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.

Friday, December 29, 2017

Blog Mirror: The Aerodrome: Air Subsidies Continue for Cody and Laramie. . . for now

Air Subsidies Continue for Cody and Laramie. .. for now.

 


From Today's Casper Star Tribune, the following headline:

Air service subsidies expected to continue in Cody and Laramie. But larger questions loom.

But that apparently doesn't mean that such subsidies aren't on the firing line still, to some degree. . .

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

On This Day In Wyoming History. Now available as an Ebook.

Now available as an Ebook:

On This Day In Wyoming's History.

In addition to being the frequent blogger here, as noted on the face page of this blog, I'm also the author of On This Day In Wyoming History, a book cataloging the daily history of Wyoming. 
The book went to press in March, 2014, and can be ordered through its publisher, The History Press, and of course through Amazon.  It's also available at various local bookstores in Wyoming, including Wind City Books in Casper, Hastings in Laramie, and the bookstore of the Wyoming State Archives and Museum in Cheyenne.
The book catalogs interesting and significant events from Wyoming's history.  If you have an interest in Wyoming, I hope you'll consider picking up a copy.

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Friday, December 15, 2017

New Mexicans In Wyoming

 
 The oldest house in the United States, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  New Mexico very much has its own distinct cultures that have been in the region for a very long time.

This blog has a sidebar entitled Hispanics In Wyoming.  It's one of several that deal with important Wyoming ethnicities.

One of the nice things about blogs is that you can correct and expand on topics as you learn about errors or omissions, and that's what we're doing here, thanks to a recently issue of the Annals of Wyoming. We really missed the important story of New Mexicans in Wyoming.

It was a huge omission.

I don't know that we can really fully correct it, quite frankly, as our omission was so vast, but we'll at least mention it here in hopes of getting this part of the story inserted here.  We'd first note, however, that finding a copy of the issue and reading it is highly recommended, even if a couple of the articles in it fit into social theory that's really outside of the main theme of the issue, which deals with Hispanics in Wyoming.

One of the things the issue really focuses on in is the story of New Mexicans in Wyoming, which I only knew a little about.  It was fascinating.  

What that story reveals is that Wyoming once had a vibrant New Mexican population that maintained direct links to Hispanic New Mexico.  Largely made up of men with experience in sheep tending, they came up to work on Wyoming's sheep ranches and then ultimately went into available blue collar jobs, mostly in southern Wyoming.  For a long time these communities traveled back and forth between Wyoming and New Mexico, but they stopped doing that around World War Two and permanently located in Wyoming, mostly in southern Wyoming.  They were a significant minority community all along the Union Pacific, and their presence as a community that lived in Wyoming but had immediate roots in New Mexico continued well into the mid 20th Century.  Indeed, I know one retired fellow whose parents, it turned out, lived this very story.

I didn't deal much with this in my earlier sidebar, and indeed I really haven't dealt with it much here.  But it is important to recall that a term like "Hispanic" is a very broad one and it may be used unfairly in an overly broad fashion.  New Mexicans in Wyoming, while Hispanics, have their own story.  I missed that.  That story remains, but it's slowly being lost as the New Mexican community, now well into its third and fourth generation here, and now removed from its original distinct occupations, is less identifiable as that than it was when it first located here.  Indeed, the article referenced above credited the Catholic Church with allowing the identify to go forward, given that they were Catholic, an aspect of Hispanic culture I did mention previously.

Sunday, December 3, 2017

Lex Anteinternet: Why was this blog turned off for awhile?

Lex Anteinternet: Why was this blog turned off for awhile?: And I may again. This blog gets, normally, about 250 hits a day. The past couple of days its been getting thousands of hits. Mostly fr...

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Friday, November 3, 2017

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Lex Anteinternet: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Lex Anteinternet: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Helene Ethel Fairbanks (nee Cassidy) (1882-1944), wife of Warren Charles Fairbanks and daughter-in-law of Charles Warren Fairbanks, Vic...

Lex Anteinternet: "The National Guard didn't go to Vietnam. . . "

Lex Anteinternet: "The National Guard didn't go to Vietnam. . . ":  Men of Company D (Ranger), 151st Infantry, Indiana Army National Guard, in Vietnam. These men are all wearing ARVN tiger stripe uniform...

