Sweetwater County WY Archives Biographies.....Blair, Archibald November 5, 1835 - April 13, 1917
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deidre Badker b.badker@earthlink.net April 1, 2008, 4:45 pm

Author: Nelson Blair DeRoy

(The following account of U.S. History describing the exploits of Archibald 
and Duncan Blair has been told many times in the Wyoming State History books, 
newspaper articles, and short stories.  The following was compiled from those 
sources by Nelson Blair DeRoy, Great-great grandson of Duncan Blair and Great-
great nephew of Archibald Blair.)

   Archibald Blair was born in Rothesay, Scotland on Nov. 5, 1835.  Rothesay 
is situated on the little island of Bute, 42 miles from Glasgow.  He came to 
Montreal, Canada at the age of 9 yrs and grew to manhood in that dominion.
   Hearing of the tales of the great goldfields in California, he decided to 
seek his fortune in New Eldorado and left Canada on April 16, 1860.  He went 
to Aspinwall and there crossed the Isthmus of Panama to Panama, where he took 
the good ship "Golden Gate" for San Francisco, arriving on May 8, 1860.
   From San Francisco he went to Centerville, California.  Later he joined his 
brother Duncan Blair in Sierra County, where they took a claim near 
Donnerville.
   Sometime later, with his brother Duncan, they started for Wyoming.  They 
traveled through Star Valley to South Pass, where the first gold in Wyoming 
was mined.  Prospecting was done through the upper Green River County but to 
no avail.  Leaving Green River, they traveled through California to Salt Lake 
City, Utah, for supplies and then, after arriving in Wyoming, did considerable 
trading with the Indians, especially at Three Crossings on the Sweetwater.
   The Indians became so troublesome that settlers were forced to leave 
Sweetwater County.  Archibald and Duncan then traveled to Rock Springs.
   The coal camp went by the name of Rock Springs.  The original spring 
bubbled out through the cleft in the rocks a few steps from the Killpecker, a 
tributary of Bitter Creek.  As the story goes, it was discovered by a Pony 
Express Rider fleeing from a band of marauding Indians.
   In 1862, Ben Holliday, owner of the Overland Stage company, built a station 
beside the spring and hired Archibald and Duncan to manage it.
   In 1866, Archibald and Duncan added a stockade (Blair's Stockade) to hold 
horse teams they supplied over land, built a trading post and wayside inn, 
threw a stone bridge over the Killpecker and built themselves a sturdy stone 
cabin (complete with rifle holes to shoot at Indians and bandits).  They hired 
Becky Thomas to cook antelope steak and brew prairie coffee for the dust-caked 
passengers, sired children by Shoshoni squaws and all the while kept their 
eyes on the big prize, a giant vein of coal which lay three miles south of the 
station on the other side of Bitter Creek.
   In 1867, Archibald and Duncan leased the mineral rights from the government 
and opened a coal mine, three miles south of the stage station and thereby 
mined the first coal of Wyoming.  The coal mined in Rock Springs was taken out 
of what is now known as Blairtown, in 1867, and the first shipment was made to 
Cheyenne after completion of the railroad through Rock Springs in the fall of 
1868.  For the first three years, this mine supplied the coal used by the 
Union Pacific railroad and established the reputation for Rock Springs coal 
throughout the West.
   Archibald was also a pioneer ranchman as he filed his ranch which was known 
as the "Circle" about twenty miles south of Rock Springs in 1867.  Just prior 
to this, he and Duncan had the "BB" ranch.  Cattle and sheep were raised 
successfully in the early days.  In 1869, Archie made a visit to his hometown 
in Canada, where on April 7th (or 11th), 1870, he and Jane McReady were 
married.  Jane was born in Newbury, Ontario, Canada, February 24, 1838.  They 
returned to Rock Springs where they made their home on the "Circle" ranch.  
Jane died eight years after Archie on July 22, 1925.

   Archibald Blair was the first member of the legislature in the Territorial 
Days and was influential in the task of gaining statehood for Wyoming.
   Archibald Blair was a member of the General Assembly for Sweetwater County, 
1879.  A member of the House of Representatives, 1890-1891.  A member of the 
State Legislature and State Senator.  
   Prior to Archibald, Duncan Blair was a member of the House of 
Representatives in 1871.  
   Arhibald Blair died April 13, 1917 in Rock Springs at the age of 82.  

   

Additional Comments:
This information was shared with me.  I am not related to any of the above 
mentioned people.

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