Ft. Ranald Mackenzie (Sheridan Wyoming Veterans Hospital)

Cantonment Reno (Ft. McKinney)

Blog Mirror: Traveling With the Ninth Cavalry

Traveling With the Ninth Cavalry

Richard's (Reshaw's) Bridge, Evansville Wyoming.

Reshaw's Bridge, or more correctly Richard's Bridge, was a frontier North Platte River crossing only a few miles downstream from Platte Bridge and like it, it was guarded by a contingent of soldiers.  As noted in the plaque below, it ultimately closed in favor of the slightly newer Guinard's Bridge, which Richard bought, which ultimately came to be referred to as Platte Bridge. 

In 1866, after the bridge had been abandoned, it was dismantled by the soldiers stationed at Platte Bridge Station.

While Platte Bridge Station is remembered for the battle that occurred there, Reshaw's Bridge saw its fair share of action as well. 

Indeed, as we've discussed previously on one of our companion blogs, which we'll link in here below, bodies exhumed at the post when Evansville's water treatment facility was built include what are certainly two soldiers and a pioneer woman.  Generally, the Army would reclaim bodies of troops, but my minor efforts to inform the Army of this failed.

From our companion blog, Some Gave All:

Richard's Bridge Cemetary Mausoleum, Evansville Wyoming

This mausoleum was built when at least part of the cemetery of the military post at Richards Bridge was located at the time Evansville, Wyoming built a water plant near the river. The former location of the Frontier Era bridge across the North Platte had not been precisely known up until that time. When three bodies, believed to be the bodies of two soldiers and one woman, were disinterred they were reburied here, on the grounds of the Evansville grade school. The school grounds were the only nearby public land at the time.

This creates a very odd situation in a variety of ways and the mausoleum is not well maintained. While worse fates could exists than spending eternity near a grade school, it is generally the case that the Army has recovered the lost remains of Frontier Era soldiers when they were located, and it would seem that moving these victims of Frontier conditions would be a positive thing to do.

Camp Devin, Montana/Wyoming

These are rather wintery photographs of a place that was only occupied until late summer in 1878. So the pictures are unfair by their very nature, however, like a lot of photographs here, I take them when I go by them.

If you click on these photos you'll get the full, albeit short, story of Camp Devin.  It was a post Little Big Horn camp established just off (and I mean just off) the northern boundary of the Black Hills in 1878 in order to guard the construction of a telegraph line.

I don't know the reasoning behind the location of the post, but it was likely because the Black Hills themselves remained a real threat and, in terms of locating a camp ground, assuming that there's water near by, you couldn't ask for a flatter location.

The post location is likely slightly approximate.  The sign is a State of Wyoming sign, but the location is literally right on the Wyoming Montana border.

Some Gave All: Belleau Wood, France. Frank O. Engstrom.

Note, all the research and the original photographs for this entry are the work of Marcus Holscher

Some Gave All: Belleau Wood, France:

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.

August 17

1869   Major John Wesley Powell's party passed Sentinel Peak overlooking the Grand Canyon.  It had left Green River on May 24. Attribution:  On This Day.

1878  Three Laramie women climb a peak in the Snowy Range and plant the flag. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1905 

“Pathfinder Dam site; view looking up the North Platte River showing the dam site,” 8/17/1905

Series: Photograph albums, 1903 - 1972. Record Group 115: Records of the Bureau of Reclamation, 1889 - 2008.

1919  August 17, 1919. Evanston to Echo, Utah.

On this day in 1919 the Motor Transport Convoy left Wyoming and entered Utah.

The 17th was a Sunday. This is remarkable as the Convoy's command chose not to stay in Evanston, Wyoming that Sunday but simply pushed on.  No day of rest for the convoy.  That had happened only once before in their trip, and on that occasion it had pretty clearly occurred because the convoy had experienced delays due to road conditions and mechanical problems.  Here there's no evidence that had occurred.

Having said that, the convoy did get an unusually late start that day, starting at 12:30 p.m.  While the diarist doesn't note it, chances are high that the late start was in order to allow men to attend local church services before the motor march was resumed.

The convoy experienced a plethora of problems, including the Lincoln Highway now being a bad mountain road as it crossed over from Wyoming.  Carbon buildup in a cylinder was plaguing a Dodge, which is interesting in this household as the same thing recently afflicted one of our Dodge pickups.  The engine of the Class B truck that was a machine shop was shot.

Echo Utah is a little tiny town today, and must have been the same in 1919.  By stopping in Echo, they were effectively camping.

1959   The 7.1 Hebgen Lake earthquake occurred in southwestern Montana, resulting in the deaths of 28 people due to a resulting landslide.   The Old Faithful Inn was damaged by the quake and thermal features at Yellowstone were disrupted.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1996  An Air Force cargo plane carrying equipment for President Clinton crashed in the state killing eight crewmembers and a Secret Service employee.  Attribution:  On This Day.