HISTORY OF WYOMING
History 1251, Autumn Term, 2005
Dr. Phil Roberts Education Auditorium
Office: 356 History Bldg., 766-5311 or 766-5101 T, Th 9:35-10:50 a.m.
Office Hours: T, Th.., 11-Noon; and by appointment E-mail: philr@uwyo.edu
Drew Folk: office hours, T, 11-12:30; W, 11-12:30, and by appointment.
Matt Mirowski: office hours, T-Th, 11-12:30, and by appointment.
"The Graders"
DREW FOLK: Students with last names beginning with letters A-G
MATT MIROWSKI: Students with last names beginning with letters H-O
PHIL ROBERTS: Students with last names beginning with letters P-Z
OBJECTIVE: The course is a survey which will encourage an understanding of Wyoming history, how it relates to the history of the West and the rest of America, and how it has influenced the present. The lectures and readings are designed to encourage further reading in Wyoming and Western history. Unlike recent past semesters, the course will NOT be taught chronologically. Instead, the course will follow certain "organizing themes." Consequently, it will be important to keep up with the reading assignments and to have a clear understanding of the chronology of Wyoming events, particularly those since 1890. The course will consider the U. S. Constitution and the Wyoming Constitution and place each in historical context. Consequently, this course satisfies the University Studies V1 requirement.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: The readings for this class are not extensive or difficult. There will be no main text assigned. Rather, readings will be drawn from several key books. The lectures will NOT duplicate the readings and not all lecture outlines will be posted on the website. Consequently, relentless attendance will be required in order to succeed in this class. A short research exercise, based on primary sources, will be required along with exams and quizzes (see below).
REQUIRED BOOKS: Copies of all books (and the State Constitution) are on reserve in Coe Library.
Elinore Pruitt Stewart. Letters of a Woman Homesteader. (Lincoln: Bison Books, 1989). Other editions also OK.
Robert W. Righter. Crucible for Conservation: The Struggle for Grand Teton National Park. (Moose: Grand Teton Natural History Assoc., 1982, 2000).
Phil Roberts, editor. Readings in Wyoming History. (4th edition, published in 2004).
Helena Huntington Smith. War on Powder River: The History of an Insurrection. (Lincoln: Univ. of Neb. Press, 1966).
Sam Western. Pushed Off the Mountain, Sold Down the River: Wyoming's Search for Its Soul. (Moose: Homestead Pub., 2002).
The Wyoming Constitution. (Available for purchase, but also on reserve at Coe Library circulation and on the web).
The United States Constitution. (On reserve at Coe Library circulation and on the web).
EXAMS: Constitution exam, 100 points (20%); mid-term exam, 100 points (20%); the final exam, 150 points (30%); AHC research exercise, 75 points (15%); five unannounced quizzes, 50 points total (10%); and one map quiz, 25 points (5%). Absolutely no make-up quizzes will be given. Make-up exams will be given ONLY IF the student informs the professor or TA before the exam is to be administered with a valid reason for missing the scheduled time. Students are expected to be familiar with the university rules governing plagiarism and academic dishonesty which will be enforced in this class.
AMERICAN HERITAGE CENTER RESEARCH EXERCISE: Each student will have the opportunity to examine a primary collection held in the American Heritage Center. The orientation to the collections will be held for small groups of students over the course of several weeks in November. The schedule for these visits, to be made during regularly-scheduled class periods, is now posted. Please check the schedule to make certain that you will be able to attend on the assigned day. If you know you will be away on the scheduled date, contact your "grader" and he will assign an earlier day for you to go to the AHC. Except in the case of the first group, later dates will not be assigned. The dates will be: Nov. 1, 3, 8, 10, 15, 17, 22, 29 and Dec. 1.
GRADING PROCEDURE: The final grade will be calculated on the total "points" earned during the semester, based on the following scale: A: 451-500 points B: 401-450 points C: 351-400 points D: 301-350 points F: 300 or fewer
OUTLINE OF TOPICS, MEETINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Topics are subject to minor change.
Outlines of lectures will be posted periodically to the web. Because of the possibility of technical problems as well as brevity of the outline format that will be utilized, students should not expect to rely on these. Instead, students will be expected to attend and take notes, relying on the web outlines for reference, refreshing memory, or augmenting notes.
Week of Aug. 30-Sept. 1
Introduction; Distribution of syllabi.
Organizing Concepts.
Week of Sept. 6-8
Sept. 6: Wyoming as a Trail to Somewhere Else
Sept. 8: Wagon Trails and Railroads.
American Experience: The Transcontinental Railroad (documentary film--if time permits, we may view a few extracts in class)
Week of Sept. 13-15: Wyoming’s Boom and Bust Economy: Fur Trade, Cattle, Agriculture, Minerals
Map quiz.
Week of Sept. 20-22: Wyoming as Cattle Country
Reading: Roberts, “Cowboys Form a Health Coop,” Smith, War on Powder River (all)
Reading: Stewart, Letters of a Woman Homesteader (all).
Week of Oct. 4-6: The Wyoming Constitution
Reading: Roberts, “The Contest for the Capital,” pp. 41-52; “Brief Overview,” pp. 250-252; Wyoming Constitution (all); U. S. Constitution (all). The Wyoming Constitution can be found on the Secretary of State's website. For the U. S. Constitution, an excellent site that provides annotations to the various clauses can be found at: http://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon/
Oct. 13: Wyoming: Cowboy State?
Reading: Roberts, “School Bells and Winchesters," “Wyoming’s Estelle Reel”
Oct. 18: Wyoming in the 1st Decades of the 20th Century
Oct. 20: Wyoming: Equality State?: Diversity Issues in Early Wyoming
Reading: Roberts, “Ethnicity in Wyoming”; "Lovell's Mexican Colony,” “My One Hobby.”
Oct. 25: Review. See Review Questions.
Oct. 27: Mid-Term Exam. (Note: Exam will cover all lectures and readings to this point, with exception of the Constitutions).
Nov. 1: Issues of Wilderness. FIRST AHC VISIT. See AHC page at this link for details.
Reading: Roberts, “Give Them What They Want," "Preserving the Beasts of Waste and Desolation,” “Commodification of Wildlife,” “Harvard Cook in the Wyoming Badlands”
Righter, Crucible for Conservation, (all)
Nov. 3: History of Wyoming Oil: Boom and Bust over Two Centuries
Reading: "Evolution of Roads"
Nov. 8: Wyoming in the 1920s
Nov. 10: Depression and New Deal
Nov. 15: Wyoming During Wartime
Reading: “Cheyenne's 100-Octane Fuel Plant," pp. 125-131
Nov. 17: Post-war Wyoming; The 1950s: "Red Scare and Yellow Stripes"
Reading: “The Emerging Civil Rights Movement,” ; “Fired by Conscience,” “The Black 14: Williams v. Eaton,”
Nov. 22: Post-war Wyoming (continued). Drawing for door prizes (a popular annual event--you must be present to win--either in class or with your assigned group at the AHC).
Nov. 24: Thanksgiving. NO CLASS.
Week of Nov. 29-Dec. 1: The 1960s and 1970s: Boom and Bust in the Late 20th Century
Reading: Western, Pushed Off the Mountain (all); “Project Wagon Wheel: A Nuclear Plowshare for Wyoming," “Home on the Range No More”.
Dec. 6: Famous People.
Reading: Roberts, “Visions Beyond an Arrow of Fire, pp. 243-249.
Recent Issues in the State’s History, “The Virginian Meets Matt Shepard,”
Dec. 8: Annual "Stump the Professor" exercise; review for final exam.
FINALS WEEK
Final Exam, TBA.
(Left)--Interior of the sutler's store at Fort Laramie. (Right)--Wyoming State Capitol. Photos by Phil Roberts.
Wyoming's "Pyramid on the Plains"--Ames Monument
Devil's Tower, America's first national monument. P. Roberts photo.