2013 Historian David McCullough speaks at the University of Wyoming on "Leadership and the History You Don’t Know."
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.
We hope you enjoy this site.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
April 16
2013 Historian David McCullough speaks at the University of Wyoming on "Leadership and the History You Don’t Know."
Monday, April 15, 2013
April 15
1916 The Casper Daily Press: April 15, 1916
1917 The Sunday State Leader for April 15, 1917: A plot against Pathfinder.
I've stopped the frequent updates of Wyoming newspapers here as the story I was really tracking, the Punitive Expedition, has closed out as a day to day item of concern. Not that Mexico doesn't keep appearing, as this paper demonstrates. But by mid April it finally seemed evident to everyone that the US was not going to be fighting Mexico as a stand in for Germany. We were really going to fight Germany.
Not that the papers don't remain interesting, and here's an example.
As far as I know, there was never a serious attempt to blow up Pathfinder Dam, but a story about a belief that there was hit the front page of this Cheyenne newspaper. Lots of panicky stories like this were going around as people saw German agents everywhere.
As is also evident here, the war was giving a boost to prohibitionist.
1922 Wyoming Democratic Senator John Kendrick introduced a resolution to investigate oil sales at Teapot Dome, Wyoming (the Naval Petroleum Oil Reserve).
Saturday, April 15, 1922. The Teapot Dome Scandal Breaks.
1952 The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
April 14
1916: Casper Weekly Press: April 14, 1916
The Lansing-Ishii Agreement which had defined Japanese and American spheres of influence in China was abrogated after six years of being in effect due to Chinese objections regarding the agreement.
The Tribune reported on a tidal wave in Japan, and Irish plots against the British, but the really shocking news was the visitation of the Ku Klux Klan to the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Casper at 15th and Popular Streets. There is no church there today, that location featuring a gas station, two apartment buildings, and a traffic island..
An Emmanuel Baptist Church still exists in Casper, but it's in North Casper today. I have no idea of there being any connection between the two or not.
Emmanuel Baptist Church, Casper Wyoming
Apparently the same group had visited the Baptist church located at 5th and Beech street earlier. That Church structure is no longer there either, but a subsequent structure built in 1949 remains, however it is no longer a Baptist Church.
First Baptist Church, Casper Wyoming
Changes in Downtown Casper. First Presbyterian becomes City Park Church, the former First Baptist Church.
I debated on whether to put this entry here or on our companion blog, Lex Anteinternet. In the end, I decided to put it up here first and then link it over. This will be one of a couple of posts of this type which explore changes, this one with a local expression, that have bigger implications.When we started this blog, some of the first entries here were on churches in downtown Casper. These included the First Presbyterian Church and the First Baptist Church, with buildings dating to 1913 and 1949 respectively. First Baptist, it should be noted, has occupied their present location, if not their present church, for a century.Indeed, while I wasn't able to get it to ever upload, I have somewhere a video of the centennial of the First Presbyterian Church from 2013, featuring, as a church that originally had a heavy Scots representation ought to, a bagpipe band. Our original entry on that church building is right below:First Presbyterian Church, Casper Wyoming
This Presbyterian Church is located one block away from St. Mark's Episcopal Church and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, all of which are separated from each other by City Park.
