African Americans have been in Wyoming since the early days of the territory.

Jobs in mining, the railroad and booming communities attracted them to Wyoming. From 183 in 1870, the population peaked at 2235 in 1910 and dropped to 1375 in 1920 and 1250 in 1920.

Even so, vibrant African American communities existed in Casper, Cheyenne, Hanna, Laramie, Rawlins, Rock Springs, Sheridan, and Thermopolis. Where large numbers of African Americans resided, cultural organizations followed. Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal Churches were organized where large numbers of African Americans resided. An African American Presbyterian church was founded in the rural settlement of Empire northeast of Torrington on the Wyoming-Nebraska border. Other fraternal and social organizations included Masonic lodges and Elks clubs for men and a Southwestern Federation of Colored Women Clubs for women.

Who were these people? Not surprisingly, prominent individuals have held center stage in most historical accounts. William Jefferson Hardin was a legislator from Laramie County in the late 19th century. A handsome, dashing sort, he served the legislature with distinction. Barney Ford, also of Cheyenne, developed the Inter Ocean Hotel, which became a social center for many years.

But such notables were only part of the picture. There were single men and women, families, miners, barbers, bartenders, cowboys, businessmen, railroaders and laborers of all kinds. Law-abiding individuals lived alongside criminals and the down and out.

Black homesteaders also settled across parts of Wyoming. Some made a name for themselves, like James Edwards of Converse County and Joseph Tomly in the Snake Valley. Others were not so successful on the harsh Wyoming landscape.

Evidence about African Americans can be readily found in various historical records. Statistics kept by government institutions and agencies often noted the presence of blacks in Wyoming counties and communities. Some criminal records identified African American criminals as "Negro" or "Black."

In the late 1880 and early 1900s it was not uncommon for local newspapers, to use the word "colored" to identify African Americans. For some people, this designation seemed to be their only epitaph. The obituary of Lurena Gray in Lusk in 1927 would have seemed like any other newspaper obituary except for the fact she was observed to be African American. More research may reveal more about her and her husband.

During the 1880s, the "Cheyenne Daily Leader," as was its custom, gave its readers a full accounting of the civil and criminal cases in district court. In the case of the Territory of Wyoming vs. Sam Riley, the paper summarized that "the demurrer to the indictment was overruled by the court, who directed that a copy of the indictment be served on the defendant. Riley then pleaded not guilty." The paper concluded that "Riley, though his name does not indicate it, is a colored man."

Not all "colored" designations implied a negative connotation. T. C. Williams, a justice of the peace in Converse County in the nineteenth century. "Though a black man," Bill Barlow's paper reported, "'Tom' is whiter than many individuals who have a white skin, and is, moreover, a man of considerable education." He served as a justice of the peace for two years and "made a record for square-toed justice of which he may well be proud."

Williams was well remembered during his lifetime. Today, his name is not as well known as Ford or Hardin. But the African American experience in general is not that well known either and it should be.

The town was established because of agriculture. It was named, not for the farmer, investor, engineer or railroad official but for a saloonkeeper and lifelong gambler.

It is said that C. H. "Dad" Worland took a gamble and located his 160-acre homestead where he envisioned freighters and travelers would stop on the way north or south through the Big Horn Basin. He probably never envisioned a town on the barren site.

Just when Worland came to the Big Horn Basin is not known although he was selling fruit trees to the few ranchers in the Basin as early as the 1880s. A native of Missouri, he reportedly had been one of the first men to trail sheep from the Pacific Northwest to eastern markets. He invested in sheep but had marginal luck, losing much of his flock in severe winters.

A prosperous storeowner in Basin loaned Worland enough money to file for the homestead and "build" a structure on it. From the dugout carved into the side of a hill, Worland dispensed liquor, sundries and incidentals to passersby.

It was a good spot for a store. Located where 15-mile Creek empties into the Big Horn River, Worland's "Hole-in-the-Wall Saloon" became a natural hangout for a variety of stragglers. For the convenience of his "customers" Worland "established" a bank.

The bank was far from conventional, even for those days. In fact, the bank consisted of a cigar box behind the bar. "Loans," "deposits" and check-cashing were conducted on a largely "do-it-yourself" basis. Each week Worland took the checks to Thermopolis to exchange them for hard cash. Legend has it that not one penny was ever taken improperly by Worland's customers, and although the "banker" held large sums of cash at times, he never locked it up. "Dad" Worland trusted people.

C. F. Robertson is generally credited as the town of Worland's founder. In his book, "Historical Review of the Worland Valley" (1941), a copy of which is in the Washakie County Library, Robertson wrote that it was "Dad" Worland who convinced him that the site near the Hole-in-the-Wall Saloon was a perfect place for a town.

Robertson had become interested in the area in 1902 when he and two associates agreed to finance a survey for an irrigation system in the Big Horn Basin. The next year the survey crew mapped out plans for the Hanover Canal B so named because Hanover, Indiana, had been the hometown of Basin lawyer J. P. Arnott who filed the first water right for the group.

The company established for the purpose of building the system was named the Hanover Canal Company. It wasn't the first irrigation project planned for the area, however. Some 20 years earlier William A. Richards and a syndicate of Colorado businessmen staked claims and began construction of a canal system. No water was diverted from the river, however. (A couple of small ditches were built to irrigate individual homesteads in the intervening 20 years, it should be noted.)

The Richards group still held the land in the area of the proposed Hanover Canal but after complicated negotiations, the Hanover Company and the Richards organization merged. According to records in the Wyoming State Archives, Richards was assistant commissioner of the U. S. General Land Office in Washington, D. C. He had served as Wyoming governor from 1895 to 1899.

The first four officers of the new company, W. L. Culbertson, D. T. Pulliam, R. E. Coburn and Robertson, were all honored by having streets named for them in the newly-established town. But the name of the town founded because of agriculture and water for irrigation, ironically, came from a man who dispensed something stronger than water, C. H. "Dad" Worland saloonkeeper, hotelman, "banker," and gambler. Worland, Wyoming was off and running.

(Photo of Worland taken on August 11, 1910 by photographer J.E. Stimson -- Wyoming State Archives photo)

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