Hyattville, WY

These first three shots are of Lower Nowood Road, taken between Ten Sleep and the turn off for Hyattville.



This is Burralo Creek Road which connects Lower Nowood Road with Ten Sleep-Hyattville Road:

The red sign on the right (below) directs the traveller back to Ten Sleep along Ten Sleep-Hyattville Road. Click here for a satellite map of this junction.

Here are some photographs of what we saw as we entered Hyattville's southern entrance.

I think the "SWAMP PALACE" sign below is a left-over from Halloween.

road-kill on the bridge:

the Paintrock Inn, restaurant and bar:

Hyattville Bar:

the U.S. Post Office:

United Methodist Church:

The following two shots were taken from an alley:

an abandoned house:










The top of the left pillar above corresponds to the photograph below.

This used to be a school but is now the Community Center.


Below is the interior of what appeared to be the school's kitchen.

Next to the Community Center (pictured above) is the sign below which reads:

Samuel W. Hyatt moved to a settlement near the confluence of Paint Rock Creek and Medicine Lodge Creek in 1866 to establish a mercantile business. The tiny community was originally called Paintrock, in reference to prehistoric Indian pictographs and petroglyphs on the nearby Medicine Lodge Creek cliffs. Recognizing the need for an established townsite, Mr. Hyatt laid out the town, which was subsequently named Hyattville in his honor, in 1887. S.W. Hyatt was the first and only postmaster in the Big Horn Basin in 1887, and he soon established mail routes that lead to Hyattville becoming the distribution point for all mail coming over the mountains from Buffalo, Wyoming. Mail arrived three times a week.

Hyatt also worked closely with Governor DeForest Richards to establish a school system. Soon Hyattville had the first school in the section, four general stores, two saloons, a livery stable and a hotel. In 1892, Mr. Tom Gebhart established the town's first newspaper, The Paintrock Record. After the turn of the century, Hyattville's citizens expressed a desire to bring cultural events to the community. In 1910, an opera house was built on land purchased from Mr. Hyatt. Asa Mercer, one of the town's most famous early residents, spoke at the dedication of the opera house. Mercer is best known as the author of The Banditti of the Plains, a controversial book about the Johnson County War.

Hyattville is nestled in the western foothills of the southern Big Horn Mountains, just below the pristine Cloud Peak Wilderness area. Primarily a ranching community, it is also a popular recreational area, offering hunting, fishing, trail riding, and winter sports.

The sod house below is to the right of the house above.

The following photographs are from the north end of Hyattville.



The small brick wall houses the mechanisms for the lawn sprinkler.

The sun was setting, so we stayed to see its beauty. The first shot is looking west, and the next two look east at the reflection of the setting sun on the clouds.

See also Medicine Lodge near Hyattville.

link: index to photographs