88 articles
Gallup, New Mexico
Gallup, New Mexico (Na'nízhoozhí, 'The Bridge'), county seat of McKinley County: founded 1881 as an Atlantic and Pacific Railroad railhead, Route 66 town, Native American art hub, 2020 population 21,899, Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project.
Gillette, Wyoming
Gillette, Wyoming: county seat of Campbell County, population about 33,400 (2020), founded 1891 as a Burlington Railroad terminus and named for surveyor Edward Gillette; an energy boom town known for the Gillette syndrome and the Wyodak coal mine.
Golden, Colorado
Golden, Colorado: Jefferson County city founded 1859 as a gold-rush supply town, Colorado Territory capital 1862-1867, home of Colorado School of Mines and Coors Brewery, population about 20,467.
Grand Junction, Colorado
Grand Junction is the largest city on Colorado's Western Slope, sitting where the Colorado and Gunnison rivers meet. Founded in 1881, it had 65,560 residents in 2020.
Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls, Montana: third-largest Montana city and Cascade County seat on the Missouri River, founded 1884 by Paris Gibson, nicknamed the Electric City for its five hydroelectric dams, home to Malmstrom AFB.
Greeley, Colorado
Greeley, Colorado: Weld County seat founded in 1870 as the Union Colony, a temperance utopian agricultural community by Nathan Meeker and named for Horace Greeley; population about 115,000, home to the University of Northern Colorado and JBS meatpacking.
Gunnison, Colorado
Gunnison, Colorado: county seat of Gunnison County on the Western Slope, population 6,560 (2020), home of Western Colorado University (founded 1901), known as the icebox of Colorado and gateway to Crested Butte and Blue Mesa Reservoir.
Helena, Montana
Helena is the capital city of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. Founded as a gold-mining camp in 1864, it had 32,091 residents in 2020.
Henderson, Nevada
Henderson, Nevada: second-largest city in Nevada, in Clark County southeast of Las Vegas. Founded around the WWII Basic Magnesium Plant, incorporated April 16, 1953; population 369,167 (2025).
History of Las Vegas
The history of Las Vegas, Nevada spans its 1905 railroad land auction, the 1931 legalization of gambling, and growth from a water stop into a resort city.
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Idaho Falls, Idaho: largest city of eastern Idaho on the Snake River, seat of the Idaho National Laboratory; near EBR-I, first reactor to generate electricity (1951); 2025 estimate 71,785.
Jackson, Wyoming
Jackson, Wyoming: the only incorporated town in Teton County, at the southern end of Jackson Hole valley near Grand Teton and Yellowstone parks. Incorporated 1914; population about 10,700; tourism-driven economy with extreme housing costs.
Kalispell, Montana
Kalispell, Montana: county seat of Flathead County and largest city in northwest Montana, founded 1891 as a Great Northern Railway division point, incorporated 1892, gateway to Glacier National Park, population 31,851 (2025 estimate).
Ketchum, Idaho
Ketchum, Idaho: Wood River Valley city next to Sun Valley Resort, founded 1880 as a mining supply town named for David Ketchum; now a resort economy with Idaho's highest home prices and a severe workforce housing shortage.
Lakewood, Colorado
Lakewood, Colorado: home rule suburb of about 157,000 residents immediately west of Denver in Jefferson County, Colorado's fifth-largest city. Incorporated 1969; council-manager government; Belmar downtown; 2026 zoning repeal election.
Laramie, Wyoming
Laramie, Wyoming: high-plains college town at about 7,200 feet, founded 1868 on the Union Pacific Railroad, home of the University of Wyoming, Louisa Swain's 1870 vote, and the Wyoming Territorial Prison.
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Las Cruces, New Mexico: second-largest city and Doña Ana County seat in the Mesilla Valley; founded 1849, population 116,978 (2025), arid climate, Rio Grande irrigation agriculture, council-manager government.
Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas, New Mexico, is a city in San Miguel County founded in 1835 as a Mexican land grant and a major Santa Fe Trail trading stop.
Leadville, Colorado
Leadville, Colorado, is the county seat and highest incorporated city in North America, founded in 1877 during a silver boom; mining continues there nearly to the present day.
Lewiston, Idaho
Lewiston, Idaho: city at the Snake-Clearwater confluence (Tsceminicum), founded May 13, 1861 during the gold rush, first incorporated Idaho city, original territorial capital, and Idaho's only seaport.
Livingston, Montana
Livingston, Montana, is a city of about 8,040 people in Park County on the Yellowstone River, founded as a Northern Pacific Railroad town in 1882.
Logan, Utah
Logan, Utah: county seat of Cache County, founded 1859, incorporated 1866, named for trapper Ephraim Logan; home of Utah State University, population about 55,000, at the mouth of Logan Canyon.
Longmont, Colorado
Longmont, Colorado: Front Range city founded 1871 by the Chicago-Colorado Colony, named for Longs Peak. Population 98,885 (2020); municipal utilities including NextLight fiber; sugar-beet to high-tech economy.
Los Alamos, New Mexico
Los Alamos, New Mexico (Site Y, PO Box 1663): secret Manhattan Project town on the Pajarito Plateau, now home to Los Alamos National Laboratory; ~19,400 residents, $147,139 median household income, 69.7% college-educated.
Mesquite, Nevada
Mesquite, Nevada: a Clark County city of about 24,000 on the I-15 corridor between Las Vegas and St. George, Utah, incorporated in 1984, known for golf resorts, casinos, retirees, and 833,000 annual visitors.
Missoula, Montana
Missoula, Montana: second-largest Montana city and Missoula County seat, founded 1860 as Hellgate trading post, home of the University of Montana (opened 1895); population 73,489 in 2020, at the Clark Fork and Bitterroot rivers.
Moab, Utah
Moab, Utah: Grand County seat and gateway to Arches and Canyonlands national parks. Population about 5,200; incorporated 1902; transformed by the 1950s Charlie Steen uranium boom and now a desert tourism and outdoor recreation hub.
Moscow, Idaho
Moscow, Idaho: county seat of Latah County, home of the University of Idaho (founded 1889, opened 1892), population 25,435 in 2020, twin college town of Pullman, Washington, in the Palouse.
Nampa, Idaho
Nampa, Idaho: third-largest Idaho city in the Treasure Valley, founded 1886 as a railroad and irrigation town; 100,200 residents in 2020, growing about 3% yearly, with agribusiness, manufacturing, and technology employers.
North Las Vegas
North Las Vegas, Nevada: independent incorporated city in Clark County on the northern Las Vegas Valley rim, incorporated May 1, 1946; 296,653 residents (2025 estimate), fastest-growing city in Nevada, with Apex Industrial Park and its own mayor-council government.