"Oil Capital of the Rockies" and other nicknames.

Monument to oil production at the Amoco Parkway in Casper, Wyoming.  The Parkway is within the confines of the former Standard Oil Refinery.

What's in a name?  A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Shakespeare

I came across the old nickname for Casper, Oil Capital of the Rockies, a bit by accident the other day and began to ponder it as a nickname for Casper, and then nicknames for Wyoming towns in general.*  Hence the entry.  

We'll start with Casper in this list, as Casper made us ponder it, but then we'll drop back to alphabetical order, to make it a bit easier reading.

Casper

Casper embraced oil production really early in its history and oil production and refining has been a feature of Casper's economy almost from its onset.  It's had a collection of refineries and, while refining isn't what it once was in Casper, it still retains a refinery today, down from the three it had when I was young.  

When I was growing up, the Casper Star Tribune had, on its masthead, the words "Oil Capital of the Rockies", a self proclaimed proud distinction that even the newspaper embraced.  There's no way on earth that the paper would have that on the masthead today, but it did for years.  I can well remember it, but I can't remember when that disappeared.  It was still there at least as late as 1970, when the logo was actually printed at the top of every page.  By 1975 the Tribune was asserting that Casper was the "World's Energy Capital", giving the town a promotion in that category which must have been inspired by the Arab Oil Embargo initiated spike in prices.  By 1980, however, as the bloom was beginning to come off the boom's rose, the Tribune made no reference in its masthead to oil or energy at all.

The embracing of the title is something that predated the masthead and continues on.  A common nickname for Casper is "Oil City", even though Natrona County actually had a town at one time actually called "Oil City", and it wasn't Casper.  The remnant of that town is barely there today.  

There are all sorts of businesses in Casper that use "Oil City" in their names, and one of the electronic news outlets uses it as well.  Oil may be in trouble now days, but the naming habits don't show it.

Casper isn't limited to a single nickname, however.  Another one you see in use is the name "Ghost Town" due to the old cartoon Casper the Friendly Ghost.  As a "ghost town" is a town that is no longer inhabited, the use of the nickname is a bit unfortunate, but it's pretty common.  Users of the nickname presumably simply assume that everyone is familiar with the animated cartoon that was first introduced in 1945.  As the cartoon frankly isn't funny, in my view, I have to wonder if my disdain for the nickname is in part inspired by that.  Be that as it may, it's certainly in widespread use.  The last truck stop on the way out of the town to the west, which actually is several miles beyond the town and actually much closer to Mills, Wyoming, than Casper, is "Ghost Town", for example, which used to have a classic, but now long gone, neon sign that looked like the front of a cabover truck.  Seeing it at night or in snowstorms remains an enduring memory of my youth.

Nobody has combined the two so far, so some opportunity remans.  Oily Ghost Town, or Casper the Oily Ghost Town, or something. . . 

Some time ago, some civic entity or perhaps the City of Casper itself came up with the name WyoCity.  Or perhaps it paid somebody to come up with that.  It hasn't stuck in the public imagination, and no wonder.  WyoCity? What does that mean?

Another unofficial nickname for Casper is Wind City, which nobody who has ever been to Casper need wonder about.  Chicago may call itself the Windy City, but it has nothing on Casper in regard to wind.  As with Oil City, various local businesses have embraced the name and use it.

Big Piney

Big Piney is cold in the winter. Really cold.  Like wind in Casper, residents of Big Piney have embraced that and its nickname is "Icebox of the Nation". They aren't joking.

Cheyenne.

Cheyenne, like Laramie, has an old nickname that probably goes back to early boosterism, with that being the "Emerald City of the Rockies".  Towns on the Union Pacific at the time must have had a gem stone theme going on.  The nickname was used early on and it competed with Denver's, which chose to call itself the "Queen City of the Plains".  Oddly, Denver is really closer to the Rocky Mountains than  Cheyenne, which is actually on the plains.  Anyhow, Emerald City has fallen into disuse, and probably  The Wizard of Oz didn't help that.

At some point the city itself decided it didn't like it, and it changed its nickname officially to the "Magic City of the Plains".  Or, perhaps, the nickname existed simultaneously.  It seems to have been based on the town springing up overnight, as if by magic, when it was built in 1867.  The city still uses that nickname.

Unofficially people sometimes refer to Cheyenne as "Shy Town", using the sound of its first syllable.  The nickname is simply a play on words and infers nothing beyond that.  

Cody

Cody bills itself as the Rodeo Capital of the World, which is frankly bizarre.  I doubt anyone uses the nickname and I've never seen a "Rodeo City" business there.

The name likely stems form the Cody Night Rodeo, which occurs nightly during the summer, but that wouldn't make it the Rodeo Capital.  Cheyenne and Calgary would have better claims to that.

Douglas

Douglas is the "Jackalope Capital of the World", playing on its adoption of the jackalope as its official symbol.  Indeed, the town has embraced the mythical creature and there are several jackalope statutes in town, although the one that used to be in the middle of the main street downtown has been removed as it was determined to be a bit of a traffic hazard.

Douglas has to get credit for embracing something whimsical and just running with it.

Frannie

Frannie, which is in two counties, but which is a really small town, bills itself as the The Biggest Little Town in the Nation.

Gillette.

Gillette calls itself the "Energy Capital of the World", although these days its energy businesses are hurting.  By doing that, it's co-opting a nickname that the Casper Star Tribune had claimed earlier for Casper.

