According to the Wyoming State Historical Society, on October 10, 1922, the "Cowboy Welcome" for incoming UW President Arthur Crane was held. As Crane rode into town in an automobile, he was "ambushed" by a group of cowboys made up of students, faculty, and staff from the university. They forced Crane into a stagecoach and transferred him to the grandstands to welcome him. Earlier in the day, 23-year-old student Lowell O'Bryan was riding the horses "until they calmed down and stopped bucking" so that all of the ambushers had reliable mounts. One horse broke loose and O'Bryan tried to dismount but got caught in the stirrups and was kicked and dragged 30 yards. He died a week later. A stone fountain on campus memorializes him and it is rumored he's included in the mural hanging in the Student Union that depicts the Cowboy Welcome.

On October 11, 1912, the movie "Charge of the Light Brigade" premiered. It was filmed at Pole Mountain east of Laramie. On October 12, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming student who was openly gay, died from injuries after he was brutally beaten by two Laramie men six days earlier.