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.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

July 18

1877  Cantonment Reno, then Ft. McKinney on the Powder River,  moved to the north bank of Clear Creek.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1882  William Hale appointed Territorial Governor of Wyoming.  Hale was an Iowa attorney active in Republican politics, and was a Presidential Elector.  He occupied the position until his death in 1885.


1890  Laramie granted a streetcar franchise.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1901. Tom Horn murders Willie Nickell, for which he is later hung. In part, Horn is relatively rapidly identified due to leaving an expended .30-30 cartridge at the site, that being a rifle cartridge he was associated with.  At the time, the .30-30 was regarded as a long range high velocity cartridge and it was a relatively new cartridge as well.  The murder was almost certainly a mistake, as Horn was very likely waiting for Willie's father.  Willie was a big kid, albeit only age 14, and was wearing his father's coat on the day of the murder.

It's interesting to note that Horn was born in Missouri and grew up on a large family farm, although he left home as an early teen. His 1860 birth date would have caused him to grow up in the Missouri of the 1860s and 1870s, which were particularly lawless, and produced a variety of notorious gunmen.  He served as a civilian scout in the Army under the legendary Al Sieber and saw service on both sides of the border.  He picked up a knowledge of the Apache language during this period..

In the period leading up to this infamous act, he seems to have been employed as an enforcer for certain cattle interests that were continuing to contest along the lines of the Johnson County War as well as the ongoing sheep war.  He first took up hiring out as a gunman in the Southwest, after his service to the Army.  His role in Wyoming was often as a "stock detective", which gave a degree of legality to some of his activities.

His arrest and conviction is one of two instances in the first decade of the 20th Century in Wyoming in which the gunman was rapidly identified due to a cartridge preference, the other being the 1909 Spring Creek Raid, which was the last raid of Wyoming's long running sheep wars. In that event, one of the assailants was armed with a semi automatic Remington 1908 in .25 Remington, his rifle being the only one of that type in the region.

Horn has remained an oddly popular and well known figure in Wyoming's history and has his apologists.  The reasons for this are not entirely clear.  There are those who claim even to the present day that he was not guilty of the murder and was framed by those who had formerly employed him, citing to the efforts of Joe Lefors, who was critical in tracking him down and supplying testimony against him. But the apologists arguments do not stand up to scrutiny.   Looked at objectively, Horn was a late Frontier era figure who became ensnared in the violence of the period at the same time at which it was winding down.  The same decade of his arrest would see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid conclude their criminal activities in the state (also with Lefors playing a part in that) and the end of the Sheep Wars due to the arrival of effective law enforcement and unbiased juries.  Perhaps Horns role as a fin de siecle play a role in the ongoing fascination with him.

1912  A prison riot resulted in twelve prisoners of the penitentiary escaping, one of which killed a Rawlins resident. Attribution:  On This Day.

1918  And one day later. . . the Battle of Soissons. July 18-22, 1918.
Yesterday we posted our item about the practical end of the 1918 German Spring Offensive.

American 155mm guns which participated in the Battle of Soissons.

Amazingly, today we're posting about a French Offensive.

Or, more accurately a Franco American Offensive.  Or indeed, a Franco American Offensive supported by the British.

The Battle of Soissons.


Tactically, Soissons was a French effort, but even at that, it had a heavily international flavor to it. Designed to push back the bulge in the French line created by the third phase of the German 1918 Spring Offensive, the carefully designed attack featured an initial line made up heavily of "Moroccan" French troops, who reality were not only Moroccan, but were recruited from all over the globe. Some of the troops had in fact been pre war French Legionnaires.  Next to them were two American Divisions, the 1st and the 2nd, with the 2nd launching out of Belleau Wood and Château-Thierry France (which would result in the Battle of Château-Thierry, fought on this date).  Over all command was French.



The launching of the fifth and final phase of the 1918 Spring Offensive caused some to sugget postponing this effort, but Foch was confident the German effort would fail and there was no reason to delay. The decision was risky, but proved warranted.  From 18 to 22 July the French and American forces pushed the line back to where it had been before the 1918 Spring Offensive had begun. American troops proved themselves again in a large scale effort.  American efforts to form a full American Army were supported by the results. . . and the German reversal of fortunes in 1918 had begun.


