August 18

1813  Battle of the Medina River at which Royalist forces defeat Mexican-American Republican Guetierrez-Magee Expedition south of San Antonio.  The Republican forces, which lost 1,300 men to the Royalist 55, was seeking independence for Texas from Spain.

1824  The Mexican Congress passed a national colonization law that became the basis of almost all colonization contracts in Texas.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1872  The  Hayden Expedition camped at Geyser Basin in Yellowstone.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1914    President Woodrow Wilson issued his Proclamation of Neutrality in World War I.

1916   Fire destroyed coal chutes and four freight cars that belonged to the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company in Douglas.  Attribution:  On This Day.

 Douglas has a nice park dedicated to railroad today.

Douglas Wyoming railroad sites
 

These are scenes from Douglas Wyoming, which is the location of a Railroad Interpretive Center.  The old Great Northwestern depot serves as its headquarters, as well as the chamber of commerce's headquarters.

 

  

 

 

 

The last photograph is not at the Railroad interpretive center, but is nearby. This is the former Burlington Northern depot, now a restaurant.

 

Updated on April 28, 2015, from the original March 31, 2012 publication.  Most of these photos depict things already photographed, but an old railroad building of some kind, now in use for another purpose, also now appears.

1920   The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, is ratified by Tennessee, giving the amendment the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it law.

1941  One hundred Casper men and boys enrolled in the Wyoming State Guard.  State Guards were the wartime replacements for the National Guard, which had been Federalized in 1940, and therefore was no longer existent, now being part of the U.S. Army.  The mission of the State Guard was to provide the services to the State that the National Guard did in peace time.  Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1959  A magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred about 78 miles from Cody and Jackson.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1969 Jimmy Hendrix opens the final day of the Woodstock music festival with an electric version of The Star Spangled Banner.

2015  Casper's city counsel votes to allow chickens to be kept in the city, by a vote of seven to one.

August 17

1869   Major John Wesley Powell's party passed Sentinel Peak overlooking the Grand Canyon.  It had left Green River on May 24. Attribution:  On This Day.

1878  Three Laramie women climb a peak in the Snowy Range and plant the flag. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1905 

“Pathfinder Dam site; view looking up the North Platte River showing the dam site,” 8/17/1905

Series: Photograph albums, 1903 - 1972. Record Group 115: Records of the Bureau of Reclamation, 1889 - 2008.

1919  August 17, 1919. Evanston to Echo, Utah.

On this day in 1919 the Motor Transport Convoy left Wyoming and entered Utah.

The 17th was a Sunday. This is remarkable as the Convoy's command chose not to stay in Evanston, Wyoming that Sunday but simply pushed on.  No day of rest for the convoy.  That had happened only once before in their trip, and on that occasion it had pretty clearly occurred because the convoy had experienced delays due to road conditions and mechanical problems.  Here there's no evidence that had occurred.

Having said that, the convoy did get an unusually late start that day, starting at 12:30 p.m.  While the diarist doesn't note it, chances are high that the late start was in order to allow men to attend local church services before the motor march was resumed.

The convoy experienced a plethora of problems, including the Lincoln Highway now being a bad mountain road as it crossed over from Wyoming.  Carbon buildup in a cylinder was plaguing a Dodge, which is interesting in this household as the same thing recently afflicted one of our Dodge pickups.  The engine of the Class B truck that was a machine shop was shot.

Echo Utah is a little tiny town today, and must have been the same in 1919.  By stopping in Echo, they were effectively camping.

1959   The 7.1 Hebgen Lake earthquake occurred in southwestern Montana, resulting in the deaths of 28 people due to a resulting landslide.   The Old Faithful Inn was damaged by the quake and thermal features at Yellowstone were disrupted.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1996  An Air Force cargo plane carrying equipment for President Clinton crashed in the state killing eight crewmembers and a Secret Service employee.  Attribution:  On This Day.

August 16

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

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

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

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

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

Evanston, Wyoming's well preserved downtown.

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

A 12% grade is incredibly steep.

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

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

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

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

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

August 15

Today is Victory over Japan Day

 VJ Day Crowd in  Times Squire, New York City.

1842  John C. Fremont raised the Stars and Stripes from the top of the Wind River Range, naming the location "Fremont's Peak."

1875  Frank Wolcott, of Johnson County Invasion fame, assumes the office of U.S. Marshall for Wyoming for the second time.

1891  A Laramie cycling club was organized.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1906  Lands ceded the prior year from the Wind River Reservation opened for settlement.

