April 27

1813 U. S. Army officer Zebulon M Pike, who had been an early explorer of the West, killed in action at age 34 during the War of 18212. His forces capture Toronto.

1888 First Wyoming Arbor Day proclaimed.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916   Casper Daily Press for April 27, 1916
 

Posted by Pat, Marcus & Alexis at 5:00 PM
1944  The Wyoming Stock Growers Association gave the University of Wyoming its archives, a major contribution given the enormous role the WSGA had in the early history of the state. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1953  A derailment of a Union Pacific train in the Red Desert kills three crewmen.  Attribution:  On This Day.

2016   The ghost of the Crow Treaty of 1868 appears in a Wyoming court.
 

 

 Crow Indians, 1908. These men may have been living at the time the Ft. Laramie Treaty came into being.

The Casper Star Tribune reported that today the trial of Clayvin Herrera, a game warden on the Crow Reservation in southern Montana, commences today in Sheridan.  Herrera is charged with taking a big game animal in Wyoming out of season in 2014.  In other words, with poaching.  He is not only a game warden on the Crow Reservation, he is also a Crow Indian.

Of interest, he's relying on one of the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1868 as a defense.  The thesis is that the treaty grants the Crows hunting rights in Wyoming, which it did (and not just to the Crows, but to other tribes as well, in related treaties of the same vintage) and therefore hunting in Wyoming out of Wyoming's season isn't necessarily a violation of the law.  It's an attractive and even a romantic legal defense.

It won't work.

Citation to the 1868 treaties (there is more than one) for various things has been made before and the point of the state; that subsequent developments in history and Wyoming's statehood abrogated that part of the treaty, are fairly well established.  A very long time ago, well over two decades now, one of the Federal judges in the state became so irritated by such an attempt that he actually stated that the treaty with the Sioux of the same vintage and location also authorized (which I don't think it did) shooting at tribal members off the reservation and nobody thought that was the case any more, stating that in the form of a question.  Again, I think that remark was not only evidence of frustration, and highly inappropriate, but it was flat out wrong, the treaty never authorized that, but citation to the treaty on dead letters within it is pointless which I suppose was in his inartfully made point.

Which brings us to the actual point.  Ineffectual though they are, and they are, the 1868 treaties really live on as a psychological influence, and that's interesting. Indeed, it's an interesting aspect of the first three of our Laws of History.  After all this time an ineffectual treaty lives on, wounded, but still there, in some odd fashion.  And with it, some old arguments and fights.

The Treaty:

Articles of a treaty made and concluded at Fort Laramie, Dakota Territory, on the seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, by and between the undersigned commissioners on the part of the United States, and the undersigned chiefs and head-men of and representing the Crow Indians, they being duly authorized to act in the premises.

ARTICLE 1.

From this day forward peace between the parties to this treaty shall forever continue. The Government of the United States desires peace, and its honor is hereby pledged to keep it. The Indians desire peace, and they hereby pledge their honor to maintain it. If bad men among the whites or among other people, subject to the authority of the United States, shall commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians, the United States will, upon proof made to the agent and forwarded to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington City, proceed at once to cause the offender to be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and also re-imburse the injured person for the loss sustained.

If bad men among the Indians shall commit a wrong or depredation upon the person or property of any one, white, black, or Indian, subject to the authority of the United States and at peace therewith, the Indians herein named solemnly agree that they will, on proof made to their agent and notice by him, deliver up the wrong-doer to the United States, to be tried and punished according to its laws; and in case they refuse willfully so to do the person injured shall be re-imbursed for his loss from the annuities or other moneys due or to become due to them under this or other treaties made with the United States. And the President, on advising with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, shall prescribe such rules and regulations for ascertaining damages under the provisions of this article as in his judgment may be proper. But no such damages shall be adjusted and paid until thoroughly examined and passed upon by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and no one sustaining loss while violating, or because of his violating, the provisions of this treaty or the laws of the United States shall be re-imbursed therefor.

ARTICLE 2.

The United States agrees that the following district of country, to wit: commencing where the 107th degree of longitude west of Greenwich crosses the south boundary of Montana Territory; thence north along said 107th meridian to the mid-channel of the Yellowstone River; thence up said mid-channel of the Yellowstone to the point where it crosses the said southern boundary of Montana, being the 45th degree of north latitude; and thence east along said parallel of latitude to the place of beginning, shall be, and the same is, set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians herein named, and for such other friendly tribes or individual Indians as from to time they may be willing, with the consent of the United States, to admit amongst them; and the United States now solemnly agrees that no persons, except those herein designated and authorized so to do, and except such officers, agents, and employés of the Government as may be authorized to enter upon Indian reservations in discharge of duties enjoined by law, shall ever be permitted to pass over, settle upon, or reside in the territory described in this article for the use of said Indians, and henceforth they will, and do hereby, relinquish all title, claims, or rights in and to any portion of the territory of the United States, except such as is embraced within the limits aforesaid.

ARTICLE 3.

