Lex Anteinternet: Distances in rural areas, Churches of the West: Unknown abandoned church, Otto Wyoming

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Distances in rural areas, Churches of the West: Unknown abandoned church, Otto Wyoming

A long time ago on this blog I had a couple of items about local churches, noting the many Catholic churches that exist in downtown Denver serving what had once been distinct ethic neighborhoods. A post I made earlier this week on churches on one of our other blogs; Churches of the West: Unknown abandoned church, Otto Wyoming: calls to mind something similar, if not identical. The big change in the practicality of distances in rural life.

Those photographs depict an abandoned church in Otto Wyoming, a very small Wyoming farm town in the Big Horn Basin. I don't know anything about the history of the church at all, other than that it once existed and based on a reference I found to it, it was at there at least as early as the 1920s.

Now Otto is just a few miles from Burlington (eleven miles) and Basin (twelve miles). Both Basin and Burlington are larger towns, which isn't to say that they're enormous by any means.

General store in Burlington Wyoming.

Big Horn County Courthouse, Basin Wyoming.

Basin is the more substantial of the two, and is the county seat. Basin isn't far from Greybull, another fairly small town, and Worland, a much larger town.

Now, Basin and Burlington all have churches. Burlington, however, is quite limited in those regards, at least at the present time. It has an Episcopal and a Mormon church. Basin, on the other hand, has a larger representation of denominations.

St. Philip's Catholic Church & ELCA Peace Lutheran Fellowship, Basin Wyoming, while joint use of a church is unusual, nearby Thermopolis Wyoming has a combined Presbyterian and Methodist congregation Currently the Catholic community is being served by the nearby church in Greybull, however, and Masses are apparently not being offered here at the present time.

United Methodist Church in Basin, Wyoming.

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Basin Wyoming.

Now, their could be a lot of explanations for this, but still you have to wonder when it was that tiny Otto required its own church? Perhaps the denomination of the church explained it. Or perhaps 11 or so miles was a long ways not all that long ago, really. Certainly, eleven miles by horse or cart is a very long ways, particularly if you have to turn around and go back the other way, and that's even if the weather is nice. And eleven miles by Model T isn't a short trip either.

No comments:

Lex Anteinternet?

This blog has been around since 2009. In the very first post, we asked the question: "What the heck is this blog about?"

Our answer to the question was: "The intent of this blog is to try to explore and learn a few things about the practice of law prior to the current era. That is, prior to the internet, prior to easy roads, and the like. How did it work, how regional was it, how did lawyers perceive their roles, and how were they perceived?"

We also noted: "Part of the reason for this, quite frankly, has something to do with minor research for a very slow moving book."

All of this is still true, but the focus of the blog has changed somewhat. It now focuses on the era from 1890 to 1920 in general, rather than on the law and lawyers specifically, although that may be far from obvious. It's also become the location where we comment on anything we feel moved to comment on.

We hope you'll feel moved to comment as well. While we moderate every comment, so as to weed out Spam, we greatly appreciate the comments where they are offered, and hope to see more.

Thank you for stopping in!