LARAMIE, WYOMING

'Laramie' is a city in and the county seat of Albany County in the U.S. state of Wyoming. According to the 2000 U.S. census, the city population was 27,204. Laramie, located in southeast Wyoming, on the Laramie River, is northwest of Cheyenne, at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 287. It was first settled in 1868 with the coming of the Union Pacific Railroad, which crosses the Laramie River at Laramie. It is home to the University of Wyoming, Wyoming Technical Institute, and a branch of Laramie County Community College. Laramie Regional Airport serves Laramie. The ruins of Fort Sanders, an Army fort predating Laramie, lie just south of the city along Route 287. Laramie is known as the Gem City of the Plains. Located in the Laramie Valley between the Snowy Range and the Laramie Range, the city draws outdoor enthusiasts because of its abundance of outdoor activities.

Contents

History

Culture

Media

Geography and climate

Demographics

Government

Education

Trivia

Points of interest

References

External links

History

Laramie was founded in the mid-1860s as a tent city near the Overland Trail stage route and the Union Pacific portion of the first transcontinental railroad. By May 10, 1868, when the first train entered town, entrepreneurs were building more permanent structures, and Laramie soon had stores, houses, a school, and churches."Laramie History" Laramie Plains Museum. Retrieved on August 11, 2007.
Laramie suffered initially from lawlessness. Its first mayor, M.C. Brown, resigned after three turbulent weeks in mid-1868, saying that the town was "ungovernable." However, through a series of lynchings and other forms of intimidation, vigilantes reduced the "unruly element" and established a semblance of law and order.^[1]
In 1869, Wyoming was organized as Wyoming Territory, the first legislature of which passed a bill granting equal political rights to the women of the territory. In March 1870, five Laramie residents became the first women in the world to serve on a jury.^[2] Also, since Laramie was the first town in Wyoming to hold a municipal election, on September 6, 1870, a Laramie resident was the first woman to cast a legal vote in the United States.
Early businesses included rolling mills, a tie treatment plant, a brick yard, a slaughterhouse, a brewery, a glass-blowing plant, and a plaster mill, as well as the railroad yards. In 1886, a plant to produce electricity was built.
A bill signed by Governor Francis E. Warren established the University of Wyoming (UW) in 1886. Laramie was chosen as the site, and UW opened there in 1887. Under the terms of the Morrill Act, also known as the Land Grant College Act, UW added an agricultural college and experiment station in 1891."Fact Book: Historical Highlights" University of Wyoming. Retrieved on August 12, 2007.
The city gained worldwide notoriety in 1998 after the murder of Matthew Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming. Shepard was robbed, severely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die by Aaron James McKinney and Russell Arthur Henderson. His murder caused an international outcry and was the subject of the award-winning play and movie The Laramie Project.
In 2004, Laramie became the first city in Wyoming to prohibit smoking in enclosed workplaces, including bars, restaurants and private clubs. Opponents of the clean indoor air ordinance, funded in part by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, immediately petitioned to have the ordinance repealed. However, the voters upheld the ordinance in a citywide referendum which was conducted concurrently with the 2004 general election. The opponents then challenged the validity of the election in court, claiming various irregularities. However, the judge ruled that the opponents had failed to meet their burden of showing significant problems with the election, and the ordinance — which had become effective in April 2005 — remained in effect.^[3] In August 2005, Laramie's City Council defeated an attempt to amend the ordinance to allow smoking in bars and private clubs.

Culture

Laramie has a reputation as being a Wild West town. The town today is slightly different. With Wyoming's only university, Laramie enjoys a college culture atmosphere during the school year, and a quiet quaint ghost-like town in the summer. The downtown area is full of historic buildings, housing, small shops, and cafés. The town has a highly educated population not only because of the presence of the University of Wyoming, but also because of Wyoming Technical Institute (WyoTech) and the Laramie County Community College.

Media

The ''Laramie Boomerang'' is Laramie's main newspaper. There is also the ''Branding Iron'', a student-run newspaper for the University of Wyoming.