The United States agrees, at its own proper expense, to construct on the south side of the Yellowstone, near Otter Creek, a warehouse or store-room for the use of the agent in storing goods belonging to the Indians, to cost not exceeding twenty-five hundred dollars; an agency-building for the residence of the agent, to cost not exceeding three thousand dollars; a residence for the physician, to cost not more than three thousand dollars; and five other buildings, for a carpenter, farmer, blacksmith, miller, and engineer, each to cost not exceeding two thousand dollars; also a school-house or mission-building, so soon as a sufficient number of children can be induced by the agent to attend school, which shall not cost exceeding twenty-five hundred dolla

The United States agrees further to cause to be erected on said reservation, near the other buildings herein authorized, a good steam circular saw-mill, with a grist-mill and shingle-machine attached, the same to cost not exceeding eight thousand dollars.

ARTICLE 4.

The Indians herein named agree, when the agency-house and other buildings shall be constructed on the reservation named, they will make said reservation their permanent home, and they will make no permanent settlement elsewhere, but they shall have the right to hunt on the unoccupied lands of the United States so long as game may be found thereon, and as long as peace subsists among the whites and Indians on the borders of the hunting districts.

ARTICLE 5.

The United States agrees that the agent for said Indians shall in the future make his home at the agency-building; that he shall reside among them, and keep an office open at all times for the purpose of prompt and diligent inquiry into such matters of complaint, by and against the Indians, as may be presented for investigation under the provisions of their treaty stipulations, as also for the faithful discharge of other duties enjoined on him by law. In all cases of depredation on person or property, he shall cause the evidence to be taken in writing and forwarded, together with his finding, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, whose decision shall be binding on the parties to this treaty.

ARTICLE 6.

If any individual belonging to said tribes of Indians, or legally incorporated with them, being the head of a family, shall desire to commence farming, he shall have the privilege to select, in the presence and with the assistance of the agent then in charge, a tract of land within said reservation, not exceeding three hundred and twenty acres in extent, which tract, when so selected, certified, and recorded in the “land book,”as herein directed, shall cease to be held in common, but the same may be occupied and held in the exclusive possession of the person selecting it, and of his family, so long as he or they may continue to cultivate it.

Any person over eighteen years of age, not being the head of a family, may in like manner select and cause to be certified to him or her, for purposes of cultivation, a quantity of land not exceeding eighty acres in extent, and thereupon be entitled to the exclusive possession of the same as above directed.

For each tract of land so selected a certificate, containing a description thereof and the name of the person selecting it, with a certificate endorsed thereon that the same has been recorded, shall be delivered to the party entitled to it by the agent, after the same shall have been recorded by him in a book to be kept in his office, subject to inspection, which said book shall be known as the “Crow land book.”

The President may at any time order a survey of the reservation, and, when so surveyed, Congress shall provide for protecting the rights of settlers in their improvements, and may fix the character of the title held by each. The United States may pass such laws on the subject of alienation and descent of property as between Indians, and on all subjects connected with the government of the Indians on said reservations and the internal police thereof, as may be thought proper.

ARTICLE 7.

In order to insure the civilization of the tribe entering into this treaty, the necessity of education is admitted, especially by such of them as are, or may be, settled on said agricultural reservation; and they therefore pledge themselves to compel their children, male and female, between the ages of six and sixteen years, to attend school; and it is hereby made the duty of the agent for said Indians to see that this stipulation is strictly complied with; and the United States agrees that for every thirty children, between said ages, who can be induced or compelled to attend school, a house shall be provided, and a teacher, competent to teach the elementary branches of an English education, shall be furnished, who will reside among said Indians, and faithfully discharge his or her duties as a teacher. The provisions of this article to continue for twenty years.

ARTICLE 8.

When the head of a family or lodge shall have selected lands and received his certificate as above directed, and the agent shall be satisfied that he intends in good faith to commence cultivating the soil for a living, he shall be entitled to receive seed and agricultural implements for the first year in value one hundred dollars, and for each succeeding year he shall continue to farm, for a period of three years more, he shall be entitled to receive seed and implements as aforesaid in value twenty-five dollars per annum.

And it is further stipulated that such persons as commence farming shall receive instructions from the farmer herein provided for, and whenever more than one hundred persons shall enter upon the cultivation of the soil, a second blacksmith shall be provided, with such iron, steel, and other material as may be required.

ARTICLE 9.

In lieu of all sums of money or other annuities provided to be paid to the Indians herein named, under any and all treaties heretofore made with them, the United States agrees to deliver at the agency house, on the reservation herein provided for, on the first day of September of each year for thirty years, the following articles, to wit:

