Laramie sits at 7,165 feet above sea level on the high plains of southeastern Wyoming, flanked by the Laramie Mountains to the east and the Medicine Bow Range to the west. It is a place of extraordinary open sky, hard winters, and a stubborn frontier character that hasn't been smoothed out by tourism or gentrification. In the 1940s, it was a town shaped by steel rails, cattle, and the rhythms of war. Today, it's a place worth visiting precisely because it hasn't tried too hard to become something it isn't.
Why People Came to Laramie in the 1940s
The Railroad — Laramie's Reason for Being
Laramie was born from the transcontinental railroad. When the Union Pacific first crossed Wyoming in 1868, it established a series of towns at roughly 100-mile intervals — Cheyenne, Laramie, Rawlins, Green River — as division points where crews changed, locomotives were serviced, and freight was processed. Laramie was the most significant of these on the Wyoming segment.
By the 1940s, the Union Pacific's Laramie Shops employed hundreds of men. The locomotive repair facilities were among the largest between Omaha and Ogden. Rail workers and their families formed a significant part of Laramie's population — a working-class, union-organised community that gave the town a different character from the ranching settlements nearby.
Ranching and Agriculture
The Laramie Valley — 7,000 feet high but surprisingly fertile along the river — supported cattle ranching and sheep herding across vast acreages. The Albany County land surrounding the city was home to some of Wyoming's oldest ranching families. The Laramie Stockyards were active through the 1940s, and auction days brought ranchers and buyers from across southeastern Wyoming to town. The rhythms of livestock seasons structured much of the region's social and commercial calendar.
The University of Wyoming
Founded in Laramie in 1886, the University of Wyoming is Wyoming's only four-year public university — and it's located here, in a city of barely 15,000 people, in the middle of the open range. In the 1940s, the university was the primary source of professional education for a state that had no other higher institutions. Teachers, engineers, lawyers, and doctors for all of Wyoming's towns began their careers on the Laramie campus. The WPA era had constructed several of the campus's signature sandstone buildings, and the 1940s saw enrollment surge again after the war as GIs returned to finish degrees under the G.I. Bill.
Wartime Activity
World War II brought federal activity to Wyoming's rail corridors. The Union Pacific was critical to the movement of troops and war materiel to Pacific ports, and Laramie's rail facilities operated at peak capacity. The railroad's hiring expanded to meet wartime demand, and the town saw an influx of workers. Fort Francis E. Warren in nearby Cheyenne (80 miles east) housed tens of thousands of soldiers, some of whom passed through Laramie. The war years brought a temporary economic boom to a town that had weathered hard depression-era years not long before.
The Spirit of the Frontier
In the 1940s, Laramie was still close enough to its frontier origins to feel them. Cowboys came to town on weekends. The bars on Second Street and Grand Avenue were full on payday. The Ivinson Mansion, built by a pioneer banker, still stood on Ivinson Avenue as a reminder of the town's Victorian aspirations. Laramie had an honesty about what it was — a working town on the edge of enormous, empty country — that didn't need embellishment.
Why You Should Go to Laramie NOW
It's Genuinely Authentic
Laramie has not been packaged for tourists, and that is its single greatest asset. The downtown along Second Street retains its historic brick storefronts, many hosting bars, coffeehouses, and small shops that serve the university community and long-time residents. There are no major chain restaurants on the main drag. The vibe is students, faculty, cowboys, and outliers — an unusual mix that works.
The Wyoming Territorial Prison
Laramie was home to Wyoming's first federal prison, now preserved as the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site. Butch Cassidy served time here in 1894. The restored facility gives an excellent window into frontier justice, incarceration conditions, and the characters who passed through Wyoming's wild decades.
Hiking and Outdoor Recreation
The Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest stretches immediately west of town. The Snowy Range Scenic Byway (Highway 130) climbs from Laramie west through alpine terrain that rivals anything in Colorado — at a fraction of the crowds. Hiking, fishing, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing are all accessible within 30–45 minutes of downtown.
The Laramie Plains Lake
A high-altitude reservoir surrounded by flat, windswept prairie, Laramie Plains Lake offers a dose of Wyoming's unsettling, beautiful emptiness. Fishing, wildlife watching (pronghorn antelope graze the surrounding land in large herds), and simply sitting with the immensity of the Wyoming sky are its primary attractions.
The University of Wyoming Art Museum
A seriously good regional art museum with permanent and rotating collections covering Western American art, European masters, and contemporary work. Admission is free. The building architecture, designed by Antoine Predock, is itself worth the visit.
The Weather and the Sky
Laramie has a reputation for wind and cold, and both are earned. But the flip side of big wind is extraordinary sky. On a clear summer day at 7,000 feet, the light has a clarity that people from lower elevations find almost shocking. The sunsets can be preposterous. And the Milky Way, on a clear night away from town, is the kind of thing that makes people consider moving here.
Affordability
Compared to Jackson Hole (Wyoming's other major tourist destination, 180 miles northwest), Laramie is extraordinarily affordable. Hotel rooms, meals, and activities cost a fraction of what they do in resort Wyoming. For travelers who want genuine Wyoming — open range, mountains, frontier history, cold beer, and honest simplicity — Laramie delivers everything Jackson does at a quarter of the price.
Getting There
Laramie is 130 miles north of Denver via I-25 and I-80 — a 2-hour drive through increasingly dramatic terrain as the plains begin to rise. Cheyenne, Wyoming's capital, is just 45 minutes east on I-80 and worth combining on any trip. The Laramie Regional Airport has limited commercial service; most visitors fly into Denver International and drive.
Go in June through September for hiking and warm days, or February through March for skiing in the Snowy Range. Winter is genuinely cold at 7,000 feet, but snowshoeing through the Medicine Bow is an experience worth bundling up for.