No Blarney About Wyoming’s Irish Population

If you wanted to look up Wyoming’s towns with the highest percentage of Irish, it’s not at all hard to do. And these figures show some fascinating facts – no blarney.

If you guessed Irish is the largest percentage of Wyoming's ethnicities, that is actually not true. 25 percent are of German ancestry; 13.3 percent Irish. Don’t feel bad, though, because the rest of America’s percentage of Irish is less – only 7.2.

Did we assume Irish more prevalent in the Cowboy State, just because of the influence of March 17? When claiming to be Irish on St. Patrick’s Day maybe more people really don’t know what they are - if you know what I mean.

When Irish people came to Wyoming with the railroad in the 1860s, Germans were already here, since before mid-century. I’ve heard that Germans make better beer, but I don’t remember where that came from, or who was ever judge of it. I say there is great beer from Germany AND Ireland. Otherwise, I’m not making up anything here.

Wyoming towns are well ranked for their Irish by zipatlas.com, listing Tie Siding, WY #1, with a whopping 50 percent of Irish descent, of their population 23. Maybe you know Tie Siding is just southwest of Buford, Wyoming – now population none (no longer listed as even 1 human). Don’t ask me how they got an even 50 percent out of that odd number 23 because I won’t split red hairs.

From there the #2 Irish town, Edgerton, is over 15 percent less at 34 percent. Looking down the list, barely getting out of the Top 20, Irish percentages start dropping below 20 percent – and all are towns with only one zip code. The first city of 30,000 plus is at #45 - Gillette – not quite 14 percent Irish. Casper ranks 51st with about 13.5 percent, and at 66th, the largest city in the state, Cheyenne, is over 12 percent Irish.