Layer 02, Towns
Towns in Lincoln County, Wyoming
Lincoln County stretches across two very different landscapes: the high sagebrush country around Kemmerer in the south-east and the long green valley of Star Valley in the west. Here is who lives where, and which town makes the best base for your trip.
Towns in Lincoln County
List and location
According to Census Bureau place lists, Lincoln County has nine incorporated places. Kemmerer is the only city. The eight towns are Afton, Alpine, Cokeville, Diamondville, La Barge, Opal, Star Valley Ranch and Thayne. Alongside them sit several census-designated places, which are named communities that are not incorporated: Auburn, Bedford, Etna, Fairview, Fontenelle, Freedom, Grover, Nordic, Oakley, Osmond, Smoot, Taylor and Turnerville, plus a few smaller neighbourhoods.
Geographically the county splits into two halves. The south-east is an area of open sagebrush basins and old coal country, with Kemmerer, Diamondville, Opal, Cokeville and La Barge. The west is Star Valley, a mountain valley that runs towards the Idaho border and holds Afton, Thayne, Alpine, Star Valley Ranch and most of the census-designated places. The two halves are linked by highways, but they feel like separate regions, and most visitors choose one of them as a base rather than moving between them every day.
The chart below shows how the incorporated places compare in size. These are 2020 Census counts, as compiled in the Wyoming Legislature's 2020 census population table. They are a snapshot rather than today's figures.
Source: 2020 Census counts as compiled by the Wyoming Legislature (population by county and city table).
What is the largest town in Lincoln County?
Kemmerer is the largest place in the county and has been since the county was created in 1911. In fact its size was the reason it became the county seat that year. Afton is the largest town in Star Valley and the second largest place in the county in the 2020 Census, with Star Valley Ranch and Alpine following.
Kemmerer and the Hams Fork area
Kemmerer was founded in 1897 as a coal town by Patrick Quealy and Mahlon Kemmerer and was incorporated in 1899. Unlike its neighbours Frontier and Diamondville, it was not run as a company town. Coal remained the backbone of life here for generations, and the town's grid of streets, brick fronts and railway-era layout still reflects that history. Our county history page tells the story in more detail.
What is Kemmerer, Wyoming known for?
Two things stand out for visitors. The first is the J. C. Penney Historic District, a National Historic Landmark. James Cash Penney opened the first Golden Rule store in Kemmerer in 1902, the start of what became a national retail chain. The 1902 building itself no longer stands, but the district and a later store that carries the Mother Store name keep the story visible on the main street. The second is fossils. The town calls itself a gateway to the fish beds of ancient Fossil Lake, and Kemmerer and Fossil Butte are naturally paired in any itinerary. The monument lies west of town on the north side of US Highway 30.
Diamondville is Kemmerer's immediate neighbour and shares its mining origins. Further north-east, La Barge and the wide basins around the Green River give a sense of how big and empty this part of Wyoming is. Cokeville, in the west of the county near the Idaho line, is the town nearest to Cokeville Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, one of the federally protected areas in the county.
Star Valley towns
Star Valley is the western half of Lincoln County and extends a little way into Idaho. Settlement here began when a trapper built a cabin in 1874, followed by mass settlement from 1878 by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who arrived from Utah. They founded Afton, and the valley's dairy-farming past earned it the nickname Little Switzerland. Today it is the county's main recreation region, framed by the Salt River Range and the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
Afton
Afton is the main town of the Upper Valley and the one most travellers know by name. It stretches along US Highway 89, where a large arch of shed elk antlers crosses the road in the middle of town. It is a good base if you want a full set of services together with quick access to trails, rivers and the forest. Our guide to Star Valley outdoors shows what is on offer around it.
Other Star Valley communities
Thayne lies north of Afton and is one of the smaller towns by population. Star Valley Ranch is a large residential community. Alpine, at the northern end where the Greys River and the Salt River drain towards Palisades Reservoir, is the gateway to the Snake River Canyon and the road to Jackson, about 36 miles away according to the town's own visitor page. The smaller communities in between, such as Etna, Freedom, Fairview, Auburn and Grover, are census-designated places rather than towns and give the valley its patchwork of farms and ranches.
Choosing a base
The best base depends on what you want to see.
- Fossils and history: stay in Kemmerer or Diamondville. You are close to Fossil Butte National Monument and the Penney historic district, and the open country around the Hams Fork is easy to reach.
- Hiking, fishing and mountain scenery: choose Afton, Thayne or Alpine. All three are inside Star Valley, and Alpine puts you nearest to the Greys River road and to Jackson.
- A bit of both: plan two nights in each half. The drive between them crosses mountain country, so allow a generous half day and check road and weather conditions in winter.
Whichever you pick, remember that services thin out quickly between towns and that distances in a county this large are bigger than they look on a map. Our overview of things to do can help you match a base to your plans, and the home page gives the wider picture.