#bosler

Howell Road

This is Howell Road, north of Laramie, Wyoming. It is former roadbed of the first transcontinental railroad—the Union Pacific.

The active rail line was relocated in the early part of the 20th century, and so now one can drive upon the Laramie Plain, north to Bosler, and imagine one is seeing the continent as the Irish graders of 1867.

Westbound at Bosler

This is a westbound container train at Bosler, Wyoming, with the Laramie Plain visible in the background. This spot is about twenty miles north of Laramie itself and along the route of the first transcontinental railroad—the Union Pacific built through here early in 1868.

Original Roadbed of the First Transcontinental Railroad

  The curving former roadbed one sees above was originally part of the first transcontinental railroad. The Union Pacific Railroad built through Bosler, north of Laramie, early in the year 1868. I’m really attracted to these former bits of abandoned bits of meager roadbed as it makes it easy to imagine Irish immigrants building them by hand nearly 150 years ago.

This ancient trace is visible because a fairly long section of the line, from this point down to Laramie, was moved due to new earth moving equipment being available in the early part of the 20th century. One can now traverse the old roadbed for the entire stretch, between Laramie and Bosler, on Howell Road, which runs to the west of the active, modern railroad. In this way one can see the landscape more akin to how the surveyors and builders may have in the mid-1860s.