Help Shape Wyoming's Historic Future

Help Shape Wyoming's Historic Future Participate in the Statewide Preservation Plan Today!

 

 

Hello History Buff,   The Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has begun their public outreach efforts for the development of the next ten-year statewide historic preservation plan. Input from all Wyoming residents is essential for the development of a well-informed plan. This statewide plan will guide the actions of and set the priorities, challenges, and goals, for historic preservation activities in Wyoming through 2037. The success of our statewide plan is dependent upon input from our partners and residents! Please participate by taking our Statewide Historic Preservation Survey, linked here, or by uploading photographs of historic places and spaces that are special to you and your community. Photos can be uploaded here.    If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me.   Best, Gwendolyn

 

Gwendolyn R. Kristy, MA Chief, Planning & Historic Context Development Wyoming SHPO | Cultural Records Office 1000 E University Ave. Dept. 3431 Laramie, WY 82071 Office: 307-766-5366 Facebook: @WYSHPO Twitter: @WYOSHPO Improving Communities and Enriching Lives. E-Mail to and from me, in connection with the transaction of public business, is subject to the Wyoming Public Records Act and may be disclosed to third parties.

Painted Bricks: J. E. Stimson statute, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: J. E. Stimson statute, Cheyenne Wyoming.:  

J. E. Stimson statue, Cheyenne Wyoming.

 Stimson was a significant pioneer photographer in Wyoming, working in Wyoming and the west from 1889 to 1952, when he passed away.  His record of early Wyoming is, literally, priceless.

Blog Mirror: Park County Archives Online Maps

New electronic archive:

Park County Archives Online Maps

Towns and Nature: Chugwater, WY: Lost/CB&Q Depot and Three Wood Grai...

Towns and Nature: Chugwater, WY: Lost/CB&Q Depot and Three Wood Grai...: ( Satellite ) Michael Pannel commented on his share of his post Here is the original depot and order board before demolition by train in 195...

Blog Mirror: Hoback River named 212 years ago after ‘mysterious’ trapper

 

Hoback River named 212 years ago after ‘mysterious’ trapper

Towns and Nature: Gillette, WY: 1907 CB&Q Roundhouse and Water Tower

Towns and Nature: Gillette, WY: 1907 CB&Q Roundhouse and Water Tower: ( Satellite , the roundhouse was removed by 1970. There are no obvious remnants.) Note the water tower on the left. The building with the de...

Railhead: Rail Features. Thyra Thompson Building, Casper Wyoming.

Railhead: Rail Features. Thyra Thompson Building, Casper Wyo...: 

Rail Features. Thyra Thompson Building, Casper Wyoming.

The State of Wyoming recently completed the construction of a massive new state office building, the Thyra Thompson Building, in Casper.  All of the state's administrative bodies, except for the district and circuit courts, are housed there.

The building does house, however, the Chancery Court for the entire state, a new court that's only recently been established.

The building is built right over what had been the Great Northwest rail yard in Casper, which was still an active, although not too active, rail yard into my teens.  I can't really recall when they abandoned the line, but it was abandoned.

In putting the building in, and extending the Platte River Parkway through it, the State did a nice job of incorporating some rail features so that there's a memory of what the location had been.

They also put in some historical plaques, which are nice. The curved arch at this location, moreover, is the location of the old turntable.  It was a small one, which I hate to admit that I crossed over when I was a teenager, a dangerous thing to do.

Painted Bricks: Tumble Inn, Powder River, Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Tumble Inn, Powder River, Wyoming.:   

Tumble Inn, Powder River, Wyoming.

 

As this institution is in the news, and as I knew I'd taken these photographs, I looked to see if I had posted them.

Of course, I had not.

The Tumble Inn was a famous eatery and watering hole in the small town of Powder River for decades.  As odd as it seems now, particularly as it would have been practically impossible to leave the establishment without having had at least a couple of beers, it was very popular for travelers and people in Casper, who'd drive the nearly 30 miles for dinner and then drive back.

Open well into the unincorporated town's decline, in its final years the restaurant, which had rattlesnake and Rocky Mountain Oysters on the menu, closed under new ownership and in its final stage was an alcohol-free strip club.   Apparently it recent sold and the new owner has taken down its famous sign in an effort to preserve it.

On that sign, I don't know how old it is, but from the appearances, it dates from the 40s or 50s.

The recent news article:

Powder River’s Iconic Tumble Inn Neon Cowboy Hasn’t Blown Over, It’s Being Restored

The Aerodrome: Blog Mirror: WYOMING'S HISTORY OF FLIGHT

The Aerodrome: Blog Mirror: WYOMING'S HISTORY OF FLIGHT:  

 

Wyoming is likely home to oldest mine in North and South America, researchers say

Wyoming Fact & Fiction - Neil A. Waring: Wyoming and the Old West

Wyoming Fact & Fiction - Neil A. Waring: Wyoming and the Old West:   Few people even know the true definition of the term “West”; and where is its location? – phantom-like it flies before us as we travel.   ...

Lex Anteinternet: Geography, Native Ameicans, Women, French, and Fem...

Lex Anteinternet: Geography, Native Ameicans, Women, French, and Fem...: We recently posted this lengthy post on a Federal order to rename place names in the Federal domain that contain the word "squaw" ...

Railhead: South Torrington Railroad Station, Torrington Wyoming (Homesteader's Museum).

Railhead: South Torrington Railroad Station, Torrington Wyom...:

South Torrington Railroad Station, Torrington Wyoming (Homesteader's Museum).

Above is a fisheye view of the South Torrington Railroad Station.  I used this view as its a long station, and to get the entire station in otherwise I would have had to walk across the highway, which was busy.

