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Wyoming Counties

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Wyoming Counties

There are 23 Counties in the state of Wyoming. There were originally five Counties in the Wyoming Territory: Laramie and Carter, established in 1867; Carbon and Albany established in 1868; and Uinta, an annexed portion of Utah and Idaho, extending from Montana (including Yellowstone Park) to the Wyoming-Utah boundary. On July 10, 1890, Wyoming was admitted to the Union with thirteen counties.

Carbon County, Wyoming

Carbon County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Rawlins
Year Organized: 1868
Square Miles: 7,897

Court House:

P.O. Box 6
County Courthouse
Rawlins, WY 82301-0006

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named for the vast coal beds in the county.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Established in 1868 as a county in the Dakota Territory, Carbon County has a rich history of cattle, sheep, mining, and railroads.

Prior to that, about 3,400 sq miles in the center of Carbon County were once part of the Republic of Texas (1835-1845) and part of the State of Texas until 1852 when the northern most part of that state was ceded to the Federal Government. This area is defined by the 42nd parallel on the north, and straight lines south from there to the headwaters of the Arkansas river on the east and the headwaters of the Rio Grande on the west. The documents defining that area include the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819, the 1824 Constitution of Mexico, and the 1845 "Joint Resolution for the Admission of the State of Texas into the Union".

Neighboring Counties:

Sweetwater County, Wyoming - west
Fremont County, Wyoming - northwest
Natrona County, Wyoming - north
Converse County, Wyoming - northeast
Albany County, Wyoming - east
Jackson County, Colorado - southeast
Routt County, Colorado - south
Moffat County, Colorado - southwest

Cities and Towns:

- Baggs	town	Incorporated Area
- Casper	city	Incorporated Area
- Dixon	town	Incorporated Area
- Elk Mountain	town	Incorporated Area
- Grand Encampment	town	Incorporated Area
- Hanna	town	Incorporated Area
- Medicine Bow	town	Incorporated Area
- Rawlins (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Riverside	town	Incorporated Area
- Saratoga	town	Incorporated Area
- Sinclair	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Carbon County, Wyoming

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."