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Denver-Cheyenne and Laramie Line

Stage line running from Laramie to El Paso.[1]

On July 5, 1867, the site of Cheyenne was platted out in anticipation of the coming Union Pacific Railroad. A camp city sprang to life in the following weeks, so quickly that it reached a population of nearly 600 by the time it was incorporated as a city less than a month later.[2]

Denver City, determined to ensure its standing as the travel hub of the Colorado Territory, partnered with business investors in the east to establish a stage line to Cheyenne even before the railroad itself arrived.[1]

With Cheyenne only a hundred miles to the north across fairly flat prairie land, and Laramie just fifty miles further to the west, the stage route was quickly and easily established. This connected Denver City with two stations along the proposed Union Pacific route and one to the existing Overland Trail stage route near Laramie. The first Denver-Cheyenne and Laramie stage rolled out of Denver City on August 1, arriving in Cheyenne on August 3 and in Laramie on August 4, 1867.[1]

Investors quickly and aggressively advertised their new stage line. Posters and handbills distributed as far west as California and as far south as Texas boasted of connecting stations of other stage lines.[1]

Trail West to Fury: As far away as Little Bend, Texas, the Denver-Cheyenne and Laramie Line was advertised as an important travel corridor. Jessie Hayden hung a poster for the new stage line in his general store in early August of 1867.[3]

From the arrival of the Union Pacific in Cheyenne on November 13, 1867[1] and in Laramie on May 4, 1868,[4] the Denver-Cheyenne and Laramie Line thrived. Having acquired a contract with the U. S. Post Office to carry mail, it continued to thrive when Wells Fargo and other competing stage lines dominated the region, and even into the early years following the advent of the territory's own railroads.[2]

By the mid-1870s, the stage line had extended its route to connect with the Santa Fe Trail and points beyond, establishing its southern terminus at El Paso.[2]

The Day They Hanged Bret Maverick: In September of 1876, Bret Maverick caught up to Molly Sharp at the Dry Springs Way Station on the Denver-Cheyenne and Laramie Line in New Mexico Territory to travel with her to Santa Fe.[5]

ABOVE: A Union Army lieutenant stands in front of a Denver-Cheyenne and Laramie Line advertisement posted on Jessie Hayden's general store wall in Little Bend, Texas, August 1867.[4]