Town file
Sheridan, Wyoming
Sheridan, Wyoming (Sheridan County, Wyoming) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 96, "The Dismount Is The Problem..." (7 December 2018). On 15 January 2010 De Himes and her boyfriend Dennis David walked into the Sheridan police department in Wyoming and told officers there was a dead body under the trailer they shared.
- Town
- Sheridan
- County
- Sheridan County
- State
- Wyoming
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 96
- Approximate location
- 44.796, -106.964
Episode 96 / 7 December 2018 / 140 min / full
The Dismount Is The Problem...
"We're going to Sheridan, Wyoming... it's in north central Wyoming, right at the top, right on the border... Sheridan County, very creative, Sheridan, Wyoming and Sheridan County." about 0:05:49
The case: Murder of Gerald Bloom (January 2010). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2018
- Population
- about 17,000
- Median age
- about 38 and a half
- Median household income
- $49,000 and change
- Median home value
- $234,000
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $1,300
- Cost of living
- 105
- Religious
- 44.3%
- Violent crime
- ▼ less than half the average
- Property crime
- right on average
History, in brief
- The city was named after Philip Sheridan, a Union cavalry leader in the American Civil War. about 0:09:39
- Sheridan fought the Sioux, Cheyenne and Crow tribes in the area and later fought in the Indian Wars of the Great Plains. about 0:10:15
- He was one of the first practitioners of the scorched earth tactic, defeating Confederate forces under General Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864. about 0:12:41
- In 1865 his cavalry helped corner Robert E. Lee and force his surrender at Appomattox. about 0:16:10
- In 1883 Sheridan was appointed general in chief of the US Army, and in 1888 was promoted to general of the army under Grover Cleveland. about 0:17:27
- The valley was a staging area for General Crook's campaign against the Lakota and the Cheyenne in 1876. about 0:17:45
- After 1876 the US Army forced the tribes onto reservations, which the town website calls opening northern Wyoming to settlers. about 0:18:53
- A trapper named George Mandel built a cabin and a post office there. about 0:19:22
- Mandel sold 40 acres of land, a cabin and a post office to John Loux for $50. about 0:19:37
- In the spring of 1882 Loux sat on a hill above Goose Creek, sketched out the town site and named it Sheridan after the general he had served under. about 0:20:08
- Loux hired Jack Dow of Bighorn to survey the town and registered the plot in the Cheyenne Land Office. about 0:20:28
- Loux served as the town's first postmaster, and when Sheridan incorporated in 1884 he became its first mayor. about 0:20:46
- The first few decades were all bars, pool halls and brothels on Main Street, centred on the Sheridan Inn. about 0:22:22
- Buffalo Bill Cody invested in the Sheridan Inn and used it as his headquarters during tryouts for the Wild West show. about 0:23:10
- By the 1910s Sheridan had the only long-distance electric trolley line in the state and what the town website calls a cosmopolitan population. about 0:23:49
- In the years before the First World War the town had flour mills; Prohibition in 1920 forced the brewery to make soda pop and turned the town into a black market hub for bootlegging, speakeasies, prostitution and illegal gambling. about 0:25:33
- The population in 1900 was 1,559. about 0:26:20
The reviews read out
2 stars
"Don't move to Sheridan, it is only for rich old people."about 0:34:30
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Fort Smith, Montana60 miles
- Powell, Wyoming88 miles
- Pavillion, Wyoming137 miles
- Belle Fourche, South Dakota153 miles
- Spearfish, South Dakota156 miles
- Whitewood, South Dakota165 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.