Fruit Trees for Lusk, Wyoming and the Niobrara Country

On December 17, 1964, the Keeline station, up on the high flats west of Manville, read −35°F while the old Lusk station read −27°F. On December 31, 1978, it went the other way: Hat Creek, about 900 feet lower on the north side of the Hat Creek Breaks, hit −32°F and Keeline only −26°F. Those two mornings explain most of this map of fruit trees for Lusk, Wyoming and the Niobrara country: the cold has two places to go, and the ground in between stays out of both. It runs from Manville down the Niobrara past Lusk, north over the Breaks to Fort Hat Creek, and south to the buttes.

Type your address in the box on the map to get the number for your own place, and the list of what we sell that has come through it.

How to read this map

The number at every spot is a 30-year planning low, the same number our cold hardiness calculator uses, nudged a little for the ground around you. It runs on the cold side, so it's a safe number to plan around, not the record. You also get the MFTC zone (that number in half zones), the typical winter (an average year's coldest night, the basis of USDA's map, which is why USDA zones read warmer) and the spring frost layer: how much warmer or colder a spot runs than Lusk on a still, clear night at bloom.

In winter this is a tight map. The middle of the growing ground plans for −32°F (MFTC 3b), and half of it falls between −33°F and −31°F. Lusk, the reference town, plans for −33°F (3b), with a typical winter of −19°F. The cold end is Manville at −35°F and the low country north of the Breaks, which runs down to about −37°F. The warm end is high ground the cold drains off: Flattop Butte, about 11 miles south-southwest of Lusk, plans for −28°F (4a), and Lone Tree Hill, south-southwest of Manville, −29°F (4a). The spring layer spreads much wider.

Why the map looks the way it does

Lusk sits on the High Plains of eastern Wyoming, about 20 miles from the Nebraska line. The Niobrara River (the Running Water, in the early days) starts on the upland near Manville at about 5,500 feet and runs east past Lusk as an intermittent stream. North of town the Hat Creek Breaks, a ridge of sandrock hills under ponderosa pine and cedar, split Niobrara County in two. South of them the land drains to the Niobrara; north of them it drains to the Cheyenne River and sits about 1,000 feet lower. The Hat Creek (4,380 feet) and Lance Creek (4,341 feet) stations sat 700 to 750 feet below the old Lusk station (5,090 feet).

Wind helps keep this map tight. The westerlies blow steady and sometimes hard, and Washington State's fruit people find orchard inversions usually hold only while the wind stays under 3 to 5 mph. Stirred-up air doesn't pool, so less than 6°F separates the coldest twentieth of the growing ground from the warmest, and no pair of long-record stations here differs by a median of 3°F or more in the year's coldest night. The record nights come after an arctic front, when the wind dies and the sky clears over fresh snow, and then the cold goes two places.

The first is the low country north of the Breaks. On a still night, cold air made on the Breaks and the Lusk tableland slides north down Sage Creek, Old Woman Creek and Lance Creek into a gumbo lowland. On January 1, 1974, Hat Creek read −30°F while Lusk, Keeline and Lance Creek all read −22°F. On December 31, 1978, Lance Creek read −31°F, close behind Hat Creek. On December 23, 1983, Lance Creek hit −36°F against −30°F at Lusk. Those two stations only ran 12 years each, so it's a strong hint rather than proof, but the map agrees: the coldest twentieth of it, −35°F and colder, lies mostly in that low country in the northwest corner, toward Lance Creek.

The second is the high, flat ground at the head of the Niobrara around Manville and Keeline, which runs backward from the usual rule that getting up higher keeps you warmer. Nobody has studied why, but three things point that way. When arctic air pours in on a wind there's no inversion, and higher ground runs colder. When the wind quits, Manville sits on a wide, nearly flat headwater floor (the map puts the village 0 feet above its floor, on a 2 percent grade), and a wide, shallow basin can pool harder than a deeper valley that drains. And the upland south of the Breaks is the deep-snow side of the county, and air over snow runs colder. Keeline, at 5,280 feet the highest station here, was the coldest in the outbreaks of 1959, 1963 and 1964, 5°F to 8°F colder than Lusk, and it averages a yearly low of −23°F over its 28 years on file.

Lusk sits between the two, on the shallow Niobrara draw at 5,014 feet, 30 feet above its floor, with a way out east down the draw. In all five big outbreaks from 1959 to 1983 when the old Lusk station reported alongside its neighbors, it was the mildest station or tied for it, and over 86 years it averaged a yearly low of −20°F. Town itself, right on the floor of the draw, plans for −33°F.