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Friday, September 22, 2017

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Lex Anteinternet: Sports News

Lex Anteinternet: Sports News: I rarely read it, but today's Tribune sports page has two items of interest. First, Casper is getting, for the third time, a non yo...

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Lex Anteinternet: Movies In History: Wind River

Lex Anteinternet: Movies In History: Wind River: I often dread watching modern movies set in Wyoming (I tend to give the older ones a pass) as they get things so wrong.  And, of course, as...

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Some Gave All: The Sundance, Wyoming Rest Stop Memorials.

Some Gave All: The Sundance, Wyoming Rest Stop Memorials.

 Memorials at the Sundance Wyoming Rest Stop.
I usually don't put a bunch of memorials, even at one single spot, in one single post.  Each, I generally feel, deserves its own post as each is its own topic, in terms of what it commemorates.


 Black Hills Sign at the Sundance Wyoming Rest Stop.
I'm making an exception here, however, as these are grouped so nicely, they seem to require a singular treatment. 




The first item we address is the Black Hills sign. This sign discusses the Black Hills, which straddle the Wyoming/South Dakota border.


 Crook County sign.
The second sign discusses Crook County, named after Gen. George Crook, and in which Sundance is situated.


The sign oddly doesn't really go into Crook himself, but then its a memorial for the county, not the general.  Still a controversial general, Crook came into this region in the summer campaign of 1876 which saw him go as far north as southern Montana before meeting the Sioux and Cheyenne at Rosebud several days prior to Custer encountering them at Little Big Horn.  Crook engaged the native forces and then withdrew in a move that's still both praised and condemned.  At the time of the formation of Crook County in 1888 he was sufficiently admired that the county was named after him, at a time at which he was still living.


 Custer Expedition Memorial.
Finally, the Rest Stop is the location of an old monument noting the passage of Custer's 1874 expedition into the Black Hills, which is generally regarded as the precursor of the European American invasion of the Black Hills and the Powder River Expedition of 1876.  Obviously, it's more complicated than that, but its safe to say that the discovery of gold in 1874 gave way to a gold rush which, in turn, made conflict with the Sioux, who had taken over the Black Hills (by force) from the Crow, inevitable.


This memorial is interesting in the super heated atmosphere of today given that the historical view has really changed since 1940, when this roadside monument was dedicated (surprisingly late, I'd note, compared to similar Wyoming monuments). In 1940 Custer was still regarded as a hero.  By the 1970s, however, he was regarded in the opposite fashion, by and large, at least in terms of his popular portrays are concerned.  The 1874 expedition into the Black Hills is not favorably recalled in history now at all.




I have to wonder, however, in terms of the history if this expedition changed history the way it is recalled.  The Black Hills always seem to be an attractant.  They attracted the Sioux who took them (in living memory in 1874) from the Crows and it seems highly likely that they would would have attracted European Americans as well.  Certainly they continued to even after the hopes of gold seekers were dashed.

Monday, August 21, 2017

Lex Anteinternet: Berlin Air Lift Rates

Lex Anteinternet: Berlin Air Lift Rates:

Berlin Air Lift Rates


One plane every minute.



C-54 during the Berlin Air Lift
That was the highest rate achieved for the Berlin Air Lift in 1949.
Today, for the eclipse, the rate is predicted to be one plane every two minutes.
Will that actually occur?

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Monday, July 24, 2017

Friday, June 2, 2017

Lex Anteinternet: It's National Doughnut Day!

Lex Anteinternet: It's National Doughnut Day!: Or Donut Day, if you prefer. John A. Johnston, First Vice President of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Ironwork...

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Wyoming Fact & Fiction - Neil A. Waring: Western Books

Wyoming Fact & Fiction - Neil A. Waring: Western Books: I have often read that Owen Wister's publishing of  The Virginian , 115 years ago this week, on May 28, 1902, was the start of Wes...

Friday, May 26, 2017

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Como Bluffs: Dinosaur Graveyard and Train Robberies



These two historic markers are located at Como Bluffs, between Rock River and Medicine Bow Wyoming. I'm sure I've stopped at them before, but it's probably been over thirty years and I've never photographed the markers before, or if I did it would have been that long ago.


