November 22

1542  New laws passed in Spain giving protection against the enslavement of Indians in America.

1813  One of the two dates of death given for John Colter.  Colter was a member of the Corps of Discovery.  Following his early discharge in 1806 in North Dakota, before the expedition had fully returned, he joined a party of trappers as a guide and famously was the first American to describe thermal activity in the Yellowstone country.  He fought in Nathan Boone's Rangers in the War of 1812, and spent the final years of his life as a farmer in Missouri.

1858  Denver, Colorado is founded as Denver City.  It was named for Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver and was in the Territory of Kansas at the time.

1877  Governor Thayer approved a memorandum to Congress protesting against a proposed division of the Wyoming Territory.

As evident from the various discussions of territorial boundaries found on this site, the boundaries and governmental entities applicable to what is now the State of Wyoming were remarkably fluid up until at least the 1870s.

1889  A fire damaged the state Capitol.  Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1892  Burlington Northern rails reach Sheridan.

1963  President John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, TX.

Friday, November 22, 1963. The assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 22: 1963  President John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, TX.

President Kennedy was a very popular President in a very difficult time.  A lot of my comments about his presidency here have not been terribly charitable, but he was a hero to many, and some of his calls here have unfairly not been noted.  For instance, he exercised restraint during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which almost resulted in a Third World War, and he likewise kept the separation of Berlin from escalating into the same, even though his comments caused that crisis to come about.

In spite of repeated speculation about it, it's clear that the assassination was carried out as a lone, bizarre act by Lee Harvey Oswald.  Indeed, the lone actor aspect of that has fueled the conspiracy theories surrounding the event, as people basically don't want to accept that a lone actor can have such a massive and unforeseen impact.

I was alive at the time, but of course I don't remember this as I was only a few months old.  In my father's effects, I'd note, was a Kennedy Mass Card that he'd kept. No doubt, Masses were said around the country for the first Catholic President.

Often unnoticed about this event, Oswald probably had made an earlier attempt on the life of former Army Gen. Edwin Walker, who ironically was a radical right wing opponent of Kennedy's.  That attempt had occured in April. And Oswald killed Texas law enforcement officer J. D. Tippit shortly after killing Kennedy.  Oswald's initial arrest was for his murder of Tippit.

It's fair to speculate on how different history might have been had Kennedy lived.  Kennedy's actions had taken the US up to the brink of war with the Soviet Union twice, but in both instances, when the crisis occured, he steered the country out of it, and indeed his thinking was often better in those instances than his advisers. Under Kennedy the US had become increasingly involved in the Vietnam War, but there's at least some reason to believe that he was approaching the point of backing off in Vietnam, and it seems unlikely that the US would have engaged in the war full scale as it did under Lyndon Johnson.  If that's correct, the corrosive effect the war had on US society, felt until this day, might have been avoided.

All of which is not to engage in the hagiography often engaged in considering Kennedy.  To the general public, the James Dean Effect seems to apply to Kennedy, as he died relatively young.  Catholics nearly worshiped him as one of their own.  In reality, Kennedy had a really icky personal life and was hardly a living saint.  His hawkishness in a time of real global strife, moreover, produced at least one tragic result, and nearly caused others.

1982  President Reagan informed Congress of his intent to deploy MX missles to hardened silos under the command of F. E. Warren AFB.

2010  Gov. Matt Mead announced that Greg Phillips would take over as Wyoming's Attorney General under his administration.

2012  Today was Thanksgiving Day for 2012.

November 18

1832  William Hale born in New London Iowa.  He would serve as Territorial Governor from July 1882 until his death in 1885.

