"We started out the first of June and went to the end of the track, which wasthen at North Platte, and from there we marched immediately up the Platte,then up the Lodge Pole to the east base of the Black Hills, where we werejoined by General C. C. Augur, who was then in command of that department with his staff. General Augur's instructions were to locate the military post where I located the end of the division at the east base of the mountains, and after a thorough examination of the country, I located the division point on Crow Creek,where Cheyenne now stands, and named it Cheyenne, and General Augur immediately located just north of the town the military post of D. A. Russell. We spent the Fourth of July at this place, and General John A. Rawlins delivered a very remarkable and patriotic speech." (Dodge)County seat of Laramie County and Capital of the State. It is now conceded that the Cheyenne, with their kindred tribe, the Arapaho, probably once dwelt about the waters of the St. Croix River, in Wisconsin. Their tribal name (according to Lewis) was Sharha (Shaway), possibly a variant of the Sioux form Shaiela or Shaiena, whence their present name. Apparently they were driven northwestward from their Wisconsin habitat, and first settled upon the Cheyenne River in North Dakota, a tributary of the Red River of the North. It is conjectured that they were forced southwest by the Sioux. The Warreconne, where they made their final stand, is the present Big Beaver in Emmons County, North Dakota. According to Cheyenne tradition, they were formerly an agricultural people, forced into nomadic habits by these various removals. (WPA) Bears the name of an Algonquian tribe of Plains Indians who called themselves Dzitsistas. The word Cheyenne is a corruption of the name given the tribe by the Sioux and is said to signify "aliens." (Annals of Wyoming 14:2)
Other Names:
Magic City of the Plains
County:
Laramie
More Reading:
Cheyenne Charter (First and last pages), Web, 2015; Cheyenne's historic parks : from untamed prairie to a city of trees. Flynn, Shirley E. [Cheyenne, Wyo.] : Cheyenne Historic Preservation Board, 2001.; Historic Cheyenne : a history of the magic city. Dabney, Eric. San Antonio, TX : Historical Pub. Network, a division of Lammert Inc., 1996.; Cheyenne : a biography of the "magic city" of the Old West, 1867-1903. O'Neal, Bill. Austin, Texas : Eakin Press, c2006.; Cheyenne Frontier Days. Starley Talbott and Linda Graves Fabian. Charleston, SC : Arcadia Pub, 2013.; History of Cheyenne and northern Wyoming : embracing the gold fields of the Black Hills, Powder River, and Big Horn countries. Triggs, J. H. Laramie, Wyo. : Powder River Publishers & Booksellers, 1955.; Early Cheyenne homes, 1880-1890. Wyoming State Historical Society. Laramie County Chapter. Cheyenne, Wyo. : Laramie County Historical Society, 1962.
