Fremont County, Wyoming

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

County Seat: Lander
Year Organized: 1884
Square Miles: 9,266

Court House:

450 North Second - Room 220
County Courthouse
Lander, WY 82520-2360

Named: Named for General John Charles Fremont, pathfinder and explorer.

State & County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Fremont County was created in 1884. It is the historical home of the Wind River Indian Reservation, home of the Shoshone and Arapaho tribes of Native Americans. It included Park, Big Horn, and Hot Springs counties until 1890 when they split. It was named for General John Charles Fremont, who was a surveyor and explorer searching for a route to the Pacific ocean in 1842. His group of 20 men were guided by Kit Carson and Enos, a Shoshone Indian.

South Pass, a break in the continental divide, is also located in Fremont county. Indians had been using the pass for centuries before Robert Stuart and his group were the first whites to cross the pass October 12, 1812. The first horse drawn wagons to cross the pass were lead by Captain Benjamin Bonneville in 1832. Gold was discovered here in 1842. The big boom came in 1867 when the Carissa mine (Named for Clarissa Whitney who is thought to be the first white child born in Wyoming), Miner Delight, and Burr mines were discovered, producing millions of dollars in gold. Over 5,000 people came to the area during this time to search for gold.

Fremont County produces more than half of the uranium in Wyoming, which is second in the United States in uranium production. Jade also found in Fremont County which is the Wyoming State gem stone.

Neighboring Counties:

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Cities:

- Dubois	town	Incorporated Area
- Hudson	town	Incorporated Area
- Lander (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Pavillion	town	Incorporated Area
- Rawlins	city	Incorporated Area
- Riverton	city	Incorporated Area
- Shoshoni	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we’ve given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the “characteristic features of our 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.”

Penn Foster High School

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