committed. Had a citizen been arrested for crime committed in the National Park, he could, under a similar construction of the law, have been tried before the judge of the Wyoming district, of which the Park is a part.

2. The statement that the laws of any other Territory are better calculated for the preservation of the game in the Park is denied with one voice by the citizens of Wyoming. Hon. Harry Oelrichs, president of the Wyoming Game Association, lately pointed out that all the measures for the preservation of game which were last winter recommended by the governor of Montana for passage by the legislature of that Territory were already embodied in the laws of Wyoming. The governor suggested imprisonment instead of fine as punishment for violating the

53

54

game laws. Wyoming inflicts either or both for infringement of its laws. He urged that transportation companies be prohibited from carrying game unlawfully killed. Wyoming goes a step further and forbids individuals or corporations even to have in their possession game unlawfully killed, or any green or untanned hides of game animals. The people of Wyoming have organized and incorporated a game protective association, which has been working with private funds only, but which has been able to accomplish the following results: All common carriers have been forced to refuse contraband game or parts thereof, except in the extreme northern part of the Territory, where such game is transported into Montana, where traffic in it is apparently allowed.

3. The proposed extension of the Park in Wyoming will be an injury to citizens of the Territory. A gentleman who has lately traveled extensively in that region writes:

The character of Northwestern Wyoming marks it for industrial use and improvement up to the Government limits of the Park. With beautiful valleys, grass in spruce, deposits of coal, petroleum, asphalt, gypsum, fire clay, and mica, with good indications of lead, copper, gold, and silver, mines of which at one point are already unsurpassed on the American continent, one finds there all the requisites to a prosperous future. The day is not distant—it should be very near—when a railway will by easy grades up the beautiful valley of the Wind, and across the divide to the very heart of wonderland, and to a connection with the proposed branch of the North-ern Pacific. Then look for a rapid development of many industries and the grand the Park would be to take into the reservation—first, the headwaters of several ond, a number of mineral districts; and third, vast areas of timber as fine as any in the Rocky Mountains.

4. The laws of the Territory of Wyoming for the protection of life and property, as well as for the protection of game, are very thorough, certain, simple, and severe. The laws of Congress and of this Territory, to be sufficient to protect the Park from harm. The people of this Territory feel a deep and abiding interest in the National Park and its preservation, and they will in all proper ways aid the authorities in pre-this is true, they do not claim to own the Park. They recognize it as within their Territory's limits as fixed by the organic act, and hence they feel an especial pride and interest in its being preserved for all the purposes designed by the act of reservation.

5. While it is asserted on the part of those who are interested in lines of travel approaching the Park from the north, and by those who would have the Park seem to be a part of other Territories, that it is more easily approached from the north than from any other direction, the statement from the south, brings the visitor nearer the leading points of interest surveyed in Wyoming, which will run to the Park from a point on the Union Pacific road in a northwesterly direction. By it Wyoming officers will be extended to visitors going toward the Park by way of the Union Pacific road from every point in the country, east, west, and south.

55

### SALARIES OF TERRITORIAL OFFICERS APPOINTED BY THE UNITED STATES.—Section 1845, Revised Statutes of the United States, provides that certain specified sums of money shall be the salaries of governors and secretaries of Territories. Another section provides for the salaries of United States judges in Territories. Beginning with the year 1875, however, and continuing up to the last session, Congress appropriated for the salaries of governors and secretaries amounts considerably less than is fixed by the statutes. For several years also, during the same period, the amounts appropriated for judges' salaries were less than the sums fixed by statute. Neither law has ever been repealed. An chief justice of Wyoming instituted proceedings in the Court of Claims in 1880 for the aggregate amount that had been withheld from his salary during his term, and obtained judgment. The case was carried by counsel for the Government to the Supreme Court of the United States, and in the June term of the present year the judgment of the Court of Claims was affirmed. The opinion of the court was withdrawn for some purpose connected with the routine work of the court, and is expected to be finally delivered at the October term. The suit referred to was a test case, and will be followed by many others. The existence of a difference between the amount of a salary as fixed by law and the amount as appropriated is an anomaly deserving of being brought to the attention of Congress.