Gillette may have an official nickname, but like Cheyenne and Casper, it has an unofficial one that's a play on its name, that being "Razor City".  Gillette, the company, manufactures shaving razors, and hence the nickname.  Again, it doesn't apply more than that.

Gillette may be a bit fortunate in this regard, as its original name was "Donkey Town", having been named for Donkey Creek.  Razor City isn't a great nickname, but it's better than Donkey Town as an official one.

Jackson

Jackson Wyoming is located in Jackson Hole and residents refer to the town as "The Hole".   The area around Jackson, however, has a lot of nicknames.

Teton Valley, Idaho, which is just next-door to some extent, interestingly has a lot of nicknames. But as this post isn't on that topic, we'll omit them.

Laramie.  

Laramie is the "Gem City of the Plains" for reasons that are unclear to me.  The nickname has been around for a long time, and it was probably part of an early effort at boosterism.  Laramieites know of the nickname, however, and its used in some businesses in Laramie.  The official newsletter of the City of Laramie is the "Gem City Spark", so unlike Casper's government, it's embraced its old nickname.

Some haven't embraced it, however, and those appear to be students.  UW students have taken up calling Laramie "Laradise", something that's come on since I lived there.  Laramie can be a fun town, and students have a sarcastic streak, so the nickname probably embraces both, both implying that Laramie might be a paradise for the young, and that it isn't, at the same time.

Lovell

Lovell, Wyoming asserts that its the Rose City of Wyoming.  This is because an early resident of the town, Dr. William Horsley, was a renowned expert on roses and promoted their growth in the community over a fifty year period.  The nickname is unknown for the most part outside of Lovell, but it has been embraced by the town and businesses in the community use it for their names.

Meeteetse

Meeteetse bills itself as the Ferret Capital of hte World as the endangered black footed ferret, which was believed extinct, was relocated there.  It also calls itself Where Chiefs Meet, which is taken from the meeting of its name in Shoshone, which is reputedly "meeting place", although that translation is disputed.

Riverton

I've heard Riverton occasionally referred to as "River City", probably recalling the fictional town in The Music Man.  It's official nickname, however, is "The Rendezvous City", reflecting that one of the early fur trapping Rendezvous gatherings was held there.

Rock Springs.  

Like Cheyenne, Rock Springs has an unofficial nickname that plays on its actual name, that being "Rocket City".  It has an official one as well, however, that being "Home of 56 Nationalities", reflecting its early mining history when it was indeed very polyglot.

Saratoga 

Saratoga calls itself "Where the Trout Leap in Main Street".   The North Platte River runs right through town and the small town has an outdoorsy nature, so this might help explain this.  Having said that, it might also stem from an early freighter tossing lighted sticks of dynamite off the bridge into town and blasting fish up on to the road, an act he took as he was tired of waiting for help to unload a wagon.

Upton 

Upton calls itself the "Best Town on Earth", which its boosters must feel that it is.

Honorable mention, Interstate 80.

Not a town, but another sort of man made geographic feature, Interstate 80 also has a nickname, at least in part.  The stretch of highway between Wolcott Junction and Laramie along Interstate 80 bears the nickname the "Snow Chi Minh Trail".

That nickname obviously can go no further back than the 1960s and I think it started in the 1970s, when the memory of the North Vietnamese Ho Chi Minh Trail was still fresh. That NVA effort was persistently vexing to the United States and the blizzardy section of the highway is likewise vexing to motorist, hence the nickname.

___________________________________________________________________________________

*For those who might wonder, Tulsa Oklahoma bears the nickname "Oil Capital of the World", although even by contemporary American standards, that nickname would more properly belong to Houston, Texas.  Cognizant of that, Houston is the "Energy Capital of the World".

Lex Anteinternet: Col. J. W. Cavendar, a Casualty of the Great War. Who was he?

Col. J. W. Cavendar, a Casualty of the Great War. Who was he?

The September 28, 1918 Casper Daily Press in which we learn a fair amount about Joseph J. Cavendar.  What we don't actually learn from this paper is the true circumstances of his death.

From the Wyoming newspapers of September 27, 1918, we learned that Col. J. W. Cavendar had become a casualty of the fighting on the Meuse Argonne.  He was the commander of the 148th Field Artillery, one of the units formed out of Wyoming National Guard infantrymen (as well as the Guardsmen of other regional states, or at least the state of Utah.

But who was he?

It's pretty hard to tell.

What we know, or thought we knew, from the Cheyenne papers of the day is that he was an attorney, and they report him as a local attorney, and hence the problem.

Lawyers may rise to the heights of great fame during their lifetimes, and certainly the ascendancy to high positions has been common, including in a prior era to the command of Federalized National Guard units.  But after they are dead, they are almost always completely forgotten.  The fame of lawyers follows them into the grave.

From what we can tell, the Cheyenne papers that reported him as "local" were a bit in error.  He was a Georgia born attorney who had originally apparently been a shopkeeper. According to the Casper paper set out above, he came to Wyoming at first to enter ranching, but that must not have worked otu as he returned to Georgia and entered the law. After that, he came back to Wyoming, was admitted to the bar here, and then practiced for a time in Carbon County before relocating to Park County.  In 1912, as the newspaper above notes, he was elected as Park County Attorney.

