The Swan Land and Cattle Company Headquarters at Chugwater, Wyoming

What is the Swan Land and Cattle Company Headquarters?

The Swan Land and Cattle Company Headquarters is a small group of buildings at Chugwater, Wyoming, that stands for one of the largest cattle companies of the open-range era. According to the National Register nomination form, four buildings face east in a row: the general store, the manager's house, the office building and a large red barn.

The buildings were put up in phases rather than all at once. The manager's house dates to 1876, the red barn is probably from around the same year, the general store was built in 1913 and the office building in 1918, and the cottonwoods nearby were planted in 1888.

Who was Alexander Swan, and how did the company start?

Alexander Hamilton Swan was born in 1831 in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania, and settled in Indianola, Iowa, in 1862. He moved to Wyoming Territory in 1874 and filed on a homestead on Chugwater Creek, according to the WyoHistory encyclopedia entry. The Swan Brothers partnership, formed with his brother Thomas in 1874, bought land and cattle.

In spring 1883 Swan traveled to Edinburgh to meet investors. The Swan Land and Cattle Company Ltd. was registered in Scotland on March 30, 1883, with capitalization between $2.6 and $2.9 million. Swan was named manager at a salary of $10,000 per year, and Colin MacKenzie chaired the board.

How big was the Swan Land and Cattle Company?

At its greatest extent in the mid-1880s, the holdings covered about 5,775 square miles, roughly 3.7 million acres, or nearly 6 percent of Wyoming, according to WyoHistory. A Scottish inspector, Thomas Lawson, reported on December 1, 1882, nearly 100,000 head on about 4.5 million acres. The federal nomination form gives a lower figure, saying the company held over 1,000,000 acres at one point, so sources differ on acreage.

The company bought six ranches in its first year along the Chugwater, Richard and Sybille creeks. Swan also arranged about 52 miles of telephone lines linking Cheyenne with the Chugwater headquarters ranch and other ranches, at an installation cost of about $4,850.

The hard winter and Swan's fall

Dividends were 9 percent in 1883, 10 percent in 1884 and 6 percent in 1885, then nothing in 1886. The average price per head fell from $40.67 in 1884 to $33.80 in 1885 and $26.34 in 1886. Historians estimate 15 percent of Wyoming cattle died in the winter of 1886 to 1887, and foreman Rufus Rhodes estimated company losses at 25 percent or more. The federal form says the herd dropped from over 113,000 head to about 57,000.

Swan's personal finances collapsed around the same time. Historians cite an unpaid $25,000 note and a large investment in the Cheyenne Mining and Reduction Company. The board dismissed him in May 1887, and he moved to Ogden, Utah, in 1888, where he died on August 9, 1905.

From Cheyenne to Chugwater: the headquarters moves

The company first bought two Cheyenne lots for a headquarters and stable. In 1887, under John Clay Jr., the official headquarters moved from Cheyenne to Chugwater. Clay managed the company from 1888 until 1896, when Alexander Bowie replaced him, and then returned in 1912 and ran it until his death on March 17, 1934.

The board concluded business on December 31, 1925, and the Swan Company of Delaware was organized on February 15, 1926. The company was dissolved on December 20, 1951. The federal form says liquidation began around 1945 and that the home office was still in operation when it was written.

Visit or learn more about the Swan headquarters

The nomination form lists the property as privately owned and notes that it was altered but stands on its original site. Visitors should treat the buildings as private property and check locally for access. The Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office listing also carries the property among its Wyoming historic sites. For more on the cattlemen who built the northern plains herds, see farm.FM's ranching section or a farm.FM story about Wyoming cattle history.