History

One of seven counties created by the legislature in 1911, Hot Springs County is named for the natural springs located near Thermopolis that include the world’s largest mineral hot spring. Portions of the county were once part of Fremont, Big Horn and Park counties. The county seat, Thermopolis, derives its name from Greek words meaning “hot city,” another reference to the hot springs.

Hot Springs State Park

Hot Springs County was one of the seven counties created by the Eleventh State Legislature in 1911. The county was created from portions of Fremont, Big Horn, and Park Counties, and named for the natural hot springs that had been part of the Wind River Indian Reservation and ceded by the Shoshones and Arapaho to the federal government in 1896. Ownership of the springs was transferred by the United States to Wyoming by congressional enactment on June 7, 1897.

The congressional act required the state to retain at least one­ fourth of the 18 million gallons of the hot mineral water that flowed from the springs every 24 hours, and sufficient land for bath houses for free bathing for anyone wanting to use the waters. This condition had been set forth by Chief Washakie of the Shoshones in agreeing to the cession of the 64,000 acres surrounding the hot springs. The springs had been sacred to the Shoshones, who had long used the hot mineral water for medicinal purposes. White men had begun bathing in the hot springs for its beneficial effects in the 1880's, but it was not until the 1890's that bathing for health purposes in the springs became popular among Wyoming residents and visitors to the state.

M. D. Gregg was the first promoter of the hot springs. Suffering from paralysis, Gregg had come to the springs in 1894, and with continuing and persistent bathing in the mineral waters, had cured himself of the paralysis. Overjoyed with his recovery, in 1902, assisted by a partner named Wedells, Gregg built a small sanitarium to care for other sufferers. It was the only facility at the hot springs, but many people came to the waters anyway, hoping to be cured of their ailments, and pitched tents across the river from the sanitarium. In time, the camp site became known as "White City," but by the time Hot Springs County was created, the tents had given way to hotels, boarding houses, and additional small sanitariums.

Today, nearly one hundred years after the ceding of the mineral hot springs to Wyoming, annually on the first Sunday of August, Hot Springs County celebrates the cession with a public pageant entitled, "Gift of the Waters." Held on the grounds of Hot Springs State Park, which overlooks the many-colored Rainbow Terraces created by the minerals from the springs, the pageant recreates the treaty ceremony in 1896 when the hot springs were ceded by Chief Washakie. Many of the citizens of Hot Springs County, and Shoshone and Arapaho Indians from the Wind River Reservation, all attired in bright costumes, participate in the pageant.

County Creation and Organization

Following the passage of the act on February 9, 1911, which created Hot Springs County, Governor Joseph M. Carey appointed organizing commissioners on March 22, 1911. The commissioners, Charles W. Anderson, Nate P. Wilson, and Charles E. Blonde, were appointed by Carey following the presentation of the required petition with three hundred signatures of Hot Springs County taxpayers and qualified electors, and the determination that the new county had a population of more than

1,500 and an assessed valuation of more than $2 million. It was also determined, as required by the law, that Fremont, Big Horn, and Park Counties, from which Hot Springs County was being created, retained populations of more than 1,500 and assessed valuations of more than $3 million.

The organizing commissioners first met on March 30, 1911. They appointed Hosea M. Hantz as clerk of the board, and scheduled May 16, 1911 as the date for the county election to approve organization of the county and to select a county seat. The election was held, and on May 24 the organizing commissioners canvassed the results. The county's voters approved organization of the county by 815 votes for organization, to 8 opposed, and chose Thermopolis as the county seat. Thermopolis received 788 votes, Lucerne 30 votes, Embar 1 vote, and Kirby 1 vote.

The first general election to choose county officers for Hot Springs County was held 18 months later on November 5, 1912. The county's first elected county commissioners were Charles W. Anderson, C. A. Barnard, and Nate P. Wilson. On January 6, 1913, the new county commissioners were sworn into office by the organ1z1ng commissioners, and Anderson was elected chairman of the board. The first official function of the new board of county commissioners was to approve the oaths and bonds for the county's newly elected county officers. These elected officers were Hosea M. Hantz, county clerk and ex officio clerk of district court; Victor T. Johnson, county and prosecuting attorney; Scott Hazen, county sheriff; M. E. Conden, county treasurer; Joseph MaGill, county assessor; Nellie L. Wales, county superintendent of schools; George W. Short, county road supervisor; Lew M. Gay, county coroner; and Mark B. Woolery, county surveyor.

From January 7, 1913 through January 10, the new county commissioners met both mornings and afternoons to organize the county and conduct county business. To hold down county expenses, the board adopted a unique resolution, informing the county's justices of peace "that the costs of criminal trials in any justice court will not be allowed by this board unless first approved by the county and prosecuting attorney." Following this resolution, the commissioners agreed to request from Big Horn County the charges they would make to house and care for prisoners of Hot Springs County until a county jail could be built. The commissioners then proceeded to consider proposals offered for renting or buying suitable buildings for county offices. After due consideration, they voted to purchase the lot (site of the present Hot Springs County Courthouse)and buildings from John A. Thompson. The commissioners finished their work on January 10 by adopting a county budget for the year in the amount of $23,800.

