Editing Goshen County, Wyoming (section)

==History==
Goshen County was created in 1911 from a portion of [[Laramie County, Wyoming|Laramie County]]. Its government was organized in 1913.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2004 |editor-last=Long |editor-first=John H. |title=Wyoming: Individual County Chronologies |url=http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/documents/WY_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150803014725/http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/documents/WY_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm |archive-date=August 3, 2015 |access-date=August 19, 2015 |website=Wyoming Atlas of Historical County Boundaries |publisher=The [[Newberry Library]]}}</ref> This area was part of territories, at one time or another, claimed by: Spain, France, Great Britain, Mexico, and the [[Republic of Texas]]. The [[Louisiana Purchase]] in 1803 permanently established the claim of the United States to the area.<ref name=ZZ/>

By the 1820s, the [[North Platte River]] had become a route for westward-bound [[fur traders]] and [[animal trapping|trappers]]. By the 1840s this route became part of the [[Oregon Trail]] or [[Mormon Trail]]. By the late 1850s, it was the route for regularly scheduled east–west [[stagecoaches]] carrying passengers and the [[U.S. Mail|U.S. mail]], and for the short-lived [[Pony Express]] carrying mail from [[Missouri]] to [[California]] (April 1860 to November 1861). By October 1861, [[:wikt:transcontinental|transcontinental]] [[Electrical telegraph|telegraph lines]] had been completed along the route. From September 1876 to February 1887, a north–south, [[Cheyenne, Wyoming|Cheyenne]]-[[Deadwood, South Dakota|Deadwood]] stage coach line ran through the county from Cheyenne to the [[Black Hills Gold Rush|gold fields]] of the [[Dakota Territory]].<ref name=ZZ/>

The county was apparently named for Goshen Hole, a valley in the southwest part of the county. [[John C. Frémont]] camped in that area on July 14, 1843, and recorded that name in his [https://books.google.com/books?id=W8ICAAAAMAAJ journal], during an expedition on the [[Oregon Trail]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Urbanek |first=Mae |title=Wyoming Place Names |publisher=Mountain Press Pub. Co. |year=1988 |isbn=0-87842-204-8 |location=Missoula MT}}</ref> At least four conflicting stories are available for the origin of the name "Goshen Hole". The [[Land of Goshen]] in [[Egypt]], mentioned in the 45th chapter of the [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] in the [[Bible]], has been suggested as the most likely. And, John Hunton, who was ranching in the area by the 1870s, was told by Seth Ward, the post [[sutler]] at [[Fort Laramie National Historic Site|Fort Laramie]], that the area was named for the [[Biblical]] land. The name of Goshen Hole first appeared on a map years later, in 1888.<ref name=ZZ/>