Sheridan

History

The city was named after General Philip Sheridan, Union cavalry leader in the American Civil War. Several battles between US Cavalry and the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Shoshone, and Crow Indian tribes occurred in the area in the 1860s and 1870s before the town was built. In 1878, trapper George Mandel built a cabin on Big Goose Creek, since reconstructed in the Whitney Commons park near the Sheridan County Fulmer Public Library. Jack Dow surveyed the townsite for Sheridan in 1882, at the behest of John Loucks, first mayor of the town who had served under Gen. Sheridan. In the early 1880s, the nearby town of Big Horn was larger in population. In 1888, Sheridan County split off of Johnson County, and voters chose Sheridan as the county seat in a run-off election. The arrival of the Burlington and Missouri Railroad in 1892 boosted Sheridan's economic status, leading to the construction of the Sheridan Inn, where Buffalo Bill Cody was once a financial partner. Railroad maintenance facilities and railroad-tie treatment plants were significant employers in Sheridan's first decades. The railroad created numerous side industries as well as export opportunities for raw materials. Maps of the day show Sheridan as part of the "hinterland" providing raw goods to cities like Chicago. For the next twenty years the economy and population boomed. Many Polish families came from the Jaworzynka village in southern Poland. English immigrants who settled in the area were overwhelmingly farmers. Agriculture played a major role in Sheridan County's early economy. By the 1920s, Sheridan was an agricultural processing center for wheat, dairy, and sugar beets, with a stockyard for cattle shipping by rail. Many hobos rode the rails to Sheridan in the 1920s and 1930s, seeking employment in…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Sheridan experiences a semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk), with cold, dry winters and hot, wet summers, though summers in recent years have been trending more dry.

Most-observed species

• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  1,182
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  1,154
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  1,081
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  1,014
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  934
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  924
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  836
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  791

Most recent

• M 3.5 — 2026-05-29
  30 km NNE of Ranchester, Wyoming
• M 3.5 — 2026-04-28
  31 km NE of Ranchester, Wyoming
• M 2.6 — 2026-04-27
  29 km NE of Ranchester, Wyoming
• M 2.6 — 2026-03-30
  26 km ENE of Ranchester, Wyoming
• M 3.4 — 2026-03-27
  33 km NE of Ranchester, Wyoming
• M 3.1 — 2026-02-26
  28 km NE of Ranchester, Wyoming