Wyoming Almanac

Two city blocks were wiped out and almost 80 buildings burned. After the fire, Cheyenne merchants rebuilt most structures using brick as the primary building material.

Prisoners rioted at the State Penitentiary and burned the broom factory on the prison grounds. In the ensuing melee, 27 prisoners escaped and one Rawlins resident was killed by an escapee. It was the most serious prison riot in state history.

The town's first laundry burned to the ground, killing its owner. On the night of the fire, money was collected to begin the Lingle Volunteer Fire Department.

Lightning ignited seven tanks in the Midwest Oil Company's tank farm overlooking the city. The fire burned steadily for 60 hours and consumed more than a half million gallons of oil.

Fire destroyed the bank, hotel, pool hall and the Odd Fellows Hall, a large portion of the downtown business district.

An explosion ripped through the oil refinery and, in the ensuing fire, 16 people died. It was the worst fire in state history in terms of loss of life.

Fires destroyed the Ben Franklin store and several adjacent structures. A barber died in the blaze that broke out in sub-zero weather.

Cody fire chief Bob Moore and a Cody Enterprise photographer died when the newspaper plant burned in an arson-set blaze.

Past Featured Photographs

Inside the walls of the "big house"--The Wyoming Frontier Prison, a historic site in north Rawlins, was the Wyoming State Penitentiary for almost eight decades until its closure in the early 1980s when prisoners were moved to another facility south of Rawlins. The old prison, now open for tours, retains much of the character it had when it served as a functioning prison. Tour guides tell fascinating tales about the place. If you visit the building housing the gas chamber and "death row," ask where the prisoners, digging a tunnel in an escape attempt, hid the dirt. Phil Roberts photo, June, 2008

The Lake Hotel, Yellowstone National Park, as it appeared on June 12, 2008, after a snowstorm dumped several inches of snow on the Park. Phil Roberts photo.

The aftermath of the Holliday Furniture fire, April 15, 1948, Laramie. The fire started in the elevator shaft of the store, a building the firm had occupied for 76 years. The blaze was reported at 1:45 a.m., but it raged out of control for 15 hours, destroying seven buildings and some 30 businesses before firemen could get the fire under control. At its peak, the flames could be seen from 40 miles away. It was the worst fire in Laramie history. Lillian Santillianes Johnston collection, courtesy of her daughter, Joyce Smith.

Two scenes of Independence Rock. (Left): The eastern face of the rock has on it a number of names although many have worn off over the 150 years since it was "Register of the Desert." (Right) The rock as seen from the parking lot at the site. Phil Roberts photos, summer 2005.

Lusk's Redwood Water Tank--Located just to the east of Lusk, this landmark was constructed by the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad in 1886, soon after the town of Lusk was established. The railroad used the tower to refill the water reservoirs required by the steam locomotives. Taken out of service in the 1950s, the water tank was obtained by the Niobrara County Historical Society in 1971. The Society, with help from many local civic organizations and individuals, restored the tank. It is a landmark reminder of the town's historic link with rail transportation in the 19th century.

Fountain in downtown area of Sinclair, Wyoming. Sinclair was founded in the early 1920s as a "company town" by the Producers' and Refiners' Company (PARCO). Initially named "Parco" for the company, the townsite and refinery were sold from the steps of the Carbon County Courthouse in a bankruptcy sale on April 12, 1934. Purchased by the Consolidated Oil Company for $1,775,000, the town was renamed "Sinclair" in December, 1942. Consolidated had become Sinclair Oil Company. Lots and structures in the town were sold to residents in 1967 and the refinery became part of Atlantic Richfield when Sinclair merged with that company in 1970. After a series of complex mergers and sales, the present Sinclair Oil Company purchased the refinery in July 1976. (Phil Roberts photo, summer, 2007)

Down It Goes: On Sunday morning, October 7, 2007, demolition crews finished bringing down the former home of the UW College of Law (1952-77) and UW Department of Anthropology. The site was cleared to make way for the new addition to Coe Library. (Photo by Phil Roberts)

This building was occupied by the UW College of Law until 1977 when the college moved to

a new location in the east campus area. The building became home to the Department of

Anthropology. That department moved to its new building on Lewis Street in the summer

of 2007. The pictured building was razed, making way for a new addition to Coe Library.