1869  Governor John A. Campbell proclaimed the day "a day of Thanksgiving and Praise."

1883  John (Manual Felipe) Phillips (Cardoso) died in Cheyenne Wyoming.  He is famously remembered as the civilian who rode 236 miles from Ft. Phil Kearny to Ft. Laramie following the Fetterman Fight.  Phillips is an interesting character and was born in the Azores in 1832, which he left at age 18 on a whaler bound for California in order to pan for gold.  He was a gold prospector across the West for 15 year.  He was actually at Ft. Phil Kearny as a party of miners he was left had pulled into the fort in September of 1866.His famous ride is somewhat inaccurately remembered, as he did not make the entire ride alone, as often imagined, but instead rode with Daniel Dixon.  Both men were paid $300.00 for their effort.  After this event Phillips switched occupations to that of mail courier, and then he became a tie hack in Elk Mountain Wyoming, supplying rails to the Union Pacific.  In 1870 he married and founded a ranch at Chugwater, Wyoming.  He and his wife sold the ranch in 1878, and he moved to Cheyenne where he lived until his death.

1883     The United States and Canada adopted a system of standard time zones.

1886 Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president of the United States, died in New York at age 56.

1889  The first train to arrive in Newcastle arrives.  Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1890  Francis E. Warren assumes the office of U.S. Senator from Wyoming.  He was Wyoming's first Senator.

1902   Frederick Remington drew pictures of dedication of Irma Hotel, Cody.  Courtesy of Wyoming State Archives via the Wyoming State Historical Society's calendar.

1918  November 18, 1918. Allies March on the Rhine and the Impact of the Loss of the War Stars More Fully In Germany

Photograph taken on November 18, 1918.

Particularly if you hang out in areas of the net where the things are somewhat pedantic, you'll see the claim that World War One "didn't end" on November 11, 1918, because the Versailles Treaty was signed in May, 1919.

Cheyenne newspaper noting the American and Allied march into Germany and the surrender of the German fleet.  This paper also notes the horrible death toll of the Spanish Flu Epidemic.

Well, dear reader, armies don't march into the "heart" of a nation that isn't defeated.  Nor does a non defeated nation, in a time of war, turn its ships over to the enemy.

Laramie newspaper noting much the same, but also noting one of the ways in which wars change things. . . air mail was expanding following the close of the war. . . and of course the war had changed airplanes much.

No, while you'll occasionally see that, it's clear German was not only on its knees in November 1918, it was a defeated nation in Revolution.

The Casper paper ran as its headline the reunification of Alsace with France. . .something that a defeated nation does is give up territory.

And Germany was getting smaller, as this headline noted.

1921 Friday November 18, 1921. No small beers, no new ships.

The U.S. Senate passed the Willis-Campbell Act on this day in 1921 prohibiting physicians from proscribing beer as a medical remedy. They could still prescribe hard alcohol and wine.

On the same day, the British suspended new ship construction in light of progress at the Washington Naval Conference talks.   And Roscoe Arbuckle's trial was proceeding.

Arbuckle with his defense team and brother.

Marshall Foch visited New York City's statue of Joan d'Arc.

Marshal Ferdinand Jean Marie Foch with mineralogist George Frederick Kunz at a ceremony held at the Joan of Arc statue in New York City. Standing at the right, is Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington, sculptor of the Joan of Arc statue, and Jacqueline Vernot holding flowers.

The Soviet Union, which was going to have an economy based on pure ownership by the proletariat of the means of production, figured out that banks were a necessity and crated a state bank.  The Soviet economy was collapsing.

1943  The Wyoming Department of Education released the results of a survey revealing that the state was short 70 teachers, no doubt the result of teachers having joined the armed forces during World War Two.  Attribution. Wyoming History Calendar.

2023.  Pine Ridge Reservation declared a state of emergency due to a rise in crime, with the same to last until January 1, 2025.

November 17

1835  The people of Cincinnati, Ohio raised funds for two cannons for Texas that became known as the "twin sisters."  Attribution:  On This Day.

1880  Rain In The Face surrendered with 500 followers at Ft. Keogh.

1906  Eleven people were killed in a head on train collision near Azusa, Wyoming.  The collision was caused by a mistake in a train order in a telegraph, and most of the men killed were railroad employees in a day coach.

1910  First annual conference of Wyoming clergy held. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1918  Monuments that didn't happen. November 17, 1918.

