St. Peter's Catholic Church, Carpenter Wyoming

This is St. Peter's Catholic Church in Carpenter, Wyoming. The Church is served by St. Paul's parish in Pine Bluffs, which is the closest Wyoming town to Carpenter.

As with the Methodist Church in Carpenter which is discussed immediately below,  I don't know the age of this Prairie Gothic style church in tiny unincorporated Carpenter.  My suspicion is that the church is nearly as old as Carpenter, but I don't have the immediate information on that.

Carpenter United Methodist Church, Carpenter Wyoming.

This is the Carpenter United Methodist Church in Carpenter, Wyoming.

Carpenter is a very small, but still there, town in southeastern Wyoming.  Indeed the town is almost in Colorado and and is has much of the character of western Nebraska.  Founded as a railroad town, the town hangs on in spite of its very small size and is quite isolated.

This church was obviously built early on as a Prairie Goth style church and then modified, probably in the 1970s, to have a new entry way.  The entry way is architecturally inconsistent with the remainder of the church so the exact thinking of the addition isn't obvious to an outside viewer.

Covenant Lutheran Church, Wheatland Wyoming

This is Covenant Lutheran Church in Wheatland Wyoming.

This church is a modified modern style church, featuring some traditional elements that recall Prairie Gothic style architecture, but which also is updated to a modern look contemporary for when it was built.  When that was, I'm not exactly certain of.

Unidentified, Livermore Colorado. (Sometimes the photos aren't very good).

This is an unidentified, and likely abandoned Prairie Gothic church near the highway in Livermore, Colorado.

I've been by this church a zillion times, but until had to stop in Livermore the other day, I never attempted to photograph it. Stopping in, I found that unless a person is willing to is trespassing, which I wasn't, a moving highway photo is about as good as a person can do.

So why do it all? Well, at least its cataloged. 

This isn't, by the way, the only church in Livermore.  There's a much nicer newer one I'll photograph in the future.  I suspect that church replaced this one.

Redemption Church, was Kaycee United Methodist Church, Kaycee Wyoming

We rarely feature a church twice here, although occasionally we do if there's a reason.  This is one such example.

We posted on the Kaycee United Methodist Church quite some time ago in this post:

Churches of the West: Kaycee United Methodist Church, Kaycee Wyoming: 

Kaycee Wyoming is a small ranching community in southern Johnson County. This Methodist Church is located there.

Here's the same church today:

The church is still there, but it's no longer a Methodist Church.  It's name indicates that it is the "Redemption" church which causes me to suppose its likely some type of non denominational protestant church.  That doesn't surprise me much because, in modern times, having a sufficient population of Methodists in a small town such as this would be a bit of a surprise for Wyoming.  I'd have expected the Baptist church, which is often the default protestant church in this part of the country, but a Methodist church is quite specific.  This is not to say, of course, that this pattern always holds.  For example, Shoshoni has a prominent Presbyterian church.

For much of modern small town Wyoming today, however, what we'd expect to see is probably a non denominational protestant church, maybe a Baptist church, a Catholic church, and a Mormon church.  We might omit any one of those, or perhaps half of those, depending upon how small and isolated the town is.  This contrast notably from a century ago, or half century ago, when an Episcopal Church would almost be a default for any small Wyoming town and we'd see more active small, but denominational, churches.

In all of this Wyoming follows a bit of the modern trend, although that trend isn't really properly analyzed as a rule.   There are very distinct doctrinal differences between the various protestant churches but a lot of rank and file protestants don't really acknowledge them very much which has given a boost to "non denominational" Christian churches which are not quite as non denominational as it might seem in real terms.

Anyhow, this church appears to have changed roles a bit.  I wonder what denomination originally built it?

Ft. Laramie Community Presbyterian Church, Ft. Laramie Wyoming

This Prairie Gothic church in the small town of Ft. Laramie, Wyoming, is in the Prairie Gothic style.  The town of Ft. Laramie is just a few miles from the historic frontier era Wyoming fort.

Christ Reformed Presbyterian Church, Torrington Wyoming

This is the Christ Reformed Presbyterian Church in Torrington Wyoming.  The church was built in 1909.

Greeley Mennonite Church, Greeley Colorado.

This is the Greeley Mennonite Church in Greeley Colorado.  The church was originally a Lutheran church but I don't know when it the Prairie Gothic church was built.

St. Anthony's Catholic Church. Upton, Wyoming.

St. Anthony is a very popular patron saint for Catholic Churches in Wyoming for reasons of which I'm not aware. This is one of three churches in the Diocese of Cheyenne which is dedicated to St. Anthony.

This St. Anthony's is the smallest, being in the smallest town. This Prairie Gothic Catholic Church is located in small Upton, Wyoming, near the Black Hills.  It's a mission church of the church in Newcastle.

St. Peter's Lutheran Church. Belfield North Dakota.

There are at least two Lutheran churches in tiny Belfield Montana, including this Prairie Gothic church.

St. David's Catholic Church, Broadus Montana

These are photos of St. David's Catholic Church in Broadus Montana. The Prairie Gothic style church was built in 1931 and is a mission church of Sacred Heart Church in Miles City.

Community United Church of Christ, Pinedale Wyoming.

Late afternoon photo in shadows of the Community United Church of Christ in Pinedale.   It's obviously fairly new, but I don't know when it was built.

Unknown church near Ft. Fred Steele, Carbon County, Wyoming.

This abandoned church sits in a ranch yard just outside of Ft. Fred Steele in Carbon County, Wyoming.  I have no other information on it, other than it appears quite old.

Laramie Valley Chapel, Laramie Wyoming.

 

This is the Laramie Valley Chapel, a Baptist church which is an extraordinary large example of a Prairie Gothic church.  The church must be relatively new as it did not exist when I lived in Laramie, although that's quite a few years ago.

St. Anne Catholic Church, Big Piney Wyoming

This is St. Anne's Catholic Church in Big Piney, Wyoming.  The church was built in 1934.

Unknown, Chugwater Wyoming

This is a church that has been converted into the Chugwater Branch Library, a branch of the Platte County Library, in Chugwater Wyoming.  I'm not familiar with the history of the former church, which retains its cross.

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Atlantic City, Wyoming

This is St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Atlantic City, Wyoming. The church was built in the then mining town in 1916.

Oregon Trail Memorial Episcopal Church, Eden Wyoming

This is the Oregon Trail Memorial Episcopal Church in small Eden Wyoming.  The Oregon Trail did in fact go right by Eden, which is quite near the Parting of the Ways.

Unknown abandoned church, Otto Wyoming

This is an abandoned church in tiny Otto Wyoming.  I have no idea what the history of the church is, or when it was built, or what denomination it was.

And, yes, it was foggy when I took these photos.

Christ's Episcopal Church, Cody Wyoming (the original one).

This 1902 structure is the first Christ's Episcopal Church in Cody, Wyoming.  Money to build the church is supposed to have been donated from high winnings of a parishioner at a poker game.