Businesses of Johnson County WY

 

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Hasbrouck Dry Goods Store First Haberdashery in Buffalo (Oct. 1, 1887 issue of Big Horn Sentinel. (This is the building downtown Buffalo that used to house Crazy Woman Antiques, but now there is a toy store there.)
In July of 1883 Messrs. F.J. and R.E. Hasbrouck came to Buffalo from the southern part of the territory in view of looking up a location to engage in the dry goods business.
They set their stakes in Buffalo, and after long delay in receiving their goods from the Union Pacific railroad, they finally opened up the first exclusive dry goods store in this section of the territory. Their place of business until 1886 was in the Metcalf building. But their rapidly growing business demanded larger quarters and that fall they erected new quarters.
Hasbrouck's new store thusly: The building is built of native brick and is 40x100 feet containing two stories and is finished in the highest style of workmanship. The windows are large and showy, the glass being the very finest French plate.
The first floor is divided into two departments, one containing their immense stock of dry goods, carpets, etc. and the other their stock of gents' furnishing goods, boots, shoes, etc. The second floor is used as an opera house and general place of amusement.
At the rear end of the hall a large stage has been built and supplied with the very best scenery. Take the building as a whole, there are few finer mercantile houses in the territory."

 

South Fork Inn
Buffalo Bulletin April 30, 1959
"Historic South Fork Inn, 17 miles west of Buffalo in the Big Horns and one of the area's oldest and most picturesque resorts, burned to the ground early Monday morning in a mysterious fire...
South Fork Inn was built in 1916 by the Rev. Charles Gray Miller, pastor of the Congregational church, and his son, Otis Miller, with financial backing provided by L.R.A. Condit, prominent and successful rancher of the Kaycee vicinity.
Construction of the lodge began immediately after the road over the mountains was completed, known as the Black and Yellow trail, following the route past Hazelton and down Rome Hill into Tensleep. "

This building, Pioneer Lumber, used to occupy the free parking lot at the corner of Fort and Main just north of the Courthouse. The school administration used after the lumber company, then the county used-road and bridge stored tires and etc in the back. Then the library used-the children's department and for local history and stored book sale books. The library used the building as an annex for several years after Pioneer Lumber closed. There were 2 lumber yards on that lot. The W.F. Smith Lumber Co. was next door north of the Pioneer

 

Hoofprints of the Past makes note of a small presidential connection to Kaycee. In 1897 the Powder River Commercial Co., the first store in Kaycee, was established. In 1910, it was deeded to pioneer railroad businessman Charles King, who changed the name to Kaycee Mercantile. King's future grandson was Gerald R. Ford, 38th President of the United States. The first photo is inside the building, and the second circa 1910 from the exterior.

 

   

Bill James and his partners, Earl Campbell and Billy Summers, owned a hardware store in Kaycee. There they sold this wagon, built in 1905 in Chicago by the Harvester Corporation, to the local Brock Family. The wagon was used by the family as a chuckwagon on trail drives until the 1930's. It was restored by the family and given to the museum, where it is on display.

The Farwell store was located where the Chamber of Commerce is now. The tall brick building to the right (with three upper floor windows) is the same building that's located at 19 N. Main today (It was Chappell's for a long time, and then housed the Holland law office for many years). The top floor today is used as an AirBnB and offers a pretty view of downtown.
The little building visible along the skyline to the right is the Union Congregational Church. This photograph was added into the museum collection in 2021. A glass negative, when scanned the negative revealed this attached photograph of early Buffalo on Main Street. It's a mule and horse team with covered wagons on North Main Street near "J. T. Farwell Stationery, Cigars, and Tobacco" store, today the rough location of the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce.

This is Nolan Avenue in Kaycee looking toward the North around 1918. None of these buildings remain unfortunately.

Walking Tour of Main Street Buffalo Wyo

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