How To Use This Site




How To Use This Site


This blog was updated on a daily basis for about two years, with those daily entries ceasing on December 31, 2013. The blog is still active, however, and we hope that people stopping in, who find something lacking, will add to the daily entries.

The blog still receives new posts as well, but now it receives them on items of Wyoming history. That has always been a feature of the blog, but Wyoming's history is rich and there are many items that are not fully covered here, if covered at all. Over time, we hope to remedy that.

You can obtain an entire month's listings by hitting on the appropriate month below, or an individual day by hitting on that calendar date.
Use 2013 for the search date, as that's the day regular dates were established and fixed.

Alternatively, the months are listed immediately below, with the individual days appearing backwards (oldest first).

We hope you enjoy this site.
Showing posts with label Uinta County. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Uinta County. Show all posts

Sunday, December 1, 2013

December 1

1869  Uinta County created by the Territorial Legislature.

1889  Burlington Northern branch line to Cambria mines completed.

1907  Fire in downtown Cody burned seven buildings. Attribution.  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1910  A bounty on coyotes in the amount of $1.25, a not unsubstantial amount at the time, established. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916The Casper Weekly Press for December 1, 1916: White Slavery and Boom on in Casper
 





While the Cheyenne papers warned of bodies burning in the streets of Chihuahua and Villa advancing to the border, as well as the ongoing horrors of World War One, the Casper Weekly Press hit the stands with tales of white slavery.

White slavery, for those who might not know (we don't hear the term much anymore) was basically the kidnapping of young women and forcing them into prostitution.

Headlines like this are easy to discount, and seem lurid, fanciful, and sensationalist, but in reality they give us a view into the hard nature of the past we'd sometimes completely forget.  White Slavery, i.e., the kidnapping of women and the forcing them into prostitution, was actually a bonafide problem, and to some extent, it remains one.

I've spoken to one now deceased woman who escaped an attempt to kidnap her on a large East Coast city when she was a teen and who was convinced that she was almost a victim of such an effort.  And it wasn't all that long ago that it was revealed there was an Hispanic white slavery ring in Jackson Wyoming, where very young Mexican teenage girls were being brought up to that Wyoming resort town as prostitutes, working in an underground economy there focused on single Mexican laborers.  That one was discovered, oddly enough, through the schools.  Still, the evil practice, fueled by money and drugs, is with us still, although with advances in technology, and just more knowledge on such things, it wasn't what it once was, thankfully.

We don't want to romanticize the past here, so we've run this, although with all the news on bodies burning in the streets, etc, we probably can't be accused of romanticism anyhow.

Meanwhile an oil boom was on in Casper causing housing shortages.





Page two of the Casper Weekly informed us that a Ford had become a necessity.  If it wasn't quite true at the time, it soon would be.



The Wyoming, a store apparently took a shot at Prohibitionist by advertising that they had "everything a Prohibitionist likes."


The Wyoming Tribune for December 1, 1916: Carranza prepares to fight at the border
 


Just a few days ago the news was reporting that US forces would be able to withdraw from Mexico and an agreement with Carranza was on the verge of being signed. Today the Tribune was reporting fears that Villa would advance to the US border.

And former Governor Osborne, presently U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, we're told, was contemplating running for the Senate.
The Cheyenne Leader for December 1, 1916: Grim scenes in Chihuahua
 

Aerial view of Motor Truck Group, Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, Major F.H. Pope, Cavalry, commanding, December, 1916
 

1918 Watch on the Rhine, and on the Rio Grande, and on the Pimega. December 1, 1918.
Col. C.H. Hodges, First Division and interpreter, making arrangements with Inspector Ludveg, a German officer, for the use of Maximin Marracks. Treves, Germany. December 1, 1918.

American troops were pouring into Germany, and into occupation duty, on this day in 1918.

 Eighteenth Regiment Infantry. First Division , crossing bridge over Mosell River into Germany at Kalender Muhl. Kalender Muhl, Germany. December 1, 1918.

 View showing interest of German populace as Army mess kitchen goes through Treves. Treves, Germany, December 1, 1918.

 USS Orizaba which left Hoboken, New Jersey on Dec. 1, 1918 for Europe with journalists, photographers and others attending the Peace Conference after World War I

The press, meanwhile, was pouring into Europe as well, to watch and report on the drama of the peace negotiations.


That drama was clearly building.

At the same time, Villa's fortunes appeared to be reversing again.  And the Red Army suffered a reversal near Archangel in an action in which U.S. troops had played a part.

Cheyenne received some good news in the form of learning it was going to be an air mail hub, which it in fact did become.  And fans of the Marine Corps received some as well in learning that the Marines were going to keep on keeping on for at least awhile.



