Statistics
Origin of Name: Named for General Phil Sheridan of Civil War fame.
Land area: 2,532 sq. miles, 17th largest in Wyoming
Population
Year
| Population
|
1890
| 1,972
|
1900
| 5,122
|
1910
| 16,324
|
1920
| 18,182
|
1930
| 16,875
|
1940
| 19,255
|
1950
| 20,185
|
1960
| 18,989
|
1970
| 17,852
|
1980
| 25,048
|
1990
| 23,582
|
2000
| 26,560
|
2010
| 29,116
|
Towns
Sheridan (county seat): 17,444 (as of 2010)
Clearmont: 142
Dayton: 757
Ranchester: 855
Well-known residents of Sheridan County
History
The county was named for the town of Sheridan, established prior to the creation of Sheridan County in 1888. The town was named in honor of General Philip Sheridan by a former soldier who served under his command. The county is home to Wyoming’s first dude ranch established by the Eaton brothers. Many early-day ranchers were descended from prominent British families. Ranchers played polo and named their home ranches for British manor houses. Coal mining was important in the county in the early 20th century. Coal company towns such as Kleenburn, Acme, Dietz and Kooi employed miners from throughout Europe. Numerous Japanese miners also worked in the Sheridan County mines.
Sheridan County is another Wyoming county of contrasts. It is a contrast geographically: the rugged Bighorn Mountains, the Shining Mountains of French trappers and traders legend, soaring to elevations above 10,000 feet; the lush river valleys below, with their clear and sparkling streams, at an elevation of less than half the high peaks (the City of Sheridan with an elevation 3,745 feet above sea level has the lowest elevation of any Wyoming municipality); and the raised, wide open, grassy and windy prairies, east of the valleys.
Early Settlement
The settlers of Sheridan County were also a study in contrast: Texas cowboys who trailed longhorn cattle northward, up the dusty trail from their native state, remaining to establish and develop ranches and cattle herds of their own; members of the British aristocracy, like the Frewen brothers, Malcom Moncrieffe and Oliver Henry Wallop, Earl of Portsmouth, with their vast land holdings, huge cattle herds, and their polo ponies and castles; Czechoslavakians, Hungarians, Poles, Yugoslavs, Italians, and Chinese, all new emigrants, laboring below the ground in the county's rich coal mines and living in company towns; and Germans from Russia toiling on the farmland in the fertile valleys, growing wheat for the flour mill, sugar beets for the sugar factory, and vegetables to feed an expanding population.
Polo players near Sheridan. Polo was popular with the English ex-patriots who settled near Sheridan and matches are still held today. Polo Players, Walsh, Moncreiffe, Burlington, Wood (WSA Sub Neg 27502, Polo Players, Walsh, Moncreiffe, Burlington, Wood)
The economic activities and occupations of the settlers were as diverse as the topography and the origin of the settlers: beyond cattle and sheep ranching, irrigated and dry farming, and mining, there was sugar beet refining, logging and lumbering, railroading on the Burlington line, soldiering at Fort McKenzie, and dude ranching; and, of course, there were businesses of all kinds, banks, general stores, saloons, opera houses, jewelry stores, sawmills, and blacksmith shops.
Settlement of the area that was to be included in Sheridan County began with C. P. Hanna in 1878, following the end of the war with the Sioux and their allies, and the Indians forced removal to reservations. Hanna built a cabin near present day Big Horn, and planted vegetables and grain to supply the army at Fort McKinney, just west of Buffalo.
During the next three years a number of large ranches were founded near Big Horn, north toward the Tongue River, and east toward the pra1r1es. The ranches were followed by businesses in Big Horn, and then in 1880, the City of Sheridan was platted by John D. Louck. By the time Johnson County was organized in 1881, there was a substantial population, ranchers, cowboys, businessmen, and homesteaders in the northern section of the county.
