People And Places That Make Wyoming Special

Wyoming is famous for its rugged scenic beauty, as I discovered on a recent visit. But the state’s people and places are as interesting as the vistas.

Southeast Wyoming grew quickly following the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad in Cheyenne in November 1867. Cheyenne was called the “Magic City of the Plains,” growing to 5000 people by 1868. Cheyenne became a hub for railroad maintenance, shipping and the cattle boom. The town became the capital of the Territory and later the state of Wyoming.

Erasmus Nagle, who made his in lumber, cattle and groceries, spent $50,000 building what is now known as The Nagle Warren Mansion in 1888. It was one of the costliest homes west of the Mississippi, but Nagle could afford to live on Millionaire’s Row. At his death just two years later, he was one of the richest men in Cheyenne, worth a half million dollars.

Today the mansion has been restored as the Nagle Warren Mansion Bed and Breakfast. Its furnishings, wallpaper, cherry, mahogany, and oak woodwork and stained-glass windows are right out of the American Old West period.

However, Francis E. Warren, later the state’s first governor and U.S. senator, remarked on the “rough and tumble” atmosphere of early Cheyenne. “Every man slept with from one to a half-dozen revolvers under his pillow, for depradations [sic] of every character could be expected at any hour, day or night.” Such lawlessness no doubt led to the 1872 construction of the Wyoming Territorial Prison in Laramie.

After Nagle’s death, the house was eventually sold to Senator Warren in 1910. General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, Buffalo Bill Cody, Teddy Roosevelt and President William Howard Taft all were guests at the mansion.

I stayed in the Pershing room. It had red wallpaper, a vast king-size bed with a carved wooden frame, a carved wooden fireplace, and portraits and photos of the General looking stern, even with his family. Evening reading was a vintage copy of the Hemingway-edited “Men at War,” with “the 37 best war stories of all time.”

Jas Barbe, proprietor of the Mansion, is a colorful character who has been a hospitality consultant and a Cordon Bleu graduate and Michelin-starred chef. He was the owner of a buffalo herd in Centennial, Wyoming, after returning from Vietnam.

In 2021, it became his mission to restore the elegant residence once known as the “Duchess of Cheyenne.” As he serves the beautiful breakfast he cooks for guests, Barbe will entrance you with backstairs tales of The Nagle Mansion, where the ornate hand carved ceilings and stairs and the restored library and parlor takes one back to the Western version of the Gilded Age.

Cheyenne is also home to the Wild J Trading Hat Bar and Boutique, operated by Jennifer Thompson. Ms. Thompson helps men and women create their own customized cowboy hats, accessorized with hat bands, feathers, threads, stars, playing cards, fabric roses and even spent cartridges. I chose to add a coyote and a cactus, as well as yellow feathers, part of an anti-suicide campaign spurred by the death of a local cowboy.

In Laramie Country, Las Vegas transplant Chad Brown, created Laramie County’s first licensed distillery in Pine Bluffs. Brown came from Las Vegas to open Pine Bluffs Distilling. The growing distiller is family owned and operated, and all grains are locally grown and malted on site. Variants like 5 grain whiskey, straight rye whiskey, oat whiskey, wheated bourbon, vodka and gin can be tried in the tasting room, straight or as cocktails.

Like the Nagle Warren Mansion in Cheyene, the Laramie Plains Museum at the Historic Iverson Mansion shows what life was like for the wealthy in late 19^th Century Wyoming. The mansion has a collection of Victorian fixtures and furnishings, kitchenware and old appliances, and even a one-room schoolhouse.

I wore my new hat to Torrington, a Wyoming agricultural town where one can see a livestock sale in real time. Improbably, Torrington is home to the Bread Doctor, a bakery that draws regular customers from as far away as Montana.

The origins of the popular bakery are simple. Owner Edzan Fluckinger is a doctor who came to Torrington more than 20 years ago to provide medical services. He and his wife have a daughter with Down’s Syndrome. Fluckinger learned to bake and eventually created the bakery, with the thought of having a place where his daughter could work.

The bakery employs many of Torrington’s young people, including his daughter. And its breads, pastries and carefully decorated cakes are delicious.

The city of Laramie is home to “U Dub,” or the University of Wyoming. In 1998, Matthew Shepherd, a gay student, was beaten to death near Laramie. One of the murals that are part of the Laramie Mural Project commemorates the “angels” who held sheets up like wings at the courthouse, to protect Shepherd’s family from homophobic demonstrators.

Today the city has a bohemian vibe. It has brewery and mural tours, as well as many shops and restaurants travelers will enjoy. Even the most confirmed carnivore will find something at Melissa Murphy’s 25-year-old vegetarian restaurant, Sweet Melissa, which also includes a full bar.

“What did you do for financing?” I asked Ms. Murphy. “I borrowed $2,000 from my mother 25 years ago.” She says tourists fanatically look for vegetarian restaurants, and that the students and faculty of the University have also been key customers.

Another Laramie success story is The Range Leather Company, which crafts wallets, journals, pocketbooks, business card holders and bands for Apple Watches. Range also does custom work imprinting a city name or company brand on its leather goods. Owner Kyle Koster started leather work at his kitchen table in 2014 as a hobby. Range now employs over 25 people. Its three key tenets are on its web page; Full Grain Leather, Made In The USA, and a Forever Guarantee.

Ruth Williams, owner of Sugar Mouse Cupcake House (“a little piece of England in downtown Laramie”) also has an interesting story. The tall, elegant Williams is originally from Essex, where she met her husband, who was on a Mormon mission. They married and she followed him to Laramie. She raised their six children and worked providing childcare.

But Williams had a cause; she became passionately involved with helping girls and young women ensnared in Cambodia’s sex trade. She started selling cupcakes at the Farmer’s Market to generate revenue, using recipes she had learned in England using rich cream and real sugar. After a rainstorm ruined hundreds of cupcakes, she knew she needed a storefront.

Sugar Mouse is now a frilly pink tea house for afternoon tea, with scones, crumpets, soup of the day, English stew and, of course, cupcakes. A children’s tea house in the basement is under way.

I ended my tour of Southeast Wyoming with lunch at The Malt in Saratoga, (“Burgers, BBQ, and Whiskey”) drinking a “boozy malted” Irish coffee. Then it was off to soak in a teepee at the mineral springs at the Saratoga Hot Springs Resort and enjoy a steak at 130-year-old Hotel Wolf (“Discover the Wild West”) before sadly returning to Los Angeles.