For each male person, over fourteen years of age, a suit of good substantial woolen clothing, consisting of coat, hat, pantaloons, flannel shirt, and a pair of woolen socks.
For each female, over twelve years of age, a flannel skirt, or the goods necessary to make it, a pair of woolen hose, twelve yards of calico, and twelve yards of cotton domestics.
For the boys and girls under the ages named, such flannel and cotton goods as may be needed to make each a suit as aforesaid, together with a pair of woollen hose for each.
And in order that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs may be able to estimate properly for the articles herein named, it shall be the duty of the agent, each year, to forward to him a full and exact census of the Indians, on which the estimate from year to year can be based.
And, in addition to the clothing herein named, the sum of ten dollars shall be annually appropriated for each Indian roaming, and twenty dollars for each Indian engaged in agriculture, for a period of ten years, to be used by the Secretary of the Interior in the purchase of such articles as, from time to time, the condition and necessities of the Indians may indicate to be proper. And if, at any time within the ten years, it shall appear that the amount of money needed for clothing, under this article, can be appropriated to better uses for the tribe herein named, Congress may, by law, change the appropriation to other purposes; but in no event shall the amount of this appropriation be withdrawn or discontinued for the period named. And the President shall annually detail an officer of the Army to be present and attest the delivery of all the goods herein named to the Indians, and he shall inspect and report on the quantity and quality of the goods and the manner of their delivery; and it is expressly stipulated that each Indian over the age of four years, who shall have removed to and settled permanently upon said reservation, and complied with the stipulations of this treaty, shall be entitled to receive from the United States, for the period of four years after he shall have settled upon said reservation, one pound of meat and one pound of flour per day, provided the Indians cannot furnish their own subsistence at an earlier date. And it is further stipulated that the United States will furnish and deliver to each lodge of Indians, or family of persons legally incorporated with them, who shall remove to the reservation herein described, and commence farming, one good American cow and one good, well-broken pair of American oxen, within sixty days after such lodge or family shall have so settled upon said reservation

ARTICLE 10.

The United States hereby agrees to furnish annually to the Indians the physician, teachers, carpenter, miller, engineer, farmer, and blacksmiths as herein contemplated, and that such appropriations shall be made from time to time, on the estimates of the Secretary of the Interior, as will be sufficient to employ such persons.

ARTICLE 11.

No treaty for the cession of any portion of the reservation herein described, which may be held in common, shall be of any force or validity as against the said Indians unless executed and signed by, at least, a majority of all the adult male Indians occupying or interested in the same, and no cession by the tribe shall be understood or construed in such a manner as to deprive, without his consent, any individual member of the tribe of his right to any tract of land selected by him as provided in Article 6 of this treaty.

ARTICLE 12.

It is agreed that the sum of five hundred dollars annually, for three years from the date when they commence to cultivate a farm, shall be expended in presents to the ten persons of said tribe who, in the judgment of the agent, may grow the most valuable crops for the respective year.

W. T. Sherman,
   Lieutenant-General.

Wm. S. Harney,
   Brevet Major-General and Peace Commissioner.

Alfred H. Terry,
   Brevet Major-General.

C. C. Augur,
   Brevet Major-General.

John B. Sanborn.

S. F. Tappan.

Ashton S. H. White, Secretary.

Che-ra-pee-ish-ka-te, Pretty Bull, his x mark. 

Chat-sta-he, Wolf Bow, his x mark. [SEAL.]

Ah-be-che-se, Mountain Tail, his x mark. 

Kam-ne-but-sa, Black Foot, his x mark. 

De-sal-ze-cho-se, White Horse, his x mark.

Chin-ka-she-arache, Poor Elk, his x mark. 

E-sa-woor, Shot in the Jaw, his x mark.

E-sha-chose, White Forehead, his x mark. 

—Roo-ka, Pounded Meat, his x mark. 

De-ka-ke-up-se, Bird in the Neck, his x mark. 

Me-na-che, The Swan, his x mark. 

Attest:

George B. Wills, phonographer.

John D. Howland.

Alex. Gardner.

David Knox.

Chas. Freeman.

Jas. C. O'Connor.

  

Crow hunters, 1909. 

 

 

April 20

1890  The last soldiers leave Ft. Laramie.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1903  Rawlins Police Lieutenant Kling and Officer John Baxter killed responding to a shots fired at a store.  The shots were fired by the store owner, who had terrorized his neighbors and police and who setup an ambush for the officers. The perpeatrator received a sentence of four years for manslaughter, to the court must of thought he was suffering from a mental disability.

1914  Colorado National Guard strikes miners camp during the Ludlow strike, resulting in numerous miner deaths.

1916   Casper Daily Press for April 20, 1916
 

1919  A pipeline was completed between Lost Soldier and the site of the former Ft. Fred Steele. Ft. Fred Steele was a railhead on the Union Pacific Railroad at this time. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1920  Caroline Lockhart, attorney Ernest J. Goppert, Sr. Princeton educated dude rancher Irving H. “Larry” Larom, Sid Eldred,Clarence Williams and William Loewert meet to organize the Cody Stampede rodeo.  The use of the term "rodeo" was intentionally avoided, as the group thought it sounded too much like a dude word, which was some what ironic as at least Lockhart and Larom were transplants who had profited from Western romanticism.  Goppert was an attorney who would practice in Cody for many decades and who was active in Cody affairs. Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1939  Robert Frost visited the University of Wyoming.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1943  Two pilots from Fremont County decorated.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

March 30

1889  Butch Cassidy participates in a bank robbery in Denver with the McCarty brothers.

1891  The Shoshone National Forest was set aside by President Benjamin Harrison as the Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve.

1909. On this day, the U.S. Army abandoned Ft. Washakie. The post had previously been also known as Camp Brown and Camp Augar.. The post had lately been a 9th Cavalry post.

The facilities for the post remain in large part today, having gone over to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Ft. Washakie, the town, is the seat of government for the Wind River Indian Reservation. The structures provide good examples of the period stone construction used by the Army at that time.

