July 17

1866 Sioux warriors drove off a herd of livestock (175 horses and mules of the 18th Infantry Regiment) at Ft. Phil Kearney, with soldiers giving pursuit, resulting in some soldiers being killed and others wounded.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1876   The battle of Warbonnet Creek occured in which Col. Wesley Merritt and his 5th Cavalry, out of Fort Robinson, Nebraska, attack the Cheyenne in the vicinity of Fort Robinson.  The battle launches Buffalo Bill Cody into fame.

1891  An explosion at the Union Pacific's No. 6 mine killed five and was felt in Rock Springs. Attribution:  On This Day.

1915  An unseasonable snowstorm occurred in Hartville.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1920  The USS Wyoming given her hull designation as the BB-32.

1921   Burnu Acquanetta, actress, born near Cheyenne. She was an Arapaho and a minor movie actress.

1975  A plaque was presented to the Commissioner of Reclamation at Pathfinder Dam.

July 16

1863  The United States wins its first naval victory over Japan when the USS Wyoming prevailed in the Battle of Shimonoseki Straits.

1866  A discussion occurs between Col. Carrington and Cheyennes at Ft. Phil Kearny resulting in a Cheyenne pledge of peace.

1872  The cornerstone was laid at the Territorial Prison in Laramie.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916   The Legislature approved of an act of Congress "to provide that the United States shall aid the states in the construction of rural post road."  Attribution:  On This Day.

1923  Monday, July 16, 1923. Summer session.

Wyoming's second, in its history up to that point, special legislative session convened in Cheyenne to address its state farm loan provisions.

1938  Ft. Laramie declared a National Monument.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

July 15

1215  King John assents to the Magna Carta, one of the primary documents of the English legal system, and by extension, the legal system of the United States.

1863  USS Wyoming victorious at Shimonoseki Straits in an action against a Japanese local power (warlord).

1866 The site for Ft. Phil Kearney chosen.   

1872  Cornerstone laid for the Territorial Prison in Laramie.

1918  The Kaiserschlacht Ends. July 15, 1918. Operation Friedensturm

Not very cheery news for a Monday.  Wyoming State Tribune for Monday, July 15, 1918.

Monday, July 15, 1918, brought discouraging, if not unexpected, news.

 

The map one final time, with the final German fifth drive.  This time the Germans attempted to exploit the earlier success of their drive on Paris with a new front to the east.  Over two days the effort gained ground, but the effort was rapidly halted and by this point the French were able to regain the initiative and counter.  The Germans were effectively blocked and gave up offensive efforts on August 7.

On July 15 the Germans resumed offensive operations, but not the Operation Hagen that was designed to be a final blow. Rather, they launched Friedensturm to exploit the earlier  Blücher–Yorck gains. While the offensive, like every other German offensive in this series of operations gained ground, the French were able to ultimately counterattack successfully and the German offensive operations came to an end on August 7.

Laramie residents not only read about the fierce fighting in France. . . they also got to read about how coal shortages were looking to bring an end to beer.

The final effort would see, as with the earlier efforts, some hard fighting.  The Second Battle of the Marne was part of the offensive, which would run from this day until August 6.  The Fourth Battle of Champaigne also started on this day. Both were launched against the French Fourth Army, the Germans having switched attention to them, of which the US 42nd Division was a part.  The 42nd was a division made up of National Guardsmen.  The French forces, moreover, were rapidly reinforced by British and American troops.  The US 3d Division would be back in action on this day and earn the nickname "The Rock of the Marine".  By the battles end eight American divisions would participate and the US would sustain 12,000 casualties.  The number of divisions contributed to the defense would be twice that of the British, with American divisions being twice as large, but even embattled Italy contributed two divisions and sustained 9,000 casualties.  Forty-four French divisions would fight in the battle and fifty-two German divisions. 

Allied battlefield loses would be roughly equal to German ones in the campaign, but by this point the Germans did not have the troops to lose.

1894  Butch Cassidy and Al Hainer sent to the Wyoming State Penitentiary for extortion.  They'd been running a protection racket aimed at ranchers.

1920  Casper made the headquarters for a division of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1992 ML Ranch in Big Horn County added to the National Register of Historic Places.

July 14

1860  Owen Wister, the author of The Virginian born in Philadelphia.  It is sometimes claimed that The Virginian was the first Western novel, which it is not, but it was probably the first serious one.Wister's novel is completely set in Wyoming and is loosely based on the events that gave rise to The Johnson County War, although it takes the large cattleman's side, which most works of fiction have not. The novel itself has been used as the inspiration for numerous other works, including quite a few movies, but usually works based on it also reverse the protagonists. Wister's novel followed a visit to Wyoming, and the locations mentioned on it describe places he'd actually visited.

