May 16

1846         Battle of Campeche at which the Texas Navy defeats the Mexican fleet.

1885  Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show appeared in Chicago.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1905  The Acme Consolidated Gold & Mining Company incorporated in Wyoming.

1918  The Sedition Act of 1918 passed by the U.S. Congress making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense of 20 years or fined $20,000.  Attribution:  Western History Center.

New York Herald's pro Sedition Act cartoon.  Included in the treasonous pack was the IWW and Sein Fein.

It provided, amongst other things:

SECTION 3. Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States, or to promote the success of its enemies, or shall willfully make or convey false reports, or false statements, . . . or incite insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall willfully obstruct . . . the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, or . . . shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States . . . or shall willfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or shall willfully . . . urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production . . . or advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both....

Not one of the U.S. prouder moments in World War One.  Of note, Theodore Roosevelt had editorialized against it.  It would in fact be abused, as during wartime it's easy to imagine a traitor behind every negative statement.

1924  Friday, May 16, 1924. Harry Yount.

Harry Yount, sometimes erroneously referred to as Wyoming's first game warden (he wasn't), passed away in Wheatland at age 85.

Yount was from Missouri in 1839 and joined the Union Army during the Civil War, being taken prisoner by the Confederates from whom he escaped.  His escaped from captivity was barefoot and lead to a condition of rheumatism, which left him eligible for benefits for the same when they were first passed in 1890.  After the war, he headed West and engaged in a classic series of Frontier occupations, including bull whacking and buffalo hunting.

In the 1870s he was engaged by the Smithsonian in order to collect taxidermy specimens, and he became a regular member of the Hayden expeditions throughout the decade. During this period, he also took up prospecting.  He was well known enough to be the subject of a newspaper profile in 1877.  Around this time he became a commercial hunter in Wyoming, that still being legal until Wyoming took efforts to outlaw it early in the 20th Century.

In 1880, he was hired at the impressive salary of $1,000 per year to become Yellowstone National Park's first game warden, gamekeeper, or "park ranger" at a time at which the law was enforced in Yellowstone by the U.S. Army.  He occupied the high paying job for fourteen months.  Upon resigning he noted:

I do not think that any one man appointed by the honorable Secretary, and specifically designated as a gamekeeper, is what is needed or can prove effective for certain necessary purposes, but a small and reliable police force of men, employed when needed, during good behavior, and dischargeable for cause by the superintendent of the park, is what is really the most practicable way of seeing that the game is protected from wanton slaughter, the forests from careless use of fire, and the enforcement of all the other laws, rules, and regulations for the protection and improvement of the park.

His resignation seems to have come over a disagreement with the park superintendent, who wanted him to spend more time building roads.

After leaving the Park, he prospected, after a short and unsuccessful stint as a homesteader, in the Laramie Range for almost forty years, a remarkable stint at that occupation.  He took out a marble mining claim and spent his later years there, working also at prospecting right up to the day he died.  He collapsed near the Lutheran Church in Wheatland after walking into town, something he did daily.  He was 85 years old.

Younts Peak near Yellowstone is named after him.  The Park Service gives out the Harry Yount Award, established in 1994, annually to an outstanding ranger employee.

1946  USS Wyoming decommissioned. (This entry is doubly in error, check the comments below).

1985  The Downtown Rawlins Historic District added to the National Register of Historic Places.

1986  The Cokeville Elementary School crisis occurred  when David Young, and Doris Young took 167 hostages, 150 children and 17 adults, one being an unlucky UPS driver, at the school by bringing in a bomb which the couple attached a lanyard to themselves with.  David Young had been the town marshal, but had been fired for his odd, erratic behavior.  Doris Young had been a café worker in the town he had met while living there.  David Young claimed to be acting as a revolutionary, but part of his demands included $300 M dollars.  Doris Young accidentally detonated the bomb while her deluded husband was using a restroom. He returned and murdered her, and then killed himself, after wounding a teacher. All of the hostages survived, many leaving the classroom through the windows after the blast.  The incident is extremely unusual in that it was associated with a very large number of reports of the presence of angels seconds prior to the blast, who, according to those present, directed everyone to the far side of the room near the windows.

1991  The Lake Hotel on Lake Yellowstone added to the National Register of Historic Places.