1909  An automobile racer died in a race in Cheyenne when his car struck a cow on the racetrack.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1918 The news of August 15, 1918. UW to form training unit, Conscientious Objectors go to forced labor, and the reappearance of Pancho Villa on the front page.

The Laramie Boomerang was reporting on the war news, including the formation of what would be something basically the equivalent of ROTC.

Ulster, or Northern Ireland, was making a pitch, or rather its politicians were, to Woodrow Wilson as well. And the perennial hopes that the Communists were about to collapse in the Soviet Union made the front page again.

The war also greeted the readers of the Cheyenne State Leader, but with some more sensationalist news.

Were 21 Conscientious Objectors really going to have to go to forced labor on farms and donate their pay to the American Red Cross?  I hope not.

And had Pancho Villa reappeared on the front page.

1919  August 15, 1919. The Motor Transport Convoy reaches Ft. Bridger and tensions rise on the border.

The Motor Transport Convoy left Green River and made 63 miles to Ft. Bridger, opting to stay on the location of that former post. The post had been occupied intermittently since the 1840s, but had been last abandoned by the Army in 1890.

The entry that day was the longest to date because of the diarist interest in a significant engineering project the party undertook.

The trip made the local papers retrospectively.

At the same time, it looked like the tensions on the border with Mexico were about to erupt into war once again.  The Cheyenne, Casper and Laramie newspapers took note of the renewed tensions and didn't take note of the Motor Convoy at all.

Closer to that border, an item for today?

1920  Dedication of St. Anthony of Padua Church in Casper.

St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, Casper Wyoming

This large Roman Catholic Church is located one block from St. Mark's Episcopal Church, the First Presbyterian Church, and the St. Anthony's Convent otherwise pictured on this blog. Built in the late teens and completed in 1920, funds to construct the church were raised from the parishioners.  The church was formally dedicated by Bishop McGovern on August 15, 1920.  The church rectory is next to it, and can be seen in the bottom photograph. To the far right, only partially visible in this photograph, is the Shepherd's Staff, the church offices.

This church served as the only Roman Catholic church in Casper Wyoming up until 1953, when Our Lady of Fatima was opened. The church also currently serves the St. Francis Mission in Midwest Wyoming.

St. Anthony's was recently updated (Spring 2014) to include a Ten Commandments monument.

My parents were married in this church in 1958 and I was baptized here.

The church has, within the entryway, a memorial to its parishioner's killed during World War Two.

I've noticed that this particular entry had tended to remain in the top three of the most observed entries on this blog, not that there's a lot of traffic on this blog. My theory is that people are hitting it looking for the Parish website. That being the case, you can find the parish website by hitting this link here.

 
Epilog:

St. Anthony's recently received a new set of steps. The old cement was decaying after a century of use.  So, as a result, the front of the church now has a slightly different appearance.

1922  Tuesday, August 15, 1922. Germany defaults.

Germany defaulted on its reparations payments.

Released this day with an absurd plot involving vying for the hand of a wealthy Mexican señorita, a virtuous lass back home threatened by the KKK, and a major issue to be determined by a jumping bean contest.

The Casper Daily Tribune ran a cartoon attacking Governor Carey on the front page.

Frankly, even now, I’m shocked.

As can be seen, Casper was expanding in 1922 and the stresses that involved were apparently getting to people.  

1940  Ft. Laramie publicly dedicated as a National Monument.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1942  The first landing at the Casper Air Base took place when Lt. Col. James A. Moore landed a Aeronca at the base.

1945    The Allies proclaimed V-J Day, one day after Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally.  Hirohito's surrender message is broadcast to the Japanese people.  Japanese aircraft raid TF 38, 12 hours after Hirohito's surrender order.  Soviet aircraft sink 860 ton frigate Kenju off Hokkaido; last Japanese warship lost during World War II.A two-day holiday is proclaimed for all federal employees. In New York, Mayor La Guardia pays tribute to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the deceased president, in a radio broadcast.  US Task Force 38 launches massive air strikes on the Tokyo area, encountering numerous Japanese fighters but the aircraft are recalled upon receipt of the surrender announcement. Vice-Admiral Ugaki, commanding Kamikaze operations, leads a final mission but the 7 dive-bombers are shot down off Tokyo before they can reach Okinawa. South Korea was liberated after nearly 40 years of Japanese colonial rule.  US gasoline rationing ends.

1949  Ground breaking for War Memorial Stadium in Laramie.  Attribution:  On This Day.

2001  Pony Express monument unveiled in Casper.

August 14

1774         Meriwether Lewis born.

1848  Congress created the Oregon Territory, which included parts of Wyoming. Unlike the later state maps, the eastern and western edges of the territory were based on topographic features.

