Laramie Peak

Laramie Peak, at an altitude of 10,247 feet, is the highest elevation in the Laramie Range. These mountains were originally called the Black Hills, a name derived from the dark appearance of their evergreen forests as seen from far to the east by westward-journeying mountain men, although only the northern end of the range in northeastern Wyoming and western South Dakota now bears that name. Although the name of Lacques LaRamie was given to numerous features of Wyoming geography, this mountain was apparently the first to be so designated. Visible on a distant horizon, it became historically significant because Oregon Trail travelers cited it again and again in journals, diaries, and letters as the first evidence of a successful high plains crossing and of impending entry into the Rocky Mountains. Among those who recorded seeing Laramie Peak was Dr. Francis V. Hayden of the U.S. Geological Survey, whose transit triangulations later made the mountain an important cartographic reference point; in 1869 he wrote of seeing the sun pass directly behind its summit and of the range gilded with golden light in a scene of rare beauty.

Guernsey, Wyoming · United States