The Laramie Basin - Mountains and Plains: The Ecology of Wyoming Landscapes - page 285

passed around the north end of the Medicine Bow
Mountains, sagebrush became more common, and the
party continued to encounter bison. Francis Parkman,
author of The Oregon Trail, was in the basin in 1846
and observed wolves, beaver, antelope, sage-grouse,
elk, bighorn sheep, mule deer, and a forest fire. three
years later, in 1849, captain Howard Stansbury and Jim
Bridger crossed the basin with a party of 18 mounted
horsemen, experiencing altercations with indigenous
tribe members along the way. Grasslands covered most
of the basin floor, as they do now. Stansbury also wrote
about bison, and he commented on an isolated grove of
cottonwoods along the Laramie River, near where the
city of Laramie would be founded 19 years later . 8
the pace of euroAmerican immigration accelerated
with the establishment of the overland Stage Line by
Ben Holladay in 1862 . 9 t his trail entered the basin from
the southeast, near present-day tie Siding, and contin-
ued westward around the north end of the Medicine
Bow Mountains (often referred to as the Snowy Range).
travelers with carts and wagons followed this trail.
indian attacks led to the establishment of Fort Sanders
in 1866, the location of present-day Laramie. the cav-
alry provided security for cattle ranchers and for the
construction of the first transcontinental railroad—the
Union Pacific. the railroad arrived in 1868, the same
year that the city of Laramie was founded. After a brief
period of lawlessness and citizen vigilantes, Laramie
was settled with churches, schools, banks, a hospital,
a courthouse, and, in 1873, the territorial Federal Peni-
tentiary. With the proximity to the railroad and the
availability of water, land privatization was more com-
plete than in basins to the west, where much of the land
to this day is in the federal domain. in 1886, before
statehood in 1890, the territorial Legislature designated
Laramie as the site for Wyoming's first and, still today,
only 4-year university.
During the 1900s there was great optimism about
the potential for various land uses in the Laramie
Basin. 10 irrigated croplands were envisioned, but the
growing season proved too short and cool; only about
3 percent of the basin is cultivated, mostly for hay. 11
the raising of cattle and sheep has been the most viable
form of agriculture. Limestone and gypsum deposits
supported a brick and plaster industry for a time, and
later a cement industry. Several small oil fields were

established, and just north of the Laramie Basin, near
Rock River, small deposits of coal were mined. With
the exception of limestone for Portland cement, Albany
county and the Laramie Basin generally are considered
mineral poor. the rivers, lakes, and nearby mountains
provide many opportunities for outdoor activities. in
2012, Albany county had 37,000 residents—83 percent
living in Laramie.

Glacial Outwash, Hogbacks, Red Buttes, Big Hollow,
and Other Geologic Features

During the Pleistocene, glaciers in the Medicine Bow
Mountains of Wyoming and colorado loosened large
volumes of rocks, stones, sand, and silt. 12 When the gla-
ciers melted, much of this material was flushed onto the
basin floor, creating deltas. the waterways transporting
and depositing this sediment—the ancestors of the Big
Laramie River, the Little Laramie River, and their tribu-
taries—shifted back and forth across the basin. these
waterborne sediments—labeled Quaternary alluvium,
because they have been deposited since the beginning
of the Pleistocene, 2.6 million years ago—are the parent
material for soils over about 75 percent of the Laramie
Basin floor (fig. 17.3). As might be expected, more large
rocks occur near the foothills than farther to the east
and north, where the flow of water was less forceful.
Before and following glacial advances, there were long
periods of erosion from the basin—but only as rapidly
as the Laramie River could cut a canyon through the
Laramie Mountains to the northeast, a process that con-
tinues to this day.
Hogback ridges are conspicuous topographic features
on the perimeter of intermountain basins where sloping,
layered sedimentary strata are exposed. Strata of rela-
tively soft shale and siltstone erode more rapidly than
those of harder sandstone and limestone, with the result
that the more resistant strata became ridges (see fig. 17.2).
the ridges create a different environment for plant and
animal life. Mountain-mahogany and occasionally lim-
ber pine and ponderosa pine are found on the rocky soils.
the ridges also add aesthetic appeal to the landscape and
provide desirable habitats for wintering animals, espe-
cially on leeward or south-facing slopes that are warmer
in the winter (see chapter 10). People also enjoy having
homes in such places.