Basin

History

Winfield S. Collins founded "Basin City" in 1896 as the county seat for newly created Big Horn County. The first building was home to the "Basin City Herald". Collins was the first mayor.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Basin has a cold desert climate (Köppen climate classification 'BWk'). The town had the highest temperature ever recorded in Wyoming, , on August 8, 1983, and also holds the state record high temperatures for April ( in 1948) and July ( in 1900). In general, the eastern portion of the Bighorn Basin is hotter than the rest of Wyoming during the summer months. Due to frequent low humidity, daily temperature ranges are large, whilst due to the very dry conditions snowfall is among the lightest in the northern Rockies and Plains region – it is not uncommon for no measurable precipitation to fall in a month between September and April. There are an average of 49.4 days annually with highs of or higher, 5.4 days greater than and an average of 176.2 nights with lows of or lower. The all-time record low for Basin was on February 5, 1899. The wettest calendar year in Basin was 2011 with and the driest 1902 with . The most precipitation in one month was in June 1967. The most precipitation in 24 hours was on June 29, 1909. The most snowfall in one season was between July 1958 and June 1959, whilst the most snow in one month was during September 1984.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Horned Lark

  Eremophila alpestris (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  88
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  78
• Western Meadowlark

  Sturnella neglecta Audubon, 1844 · Aves
  70
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  66
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  65
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  62
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  58
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  58

Largest nearby schools

• Greybull Elementary
  Elementary · Greybull · 219 students · 10.9:1 ratio
• Greybull High School
  High · Greybull · 147 students · 9.2:1 ratio
• Riverside Middle/High School
  High · Basin · 133 students · 7.4:1 ratio
• Greybull Middle School
  Middle · Greybull · 103 students · 12.9:1 ratio
• Laura Irwin Elementary
  Elementary · Basin · 101 students · 10.1:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.6 — 2025-03-08
  17 km ESE of Lucerne, Wyoming
• M 2.6 — 2024-10-12
  10 km SSE of Ten Sleep, Wyoming
• M 2.8 — 2023-03-23
  8 km S of Shell, Wyoming
• M 3.3 — 2022-11-02
  Wyoming
• M 2.6 — 2021-10-14
  28 km SSE of Ten Sleep, Wyoming
• M 3.6 — 2021-07-04
  43 km S of Ten Sleep, Wyoming