Union Pacific Depot, Cheyenne, as seen from a window of the UP Roundhouse. Two professors, Phil Roberts in History and Rob Godby in Economics, taught a class in the fall of 2007 on the history of the Union Pacific Railroad across Wyoming. Among the field trips the class took was a visit to the Cheyenne roundhouse and rail facilities.

New UW faculty/staff in September 2006 toured the TA Ranch barn, location of the "last stand" of the Invaders in the Johnson County War, April 1892.

Hat Creek School/Clubhouse in Niobrara County. Photograph by Phil Roberts, Sept. 2006

The granite outcropping, more than a mile in circumference, reaches a height of 136 feet above the surrounding area. Discovered by Robert Stuart's "reverse Astorian" party in 1812, it became known as "Independence Rock" in 1830 when mountain men celebrated the Fourth of July there. Trail lore warned overland trail travelers that if they did not reach Independence Rock by the Fourth of July, their trek over the Blue Mountains of Oregon or the Sierra Madres in California might be problematic. Father DeSmet stopped at the rock in 1840, en route to the last rendezvous. He applied to it the nickname "Great Register of the Desert" because of all of the names of travelers who were already carving their names into it.

The chalky limestone formation, located three miles south of Guernsey, rises about 100 feet above the valley. Many of the names carved on the cliff date from the 1840s and 1850s, during the peak years of Oregon Trail travel.

Located in western Wyoming, Names Hill has caved in it names dating back as far as 1822. One the rock is chiseled the name "James Bridger--1844." If it is authentic, the inscription must have been done for Bridger by a friend. The legendary mountain man was unable to read or write--even his name.

Travelers along the overland stageline wrote their names on the unusual formation, one mile from the site of Sulphur Springs Stage Station in Carbon County.

Originally named for Gen. John A. Rawlins by his friend Gen. Grenville Dodge, the "springs" portion of the name was dropped early in the town's existence. The same thing happened to the "city" behind the names of Laramie and Green River in the 19th century.

Renamed Buffalo Bill Dam in 1946, the dam was once the highest in the world when it was completed in 1910. Col. Cody was a strong proponent of irrigation and the dam on the Shoshone River was renamed in his honor.

The name was applied to the river by its first white discoverer, John Colter, in 1807. The river was officially renamed the "Shoshone River" by legislative act in 1901, to the relief of Cody area residents who argued strongly for a change of name, fearing the original might not be healthy for encouraging visitation by tourists.

Originally named in 1867 to honor the Fort Bridger judge and post sutler William A. Carter, it was renamed "Sweetwater County" by the legislature on Dec. 13, 1869, three days after Gov. John A. Campbell signed that legislature's most famous act, the Suffrage Bill, granting women equal political rights in the new territory.

The county was named in 1875 to honor Dr. E. L. Pease, a Uinta County physician. When young Cheyenne attorney E. P. Johnson died on Oct. 3, 1879, the legislature renamed the county in his memory, effective Dec. 13, 1879.

Originally named for postmaster Beulah Peterson's highway cafe and store, the site was renamed "Jeffrey City" for Dr. Charles W. Jeffrey, Rawlins physician and investor, who owned stock in area uranium companies. For a complete story of the community, see John Egan, "Home on the Range No More: Boom and Bust in Jeffrey City," in Phil Roberts, ed., Readings in Wyoming History (Laramie, 1993).

The first woman to be licensed to practice medicine in the state, Dr. Nelson graduated from a medical school in the Midwest. A native of Rawlins, she returned to that city in 1893 and practiced full-time there until 1909. After that year, she continued to practice on a part-time basis and maintained her medical license, the fifth issued to any doctor in Wyoming, until her death in 1962.

Dr. Stanford moved to Crook County in 1897 from the Black Hills of South Dakota where she had been practicing for many years. She homesteaded near Sundance and died in 1901.

