Porcelain Key
Click on pictures to enlarge
| Porcelain Key Whiskey Nipper 11 5/8” Nip #25 Compliments Of The Season Compliments Of Plummer & Grimm Medicine Bow, Wyo. Medicine Bow got its start as a railroad town when the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads were laying track across the plains of Wyoming. The railroads needed a site where water could be made available for train engines. A station house was built along with a water tank for the engines. During the few years that followed other buildings, among them the usual saloons, were built mostly for the shipping of cattle and wool. Cattlemen and sheepherders found the plains ideal and soon a town developed and was named Medicine Bow after the nearby river of the same name. Indians were a constant threat to the new town. Attacks were frequent and one lasted long enough that the Cavalry from Fort Steele had to save the town. Medicine Bow was incorporated in 1909 and had the finest hotel in Wyoming built in 1913. Being primarily a railroad and cattle town subjected Medicine Bow to train robberies and various other holdups. The town is still a town and much of the old west atmosphere remains. Wyoming Business Directories 1908-1914 - Medicine Bow, Plummer & Grimm, props Home Ranch Saloon and Elk Horn Saloon 1906-07 - Medicine Bow, Plummer & Co, saloon 1908 - not listed 1908-09 - Medicine Bow, Plummer & Grimm, props Home Ranch Saloon and Elk Horn Saloon 1910 - Medicine Bow, Plummer & Grimm, saloon 1914 - Medicine Bow, Plummer & Grimm, saloon 1916 - not listed 1917 - not listed From 1901-1911, August Grimm, the first Mayor of Medicine Bow, and his partner, George Plummer, built a three-story, concrete block hotel in Medicine Bow, and named it after Owen Wister's book "The Virginian." The Hotel can boast of the first electric lights and sewer system in town. On September 30, 1911, the Virginian Hotel threw a gala party for its Grand Opening. In 1978, the Virginian Hotel received designation as a National Historic Place and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Other tokens from Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Budweiser Saloon/Wm. Brown/Medicine Bow\\12 ½ 28mm.al.8 scallops 1940 Medicine Bow, Wyoming |
