RAWLINS

city, seat of Carbon county, south-central Wyoming, U.S. It lies just east of the Continental Divide at an elevation of 6,755 feet (2,059 m). Founded in 1868 when the Union Pacific Railroad arrived, it was first named Rawlins Springs for General John A. Rawlins, who discovered a freshwater spring there. In 1874 Rawlins Red pigment from the local paint mines was sent 2,000 miles (3,220 km) to be used on the Brooklyn Bridge. Rawlins has since become a railroad division point, a supply centre for a ranching, lumbering, and coal-mining area, and a tourist rest stop for nearby national forests. In the 1950s it became an important shipping point for uranium from the Gas Hills area to the north. The state penitentiary is there and an oil refinery is 6 miles (10 km) east at Sinclair. Inc. 1886. Pop. (1990) 9,380.