Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Chugwater, WY

Chugwater is an incorporated town in Platte County, Wyoming, on the High Plains 45 miles north of Cheyenne and 25 miles south of Wheatland.

The 2020 census counted 175 people and 111 households in Chugwater, down from 212 people in 2010.

The town was surveyed and laid out by engineers for the Swan Land and Cattle Co. in 1886 and was incorporated in 1919.

The first settler in the valley was James Bordeaux, who opened a general store in 1868 at the crossroads of the roads to Fort Fetterman and Fort Laramie.

Cattle were first wintered in the Chugwater valley as early as 1859, and the area was visited by the Kearny expedition in 1845 and the Hayden Expedition in 1870.

Some historians say the name Chugwater comes from a Mandan account of a bison hunt, in which bison driven over nearby cliffs made a chugging sound as they hit the ground near a stream.

Steamboat, the black horse that became the model for the bucking horse and rider on Wyoming license plates, was foaled at Chugwater in 1896.

Clayton Danks, the model for the rider on the Wyoming state symbol, worked on the 2-Bar Ranch near Chugwater and first rode Steamboat at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in 1909.

Chugwater covers 3.06 square miles at an elevation of 5,295 feet, and Interstate 25 and U.S. Highway 87 run through the town.

Chugwater's record high temperature is 110 degrees Fahrenheit and its record low is minus 45 degrees.