1864  Ft. Collins, Colorado, established.

1865  Camp Connor becomes Ft. Connor.   

1878  A plot to derail a train and rob it was foiled by alert Union Pacific laborers who detected the damage to the tracks while working nearby, out side of Rawlins.

1894  Not a Wyoming item, but perhaps somewhat related, Elliot Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt's brother and father of Elanor Roosevelt, died at age 34 from complications of alcoholism.

1897 Road agents dressed as cavalrymen stopped 15 stagecoaches in Yellowstone National Park, robbing items from most of them. The victims included an Army paymaster and his escort, who mistook the agents for soldiers.

1918  Casper Home Guard To Muster. The Casper Record: August 14, 1918.

It turns out that Casper's Home Guard unit was the only one in the state, and it was going to muster the Monday after this issue of the Casper Record.

Patriots were expected to "turn out and witness".

1919  August 14, 1919. The Red Desert "exerting a depressing influence" on the personnel of the 1919 Motor Transport Convoy.

On this day in 1919, the diarist for the 1919 Motor Transport Convoy reported that parched landscape of the Red Desert was exhibiting a "depressing influence on personnel".

And they had a fair amount of trouble including a breakdown that required an Indian motorcycle to be loaded into the Militor.

You'd see a lot of motorcycles on the same stretch of lonely highway today. The highway itself is unyielding busy but the desert is still a long stretch in Wyoming.  People either love it or find it dispiriting even now.

Classic, retired, Union Pacific Depot in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

Union Pacific freight station, Rock Springs.

Oddly, Rock Springs hardly obtained mention in today's entry, even though it is now a larger city than nearby Green River, which is the county seat.  But it is remarkable to note that the convoy was able to stop, grind a valve, and get back on the road, which is what they did, having the valve ground (or probably grinding it themselves, in Rock Springs.

Railroad depot in Green River, which would have appeared much the same in 1919 as it does now.

The final destination that day was Green River, which they arrived in relatively late in the evening, in comparison with other days reported in the diary, after a 13.5 hour day.

Rawlins was the last substantial town that the convoy had passed through prior to this day, and its paper memorialized their stay in the and through the town with a series of photographs in the paper that was issued on this day.

The Casper paper mentioned another momentous event, the transfer of 14,000 acres from the Wind River Indian Reservation to be open for homesteading, a post World War One effort to find homesteads for returning soldiers.

That act was part of a series of similar ones that had chipped away at the size of the Reservation since its founding in the 1860s.  While the Reservation remains large, it was once larger until events like this slowly reduced its overall extent.

14,000 acres is actually not that much acreage, but what this further indicates is an appreciation on the part of the government that the land around Riverton Wyoming was suitable for farming, as opposed to grazing.  The various homestead acts remained fully in effect in 1919 and indeed 1919 was not surprisingly the peak year for homesteading in the United States, as well as the last year in American history in which farmers had economic parity with urban dwellers.  But the land remaining in the West that was suitable for farming, as opposed to grazing, was now quite limited.  Some of that land was opening up with irrigation projects, however.

None of this took into mind, really, what was just for the native residents of the Reservation and that lead to the protests in Chicago.  Interestingly, those protests do not seem to have been undertaken by Arapaho and Shoshone tribal members, who indeed would have been a long way from home, but rather from Indians who were living in those areas, showing how the the efficient development of the spreading of news was impacting things.

Locally Judge Winters was stepping down as he felt that private practice would be more lucrative and he'd be better able to support his family  Judge Winter was a legendary local judge and his son also entered the practice of law.  While I may be mistaken, Judge Winter came back on the bench later, perhaps after his children were older.  His son was a great University of Wyoming track and field athlete and graduated from the University of Wyoming's law school in the 1930s.  Because of the Great Depression, he was unable to find work at first and therefore only took up practicing law after the Depression eased.  He was still practicing, at nearly 100 years old, when I first was practicing law and he had an office in our building.  He and his wife never had any children.

1923  An explosion at the Frontier Mine in Kemmerer killed 99 people. 

1935     Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law.

1943   New US conscription regulations come into force with a revised list of reserved occupations and a feature that having dependents are deciding factors in deferments.

1945     Harry S. Truman announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.  On the same day, in the last air raid of the war US B-29 Superfortress bombers strike Kumagaya and Isezaki, northwest of Tokyo, and the Akita-Aradi oil refinery. The American War Production Board removes all restrictions on the production of automobiles in the United States. General Douglas MacArthur is appointed supreme Allied commander to accept the Japanese surrender. An immediate suspension of hostilities is ordered and Japan is ordered to end fighting by all its forces on all fronts immediately. Attempted coup by the Imperial Guard is put down.

