May 25

1865  Indian raid on stage station on Green River drives off stock.

1872  Frank Wolcott, who would later be strongly associated with the Cattleman's invasion of Johnson County, appointed U.S. Marshall.

1898  President McKinley issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 more volunteers for the  Spanish American War.

1903  In a terrible accident, an animal keeper was crushed to death by an elephant in a freight car near Medicine Bow.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1909   The Reclamation Service sold lots in Powell, founding the town.

1911  BB-32 USS Wyoming launched.

1918   Mexico back in the headlines, May 25, 1918
 

Cuba and Mexico, it seems, were not getting along.

And former President Theodore Roosevelt wasn't getting along with the Postmaster General.

Poncho Villa was making the front page again.

And the nation might need old soldiers who hadn't faded away.

Costa Rica had entered the fray.

And snow was predicted.

May 25, 1918.

1971   Major Wiliam E. Adams, U. S. Army, performed the actions that resulted in his being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, but he lost his life in the process.  We was a member of the A/227th Assault Helicopter Company, 52d Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation Brigade. He entered the service from Kansas City, Missouri but had been born in Casper on16 June 1939.  Citation: Maj. Adams distinguished himself on 25 May 1971 while serving as a helicopter pilot in Kontum Province in the Republic of Vietnam. On that date, Maj. Adams volunteered to fly a lightly armed helicopter in an attempt to evacuate 3 seriously wounded soldiers from a small fire base which was under attack by a large enemy force. He made the decision with full knowledge that numerous antiaircraft weapons were positioned around the base and that the clear weather would afford the enemy gunners unobstructed view of all routes into the base. As he approached the base, the enemy gunners opened fire with heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. Undaunted by the fusillade, he continued his approach determined to accomplish the mission. Displaying tremendous courage under fire, he calmly directed the attacks of supporting gunships while maintaining absolute control of the helicopter he was flying. He landed the aircraft at the fire base despite the ever-increasing enemy fire and calmly waited until the wounded soldiers were placed on board. As his aircraft departed from the fire base, it was struck and seriously damaged by enemy anti-aircraft fire and began descending. Flying with exceptional skill, he immediately regained control of the crippled aircraft and attempted a controlled landing. Despite his valiant efforts, the helicopter exploded, overturned, and plummeted to earth amid the hail of enemy fire. Maj. Adams' conspicuous gallantry, intrepidity, and humanitarian regard for his fellow man were in keeping with the most cherished traditions of the military service and reflected utmost credit on him and the U S. Army.

1975  Midwest incorporated.

May 20

1805  The Viceroy of Mexico ordered to compile all information concerning the true boundary between Texas and Louisiana.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1862  Congress passed the Homestead Act.

As surprising as it is now to think of it, the Homestead Act remained in force until 1932 in the lower 48.  The last patents were taken out under the various acts in the 1950s, although entries could still be made in Alaska up until some date in the 1950s.  Homesteading remained quite active in the 1919 to 1932 period, as there were efforts to encourage veterans to homestead following World War One, and there was a lot of desperate homesteading in the 1929 to 1932 time frame.  A Wyoming Supreme Court decisions on a land contest from that period actually noted that no decision could be reached, as homesteading was carving up the contested lands so fast that the decision would be obsolete by the time it was rendered.  The repeal of the act in 1932 was followed by  the failure of many of the late smaller homesteads, and a reversal of the trend.  The Federal Government reacquired many of the late homesteads by default, and actually purchased a large number of them in the Thunder Basin region of Wyoming, as it was so clear that they would fail in the droughts of the 30s.

Following up a bit, it's interesting to note that there were more homesteads taken out under the various Homestead Acts in the 20th Century than there were in 19th.  The 1914 to 1919 period saw a huge boom in homesteading.

One of the most interesting things about the act was said to me by the grandson of Russian immigrants who had homesteaded outside of Cheyenne, WY, that simply being that "it was a good deal for poor people".  I suppose that is true.

How many folks here know of a homesteading ancestor in their family?

1865  Sioux and Cheyenne attacked Three Crossings, Wyoming, which resulted in the death of one of the attacking warriors.

1874 San Francisco based Levi Strauss begian marketing blue jeans with copper rivets.

1879   Peder Bergersan of Cheyenne issued a patent for an improvement in magazine fire-arms.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1886  The Lusk Herald starts publication.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1919  Bus service initiated in Casper.

1936  These photographs of the Twin Lakes Dam area taken.

1938  First city officials elected in La Grange Wyoming.

1947  Earl C. Beeler of Baggs issued a patent for a Sickler Grinder.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1947  USS Casper sold.