Wister would become a lawyer by education, but his practice period was brief as he had no real affinity for the occupation.  He is principally remembered today for his novel, but he wrote on other topics as well, including on philosophy and politics.  A close friend of Theodore Roosevelt, he can be identified politically with the Progressive movement.

1920  A horse and rider were struck and killed near Powder River.

July 13

1863  

1866 Construction of Ft. Phil Kearny began.

1890 John C. Fremont died.

1916 Guardsmen of the 4th South Dakota Infantry prepare to leave for San Benito, Texas, to take up their station on the Mexican border where it will be placed into the First Separate Brigade along with the 22nd U.S. Infantry, the 1st Louisiana and 1st Oklahoma infantry regiments.

1917   July 13, 1917. Columbus in the News Again, Conscription, and something going on at Fatima
 

I quit doing daily newspaper updates some time ago, but given the interesting news here, and as I've done on occasion, I'm posting a "100 Years Ago Today" type entry here regarding July 13, 1917.

As noted yesterday, in one of the largest criminal acts of its type, industrial vigilantism of a type that we no longer see (thankfully) broke out in Bisbee Arizona.  Mining interest operated to illegally arrest and "deport" IWW members from Bisbee to New Mexico, entraining the victims and shipping them off to hapless southern New Mexico.

The IWW, to be sure, was one of the most radical unions going, in an era in which unions were pretty radical.  This was an era in which, for a combination of reasons, radical Socialism, of the type stirring up all sorts of foment in collapsing Russia, was on the rise everywhere and indeed had its presence in American unions.  The IWW, with its concept of "one big union", was one of the most radical of the bunch.

From the June 30, 1917 issue of Solidarity, the Industrial Workers of the World magazine.  One Big Union.

Frankly, in my view, the IWW was really darned goofy, and the concept of "one big union" totally unworkable.  Its no surprise that the IWW, which still exists, never succeeded it reaching its goals.  But the teens and the twenties were its era in the sun, and in Bisbee Arizona it had its moment.

Bibee in 1916.

The reason was simple enough.  Conditions at the Phelps Dodge mine there were bad and the union that had the membership there, the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW) wasn't doing much.  Some 800 or so workers turned to the IWW.

And the mining interest reacted, gathering up the IWW members and shipping them out of Bisbee.

Where they ended up in poor Columbus.

A humanitarian disaster was in the works, the US had to intervene and did.  Ultimately, while the Federal government determined the act was criminal, what with its scale, and what with all that was going on, nobody was prosecuted for this shocking act.

Amongst the shocks the nations was receiving, we'd note, it became clearer and clearer every day that the draft was going to be big. Really big.  Early registration had somewhat mixed results but was mostly successful.  The Guard was going into  official Federal service, conscripted actually due to an odd view of the US Attorney General that Federalized Guardsmen could not serve overseas, in August.  The big draw of average male citizens was hitting the news.  Even with the big numbers being claimed in the Press at the time, the actual numbers would be much larger.

There's be a lot more than two.  July 12, 1917 cover of Leslie's

Regarding fighting, the second of a series of mysterious events, which had not yet hit the international news but which would start to, occurred on this day.  Three Portuguese peasant children claimed to receive a visit from a mysterious otherworldly lady who then, they claimed, gave them a momentary but vivid glimpse of Hell.  Following that, she gave them a message, which included, but was not limited to, requests for penitential prayers and a prediction that the Great War would soon end, but if penance was not performed, Russia would fall into grave error, spread those errors around the world, nations would be destroyed, and a second war greater than the first would occur in the reign of a Pope who was named but who was not at that time the sitting Pope.  While nobody, including Catholics, are obligated to believe in a private revelation, this series of events, which would end, as the visitor claimed, in October 1917 with a final spectacular event, is hard to discount given that the contents of the messages proved to be true.  And so went the second, July 13, 1917 apparition of the Virgin Mary at Fatima.

1918  Oh my, I an only imagine what this headline would create locally in 2018. . . "Booze or Coal Is Choice For This Country": July 13, 2018 Cheyenne State Leader.

