Why Is Cheyenne Called The Magic City Of The Plains?

How did Cheyenne, Wyoming come to be known as the "Magic City of the Plains?" It looks like it wasn't some grand declaration, but a nickname that came about when Cheyenne was experiencing an early growth spurt.

In 1867 Cheyenne got its start when the Union Pacific Railroad arrived on its march to the west coast. The townsite was surveyed by General Grenville Dodge and named after a local Native American Nation.

Thanks to the railroad, settlement was so swift that the town earned the nickname "Magic City of the Plains."

“Other towns of the West have been built and populated with marvelous rapidity, but it has remained with Cheyenne to spring, full-fledged, into existence, as it were, in a single night.” - J. H. Triggs 1876

According to Visit Cheyenne, an early resident told the Omaha Weekly Herald, that “the eye could hardly keep pace with the growth of the town from one day to another. Buildings sprang up as if by magic.”

By the late 1860s the growth in Cheyenne, and attention from eastern newspapers, has given Cheyenne the nickname "Magic City of the Plains."