Before the founding of Upton, Iron Town was established nearby in the late 1880s on the banks of Iron Creek.  According to Weston County, Wyoming: The First 100 Years, “There was no running water in the creek, only holes and reservoirs of standing water. It was said that the only good thing you could say about the water was that it was ‘wet.’ It was a brackish, metallic-tasting liquid.” In his work Only a Cow Country, author Dick Nelson, who visited Iron Town as part of a surveying crew, made note of the lively night life that possessed the town even in those early days. “…The noise and laughter from the saloon girls and cowboys kept them awake all night. About sunup the next morning, two of the cowboys from the night before were dragging one of the ‘girls’ to the edge of the city’s well. She was tossed in, dunked several times, and then pulled out.  One of the tent restaurant’s employees stood patiently by,  watching until the two were done helping the lady take her morning bath.  When they were finished, the employee stooped down and dipped up a pail of water, took it back to the restaurant, and started the morning coffee brewing.” 

ron Town would eventually be abandoned when the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad laid 25 miles of new track from Newcastle in the summer of 1890, and established a railroad depot at the site of present-day Upton.  Following the terrible winter storms of 1886 and 1887 that decimated the cattle industry in the area, many ranchers and homesteaders moved into the sheep business, where the Merino was the most popular breed. The 1890 railroad line extension from Newcastle served the centralized sheep shearing pens and allowed sheepmen to ship their wool to markets in Omaha and Kansas City.  The sheep camp was named Merino in honor of the sheep. Although the sheep industry eventually began to decline, a new railroad depot and supply station opened in 1892, which saved the town from completely fading into history.