Ivinson Mansion and Grounds
Lots 1--8, block 178, Laramie, WYThe town of Laramie, in which the Ivinson home is located, is situated along the Big Laramie River near the center of the Laramie Plains. In the early days of the town's history, the location was described as one mile below the crossing of the old California Emigrant Road of 1849 and seven miles below the crossing of the Overland Mail and Stage road. The town is situated on a plain or park of about two million acres at an elevation of approximately 7200 feet. To the east lies a range of mountains once known as the "Black Hills" and today are known as the Laramie Mountains. They form a semicircle that cuts the Laramie Plains off from the Great Plains, located further east. To the west of the Plains lie the Medicine Bow Mountains, part of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains which extends into Colorado. Toward the North, the Medicine Bow Range curves away from the Plains and allows for a natural highway to the west.
Until 1868 the Laramie Plains area was important mainly in that it was a part of a land highway over which rolled emigrant wagons headed westward. The harsh physical environment of the Plains itself did not attract much settlement at that time. However, in 1866 the officials of the Union Pacific Railroad adopted the recommended route of General G. M. Dodge and the Union Pacific tracks were laid toward and over the Laramie Mountains from Cheyenne, rather than along a more northern route coinciding with the Oregon Trail, or the more southerly route through Colorado.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.