This station is unusual in that it was designed by noted National Park lodge architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood in the Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival Style.  Originally built in 1926, it was extended in order to accommodate both passenger and freight service, with its original purpose being reflected in the fact that it remains right across the street from a sugar refinery.

As with so many other depots, this one is no longer used by the Union Pacific, but it's well-preserved and now used as the Goshen County Homesteader's Museum.

The Aerodrome: Delta receives a subsidty to continue serving the Natrona County International Airport.

The Aerodrome: Delta receives a subsidty to continue serving the ...:  I'm really not too certain what my view on this is.  Overall, I suppose it's a good thing. Delta is one of the two carriers, relyin...

Blog Mirror: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (1941)

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (1941)

Lex Anteinternet: Juneteenth. What the new Federal Holiday Commemorates

Lex Anteinternet: Juneteenth. What the new Federal Holiday Commemor...: 

Juneteenth. What the new Federal Holiday Commemorates

Today is a Federal Holiday.  And for the first time.

Emancipation Day celebration, Richmond Virginia, 1905.

The holiday is Juneteenth.

The creation of the holiday is certainly proof that the Federal Government can in fact act quickly.  The bills on this were very recently introduced and this just passed Congress earlier this week and was signed into law yesterday, giving Federal employees the day off today. On Monday, they weren't expecting a day off.

So what is it?

The day basically celebrates the end of slavery, but in a bit of an unusual way. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on September 22, 1862.  Juneteenth, however, marks the calendar date of June 19, 1865, when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, after the end of the war, and issued proclamations voiding acts of the Texas legislature during the war and proclaiming the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation.  His General Order No. 3 was read aloud in the streets. Hence, June 19 became recognized, regionally, as the day that the Emancipation Proclamation reached the most distant outposts of the slave states, bringing slavery finally to an end.

Band for Texas Emancipation Day celebration, 1900.

Celebration of the day in Texas started almost immediately, being first observed just one year later, by the state's freed African American population.  Interestingly, the day was generally known as Emancipation Day.  However, the revival of segregation in the South in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century caused the day to suffer a decline, until it began to be revived in the 1950s.  Upon revival, the name Juneteenth began to apply to it.  It was made a state holiday in Texas in 1979.  The day received recognition in 47 of the states since then, with North and South Dakota and Hawaii being the only ones that had not up until now.

Talk of making it a Federal holiday has existed at least since the 1980s.  Generally there's been very broad support for the move, but it obviously has taken years to accomplish, if we regard 1979 as the onset.  It's interestingly been an example of states largely being out in front of the Federal Government on a holiday, and not surprisingly the various ways that states have recognized it have not been consistent.

Gen. Gordon, who brought news to African Americans in Texas that they'd been freed two years prior.

There's been next to no opposition to the holiday being created which is interesting, in part, as the current times have been very oddly polarized in all sorts of ways.  The measure had bipartisan support, although fourteen Republican members of Congress voted against it.  One interestingly voted against it as he thought the official name confusing, Juneteenth National Independence Day, which in fact it somewhat is.  That individual wanted to use the original name, Emancipation Day, which is a view I somewhat sympathize with.

It'll be interesting to see what the public reaction is given that this happened seemingly so quickly.  By and large people who are aware of it seem pleased, although Candace Owens, the African American conservative columnists and quasi gadfly, predictably wasn't.  It'll probably be next year until there's widespread national recognition of the day.

In very real ways, what it commemorates is the suffering of one of the most American of all American demographics, the African Americans, who have been in the country since its founding, but who still were the victims of legal discrimination all the way into the 1960s and whose economic plight remains marked.

Lex Anteinternet: Wyoming Music. Beaches Of Cheyenne (Live)

Lex Anteinternet: Wyoming Music. Beaches Of Cheyenne (Live): 

Wyoming Music. Beaches Of Cheyenne (Live)

Another Cheyenne themed song, this one centered on a tragedy at Frontier Days.

Blog Mirror: Lex Anteinternet: Get Along Little Doggies (Whoopie Ti Yi Yo).

Lex Anteinternet: Get Along Little Doggies (Whoopie Ti Yi Yo).: 

Get Along Little Doggies (Whoopie Ti Yi Yo).

Whoopie Ti Yi Yo is a classic genuine Cowboy song. The song is an old one and like a lot of genuine Western music, it is a European folk ballad that was reset in a Western location.  The original song was an Irish ballad about an old man being rocked in a rocking chair.

The first reference to this song of any kind was in Owen Wister's The Virginian.  He'd no doubt heard it in Wyoming when he'd toured it prior to writing his novel which was published in 1893.  The song was referenced by musicologist John Lomax in his 1910 work Cowboy Song and Other Frontier Ballads.  It was first recorded in 1929.

In putting this up here, I had a variety of recordings I could have chosen, but I yielded to popular pressure and put up the Chris Ledoux variant as Ledoux remains very popular with Wyomingites.  I'm the odd man out on that as I find Ledoux's voice rough and I'm generally not a fan.

Lex Anteinternet: University of Wyoming Marching Band Performs Ragtime Cowboy Joe

Lex Anteinternet: University of Wyoming Marching Band Performs 

University of Wyoming Marching Band Performs Ragtime Cowboy Joe

Lex Anteinternet: Ragtime Cowboy Joe

Lex Anteinternet: Ragtime Cowboy Joe: 

Ragtime Cowboy Joe

Ragtime Cowboy Joe has long been used by the University of Wyoming as its fight song.  The use isn't exclusive, as the University of Arizona also does, and many of the commercially recorded variants of the song make reference to Arizona, not Wyoming.

The tune was, of course, a popular song before being adopted by the University, which likely happened soon after it was recorded in 1912.