1956  Northwest Community College dedicated in Powell.

May 10

1868 The first train enters Laramie.

1869 A golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States.

1890 Laramie policemen instructed to stay out of saloons unless specifically called in to act in them.

1868  A Remount arrives at Ft. Leavenworth Kansas from St. Louis, where it will be named Comanche.  It received the U.S. brand upon its arrival, but it would be soon sold for $90.00 to an officer of the 7th Cavalry, Miles Keogh.

Comanche is repeatedly, if inaccurately, claimed to be the "sole survivor" of the Custer's command at the Little Big Horn, which ignores of course that many of the men in Custer's command served with Reno and Benteen that day, and only the men under his direct field command were killed in the battle.  It further ignores that many 7th Cavalry horses were just carted off by the Sioux and Cheyenne who used them, with the presence of many 7th Cavalry horses being noted by the Northwest Mounted Police after the Sioux crossed into Canada.  Inquires by the NWMP as to whether the U.S. Army wished for the NWMP to recover the horses were met with a negative reply, although at least one of the horses was purchased by a Mountie and owned privately.

1893 The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Nix v. Hedden that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit, under the Tariff Act of 1883.

1899 Fred Astaire was born in Omaha, Neb.

1910  Powell incorporated.

1917   John J. Pershing informed he is to lead American troops in France.
 

I've backed off nearly daily entries from 1917 here, now that we no longer have the Punitive Expedition to follow, and returned more of the traditional pace and focus of the blog, but there are exceptions and today is one.

On this day, in 1917, John J. Pershing, recently promoted to Major General, was informed by Secretary of War Newton Baker that he was to lead the American expeditionary force in France.

This now seems all rather anticlimactic, as if the appointment of Pershing was inevitable, and perhaps it was, but he was not the only possible choice and his selection involved some drama, to some extent.  Pershing was then 56 years old, an age that would have put him in the upper age bracket for a senior office during World War Two, but not at this time in the context of World War One.  Indeed, his rise to Major General had been somewhat unusual in its history and course, as he had earlier been advanced over more senior officers in an era when that was rare, and it is often noted that his marriage to Helen Warren, the daughter of powerful Wyoming Senator Francis E. Warren, certainly did not hurt his career.  Often regarded as having reached the pinnacle of his Army career due to "leading" the Army during the Punitive Expedition, he was in fact technically second in command during that event as the commander of the department he was in was Frederick Funston.

Funston is already familiar to readers here as we covered his death back in  February.  Not really in the best of health in his later years, but still a good five years younger than Pershing, Funston died suddenly only shortly after the Punitive Expedition concluded leaving Pershing his logical successor and the only Army officer then in the public eye to that extent.  Indeed, as the United States was progressing towards entering the war it was Funston, a hero of the Spanish American War, who was being considered by the Wilson Administration as the likely leader of a US contingent to Europe.  His sudden death meant that his junior, Pershing, took pride of place.

But not without some rivals.  Principal among them was Gen. Leonard Wood, a hero of the later stages of the Indian Wars and the Spanish American War who was a protégée of Theodore Roosevelt.  Almost the exact same age as Pershing, Wood was backed by Republicans in Congress for the position of commander of the AEF.  Not too surprisingly, however, given his close association with Roosevelt, he was not offered the command.  Indeed, it was this same week when it became plain that Roosevelt was also not to receive a combat command in the Army, or any role in the Army, for the Great War, to his immense disappointment.

Pershing went on, of course, to command the AEF and to even rise in rank to the second highest, behind only George Washington, rank in the U.S. Army.  That alone shows that he was an enormous hero in his era. He lived through World War Two and in fact was frequently visited by generals of that war, many of them having a close military association with him from World War One.  His personality dramatically impacted the Army during the Great War, so much so that it was sometimes commented upon to the effect that American troops were all carbon copies of Pershing.  Still highly regarded by most (although some have questioned in recent years his view of his black troops) he is far from the household name he once was for the simple reason that World War Two has overshadowed everything associated with World War One.

1928  A Federal law enforcement officer is murdered in the line of duty by a bootlegger, near Wyoming's white lighting center of Kemmerer.

1944 Tom Bell, the founder of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, wounded in action in a B-24 mission over Austria.  He wold loose his right eye as a result of his injuries.

1954 Bill Haley and His Comets release "Rock Around the Clock".

February 12

1809     Abraham Lincoln born in present-day Larue County, Ky.

1870     Women in the Utah Territory gained the right to vote.

1873  Barnum Brown, paleontologist, born in Carbondale Kansas. See February 5.

1915  A fire in the downtown area of Powell caused resort to dynamite to blow out the flames.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1918   February 12, 1918. The bad news. Some good. And a Holiday.
 

The paper was expressing the worries that a lot of people no doubt had.

The King had addressed his nation.

