In Europe, the expression for travelers is that "all roads led to Rome.” In the American West, thousands of travelers a year making their way West or East run right through Rawlins, Wyoming.
The Interstate 80 corridor town has long been a place people aren’t going to, but pass through on their way from Point A to Point B.
Trains once barreled in from the East headed West, while today, trucks and cars hum along I-80, taillights eventually fading into the high desert night sky.
Hikers along the Continental Divide also go through Rawlins, shouldering packs on their way to Canada or Mexico. They might stop for a meal or a shower, and then they’re on their way.
Even airmail once skimmed over Rawlins, pilots guided by those giant concrete arrows placed across the West.
Crossroads and waypoint, but somehow never a destination, Rawlins has been the tourism bridesmaid who is never the bride.
Now the town is daring to rethink its drive-thru vibe. '
The Ferris Mansion at 607 W. Maple St. in Rawlins, Wyoming. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
The historic Wyoming State Penitentiary is one of the most popular attractions for visitors to Rawlins, Wyoming. (Carbon County Visitors Council) 
Downtown Rawlins.
Stop Overnight
It's exploring a campaign with neighboring communities that highlights the many crossroads that run through Rawlins and Carbon County.
Rawlins Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Pam Thayer is the architect of this new campaign. She envisions a kind of“X marks the spot for a quirky push to lure passersby in and convert them into overnight guests.
Rawlins’ many crossroads start with the Union Pacific’s transcontinental railroad, Thayer said, but there’s also the Lincoln Highway, which was America’s first coast-to-coast highway, and the old transcontinental airmail route.
In more modern times, there’s also now the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail and the Great Divide Mountain Bike and TransAmerica Bicycle trails.
“This is the only place in the United States where all of these intersect,” she said. “And, from a history standpoint, when everyone was heading west, it all just converged here.”
Why Rawlins Became An ‘X’ On The Map
The convergence Thayer mentions is a big, bold X that began when human ambition met up with favorable geology in present-day Rawlins.
The town sits at a significant dip in elevation along the Continental Divide, which was a barrier to westward travel when the West was young.
Early pioneers first headed West with their wagons to South Pass City, where there was a 20-mile-wide, level gap — about as good as anyone could find in those times.
For a while, Union Pacific also favored South Pass for its transcontinental railroad. But it was really too far from Union Pacific’s coal fields, as was the other option, Bridger Pass.
Berthoud Pass west of Denver, meanwhile, would have been desirable, but was too steep for the technology of the day.
Going around the Divide was unfeasible, too. Montana had too much snow and challenging terrain, while New Mexico had too many political tensions leading up to the Civil War.
Rawlins had the dip in the Continental Divide. It was close to coal. And there was one more thing that sealed the deal.
A sweet water spring.
Rawlins is trying to shake its reputation as a drive-thru town for travelers on Interstate 80, but not intending to stop except for gas and a bathroom break. A push is on to show those visitors that there's plenty to see if they’d stay overnight. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily) 
Rawlins is trying to shake its reputation as a drive-thru town for travelers on Interstate 80, but not intending to stop except for gas and a bathroom break. A push is on to show those visitors that there's plenty to see if they’d stay overnight. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily) 
Rawlins is trying to shake its reputation as a drive-thru town for travelers on Interstate 80, but not intending to stop except for gas and a bathroom break. A push is on to show those visitors that there's plenty to see if they’d stay overnight. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily) 
Rawlins is trying to shake its reputation as a drive-thru town for travelers on Interstate 80, but not intending to stop except for gas and a bathroom break. A push is on to show those visitors that there's plenty to see if they’d stay overnight. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily)
A Sweet Name
The spring, as it happens, is how Rawlins got its name.
The legend of the town’s naming is told in Union Pacific Chief Engineer Grenville Dodge’s journals and reports.
Dodge was traveling at the time with Gen. John A. Rawlins on a four-month survey trip, mapping out a transcontinental route.
Rawlins, who was suffering from tuberculosis, joined the expedition at the urging of his boss, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
Grant hoped the dry air in the West could improve the health of Rawlins, his closest confidant and a man he described as his “moral compass” throughout the Civil War.
As the party rode through present-day Carbon County hills on horseback, Rawlins wished aloud for a cold drink of good, sweet water.
Much of what had been available as these parched men approached the Red Desert were alkali-poisoned watering holes so high in minerals and potassium salts that they were essentially liquid lye.
Drinking from such a pool was a death sentence for any man or beast who tried it.
Scouts fanned out all along the way as they traveled, looking for any source of water that could slake Rawlins’ thirst.
As they approached present-day Rawlins, they found exactly what they’d all been wishing for. A spring with sweet, alkali-free water.
After just one small sip of the water, Rawlins declared it the most refreshing thing he’d ever tasted.
“If anything is ever named after me, I hope it will be a spring of water,” he said before taking another long drink of the cold, cool water.
“We will name this Rawlins Springs,” Dodge said immediately, marking it so on his survey map.
The word “springs” was eventually dropped from the community’s name. It was officially incorporated in 1886 as simply Rawlins, Wyoming.
Halfway On The Continental Divide
Rawlins sits at an auspicious point along the Continental Divide Trail and the Great Divide bike routes. It’s just 10 or so miles from the exact halfway mark.
“Rawlins is one of only three towns where the Continental Divide Trail goes through a downtown,” Thayer said. “And we’re at the halfway point.”
