I left early for Laramie 50 miles away. I took route 210 west which is known locally as Happy Jack road. It was probably the quietest road I've been on so far. hardly any traffic. The first 20 miles consisted of rolling grasslands. The road then came to a line of hills and worked its way up through a gap. As I emerged at the top of the climb I found I had entered into a new country. I had left the plains behind and now began to move through an upland region. Pine trees began to appear and increase in number as the road climbed through the hill country. There was a light scent of pine in the air which was nice and cool. It was a very picturesque landscape of rolling hills dotted with great boulders, some perched at precarious angles on the hillsides. I entered Medicine Bow National Forest as the road climbed higher into the hills. As I climbed I began to feel a shortness of breath which I hadn't experienced previously. Also, my mouth was continuously dry. No matter how many times I took a drink my mouth was parched again within minutes. I had to be careful with the water as there was nothing between Cheyenne and Laramie.
For 20 miles I climbed through the hills. Soon I came to a junction with an interstate highway which I would take down to Laramie. Here there was a truck stop and information centre so I went over to see if I could some more water. There was a drinking fountain. I gulped down almost a litre before refilling a bottle. I found out it was 10 miles to Laramie, all downhill. I free-wheeled down through these hills, flying along. The road passed through a narrow gorge at the end of which the land opend out into a wide, flat plain with the town of Laramie nestled down below. Mountains bordered the western edge of the plain about 30 miles away. I got to Laramie about 1pm.
Laramie was one of the real cowboy towns of the west. Founded in 1868 as the Union Pacific railroad moved west. It was named after a French trapper called Jacques LaRamie who was killed by indians in the nearby hills. The location of the town was chosen because of a natural spring which provided a water supply and the proximity of timber in the hills for constructing the railroad. The proximity of Fort Sanders in the area which protected settlers and stagecoaches also encouraged the siting of the town.
The early years of the town were violent. The first settlers who rolled into town were met with 23 saloons, a hotel and no churches. Gamblers, prostitutes, ansd speculators joined the cowboys and settlers. Following them came the outlaws. Within three months the population balooned to 5,000 with many of the first businesses housed in tents. The outlaws began to run amok and local business suffered. The towns citizens responded by banding together. Local vigilante groups violently lynched suspected outlaws, sending out a clear message to any other would-be hoodlum. Butch Cassidy was one of the more celebrated gangsters to be imprisoned in the local jail in later years.
Life gradually settled down. In 1886 the university of Wyoming was established in the town but the mainstay of life in the town remained the railroad. The town prospered through the late 19th and early 20th centuries and earned the nickname 'the gem of the plains'. Today the railroad still rolls through the principal university town for the state of Wyoming.
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