Chugwater was once the ranch headquarters of the gigantic Swan Land and Cattle Company, the largest of the cattle baron ranches that dominated eastern Wyoming in the 1880's.  The company was organized in Scotland in 1883 by Thomas and Alexander Swan, and capitalized by Scottish investors to the tune of almost two million dollars.  It bought 550,000 acres of Union Pacific Railroad land, and the land flanking the area's major creeks, a common strategy since there was lots of grass, but very little water.  Those who controlled the water sources had de facto control of all the surrounding grazing land.

With this base of deeded land, the Two Bar, as it was known locally, ran 110,000 head of cattle over nearly a million acres of land, stretching east into Nebraska and west nearly 120 miles.  The company had 30 different ranch sites and so many brands that it reportedly published its own brand book to help its foremen keep them straight.  Already troubled by investors' suspicions of fraud, the company was thrown into bankruptcy by the severe winter of 1886-87, in which thousands of the firm's cattle died.

Amazingly, the company survived another 63 years, dwindling in size until only the 2,183 acres of the headquarters ranch remained.  Throughout that time it maintained a reputation among cowhands as an excellent outfit to work for, providing good wages, good working conditions, and most important, "a variety of good food and plenty of it."  The town of Chugwater was built on land purchased from the Two Bar in 1913, and the ranch headquarters have been designated a National Historic Landmark.