Is Jeffery City Wyoming Abandond? Google Thinks So

Imagine a Wyoming town that is so lost and forgotten the internet doesn't know its population or if anyone lives there at all.

Jeffrey City, Wyoming, was transformed from a small homestead in the 1950s, when uranium was harvested near there. But the uranium market collapsed in the early 1980s, largely due to the Three Mile Island accident and a flood of cheap foreign uranium, and the town went into a rapid decline. 95% of the population left, turning Jeffrey City into the "ghost town" it is today.

The internet is not sure if anyone lives there.

Jeffrey City, Wyoming, has a very small and fluctuating population, with a 2022 population of 34 according to Data USA, though other sources indicate it could be around 58 or even 0 in 2023. (GOOGLE).

 

Could be 58. Could be 36. Could be ZERO! The number varies based on how and where on the internet I ask the question.

I know that some people live in Jeffery City. I get calls to my radio show from there on occasion. When I drive through the town, I see a mowed lawn or two and people moving about.

There is a sketchy-looking bar and grill open in Jeffery City and, in the summer, a pottery shop run by someone who doesn't remember much of the 90s. He went into rehab about a decade later.

How bad does your town have to be if the internet doesn't know if anyone is there or not?

If you want to have a real laugh, go to YELP and look up 10 BEST THINGS TO DO IN JEFFERY CITY! Nothing that you find there is in Jeffery City. It's all out of town, way out.

BELOW ARE SOME PAST ARTICLES I HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT JEFFERY CITY.

How would you like to buy some authentic, hand-crafted, shot full of holes by ruff necks, Wyoming pottery? You have got to admit, it would be a unique gift. I found just the place.

A couple of years ago, I interviewed an interesting and sweet lady who still lived in the abandoned town called Jeffrey City, Wyoming. Recently, I went back to show a friend of mine, artist and photographer Tim Mandese, a true Wyoming town gone bust.

While exploring the town, we noticed a little shop, once a gas station, with open banners waving in the wind. As dumpy as it looked, we had to explore.

Across the street from the town is an old building with a hand-painted sign that, being in the middle of nowhere, really catches your eye. It's the pottery shop for Byron T. Seeley. Byron pretty much lives there and works there, and living across the street from an abandoned town doesn't get many visitors.

Byron's work is simply amazing. He has a unique style of pottery that he quite literally SHOOTS AT, before glazing and finishing.

I really felt sorry for Byron. He admitted that living where he is gets quite lonely. He does spend his winters in Arizona, but if you find yourself in Jeffrey City, Wyoming. Stop and buy a piece of this man's work! I'm going back and doing just that!'

Byron came right out and admitted that sometimes he gets so lonely, living and that old abandoned town, he wishes he had a woman to share his time with. Everyone he knows has either moved away or died. At least he has a sweet old dog to keep him company.

It is worth driving out to Jeffery City to visit Byron. She sure could use a visitor or two. His pottery, which comes with or without bullet holes, is beautiful and unique. The area around the abandoned town is one of the most beautiful landscapes Wyoming has to offer.

Looking for a weekend drive? Here is how you find Byron. Bring some cash and buy some pottery.

MEET THE LIBRARIAN OF JEFFERY CITY. She saved the school's books.

It may have been the biggest town bust in Wyoming history. Once sporting a population of thousands, Jeffrey City, Wyoming, now has only 58 people.

In 2016, my sister, her husband, and their two daughters came to see Wyoming for the first time. While crossing the state, we passed Jeffery City, and I told them about the town. They wanted to stop and see it.

While there, we discovered that they had converted an abandoned apartment into the town library to save the books from the now-closed school library. We stopped and spoke to the librarian, Nadine Graham, who has lived in the town since 1958.

The video of my conversation with Nadine Graham is below.

Jeffrey City began back in 1931 when a Nebraska couple named the Petersons, relocated because Mr. Peterson was sick after having been gassed in World War I. Mrs. Beulah Peterson opened two gas pumps when the highway came through and began cooking for those who stopped by.

The town boomed when the uranium mine opened to mine for America's nuclear arsenal and power plants. Thousands of people moved to the area. They built a large high school with an Olympic-sized swimming pool. But when the market bust, the town collapsed.

The town went bust in 1982, and over 95% of the inhabitants left the town within 3 years.