The old part of the Park County Courthouse, which was built in 1912, the year Cavendar became the Park County Attorney.

A little additional digging reveals that he'd been in the National Guard for awhile.  In 1911 he'd been elected, as that's how they did it, as the Captain of the infantry unit in  Cody.  His wife was asked to speak for Spanish American War pensioners as late as 1921, in hopes they'd claim their pensions, so his memory remained that strong at least to that point.  Perhaps more interestingly, given that he was born in 1878, that raises some question of whether he'd served in the Army during the Spanish American War.  He would have been old enough to do so.

He was in command, at least for a time, of the Wyoming National Guard troops that were mobilized for the crisis on the Mexican Border and was a Major in the National Guard by that time.

So we know that Col. Joseph W. Cavendar was a Georgia born lawyer who had relocated to Wyoming twice.  He'd started life as a merchant, and then switched to ranching, then went back to Georgia and became a lawyer.  After that, he came back to Wyoming and ultimately ended up the Park County Attorney.  At some point he'd entered the Wyoming National Guard.  Given his age, he was old enough to have been a Spanish American War veteran and it would be somewhat odd, given his obvious affinity for military life, if he had not been.

At the time of his death he was fifty years old.  Not a young man.  And there's a ting, maybe, of failure to his life.  It's subtle, but it's sort of there.  The law was his third career and Wyoming was his second state of practice.

But perhaps that's emphasized by what we later learn.

Cavendar killed himself.

Indeed, what we learn is that on the very first day of the Meuse Argonne Offensive the Army found the fifty year old Park County Attorney, former rancher, former merchant, wanting and informed him that it was relieving him of his command and giving him the choice of returning to the United States to be mustered out of service or to be reduced in rank to Captain and return to service in that capacity.  Instead he walked over to the hotel where he was staying and killed himself with a pistol.  The Army, no doubt wanting to save his reputation, or perhaps worried that the relief of a National Guard officer (from a state in which powerful U.S. Senator F. E. Warren was. . . Gen. Pershing's father in law, was from) reported him killed in action.

Cavendar had been in front of a board that was reviewing National Guard officers and finding more than a few of them wanting.  Some were higher ranking that Cavendar.  By the time the true story broke, following the war, the sympathies were clearly on the relieved National Guard officers side and the action regarded as an outrage.

Was it?  That's pretty hard to say. Cavendar had been in command of his unit for a good five months at the time he was relieved. But that doesn't mean that his service had been perfect or that there weren't better officers, and potentially younger ones, coming up behind him.  On the other hand, the Regular Army was legendary for containing officer that had a strong, largely unwarranted, animosity towards the National Guard.  Indeed, elements of the Army had openly opposed making the Guard the official reserve of the Army in 1903, an action which if they had been successful in would have lead to absolute disaster during World War One.  Nonetheless, as late as World War Two the Army seemed to retain a strong animosity in some quarters towards National Guard officers and relieved many of them with no clear indication as to why.  No doubt some, perhaps many, warranted removal, but the Army seemed more zealous in its actions than facts warranted.

Whatever happened, apparently Cavendar couldn't bare what he regarded as the shame of it, or perhaps other things combined to push him over the edge. Whatever it was, he shouldn't have done what he did.  Indeed, followers of the blog on Canadian colones in the Great War would note that many of them were relieved and went on to be highly regarded.  Relieving officers in wartime isn't unusual, it's part of the service.  

Well, anyhow, now we know more about Cavendar than we did, sad story though it is.

December 28

1836 Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico.  This does not mean that Spain was in control of Mexico until 1836, but rather that it recognized Mexican sovereignty.  Spain had attempted to reconquer Mexico as late as 1829.

Interestingly, by the time Spain recognized Mexico, Texas was in rebellion against Mexico.

1865  Edward L. Baker Jr, a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor for action in Cuba, born in Laramie County.  Baker, an African American, rose to the rank of Captain, an extraordinarily rare occurrence for a black American at that time.

1883  Lloyd Fredendall born at Ft. D. A. Russell where his father was then serving.  His father was not, however, a career soldier and would later become the Albany County Wyoming Sheriff.  Fredendall was appointed to West Point by Senator F. E. Warren, twice, being dismissed from the school once for poor academic performance and dropping out once.  None the less he was commissioned in to the Army after passing a qualifying exam while attending MIT.  He served in World War One, but did not see combat as he was assigned to positions in the Army's service schools in France.

During World War Two his fortunes rose early as he was favored by Marshall and liked by Eisenhower, both of whom admired his cocky demeanor.  He was assigned to major command positions in Operation Torch, but fell out of favor as he was not successful as an actual field commander.  He was replaced by Eisenhower following the American defeat at Kasserine Pass and spent the rest of the war in a training command in the United States, where he did secure promotion to the grade of Lt. General.  Historians have been hard on him, regarding his World War Two combat role proof that he was an inept commander.

1905  First issue of Worland Grit published.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1913  Western Meat Market burned in Superior.

1916   The Wyoming Tribune for December 28, 1916: Villa commanding 10,000.
 

The Tribune carried disturbing news about a resurgent Villa and a reluctant Carranza.

1917   December 28, 1917. Home Economics.
 

1920  Kamekichi Masuda of  Rock Springs received a patent for a basket.

1921  USS Laramie commissioned.

1921  A large prohibition  raid occurred in Rock Springs.

1928  Michael John Blyzka, major league baseball player, and resident of Cheyenne at the time of his death, born in   Hamtramck, Michigan.