1922  A Sheridan man was sentenced to the Penitentiary for one year for "seduction".  This entry comes form the Wyoming Historical Society's calendar where there are no added details, but it should be noted that convictions of this type were not at all uncommon in North America.  Up until the mid 20th Century, a series of common law and criminal law provisions afforded criminal sanctions and civil relief for various morals offenses and offenses against the moral standards pertaining to the relationships between men and women, which were taken very seriously by the law.  These legal provisions, sometimes called the "heart balm statutes", were statutorily appealed in later years in Wyoming, but at the time they allowed parties to sue for, amongst other things, damages attached to illicit relationships. They also provided for criminal sanctions for intimate relationships outside of marriage, such as here.  Now regarded as quaint, the provisions afforded a degree of protection to society for the results of such conduct, and they discourage it in addition to providing legal recognition to the almost universally held moral standards of the day.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

July 12

1864  

1890  Lander incorporated.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1900 The first Elks Lodge to be chartered in Wyoming was chartered in Sheridan.  Up until after World War Two, fraternal lodges were a major feature of male life in most localities in the United States, with a very high percentage of American men belonging to some sort of fraternal organization.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1900 Basin saw a record high temperature for the state of 114F.  It is no longer the record high, as 115F was reached, in Basin, in 1983.

July 11

1862   The Postmaster General of the United States ordered mail carriers to forgo the trail over South Pass in favor of the Overland Trail due to the risk of Indian attacks.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1908  The USS Wyoming (BM-10) renamed the USS Cheyenne.  There's no doubt a real level of confusion on the 20th Century USS Wyoming surface vessels, which I've inadvertently contributed to, as there were two capitol ships by that name, which is very rarely noted in some sources. The first was a less substantial ship than the second.  That ship, the USS Wyoming BM-10 served under that name until 1908, when a larger class of battleships started coming in and the name was cleared for the USS Wyoming (BB-32).  I'll have to go back and correct entries on this ship, which is very frequently confused win the second battleship.  The first USS Wyoming became the USS Cheyenne, and was decommissioned twice, once putting in in the Washington Naval Militia.  It was converted to a submarine tender before World War One, which shows how much smaller this "monitor" was than the later battleships.  It was ultimately sold for scrap in 1939.

1912  There was flooding in Buffalo. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1918  The Casper Daily Tribune for July 11, 1918. Escaped Wheatland Felon Dies In Battle

Henry Sweeney had blown the safe at the Guernsey Mercantile and ended up in the Platte County Jail.  He broke out, aided by his friend Sullivan, and they both took off and enlisted in the Army.

Sweeney died in battle, and apparently he must have felt badly about his prior life of crime, as he had Sullivan write home about it.

Sweeney, in light of giving up his life for his country, had the charges dropped.

The article didn't say what Platte County's attitude was towards Sullivan . . .

1931   Electricity brought to Dayton and Ranchester.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1947  The USS Wyoming (BB-32) entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard to begin decommissioning.  Attribution:  While this is a sad event, having caught my earlier error regarding the confusion of the BM-10 with the BB-32, I"d note that this ship's service life extended from May 21, 1911 until August 1, 1947.  Most of the entries on this site about the USS Wyoming are about this ship, but a few are on the earlier monitor, which I'll go back and correct.  On This Day.

July 10

Today is Wyoming Statehood Day

1863  Territory of Idaho created.

1866  The War Department issued orders to establish a fort south of Laramie.  It was initially named Fort John Buford but was renamed Fort Sanders on September 5, 1866.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1890  Wyoming admitted to the Union.

1933  As noted on this thread at  Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Long Cavalry Maneuvers.  Col Roche S. Mentzer, Commanding Officer of the 115th Cavalry became ill at Fox Park, in the Snowy Range, and died.  That year, annual training had consisted of a protracted mounted march which took the mustered unit from Cheyenne to northern Colorado, and then back into the Snowy Range.

Col. Mentzer, in civilian life, was a lawyer in Cheyenne.

2012  A terrible vehicle v wagon accident occurs following the Central Wyoming Fair & Rodeo parade.  See:  One woman remains in hospital after horse-drawn vehicle accident in Casper

2018   The Lions' Last Roar. The ongoing decline of service organizations.
 

I read in the paper earlier this week that the Lions Club is giving up sponsoring the local fair and rodeo parade, which its done for a decade.  This year is its last year.  The parade was held yesterday (July 10, 2018)

Of course, they drew that last parade in an election year, which must have been a pain.  I didn't watch but a few minutes of the parade, and that from an office window, but even at that I could tell it featured all the running politicians.