Get up off the floors and it eases. Within 3 miles of Lusk, ground 100 to 700 feet above the floor plans for a median −31°F, 2°F better than town; around Manville the same kind of ground runs −31°F against −34°F on the floor. That's the thermal belt. The winter number only moves 2°F to 5°F for it, because it takes the fine-scale terrain at a quarter strength. The spring layer counts terrain at full strength, and every hill and bench we checked reads 13°F to 15°F warmer than Lusk on a still bloom night. A Hungarian study of 69 clear, calm nights found a valley floor averaged 6.7°F colder than a slope 230 feet higher, and up to 13.1°F colder.

Snow cuts both ways. The county gets 30 to 65 inches a year, but the wind decides where it lies; in the March 13, 2019 storm, gusts topped 50 mph, drifts ran 4 to 6 feet and some ground blew bare. Ridges and open flats scour; draws, fence lines and shelterbelts fill. Snow chills the air above it (lasting snow cover on the Canadian prairies has dropped air temperatures about 18°F within days), but it keeps roots warm. Dormant apple roots are seriously injured near 10°F while the wood above can take about −40°F, so a windswept knob that plans a couple of degrees warmer can still be the worse spot for roots. And there's no water to soften any of it: the county has about 2 square miles of water all told, and its creeks are intermittent or dry most of the year.

Lusk, Silver Cliff and the Niobrara draw

Lusk, the Niobrara County seat, was founded by Frank Lusk in July 1886, the year the railroad arrived to ship cattle to Omaha. The Niobrara ran just west of town, and Silver Cliff, the old mining hill and townsite, sits just west too. We didn't find named neighborhoods; with a draw this shallow, your spot comes down to height and shelter.

Town plans for −33°F (MFTC 3b), at 5,014 feet, with a typical winter of −19°F. The floor around town runs −33°F, and even the coldest tenth of the ground within 3 miles is only a hair colder, so there's no deep frost hole to dodge. The rises 100 to 700 feet up plan for a median −31°F. The old Lusk station, 2 miles southwest of town at 5,090 feet, carries a 30-year number of −32°F. Lusk is small, and downtown plans about the same as the floor. A south wall helps the tenderest tree if you plant within a few feet of it.

At −33°F, everything we rate −35°F or colder clears. Lapins and Gold (−35°F) are the hardiest sweet cherries we've found. Bartlett pear, Superior and Italian plums and Zard apricot (−35°F) clear by 2°F too. Haralson and Honeycrisp (−45°F), Zestar!® and Sweet Sixteen (−40°F), Summercrisp pear (−40°F), Toka plum (−45°F, and it pollenizes Superior) and Evan's Bali tart cherry (−45°F) have real room. Keep the apricots and sweet cherries on the first rise above the draw. Contender peach (−30°F), which Tom McCamant grows at Forbidden Fruit in Paradise, Montana, is the only commercial peach we know of that has taken −32°F, so it's worth a try here against a south wall or on a rise. South toward the North Platte, the Torrington and Wheatland map takes over.

Manville, Seldon Peak and the head of the Niobrara

Manville has had a post office since 1887 and is named for the cattleman H. S. Manville. It sits on the upland at 5,245 feet near where the Niobrara starts. Keeline, the mostly abandoned 1910 railroad town just west of the map, is the same high country.

Manville plans for −35°F, MFTC 3a (just on the cold side of the 3a to 3b line), with a typical winter of −21°F. That puts the village in the coldest tenth of the ground within 3 miles; the floor around it runs −34°F. The slopes pay more here than around Lusk: ground 100 to 700 feet up within 3 miles plans for a median −31°F, 4°F better than the village. Seldon Peak, 1.6 miles southwest of the village, plans for −30°F on a hillside 290 feet above its floor and reads 13°F warmer than Lusk on a still spring night, while the village itself reads the same as Lusk. Lone Tree Hill, about 7 miles south-southwest at 6,019 feet, plans for −29°F (4a).

In the village the −40°F trees clear by 5°F: Zestar!®, Sweet Sixteen and Cortland apples, Summercrisp and Luscious pears, Mount Royal plum, Meteor tart cherry and Sungold apricot. The −35°F kinds (Lapins, Siberian C peach, Superior plum) sit right on the line. Up toward Seldon Peak they clear by 4°F to 5°F and get the warmer spring air too.

