Our offerings this month include the premier of WyoHistory.org’s Oregon Trail educational package, stories about several influential Wyomingites and an essay about how Wyoming was named. Though the Super Bowl is over and done—what a debacle for Broncos fans!—WyoHistory. org readers can learn about the first night football game played in the state and how the vast influence of the Salt Creek Oil Field contributed to the event.

Oregon Trail package debuts
WyoHistory.org Editor Tom Rea and Designer Steve Foster have created a new, easy-to-navigate instructional package about the Oregon Trail especially for students, teachers and others who enjoy learning more about the state’s history. The package includes lively articles on nine historic sites on the Oregon Trail in Wyoming enhanced with interactive maps, extensive photo galleries, videos of inquisitive fourth graders touring the sites, field-trip lesson plans for teachers and quizzes for students.

WyoHistory.org worked with Natrona County and Casper College educators, students and museum professionals, and used up-to-date mapping information drawn from public sources with the help of the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office.

Visitors to WyoHistory.org can access the new package linked prominently near the top of the home page, www.wyohistory.org.

Wyoming’s name comes from Pennsylvania
Wyoming gets its name from a green valley in northeast Pennsylvania originally purchased from the Iroquois by a Connecticut land company. An Ohio congressman in 1865 first proposed the name—but later, after he saw our dry, wide plains, he wasn’t so sure he’d had the right idea. Read more in “The First Wyoming: What’s in a Name?” by Casper geologist Jim Brown athttp://www.wyohistory.org/essays/wyoming-name.

A few more names famous in Wyoming’s history
Celebrated Wyoming sculptor Robert Russin created works of all sizes in bronze and stone. Though not a native of the state, Russin lived and taught in Laramie for 60 years, and his work continues to influence artists, students, collectors and the public. See Maria Wimmer’s article athttp://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/robert-russin-legacy-bronze-and-stone.

Educator Estelle Reel fought hard to obtain the Republican nomination for Wyoming superintendent of public instruction in 1894, after which she became the first woman in the nation elected to a statewide office. At the time, Wyoming was still the only state where women had the right to vote. Read more of Kerry Drake’s article at http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/estelle-reel.

Edward Ivinson made a fortune in banking in Laramie, Wyo., in the 19th century and turned to philanthropy late in his life, making large contributions to benefit his town and community. Read Kim Viner’s article at http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/edward-ivinson.

A dude ranch roundup
Early Wyoming was seen as a hardscrabble place. But after 1900, dude ranches showed off Wyoming’s mountain scenery, fishing, hunting and hospitality, and thanks to the elite guests’ taste-making powers, Wyoming and the West became associated less with cold wind and distance and more with romantic glories. See John Clayton’s fascinating history of the business, complete with a gallery of extra photos athttp://www.wyohistory.org/essays/romancing-west-dude-ranching-wyoming.

And what about that nighttime football game?
Nov. 19, 1925, was a cold night for football in the oil boomtown of Midwest, Wyo., “Don’t Miss It,” theCasper Herald had advised the day before. “Something New, Football at Night, Casper vs. Midwest.”

“Floodlights,” the advertisement continued, would be “assisted by open gas flares for light and warmth—the roads are fine…” Fine perhaps, but still dirt in 1925. Midwest is 40 miles north of Casper. See more of Editor Tom Rea’s article “Boom, Bust and After: Life in the Salt Creek Oil Field” athttp://www.wyohistory.org/essays/boom-bust-and-after-life-salt-creek-oil-field.