At the end of the Civil War, Virginian journalist brothers Legh and Frederick Freeman decided to follow the Union Pacific Railroad’s progress to extend its tracks to the West coast with their newspaper called “The Frontier Index.”
Newspapers to follow included the “Laramie Sentinel” (1878-1895), the “Laramie Republican,” the “Boomerang” and the “Daily Times.”
A group of influential Republicans organized the “Laramie Daily Boomerang” in the late 1880s and hired Edgar Wilson “Bill” Nye – lawyer, justice of the peace, United States commissioner and national newspaper correspondent – as the editor and manager. The Boomerang was named for Nye’s mule. The Boomerang newspaper is still in operation today.
Learn more about the history of Laramie newspapers and others across the state of Wyoming.