The reason the Lions are giving the parade up is a simple one. It takes about thirty people to do the parade, they reported. They're down to ten members.  As the Tribune reported, in an interview of the club's leader;

We looked at our membership. It takes an awful lot of people to put that parade on. Most service clubs have declining membership and ours has declined to the point we didn’t feel we could do it adequately. We notified the fair board officially in January but they knew it was coming. On a regular basis, we have about 10 members and it takes at least 30 people to start that parade, so we’ve taken advantage of our children and our wives and husbands.

Wow.

I've written about the decline in fraternal organizations before.  The Lions aren't really that, however. Their a service organization.  My prior posts probably somewhat confused the two and frankly most fraternal organizations have a service element to them.  Probably in the modern context they darned near all do.  But some organizations are expressly service organizations.  The Lions are one of them.

The Lions were founded in 1916 in Chicago.  It has 1.4 million members worldwide.  So it's still around and still relatively big.  But around here, it's not.  And that's common.

The Rotary Club, which seems to be doing much better, will be taking over.  Rotary International is a little older, having been formed in 1905.  I've known quite a few people who have been Rotarians, but I've also known a few Lions. The Lions I've known have been frank over the years that they were worried about the local clubs (there were at least two, maybe there still are) future. At some point, I'd think, you'd tip over a scale where the weight would be really against you.

Which is a shame, but then I myself have never been in a service or fraternal organization and don't really have any interest in joining one either.  But that's a feature of my character.  I wouldn't have been in one if this was 1968, or 1918.  It's just not me.  I'm glad its been somebody, however.

Comment:

Yesterday the State Historical Society posted this query to their Facebook page:

July 10, 1890, Wyoming became the 44th state. How does your community celebrate?

 The answer here would be not much.  Does your community do anything?

July 9, 2013: Central Wyoming Fair & Rodeo Parade Day.

Center Street, Casper Wyoming, 7:00 a.m.

Today is the Central Wyoming Fair & Rodeo Parade Day, in Casper Wyoming, for 2013.

A local holiday (although not every business takes it off) today features one of two annual big parades in Casper, the other being a parade that occurs just before Christmas.  People begin to take their places on the parade route as early as 5:00 a.m., and as this photos demonstrates, people have quite a few places staked out by 7:00 a.m., including the places immediately in front of the office building in which I work.  Those who work downtown on parade day always make an effort to park in their spots early, least they be taken and getting to work subsequently prove impossible.

July 9

1866 Colonel Henry B. Carrington leaves Fort Reno for Piney Creek to select the site for what became Ft. Phil Kearny.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1915  The last stage robbery in the United States occurred in Yellowstone National Park, seeing financier Bernard amongst the passengers robbed.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1920  July 9, 1920

Jackson Lake Dam and spillway on the Snake River near Moran, Wyoming.  July 9, 1920

1934  Sheridan's first radio station commences operation.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1945   Cheyenne was proclaimed to be "a City of the First Class".

1982  Madison Museum, in Yellowstone National Park, added to the National Register of Historic Places.

1982  Obsidian Cliff Kiosk in Park County added to the National Register of Historic Places.  

July 8

1889 Delegates elected to the Wyoming Constitutional Convention.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1892  Lester C. Hunt was born in Isabel Illinois. A dentist by occupation, he served as the 19th Governor of Wyoming from 1943 to 1949 and Senator thereafter until 1954.

1896   William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech.

1906  The last stage run over the Rawlins Wyoming to Lander line is made.

1911 Nebraskan "Two  Gun" Nan Aspinwall becomes the first woman to ride across the United States, completing her ride from the Pacific by riding into New York City.

2004   Governor Dave Freudenthal signed a proclamation creating the Wyoming Outdoor Hall of Fame.  Attribution:  On This Day.

July 7

1832  William Sublette's party reaches Jackson Hole and crosses Teton Pass.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1847  The first company of Mormon immigrants reached Ft. Bridger.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1864  Townsend wagon train attacked near Platte Bridge Station..

1876. Sioux and Cheyenne attack an Army scouting party at Sibley Lake, in the Big Horn Mountains.

1886  Electric street lights turned on in Laramie Wyoming for the first time.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1905  The Sheridan branch of the Wyoming General Hospital was opened.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1907  The cornerstone of St. Mary's Cathedral in Cheyenne laid.

1918  Carried over, in part, from  yesterday due to the July 7 Cheyenne newspaper:

Because the Germans doing it seemed like such a good idea? Now the Allies opt for intervening in Russia.

And Woodrow Wilson decided that the U.S. would participate in it, over the objections of Army which advised against it.

1919 Monday, July 7, 1919. The 1919 Motor Transport Corps Convoy departed Washington D. C.. .

with an intended destination of San Francisco, California.

