August 11, 1919. Laramie to Medicine Bow on the 1919 Motor Transport Convoy. Andrew Carnegie passes away and the Weimar Republic born.

A Packard furnished by the Firestone company crosses what passed for a bridge west of Laramie on this day in 1919.

On this day in 1919, the Motor Transport Convoy resumed its travel along a road that today is a state highway.

The path on the state highway today would take you to all the same spots, in much of the same conditions.  You'd still pass through Rock River, although the tiny town today would be hard pressed to offer a Red Cross canteen service.

Motor Transport Convoy in Rock River.

Today Rock River is a very small town, although its fortunes appear to have somewhat revived recently.

Veterans' Memorial in Rock River.

The Virginian Hotel in Medicine Bow is still there and its still open, so perhaps similar festivities could be held today at that location.  The once busy train depot, however, doesn't serve passengers anymore.

Virginian Hotel in background, old Union Pacific depot to the right.  The hotel is named after the protagonist in Owen Wister's novel, which starts off in Medicine Bow.

The big news on this day is that Andrew Carnegie, the industrialist turned philanthropist, died at age 83.  His passing as headline news.

Carnegie in 1905.

In Germany, the Weimar Constitution was formally adopted.  With that, Germany had officially passed from having a caretaker government made up exclusively of Socialist to being a liberal parliamentary democracy. The shepherding of that effort by the heads of the SDP had been a difficult one, meeting opposition from the more radical left which wanted a government of soviets, and which was willing to rebel in support of that cause, and only barely supported by the right, which was already turning to militarism.

On the same day, the Reichstag passed the Reich Settlement Act, and agricultural act that provided for limited land redistribution.  The act did not result in a large scale change in German agricultural land owning patters but it did ultimately result in 57,000 German farmers coming into land ownership.  It's passage took a middle of the road approach to land questions signaling the moderate nature of the postwar German parliament.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: St. Malachy Catholic Mission Church, Medicine Bow, Wyoming

Churches of the West: St. Malachy Catholic Mission Church, Medicine Bow, Wyoming

Original caption:  "This is St. Malachy's Catholic Mission Church in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. The Church is served by the parish in Saratoga Wyoming."

I'll note that I'm not too certain that this church is currently being used.  Indeed, I think it is not.  Medicine Bow's fortunes have declined in recent years.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Unidentified, Medicine Bow Wyoming

Churches of the West: Unidentified, Medicine Bow Wyoming:

This is an old Prairie Gothic style church in Medicine Bow, Wyoming, but other than that, I don't know anything about it.

Today In Wyoming's History: August 30

Today In Wyoming's History: August 30: 1916. A horse and rider were killed near Medicine Bow by lightening.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

I personally knew some kids when I was growing up whose father died in the exact same manner and indeed, I'm familiar with a horse that was similarly killed.

Transportation, late 19th Century

A modern highway map shows as distance of 211 miles from Worland, in the southern half of the basin, to Rawlins, and 293 miles from Cody to Green River, but modern transportation systems are not remotely like those of 1879. In practical terms, Green River and Rawlins were further from the Big Horn Basin in 1879 than they are now from Outer Mongolia, and criminal prosecution was nearly impossible.

There were no roads leading south from the basin, only trails. At least one yearly trip to the Union Pacific had to be made, though, because in the early 1880s this was the nearest railhead, the only real opening to a market to sell cattle and get supplies. E. W. Copps declared that the cattle drive from Buffalo to Rawlins, a trip that did not require a traverse of mountains, took eighteen days. Coming from the basin, however, a cattle owner first had to get out, and any exit required going over an 8,000-foot pass, such as Birdseye Pass or Cottonwood Pass; thus, David John Wasden's estimate of six weeks for a round trip seems about right. Of course, the return trip, when cattle were not being driven, did not take as long but was still arduous. Owen Wister describes a 263 mile excursion from Medicine Bow "deep into cattle land," a trip taking several days by wagon, while "swallowed in a vast solitude." His description sounds like a journey north into the Big Horn Basin.

Goodbye Judge Lynch, by John W. Davis.