American infantrymen crossing the Armistice Line at Etain, November 17, 1918.

American troops were marching into Germany while some were denying that a prostrate Germany was prostrate.  And at the same time a proposal was made to erect a monument to the Great War dead from Natrona County in front of the courthouse.

That courthouse is now gone.  Maybe that monument was erected and is gone now, but as far as I'm aware, the only outdoor memorial to Natrona County's World War One veterans came up in the 2000s, although there were early memorials of other types, those being a trench mortar in Veteran's Park, Caissons at Washington Park, and a swimming pool named in memory of a lost soldier of World War One at the same park.

1919  November 17, 1919. News of the Carlyle Escape Breaks

News broke on this day in 1919 that William Carlisle, the train robber, had escaped from the penitentiary.  He'd broken out on Saturday.

He would not be out for long.

1925  An earthquake occurred at Big Horn with the tremor felt in Johnson and Sheridan Counties.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1980  Christ Episcopal Church in Douglas added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Elsewhere:

1968     NBC outraged football fans by cutting away from the final minutes of a game to air a TV special, "Heidi," on schedule.

1970   Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse.

2008     The vampire romance movie "Twilight" premiered in Los Angeles, an event destined in future years to be ranked with the Vandals sacking Rome as a really bad day for Western Civilization.

2012  From the Governor's office:

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Governor Matt Mead released the following statement regarding the refugee issue:

"No state should have to endure the threat of terrorists entering our borders," Governor Mead said. "The President needs to make certain an absolutely thorough vetting system is in place that will not allow terrorists from Syria or any other part of the world into our country. In light of the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris, I have joined other governors in demanding the refugee process be halted until it is guaranteed to provide the security demanded by Wyoming and United States citizens. I have written the President (letter attached) to make it known Wyoming will not accept a lackluster system that allows terrorists to slip through the cracks."

Governor Mead and other governors have a conference call with the President this afternoon.

I don't usually editorialize in these comments (although I do occasionally), but it's hard not to see this as a political reaction.  Given the lack of infrastructure for it, it is doubtful at best that any Syrian refugees would have been resettled in Wyoming.  A person can debate whether any terrorist  might enter the US in this fashion, but a person is also bound to consider the added humanitarian crisis that failing to address this situation will cause, and the added likelihood of that potentially inspiring violence in the future.

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.

October 30

1866  A grand pass and review was held at recently established, and semi beseiged, Fort Phil Kearny.

1889:  CB&Q RR entered Wyoming. Attribution: Wyoming State Archives via the Wyoming Historical Calendar, published by the Wyoming State Historical Society and the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

1913  Superior approved an ordinance declaring animals and livestock at large to be a nuisance. 

1916   The Wyoming Tribune for October 30, 1916. War in Europe and a special on outrages in Mexico
 

The Tribune, which always angled towards the sensational, was in peak form for its Monday October 30, 1916, edition.
1937  Officials started to move into the new Waskakie County Courthouse.

1945  Shoe rationing ends.

1947  The decommissioned USS Wyoming was sold for scrap.It was a World War One era battleship, but had been used as a training ship after the Washington Naval Treaty caused it to be deprived of its main armament.

 

 The USS Wyoming in April 1945.

1959  Wyoming's 4th uranium  mill began production in the Gas Hills.

October 20

1803  Louisiana Purchase ratified.

1889  Oil discovered near Douglas.

1906  Southeast Wyoming hit by a three day blizzard.

1913  The Burlington Northern arrived in Casper.

1917   Louis Senften  was murdered near Leo.  This resulted in his neighbor, John Leibig, who was the only one to witness the death, being accused of murder.

The accusations against Leibig seem to have been motivated, at least in part, by his being of German origin.  Senften had just purchased his ranch after a long effort to do so but there were details concerning that purchased that may have caused Leibig's neighbors to wish him gone.  Be that as it may, he was acquitted of murder but was also held on an additional eleven counts of espionage, a fairly absurd accusation against somebody who lived in such a remote location.  Leibig, perhaps wanting to simply get past the matter, entered a guilty plea to those charges as part of a plea bargain.  He was accordingly sentenced to a year and a half in a Federal Penitentiary, but President Wilson commuted the sentence to one year.  The short length of the sentence would suggest that both the Court and the President doubted the espionage claims' veracity.

