The Wild Wild West: Get to Know Atlantic City, Wyoming

While the World's Play Ground is home to a large casino that emulates the wild, wild west, a town with the same name in Wyoming truly captures that western spirit.

Atlantic City, Wyoming, is about 1,790 miles west of Atlantic City, NJ, located just off of State Route 28 and U.S. 287 in the center of the Equality State.

As of the 2010 Census, Atlantic City, WY, was home to 37 people.

Yeah, 37.

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In comparison, Atlantic City, NJ, has about 37,000 full-time residents and at least ten times that on a busy summer weekend.

Anyway, Atlantic City, WY, was THE place to be -- in the 1860s -- as gold rush fever was sweeping that part of the country. Today, the town has a restaurant (as in one) and a store (as in one) and it attracts a small number of people during the summer.

So, how did a town in the middle of Wyoming get the name Atlantic City? The most plausible theory, according to an article in njbiz.com, says the town got its name because it sits just east of the Continental Divide, where everything flows to the Atlantic Ocean.

Check out this walking tour of Atlantic City, WY, from 2019...