Structure in what is now (2015) mostly a ghost town, called Jay Em, in Goshen County, Wyoming

Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer.
The site was a watering hole on the old Texas Trail, along which cowboys drove cattle to northern ranches and railheads from distant Texas. The land was claimed by Jim Moore in the 1860s. By 1869, Moore had the second-largest cattle operation in the Wyoming Territory, under the brand "J Rolling M," from which the community and Jay Em Creek would take later their names. The town was established to support ranchers in the surrounding area between 1912 and 1915. With highway improvements in the 1940s, Jay Em residents flocked to bigger, distant towns, leaving local busineses with few customers. Most places closed tight, but the buildings remain (in 2015) in remarkable condition, as if they'd be ready to open tomorrow if anybody were around to shop there.
Credit line: Gates Frontiers Fund Wyoming Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Gift; Gates Frontiers Fund; 2015; (DLC/PP-2015:069).
Forms part of: Gates Frontiers Fund Wyoming Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.