March 28 & 31, 2012
A Special Supplement to The Green River Star/Sweetwater County Guide
At left is a photo of the sign identifying the Green River Intergalactic Space Port taken by Jo Foster. Above is an early picture of the area where the cemetery was located prior to the building of the Sweetwater County Library.
Sweetwater County stories of myths, legends and facts Sweetwater County is an area of more than 10,000 acres filled with sand, sagebrush, beautiful rock formations – and stories. Most of the stories are true and documented by history, while others are a bit questionable. For example, the story that Green River has an Intergalactic Space Port is absolutely true, although no spacecraft has ever landed there so far as we know, at least not yet. In 1994, former Green River Mayor George Eckman signed Resolution R94-23 creating the Greater Green River Intergalactic Space Port just off South Hill. The reason it was created was due to a comet which NASA believed was about to strike Jupiter, one of our galactic neighbors. It was predicted to do great damage to that planet and the mayor and Council decided to issue an open invitation to any possible refugee Jupitarians who might head this way. The resolution reads, in part: “A spirit of neighborly sympathy motivates us to tender an offer of sanctuary to our possible fellow residents of this solar system.” The governing body also encouraged residents to welcome any newcomers from Jupiter, and the invitation still stands. The oft told story of the Green River Ordinance is also true.
Back in 1931, there were many who worked for the Union Pacific Railroad. These people worked a variety of shifts, much like the miners employed at the trona minces do today. That meant they had to sleep during the daytime, and salesmen knocking on their doors disrupted that slumber, so the Council passed Ordinance 175, making door-to-door selling illegal. The ordinance was adopted by many cities and towns across the county, and it is still enforced, but it’s not likely many realize its origin. Boar’s Tusk is an impressive formation north of Rock Springs near U.S. Highway 191. Many residents know its location, but some don’t know it’s the cone – the central core -- of a very ancient volcano. Some other stories are harder to pin down, like the name of Toll Gate Rock, west of Green River. Supposedly there was once a river crossing near the rock where westward migrants were charged a toll to cross the river. It’s also commonly believed that the Pony Express had a station in Rock Springs. However, that’s not true. In 1861, it’s said that a rider for the Pony Express veered from his trail to avoid Indians. In his flight from them, he found a spring coming from a rock near what is now Rock Springs. While it’s true there is a spring in the rock, the rest is conjecture.
Other tales have been told of lost treasures in the high desert. Butch Cassidy supposedly buried the ill-gotten money from a train robbery somewhere between Steamboat Mountain and Brown’s Park. Although many have searched, no one has found the treasure. Sweetwater County has much to be proud of. Clear back in 1870, the first scientists came here to search for dinosaur remains. The first Greek Orthodox Church was founded in Rock Springs in 1925, and of course there is Ester Hobart Morris, the first woman justice of the peace. The county also saw the first unions organize in the state; the miners’ union, laundry workers union and the musicians union all started here. We hope you enjoy this look at local history and we thank those who helped in its publication, especially Ruth Lauritzen and the staff at the Sweetwater County Museum. The museum is a treasure of history and stories, and we appreciate what it brings to our county. The photos in this publicatio are all courtesy of the museum, and again we thank them for their help. An old African proverb says, “Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.” In other words, history is at the mercy of the teller, so enjoy!
Early scientists seach for dinosaur fossils in Sweetwater County.
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Historical Edition
March 28 & 31, 2012
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Family ties in the west By Cyndi McCullers Sweetwater County Museum Two people, born a month and a world apart. The odds of them meeting and falling in love in Green River in the 1870’s must have been one in a million. Elroy Prescott “Bronco Jim” Philbrick, was born in Maine, in October of 1849; and Emily “Emma” Wilson was born in Berkshire, England, in November of 1849. Even today their roots run deep here in Sweetwater County. This is their story. Emma Wilson’s parents ventured from England to New Orleans in 1862. “They were Mormon converts,” she said. They were to join a wagon train in Omaha and then head to Salt Lake City. Emma tells of more than a hundred wagons crossing the plains of the West with them. The children had to walk most of the way and would gather buffalo chips along the trail to ensure a fire for cooking dinner. “We started out about the first of July and were three months crossing, reaching Salt Lake City in October, the day before my fourteenth birthday,” she wrote. After reaching Salt Lake City, the church sent Emma’s family 130 miles south to Scipio, Utah, to settle the area. “One day, my brother Charles and another older man went to the grist mill and coming back, they ran across some Indians. My brother was killed but the old man got away.” She often spoke of being under attack by Indians, both in Utah and Wyoming. Little known to Emma at the time, the church had “arranged” a marriage for her to a known polygamist. Not believing in plural marriage, Emma left the community at the age of 16 and went to find work in Salt Lake City. It was here she met James W. Stillman. He was working as a printer in the newspaper business. James Stillman and Emma Wilson married in Salt Lake City in 1866. By 1869, she found herself in South Pass City with her husband and twin boys. J.W. Stillman was a justice of the peace there. He and Esther Hobart Morris; the first elected woman justice of the peace; were said to have had a difference of opinion. Emma’s marriage to James Stillman was to be short lived. They “parted ways” when the twins were barely 15 months old. Stillman was said to be “mean,” and Emma had become tired of being under attack by Indians. These two factors were enough to make Emma pack up her children and head back to live with her family in Scipio. James Stillman filed for a divorce from Emma in 1872. The two had parted ways but would soon meet up again around 1874 in Green River. South Pass City remained the Sweetwater County seat until 1874, when the decision was made to relocate the seat to Green River.
