Southeast Wyoming is known for being dry and dusty today, but imagine what it was like in the late 1860s as the railroad expanded west!
The term “Hell on Wheels” was coined by newspaper editor Samuel Bowles to describe the gambling houses, dance halls, saloons and brothels of all sorts that sprouted up along the tracks as the Union Pacific Railroad workers made their way westward. Once it was determined that the train would be coming through an area, the nearest town was considered an “end-of-track” town. Hell on Wheels. End of the Track. With so little entertainment to offer the vast numbers of men who arrived to work on the rail line, a place like the Keystone Dance Hall in Laramie was one of the few attractions to pass the time.