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Sheep, Douglas, 1912
As noted on the previous page, settlement in
the Douglas area began in 1867 at Fort Fetterman while Douglas, itself, was established in
1886 with the arrival of the Railroad. Originally known as Tent Town, it was named
Douglas, as was Douglas, Georgia, in recognition of Stephen A. Douglas's
support for the transcontinental railroad. In the Senate, Douglas was responsible for
the extension of the Illinois Central to Chicago, thus, making Chicago the
rail hub on North America.
Glendo, approx. 1920. Glendo
is on the site
of Horseshoe Station, an early Pony Express and Overland Stage station. The
station was the location of the first telegraph station in the Territory and also
the home station for the Rocky Ridge Division of the Overland Stage and, thus,
the place of residence of Jack Slade (see discussion on
Ghost Towns page with regard to Point of Rocks Station which he robbed).
It was here, in fact, that Slade employed young Billy Cody as a rider.
Sir Richard Burton, the 19th Century British adventurer, in his 1860 log book of his cross-country
stage trip, commented on his overnight stay at Horseshoe Station:
"We were informed that ‘lady travelers’ were admitted into the house, but
the ruder sex must sleep where it could or not sleep at all if it preferred.
We found a barn hardly fit for a decently brought up pig; which had no door
and a damp floor. Into this disreputable hole we were all thrust for the
night even the federal judge amongst us whose position procured him only a
broken down pallet."
Sir Richard Burton August 14, 1860 9:30 PM
Guernsey, approx. 1939. Photo by William P. Sanborn
Present day Guernsey is on the site of
"Emigrant's Tub," a place along the Oregon Trail where, in the 1840's, pioneers
would stop to bath and wash their laundry.
One mile south of the town are the
Oregon Trail Ruts where wagon ruts made by the emigrants were literally worn into
the rock. Three miles from town are Register Cliffs where emigrants placed their
names. The earliest, believed to be that of a French trapper, is dated July 14, 1829.
Guernsey, as a town, however dates
only to 1902. It was founded by the Lincoln Land Co., a subsidiary of the Burlington
Railroad and was named after Charles A. Guernsey,
a state representative, mining developer and owner of a ranch at Register Cliffs and
the Three-Nines Ranch. the town was originally an ore shipping point on the railroad for ores from
mines at Hartville and Sunrise to the north of Guernsey. The Lincoln Land Co. also founded a number of towns
along the Burlington all across Nebraska as well as Kansas and eastern Colorado, chief among
them Scottsbluff. Stewart Culin visited the town at the time of its founding. In "A Summer Trip Among
the Western Indians," Bulletin of the Free Museaum of Sceince and Art, University of Pennsylvania, January 1901,
Culin described the little town which was undergoing a boom as a result of the opening of the
iron ore mines at Sunrise:
Some dozens of unpainted frame houses on the open praire, a railroad station, and a vast gang of
laborers engaged in building a reailroad embankment were was that was visible of the new
metropolis, in which corner lots were being offered for sale at metropolitan prices.
Sunrise, Wyoming, 1908
It was only appropriate that the town be named for Guernsey, for it was he who had brought the newly found
prosperity to the area. In 1900, Guernsey put together a number of mining claims at Sunrise and sold them to
the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company ("CF&I"). CF&I arose out of the construction of the Denver and
Reo Grande Railway's need for steel rail. Thus, there was put together an amalgamation of various coal and
Iron Companies to form a vertically integrated steel company, which control all phases of the
production of steel. It owned the iron ore mines, the coal companies, the foundry, the railroad that brought
the coal and ore to the foundry. It owned the miners, the town they lived in, and the company store, the
Colorado Supply Company, at which
the miners traded. In the words of the song:
You haul Sixteen Tons, whadaya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter don't you call me cause I can't go.
I owe my soul to the company store.