Like most offensive operations in large wars, the offensive itself is remembered by some not for the particular offensive, but for battles within it.  One such battle was the aforementioned Battle of Château-Thierry, which is a well remembered Franco American battle that took place on this day.  That effort was an aspect of the first day of the offensive and was notable, as was day one of the offensive in general, for the lack of a preparatory artillery bombardment, which aided in achieving surprise.

U.S. Artillery at Château-Thierry.

1930  Gillette's  Dr. Sayles built small hospital at his home.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1940 The Democratic National Convention in Chicago nominated President Franklin D. Roosevelt for a third term in office.


2008  A Federal plan to delist the Northern Rockey Mountain Gray Wolf from the Endangered Species List was struck down by the Federal District Court of the D. C. Circuit.  Attribution:  On This Day.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

July 17

1866 Sioux warriors drove off a herd of livestock (175 horses and mules of the 18th Infantry Regiment) at Ft. Phil Kearney, with soldiers giving pursuit, resulting in some soldiers being killed and others wounded.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1876   The battle of Warbonnet Creek occured in which Col. Wesley Merritt and his 5th Cavalry, out of Fort Robinson, Nebraska, attack the Cheyenne in the vicinity of Fort Robinson.  The battle launches Buffalo Bill Cody into fame.

1891  An explosion at the Union Pacific's No. 6 mine killed five and was felt in Rock Springs. Attribution:  On This Day.

1915  An unseasonable snowstorm occurred in Hartville.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1920  The USS Wyoming given her hull designation as the BB-32.

1921   Burnu Acquanetta, actress, born near Cheyenne. She was an Arapaho and a minor movie actress.

1975  A plaque was presented to the Commissioner of Reclamation at Pathfinder Dam.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

July 16

1863  The United States wins its first naval victory over Japan when the USS Wyoming prevailed in the Battle of Shimonoseki Straits.

1866  A discussion occurs between Col. Carrington and Cheyennes at Ft. Phil Kearny resulting in a Cheyenne pledge of peace.

1872  The cornerstone was laid at the Territorial Prison in Laramie.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916   The Legislature approved of an act of Congress "to provide that the United States shall aid the states in the construction of rural post road."  Attribution:  On This Day.

1923  Monday, July 16, 1923. Summer session.


Wyoming's second, in its history up to that point, special legislative session convened in Cheyenne to address its state farm loan provisions.

1938  Ft. Laramie declared a National Monument.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Monday, July 15, 2013

July 15

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

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



1866 The site for Ft. Phil Kearney chosen.   

1872  Cornerstone laid for the Territorial Prison in Laramie.

1918  The Kaiserschlacht Ends. July 15, 1918. Operation Friedensturm
Not very cheery news for a Monday.  Wyoming State Tribune for Monday, July 15, 1918.

Monday, July 15, 1918, brought discouraging, if not unexpected, news.
 
The map one final time, with the final German fifth drive.  This time the Germans attempted to exploit the earlier success of their drive on Paris with a new front to the east.  Over two days the effort gained ground, but the effort was rapidly halted and by this point the French were able to regain the initiative and counter.  The Germans were effectively blocked and gave up offensive efforts on August 7.


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

July 14

1860  Owen Wister, the author of The Virginian born in Philadelphia.  It is sometimes claimed that The Virginian was the first Western novel, which it is not, but it was probably the first serious one.Wister's novel is completely set in Wyoming and is loosely based on the events that gave rise to The Johnson County War, although it takes the large cattleman's side, which most works of fiction have not. The novel itself has been used as the inspiration for numerous other works, including quite a few movies, but usually works based on it also reverse the protagonists. Wister's novel followed a visit to Wyoming, and the locations mentioned on it describe places he'd actually visited.

Wister would become a lawyer by education, but his practice period was brief as he had no real affinity for the occupation.  He is principally remembered today for his novel, but he wrote on other topics as well, including on philosophy and politics.  A close friend of Theodore Roosevelt, he can be identified politically with the Progressive movement.


1920  A horse and rider were struck and killed near Powder River.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

July 13

1863  





1866 Construction of Ft. Phil Kearny began.

1890 John C. Fremont died.

1916 Guardsmen of the 4th South Dakota Infantry prepare to leave for San Benito, Texas, to take up their station on the Mexican border where it will be placed into the First Separate Brigade along with the 22nd U.S. Infantry, the 1st Louisiana and 1st Oklahoma infantry regiments.

