Like many western towns their beginnings can be traced back to the discovery of gold. In mid 1867 gold was discovered 35 miles away from where the town of Lander would be established and the rush to the area established the gold field cities of South Pass City and Atlantic City. Transportation to and from the gold fields developed several wagon routes from South Pass to the Union Pacific mainline over a hundred miles away in Rawlins. Eventually the north-south wagon roads were extended from South Pass through the Lander Valley as far as the Wind River Indian Reservation that was established in 1868 for the Shoshone tribe. At the future site of the town of Lander an agency and military installation, Camp Augar, was established to administer and protect the reservation. Between the miners, military and Indians a market was provided for all the local agricultural products. The Lander Valley was well watered and had a mild climate for farming and ranching which attracted ranchers, farmers and settlers to the area.
In 1871 Camp Augar moved to the Little Wind River and became Camp Brown. The community that had grown-up around the camp became known as Pushroot. In 1875 the pioneers applied for a Post Office. The US Postal Service would not approve the name Pushroot. Benjamin Franklin Lowe suggested the name Lander after Frederick W. Lander the surveyor who created the Lander cutoff. In March the Post Office in Lander opened with James I. Patten as the first postmaster.
In 1880 BF Lowe, PP Dickinson, and EA Amoretti established the Lander Townsite Company. The land was surveyed, and the town was laid out. Lots were now for sale and people were ready to buy land, establish homes and businesses.
Information courtesy of the Fremont County Pioneer Museum
Deb,
ReplyDeleteIt is neat to hear about the history of Lander and the people who inhabited it. I am still blown away how cold it gets their, which was from your first post. I can't imagine living in Lander back in the 1800's! What an experience that would have been.
T Gray