Sunrise Mine
 Sunrise Mine, 1907
As observed by the editor of Mines and Mining, September 13, 1907:
Sunrise is a company town in the
fullest sense. Everthing, and may it
be said everybody, is owned by the
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. No special
brand is necessary, for the fact impresses
itself indelibly on all who come
here. Visitors are not especially
welcomed, which a glance at the passenger
accommodations on the train that
meets the Colorado & Southern at
Hartville Junction forces itself on all
comers.
From Hartville Junction the spur to
Sunrise via Guernsey, a distance of about
fifteen miles, belongs and is operated by the
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. It is a fine
piece of railroad engineering with its high grades and
frequent curves and one would not
mind paying two prices for transportation, as he must.
If only the accommodations were adequate, but, as has
been said, the company seems not to
care for that sort of traffic. Having constructed the
line for its own convience, no doubt it considers itself
an accommodator of the public by attaching a caboose
to its trains of ore cars, which caboose has poor seating
capacity for about eight people, through several times that
number travel over the route as a rule.
In contrast
to Union Pacific Coal Company camps where there were unions, CF & I control in its camps was
full and complete. In 1915 following the
Ludlow Massacre, the United States Commission on Industrial Relations issued a
report. The author of the report, George P. West, noted:
[T]he employees were forced not only to depend on the favor of the
Company for the opportunity to earn a living, but to live in such houses as the Company furnished, to buy
such food, clothing and supplies as the Company sold them, to accept for their children such instruction as
the companies wished to provide, and to conform even in their religious worship to
the Company's wishes. Report on the Colorado Strike, p 55.
Sunrise, although it was owned by CF & I, was not involved in the
strike. Its minister, the Reverend Daniel Spencer McCorkle (1880-1956) was almost
fired by the Company following the massacre. He had preached a sermon denouncing the massacre. The Reverend
McCorkle, however, repented of his ways when the Company informed him of "the facts
concerning that disturbance." Letter from CF & I president to Starr J. Murphy, Rockefeller's attorney, Oct. 31, 1914.
Thus, the president of CF & I wrote:
At the time of the Ludlow affair the minister was very outspoken in his criticism of the
coal companies, but seemed to regret his action when informed of the facts concerning that disturbance.
He has socialistic tendencies, however, and I have been informed that his wife is a Greek, yet they may both be perfectly
honest.
In actual fact, the Reverend McCorkle while at Missouri Valley College, organized a chapter of the
Intercollegiate Socialist Society and, according to the Montana Historical Society, remained a
lifelong member of the Socialist Party. In 1915, The Reverend McCorkle testified before
the Commission on Industrial Relations. In 1916, he was elected as moderator of the Cheyenne Presbytery. In 1917, due to his
wife's failing health, he returned to Montana where he had previously worked as a miner at Bearcreek. In addition to
Missouri Valley, The Reverend McCorkle had a master degree from Columbia and attended the Union
Theological Seminary.
Sunrise, approx. 1938.
The Colorado Supply Company was the Company store.
Folowing almost universal condemnation of Rockefeller, Sunrise was made a model town. The Rockefeller
interests remained in control of CF & I until the 1944. The company began a program of diversification. In
1990, the company filed for bankruptcy. Sunrise, which at one time had a population of 1500 and was the third largest source of
iron ore west of the Mississippi, now is a ghost town.
Sunrise, 1930's
Mining in the Hartville Range, however, preceded the coming of the Sunrise Mine. Nor was Sunrise the only iron mine
in the area. In the 1880's there was copper mining centered on Hartville. Nearby was Ironton, the mining camp for the Chicago Mine.
In 1878, John Fields, the manager of the stage station at Government Farm, 14 miles north of
Fort Laramie discovered an abandoned copper mine. Fields was later appointed by the government as the temporary custodian of
Fort Laramie upon its abandonment. It was speculated that the mine had been that of
earlier fur trappers or Indians. By 1881, there was a rush of miners into the area and soon the town of
Hartville arose, named after Major (Brevet Lt. Col). Verling K. Hart who also located copper deposits in the area.
But by 1887, the copper rush had ended.
Hartville, 1898
Hartville held on and became an "independent town" at which miners in Sunrise could trade.
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