Stillman did the same. He served more than 10 years as a justice of the peace here. He died in 1887 in Green River at the age of 69. Emma never said much about him and it was implied he never did get to know his twin boys. The twins; Charles A. Stillman and James W. Stillman, were born in South Pass City in July of 1869. They were said to be the first white children born there. A newly-divorced Emma Wilson Stillman arrived in Green River in the summer of 1874 with her twin boys and went to work for Mr. S.I. Field, the man that originally platted Green River City. Field had a general store, a restaurant and a post office. She worked for the Field’s family for more than 10 years until they moved to California and sold their home to William Johnson. Emma said, “Mr. Field had a man working for him who was called “Bronco Jim” Philbrick. He was called this because he was such a fine bronco buster. Mr. Field thought it would be a good idea if we got married. So later we did and it was not until then that people knew that “Bronco Jim’s” name was Elroy. My husband became the marshal of Green River after Mr. Field left.” “Mr. Elroy Prescott Philbrick and I had no children but the twin Stillman boys were always known by their stepfather’s name,” Emma said. In the 1880s, Bronco Jim Philbrick was deputized as deputy sheriff of Sweetwater County. He was thought to be one of the toughest guys in the county. One story about Bronco Jim Philbrick is that he went into Brown’s Park, a notorious outlaw stronghold, to arrest Isom Dart. While transporting Dart to the county jail, the buckboard in which they were riding overturned on an embankment and Philbrick was knocked unconscious. Isom, a huge black man, lifted the buckboard off Philbrick and took him into Rock Springs for medical attention, earning Philbrick’s respect and Philbrick arranged for Isom Dart’s release shortly thereafter. In their years together, Elroy and Emma Philbrick lived in Rock Springs, Green River and Granger. They built two hotels; one in Rock Springs and the other in Granger. They briefly had a ranch on the Green River but it proved to be much more difficult than they thought and the couple moved back to Green River where E.P. Philbrick served a term as justice of the peace and he opened a butcher shop on the southside in Green River. He worked for many years for the Union Pacific Coal Company, as well. Elroy P. “Bronco Jim” Philbrick died in the hospital at Rock Springs on Jan. 9, 1914, of complications resulting from a severe attack of ty(continued next page)
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March 28 & 31, 2011
Historical Edition
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View of Rock Springs looking down from No. 5 hill where the slack pile was located.
Slack pile brought danger to unsuspecting By KATHY GILBERT Editor Old-timers in Rock Springs told many stories about the “slack pile.” It was a pile of very fine coal that accumulated in the mines and for which there was no use. It couldn’t be sold and it couldn’t be left inside the mines because of the risk of fire. Sometime in the early 1870s, a track was built near the No. 5 mine, located near what is now College Hill. The slack was hauled to that location and dumped,
eventually covering several acres. It took little to cause the slack to ignite and become a smoldering hazard to the unsuspecting. A regular path was beaten down for people to walk across the slack. Children were given stern warnings not to step off the path or they would be burned by the smoldering black cinders. Many stories were told of a child wandering from the path and being badly burned. The towns’ people frequently had to treat the burned feet of horses, sheep
or cows that wandered into the slack. One report from the 1870s said that a herd of antelope ran through the pile and several were later found dead with their hooves burned almost away. When the wind blew from a certain direction, an acrid sulfur smell filled the air all across town. Visitors to the area were entranced by the flickering, dancing light that lit up the northwestern sky at night, but those who knew what brought the lights were unimpressed.
