Sherman: The Ghost Town at the Top of the World

You are passing near the site of Sherman, Wyoming, the highest point on the original transcontinental railroad at eight thousand two hundred forty-seven feet above sea level. Named for Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman at his own request, the town grew up here in the eighteen sixties because trains had to stop to change engines on the steep grade. At its peak, several hundred people lived here, served by a general store, two hotels, two saloons, and a school.

When the Union Pacific rerouted its tracks downhill in the early nineteen hundreds, Sherman emptied almost overnight. Only the Ames Monument, a granite pyramid honoring the railroad's financiers, still marks the spot.