Lincoln County is a county in Wyoming, United States, on the state’s far western edge along the Idaho and Utah lines. It had a population of 19,581 at the 2020 census and covers 4,095 square miles (10,610 km2) of land and water, centred near 42°16′N 110°42′W.<\/p>\n
Kemmerer is the county seat, and its postal code is 83101. The county holds 9 incorporated cities and towns and a wider set of unincorporated communities, runs on Mountain Time, and shares no civil townships — Wyoming counties administer their unincorporated land directly.<\/p>\n
Lincoln County has 9 incorporated municipalities and roughly two dozen smaller unincorporated communities, several of them former coal-mining camps in the Kemmerer coalfield or ranching hamlets in the Star Valley. “Unincorp.” below means the place has no city or town government of its own.<\/p>\n
| Place<\/th>\n | Type<\/th>\n | Pop.<\/th>\n | ZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kemmerer<\/td>\n | City · seat<\/td>\n | 2,656<\/td>\n | 83101<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Afton<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 1,973<\/td>\n | 83110<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Diamondville<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83116<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Cokeville<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83114<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Thayne<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83127<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Alpine<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83128<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| La Barge<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83123<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Star Valley Ranch<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83127<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Opal<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83124<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Alpine Junction<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83128<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Alpine Northeast<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83128<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Alpine Northwest<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83128<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Auburn<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83111<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Bedford<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83112<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Etna<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83118<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Fairview<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83119<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Fontenelle<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Fossil<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Freedom<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83120<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Frontier<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83121<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Grover<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83122<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Smoot<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 83126<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Elkol<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Leefe<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Nordic<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Oakley<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Osmond<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Sage<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Taylor<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Turnerville<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Viola<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n Diamondville and Kemmerer sit side by side at the county’s coal-mining core, close enough that many residents treat them as one town; each keeps its own city government. Five entries from the old scrape are omitted here — “Blazon Junction,” “Border Junction,” “Carlson,” “Rocky Crossing” and “Willow Addition” — because none turned up a confirmable location in county, postal or Census Bureau records, so they are left out rather than guessed at.<\/p>\n ZIP Codes<\/h2>\nSmaller unincorporated places without a listed post office — Fontenelle, Fossil, Elkol, Leefe, Nordic, Oakley, Osmond, Sage, Taylor, Turnerville and Viola — use the ZIP code of their nearest post-office town.<\/p>\n Geography<\/h2>\nLincoln County runs along the Wyoming Range and the Salt River Range, with the Star Valley — the Salt River’s farming and ranching corridor — forming its northwestern arm and the high, arid Fontenelle Basin and Fossil Basin filling the south. The Bridger-Teton and Caribou-Targhee National Forests cover much of the county’s mountain ground, and Fossil Butte National Monument, west of Kemmerer, preserves a 50-million-year-old lakebed famous for fish fossils. The Green and Salt Rivers are the main drainages, and Fontenelle Reservoir sits on the county’s eastern edge.<\/p>\n Lincoln County borders Teton County<\/a> to the north, Sublette County<\/a> to the northeast, Sweetwater County<\/a> to the east, Uinta County<\/a> to the south, Idaho’s Bear Lake, Caribou and Bonneville counties to the west, and Utah’s Rich County to the southwest.<\/p>\n The 2020 census counted 19,581 residents. Kemmerer, at 2,656 people, and Afton, at 1,973, are the county’s two largest communities. Lincoln County’s median household income runs below the Wyoming median of $72,415, reflecting its mix of mining and agricultural wages. Spread across 4,076 square miles of land, the county averages roughly 4.8 people per square mile, one of the more sparsely settled counties in a sparsely settled state.<\/p>\n Coal and trona mining anchor the Kemmerer-Diamondville area, alongside a coal-fired power plant; Kemmerer is also the planned site of TerraPower’s Natrium next-generation nuclear reactor, announced for the retiring coal plant’s site. The Star Valley, around Afton, Thayne and Cokeville, runs on cattle ranching, dairying and hay production, with tourism tied to the Snake River Canyon and Alpine’s access to Palisades Reservoir. J.C. Penney opened his first store, the “Golden Rule,” in Kemmerer in 1902, and the original storefront still operates as a museum downtown.<\/p>\n Lincoln County was created February 21, 1911, from the western part of Uinta County and organized in 1913, taking its name from President Abraham Lincoln. Kemmerer grew up around coal mines opened in the 1890s by Mahlon Kemmerer and partners to supply the Union Pacific Railroad. The Fossil Basin west of town has been quarried for fish fossils since the early 1900s and became a national monument in 1972. The Oregon Trail and its Sublette Cutoff crossed the county’s eastern reaches, and the town of Cokeville was the site of a 1986 hostage crisis at its elementary school that ended without loss of life to the children, an event still marked locally each May.<\/p>\n U.S. Highway 30 runs through Kemmerer and Cokeville, U.S. Highway 189 connects Kemmerer north toward Jackson, and U.S. Highway 26\/89 threads the Star Valley through Afton and Alpine.<\/p>\n The nearest commercial airport is Jackson Hole Airport, roughly 80 miles north; Kemmerer also has a small county-owned general-aviation airport.<\/p>\n Where is Lincoln County, Wyoming?<\/strong> What is the population of Lincoln County?<\/strong> How big is Lincoln County?<\/strong> What is the county seat of Lincoln County?<\/strong> How many towns are in Lincoln County?<\/strong> |