1944  Governor Lester Hunt proclaimed the day to be Seabee Day.  The Seabees are the Navy's Construction Battalions, hence "CB", or Seabees.  While all of the armed services have always had engineers, the Seabees were an early World War Two creation that proved critical in the construction of airfields and other facilities during the U.S. campaigns in the Pacific during the war.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1993  A 4.7 magnitude earthquake occurs near Cody.

November 30

1782 Britain recognizes US independence.

1803 Spain cedes Louisiana to France, including, of course, that part which is now Wyoming.

1810 Oliver Fisher Winchester born.

1856  Martin's Cove survivors arrive in Salt Lake City. 

This event, often sort of off hand stated as having happened in the dead of winter, actually, as this date attests, occurred much earlier and for a much briefer period of time than imagined. The handcart company was in fact detained at Martin's Cove for only five days.

Of course, saying "only five days" presents that, in part, from a modern view.  The handcart company was travelling shockingly late in the year.  Travelling by handcart was an arduous affair under any circumstances and was poorly provided for by this point in their journey. Wyoming is subject to blizzards much earlier than early November and Martin's Cove itself is fairly high altitude at approximately 6,000 feet.

The number of Mormon immigrants that died at Martin's Cove during their storm enforced delay is actually not know, but at least 145 members of the 500 person company died en route to Salt Lake, although not necessarily all of them in this singular event.

1869  Woman's suffrage bill sent to the Territorial House.

1914  International  Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union #322 chartered in Casper.

1916:   The Cheyenne Leader for November 30, 1916: A National Guard Casualty
 

Only meriting a small entry at the bottom of the page, we learn on this day that Wyoming National Guardsman Pvt. Frank J. Harzog, who enlisted from Sheridan, died in Deming of encephalitis.  He was to be buried at Ft. Bliss, so he wold never make it home.

Too often soldiers who die in peacetime are simply forgotten; their deaths not recognized as being in the service of the country. But they are.  Indeed, the year after I was in basic training a solider who was in my training platoon, a National Guardsman from Nebraska, died in training in a vehicle accident.  A Cold War death as sure as any other.

Thanksgiving Day, 1916
 

November 23 was Thanksgiving Day in 1916.  Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation to that effect on November 17, 1916.

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

It has long been the custom of our people to turn in the fruitful autumn of the year in praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God for His many blessings and mercies to us as a nation. The year that has elapsed since we last observed our day of thanksgiving has been rich in blessings to us as a people, but the whole face of the world has been darkened by war. In the midst of our peace and happiness, our thoughts dwell with painful disquiet upon the struggles and sufferings of the nations at war and of the peoples upon whom war has brought disaster without choice or possibility of escape on their part. We cannot think of our own happiness without thinking also of their pitiful distress.

Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do appoint Thursday, the thirtieth of November, as a day of National Thanksgiving and Prayer, and urge and advise the people to resort to their several places of worship on that day to render thanks to Almighty God for the blessings of peace and unbroken prosperity which He has bestowed upon our beloved country in such unstinted measure. And I also urge and suggest our duty in this our day of peace and abundance to think in deep sympathy of the stricken peoples of the world upon whom the curse and terror of war has so pitilessly fallen, and to contribute out of our abundant means to the relief of their suffering. Our people could in no better way show their real attitude towards the present struggle of the nations than by contributing out of their abundance to the relief of the suffering which war has brought in its train.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this seventeenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and sixteen and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-first.

It must have been a stressful one for a lot of people.  War was raging in Europe and a lot of Wyomingites were serving on the border with Mexico.  The local economy was booming, and there were a lot of changes going on in the towns, but due to the international conflict.

1918  November 30, 1918. Americans enter Germany for the first time, Villa threatens Juarez, Wyomingites get Reserve Plates, Teenage Bride Mildred Harris Chaplin rumored to be planning a visit home, No beer for New Years.

The first Americans to cross into Germany, November 30, 1918.  1st Division.  Wormeldauge Luxembourg to Winchrenger Germany.

On this date in 1918 the U.S. Army entered Germany from Luxembourg.

Gen. Campbell King, left, in Luxembourg on this date in 1918.  King was Harvard educated before attending becoming a lawyer in Georgia.  He entered  the Army in 1897 as a private and was commissioned an officer in 1898.  He was a Major entereing World War One and was breveted the rank of Brigadier General and served as Chief of Staff of the Third Army.  He retired as a Major General in 1932 and lived until 1953.  The officer on the right is an unidentified Marine Corps officer.  Note the much darker uniform and the different pattern of overseas cap, with that type being the type that would later become the service wide pattern after the war.

Headquarters for the occupation force remained, on this day, in Luxembourg itself.

Cheyenne residents read Gen. Pershing's address to his troops and the Governor was demobilizing the Home Guard.

And Wyoming was introducing its coveted "reserve plates" for motor vehicles, in which you could get the same license plate number every year (at a time in which you received new plates every year. . . which was the case at least into the 1970s).

In the other Cheyenne paper readers learned that yes, Villa was threatening Juarez again. So he'd returned from near defeat back to threatening and was back on the very top of the front page yet again. . . just as he had been prior to World War One.

