Est. 1867 · One of the oldest continuously occupied U.S. military installations · Established 1867 to protect Union Pacific railroad construction · Named for Wyoming Governor Francis E. Warren, Medal of Honor recipient · Current headquarters for Air Force Global Strike Command 90th Missile Wing
The post was established in July 1867 at the junction of Crow Creek and Dry Creek, named for Major General David A. Russell, who was killed at the Battle of Opequon in 1864. Its original mission was protecting laborers building the transcontinental Union Pacific line through Cheyenne — a mission that placed it on territory long used by the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples, whose resistance to the railroad had been the subject of violent military campaigns throughout the late 1860s.
Over the following decades, the post expanded into a permanent cavalry and infantry installation. In 1930, it was redesignated Fort Francis E. Warren in honor of Wyoming's first governor and a Medal of Honor recipient. Seventeen years later, the Army transferred the post to the new Air Force, and it became F.E. Warren Air Force Base in 1947.
Today, Warren AFB is headquarters for the 90th Missile Wing of Air Force Global Strike Command, responsible for a substantial portion of the nation's Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile fleet. The post's older Victorian-era brick buildings — including officers' quarters, barracks, and administrative structures dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries — are among the best-preserved examples of historic military construction in the American West.
Sources
- https://www.warren.af.mil/News/Features/Article/333570/warren-ghosts-fact-or-fiction/
- https://kingfm.com/the-haunted-history-of-f-e-warren-air-force-base-in-cheyenne/
War cries in Building 34Shadow figuresCold spotsUnexplained sensations in Quarters 80
Few military installations have their own official acknowledgment of ghost legends, but F.E. Warren is one of them. The base published an article — 'Warren ghosts: Fact or fiction?' — through its official news channels, cataloging the site's most persistent paranormal accounts. That article itself has become a primary source, lending the stories an unusual institutional credibility.
Building 34 is described in both the official article and local news coverage as the most feared building on post. The structure served historically as a hospital morgue, and the accounts associated with it include unexplained war cries heard echoing through its corridors and shadow figures reported by personnel working late or overnight. Multiple sources describe the building as a place that post residents avoid when possible.
Quarters 80 is associated with a different tradition: in the 1880s, a soldier identified only as 'Gus' died by hanging at the quarters. His presence is reportedly still felt there — cold spots, the sensation of being watched, and unexplained physical phenomena. The TogetherWeServed veteran community blog documented the Warren AFB ghost traditions in detail, drawing on accounts from service members who were stationed there over a multi-decade span.
The base's Victorian-era brick quarters and administrative buildings contribute a physical context for the legends: structures built during the Indian Wars, housing generations of soldiers and their families, now standing largely unchanged in a landscape still resonant with the conflicts of the post-Civil War frontier.
Notable Entities
Gus (Quarters 80 hanging death, 1880s)