Law enforcement also evolved during this period, with police officers eventually replacing the town marshal. In 1920, the city built a new station on the west side David Street, north of Midwest Avenue. The first paid firefighter was hired in 1912 at a salary of $100 per month. For many years, the fire department was an all-volunteer company. This two-story brick structure included a wing for the fire department. Contractors completed a new building on May 29, 1919, on the northwest corner of Center and Eighth streets. Morrison Collection, Casper College Western History Center.īy the 20th century, an expansion of the town hall became necessary as the community and the volume of town business grew. On July 7, 1890, the town government moved into its first home, a two-story brick building on Center Street with a large central hall and a bell tower.Ĭasper's second city hall-with a wing for the fire department- opened in 1919 at the corner of Center and 8th Streets. A proper town needed water, streets, schools, a fire department, a library and other amenities. Still, town leaders quickly set about making changes to guarantee a stable and more permanent city. Early law enforcement tried to keep order among rowdy cowboys, celebrating sheepherders and ever-present prostitutes. The west side of Center Street featured numerous saloons and the raucous culture that went with them. The present county building went up in 1940 on Center between A and B streets.ĭuring its first years, Casper was a rough-and-tumble town. The second, built in 1908, stood in the middle of North Center Street at A Street. The first, on David Street, was wood frame covered with seam iron. (Natrona County would not split off from Carbon County until the following year.) The request was approved, and on July 8, 1889, voters elected George Mitchell as mayor, and Robert White, Peter Demorest, Alexander McKinney and John Adams as councilmen.Ĭasper was home to three county courthouses. On April 9, 1889, residents asked the officials of Carbon County to allow the incorporation of the town of Casper. By the fall of 1888, the center of town was the corner of Center and Second streets, where it remains today. However, as soon as the railroad’s land company began to plat residential and business sites, people in the nascent town packed up and moved about a mile west.

Its earliest buildings stood about at the intersection of what are now A and McKinley streets. Soon after the railroad arrived the town became an important shipping point for cattle and wool. The Arkeon was a popular dancing academy.

Looking south on Center Street in downtown Casper about 1938. The Army misspelled his first name when they renamed Platte Bridge Station not long after his death. Caspar Collins, killed near the fort by Indians in 1865. The town began when the tracks of the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad arrived in June 1888, and was named for nearby Fort Casper, by then a ruin. Located at 5,150 feet above sea level, on the banks of the North Platte River on Wyoming’s high plains, Casper is the seat of Natrona County.

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