Walking tour tells history

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
Not too long ago, Newcastle looked far different than it does today. Streets were not paved, horses and other livestock in what are now city limits was the norm, and the cowboys didn’t have to be out and about to get down and dirty. 
Stampede Street, running right through town, past the Wyoming Refining Co. and Newcastle High School, from Weston County Public Health to the Maverik convenience store. The street began as a livestock trail in about 1905, according to Weston County history enthusiast Linda Hunt, and remained a trail until sometime in the early 1950s when it became a city street. 
“The street has a long-established role in the community, approximately 115 years,” Hunt said. 
In an effort to preserve the history of the quaint little town of Newcastle in the northeast corner of Wyoming and the street that was once pounded by the stampede of cattle on the trail, Hunt and others aim to acquaint one and all with that history. 
The Anna Miller Museum, Weston County Historic Preservation Board,  the Weston County chapter of the Wyoming State Historical Society and Hunt  have joined forces to produce a display depicting the history of Stampede Street from before the time that the West was won. 
In May 2019, Hunt told the Newcastle City Council that her vision would tell the story of how Stampede Street got its name. 
“When they were trailing the cattle in, the dogs would see the cattle and race at them. The kids would be whooping and hollering, and there would be a literal stampede with the cattle,” Hunt said. 
Now, more than a year later, the hard work of local historians has paid off and anyone traveling down Stampede Street, along the sidewalk, can dive into local history by reading several signs beginning at the corner near the Maverik, located at 500 Main Street. Beginning with “The Mill,” people will be able to follow the path down Stampede Street, through the Bill Kohlbrand Arboretum and onto the steel butterfly statues and the newly placed cowboy, horse and steer. 
Included in the walking history tour is information about the stockyards, the East Entrance, West Entrance, Frontier Homes and Stampede Street, the stories all told on a total of six signs. 
The Anna Miller Museum will host a reveal of the Stampede Street Historic Preservation Project on Aug. 29 at 10 a.m. near Weston County Public Health.