Wyoming’s Historic Monument To Crooks
About 20 miles east of Laramie, Wyoming, stands a four-sided pyramid that is a monument to a couple of "crooks," recruited by President Lincoln and dedicated by President Hayes.
In 1863, getting from Omaha to Sacramento took five months. Seven years later, in 1869 it took just 10 days, thanks to the Transcontinental Railway and the Ames Brothers. It took some underhanded dealings with congressmen and taxpayers shelled out millions, but they got ‘er done.
President Abraham Lincoln had personally recruited Oakes Ames after others had failed, and the Ames brothers succeeded and completed the transcontinental railway. But in 1873 charges of financial fraud were leveled at Oakes and the public called them "Kings of Frauds."
The brothers were exposed but never punished. Built by The Ames Company, The Ames Monument stands on a wind-blown, treeless summit south of Interstate 80 at the Vedauwoo exit, marking the highest point on the transcontinental railroad at 8,247 feet.
At one time, there was civilization there, but The Union Pacific Railroad shut down the round house and relocated the tracks further. That turned the town of Sherman into a ghost town.
The pyramid was dedicated in 1882 with President Rutherford B Hayes in attendance, underscoring the importance of the transcontinental railroad, built in part…. by crooks.
Now the site has made it onto a Top 10 National Monument List.