Mildred Harris Chaplain at approximately this time. Her stardom was in ascendancy at the time but her life was is in turmoil.  She's married much older Charlie Chaplain at only age 16, something that would have wrecked both of their careers in and of itself in the present age, under the false belief that she was pregnant.

Cheyenne was hoping for a visit, we also learned, from Mildred Harris, now Mrs. Mildred Chaplin, who had turned 17 years old only the day prior.

In Casper the headline, like on many other papers, dealt with Woodrow Wilson's decision to lead the American peace delegation, something that was not a popular decision with Congress.  Casperites also read of the terrible massacre of the Jews in Lemberg (Lvov) by the Poles.

Casperites also were reading of the disbandment of UW's military training unit.

Casperites also read, in the other paper, Pereshing's Thanksgiving day address.

They also read that the Kaiser was that no longer.

And suds for New Years would be no longer as well. The committee that had suspended brewing as of the first of the year declined to rescind its order now that there was peace.

Boxing match in Archangel Russia between enlisted U.S. and French servicemen, November 30, 1918.

1920  Bureau of Reclamation commences construction of electric power plant at Buffalo Bill Dam.

1927   First day of Fremont County Turkey Show in Lander.  Attribution, Wyoming Historical Association.

1943  The price of coal from Rock Springs was raised $.20 per ton, a fairly substantial climb in that era.  Coal was an extremely vital source of fuel in this time period, although petroleum oil was supplanting it in many ways.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1946  Barbara Cubin, Congresswoman from Wyoming, born in Salinas California.

2012  Wyoming Whiskey releases the first batches of its bourbon whiskey.  The product is the first legally distilled whiskey to be made in Wyoming.  It's not the first whiskey to be distilled in Wyoming, however, as Kemmerer was a center of illegally distilled whiskey during Prohibition.

November 13

1806  Pike's Peak Colorado observed by Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike during an expedition to locate the source of the Mississippi.

1835  Texas officially proclaimed Independence from Mexico, and called itself the Lone Star Republic.  The very south east most slice of the state was within the Mexican province of Mexico, and therefore within the newly proclaimed republic, although it was not inhabited by European Americans or Mexicans at the time.  Borders in northern Mexico were more than a little theoretical.

1854  The Horse Creek Skirmish when the Sioux attacked a mail stage near the present location of Torrington.

1867  The first passenger train, a Union Pacific train, arrived in Cheyenne, WY.

1890  Fire damaged a saloon in Rawlins, Wyoming (Courtesy the Wyoming Historical Society).

1895  Floyd Taliaferro  Alderson born in Sheridon.  Alderson grew up on a ranch near Sheridan and served in World War One before becoming an actor in the silent movie era.  He acted in 22 silent films and was able to transition into talking pictures. He retired from acting in the 1950s and returned to the family ranch where he painted in his retirement. During his acting years he acted under a variety of names, including most notably Wally Wales,but also as Hal Taliaferro and Floyd Taliaferro.

1901 First CB&Q passenger train arrives in Cody, Wyoming.

1916:   The Laramie Republican for Monday, November 13, 1916. Record Cold.
 

The weather a century ago definitely isn't what we're experiencing this year.

1917

The USS Wyoming becomes  Rear Admiral Hugh Rodman's, Commander Battleship Division 9, flagship. Attribution:  On This Day.

 

Dust storm in Colorado, 1935.

1918 Pondering the Post War World. . .hit and miss. . . the news of November 13, 1918.

On this mid week of 1918 (this paper was published on a Wednesday) the Wyoming State Tribune was pondering the post war world with some optimism.

Not all of which would prove warranted.

First we'll note, however, that the depiction of Germany's new borders was spot on, showing once again how remarkably accurate these World War One papers tended to be.  They weren't always, and this past week with rumors of the armistice arriving prematurely, and with additional rumors that Red German sailors who had in fact sabotaged their ships to some degree were going to come out fighting, they were off the mark more than a little. But by and large, they appear to be on in just about the same degree as modern papers tend to be.

But as to a post war economic boom. .  not so much.

In fact the end of the war brought on a mild recession that started this very year; 1918. That recession would continue on into 1919, when a recovery would be staged, but following that a severe recession hit in 1920 and lasted until 1921.  

Overall, both periods of recession were brief, and there were some oddities to them. The American recession of 1918 actually started in August, which is flat out bizarre when it is considered that the United States was really just getting fully committed to combat in the Great War at that time and that it was conscripting all the way through the end of the war, thereby creating labor shortages that were growing worse.  That a recession would hit should have been expected, but a rational expectation should have been that it would have hit in early 1919.  It didn't, and overall the first recession only lasted seven months.

The second much worse one hit in January 1920 and lasted until 1921. That one makes much more sense if we keep in mind that while the fighting ended, the war technically went on into 1919 and the United States continued to maintain and supply a large overseas army that was on occupation duty that entire time.  Indeed, combat troops finally left Europe in September 1919 but an occupation force of 16,000 U.S. troops based out of Coblenz remained in Germany until 1923.  And somewhat forgotten, while the fighting had ended in France and Belgium, it continued on in Russia where a U.S. commitment remained until fully withdrawn on April 1, 1920. 

Of course, this has an expression in what we was called the Jazz Age.  No era of any kind every has a clean break from one to another, but in this case the effects of the war in various ways lingered through the first recession until the lid really came off and the post war world set in which gave us the Roaring Twenties/Jazz Age, which continued on until the crash of October 1929.  The Jazz Age, in a lot of ways, was the preamble to the 1960s, brought to an abrupt end by the economic realities of the Great War.