1917   July 13, 1917. Columbus in the News Again, Conscription, and something going on at Fatima
 
I quit doing daily newspaper updates some time ago, but given the interesting news here, and as I've done on occasion, I'm posting a "100 Years Ago Today" type entry here regarding July 13, 1917.

As noted yesterday, in one of the largest criminal acts of its type, industrial vigilantism of a type that we no longer see (thankfully) broke out in Bisbee Arizona.  Mining interest operated to illegally arrest and "deport" IWW members from Bisbee to New Mexico, entraining the victims and shipping them off to hapless southern New Mexico.


The IWW, to be sure, was one of the most radical unions going, in an era in which unions were pretty radical.  This was an era in which, for a combination of reasons, radical Socialism, of the type stirring up all sorts of foment in collapsing Russia, was on the rise everywhere and indeed had its presence in American unions.  The IWW, with its concept of "one big union", was one of the most radical of the bunch.

From the June 30, 1917 issue of Solidarity, the Industrial Workers of the World magazine.  One Big Union.
Frankly, in my view, the IWW was really darned goofy, and the concept of "one big union" totally unworkable.  Its no surprise that the IWW, which still exists, never succeeded it reaching its goals.  But the teens and the twenties were its era in the sun, and in Bisbee Arizona it had its moment.
Bibee in 1916.
The reason was simple enough.  Conditions at the Phelps Dodge mine there were bad and the union that had the membership there, the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW) wasn't doing much.  Some 800 or so workers turned to the IWW.
And the mining interest reacted, gathering up the IWW members and shipping them out of Bisbee.
Where they ended up in poor Columbus.

A humanitarian disaster was in the works, the US had to intervene and did.  Ultimately, while the Federal government determined the act was criminal, what with its scale, and what with all that was going on, nobody was prosecuted for this shocking act.

Amongst the shocks the nations was receiving, we'd note, it became clearer and clearer every day that the draft was going to be big. Really big.  Early registration had somewhat mixed results but was mostly successful.  The Guard was going into  official Federal service, conscripted actually due to an odd view of the US Attorney General that Federalized Guardsmen could not serve overseas, in August.  The big draw of average male citizens was hitting the news.  Even with the big numbers being claimed in the Press at the time, the actual numbers would be much larger.

There's be a lot more than two.  July 12, 1917 cover of Leslie's
Regarding fighting, the second of a series of mysterious events, which had not yet hit the international news but which would start to, occurred on this day.  Three Portuguese peasant children claimed to receive a visit from a mysterious otherworldly lady who then, they claimed, gave them a momentary but vivid glimpse of Hell.  Following that, she gave them a message, which included, but was not limited to, requests for penitential prayers and a prediction that the Great War would soon end, but if penance was not performed, Russia would fall into grave error, spread those errors around the world, nations would be destroyed, and a second war greater than the first would occur in the reign of a Pope who was named but who was not at that time the sitting Pope.  While nobody, including Catholics, are obligated to believe in a private revelation, this series of events, which would end, as the visitor claimed, in October 1917 with a final spectacular event, is hard to discount given that the contents of the messages proved to be true.  And so went the second, July 13, 1917 apparition of the Virgin Mary at Fatima.

1918  Oh my, I an only imagine what this headline would create locally in 2018. . . "Booze or Coal Is Choice For This Country": July 13, 2018 Cheyenne State Leader.


1922  A Sheridan man was sentenced to the Penitentiary for one year for "seduction".  This entry comes form the Wyoming Historical Society's calendar where there are no added details, but it should be noted that convictions of this type were not at all uncommon in North America.  Up until the mid 20th Century, a series of common law and criminal law provisions afforded criminal sanctions and civil relief for various morals offenses and offenses against the moral standards pertaining to the relationships between men and women, which were taken very seriously by the law.  These legal provisions, sometimes called the "heart balm statutes", were statutorily appealed in later years in Wyoming, but at the time they allowed parties to sue for, amongst other things, damages attached to illicit relationships. They also provided for criminal sanctions for intimate relationships outside of marriage, such as here.  Now regarded as quaint, the provisions afforded a degree of protection to society for the results of such conduct, and they discourage it in addition to providing legal recognition to the almost universally held moral standards of the day.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Friday, July 12, 2013

