Basin
Basin, Wyoming is a farmer's town and seat of Big Horn County. This simple town has comfortable dwellings, wide streets, and a four block civic center with courthouse, post office, library, and park. In 1910, the citizens of Basin began a tree and shrub planting campaign and a "lilac town" drive in 1936. Today, the streets and approaching highways are among the finest in Wyoming, lined with perfumed hedges and glorious shade trees.
This farming community boast a large bean-seed treating plant. Every year the town of Basin holds a festival during which bean dishes of amazing variety are served free at every corner. Samples of beans are exhibited with the growers' names and prizes are awarded to the excellence of quality. The women of the town have become expert in fashioning pictures and plaques from beans.
Basin lies in perhaps the most scenic counties in northern Wyoming. Bighorn County is home of the Bighorn Canyon National Recreational Area, Bighorn National Forest, Bighorn River, Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range, and Shell Falls. The scenic towns of Hyattville, Greybull, and Lovell make up Bighorn County. Slightly northeast of Hyattville is the Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site. The Medicine Lodge area consists of 12,100 acres, popular for its Indian petroglyphs and pictographs, but more importantly for its human habitation site dating back to over 10,000 years ago. The Bighorn Mountains span the entire county diagonally. Nearly 100 percent of this county is recreation compatible boasting scenic river spots, mountains to climb, forest to see, and archeological sites to discover.
Basin City, as it was first called, came into prominence in 1896 as a candidate for the seat of Big Horn County. Otto, a nearby town in the Greybull River country was a favored contender. Timing is everything and it so happened that a frontier attorney, W. S. Collins, decided to up and move the Paintrock Record from Hyattville, Wyoming to Basin City and renamed it the Basin City Herald. Joe Magill, a neighbor cowboy from the Embar Ranch near Thermopolis, became its editor. The town of Otto then engaged Tom Dagget, a journalist from New York, to join the Otto Courier and direct its campaign. The duel that followed is still rehearsed with relish. When Cody entered the race, the vote of the western part of the valley was split, and Basin won the seat of Big Horn County.
The first Cody townsite was platted in the fall of 1895. Buffalo Bill Cody was then traveling with his Wild West Show, and at that time, Cody was probably the best advertised man in the world. George T. Beck, Horace Boal and others decided to organize a company ande make Buffalo Bill the president. The company dug a canal to divert water from the South Fork of the Shoshone River, and attracted homesteaders both by low rates and by the name of its president. In 1896, Beck insisted that the town be moved up river to its present site and Buffalo Bill suggested his own name for the place, Cody.
Within a year the Burlington Railroad built a branch for a future railroad terminus, a county building was in progress, along with a commericial center. Beck and Cody thought the promise of growth would be attractive in the campaign for the Big Horn County seat. There was great disappointment when Basin, Wyoming won the county seat, but the Cody group was told they could form a new county when the population warranted it.
A turning point for the town of Cody came in 1901 when the Burlington Railroad finished its line to Cody. For choosing Cody as a terminus, the Lincoln Land Company, a subsidiary of the railroad, claimed ownership of half the town lots. Cody was incorporated in 1901, boasting a population of 550. All the development to sustain a new settlement was in place. In 1909, Park County was created and Cody became its seat.
Currently OutsideOther pages you might find helpful:
Big Horn County
Official site for Big Horn County, Wyoming.
Big Horn County Library
Official site for the Big Horn County Library.
Big Horn County School District
Information on the Big Horn County School District.
Town of Basin
Official site for the Town of Basin, Wyoming.
Town of Basin History
A complete history of the Town of Basin, Wyoming.
