Atlantic City, Wyoming, is tucked away at the bottom of a gulch with its few remaining houses dotting the sides of sagebrush-covered hills. It was the center of a rich placer area known as the Sweetwater District.

A few log cabins dot the treeless hills on either side of the stream and half-a-dozen false fronted stores weather beside the main street. A frame church with steeple and bell, a schoolhouse built of chinked logs, Hyde’s Hall, a one-story stone building, a large store with wooden loading station in front, and a hotel comprise the heart of the town as it is today.

The first gold to be discovered in the Sweetwater district was found in 1842 by a Georgian who, in search of health, joined the American Fur Company on one of its western expeditions. He remained a year in the west and then started home, only to be killed on the way by Indians. The next traveler to inspect the area was Alonzo Delano who journeyed across the western prairies and in 1853 published an account of his trip.

Thirteen years after Delano’s trip, a party of 40 men reached the Sweetwater and prospected the length of the river. They found traces of gold everywhere and they even sank a small shaft. They spent the winter at Fort Laramie and early in the spring they started back toward their diggings. But the officers at Fort Laramie refused, on some technicality, to allow them to proceed and they were forced to abandon their expedition.

In 1858 the leader of the group returned and found colors in Strawberry Gulch, and in 1860 he and 18 others worked the gulch. Nothing more was done until the summer of 1866 when a detachment of General Connor’s troops (then stationed at Fort Bridger) scouted into country north and east of the Oregon Trail’s crossing of the Continental Divide at South Pass.

Several of these soldiers had been miners in California and Nevada, and as soon as their military service was completed, they organized and equipped a prospecting party, and in the fall of 1866 they established the Carissa claim, which soon became the most profitable in the area. All through the winter of 1866-1867 the men worked their claims but spring brought raiding bands of Indians stealing their horses.

News of the discovery of the Carissa lode reached Salt Lake City, Utah and parties filtered into the area and a camp called South Pass City sprang up close to the rich placers near the Carissa lode. Before they were exhausted, these placers had yielded $2,000,000 in gold. Before the diggings played out several new camps mushroomed nearby. One of them, Atlantic City, four miles from South Pass City, materialized in April 1868, and soon attracted 300 prospectors to its gold-bearing quartz deposits.

Within the first three years Atlantic Gulch alone yielded gold valued at $15,000 and Rock Creek, Little Beaver, and Smith Gulch were all worked successfully. The best lode mines were discovered in 1868 and 1869. The Buckeye, just north of Atlantic City, was opened in 1868 by John McTurk and his partners. It soon became a producer and by 1869 was in full operation. The Jim Dyer (later known as the St. Louis) was discovered late in 1868. The Robert Emmett or Franklin was discovered by John Bilox; the Europe (later called Dr. Barr or El] Dorado) was uncovered by Anton Stribo; the St. Lawrence by Dr. Leonard; and the Mary Ellen and Young America were also opened. The Alice Lawn, later called the Alice Davis, and still later the Rosella, Soule & Perkins mine, with development produced $75,000 in gold. The Caribou, another 1869 discovery, yielded $50,000.

By 1870 the population of the city had reached 2,000 but by the end of 1871, the rich pay streaks in the placers were worked out and the remaining ore was refractory. Mining dwindled and the population began to move away. A rumor of gold in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming started a rush to the new field and further depopulated the city.

The E. T. Fisher Company of Seattle, Washington brought in a dragline to Rock Creek and worked three eight-hour shifts. One shift cleared the banks of brush while the other two mined the rock and gravel. The dredge employed 12 men and worked a strip of ground 120 feet wide. During the summer of 1934, $67,000 worth of gold was recovered. The following year the company again worked the strip and made cleanups every 10 days which averaged $9,000 each.

During this revival a few lode mines were reopened, but not for long and today only sporadic leasing is carried on in the vicinity of Atlantic City.