Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 14

14 Cosper Star-Tribune Sundoy, November 28, 1963 "jiv jjjjjj P.y NEAT BUSINESSES line Gillette's wide streets, showing the effect of the prosperity the town is enjoying. CAMPBELL COUNTY Memorial Hospitol provides up-to-date medical services for Gillette's A 00A Gillette Wyoming's Only Boom Town In 1893, the railroad pushed west, taking much of the lown's population with it. Then a disatrous fire hit the town, out most ot the town business district. The decline was evident in 1894, when there were only two saloons, two stores and a restaurant remaining in dnwntnwn Deep wells provide the town with an adequate water supply, but it is so heavily saturated with minerals that it has an unpleasant taste. The city's water system is 40 years old and outdated, but funds are not readily available for its replacement.

The high school is crowded, and other schools are taxed, but because of a low bonding power, little relief is seen in the problem. Some 1,500 students are enrolled in the city's schools. Gillette has one of the youngest populations in Wyoming. More than three-quarters 76.6 per cent of Gillette's tnwnsl Agriculture and stock brought some $10 million into the coun-iy's economy in I960 and some 660 persons were employed in those fields. The income and employment has decreased slightly in the past five years.

But oil remains the big factor in Gillette's prosperity. Almost 1,000 men are employed in the oil industry in the town -some 1,000 men and their families who didn't live in Gillette a decade ago. When the boom began, the immediate influx of new families strained almost every facility in Gillette. Housing was at a Gillette. By BILL MISSETT State Editor -GILLETTE Oil has turned Gillette from a sleepy farm Sjitd ranch town into a booming wide awake city.

oil boom began in the 1950s, when Gillette's population Was only 2.200. By 1960, the population was 3,600, and it's now estimated at more than 6,000. 175 per cent surge in population has caused growing bains that city fathers find difficult to solve, but merchants enjoying unprecedented prosperity and many new businesses have been built since the boom began. GILLETTE was founded in 1892 when the Burlington and Mis-90911 Railroad was extended into the rich ranching area to provide stock hauling facilities. In 1920, the population was barely 1,000.

In 1925, rich coal veins east of the town were discovered, bringing new' life to the community. By 1930, the population was nearine 2 000 and r.illoifp ra. people are 44 years or younger. mained virtually unchanged through the 1930s and 1940s Thp town was supported largely through the agricultural and stock The average Gillette resident is one of the best educated in the state. Average grade level for Dcrsons ovpp 25 is 11 vparc men aouars wmcn flowed in from the surrounding ranches and the coal mines.

and a healthy percentage of the adult population has attended premium, businesses were taxed to the limit, schools and churches were jammed, and city services were inadequate. It took several years before Gillette began to expand. Many businessmen felt the boom wouldn't last, and withheld expanding their businesses or building new facilities. City fathers were also hesitant to snend monev until thp hnnm ur Kcauuaieu irom college. Average family income in the countv is Sfi.flOl almnst si onn higher than the average for the rest of the state.

The tide turned In the 1950s, when the first oil discovery In ihe county sparked a boom that has increased in tempo each year. The oil fields west of the town drew every major oil company to Gillette. Now the oil activity is concentrated to the east of Gillette, and more than 100 oil companies and related oil service mm. established itself. Streets in new areas went unpaved, water fa Gillette has an active Chamber of Commerce which is a vhal asset to the community, supporting and originating many civic cilities were taxed and city services were ill-equipped to meet the demands.

In the early 1960s, the expansion came with startling pffprt programs lor tne nettermcnt ot the town. panies have officers or representatives in Gillette. Hunting and tourism are imnnrlant In Hillottp's Three railroad men laid claim to 160 acres of land which as eventually surveyed by the railroad and sold to a land company owned by another group of railroaders. Gillette, named for a railroad engineer and surveyor Edward Gillette, soon became one of the largest shipping points in the State, serving Buffalo, Sheridan, Big Horn, Dayton and points West. hen the land company subdivided the 160 acres of land surrounding the railroad's end, the town quickly took shape.

Within three months, the town had formed a government, elected mayor and justice of the peace. J. In a few months, there was a railroad commissary store, to general stores, a livery stable, a boarding house, a bank, seven saloons, three dance halls, and a growing community of log and sod homes. New businesses sprang up. elaborate motels and restaurants werP uranium, discovered near Gillette in 1951.

added imnpfns tn The town bills itself as "The Home of the Antelope," and several Ihe boom, but in recent years has dropped in production. built, street paving programs covered dusty gravel streets with inousana nunters hock to tne town annually during hunting me coai mine, now operated bv Wvo-Dak Goal fn is an important pnase ot uiuette economy. The coal field the world's largest lignite field and the second largest rnal fiplH in macaoam, new scnoois neiped eliminate some of the crowding, and city services were expanded. Several new churches have been built in the past few years. The town nearly doubled its physical size in the past 10 years and is still growing.

Gillette's two biggest problems today are water and schools. the world still has a fantastic reserve of some 62 billion tons. Gillette is a friendly town with a closety-lcnit commvily spirit, one that richly deserves the success the town now enjoys. It will likely ride the crest of the oil hoom for many for oil experts predict present oil production levels will remain for at least another decade. Production, which has gradually increased in recent years, now averages about a half million tons annually.

I IIIIMMIIW1IIM ll FRONTIER DAYS in Gillette showed a dusty little town that was a key shipping point for the area. NOW GILLETTE is a thriving Dwn with a big residential sectioi streets 1 'i-fln Msr Mali Man MODERN retirement home in Gillette is another example of community's new growth. WISTSIDI Grade School is "school in round," with pie-shaped clossrooms, FOOTBRIDGE over Gillette fishing pond MANY MODERN churches have been built in Gillette in the past few years..