### THE UNITED STATES MAIL SERVICE.—The mail service of Wyoming has for years been inadequate, irregular, and lacking in an intelligently considered system.

A review of the manner in which the railway postal work was done in Wyoming had already been prepared for this report when a change in its management was made by the Post-Office Department. The new superintendent of railway service for the division which includes Wyoming has just visited the Territory and set a foot important changes in the methods of postal work. Pending a trial of his management, recommendations intended to be made are laid aside.

With regard to the service by routes other than railway, it is viewed as imperfect. Routes are still maintained between points which, though formerly important, have, with the movement of population, sunk into secondary importance, while, with the increase of population in other localities, necessary routes have not been established. Again, routes have been discontinued which should have been maintained. This is the case, for example, with the route from Hot Creek, Wyo., to Spearfish and Custer, Dak. Since its discontinuance, mail which would have been carried by it a distance of 100 to 150 miles is carried to Cheyenne, to Sidney, Nebr., and to points in Dakota, a distance of 500 miles, mainly by stage-coach.

Another drawback in the mail service in Wyoming is the system of "making up" mails at many offices for important points only. Mail thus made up is sent sometimes to the south when its destination is to the north of the sending office. When it reaches the end of the route at the south it is repacked and sent north past its original point of departure and on to its destination.

There are towns and business centers in Wyoming the business of which is seriously interfered with because of a lack of frequent arrivals and departures of mails.

The General Government, in its office of aiding the rapid settlement of its Territories, could well afford to appropriate more money for a better performance of the mail service in Wyoming. A superintendent of mail service for the Territory would, if conversant with his duties

56

and the Territory's needs, be of great assistance to the people and the Post-Office Department.

ARTESIAN WELLS.—The great success which has attended the sinking of artesian wells at Denver and a few points in Wyoming has led to the hope that artesian water may be found at many other points in the Rocky Mountain region. A well was sunk a few years ago at Fort D. A. Russell, 3 miles from Cheyenne, to a depth of several hundred feet, but no flow of water was secured. The Union Pacific Railroad Company sunk a well last year at Green River, but failed to strike a subterranean basin of water. But these failures have not had the effect of preventing other efforts with the same object in view. An artesian well is now being sunk at a ranch 9 miles from Cheyenne, the intention of the owners being to bore into the earth at least 500 feet in search of a flowing well. There is a flowing well at Rawlins, and at Laramie City there are two.

The unequal elevation of the various parks and plateaus of Wyoming gives rise to the belief that underground basins of water exist beneath those having an altitude less than others in the same region, and that wherever the basins find their origin there is exerted sufficient hydrostatic pressure to carry water above the surface of the lower planes.

Pure water brought to the earth's surface by artesian wells would be of great benefit in those districts of Wyoming where the surface water is impregnated with alkali and unfit for potable purposes. It would also render possible the raising of much additional live stock in locations where there is a scarcity of surface water. Experiments for the purpose of ascertaining where artesian water is obtainable in Wyoming would be work appropriate to the care of the General Government, with a view to improving the value of its public lands.

## MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.

POPULATION—PUBLIC SCHOOLS—TERRITORIAL AND COUNTY STATISTICS—LISTS OF TERRITORIAL AND COUNTY OFFICERS—FISH—GAME—TIMBER.

POPULATION.—In the following table, the first column of figures 1880. The second is the population of 1882, as estimated on a comparison of the vote cast at every election precinct in 1880 and 1882, same ratio of votes to population was cast in each year. The third column represents the estimates of well-informed men in each county, acquainted with the advances made in the more progressive districts:

<table><thead><tr><th>Counties.</th><th>1880.</th><th>1882.</th><th>1883.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>The Territory</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Albany County</td><td>20,788</td><td>27,200</td><td>6,000</td></tr><tr><td>Carbon County</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Crook County</td><td>4,625</td><td>6,200</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Laramie County</td><td>3,438</td><td>4,400</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Johnson County</td><td>239</td><td>300</td><td>3,000</td></tr><tr><td>Sweetwater County</td><td>6,400</td><td>8,200</td><td>1,400</td></tr><tr><td>Uintah County</td><td>637</td><td>3,300</td><td>4,000</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>2,561</td><td>3,400</td><td>4,000</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>2,870</td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF WYOMING. 57

(Official count of the elections for Delegate to Congress in Wyoming since the organization of the Territory.)