July 12

1864  





1890  Lander incorporated.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1900 The first Elks Lodge to be chartered in Wyoming was chartered in Sheridan.  Up until after World War Two, fraternal lodges were a major feature of male life in most localities in the United States, with a very high percentage of American men belonging to some sort of fraternal organization.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1900 Basin saw a record high temperature for the state of 114F.  It is no longer the record high, as 115F was reached, in Basin, in 1983.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

July 11

1862   The Postmaster General of the United States ordered mail carriers to forgo the trail over South Pass in favor of the Overland Trail due to the risk of Indian attacks.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1908  The USS Wyoming (BM-10) renamed the USS Cheyenne.  There's no doubt a real level of confusion on the 20th Century USS Wyoming surface vessels, which I've inadvertently contributed to, as there were two capitol ships by that name, which is very rarely noted in some sources. The first was a less substantial ship than the second.  That ship, the USS Wyoming BM-10 served under that name until 1908, when a larger class of battleships started coming in and the name was cleared for the USS Wyoming (BB-32).  I'll have to go back and correct entries on this ship, which is very frequently confused win the second battleship.  The first USS Wyoming became the USS Cheyenne, and was decommissioned twice, once putting in in the Washington Naval Militia.  It was converted to a submarine tender before World War One, which shows how much smaller this "monitor" was than the later battleships.  It was ultimately sold for scrap in 1939.

1912  There was flooding in Buffalo. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1918  The Casper Daily Tribune for July 11, 1918. Escaped Wheatland Felon Dies In Battle

Henry Sweeney had blown the safe at the Guernsey Mercantile and ended up in the Platte County Jail.  He broke out, aided by his friend Sullivan, and they both took off and enlisted in the Army.

Sweeney died in battle, and apparently he must have felt badly about his prior life of crime, as he had Sullivan write home about it.

Sweeney, in light of giving up his life for his country, had the charges dropped.

The article didn't say what Platte County's attitude was towards Sullivan . . .

1931   Electricity brought to Dayton and Ranchester.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1947  The USS Wyoming (BB-32) entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard to begin decommissioning.  Attribution:  While this is a sad event, having caught my earlier error regarding the confusion of the BM-10 with the BB-32, I"d note that this ship's service life extended from May 21, 1911 until August 1, 1947.  Most of the entries on this site about the USS Wyoming are about this ship, but a few are on the earlier monitor, which I'll go back and correct.  On This Day.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

July 10

Today is Wyoming Statehood Day

1863  Territory of Idaho created.

1866  The War Department issued orders to establish a fort south of Laramie.  It was initially named Fort John Buford but was renamed Fort Sanders on September 5, 1866.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1890  Wyoming admitted to the Union.

1933  As noted on this thread at  Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Long Cavalry Maneuvers.  Col Roche S. Mentzer, Commanding Officer of the 115th Cavalry became ill at Fox Park, in the Snowy Range, and died.  That year, annual training had consisted of a protracted mounted march which took the mustered unit from Cheyenne to northern Colorado, and then back into the Snowy Range.

Col. Mentzer, in civilian life, was a lawyer in Cheyenne.

2012  A terrible vehicle v wagon accident occurs following the Central Wyoming Fair & Rodeo parade.  See:  One woman remains in hospital after horse-drawn vehicle accident in Casper

2018   The Lions' Last Roar. The ongoing decline of service organizations.
 
I read in the paper earlier this week that the Lions Club is giving up sponsoring the local fair and rodeo parade, which its done for a decade.  This year is its last year.  The parade was held yesterday (July 10, 2018)

Of course, they drew that last parade in an election year, which must have been a pain.  I didn't watch but a few minutes of the parade, and that from an office window, but even at that I could tell it featured all the running politicians.

The reason the Lions are giving the parade up is a simple one. It takes about thirty people to do the parade, they reported. They're down to ten members.  As the Tribune reported, in an interview of the club's leader;
We looked at our membership. It takes an awful lot of people to put that parade on. Most service clubs have declining membership and ours has declined to the point we didn’t feel we could do it adequately. We notified the fair board officially in January but they knew it was coming. On a regular basis, we have about 10 members and it takes at least 30 people to start that parade, so we’ve taken advantage of our children and our wives and husbands.
Wow.

