Prior to the coming of the motor car, small towns abounded. The towns would frequently consist of a church, a general store, post office, saloon, and a Grange, Odd Fellows, or like Van Tassell a Woodman's Hall. Throughout rural America such towns would be strung along railroad tracks or a stage line on an average of about ten to fifteen miles apart, a convenient distance for isolated homesteaders to hitch up and ride to town for church, lodge meetings, and supplies. Such were Node and Van Tassell to the east of Lusk and Manville, Keeline, and Shawnee to Lusk's west. On Sunday afternoons, a baseball game might also attract teams from neighboring towns.

The use of a box car as a railway depot was not unique to Van Tassell. The Railroad also used a box car as the depot in Keeline to the west of Lusk. At the opposite end of the state, the Union Pacific used three box cars on a siding as the railway station for Granger. In Granger, the center car housed the ticket and baggage office. Another car constituted the freight station and the third was the passenger waiting room, divided into Ladies' and Gentlemen's waiting lounges. The two waiting areas were divided by a chalk line drawn on the floor. Smoking was permitted on one side of the chalk line in the Gentlemen's Lounge but prohibited on the Ladies'side of the line.

As later discussed, in the early years of the 20th Century there began the promotion of "dry farming." Dry farming was generally not profitable on small homesteads of 160 acres since it required that land remain fallow every other year. As a result in 1909 Congress passed the "Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909. With promotion of the availability of land suitable for dry farming in eastern Wyoming there began a land rush for homesteads in the small towns strung along the Chichago, Burlington and Quincy.

Van Tassell was incorporated in 1916 and rapidly became a main shipping point for Goshen and Niobrara Counties and at one time had a newspaper, the Van Tassell Pioneer replaced by the Van Tassell Booster. The business community consists of two stores, two churches, an electric plant, the Kuester Hotel, three cafes, Cunningham's pool hall, Adams & Killings Reo automobile dealership and a city jail. Cunningham's advertised, among other things, "Mick's Drinks of All Kinds." "Cliff Hanger" serials were shown in the Woodman Hall.

With growth, the town was able to support a respectable railway depot. Prior to 1922 the road between the state line westward to Orin Junction was "unimproved." Thus, to a great extent prior to the improvement of the road even local transportation to Lusk or Harrison was by train or horse and wagon.

The town was also home to Ferdinand Branstetter Post No. 1 of the American Legion, the first post chartered in the United States. The charter is now on display in the Stage Coach Museum in Lusk. Other charters in addition to Van Tassell were issued on the same day for Washington, D. C.,, Denver, Colo., and St. Louis, Mo. The post in Washington, originally known as the John J. Pershing Post No. 1 and now known as the George Washington Post No. 1 is recognized as the first post since its charter was signed first. Ferdinand Branstetter Post No. 1., however, claims to be the first post in that it convened its organizational meeting approximately an hour before Washington. Branstetter, originally from Nebraska, was one of the first residents of the area to be killed in World War I.