Laramie

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When planning my trip to the US, individually and with my friends, Wyoming and the town of Laramie were never part of the equation. However, when I arrived in Colorado, I was told that we would be heading to Laramie to meet up with my friends' friends, one of whom I had met in Korea. We left Fort Collins around mid-morning and drove to Laramie. The drive didn't take too long, just over an hour maybe an hour and a half tops. I enjoyed looking at the scenery as we drove by. It was so different to what I was used to seeing. We arrived at my friends' friends' house and had a bit of a catch up before heading out for a spot of lunch. We drove a couple of streets over, already Laramie felt very different to Fort Collins, to a diner/cafe, where since the weather was nice we sat outside to enjoy the sunshine. We went to 17th St. Cafe, where they serve breakfast all day. I ordered something breakfasty and a coffee. The food was really good.

After our food, we drove over to the Ivinson Mansion. There was some kind of event on, I think, so the garden was filled with little stalls selling stuff. We had a look around them, there was some nice stuff for sale, but with the limited space in my backpacks, I resisted the urge to make any purchases. The gardens of the mansion are really pretty and had a nice walk around them. To go into the mansion, we had to pay an entrance fee, but it was only a couple of dollars. I think normally you have to do a guided tour of the house, but today we were just allowed to roam free around the place. There was some kind of event on and there were loads of school aged children dotted around the mansion who were a wealth of knowledge. They told us loads of little tidbits of history about the place. The Ivinson Mansion was built in 1892 by Jane and Edward Ivinson. It was their family home and later became a girls school. The mansion fell into disrepair and was earmarked for demolition, but it was saved in 1972 and restored to its former glory.

We wandered around the ground floor first. The rooms were very opulently decorated. My friend explained about the little bowl that was filled with calling cards, visitors would place their cards in the bowl and Mrs. Ivinson would review them to see if she wanted to meet with the visitors. Why don't we still have this tradition today? The reception rooms were gorgeous, I loved the old record player and the piano/organ. The staircase leading up to the first floor was magnificent and had the most decorative statue on the banister. The kitchen was a gem, too. I loved all the boxes of the old products on display. There was also an old baby's highchair. It looked like it should have belonged in an institution, not a family home, it was creepy. We headed up to the first floor and took a look around the bedrooms. I really liked that they had the old fashioned clothes on display. It was cool to see what people wore back in the day. The shower was a wondrous contraption and the old fashioned hair curlers looked like instruments of torture. The second floor showcased the different occupations people had in the past in Laramie. There was also a bedroom done up to show how the place looked when it was a girls school.

My friend's kids needed a nap, so we parted ways for a few hours. They recommended that we visit the Wyoming Territorial Prison, which was a short drive out of town. Wyoming Territorial Prison was built in 1872. It was a federal prison from these dates, until it 1890, when it became Wyoming's state penitentiary. It was the state penitentiary until 1903. It housed 1,063 inmates during the years. When it closed the prison was given to the University of Wyoming, who used the land for livestock purposes. It was turned into the museum in the early 1990s. We headed into the gift shop and paid to enter the museum. I can't recall how much the entry fee was now. We also took a look around the shop, I was sorely tempted to buy a book about one of the prison's infamous inmates, Butch Cassidy, but decided to forgo adding the extra weight to my backpack. We left the shop and headed out onto the grass. There were quite a few people there with lots of tractors, I don't know if it was some kind of show or that they're normally there, but it was cool to see. I loved all the old blokes in their cowboy hats, so cool! Also the sky was a truly gorgeous shade of blue. I love the lack of pollution here.

There was an old prison van outside of the main prison building, it totally looked like something you would see in an old movie. We headed into the main prison building. It was really interesting to look around. There was a lot of information on display about the former inmates. I tried to read all of it, but it was total information overload. We wandered around the cells, there were two levels of them. We also took in the room where prisoners were processed and given their uniforms. The kitchen was pretty big and we saw the laundry, too. After coming out of the main prison building, we headed into the yard at the back. There were some buildings there to investigate. The main one I remember was the workshop. The prisoners were kept busy making brooms. The brooms were then sold to make revenue for the prison. I really loved the old broom labels.

We had a look around some of the shops in the downtown area of Laramie, since it was Sunday tea-time, not too much was open. However the town is pretty cute. To end our day in Laramie, we went to an ice cream place, the Big Dipper Ice Cream Shop. I got an ice cream and it was really good. I enjoyed eating it, and the ice cream shop was pretty funky inside, too. They make all their ice creams on site. Then we headed over to the train tracks as the boys like it there. We climbed the steps and stood on the bridge over the tracks, watching the trains go by underneath us. The boys loved it and us adults had fun, too. Soon, it was time to say our goodbyes and drive back to Fort Collins. Later, when I was telling my mam, that I had been to Laramie she shocked me by telling me she had not only heard of it, but knew a bit about it. It used to be in the cowboy/western TV shows that she watched when growing up.

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Photos

Hair Curlers
Ivinson Mansion