Tuesday,. August 14, 1945. VJ Day. World War Two ends. New wars start.

Emperor Hirohito accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and recorded a radio message to the Japanese people saying that the war should end and that they must "bear the unbearable."   Truman announced the Japanese surrender the same day.

Hirohito's full recorded, and then broadcast, speech stated:

To our good and loyal subjects.

After pondering deeply the general trends of the world and the actual conditions obtaining to our empire today, we have decided to effect a settlement of the present situation by resorting to an extraordinary measure.

We have ordered our government to communicate to the governments of the United States, Great Britain, China, and the Soviet Union that our empire accepts the provisions of their Joint Declaration.

To strive for the common prosperity and happiness of all nations as well as the security and well-being of our subjects is the solemn obligation which has been handed down by our imperial ancestors, and which we lay close to heart. Indeed, we declared war on America and Britain out of our sincere desire to ensure Japan’s self-preservation and the stabilization of East Asia, it being far from our thought either to infringe upon the sovereignty of other nations or to embark upon territorial aggrandizement.

But now the war has lasted for nearly four years. Despite the best that has been done by everyone—the gallant fighting of the military and naval forces, the diligence and assiduity of our servants of the state, and the devoted service of our 100 million people—the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interest.

Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to damage is indeed incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives.

Should we continue to fight, it would not only result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization. Such being the case, how are we to save the millions of our subjects or to atone ourselves before the hallowed spirits of our imperial ancestors? This is the reason why we have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the Joint Declaration of the Powers.

We cannot but express the deepest sense of regret to our allied nations of East Asia, who have consistently co-operated with the empire towards the emancipation of East Asia. The thought of those officers and men as well as others who have fallen in the fields of battle, those who died at their posts of duty, or those who met with untimely death and all their bereaved families, pains our heart day and night.

The welfare of the wounded and the war sufferers, and of those who have lost their homes and livelihood, are the objects of our profound solicitude. The hardships and sufferings to which our nation is to be subjected hereafter will certainly be great. We are keenly aware of the inmost feelings of all you, our subjects.

However, it is according to the dictate of time and fate that we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable.

Having been able to safeguard and maintain the structure of the imperial state, we are always with you, our good and loyal subjects, relying upon your sincerity and integrity. Beware most strictly of any outbursts of emotion which may engender needless complications, or any fraternal contention and strife which may create confusion, lead you astray, and cause you to lose the confidence of the world.

Let the entire nation continue as one family from generation to generation, ever firm in its faith of the imperishableness of its divine land, and mindful of its heavy responsibilities, and the long road before it.

Unite your total strength to be devoted to the construction for the future. Cultivate the ways of rectitude; foster nobility of spirit; and work with resolution so that you may enhance the innate glory of the imperial state and keep pace with the progress of the world.

Bearing it would prove to be nowhere as difficult as predicted for anyone, particularly Japanese women, and in general the Japanese middle and lower class. Frankly, everyone's life in Japan would improve immeasurably.  So much so, but for some wackadoodles, Japan has never looked back.

The recording had to be smuggled out of the Tokyo Imperial Palace out of fear of a military coup taking place

The attempted coup did in fact take place, as Japanese officers attempted to steal the recording and prevent the surrender.  The attempt failed, and at 19:00 Truman announced the Japanese surrender. Coup leader Major Kenji Hatanaka commited suicide after its failure..

As odd as it may seem, there were still air raids conducted until the surrender was broadcast.  The last raid was on Akita  (秋田空襲), which was the last raid of the war, which was a nighttime raid that occurred more or less at the same time as the attempted coup.

The Marifu railyard after the bombing raid of 14 August 1945 by B-29s

Huge crowds gathered all over the US to celebrate the end of the war.

The famous Times Square photograph of a sailor kissing a woman, which is protected by copyright, as American copyright provisions are absurdly long, was taken.

The Soviets occupied South Sakhalin and some of the Kurils, and advanced deep into Manchuria.

Gen. MacArthur was delegated to take the Japanese surrender.  A cessation of hostilities is ordered by both sides.

The War Production Board lifted restrictions on the productions of automobiles.

The Viet Minh launched an uprising against the French in Vietnam.

Steve Martin was born.

1981  A camera allowed for the first time in a Wyoming Supreme Court session. They are not generally allowed at the present time.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.