First National Bank of Rock Springs
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.
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.
By 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.
In 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.
By 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.
By 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.
Corporate 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.
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