Weston County(17) ► ADJACENT TO WESTON COUNTY Campbell County(6) ► Converse County(38) ► Crook County(49) ► Niobrara County(20) ► Custer County, South Dakota(43) ► Lawrence County, South Dakota(131) ► Pennington County, South Dakota(78) ►
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In February of 1966, Al Smith of Newcastle made history by successfully completing the world's only producing hand dug oil well. Using a pick and shovel, he dug twenty-one feet into the oil-bering Newcastle Formation. When he encountered the harder . . . — — Map (db m98224) HM
Located 7 miles north of Newcastle was the coal mining town of Cambria. In 1887, Frank Mondell, a future Congressman, found enough coal in the area to fuel the construction of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad across northeastern Wyoming. . . . — — Map (db m98172) HM
Coal Determines the Route
The 1888 discovery of coal at Cambria, eight miles north of Newcastle, provided the final key to railroad development through the northeast Wyoming Territory. The main line of the railroad stretched west from . . . — — Map (db m98219) HM
A group of Euro-Americans discovered salt springs in July, 1877 near the future town sites of Newcastle and Cambria. In November of 1878, James LeGraves started mining the salt and shipping it to the Black Hills gold mines. LeGraves erected a . . . — — Map (db m98169) HM
Camp site of the first authorized military expedition into the Black Hills. On September 12, 1857 Lt. G. K. Warren of the U. S. Topographical Engineers and his party, camped here and erected a log corral. (17 years before the famous Custer . . . — — Map (db m4304) HM
Outlaws haunted the Cheyenne - Deadwood Stage Line during the gold boom in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. By the end of 1877, gold seekers had mined more than ten million dollars worth of gold from the Black Hills, which the stage companies were . . . — — Map (db m98166) HM
The Cheyenne-Deadwood Trail, a heritage precious to state and nation, was used by gold seekers and Black Hills emigrants from 1876 to 1887. Crossing U. S. Highway 16 at this point, it followed Stockade Beaver Creek passing Beaver Creek Stage Station . . . — — Map (db m4305) HM
From 1887 through 1928, the Cambria mines near here actively produced coal. Now a ghost town, 1,500 people once called Cambria home. When the Cambria Fuel Company closed the Cambria coal mines, it also constructed a recreation complex, the Cambria . . . — — Map (db m98170) HM
William C. Clifton worked as a cowpuncher on the Diamond L Ranch, where he acquired the nickname "Diamond L Slim." On March 15, 1903, he shot and killed John W. and Luella Foster Church in the Churches' homestead cabin on Porcupine Creek. Slim was . . . — — Map (db m98215) HM
The Black Hills, named after the dark green carpets of pines that cover the hills, are a geological wonder. Covering some 125 miles north to south and 65 miles east to west, the Hills rise 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the red valley floor. Below you . . . — — Map (db m98171) HM
The deserted site of Field City or Tubb Town offers silent testimony to the boom and bust fate of many western towns.
In the spring of 1889 Deloss Tubbs, a businessman from Custer, Dakota Territory, laid out Field City around his store on the . . . — — Map (db m34872) HM
Following the Civil War, construction of the transcontinental Railroad opened the West, ensuring elimination of vast buffalo herds and forcing Native American Indians onto reservations where the military provided food.
Leggy Texas Longhorns were . . . — — Map (db m98249) HM
One-half mile east of this spot was a supply depot for army units convoying the Professor W.P. Jenny Party, which in 1875, surveyed mineral and other resources of the Black Hills for the United States. By 1876 it was a station of the . . . — — Map (db m98226) HM
Newcastle Becomes a Center
Development of northeastern Wyoming came quickly on the heels of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, or the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe as it is known today. The Burlington's Grand Island and Northern . . . — — Map (db m98217) HM