<table><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Counties.</th><th colspan="2">1869.</th><th colspan="2">1870.</th><th colspan="2">1872.</th><th colspan="2">1874.</th></tr><tr><th>Corlett, Republican.</th><th>Nuckolls, Democrat.</th><th>Jones, Republican.</th><th>Wanlers, Democrat.</th><th>Jones, Republican.</th><th>Steele, Democrat.</th><th>Carry, Republican.</th><th>Steele, Democrat.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Albany</td><td>320</td><td>515</td><td>428</td><td>369</td><td>359</td><td>563</td><td>555</td><td>699</td></tr><tr><td>Carbon</td><td>190</td><td>389</td><td>150</td><td>183</td><td>79</td><td>261</td><td>282</td><td>363</td></tr><tr><td>Laramie</td><td>722</td><td>886</td><td>398</td><td>380</td><td>518</td><td>572</td><td>677</td><td>881</td></tr><tr><td>Sweetwater</td><td>593</td><td>862</td><td>363</td><td>279</td><td>399</td><td>186</td><td>306</td><td>406</td></tr><tr><td>Utah</td><td>138</td><td>679</td><td>327</td><td>228</td><td>116</td><td>160</td><td>584</td><td>657</td></tr><tr><td>Johnson</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>1,963</td><td>3,331</td><td>1,666</td><td>1,439</td><td>1,471</td><td>1,742</td><td>2,404</td><td>3,006</td></tr><tr><td>Majority</td><td></td><td>1,368</td><td>227</td><td></td><td></td><td>271</td><td></td><td>606</td></tr><tr><td>Total vote*</td><td></td><td>5,266</td><td></td><td>3,262</td><td></td><td>3,213</td><td></td><td>5,404</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Counties.</th><th colspan="2">1876.</th><th colspan="2">1878.</th><th colspan="2">1880.</th><th colspan="2">1882.</th></tr><tr><th>Corlett, Republican.</th><th>Steele, Democrat.</th><th>Downey, Republican.</th><th>Pease, Democrat.</th><th>Swan, Republican.</th><th>Post, Democrat.</th><th>Melstrom, Republican.</th><th>Post, Democrat.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Albany</td><td>1,010</td><td>533</td><td>1,118</td><td>443</td><td>927</td><td>737</td><td>1,274</td><td>1,200</td></tr><tr><td>Carbon</td><td>529</td><td>407</td><td>651</td><td>313</td><td>643</td><td>717</td><td>811</td><td>805</td></tr><tr><td>Laramie</td><td>1,242</td><td>940</td><td>1,101</td><td>1,042</td><td>1,175</td><td>1,416</td><td>1,148</td><td>2,161</td></tr><tr><td>Sweetwater</td><td>496</td><td>423</td><td>518</td><td>524</td><td>553</td><td>494</td><td>658</td><td>605</td></tr><tr><td>Utah</td><td>587</td><td>457</td><td>474</td><td>497</td><td>482</td><td>543</td><td>595</td><td>707</td></tr><tr><td>Johnson</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>216</td><td>335</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>3,864</td><td>2,769</td><td>3,862</td><td>2,821</td><td>3,760</td><td>3,907</td><td>4,702</td><td>5,813</td></tr><tr><td>Majority</td><td></td><td>1,041</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>147</td><td></td><td>1,111</td></tr><tr><td>Total vote*</td><td></td><td>6,626</td><td></td><td>6,683</td><td></td><td>7,067</td><td></td><td>10,515</td></tr></tbody></table>

* The total up to 1876, inclusive, includes scattering.

Public-school statistics of Wyoming Territory, 1883.