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Family ties.................... from previous page phoid-pneumonia, and was buried in Rock Springs. Emma Philbrick would eventually sell her property in Rock Springs and Granger and move back to Green River. Emma lived to be 89 years old. She died in Green River in 1938 and at her request, was buried with husband in
Isom Dart, pictured here, was arrested by "Bronco Jim" Philbrick in Brown's Park. Rock Springs. The twins; Charles and James Stillman Philbrick spent nearly their entire lives in Sweetwater County. James was said to not care much for city life and worked as a hired hand on many local ranches over the years. He died the summer of 1945
and was buried in Riverview Cemetery in Green River. Charles Stillman Philbrick married Lizzie Allen but they divorced without having any children. Charles then married Anna Marie “Annie” Jensen on Nov. 8, 1901, in Sweetwater County. They eventually divorced, but not before they had born five children. The children, Pearl, Ada, Charles John and Nels were all born in Sweetwater County. Emma Philbrook said, “When the children of my son, Charles A. and Annie Jensen were small, Charles rented the Phil Mass ranch on Henry’s Fork and they lived there from 1907 to 1911. Charles’ son, John Philbrick, was born in this house.” Anna Marie Jensen Philbrick re-married to Frank Schofield in Manila in 1914 and Charles Philbrick married once more to a woman named May Wisdom. Charles Alfred StillmanPhilbrick died in 1942 and was buried in Green River. Anna Marie Jensen Philbrick Schofield died in 1965 and was buried in Manila. Pearl Elvira Philbrick was born in Granger on Aug. 4, 1902. She married John Joe Widic who she later divorced. They had the following children: Elmer, Dixie, and Thelma “Elaine” Widic. Pearl later married Jack Zimmerman in Green River. He died here in 1983, and Pearl Elvira Philbrick Widic
Zimmerman died in 1994. She was a 104 years old. Several of her grandchildren remain here in Green River. Ada Irene Philbrick was born Dec. 3, 1903, at Burnt Fork. She married Matthew Marrow Nisbett in Evanston in 1923. The couple moved to Santa Paula, Calif. Ada Philbrick Nisbet Trunnell died in Ventrua, Calif., in 1996. Charlotte Janet Philbrick was born Dec.13, 1904, at Burnt Fork. She married Nicholas “Howard” Petre in 1921 in Green River. She remained in Green River until her death in 1987. She and her husband are buried in Green River and have several descendants that live here, as well. Charles L. “Bud Stillman” Philbrick was born March 19, 1906, at Burnt Fork. He married and moved up to Newcastle where he died in 1966. He also has several grandchildren that still live in that area. John C. Philbrick was born Feb. 4, 1908, at Burnt Fork, but he didn’t stick around Sweetwater County for long. He died in April 1977 in Wyoming. Nels Alfred Philbrick was born Oct. 10, 1911, in Burntfork, and lived in Manila for 54 years, where he died in 1974. This family’s roots run deep in Sweetwater County and odds are one of your neighbors are one of their descendants. The rest is history.
Historic Trivia Ladies wore corsets, which would lace up in the front. A proper and dignified woman, as in 'straight laced' wore a tightly tied lace.
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Green River Basin Federal Credit Union is a community chartered credit union offering financial services and credit union membership to individuals, families, and family members living, working, worshiping, or attending school in Sweetwater, Uinta, Sublette, or Lincoln Counties in Southwest Wyoming. On March 21, 1967 six Union Pacific Railroaders borrowed $5,000.00 from Green River First National Bank and Green River Union Pacific Employees Federal Credit Union was born. There wasn’t an actual office until October, 1969 when Babe Stone was appointed manager and the credit union office was located in the enclosed front porch of the Stone home for 20 years. We have come a long way from a front porch with the purchase in 1997 of the Green River building, once owned by the bank that loaned us the money to start the credit union, as well as opening an office in Rock Springs. What started out as one employee has evolved to 7 employees. On January 31, 2002 NCUA approved the merger of Mansface Federal Credit Union with Green River U.P. Employees Federal Credit Union. On June 24, 2004 we changed our name to Green River Basin Federal Credit Union. Today, Green River Basin Federal Credit Union is as strong and durable as the railroad that started it.
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Historical Edition
March 28 & 31, 2012
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THE AREA IN THE lower left of the above photo is where the old cemetery was located before housing was built and later the Sweetwater County Liibrary.
A good reason library haunted? David Martin Regional Editor
(Editor’s Note: The Vicky Martin referenced in this story is the mother of the writer.) The Sweetwater County Library in Green River is one of the few places in the county to enshrine both ideas of fact and myth. The Haunted Library, as some refer to it, has reportedly been the site of many ghostly encounters. The land the library sits upon has a varied history itself, being the site of a public housing project, a playground and, early in the city’s history, a cemetery. Vicky Martin, a Rock Springs resident who grew up in Green River, shared a story about her grandfather during one of the library’s Ghost Walk tours last October. Her grandfather was involved with relocating those interred at the cemetery. This Martin’s mother, Irene Simmons, originally
told her this story while her family was playing cards one night when Martin was a child. Martin’s grandfather, William Harsha, came to Green River in the early 1920s from Iowa and took a job moving caskets as one of his first jobs upon arriving in the town. While moving the caskets, workers would sometimes drop them, causing the caskets to break open. After one of these dropped caskets had popped open, Martin said her grandfather looked inside to see a woman with long, flowing red hair which dropped past her knees. She said her mom described the woman as being dressed in western attire, “looking like Calamity Jane.” Harsha nicknamed the woman “Two-Gun Annie” as a reference to two pistols holstered at her hips. He and another worker looked closer and discovered the woman’s fingernails had been broken and worn and her fingers were covered in blood.
Martin said her grandfather looked at the lid of the casket and discovered bloody scratch marks in the wood. Apparently, she was buried alive. Martin said that woman wasn’t the only person they found like that, but “TwoGun Annie” was the person who stuck out most in his memory when he told his daughter, Simmons, that story. Martin said Simmons was deeply frightened at the prospect of being buried alive to the point where she made an explicit request to her children that she be cremated when she did pass on. As for “Two-Gun Annie” and the other unfortunate souls prematurely interred at the cemetery, it’s widely believed that one of the causes of a haunting is the traumatic death of someone at or near the premises. Perhaps they are some of the spirits who walk among the bookshelves of the library.
