In the late 1880s, Rock Springs began transitioning from a modest mining town into western Wyoming’s economic center, and the state’s financial interests took notice. First among them was Henry Gordon Balch, a stockman and state politician who established the Laramie National Bank in 1881. In response to Rock Springs’s mounting population, growing by 346% from 1880-90, Balch expanded his reach, opening the First National Bank of Rock Springs in 1887.
\nBy 1890, Balch’s speculation paid off, as First National’s assets reached $270,000, with almost $20,000 in gold and silver on hand. This success allowed Balch to expand further by founding the Rock Springs Coal Company and the Commercial National Bank in Salt Lake City, bolstering First National’s profile. As ranching and mining operations developed, the bank’s wealth jumped to $389,000 by 1900, only for Balch to pass away from pneumonia in 1901, aged forty-nine.
\nIn Balch’s wake, Augustine Kendall, a long-term financial partner who co-established First National as its cashier, became president. Kendall, who held interests in lumber, cattle, and sheep, also served as Rock Spring’s Mayor from 1904-07. He also increased First National’s standing through his personal reputation and supplementary holdings. By 1909, assets reached $750,000, becoming Wyoming’s third-largest financial house. Kendall also served as Wyoming’s Federal Fuel Administrator from 1917-20, a department encouraging energy conservation by supporting American entry into the Great War.
\nBy 1917, First National’s directors hired Walter J. Cooper, a Salt Lake City-based architect, to construct a more secure building for their financial operations. Compared to the older structure, built from stone and prone to collapse after a fire, the new bank consisted of fire-resistant materials like brick and cement. The bank, now three stories high, became Rock Springs’s tallest structure, centrally located across from the local railroad situation. By 1922, First National's assets rested at $1.2 million. Kendall served as bank president until 1927, eventually retiring in California and dying in 1944, aged 81.
\nBy 1928, First National, acquired by Eccles-Browning Affiliated Banks, an Intermountain financial conglomerate including sixteen other operations, became the First Security Bank of Rock Springs. Marriner Eccles, becoming a millionaire at age twenty-one, served as the corporation’s leading figure, and later became a member of the Federal Reserve Board from 1934-51, acting as its chairman until 1948. Eccles further consolidated Intermountain finance in 1929 by establishing the First Security Cooperation of Ogden after purchasing another eight banks, making twenty-five total. Altogether, these financial houses encompassed $46 million in assets, with First Security representing $2 million, or 4.3%, of the conglomerate’s value.
\nCorporate ownership of First Security continued, and its profitability grew. By 1975, $19.7 million existed in client accounts, increasing to $40.7 million in 1982 and $71.3 million in 1993. However, by 1997, First Security Corporation merged its Rock Springs branch, previously semi-independent, into its corporate structure. In 2000, First Security Corporation, bought out by Wells Fargo & Company, shuttered operations completely. The bank building, empty and in disrepair for many years, is currently under renovation.
","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"Founded in 1887 as a local institution, the First National Bank of Rock Springs became one of Wyoming’s most stable financial houses, operating for 110 years.","website":"","related_resources":["“Banks Tally $3.6 Billion,” Casper Star-Tribune March 28, 1982. Casper Star-Tribune Archives. Courtesy of Newspapers.comExterior photo taken in 2015, facing South Main Street. Note that “First National Bank” is engraved towards the top of the structure. Walter J. Cooper designed the bank in American Renaissance Revival style, adapted from Classical and Italian Renaissance styles, noticeably chiefly in its entryway ornamentation. Interestingly, the building maintains a terra cotta façade, unusual in southwestern Wyoming. Terra Cotta is also considered a fire-resistant material, its use bolstering a structure’s security against a potential fire over stone, which crumbles from heat after cooling. For many years this building lacked a tenant, hence the boards were placed behind the windows. Since 2019, renovations on the interior have occurred.
| “The First National Bank.” Jasperdo, July 19, 2015. Flickr – Creator: Jasperdo, publisher. | Jasperdo","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/d43c0253826109ad76e45834b493d866.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/525610a126f21b9b970c68839d06ce2a.jpg":{"id":3513,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Rock Springs Main Street, c. 1900","description":"A photograph of Rock Springs’s Main Street, c. 1900, taken during a parade procession. On the middle-left, right of the “resturant” sign, is the First National Bank of Rock Springs, it’s sign on the large stone building left of the telephone pole. The newer location would be built further down the street on the center-right in 1917, where the two-story structure stands.