I've written about the decline in fraternal organizations before.  The Lions aren't really that, however. Their a service organization.  My prior posts probably somewhat confused the two and frankly most fraternal organizations have a service element to them.  Probably in the modern context they darned near all do.  But some organizations are expressly service organizations.  The Lions are one of them.

The Lions were founded in 1916 in Chicago.  It has 1.4 million members worldwide.  So it's still around and still relatively big.  But around here, it's not.  And that's common.

The Rotary Club, which seems to be doing much better, will be taking over.  Rotary International is a little older, having been formed in 1905.  I've known quite a few people who have been Rotarians, but I've also known a few Lions. The Lions I've known have been frank over the years that they were worried about the local clubs (there were at least two, maybe there still are) future. At some point, I'd think, you'd tip over a scale where the weight would be really against you.

Which is a shame, but then I myself have never been in a service or fraternal organization and don't really have any interest in joining one either.  But that's a feature of my character.  I wouldn't have been in one if this was 1968, or 1918.  It's just not me.  I'm glad its been somebody, however.

Comment:

Yesterday the State Historical Society posted this query to their Facebook page:
July 10, 1890, Wyoming became the 44th state. How does your community celebrate?
 The answer here would be not much.  Does your community do anything?

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

July 9, 2013: Central Wyoming Fair & Rodeo Parade Day.

Center Street, Casper Wyoming, 7:00 a.m.

Today is the Central Wyoming Fair & Rodeo Parade Day, in Casper Wyoming, for 2013.

A local holiday (although not every business takes it off) today features one of two annual big parades in Casper, the other being a parade that occurs just before Christmas.  People begin to take their places on the parade route as early as 5:00 a.m., and as this photos demonstrates, people have quite a few places staked out by 7:00 a.m., including the places immediately in front of the office building in which I work.  Those who work downtown on parade day always make an effort to park in their spots early, least they be taken and getting to work subsequently prove impossible.

July 9

1866 Colonel Henry B. Carrington leaves Fort Reno for Piney Creek to select the site for what became Ft. Phil Kearny.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1915  The last stage robbery in the United States occurred in Yellowstone National Park, seeing financier Bernard amongst the passengers robbed.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1920  July 9, 1920
Jackson Lake Dam and spillway on the Snake River near Moran, Wyoming.  July 9, 1920

1934  Sheridan's first radio station commences operation.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1945   Cheyenne was proclaimed to be "a City of the First Class".

1982  Madison Museum, in Yellowstone National Park, added to the National Register of Historic Places.

1982  Obsidian Cliff Kiosk in Park County added to the National Register of Historic Places.  

Monday, July 8, 2013

July 8

1889 Delegates elected to the Wyoming Constitutional Convention.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1892  Lester C. Hunt was born in Isabel Illinois. A dentist by occupation, he served as the 19th Governor of Wyoming from 1943 to 1949 and Senator thereafter until 1954.

1896   William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech.

1906  The last stage run over the Rawlins Wyoming to Lander line is made.

1911 Nebraskan "Two  Gun" Nan Aspinwall becomes the first woman to ride across the United States, completing her ride from the Pacific by riding into New York City.

2004   Governor Dave Freudenthal signed a proclamation creating the Wyoming Outdoor Hall of Fame.  Attribution:  On This Day.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

July 7

1832  William Sublette's party reaches Jackson Hole and crosses Teton Pass.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1847  The first company of Mormon immigrants reached Ft. Bridger.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1864  Townsend wagon train attacked near Platte Bridge Station..

1876. Sioux and Cheyenne attack an Army scouting party at Sibley Lake, in the Big Horn Mountains.

1886  Electric street lights turned on in Laramie Wyoming for the first time.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1905  The Sheridan branch of the Wyoming General Hospital was opened.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1907  The cornerstone of St. Mary's Cathedral in Cheyenne laid.

1918  Carried over, in part, from  yesterday due to the July 7 Cheyenne newspaper:

Because the Germans doing it seemed like such a good idea? Now the Allies opt for intervening in Russia.

