We never know where our journeys might take us. This month, WyoHistory.org offers stories about some sad journeys and some that were much more rewarding. Join us for more on the crash of an airliner, the career of a prize-winning photographer, stories of Jewish settlers who braved isolation in hopes of better lives, and the tales of four lesser-known sites on the Oregon Trail in Wyoming—three of them graves.

Once again this year, we are collaborating with TravelStorysGPS™ and the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office to add more sites to Westward Ho! the smartphone-app audio tour of the Oregon Trail across Wyoming. Watch for more articles about the trails on WyoHistory.org soon, and learn more about this month’s entries below. 

The 1955 crash of United Flight 409 

When pilots on United Airlines Flight 409 took a shortcut in bad weather en route from Denver to Salt Lake City in October 1955, the plane crashed into Medicine Bow Peak and 66 people died. It was the worst airline disaster up to that time, and its cause is still unknown. Read more in journalist Thaddeus Mast’s article United Flight 409: 1955 Crash Killed 66 People
at http://www.wyohistory.org/essays/united-flight-409-1955-crash-killed-66-people.

Stimson’s views

Joseph Stimson came to Cheyenne in 1889 to take portraits. In 1900, the Union Pacific hired him as a publicity photographer, with wide leeway to choose his subjects. Soon, his agricultural, industrial and scenic views won him a national reputation. The Wyoming State Archives holds a collection of 7,500 Stimson negatives. Learn more in the article Joseph Stimson and His Photographs provided by the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office at http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/je-stimson-and-his-photographs.

Jewish settlers 

In the early 1900s, Jewish families came from eastern cities to Goshen County, Wyo., seeking a better life in the West. They farmed, raised families, founded schools and worshiped in private homes. Many were discouraged by the harsh farm life, however, and nearly all left by the 1930s. Read more in Wyoming State Archives Reference Archivist Carl V. Hallberg’s article The Jews of Huntley, Wyoming at http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/jews-huntley-wyoming.

Oregon Trail sites

Watch for more articles soon about Wyoming’s historic trails, like the new ones this month about Knob Hill and three Oregon Trail gravesites (see information on these pieces below). These are part of a collaboration with the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office and TravelStorysGPS™ of Wilson, Wyo., to transfer to WyoHistory.org the information on many dozens of trails spots from a historic-trails website SHPO developed a dozen years ago.

Travelers who visit the sites will be able to hear three minutes of audio information about them via their smartphones or other mobile devices, once they download the free app at TravelStorysGPS™. This is a similar—but much larger—project to the Indian Wars of Wyoming tour we completed with TravelStorysGPS™ in 2014.

Many Oregon Trail diarists noted the distinctive, conical shape of 70-foot-high Knob Hill, southwest of present Douglas, Wyo., and compared it to a sugar loaf; others whetted their knives on rocks at its base. British travel writer Richard Burton was skeptical of the tale that Brigham Young had preached a sermon there. Read more in Knob Hill at http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/knob-hill.

In 1988, following extensive research regarding her identity, 1852 Oregon Trail traveler Quintina Snodderly’s remains were re-interred where they had been found in 1974 on private land east of present Casper, Wyo., as part of the Oregon-California Trails Association project to preserve graves of trail travelers.
Learn more in The Grave of Quintina Snodderly at http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/grave-quintina-snodderly.

Frederick Fulkerson, 17, died in 1847 on the Oregon Trail after becoming exhausted and ill from swimming his family’s livestock across the North Platte River near present Casper, Wyo. His grave, located on state land near Devil’s Gate, is one of the oldest identified graves along the trail. Read more about the teenager in Frederick Fulkerson Grave at http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/frederick-fulkerson-grave.

On a jittery night in 1864, a lone warrior stole three horses from a California-bound wagon train west of present Glenrock, Wyo. Early next morning, emigrant Martin Ringo died from an accidental gunshot. His grave is still there, on private land. Johnny Ringo, his son, was later a famous outlaw. Learn more in The Graves of Martin Ringo and J.P. Parker at http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/graves-martin-ringo-and-jp-parker.