Creation of Sheridan County
This region of northern Johnson County continued to grow in population, and by 1887, Sheridan, named for General Phil Sheridan, who had camped his troops on the town site during the campaign against the Sioux, had surpassed Big Horn in population and was the northern business center, and challenging Buffalo for predominance in the county as a whole. Residents of the northern section of Johnson County strongly favored division of the county into two counties and prevailed on empathetic legislators to introduce a bill, dividing Johnson County, during the session of the Tenth Territorial Legislative Assembly in 1888. On March 9, Territorial Governor Thomas Moonlight signed the Act creating Sheridan County, and shortly thereafter appointed organizing commissioners for the new county.
Organization of Sheridan County
The appointed commissioners, Henry Baker, Cornelius Boulware, and Marion C. Harris, first met on April 23, 1888. They elected Baker as chairman, and then adopted a proclamation setting May 7, 1988, as the date for a special election to choose a county seat and elect county and precinct officers. The commissioners concluded their first meeting by establishing precincts in the county and polling places. Meeting three days later, the commissioners changed the polling places originally established.
As planned, the election was held on May 7, 1888, and the next day the organizing commissioners met to canvas the vote. Receiving 486 votes to 248 votes for Big Horn and 224 votes for Dayton, Sheridan was chosen as the county seat for the new county. The first elected county and precinct officers, with terms expiring in January 1889, were Marion C. Harris, William E. Jackson, and Peter Reynolds, county commissioners; Frank McCoy, county clerk; James P. Robinson, probate judge and ex-officio county treasurer; Richard McGrath, county superintendent of schools; Pulaski Calvert, county assessor; Thomas J. Keesee, county sheriff; J. M. Calloway and B. F. Perkins, justices of the peace; William J. Stover, county and prosecuting attorney; W. F. Green, county coroner; and Jack Dow, county surveyor.
On May 11, 1888, the newly elected county commissioners met to organize the county. The commissioners filed their certificates of election, elected Marion C. Harris chairman, accepted the oaths and bonds of the other elected county officers and ordered them filed, and then proclaimed the County of Sheridan, Territory of Wyoming, duly organized. Eight days later, meeting again, the county commissioners began what would amount to an historical and complicated saga to obtain adequate facilities for county government, by advertising for bids for the construction of a county jail. During the next ninety years, Sheridan County would be more involved in the acquisition of courthouse facilities, or the construction of a courthouse, than any other Wyoming County.
Construction of 1st County Jail and Courthouse
A month after advertising for jail construction bids, the commissioners rejected all bids received, and ordered that new plans and specifications for the jail be drawn. The request for construction bids was advertised again, but, after buying two steel jail cells for $3,200 and a fireproof vault for $250 on July 12, the commissioners again rejected all bids for construction of the county jail. Finally, after revising the plans and specifications again and advertising for construction bids for a third time, on September 4, the county commissioners accepted the low bid of George Brundage to build the county's first jail for $1,387. Brundage completed the jail in December 1888, and the county's prisoners were moved into it.
While the frustrations with the jail were going on, the Sheridan County Commissioners, on July 26, 1888, acquired housing for county offices and a county courtroom, leasing for $60.00 monthly a two-story frame building, known as the Sheridan Lodge, from the firm of Smith and Brundage. Less than a year later, April 2, 1889, the commissioners advertised for new facilities to house the county's offices. In August an agreement for the needed facilities was reached with Peter Demple of Sheridan. Demple was to construct a brick building in the Grinnell Addition of Sheridan, according to specifications developed by the county commissioners, and lease it to the county for ten years for an annual rental of $700.00.
2nd County Courthouse
By 1894, the county commissioners were again shopping for larger quarters for the county. Growth and development was occurring in the county at a rapid pace, and the commissioners recognized that the county's business needs would soon outgrow the Demple Building. The Burlington Railroad had arrived in the county in 1892, bringing jobs and homesteaders to the county. A year later, C. H. Grinnell opened the first coal mine, which was followed in 1895 by the establishment of the Sheridan Coal Company by C. N. Dietz. Within a few years, the coal mines in Sheridan County were employing more than 5,000 miners, and the coal camps of Dietz, Monarch, Carneyville (later called Kleenburn), Acme, Kooi, Model, and New Acme were thriving communities.
