Editing Centennial, Wyoming (section)

==History==
[[File:Centennial Wyoming 130.JPG|thumb|left|Wyoming 130 facing Centennial.]]

As the [[Union Pacific Railroad]] was pushing west to link up with the [[Central Pacific Railroad]], as part of the [[First transcontinental railroad]], they sent logging crews into the [[Medicine Bow Mountains|Snowy Range]], in the Medicine Bow Mountains, to cut down timber (mainly [[Lodgepole Pine]]) for railroad ties.  A work camp was built on the site of the town.  After they had completed most of their work and the workers started having conflicts with area Native Americans, the crews left the area.  After the area was opened to homesteaders a few ranchers returned to the area.<ref name=GTP-WTandT>[http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/ghost2.html Ghost Town Photos] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303014322/http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/ghost2.html |date=2009-03-03 }}. - Wyoming Tales and Trails.</ref><ref name=C-UWAandTE>[http://www.ultimatewyoming.com/section%20pages/Section%205/centennial.html Centennial] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717153003/http://www.ultimatewyoming.com/section%20pages/Section%205/centennial.html |date=July 17, 2011 }}. - ''The Ultimate Wyoming Atlas and Travel Encyclopedia''.</ref>

Men working for I. P. Lambing (superintendent at the mine) of [[Golden, Colorado]] and [[Stephen Wheeler Downey|Colonel Stephen W. Downey]] (a lawyer and president of what would become Centennial Gold Mining Company) of [[Laramie, Wyoming]], discovered gold on what would become Centennial Ridge on Centennial Mountain in 1875.  As miners and prospectors started coming to the area, to work the Centennial Mine (also called the Downey Lode and Centennial Vein), they reestablished a community on the old work camp site in 1876 and named the town Centennial in honor of the 100th anniversary of the signing of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] and founding of the United States.  Most of the gold was stripped from the mines by 1877, but the town was now established and merchants who came to serve the miners stayed to serve the nearby ranchers.<ref name=GTP-WTandT /><ref name=C-UWAandTE /><ref name=C-WTorg>[http://www.wyomingtourism.org/cms/d/centennial.php Centennial] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105083123/http://www.wyomingtourism.org/cms/d/centennial.php |date=January 5, 2009 }}. - WyomingTourism.org.</ref>

On the west side of Centennial Ridge a copper claim was discovered by Jacob Schnitzler in 1896.<ref>Thybony, Scott, Robert G. Rosenberg, Elizabeth Mullett Rosenberg (2001). - ''The Medicine Bows''. - Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Press. - p.102. - {{ISBN|978-0-87004-415-1}}.</ref>

Gold had people coming to the area again in 1902, and again in 1923&ndash;1924, but no significant amount was ever found.  Loggers returned to the area in 1905 to cut timber for a coal mine near [[Coalmont, Colorado|Coalmont]] in [[Jackson County, Colorado]].  Acme Consolidated Gold & Mining Company, headed by Isaac Van Horn, bought up timber land around the town, the townsite (Interstate Town Site Company), opened a sawmill, a [[planing mill]] and lumber yard, and opened a newspaper, the ''Centennial Post''.  The partners in Acme Consolidated Gold & Mining Company, Van Horn, Fred A. Miller, and Edward R. Miller, also formed the [[Laramie, Hahns Peak and Pacific Railway]] to transport the coal out to eastern markets.  The railroad, originating in Laramie, reached Centennial on June 17, 1907 (it would finally reach Coalmont in 1911).  That same year a bank was founded.<ref name=GTP-WTandT /><ref name=C-UWAandTE /><ref name=C-WTorg /><ref>Thybony. - p.137.</ref>

A. J. Hull, Jesse Northrop, and B. F. Northrop located the Platinum Queen (aka Queen Mine) on September 23, 1923, approximately 2.3 miles southwest of Centennial, on Centennial Ridge.  Most activity around the mine area ceased after the [[Stock Market Crash of 1929]] and the advent of the [[Great Depression]].<ref>"Queen Mine On Centennial Ridge. Medicine Bow National Forest". - Historic American Engineering Record. - National Park Service. - Department of the Interior.</ref>