On Jan. 20, 2001, Richard B. Cheney of Wyoming was inaugurated vice president of the United States, quickly becoming one of the most powerful, controversial vice presidents the nation has seen. Wyoming writer and documentary producer Geoffrey O’Gara has written a compact biographical article on Cheney for WyoHistory.org, developed in part from O’Gara’s work on a Cheney documentary to be aired Friday, Nov. 13 on Wyoming PBS.

Other articles this month include a piece about Buffalo Bill’s little-known business and financial ventures outside the Wild West show and a tragedy that occurred during a special celebration at the University of Wyoming in 1922.

Finally, we’re starting a campaign for help this month at WyoHistory.org! Donate here, send a check directly to WyoHistory.org, 112 West Second St., Casper, WY 82601—or see more details below.

Dick Cheney’s Life in Politics

Natrona County High School graduate, Yale dropout, University of Wyoming graduate, U.S. Congressman and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney became the second most powerful man in the world when he became vice president of the United States in 2001. Cheney’s career remains controversial, and he remains as passionate about politics and public policy as ever. Learn much more in journalist Geoffrey O’Gara’s article Wyoming to the White House: Dick Cheney’s Life in Politics at http://www.wyohistory.org/essays/wyoming-white-house-dick-cheneys-life-politics. 

Another side of Buffalo Bill

The great Wild West showman, Buffalo Bill, failed as a capitalist leading large irrigation projects in northern Wyoming but succeeded in founding the state’s tourist industry and his namesake town, Cody—where the tourist dollar still sustains life. Read more in Robert E. Bonner’s Town Founder and Irrigation Tycoon: The Buffalo Bill Nobody Knows at http://www.wyohistory.org/essays/town-founder-and-irrigation-tycoon-buffalo-bill.

A UW tragedy 

A fountain and a mural on the University of Wyoming campus memorialize events surrounding the 1922 death of UW student Lowell O’Bryan, who died after being bucked off a horse during preparations for a “cowboy welcome” for new UW President Arthur Crane. Learn more about the incident in UW History Professor Phil Roberts’ article The Fountain and the Mural: Remembering a Tragic Cowboy Welcome at http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/fountain-and-mural-remembering-tragic-cowboy-welcome.

“Your magnificent state Wyoming”

“Dear Wyo History,” a fifth grader wrote us from California not long ago. “Thank you for telling me [about] your website it will definantly help me with my project about your magnificent state Wyoming.”

This fall, consider sending your support so we can keep bringing you high quality content on Wyoming history. We run on a healthy mix of public and private support—and a crucial part of that is you! As long as we keep offering new articles, field-trip suggestions, photos and more, more people keep coming to the site. That’s how we want it! We now get visits from around 35,000 visitors per month—about quadruple the traffic level in late 2013.

In 2016 we embark on exciting projects. Thanks to the Wyoming Humanities Council and the Pulitzer Prize Committee, we'll develop articles on past Wyoming newspapers and newspaper people. With the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office we'll be helping expand the GPS-triggered audio tour of historic Wyoming trails sites launched last summer. And with the University of Wyoming College of Education we'll be working on ways to package our content for easy classroom use.

Please consider making a contribution by using the turquoise “Donate” tab on the Home Page. Or send a check—for $25, $50, $100, $250 or an amount of your choosing—to WyoHistory.org, 112 West Second St., Casper, Wyo. 82601. Contributions are tax deductible. WyoHistory.org is a project of the Wyoming State Historical Society.