Laramie’s Living History —
A Variety of Other Topics
A series of stories prepared for the Albany County Museum Coalition, an alliance of institutions that promote Laramie’s historic and cultural resources. This series originally appeared in the Laramie Boomerang.
Not all Albany County history falls into a specific category; a wide assortment of additional topics are covered on these pages.
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Airmail puts Laramie on the map in the 1920s Pilots hired by the U.S. Postal Service
Airmail comes to America. In January 1920, the USPS announced plans for a coast-to-coast service, following existing routes to Chicago, then railroad tracks from Chicago to Omaha. In Omaha, the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) tracks would be used to San Francisco. Flying would be done in daylight hours, as pilots had no navigational devices and had to see landmarks like the tracks, which pilots called their “iron compass.”
Ice Skating on the Laramie River
There is an unmistakable sound a steel blade makes on solid ice—and an unmistakable smell of potatoes baking in their jackets in the coals of a big bonfire. Add the laughter of young people as they glide by teasing each other and you have the makings of an ice skating party—1870’s style, along the Laramie River.
Early health care in Laramie
The first people in the Laramie area in 1867-68 included a large number of young men. They lived in hastily-built barracks at Ft. Sanders or dormitories near the Union Pacific Railroad yards for workers.
Cinders, smoke and smells—the price of living in early Laramie
There’s no doubt about it—Laramie got started in the wrong place.
Most other Wyoming towns were laid out by the Union Pacific Rail Road (UPRR) with the main part of town on either the north, south or west side of the railroad tracks. Never on the east side as in Laramie.