1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cheyenne (Wyoming)

CHEYENNE, the chief city and capital of Wyoming, U.S.A., and county-seat of Laramie county, on Crow Creek, about 106 m. N. of Denver. Pop. (1890) 11,690; (1900) 14,087, of whom 1691 were foreign-born; (1905) 13,656; (1910) 11,320. It is served by the Union Pacific, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Colorado & Southern railways. It is situated near the southern boundary of the state, on the high plains near the E. foot of the Laramie range, at an altitude of 6050 ft.; the surrounding country is given up to mining (lignite and iron), grazing and dry-farming. Among the principal buildings are the capitol, modelled after the National Capitol at Washington; the United States government building, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, the Union Pacific depôt, the high school, the Carnegie library, St Mary’s cathedral (Roman Catholic), the Convent of the Holy Child Jesus, the Masonic Temple and the Elks’ clubhouse. The city has two parks, and is connected by a boulevard with Fort D. A. Russell, an important United States military post, 4 m. north of the city, established in 1867 and named in honour of Major-General David Allen Russell (1820–1864) of the Union army, who was killed at Opequan, Virginia. The industrial prosperity of Cheyenne is largely due to the extensive railway shops of the Union Pacific situated here; but the city is also an important cattle market and has stock-yards. In 1905 the value of the city’s factory products ($924,697) was almost one-fourth the total value of the factory products of the state. Cheyenne, settled in 1867, when the Union Pacific reached here, was named from the Cheyenne Indians. It was chosen as the site for the capital of the territory in 1869, and was incorporated in the same year.