Old-west entertainment By MIKE BROWN Entertainment in the gold camps took on many forms during the heyday of the Gold Rush. All manner of performers found eager audiences in the camps. The most bizarre diversions were the bull and bear fights. This event came about when a couple of miners decided to add a twist to the traditional man versus bull trial. Instead of a man, they would match a wild bull with a grizzly bear. Not wasting time, a grizzly was captured in a pit trap, a couple wild bulls were rounded up, and posters advertising the event were distributed far and wide. Miners paid $3 a seat to watch. The bear, named General Scott, was put in the middle of a fenced arena on a 20-foot chain. When the bull was put into the ring, the bear dug a shallow pit in order to fight sitting or laying down. The bull pawed, snorted and charged the bear trying to get a horn in the bear’s side and toss him up in the air. Well, when the bull got to the bear, the bear reached up with his powerful front legs and got a bearlock on the bull and used his claws to rip the bull’s nose to shreds.
The bull got away, but when he charged again the same thing happened. The fight promoter feared the event would end too quickly, so he offered to supply a second bull for another $200. The hat was passed, the money raised, and a second bull was put in the ring. The bear shredded the second bull too; and both bulls were killed to put them out of their misery. General Scott the bear was a hero until his next fight when the bull killed him. The fighting style of the bear going down and the bull going up is still with us to this day. It’s how we describe the stock market - a Bull Market or a Bear Market.
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March 26 & 30, 2012
Historical Edition
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A life lived in Green River: Dorland Toone By STePHAnie THoMPSon Staff Writer Dorland Toone, 85, claims to be the oldest person in Green River that was born and raised in Green River. He has lived in Green River ever since he was born, except from 1944-1946 when he served two years in the military. While growing up in Green River, Toone said he remembers walking to and from school twice a day. Back then, there were no school buses and the children always went home for lunch. “It was a good mile,” he said. During his high school years, Toone was on the football and basketball teams. He also excelled at track and enjoyed the high jump and pole-vaulting events. Toone said he believes there are only three of his classmates alive. One thing Toone will not forget about his childhood is living across from the old cemetery, which is now where the Sweetwater County Library is. Toone said he still remembers how the city constructed apartment buildings on the cemetery after World War II. He said after the war, there was a huge housing shortage and to meet the needs, the city constructed the apartment buildings. Each building had four apartments. He never once heard any complaints from the tenants about living on an old cemetery. After returning from the service, Toone worked for the railroad for 22 years as a switchman and brakeman. While working for the railroad, Toone met his wife Patricia Knoud, who was working as a railroad call girl, a job that would be considered a dispatcher today. They had two sons, Robin and Barry. Toone said his wife started working for the railroad during the war. Most of the young men were called to duty and women had to take over their jobs. His wife was one of the first women to take over a man’s position. Her job was to let railroad crews know when it was time
History of the World April 2: ON THIS DATE in 1865, Confederate States President Jefferson Davis fled the capital of Richmond, Va., as Union troops approached. In 1931, a teenage girl struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game in Chattanooga, Tenn. April 3: ON THIS DATE in 1860, the legendary Pony Express began service between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif. In 1882, outlaw Jesse James was shot to death in St. Joseph, Mo. April 4: ON THIS DATE in 1818, Congress decided the U.S. flag would consist of 13 stripes, alternating red and white, with a star to be added for every new state. In 1968, civil rights leader the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot to death in Memphis, Tenn. April 5: ON THIS DATE in 1621, the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, Mass., on its return trip to England. In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death after their convictions for conspiring to commit espionage for the Soviet Union. April 6: ON THIS DATE in 1909, Robert E. Peary and Matthew A. Henson became the first explorers to reach the North Pole. In 1917, Congress approved a declaration of war against Germany. April 7: ON THIS DATE in 1862, Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. In 1994, civil war erupted in Rwanda, a day after a mysterious plane crash killed the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi. In the ensuing months, hundreds of thousands of people were massacred. April 8: ON THIS DATE in 1513, explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain. In 1952, President Truman seized the steel industry to avert a nationwide strike.
for them to go back home. A crew consisted of an engineer, fireman, conductor and two brakemen. Most of the trains were carrying fruits and vegetables in non-refrigerated cars. In the 1950s and 1960s, Green River had three streamliner passenger trains going east and west every day, he said. There were four switch engines on days, four in the afternoons and five at night. Toone worked as a switchman for two years. He was then offered a job as a switchman in California, which he declined because he didn’t want to leave his wife in Green River.
He then started working as a brakeman. “It was the best job I ever had,” Toone said. He worked as a brakeman for 22 years. He then worked for Stauffer Chemical for 22 years as a heavy equipment before retiring in 1984. Up until seven years ago, Toone enjoyed roping steers. Toone adjusted to retirement life easily and enjoys playing pool. He was proud to say he has 38 first-place trophies and numerous second and third-place certificates. “I enjoy my retirement,” Toone said. “They couldn’t pay me enough to go back to work anywhere I know of.”
this photo was taken of a few women who worked on the railroad during world war ii because most of the men were serving in the military.
