Map of Medicine Bow town

Medicine Bow is a town in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States. Its population was 284 at the 2010 census.

Medicine Bow town overview:
Name:	Medicine Bow town
LSAD Code:	43
LSAD Description:	town (suffix)
State:	Wyoming
County:	Carbon County
Elevation:	6,565 ft (2,001 m)
Total Area:	3.46 sq mi (8.96 km²)
Land Area:	3.46 sq mi (8.96 km²)
Water Area:	0.00 sq mi (0.00 km²)
Total Population:	284
Population Density:	74.90/sq mi (28.92/km²)
ZIP code:	82329
Area code:	307
FIPS code:	5651575
GNISfeature ID:	1591446
Website:	www.medicinebow.org

Online Interactive Map

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Medicine Bow online map. Source: Basemap layers from Google Map, Open Street Map (OSM), Arcgisonline, Wmflabs. Boundary Data from Database of Global Administrative Areas.

Medicine Bow location map. Where is Medicine Bow town?

Medicine Bow location on the U.S. Map. Where is Medicine Bow town. — Medicine Bow location on the U.S. Map.

Medicine Bow location on the Wyoming map. Where is Medicine Bow town. — Location of Medicine Bow in Wyoming.

History

The community largely owes its existence to the first transcontinental railroad, built through the area in 1868. A post office called Medicine Bow has been in operation since 1869. The community was named after the Medicine Bow River.

Dippy, a well-known dinosaur skeleton, was found in a quarry nearby around 1898. In 1899, fossil hunters for the American Museum of Natural History and the Field Museum stayed in or near the town during their search for large dinosaur skeletons. The town had a railroad and was near the fossilferous sedimentary hills from the Jurassic Morrison Formation, making it an important stopping location for paleontologists, with fossils of Diplodocus and Brontosaurus found nearby at Como Bluff by the two institutions during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The town was noted to be plagued by crime, with famous bandits such as Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch enacting the Wilcox Train Robbery only a few miles away from the AMNH’s fossil localities and Medicine Bow itself.

The Virginian Hotel is a historic hotel located in Medicine Bow. It was built in 1911 by August Grimm. The hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

In the 1910s, part of the Lincoln Highway was routed through Medicine Bow until Interstate 80 replaced it in 1970.