Name: Archer

 

County: Laramie

 

Authority Name:

 

GNIS Entry 

 

Longitude: 1043958W 

Latitude: 410928N

 

Legal Description: Wyoming, Sixth Principal Meridian T13N,R63W,sec14

 

Elevation:  6014/1833

(ft/m)

 

Feature Type: Locale, Post Office

 

Origin of Name: 

Named for a member of an engineer corps that was attacked by Indians when the group was surveying for the Union Pacific Railroad in 1867.

Source: WPA

 

Other Names:

 

Alternative Spellings:

 

History:

In the early 1900's as a result of the dry farming occurring in the region, an experimental station was established at Archer. "The Archer Field Station ... an 880-acre experiment farm, specializes in dry farming and highland grain growing. ... The program, carried on cooperatively by the State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, includes crop rotations and cultural practices, varietal tests of cereals and forages, tests with shelter belts and fruits, experiments with livestock, and the collection of weather data. In the eccentric one-way plow, developed by the station, every other disk is two inches larger in diameter than the disks generally used. With this plow the land is pit fallowed; that is, pits are left on the surface to catch all moisture and prevent loss by runoff. This pitting of the ground also tends to check wind erosion.

Source:  Wyoming Guide

 

Archer Post Office was established on September 12, 1887 with Andrew Carpenter as postmaster. It was discontinued on June 30, 1910 but re-established on October 26, 1912. It was discontinued again on July 15, 1919 at which point its mail was handled by the Cheyenne Post Office.

Source: Wyoming Post Offices

 

Station on the Union Pacific Railroad in Laramie County, 8 miles east from Cheyenne. Stock raising the principal industry. 

Source: Wyoming State Business Directory, 1910-11 

 

A station on the Overland Route and Union Pacific Railroad between Durham and Cheyenne.

Source: Guidebook of the Western United States

 

Stories:

 

Maps:

1:24000 Quadrangle: Archer

 

Newspapers:

 

More Information:

 

   From "History of Wyoming, written by C. G. Coutant, pioneer historian, and heretofore unpublished"

   Annals of Wyoming, Volume 12, No. 3, pp. 242-243

 

Pictures: