Hilliard, Wyoming

Hilliard, Wyoming. Poverty Flats to Productive Ranches. The first settler in the Hilliard area was John Myers who arrived in the middle to late 1850s. He worked at Fort Bridger in 1857, and in 1860 made his home on the Bear River where the Salt Lake Trail (California/Mormon Trail) crossed the river, a place called Myers' Crossing. Homesteaders arrived in 1860, many of whom later worked in the timber and charcoal industry during the time of the Union Pacific Railroad. Timber was cut in the Uinta Mountains with logs floated down a flume and delivered to charcoal kilns in Hilliard and Piedmont. The charcoal was used by the Union Pacific Railroad and in smelters in Utah. The town was named in 1873 after an early railroad conductor, Reuben T. Hilliard. In 1877, Hilliard was the third largest shipping point along the railroad. During the sheep shearing season, the population of the town expanded to over four hundred. Thousands of pounds of wool were shipped east and west. The shipping station was closed in 1900. Thereafter, the post office was discontinued and the town of Hilliard became a memory with only the descendents (sic) of the original settler remaining to work their productive ranch lands.