Saturday, December 8, 2012

Images of Oil Production

Oil Field, Grass Creek Wyoming, 1916.

Some other "big picture" oil photographs from outside of Wyoming:

















The "small picture":

1920s:

 Lance Creek, 1920s.





Moving Drilling Equipment, Lusk, 1920s.  Public Domain from Wyoming Tales and Trails.

1930s and 1940s:



Loading facilities, Cody, 1930s-40s.

Geologist at work.











I find this photograph interesting as it exactly how I recall doing this in the early 1980s.


All photographs from our Flickr site.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Today In Wyoming's History: December 7

Today In Wyoming's History: December 7:



Today is, by State Statute, WS 8-4-106, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.  The Statute provides:
(a) In recognition of the members of the armed forces who lost their lives and those who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, territory of Hawaii on December 7, 1941, December 7 of each year is designated as "Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day". The day shall be appropriately observed in the public schools of the state.
(b) The governor, not later than September 1 of each year, shall issue a proclamation requesting proper observance of "Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day".
(c) This section shall not affect commercial paper, the making or execution of written agreements or judicial proceedings, or authorize public schools, businesses or state and local government offices to close.
Your Recollections:  What about you?

Do you have any personal recollections about December 7, 1941?  Either first hand, or that you recall hearing from family and friends?  And, by that, not just Pearl Harbor stories, but I'd be very interested to learn of any family recollections from those at home, on that day.  Wyoming is three hours ahead of Hawaii, did your family hear it that morning, or later in the day?  Just after church, or while tuning in for a football game?  Any recollection is welcome.


(More text follows on original post).

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

The Virginian Hotel, Medicine Bow Wyoming. . . and location near the railhead.


The Virginian Hotel was built in 1911. At the time, it was a major hotel on the Union Pacific, and soon thereafter a major hotel on the Lincoln Highway.  Indeed, when first built it was one of the largest hotels on both routes, although the near contemporary Plains Hotel in Cheyenne was larger.

The reason for the hotel's location is evident from the photograph below, which also appears on our companion Railhead blog.  The hotel is directly across from the Union Pacific train station, which would have made it a  very convenient stop for travelers.


This arrangement was the archetype of pre 1950 hotel location.  Most long distance travel was by rail, and those who got off the train were often looking at a short walk to a hotel, or at most a short coach ride.

The Virginian is an exception to the rule in that it remains a going concern.  It's still a significant hotel in Medicine Bow, although Medicine Bow is neither as isolated or important as it once was.  The hotel and restaurant are still stops for weary travelers.

Photographs from our Flickr site.

Railhead: Medicine Bow Union Pacific Station, Medicine Bow W...

Railhead: Medicine Bow Union Pacific Station, Medicine Bow W...: This a classically styled small town railroad station, located in Medicine Bow, Wyoming.  It's now a museum. View with the ...

Monday, December 3, 2012

Subtle evidendence of changing times?



Two photos, taken on the same day, December 3, 1919, in the same location.

Top rider is well turned out, and riding side saddle.  Younger rider below is wearing puttees, broad brimmed hat, and an English saddle.

Subtle evidence of changing times?  Or just different disciplines?

All photographs from our Flickr site.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

The Mustachioed Era

It can no longer be ignored.

 
 Wyoming Territorial Governor John A. Campbell.

Something was going on with facial hair in the late 19th and early 20th Century.  And on a massive scale.

In addition to this blog, and my others, I try to catalog Wyoming's history on a daily basis with my Today In Wyoming's History blog.  This being November, I've been running a lot of items on various politicians being elected or appointed, including a lot of them in the 1865 to 1920 time frame. And the evidence is overwhelming.  In order to be anything in that time frame, business wise or politically, you had to have some serious mustache action going on.

 
George A. Baxter.  It probably took him longer to grow that mustache and cookie duster than he served as Territorial Governor.  Note also the starched upright collar, a type of dress style thankfully now more or less gone.

