History of Worland

Founded in 1903 as a major trade center in the Basin by C. H. Worland along the trail to the Montana gold fields on the west side of the Big Horn River. The land surrounding the town is nearly as unspoiled as it was when considered precious by other Indian Tribes, the Sioux, Crow and Blackfoot. The town was eventually moved to the other side of the river from where its founder set up Camp Worland.

As the railroad moved into the area, tracks were laid to the east of the river. The town's founders, eager to benefit from the railroad, agreed a move was necessary. During the winter, town residents slid their homes, businesses and belongings across the frozen Big Horn River and relocated at the town's present site.

Washakie County's history goes back to the days of Lewis and Clark's expedition. It has also been claimed that a group of French- Canadian traders went through the area about 1742. In 1811 a group of explorers connected with John Jacob Astor attempted to find a navigable water route over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. After abandoning the idea, they ultimately arrived in the Big Horn Basin and wrote of their amazement at the "garden of strawberries, thick grass and a continuous barnyard of tame, elk, dear and buffalo." Other such expeditions looking for a good trapping location and an abundance of gold soon followed. A cattle boom began in the early 1880's and agriculture remains a steady economic base in the area to this day.