CHEYENNE, locally shr-an, Wyoming, city, capital of the State, and county-seat of Laramie County, on the Union Pacific, the Colorado and Southern, and the Burling, ton Route railroads, 110 miles north of Denver. Cheyenne, named after the local Indian tribe, is situated in the southeastern part of the State on a plateau near the Laramie Range, 6,075 feet above sea-level. A boulevard three miles in length ex tends northwest to Fort D. A. Russell, an im portant United States military post, with build ings and equipment valued at $7,000,000, com memorating the Union officer, Maj.-Gen. David Allen Russell, who was killed at Opequan, Va., in 1864. Cheyenne was founded and the fort built in 1867, by Union Pacific Railroad engineers and United States army officers, when the railroad reached this point, and here the Union Pacific Railroad established its main work and repair shops which have contributed largely to the industrial prosperity of the city.
iron, ron, oil and other valuable mineral de posits are worked in the vicinity, and besides numerous manufactures of commodities for local consumption and export, dry-farming, cat tle and sheep-grazing are large and important industries. Cheyenne is the centre of an ex tensive meat-growing region, shipping beef cattle and sheep to eastern markets, and is also the depot for a large amount of the game hunting trade and sport of the Rocky Mountains. Cheyenne is attractively laid out
with broad streets and boulevards, and enjoys the distinction of having been the first city in the United States to be lighted by electricity. It has modern gas plant, electric street car sys tem, an up-to-date fire department, and a municipal system of waterworks, including five storage reservoirs and a filtration plant which cost $80,000; its parks and ornamental lakes cover 800 acres. "Frontier Days," an annual celebration providing the. largest Wild West show of its kind in the world, is a feature of civic life which attracts thousands of visitors. Cheyenne was selected capital of Wyoming Ter ritory in 1869, and was almost destroyed by fire in the same year. The city is administered by three commissioners under the commission form of government. Its chief buildings are the State capitol, the Federal building and post-office, the State governor's mansion, city hall and county courthouse, soldiers and sailors' home, Carnegie library, banks and trust build ings, schools and high school, the Industrial and other clubs, Masonic, Elks, Eagles buildings, hospital, opera-house, Union Pacific station, good hotels and handsome churches of the lead ing religious denominations, including the Con vent of the Holy Child Jesus and Saint Mary's Catholic Cathedral. Pop. 16,000.
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