Wyoming's U.S. Attorney continued Quixotic efforts to strip Leibig of his citizenship until 1922, although he had in fact lost it by operation of his sentence.  He ultimately would relocate to Colorado after being released from the Federal Penitentiary at Ft. Leavenworth Kansas.

More can be read about his trial on the WyomingHistory.org webiste.

1918  Countdown on the Great War. Sunday, October 20, 1918. The Allied advance keeps on keeping on, New American Divisions keep on forming, German Submarines and mines keep on sinking ship, and the Spanish Flu is still on a rampage.

American troops getting newspapers from the back of an American Red Cross truck.

1.  The British occupied Roubaix and Tourcoing.

2.  The U.S. 96th Division came into being, showing how the Army had grown and was continuing to grow.  It never left the states.

3.  The British schooner Emily Millington was sunk by a surfaced submarine without loss of life.   The British mointor HMS M21 hit a mine and sank in the English channel.

4.  The Spanish Flu was on a "rampage":

1958  Northeast Wyoming and Southeast Montana hit by a severe blizzard.

2009  Clifford Hanson, former Governor of Wyoming and Senator from Wyoming, died.

July 19

1814         Samuel Colt, firearms inventor, born.

1864  The USS Wyoming returned to a U.S. port after extended service in the Far East, which she would soon see again.

1867.  The Army commences construction of Ft. Fetterman.  The fort is located on a windy bluff overlooking the Platte River.  The site requires those detailed to walk some distance to water, and for a period of time the post would have the highest insanity rate in the Army.

1877  .Union Pacific employees wrote Yale paleontologist William Carlin about the discovery of fossils at Como Bluff.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1885  Owen Wister takes his legendary snooze on the counter of the general store at Medicine Bow, while waiting for a train.  The Philadelphia born Wister, was very well educated and had hoped for a career in music, but instead obtained a law degree from Harvard due to the urging of his father.  He practiced law in Philadelphia.  During that period he commenced vacationing in the West, with his first trip to Wyoming being this one, in 1885.  It would lead to his legendary book, The Virginian. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1890  Laramie granted a franchise for a street railway.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1907  Isabel Jewell born in Shoshoni.  Jewell was a successful Broadway and screen actress in the 1930s and 1940s.

1918  The headline says it all. Laramie Boomerang, July 19, 1918.

1922 Cheyenne's mayor banned the sale of firearms during a railroad strike.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1923 Wednesday, July 18, 1923. Special Session Ends.

The Special Session of the Legislature was already over.

Bet it wouldn't be that quick now.

And the shocking murder trial resulting from the shooting of a woman in a car which would not dim its lights, at the hands of law enforcement, was set for September.

1924  Stan Hathaway born in Osceola, Nebraska.  He was raised by an aunt and uncle in Hunley Wyoming after his mother died when he was two, and was the valedictorian of Huntley High School in 1941.  He served in the Army Air Corps in World War Two, became a lawyer after the war, and was elected governor in 1967.  He was briefly the Secretary of the Interior under President Gerald Ford.

1925  A collection of farm and ranch photographs was taken.

1964  The Swan Land and Cattle Company Headquarters was designated a National Historic Landmark.  Attribution:  On This Day.

2012  W. N. "Neil" McMurry, a giant in Wyoming's heavy construction industry for many years, and a significant figure in the oil and gas industry in his later years, died.  His activities in these fields were particularly noticeable in Casper, where foundations related to his activities had a significant impact on the area.

July 15

1215  King John assents to the Magna Carta, one of the primary documents of the English legal system, and by extension, the legal system of the United States.

