February 28

1868  Sixteen mules were reported as having been stolen from Ft. Bridger.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1885  F.E. Warren confirmed as Territorial Governor.

1900 Bob Lee arrested in Cripple Creek, Colorado on suspicion of  robbing a Union Pacific train at Wilcox Wyoming the prior year.

1917   Woodrow Wilson releases the contents of the Zimmerman Telegram
 

After having had it for some time, the United States released the contents of the Zimmerman Telegram which, as we have been following, proposed a German-Mexican alliance in the event of an American entry into World War One.

American public opinion was becoming increasingly hostile to Germany in 1916 and 1917 and it was already hostile to Mexico given the numerous border problems that had being going on for years and the strained relationship with Carranza.  The release of the telegram was one more event that helped push the United States towards going to war with Germany.  In some ways, the telegram confirmed suspicions that were already out there as presence of German military advisors in Mexico was well known and they had taken an active role in advising Mexico's prevailing army.  They had even been in one instance in that role in which Mexican troops had directly engaged American troops.  In recent weeks there's been speculation in the press about German activities in Mexico and Carranza's relationship to Germany.  So, while Zimmerman's suggestion seems outlandish to us in retrospect, to Americans of 1917 it would have seemed to confirm what was already widely suspected, but with details far more ambitious than could have been guessed at previously. 

The Cheyenne Leader for February 28, 1917. Troops to arrive home Friday.
 

At least according to Major Smoke.

Is that a great name, or what?

And Cuban rebels were destroying sugar.

1918  First train to arrive in Buffalo on the Wyoming Railway.

The Wyoming Railway was a shortline, running from nearby Clearmont to Buffalo, a distance of about 28 miles. At Clearmont passengers could carry on with the Burlington Northern.

Most of the traffic on the line was actually coal.  The coal mines near Buffalo went out of business in the 1940s and the railroad filed for bankruptcy in 1948.  The line was abandoned in 1952.
1918   The Casper Daily Record for February 28, 1918. Four sleeping soldiers ordered shot.
 

Gen. George Patton famously got into piles of trouble, both with the public and the Army, for slapping two soldiers during World War Two.

Here we read about Pershing giving the go ahead to death sentences for four soldiers that fell asleep at their posts.

I don't know what Wilson did with the sentence, but I hope they weren't executed.

1970  First successful in situ oil extraction near Rock Springs.  This process has never been commercial, however.

1977  Legislature passes a new death penalty statute in an attempt to address developments in the law as interpreted by the Federal courts.