The Hat Creek Breaks, Fort Hat Creek and the Sage Creek country

North of Lusk the Hat Creek Breaks rise in a line of pine and cedar hills, and past them the land drops about 1,000 feet to the Cheyenne River side of the county. Cheyenne to Deadwood stage travelers felt they'd reached the Black Hills when they hit the Breaks. Fort Hat Creek and the Hat Creek stage station, which still stands, sit on Sage Creek about 12 miles northeast of Lusk; the builders thought they were on Hat Creek, which is actually in Nebraska. If you're up toward the Black Hills proper, the Newcastle and western Black Hills map covers you.

Down there it's gumbo over Pierre shale instead of sand, 10 to 14 inches of precipitation instead of 15 to 17, and open winters with little enough snow for winter grazing. On a calm night the cold off the Breaks collects on the lowland floors, which is why Hat Creek or Lance Creek was the coldest station in 1974, 1978 and 1983. Thin snow over gumbo also lets frost go deeper into the root zone.

The warm ground up here is the benches standing above the lowland. Signature Rock, 9 miles north-northeast of Lusk, sits on a bench 390 feet above the floor below it, on a 5 percent grade (right in Montana State's 4 to 8 percent window), and plans for −30°F (MFTC 4a), with a spring reading 13°F warmer than Lusk. Nobody has measured a thermal belt here, so that's the terrain model talking, but it's the kind of spot we'd plant. On a pine slope, clear dense timber or brush below the trees, since it dams cold uphill of it. Flat Top, in the northwest corner, shows the other side: a hillside 380 feet above its floor that still plans for −34°F, because the lowland around it runs that much colder. On the floors up here, plant from the coldest band below and save the −35°F kinds for the benches.

The buttes south of Lusk: Flattop Butte, Bald Butte and Chimney Rock

South of Lusk the country turns to rolling hills, granite knobs and low, sharp canyons, running out to the Rawhide Buttes at the Goshen County edge, just past the map. Flattop Butte, about 11 miles south-southwest of Lusk at 5,854 feet and 750 feet above its floor, plans for −28°F (MFTC 4a), the warmest named spot on the map, with a typical winter of −14°F and a spring reading 14°F warmer than Lusk. Bald Butte, 2 miles east of it at 5,360 feet, plans for about −30°F and also reads 14°F warmer in spring. Chimney Rock, 10 miles southeast of Lusk, is the other kind of spot: a toe slope 10 feet above its floor, at the edge of the pool, that plans for −33°F and reads the same as Lusk in spring.

On the butte slopes at −28°F to −30°F, the −35°F sweet cherries, pears, plums and apricots clear with room, and on the warmest ground, like Flattop Butte, Contender peach and Rainier cherry (−30°F) clear too. Rainier likes dry air; it cracks where it rains at ripening. A bare butte top takes the full westerlies and loses its snow, so pick a sheltered slope partway down (east-facing is ideal, since it warms quickly on a frosty spring morning) and plant a windbreak.

Spring frost and bloom around Lusk

On a still, clear night in May the cold drains and pools the way it does in January, only shallower: on spring frost nights the cold layer usually tops out 30 to 200 feet above the ground. So the spring layer splits this map sharply. Lusk and Manville read the same, and so does Chimney Rock's toe slope. Every hill and bench we checked reads 13°F to 15°F warmer. That's a calm-night pattern; in a windy freeze, higher ground is colder.

NOAA's Torrington 29N station, just south of the map at 4,860 feet, is the nearest with 1991 to 2020 frost dates. Its median last 32°F frost is May 20 and its last 28°F May 13, and one year in ten the last 32°F comes June 5 or later. The first 32°F in fall comes around September 23 and the first 28°F around October 5, for a median of 120 frost-free days. Niobrara County's land use plan gives about 115 days, with the last spring freeze around May 26 and the first fall freeze around September 18.

Open blossoms of apple, pear, cherry, peach, apricot and plum all start dying at about 28°F. You don't need them all: only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop, and sweet cherries can lose half their flowers and still make a full crop. The USDA's Cheyenne Horticultural Field Station tested fruit on these plains for 28 years: late spring frost was one of the main limits, along with winter cold and the short season, and late bloom alone didn't guarantee a crop; fruit-bud hardiness mattered more for steady bearing.

So put apricots, peaches and sweet cherries on the highest ground you have, and keep the floors for apples, pears, the hardy plums and bush fruit. Honeyberry (haskap) flowers take 19°F wide open, and in 2026 Red Lake and Montana Black Currant fruited well for us after their flower buds saw about 22°F. A north or east slope holds bloom back a little; a south wall pulls it forward. Through bloom, keep the grass mowed short, don't till, and water a day or two ahead of a frost night: firm, moist soil gives heat back at night, and a British plum guide found watering 1 to 3 days ahead gained 5.4°F to 7.2°F.