Sheridan Inn
The coming of the Burlington Railroad, besides bringing miners and homesteaders to Sheridan County, was also responsible for the construction of the famous Sheridan Inn. Planned as a railroad hotel, on a site near the railroad's depot, construction of the Inn was begun by the Burlington and the Sheridan Land Company in December 1892, and opened to guests on June 18, 1893. Colonel William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody led the grand march for the first dance in the Inn on June 22, and the following year his hotel company assumed the management of the Inn and his transportation company built stables on the grounds of the Inn.
A lavish hostelry, the Sheridan Inn, boasting an oak and mahogany bar imported from England, bathtubs, and the first electric lights in northern Wyoming, quickly became the social center for the region. For more than seventy years, the Sheridan Inn was preeminent in the county for gracious dining, comfortable lodging, and sparkling social activity. The Inns register contained the signatures of both the famous and the infamous, including General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing who led the American Expeditionary Force in France during World War I, Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok, western artist Charley Russell, writers Mary Roberts Rineheart and Ernest Hemingway, humorist Will Rogers, and Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Herbert Hoover. But by the mid-1960s time had passed the Inn by, and it was no longer sought by tourists to the county, nor was it the social center of northern Wyoming.
Although the Inn was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U. S. Department of Interior in 1964, the historic Inn was forced to close its doors a year later. A community effort to save the Inn from destruction was launched in the county, and during 1966 and the first months of 1967, the dining room and the barroom were operated by the Sheridan County Historical Society -- the only Wyoming county historical society to ever hold a liquor license. Despite the extensive community effort to raise the funds to purchase the Inn, it was only a few weeks from being razed and the site sold before it was purchased by Mrs. Neltje Kings. The Inn was refurbished and a gala reopening held, with many state dignitaries in attendance. Mrs. Kings operated the dining room, barroom, and gift shop until 1983. Since then, the ownership of the Sheridan Inn has changed hands twice, and the future of this fabled and historic hotel of the Wyoming frontier is in doubt.
Fort McKenzie
While the Sheridan County Commissioners were searching for a new headquarters for county government in 1894, county and city official, and business people were trying to have an army post established in the county. Although Indians had been effectively removed from the region for nearly twenty years, except for wandering bands of braves leaving the reservations to hunt game, the Sheridan County advocates' argument for an army fort was that they needed protection from the Indians. Finally, in 1899, Congress was won over and authorized the establishment of Fort Mackenzie "to protect the community from Indians." The fort was fully operational, guarding the county against Indians, from 1905 to 1914, when it was closed by the War Department. In 1922, the fort was reopened as a veterans hospital to care for World War I veterans, and in that capacity is still operational today, caring for veterans of succeeding wars.
3rd County Courthouse
For the third Sheridan County Courthouse, the county commissioners adopted the same plan they had used for the second courthouse. They contracted with H. F. Cady to build a three-story brick building on the northeast corner of Main and Alger Streets in Sheridan. The structure was to cost not less than $20,000, be wired for electric lights, and have a steam heating plant. Further, the contract called for the county to lease 6,000 square feet of floor space, suitable for county offices, and three vaults for the county's records. For this, the county was to make an annual lease payment of $2,000. The new facilities were occupied by the county during March 1895, but within four years, the commissioners were once again dissatisfied with the arrangement and the facilities.
The major cause for the commissioners' unhappiness with the Cady Building was the cost -- $2,000 yearly. In July 1899, the commissioners met on two occasions with H. F. Cady to discuss renewing the lease for five years and to attempt to obtain a lower rental fee. Mr. Cady wasn't particularly cooperative, agreeing only to a token reduction in the rent, $1.08 less per year. Consequently the commissioners rejected Cady's proposal, and then approved plans for a new courthouse as submitted by J. W. Austin and C. W. Hayes.