<table><thead><tr><th>Items.</th><th>Laramie.</th><th>Albany.</th><th>Carbon.</th><th>Sweetwater.</th><th>Uintah.</th><th>Johnson.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Number of schools</td><td>25</td><td>*8</td><td></td><td></td><td>11</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Number of pupils in attendance:</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Males</td><td>424</td><td>349</td><td></td><td></td><td>362</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Females</td><td>445</td><td>321</td><td></td><td></td><td>385</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>869</td><td>670</td><td></td><td></td><td>747</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Valuation of school-houses</td><td>$44,559</td><td>$35,000</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>$4,000</td></tr><tr><td>Number of days school has been taught.</td><td></td><td>196</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Total number of days' attendance</td><td>69,834</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>$58,08</td></tr><tr><td>Average compensation of teachers, month</td><td>$53.54</td><td>$54</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Amount raised for erection of school houses</td><td>$2,133</td><td>$5,000</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>$5,145</td></tr><tr><td>Aggregate amount paid teachers for the year</td><td>$14,404</td><td>$7,000</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>$825</td></tr><tr><td>Aggregate amount paid for other purposes</td><td>$650</td><td>$4,000</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>$4,05</td></tr><tr><td>Average cost of tuition for each pupil, month</td><td>$4.54</td><td>$1.38</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>$1,600</td></tr><tr><td>Amount in school treasury</td><td>$3,526</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>1,200</td></tr><tr><td>Number of volumes in district libraries</td><td>890</td><td>75</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

* There are ten departments in the school of district No. 1, Albany County.

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In this report to the Hon. John Slaughter, superintendent of public instruction for Wyoming, Warren Richardson, superintendent of schools of Laramie County, says:

I will say in general that the schools of this county are (1883) in flourishing condition. They are well conducted, well attended, and generally well equipped. Much discrimination is exercised in the choice of teachers. There is everywhere found among the people a proper interest in the subject of education and a disposition among all classes of tax-payers to vote money liberally for the maintenance and extension of educational advantages.

Debt of the counties of Wyoming.

<table><thead><tr><th>Counties.</th><th>1880.</th><th>1883.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Albany</td><td>$59,685</td><td>$55,181</td></tr><tr><td>Carbon</td><td>4,628</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Laramie</td><td>18,000</td><td>None.</td></tr><tr><td>Sweetwater</td><td>64,409</td><td>80,000</td></tr><tr><td>Uintah</td><td>41,740</td><td>67,510</td></tr><tr><td>Johnson</td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

A high license law went into effect in Wyoming last March, 1882. The following table shows the receipts of the county treasurer for license during the present year:

<table><tbody><tr><td>Albany (to October 1)</td><td>$8,950</td></tr><tr><td>Carbon (estimated for full year)</td><td>20,000</td></tr><tr><td>Laramie (to October 1)</td><td>5,500</td></tr><tr><td>Uintah (to October 1)</td><td>6,038</td></tr><tr><td>Johnson</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

A poll-tax of $2 is imposed in all the counties of the Territory, the fund arising therefrom being devoted to the common schools.

The census report of 1880 shows the illiteracy of Wyoming to be less than that of any State or any other Territory.

The number of certificates of incorporation filed at the office of the Secretary of the Territory during the past two years was greater than the number filed in the previous five years.

LIST OF THE OFFICERS OF WYOMING TERRITORY.

Governor: William Hale.

Delegate to Congress: Morton E. Post.

Secretary of Territory: Elliot S. N. Morgan.

Chief Justice: James B. Sener.

Associate Justices: J. B. Blair, S. C. Parks.

Clerk: J. W. Bruner.

United States attorney: M. C. Brown.

Surveyor-general: E. C. David.

Registers of land office: Cheyenne, E. W. Mann; Evanston, Charles H. Priest.

Receivers of public moneys: Cheyenne, Walter S. Hurlbut; Evanston, E. S. Crocker.

United States marshal: Gustav Schnitger.

Deputy United States marshal: W. R. Schnitger.

Treasurer: F. E. Warren.

Auditor: Jesse Knight.

Librarian: J. Slaughter.

Superintendent of public instruction: J. Slaughter.

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Territorial geologist: G. F. Bailey.

Territorial veterinarian: J. D. Hopkins.

Territorial stenographer: M. C. Morris.

Penitentiary commissioners: E. Nagle, Thomas Langtree, J. A. Finfrock.

Fish commissioners: M. C. Barkwell, Otto Gramm, P. T. Downs, E. W. Bennett, N. Andrews, T. W. Quinn.