Fall counts too. On October 25, 2020, Missoula went from mild fall weather to well below zero almost overnight and killed a lot of trees rated plenty hardy on paper, including almost all of our young Bing cherries, because they hadn't gone dormant. With the first 28°F night around October 5 here, taper water from mid-August.

What the weather records say

The coldest reading on record here is −36°F, at the old Lusk station on December 22, 1990 (86 years on file) and at Lance Creek on December 23, 1983 (12 years). Keeline hit −35°F twice, Hat Creek −32°F (December 31, 1978), the station 18 miles east-northeast of Lusk −30°F (January 19, 1963), and Torrington 29N, the one station with a full record since the mid-1990s, −26°F (January 14, 2024). These are NOAA station records, not an official city record. Besides the outbreaks above, the big ones were January 4, 1959 (Keeline −29°F, Lusk −24°F), January 19, 1963 (Keeline −34°F, Lance Creek −32°F, Lusk −28°F), February 2, 1996 (Lusk −27°F, Torrington 29N −20°F) and December 21, 1998 (Lusk −27°F, Torrington 29N −22°F).

Our planning low for Lusk, −33°F, is colder than anything a station here has read since the 1995-96 winter (−27°F at Lusk, −26°F at Torrington 29N), though not colder than Lusk's −36°F of 1990.

The county averages 46°F for the year (January 24°F, July 71°F), and Lusk gets about 15 inches of precipitation, three quarters of it from April through September. The April 2024 storm left 12 to 14 inches at Lusk with 6-foot drifts.

USDA's 2023 map puts Lusk in zone 5a, and its 2012 map had 4b; the old station's average yearly low of −20°F sits right on that line. We put Lusk in MFTC 3b, because we plan for the bad night, not the average one. NOAA station records show the worst night in about 30 winters runs a median 13°F below a station's average winter low, and Lusk fits that: a typical winter of −19°F against a −33°F planning low. One southeast Wyoming homesteader found big-box fruit trees sold as zone 5 never thrived on the place, while a currant bought locally did fine.

What you can grow here

Buttes, benches and hillsides, −28°F to −31°F

The buttes and slopes 100 feet or more above the floors, where the early bloomers go. Apples: Haralson and Honeycrisp (−45°F), Zestar!® and Cortland (−40°F), Empire (−35°F). Pears: Summercrisp (−40°F), Bartlett and Red d'Anjou (−35°F). Plums: Superior and Italian (−35°F), with Toka to pollenize Superior; our pollination maps show other pairings. Cherries: Lapins, Gold and Black Gold (−35°F), plus Evan's Bali and Meteor for tart. Apricots: Zard and Hardy Iowa (−35°F) and Westcot (−45°F). Peach: Siberian C (−35°F), the hardiest peach we think is out there, though it ripens very late and a 120-day season may not finish it. On the −30°F and warmer ground (Flattop Butte, Lone Tree Hill, Signature Rock), Contender peach and Rainier cherry (−30°F) clear too.

Lusk, Chimney Rock and the Niobrara floor, −32°F to −33°F

Apples: Wealthy (−50°F), Haralson and Goodland (−45°F), Zestar!® and Northwest Greening (−40°F). Pears: Summercrisp and Ure (−40°F). Plums: Toka (−45°F), Mount Royal and Underwood (−40°F), and Superior (−35°F). Cherries: Evan's Bali (−45°F), the Juliet and Romeo dwarf cherries (−50°F), and Lapins (−35°F) on a rise. Apricots: Westcot and Sungold, on your highest ground. Worth a try within 3°F, in a sheltered spot on a rise or against a south wall: Contender peach and Rainier cherry (−30°F).

Manville, the head of the Niobrara and the lowland floors, −34°F to −37°F

This is Manville and the flats around it, Flat Top and the low floors of the northwest corner. Applecrabs: Kerr, Centennial and Chestnut (−50°F), Trailman and Rescue (−60°F). If you only plant one tree, make it Kerr or Trailman. Apples: Wealthy, Norda and Mantet (−50°F), Haralson, Honeycrisp and Goodland (−45°F). Pears: Bolshaya and Krasnobokaya (−50°F). Plums: Brookred and Brookgold (−50°F), plus Toka (−45°F). Cherries: Evan's Bali (−45°F), Nanking Cherry, Juliet and Romeo (−50°F). Apricots: Debbie's Gold and Manchurian Apricot (−50°F).