Born in Ohio, Dr. Lane was the daughter of a nationally renowned architect. She graduated from medical school in Chicago in 1900 and moved to Cody two years later. From 1905-10, she served as a contract physician to the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation on the Shoshone Irrigation Project. Although she had many admirers, her feud with Cody newspaper editor Caroline Lockhart resulted in Dr. Lane's unflattering portrayal as the title character in Lockhart's novel, Lady Doc.

Born in Provo, Utah, Dr. Mills was one of the first graduates of what became Brigham Young University. Following her marriage in 1882, she moved to Evanston where her husband was a store clerk. In the 1890s, she attended medical school in Iowa City, Iowa. She was the mother of five children, the second-youngest born while she was a medical student. After graduation in 1895, she returned to Evanston and opened a medical practice. For a time, she practiced in Cokeville where her husband operated a general store. In 1910, the family moved to Salt Lake City, but where her husband died four years later, she returned to Wyoming and practiced medicine in the Bridger Valley until her retirement from medicine in 1928.

Dr. Patrick opened her medical practice in Albany County soon after the turn of the 20th century. Along with practicing medicine, she helped organize and took a leadership in various civic organizations. She served as state chair of the American Women's Hospitals in World War I. She retired in the 1930s and spent the remainder of her life living near Garrett, Wyoming.

The major general who was a nephew of Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny, was killed Sept. 1, 1862, in the battle of Chantilly, Virginia. Fort Phil Kearny in north central Wyoming was named for him. The fort was constructed by troops under the command of Col. Henry Carrington in 1866. Following the so-called "Fetterman fight" on Dec. 21, 1866, and the ensuing treaty negotiations, the fort was abandoned and, later, burned.

Russell, a brigadier general in the Union Army, was killed at the Battle of Winchester, Virginia, on Sept. 19, 1864. Until 1930, when the name was changed to Fort Warren, the military installation near Cheyenne was named Fort Russell. In the early 1950s, the name was changed once again to Warren Air Force Base, the name it retains.

Sheridan is the most populous Wyoming town named for a Civil War general. It was so named because Gen. Sheridan had been the commanding officer of one of the town's founders. Gen. Sheridan, a native of Albany, N. Y., died Aug. 5, 1888.

The town of Lander was named for Gen. Frederick Lander who surveyed the "Lander road" in the 1850s. (See photo of marker below). Gen. Lander served in the Civil War and died March 2, 1862, near Paw Paw, Va., of an illness while preparing for an attack on the Confederate forces occupying Winchester, Va. He had been wounded in the battle of Edward's Ferry on Oct. 22, 1861, and probably died from the long-term effects of that injury.

Rawlins, a native of Galena, Illinois, was acquainted with U. S. Grant long before the Civil War. When Grant became commander of Union forces, Rawlins was appointed his adjutant. Later, when Grant became President, he appointed Rawlins as his Secretary of War, but Rawlins served less than a year before he died from tuberculosis on Sept. 6, 1869. Gen. Rawlins had been part of the survey party on the transcontinental railroad with Gen. Grenville Dodge who named the spring near present Rawlins for the general.

Crook already had extensive military experience in the West when he began service in the Civil War. He participated in many engagements, including South Mountain and Antietam. He was a cavalry commander in the battle of Chickamauga. He later commanded forces in the Virginia campaigns of 1864-65. Crook continued his military service in the West after the war, becoming well known for battles against Indians. He commanded forces in the battle of the Rosebud, just prior to the Little Big Horn battle in Montana in June 1876. He died March 21, 1890, just four months before Wyoming statehood. Crook County was named for him in 1875.

Like Crook, Fremont already had a long military career prior to the Civil War. He also was nationally famous, not only for his explorations of the West, but for his nomination by the newly-organized Republican Party in 1856 as the party's first presidential candidate. Fremont County was named for him in 1884, but there were many other geographical features already named for the famous "Pathfinder," including Fremont Peak and Fremont Lake. Later, "Pathfinder Dam" was named for him. He died July 13, 1890, just three days after President Harrison signed the bill making Wyoming the 44th state. On August 1, 1842, Fremont shot the first photograph ever made in Wyoming. Photography was just becoming known in America at the time. Unfortunately, either the film processing failed or the camera malfunctioned and no print was made.