In Wyoming, as is so often the case, the national economy didn't really follow the path of the national one.  The oil boom of the Great War came to a screeching halt with the end of the war.  Oil production and refining of course went on, and the conversion of Casper Wyoming from a minor oil town into a significant oil city, was permanent.  But a local recession was inevitable with the end of the war.

Amplifying that recession was a general recession in the agricultural sector as a whole.  Massive demands for meat, wool, leather, and grain came to a rapid end, and with it came an agricultural depression that lasted through the economic recovery and on into the next recession.  1919, in fact, was the last year in American history in which farm families shared economic parity with urban families.

So the paper got that one wrong.  But its map of post war Germany was quite right.  The rest of the new European map had yet to be worked out through the process of the Versailles Treaty and local effort in new nations, to include the effort of new wears that erupted following the collapse of empires in the Great War, but that process was going on at the very time this paper was printed.

Holland didn't really treat the deposed Kaiser Wilhelm II like any other interned German officer.  He became a permanent exiled resident who never did come to see his removal as justified or his actions as questionable.  He'd die there during World War Two.

And while the paper gave a positive prognosis on the news that Theodore Roosevelt was in the hospital but would recover, the old lion wasn't himself anymore.

1933   "(MONDAY)  UNITED STATES: The first dust storm of the great dust bowl era of the 1930s occurs. The dust storm, which has spread from Montana to the Ohio Valley yesterday, prevails from Georgia to Maine resulting in a black rain over New York and a brown snow in Vermont. Parts of South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa reported zero visibility yesterday. Today, dust reduces the visibility to half a mile (805 meters) in Tennessee. (Jack McKillop)"  Attribution:  The WWII History List.

1941  The United States Congress amends the Neutrality Act of 1935 to allow American merchant ships access to war zones.

1942     The minimum draft age was lowered from 21 to 18.

1943  The state penitentiary receives a contract for 8,000 U.S. Army blankets.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

November 12

1867  Peace conference commences at Ft. Laramie, Wyoming.  The goal was to arrive at a peaceful solution to strife between Americans and the northern Plains Indians.

1889  First municipal election in Newcastle. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1890  First Wyoming State Legislature convened.

1890  The United States government funded a land grant college for Wyoming, which would become the University of Wyoming.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1897  Milward Lee Simpson was born in Jackson.  He grew up in Meeteetse and Cody, served as an infantry lieutenant in World War One, and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1925.   He served as the 23rd Governor of Wyoming from 1955 to 1959, having been narrowly elected in 1954 and having been defeated for reelection in 1958.  He served as U.S. Senator from Wyoming from 1964 to 1967, filling the term of the late Edwin Keith Thomson who died in office.  Simpson was one of only six Republican U.S. Senators to vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  One of his sons is long serving U.S. Senator Alan Simpson.

1916:   Sunday State Leader for November 12, 1916: Guard to remain Federalized, Villa avoids encounter with Carranza's troops.
 

The Laramie Republican for November 12, 1916: Villista outrages at Parral
 

1918  Great War Post Script. November 12, 1918: Mutinous German sailors decide to attack the Allies? Draftees still have to report.

The Cheyenne State Leader was wrong.  German sailors were not mobilizing to set sail to take on the Allies.

No, not even close.

The Casper Daily Press did better on the first post World War One day of 1918.

Like Cheyenne, there'd been a lot of celebrating the prior day.

That next day, however, those who had been selected to report for military training, i.e., conscripted, still had to go, even if the Selective Service System was immediately ceasing to classify men for additional conscription.

1920  November 12, 1920. First and lasts in sports, and in life events.

November 12, 1920: Man o' War's final run

Read about it at the above, an unfortunately seemingly inactive blog.

On the same day, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was hired as the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, and at the same time the major leagues took on their present organizational form.

This occured, of course, in the wake of the Black Sox Scandal and as part of an effort to address deficiencies in the organization of the sport and clear up its name.

Italy and what would become Yugoslavia entered into the Treaty of Rapallo. The treaty adjusted territorial boundaries between the nations, which had been disputed in the wake of World War One and the creation of the new state.  The new South Slav kingdom and Italy shared populations that were of the ethnicities of the other state. While the treaty did leave few Italians in Yugoslavia, about 500,000 South Slavs remained in what became Italian territory.

The border would be readjusted following World War Two.

Former resident of Cheyenne and teenage lover of Charlie Chaplin, actress Mildred Harris, was granted a divorce from Chaplin.

Harris' sad story, as well as her peculiar role in history (she's at least partially responsible for Wallace Simpson meeting King Edward VIII, has been addressed elsewhere on this blog.

President Wilson refused to sign the execution warrant for Sgt. Anthony F. Tamme, who had been convicted of espionage during World War One.

1981  The Wyoming (Ohio) Historical Society founded.

2012  For this year, Veteran's Day observed in the United States so as to make the day a three day holiday.

In spite of having fought wars in recent years, and in spite of there being an ongoing one currently, this day seems to have reduced in significance in recent years.  It is a Federal Holiday, but not a day that most people have off.  Schools are in session locally.  There are (as is the norm here) no parades.  Even the Star Tribune, which used to feature Veterans and their stories on this day, has only seen fit to run a single photo page commemorating the day.