After advertising for construction bids on August 1, 1899, the board of county commissioners met to open bids for the proposed courthouse. Only two bids were received, the first from Austin and Hayes for a construction cost of $9,600, and the second from Donald Stewart for $8,150. The commissioners deferred action on the bids "pending further investigation." Apparently, the commissioners were not pleased with what they learned, for on September 5, 1899, they executed a lease agreement with E. A. Whitney and Henry Held for a two-story building located on lot 15, block 12 of the original Sheridan town site. The rent for the new courthouse was $72.50 monthly, giving the county a substantial annual saving, despite having to pay for some minor remodeling and the purchase of chairs for the new courtroom.
4th County Courthouse
Four years appears to be the maximum amount of time Sheridan County's Board of Commissioners could be satisfied with facilities for the county's government, for once again, four years later, the commissioners were unhappy. On October 17, 1903, the county commissioners discussed the construction of a new county courthouse, to be paid for by the issuance of county bonds. No decision was made at this meeting, but on January 21, 1904, the commissioners resolved to hold a special election on March 1, 1904, to ask the qualified voters to approve the issuance of $45,000 in county bonds for the construction of a new county courthouse. The bonds were to be paid in full in twenty years, and were to carry an interest rate not exceeding six percent per annum.
Sheridan County's taxpayers and voters gave overwhelming approval of the bond issue, and three days later, March 4, 1904, the commissioners voted to advertise the sale of the bonds on April 16. Before the sale of the bonds, the county commissioners took another important step for the county -- they agreed to accept a Carnegie Library, by resolving to provide a site for the library and to budget $1,250 annually for maintenance of the library. On April 16, the commissioners rejected all bids for the bonds, and then resolved to hold a public auction on April 18 to sell the bonds. On that day, they not only sold the bonds to the highest bidder, N. W. Harris Company of Chicago, for five percent interest, but met with architects to consider plans for the courthouse. The commissioners chose the plans submitted by architects Link and McAlister of Sheridan, and agreed to pay them $2,000 for the plans and to supervise the construction of the new courthouse.
May 1904 was also a significant month for Sheridan County. On May 1 the board of county commissioners accepted a site for the new courthouse given to the county by L. H. Brooks and F. H. Kilbourne. A full city block, the site was a hill, just south of the Sheridan central business district. Three days after accepting the site, the commissioners contracted with low bidder D. J. Burke to prepare the site for construction. On May 13, the commissioners opened bids for the remodeling of the county jail -- plans for the courthouse did not include a new jail. Plans for the remodeling of the jail had been prepared by architect G. M. McAllister, the low bid of $835, submitted by Ferguson and Pearson of Sheridan, was accepted by the commissioners.
During June 1904, the board of commissioners advertised for construction bids to build the new courthouse. The bids were opened on July 27. Three contractors from Sheridan and a builder from Butte, Montana, submitted bids. The low bid, $44,742, was once again from Ferguson and Pearson of Sheridan, and the commissioners promptly accepted it. Sub-contractors for the courthouse construction were Diefenderfer and Dinwiddie, heating; Smith and Thompson, plumbing; and Cultra Electric Company for lighting. With the sub-contracts, the total cost of the courthouse was to be $55,400.
With the site prepared, construction began shortly after the contract was let, and the cornerstone was laid on October 1, 1904. Occupied by the county in August 1905, overlooking the town below from its lofty hill, the Sheridan County Courthouse was an imposing structure. With three full stories, the building provided spacious headquarters for county government, and with the completion of sidewalks and a retaining wall in 1907 and landscaping an irrigation system in 1909, courthouse block, as it was called, was the pride of the county's citizens.
Courthouse Additions
In 1913 a major addition to courthouse block was initiated by the county commissioners. In April, a contract was awarded to the Pauly Jail Building Company for $14,200 to build a new county jail, with a sheriff's residence wing. Completed in November 1913, the jail and courthouse were to serve the county, with only minor remodeling and modernization, until 1983. That year, although the old courthouse was retained, with some restoration, and is still used for some county government functions, the major county offices moved into a new facility. Adjoining the old courthouse, the new one, also three stories high and with a beige brick exterior, is a modern and efficient complement to the beauty of Sheridan County's Courthouse Block.
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