1863  USS Wyoming victorious at Shimonoseki Straits in an action against a Japanese local power (warlord).

1866 The site for Ft. Phil Kearney chosen.   

1872  Cornerstone laid for the Territorial Prison in Laramie.

1918  The Kaiserschlacht Ends. July 15, 1918. Operation Friedensturm

Not very cheery news for a Monday.  Wyoming State Tribune for Monday, July 15, 1918.

Monday, July 15, 1918, brought discouraging, if not unexpected, news.

 

The map one final time, with the final German fifth drive.  This time the Germans attempted to exploit the earlier success of their drive on Paris with a new front to the east.  Over two days the effort gained ground, but the effort was rapidly halted and by this point the French were able to regain the initiative and counter.  The Germans were effectively blocked and gave up offensive efforts on August 7.

On July 15 the Germans resumed offensive operations, but not the Operation Hagen that was designed to be a final blow. Rather, they launched Friedensturm to exploit the earlier  Blücher–Yorck gains. While the offensive, like every other German offensive in this series of operations gained ground, the French were able to ultimately counterattack successfully and the German offensive operations came to an end on August 7.

Laramie residents not only read about the fierce fighting in France. . . they also got to read about how coal shortages were looking to bring an end to beer.

The final effort would see, as with the earlier efforts, some hard fighting.  The Second Battle of the Marne was part of the offensive, which would run from this day until August 6.  The Fourth Battle of Champaigne also started on this day. Both were launched against the French Fourth Army, the Germans having switched attention to them, of which the US 42nd Division was a part.  The 42nd was a division made up of National Guardsmen.  The French forces, moreover, were rapidly reinforced by British and American troops.  The US 3d Division would be back in action on this day and earn the nickname "The Rock of the Marine".  By the battles end eight American divisions would participate and the US would sustain 12,000 casualties.  The number of divisions contributed to the defense would be twice that of the British, with American divisions being twice as large, but even embattled Italy contributed two divisions and sustained 9,000 casualties.  Forty-four French divisions would fight in the battle and fifty-two German divisions. 

Allied battlefield loses would be roughly equal to German ones in the campaign, but by this point the Germans did not have the troops to lose.

1894  Butch Cassidy and Al Hainer sent to the Wyoming State Penitentiary for extortion.  They'd been running a protection racket aimed at ranchers.

1920  Casper made the headquarters for a division of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1992 ML Ranch in Big Horn County added to the National Register of Historic Places.

July 4

Today is Independence Day.

1776  Congress passed a declaration of independence from the United Kingdom, which stated:

On this date in 1776 the Continental Congress acted to pass The Declaration of Independence.

By this act, the Continental Congress radically altered the nature of the ongoing war against the United Kingdom, no matter what prospective the war is viewed from. The American colonies had been at war with the United Kingdom since 1774, when militiamen and British troops first engaged each other in combat at Lexington and Concord.

While it seems difficult to understand it now, the war was not at first for the stated war aim of achieving a complete separation from the United Kingdom. The various Colonial governments viewed their association with the United Kingdom in different ways, some of which would seem quite foreign to Americans today. At first the concept of completely severing a political association with the United Kingdom seemed so extremely radical as to be beyond consideration for many. However, by the second year of the war, the section of the population which wished for Congress to declare the colonies to be independent from the United Kingdom (which was a concept that some Colonist had before the war, and already believed to be a type of reality) had grown to the point where a majority in Congress favored it. On this day, Congress declared the separation to be a permanent and self evident fact.

The text of the Declaration reads:

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

1803 The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.

1830  William Sublette names "Rock Independence" as his Wind River bound party spent the 4th of July there.  The name would shortly be changed to Independence Rock.

1836  Narcissa Prentiss Whitman and Eliza Hart Spaulding, the first Euroepan Ameirican women to cross the continent, made a marker at South Pass. Attribution:  On This Day.

1845   The Texas Constitutional Convention voted to accept United States annexation and to submit the decision to the voters of Texas.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1864  Congress passed the Immigration Act allowing for the immigration of Chinese laborers. The act was brought about due to Civil War educed labor shortages.

