Virtual Exhibits

Hell on Wheels: Union Pacific Towns in Wyoming

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Pine Bluffs, WY

A Pine Bluffs, 1868. Pine Bluffs was the easternmost Union Pacific Railroad Station in Wyoming.
(Clarice Whittenburg Papers)

Historian T.A. Larson in his book, History of Wyoming, describes the impact of the railroad. “The most exciting years in Wyoming history were 1867, 1868, and 1869. Major cause of the commotion was the coming of the Union Pacific Railroad. In his inaugural address to the first Wyoming legislature in 1869, Governor John A. Campbell focused attention on a unique aspect of the Wyoming situation: ‘…our situation as a territory is entirely new and somewhat anomalous for pioneers. For the first time in the history of our country, the organization of a territorial government was rendered necessary by the building of a railroad. Heretofore the railroad has been the follower instead of the pioneer of civilization.’”

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