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.
We hope you enjoy this site.
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Sunday, March 31, 2019
The Powder River and the Red Trail, Montana
These are admittedly not Wyoming photographs, but from southeastern Montana. When I stopped at this location one afternoon in February I didn't know what the historical marker would entail.
I'm glad that I did. While my sign photos are oddly not quite in focus, it's an interesting looking area.
And while this doesn't depict Wyoming, its a region connected with the state, and on a river which runs through much of Wyoming at that.
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Blog Mirror. Lex Anteinternet: Two Casualties of Belleau Wood, Taking a Closer Look. Part One. Frank O. Engstrom.
Two Casualties of Belleau Wood, Taking a Closer Look. Part One. Frank O. Engstrom.
Recently on our companion blog, Some Gave All, we posted a photo essay on Belleau Wood, France. We linked that post in here the other day.
We start with Pvt. Frank O. Engstrom of Rawlins Wyoming.
Some Gave All: Belleau Wood, France. Frank O. Engstrom.
This is a selection of photographs from a much larger entry on our companion blog, Some Gave All. These feature the chapel at Belleau Wood and are linked in here to note the listing of a Wyoming soldier, a member of the 1st Division, who lost his life at Belleau Wood.
Frank Engstrom entered the service from Rawlins.
Lest we forget.
By the time he was conscripted his father, August Engstrom, had died. We can't easily tell from what, but he was still alive at the time of the 1910 census and was about 43 years old at that time, not all that old. He didn't make it to 53. While I can't tell for sure, given the names of the children and the last name, August was likely born in Sweden and had immigrated to the United States. He died sometime between 1910 and 1917 leaving his wife, Mary, and four children. The ages of the children at the time of his death are unknown, as the date of his death is unknown.
In the 1910 Census August and Mary reported their son Frank's name as "Franz", although that may be a handwriting glitch. Both names are fairly Nordic and either could be correct. In 1910 the August and Mary Engstrom family had two other children, Olga (1899) and Effie (1896). A John and "Ostrend" would come later, with John being born in 1901 or 1902. "Ostrend" was younger than that, and that odd name wasn't her name. Her name was Astraid and she was born in 1906.*
There were quite a number of Engstrom's in Carbon County Wyoming, and indeed there still are an appreciable number. Chances are high that Frank is related to some of the Engstrom's still there, although none of them would be his direct descendants. His sisters had strongly Scandinavian names and that suggests his parents, as noted, were from Sweden, given his last name. Indeed, a John Engstrom, but not his younger brother, was a wine merchant in Rawlins at the time and did sufficiently well to return to Sweden for a year with his family after World War One. That Engstrom was still living in Rawlins at the time of the 1940 census, then age 63.
In 1915 Frank's sister Effie married Alex Gordon, a guard at the penitentiary in Rawlins. She was two years younger than he was, having been born in 1898. She was a young bride at about 15 or 16 years of age (more likely 16). While that seem shockingly young, its worth remembering that its quite likely that by 1915 Frank was supporting his mother, brother and three sisters. One sister marrying at that time probably didn't seem unreasonable under the economic circumstances of the day.
By August 8, 1917, Frank was notified to report for a draft physical at the Carbon County Courthouse.
He was apparently found physically fit for service, but applied for an exemption on the basis that he was supporting his mother and younger siblings. That request was granted by the local draft board. Indeed, it seems only reasonable that this be done.
Frank Engstrom was notified that he was likely to be conscripted, however, by October 18, 1917. Apparently his exemption has been waived or reconsidered in some fashion. It's hard to know what, given that two of his siblings remained quite young. Apparently he either reconsidered his circumstances himself, or perhaps other family members were deemed the proper parties to take up the economic burden of the young Frank.
Frustratingly, only a few days later he was reported as only "slightly wounded".
It seems they forgot him after all.
So is this a sad story?
Well, maybe, maybe not. Maybe its the story of how life was at the time. This seems to be how veterans of the war viewed it themselves.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Lex Anteinternet: The plank in our own eye. Considering the memoria...
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Today In Wyoming's History: September 27. Disasters and ships.
1923 Thirty railroad passengers were killed when a CB&Q trainThere's something in the county memorializing the latter (the ship's wheel, in the old courthouse), but not the former.
wrecked at the Cole Creek Bridge, which had been washed out due to a
flood, in Natrona County. Attribution: Wyoming State Historical
Society.
1944 USS Natrona, a Haskell class attack transport, launched.
Such an awful disaster, you'd think there might be.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Natrona County International Air Port, formerlly the Casper Air Base, to receive environmental review
Granted, such investigations may be warranted, but its odd to think that an investigation of these locations now, so long after they ceased being used, would be done. More than anything, it might demonstrate our very much heightened modern sensitivity to environmental concerns.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
December 31
1871 The Territorial Legislature authorized the formation of militia companies, the birth of the Wyoming National Guard.
1890 A New Year's Ball was held in the Casper Town Hall to benefit the Casper Cornet Band. Attribution. Wyoming State Historical Society.
1912 USS Wyoming made the President' flagship.
1916 The Cheyenne State Leader for December 31, 1916. Going out on a belligerent note.
And so 1916 would not go out on a peaceful note.
Carranza was unhappy that the protocol did not require a UW withdraw, the Allies were not tempted by peace. The Army was taking a position contrary to what supposedly the Administration was taking, if reports were accurate, in that it wanted to withdraw the expedition in Mexico.
A bizarre headline was featured on the front page indicating that "churchmen" were opposing "premature peace" in Europe, with the promise that details would be provided the following day.
It was a dry New Years Eve. . . at least officially for Americans and most Canadians who, if they were following the law, had to ring in the arrival of 1922 with some non-besotted beverage. I'm sure many did.
And there was a lot to celebrate that year. For Americans, the Great War had officially ended, although the fighting had obviously stopped quite some time prior. For the many Americans with Irish ancestry, it appeared that Irish independence was about to become a de jure, rather than a de facto, matter. Americans were moving definitively past World War One, and in a lot of ways definitively past a prior, much more rural, era and country.
Not all was well, however, as the economy was doing quite poorly. There was hope that would soon change, with that hope being expressed in a regional fashion on the cover of the Casper Daily Tribune.
Also, on the cover of the paper was the news that the County had taken over ownership of the hospital. It'd run the hospital until 2020, when Banner Health took over it, converting it back into a private hospital after almost a century of public ownership.
1941 Big Piney, Pinedale, Nowood, and Star Valley became the first Wyoming Conservation Districts when their Certifications of Organization were signed by Wyoming's Secretary of State Lester Hunt.
1950 Frank Barrett resigned from the US House of Representatives, where he had been Wyoming's Congressman, in order that he could take office as Governor.
1952 The 187th Fighter Bomber Squadron, Wyoming Air National Guard (F-51s) released from active service. During their service in Korea nine 187th pilots were lost.
1974 Private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.
1976 Wyoming hit by a statewide blizzard.
1978 Clifford Hanson, who was leaving his office as U.S. Senator, resigned, thereby allowing his successor, Alan K. Simpson to have Hanson's seniority by virtue of short appointment to replace him.
2011 The year departs with a Central Wyoming blizzard.