ORIGIN AND DEFINITION OF THE TERM “LARAMIE” 531 
name which should be a substitute for and equivalent of Hayden’s 
Lignitic as used in Colorado and Wyoming, he necessarily relied 
upon Hayden’s work on the Laramie Plains with the corroboration 
furnished by the work of Hague and such hasty examinations as he 
may have made personally when visiting Hague’s party. It is there- 
fore essential to take up first the work of Hayden, and to trace the 
natural growthand development of his knowledge which made 
“Laramie” an entirely natural and desirable term to Hayden. 
BOUNDARIES OF THE LARAMIE PLAINS 
Before following up the suggested clue afforded by the writings of 
Hayden, it may be well to outline the boundaries of the Laramie 
Plains as they were understood at the time of the adoption of the 
word “‘Laramie.”? On all the army maps’ of this region the Laramie 
Plains are shown as extending from the Front Range westward to the 
region of the North Platte River. - In 1871 Professor Cyrus Thomas, 
of the Hayden Survey, gave the following definition of the Laramie 
Plains :? 
This section is bounded on the east and northeast by the Black Hills,3 on the 
west by the West Rattlesnake Hills,4 and on the southwest by Medicine Bow 
Mountains. It is somewhat quadrangular in shape, its average length from 
southeast to northwest being about go miles, and average width from northeast 
to southwest about 75 miles, containing (exclusive of the surrounding mountains) 
a surface area of about 6,750 square miles, or nearly 4,500,ooo acres. It is drained 
chiefly by the Medicine Bow and Laramie Rivers and their tributaries, both afflu- 
ents of the North Platte, which also traverses the extreme western border. ‘The 
Laramie, rising in the mountains at the southwest angle, flows along the eastern 
border to the northeast angle of the section, where it breaks through the Black 
Hills and joins the North Platte in the plains beyond. The Medicine Bow, receiv- 
ing affluents from each side, but principally from the south, flows through the 
western part of the section and joins the North Platte on the western border; 
which latter stream makes its exit at the northwest angle. .... 
The southeast part, to which the name ‘‘ Laramie Plains”’ is sometimes limited, 
is decidedly the best portion of the section, and contains much the largest propor- 
t These were the general maps in common use by the Hayden and King parties. 
2 Fourth Annual Preliminary Report, U. S. Geological Survey of Wyoming (being 
a Second Annual Report of Progress), (1871), pp. 220, 221. 
3 Now called the Laramie Hills or Front Range. 
4 Now called the ‘‘ Haystacks” and situated just west of the North Platte River 
in Carbon County, Wyo. 
