[8] The town had a railroad and was near the fossilferous sedimentary hills from the Jurassic Morrison Formation, making it an important stopping location for paleontologists, with fossils of Diplodocus and Brontosaurus found nearby at Como Bluff by the two institutions during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

[8] The town was noted to be plagued by crime, with famous bandits such as Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch committing the Wilcox Train Robbery only a few miles away from the AMNH's fossil localities and Medicine Bow itself.

It was built in 1911 by August Grimm, and is believed to be named for the Owen Wister novel, which is set in and around Medicine Bow.

[11] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 3.46 square miles (8.96 km2), all land.

In December 2007, plans were announced for construction of a large coal gasification plant to be built southwest of town.

[17] In 2015, there were plans to downscale the plant,[18] and in 2016, the project was put on indefinite hold, partly due to the low cost of crude oil in the US.

[19] Public education in the town of Medicine Bow is provided by Carbon County School District Number 2.

Chapter XXVIII from Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days involves a subplot about making a train pass through an unsafe bridge near Medicine Bow.