Name: Lucerne

 

County: Hot Springs

 

Authority Name: 

 

GNIS Entry

 

Longitude:  1081035W

Latitude: 434406N 

 

Legal Description:

 

Elevation: 4340/1323

(ft/m)

 

Feature Type: Populated Place 

 

Origin of Name:

Lucerne is another name for Alfalfa; consequently it was named for the farming community where a great deal of alfalfa is grown.  

Source: WPA

 

This is another name for Alfalfa. It was named for the farming community where a great deal of alfalfa is grown. 

Source: Annals 14(3)   

 

Other Names: 

 

Alternative Spellings: 

 

History:

Lucerne Post Office was established in May, 1910 and discontinued in January, 1956. The mail was then handled by the Thermopolis Post Office.

Source: Wyoming Post Offices

 

Postoffice in Hot Springs County on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, 7 miles north of Thermopolis, the county seat. Farming and stock raising the principal industries. Population 10. Altitude 4,500 feet.

Source: Wyoming State Business Directory, 1922

 

Stories:

Did Dempsey become Lucerne?

 

   In August, 1909, Wyoming newspapers reported that a new town was to be established in Hot Springs County between Thermopolis and Kirby north of Owl Creek. It was to be named Dempsey, after Tom Dempsey, a local rancher. The town of Dempsey is never mentioned again but in 1910, the town of Lucerne is established on what appears to be the same location as the proposed town, Dempsey.

 

Maps:

1:24000 Quadrangle: Thermopolis 

 

Newspapers:

 

More Information: 

"New Part of the Big Horn Being Developed  Great prosperity is being experienced by the ranchers in the vicinity of the new town of Lucerne"

Wyoming Semi-Weekly Tribune

December 28, 1909

 

Pictures: