People & Peoples

Title	Author(s)	Article Type
Allred, Golden, Bighorn Basin trapper	Washakie Museum and Cultural Center	Oral Histories
Barber, Amos	Wyoming State Archives	Encyclopedia
Barrett, Frank	Wyoming State Archives	Encyclopedia
Baxter, George	Wyoming State Archives	Encyclopedia
Bellamy, Mary Godat	Wyoming Legislative Service Office	Encyclopedia
Brooks, Bryant	Wyoming State Archives	Encyclopedia
Campbell, John	Wyoming State Archives	Encyclopedia
Carey, Joseph	Wyoming State Archives	Encyclopedia
Carey, Robert	Wyoming State Archives	Encyclopedia
Carlisle, Bill	Lori Van Pelt	Encyclopedia

Father De Smet in Wyoming

A childhood love of adventure eventually led the Belgian Jesuit priest Father Pierre-Jean De Smet to become a missionary to the Indians of the Rocky Mountains. He traveled throughout the northern Rockies, along the way celebrating the first Catholic Mass in what’s now Wyoming on July 5, 1840, during the Green River Rendezvous. In 1851, members of his party named Lake De Smet for him as they traveled from the Missouri River in present Montana to assist in treaty negotiations with the plains tribes near Fort Laramie.

Encyclopedia : May 11, 2013 - 10:10pm

The Pedro Mountain Mummy

The mystery surrounding the Pedro Mountain Mummy, discovered in the 1930s about 60 miles south of Casper, Wyo., by two gold prospectors, continues to intrigue people. While some sensational media accounts indicated the mummy might have been one of the little people of American Indian folklore, scientists who studied the artifact in detail have concluded that the mummy was an infant who died because of a congenital defect.

Encyclopedia : May 6, 2013 - 3:37pm

The Old West’s Female Champion: Caroline Lockhart and Wyoming’s Cowboy Heritage

Caroline Lockhart wrote a handful of novels about Wyoming in the early 20th century. They made her famous and rich, and they hold up well today. At the same time, she was a new kind of activist, a central figure in bringing to the town of Cody and the state of Wyoming a new kind of nostalgia-based culture that both have embraced ever since.

Essay : March 15, 2013 - 11:55pm

President Theodore Roosevelt's 1903 Visit to Wyoming

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt included Wyoming in his 25-state tour of the western United States. He spent nearly three weeks in Yellowstone National Park, gave a speech in Newcastle, and on the return leg from California, left the train long enough for a well-publicized horseback ride from Laramie to Cheyenne, and two extra days politicking and socializing in Wyoming’s capital.

Encyclopedia : March 8, 2013 - 10:02pm

Frank "Pinky" Ellis on the sheep business, small-town politics and family life

Frank "Pinky" Ellis of Casper, Wyo., born in 1929, was interviewed April 21, 2011 by Casper College student Emily Pearson at the Casper College Western History Center. In this interview, Mr. Ellis discusses growing up in Casper, his father’s journey from Ireland to Casper, life during the Depression, his father’s sheep operation, his own positions on the Casper City Council and Natrona County Public Library Board, life at Casper College and the University of Wyoming in the late 1940s, early childhood memories, family life and life’s lessons.

Oral Histories : March 7, 2013 - 4:45pm

Lillian Heath: Wyoming’s First Female Physician Packed a Pistol

Lillian Heath, Wyoming’s first woman physician, practiced medicine in and around Rawlins, Wyo., beginning in 1893. As a teenager, she trained with Union Pacific Railroad surgeon Dr. Thomas Maghee, and assisted Maghee and Dr. John Osborne in their post-mortem investigations into the brain of outlaw Big Nose George Parrot. Later she won a medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Keokuk, Iowa, where she specialized in obstetrics. She retired after 15 years of practice, but remained keenly interested in medicine until her death in 1962.

Encyclopedia : January 2, 2013 - 12:03pm

John B. Kendrick: Cowboy, cattle king, governor and U.S. senator

John B. Kendrick rose from poverty to great wealth and later to the pinnacle of political power. He arrived in Wyoming Territory in 1879 with a Texas trail herd, and by the early years of the 20th century was running his own ranches and a local bank. A Democrat, he was elected governor in 1914, and later served three terms in the U.S. Senate. There he worked tirelessly on irrigation, land use, and protection of natural resources. With humor, charm, broad intelligence and a willingness to work with political opponents, he became a model for long-term success as a Democrat in a Republican state.

Encyclopedia : December 27, 2012 - 1:49pm

The Ambition of Nellie Tayloe Ross

Nellie Tayloe Ross, a Democrat, was elected governor of Wyoming a month after her governor husband, William Ross, died of appendicitis in the fall of 1924. She ran because of respect for her husband’s Progressive ideas and also as a result of her own ambition. She lost her bid for re-election in 1926, but went on to figure prominently in the leadership of the national Democratic Party. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her to direct the U.S. Mint after he took office in 1933, a job she held for 20 years. She died in Washington in 1977, at the age of 101.

Essay : December 11, 2012 - 10:17pm

Edith Thaxton on Dances in the Bighorn Basin

Edith Thaxton, born in 1898, much later in life recalled the dances of her youth.

Oral Histories : September 5, 2012 - 10:50am

Harold Van Buskirk on Running a Bighorn Basin Grocery Store

Harold Van Buskirk, born in 1897, worked in a grocery store in his youth in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin.

Oral Histories : September 4, 2012 - 9:42pm

This Date in Wyoming History

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