Basin, Wyoming - Big Horn County, Wyoming : the Gem of the Rockies

Big Horn County, Wyoming : the Gem of the Rockies

Basin, the county seat of Big Horn County, is on the west bank of the Big Horn River, practically in the center of the county. The location is ideal in that it overlooks the river and the magnificent Big Horn range of mountains forty miles to the east - a view always pleasing to the eye and inspiring to the soul. There are about 500 people domiciled in the village, among them men of sterling worth and great courage. Already a splendid water system has been installed and an electric-light plant is in formation. The mayor and council are men of action and they have at heart the upbuilding of the town.

The railroad grade is completed through the eastern side of the place and within a few months the locomotive whistle will become a familiar sound.

The Big Horn Canal will soon be turning its life-giving waters upon the rich lands adjacent to the town and hundreds of new farms will be opened up to pass their products into the trade center, and the surrounding plains will be clothed in a garb of green. Two large stone banks are in course of construction that really would be a credit to any town of four times the population of Basin.

bridge spans the river in front of the town, and a $6,000 court-house, made of brick, accommodates the county officers. Fairly good coal lies in the hills on two sides of the town and reaches out for miles both west and southeast, making it a certainty that Basin will become more or less of a manufacturing place. The population is increasing rapidly and faith is strong among all classes. Telephone lines radiate in all directions, placing the entire county in touch with the county seat and the great outside world.

The town of Worland is on the east bank of the Big Horn River, midway between Basin and Thermopolis. According to the latest railroad map this will be the terminus of the Burlington road for a time, waiting, no doubt, the construction of the Burlington from Guernsey west to Salt Lake, when the road will push on through Big Horn Cafion and, joining the other branch near Atlantic City, form a trunk line from the northeast to the southwest.

There are 50,000 acres of choice level lands within seven miles of the depot, every foot of which will be under successful irrigation by the close of the year 1906, the Hanover, the Big Horn and the Bluff Canals furnishing the water. Here will be established two or more beet factories and a flourishing' little city will be the result. This being the end of the Burlington road, undoubtedly it will be made a registering point for land seekers at the opening of the ShoshoneReservation June 15, 1906, and thousands of persons from the Xortheast will come in to take a chance in the land lottery. Of course, this will make it an exceedingly live town during the summer and much of that temporary growth will become permanent. Worland is the present headquarters of the Hanover and Big Horn County Canal companies, and with their hundreds of men and teams employed give a decidedly business air to the place.

Garland

Garland is a station on the railroad thirty miles east of Cody and is the distributing point for merchandise and supplies going to Basin and the eastern half of the county. Of course, with the railroad pushing south along the Big Horn River, the trade of Garland will be largely curtailed, but conditions are rapidly shaping that will make of it a larger and better town than it has ever been. There is a wide, level stretch of bench land between Garland and the Shoshone River that wall average six miles wide and twenty miles long. It lies under the government ditch and will all be "brought in" as farming lands, mostly under the eighty-acre homestead ruling of the Land Department at Washington. This will all be at the door of Garland and make it a prosperous town.

Just across the Shoshone is the Whistler Creek irrigation proposition that is sure to materialize and add 30,000 more acres of farming land to Garland's budget. Three miles north of the town and near the railroad, several coal veins crop out and sufficient work has been done to prove the presence of high-class lignite in great abundance and so situated as to be easily handled. This will become a source of continuous support, employing many men. The oil basin beginning at H3-attville and running north by west dips into the country near Garland and is certain to prove a rich store-house of buried wealth.

The town of Meeteetse is on the Gray Bull River at the foot-hills of the Shoshones. The Avord means "place of rest," and aborigines made it a general camping place because of its charming surroundings. Instead, however, of its being a place of rest, it is a place of activity. It is the center of one of the best grazing districts in the West and hundreds of

There are two banks and numerous general stores and the amount of business done is almost beyond belief to one who does not know the outlying country. There are but a hundred inhabitants, but an air of thrift pervades the town that is really refreshing.

Thirty-two miles up the mountain, on the very top of the Shoshone Range at the head of the Wood River, is Camp Kerwin, destined in the near future to become world famed for its mineral output. Kerwin is the camp that turned out the $128,000 gold ere, and every hillside shows mineral in more or less richness. Meeteetse is its supply point and the trade is rapidly increasing.

The Burlington Railroad Company has surveyed a route up the Gray Bull River to this little city and it is but a question of time when the iron horse will be pulling ore out from and supplies into this great store-house of nature. ]\Ieeteetse should catch hundreds of summer tourists who have leisure and love the excitement and pleasures of mountain sight-seeing, fishing, and hunting, because in the region round about his most ardent desires can be fully satisfied.

abundant farm products from the rich valleys above and below the town will make jMeeteetse the winter home of the thousands of miners who spend their summer in the mountains above. Aleeteetse will grow.

Otto

The town of Otto is on the Gray Bull River, twelve miles west of Basin, and is a pleasant rural village, drawing its support from a rich agricultural country surrovmding it. There are good schools and the community is prosperous. J\Iachinery for a modern creamery has been purchased by the farmers and will be put into operation in the village. It will be on the line of the Burlington Railroad when the Camp Kerwin branch is constructed.