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Rebecca A. Hunt

Rebecca A. Hunt, Ph. D. is a historian teaching at the University of Colorado Denver, where she specializes in social history of the American West and public history. She writes on community, gender and ethnic history. Dr. Hunt was the historian on the award-winning documentary about Neal Forsling of Casper Mountain, A Woman to Match a Mountain (2008). Wyoming Medical Center, A Centennial History was published in January 2011. Her most recent book, Natrona County: People, Place and Time, published in October 2011 is available at the Fort Caspar Museum. She is working on a history of Forsling, a Casper woman homesteader, painter and author.

Casper, Wyoming

Though the site was an important river crossing on the early frontier, the town of Casper did not begin until 1888, when the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad reached the area. The town immediately became an important shipping point for cattle and wool. The first oil refinery was built in 1895 to process crude oil from the Salt Creek Oil Field, 40 miles to the north. The first true oil boom began after 1910 and lasted through the mid 1920s, and the town’s fortunes have been closely connected to the energy business ever since. In 2010 the city’s population passed 55,000. Casper continues as a retail, medical and energy-industry service hub.

Encyclopedia : December 8, 2011 - 12:47am

Natrona County, Wyoming

Since prehistoric times, people’s lifestyles in what became Natrona County have depended on their livelihoods. Casper was founded in 1888, and county was formed in 1890, shortly before Wyoming became a state. First cattle, then sheep and after 1910, the oil and refining business dominated. An Army Air Corps training base near Casper brought another boost in World War II. Casper College was founded in 1945. Since then, the county has continued to ride the booms and busts of the energy business, but with cultural, health-care and education opportunities growing all the while.

Encyclopedia : October 12, 2011 - 4:09pm