Abandoned Towns
Rows of brown and tan two-story townhouses with boarded windows standing in sagebrush

Other mining and oil town

Jeffrey City

A uranium boomtown on the high plains that grew to more than 4,000 people in the late 1970s and lost nearly all of them after the mine closed in 1982. A few dozen people still live among the empty townhouses and the oversized school.

42°29′26″N 107°49′42″W · ≈6,330 ft

Photo: Netherzone, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Living community

About 60 people live in Jeffrey City, per Cowboy State Daily in May 2025. The Split Rock Bar & Cafe, a pottery and a church welcome travelers; the boarded-up townhouses and other buildings are privately owned, and a resident watches them for vandals and squatters. Look from the public streets.

Overview

Home on the Range, then uranium

Buildings along US 287 in Jeffrey City, May 2012
Buildings along US 287 in Jeffrey City, May 2012 · Photo: Chevsapher, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Jeffrey City began in 1931 as Home on the Range, a 640-acre homestead beside the highway across the Sweetwater country. In 1957 prospector Bob Adams, financed by the Rawlins doctor C. W. Jeffrey, started Western Nuclear and opened a uranium mine nearby, and the place was renamed for his backer. Western Nuclear built a company town: streets of houses and trailers, dormitories, townhouses, a high school with an Olympic-size pool and a big gym.

At its late-1970s peak the town had more than 4,000 people by one count and about 4,500 by another, and up to 1,000 of them worked for Western Nuclear and Pathfinder. Then the uranium market collapsed. Layoffs mounted through 1981, the mine closed in 1982, and by 1986 about 95 percent of the residents had left.

The town never quite emptied. The census found 106 people in 2000 and 58 in 2010, and Cowboy State Daily counted about 60 in 2025. The Split Rock Bar & Cafe, a pottery, a Baptist church that hosts cross-country cyclists and a volunteer fire department keep it going, while most of the company townhouses stand boarded up.

Video

Concrete pads and a roadside marker

On a clear summer day a traveler walks the empty lots, where concrete foundations and utility hookups mark the old home sites, and reads the roadside marker "Jeffrey City: Biggest Bust of Them All." He drives past a quonset building, a playground and the Home on the Range log building with its Peterson sign, fills up at the gas pump and films the Split Rock cafe. A resident keeps an eye on him, and he waves to show he means no harm. The narration puts about 1,000 people still in town in 1982 and fewer than 100 today, read from the marker. The empty lots and buildings are private property; look from the streets.

Play “Home on the Range: The Ghost Town of Jeffrey City, Wyoming” from YouTube
“Home on the Range: The Ghost Town of Jeffrey City, Wyoming”, by The Curious Vida on YouTube. The player loads from YouTube when you press play.

Timeline

Homestead, boom, bust

  1. The Peterson family of Nebraska homesteads 640 acres beside the highway and calls the place Home on the Range.
  2. The Split Rock post office, 14 miles away, closes, and Beulah Peterson takes over the ranchers' mail.
  3. Prospector Bob Adams, backed by Rawlins doctor C. W. Jeffrey, starts Western Nuclear and opens a uranium mine nearby. The town is renamed for Jeffrey, and electricity arrives.
  4. Western Nuclear builds a company town with a high school, an Olympic-size pool and a big gymnasium. Townhouses go up in the mid-1970s. Up to 1,000 people work for Western Nuclear and Pathfinder.
  5. The peak: more than 4,000 people by one count, about 4,500 by another. School enrollment reaches about 600.
  6. Layoffs mount; two longtime residents remember Western Nuclear's layoff of 244 workers on June 4 as the end.
  7. The mine closes. By 1986 about 95 percent of the people are gone.
  8. Census: 106 people.
  9. Census: 58.
  10. The elementary school opens for the year with two pupils.
  11. About 35 people live in town and about 100 in the hills around it, with a bar, a motel, a schoolhouse with two pupils and a 13-member volunteer fire department.
  12. About 60 live in town. Most of the townhouses are boarded up; a documentary, Jeffrey City's Not Dead, follows six residents.
  13. On August 7 Lost Soldier Oil & Gas films an office and crew trailer being set up in town for planned pipeline and survey work, per its own video.

What's here

What you'll see

A building beside US 287 in Jeffrey City, May 2012
A building beside US 287 in Jeffrey City, May 2012 · Photo: Chevsapher, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

US 287 runs along the north edge of town. Cowboy State Daily described the scene in 2022: an empty 1960s bowling alley, a library and apartment complexes standing quiet beside the highway. In 2025 it found ten townhouse buildings of six apartments each, many of them boarded up and vacant, with a handful of tenants; one of them, who does not own the property, makes repairs and watches for vandals and squatters. The mines themselves have been reclaimed.

Open to visitors are the Split Rock Bar & Cafe, under the same owner since 2012 and busiest with cyclists and tourists in the warm months; Monk King Bird Pottery, whose owner sells mostly to travelers from spring through fall; and the Jeffrey City Community Baptist Church, whose caretakers put up cross-country cyclists for free. The Green Mountain Motel served summer travelers in 2022. We found no posted hours for any of them. In 2022 the town had no police, doctor, hospital or grocery store; the nearest were about 60 miles away.