Ft. Washakie during a visit by President Arthur in 1883.

Some former cavalry structures at Ft. Washakie now in use as industrial or storage buildings.

1915  A quarantine on Wyoming livestock was put in place due to an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916  The Punitive Expedtion: The Casper Daily Press, March 30, 1916
 

1917   Colorado criminalizes marijuana 
 

On this day in 1917 Colorado's legislature passed a bill that criminalized marijuana.  The act passed on this date stated:

An act to declare unlawful the planting, cultivating, harvesting, drying, curing, or preparation for sale or gift of cannabis sativa, and to provide a penalty therefore.

Section 1. Any person who shall grow or use cannabis sativa (also known as cannabis indica, Indian hemp and marijuana) that he has grown shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less than ten nor more than one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not more than thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court.

The bill was in part inspired by the civil war in Mexico.  It was being asserted that Pancho Villa funded his Division del Norte in part through the sale of cannabis. Whether this is true or not, marijuana was not unknown by any means in Mexico and it shows up even in music of the period at least to the extent that it features in the Mexican Revolution ballad La Cucaracha.  The bill was introduced in Colorado by a Hispanic legislator from one of Colorado's southern counties which were and are predominately Hispanic in culture and where there was  strong desire to disassociate themselves from Mexican refugees, including any assertion that they might approve of the use of the drug.

Colorado was not the first state to address marijuana statutorily.  At least California (1907), Massachusetts (1911), New York (1914), Maine (1914), and Wyoming (1915) had.  Colorado was one of the states that enacted the prohibition of alcohol by that time and therefore not acting on marijuana would have been odd under the circumstances.  It had already been addressed by Federal law to some extent at that time.

There's a certain irony in this, I suppose, in that Colorado is now a pioneer in a national movement that has seen several states decriminalize marijuana, although the irony would be diminished if the entire matter is considered in the context of its times.  It remains subject to Federal penalties, something that has seemingly been lost in the discussion of this topic, and there is no sign that this will change any time soon.  The Federal government, however, seems to have basically stopped enforcing the law on the Federal level for the time being, although that could change at any moment.

Circling back to Colorado, while often not noted in the discussion on this, Denver Colorado has provided a big test of the impact of the change in the law, and not in a good way.  Almost any casual observer who is familiar with Denver over time has noted the impact of the change and Denver, which has had a fairly large homeless population for decades now has a larger, but rather weedy one.  Open begging downtown for cash for marijuana is now common, and encounters with stoned younger people who are part of a marijuana culture will occur at some point if a person spends any time downtown at all.  All of this is the type of discussion that does not tend to occur, for some reason, in discussions over the monetary impacts of the change or on the degree to which the substance itself is dangerous or how dangerous it is.

1917  The Cheyenne State Leader for March 30, 1917: Guardsmen mobilzing at Ft. D. A. Russell.

 

Ft. D. A. Russell was being used for Guard mobilization this time.  It hadn't been a year prior for the Punitive Expedition.

The Wyoming Tribune for March 30, 1917: Germans spur Mexican outlaw murder?

 

Mexico remained on the front pages even with the US on the eve of war, this time once again in association with the Germans.

1918  Lex Anteinternet: The Kaiserschlacht Commences. Operation Michael. The First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux and the Battle of Moreuil Wood
 

Lex Anteinternet: The Kaiserschlacht Commences. Operation Michael

 The First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux and the Battle of Moreuil Wood

On March 30 the Germans none the less tried again, launching an assault south of the new Somme salient towards Amiens resulting in two significant battles, one of which is very well recalled today.  The Germans gained some ground but it was slight, and German troops lost discipline when they hit Allied supply depots.

The resumed German offensive opened up near the town of Le Hamel but was turned back, although the Germans took ground near the Hangard Wood.  This resulted in a five day pause in the German effort in this location until they resumed their attack towards the town of Villers-Bretonneux.  The French fell back upon the German resumed attack but British and Australian troops generally held well but were ultimately forced to retire due to a two stage retreat by the 14th (Light) Division. which ultimately fell back some 3500 yards to a new position.  Australian troops restored the line and counterattacked, pushing the Germans back out of the town.  This was followed up by flanking advances by British cavalry and Australian infantry which consolidated the line for the time being.

This phase of the German offensive also saw the remarkable Canadian cavalry charge in the Battle of Moreuil Wood in which the Canadian Cavalry Brigade conducted a mounted assault near the village of Moreuil, taking the wood against the prediction of failure of a nearby French unit, receiving assistance from the RFC in the assault.  The Germans retook the wood the following day, March 31, but the Canadians then took it back. The Germans ultimately retook the wood, showing the intense nature of the fighting, but the overall offensive was called off shortly after that.  Operation Michael had gained a lot of ground, but it had ground to a halt.  By April 5 the Germans were exhausted and an effort to resume the offensive against the British failed.

 The charge at Moreuil Wood.

1943  Lead by legendary UW basketball player Kenny Sailors, UW beat Georgetown 46 to 34 in Madison Square Gardens.  Sailors would enter the Marine Corps as an officer at the conclusion of that year.  UW would suspend basketball due to the war after that year.  Sailors eventually became a hunting guide in in Alaska, but returned to Wyoming in his old age, where he still lives, following the death of his wife.

