On July 4, 1867, General Grenville M. Dodge, the Union Pacific Railroad's superintendent of construction, along with railroad representatives, surveyors, land agents, military officers, and some of Dodge’s personal friends arrived at an area known as Crow Creek Crossing. About 250 soldiers accompanied them to the Crossing in southeastern Dakota Territory to a rendezvous with General Christopher Columbus Augur, his 350 troops, and Pawnee Scouts. Dodge had planned the founding of his new city specifically on the nation's birthday. During his two weeks at Crow Creek Crossing, Dodge with his survey crew platted the site two miles by two miles, now known as Cheyenne (Dakota Territory, later Wyoming Territory). He knew, from having been in the area before as a commander of troops looking for unruly Indians, he wanted Crow Creek Crossing as the Division Point for the U. P. railroad. It was the exact location, where to the east, land went down hill gradually five hundred miles to the railroad's head at Council Bluffs, Iowa and in the opposite direction began the railroad's most serious climb. Sherman Hill, named after one of Dodge's Civil War commanding officers, would rise more than two thousand, two hundred feet in just thirty miles to the west of Cheyenne. The city was not named by Dodge as is indicated in his memoirs of 1910. It was, in fact, named by the officers and friends of Dodge at Crow Creek Crossing, celebrating the Fourth of July, while Dodge and his crew were surveying the right-of-way for the railroad. He missed the party and the actual naming of the future city. According to a letter sent to his wife on the 4th of July in 1867 and his daily diary of the same date, Dodge wrote he was out of the encampment at the Crossing with his survey crew when others named the town “Cheyenne” after a local Indian tribe. At the party, Colonel A. B. Coleman, in responding to a toast to “The embryo City of Cheyenne” explained that he was a “member of the Committee to decide upon the name of this city,” and that the committee had decided to call it “by its present cognomen in hopes of conciliating the interesting Savages”; however, he didn’t wait around to determine their response. From the writings of those at the Crossing on that 4th of July, there was definite sarcasm toward the Cheyenne Indians, who hunted buffalo, antelope, and, quite often, white men up and down the Crow Creek. The name likely came from French trappers in the region many decades earlier who did not like that particular tribe and intentionally gave them the French name "chienne", which was at the time a derogatory name. The white man anglicized the name of this Native American nation, one of the most famous and prominent Great Plains tribes, closely allied with the Arapaho. The Cheyenne were among the fiercest fighters on the plains. Not pleased with the changes brought about by the railroad, they had harassed both railroad surveyors and construction crews, killing many. People from a hundred miles around who felt the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad through the area would bring them prosperity. By the time the first track was built into Cheyenne four months after its founding (November 13), over four thousand people had migrated into the new city. Eastern newspaper editors wrote that because it sprang up like magic upon the empty prairie, it should be known as the "Magic City, Queen of the Plains". In its trek across the western continent, the sole occasion when railroad construction ceased was half way up Sherman Hill. Due to very poor wintery conditions, with temperatures extremely severe, the Union Pacific told all of its employees to go home and come back in the Spring; their jobs were guaranteed for three months. Most of the construction gangs were ex-Civil War soldiers who had come from the distant East. They couldn't get home and back in that period of time. Therefore they poured into Cheyenne for the winter, swelling its population to over 10,000 (including only 400 women and 200 children), virtually overnight. The Sheriff and his two deputies were overwhelmed with the hordes. By January of 1868, the Vigilance Committee, known as the "Gunny Sack Gang" enforced their kind of justice for the next six months. A recorded twenty hangings in and around Cheyenne left their imprint on the city's history with likely another four or five suspected. Once the railroad continued on to Laramie City, the need for the 200 masked policemen diminished. Those who stayed and did not leave with the westward construction of the railroad were joined by gamblers, saloon owners, thieves, opportunists, displaced cowboys, miners, transient railroad gangs, businessmen, soldiers from "Camp Cheyenne", later named Fort Russell (now F.E. Warren Air Force Base), and men from "Cheyenne Depot". Within a year, Cheyenne's population had settled down to a respectable fifteen hundred loyal citizens. Camp Cheyenne was founded on the 5th of July, 1867, by General Augur. At the urging of Dodge, Augur placed the fort three miles upstream on Crow Creek. Within two months, its name was officially changed to Fort David A. Russell, for a General killed in the Civil War. Early Cheyenne's most prosperous business man, Francis E. Warren, became the Mayor, temporary Governor and later the Governor of Wyoming Territory, and finally Wyoming's Senator for 37 years. Upon his death, the name of the fort was changed to Francis E. Warren on January 1, 1930. It is currently one of the nation's strategic missile installations, aiding in Cheyenne's economy. A part of Francis Warren's vast empire exists today as the Terry Bison Ranch six miles south of Cheyenne on Interstate 25. This working ranch is much as it was in Warren's day. Colonel J. H. Carling, who had accompanied General Dodge to Crow Creek Crossing, was the first officer of a huge camp, supplying all fourteen northern army posts and three Indian Agencies on the frontier. The nickname of "Camp Carling" over the years, likely due to lazy speech, came to be called "Camp Carlin", though it was officially known as "Cheyenne Depot". This supply depot was located half way between Cheyenne and Fort Russell. By 1890, the Indians were on reservations, the surrounding forts were closed, and Cheyenne Depot was no longer needed. Today, there is no sign of the second largest supply depot in the United States. However, a couple of the houses from the depot were moved into Cheyenne and still remain. In Cheyenne, because of the legislative lobbying efforts of Esther Hobart Morris, Wyoming Territory, in December 1869, became the first in the world to allow women the right to vote. They were also allowed to hold public office, to own land, and to retain property passed on in their husband's will. Previously, all went on to the deceased's eldest son without further legal discussion. It wasn't until fifty-one years later, in 1920, that the Constitution was amended for the rights of all women in America. Because of Wyoming's controversial 1869 stand on women's suffrage, it is known as the Equality State. While Esther Hobart Morris was immediately appointed as the nation's first woman Justice of the Peace, it was Nellie Tayloe Ross who became the country's first woman Governor. Cheyenne's William Ross, during the first part of his administration as Governor of Wyoming, underwent an appendectomy. Complications from that surgery led to his death. His wife was chosen in the next general election of 1924 to fulfill her husband's term, making her the first woman Governor in the United States. As the capital of the Wyoming Territory, and the only city of any consequence, Cheyenne was a major national source for beef during the 1870s and 1880s. The cattle industry boomed when European, British, and East Coast investors bought up all the land around Cheyenne for grazing. By 1885, the city bathed in its wealth and was known officially as "Wall Street of the West". Anything that happened with the cattle industry directly affected New York's Wall Street and the eastern states' economy. Cheyenne was at the time the richest city in the world per capita. The boom turned to bust during the severe winter of 1886-87, when nearly 80 percent of the estimated one million head of cattle in the area perished. The Cattle Barons went broke. Today, the cattle and sheep industry around Cheyenne is very strong, adding to the economy. Due to this rich influence, in 1886, the Union Pacific was pushed into building the most beautiful railroad depot between Omaha and San Francisco. The completely restored Richardsonian-style facility, with its tall clock tower and polychromatic (two toned) stone, became a National Landmark in 2006. It may be the only major structure in the U.S. to have a portico through the building. This popular European feature was designed to allow horse-drawn carriages to go into the building to let out passengers without fear of them getting rained or snowed upon. The building is now the Cheyenne Depot Museum, providing a historical look at the Union Pacific's building of the transcontinental railway and its association with the city, together with examples of the steam power that dominated the Cheyenne rail yard. The Cheyenne Club, built as a playhouse by the Cattle Barons in 1880, was the natural meeting place for the organization of the large well-capitalized ranches, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (See Johnson County War of 1892, the largest of the "range wars" of early Wyoming history.) The Cheyenne newspaper offices of Asa Shinn Mercer's Northwestern Livestock Journal were burned down when the paper, which was founded as a public relations vehicle for the moneyed cattle interests, began to write scathing accounts of the events that were unfolding on the open range. Many of the ranch owners around the city were directly involved in that range war. In a celebration of the cowboy, Cheyenne Frontier Days was begun in 1897 and, with its success, has become the world's largest outdoor rodeo. From meager beginnings, it has become a Wild West celebration during the last ten days of July every year. Contests of steer roping and bronco riding still prevail, along with Brama Bull riding and Wild Horse races. The tradition includes a midway carnival and celebrities entertaining huge crowds each night of the rodeo. The Air Force Thunderbirds, who have flown acrobatics over Cheyenne for more than 50 years, parades, and free pancake breakfasts are all part of Cheyenne Frontier Days. General Dodge planned to have an assortment of railroad repair shops located at his Division Point in Cheyenne. However, Laramie, 48 miles west of the city, got the majority of early facilities for political reasons. By 1885, Cheyenne became the site for most of the engine and car repair departments. From the 1920s through the 1950s, Cheyenne's expanded rail yards and facilities employed as many as 5000 men and women in around the clock shifts. It is still a major hub for the Union Pacific as over 65 coast-to-coast trains pass through it daily. As a town created by the railroad, Cheyenne fittingly preserves one of the eight surviving Union Pacific RailroadUnion Pacific Union Pacific Big BoyBig Boy locomotives ("4004"), the largest steam locomotives ever built, designed for hauling freight over the Rocky Mountains at high speeds. These engines typically hauled 100 freight cars up steep grades between Cheyenne and Ogden, Utah, at 50 miles per hour. This massive locomotive now resides in Holliday Park, a few blocks from downtown Cheyenne. Today, the city is the home of the Union Pacific Steam Shop. Its crew of ten talented members keep two live steamers in operating condition for the railroad. Cheyenne hosts railfans from all over the world who come to see the last steam locomotive the U.P. bought, the "844". The world's largest, operating steam locomotive, the "3985", is also available for excusions anywhere in the country. It has a 4-6-6-4 wheel arrangement and is only slightly smaller than its cousin, the "4004". Tours of the steam shop facilities are available with advanced notice. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne%2C_Wyoming