The first marker is for the fossil fields nearby.  The sign tells the story.  I'd only note as an aside that my father told me that back in the 1940s he stopped at the fossil cabin with his father and the owner of hit gave him a fossilized dinosaur egg from the nearby fossil beds.  Unfortunately, it's long since been lost.


The train robberies sign also speaks for itself.  The first robbery noted is a famous one by The Whole In The Wall Gang, famously depicted in the film Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.  The other details the life of Bill Carlisle, the "Gentleman Bandit". 


Structures at this site are depicted in these two photographs, including the famous "fossil cabin".  A nearby sign notes that it was featured in "Ripley's Believe It Or Not".


Some Gave All: Wyoming Veterans Museum: World War One Display

Some Gave All: Wyoming Veterans Museum: World War One Display: Display dedicated to George Ostron, who was an accomplished armature illustrator and who won a contest to design what became the unit ins...

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Lex Anteinternet: Baseball's Only Double No Hitter, May 2, 1917

And yes, it's off topic

Lex Anteinternet: Baseball's Only Double No Hitter, May 2, 1917:

On this day.

 Winning pitcher Toney.
The Reds v The Cubs.  Ten innings.  One run.  Victory to the Reds.

 Hippo Vaughn.

Fred Toney v. Hippo Vaughn.  They both pitched the entire game.

When the run came in, and the Cubs lost, Cubs owner Charlie Weeghman stuck his head into the Cubs clubhouse and yelled at the team, “You’re all a bunch of asses!

 Charlie Weeghman, far left, in 1914.

Monday, May 1, 2017

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Some Gave All: The Black 14, University of Wyoming, Laramie Wyoming

Some Gave All: The Black 14, University of Wyoming, Laramie Wyoming


This is a monument to The Black 14 in the University of Wyoming's Student Union.



The Black 14 were fourteen University of Wyoming football players who, in 1969, wanted to wear black armbands during the University of Wyoming v. Brigham Young football game. The action was intended to protest the policy of the Mormon church in excluding blacks from leadership roles in their church.  Coach Eaton, the UW football coach at the time, dismissed all fourteen players prior to the game, ending their football careers at UW and, at least in some cases, simply ending them entirely.


The event was controversial at the time, and to a lesser degree, has remained so.  Generally, in most of Wyoming, Coach Eaton was supported, rather than the players, which doesn't mean that the players did not have support.  As time has gone on, however, views have changed and generally the players are regarded as heroes for their stand.  Views on Eaton are qualified, with some feeling he was in the wrong, and others feeling that he was between a rock and a hard place and acted as best as
he could, even if that was not for the best.




It is indeed possible even now to see both sides of the dramatic event.  The players wanted to wear black armbands in protest of the Mormon's policy of not allowing blacks to be admitted to the Mormon priesthood and therefore also excluding them from positions of leadership in the Mormon church.  This policy was well know in much of Wyoming as the Mormon theology behind it, which held that blacks were descendant of an unnatural union on the part of Noah's son Cain, resulted in black human beings.  This was unlikely to be widely known, however, amongst blacks at the University of Wyoming, most of whom (but not all of which) came from outside of the state.  A week or so prior to the UW v. BYU game, however, Willie Black, a black doctoral candidate at UW who was not on the football team, learned of the policy.  Black was head of the Black Students Alliance and called for a protest.  The plan to wear armbands then developed.
The protest, therefore, came in the context of a civil rights vs. religious concepts background, a tough matter in any context.  To make worse, it also came during the late 60s which was a time of protest, and there had been one against the Vietnam War just days prior to the scheduled game. Following that, Eaton reminded his players of UW's policy against student athletes participating in any demonstration, a policy which raises its own civil liberties concern. The players went ahead with their plans and Eaton removed all of them from the team.
 
Looked at now, it remains easy to see why Eaton felt that he had to act, while also feeling that he acted much too harshly.  Not everyone agrees with this view by any means, however.  Many, but a declining number, still feel Eaton was right.  A much larger number feel he was definitely wrong.  Few hold a nuanced view like I've expressed.  Even those who felt that Eaton was right often admire the protesting players, however. 
 