Geography and climate

The Medicine Bow (Snowy Range) Mountains are popular with Laramie's outdoor enthusiasts

Laramie is located at (41.312927, -105.587251).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 28.9 km² (11.2 mi²). 28.8 km² (11.1 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it (0.18%) is water.
Laramie is situated on a high plain between two mountain ranges: The Medicine Bow Range (known locally as the Snowy Range) 30 miles to the west and the Laramie Range five miles to the east. The city's elevation is approximately above sea level. The Laramie River runs through Laramie toward its confluence with the North Platte River east of the Laramie Range.
The city is about west of Cheyenne, Wyoming, and miles north of Denver, Colorado. Laramie lies along U.S. Route 30, Interstate 80, and U.S. Route 287, and it remains an important junction on the Union Pacific Railroad line.
Because of the high elevation, winters are long, and summers are short and relatively cool. There is no month of the year during which snow has never fallen in Laramie.
Laramie's total precipitation averages only about a year, and the average number of rainy days per year is about 26. The city experiences a day that is or warmer about once a year. The average temperature in January is , and in July it is . Annual snowfall averages .

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 27,204 people, 11,336 households, and 5,611 families residing in the city. The population density was 942.9/km² (2,442.5/mi²). There were 11,994 housing units at an average density of 415.7/km² (1,076.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 90.81% White, 1.24% African American, 0.89% Native American, 1.92% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 2.89% from other races, and 2.19% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.94% of the population.
Like the rest of Wyoming, Laramie has a generally conservative and traditional reputation. However, the presence of the University of Wyoming gives the city a more eclectic and diverse population than many other cities in the region.
There were 11,336 households out of which 23.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.3% were married couples living together, 8.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 50.5% were non-families. 33.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.19 and the average family size was 2.83.
In the city the population was spread out with 17.5% under the age of 18, 31.8% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 16.8% from 45 to 64, and 8.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25 years. For every 100 females there were 107.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $27,319, and the median income for a family was $43,395. Males had a median income of $30,888 versus $22,009 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,036. About 11.1% of families and 22.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.7% of those under age 18 and 8.3% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Laramie has a council-manager form of government. The council, the city's legislative body, consists of nine members who serve overlapping four-year terms. The council members set policy, approve budgets, pass ordinances, appoint citizen volunteers to advisory boards, and oversee the city staff.
Two members of the council hold at-large seats, and seven are elected from city wards, one per ward. The council picks a mayor and vice-mayor once every two years at the first council meeting in January. On January 2, 2007, the members named Klaus Hanson mayor and Seth Carson vice-mayor.
Laramie is the county seat of Albany County and houses county offices, courts, and the county library.

Education

Schools in Laramie include:

★ University of Wyoming

★ Laramie High School

★ Whiting High School

★ Snowy Range Academy

★ Wyoming Technical Institute

★ Laramie County Community College - Albany County Campus

Trivia

★ The Laramie Cigarettes brand from The Simpsons is named after this Rocky Mountain town due to its wild west image (not unlike Marlboro brand in real life).

★ ''The Man from Laramie'' is a Jimmy Stewart movie.

★ The character of Spenser in the detective novels of Robert B. Parker was born in Laramie, Wyoming.

★ Famed attorney Gerry Spence and actor Jim Beaver were born in Laramie, Wyoming.

★ Former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino has a vacation home in Laramie, Wyoming.

★ Award-winning poet and academic H.L. (Harvey) Hix lives in Laramie.

★ Laramie was ranked in the top ten places to live by Bizjournals, in the top 40 outdoor college towns by Outside Magazine, and third for the best places for outdoor activities by MSN.

Points of interest

★ Ames Monument

★ Como Bluff

★ Vedauwoo

★ Medicine Bow Mountains

★ Laramie Plains Museum

References

1. "Chapter 3: Coming of Rails" Roberts, Phil (editor), University of Wyoming History Department, ''Readings in Wyoming History''. Retrieved on August 11, 2007.
2. "Chapter 4: Establishing the Territory and Granting Women Equal Rights Roberts, Phil (editor), University of Wyoming History Department, ''Readings in Wyoming History''. Retrieved on August 11, 2007.
3. Laramie Smoking Ban Subject of Television Program Tuesday" University of Wyoming news release, October 16, 2006. Retrieved on August 10, 2007.

External links

★ City of Laramie

★ University of Wyoming

★ Laramie Regional Airport

★ Laramie Plains Museum

★ Laramie Economic Development Corporation

★ Laramie Chamber of Commerce

★ Laramie ''Boomerang''