Deputy collectors of internal revenue: E. P. Snow, J. S. Oliver.

BANKS.—The following banks are in operation in Wyoming:

<table><thead><tr><th>Location.</th><th>Name of bank.</th><th>Cashier.</th><th>Capital.</th><th>Surplus.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Buffalo</td><td>Stebbins, Conrad & Co.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">Cheyenne</td><td>First National</td><td>J. E. Wild</td><td>$100,000</td><td>$88,000</td></tr><tr><td>T. A. Kent</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Stockgrowers' National</td><td>H. G. Hay</td><td>200,000</td><td>16,000</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">Evanston</td><td>M. E. Post & Co.</td><td>J. W. Collins</td><td>100,000</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Alvord & North, Mutual Exchange</td><td>O. North</td><td>35,000</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Beckwith & Co.</td><td>E. W. Smith</td><td>78,000</td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Pioneer Bank</td><td></td><td>20,000</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Fort Fred Steele</td><td>J. W. Hugus & Co.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Laramie</td><td>Laramie National</td><td>J. W. Donellan</td><td>75,000</td><td>80,000</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Wyoming National</td><td>M. Dawson</td><td>50,000</td><td>55,000</td></tr><tr><td>Rawlins</td><td>James France</td><td>D. C. Kelly</td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

LEGISLATURE.—The following is an official list of the members-elect of the eighth legislative assembly of Wyoming Territory, which convenes at Cheyenne January 8, 1884:

ALBANY COUNTY.—Council, W. H. Holliday, Robert Homer, John W. Gray. House of representatives, O. D. Downey, L. D. Kennedy, C. H. Bussard, H. V. S. Groesbeck, Leroy Grant.

CARBON COUNTY (in council district with Johnson County).—Council, E. W. Bennett, William Daley. House of representatives, L. Quealey, J. E. Osborne, D. F. Dudley, W. H. Weaver.

JOHNSON COUNTY (in council district with Carbon County).—House of representatives, E. U. Snider.

LARAMIE COUNTY.—Council, A. T. Babbitt, Philip Dater, F. E. Warren, W. C. Irvine. House of representatives, N. N. Craig, John F. Coad, Thomas J. Cahill, D. Miller, F. W. Schwartze, H. E. Tschemacher, J. H. Ford, A. Jackson.

SWEETWATER COUNTY.—Council, P. J. Hines. House of representatives, H. G. Nickerson, F. H. Jones, O. G. Smith.

UINTAH COUNTY.—Council, A. V. Quinn, E. S. Whittier. House of representatives, R. B. Seaton, Charles Delaney, E. S. Crocker.

CARBON COUNTY.

<table><tbody><tr><td>Personal property</td><td>$1,500,000.00</td></tr><tr><td>Real estate</td><td>700,000.00</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>2,200,000.00</td></tr><tr><td>Tax levy, 16 mills on the dollar.</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>1881.</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Personal property</td><td>1,132,496.00</td></tr><tr><td>Real estate</td><td>981,503.00</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>2,113,999.00</td></tr><tr><td>Tax collected</td><td>34,940.21</td></tr></tbody></table>

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The following is a list of the county officers; terms expire January 7, 1885:

Sheriff: J. J. Le Cain.

County clerk: John Stone.

County and prosecuting attorney: C. D. Clark.

County treasurer and collector: J. Van A. Carter.

County commissioners: Thomas Blyth, F. Riepen, J. C. Winslow, chairman.

Coroner: E. S. Bisbing.

School superintendent: F. L. Arnold.

