History of Laramie

4 May 1868 when construction crews worked through town. A few passengers arrived on that same day.  The first regular passenger service began on May 10, 1868, by which time entrepreneurs were building more permanent structures, and Laramie soon had stores, houses, a school, and churches. Laramie's fame as the western terminal of the Union Pacific Railroad, acquired when the 268 mile section from North Platte, Nebraska was opened in May ended in early August 1868 when a 93 mile section of track was opened to Benton, six miles east of present day Sinclair, Wyoming.

Laramie suffered initially from lawlessness. Its first mayor, M.C. Brown, resigned his office on June 12, 1868 after six turbulent weeks, saying that the other officials elected alongside him on May 2nd were guilty of "incapacity and laxity" in dealing with the city's problems. This was much due to the threat to the community from three half-brothers, early Old West gunman "Big" Steve Long, Con Moyer and Ace Moyer. Long was Laramie's first marshal, and with his brothers owned the saloon Bucket of Blood. The three began harassing settlers, forcing them to sign over the deeds to their property to them. Any who refused were killed, usually goaded into a gunfight by Long. By October 1868, Long had killed 13 men.

However, the first Albany County sheriff, rancher N. K. Boswell, organized a "Vigilance Committee", and on October 28, 1868, Boswell led the committee into the Bucket of Blood, overwhelmed the three brothers, and lynched them at an unfinished cabin down the street. Through a series of other lynching’s and other forms of intimidation, the vigilantes reduced the "unruly element" and established a semblance of law and order.

In 1869, Wyoming was organized as Wyoming Territory, the first legislature of which