Empire, Wyoming

{{Short description|Former community in Wyoming, US, populated and administered by African Americans}}

Empire, Wyoming was an all-black community of ex-slave families who settled in the Spoon Hill Creek Valley in Goshen County, Wyoming,{{Cite web |title=Empire Wyoming (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/places/empire-wyoming.htm |access-date=2024-02-12 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}} near the Nebraska state border, between 1908 and 1920. This group of individuals is separate from the "Exodusters" who moved West in the late nineteenth century.

History

Empire, WY was founded in 1908 by African American families from Custer County, Nebraska.{{cite web|url=http://www.nebraskahistory.org/oversite/whatsnew/news/press52.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613142233/http://nebraskahistory.org/oversite/whatsnew/news/press52.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-date=June 13, 2010|title=News Release|date=24 August 2009|work=Nebraska State Historical Society|accessdate=2009-09-11}} Russel Taylor applied for the organization of a post office on December 29, 1915.{{cite web |title=Division of Supplies, Post Office Department |url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/68859981?objectPage=452 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240219215110/https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/dc-metro/rg-028/M1126/M1126-677/M1126-677-0473.jpg |archive-date=February 19, 2024 |access-date=February 19, 2024 |website=United States Post Office}}

Legacy

Today, two historical markers commemorate the homesteaders who lived in Empire. One is located on the Interstate 25's Dwyer Junction Rest Area close to the town of Wheatland, Wyoming.{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Erin |date=2020-11-06 |title=Wyoming's Black Pioneer Community That Disappeared |url=https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/open-spaces/2020-11-06/wyomings-black-pioneer-community-that-disappeared |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=Wyoming Public Media |language=en}} The second commemoration was placed in Torrington, Wyoming, next to the Goshen County Homesteaders Museum.{{Cite web |title=Empire Wyoming (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/places/empire-wyoming.htm |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=National Park Service |language=en}}

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20090329111520/http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/excerpts-4-08.htm Extract] from article on Empire
Todd Guenther, [https://history.nebraska.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/NH2008Empire_Builders.pdf “The Empire Builders, An African American Odyssey in Nebraska and Wyoming,”] Nebraska History 89 (2008): 176-200 [https://web.archive.org/web/20240210111402/https://history.nebraska.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/NH2008Empire_Builders.pdf archived] on February 10, 2024

Category:Populated places established by African Americans

Category:Unincorporated communities in Wyoming

Category:Populated places established in 1908

Category:1908 establishments in Wyoming