1866   Fort Halleck was abandoned.Attribution:  On This Day.

1867  Cheyenne named that.  On the same day, it was platted (and hence named) by Gen. Grenville Dodge.

1874  The Bates Battle, July 4, 1874

We were fortunately recently to be able to tour one of Wyoming's little known battlefields recently, thanks due to the local landowner who controls the road access letting us on.  We very much appreciate their generosity in letting us do so.

Our Jeep, which should have some clever nickname, but which does not.  Wrecked twice, and reassembled both times, it gets us where we want to go.  But we only go so far. We stopped after awhile and walked in.

The battlefield is the Bates Battlefield, which is on the National Registry of Historic landmarks, but which is little viewed. There's nothing there to tell you that you are at a battlefield. There are no markers or the like, like there is at Little Big Horn.  You have to have researched the area before you arrive, to know what happened on July 4, 1874, when the battle was fought.  And even at that, accounts are confusing.

Fortunately for the researcher, a really good write up of what is known was done when Historic Site status was applied for. Rather than try to rewrite what was put in that work, we're going to post it here.  So we start with the background.

And on to the confusion in the accounts, which we'd note is common even for the best known of Indian battles.  Indeed, maybe all of them.

The text goes on to note that the Arapaho raided into country that what was withing the recently established Shoshone Reservation, which we know as the Wind River Indian Reservation.  It also notes that this was because territories which the various tribes regarded as their own were fluid, and it suggest that a culture of raiding also played a potential part in that. In any event, the Shoshone found their reservation domains raided by other tribes.  Complaints from the Shoshone lead, respectively, to Camp Augur and Camp Brown being established, where are respectively near the modern towns of Lander and Ft. Washakie (which Camp Brown was renamed).

The immediate cause of the raid was the presence of Arapaho, Northern Cheyenne, and Sioux parties in the area in June and July 1874 that had an apparent intent to raid onto the Reservation.  Ironically, the Arapaho, who were involved in this battle, had separated themselves from the Cheyenne and the Sioux and had no apparent intent to participate in any such raids. They thereafter placed themselves in the Nowood River area.  Indian bands were known to be in the area that summer, and they were outside of those areas designated to them by the treaties of 1868.

Given this, Cpt. Alfred E. Bates, at Camp Brown, had sent scouts, including Shoshone scouts, into the field that summer to attempt to locate the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho bands.  On June 29, Shoshone scouts reported at Camp Brown that they'd sited an Arapaho village.  We here pick back up from the text:

The expedition took to the field on July 1, 1874, and remarkably, it traveled at night.

A few days later, they found what they were looking for.

Let's take a look at some of what Bates was seeing:

This is the valley which was below the ridge that Bates was traveling up, the night he found the Arapaho village when he passed it by.  It's not clear to me if he backtracked all the way back past this point and came back up this valley, or if he came from another direction.  Based upon the description, I suspect he rode all the way back and came up from this direction, but from the high ground, not down here in the valley.

Here's the spot that Bates referenced as being the area where two ravines joined.  Not surprisingly, in this wet year, the spot is fairly wet.  But to add to that, this area features a spring, known today, and probably dating back to the events of this battle, as Dead Indian Springs.  The "gentle slope" from which Cpt. Bates made his survey, is in the background.

And here we look up that second ravine, with its current denizens in view.

And here we see the prominent bluff opposite of where Cpt. Bates reconnoitered.  It was prominent indeed.

Bates chose to attack down the slope of the hill he was on, described above, with thirty troopers and twenty Shoshones.  At the same time, Lt. Young, meanwhile, attached down the valley from above it on the watercourse, in an apparent effort to cut the village off and achieve a flanking movement.

The slope down which Bates and his detail attacked, and the draw down which Young attacked.

The draw down which Young attacked.

The slope down which Bates attacked is depicted above.

The fighting was fierce and the Arapaho were surprised.  They put up a good account, however, and were even able to at least partially get mounted.  Chief Black Coal was wounded in the fighting and lost several fingers when shot while mounted.  The Arapaho defended the draw and the attack, quite frankly, rapidly lost the element of surprise and became a close quarters melee.

