Rock River started out as a ranching and agriculture town with a railroad station, but big oil arrived in 1918 with the completion of a successful oil well about 12.5 miles southwest of town. While a place named "Ohio City" grew up next to the oil field, as chief supply center for the area, Rock River surged with prosperity.

The 2-story Lincoln Hotel was built to complement the 3 banks that were founded in town. The Bishop Land Company surveyed and platted a business district and things were looking really good for Rock River's future back in 1919. Then it came to light that 2 of the banks were on very shaky ground and merging them didn't really help. So Mayor Bishop (vice president of the First National Bank and cashier of the Rock River State Bank) started selling the town's and the school board's warrants to other banks in Wyoming after those warrants had been redeemed. To cover the shortfalls generated there he also started taking the proceeds from sales of the town's water system bonds. Bishop's partner, H.A. Thompson (chief shareholder in the Rock River Mercantile and the First National Bank and treasurer of the Rock River State Bank) was borrowing money from his brother in Kansas trying to keep their Ponzi scheme afloat. Eventually, it all collapsed and the bank(s) failed in April 1923. Lawsuits flew but Thompson filed for bankruptcy and walked away from it all. Bishop was declared insolvent and a non-resident because by the time anything came to court, he was already a resident in the Colorado State Penitentiary after being convicted by the Feds for misappropriation of funds.

Back in those days, Rock River was on the Lincoln Highway, the first designated transcontinental automobile route. That doesn't mean the roads were paved, only that they were usually somewhat passable. Lt. Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower passed through Rock River in 1919 as his automotive convoy journeyed across America, completing the journey in only 62 days. In his journal are some choice comments about the roads in this part of Wyoming...