Jackson's Hole and the town of Jackson was named for trapper David E. Jackson who frequented the area in the 19th century. While he was not a Civil War general, his nephew, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was--in the Confederate Army.

Carey was elected governor in 1918 and lost in the primary in 1922 for a second term. In 1930, he was elected to one term in the U. S. Senate. His father was Joseph M. Carey, himself both a Wyoming governor and U. S. Senator.

Crippa was appointed by acting Gov. C. J. "Doc" Rogers to fill out the term of Lester Hunt. Crippa served from June 24 to Nov. 28, 1954, not seeking reelection to the seat.

Hickey was elected governor in 1958. In 1960, he was appointed to fill out the unexpired term of Keith Thomson until the next general election in 1962. He ran unsuccessfully for a full term in the Senate.

Simpson served as governor from 1955 to 1959. He ran for reelection, but lost to Joe Hickey. In 1962, he faced Hickey once again, but for the remaining four years of the late Keith Thomson's seat in the U. S. Senate. This time, Simpson came out the winner. It was the first U. S. Senate election in state history where both candidates were Wyoming-born. Simpson's son, Al Simpson, also served in the U. S. Senate, but he was not born in Wyoming. While his parents were residents of Cody at the time of his birth, his mother was visiting Denver when he was born in 1931.

Hansen was elected governor in 1962. He served one term before being elected to the U. S. Senate in 1966. His opponent that year was another Wyoming native, Teno Roncalio.

Thomson served three terms as U. S . Representative from Wyoming until he was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1960. He died soon after the election, prior to the swearing-in ceremonies for the U. S. Senate.

Roncalio was elected to the U. S. House in 1964. He unsuccessfully ran for the U. S. Senate in 1966. He was reelected to the U. S. House in 1970 where he served until his retirement in 1979. Nebraska-born Dick Cheney defeated Democratic candidate Bill Bagley for the House seat in 1978.

Thomas first won election to the U. S. House in 1989 in a special election to fill out the unexpired term of Dick Cheney who resigned to become Secretary of Defense in the Bush I administration. Thomas moved to the U. S. Senate in 1994, defeating Wyoming-born Mike Sullivan who had served two terms as Wyoming governor. Thomas died in office in June 2007.

Hemingway wrote part of A Farewell to Arms while he was a guest at the Sheridan Inn in 1928. His short story, "The Wine of Wyoming," was written in 1930. That year, he fished on the Clark's Fork north of Cody and proclaimed it "the best fishing spot on earth." He married his third wife, author Martha Gellhorn, in Cheyenne on Nov. 21, 1940. In July 1944, his fourth wife, Mary, became ill during a trip across the state. She had surgery in the Casper hospital.

A cavalry officer stationed at Fort Laramie for five years, King wrote more than 50 novels in his career. Laramie, or the Queen of Bedlam (1911) is representative of the military Western for which he is best known.

Author of numerous novels about British India, Masters ranched in the Absarokas near Cody. He was born in Calcutta, India, a fifth-generation English colonialist in that country. Following graduation from Sandhurst, the British military academy, he served in various units of the Indian army, including a unit of the famous Gurkha Rifles. He retired in 1948, moved to the United States, and became a U. S. citizen in 1954. Most of his numerous books are set in India, including the autobiographical novel Bugles and a Tiger (1956). Masters died in Santa Fe, N. M., in May 1983.

Although Grey visited Wyoming only briefly, he frequently used the state as a setting in his novels. Among his better works set in Wyoming are The U. P. Trail (1918) and Last of the Plainsmen (1911). Even his most loyal fans would agree that Wyoming, published in 1918, is one of his worst novels.

On his first visit in 1833, the Scottish nobleman paid $500 to William Sublette's fur trading company to make the trip. In 1837 he brought artist Alfred Jacob Miller with him to make sketches and paintings of the Wind River country. Miller later went back to Scotland with Stewart to execute a series of oil paintings to be hung in Stewart's ancestral home, Murthley Castle, Pershshire.

