Tales of a Wyoming Ghost Town A Little History

This song is about another mining city found in Arizona, but it has at it's heart the breadth and width of the town that I spent my adolescent years in, and have such a fondness for. The song was originally done by Kate Wolf, and no offense to this artist, but this rendition does not do the original justice. This was simply the first copy I could find that could be shared.

So back to my Wyoming Ghost Town. We moved there before I started 6th grade, but I'd visited there over Summer breaks for a few years before that. As an only child in the familial unit I belonged to at the time, the mountains of the surrounding area afforded ample opportunity for exploration and make believe. The old buildings, and empty houses made a wonderful landscape for my mind, a mind hat craved a world free of complications.



My mom was already in love with this place, and as I grew up there it was not difficult to see why. The Ghost Town is called Atlantic City, taking it's moniker from it's location on the Atlantic side of the continental divide. It's about three or four miles away from South Pass City, one of the big landmarks on the Oregon Trail. South Pass and Atlantic City were gold mining towns. Many of the mills still stand. A.C. boomed twice for gold and busted. In the 1960's it boomed again, but this time for iron ore, until U.S. Steel shut down the mine in the 1980's and the town busted again, driving it's and Lander's economy into a depression. The 2000 census places the population of Atlantic City at 39 souls.


We had one small church, two bars, and many colorful personalities that probably still live there, so names will be changed to protect the innocent and guilty alike as my tales go forward.


It is the kind of place you either love or hate, but once you fall in love with it, it never let's you go. I spent 6 years of my childhood there... the most time I ever spent in any one place as a kid. It became my constant, and now it remains a constant in it's call to come back. My mom has written about changes that have been made here and there... the bars have been sold, an old shop building that was locked up and closed for years was opened as a gift shop, some people have gone, some have stayed. A new fellowship hall has been built for St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, obviously since this picture was taken. But this is essentially one of those places that only minor details change, but the spirit of it always remains it's beautiful wild self.