Francis E. Warren, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient from the Civil War and and one of the longest serving Senators in Senate history.  And also father in law to General John J. Pershing.  The Wyoming politician had this serious mustache his entire political career, including the point in time when this photo was taken, after the passing of the Great Mustache Era.

Clarence Clark, long serving but forgotten mustachioed Wyoming Congressman.

James Weaver, a surprisingly successful candidate for President on the Populist ticket, who went right from the Huge Beard Era to the Giant Mustache Era.

Now, it so happens that I happen to have a mustache myself, but nothing like the gigantic mustaches so popular in the this era.  These mustaches are practically their own species of mustache, bearing a faint resemblance to current mustaches the way that giant animals of the Pleistocene bear a relationship to their smaller cousins today.

How did this occur?  It's hard to say. We can tell, of course, that just prior to the Giant Mustache Era there was a Giant Beard Era.

 
Territorial Governor Moonlight, who'd been a Civil War era general before being appointed Territorial Governor of Wyoming.

Enormous beards seem to have come in during the Civil War.  Perhaps everyone was too busy fighting to shave.  

 
 Rutherford B. Hayes, whose mouth has completely disappeared from view due to his beard.

Mustaches, however, started to dominate in the late 19th Century.  No idea why.  And not only mustaches, but the super sized mustache, such as that sported by Theodore Roosevelt.

Zachery Taylor.  Apparently razors were in use when he was President, but combs clear were not.

Theodore Roosevelt, who went to the big mustache when was a rancher.

Roosevelt cultivated a thin, very well groomed mustache, until he went to the Dakotas to ranch. At that time, the busy stache was already in vogue in the West.  I've heard it claimed that the reason for this is that it keeps the lip from sunburning.  Perhaps.  At any rate, bug mustaches remain pretty common amongst ranchers and cowboys today, so perhaps there's something to it.  And perhaps Roosevelt's adoption of the style helped popularize what was already a growing trend at the time.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUWQrCtO29V2jAHpDKlqo72Z_0JfkA6FoHitwjxcGu3L0G6w0DQ7ERq8gb_CHCnMSG7FLGFX8xRhwj490gZE7Ijhj1ynzDfviIsl6rS2Rb2hmHkCno3AcjIwB_6Mc7q_ZrQ-IlGcw9KbrN/s1600/09239r.jpg
 Goatee pioneer Governor Carey.  Was Carey a proto-hipster?

And it wasn't just in the United States.  It was a global trend.  South of the border, Mexican revolutionaries Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa both sported some serious mustaches.  Lord Kitchener, the legendary British Field Marshall did as well.


 Even now, Lord Kitchener's command is compelling.  The mustache the reason?

Frankly, based upon the photographic evidence, I doubt a man prior to 1914 or so could expect to be a success without a serious mustache.  Just look at William Jennings Bryan, for example.  Universally regarded as brilliant, he just couldn't get himself elected President. And he didn't amount to a great Secretary of State when appointed by the equally clean shaven Woodrow Wilson, a President who couldn't persuade Congress to approve the Versailles Treaty.  Perhaps it was the lack of a mustache that left the Senate lukewarm about the entire deal.

 Writer Owen Wister.  He didn't go into law like his father had hoped, but the sensitive writer had to be taken seriously in print, with a mustache like that.

Well, this leads us to an obvious conclusion.  In this season of seemingly ongoing political confusion and strife we're left wanting for character in our leaders.  Gen. Petraeaus engages in activity that brings him down.  Even many Republicans and Democrats are less than enthusiastic about their recent candidates, Mitt Romney and Barrack Obama.  Clearly something is missing.  And that something must be the serious mustache that obviously instilled moral fiber and character in an earlier stalwart generation. 


All photographs from our Flickr site.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Calendar Query

Are any of the denizens here finding any neat agriculture, nature, equine or history related calendars in the offering for 2013?

As per usual, I have the Wyoming Historical Society Calendar up on the wall.  On my office wall I typically run four calendars at once, so that I'm three to four months out in scheduling at a glance.  I may try to mix the calendars up a bit, and I'm curious what's out there.