And Woodrow Wilson decided that the U.S. would participate in it, over the objections of Army which advised against it.



1919 Monday, July 7, 1919. The 1919 Motor Transport Corps Convoy departed Washington D. C.. .
with an intended destination of San Francisco, California.

World War One vintage Motor Transport Corps recruiting poster.

This would be a long trip by contemporary standards, but in 1919 it was daunting in the extreme.  Only adventurers with cash tried to drive across the United States as a rule.  While it had been done quite a few times by 1919, it was not a short trip by any means.  People who wanted to cross the country did it the logical and safe way. . . by train.

The purpose of this trip was several fold.  A primary one was to test the inventory of trucks that the Army now owned, thanks to the Great War, in order to determine which ones were the best and weed out those that couldn't endure.  Additionally, however, problems with the railroads during World War One, by which we mean labor problems, inspired the service to see if trucks were a viable means of transporting men and equipment for mobilization in time of war.

The scale of the test was massive.  Over 250 men were detailed to the experimental operation which included repair vehicles and bridging equipment.  Vehicles were highly varied and ranged from artillery tractors to to motorcycles.  It's significance was appreciated at the time, and the Signal Corps was detailed to film the convoy in route, which was proceeded by a Publicity Officer and a Recruiting Officer who arrived in towns along the route several days ahead of the convoy.  The route was that of the already established, but far from modern, Lincoln Highway.

Lincoln Highway route as of 1916, which was the same as it would be in 1919.

Command of the overall operation was in the hands of Lt. Col. Charles W. McClure with the actual "train" commander being Cpt. Bernard H. McMahon.  Officers who were familiar with motor transport, including Bvt. Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower, were detailed to the operation.

So how did day one go?  Well, the official log of the trip gives us a picture, albeit a brief one, of the same.

Forty six miles. . . in 7.5 hours.  And that on excellent roads.

1994 The former Wyoming National Guard Cavalry Stable in Newcastle, now a museum, added to the National Register of Historic Places. Attribution:  On This Day.

1999  President Clinton became the first president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to visit an Indian reservation as he toured the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

2006  The Snake River Land Company Residence and Office in Moran added to the National Register of Historic Places.Attribution:  On This Day.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

July 6

1836   Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding at the 1836 Rendezvous
 



This entry more likely belongs at our Today In Wyoming's History blog, as it isn't so much of a church item (well maybe it is) as a history item.  Note how particularly early this Oregon Trail event was, 1836.  Well before the big flood of travelers starting going over the trail in the late 1840s.

1863  John Bozeman leaves Ft. Laramie to scout a trail to the Yellowstone Valley. The trail would become the Bozeman Trail.

1876  The Army commences to inform the widows of the Little Big Horn Battle of the loss of their husbands at Ft. Abraham Lincoln.

1890  The streetcar line in Cheyenne running from Capitol Ave. to Lake Minnehaha completed.  Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1899  The Wyoming Battalion received its orders in the Philippines to return to the U.S. Attribution:  On This Day.

1918  Because the Germans doing it seemed like such a good idea? Now the Allies opt for intervening in Russia.
And Woodrow Wilson decided that the U.S. would participate in it, over the objections of Army which advised against it.


Everything about Russia during World War One has a certain pipe dream quality to it.  The Western Allies had hoped from day one that the giant nation would prove to be a vital and decisive ally. It did turn out to be a handful for the Germans, who ultimately defeated it, but the German hopes for what they had defeated and their greed meant that the fruits of that victory were never realized.


Following Russia's collapse into civil war the Allies hoped that the situation could be restored and a new republican government would rejoin the war, a hope that was folly at best.  Ultimately that hope lead to the decision to intervene in Russian affairs, putting the Allies into the extraordinary position of fielding expeditionary forces that would deploy direction into a civil war when, at that very time, the Allies were on the verge of loosing the war themselves on the Western Front.


Perhaps it is somewhat understandable, but only somewhat.  There was really no earthly way that Russia was coming back into World War One.  Moreover, the force needed to insure a quick White Victory, which is what would have been necessary to achieve that result, just wasn't there. . . which suggests that the Allies thought the Reds weren't really as powerful in 1918 as they were.  Not that they were not challenged, to be sure.  The Whites were also powerful at that time and the Communist government had seen an uprising on July 6 and 7 from the left, in the form of an attempted seizure of the government by the Left Socialist Revolutionaries.  Russia was a mess.

