Trails to somewhere

Trails come in many manifestations, whether they are literal roadways or paths to achievement. This month, WyoHistory.org focuses on a few different types: a politician’s campaign trails, an educator’s career trail, a traveler’s trail to the Montana goldfields, and a Chicago detective’s long trip to Texas with a Wyoming prisoner wanted for murder.

Roncalio’s path to politics  
The voluble, gregarious Teno Roncalio of Rock Springs, Wyo., a Democrat, became a powerful and effective figure in the state’s political landscape, serving five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 1960s and 1970s. Learn more in journalist Joan Barron’s article “From Bootblack to Congressman: The Career of Teno Roncalio” at  http://www.wyohistory.org/essays/bootblack-congressman-career-teno-roncalio.

Strausner’s legacy of hope at Casper College
Former Casper College President LeRoy Strausner died in late October. Dana Van Burgh, recent winner of the Wyoming State Historical Society’s Henry Jensen Award, interviewed Strausner at length at the college’s Western History Center in September 2013. Learn more about Strausner’s career and his oft-spoken dictum that educators are “merchants of hope” at http://www.wyohistory.org/oral-histories/adam-leroy-strausner.

Bozeman Trail a quicker way to gold
Seeking a shorter way to the goldfields of Montana Territory, former prospector John Bozeman traced a route through the Powder River Basin—prized buffalo grounds for the resident tribes. A few hundred emigrants used the route between 1863 and 1866; later, as tribal resistance grew, it became a military road and the focus of Red Cloud’s War.
Read more of Marilyn J. Drew’s article “A Brief History of the Bozeman Trail” at http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/brief-history-bozeman-trail.

Detective’s cross-country path with his prisoner
 Clabe Young came from Texas to Wyoming Territory in the 1870s with his brothers Bill and Nate, and cowboyed for such prominent ranchers as Tom Sun and Boney Earnest. Leaders of the powerful Wyoming Stock Growers Association suspected the Youngs were rustlers and hired Chicago detective John Finkbone to dispose of the matter. WyoHistory.org Editor Tom Rea tracks the details of the case—and the captured rustler’s trip to Texas—in his article “A Detective Gets His Man: The Capture of Rustler Clabe Young” at http://www.wyohistory.org/essays/capture-rustler-clabe-young.