1925  Colorado-Wyoming Gas Company created.

1930  Robert Davis Carey, the son of Joseph Maull Carey, assumes the office of U.S. Senator.  Sen. Carey was elected to fill the seat vacated by the death of F. E. Warren.  He would serve until 1937, when he vacated the seat after loosing a bid for reelection. Thereafter, he intended resume ranching, which he only continued until his death twelve days after leaving office, at age 58.

1936  The McGill Bunkhouse, a 60 year old structure on the former stage line between Laramie and Centennial, was destroyed by fire.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1942 Gasoline rationing begins in the US.

1969  December 1, 1969. The United States resumes a lottery system for conscription.
This is, frankly, a bit confusing.

The United States had resumed conscription following World War Two in March 1948.  It had only actually expired in January 1947, showing how a need for manpower in the wake of World War Two caused it to actually continue to exist in spite of a large reduction in force following the end of the war.

After coming back into effect in March 1948 it stayed in existence until 1973, but was then done away with following the end of the Vietnam War. By that time conscription was massively unpopular.  It can't be said to have ever really been "popular", per se, but it didn't meet with real resistance until the Vietnam War.

The resumption of a lottery system for the draft, in which each registrant was assigned a number and the number then drawn at random, was designed to attempt to reduce the unpopularity of conscription at that point in the Vietnam War.  Numerous changes were made to the system during the war including ending a marriage exemption and ultimately curtaining an exemption for graduate students. With the adoption of the lottery system also came a change in age focus so that rather than top of those in the age range being drafted it then focused on those who were 19 years old. The reason for this was that if a person's number wasn't chosen in the lottery as a 19 year old, they were not going to be drafted and could accordingly plan around that.

Because of the way that the draft worked prior to 1969, and even after that date, many men joined the service when faced with the near certainty of being conscripted. As a result, oddly, far more men volunteered for service than who were actually conscripted.  Additionally, the number of men who were volunteers for the service who served in Vietnam outnumbered those who were drafted, with a surprisingly large number of troops who served in the war itself volunteering for service in Vietnam.

1997  The Wyoming state quarter design approved.

2016   The Wyoming State Land Board, in a decision that has been atypical for it in recent years, declined to approve a land transfer that resulted in a disproportionate exchange of acreage.  The proposal, involving the loss of access to land in Laramie County that was used by area hunters and came under massive public opposition.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

May 14

1804  The Corps of Discovery leaves St. Louis to explore Louisiana.  Louisiana had only belonged to the US, at that point, for one year.

1836  Treaties of Velasco executed by General Antonio López de Santa Anna and Texas provisional president David Burnett recognizing the independence of Texas.  It did not fix the boundaries of Texas and Mexico refused to recognize the treaty.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1890  Weston County elects its first County officers.

1906  The Uinta County Library opened in Evanston.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1918   Hazime Fukuda of Arminto awarded a patent for a rice based breakfast food.

1987  McDonald Ranch in Laramie County added to the National Registry of Historic Places.

2007  Trappers Point Site in Sublette County added to the National Registry of Historic Places.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

February 20

1792     President George Washington signed an act creating the U.S. Post Office.The Constitution requires the Federal Government to deliver the mail, and this was a vital government service in the much of the nation's history.  Now, with UPS and FedEx, it's easy to forget the extent to which this service mattered more to many people than any other governmental service at one time, and for many people, it was likely the only contact with the Federal Government that they ever had.

Since writing the paragraph immediately above, the impacts of other services, and most particularly of the internet, have made the Post Office's position sufficiently precarious that Saturday mail delivery is scheduled to be eliminated.

1911  Gov. Carey signed bill carving Lincoln County out of Uinta County.:  Attribution:  On This Day.

1917   The Cheyenne State Leader for February 20, 1917: The news about Gen. Funston hits the headlines and Colorado protests a Wyoming demobilization.
 
The news of Gen. Funston's death hit the front page of the paper the day after.


And Colorado was upset about Colorado National Guardsmen being sent to Ft. D. A. Russell for demobilization, rather than a location in their home state.

Dogs were barred entry into the state by Governor Kendrick due to concerns over rabies.

1919  The  Legislature appropriated $2,500 for placing markers along the Oregon Trail.  A good example of these very first markers can be seen in the bottom photograph here.  The top example, featuring a bronze medallion, is a somewhat later one which was placed by a commission.  The monument itself in the top photo is not original, but the 1914 State of Wyoming one is fully original.

1923  The Legislature experienced a 56 hour "day" in a questionable legislature trick designed to keep the clock from winding up on the session. This trick has been repeated since then, but this one was the record.

1949  The last day of the Blizzard of 1949, which was actually a series of blizzards that occurred in rapid succession.

1957  Gov. Milward Simposn signs a state Civil Rights act.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1980 Alice Roosevelt Longworth, the first child of Theodore Roosevelt, his only child by his first wife Alice, and the last of his living children, died.

1982  The University of Wyoming's Arena Auditorium opened.