World War One vintage Motor Transport Corps recruiting poster.

This would be a long trip by contemporary standards, but in 1919 it was daunting in the extreme.  Only adventurers with cash tried to drive across the United States as a rule.  While it had been done quite a few times by 1919, it was not a short trip by any means.  People who wanted to cross the country did it the logical and safe way. . . by train.

The purpose of this trip was several fold.  A primary one was to test the inventory of trucks that the Army now owned, thanks to the Great War, in order to determine which ones were the best and weed out those that couldn't endure.  Additionally, however, problems with the railroads during World War One, by which we mean labor problems, inspired the service to see if trucks were a viable means of transporting men and equipment for mobilization in time of war.

The scale of the test was massive.  Over 250 men were detailed to the experimental operation which included repair vehicles and bridging equipment.  Vehicles were highly varied and ranged from artillery tractors to to motorcycles.  It's significance was appreciated at the time, and the Signal Corps was detailed to film the convoy in route, which was proceeded by a Publicity Officer and a Recruiting Officer who arrived in towns along the route several days ahead of the convoy.  The route was that of the already established, but far from modern, Lincoln Highway.

Lincoln Highway route as of 1916, which was the same as it would be in 1919.

Command of the overall operation was in the hands of Lt. Col. Charles W. McClure with the actual "train" commander being Cpt. Bernard H. McMahon.  Officers who were familiar with motor transport, including Bvt. Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower, were detailed to the operation.

So how did day one go?  Well, the official log of the trip gives us a picture, albeit a brief one, of the same.

Forty six miles. . . in 7.5 hours.  And that on excellent roads.

1994 The former Wyoming National Guard Cavalry Stable in Newcastle, now a museum, added to the National Register of Historic Places. Attribution:  On This Day.

1999  President Clinton became the first president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to visit an Indian reservation as he toured the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

2006  The Snake River Land Company Residence and Office in Moran added to the National Register of Historic Places.Attribution:  On This Day.

July 6

1836   Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding at the 1836 Rendezvous
 

This entry more likely belongs at our Today In Wyoming's History blog, as it isn't so much of a church item (well maybe it is) as a history item.  Note how particularly early this Oregon Trail event was, 1836.  Well before the big flood of travelers starting going over the trail in the late 1840s.

1863  John Bozeman leaves Ft. Laramie to scout a trail to the Yellowstone Valley. The trail would become the Bozeman Trail.

1876  The Army commences to inform the widows of the Little Big Horn Battle of the loss of their husbands at Ft. Abraham Lincoln.

1890  The streetcar line in Cheyenne running from Capitol Ave. to Lake Minnehaha completed.  Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1899  The Wyoming Battalion received its orders in the Philippines to return to the U.S. Attribution:  On This Day.

1918  Because the Germans doing it seemed like such a good idea? Now the Allies opt for intervening in Russia.

And Woodrow Wilson decided that the U.S. would participate in it, over the objections of Army which advised against it.

Everything about Russia during World War One has a certain pipe dream quality to it.  The Western Allies had hoped from day one that the giant nation would prove to be a vital and decisive ally. It did turn out to be a handful for the Germans, who ultimately defeated it, but the German hopes for what they had defeated and their greed meant that the fruits of that victory were never realized.

Following Russia's collapse into civil war the Allies hoped that the situation could be restored and a new republican government would rejoin the war, a hope that was folly at best.  Ultimately that hope lead to the decision to intervene in Russian affairs, putting the Allies into the extraordinary position of fielding expeditionary forces that would deploy direction into a civil war when, at that very time, the Allies were on the verge of loosing the war themselves on the Western Front.

Perhaps it is somewhat understandable, but only somewhat.  There was really no earthly way that Russia was coming back into World War One.  Moreover, the force needed to insure a quick White Victory, which is what would have been necessary to achieve that result, just wasn't there. . . which suggests that the Allies thought the Reds weren't really as powerful in 1918 as they were.  Not that they were not challenged, to be sure.  The Whites were also powerful at that time and the Communist government had seen an uprising on July 6 and 7 from the left, in the form of an attempted seizure of the government by the Left Socialist Revolutionaries.  Russia was a mess.

But the Allies, in the midst of the largest war since the Napoleonic Wars, weren't going to be able to reverse that.

Indeed, in the American Army's case, they weren't even going to be given a clear mission.

