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.

Sunday, July 19, 2026

Douglas Photographer Captures Historic Black Rancher’s Homestead Under Milky Way

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Churches of the West: LDS church would get sacred site, Martin’s Cove, under proposed BLM land trade now gaining steam

Churches of the West: LDS church would get sacred site, Martin’s Cove, u...: LDS church would get sacred site, Martin’s Cove, under proposed BLM land trade now gaining steam

LDS church would get sacred site, Martin’s Cove, under proposed BLM land trade now gaining steam

Churches of the West: Christian church vows to fight tribal order to leave Wind River Reservation

Churches of the West: Christian church vows to fight tribal order to lea...: Christian church vows to fight tribal order to leave Wind River Reservation I frankly am a bit distressed by the headline's use of ...

Christian church vows to fight tribal order to leave Wind River Reservation

I frankly am a bit distressed by the headline's use of "Christian" church. That's a rather loose use of the term Christian, although it's not incorrect.

According to its website, the "Foundations For Nations is a multi-cultural and multi-generational non-denominational Christian church." There's absolutely no such thing whatsoever as a "non-denominational" church. 100% of all churches have some theological grounding that puts them in some denomination. This is some sort of Protestant Church, most likely a sort of do it yourself Evangelical Church, that has a focus on the Wind River Indian Reservation. The controversy arises due to the pastor taking on the Sun Dance, which is a religious ceremony practiced by a variety of plains tribes.

Tuesday, June 30, 2026

Nonprofit proposes land swap to secure future for Martin’s Cove

Friday, June 26, 2026

158-year-old Fort Laramie image sparks quest for a nameless girl’s identity

Sunday, June 7, 2026

More Than 50 Years Later, ‘Rawlins Rodeo Murders’ Of Young Girls Remain Unsolved

Sunday, April 26, 2026

150 years later, the Brinton Museum examines the Battle of the Little Bighorn through Indigenous eyes

Friday, April 3, 2026

Railhead: UP 4014 "Big Boy", March, 2026.

Railhead: UP 4014 "Big Boy", March, 2026.: The great UP 4014 is making the rounds of the West/ UP 4014 Rounding the Corner Outside Rock River, WY 2026. MKTH Photo. This is my favorit...

UP 4014 "Big Boy", March, 2026.

The great UP 4014 is making the rounds of the West/

UP 4014 Rounding the Corner Outside Rock River, WY 2026. MKTH Photo.

This is my favorite engine. It's the third time I've seen it. Every time was accidental.

MKTH Photo.

Big Boy UP4014 in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. MKTH photo.

MKTH photo.

MKTH Photo.

Saturday, March 28, 2026

Surviving a day on the Oregon Trail

Saturday, March 14, 2026

Laramie’s near-record dust storm winds hit 81 mph Dust hindered visibility while strong winds, and stronger gusts, wreaked havoc on the interstates. No structures were lost in a 30-acre grassfire south of Laramie.

Laramie’s near-record dust storm winds hit 81 mph

Dust hindered visibility while strong winds, and stronger gusts, wreaked havoc on the interstates. No structures were lost in a 30-acre grassfire south of Laramie.

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

State discontinues Tribal License Plates.

Sort of a sad story, really.

Limited supply of leftover Tribal specialty license plates available

Thursday, January 29, 2026

After Trump order, Teton park removes sign about explorer who massacred Native Americans

Interior denies connection to Trump order to remove 'disparaging' history.

Monday, December 22, 2025

Worland Man Relives Wyoming’s Wild West Past — Exactly 100 Years To The Day

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Churches of the West: Unsettling news for Catholics in Rock Springs.

Churches of the West: Unsettling news for Catholics in Rock Springs.: This comes as bit of a shock, as well as evidence of how slow news actually travels in our current age in which everything seems flash drive...

Unsettling news for Catholics in Rock Springs.

This comes as bit of a shock, as well as evidence of how slow news actually travels in our current age in which everything seems flash driven:

Giving some credit to the news, I'll note that this hit smaller news venues earlier, which I guess leads me to wonder a bit about how well Natrona County is served by the media.

Anyhow. . .

The church is this one:

Sts. Cyril & Methodius Catholic Church, Rock Springs Wyoming

This Romanesque church was built in 1912 after a protracted period of time in which efforts were made to build a church specifically for the Catholic Slavic population of Rock Springs, which was quite pronounced at the time. The church was named after brothers Cyril and Methodius who had been the evangelists to the Slavs. The first pastor was Austrian born Father Anton Schiffrer who was suited to the task given his knowledge of Slavic languages.

The news broke just before the celebration of the church's 100th anniversary, which isn't great timing, but no doubt that was simply coincidental.

To my surprise, there are three Catholic churches in Rock Springs. I was aware of there being two. The Catholic community seems to be served there in the same way the community in Casper is, as a Tri Parish, rather than three separate parishes.

Here's the announcement that was given by the Diocese:

Not too surprisingly, there has been some local opposition and the Bishop has suspended his order until February, when he will meet with the aggrieved parties. The suspension is on line, but I was not able to download it, in order to post it.

I'm not terribly optimistic, but the potential closure has drawn opposition from secular quarters as well:

Watch List: Saints Cyril & Methodius Catholic Church, Rock Springs

In terms of timing, another interesting aspect of this is that it comes right as the Catholic parish in Rock Springs started undertaking an effort to build a community center for the parish, the brochure for which is partially set out here:

There's more to the brochure than that, but I can't think of something more likely to put a damper on this effort than to close a century old church while its ongoing.

I'd also note that one of the stated desires is exactly the opposite of what brought Sts. Cyril & Methodius Catholic Church about in the first place, that being the desire to "create unity and one Catholic identity". That's a common, and admirable, goal but in the real world, people don't like it. Individual ethnicities within the Catholic Church have always struggled against this, sometimes with pretty disastrous results. Indeed, Orthodoxy in the US got a big boost just from such an event when Bishop John Ireland disapproved of Eastern Catholicism remaining separate, causing Fr. Alexis Toth to lead a group of them into the Russian Orthodox Church. In the early 20th Century Catholic Diocese often responded just the way that the Diocese of Cheyenne did here, by simply creating additional churches that recognized the different identifies.

That won't happen here, and these are all Latin Rite churches. Moreover, the strong ethnic identities in Rock Springs from a century ago have no doubt dissipated considerably. But that doesn't mean that parishioners in a unique Church, or really any Church, like to have their church closed and be told they need to go elsewhere, even if it makes sense, which it very well might, given the antiquity of the building. Doing it while also undergoing a campaign that expresses the goal of unity is more than a little unfortunate.

Indeed, that's the case as even in this modern age, not everyone likes to be grouped into one big group. I'm one of those people. The Diocese here had an event several years ago where all the local Masses were cancelled so that one huge Mass could be held at Casper's David Street Station. Rather than do that, I drove to Glenrock and attended Mass there. . . and I noticed some other Casperites I recognized there as well.