The slope down which Bates attacked.

The valley down which Young attacked.

High ground opposite from the slope down which Bates attacked.

Fairly quickly, the Arapaho began to execute the very move that Bates feared, and they retrated across the draw and started to move up the high ground opposite the direction that Bates had attacked from.  Young's flanking movement had failed.

The high ground.

The opposing bluff.

The opposing bluff.

Bates then withdrew.

Bates' command suffered four dead and five or six wounded, including Lt. Young.  His estimates for Arapaho losses were 25 Arapaho dead, but as he abandoned the field of battle, that can't be really verified.  Estimates for total Arapaho casualties were 10 to 125.  They definitely sustained some losses and, as noted, Chief Black Coal was wounded in the battle.

Bates was upset with the results of the engagement and placed the blame largely on the Shoshone, whom he felt were too noisy in the assault in the Indian fashion.  He also felt that they had not carried out his flanking instructions properly, although it was noted that the Shoshone interpreter had a hard time translating Bates English as he spoke so rapidly.  Adding to his problems, moreover, the soldiers fired nearly all 80 of their carried .45-70 rifle cartridges during the engagement and were not able to resupply during the battle as the mules were unable to bring ammunition up.  This meant that even if they had not disengaged for other reasons, they were at the point where a lock of ammunition would have hampered any further efforts on their part in any event (and of course they would have been attacking uphill).

After the battle the Arapaho returned to the Red Cloud Agency. Seeing how things were going after Little Big Horn, they came onto the Wind River Reservation in 1877 for the winter on what was supposed to be a temporary basis, and they remain there today.  They were hoping for their own reservation in Wyoming, but they never received it.  Black Coal went on the reservation with him, and portraits of him show him missing two fingers on his right hand.  His people soon served on the Reservation as its policemen.  He himself lived until 1893.

Alfred E. Bates, who had entered the Army as a private at the start of the Civil War at age 20.  Enlisting in the Michigan state forces, he soon attracted the attention of a politician who secured for him an enrollment at West Point, where he graduated in the Class of 1865. He missed service in the Civil War but soon went on to service on the plains. His name appears on two Wyoming geographic localities.  He rose to the rank of Major General and became Paymaster of the Army, dying in 1909 of a stroke.

[b]1874  The 2nd Cavalry engaged Sioux/Cheyenne at Bad Water.[/b]

1890  Medicine Bow Station burned. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1902 President Theodore Roosevelt officially ended the Philippine-American War. It really wasn't, but he saw the value in declaring it to be so.

1908  The monument at the Fetterman battleground dedicated.

1911  The aviation age arrives at Wyoming, with the first recorded flight in the state taking place in Gillette.

 Revolutionary War themed poster from World War One.

1920  Veterans memorial to World War One veterans dedicated in Hanna, Wyoming.

The Hanna Museum's website has an article about the dedication here.

The monument is still present, and it looked like this 2012 when I photographed it.  However, since that time the actual plaque on the monument was stolen in 2015.  It was found damaged in a nearby ditch. The town was working to raise funds to repair the monument and buy a new plaque, which was apparently still the case at least as of 2019.

World War One Service Memorial, Hanna Wyoming

This is a memorial in Hanna Wyoming dedicated to all from the region who served in World War One.  Hanna is a very small town today, and the number of names on this memorial is evidence of the town once being significantly more substantially sized than it presently is.

The memorial is located on what was the Lincoln Highway at the time, but which is now a Carbon County Highway.  This was likely a central town location at the time the memorial was placed.

Hanna also is the location of the Carbon County Veterans Park which contains a substantial number of additional monuments.

1924  The statue of William F. Cody by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney was dedicated in Cody.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1941  Hot Springs County Museum opens.

1954 An earthquake occurs in the Yellowstone region.

1956  Actress Judy Tyler and her husband, actor Greg Lafayette, were killed in an automobile accident near Rock River.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1976  Nici Self Museum, dedicated to railroad history, dedicated in Centennial.