Wyoming, Natrona County, Midwest
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In the early 1900s, hopeful oil workers flooded Salt Creek - especially "boomers" from "gone bust" oilfields in other states. Many companies built camps next to wells to house employees. As companies changed hands and shifted from drilling operations, camps changed names and locations. Some 200 camps thrived in Salt Creek, housing over 10,000 people during peak years of the 1920s.
Boom Towns, Ragtowns
Some workers built their own camps, and towns, including "ragtowns" made of tents. Local homesteaders also turned ranches into towns, such as Layoye, Snyder, and Edgerton.
Home Camp, aka Midwest
The most significant of the camps was Home Camp. Its first buildings were erected in 1910 by the California Oil Company. After World War One, Midwest Refining Company transformed the camp into an ideal company town with standardized houses, lawn care requirements, boarding houses, mess halls, schools, hospital, commissary, drug store, playing fields, theater, and community hall. Being a company town, one thing it didn't have was nightlife. But surrounding towns amply supplied saloons, dancehall, and brothels. Standardized homes can still be seen in Midwest and its suburb Gas Camp.
Civic Survival
To attract residents, boom towns competed in entertainment offerings as well as civic organizations and commercial development. These included drugstores, barbershops, banks, automobile dealerships, garages, clubhouses, civic buildings, movie theaters, oak-floored dancehall, orchestras, performers, pool halls, and cabarets (supplied by stills in the hills during Prohibition, which outlasted most of the settlements). The paved Salt Creek Highway and North & South Railroad greatly enhanced the towns and gave them hope for permanence by making them more accessible and attractive to residents.
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The inevitable "bust" sent many oilfield workers packing in search of other work, yet many people who live in the Casper/Salt Creek area have ties to boomers. They recall the glorious days and exciting times that their forebears experienced: the hope and optimism shared by many during the post-World War I era. The people of Salt Creek were building new communities, realizing dreams, and achieving wealth.
The Saga of Lavoye
An unsettling episode in Salt Creek social history is the saga of Lavoye. Homesteader Louie Lavoye developed this railroad stop and thriving town of 1,000 residents on his land; however, in 1923 the Ohio Oil Company contested Lavoye's claim and wanted to drill under the town. In a fight that went to the Secretary of the Interior, the oil company won.
Some residents moved to surrounding towns, but many started the new town of New Lavoye near Teapot Dome. Its claim to fame was a large indoor swimming pool fed with naturally hot water piped from Tisdale Mountain. For almost ninety years this pool was visible from the Salt Creek Highway (Highway 259).
Lasting Community
Salt Creek's boom days ended in the late 1920s with diminished oil production due to reduced gas pressure and decreased supply - and the arrival of the Great Depression. Wages dropped, and people left for more active oilfields. Devastating fires and closure of the North & South Railroad hastened the death of boom towns, except Edgerton and Midwest.
Much reduced from its earlier magnitude, Midwest remains today because the company that owned it became the oilfield's sole operator. It was also the largest and most established oilfield community. In 1975-76 Midwest became and independent, incorporated town. Edgerton remains today because it complemented Midwest through provision of services and amenities that the straight-laced company town did not allow.
Dreams & Recollections
Although the oil industry overshadowed other activities in this area during the excitement of the 1920s, the land was (and is) also used for ranching. Even public land (encompassing most of the oilfield) is leased for grazing. Abandoned boom town and camp structures that survived fires were bought, moved, and repurposed by ranchers and are still in use today.
(Industry & Commerce • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
center panel: In the early 1900s, hopeful oil workers flooded Salt Creek - especially "boomers" from "gone bust" oilfields in other states. Many companies built camps next to wells to house employees. As companies changed hands and shifted from drilling operations, camps changed names and locations. Some 200 camps thrived in Salt Creek, housing over 10,000 people during peak years of the 1920s.
Boom Towns, Ragtowns
Some workers built their own camps, and towns, including "ragtowns" made of tents. Local homesteaders also turned ranches into towns, such as Layoye, Snyder, and Edgerton.
Home Camp, aka Midwest
The most significant of the camps was Home Camp. Its first buildings were erected in 1910 by the California Oil Company. After World War One, Midwest Refining Company transformed the camp into an ideal company town with standardized houses, lawn care requirements, boarding houses, mess halls, schools, hospital, commissary, drug store, playing fields, theater, and community hall. Being a company town, one thing it didn't have was nightlife. But surrounding towns amply supplied saloons, dancehall, and brothels. Standardized homes can still be seen in Midwest and its suburb Gas Camp.
