“ SHERMAN, Wyoming Territory, is the highest point attained by the Pacific Railway on its whole course from ocean to ocean. Fifteen months ago nothing but bare hills and crags marked this spot. Now there is a little town, containing a large machine- shop, a ‘Wells Fargo’s express office,’ newspaper shops, and even a millinery store. Its two hotels, of shingle, are of a rough kind, but good meals are to be obtained in them. Our illustration of Sherman is the first that has been published of the place in this country. Wyoming is to include parts of Dacotah, Utah, Colorado, etc. The embryo town of Sherman is 8262 feet above the sea, yet the ascent to it from the Missouri River, a distance of 549 miles, is made with the greatest ease. The grades never exceed 90 feet to the mile, while for the larger part of the distance is not over 30 feet to the mile.”
(Harper’s Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, September 11, 1869)