But the Allies, in the midst of the largest war since the Napoleonic Wars, weren't going to be able to reverse that.

Indeed, in the American Army's case, they weren't even going to be given a clear mission.

1922 Seven gamblers were arrested in Yoder, in the garage of a deputy sheriff.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1922.  Thursday, July 6, 1922. Casper and Oil

The big news in Casper was that the Texas Company, generally referred to as Texaco, was coming to Casper.  It would build a refinery on the edge of what became Evansville, referred to in these articles as the lands belonging to the Evans Holding Company.


The refinery was one of three in operation here when I was young, including the giant Standard Oil Refinery and the Sinclair Refinery, the latter of which had been built originally by Husky Petroleum.  Only the Sinclair Refinery remains in operation.  The Texaco refinery closed in 1982.  The Standard Oil Refinery closed for good in 1991.

1976  Frederic Hutchinson Porter, an architect responsible for the design of several important buildings in Cheyenne and a Cheyenne resident, died.

Friday, July 5, 2013

July 5

1840  Father Pierre De Smet celebrated the first Catholic Mass observed in Wyoming.

 First Catholic Mass in Wyoming
 



1858 Gold discovered at what would now be Denver, Colorado.

1909  August Malchow, the "Wisconsin Kid", defeated Tom Edmonds at Lander's Armory.  Malchow became the world welterweight champion.  See September 25 for more on Malchow.  This was Edmonds only recorded professional fight.

1913  Big Piney incorporated.

1916   The Crisis Passed. July 5, 1916
 
The news, reported in various fashions, was in fact correct. While the Guard continued to be mobilized, the danger that war would break out with Mexico had passed.





Having said that, the European crisis clearly was ongoing.

1920  The Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated an Oregon Trail marker in Mills.

The marker today:

Mills Memorial Park, Mills Wyoming


The Mills Memorial Park commemorates Lt. Caspar Collins, who was killed in the 1865 Battle of Platte Bridge Station, and the bridge and Mormon ferry that was located about 1.5 miles from the park.

1925  Gov. Nellie Tayloe Ross spoke at the dedication of the Snowy Range Road.

1934   524 tons of grasshopper bait distributed at Wheatland in an effort to combat a grasshopper infestation.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1935 Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act, which allowed labor to organize for the purpose of collective bargaining.

1937  Ft. Laramie officially declared to be public property to be turned over by the State to the Federal government.

1937  A Rock Springs youth believed he heard a radio distress call from lost aviatrix Amelia Earhart, as reported in the Casper Paper:

CASPER TRIBUNE-HERALD, 1937
Pacific waves — Three days after the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, the July 5 edition reported on page 1: “Rock Springs Boy Picks Up Message from Flier ...
“A 12-year-old colored boy, Charles Randolph, had the thrill today of having done his share in the search for Amelia Earhart and her globe encircling companion, Capt. Frederick Noonan.
“Randolph twirled the dial of his small and inexpensive short wave radio set Sunday morning [July 4] about 8 o’clock. Suddenly he was startled when he heard what he described as a faint but distinct voice saying ‘Amelia Earhart calling.’ Over and over again, he said he heard the call but could distinguish no call letters such as the missing aviatrix would have for her radio station.
“The lad called his father, Dana Randolph who rushed to the telephone office where he contacted the wire chief, who in turn notified a department of commerce bureau of aviation official who happened to be visiting Rock Springs.
“The three rushed to the Randolph home where the lad told his story.
“The signals, he said, came in for 25 minutes before they faded out.
“He said he could hear something about a ‘ship being on a reef south of the equator,’ and added that some unintelligible figures also were given which may have been latitude and longitude, but he was unable to copy them down.
“The department of commerce official and amateur radio operators here said it was possible that Randolph may have received a radio call from the missing flier.
“The youth is not a licensed operator.
“His report was forwarded to San Francisco by the aviation official for what it was worth.”
This is from the Casper Star Tribune's A Look Back In Time column.

1971 The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years, is formally certified by President Richard Nixon.