Today In Wyoming's History: June 6

Today In Wyoming's History: June 6:

June 6

1886  Douglas Budget founded.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1892  Information filed in State of Wyoming v. Alexander Adamson, et al.

Murder in the First Degree, chargng Alexander Adamson, William E.
Guthrie, William Armstrong and J. A. Garrett with the murder of Rueben
"Nick" Ray during the Johnson County War.  This was a criminal charge
filed in Johnson County, as opposed to Laramie County where the charges
stemming from the Johnson County War.

1894  In the reverse of the usual story, Colorado's Governor Davis H.
Waite orders the Colorado state militia to protect and support tminers
engaged in a strike at Cripple Creek.  Mine owners had already formed
private army.

1908  A man from Cody Wyoming was the co-winner of the Evanston Wyoming
to Denver horse race, one of the long distance horse races that were
common in Wyoming at the time.

1912  President Taft signs the Homestead Act of 1912, which reduces the
period to "prove up" from five years to three.  This was unknowingly on
the eve of a major boom in homesteading, as World War One would create a
huge demand for wheat for export, followed by the largest number of
homestead filings in American history as would be wheat farmers
attempted to gain land for the endeavor.  Attribution:  On This Day. 

Wheat farmer, Billings Montana.

1915  British commissioners began to purchase remounts in Wyoming.  The
purchase of horses for British service in World War One created a boom
in horse ranching which would continue, fueled both by British and
American service purchases, throughout the war, but which would be
followed by a horse ranching crash after the war.

 U.S. Army Remounts, Camp Kearney California, 1917.

1944 Allied forces land in Normandy, in an event remembered as "D-Day",
although that term actually refers to the day on which any major
operation commences.  This is not, of course, a Wyoming event, but at
least in my youth I knew more than one Wyoming native who had
participated in it.  Later, I had a junior high teacher whose first
husband had died in it.  A law school colleague of mine had a father who
was a paratrooper in it.  And at least one well known Wyoming political

figure, Teno Roncolio, participated in it.  From the prospective of the
Western Allies, it might be the single most significant single day of
the campaign in Europe.

All the photos above are courtesy of the United States Army.

1948  President  Truman delivered a speech from the Governor's Mansion's
porch in Cheyenne.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.  He
stated:

Governor Hunt, and citizens of Wyoming:


It certainly is a very great privilege and a pleasure for me to be here
today. I received an invitation from Governor Hunt to call on him this
afternoon, and I was most happy to accept it. I have known him a long time, and I like him, and I think he is a good Governor.


I have always been very much interested in this great city. I was here
while the war was going on in my official capacity as chairman of an
investigating committee to look after some construction that was going
on here. And I found nothing wrong.

I hope sometime I can come
back and be able to discuss the issues before the country with you. I
always make it a rule never to make speeches of any kind on Sunday. I
don't think it's the proper day for speeches that are not of a religious
character, and since I am not a Doctor of Divinity, I can't preach you a
sermon.

But I do appreciate most highly the cordiality of your
welcome. It is a pleasure for me to get to see you, and it is a
privilege for me to stop in Cheyenne long enough to call on your
Governor.

Again, I hope that when I come here I can talk to you straight from the shoulder on certain things that confront this country.

[At this point the President was presented with an invitation and a hat. He then resumed speaking.]


Thank you very much. The invitation says, "Mr. President, your many
friends in Cheyenne, Wyoming, will be greatly honored if you can attend
the Cheyenne Frontier Day, July 27-31st, 1948." I have always wanted to
do that, and I hope some day I will be able to do it.

Now I am going to see just how this hat works. [Putting it on.] That's all right.

Text of Speech courtesy of Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office.