Town of Arvada Incorporated November 21, 1919

Arvada articles of incorporation were filed on Nov. 21, 1919, for the Arvada Townsite Company. J.J. McDermott was the president of the company, and George W. Whitman of Sheridan served as secretary.

Arvada was first platted in 1892 along the route of the B & M Railroad, and the train has played an important part in the history of the area ever since.

Before there was a railroad, from 1888 until 1891, a stagecoach that ran between Sundance to Buffalo crossed the Powder River on a ferry boat near what is now Arvada.

In 1891, when the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad began pushing west across Wyoming, the short-lived town of Suggs, Wyoming, was established on the east bank of the river. Suggs had a post office which opened September 14, 1891. There were also several businesses that sprung up to serve the railroad workers.

Suggs, more or less the forerunner of Arvada, was never meant to be a permanent settlement, but simply a work camp for the railroad. The depot, section house and passenger tracks were constructed across the river in Arvada.

After the railroad workers moved on, the businesses and remaining people moved into Arvada, and the site of Suggs soon settled back into the sagebrush and disappeared.

But Arvada began to thrive. They had a post office, and a cafe that was established to serve meals to the passengers coming through on the trains during a short twenty-minute stop.

Both sheep and cattle ranchers grazed their herds on the nutritious prairie grasses around the town. The Powder River and the small creeks feeding into it supplied water for the herds. The railhead at Arvada was the shipping point for the livestock.

In this article in the Wyoming Stockman-Farmer Cheyenne, February 1922: Honeymoon On The Range: “The sheep herding business is not as monotonous as it might be if a fellow goes about it right,” remarked Joe Keffeler of Epsie, Mont., who was on the Omaha market with three double decks, mostly lambs, that sold to a feeder buyer for $7.50.

The sheep were trailed 100 miles to Arvada, Wyo., the shipping point. “It took us eleven days to trail these 800 sheep to Arvada,” continued Joe. “By ‘us’ I mean my wife and I. We had a good wagon and team, two saddle horses and a dog and, while the trip was not altogether a picnic, we managed to get quite a little enjoyment out of it, as we had been alone with our sheep out on the range for the previous 18 months. “

“Last fall we stayed with the sheep right up until Christmas before going to the ranch, and it was not so bad as some might imagine. You see, it was sort of a honeymoon with us. The lady who is now my wife had been clerking in a store at Sturgis, S. D., and I had been putting in my time as chief of police in Lead, S. D.

“We were both tired of our jobs and it really did not take much persuasion to get her to change over from a counter jumper to a sheep herder, and so we got married and got hold of a band of sheep up m Montana.

“We have done fairly well. Our lamb crop this spring was 107 per cent and we still have 1,700 head, mostly breeding ewes, back on the ranch. The cowmen and the settlers make it hard on the sheepmen, but we have gotten along fairly well so far. I left Mrs. Keffeler at Sheridan to get some dental work done and I will meet her there, and we will soon be headed for ‘our little gray home in the west.'”

At one time Arvada had a cafe, a depot, a church, and a first grade through 12^th grade school. In an article in the Semi-Weekly Enterprise, August 1908 said that Arvada was in District 21, and the teacher was Emma West. Clearmont was District 22, Caralee Campbell was the teacher. Later, Arvada also had a high school basketball team, a store, a bar, and other businesses.

And even a bank. This from The Sheridan Enterprise, February 1920: Arvada State Bank to Open April First-The Arvada State Bank is the name of a new banking institution which is to open in Arvada about April 1. The capital stock, which is $25,000, has been placed among Arvada and Sheridan people.

C. L. Chapman, cashier of the First National bank, has been elected president of the new bank, and G. H. Benham, vice-president. Fred V. Portz who was associated with the First National bank for several years will be cashier. A building has been rented and the bank will be opened as soon as supplies and equipment can be secured.

For a time in the early days, Arvada was almost as wild and wooly as Suggs had been.

The Daily Enterprise, Sheridan, Dec. 1909: Arrest is Made in Arvada Store Theft: Man is captured there with part of stolen merchandise in his possession. One of the men who is supposed to have robbed the general store of Morgan & Co., at Arvada, has been captured and another located. The man arrested with said merchandise in his possession which Mr. Morgan has identified as part of the goods taken from his store. The man claims, however, to have bought them off another man. The arrest was made by Constable W. C. Zachary. The sheriff has been notified and the man will probably be brought to Sheridan today.

