Laramie’s Living History —
A Variety of Other Topics

A series of stories prepared for the Albany County Museum Coalition, an alliance of institutions that promote Laramie’s historic and cultural resources. This series originally appeared in the Laramie Boomerang.

Not all Albany County history falls into a specific category; a wide assortment of additional topics are covered on these pages.

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Albany County Historical Society Albany County Historical Society

Getting warm; California beckons Laramie pioneers

There is no doubt that some of the earliest residents of Laramie were just passing through.  Exactly one year after Laramie was founded, the two great railroads, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, met at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869. The great migration to California could now begin by rail.

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Albany County Historical Society Albany County Historical Society

The Plight of Widows

In post-Civil War America, widows whose late husbands were not military veterans usually remarried right away, moved in with one or another of their married children, were taken in by other relatives or became the responsibility of the county where they lived.

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Albany County Historical Society Albany County Historical Society

Early health care in Laramie

The first people in the Laramie area in 1867-68 included a large number of young men. They lived in hastily-built barracks at Ft. Sanders or dormitories near the Union Pacific Railroad yards for workers.

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