City of Newcastle, Wyoming Territory, 1890

Newcastle, Wyoming, was established in the late 1880s when the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad pushed northwest from Nebraska toward Montana. The addition of a spur line from Newcastle to coal fields to the north benefited the new city. Coal was vital to fueling 19th-century American industry, including the railroad's locomotives. The city's population boomed, reaching 1,000 within a few years.