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Historical Edition
Long-time Scout leader Louise Spinner Graf in her Green River home in 1983. The Graf home was a regular stop for Girl Scouts caroling at Christmas time and Graf was always happy to tell about the traditional German ornaments decorating her Christmas tree.
Girls of courage, confidence and character: Green River By Ruth Lauritzen Sweetwater County Museum Juliette Gordon “Daisy” Low founded the Girl Scouts of America in 1912. Low met Sir Robert Baden-Powell the year before in England and was very impressed with his Boy Scouts and Girl Guides youth movements. Juliette Low was born in Savannah, Ga., on Oct. 31, 1860. She was an accomplished young lady of her time who wrote poems, sketched, wrote and acted in plays, and later became a skilled painter and sculptor. She loved animals and always had exotic birds and dogs around her. In 1886, she married wealthy William Low of England. At her wedding a grain of rice that was thrown at her lodged in her ear puncturing the eardrum and leading to deafness in that ear. Her husband died in 1905 and the young widow searched for several years for something useful to do with her life. After her 1911 meeting with Baden-Powell, she thought she had found her mission. She became a Girl Guide leader and lead three troops in England and Scotland. Low returned to America in 1912 and on March 12 she gathered 18 girls to register the first troop of American Girl Guides. The organization’s name was changed to Girl Scouts of America (GSA) the following the year. In developing the GSA movement in the United States, Low brought girls of all backgrounds into the out-of-doors, giving them the opportunity to develop self-reliance and resourcefulness. She encouraged girls to prepare not only for traditional homemaking, but also for possible future roles as professional women — in the arts, sciences and business — and for active citizenship outside the home. Girl Scouting welcomed disabled girls at a time when they were excluded from many other activities. The idea seemed quite natural to Low, who never let deafness, back problems or cancer keep her from full participation in life. The Girl Scout movement spread throughout the country. According to a history of Girl Scouting in Green River by Louise Spinner Graf in the Sweetwater County Museum files, in 1931 the American Legion Auxiliary sponsored the first Girl Scout troop in town. The following year the Green River Woman’s Club took up co-sponsorship for the troop. According to charter member, Eleanor Gaensslen Schofield, the program was heavily oriented to outdoor activity. In a 1985 Green River Star article she recalled hikes in the areas around town and
“day camps” at Scott’s Bottom and Mormon Canyon. Schofield especially enjoyed the outdoor cooking which included potatoes roasted in the coals and, of course, s’mores. The first multi-day camp was held at Covey Ranch in Cokeville in 1934. The next year the troop camped at Newfork Lake in a primitive cabin without electricity, water, or heat other than a coal-fired stove. In spite of the rather rugged conditions, those early camps were remembered with much fondness by Graf, who was first listed as a leader in 1946. In a paper presented in 1976 she recalled the camping situation: This was a huge three room log cabin located at the edge of Newfork Lake. One room was the kitchen—the cooks slept here—one was the Dining Room and the other was the Craft room. This cabin was built on an incline at the edge of Newfork Lake. It was set on piers at the lake side so that the cabin wouldn’t be flooded when the lake was high. Since we had no electricity, we had no refrigeration so we kept our perishable food in a large specially built box under the cabin. We used candles which had been made before hand for light, a small coal range for cooking
and had the water brought to the cabin by “bucket brigade.” Possibility some of you do not know what a “bucket brigade” is so I’ll explain it. Well, we had about 20 buckets—one girl would fill it at the lake, pass it on to the next girl and so on until it reached the cabin. We had a huge 50-gallon tank, open at the top, attached to the coal range. One of Mrs. John Logan’s (another early leader) jobs was to stand on a chair and fill this tank as the girls brought in the water. Getting the water for the day took a couple of the morning hours. Camping remained an important part of GSA with day camps held at Firehole, Scotts Bottom, Owl’s Nest and many other well-known local sites. In a recorded interview from 2008, Norma Jean Switzer Smith, a Girl Scout in Green River in the 1930s and later a leader for her daughters’ troop, reminisced about an especially memorable camping trip when she experienced the trials of being a leader. “We had lots of others that couldn’t go to day camp because they were allergic to sagebrush...one time there was this mother--I wanted (Continued next page)
March 28 & 31, 2012
God cannot alter the past, but historians can. -Samuel Butler
March 28 & 31, 2011
Historical Edition
A7
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ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH... We recycle industrial scrap for a cleaner future! while this is not the powder house in the story, the picture shows how much damage is done in a similar explosion.