It turned out that the recently sunk Tuscania did have some Wyoming men on board it, but they had survived.

Cheyenne was named as a future air hub for airborne travelers to Yellowstone, and interesting forward looking thought.

And it was Lincoln's Birthday, a holiday.

February 12, 1919. Lincoln's Birthday. Returning heroes, Women and radios, Highways in Wyoming, Worker's Compensation and Villa not dead.

Black soldiers of the 369th Infantry, New York National Guard, who had won the Croix de Guerre in France.  February 12, 1919.

Returning black soldiers were photographed returning to New York.  The link posted in above details their heroism and their later lives, something I always find interesting.

Women radio operators of the U.S. Army, February 12, 1919.

Women were brought into the service in the Great War in substantial numbers for the first time.  Among their roles was that of radio and telephone operators.  As with other soldiers, some stayed on in Europe after the war, where their services remained in need.

I'll have a post on something in the 2019 genre that is related to the above, but the winds of change were blowing in the state as evidence by the article that the State was getting into highway funding in a major way.  $6,600,000 was a huge amount of money in 1919, and it was going into highway construction.

The automobile era had arrived.

A renewed war scare was building as well as it appeared that Germany was about to rearm.  It would have had a really hard time doing so in 1919, but the fear was understandable.

And surprisingly, there was discussion in the legislature about adding agricultural workers to the Workers Compensation rolls.  They were exempted when the bill passed a few years earlier, and they still are.  Such a suggestion would get nowhere today, but then there was a higher percentage of the population employed in agriculture in 1919 than there is in 2019.

And Villa was reported dead again, but the paper was doubting the veracity of that report.

1919  February 12, 1919. Lincoln's Birthday. Returning heroes, Women and radios, Highways in Wyoming, Worker's Compensation and Villa not dead.

Black soldiers of the 369th Infantry, New York National Guard, who had won the Croix de Guerre in France.  February 12, 1919.

Returning black soldiers were photographed returning to New York.  The link posted in above details their heroism and their later lives, something I always find interesting.

Women radio operators of the U.S. Army, February 12, 1919.

Women were brought into the service in the Great War in substantial numbers for the first time.  Among their roles was that of radio and telephone operators.  As with other soldiers, some stayed on in Europe after the war, where their services remained in need.

I'll have a post on something in the 2019 genre that is related to the above, but the winds of change were blowing in the state as evidence by the article that the State was getting into highway funding in a major way.  $6,600,000 was a huge amount of money in 1919, and it was going into highway construction.

The automobile era had arrived.

A renewed war scare was building as well as it appeared that Germany was about to rearm.  It would have had a really hard time doing so in 1919, but the fear was understandable.

And surprisingly, there was discussion in the legislature about adding agricultural workers to the Workers Compensation rolls.  They were exempted when the bill passed a few years earlier, and they still are.  Such a suggestion would get nowhere today, but then there was a higher percentage of the population employed in agriculture in 1919 than there is in 2019.

And Villa was reported dead again, but the paper was doubting the veracity of that report.

1924 George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" premiered in New York City.

1941  Governor Smith designates the period of February 12 to 22 National Defense Week.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1971  James Cash Penney died in New York City. Penney, in partnership with Guy Johnson and Thomas Callahan, opened his first store in Kemmerer in 1902.  He had been working for Johnson and Callahan in Golden Rule stores in Utah, and they had been impressed with him as an employee.  Penny bought them out in 1917 and the franchise expanded rapidly thereafter.  The company did have its ups and downs and Penny himself had to fund the company by borrowing on his life insurance to keep it running during the Great Depression.

2018  The Legislature opened with Governor Mead's State of the State address.

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2018   Big Brown Closes
 

Big Brown in Fairfield Texas, a coal fired power plant that used Wyoming coal, has closed, the victim of natural gas.

We've been tracking this trend for some time.  It's this trend, the phasing out of coal for electrical power generation, that's causing the decline in demand for Wyoming coal. And this trend will continue.

It's worth noting, a day after Natrona County's Chuck Gray introduced a quixotic bill to sue Washington State over it's "no" to a coal terminal in its state, thereby proposing to bypass the Attorney General who no doubt know that such an effort is doomed to failure, that this is not only a national trend, but set to become a global one.  Indeed, it hit in Europe in some ways before here, and its in full swing here.  People who look to Asian markets to save coal are fooling themselves.  Sure, they might consume it at an increased rate briefly, but at the speed this conversion is occurring, it will be brief indeed.

As we have also noted, this is a trend line that is over a century old.  We always only live in our own times and therefore have a hard time appreciating that. But if we really want to sue somebody. . .sue the Royal Navy.  They really accelerated this change.

Me, third from right, when I thought I had a career in geology.

2024.  State of the State, and State of the Judiciary.