LARAMIE (lar'a-mi), city, south-eastern Wyoming, U.S.A., on the Laramie river, 4o m. W.N.W. of Cheyenne; county seat of Albany county and the seat of the State university. It is a district division point on the Union Pacific, and is served also by the Laramie, North Park and Western railway; is on the Lincoln and the Rocky Mountain highways; and has a lighted aviation field. The population in 1930 (Federal census) was 8,609. The city lies on the Laramie plains, 7,145 ft. above sea-level, sur rounded on three sides by picturesque mountains. It is a supply and shipping point for a wide area, with varied industries : cattle raising (notably registered Herefords), sheep husbandry, lumber ing (in the Medicine Bow national forest), general farming, min ing and (since 1919) the production of oil, in the Rock Creek, Rex Dome and other fields. In the city are oil refineries, cement and plaster mills, railroad shops, a tie-preserving plant, the largest icing plant on the Union Pacific system and many smaller indus tries. Freight handled here by the Union Pacific amounts to 5,600,000 tons annually. Receipts at the stock-yards (the largest on the Union Pacific lines) include 2,500,00o sheep, i,o00,00o cattle and 150,0oo hogs. Ten miles south is the State fish hatch
ery; 3o m. W. is the Medicine Bow national forest (552,174 ac.) ; 12 m. E. is the Pole Mountain Military reservation (a part of the forest). In every direction are opportunities for fishing and hunting, including big game and wild ducks, in their respective seasons. The University of Wyoming (established 1886) includes the State colleges of agriculture, engineering and education, and the agricultural experiment station, as well as the colleges of liberal arts, law, commerce and music. Its summer school is especially popular (enrolment, 1,50o) because of the climate and delightful surroundings.
City, river, plains and mountains take their name from Jacques de La Ramie, a fur trader of the region (d. 1821). Laramie was on the Overland Trail and the route of the Pony Express. It was settled in 1868; chartered by Dakota the same year and by Wyoming in 1873. Bill Nye here established his Boomerang, and wrote the articles for the Cheyenne and Denver newspapers which made his reputation as a humorist.