welcome to Laramie! As you approach our great city from one of the surrounding mountain ranges on a clear summer or winter night, you can see the city’s lights sparkle brightly in the middle of the pristine Laramie Valley. Laramie is fittingly named the “Gem City of the Plains.” But Laramie is also Wyoming’s intellectual gem, as the home of the University of Wyoming, the State’s premier research institution. There, our citizens and visitors are not only entertained with first class football and basketball games, but also with live theatre, rock and classical concerts, great art exhibits, and first-rate cultural programs presented by world-class guest artists from stage and concert hall. Laramie’s picturesque downtown district with its well-preserved buildings, some dating back to the end of the 19th century, includes a number of fine restaurants and excellent shopping opportunities. Laramie is also a young and vibrant city with its student population, studying in the university’s many undergraduate and graduate programs, at the Wyoming Technical Institute, one of the country’s best automotive colleges, or at our community college campus.
The City has made great strides in recent years, with the addition of a spectacular recreation center that includes three swimming pools, an indoor running track – convenient during cold winter evenings – and basket ball courts and exercise machines of many kinds. On the Turner Tract, on the rising plain to the east of the city, integral new housing developments and small commercial establishments are beginning to take shape. Open space is set aside there. In the same area, a new University of Wyoming Convention Center that can accommodate up to about 500 attendees in surrounding hotels and conference rooms has greatly enhanced the east end of town. As Laramie’s history goes back to the middle of the 19th century and the arrival of the transcontinental railroad, it is now time to replace much of our infra structure, including our water delivery system, streets, and even school buildings. Wyoming’s economic prosperity in recent years will make that possible.
Laramie ideally combines small town living, clean air and water, lots of sunshine all year ‘round, with many big town amenities. The city services that we provide, strive to accommodate old and young alike. Laramie is a safe community for raising a family, and I believe that we are friendly and welcoming folk for visitors and newcomers alike.
Come and be with us for a while or even longer!

Klaus Hanson, Mayor