150 Years Ago This Week, Who Became Cheyenne’s First Mayor?
H.M.
The City of Cheyenne established itself August 10, 1867, The townsfolk elected H. M. Hook, the first mayor's grave sites started a whole onslaught of phony claims, according to The History of Wyoming.
When Hook got elected, there wasn't much of an election campaign, and it wouldn't be much of a mayoral term, but a lot happened 150 years ago this week.
H.M. Hook came to Cheyenne from La Porte, Colorado, just north of Fort Collins. Hook managed a busy stage line in the area for a while. Eventually, the railroad came in and the stage coach along with most of the town disappeared.
So Hook eventually mosied along the region until he eventually opened a general store called the Great Western Corral after he laid foot in Cheyenne. The spot would eventually be the home of the Cheyenne Civic Center.
The railroad kicked off in Cheyenne 1867.
By the summer of 1868, Hook had made it to Green River, Wyoming. Sadly, he drowned four miles upstream of the Green River in Red Creek. It was there that his raft overturned in the white waters of the river.
Hook’s widow later offered $1,000 for anyone who could locate his actual burial sight, which led to the miraculous discovery of several “Hook grave sights."
We would have more memorable names as mayors on their way to higher seats of power, like Joseph Carey and F.E. Warren, but Cheyenne, Dakota's first mayor was a guy named Hook.
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