TIE SIDING, WYOMING

The stage station of Willow Springs, the first station north of the Virginia Dale Stage Station, was located about one mile to the west of Tie Siding, along Willow Creek. From the late 1860's to the early 1900's, Tie Siding, Wyoming played a major role in the railroad tie industry. All up and down the Laramie River Valley, up the different creeks, and on either side of the Laramie River in Northern Colorado, the hills were dotted with "tie camps." The Cache la Poudre River Valley also had tie camps in every gulch.

Many of the early lumber men contracted with the Union Pacific Railroad for ties. These men, called "tie hacks," spent long hard months in the mountains, working through the winter. Tie hacks first felled a suitable tree using a bucksaw, and then limbed the tree and used a broadax to hew the tree into shape. Thousands of trees were cut each year. The trees used for the ties had to be at least eight inches in diameter, eight feet long, and were cut the year round. One can still see the stumps of trees cut way high during the winter snows.

Horses were used to drag the ties down to the creek banks to await spingtime. When the Laramie and Cache la Poudre Rivers were high with spring run off, the logs were floated down river to both Tie Siding, and to LaPorte where they were made into railroad ties. Thousands of ties were sent downriver at once, at times causing enourmous log jams that only dynamite could loosen.

When the railroad tie industry died down, most of the "tie boys" left Larimer County, and other early pioneers established saw mills in the area in the old tie camps. A stone monument to the tie hacks stands along US 287 near the town of Dubois, Wyoming.

Tie Siding, today just consisting of a combination post office and flea market, is located about eight miles north of the Colorado/Wyoming border along US Highway 287, route of the famous Overland Trail.

Send comments, suggestions or inquiries: Overland Trail

[Overland Trail | Stations and Stops | Links | Virginia Dale]

Created and maintained by Elizabeth Larson
1996-2000