Bush fruit and shelterbelt plants, anywhere on the map

Montana Black Currant, Golden Currant, Honeyberry, Aronia Berry, Buffaloberry, Serviceberry and Chokecherry have all come through −50°F, and Pixwell gooseberry and Boyne raspberry (−40°F) clear everywhere too. A southeast Wyoming homestead's shelterbelt runs to ponderosa and Austrian pine, native plums, lilac, cottonwood and ash; from our list, Ponderosa Pine (−45°F), Native American Plum and Cottonwood (−50°F) fit that kind of belt.

Wind, roots, water and soil

Plant the windbreak first; wind here dries trees, loosens roots and breaks limbs. Montana State says a windbreak should be at least the height of the fruit trees. Keep it 20 feet or more from the fruit, and don't run a solid belt across the slope below your trees, or it'll back cold air up into them. The Niobrara Conservation District in Lusk designs windbreaks and living snow fences. Bud 118 has seen near −50°F at Ed Schultz's in Gallatin Gateway with no rootstock damage, but under snow, so on scoured ground mulch heavily and don't send trees into winter in bone-dry soil. Water by drip. Soils can be alkaline (lime-induced chlorosis showed up in older trees at Cheyenne), so test drainage, especially on gumbo: dig 2 feet, fill, let it drain, refill; under 10 hours is well drained. Day to night swings of about 30°F are normal on the High Plains, so paint trunks white against sunscald. Watch for hail, fire blight, voles, deer and pocket gophers.

Fruit history here

We haven't found an orchard history for Lusk itself; this is cattle country, about 95 percent pasture today. Statewide, 29 Wyoming towns had apple orchards, nurseries or homestead trees between 1870 and 1940, with 218 varieties grown or tested, before orchards faded in the 1930s. When the University of Wyoming's apple project sampled 510 surviving trees, Wealthy was the most common, followed by Haralson, Patten Greening, Yellow Transparent, Northwestern Greening and McMahon, nearly all from places with winters like these. The USDA's Cheyenne station, whose 1931 dryland orchard was never watered, tested Dolgo crabapple (−55°F) among others, while saying the region isn't general tree-fruit country.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Lusk, Wyoming?

USDA's 2023 map puts Lusk in zone 5a; the 2012 map had it in 4b. We plan for −33°F in Lusk, MFTC 3b, with the rises around town at about −31°F and Manville at −35°F (3a). USDA's zone is based on an average winter (about −19°F to −20°F here); ours on the bad night we plan for.

When is the last frost in Lusk, Wyoming?

Niobrara County's land use plan puts the last spring freeze around May 26. NOAA's Torrington 29N station, just south of the map, has a 1991 to 2020 median last 32°F frost of May 20 and last 28°F of May 13, and one year in ten the last 32°F comes June 5 or later.

How long is the growing season in Lusk?

About 115 days on the county's averages, from late May to mid-September; Torrington 29N's median frost-free season is 120 days. That's short-season country, so favor fruit that ripens early, like Yellow Transparent, ripe by late August at Cheyenne.

Can you grow apples in eastern Wyoming?

Yes, with hardy varieties. The USDA's Cheyenne station grew some apples, crabapples, pears, plums and sour cherries satisfactorily over 28 years, even in a dryland orchard that was never watered, and Wealthy and Haralson lead Wyoming's surviving homestead trees. At Lusk's −33°F, Haralson, Honeycrisp, Wealthy and Zestar!® all clear with room.

Where are the frost pockets around Lusk?

On a still night the cold collects in two places: the flats at the head of the Niobrara around Manville (−35°F on our map, MFTC 3a) and the low country north of the Hat Creek Breaks, where the coldest ground on the map runs to about −37°F. In Lusk the floor of the Niobrara draw is even, about −33°F, with the rises above it at about −31°F.

Warmer spots, colder spots

Here's the number to plan for at named places on the map, warmest first. Each one is the 1-in-30-year low for that spot: the cold hardiness calculator's number from the same weather stations, sharpened by our microclimate model for the ground right there. Zone is our MFTC zone, set by that one bad night, not by an average.

The weather stations behind it

These are the long-record stations in and around this map, with each one's own numbers since the winter of 1995-96. The last column is this map's 30-year number right at the station, which won't match the station exactly: it's a blend of the stations around it, the way the calculator works everywhere.

Source: NOAA records through ACIS, winters 1995-96 through 2025-26. What the "carried forward," "gaps filled" and AWOS rows mean is explained in how our microclimate maps work.