1952  The ICC approved the abandonment of the Wyoming Railway between Clearmont and Buffalo.

2003  Teno Roncolio, Wyoming Congressman, and the last Democrat to have occupied that office, died in Cheyenne.

2009  The Wyoming Range Legacy Act signed into law by President Obama. 

2016  President Obama commuted the sentence of Angela  LaPlatney and 61 other prisoners.  She was a Casper resident who was sentenced to 20 years for possession of illegal drugs with the intent to sell the same and for hiding a man who was subject to a felony charge.  Her sentence will now end on July 28.  President Obama has commuted a large number of sentences during his time in office.

2016  Wyoming was hit by a massive Spring snowstorm that shut down much of the state, including offices in Cheyenne and, ironically, Casper's ski area.

March 28

1845   Mexico dropped diplomatic relations with US.

1846   US troops move onto the left bank of the Rio Grande River.

1865   The District of the Plains was established.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1870  Camp Augur reorganized and renamed Camp Brown.

1906  An ore mill at Encampment burned. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1908  Fifty-nine people killed in a mine explosion at Hanna.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1916   The Punitive Expedition: The Casper Daily Press, March 28, 1916
 

Note in this one the fruit and vegetable advertisement.  Quite a difference in regards to how available these things are today.

1917   The Cheyenne State Leader for March 28, 1917: Calls to arms.
 

A general call to arms was going on, as Wyoming National Guardsmen were returning to service.

1918   Wyoming State Tribune, March 28, 1918. Muleless Days?
 

The big news was on the war, of course, but a frightening item about a shortage of mules appeared on the front cover as well.

At that time, that was no minor matter.  Mules and horses remained the prime movers of short hauling and agriculture in the United States in 1918.  And the US was also a major supplier of both to the Allies.

Unlike automobiles, a demand for equines couldn't simply be supplied overnight.  A natural product had to develop naturally.  By this point in 1918 horses and mules that were born in the first year of the war were just getting to the point where they were trainable.  Horses and mules of older age, and usable for anything, had been pressed into the demand long ago.

1920  March 28, 1920. Tornadic outbreaks, Typhus, Bulgarian elections, and movies.

A disaster of another type, contaminated water, was plaguing Casper.  Casper would have outbreaks of waterborne diseases for years, including typhus.

1970  The location of Ft. Reno placed on the National Register of Historic Sites.

1975   A 6.2 earthquake occurred about 93 miles from Evanston, WY.

1982  The Sheridan County Historical Society transferred title in the Trail End Historical Center to the State of Wyoming.

2008 Gray wolves removed from the Endangered Species List.

2020  In an emergency session, the Town of Jackson, Wyoming, issued a shelter in place order for the town, implementing recommendations from Teton County's health official brought about by the COVID 19 pandemic.  The country recommendations, issued on the 24th, further recommended that people from outside the county or with second homes leave the county for their primary residences.

March 21

1790     Thomas Jefferson took office as America's first Secretary of State.  

Jefferson, a collection of contradictions, had been opposed to a strong Federal government prior to his presidency but would turn out to be a zealous applicant of Federal power while President.  Amongst his decisions were the purchase of Louisiana, a vast wilderness, which Jefferson thought would take 1,000 years to settle.  Following purchase of the territory he would order the formation of the Corps of Discovery, a military expeditionary force, to explore a route to the Pacific through it.  Contrary to widespread popular belief, the Corps's members were not the "first white men" to arrive in most of the locations that they arrived in, but they were the first official representatives of the United States.  A person has to wonder to what extent his views on U.S. expansion were formed during his period as Secretary of State.

1804     The Code Napoleon adopted in France and its possessions.  A form of the Code applies to this day in Louisiana.

The Code was a codification of then existing French common law, which had been  heavily influenced by Roman law.  It's the model form of law in much of the world.  It was commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte to attempt to resolve the irregular nature of French law, a condition that similarly resulted in the earlier Roman Code Justinian.

1806  The Corps of Discovery started their trip back east.

1836     Mexicans capture Copano, Texas.

1862  Ben Holladay bought the Russell, Majors & Waddell stage line.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1874  My Western Home, better known as Home On The Range, was published by Dr. Brewster Higley, a Kansas homesteader, in the The Kirwin Chief.  It was shortly set to music by a friend of his.

My Western Home

by Dr. Brewster Higley

Oh, give me a home where the Buffalo roam

Where the Deer and the Antelope play;

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,

And the sky is not cloudy all day.

Chorus:

A home! A home!

Where the Deer and the Antelope play,

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,

And the sky is not clouded all day.

Oh! give me a land where the bright diamond sand

Throws its light from the glittering streams,

Where glideth along the graceful white swan,

Like the maid in her heavenly dreams.

Chorus

Oh! give me a gale of the Solomon vale,

Where the life streams with buoyancy flow;

On the banks of the Beaver, where seldom if ever,

Any poisonous herbage doth grow.

Chorus

How often at night, when the heavens were bright,

With the light of the twinkling stars

Have I stood here amazed, and asked as I gazed,

If their glory exceed that of ours.

