Created by treaty in 1868, the Shoshone Reservation in central Wyoming later became the home of both the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes. The potential for irrigated farming on reservation lands along Wind River was recognized by the turn-of-the-century. In 1904, representatives of the U.S. government met with the tribes to discuss the cession of "surplus" reservation lands north of the Wind River. An agreement, signed in ceremonies (shown here) outside Wind River Agency headquarters, called for those lands to be opened for settlement under the Homestead Act with all proceeds to be paid to the tribes for per capita payments, irrigation systems, and education. The actual land opening came in 1906 and resulted in the settlement of farming areas near the big bend of Wind River and the establishment of the town of Riverton. The income derived from the opening of reservation lands provided benefits that helped bring an end to a twenty-year period of poverty, hunger and privation for the tribes. (Photo courtesy of American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming)
While farm land was made available to homesteaders through a lottery,
town lots were distributed through a system of squatters rights -- the first
person to occupy and hold each lot became its owner. The result was a land
rush that produced much excitement, arguments, and armed standoffs. This
family -- photographed within two days of the date when Riverton officially
became a town -- prepares to establish a permanent residence on a lot that
would later become part of Riverton's Main Street. (Photo courtesy of
Janet Schaefer)
Homesteaders on farming lands didn't have to fight off claim jumpers,
but their ability to develop their property was hampered by delays in the
construction of the canals that would bring the needed water for irrigation.
Some early homesteaders gave up, but others found ways to survive. There
were few amenities for any of the early homesteaders as shown in this picture
of the A.N. Holmberg family in front of their homestead shack north of Riverton.
(Photo courtesy of May Sostrom)
One year after the birth of Riverton there were still a few tents to
be seen, but Main Street ended at the railroad tracks. The Chicago &
Northwestern Railroad's depot is in its original location (at left) and
a train can be seen taking on water. (Riverton Museum photo)
Riverton people celebrated the anniversary of the birth of their town
in August each year. The 1911 celebration was one of the most memorable.
That's when W.S. Adams made one of the earliest airplane flights in the
history of the state. That flight began from the town's first fairgrounds
near the intersection of Broadway and Park. Adams is shown here taking off
to the east along Park Avenue. (Riverton Museum photo)
In 1914 the Wyoming Tie & Timber Company began cutting railroad ties
in the forests above Dubois and floating those ties down Wind River to Riverton
where they were delivered to the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. The
number of ties harvested varied from year-to-year, but it was an awesome
spectacle each summer when the ties began to accumulate against the Wyoming
Tie & Timber Company's catch-boom at Riverton. This picture was taken
in the 1920s when the Wyoming Tie & Timber Company had become one of
the most significant economic forces in the community. (Photo courtesy
of Shoshone National Forest)
By the 1930s Riverton's West Main Street had been extended beyond the
railroad tracks and up the hill and the route had become the primary route
for travelers heading west. The small trees that early Riverton residents
had worked so hard to start on the dry sagebrush flats had become the mature
trees of a solid and growing community. (Riverton Museum photo)
Riverton area farmers have experimented with many different crops through
their years of work on the land. But sugar beets have always been among
the most profitable crops. In the 1950s, a long-time farmer called sugar
beets the "one crop on which farmers can literally bank." Twenty
or thirty acres of beets, he said, "pay off so regularly that almost
any business man will extend credit to a beet farmer of any standing."
George Neiberger is shown here in his sugar beet fields north of Riverton
in 1948. (Photo courtesy of Midvale Irrigation District)
The task of bringing irrigation water to the farming lands around Riverton
turned out to be much more difficult than the early promoters had imagined.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation took over the work in the 1920s and opened
additional areas for homesteading as the canal system was built. New homesteaders
continued to establish homes in the area through the 1930s, 1940s, and into
the 1950s. That's when Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence Sirola were photographed
in front of the homestead shack from which they began their farming operations.
(Photo courtesy of Midvale Irrigation District)
With the end of World War II came the dawn of the Atomic Age, and Riverton
soon was a part of it. In September of 1953, Neil and Maxine McNeice discovered
uranium in the Gas Hills, east of Riverton, and within weeks the area was
alive with prospectors. Drill rigs followed in the prospectors' footsteps,
defining the ore bodies that would eventually be mined. (Photo courtesy
of Riverton Ranger)
When uranium mining began, results were inconsistent. But mining methods
improved as operators gained experience and as new people with experience
in other areas came to participate in the Fremont County industry. (Photo
courtesy of Riverton Ranger)
It was the uranium industry that transformed Riverton from a quiet farming
community of 2,500 people into a bustling commercial center of more than
10,000. Although market forces brought dramatic cutbacks in area mining
during the 1980s, Riverton had become the largest community in west-central
Wyoming and today it is a commercial center that attracts people from a
wide area. (Photo courtesy of Loren Jost)
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