Lesson learned: Don't shoot at the powder house By KATHY GILBERT Editor The many mines in and around Rock Springs have produced all kinds of stories, many of them about disasters. One such story apparently took place in 1891, a few years after the Chinese Massacre. The story is recorded in a book written by Thomas Cullen. A man named Arthur Clegg was delivering water to homes around Rock Springs when he saw two young men riding through town in a horse-drawn cart. The men were carrying guns, laughing
and having a good time. They were near the No. 6 mining camp on the north end of Rock Springs when one of them decided to shoot at the powder house. Explosive powder was stored inside the building, made of corrugated tin on a rock foundation. The powder was used blasting rock inside the mines, a very dangerous job. The young man fired a shot and the entire powder house exploded, “blowing the bodies of the two men and their horse into the air and scattering them in small pieces for some distance.” The explosion broke windows all over town and
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brought people running to see what happened. Many thought the mine had exploded and some had loved ones in the mine, working their shift. When they got to the scene of the explosion, there was nothing left except a huge, smoldering hole in the ground. Clegg said he was walking around and stepped on the hand of one of the men which had been blown off by the force. Another resident found the gun almost a mile from the explosion. Only one bullet had been used, but that’s all it took to create a disaster.
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Scouts........................ from previous page to kill her--she couldn’t get involved, she couldn’t come. But after we had been at day camp about five days (we all looked terrible--sunburned and hair looking bad) she shows up for the last day, looking like a model walking in, dolled up and her fair fixed. Not only that, she had a corsage of sagebrush on! Ethel Hill Morris joined the GSA in 1937 when she was 10 years old. In an 2002 interview in the collection of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum she told of her leader Gladys Davis who she described as “very patient.” Davis was the daughter of O.O. Davis, publisher of the Green River Star. Davis introduced Morris and her fellow scouts to the idea of a Mother’s Tea which was a common GSA annual activity, used to honor the founder who had a fondness for such parties. “...and one day she (Gladys Davis) said we were going to have tea for the mothers. We had no idea what a tea was. I remember there was a big bowl of punch and all of these little glass cups around and she made cookies and I thought that was the most impressive thing that I had ever seen...that big punch bowl and all those little cups. Morris also told of the first cookie sale in Green River in about 1947. By this time she was a leader, and she recalled seeing an ad for an opportunity to raise funds for the troop by selling “official” cookies. The GSA organization began selling their famous cookies in the 1930s. The Burry Biscuit Company in Elizabethtown, N.J., was the first commercial bakery licensed to produce the cookies. “I went to the committee and told them about it and {they said} ...’it sounds good, but we don’t have any money. We can’t buy any cookies.’ So Peggy (her husband
Dale ) and I talked it over and we said, ‘Well, we’ll buy the cookies. And if we sell them, we’ll take our money back and the profit will go to the Girl Scouts. So I ordered the cookies, the cookies came and we put them in our basement. The water tank in the basement leaked and it got within two inches of the cookies, but not one cookie box got wet. And that was the starting of the Girl Scout Cookie sales.’” A long standing tradition for Scouts was caroling at Christmas time with scheduled stops at the homes of several leaders including Mae Chrisman, Mary Logan and Louise Graf. In addition to hot chocolate and holiday treats, there was a special attraction at each place. The Chrisman house was famous for its decorations which included a collection of windup toys. Mrs. Logan’s house had a fireplace where girls could get warm and see a show of rainbow flames from the special granules their hostess would sprinkle on the fire. Finally, the Graf Christmas tree was a marvel of antique German ornaments collected by Louise and her German-born ancestors. Instilling new knowledge in girls is a large part of the GSA program. Lee Lev, who served as a leader during the 1960s, said in a 2008 interview that her original contact with the local troop was as a speaker. She had taken an astronomy class in college and was invited to a day camp to teach the girls about the stars. She also remembered later, as a leader, having girls come to her house to learn to make a bed.
residents who had ordered them through a “Green River the Beautiful” program. The national Girl Scout organization celebrates its centennial this year. Green River’s scouting history is not quite as long, but has had an impact on several generations of girls, teaching them important life skills and building character. There was also a lot of fun to be had, even when working on serious badges like first aid. “We got to tie everyone up in bandages” recalled Eleanor Schofield with a smile.
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Community service is also one of the tenants of the GSA. During World War II the Green River girls collected, processed and packed more than a ton of fats for soap making. In 1964 girls helped their sponsor, the Green River Woman’s Club, deliver 200 trees and 850 shrubs to town
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Historical Edition
March 28 & 31, 2011
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many died during the western migration and graves can still be found along the trails in Sweetwater County.