Chorus

I love the wild flowers in this bright land of ours,

I love the wild curlew’s shrill scream;

The bluffs and white rocks, and antelope flocks

That graze on the mountains so green.

Chorus

The air is so pure and the breezes so fine,

The zephyrs so balmy and light,

That I would not exchange my home here to range

Forever in azures so bright.

Chorus

1904 Version of the text

by William and Mary Goodwin:

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,

Where the deer and the antelope play;

There seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the sky is not cloudy all day.

Chorus:

A home, a home

Where the deer and the antelope play,

There seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the sky is not cloudy all day.

Yes, give me the gleam of the swift mountain stream

And the place where no hurricane blows;

Oh, give me the park where the prairie dogs bark

And the mountain all covered with snow.

Chorus

Oh, give me the hills and the ring of the drills

And the rich silver ore in the ground;

Yes, give me the gulch where the miner can sluice

And the bright, yellow gold can be found.

Chorus

Oh, give me the mine where the prospectors find

The gold in its own native land;

And the hot springs below where the sick people go

And camp on the banks of the Grande.

Chorus

Oh, give me the steed and the gun that I need

To shoot game for my own cabin home;

Then give me the camp where the fire is the lamp

And the wild Rocky Mountains to roam.

Chorus

Yes, give me the home where the prospectors roam

Their business is always alive

In these wild western hills midst the ring of the drills

Oh, there let me live till I die.

Chorus

1910 Version of the Text

by John A. Lomax

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,

Where the deer and the antelope play,

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Chorus:

Home, home on the range,

Where the deer and the antelope play;

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free,

The breezes so balmy and light,

That I would not exchange my home on the range

For all of the cities so bright.

Chorus

The red man was pressed from this part of the West

He’s likely no more to return,

To the banks of Red River where seldom if ever

Their flickering camp-fires burn.

Chorus

How often at night when the heavens are bright

With the light from the glittering stars

Have I stood here amazed and asked as I gazed

If their glory exceeds that of ours.

Chorus

Oh, I love these wild prairies where I roam

The curlew I love to hear scream,

And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks

That graze on the mountain-tops green.

Chorus

Oh, give me a land where the bright diamond sand

Flows leisurely down the stream;

Where the graceful white swan goes gliding along

Like a maid in a heavenly dream.

Chorus

1890  Gen. George Crook, age 61, died while lifting weights.  Crook was a legendary Indian Wars' general, and later in life an advocate for Indians.  By most accounts, he was one of the most successful and thoughtful of the Indian Wars' campaigners, although he does have his critics.   Crook County Wyoming is named after him.

Crook, seated in middle, during the Civil War while serving under Sheridan, second from left.  Also depicted, General Wesley Merritt, far left, General James Forsyth second from right and General Custer far right.  All of these officers went on to post Civil War careers in the Army.

1899  The Wyoming Historical Society Museum in Cheyenne opened.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916   The Punitive Expedition in the Press: Casper Daily Press for March 21, 1916.
 

Note how the horror of World War One has made its way back onto the front page of the newspaper.

1918  

The Kaiserschlacht Commences. March 21, 1918. Operation Michael

Afternoon edition of Cheyenne's Wyoming Tribune, March 21, 1918.

It was a momentous day, to be sure.

Excellent map showing all five expressions of the Kaiserschlacht, the massive German campaign to end the war in 1918.  Every single part of the offensive was a tactical success for the Germans. . . but not enough of a success to win the war.

And so, on this day, the German Army began its last great, and nearly successful, offensive the Great War.  An offensive, however, whose result was foreordained by the lack of German horsepower.

 What the Germans were lacking by this point of World War One.

There will be a lot of "100 Year Ago" type history venues on this event, as it is a big one.  It was, truly, the German's last big gasp of World War One.  It wrecked the offensive abilities of the German Army for the duration of the war, but it was something they had to try. After the Kaiserschlacht the Germans could only defend and their strategy changed to that.  It wouldn't work long as the home front crumbled behind the German front, to include the crumbling in moral of the German Army and Navy at home.

The offensive, made up of a series of operations that would take place over the next two months, commenced with Operation Michael, a massive offensive against the British Expeditionary Force.

Operation Michael

 

Repeat of the map above.  Operation Michael is the "First German Drive" of the mpa.

The Kaiserschlacht, it not Operation Michael, was somewhat obvious in that it had been known for months that the Germans would try a giant 1918 offensive.  As early as February the American soldier's newspaper Wadsworth Gas Attack and Rio Grand Rattler had published an issue was a drunk Mars "waiting for spring".  It was coming, and everyone knew it.

Everyone with any military savvy also knew that with Russia having now surrendered to the Germans, and the Germans having been sensible enough to accept a negotiated peace, something they failed to do in World War Two, millions of German troops should have now been available to fight in the West.  However, what hadn't been counted on with Trotsky's blundering, which delayed the onset of peace by a month, and German avarice, which caused t he German's to use Trotsky's error to absorb huge areas of Russian territory and former Imperial territory they were now left garrisoning as if they had the spare manpower to do it.

The Germans should have poured out of the East, taking every horse they could "conscript" with them.  German troops did come, but not in the numbers they could have.

