Discover 11 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Laramie (United States). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site, Laramie Plains Museum, and Snow Train Rolling Stock. Also, be sure to include St. Matthew's Cathedral in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Laramie (Wyoming).
Table of Contents
Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site
Building in Laramie, Wyoming. The Wyoming Territorial Prison is a former federal government prison near Laramie, Wyoming. Built in 1872, it is one of the oldest buildings in Wyoming. It operated as a federal penitentiary from 1872 to 1890, and as a state prison from 1890 to 1901. It was then transferred to the University of Wyoming and was used as an agricultural experiment station until 1989. In 1991, the facility was opened to the public, and in 2004, it was designated as Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site.[1]
Address: 975 Snowy Range Rd, 82070-6719 Laramie
Laramie Plains Museum
Museum in Laramie, Wyoming. The Ivinson Mansion, now the Laramie Plains Museum, was built in 1892 in Laramie, Wyoming by Jane and Edward Ivinson. Designed by architect Walter E. Ware of Salt Lake City and built by local contractor Frank Cook, the house was regarded as the most significant residence in Laramie at its completion. Edward Ivinson gave the mansion to the Episcopal Church, which used it as a boarding school until 1958. After years of neglect, the house was acquired by the Laramie Plains Museum Association in 1972 and is used as a museum and events center.[2]
Address: 603 E Ivinson St, 82070-3243 Laramie
Snow Train Rolling Stock
The Snow Train Rolling Stock, located in Railroad Heritage Park in Laramie, Wyoming, consists of five pieces of Union Pacific Railroad rolling stock. The five vehicles, which are a snow plow, locomotive, tender, bunk car, and caboose, form a snow train, a type of train used to clear snow from rail lines. The snow plow was built as a tender and converted to a wedge-shaped plow in 1953. The locomotive was built in 1903 and served in Wyoming from 1947 to 1957; it served as part of snow trains in 1949 during a blizzard. The bunk car was originally built as an automobile car in 1929 and became a bunk car in 1955; after its retirement, it served as a ticket office for the Wyoming Colorado Railroad. The tender was built between 1907 and 1920, and the caboose was built in 1955.
Wyoming snow trains did not function as pre-assembled units and were generally put together when they were needed to clear snow. While these five pieces of rolling stock probably never operated together as a snow train, they are nonetheless representative of Wyoming snow trains. The pieces were moved to the park in 2011 from various locations around Laramie.
The Snow Train Rolling Stock was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 8, 2013.[3]
Address: 717 S 1st St, Laramie
St. Matthew's Cathedral
Cathedral in Laramie, Wyoming. St. Matthew's Cathedral is an Episcopal cathedral located in Laramie, Wyoming, United States. It is the seat of the Diocese of Wyoming. The cathedral is a contributing property in the St. Matthew's Cathedral Close, a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[4]
Address: 104 S 4th St, 82070-3102 Laramie
University of Wyoming
Public university in Laramie, Wyoming. The University of Wyoming is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming is unusual in that its location within the state is written into the state's constitution. The university also offers outreach education in communities throughout Wyoming and online.
The University of Wyoming consists of seven colleges: agriculture and natural resources, arts and sciences, business, education, engineering and applied sciences, health sciences, and law. The university offers over 120 undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs including Doctor of Pharmacy and Juris Doctor. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
In addition to on-campus classes in Laramie, the university's Outreach School offers more than 41 degree, certificate and endorsement programs to distance learners across the state and beyond. These programs are delivered through the use of technology, such as online and video conferencing classes. The Outreach School has nine regional centers in the state, with several on community college campuses, to give Wyoming residents access to a university education without relocating to Laramie.[5]
Address: 1000 E University Ave, 82071-2000 Laramie
American Heritage Center
Archive in Laramie, Wyoming. The American Heritage Center is the University of Wyoming's repository of manuscripts, rare books, and the university archives. Its collections focus on Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West and a select handful of national topics: environment and conservation, the mining and petroleum industries, air and rail transportation, popular entertainment, journalism, US military history, and book history.[6]
Address: 2111 Willett Drive, 82071 Laramie
Cooper Mansion
The Cooper Mansion is a property in Laramie, Wyoming, that is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1921, when Richard, Barbara, and John Cooper, who inherited from their father, Frank Cooper's, vast estate of mineral rights, which people had to be a resident of the United States to access. The house was designed by Wilbur Hitchcock. Barbara Cooper died in 1979, and the University of Wyoming bought it in 1980. It currently houses the American Studies program at the University.[7]
St. Paul's United Church of Christ of Laramie
Church in Laramie, Wyoming. St. Paul's United Church of Christ of Laramie was founded in 1886 as the first German language congregation in Wyoming. The church building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The cornerstone was laid on July 13, 1890, three days after statehood. Clergy from Chicago and the local Christian, Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian and Baptist Churches participated in the ceremony, with an address by Dr. John Wesley Hoyt, former Governor of Wyoming Territory and at the time first president of the University of Wyoming. The building was completed and dedicated on January 18, 1891. It is the oldest church structure in Laramie continuously used by the same congregation. With its stained glass windows and heavy wooden furnishings, St. Paul's is reminiscent of rural German churches. Those elaborate windows and its many simplified Gothic elements make the building unique among Lutheran churches in Wyoming.
The church's several name changes reflect its history. The original name for the congregation (which spoke and worshiped in German) was Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische St. Paulus Gemeinde. The original church building name was St. Paulus Kirche. The congregation joined the Evangelical Synod of North America in 1904 after incorporating the year before as St. Pauls German Evangelical Church of Laramie, Wyoming. (The original corporate name omitted the apostrophe in "St. Paul's" because German does not use one.) After the Evangelical Synod merged with the Reformed Church in the United States in 1934, St. Pauls changed its name in 1949 to St. Paul's Evangelical and Reformed Church of Laramie, Wyoming. After the Evangelical and Reformed Church merged with the Congregational Christian Churches in 1957 to create the United Church of Christ, the church changed its name in 1963 to St. Paul's United Church of Christ. Since 1974 the church has had its present name, St. Paul's United Church of Christ of Laramie.
During World War I St. Paul's (locally known then as "the German church") and its German-speaking pastor, Rev. O.G. Wichmann, were the targets of anti-German sentiment and murmurings of spying and other disloyal activities. The church's last German language sermon was preached in 1932. In 1976, St. Paul's became the first Laramie church to call an ordained woman as its pastor.[8]
Address: 602 E Garfield St, 82070-3833 Laramie
Old Main
Building in Laramie, Wyoming. Old Main, built in 1886, was the first and is the oldest remaining building on the University of Wyoming campus, in Laramie, Wyoming. The building currently houses University administration.[9]
Durlacher House
The Durlacher House, or Durlacher Residence is a Queen Anne style house in Laramie, Wyoming. It was built between 1875 and1878 by Charles Klingerman. In 1878 it was purchased by German immigrants Simon and Hannah Durlacher.[10]
Union Pacific Athletic Club
The Union Pacific Athletic Club in Laramie, Wyoming, was built in 1928. Also known as Gray's Gables and as the Quadra Dangle Square Dance Clubhouse, it was built in log cabin style by Mads Justesen and Jack Haugum. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.[11]