Bloody 287

 

I've traveled it countless times myself, that stretch of highway between Laramie and Ft. Collins.

It's not a great road.

Thursday, three UW swimmers were killed in a single-vehicle crash on U.S. 287 in northern Colorado.  Two more were injured.  They were 18, 19, and 21.

In September of 2001, eight members of UW’s cross-country team were killed in a two-vehicle collision south of Laramie on U.S. 287 near Tie Siding.

In September 2010, UW football player Ruben Narcisse, 19, of Miami, Florida, was killed on U.S. 287 six miles south of the Wyoming state line after the driver of the vehicle he was a passenger in fell asleep. That one, I guess, you can't blame on the road.

Seems like something should be done.

Appendix:

Governor Gordon Issues Statement Following Fatal Car Accident Involving University of Wyoming Swimmers

CHEYENNE, Wyo. –   Governor Mark Gordon has issued the following statement after learning of a single-vehicle car accident that claimed the lives of three members of the University of Wyoming swim team on Thursday on U.S. 287 in northern Colorado.

“I am heartbroken to learn of the tragic deaths of three University of Wyoming student athletes in a motor vehicle accident on US 287 in Colorado. Jennie and I join the entire university community and all of Wyoming in mourning this loss, and we ask you to keep their families, friends and loved ones close to your hearts during this difficult time.”

Today In Wyoming's History: September 27. Disasters and ships.

From Today In Wyoming's History: September 27:

1923  Thirty railroad passengers were killed when a CB&Q train
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.

There's something in the county memorializing the latter (the ship's wheel, in the old courthouse), but not the former.

Such an awful disaster, you'd think there might be.

October 11

1809         Meriwether Lewis, soldier, explorer, dies by his own hand at age 39.  Lewis had performed heroically with the Corps of Discovery, but he suffered from what today would be regarded as periodic episodes of severe depression.

1869  The Red River Rebellion commences in Manitoba when Canadian surveyor Adam Clark Webb and his crew try to mark off a long farm field belonging to Metis André Nault.  Nault asked them to leave and they refused.  Metis then intervened, without arms, and compelled the surveyors to depart.  The Metis had roots down into Montana and traveled for hunting as far south as Wyoming's Powder River Basin.

1890  Wyoming's first state elected officers took their offices.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1912  The film Charge of the Light Brigade premiered.  The film has scenes that were filmed at the Army/Army National Guard training range of Pole Mountain in it.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1914  Richard Daniels Jr., one of the child actors in the Our Gang series, born in Rock Springs.  Daniels would continue to act in to his early adult years and remained popular with fans, but ultimately intentionally dropped out of sight.  He died at age 55 due to the effects of alcoholism.

1918  Countdown on the Great War. October 11, 1918. The flu takes hold in Wyoming.

Private Frank Sovicki, 338407, Company C, Fourth Infantry, of 318 East Central St., Shenandoah, PA., first Amer to escape from a German prison camp. Escaped to Switzerland, October 11, 1918.

1.  Allied forces take Niis, Serbia.

2.  The flu spreads in Wyoming:

The state was now reporting 2,000 cases of the Spanish Flu.

4th Liberty Loan parade, St. Helena Training Station.  October 11, 1918.

1929  JC Penney, whose first store was in Kemmerer, opens store #1252 in Milford, Delaware, making his company the first retail chain to have an outlet in every state (the 48) in the US.

1936  Franklin and Elanor Roosevelt attended Sunday morning services at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Cheyenne.  In that earlier era, the extent to which the relationship between the President and First Lady was somewhat strained was not really apparent to the general public, although it was somewhat known to their close associates.  This had resulted from an affair that Franklin Roosevelt had with Elanor's social secretary early in their marriage. The marriage never really recovered as a traditional marriage thereafter and the pair went on to be close political partners with an unusual relationship thereafter.

1936  Educator, lawyer, author, engineer, and polymath Grace Hebard died in Laramie.

1968  Apollo 7 launched, Coup in Panama. October 11, 1968

Florida as viewed from Apollo 7.

1.  It was the first of the Apollo missions to be manned.

2.  Panama underwent a military coup.  It would remain controlled by its military for quite some time thereafter.  The democratically elected Arnulfo Arias had been in office twice before, in the 40s and 50s, but was in office for only eleven days on this occasion.

1919  October 11, 1919. Air Derby, Disasters At Sea, Strife in Russia, Newspapers by Air.

Lt. B. W. Maynard, right, in front of a DH-4.  Sgt. Kline was Maynard's mechanic and in the second seat. This photo was taken during the Air Derby.

The press was taking an interest in a particular pilot, B. W. Maynard.  Maynard was an Army aviator, but the press liked the idea that Maynard was an ordained minister, which he was not. Rather, prior to World War One, he had been a seminary student at Wake Forest.

Maynard had become an Army pilot during World War One, and he was still flying in 1919, just after the war was over.  He was killed in 1922 preforming stunts in a "flying circus" event.

Too much was going on, on this day, otherwise to really summarize it. Even the headlines of the papers were a mess.

One new oddity was, however, that the Casper Herald flew newspapers to Riverton, showing how much the Air Deby had captivated the imagination of the state.

2015:  Casper's Balefill Fire was rolling.

Holscher's Hub: Casper Bale Fill Fire, October, 11 2015

Holscher's Hub: Casper Bale Fill Fire, October 2015

2019  International Day of the Girl Child.

Elsewhere:

1649  The Sack of Wexford occurred in which the English New Model Army troops stormed the town of Wexford, Ireland and killed over 2,000 Irish Confederate troops and 1,500 civilians. [/quote]

One of the casualties of the New Model Army that day was a direct ancestor of mine, a resident of Wexford armed to resist the Cromwellian forces.

August 16

1825  Wyoming's first delegate to Congress, Stephen F. Nuckolls, born in Grayson County, Virginia.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1918  Typhus Fears In Casper and salamanders in the water, August 16, 1918.

Typhus is something we don't worry much about in the United States anymore, but at one time we did.  Problems with typhus in the water supply were a frequent source of concern for Casperites early in the city's history.

And fortunately an oilfield worker was only slightly burned, and returned to work on the Muddy Field. 

1919  August 16, 1919. Steep grades for the Motor Transport Convoy, the 35 miles between Fort Bridger and Evanston Wyoming.

Evanston, Wyoming's well preserved downtown.

Mountainous terrain became the challenge this day for the Motor Transport Convoy, as it passed from Fort Bridger to Evanston Wyoming.

A 12% grade is incredibly steep.

Former Union Pacific roundhouse in Evanston, Wyoming, now a museum.

In other vehicle news, the first automobile race at the Orange County California Fair was held.

Back home, Frank Hadsell was so impressed with the recent cover photograph on the August issue of the Wyoming Stockman Farmer, he was hoping to buy fifty copies.

1920.  The first airplane to land at Kemmerer crashed into a tree during the process of landing. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

2022.  In an extremely contentious primary contest, overshadowed by the January 6 insurrection, incumbent Elizabeth Cheney lost the Republican primary to Harriet Hageman for the position of U.S. Congressman from Wyoming.