Park Hotel - 19 Elk Street

The Park Hotel opened in 1914 and was the hub of Western Wyoming until the late 1950’s. It was the largest and most modern hotel in the city. Advertisements boasted of hot and cold water in each of its 38 rooms, “twenty of which will have private baths and toilets.” A fourth floor was added in the 1920’s. The Park catered to “commercial men and automobile tourists” traveling the Lincoln Highway. Local people had a late-night fling dancing and drinking in the Park Hotel until the very minute prohibition went into effect July 1, 1919.

Prohibition in Rock Springs was unique as many of the immigrants owned vats for home production of wine. In a two-month period during the prohibition years, 100 train carloads of grapes arrived in Rock Springs. In December, 1921 Rock Springs made national headlines as the “wettest spot in the western United States” after the federal prohibition director, a US marshal, a federal chemist, and 50 deputies seized so much bootleg whiskey that it required a special baggage car to move it.

The road used to continue across the tracks here and a “Home of Rock Springs Coal” welcome sign arched over the road. The neon sign was switched on by the Wyoming Coal Operators Association in 1929. Rock Springs coal was famous for its high carbon content and high burning BTUs. Local mines led national coal production for many years.