[5] Located on the Laramie River in southeastern Wyoming, the city is west of Cheyenne and 25 miles (40 km) north of the Colorado state line, at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 287.

European-American settlers named a river, mountain range, peak, US Army fort, county, and city for him.

Its first mayor, M. C. Brown, resigned his office on June 12, 1868, after six turbulent weeks, saying that the other officials elected alongside him on May 2 were guilty of "incapacity and laxity" in dealing with the city's problems.

On October 28, 1868, Boswell led the committee into the Bucket of Blood, overwhelmed the three brothers, and lynched them at an unfinished cabin down the street.

Through a series of other lynchings and other forms of intimidation, the vigilantes reduced the "unruly element" and established a semblance of law and order.

[14] The city was covered by international media in 1998 after the murder of Matthew Shepard, who was a gay student at the University of Wyoming.

[19] In 2004, Laramie became the first city in Wyoming to pass a law to prohibit smoking in enclosed workplaces, including bars, restaurants and private clubs.

[21] In August 2005, Laramie's City Council defeated an attempt to amend the ordinance to allow smoking in bars and private clubs.

The growing season is short, as the average window for freezing temperatures is September 14 through June 6, while for accumulating (≥0.1 inches (2.5 mm)) it is October 5 through May 12.

[32] The Geological Museum at the University of Wyoming is open to the public and houses more than 50,000 catalogued mineral, rock, and fossil specimens, including a dinosaur exhibit.

[33] The university's art museum offers gallery exhibits, lectures, workshops, classes, and public tours year-round.

The other sites are the Downtown Laramie Historic District, the Ivinson Mansion and Grounds, Old Main on the University of Wyoming campus, the Barn at Oxford Horse Ranch, Bath Ranch, Bath Row, Charles E. Blair House, John D. Conley House, Cooper Mansion, East Side School, Fort Sanders Guardhouse, William Goodale House, Lehman-Tunnell Mansion, Lincoln School, Richardson's Overland Trail Ranch, St. Matthew's Cathedral Close, St. Paulus Kirche, Snow Train Rolling Stock, Union Pacific Athletic Club, and the Vee Bar Ranch Lodge.

[42] The University of Wyoming Cowboys compete at the NCAA Division I level (FBS-Football Bowl Subdivision for football) as a member of the Mountain West Conference.

Rock climbing, hiking, and camping are among the attractions of Vedauwoo, an assemblage of weathered granite slabs, boulders, and cliffs covering 10 square miles (26 km2) in the Medicine Bow – Routt National Forest, about 16 miles (26 km) east of Laramie off Interstate 80.

[43] Volunteers from the Medicine Bow Nordic Association, in cooperation with the Forest Service, maintain groomed cross-country ski trails in a sector of the Laramie Range about 10 miles (16 km) east of the city.

The Medicine Bow Rail–Trail is a mountain bike trail, 21 miles (34 km) long, built between 2005 and 2007 on the bed of an abandoned railroad southwest of Laramie.

For 27 miles (43 km) of its length as it crosses the Snowy Range, the Highway 130 corridor has been designated a National Forest Scenic Byway.

[54] According to a 2012 report by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), a former industrial site for the production of aluminum, arsenic acid, strategic metals and cement now owned by L.C.

Holdings, 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Laramie had arsenic concentrations in on-site water well samples 3,100-times higher than DEQ cleanup levels.

The council members set policy, approve budgets, pass ordinances, appoint citizen volunteers to advisory boards, and oversee the city staff.

[58] The ordinance bans discrimination against LGBT people in employment, housing and public accommodations such as bars and restaurants.

It governs 19 public schools in an area of 4,000 square miles (10,000 km2) including Laramie, Centennial, Rock River, and rural locations.

[70] From 1958 to 1962, Laramie was the setting for ABC TV series Lawman, starring John Russell and Peter Brown, and from 1959 to 1963, Laramie was also the name of an NBC western television series, starring John Smith and Robert Fuller as ranch partners who operate a stagecoach station 12 miles (19 km) east of the city.

[71] In July 2017, the 83-year-old Fuller visited the city for the first time, serving as grandmaster of Laramie's annual Jubilee Days parade and festivities.

In 2011, German actor and writer Joachim Meyerhoff wrote his first novel, Amerika, about the year he spent as a student in Laramie.

SkyWest Airlines (United) provides daily commercial flights between Laramie Regional Airport and Denver, Colorado.

[74] The airport, 3 miles (5 km) west of the central business district, is operated and financed by the City of Laramie and Albany County.

In addition to commercial flights, the airport serves private and corporate planes and atmospheric research aircraft from the University of Wyoming.

Green Ride of Northern Colorado provides service from Laramie to Fort Collins and Denver International Airport.

The city's drinking water comes from the Big Laramie River, the largest single source, and wellfields in the Casper Aquifer,[78] and it is treated in a modern plant.