**FISH.**—Nearly all the streams of Wyoming abound in fish. Trout are found in a great many streams having their sources in the mountains of Northern and Middle Wyoming. A fish commission, provided for by the legislature, has been at work in the Territory for several years. At the last session, $1,500 was appropriated to be expended by the commission in its work. During the last year it has, under the superintendency of M. C. Barkwell, chief commissioner, planted 98,000 fish in streams heretofore nearly or entirely barren, the varieties being trout, salmon trout, bass, perch, and carp. The streams in which it was formerly thought trout could not live, as the waters were somewhat alkaline, are now stocked with this gamy variety, and they are reported by the commissioners to be propagating successfully. Carp ponds are now being constructed for the care of the fish furnished by the United States Fish Commission. The North Platte River has been stocked with bass, the Laramie River and Savery and Jack Creeks with brook trout, the two latter streams being in Carbon County. Albany County has received a good supply of young trout, and now furnishes as fine specimens as are caught in any waters. Lodge Pole, Horse, Bear, and Crow Creeks, in Laramie County, and the lakes near Cheyenne, have all been stocked with choice varieties. The North Platte River and its tributaries formerly had no trout, while the South Platte, flowing through a country in nearly all respects similar, abounded in this variety. Since the North Platte was stocked, trout is found in it almost everywhere.

**WILD GAME.**—The existence of a game law on the statute books of Wyoming indicates the necessity seen by the local lawmakers for providing against the slaughtering of game which formerly went on unhindered. For years buffalo and elk were killed by the thousand for their hides and antelope and deer shot down in wantonness, in and out of season, or killed in larger numbers than could be marketed. The effect of the game law, if the inroads of hunting parties of Indians were prevented, would doubtless be a speedy increase of the herds of the larger kinds of game animals.

Of buffalo there are but a few herds—two or three—left in the Territory. In all, the animals number perhaps 5,000. Occasionally a few stray old bulls are seen roaming separately from the herds. Elk are found in droves, sometimes in hundreds, in a good many places, though they do not, as formerly, roam in every part of the Territory. Antelope are to be seen everywhere, even, at times, in sight of the railroad. They rove in small herds in unfrequented parts of the Territory, but are usually seen grazing in couples. Deer, blacktail and whitetail, are to be found, but in many parts of the Territory are quite rare. The mountain sheep is now seldom seen.

The bear, mountain lion, wolf, coyote, fox, and panther are occasionally met with by the traveler in lonely parts of Wyoming. But fur

hunters here find but little to tempt them to ply their vocation, otter, beaver, mink, muskrat not being found in such numbers as to afford their hunters profitable occupation, except in unsettled portions of the Territory.

Small bird game are plentiful in summer, doves, especially, being found everywhere. Ducks and geese, though quite numerous, do not fly in large flocks. Sage chickens are common.

**Timber.**—It is commonly supposed that Wyoming is almost destitute of timber, but he who takes pains to examine the map and observe the arrangement and distribution of the mountain ranges, and their altitudes, will see how fallacious is the idea. While the Laramie range shows, near the line of the Union Pacific road, only a few straggling pines, the canons concealed from observation contain a growth of timber of good size and quality (which has sustained two saw-mills for four years. As one travels north, in the Laramie range, he encounters considerable bodies of timber until he reaches a point 80 miles north of Sherman. From this to Laramie Peak and thence northwest, to Casper Mountain, there are large and dense bodies of timber, which will prove a source of large revenue to Wyoming. South and west of the Laramie Plains, the Medicine Bow and Sierra Madre ranges and the valleys of the headwaters of the Platte are covered by forests as dense as those of Michigan. Mountain ranges, occupying the central and northern parts of Sweetwater County, and nearly the whole of Uintah County, are covered with pine forests, which will compare favorably as to quality with the lumber of the lake regions, but which is in large part of a growth less heavy. The Big Horn range is well covered with a growth of timber suitable for making lumber, as also are the hills in the northeast of Crook County. Besides the bodies of pine timber mentioned, numerous creeks and river bottoms contain a supply of box elders, cottonwoods, &c., sufficient for the wants of settlers. It is estimated that there are not less than 23,000 to 26,000 square miles of timber land in Wyoming.

## CONCLUSION.

In the preparation of the foregoing I am indebted to a number of gentlemen for much aid and assistance, whose names appear in the body of the report at appropriate places. For the statistics from the different counties, as shown in the tables, I am indebted to clerks of the counties respectively. The clerks have devoted a good deal of labor in the preparation of these statistics, for which I take this occasion to make public acknowledgment.

Respectfully submitted,

WILLIAM HALE,
*Governor of Wyoming.*

Hon. H. M. TELLER,
*Secretary of the Interior, Washington, D. C.*

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