Wyoming’s Greatest Dance Hall
Woods Landing Historic Sign, Photo by Tim Mandese [Tim From Tampa}[/caption]Located just west of Laramie just off State Road 230, by the beautiful Laramie River is Woods Landing Dance Hall. Original built in 1927, it was especially popular with the college crowd from the University of Wyoming.
Dancing, that is what young folk did before the invention of the cell phone and that new fangled inter-web thing all the kids are talking about. "Back in the day," as they say, when folks actually looked at each other and carried on conversation.
There was a time that dance halls were popular in Wyoming. In northern Campbell County, out in the middle of no place, just north of nothing, there is the "town" of Spotted Horse. If you were to sand there an picture a dance hall you might wonder who was showing up to dance. But in the days before television folks would walk and ride horse and carriage for two days to meet up at a dance hall.
Woods Landing began as a logging settlement, but was soon providing rail road ties for the tracks that passed by that location. Woods Landing became a stop along the way. That meant there needed to be a place for travelers to spend the night, perhaps a restaurant, and why not a dance hall while we are at it.
While it has been a long time since the old country store and the dance hall were constructed, it is still up and running and folks are still traveling hours, by car, to stomp the old wood floors on a Friday and Saturday night.
So here is to the Woods Landing Dance Hall. Still popular after all these years.
Points off because they just laughed when I asked for the family discount, since my last name is Woods.