So the Allies braced for an offensive they knew was coming.  They were not idle.  The British, operating partially on intelligence gathered from two German deserters, not only anticipated the attack, but placed the probable date of the attack on this very day, although they anticipated it could be slightly earlier.  As a result, the British had been engaged in nightly artillery strikes on German positions since March 18.

On this day, the offensive commenced with the assault on the BEF.

A closer view of the successful German drive on the Somme.  Over a three week period the Germans wiped out British gains on the Somme and seriously threatened the position of the BEF in Europe.

The Battle of St. Quentin, the Somme Crossings and the First Battle of Bapaume

It commenced with an artillery barraged at 0435 on British positions near St. Quentin (and it also saw the commencement of German artillery strikes on Paris). While our memory of it has become skewed due to the intense British focus on World War One, the British were a small army compared to the French, but they were also in much better fighting shape than the French overall.  While the bombardment was massive, it did not leave the British incapable of resisting.  Nonetheless, after extremely intense infantry combat, which started with a German assault at 0940, the British had yielded in some places and began to retreat. Already on March 21 the British had lost ground.  This continued to be the case through March 23.

British artillery in retreat.

The British broke at St. Quentin, but their resistance had already worked a toll on the German forces which had begun to slow down. Nonetheless the British lost their lines on the Somme on March 24.  The same day the British lost the town of Bapaume and the French began to be concerned that the British had been irretrievably beaten.  Ironically the German capture of British supplies caused despondency in the German rank as German troops realized, from what they captured, that the British were very well supplied and even had stocks of Champagne in their stores.  The French, however, began plans for an offensive operation against the Germans out of a fear that the British situation could not be restored.

By the 25th the French were in fact engaged, but in defensive operations, and the overall situation was confused. Fighting was occurring everywhere but what was occurring was not clear to anyone.  British cavalry was in action in rearguard operations slowing German advances and the RAF was busy as well, as both the oldest and newest forms of mobile warfare combined against the Germans.

 British 6 Inch Gun firing on March 26 near Ancre.

Nonetheless a council of war was held on the 26th with the result that General Foch of the French Army was made the supreme Allied commander.

The Battle of Rosieres and the Battle of Arrars

On the 26th and 27th the British fought the Battle of Rosieres in which the British committed tanks. Nonetheless the Allies continued to lose ground and lost the town of Albert during the night.  Throughout the retreat phase that went  through the 27th Tommies occasionally panicked and took up defense positions at the report of German cavalry being just over the horizon.  Still, while they retreated continually they did not disintegrate and both the British and the French remained in action throughout.  On the 28th a German assault only a handful of miles, showing that the Germans were slowing.  A primary factor was that the German cavalry that was needed to exploit the breakthroughs in the Allied lines that continually occurred simply didn't exit.

There wasn't any. The Germans were now, in terms of fighting at the front, an infantry force only.  They'd lose the war as a result.  The could exploit gaps in the British lines no quicker than a man could advance, and with each days advance the German troops became more and more fatigued until, at last, they simply refused to move, even under threat of death.

The First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux and the Battle of Moreuil Wood

On March 30 the Germans none the less tried again, launching an assault south of the new Somme salient towards Amiens.  The Germans gained some ground but it was slight, and German troops lost discipline when they hit Allied supply depots.  This phase of the German offensive saw the remarkable Canadian cavalry charge in the Battle of Moreuil Wood in which the Canadian Cavalry Brigade conducted a mounted assault near the village of Moreuil, taking the wood against the prediction of failure of a nearby French unit, receiving assistance from the RFC in the assault.  The Germans retook the wood the following day, March 31, but the Canadians then took it back. The Germans ultimately retook the wood, showing the intense nature of the fighting, but the overall offensive was called off shortly after that.  Operation Michael had gained a lot of ground, but it had ground to a halt.  By April 5 the Germans were exhausted and an effort to resume the offensive against the British failed.

 The charge at Moreuil Wood.

The initial German advance had been significant, but equally significant is that the  Germans had failed to take any of their objectives and by April 5 they were halted.  The German advance was impressive, but far short of achieving a knockout blow.  German and British losses were nearly equal at 250,000 men but the British were able to make up material shortages so rapidly that loss of material turned out to be relatively inconsequential.  German manpower losses, however, were catastrophic as it had lost a significant number of elite troops in the effort, which it would not be able to replace.

Many of the German troops lost were Stoßtruppen

 German Stoßtrup, Spring 1918.  Trained in individual and small unit combat, this soldier is carrying a MP18 and a P08.  Submachineguns were a brand new weapon at the time.

Stoßtruppen were a late war German innovation created to attempt to restore mobility to the battlefield.  Highly trained light infantrymen, these "Storm Troops" were in some ways the first of their kind. Predecessors of units like the later American Rangers and other similar elite infantry units, they were trained to storm enemy positions and overwhelm them in violent rapidly moving assaults.  They were equipped accordingly, carrying pistols, K98a's, and as seen above, submachineguns.

