Ten Sleep History
Ten Sleep received its name because of the method of measuring distance that was used by Indians at one time.

There was once a large Sioux Indian camp on the banks of the Platte River, and there was another large Indian camp on the Clark's Fork River to the North, near present-day Bridger, Montana. These camps were important to Indians and settlers due to the trails leading to and from them in all directions across the West. According to the reckoning of the Indians, it was twenty "sleeps," or nights, between the two camps.

It took ten "sleeps" to get halfway between them. This became the location of the present town of Ten Sleep.

Worland History
When people began settling in Camp Worland, named for settler W.H. "Dad" Worland, in 1903, the pioneer encampment was located on Fifteen Mile Creek on the Bridger Trail. When plans were made for a railroad to be built on the eastern bank of the Big Horn River they were faced with a difficult situation, for this was to be across from where they had created a small community. Rather than be bypassed by the tracks, in the below-zero temperatures of the cold winter of 1905-1906 Camp Worland moved across the frozen Big Horn River. They then plotted out the future town of Worland.