Civic Survival
To attract residents, boom towns competed in entertainment offerings as well as civic organizations and commercial development. These included drugstores, barbershops, banks, automobile dealerships, garages, clubhouses, civic buildings, movie theaters, oak-floored dancehall, orchestras, performers, pool halls, and cabarets (supplied by stills in the hills during Prohibition, which outlasted most of the settlements). The paved Salt Creek Highway and North & South Railroad greatly enhanced the towns and gave them hope for permanence by making them more accessible and attractive to residents.
bottom panel:
The inevitable "bust" sent many oilfield workers packing in search of other work, yet many people who live in the Casper/Salt Creek area have ties to boomers. They recall the glorious days and exciting times that their forebears experienced: the hope and optimism shared by many during the post-World War I era. The people of Salt Creek were building new communities, realizing dreams, and achieving wealth.
The Saga of Lavoye
An unsettling episode in Salt Creek social history is the saga of Lavoye. Homesteader Louie Lavoye developed this railroad stop and thriving town of 1,000 residents on his land; however, in 1923 the Ohio Oil Company contested Lavoye's claim and wanted to drill under the town. In a fight that went to the Secretary of the Interior, the oil company won.
Some residents moved to surrounding towns, but many started the new town of New Lavoye near Teapot Dome. Its claim to fame was a large indoor swimming pool fed with naturally hot water piped from Tisdale Mountain. For almost ninety years this pool was visible from the Salt Creek Highway (Highway 259).
Lasting Community
Salt Creek's boom days ended in the late 1920s with diminished oil production due to reduced gas pressure and decreased supply - and the arrival of the Great Depression. Wages dropped, and people left for more active oilfields. Devastating fires and closure of the North & South Railroad hastened the death of boom towns, except Edgerton and Midwest.
Much reduced from its earlier magnitude, Midwest remains today because the company that owned it became the oilfield's sole operator. It was also the largest and most established oilfield community. In 1975-76 Midwest became and independent, incorporated town. Edgerton remains today because it complemented Midwest through provision of services and amenities that the straight-laced company town did not allow.
Dreams & Recollections
Although the oil industry overshadowed other activities in this area during the excitement of the 1920s, the land was (and is) also used for ranching. Even public land (encompassing most of the oilfield) is leased for grazing. Abandoned boom town and camp structures that survived fires were bought, moved, and repurposed by ranchers and are still in use today.
(Industry & Commerce • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Alfred 'Al' Zampa was the first born son of Emilio and Maria Zampa, Italian immigrants who migrated to the USA from Abruzzi, Italy. Al was born on March 12, 1905 in Selby, California down river from where this plaque sits. He was the eldest of three brothers and two sisters.
Marked by the 
1336 miles - Nauvoo, Illinois to the Salt Lake Valley 
Superintendent of Ithaca public schools from 1876 to 1884.
In front of you lay the hull remains of the schooner Forester. The schooner, launched in Alameda in 1900, would take cargoes of lumber from northern forests of Oregon and Washington to points in the Pacific including China, India, and Australia. The Forester was 250 feet long, 32 feet wide and weighed 680 tons. 
The following entry appears in the official Shipyard Log of June 19, 1876: "A large carved Eagle (wood) was placed on the pediment of the office building today."
In 1875 Henry B. Sanborn (1845-1912) began a long association with the State of Texas when he became the Texas sales agent for Joseph F. Glidden's newly patented invention, barbed wire. A native of New York, Sanborn had become acquainted with Glidden in DeKalb, Illinois, where he had boarded with the Glidden Family and in 1868 had married Glidden's niece, Ellen Wheeler.
A star of the age of steam transportation. Pride of Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, which came into Texas in 1886, has its Panhandle and Santa Fe General Offices in Amarillo, and served much of this area.
Casper’s unique National Guard Armory was built here in 1930 to house the Headquarters Troop of the 115th Cavalry Regiment. The indoor field provided room for training both horses and men, and even hosted the occasional polo match until the regiment was called to active duty on February 24, 1941. 
Originally known to trappers and explorers (1830-1847) as Upper Crossing of the North Platte River, it became the Mormon Ferry in 1847. Guinard built a bridge here in 1858, and troops from Platte Bridge Station guarded the telegraph line and protected emigrants on the “Oregon Trail”. July 26, 1865, the station was attacked by hordes of Indians. Lt. Caspar Collins led an heroic attempt to rescue Sgt. Custard’s wagon train, but sacrificed his life in aiding a fallen soldier. The station was renamed “Fort Caspar” in his honor. Abandoned in 1867 ,the fort and bridge were burned by Indians. The old fort was restored on its original foundations in 1936.
