How To Use This Site




How To Use This Site


This blog was updated on a daily basis for about two years, with those daily entries ceasing on December 31, 2013. The blog is still active, however, and we hope that people stopping in, who find something lacking, will add to the daily entries.

The blog still receives new posts as well, but now it receives them on items of Wyoming history. That has always been a feature of the blog, but Wyoming's history is rich and there are many items that are not fully covered here, if covered at all. Over time, we hope to remedy that.

You can obtain an entire month's listings by hitting on the appropriate month below, or an individual day by hitting on that calendar date.
Use 2013 for the search date, as that's the day regular dates were established and fixed.

Alternatively, the months are listed immediately below, with the individual days appearing backwards (oldest first).

We hope you enjoy this site.
Showing posts with label Wright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wright. Show all posts

Monday, August 12, 2013

August 12

1877  Public land offices in Evanston opened.

1878  Robert Davis Carey, 11th Governor of Wyoming and later U.S. Senator from Wyoming, born in Cheyenne.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1890  The first day in which Wyomingites could register to vote in their state, which saw 500 registrations.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1912  August 12, 1919 Medicine Bow to Rawlins, Wyoming on the Motor Transport Convoy
Lincoln Highway marker at Ft. Fred Steele.

The Motor Transport Convoy traveled from Medicine Bow to Rawlins on this day in 1919.




The diarist wasn't impressed with the roads or the conditions in any fashion.  Indeed, he reported Ft. Steele as being the only pleasant spot on the journey.


Today the highway doesn't pass through Ft. Steele as it once did, but is located several miles to the south.  Interestingly, there is a campground near the current Interstate Highway.

Union Pacific depot in Rawlins.  This would have been a busy depot in 1919.

On the same day, men were busy at work elsewhere in the West.

Water troughs at Thompsons Cattle Camp. Wenaha N.F. 43264A. USDA, Forest Service, Umatilla National Forest, Oregon. August 12, 1919.

And overseas, a photographer took a reminder of the cost of the recent war.



1942  Internees began to arrive at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1945  The wreckage of a B-17 that crashed into bomber mountain on June 28, 1943 was discovered, along with the remains of the crew, by two cowboys.

1971  Fort Caspar added to the National Register of Historic Places. Attribution:  On This Day.

2005  A tornado devastated parts of Wright and killed two people.  Attribution:  On This Day.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

June 27

1893  Grand Opening celebration, featuring William F. Cody, occurs at the Sheridan Inn.

1895  Berlin, Wyoming laid out in the  Big Horn Basin.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1898  The First Wyoming Volunteer Infantry, part of the Third Philippine Expedition, was with it when it left for the Philippines starting on this day.  The process would take through the 29th.

1916   The News Around the State for June 27, 1916
 
Tuesday June 27, 1916, saw a variety of approaches to the news of the ongoing crisis with Mexico.


The Wyoming Tribune, a Cheyenne paper that tended to be dramatic in its headlines, was dramatic for June 27.

Quite the dramatic cartoon about "civilization following the flag" as well, presenting a colonial view that a person can't imagine seeing in a paper today. Indeed, its hard not to imagine the cartoon offering offense, and frankly even viewing it now, it offers it.


The Sheridan Record, however, was less so, if still pretty presenting some pretty worrisome news.


The Laramie Republican was the least dramatic of the examples we have here, but presented the same set of news stories, more ore less.

1919 

June 27, 1919. Introduction of the Volstead Act, the men of the 148th coming to Casper, an uncertain Peace, horses and oil, violence in Tennessee, Annapolis and Rock Springs.

On this day in 1919 the Volstead Act, the bill that was tailored to carry out Prohibition under the 18th Amendment, was introduced into the House of Representatives.

On this day in 1919 there was still time to have a beer. Soon, there wouldn't be.

An enforcing act was necessary in order to make Prohibition actually come into effect, something that's occasionally missed in this story.  Compounding the overall confusion, many states had passed state laws on the topic, including Wyoming, so in those places Prohibition was coming into law earlier, and with different provisions.  In some localities, such as Colorado, it already had.

It hadn't come into effect just yet, which meant that Casperites had time left to toast returning members of the 148th Field Artillery, recently discharged from their military service, just as they were also contemplating Germany signing a treaty that would end the war, but which appeared likely to result in an uncertain future.


That uncertain peace headlined the Wyoming State Tribune, which also featured an article that would be regarded as racist today, because it was.  That latter storing being how Mexican women were going to be liberated from the chains of tradition by adopting more progressive, non Mexican, values regarding their gender.


The 15th Cavalry, it was noted, was also going to appear in Cheyenne for new billets that afternoon.

Cavalry of that period was still horse cavalry, of course, and horses remained an important part of the economy in every fashion.  Advertisements for a horse auction in Campbell County appeared right on the cover of Wright's newspaper, which noted that it was published weekly "in the interests of dry-farming and stockraising in Wyoming".


Today, of course, when you think of Wright, you think of oil, gas, and coal.  You probably don't think of farming at all, let alone dry farming, although ranching is still there.

A photographer visited the Burk Waggoner oilfield of Texas on this day, giving a glimpse of what oil production in 1919 was like.





In far off Tennessee, Sheriff Milton Harvie Stephens of Williamson County, was murdered by horse thieves.  He was 74 years old and had held the office for one year.  That crime demonstrates that the value of the old means of travel, and the crimes it was associated with, kept on. The fact that Stephens was employed as a sheriff at age 74 also says something about the working environment of the day.

In that same region of the country, sort of, riots occurred in Annapolis between Navy trainees who were training to be mess attendants and local residents. The riot is regarded as part of the Red Summer, but the oddity of it was that the rioters were all black on both sides.  Mess attendants were normally black or Filipinos in the segregated Navy of that period and in this case it was black local residents who were in conflict with the sailors. The cause was that sailors had been harassing local women.

Strife and violence also seems to have broken out that day in Rock Springs.