Medicine Bow, Wyoming

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the mountain range, see Medicine Bow Mountains. For the mountain peak, see Medicine Bow Peak.

Coordinates: 41°53′52″N 106°12′10″W / 41.89778, -106.20278
Medicine Bow, Wyoming
Location of Medicine Bow, Wyoming
Country	United States
State	Wyoming
County	Carbon
Area
- Total	3.5 sq mi (9.0 km²)
- Land	3.5 sq mi (9.0 km²)
- Water	0.0 sq mi (0.0 km²)
Elevation	6,565 ft (2,001 m)
Population (2000)
- Total	274
- Density	79.3/sq mi (30.6/km²)
Time zone	Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
- Summer (DST)	MDT (UTC-6)
ZIP code	82329
Area code(s)	307
FIPS code	56-51575^[1]
GNIS feature ID	1591446^[2]

Medicine Bow is a town in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 274 at the 2000 census.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Demographics
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Geography

Medicine Bow is located at 41°53′52″N, 106°12′10″W (41.897668, -106.202796)^[3].

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 3.5 square miles (9.0 km²), all of it land.

[edit] History

Medicine Bow, like many other towns across southern Wyoming, was established as a result of the construction of the transcontinental railroad in 1868. The railroad located a tie boom on the nearby Medicine Bow River and built a depot, water stop, and coal-loading facility. Later, livestock loading-pens were built and Medicine Bow became an important livestock shipping center. The first load of cattle shipped to the Union Stockyards in Omaha came from the Medicine Bow area. The town grew up around the railroad facilities. In the middle 1880s, Philadelphia lawyer Owen Wister stopped in town and wrote a description in his journal. He later used the historic setting of Medicine Bow as a backdrop for his novel The Virginian, which is considered to be the first novel of the "Western" Genre. In the early 1900s Medicine Bow was one of the automobile stops on Old Lincoln Highway (Junction of Hwys 30/287 and 487). August Grimm built the Virginian Hotel to accommodate travelers. In the early 1970s, the town suffered as a result of the opening of Interstate Highway 80 that bypassed the town, some ten miles to the south. The town experienced an economic boom in the middle 1970s when uranium mines opened north of town and coal mines west of town expanded production. The original Union Pacific Depot burned in the early 20th century, but it was replaced. In 1978, ownership of the building was transferred to the City of Medicine Bow and the town museum was started in the structure. Two years earlier, as a bicentennial project, local civic groups helped relocate the Owen Wister Cabin, built by the Wister family in the Grand Tetons in northwestern Wyoming, to a site next to the depot. David L. Roberts (b. Lusk, Wyoming, 1954) founded the Medicine Bow Post newspaper in 1977, editing and publishing the newspaper until the early 1990s. Medicine Bow is one of the windiest places in America. South of town, the first experimental giant wind turbines in Wyoming were built under contract from the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation in the early 1980s. Utility-operated wind farms provide electricity from windy points near Medicine Bow. In December 2007, plans were announced for construction of a large coal gasification plant to be built southwest of town. Completion date was estimated for 2010.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^[1] of 2000, there were 274 people, 129 households, and 86 families residing in the town. The population density was 79.3 people per square mile (30.6/km²). There were 184 housing units at an average density of 53.2/sq mi (20.5/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 97.81% White, 1.09% Native American, 0.36% Asian, and 0.73% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.73% of the population.

There were 129 households out of which 18.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.8% were married couples living together, 7.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.6% were non-families. 31.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.12 and the average family size was 2.60.

In the town the population was spread out with 18.6% under the age of 18, 5.5% from 18 to 24, 13.9% from 25 to 44, 38.0% from 45 to 64, and 24.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 51 years. For every 100 females there were 93.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.9 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $33,750, and the median income for a family was $35,156. Males had a median income of $41,250 versus $20,536 for females. The per capita income for the town was $16,420. About 10.3% of families and 11.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.2% of those under the age of eighteen and 17.5% of those sixty five or over.