The town was known as the Magic
City. It was built in little more than
a day. Sometimes, where au hour be
fore naught but the gieen grass was
seen, a hundred white tsnts seemed to
spring from the earth. Substan
tial buildings of frame, adobe, and
soon of brick, were constructed with a
rapidity that surprised and gratified
those who had long moved with the
end of the track.
The site of the Cheyenne of early
days was chiefly west of Ferguson
street, with Eddy, Thornes, and
O’Neill, and Sixteenth and Seventeenth
streets, as the business quarter.
To him who visited Cheyenne in the
fall of ’67, strange Indeed appeared the
daily life of its inhabitants. Tent-life
was common. The bulk of the popula
tion lived at hotels, restaurants and
boarding houses. Saloons were carried
on in the open air, and stores were un
derneath canvas roofs. The streets
were filled with wagons, the teams be
ing generally of mules or oxen. A
swarm of men were about every corner.
The railroad yard was a bee hive of
activity. Construction trains and
freight trains were constantly arriving,
and the daily arrival and departure of
passengers was wonderful.
Cheyenne was baptized in blood. On
the very day of the arrival of its first
settlers, a young man was killed by the
Indians a few miles west of Crow
creek, and bis body was brought to the
town site and buried. In the first year
after the settlement of the city the list
of murders, bangings and maimings
was so great as to create for the city an
unenviable reputation throughout the
country. One day, in March, ’6B, two
men were hanged by the vigilantes.