1922 Seven gamblers were arrested in Yoder, in the garage of a deputy sheriff.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1922.  Thursday, July 6, 1922. Casper and Oil

The big news in Casper was that the Texas Company, generally referred to as Texaco, was coming to Casper.  It would build a refinery on the edge of what became Evansville, referred to in these articles as the lands belonging to the Evans Holding Company.

The refinery was one of three in operation here when I was young, including the giant Standard Oil Refinery and the Sinclair Refinery, the latter of which had been built originally by Husky Petroleum.  Only the Sinclair Refinery remains in operation.  The Texaco refinery closed in 1982.  The Standard Oil Refinery closed for good in 1991.

1976  Frederic Hutchinson Porter, an architect responsible for the design of several important buildings in Cheyenne and a Cheyenne resident, died.

July 5

1840  Father Pierre De Smet celebrated the first Catholic Mass observed in Wyoming.

 First Catholic Mass in Wyoming
 

1858 Gold discovered at what would now be Denver, Colorado.

1909  August Malchow, the "Wisconsin Kid", defeated Tom Edmonds at Lander's Armory.  Malchow became the world welterweight champion.  See September 25 for more on Malchow.  This was Edmonds only recorded professional fight.

1913  Big Piney incorporated.

1916   The Crisis Passed. July 5, 1916
 

The news, reported in various fashions, was in fact correct. While the Guard continued to be mobilized, the danger that war would break out with Mexico had passed.

Having said that, the European crisis clearly was ongoing.

1920  The Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated an Oregon Trail marker in Mills.

The marker today:

Mills Memorial Park, Mills Wyoming

The Mills Memorial Park commemorates Lt. Caspar Collins, who was killed in the 1865 Battle of Platte Bridge Station, and the bridge and Mormon ferry that was located about 1.5 miles from the park.

1925  Gov. Nellie Tayloe Ross spoke at the dedication of the Snowy Range Road.

1934   524 tons of grasshopper bait distributed at Wheatland in an effort to combat a grasshopper infestation.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1935 Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act, which allowed labor to organize for the purpose of collective bargaining.

1937  Ft. Laramie officially declared to be public property to be turned over by the State to the Federal government.

1937  A Rock Springs youth believed he heard a radio distress call from lost aviatrix Amelia Earhart, as reported in the Casper Paper:

CASPER TRIBUNE-HERALD, 1937
Pacific waves — Three days after the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, the July 5 edition reported on page 1: “Rock Springs Boy Picks Up Message from Flier ...
“A 12-year-old colored boy, Charles Randolph, had the thrill today of having done his share in the search for Amelia Earhart and her globe encircling companion, Capt. Frederick Noonan.
“Randolph twirled the dial of his small and inexpensive short wave radio set Sunday morning [July 4] about 8 o’clock. Suddenly he was startled when he heard what he described as a faint but distinct voice saying ‘Amelia Earhart calling.’ Over and over again, he said he heard the call but could distinguish no call letters such as the missing aviatrix would have for her radio station.
“The lad called his father, Dana Randolph who rushed to the telephone office where he contacted the wire chief, who in turn notified a department of commerce bureau of aviation official who happened to be visiting Rock Springs.
“The three rushed to the Randolph home where the lad told his story.
“The signals, he said, came in for 25 minutes before they faded out.
“He said he could hear something about a ‘ship being on a reef south of the equator,’ and added that some unintelligible figures also were given which may have been latitude and longitude, but he was unable to copy them down.
“The department of commerce official and amateur radio operators here said it was possible that Randolph may have received a radio call from the missing flier.
“The youth is not a licensed operator.
“His report was forwarded to San Francisco by the aviation official for what it was worth.”

Read more: http://trib.com/news/local/casper/a-look-back-in-time-into-the-depths/article_bc835e25-ee8e-59ad-a2cd-774ecb12c3c6.html#ixzz1zTEdZGGJ

This is from the Casper Star Tribune's A Look Back In Time column.

1971 The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years, is formally certified by President Richard Nixon.

July 4

Today is Independence Day.

1776  Congress passed a declaration of independence from the United Kingdom, which stated:

On this date in 1776 the Continental Congress acted to pass The Declaration of Independence.

By this act, the Continental Congress radically altered the nature of the ongoing war against the United Kingdom, no matter what prospective the war is viewed from. The American colonies had been at war with the United Kingdom since 1774, when militiamen and British troops first engaged each other in combat at Lexington and Concord.

