Before Alexander Gray homesteaded at the site of the present town in 1883 it was called Wilson and contained enough residents to contribute an election board plus one voter to 1882 county elections.

By 1884 a post office and school were opened and a water-powered lumber mill was in operation, but the town has never incorporated.

In 1900 when the Gray Ranch was sold to the Moffat Railroad, the town provided housing for the work crews, a roundhouse to service locomotives and a division headquarters. Wilson was renamed Phippsburg in honor of Colorado United States Senator Lawrence O. Phipps (1921-31) who was instrumental in bringing the railroad into northwest Colorado.

In 1910 the Perry Mine at Oak Creek opened a boarding house and built homes for miners because the town of Oak Creek would not provide housing; a special "dinky train" carried employees to and from the mine. Railroaders were relieved of both tension and cash at a gambling house-saloon which operated 24 hours a day.

Phippsburg grew from 527 to 716 between the 1930 and 1940 census and became a center for railroad repairs and services as well as the main shipping point for south Routt coal, vegetables and cattle.

Source: The Historical Guide to Routt County, copyright 1979 by The Tread of Pioneers Museum