1912 Homestead
About Wheatland and Platte County
Wheatland is a town in and the county seat of Platte County in southeastern Wyoming, United States. The population was 3,627 at the 2010 census. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 4.10 square miles, all of it land. As of the census of 2010, there were 3,627 people, 1,657 households, and 974 families residing in the town. There were 1,879 housing units at an average density of 458.3 per square mile.
In 1883 local rancher and Judge Joseph M. Carey, along with Horace Plunkett, John Hoyt, Morton Post, Francis E. Warren, William Irvine, and Andrew Gilchrist, established the Wyoming Development Company. The company hoped to irrigate in the Wheatland Flats and profit from new development. By the fall of 1883 an irrigation system was constructed on the Wheatland flats. The Cheyenne and Northern Railway line reached the Wheatland flats in July, 1887, eventually extending to the Wyoming Central Railway at Wendover. Lots in the town of Wheatland were auctioned in 1894. By 1915 many farms were established in the irrigation district and the population of the flats was 5,277. In 1911 Platte County was created from a portion of Albany County, and Wheatland was selected as the county seat. The Platte County Courthouse was built in Wheatland in 1917. The Wheatland Irrigation District is still the largest privately owned irrigation system in the country.
Public education in the town of Wheatland is provided by Platte County School District #1. Campuses serving the town include Libbey Elementary School (grades K-2), West Elementary School (grades 3-5), Wheatland Middle School (grades 6-8), and Wheatland High School (grades 9-12). Roadways that can be found in Wheatland are US 87, WYO 310, 312, 316, and 320, and Interstate 25. Wheatland is served by Phifer Airfield just east of town on State Route 316. Wheatland hosts the annual Platte County Fair & Rodeo, usually held the second full week of August, at the fairgrounds on the east edge of town. The horse Steamboat, the model for the bucking horse and rider motif on the Wyoming license, was stabled near Wheatland in a barn owned and maintained as a historical structure by Mike and Linda Holst.
Platte County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wyoming. As of the 2010 census, the population was 8,667. Its county seat is Wheatland. Platte County was created February 21, 1911 with land detached from Laramie County and organized in 1913. The county was named for the North Platte River, which flows through the northeastern part of the county. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,111 square miles, of which 2,084 square miles is land and 27 square miles (1.3%) is water. It is the third-smallest county in Wyoming by area. As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 8,667 people, 3,838 households, and 2,505 families residing in the county. The population density was 4.2 inhabitants per square mile. There were 4,667 housing units at an average density of 2.2 per square mile.
The adjacent counties are Niobrara, Goshen, Laramie, Albany, and Converse counties. The county contains a section of the Medicine Bow National Forest. The major roadways that are in Platte County are Interstate 25, US Highways 26 and 87, and Wyoming Highway 34. Towns located within the county are Chugwater, Glendo, Guernsey, Hartville, and Wheatland. There are three unincorporated communities, Dwyer, Uva, and Dwyer Junction, and the ghost town of Sunrise. Notable residents of Platte county are Larry Birleffi, the "Voice of the University of Wyoming Cowboys"; Jim Geringer, a governor of Wyoming; Robert Mills Grant, a Wyoming State Representative; and Harold Hellbaum, a Wyoming State Representative and Speaker of the House.
Interested in learning more about old and historic locations in Platte County? Click below to find more information on these locations.