Anyway its looked at, the Black 14 are now a definite part of Wyoming's legacy as The Equality State, even if most of them were not from here (at least one, and maybe more, were).  This year at Wyoming History Day, a statewide high school history presentation competition, which had the theme of "taking a stand", they were the subject of one static display and two video presentations.  They may be more well remembered now than at any time since the late 1970s, and this memorial in the student union certainly contributes to that.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Friday, March 24, 2017

It seemed wet

The Casper Star Tribune is reporting that:
Wyoming’s three main winter months – December through February – were the wettest in the state’s recorded history, according to the National Weather Service.
Almost 5.5 inches of precipitation fell on the state this season, breaking the previous record of 4.93 inches set in 1898.
It seemed wet, that's for sure.

And its not really over yet.

 Image may contain: outdoor

Wyoming Experiences a Population Decline for the first time since 1990

The Casper Star Tribune is reporting that:
Wyoming’s population contracted for the first time in nearly three decades, likely because people left the state for work elsewhere, according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau and state.

In July, 585,501 people called the Cowboy State home, a decrease of 0.2 percent from July 2015, or 1,054 fewer Wyomingites.
We always have a transient population, and surely this came as no surprise to anyone who watched how heated the oil and gas fields became in the last few years.  Many of the workers who came in at that time expressed an intent to return home when they could, and they no doubt did.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Wyoming Pioneer Sheep-Man J D Woodruff

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Wyoming Pioneer Sheep-Man J D Woodruff: According to my calendar, Spring-2017 started yesterday, and it felt like it. Today seems like we slipped back into the ending days of wint...

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Lex Anteinternet: 1917 The Year that made Casper what it is. Or ma...

From one of our companion blogs:
Lex Anteinternet: 1917 The Year that made Casper what it is. Or ma...: I have no before and after pictures for Casper that would cleanly show what the town looked like in January, 1916 and then later looked lik...
Added, we'd note, the Sidebars here on this site.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Lex Anteinternet: Czar Nicholas abdicates.

Lex Anteinternet: Czar Nicholas abdicates.: The Headquarters To the Chief of Staff In the days of the great struggle against the foreign enemy, which almost for three years has t...

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Friday, February 17, 2017

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Lex Anteinternet: Budget chicken?

Lex Anteinternet: Budget chicken?: From the Star Tribune, regarding proposed cuts by the Legislature in education funding.  Supposedly this is just a strategy move on the par...

Friday, February 3, 2017

Lex Anteinternet: Getting a clue

Lex Anteinternet: Getting a clue: I often don't post these things on the same day I start them, and sometimes that's a good thing. This is one story I starte...

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Farson Scenes

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Little Sandy Crossing, Sweetwater County, Wyoming.


This is a State of Wyoming monument to the Little Sandy Crossing in Sweetwater County, near Farson.   





Pony Express Monuments, Farson Wyoming


One of the disadvantages of taking these photos the way I do, on a catch as catch can basis, is that you get some truly lousy photographs that way. Weather and light conditions can simply be against you. But, on the passing by basis I take these, there's not much I can do about that as a rule.  I've driven past these monuments to the Pony Express at Farson a few times, but this is the first time I had time to stop and take a picture.  Unfortunately these late afternoon, sub zero photographs, are not good, and there isn't much I could do about it.


While you could never tell from this bad light photograph, this 2003 monument to the Pony Express shows to riders greeting each other on a starry night.  The winter snow has obscured, and dirtied, the monument.  If I have a  chance to photograph it again in morning light, I will.  The top of the monument says "East meets West".


This is an older State of Wyoming monument to the Pony Express which also notes the Big Sandy Station that was once on this location.


This monument to the Big Sandy Station was dedicated at the same time, and by the same donors, as the East Meets West monument. For some reason, this one looks just as clean as when it was dedicated, while the East Meets West monument does not.

The Ice Slough

Ice Slough, Fremont County, Wyoming


The Ice Slough, or what I used to always hear people around here refer it by, the "Icey Slough".



Saturday, January 7, 2017

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Snow and the Blizzard of 1887

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Snow and the Blizzard of 1887: Last night it was cold, really cold. When I got up this morning, I checked our indoor outdoor thermometer which read -20. The weather app o...

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Lex Anteinternet: Looking back on '16. . . 2016 and 1916

Lex Anteinternet: Looking back on '16. . . 2016 and 1916: Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne*? CHORUS: For ...