A roadside marker, "Jeffrey City: Biggest Bust of Them All," tells the boom and bust, and the Home on the Range log building still carries the Peterson name, both filmed in August 2023. Empty lots across the grid keep their concrete foundations and utility hookups where trailers and houses were wheeled away. In August 2026 Lost Soldier Oil & Gas posted a video of an office and crew trailer being hauled in and set up, which it said would house workers for pipeline and survey work.

The 1951 Crooks Creek NE sheet below shows only a gravel pit and a few buildings by the highway. The 1957 Jeffrey City sheet labels the place "Jeffrey City (Home on the Range PO)" and shows a few short blocks, two looped streets lined with small buildings, oil tanks and a landing strip. The 1962 sheet marks the Split Rock Mill nearby. The 1957 sheet's 1984 photorevision, drawn from 1980 aerial photos, adds in purple the boom-era streets and houses spreading south and west.

  • Roadside marker "Jeffrey City: Biggest Bust of Them All"
  • Home on the Range log building
  • Concrete foundations of the old home sites
  • Boarded-up company townhouses (mid-1970s)
  • School buildings and the big gymnasium
  • Empty bowling alley and library buildings
  • Split Rock Bar & Cafe
  • Monk King Bird Pottery
  • Jeffrey City Community Baptist Church
USGS topographic map of Jeffrey City's street grid south of US 287
USGS The National Map, topo. US 287 crosses the north edge of town; the street grid, with Jackpot Drive and Ore Road, spreads south of it.
Aerial view of Jeffrey City's streets, many with empty lots
Aerial imagery, same area. Many lots in the street grid are empty, with large buildings along the highway.

Historic maps

Jeffrey City on USGS maps, 1951–1988

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Jeffrey City, 1951
Crooks Creek NE sheet, 1951, 1:24,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Jeffrey City is on US 287, the highway between Lander and Rawlins. From Lander, follow US 287 southeast; from Casper, take WY 220 southwest past Alcova to US 287.

USGS topographic map of US 287 from Lander southeast to Jeffrey City, with routes drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Lander58.4 miabout 1 h 25 min
  1. From downtown Lander, take Main Street (US 287) southeast.8.8 mi
  2. Turn left onto US 287/WY 789 and follow it across the plains.49.2 mi
  3. In Jeffrey City, turn right on Crooks Gap Road, right on Jenner Boulevard and left on Jackpot Drive.0.4 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • US 287, shared here with WY 789, is the highway between Lander and Rawlins; it shows paved through town in photos from May 2012 and in the August 2023 video. Services are few: in 2022 Jeffrey City had no grocery store, police or hospital, and the nearest were about 60 miles away.
  • Visitor notes advise traveling in a vehicle in good condition and telling someone your plans; there was little cell service at the time of a 1991 visit.

Photos

Jeffrey City in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Jeffrey City?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Jeffrey City

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Wyoming index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Jeffrey City, Wyoming", read October 28, 2026: Home on the Range in 1931, the Split Rock post office in 1943, the 1957 renaming for C. W. Jeffrey and Bob Adams's Western Nuclear, the school, pool and gym, the 1982 closing and the 95 percent exodus by 1986, the 2000 and 2010 censuses, the two pupils of 2013, the businesses, the coordinates.
  2. ghosttowns.com, Jeffrey City, read October 28, 2026: the boarded-up duplexes and dormitories, the empty gym, late summer as the best time, the climate, visitor notes of 1991 and 2009 on the small population and the travel advice.
  3. Clair McFarland, "We Are The Sheriff," Cowboy State Daily, May 27, 2022: 35 in the village and about 100 in the hills, the Split Rock Cafe, the Green Mountain Motel, the 13-member fire department, the empty bowling alley, library and apartments, a peak of about 4,500, the schoolhouse with two students, the 60 miles to services.
  4. Hannah Brock and Reilly Strand, "Jeffrey City's Not Dead," Cowboy State Daily, May 25, 2025: about 60 residents, the bar, pottery, church and fire department, the ten townhouse buildings, the caretaker, the reclaimed mines, more than 4,000 at the peak, up to 1,000 uranium workers, the June 4 layoff, about 600 pupils at the peak.
  5. The Curious Vida, "Home on the Range: The Ghost Town of Jeffrey City, Wyoming", YouTube, posted August 15, 2023: the video on this page; the marker, the empty lots and foundations, the Home on the Range building, the gas pump and cafe.
  6. Lost Soldier Oil & Gas, "Lost Soldier in Action: Trailer Move-In Begins at Jeffrey City, WY | LSOG Field Update", YouTube, posted August 10, 2026 (title card dated August 7, 2026): the office and crew trailer hauled into town and set up, and the company's statement that it will house pipeline and survey workers.
  7. RollingQuiet, "Day 50 to Jeffrey City WY", YouTube, posted January 8, 2026: a cross-country cyclist's shelter at the Jeffrey City Community Baptist Church.
  8. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits