View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jalan Crossland (@jalancrossland)

Blog Mirror: Public land selloff proposal threatened Medicine Bow, continues to threaten other local parcels Laramie Rep. Karlee Provenza and Wyoming columnist Rod Miller are among the cross-partisan coalition planning to rally in Cheyenne on Thursday

 

Public land selloff proposal threatened Medicine Bow, continues to threaten other local parcels

Laramie Rep. Karlee Provenza and Wyoming columnist Rod Miller are among the cross-partisan coalition planning to rally in Cheyenne on Thursday

Saturday, January 9, 1875. Officers' Quarters Fire at D. A. Russell.

Today In Wyoming's History: January 9: 1875  The officer's quarters at Ft. D. A. Russell were destroyed by fire.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

D. A. Russell is now F. E. Warren AFB, and is located just outside of Cheyenne, which of course it also was at that time, Cheyenne dating back to the 1860s.

Last edition:

Tuesday, December 29, 1874. King Alfonso XII of Spain.

Labels: 1870s, 1874, Democracy, Monarchy, Spain

The Aerodrome: AT-6, Cheyenne Wyoming.

The Aerodrome: AT-6, Cheyenne Wyoming.

The Aerodrome: The B-29 "FiFi". Cheyenne Wyoming.

The Aerodrome: The B-29 "FiFi". Cheyenne Wyoming.: The B-29 "FiFi made an appearance in Cheyenne, Wyoming, recently.  These are some photos taken during its visit.

Painted Bricks: In Good Hands, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: In Good Hands, Cheyenne Wyoming.:  

In Good Hands, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Family Ties, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Family Ties, Cheyenne Wyoming.:  

Family Ties, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Saturday, September 9, 1944. A coup in Bulgaria.

U.S. infantry advancing with Sherman, Spangle, Belgium, September 9, 1944.

A captured Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter, the Zero, was displayed in Cheyenne (Wyoming State History Calendar).

A coup in Bulgaria put the Communist Fatherland Front (Отечествен фронт) in control of the country, which it would control until the fall of Hungarian Communism in 1986.  It dissolved in 1990.

French race car driver Robert Benoist, a member of the French Resistance, was executed at Buchenwald.

The U-484 was sunk by the Royal Navy northwest of Ireland.

Ten mule team draws heavy Chinese howitzer over many mountains in the Burma Road on its way to the fighting at Tung Ling, Yunnan, China. 9 September, 1944.

Last edition:

Friday, September 8, 1944. Belgian government returns.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Battle of Dukla Pass, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canadian Army, France, German Wehrmacht, Hungarian Army, Red Army, technology, Weapons, World War Two

Painted Bricks: Cheyenne, Chief Yellow Calf.

Painted Bricks: Cheyenne, Chief Yellow Calf.:  

Cheyenne, Chief Yellow Calf.

Painted Bricks: Aviator statue. Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Aviator statue. Cheyenne, Wyoming.:  

Aviator statue. Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Alley mural, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Alley mural, Cheyenne Wyoming.:  

Alley mural, Cheyenne Wyoming.

 

Painted Bricks: Sheepwagon statue, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Sheepwagon statue, Cheyenne Wyoming.:  

Sheepwagon statue, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Wednesday, August 16, 1944. Closing the Falaise Pocket.

American armor rolls into the town of Dreux, France, as the Americans continue their rapid advance for Paris. The smoke of battle hangs low and the road is strewn with wrecked German armor. 16 August, 1944.

US forces entered Chartres.  US forces also advanced towards Argentan and Alençon, in pursuit of the German forces fleeing the Falaise pocket.  Falaise itself was liberated by the Canadians.   Montgomery attempted to close the  Falaise pocket with an attack from Trun, which Bradley believes to be too late.  Polish troops in the British 1st Corps crossed over the Dives.

Pfc. Ciro B. Iadavaio, Brooklyn, N.Y., and T/4 Ira W. Myer, Louisville, Kentucky, of the crew of the hospital ship "Marigold" getting their first printed news of the invasion on the southern coast of France as nurses from the 93rd Evacuation Hospital load aboard to be taken to the new invasion front. 16 August, 1944. Naples, Italy.

The French 2nd Corps landed in southern France.

Walter Model replaced Günther von Kluge as Oberbefehlshaber West.

The Wehrmacht launched Operation Doppelkopf as a counteroffensive in the East.

