Editing Laramie, Wyoming (section)

== Founding ==
The city was founded in the mid-1860s as a tent city near the [[Overland Stage Line]] route, the [[Union Pacific Railroad|Union Pacific]] portion of the [[first transcontinental railroad]], and just north of Fort Sanders army post. The rails reached Laramie on May 4, 1868, when construction crews worked through town. A few passengers arrived on that same day.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Frontier Index|date=May 5, 1868|title=Railroad}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Cheyenne Leader|date=May 5, 1868|title=Railroad arrives}}</ref> The first regular passenger service began on May 10, 1868, by which time entrepreneurs were building more permanent structures. Laramie City (as it was known in early years) soon had stores, houses, a school, and churches.<ref name="museum">[http://www.laramiemuseum.org/LaramieHistory.html "Laramie History"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928125311/http://www.laramiemuseum.org/LaramieHistory.html |date=September 28, 2007 }} Laramie Plains Museum. Retrieved on August 11, 2007.</ref>   Laramie's fame as the western terminal of the Union Pacific Railroad, acquired when the {{convert|268|mi|km|adj=on}} section from [[North Platte, Nebraska]], was opened in May, ended in early August 1868 when a {{convert|93|mi|km|adj=on}} section of track was opened to Benton, {{convert|6|mi|km}} east of present-day [[Sinclair, Wyoming]].

The frontier town initially suffered from lawlessness. Its first [[mayor]], [[Melville C. Brown|M. C. Brown]], resigned his office on June 12, 1868, after six turbulent weeks, saying that the other officials elected alongside him on May 2 were guilty of "incapacity and laxity" in dealing with the city's problems.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Frontier Index|date=June 16, 1868|title=Mayor Resigns}}</ref>  This was due to the threat to the community from three half-brothers, early [[Old West]] [[gunfighter|gunman]] [[Steve Long|"Big" Steve Long]], Con Moyer and Ace Moyer. Long was Laramie's first [[marshal]], and with his brothers owned the [[Western saloon|saloon]] Bucket of Blood. The three began harassing settlers, forcing them to sign over the deeds to their property to them. Any who refused were killed, usually goaded into a gunfight by Long. By October 1868, Long had killed 13&nbsp;men.

The first Albany County [[sheriff]], rancher [[N. K. Boswell]], organized a "Vigilance Committee" in response. On October 28, 1868, Boswell led the committee into the Bucket of Blood, overwhelmed the three brothers, and [[lynching|lynched]] them at an unfinished cabin down the street. Through a series of other lynchings and other forms of intimidation, the vigilantes reduced the "unruly element" and established a semblance of law and order.<ref>[http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/RobertsHistory/Readings_chapter_3.htm "Chapter 3: Coming of Rails"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218075354/http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/RobertsHistory/Readings_chapter_3.htm |date=December 18, 2007 }} Roberts, Phil (editor), University of Wyoming History Department, ''Readings in Wyoming History''. Retrieved on August 11, 2007.</ref>

[[File:University of wyoming 1908 crop.jpg|thumb|left|175px|"Old Main" building at the<br>[[University of Wyoming]]<br>in Laramie, 1908]]

By the end of the decade, Laramie became the cultural and economic center of the newly organized [[Wyoming Territory]].<ref name=":0" /> In 1869, Wyoming's first legislature passed a bill granting equal political rights to women in the territory. In March 1870, five Laramie residents became the first women in the world to serve on a jury.<ref name=":0">[http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/RobertsHistory/Readings_chapter_4.htm "Chapter 4: Establishing the Territory and Granting Women Equal Rights] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071219191341/http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/RobertsHistory/Readings_chapter_4.htm |date=December 19, 2007 }} Roberts, Phil (editor), University of Wyoming History Department, ''Readings in Wyoming History''. Retrieved on August 11, 2007.</ref> As Laramie was the first town in Wyoming to hold a municipal election, on September 6, 1870, Laramie resident [[Louisa Swain]] was the first woman in the United States to cast a legal vote in a general election.<ref name="museum" />

Laramie was officially incorporated on January 13, 1874.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Brief History of Laramie, Wyoming {{!}} WyoHistory.org |url=https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/brief-history-laramie-wyoming |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=www.wyohistory.org}}</ref>

Early businesses included rolling mills, a railroad-tie treatment plant, a brick yard, a slaughterhouse, a brewery, a glass manufacturing plant, and a plaster mill, as well as the railroad yards. In 1886, a plant to produce electricity was built.<ref name="museum" />  Several regional railroads were based in Laramie, including the [[Laramie, North Park and Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company]] founded in 1880 and the [[Laramie, North Park and Western Railroad]] established in 1901.