For decades, that’s been nothing more than local trivia. But Thayer is seeing tourism strategy written all over that.
“I remember as a kid going to the four corners, which was four states at the same time,” she said. “I had one foot on each, and so this is kind of that same feeling.”
She hopes that people on I-80 en route to Yellowstone or Devils Tower will be attracted to the quirky nature of standing in a community that has the most crossroads in America and want to make it a stop.
“We could have people go to Yellowstone, Devils Tower, and make the final point down to Rawlins to see this,” she said.
Basecamp For Adventures
Rawlins has sometimes gotten a bad rap from passers through, city administrator Matt Hall acknowledged. But the town has heart, he added, and there’s a lot more to recommend it tourism-wise than many people realize.
Hall was formerly mayor of Cody and is a past president of the Wyoming Association of Municipalities. He’s no stranger to the assets Wyoming’s many communities have to offer tourists.
In his opinion, Rawlins holds its own with all of them.
“I love getting out and going south of town on 71, going up into the mountains, the Sierra Madres, I mean I’ve hunted in the Ferris mountains north of town — all that’s within a half hour or so of Rawlins,” he said. “And then you’ve got the North Platte River, which is about 15 minutes away for floating and everything.”
The Ferris Mountains are known for their striking white limestone cliffs that zigzag along the southern face. They’re visible for miles.
The Sierra Madres, meanwhile, are south of town. These rolling, rounded domes feel like mountainous islands rising to the sky.
The sweeping vista is part of Battle Pass Scenic Byway and also includes Aspen Alley — a world-famous stand of trees whose golden fall leaves draw numerous photographers every year.
It’s also part of the Outlaw Country Scenic Loop, which takes visitors from Rawlins toward Saratoga and Baggs. Hidden little ghost towns are tucked down into the timber all along the way.
Things like that make Rawlins the perfect basecamp for adventure, Hall said.
“If you branch out into Carbon County, you’ve got Saratoga’s hot springs,” he said. “And we are a jumping off point for the Red Desert, which is just 20 miles west of town.”
It’s a favorite playground for those who like to off-road, Hall said.
“That’s just a little, like tip of the iceberg for what we can do around here,” he said.
Spoiled For Trails, Food, Weird History
Rawlins Community Relations Director Mira Miller feels spoiled for choices when she considers all the activities she can offer family and friends visiting her in Rawlins.
“Hiking the Continental Divide Trail, just out of town, you can really see the wide-open spaces,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “So that’s a good thing to do. And Seminoe is pretty close and that’s beautiful. You can go down to the beach and do some fishing.”
Foodies don’t lack for choices either, she added.
“We have lots of really interesting locally owned restaurants,” she said. “I would definitely probably bring them downtown to eat at Anong’s (Thai Cuisine).”
There are so many good choices, though, Miller added, that she believes it would take about three weeks to try them all.
People wouldn’t run out of things to do in three weeks, either, she added.
“We’ve got the museum and the Frontier Prison,” she said. “The Frontier Prison tour is so cool and the museum has a lot of really up-to-date exhibits.”
Among them, a certain pair of infamous shoes, fashioned from the chest and thigh skin of Big Nose George Parrott after the notorious outlaw was lynched in 1881. The shoes are displayed with his skull and a death mask — a crossroads of its own, between morbid curiosity and Western myth.
After a trip to the museum, Miller said she’d probably take her guests to nearby Sinclair, where there is green chili to die for.
“To me, that’s one of the great things about Carbon County,” Miller said. “We have this very long history of New Mexico people coming up here for sheep, and I think we mostly do green chili, some of us would say, better than New Mexico does.”
On Sheep Wagons And Rawlins Red
Sheep lead into another of Rawlins’ claims to fame, Thayer added.
“We’re very proud of all the firsts that Rawlins and Carbon County has,” she said. “Having the first sheep wagon. And I love the history part of Carbon County and Rawlins and how we used to be the largest sheep country in the United States. We had more sheep than anywhere else.”
When she’s squiring guests around town, one of the places she likes to take them is the downtown mural tour, which illustrates so many of the things she’s proud of in Rawlins.
“Hundreds of people walk through our community,” she said. “And we should be proud of that. This can be a one-of-a-kind destination district. A place where you can learn about the history of the railroad.”
Thayer envisions a multi-destination district, with more than one community working together to attract travelers for different reasons and then keeping them there when they discover there’s so much more.
Lincoln Highway buffs, for example, chasing old historic road markers in an old convertible rolling into town to explore where the fabled highway crosses the Continental Divide.
But once there, they might discover interpretive panels about geology and the Rawlins Uplift, a large wrinkle in the earth that rises 1,000 feet above the surrounding high desert.
It’s a window to the past, a geological time machine, displaying 2.5-billion-year-old red granite and 360-million-year-old Madison limestone.
The red granite then offers yet another claim to Rawlins’ fame. It’s what made the pigment called Rawlins Red, which local historians say was so famous for its durability that it was once used to paint the Brooklyn Bridge.
The Uplift offers a walking trail from Rawlins Springs to the Uplift, with signs that tell local history and geology.
Those sagebrush-covered slopes, meanwhile, offer yet another adventure — jade, agate and petrified wood.
Be careful, gentle tourists, when visiting Rawlins. That outer shell of wind and gas stations and fast food may seem unremarkable on a passing glance.
But look beyond it and the town becomes like a matryoshka doll, offering a series of nested adventures that may never let you go.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
