Educators at all grade levels throughout the state can use WyoHistory.org to help their students explore Wyoming’s past and achieve classroom success. Two award-winning instructors, Guy Sallade of Casper and Patty Kessler of Laramie, recently shared their thoughts about how the new online encyclopedia complements their lesson plans.

Sallade, who teaches second and third grades at Woods Learning Center in Casper, received the 2012 Clara M. and Henry E. Jensen Outstanding Wyoming Teacher Award from the Wyoming State Historical Society. Kessler, adjunct instructor of Wyoming history at Laramie County Community College’s Albany County campus, was recently named Adjunct Instructor of the Year by her students there. Kessler is also an academic professional lecturer at the University of Wyoming.

Sallade explains that WyoHistory.org allows students “to explore Wyoming history, rather than just read it.” The website “covers my standards and it allows the teaching to be delivered in a way students are becoming more and more familiar with.” Students are able to “follow up on areas of interest as they research their projects.” Sallade also encourages students to listen to the oral histories posted on the website. This, he says, “can help them not only in their research, but it models how to conduct an oral history interview with their parents or grandparents.”

Kessler uses WyoHistory.org to supplement topics she covers each semester. When studying the Indian Wars, for example, her students read Emilene Ostlind’s “Red Cloud’s War,” in addition to completing an in-depth assignment on various battles and massacres that occurred during the same time period. She says the interactive nature of the website, which provides maps, photographs, field-trip suggestions and related articles helps her students focus on topics of particular interest to them. She often uses the maps in her classroom, explaining, “They provide a visual representation of the location of the events and people that we are discussing at any one point in time.” WyoHistory.org, she says, “addresses a variety of learning styles among my students which helps to guarantee a degree of success for everyone in my classroom.”

She also uses the biographical section frequently “to help my students gain an insight on the personalities that helped to settle this region and to make Wyoming a state.” Studying the biographies of Frances E. Warren, Joseph Carey and John B. Kendrick “are quite useful in augmenting any discussion we may have related to the politics involved in this process of managing a territory as well as the state.”

Not Your Grandmother’s Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia. Compendium. Retrospective. Collection. We’ve used all these to describe WyoHistory.org.

WyoHistory.org is decidedly different from your grandmother’s encyclopedia, which stood on a shelf and contained dusty volumes divided alphabetically from A-F, G-M, etc., with brief articles covering a variety of topics and, sometimes, pictures, too.

These older books are still valuable references, of course, and WyoHistory.org offers similar opportunities because a person can search and find articles on topics ranging from Albany County, Wyo., to Owen Wister. Our site expands upon the information contained in those bound books by providing field-trip suggestions with directions and maps for each article. You can use the information you’ve discovered to physically explore the state’s historic places as well. And you can view photo galleries and listen to oral histories to broaden your perspective.

Currently, the website includes more than 300 articles. We post an average of one new article each week, and we continue to add more features, like new photo galleries and video, as we grow, so please come visit us often.

• Read Emilene Ostlind’s encyclopedia entry “Red Cloud’s War” at http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/red-clouds-war.
• Cynde Georgen’s “John B. Kendrick: Cowboy, Cattle King, Governor and U.S. Senator”
• http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/john-kendrick
• Wyoming State Archives provided an encyclopedia entry for Joseph Carey at http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/joseph-carey
• Watch for a forthcoming article about Frances E. Warren by journalist Kerry Drake at WyoHistory.org.

• New This Month

  This month be sure and check out Annette Hein’s new history of Seminoe and Kortes dams on the North Platte River. Her article is part of our effort to cover the history of irrigation, dam building and water development in Wyoming—important chapters in the history of our arid state. The photo gallery includes a picture of a grinning President Harry Truman when he spoke at the Kortes dedication in 1950, and a great shot of members of the Rawlins Chamber of Commerce on a bus trip to the dam sites in 1935, before the dams were built.

  Also see Rachel Walker Hollibaugh’s first-person account of the 1986 bombing of the Cokeville Elementary School, when she was eight years old. She saw angels, and felt protected by them. Her account is one of several oral histories of the event. They were collected in 2010 by Wyoming State Archives staffers Sue Castaneda and Mark Junge, part of an oral history project titled “Survivor is My Name,” and we’re grateful to the State Archives for making these available to us—and to the public.

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• Check out our Calendar

  Under “WyoHistory.org news” near the bottom of the home page, click on Learn more under “Calendar,” and find a Google calendar of upcoming talks, re-enactments, gatherings and other history-related events around Wyoming.

   

  Please contact Editor Tom Rea at editor@wyohistory.org for information about how you can submit activities to our calendar of upcoming history events throughout Wyoming.

  Come join us as we explore Wyoming’s History. We welcome your feedback. Send comments, questions or suggestions to Tom Rea at editor@wyohistory.org.

  Your support is appreciated

  We want to keep this website as a permanent and growing archive of Wyoming’s history. We welcome your support. You can donate via PayPal, or contact Editor Tom Rea directly at editor@wyohistory.org.