Woods Landing Dance Hall

The National Register listing of 1985 credits the hall as much to the people who used it as to its logs. Tie hacks, many of them Swedish immigrants drawn by the railroad's demand for crossties, made it a community center, and it hosted smorgasbords, blood drives, fundraisers and weddings as well as dances. Its floor on twenty-four boxcar springs was the only one known in Wyoming. After the hall was finished, a partition cut a quarter of the floor away. Saturday night dances still go on.

What the plaque says

Woods Landing Dance Hall The architecture of the Woods Landing Dance Hall reflects the Scandinavian heritage of this area. Typical of Scandinavian construction, this log hall exhibits peeled and rounded logs with stepped and notched corners. Chinking was not necessary between each log, as the logs were hand hewn to fit together tightly. The foundation consists of rocks gathered from the nearby Laramie River. The oak dance floor, supported with 24 boxcar springs, has been a popular attraction with lumberjacks, cowboys, and students from the University of Wyoming. The springs add bounce, which are ideal for square dancing or folk dances that are done in unison to a specific rhythm. Designed and constructed by Hokon (also spelled Hokun or Hokum) Lestum, the dance hall was completed in 1932 for Clarence and Mayme Lewellen. Mayme wanted a resort where vacationers could come to the mountains to relax. Several cabins were constructed but later razed. In 1936, Clarence Lewellen died, and two years later Mayme married Hokon Lestum. When Hokon died of cancer in 1971, Mayme continued to operate the lodge and used the hall for auctions to raise funds for such causes as cancer research. In 1988, at the age of 90, Mayme passed away, bringing an end to the original ownership. The community of Woods Landing was established in the 1880s by Mr. Samuel S. Wood (1841-1901), who operated sawmills located near this site. Mr. Wood supplied ties to the Union Pacific Railroad. Wood himself owned and operated a saloon near this location to serve tie-hacks and travelers who stopped there when Woods Landing was a station along the Laramie-North Park Stage Route.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Medicine Bow Peak — 23 mi
  The Snowy Range's quartzite high point, where United Air Lines Flight 409 struck the east face in 1955 and killed all sixty-six aboard.

More markers nearby

• The Overland Trail — 18 mi
• Old Overland Trail — 18 mi
• Fort Sanders — 24 mi
• Laramie — 25 mi