People & Peoples

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Title Article Type Author
A.M.E. Church, Rock Springs Encyclopedia Brigida R. (Brie) Blasi
Absaroka Mountains, mining in Encyclopedia Brian Beauvais
Ada Magill Grave Encyclopedia WyoHistory.org
African-American women voters, early Wyoming elections Encyclopedia Wyoming State Archives
Albert, Prince of Monaco, hunts with Buffalo Bill, 1913 Encyclopedia John Clayton
All American Indian Days Encyclopedia Gregory Nickerson
Allred, Golden, Bighorn Basin trapper Oral Histories Washakie Museum and Cultural Center
American Indian geography in Wyoming Encyclopedia Gregory Nickerson
American Indian tribes, trade among Encyclopedia Samuel Western
Anderson, A.A. Encyclopedia John Clayton
Arapaho tribe, arrival of on Shoshone Reservation, 1878 Encyclopedia WyoHistory.org
Archaeological site, Powars II Encyclopedia Ellis Hein
Archeology, alpine in Wyoming Encyclopedia Rebecca Hein
Arnold, Thurman, Laramie lawyer and New Deal trustbuster Encyclopedia Dee Pridgen
Automobile, Wyoming’s first Encyclopedia Phil Roberts

In 1878, the enterprising Otto Franc described Wyoming as “the finest & wildest country . . .  abounding with fish & game.” From conflicts with rustlers through the beginnings of irrigation and the end of the open range, his huge Pitchfork Ranch came to dominate Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin.

Hawaiian cowboys, competing at Frontier Days in 1908, kicked off Wyoming’s Hawaiian music (and culture) craze. The “paniolo” dominated the world championships that year. Wyomingites bought ukeleles, phonographs and records and attended Hawaiian plays, musicals, dances and concerts for decades. Interest was still strong well into the 1950s.

On the evening of January 11, 1907, Eastern Shoshone Tribal Councilman George Terry was murdered after leaving a council meeting. Was it a crime of passion, perhaps revenge for mistreating his wife Kate Enos? Or was it an assassination, retribution for backing the selloff of half the reservation’s tribal lands?

Though born in Cody, Jackson Pollock soon moved away and never returned, and the state has never claimed him. But Pollock vigorously claimed Wyoming—this wild place. Risk was what he was all about—both in his life and in the revolutionary drips and swirls of his paint.

Thomas Twiss, West Point class of 1826, came to Fort Laramie as a civilian in 1855, tasked with keeping government promises to tribes and keeping peace in all directions. He had an Oglala family on Deer Creek in addition to a family back East—and lived in two worlds for decades.

Beginning in 1858, a group of Iowa-based German Lutherans worked to establish a ministry on Deer Creek near present Glenrock, Wyo. Plagued by sparse funding and widening Indian wars, the effort finally collapsed. Three converted Cheyenne boys returned to Iowa with the missionaries and died there; their families never knew what happened to them.

The automobile age arrived in Wyoming almost unnoticed. While the Spanish American War dominated headlines, Elmer Lovejoy was building Wyoming’s first car in his Laramie bicycle shop during the winter of 1897-98. Townspeople thought the machine an “interesting toy,” but Lovejoy stuck with his tinkering, with some surprising long-term results.

A Winchester rifle at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum reportedly belonged to Wild Bunch member Bub Meeks, who participated in the famed Montpelier bank robbery, escaped prison twice and an insane asylum once and after a final scrape with the law died in 1912 in the Wyoming State Hospital. 

A few people in Wyoming know the secret behind their state flag. They will give a knowing smile, as they nod, yes—that bison wasn’t always hitched to the staff, he used to survey over the mountains and prairie. But the flag holds more secrets in its weave . . .

The Americans with Disabilities Act was far in the future when a group of Lusk, Wyo. residents first met to propose statewide legislation to make buildings, sidewalks and other public areas accessible for disabled people.