City in Carbon County, Wyoming, named for John A. Rawlins, secretary of war under President Grant. (Gannett) The spring from which the town of Rawlins took its name was so designated in honor of General J. A. Rawlins, Secretary of War under President Grant. The town is a shipping point for a large area both north and south of the railroad. It is the connecting station for Baggs and Dixon, in southern Wyoming, 70 miles to the south, and before the building of the "Moffat road" (Denver and Salt Lake) it supplied Craig, Hayden, and other places still farther south in northwestern Colorado. It is also a railroad division point. (Guidebook of the Western United States) Named after General Rawlins of Civil War fame. A party headed by Grenville M. Dodge and General Rawlins discovered a spring near the present location of Rawlins. General Rawlins, who was very thirsty after their long march said that if anything were ever named after him, he wanted it to be a spring of water, to which Dodge replied "we will name this Rawlins Spring." (WPA)
Other Names:
Rawling's Spring, Rawling's Springs
County:
Carbon
Feature Category:
Manmade Features
More Reading:
100 years in the wild West : a pictorial history of Rawlins, Wyoming. Carbon County Museum. [Rawlins, Wyo. : Times Stationers, 1968]