2015:  Wyoming Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis, in office since January 2009, announced her intent to abstain running for office at the completion of this term.  Two Republicans announced they were interested in running, with one expressing a definite intent to do so, by the end of the day.

2018  Veterans Day for 2018, given that November 11 fell on a Sunday.

June 24

1864   Colorado Governor John Evans warns that all peaceful Indians in the region must report to the Sand Creek reservation or risk being attacked.  This set in motion that lead to the chain of events that caused the infamous Sand Creek Massacre, The Battle of Red Buttes, and the Battle of Platte Bridge Station.

1876  Crow and Arikara Scouts with Custer's command report the presence of a large village in the Little Big Horn Valley, Montanan, which they are able to see from the Wolf Mountains fifteen miles away.  They report the pony herd to be "like worms crawling on the grass,".  They asked for a soldier to confirm the sighting. Lt. Charles Varnum, Chief of Scouts, did this and subsequently escorted Custer to the same spot, who could not see the village.

Varnum survived the Battle of the Little Big Horn and commanded Co. B, 7th Cav, at Wounded Knee in 1890.  He retired under disability while stationed in the Philippines in 1907, where he remained a reserve office.  He ultimately retired from that position in 1918 and returned to the United States.  When he died in 1936 he was the last surviving officer of the Little Big Horn battle.

1876   Albert Curtis was killed by A.W. Chandler on the Little Laramie River for sheep trespass. This 1876 killing is a surprisingly early incident in what would come to be increasing violence between sheepmen and cattlemen.  Curtis' father was a judge in Ohio.

1891  For the first time, the Chief Justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court performed a wedding.

1898   "Battery A, Wyoming Light Artillery" left for San Francisco, for deployment to the Philippines..Attribution:  On This Day.

1916   The Cheyenne Leader for June 24, 1916: News of Carrizal hits the press.
 

The U.S. Army set back at Carrizal hit the press in full force by June 24.  On the same day the press reported that the Germans had one another victory at Verdun, while stopping the "Slavs", when in fact the Russian offensive had terminated the German's hopes at Verdun.

1919  June 24, 1919. Marching towards Versailles, on the border, and home.

Wyomingites received the official news on this day that the Germans were going to sign the Versailles treaty.

Clearly, a lot of them were not happy about it and there was some resistance to it still in some quarters.

They also learned that things were still tense on the country's border with Mexico.

Fitting for the day, they also learned that the last of Wyoming's National Guardsmen, those in the 148th Field Artillery, would be arriving back in the state that night.

1921  Congressman Mondell visited President Harding.

June 24, 1921. 11th Field Artillery Brigade, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, Cigar Makers, and Mondell visiting Harding.

11th Field Artillery Brigade, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.  June 24, 1921.

The text on the photo reads:

"Just before passing in review before the Department Commander in this closely massed formation on June 24, 1921. (About 400 vehicles). No motor failed and formation remained intact, a record that will rarely be equalled and never surpassed. Tiemann N. Horn, Colonel 13th Field Artillery commanding. To General John J. Pershing, with the compliments of the brigade. R. L. Dancy, Army & Navy Photographer.".

Employees of 7-20-4, R. G. Sullivan, Cigar Factory, Manchester, N.H., no. 192, 100 [percent] Members of Cigar Makers, International Union, June 24, '21

On the same day, the employees of a cigar factory in Manchester, New Hampshire, were photographed.

As was President Harding with Wyoming's Congressman, Frank Wheeler Mondell.  Apparently that inspired President Harding to don an exceedingly large cowboy hat.

Mondell was originally from St. Louis, Missouri and had become a rancher and farmer in Wyoming, as well as a businessman involved in railroad construction.  He'd was Newcastle's mayor from 1888 to 1895 and served in Congress from 1895 to 1896 and then again from 1899 to 1923.  He was the House majority leader in the 66th and 67th Congresses.

1939  The first performance of the Cody night rodeo occurred.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

2016:  The British vote to leave the European Union
 

 From another era, but seemingly the way a little over half the population of the United Kingdom viewed events to some exent.

Fueled at least in part by a feeling that the membership in the EU had subjected the island nation to a level of immigration from the Middle East that it could not absorb, and further stoked by long discontent with statist European EU administration that clashed with the more democratic British tradition, the British voting population voted to get out of the EU.  This was only the fourth referendum in the UK's history, one of the other four, ironically, being one in the 1970s on whether or not the UK should join. 

Opposition to leaving the European Union was the stated policy of both the Labour and the Conservative parties and so the success of the Brexit position came against the influence of Britain's oldest most established parties, showing perhaps how deep the resentment against the EU had become.  Much of the opposition platform was focused on the unknown economic impact of leaving, showing what we stated in a post yesterday is in fact, a fact; people don't focus that much on economics on these sorts of decisions, which are more about a sense of nationhood and emotion than currency.  The British basically voted to try to make sure their island nation, or nations, remained theirs rather than moving into a less certain national future.  While this seems to have come to a surprise to many, and indeed I'm surprised that Brexit won, it may reflect a rising tide of such sentiment across Europe, which now has more countries, albeit within the EU, than it did in 1990 when the Soviet Union fell.

