Bessemer, which existed from 1888 to 1892, was one of many small towns that grew quickly in late nineteenth century Wyoming. Early explorers and traders had found crude oil seeping to the surface in this area, and a nearby oil spring attracted investors. The Wyoming Improvement Company, a Nebraska corporation, financed a bridge across the North Platte at this location to serve settlers and sought to extend the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley railroad here from Casper. Two oil wells were drilled near the town, which its developers promoted as the "Queen City of the West." As Wyoming moved toward statehood, Natrona County's seat of government became the subject of an election contest between Casper, twelve miles east, and Bessemer, whose platted site lay less than one mile west of this location. When ballots were counted on April 8, 1890, each town had cast more votes than either community had citizens. The newly appointed county commissioners, under Chairman Bryant Brooks, resolved the dispute by holding their meetings in Casper, giving it the county seat. Bessemer's founders later rose to distinction in government, ranching, and the petroleum industry. Today the town's only enduring feature is its name, taken from Sir Henry Bessemer, the British inventor of a process for making steel from pig iron, whose ingenuity inspired Americans during their own industrial revolution.