Governor [[Francis E. Warren]] signed a bill that established the [[University of Wyoming]] (UW) in 1886, the only public university in the state. Laramie was chosen as its site, and UW opened there in 1887. Under the terms of the [[Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act|Morrill Act]], also known as the Land Grant College Act, in 1891 UW added an agricultural college and experiment station to gain benefits as a land grant college.<ref name="factbook">[http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/uw/facts/historyhighlights.asp "Fact Book: Historical Highlights"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070809012745/http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/uw/facts/historyhighlights.asp |date=August 9, 2007 }} University of Wyoming. Retrieved on August 12, 2007.</ref>

===Late 20th century to present===
The city was covered by international media in 1998 after the murder of [[Matthew Shepard]], who was a gay student at the University of Wyoming. His murder generated an international outcry.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/195158.stm | publisher=BBC News | title=Americans mourn gay hate-crime victim | date=October 17, 1998}}</ref> It became the symbolic focus for a nationwide campaign against gay [[hate crime]]s. Federal hate crimes legislation was signed into law in 2009.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mercurynews.com/columns/ci_13628360|title=Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act passes Congress, finally|website=Mercurynews.com|access-date=January 9, 2018}}</ref> As of May 2023, Wyoming does not have a hate crimes law,<ref>{{Cite news |date=May 26, 2023 |title=A proposed hate crime ordinance draws strongly divided opinions from Gillette residents |url=https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/open-spaces/2023-05-26/a-proposed-hate-crime-ordinance-draws-strongly-divided-opinions-from-gillette-residents |access-date= |language=en-us}}</ref> having failed to pass its most recent attempt at a hate crimes law in March 2021.<ref>{{cite web |title=Wyoming shelves hate crime law decades after Shepard's death |url=https://apnews.com/article/legislature-wyoming-legislation-hate-crimes-crime-48af2dad7b9fd2f480a469abd9168542 |website=AP NEWS |date=March 12, 2021 |language=en}}</ref> Shepard's murder was the subject of the award-winning play, later adapted as a movie, ''[[The Laramie Project]]''.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/arts/17iht-laramie.1.16232258.html Matthew Shepard and Laramie: A crime that lingers], ''[[The New York Times]]'', Retrieved on January 22, 2011.</ref>

In 2004, Laramie became the first city in Wyoming to pass a law to prohibit smoking in enclosed workplaces, including bars, restaurants and private clubs.<ref>{{Cite web |last=correspondent |first=W. Dale Nelson Star-Tribune |date=November 4, 2004 |title=Laramie approves smoking ban |url=https://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/laramie-approves-smoking-ban/article_2380808a-2ede-51c3-8a89-8f565330113d.html |access-date=February 13, 2024 |website=Casper Star-Tribune |language=en}}</ref> Opponents of the clean indoor air [[Local ordinance|ordinance]], funded in part by the [[R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company]], immediately petitioned to have the ordinance repealed. However, the voters upheld the ordinance in a citywide [[referendum]] which was conducted concurrently with the 2004 general election. The opponents challenged the validity of the election in court, claiming various irregularities. The judge ruled that the opponents had failed to meet their burden of showing significant problems with the election, and the ordinance, which had become effective in April 2005, remained in effect.<ref>[http://www.uwyo.edu/news/showrelease.asp?id=10864 Laramie Smoking Ban Subject of Television Program Tuesday"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071231152744/http://www.uwyo.edu/news/showrelease.asp?id=10864 |date=December 31, 2007 }} University of Wyoming news release, October 16, 2006. Retrieved on August 10, 2007.</ref> In August 2005, Laramie's City Council defeated an attempt to amend the ordinance to allow smoking in bars and private clubs.<br />
{{wide image|WY 1908 St. scene, Laramie.jpg|1000px|alt=Laramie, 1908|Laramie, 1908}}