Atlantic City
Pop. 57 Elev. 7,675
Driving
27 miles south of Lander on Wyoming Highway 28, and then taking a gravel road
left for roughly less than five miles, you arrive in Atlantic City, a
century-old ghost town. Gold miners poured into this district in the late 1860s
and, within a few months, created three typical frontier gold camps here —
South Pass City, Atlantic City, and Miner’s Delight. Today, Atlantic City can
easily claim the title as boom/bust capital of Wyoming. Since its official
platting in April 1868, the town has experienced a continuing series of mining
booms and busts, all but one tied to the fortunes of gold.
In
1867, Atlantic City’s population approached 300. When W.H. Jackson took his
1870 photograph of Atlantic City, the town sported a three block main street
with business buildings on both sides and heavily populated residential areas
on the hillsides and in Beer Garden Gulch.
Several
miners from South Pass City in 1868 discovered "The Atlantic
Ledge"—gold-bearing quartz several feet thick and thousands of feet long.
The discovery spawned a boom of free-milling gold that resulted in a population
of nearly two thousand in two years.
During
the town’s boom, it possessed a brewery, a beer garden, a large dance hall, and
an opera house. After three years, the town consisted of a log school and a
two-story stone building constructed by J.W. Anthony in which Robert McAuley
operated a store. The ninety-foot upper story served as a dance hall where Calamity
Jane conducted business. In 1862, Emil Granier, a French engineer, proposed a
twenty-mile sluiceway to provide water. The ditch, built with $1,000.00 and
three hundred Swedes, passed through miles of hard rock, circled around the
town and angled south. Christina Lake, located at the head of the ditch, was
dammed to create a vast water supply. Unfortunately, the grade had been laid
out with too much slope, leaving the sluices wiped out and water spilling over.
The result was a supply of "liquid gold" that had every miner rushing
in, creating small bonanzas and heavy whiskey consumption.
Forlorn
and defeated, Emil Granier returned to France to explain the project’s failure
and to request refinancing. Instead, Granier was jailed, tried, and sentenced
to life imprisonment. Despite the Granier ditch failure, Atlantic City made the
following additions: Mr. Giessler created a new store in 1898; the Carpenter
family created a two-story log hotel in 1900; July 4, 1900 included a rodeo on
Main Street; and in 1912, the log church was built which came to be known as
"National Shrine."
By
1875, all of the gold had been harvested, and in 1920, all of the mines were
shut down. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Atlantic City experienced
a small boom as the E.T. Fisher Company built and operated a dredge on the
streams near Atlantic City where it took out seven hundred thousand dollars in
gold. The two-man operation was comprised of a "traveling mill"
mounted on rails. While one man controlled the dredge, the other handled the
two-story gold washer, oiling bearings, and watched for nuggets. Along the way
they left heaps of rock which are still visible today. Many of the nearby mines
re-opened. By the start of World War Il, this short-lived excitement faded: When
the government declared gold a non-strategic metal, the mines were forced to
close. In their search for metal, scavengers came into the area and dismantled
many of the mines in the district.
By
the 1950s, Atlantic City was listed as a ghost town. During several winters in
the 1950s and early 1960s, only three or four people remained in the town. In
1950, the only remaining business in operation was the Carpenter Hotel— a
one-night stay in the cabin was one dollar and meals were fifty cents.
Later
in the 1960s, interest in a different metal-iron ore brought hundreds of people
to the area when U.S. Steel constructed a large, open pit mine three miles
northwest of Atlantic City. Although most of the miners commuted from Lander,
several settled in Atlantic City. This and the growing interest in vacation
homes made the town slowly grow again. In the 1980s the U.S. Steel mine closed,
and with economic hard times throughout Wyoming, most of the people in this
community left to find jobs.
Each
spring, the eternal hope of the gold mining community grows as geologists,
promoters, and would-be investors drift in and out of Atlantic City. The wind
of this old gold town always whispers of another boom on its way.
St.
Andrews Episcopal Church. In 1911, the Atlantic City residents began raising
money through plays and dances to build the town’s first church. It was
consecrated in 1913, and for many years Miss Ellen Carpenter looked after it.
By the 1960s, the church was beginning to show its age. Through a community effort,
the new people of Atlantic City restored the building. Since then it has served
as the ecumenical, community church. It is on the National Register of Historic
Places.
Giessler
Store and Post Office (Atlantic City Mercantile). After the success of an
earlier store east of the McAuley Store, Lawrence Giessler constructed this
building in 1893 out of adobe brick, covered with metal siding. The next year
he built a large livery barn across the street, behind the store. For many years,
Giessler successfully operated the store, a freighting business, and a ranch on
Willow Creek. He installed the first telephone system in the area in 1904.
After his death, his wife, Emma, operated a cafe and boarding house for the
booming town. After the store closed in the late ‘30s, it was not opened again
until the iron ore boom in the 1960s. A U.S. Steel worker, Lyle Moerer,
restored the building. He and his wife, Jerrie, ran a store, gas station, and
bar for several years. Since then, various owners have operated it as a bar and
steak house. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The
steak house/bar was not open during our visit but the owners being inside as we
peeked in the windows unlocked the doors and allowed us to look around and take
a few pictures. As can be seen the
restaurant is a very interesting place.
Atlantic City Gold Mine
(No longer in Operation)
South Pass City
Population: 5
Elevation: 7905
South Pass City is located
about 2 mile west of Atlantic City. Many
of the original buildings and houses of the city have been restored or
reconstructed.
The number of cats has not been confirmed as both cats are similar in appearance and no one has seen both cats at the same time.
Gold Mine Just East of South Pass City (mine is still in operation)
View of Reconstructed South Pass City
Combination Salon and Barber Shop