The corner stone of the church gives the dates 1913 1926. I'm not sure why there are two dates, but the church must have been completed in 1926.Well, since that centennial, First Presbyterian has been going through a constant set of changes, as noted in our entry here:Grace Reformed at City Park, formerly First Presbyterian Church, Casper Wyoming
This isn't a new addition to the roll of churches here, but rather news about one of them. We formerly posted on this church here some time ago:Churches of the West: First Presbyterian Church, Casper Wyoming: This Presbyterian Church is located one block away from St. Mark's Episcopal Church and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, all of whi...People who have followed it would be aware that the Presbyterian churches in the United States are undergoing a period of rift, and this church has reflected that. The Presbyterian Church, starting in the 1980s, saw conflict develop between liberal and more conservative elements within it which lead to the formation of the "moderate conservative" EPC. As I'm not greatly familiar with this, I'll only note that the EPC is associated with "New School Presbyterianism" rather than "Old School" and it has adopted the motto "In Essentials, Unity; In Non-Essentials, Liberty; In All Things, Charity. Truth in Love.".The change in name here is confusing to an outsider in that this church is a member of the EPC, but it's no longer using its original name. As it just passed the centennial of its construction, that's a bit unfortunate in some ways.We'd also note that the sought set of stairs is now chained off. We're not sure why, but those stairs must no longer be used for access.The changes apparently didn't serve to arrest whatever was going on, as there's a sign out in front of the old First Presbyterian, later Grace Reformed, that starting on February 23, it'll be City Park Church.City Park Church, it turns out, is the name that the congregation that presently occupies another nearby church, First Baptist Church, will call its new church building, which is actually a much older building than the one it now occupies, which is depicted here:What's going on?Well, it's hard to say from the outside, which we are, but what is pretty clear is that the rifts in the Presbyterian Church broke out, in some form, in the city's oldest Presbyterian Church to the point where it ended up changing its name, and then either moving out of its large church, and accompanying grounds, or closing altogether. I've never been in the building but I'm told that its basement looked rough a couple of years ago and perhaps the current congregation has other plans or the grounds and church are just too much for it. At any rate, the 1949 vintage building that First Baptist occupies is apparently a bit too small for its needs and it had taken the opportunity to acquire and relocate into the older, but larger, church. It can't help but be noted that both churches have pretty large outbuildings as well. Also, while they are both downtown, the 1913 building is one of the three very centrally located old downtown Casper churches, so if church buildings have pride of place, the Baptist congregation is moving into a location which has a little bit more of one.While it will be dealt with more in another spot, or perhaps on Lex Anteinternet, the entire thing would seem to be potentially emblematic of the loss that Christian churches that have undergone a rift like the Presbyterian Church in the United States has sustained when they openly split between liberal and conservative camps. The Presbyterian Church was traditionally a fairly conservative church, albeit with theology that was quite radical at the time of its creation. In recent years some branches of that church have kept their conservatism while others have not and there's been an open split. As noted elsewhere this has lead in part to a defection from those churches in a lot of localities, and a person has to wonder if something like that may have happened here, as well as wondering if the obvious fact that a split has occurred would naturally lead to a reduction in the congregation as some of its members went with the other side. We've noted here before that the Anglican Community locally not only has its two Episcopal Churches in town, but that there are also two additional Anglican Churches of a much more theologically conservative bent, both of which are outside of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming.A person can't really opine, from the outside, if something like this is "sad" or not, but it's certainly a remarkable event. We've noted church buildings that have changed denominations of use before, but this is the first one where we've actually witnessed it. And in this case, the departing denomination had occupied their building for a century.
In both instances, the small KKK group was there for the odd purpose of noting something they approved of.
On the changes in the linked in article, while I'm not completely certain, I believe that no congregation is presently using the old First Baptist Church, and the old Presbyterian Church continued to undergo denominational changes. It's something affiliated with Presbyterianism in some fashion, but I don't know how.
Amalgamated Bank, the largest union owned bank, forms.
The National League of Women's Voters voted against endorsing the League of Nations while simultaneously urging the US to associate with other nations to help prevent war, a mixed message.
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Sidebar: The Johnson County War
April 13
1912 This photograph of Lusk was taken:
1916 The Wyoming Tribune: April 13, 1916
Back to a Cheyenne morning paper for today, lacking the Casper paper.
1917 Wyoming Council for National Defense appointed by Governor Houx.
Friday, April 12, 2013
April 12
The Punitive Expedition: The Battle of Parral. April 12, 1916
Casper Daily Press: April 12, 1916
1920 The Rock Springs Hide & Fur Company was destroyed by fire. Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.
2016 Lex Anteinternet: Marathon, Peabody and the airlines
Lex Anteinternet: Marathon, Peabody and the airlines: This past week the state received the bad news that Marathon Oil Company, formerly Ohio Oil Company, which was once headquartered in Casper...The buyer is Merit Energy.
All in all, this is good news for the state. Merit's had along presence here and is a substantial operation, so this would indicate that they are doing well and banking on the future of the petroleum industry in the state.