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The New Birmingham of the West!
Promotional map of Guernsey, Wyoming, published in 1900 to promote the opening of the town and the arrival of the Railroad and the creation of this new town in the Hartfield Mining District.
Guernsey is located just west of Ft. Laramie in eastern Wyoming.
The map was produced by the Lincoln Land Company of Lincoln, Nebraska and Fairbank, Wyoming, to promote the new town of Guernsey in the Hartville Iron District.
Guernsey
In the 1840s, the area that modern day Guernsey is located on was known as the "emigrant's wash tub". Here the pioneers washed clothes, watered stock and took baths. In the year 1880, a New Yorker named Charles A. Guernsey moved west and bought some land in what was then Laramie County. It is on this land that the present day Guernsey is found. The town of Guernsey lies directly on the old Oregon Trail. The Town was incorporated in 1902 when the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad reached the area.
Hartville Mining District
Hartville was named for Major Verling K. Hart, who was an officer at Ft. Laramie. Hart opened the first copper mine in Hartville, which became the first incorporated town in Wyoming in 1884. Italian and Greek immigrants ran the copper mines, and brought their culture, tastes, and families to Hartville and neighboring Sunset. By 1887, the copper mines were nearly depleted, but gold and silver were being mined. At this time, miners found huge deposits of pure iron. The Hartville and Sunset area became the first open pit mine in the world. It was called the Chicago Mine, or the Glory Hole. The Chicago Mine was 650 feet deep and is still one of the largest open pit mines in history.
Iron production in Hartville reached its peak in 1942, with a million tons, before tapering off and officially closing 1984.
Rarity
The map is very rare. We locate only 2 examples (Denver Public Library and University of Wyoming).
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