Trails led to settlement Watch the trucks whiz by. Where are they going? California? Oregon? New York? Transcontinental traffic has been moving through southwestern Wyoming for close to 200 years. Southwestern Wyoming history was intimately connected with intercontinental travels in the 19th century just as it is today. The connections between the past and the present can be fascinating. T.A. Larson, Wyoming’s premiere historian, once remarked that those people who visited Wyoming via the nineteenth century trails were on their way to somewhere else and that few pioneers in the trails period ever showed much interest in staying here. Even the Native Americans who lived in this region didn’t stay put. But they did all leave their marks, and their marks are still visible. There are several reasons the trails in southwestern Wyoming are still so visible. First, if it was a good trail for one group, it was a good trail for others. Many of the first migratory trails were those used by animals. Native Americans then began using the game trails to hunt. When Europeans began moving into the American West and Southwest Wyoming in the person of the fur trappers and the mountain men, they used the same trails blazed by the game and the Indians. It is clear that the returning Astorians led by Robert Stuart, usually given credit as the first Euro-American to cross the Rockies via South Pass, did not “discover” the pass. They used a route well known to natives. And the mountain men working for William Henry Ashley did not really “rediscover” the pass-–it had not been lost. But they did discover that wagons could make it over the backbone of the Rocky Mountains. Once it had been determined and redetermined that traditional routes or trails across the country were passable by wagon and that places like Oregon, California and Utah offered good land, gold and religious free-
dom, the migrations of EuroAmericans began in earnest. These great migrations across the United States constituted some of the greatest movements in human history and the sheer numbers of people, 50,000 to 60,000 each year at mid-century wore deep ruts in the land. Traveling the trails was not a lonely experience. Some argonauts reported standing on Independence Rock on the Sweetwater River and seeing the white tops of covered wagons for miles both east and west. The numbers of people coming through southwestern Wyoming at about the same time each year made it impossible for any of the fragile vegetation to stand in the way of these intrepid travelers. The large numbers also caused entrepreneurs, such as Jim Bridger, to offer services - food, repairs, supplies - to the pioneers in hopes of making their fortune. These posts also became lasting reminders of the trail period in Wyoming. So game trails gave way to pioneer trails and pioneer trails ultimately gave way to other kinds of trails. While the Oregon-California-Utah Trail traverses mostly central Wyoming dipping southwest at the Parting of the Ways east of Farson, the Cherokee or Overland Trail crosses the southern part of Wyoming. Before this became an emigrant or commercial trail, it was known by Indians and mountain men. Jim Bridger used it and guided Howard Stansbury’s survey crew east along the trail from the Great Salt Lake as they searched for a good route to build a wagon road. But the trail gets most of its notoriety from a group of Cherokee Indians heading west to the gold fields of California and from the stage coach route developed by Ben Holladay. Holladay’s stage line began running across southern Wyoming using the Overland Trail because of problems with Indians on the Oregon Trail during the Civil War (troops that had formerly kept the peace were otherwise occupied) and a desire to be closer to the new town of Denver.
One of the stops he established in southwestern Wyoming was known as Rock Springs for the spring water that issued from a rock formation by the trail. A number of such stops were built as well as military posts and the remains of many of these can still be seen. But it wasn’t long before the Overland Trail would be replaced by another kind of trail. In 1868, the Union Pacific Railroad was built through Wyoming generally following the route of the Overland Trail. Because of a peculiar geological formation known as the “gangplank” west of Cheyenne, the trains could make a more gradual ascent to the top of the Rockies than on other routes and this route across southern Wyoming passed by the coal deposits noted by Bridger and Stansbury nearly two decades earlier. It was this trail that finally brought permanent settlement to southern Wyoming. The railroad created modern Wyoming. The Territory of Wyoming was formed because of the increase in population brought by the railroad and government institutions such as the miner’s hospital in Rock Springs helped to stabilize that population. Travelers across the country who might have feared starvation when traveling by wagon suddenly sought gourmet vittles as traveler’s guides evaluated the various stops. But this layering of trails did not stop with the railroad. Shortly after the turn of the century, fans of the new automobile were mapping out routes across the country and the Overland trail, the route of Indians, emigrants, stage coaches and Union Pacific soon became the Lincoln Highway. Ultimately the same route became U.S. Highway 30 and then Interstate 80. The history of the United States can be seen in the trails of southwestern Wyoming. Think about that the next time you are out in the sagebrush and come across those ruts or you see that truck heading west on I-80.
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A collection of almost 275,000 items. The newest formats for enjoying books and music. Computers for free, public use with centralized printers. Wireless connectivity. More than 50 databases can be found on the Library System’s web site at sweetwaterlibraries.com. Follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/sweetlibraries. • • • • • • • • • • • • •
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HISTORY For Green River’s first thirty years the town marshal was also street commissioner and fire warden. Fire Chiefs for the Department can be traced back to 1905. Since that time the Department has had ten Chiefs with service terms ranging from one year up to 30 years. They are as follows: James Moriarity 1905-21, William Hutton 1921-25, Otto Jensen 1925-27, Kenneth Brown 1927, Charles Ramsey 1927-28, Howard Moffitt 1928-36, Roy Cameron 1936-65, Glenn Hill 1965-95, Byron Stahla 1995-1999, George Nomis 1999 - 2008, Mike Kennedy 2008 - present
ORGANIZATION Today the Green River Fire Department consists of three full time personnel and 33 volunteers. The average longevity of a firefighter in Green River is eleven years. The department’s primary responsibility is the City of Green River however the City has a contract to provide fire protection to the Jamestown Rio-Vista Water District. We also have Mutual Aid Agreements with the Town of Granger, Sweetwater County, and Sweetwater County Fire District #1 to assist with fire suppression in the western half of Sweetwater County. The Green River Fire Department responds to approximately 270 calls per year. We provide a wide range of services which include fire suppression, fire prevention education in the schools and community, flag presentations by our Honor Guard, extrication, high/low angle rescue, swift water/ice rescue, confined space rescue, hazardous material response capabilities and various community service requests and needs to the citizens of Green River, Jamestown and the western half of Sweetwater County. We have two certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians who work with vehicle child safety restraint installation instruction and inspection.