The Red Army reached Ossow outside of Moscow, but had to withdraw under a German counterattack.

The Battle of Studzianki ended in a victory for Polish and Soviet forces.

The Battle of Guilin–Liuzhou ( 桂柳會戰) commenced between the Imperial Japanese Army and the Nationalist Chinese.

The US froze Argentine gold assets in the US due to failure to cooperate against the Axis.

Cheyenne experienced record railroad traffic due to war transportation of troops. (Wyoming State Historical Society calendar).

Last edition:

August 15, 1944. Operation Dragoon. The added invasion of France

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Battle of Port Cros, boats and ships, Canadian Army, Commandos, France, German Army, German Kriegsmarine, Operation Dragoon, Operation Overlord, U.S. Navy, Women, World War Two

Painted Bricks: Cheyenne, Wyoming. Chief Washakie.

Painted Bricks: Cheyenne, Wyoming. Chief Washakie.:  

Cheyenne, Wyoming. Chief Washakie.

Painted Bricks: Native Girl, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Native Girl, Cheyenne Wyoming.:  

Native Girl, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Tuesday, July 1, 1924. Airmail.

Regular U.S airmail commenced with a fully established Transcontinental Airway System at New York City; Bellefonte, Pennsylvania; Cleveland and Bryan, Ohio; Chicago; Iowa City; Omaha and North Platte, Nebraska; Cheyenne, Rawlins and Rock Springs, Wyoming; Salt Lake City; Elko and Reno; and San Francisco.

President Coolidge held a press conference:

Press Conference, July 1, 1924

Japan held a national day of protest over the new US immigration act.

Last edition:

Monday, June 30, 1924. Teapot Grand Jury comes in.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, Álvaro Obregón, British League of Nations Mandates, Calvin Coolidge, Health, law, Mexico, Palestine, Zionism

Saturday, February 3, 1923. French Guns, Legislative Hijinks, Kamchatka Earthquake

The Saturday Evening Post was out, as it was of course a Saturday, with a Rockwell.  This one is apparently entitled "Grandpa's Little Ballerina".

The Country Gentleman went with a mid winter fox and its prey.

A magnitude 8.3+ earthquake struck Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula causing a twenty-five foot tsunami.  Twelve people were killed by seven resulting waves in Maui.

The Soviet Union approved plans to create a civil aviation authority for passenger airlines, leading to the world's most dangerous major airline, Aeroflot.

French guns and legislative shenanigans were in the news.

 

Sunday, August 12, 1922. The news.

Quite the news day, really.

The Herald started off with the harrowing news of trains marooned in the Southwest, due to ongoing labor problems.

 

We're reminded by the page below that there was once an elected position of "County Surveyor". This has obviously gone by the wayside, which raises the question of what other elective offices are really obsolete as elective offices today.

Rules were changing for football.

And airplane rides were for the offering.

I'd forgotten there was once a town called "Teapot".

The Herald wanted to keep the Union Pacific brand off of the range.  

Recently, of course, the state had an opportunity to buy the checkerboard from the UP's successor in interest and blew it.

A Colorado newspaper was happy with something Governor Carey had done, but what it was, I really don't know.

A restaurant was holding a contest for a name.

Charles Winter was running for office.  His son, who lived to nearly be 100, worked in my office building nearly up to that very age.

The train situation, we'd note, wasn't only in the Herald.

Lex Anteinternet: Pulling out the legs of the stool. More bad news.

Back on April 3 I wrote an article about the current not so rosey economic picture for Wyoming in a post called Lex Anteinternet: Pulling out the legs of the stool.

Now one of those legs has become a bit wobblier yet.

Cheyenne became the first Wyoming city, or at least the first I'm aware of, to announce layoffs.  Seventeen of its staff are being let go.

Cheyenne's economy has always been different from the rest of Wyoming's.  The city got started as a Union Pacific town and then became the seat of the territorial government as it was the only really significant municipality in  the state at the time the territory was established.  It naturally went on from there to become the state capitol, even though there have been occasional efforts to move it to a more central location, something that's not going to occur.  It is one of only two Wyoming towns with a military presence, the other being Guernsey where the National Guard's Camp Guernsey is located.  That camp has become a very significant military base over the years but it pales in comparison to Warren Air Force Base. Added to that, Cheyenne also has the Air National Guard's principal air strip at the town's airport.

Oil has only come to Cheyenne's Laramie County in the last decade but it has come north of town, so it's economy has joined Wyoming's a bit in that fashion, but unlike other counties that are heavily dominated by petroleum and/or coal and which also have an agricultural base, the economy of Laramie County has never been dominated by them.  In modern times Cheyenne often sat out economic slumps in the state due to its strong governmental employee base.

Well, apparently not this time.  The drastic decline is state revenues is clearly going to hit state funding and in fact already has.  Governor Gordon has been indicating that state agencies should be prepared to cut back further.  The Coronavirus has slowed down everything on I80 and I25, which meet in Cheyenne, and that no doubt has had an impact on the local economy.  I don't know what, if anything, the Union Pacific has been experiencing, but it's probably experiencing something, and while Cheyenne's airport is hardly a regional hub, a direct flight there which had gone from the city to Dallas is, or has been, eliminated on at least a temporary basis.

Moreover, according to Cheyenne's mayor, Cheyenne has lost a lot of retail sales due to the shelter in place order in Colorado.  That wouldn't have occured to me, but there are a fair number of people who live in Colorado and work in Cheyenne.  I know two people who do just that and one of them is making a bare minimum commute and the other isn't commuting at all.

So the town's revenues are down and its laying people off.

How this changes once the COVID 19 restrictions are lifted isn't apparent, but it will change things for Cheyenne.  Oil will still be in the $20s for the foreseeable future, but some traveling will pick back up.  So these layoffs, or at least the full extent of them, may be temporary.  Still, this is yet another scary development for the state's economy.

Thursday, May 7, 1914. A Colorado murder is reported in Wyoming.

 Congress established Mother's Day.

Almost all the newspaper's in southern Wyoming were carrying stories about hotelier L.F. Nicodemus, who had run hotels in Laramie and Cheyenne, being shot and killed in Denver by James C. Bulger, who was universally declared to be a "soldier of fortune".  He was also one of the founders of Larimer County and the brief town there, called "Bulger", which no longer exists.

Bulger was convicted of murder for the event.  Apparently insanity was attempted as a defense, as the record of his appeal states:

There was evidence tending to show that defendant is of an adventurous spirit and roving disposition; that he had been a soldier in the United States army serving in the Philippine Islands, a ranchman, a land speculator in Colorado, a soldier in Central America, and an officer in Madero's army in Mexico; that his grandfathers had been addicted to the use of intoxicants; that his uncle was a heavy drinker, and that his father frequently had delirium tremens; that his mother, who at the time of the trial was approximately 60 years of age, was of a moody and melancholy disposition; that the age of defendant is 33 years, and for several years prior to 1912 he was of a cheerful temperament, neat in his appearance and friendly in his disposition, and was somewhat addicted to the excessive use of intoxicating liquors; that he left Denver in the summer of 1912, and shortly thereafter was shot in the head, where the bullet remained imbedded; that he returned to Denver in April 1914; that upon his return he appeared to be slovenly and careless of his personal appearance and dress, drank to excess, and was more nervous, excitable, and easily aggravated than before; that at times he was subject to certain delusions, and, in the opinion of some witnesses, including experts, was insane at the time of the homicide. There was evidence upon the part of the prosecution, including testimony of experts, tending to establish the sanity of the defendant. We will advert to other evidence in the discussion of some of the assignments of error.

An instruction upon delusional insanity, given to the jury over the objection of defendant, constitutes one of the principal grounds relied upon for reversal. 

To flesh the story out, he'd been drinking at the hotel bar and got into an argument with Cheyenne rodeo cowboy Hugh Clark over a regiment Bulger was raising to fight in Mexico.  Clark insulted him in the conversation and went and armed himself, but Clark disarmed him and hit him. Bulger then left the bar, hailed a taxi, and bought two new revolvers and ammunition and returned to the bar, but Clark had left. He confronted Nicodemus and demanded to know where Clark was, but Nicodemus said he didn't know, and turned from him, whereupon Bulger shot him.

Bulger would ultimately receive stays of execution six times before his sentence was commuted to life.  He was released in 1961 at age 80, and then went to work at the prison as a gardener.  He died in 1966 and is buried at the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Denver.

US servicemen were flirting in Vera Cruz. That didn't take long.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, May 6, 1914. No votes for British women.

1910s, 1914, Alcohol, Frederick Funston, Mexico, Mexico (Veracruz), Occupation of Veracruz, Railroads, United Kingdom, Vera Cruz Mexico, Women, Wyoming