They were also a bit of a desperate effort on the part of the Germans to make up for the lack of cavalry, something which is evident but rarely discussed.  Unable to take a concentrated enemy position by a mounted charge, the Germans had to resort to infantry, something that had proven to be a failure since 1914.  They sought to overcome this through highly trained specialized infantry.  It worked in part, but only in part.  Stoßtruppen could penetrate. . . but they really couldn't advance.  And by April 5, the Germans weren't advancing.

But they couldn't stop.  To do so was to conceded an inevitable defeat. So, ground to a halt against the British though they were, they determined to renew the offensive elsewhere.   

 

1931  University of Wyoming geology professor S. H. Knight took these photographs of the Grand Canyon.

1954  Cheyenne's KFBC-TV Channel 5 started broadcasting.  Attribution:  On This Day.

2012  American Heritage Center, UW, Wyoming History Day  District 6 (Hot Springs, Fremont, and Teton Counties) competition in Dubois and District 7 (Uinta, Sweetwater, Lincoln, and Sublette Counties) in Pinedale.

Elsewhere:

1943  The second military conspiracy plan to assassinate Hitler in a week fails.  A week earlier, German military conspirators attempted to blow up an airplane in which Hitler was traveling, but the fuses failed to work.  On this instance, a volunteer officer was to carry bombs and get next to Hitler as he reviewed memorials,  Hitler's visit to the memorials turned out to be too short for the fuses to ignite, so the plat was not carried off.

2016:  University of Wyoming basketball coach Larry Shyatt resigned.

March 14

1850  A post office is established at Ft. Laramie, the first to be established in Wyoming.

1890  The 11th, and last, Territorial Legislature concludes.

1890  Governor Warren signs a bill to suppress gambling, on the last day of the final session of the Territorial Legislature.

1916   The Punitive Expedition: The Casper Daily Press, March 14, 1916.
 

1917  Chicago and Northwestern Warehouse Fire, Casper Wyoming
 

A disaster struck Casper Wyoming on this day in 1917.  A warehouse belonging to the Chicago and Northwestern, and used also by C. H. Townsend, caught fire.  It was the largest fire in the town since a 1905 livery stable fire

 

1917  The Wyoming Tribune for March 14, 1917. Germany gets control fo Mexico's finances

 

Dramatic claim. . . but at that point, what good would it have done if true? 

 

The Laramie Boomerang for March 14, 1917: Laramie welcomes home its Guardsmen
 

Laramie's Guardsmen returned to an enthusiastic welcome. . . and speeches.

1948  Thomas Allen "Tom" Coburn, M.D. born in Casper. He was elected U.S. Senator for Oklahoma in 1994.

March 13

1852     "Uncle Sam" made his debut as a cartoon character in the New York Lantern.

1884     Standard Time was adopted throughout the United States.

1908  An American car reached Evanston in a New York to Paris race.  The early automobile era saw some spectacular races and efforts of this type. At the time, highways in the region were simply dirt roads.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916   The Punitive Expedition: The Casper Daily Press, March 13, 1916

 

1917  

The Douglas Enterprise for March 13, 1917: Company F makes it home.

Douglas' Company F arrived home the prior Saturday and the news was reported that Tuesday.  If they were home, chances are that all the men from central Wyoming had likewise returned.

In other news high school baseball teams were already playing each other, even though it was only March and that's still a winter month in Wyoming.  The high schools in the state today no longer have baseball, which isn't surprising as the weather simply isn't conducive for it.

The World War One oil boom had hit Converse County, as this paper gives evidence of.  Converse County remains a major oil location today.  The oil fields referenced in the paper largely spread out towards Casper, which was having a huge oil boom at the time.

The Cheyenne State Leader for March 13, 1917: Eight Wyoming Guardsmen enlisted in Navy.
 

Some Wyoming Guardsmen were already back under orders. . . but in the Navy.

What motivated the switch in services isn't clear, but in the immediate pre World War One period in the US the news was full of the Navy.  Whether that motivated their switch in services or not, those eight would serve out the upcoming war in a new service.  Of course, they couldn't have known that their fellows in the Guard would be back in active duty very soon.

1918  The Ohio Oil Company commences drilling a well that would become the first Lance Creek area producing oil well.

1918   An accurate prediction? The Wyoming Tribune, March 13, 1918.
 

The Belgian minister of war was predicting a big German offensive. . . followed by Germany's defeat.

A big German offensive was widely predicated at the time.  A defeat behind it?  That's the first I've read of such a prediction.  We'll be seeing how accurate it was.

In other news, the American Army was starting to see some action.  And T.R.'s son Archie had been wounded in action.
1974   Arab nations decided to end the oil embargo on the U.S.

2009  Cmdr. William C. McKinney relieved Cmdr. William M. Combes as commander of the SSBN Wyoming during a change-of-command ceremony.

2018  The Casper City Council votes to keep Casper park and historic site Fort Casper open all year long.  Closing it during the winter months had been studied as a cost savings matter but was, in the end, turned down.

2019  A winter storm so intense it qualified as a mid latitude cyclone hit Wyoming shutting things down in southeastern Wyoming. Governmental entities all over that region, and all over the state in some instances, closed due to the massive winter storm.

Early morning street scene in Casper during the "bomb cyclone".

2020  Governor Gordon declared a State of Emergency due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.  President Trump had declared a national State of Emergency earlier in the day.