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Official Website
History
Prior to Wyoming's settlement by European-based populations, the area's stretches played host to nomadic tribes such as Cheyenne, Arapaho, Shoshone, and Sioux. The memory of such populations is represented at present by such preserves as the Wind River Indian Reservation, a large tract NW of Natrona County that serves as home to some 6,000 Shoshone and Arapaho tribal members.
New York investor John Jacob Astor established the settlement of Astoria on the Columbia River, and sent Robert Stuart eastward to blaze a trail and lay the foundation of a string of trading posts. Stuart documented the South Pass Route through the Continental Divide, near the SW corner of present-day Natrona County. Stuart's company erected the first hut in the area in 1812, near present-day Bessemer Bend. Other trappers and explorers used the route; some of them named Independence Rock in NW Natrona County on July 4, 1824.
In 1840, Father Pierre-Jean De Smet began preaching the Christian teaching to this area's indigenous peoples. He carved his name on Independence Rock and called it The Register of the Desert. Later explorers who inscribed the rock include John C. Frémont (1843), who explored the country along the Platte and Sweetwater Rivers.
The first Euro-American settlement occurred in the Casper area in the late 19th century.[5] Natrona County was created by the legislature of the Wyoming Territory on March 9, 1888, and it was organized in 1890. The land for Natrona County was annexed from Carbon County.
Natrona County was named for the deposits of natron found in the area. In 1909, Natrona County gained land from Fremont County. The boundaries were adjusted slightly in 1911 and 1931, and at that point the county gained its present outline.
Adjacent Counties
Cities, Towns & Communities
Alcova | Antelope Hills | Arminto | Bar Nunn | Bessemer Bend | Brookhurst | Bucknum | Casper (County Seat) | Casper Mountain | Crimson Dawn | Edgerton | Evansville | Goose Egg | Hartrandt | Hell's Half Acre | Hiland | Homa Hills | Meadow Acres | Midwest | Mills | Mountain View | Natrona | Powder River | Red Butte | Strouds | Vista West
Links
Medicine Bow National Forest (part)