The son of President William Henry Harrison accompanied the same traveling party that included Stewart. His father, having served briefly as U. S. ambassador to Columbia, became clerk of the Court of Common Pleas in Ohio the following year, in order to overcome financial adversity (perhaps aided by paying his son's "passage" with the Sublette company the previous year). William Henry Harrison was elected President in 1840, dying in office after serving only one month in 1841.

During Dr. Whitman's first visit to the rendezvous, he operated on Jim Bridger, removing an arrow point from the mountainman's back--a wound Bridger had received two years earlier. Whitman continued West to establish his mission in Oregon Territory, returning East later in the year. He made a second trip to the rendezvous in 1836, this time accompanied by his wife Narcissa, again en route to his mission.

Bonneville was one of more than 1,000 people attending the Pierre's Hole rendezvous in 1832. The following year, the rendezvous was held on the upper Green River, near where Bonneville had established "Fort Bonneville" (nicknamed "Fort Nonsense").

Three Protestant missionaries also accompanied the Andrew Drips led caravan to the last rendezvous in 1840. DeSmet celebrated the first Roman Catholic mass in what would be Wyoming.

Wyoming's first car was built by Laramie bicycle shop owner Elmer Lovejoy. In May 1898, he finished assembling the parts he had ordered for the machine and took it for a spin along Laramie's unpaved streets. Not only was it the first car in Wyoming, it was one of the very first motor vehicles west of the Mississippi.

Dr. John Osborne, a medical doctor and sheep rancher who had served as Wyoming governor in the 1890s and represented Wyoming in Congress, brought the first car to Rawlins about 1900.

O. P. Hanna began an "auto-stage line" between Sheridan and Buffalo in late October 1901. The first car, driven to Sheridan from Omaha in a trip that took almost ten days, had a capacity of nine passengers. Earl Eaton owned a 20-horsepower Cadillac in 1906. By 1909, more than 30 locally-owned cars negotiated Sheridan streets.

Dr. W. W. Crook brought the first car to Cheyenne, a single-cylinder, curved-dash Oldsmobile, on Sept. 1, 1903. The vehicle cost him $750 and he used it regularly to make house calls.

A chain-driven, two-cylinder Rambler, owned by Friday Nelson was the first car in Douglas, brought there in 1905. Nelson sold rides in it for 50 cents. Four years later, there were 13 cars owned by Douglas residents.

The first car driven in the county was owned by T. V. Garlock of Custer, S. D., who drove it to the county fair in 1905. The first local owner was John Sedgwick, a sheepman, whose Model N Ford was delivered, disassembled, in a large box wrapped in heavy paper. Sedgwick put the pieces together from the instructions included in the kit. According to a local news account at the time, the $1,150 car, "literally flies, making the distance between town and the Sedgwick ranch in 30 minutes....He tried to climb a telephone pole one day and got stalled halfway up. At another time he tried turning a corner at a 40-mile clip and as a consequence, turned several somersaults before landing. Dr. Johnson attended him."

The car was a high-wheel Holzman owned by Frank Gatchell, the county surveyor, brought to Buffalo in 1906. Eight cars were owned by Buffalo residents by 1909.

The paper began as the Cheyenne Leader in September 1867, barely two months after Cheyenne was founded. The Tribune's first issue was published in 1884 and it later merged with the Leader. On April 4, 1994, the Tribune and the Eagle merged into a morning-only newspaper.

The two newspapers published separately until the end of the 19th century when the two papers merged.

First editor was famous humorist Bill Nye who named the newspaper for his mule, Boomerang. The mule gained the name because, as Nye said, the mule would run away, but always come back just like a boomerang.

The paper was first known as "Bill Barlow's Budget," named for the editor, M. C. Barrow, who used "Bill Barlow" as a pen name.

The paper, founded as the "Platte Valley Lyre," was once edited by two sisters, Grace and Laura Huntington.

The paper is a merger between the Big Horn County Rustler, founded in 1889, and the newer Basin Republican.

The Newcastle paper's name reflects two mergers during the newspaper's long history.

The paper was first known as the Rawlins Republican, adopting its current name in 1946.