March 28 & 31, 2012
Historical Edition
Historic Trivia CHRIS JESSEN AND Sheriff Al Morton stand by a confiscated still.
Days of wine and moonshine By DAVID MARTIN Regional Editor Many immigrant families who came to Sweetwater County retained the customs they were raised with in their home countries. One of these traditions was making wine and liquor, or more specifically, moonshine. In one of the many interviews Wyoming historian Dudley Gardner conducted with older residents of Sweetwater County, one group he spoke with discussed making wine and moonshine. The Italian families would gather money and purchase tons of grapes, which would be shipped to Rock Springs from California via the railroad. Wearing meticulously cleaned fishing boots, shoes or with bare feet, the grapes would be stomped and smashed into grape juice. It was a very tiring process according to one resident. “Boy, I used to get so damn tired. You would get in that tub and tramp with your feet. By the time you got through with two ton of grapes, boy that’s a lot of stomping,” Eugene Paoli told Gardner in his interview. Making wine, they would ferment the first batch directly off the grape juice stomped from the grapes. A second batch was created by adding sugar and fermenting it. The creation of wine took place for many years, including during the Prohibition era, from 1919 to 1933. However, despite the accepted nature of wine production, one activity that was blatantly illegal was making moonshine. Moonshine would be made using the remnants from the second batch of wine. More sugar would be added and then distilled into whiskey. Moonshine production was lucrative for some and a pasttime for others. One of the best varieties of moonshine whiskey came from a Kemmerer. The whiskey would be distributed by a variety of means, including hidden tanks within vehicles, and was distributed as far as northern Colorado. According to Paoli, his exfather-in-law would load it into the back of his car and bootleg the moonshine out of Kemmerer. “I remember him telling me how scared he was; he was kind of young,” Paoli said. Mike Duzik told Gardner he was at a dance in Craig, Colo. and met up with a man named Dusty Rhodes who had just driven into town. Duzik asked Rhodes where he had driven from and Rhodes told him he stopped in Kemmerer and had a load of moonshine in a hidden tank in the back of his car. Duzik said one Kemmerer moonshiner, a man by the name of Dan Seekage, located his still in a mine he was driving. Seekage had come across an underground spring and used the cool water to make moonshine. Duzik said a nearby rancher soon lost the water on his property and discovered his water was running into a mine.
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Moonshine production also occurred in the basements of houses in Rock Springs as well as the surrounding areas. “My dad never made any at home, he always made it for people,” Paoli said. “He must have loved to make it, because he didn’t make anything out of it,” he concluded. One of the major problems with making moonshine is disposing of the mash after the moonshine is produced. One of the easiest routes to dispose of it was to bury the mash in the No. 4 mine in Rock Springs. “I can still smell that going down to No. 4, always the same time of year,” Paoli said. “You could smell it for blocks,” he said. For Duzik’s family, they
would cool the mash in their basement, then dig a hole in the back garden, then bury it. There were few prosecutions for moonshine production during Prohibition. Paoli said his father told him there was a still located in a canyon near Aspen Mountain. After World War I, Paoli said his father told him a two prohibition officers were hung on cedar trees near the still. “He claimed two of them cedars there, right there in the divide. He’s pointed them out to me a hundred times; he claims they hung two prohibition officers, hung two people right there on them cedars. When we used to go hunting, he would tell me every year,” Paoli told Gardner. In general, families wouldn’t be bothered by officers for making their own alcohol according to Duzik.
Did you know the saying "God willing and the Creeks don't rise" was in reference to the Creek Indians and not a body of water? It was written by Benjamin Hawkins in the late 18th century. He was a politician and Indian diplomat. While in the south, Hawkins was requested by the President of the U.S. to return to Washington. In his response, he was said to write, "God willing and the Creeks don't rise." Because he capitalized the word "Creeks" it is deduced that he was referring to the Creek Indian tribe and not a body of water.
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Cleanup time
railroad worKErs clean up after a train derails in the early days of green river.
'Mining the miners' a common practice Lots of businessmen in the California gold fields made their fortunes selling supplies and services to the miners at exorbitant prices. It was a surefire way of getting rich. It became known as “mining the miners.” Well, there were some folks even less scrupulous than the businessmen who made money on scams. And the scams started on the Trail in Wyoming, more than 1,000 miles away from California. One emigrant, Alonzo
Delano, described the dion’s at Fort Laramie on June 12, 1849, “...Here was a deposit for letters to be sent to the States, and thousands left letters for their friends, to be deposited by a messenger in some post office beyond the Missouri, on which the writers paid 25 cents. “Although many of our company placed letters in the keeping of the ostensible agent, not a single letter ever reached its destination. We afterwards found such agencies among the traders on
the road, and paid several quarters and halves for their delivery, yet none ever went through, and we were compelled to believe that it was a deliberate fraud, perpetrated on the emigrants.” An emigrant later recorded traveling the trail and coming upon an area littered with letters. All were addressed to people back in the States. So Delano was right, it was fraud... but there were far worse ones waiting for them in California.
That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain. -Henry Wadsworth longfellow
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