And again, from the Greybull Standard, May 1922: Arvada Becomes Wild and Woolly Sheriff Thomas left yesterday for Arvada to investigate complaints that the little city had reverted to the old days of the Wild and Woolly West and shooting out glass windows and lights had become a popular diversion. A committee of Arvada residents waited on the sheriff Tuesday asking for a thorough investigation. The sheriff’ was expected to return on 43 this morning. – Sheridan Post.

In the early days, there were a lot of sporting activities. Baseball was played in most of the towns, and, like this article from The Campbell County Record January 1922, other sporting events were popular.

Boxing Bout at Arvada Saturday as a sequence to the organization of an athletic club at Arvada, there will be an athletic program staged there next Saturday evening, Jan. 14. The principal bout will be an eight round go between “Stonewall” Jackson, of Arvada, and “Kid” Stanley, of Gillette.

These men mixed things pretty lively at the boxing event held here recently, and Stanley put over a K. O. on the Arvada lad and won the mill. It seems, however, that the Arvada lightweight is confident he can turn the trick on the Gillette “tallowpot”, and the argument will be decided at a bout scheduled for eight rounds.

There are to be a number of preliminaries to the main go. The program will start at eight o’clock, and will be held at the big warehouse at Arvada, which has been fixed up with a raised platform and with raised seats for the fans. George English, well known Sheridan sportsman and sport promoter, will act as referee, but the details of the preliminary bouts were not complete in time for publication.

Captain LaRoushe is confident that a special “stub” will be run up to Arvada from Gillette Saturday night, in the interest of Stanley, who is a Burlington fireman here, although the report could not be verified by local railroad men. It is said, however, that an attempt will be made to secure the special.

LaRoushe, who has been prominent in the organization of the athletic association at Arvada, is promoting the boxing event for next Saturday. He is an ex-cop of Detroit, served overseas and was in the service 38 months. Before, during and since his army service he has taken an active interest in athletics. He was the winner of the LaRoushe-Hanley bout held here in December, and it was reported he was scheduled for a bout with our local boxer, H. P. Kinnaman, which has been held up by Mr. Kinnaman’s recent illness. LaRoushe is with the state highway department and is connected with the work being done on the highway near Arvada. He asserts that the Gillette fans who come to Arvada Saturday night will see a big bill of fast events.

At one time there was even a mini-gold rush in the area, but not enough gold was found to merit mining in the region.

From The Campbell County Record, September 1921: Reported Gold Find in the Arvada Country – Considerable excitement has been caused in the vicinity of Arvada by the discovery of placer gold in that neighborhood. It seemed that the wife of a rancher, a Mr. Rose, residing about 18 miles south of Arvada killed a chicken the other day and when it was cleaned three nuggets of gold were found in its craw. Old miners, hearing of the discovery prospected the place and curried specimens from various places to the stream and panned them. One man found a number of gold nuggets but as yet has not disclosed the exact place where they were found. The country is rough and there is no water near, but prospectors are flocking in and every foot of the surrounding country is being prospected. – Sheridan Post

There is, however, a great many coal seams in the hills around Arvada, and many ranchers in the early days dug coal for their own use. There was enough natural gas in the area that sometimes the drinking water would catch fire.

​​​​The railroad helped to build Arvada and continues to run next to the town today. Often, the trains would go off the rails.

From the Garland Guard, Garland, Big Horn County, April 1906: Last Friday another smashup occurred on the Burlington near Arvada. east of Sheridan. This is about the fourth wreck at that point within the past two weeks. A fireman was killed and the engineer severely injured.

In 1923, the Laramie Republican reported that Burlington would resume traffic over the river where a bridge went out. The 350 foot bridge over the Powder River was washed out by floods. It was reported that an attempt would be made to transfer the eastbound mail across the wagon bridge, which was being repaired. Mayor C. W. Sheldon called upon Sheridan citizens to participate in cleaning up after the floods.

Arvada still exists today, with a population of around 30 people. When I-90 swung south of the ‘Black and Yellow Trail’ that once went past Arvada, the town began a slow decline.

It still has a post office, and the Arvada Bar and Cafe, but the rural school consolidated in 1971, and the Arvada Jr. High and High School was combined with the Clearmont High School, and renamed Arvada/Clearmont. Due to the long bus ride for the young students, the elementary school continued until 2020 when it was ‘mothballed’ due to lack of students. Today, it’s future is uncertain.

Arvada, a railroad town that has managed to hold on through over 100 years of changes along the rails.

Thanks to Cindy Georgen’s book, Snippets of Sheridan County History, 2013, Sheridan County Historical Society.