By Lucas Keeler

From Sept. 6th through the 8th the Weston County Historical Society will welcome people from all across Wyoming and elsewhere to Newcastle for the Wyoming Historical Society’s 71st annual meeting.

Register today for your chance to attend fascinating presentations and explore the rich history of Weston County located on the western edge of the Black Hills. Vast resources from the National Thunder Basin Grasslands to coal and oil deposits have profoundly shaped the county’s past.

Named after John Weston, a discoverer of the coal at Cambria, Weston County was formerly the southern part of Crook County until it was created by the Wyoming Territorial Legislature on March 12, 1890. At 2,400 square miles, Weston County is Wyoming’s 18th largest county. Encompassing nearly 1.5 million acres, the county is largely agricultural dependent with 1.2 million acres of range land. 

In 1857, the first authorized military expedition to the Black Hills—led by Lieut. G.K. Warren and geologist Dr. F. V. Hayden—constructed a log corral east of Newcastle along the bank of what became known as Stockade Beaver Creek. From this location Warren established a semi-permanent camp to explore the Black Hills before departing the area. The site sat abandoned for 18 years until on June 3, 1875, a party of geologists and miners arrived, led by Professor Walter P. Jenney and 432 soldiers under the command of Lieut. Col. Richard Dodge. The site formerly occupied by the Warren expedition was perfect for their reconnaissance needs. Construction of a stockade began and became known as Camp Jenney. After the departure of the Jenney party, the stockade became a stopover and stage stop on the Cheyenne-Deadwood stage route until the stage route changed in 1878. The surrounding land and the stockade were purchased by Joseph Spencer and became known as the LAK ranch. The LAK ranch is now owned by True Ranches LLC and is still in operation. 

Coal in present-day Weston County was known as far back as 1879, but it wasn’t until a major discovery of coal was made in 1887 that the area became “coal country.”  John Weston (Weston County’s namesake) and Frank Mondell, while prospecting for a coal source for the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad’s planned route through northeastern Wyoming, encountered a coal seam of excellent and sufficient quality. With the discovery, the future of the railroad was assured, and the coal mine and town of Cambria was founded. The underground coal mine was in operation from 1889 until 1928, and at one point the company-owned town had a reported population of nearly 1,400 people. Today, Cambria is a ghost town, but its legacy upon the coal industry and the county remain.

Anticipation of the Cambria mine in 1889 created a new townsite named Newcastle by Cambria Coal Company’s Superintendent J.H. Hemingway after his coal shipping hometown of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. The coal deposits of the Cambria mine were located in a canyon with not enough room for the building of a sizeable community. Railroad surveys revealed that the main line of the railroad could not be brought nearer than the mouth of the canyon, a point seven miles from the mine. Thus, Newcastle came to be at this location, where the Cambria spur was to join the railroad.

The historic Flying V- Cambria Inn, located north of Newcastle, was built by the Cambria Coal Company as a resort and a memorial to the Cambria coal miners. It was completed in 1928, but a few months later the coal mine would close, and its future became in doubt. It was originally known as the Cambria Park and Casino. In 1931, the company leased the park and casino, and renamed it the Flying V, after the lessee’s livestock brand. The inn, with its construction of native sandstone from nearby quarries, is one of the architectural gems of Weston County.

Weston County’s oil history dates back to 1877 with the discovery of oil springs west of the LAK Ranch. The heavy characteristics of the oil were ideal for lubricating, enabling a strong market for the product at the gold mines in Lead, Dakota Territory. After the discovery, a small oil boom ensued, and soon the foothills near present-day Newcastle were littered with prospector shacks and staked oil claims. This would be the first of many oil booms in what would become Weston County. In 1919, a discovery well was drilled by the Mike Henry Oil Company near the small town of Osage. The well proved to be a gusher, and the Osage Oil Field was born. 

The small Weston County town of Upton origins traces back to the late 1880s when it was known as the settlement of Iron Town (or Iron City). The “hard winter” of 1886-87 devastated the cattle market, but some ranchers replaced their cattle with sheep. Pens and corrals were constructed near Iron Town and would be used for shearing and other sheep operations. With the railroad’s arrival in 1890, Iron Town changed its name to Merino, in honor of the breed of sheep. In 1901, Merino was renamed Upton in honor of a railroad surveyor named George Upton. Today, Upton is known as “The best town on earth.”

From the Tyrannosaurus of the forested river valleys of the Cretaceous to the spiritual canyon adorned with sacred rock art known as Whoop Up. From stagecoaches laden with treasure to gushing oil wells. Our significance to Wyoming’s history cannot be understated. Welcome to Weston County. Our priceless history awaits you.

Learn more about Weston County here