Travelers between Fremont and Natrona County have passed the town of Hiland, currently posted with a population 10, located on highway 20/26, may have wondered how Hiland became one of Wyoming’s first ghost towns.
I was recently contacted to do some research on some real estate in the area and discovered that the town of Hiland was home to a booming sheep industry in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. In 1893 Charles Henry King started the Lander Transportation Company that ran from Casper to Lander. The stagecoach was run by William Clark, who with his son Jack, would construct a stage station stop at what would eventually become Hiland, WY. In 1896 C. H. King would build the Wolton post-office, a store, and a very large sheep shearing business. C. H. King is also recognized for being the grandfather of President Gerald Ford and locally for building the historic First National Bank Building in Shoshoni which still bears his name.
The town of Hiland was originally named Wolton, (not to be confused with Waltman) and also went by the names Woolville, and Woolton in recognition of the large sheep shearing operation. Although the ‘Cowboy Line’ railroad ran through Wolton on its way to Lander, the new Burlington rail line a few miles away was considered superior in construction with better distributing opportunities. Around 1913 the new railroad passed by what would become Arminto, and most of the businesses of Wolton moved all their operations and buildings, including the Big Horn Hotel, to the nearby town, located about 8 miles away. By the mid 1910’s most of the sheep operation, buildings and workers had been moved and in 1925 the remaining town residents changed the town to its current name, Hiland, in reference to being the highest elevation stop along the Chicago Northwestern Railroad.
I recently saw a very informative article that includes histories of some of the towns in western Natrona and Fremont County along the old “Cowboy Line” including Casper, Lost Cabin, Shoshoni, Riverton, Lander and others in this very informative article, A Ghost of a Ghost – The Way West – Wolton, by Randy Tucker. If local history intrigues you at all, you will enjoy this journey into the past. In addition to town history, it also includes further history of stagecoach and railroad traveling in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.