March 1

1836  A convention approved the Texas Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Attribution:  On This Day.

1837  The United States sent a diplomatic agent to Texas.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1845 President John Tyler signed a congressional resolution to annex the Republic of Texas.

1866  Crowheart Butte, Wyoming

This item, linked in from our Some Gave All blog, is noted here, not because this is the correct date, but rather because I can't find an exact date.  The sources I've read refer to this event happening over five days in "March", so this is being linked in here.

This is a bit of an unusual roadside monument in the West as it doesn't commemorate a battle between European Americans and Indians, but rather between two separate tribes if Indians.  It commemorates the March 1866 battle between the Shoshone and Crows near the Wind River Range in Wyoming.

The date, and the event, are interesting ones.  By 1866 warfare between the United States and the combined Sioux and Cheyenne had broken out in earnest.  The Crows were fighting the Sioux and had been for quite some time.  Indeed, they were fighting a loosing battle in their war with the Sioux and had offered to throw in with the United States in aid that effort.  Ironically, the Shoshone were allies of the United States.

Both the Shoshone and the Crows were under tremendous pressure from the Sioux and Cheyenne, who had been expanding out onto the territory that had formerly belonged to those tribes. The Crows in particular had suffered a tremendous territorial loss in that they had been pushed out of the prairie region of Wyoming for the most part by that time but they were still attempting to contest for it.  The Shoshone had also suffered a territorial loss but, with their anchor in the Wind Rivers, which the Sioux had not yet reached, their situation was not as dire.

Nonetheless, we see how these factors can play out in odd ways. Both tribes were here essentially defending their traditional grounds. The Crows could hardly afford to loose any more of theirs as they'd already lost so much.  Nonetheless, as can be seen here, they were defeated in this battle and they would in fact go on to have to accept the loss of much of what they had formerly controlled.

The Shoshones were already looking at asking for a reservation at the time this battle took place and even though this ground had been already assigned to the Crows by treaty.  The Crows were effectively defeated by the Shoshone in the area and Crowheart Butte became part of the Shoshone Reservation very shortly thereafter.

The text of this roadside monument makes it quite clear that this sign was made quite some time ago, probably in the 1950s.  The text that is on it would never be placed on a monument today, in that the partisan language regarding "whites" would simply not be done.  Indeed, in many instances such signs tend to get removed.  At least one old historical marker in New Mexico has had some of the text chipped out in order to edit it, and at least one of these road side markers in Wyoming that had somewhat similar content has been removed.  That's a shame, as in editing to fit our current definition of history, we in fact do a little injustice to the story of history itself by removing the evidence of how things were once perceived.

1867 Nebraska became the 37th state.

1868  Dr.  Frank H. Harrison, a Canadian by birth, who entered the US to practice medicine for the U.S. Army during the Civil War, opened Laramie's first doctors office.  He would not remain there, as he was traveling with the Union Pacific as it advanced.

1872 Congress authorized creation of Yellowstone National Park.

1875  John A. Campbell resigned as Territorial Governor.

1875  John Thayer commenced his term as Territorial Governor.

1876  The 1876 Powder River Expedition set out from Ft. Fetterman.

1877  Jack McCall, Wild Bill Hickok's killer, Following the killing, he'd gone to Laramie where is bragging about the killing and his making up a story to cover it, about the killing of a fictional brother, lead to his arrest and ultimately his trial.

1913   Governor Carey approved an act of the Legislature that created two additional judicial districts.  Today there are nine.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1913     Federal income tax takes effect, as per 16th amendment

1917  The Buffalo Bill Memorial Association was charted  Attribution:  on This Day.

1917  The Wyoming Tribune for March 1, 1917: Wilson asked to explain story.
 

Somebody should have explained the story about Japan anyhow, that's for sure.

And Ft. Russell was clearly gearing up for war.

The Cheyenne Leader for March 1, 1917: German-Jap-Mex Plot?
 

On March 1, 1917 the news all over the country was on the release of the Zimmerman Note and what it meant.  But, oddly, there was apparently a feeling that the Japanese were tied up in it, which wasn't the case.

And the Colorado National Guard arrived at Ft. D. A. Russell for demobilization.

1920  March 1, 2020. Railroads Revert To Civilian Control, Caroline Lockhart hits the Screen.

On this day in 1920, the railroads, which had been taken over by the U.S. Government during World War One reverted to civilian control.

The country's rail had been nationalized during the war and then run by the United States Railroad Administration as the system was proving to not be up to the tasks that were imposed upon it due to the crisis of World War One.  Additionally, concerns over pricing and labor unrest called for the action.  Following the war there was some serious consideration given to retaining national control over the lines, which labor favored, but in the end the government returned the system to its owners.

While U.S. administration of the railroad infrastructure was a success, it was not repeated during the Second World War when the rail system was just as heavily taxed by an even heavier wartime demand.  There proved to be no need to do it during World War Two.

Not too surprisingly, the news featured prominently on the cover of Laramie's newspapers, as the Laramie was, and is, a major Union Pacific Railroad town.

Union Pacific Depot in Laramie, Wyoming.

On the same day a movie featuring Wyoming as the location (which doesn't mean it was filmed here), was released.

The 1916 vintage Burlington Northern depot in Casper, Wyoming.

Likewise, the reversion was big news to the double railhead town of Casper.

Former Great Northwestern Depot in Casper.

The Fighting Sheperdess was the story of just that, a fighting female sheep rancher was was struggling to keep her sheep ranch against raiding cattlemen.

In reality, the sheep wars in Wyoming had largely come to an end by this time, although it was definitely within living memory.  The Spring Creek Raid of 1909 had only been a decade prior, and there had been two more raids in 1911 and 1912, although nobody had been killed in those two latter events.  The peace was, however, still an uneasy one, perhaps oddly aided by a massive decline in sheep, which still were vast in number, caused by economic conditions during the 1910s.  By 1914, the number of sheep on Wyoming's ranges had been cut 40% from recent numbers. World War One reversed the decline, and then dumped the industry flat, as the war increased the demand for wool uniforms and then the demand suddenly ended with the end of Germany's fortunes.  Colorado, however, would see a sheep raid as late as this year, 1920.

The novel the movie was based on was by author, Caroline Lockhart, a figure who is still recalled and celebrated in Cody, Wyoming.

Illinois born Lockhart had been raised on a ranch in Kansas and was college educated.  She had aspired to be an actress but turned to writing and became a newspaper reporter in Boston and Philadelphia before moving to Cody, Wyoming in 1904 at age 33, where she soon became a novelist.  During the war years she relocated to Denver, but was back in Cody shortly thereafter, until she purchased a ranch in Montana, showing how successful her writing had become.  She ranched and wrote from there, spending winters in Cody until she retired there in 1950.  She passed away in 1962.

The Fighting Shepherdess was her fifth of seven published novels, the last being published in 1933.

1942 Elanor Roosevelt visited Cheyenne, Wyoming.

1944 Fremont County Wyoming agriculture agents request 200 POWs for farm labor.

1957  KTWO in Casper started operations as Wyoming's second television station.

1984  Casper's hospital, The Wyoming Medical Center, commenced using its new heliport which has remained a major feature of its operations. Everyone in Casper today is familiar with the sounds of the hospital's helicopter, and knows what it means.