| “Z-9921” Thayer. Denver Public Library Special Collections, c. 1900. Denver Public Library Special Collections. Courtesy of the Denver Public Library. https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/collection/p15330coll22/id/88329/rec/50. ","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/525610a126f21b9b970c68839d06ce2a.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/cfb644b82e4c53a997efbc2cffcf82e7.jpg":{"id":3514,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Rock Springs, Sweetwater County, Wyoming","description":"A portion of the 1920 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Rock Springs, Wyoming, sheet 7. The First National Bank of Rock Springs lies on the far-left corner, labeled “1st National Bank,” facing South Front (Main) Street at the top and 4th Steet to the bottom. The brown coloring designates fireproof construction, indicating how new the bank building was, built only three years before this assessment.
| Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Rock Springs, Sweetwater County, Wyoming. Sanborn Map Company, Sept 1920. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4264rm.g097771920/?sp=7&st=image. ","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/cfb644b82e4c53a997efbc2cffcf82e7.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/78f6d40dcb2e40fbf365bdd39ca96d8d.jpg":{"id":3515,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"Rock Springs Miner advertisement, 1915","description":"A newspaper advertisement from the Rock Springs Miner, 1915, publicizing the bank’s assets and financial stability. The million-dollar asset figure was not exaggerated, as Comptroller reports reveal over $930,000 in financial resources during 1915, which does not include the bank’s surplus assets. Also, note the bank’s promotion of being a federal depositary, which meant the national government could store financial assets, like precious metals, in Rock Springs, another way of indicating its fiscal security to the public.
| Rock Springs Miner, December 11, 1915. Wyoming Digital Newspaper Collection. Courtesy of the University of Wyoming. https://rb.gy/ykqnww. ","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/78f6d40dcb2e40fbf365bdd39ca96d8d.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/7023888315a090083fe061b2438da4b1.jpg":{"id":3516,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"Henry G. Balch","description":"Portrait of Henry Gordon Balch, c. 1890, during his tenure as president of the First National Bank of Rock Springs and Laramie National Bank. Balch, while originally a stockman, became active in local and state politics, initially serving in Wyoming’s Territorial Legislature, then as one of Albany County’s Commissioners, with Laramie being Albany County’s largest settlement. Blach later served as a state senator, elected months before his premature death from pneumonia in 1901.
| “Henry G. Balch,” History of Wyoming, Vol. II, 1918. Chicago: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. Courtesy of Archive.org. https://is.gd/QNExgi.","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/7023888315a090083fe061b2438da4b1.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/c8d42c413af850c3ceae8f6dd1cec84a.jpg":{"id":3517,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"1902 $5 national bank note","description":"A 1902 Series $5 national bank note from the First National Bank of Rock Springs photographed by Heritage Auctions. The bold “3920” indicates the bank’s charter number, assigned at creation, while the bold “W” denotes the bank’s region, “West.” $5 national bank notes are more valuable than most collectible currency, given the low rate of survival for most national bank notes. Benjamin Harrison, pictured left, served as the twenty-third US President from 1889-1893. Also, note Augustine Kendall’s signature, below the blue Treasury seal. The grading condition “25” indicates that this note received some use in circulation but remains in very good condition visually though it contains stains or folds, most noticeable through the yellow lines in the center. Observe that this is larger than modern U.S. currency. In 1929, the Treasury decreased the size of bank notes from 7.375 x 3.125 inches to 6.14 x 2.61 inches. The note pictured sold for $2,400 in 2019.
| Heritage Auctions. “$5 1902 Plain Back Fr. 600 The First NB Ch. # (W) 3920,” available at https://currency.ha.com/itm/national-bank-notes/idaho/boise-id-100-1902-date-back-fr-690-boise-city-nb-ch-3471/a/3567-22671.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515#.","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/c8d42c413af850c3ceae8f6dd1cec84a.jpg"}}}