This has caused some speculation that Scotch seperatists might now succeed in taking Scotland out of the UK so it can get back into the EU, and even if Northern Ireland might now reunite with Ireland.  I doubt that very much and think the speculation about nationalistic Ulster particularly misplaced.  Indeed, by far the more likely, if still not likely, national implications is that forces wanting to take Germany, France or Ireland out of the EU will now have some success with their movements.  Again, I don't think that likely to occur, but then I didn't think this was likely either.

You really can't fault an independent nation for wanting to go on its own. So wise or not, a raise of the beer glass to the UK and best wishes to it.

On the implication, nobody knows what they will be other than some short term financial ups and downs which may come to nothing.  More likely is that the UK will simply quietly exist over the next several years and resume independent relations with a somewhat spiteful European Union thereafter. That will likely cause a downturn in the European economy in the short term but a rise in it in the long term as it will free the UK from some of the EU's less rational economic policies. And this might cause the EU to reconsider some of its approach to how it does things which have been heavily bureaucratic and not very democratic.

One immediate impact has been political fallout, and as part of  that Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron, who successfully shepherded the nation through the recent referendum in Scotland about whether that nation would stay or leave the United Kingdom, resigned, or rather indicated that he will be stepping down.  Cameron has been quite unpopular recently and not all of his "conservative" position have really been that and to some extent his unpopularity may have been a partial source of the Brexit vote.  He'll be leaving in October, and indicated in his departing speech:  "A negotiation with the European Union will need to begin under a new prime minister and I think it's right that this new prime minister takes the decision about when to trigger Article 50 and start the formal and legal process of leaving the EU".  He was gracious in his departure and understandably is leaving this for the next administration to handle.  It'll be interesting to see how in fact it is handled, as the Brexit vote did not succeed by a huge margin and Parliament is not technically bound to follow it, although it seems like it will.

In regard to politicians, perhaps the oddest commentary came from Donald Trump, who is oddly enough in Scotland right now.  Most American politicians would be wise enough to shut up on events of this type, but some have seen the hard right political movements in  Europe, and this is sort of (and sort of not) in that category, as part of the same general societal movement that brought Trump into the position of GOP nominee. Trump congratulated the  Brexit vote and then noted that if the pound fell it would be good for one of his golf courses in Scotland.

June 17

1579  Francis Drake anchors in a harbor just north of present-day San Francisco, California, and claims the territory for Queen Elizabeth I, hence explaining the media's fascination with British Royal weddings.

1849  The United States flag raised at Ft. Laramie, now a military post.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1866  Colonel Henry B. Carrington's column left Fort Laramie and started up the Bozeman Trail.The command arrived at Fort Reno on June 28.

1876  The Sioux and Cheyenne block the northern advance of General Crooks Command, operating out of Ft. Fetterman, just over the Montana line in the Battle of the Rosebud.  Unlike what would happen to Custer shortly thereafter, his forces recovered sufficiently so as to be able to hold the field, and then retire from it in order shortly thereafter.  Crook would withdraw all the way to the Big Horns, where the command spent the balance of the summer, engaging in, amongst other things, fishing and hunting.

Somewhat fanciful rendition of Crook's command at the Rosebud.

Battle of the Rosebud Battlefield, Montana.

The Battle of the Rosebud was an important June 1876 battle that came, on June 17, just days prior to the Battle of the Little Big Horn.  Fought by the same Native American combatants, who crossed from their Little Big Horn encampment to counter 993 cavalrymen and mule mounted infantrymen who had marched north from Ft. Fetterman, Wyoming, at the same time troops under Gen. Terry, including Custer's command, were proceeding west from Ft. Abraham Lincoln.  Crook's command included, like Terry's, Crow scouts, and he additionally was augmented soon after leaving Ft. Fetterman by Shoshoni combatants.

The battlefield today is nearly untouched.

Called the Battle Where the Sister Saved Her Brother, or the Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother, like Little Big Horn, it was a Sioux and Arapaho victory, although it did not turn into an outright disaster like Little Big Horn. Caught in a valley and attacked, rather than attacking into a valley like Custer, the Army took some ground and held its positions, and then withdrew.  Crook was effectively knocked out of action for the rest of the year and retreated into the Big Horn mountains in Wyoming.

 

1904  Harry Hudson and John H. Henderlite fought at their sheep camp in the Big Horns and Hudson killed Henderlite, who claimed self defense and asserted that Henderlite came at him with a knife.  He was arrested, but let go for lack of evidence.  Henderlite was buried on location.

1913  U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.

1916  Wyoming National Guard mobilized and Federalized for Mexican border service.  On this same eventful day, additional American troops under the command of Gen. Pershing enter Mexico in an effort to track down Pancho Villa.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1918  Huge evening thunderstorms washed out railroad bridges in Central Wyoming on June 17.  Hardest hit was the area between Powder River and Waltman.

A rail line still runs between the towns today, but there are no bridges.  At the time, there were numerous ones, which shows how different rail bed construction was at the time.

Interestingly, at the time of 2018, this same day was also pretty rainy in Central Wyoming.

1921   Lightning strikes and ignites several oil tanks owned by Midwest Oil Company outside of Casper. The fire that resulted burned for 60 hours and consumed more than a half million gallons of oil.  It was a major disaster at the time.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1944   Saturday, June 17, 1944. A stateside tragedy.

B-24J 42-100023 piloted by 2nd. Lt. Richard Zorn of Connecticut crashed on top of Casper Mountain, south of Casper, Wyoming, at about midnight, killing all on board.

1957  Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody dedicated.