While it seems difficult to understand it now, the war was not at first for the stated war aim of achieving a complete separation from the United Kingdom. The various Colonial governments viewed their association with the United Kingdom in different ways, some of which would seem quite foreign to Americans today. At first the concept of completely severing a political association with the United Kingdom seemed so extremely radical as to be beyond consideration for many. However, by the second year of the war, the section of the population which wished for Congress to declare the colonies to be independent from the United Kingdom (which was a concept that some Colonist had before the war, and already believed to be a type of reality) had grown to the point where a majority in Congress favored it. On this day, Congress declared the separation to be a permanent and self evident fact.

The text of the Declaration reads:

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

1803 The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.

1830  William Sublette names "Rock Independence" as his Wind River bound party spent the 4th of July there.  The name would shortly be changed to Independence Rock.

1836  Narcissa Prentiss Whitman and Eliza Hart Spaulding, the first Euroepan Ameirican women to cross the continent, made a marker at South Pass. Attribution:  On This Day.

1845   The Texas Constitutional Convention voted to accept United States annexation and to submit the decision to the voters of Texas.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1864  Congress passed the Immigration Act allowing for the immigration of Chinese laborers. The act was brought about due to Civil War educed labor shortages.

1866   Fort Halleck was abandoned.Attribution:  On This Day.

1867  Cheyenne named that.  On the same day, it was platted (and hence named) by Gen. Grenville Dodge.

1874  The Bates Battle, July 4, 1874

We were fortunately recently to be able to tour one of Wyoming's little known battlefields recently, thanks due to the local landowner who controls the road access letting us on.  We very much appreciate their generosity in letting us do so.

Our Jeep, which should have some clever nickname, but which does not.  Wrecked twice, and reassembled both times, it gets us where we want to go.  But we only go so far. We stopped after awhile and walked in.

The battlefield is the Bates Battlefield, which is on the National Registry of Historic landmarks, but which is little viewed. There's nothing there to tell you that you are at a battlefield. There are no markers or the like, like there is at Little Big Horn.  You have to have researched the area before you arrive, to know what happened on July 4, 1874, when the battle was fought.  And even at that, accounts are confusing.

Fortunately for the researcher, a really good write up of what is known was done when Historic Site status was applied for. Rather than try to rewrite what was put in that work, we're going to post it here.  So we start with the background.

And on to the confusion in the accounts, which we'd note is common even for the best known of Indian battles.  Indeed, maybe all of them.

The text goes on to note that the Arapaho raided into country that what was withing the recently established Shoshone Reservation, which we know as the Wind River Indian Reservation.  It also notes that this was because territories which the various tribes regarded as their own were fluid, and it suggest that a culture of raiding also played a potential part in that. In any event, the Shoshone found their reservation domains raided by other tribes.  Complaints from the Shoshone lead, respectively, to Camp Augur and Camp Brown being established, where are respectively near the modern towns of Lander and Ft. Washakie (which Camp Brown was renamed).

The immediate cause of the raid was the presence of Arapaho, Northern Cheyenne, and Sioux parties in the area in June and July 1874 that had an apparent intent to raid onto the Reservation.  Ironically, the Arapaho, who were involved in this battle, had separated themselves from the Cheyenne and the Sioux and had no apparent intent to participate in any such raids. They thereafter placed themselves in the Nowood River area.  Indian bands were known to be in the area that summer, and they were outside of those areas designated to them by the treaties of 1868.

Given this, Cpt. Alfred E. Bates, at Camp Brown, had sent scouts, including Shoshone scouts, into the field that summer to attempt to locate the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho bands.  On June 29, Shoshone scouts reported at Camp Brown that they'd sited an Arapaho village.  We here pick back up from the text:

The expedition took to the field on July 1, 1874, and remarkably, it traveled at night.

A few days later, they found what they were looking for.

Let's take a look at some of what Bates was seeing:

This is the valley which was below the ridge that Bates was traveling up, the night he found the Arapaho village when he passed it by.  It's not clear to me if he backtracked all the way back past this point and came back up this valley, or if he came from another direction.  Based upon the description, I suspect he rode all the way back and came up from this direction, but from the high ground, not down here in the valley.

Here's the spot that Bates referenced as being the area where two ravines joined.  Not surprisingly, in this wet year, the spot is fairly wet.  But to add to that, this area features a spring, known today, and probably dating back to the events of this battle, as Dead Indian Springs.  The "gentle slope" from which Cpt. Bates made his survey, is in the background.

And here we look up that second ravine, with its current denizens in view.

And here we see the prominent bluff opposite of where Cpt. Bates reconnoitered.  It was prominent indeed.

Bates chose to attack down the slope of the hill he was on, described above, with thirty troopers and twenty Shoshones.  At the same time, Lt. Young, meanwhile, attached down the valley from above it on the watercourse, in an apparent effort to cut the village off and achieve a flanking movement.