Early County Offices

Hot Springs County Government functioned for 25 years without a permanent courthouse, far longer than any other Wyoming County. The two wooden buildings acquired in the purchase from John A. Thompson served the county for many years. One building provided offices for the county commissioners, the county clerk, the county treasurer, the county assessor, the county superintendent of schools, and other county officers. The second building housed the district court, the judge's chambers, the office of the clerk of district court, and later, following the addition of a county jail to the building, an office for the county sheriff. As the county grew in population with a corresponding need for more county government facilities, the commissioners resolved their space problems by leasing office space in privately owned buildings with the result, as the years went by, that county government offices were scattered around Thermopolis.

Crime, Criminals & Prohibition

During these years, although the outlaw days of Butch Cassidy and other rustlers and bank robbers had mainly passed before Hot Springs County was organized, the county had its own law enforcement problems. The Wyoming Legislature had adopted prohibition, effective July 1, 1919, but many areas of the state, including Hot Springs County, opposed it and the demon rum continued to flow. Enforcement of prohibition was difficult statewide, and in May 1930, William C. Irving, state law enforcement commissioner, was convicted of conspiracy to violate national prohibition laws. One of the charges against Irving was that the operators of a large still in Hot Springs County had paid him one dollar per gallon for every gallon of moonshine whiskey they distilled.

More distressing to the people of Hot Springs County were the conspiracy charges brought against Thermopolis town officials and other residents of the town. The town fathers had developed a system of fines as a form of licensing dispensers of the illegal booze. The Thermopolis officials were not profiting individually from the fines, but rather were using the money collected to benefit and improve the municipality. Some of the town dads pleaded guilty to the charges and were fined $250. Others who were charged, including club owners and ladies from the Thermopolis red-light district, chose to have jury trials and were found not guilty by the sympathetic local jurors. The final word on prohibition in Hot Springs County came from Mrs. Dora McGrath of Thermopolis, who was elected in 1930 to the state senate and was the first woman in Wyoming so honored. She declared in 1931, "I do not think the prohibition law can be enforced," and proceeded to be a leader in the movement to repeal state and national prohibition laws.

County Courthouse

During the spring of 1936, there was considerable discussion in Hot Springs County as to what the county should do to improve county government facilities. Three alternatives were being debated: The county should purchase and remodel the Wyoming Trust Building for use as a county courthouse; the county should construct a courthouse at its own expense; and the county should construct a courthouse, but partially finance it through the Public Works Administration (PWA). In May, the argument became moot with the passage of a resolution of the county commissioners, H. J. Milek, Mike McCarthy, and B. L. Hawley to submit an application to the PWA for grant money to match county funds to construct a new county courthouse. The commissioners accepted the grant for $49,909, which was not to exceed forty-five percent of the construction costs, on August 30, 1937.

The county's electorate then approved a bond issue for $60,000. With financing for the courthouse secure, the county commissioners employed architect, Chandler C. Cohagen, to plan and design the building. Early in 1938, the construction contract for $106,000 was let to John Sherhan of Glendive, Montana. John F. Donahue of Shoshone was the plumbing and heating contractor (the commissioners had specified a coal fired heating plant to benefit the county's coal mines), Berthoud Electric of Berthoud, Colorado received the electrical contract, and T. R. LaFluer was the general engineer for the construction project.

The cornerstone for the courthouse was laid by the Wyoming Grand Lodge of Masons on September 20, 1938, with Paul R. Cheever of Cody, former United States Representative for Wyoming, making the principal address. Three weeks later, October 12, the county commissioners accepted the new courthouse, and shortly thereafter the building was occupied by the county's officers. So, after more than 25 years, Hot Springs County Government had a permanent home.

Constructed of sandstone from South Dakota and pink granite from the Wind River Canyon south of Thermopolis, the three-story courthouse was highlighted by large figures carved in limestone and flanking the main entrance to the courthouse to represent the livestock and mining industries in the county, and marble inlays, depicting symbols of justice, law, and science, on three sides of the building. The basement of the courthouse accommodated the county jail, the sheriff's offices, custodial rooms, a garage, and storage vaults. The first floor contained offices and records storage vaults for the county clerk, the county treasurer, the county assessor, the county superintendent of schools, the county attorney, and the county commissioners, while the district courtroom, the judge's chambers, the law library, and the office and storage vault for the clerk of district court were on the second floor of the courthouse.

In use now for a few months more than fifty years (1990), the Hot Springs County Courthouse has stood the test of time, meeting the governmental needs of the county effectively. During the years, the courthouse has been modernized with continuing maintenance and minor remodeling. With the completion in 1984 of a major law enforcement addition to the courthouse, which includes a new county jail, expanded offices and work area for the county's law enforcement officers, and new facilities for the justice of peace court, Hot Springs County Government will meet the needs of the county's people for many years to come.