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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Clifton. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Clifton to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Clifton, please Contact Us.


We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Clifton (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Clifton. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the east contained birth and death records; the county to the north contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Although our information shows that the community of Clifton is historic, it would have been located within present day Weston County.

To see how the shape of Wyoming's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Weston County: Custer (SD), Lawrence (SD), Pennington (SD), Campbell, Converse, Crook & Niobrara.

Below are the counties that are near Clifton. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Clifton:

  • Weston County     (The home county of Clifton)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clifton, with the one closest to Clifton listed first.
    • Spencer ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Spencer is located in Weston County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spencer
    • Hill View Heights
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Hill View Heights is located in Weston County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hill View Heights
    • Newcastle
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Cambria ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • Cambria is located in Weston County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cambria
    • Osage
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Four Corners
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
    • Fairview
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Fairview is located in Weston County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairview
  • Custer County (SD)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clifton, with the one closest to Clifton listed first.
    • Dewey
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Dewey is located in Custer County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dewey
    • Fourmile
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Fourmile is located in Custer County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fourmile
      • Estimated population in 2014: 70 people
    • Ivanhoe ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Ivanhoe is located in Custer County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ivanhoe
      • Estimated population in 2014: 144 people
    • Sanator
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Sanator is located in Custer County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sanator
      • Estimated population in 2014: 1,350 people
    • Pringle
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Berne
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Berne is located in Custer County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berne
    • Custer
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Custer is located in Custer County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Custer
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,926 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Custer <2>
  • Fall River County (SD)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clifton, with the one closest to Clifton listed first.
    • Marietta
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Marietta is located in Fall River County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marietta
    • Edgemont
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Edgemont is located in Fall River County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgemont
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 718 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Edgemont <2>
    • Erskine
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Erskine is located in Fall River County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Erskine

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Clifton, see our County-by-County Page for Clifton.

Cemeteries Near Clifton ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Clifton.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Clifton - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Clifton covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Clifton, with the one closest to Clifton listed first.

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.

Clifton itself is historic and was described in the Rand McNally Atlas as having railroad service and no post office.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Clifton, with the one closest to Clifton listed first.

  • Spencer ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Spencer is located in Weston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spencer
  • Newcastle
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Marietta
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Marietta is located in Fall River County (SD)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marietta
  • Cambria ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Cambria is located in Weston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cambria
  • Pedro
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Pedro is located in Weston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pedro
  • Ivanhoe ‑ Historic
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Ivanhoe is located in Custer County (SD)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ivanhoe
    • Estimated population in 2014: 144 people
  • Argyle
    (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Argyle is located in Custer County (SD)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Argyle
  • Minnekahta
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Minnekahta is located in Fall River County (SD)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minnekahta
  • Pringle
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
  • Berne
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Berne is located in Custer County (SD)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berne
  • Custer
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Custer is located in Custer County (SD)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Custer
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,926 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Custer <2>
  • Edgemont
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Edgemont is located in Fall River County (SD)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgemont
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 718 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Edgemont <2>
  • Oreville
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Oreville is located in Pennington County (SD)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oreville

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Clifton. See our List of 1890's Communities around Clifton.

Newspapers Published in Clifton ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 29 newspapers that have been published in the area around Clifton.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Clifton, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Clifton.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Clifton:

Footnotes ...

<1>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Clifton, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Clifton) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.