The slope down which Bates and his detail attacked, and the draw down which Young attacked.

The draw down which Young attacked.

The slope down which Bates attacked is depicted above.

The fighting was fierce and the Arapaho were surprised.  They put up a good account, however, and were even able to at least partially get mounted.  Chief Black Coal was wounded in the fighting and lost several fingers when shot while mounted.  The Arapaho defended the draw and the attack, quite frankly, rapidly lost the element of surprise and became a close quarters melee.

The slope down which Bates attacked.

The valley down which Young attacked.

High ground opposite from the slope down which Bates attacked.

Fairly quickly, the Arapaho began to execute the very move that Bates feared, and they retrated across the draw and started to move up the high ground opposite the direction that Bates had attacked from.  Young's flanking movement had failed.

The high ground.

The opposing bluff.

The opposing bluff.

Bates then withdrew.

Bates' command suffered four dead and five or six wounded, including Lt. Young.  His estimates for Arapaho losses were 25 Arapaho dead, but as he abandoned the field of battle, that can't be really verified.  Estimates for total Arapaho casualties were 10 to 125.  They definitely sustained some losses and, as noted, Chief Black Coal was wounded in the battle.

Bates was upset with the results of the engagement and placed the blame largely on the Shoshone, whom he felt were too noisy in the assault in the Indian fashion.  He also felt that they had not carried out his flanking instructions properly, although it was noted that the Shoshone interpreter had a hard time translating Bates English as he spoke so rapidly.  Adding to his problems, moreover, the soldiers fired nearly all 80 of their carried .45-70 rifle cartridges during the engagement and were not able to resupply during the battle as the mules were unable to bring ammunition up.  This meant that even if they had not disengaged for other reasons, they were at the point where a lock of ammunition would have hampered any further efforts on their part in any event (and of course they would have been attacking uphill).

After the battle the Arapaho returned to the Red Cloud Agency. Seeing how things were going after Little Big Horn, they came onto the Wind River Reservation in 1877 for the winter on what was supposed to be a temporary basis, and they remain there today.  They were hoping for their own reservation in Wyoming, but they never received it.  Black Coal went on the reservation with him, and portraits of him show him missing two fingers on his right hand.  His people soon served on the Reservation as its policemen.  He himself lived until 1893.

Alfred E. Bates, who had entered the Army as a private at the start of the Civil War at age 20.  Enlisting in the Michigan state forces, he soon attracted the attention of a politician who secured for him an enrollment at West Point, where he graduated in the Class of 1865. He missed service in the Civil War but soon went on to service on the plains. His name appears on two Wyoming geographic localities.  He rose to the rank of Major General and became Paymaster of the Army, dying in 1909 of a stroke.

[b]1874  The 2nd Cavalry engaged Sioux/Cheyenne at Bad Water.[/b]

1890  Medicine Bow Station burned. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1902 President Theodore Roosevelt officially ended the Philippine-American War. It really wasn't, but he saw the value in declaring it to be so.

1908  The monument at the Fetterman battleground dedicated.

1911  The aviation age arrives at Wyoming, with the first recorded flight in the state taking place in Gillette.

 Revolutionary War themed poster from World War One.

1920  Veterans memorial to World War One veterans dedicated in Hanna, Wyoming.

The Hanna Museum's website has an article about the dedication here.

The monument is still present, and it looked like this 2012 when I photographed it.  However, since that time the actual plaque on the monument was stolen in 2015.  It was found damaged in a nearby ditch. The town was working to raise funds to repair the monument and buy a new plaque, which was apparently still the case at least as of 2019.

World War One Service Memorial, Hanna Wyoming

This is a memorial in Hanna Wyoming dedicated to all from the region who served in World War One.  Hanna is a very small town today, and the number of names on this memorial is evidence of the town once being significantly more substantially sized than it presently is.

The memorial is located on what was the Lincoln Highway at the time, but which is now a Carbon County Highway.  This was likely a central town location at the time the memorial was placed.

Hanna also is the location of the Carbon County Veterans Park which contains a substantial number of additional monuments.

1924  The statue of William F. Cody by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney was dedicated in Cody.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1941  Hot Springs County Museum opens.

1954 An earthquake occurs in the Yellowstone region.

1956  Actress Judy Tyler and her husband, actor Greg Lafayette, were killed in an automobile accident near Rock River.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1976  Nici Self Museum, dedicated to railroad history, dedicated in Centennial.