Casper, WY

Casper grew beside North Platte River crossings used by travelers on the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails. Ferries operated there in the early 1840s, and Louis Guinard added a bridge and trading post in 1859. The city was established east of Fort Caspar; the garrison left that fort for Fort Fetterman on the Bozeman Trail in 1867. Casper is now the Natrona County seat and Wyoming’s second-most-populous city, with 59,038 residents in 2020. Crude-oil discoveries in the 1890s made it a regional petroleum center and led to the “Oil City” nickname. The city also serves as a banking and commerce center and is home to Casper College, the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra, and the Troopers drum and bugle corps.