Thoughts On Laramie...

My sister Susan lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, which is actually closer to the State of Wyoming than Denver. Recently, we drove up to Laramie, home of the University of Wyoming, to walk around and enjoy a warm, sunny day. In less than an hour we were admiring the outside of the Ivinson Mansion, built in 1892 and now home to the Laramie Plains Museum. The grounds are beautiful, as seen in the photograph on the left, and maintained by a local garden club.

Laramie was founded as a tent city during the building of the transcontinental railway, back in the mid-1860s. Trains first started arriving there in May, 1868, and soon permanent structures were being built. The University of Wyoming was established in 1887, and there are still a number of structures from that era on that tree lined campus. Many of Laramie's neighborhoods are from that era, too, and examples of homes from that period are everywhere, such as the ones in the photograph on the right. 

Susan has often stated that Laramie would be a pleasant place to live, although I keep warning her about all the snow and cold, not to mention the constantly blowing wind. She does not understand why on earth the weather should be so much different from Fort Collins, less than an hour away. The answer is that Laramie is on the High Plains, at an altitude of over 7,100 feet. On the plus side, I must say that the people there are very friendly. We once met a retired professor walking the campus, and after talking with her, she invited us to stop by her place the next time we visited. Talk about going back in time to a different America. I still wouldn't like to spend a winter there, though.