Blog Mirror: Wyoming’s Iconic The Virginian Hotel Has New Out-Of-State Owners

Wyoming’s Iconic The Virginian Hotel Has New Out-Of-State Owners

The Virginian, Medince Bow, Wyoming.

 

Don Juan's Mexican Restaurant, Casper Wyoming

Casper has seen some murals enter its downtown space recently and this is a nice example.  Don Juan's Mexican Restaurant, which has been in this location now long enough to be regarded as a Casper staple, had this very nice mural depicting scenes of Mexican rural life painted.

This mural is just across the street from the Women of Wyoming mural added last yeaer, which depicts a contemporary Native American woman, and just down the block from Jacob Reeb mural, so some of the diversity of Wyoming is being added through these depictions.

 

Railhead: Rail Features. Thyra Thompson Building, Casper Wyoming

Railhead: Rail Features. Thyra Thompson Building, Casper Wyo...:

Rail Features. Thyra Thompson Building, Casper Wyoming.

The State of Wyoming recently completed the construction of a massive new state office building, the Thyra Thompson Building, in Casper.  All of the state's administrative bodies, except for the district and circuit courts, are housed there.

The building does house, however, the Chancery Court for the entire state, a new court that's only recently been established.

The building is built right over what had been the Great Northwest rail yard in Casper, which was still an active, although not too active, rail yard into my teens.  I can't really recall when they abandoned the line, but it was abandoned.

In putting the building in, and extending the Platte River Parkway through it, the State did a nice job of incorporating some rail features so that there's a memory of what the location had been.

They also put in some historical plaques, which are nice. The curved arch at this location, moreover, is the location of the old turntable.  It was a small one, which I hate to admit that I crossed over when I was a teenager, a dangerous thing to do.

Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. Mining Mural Appropriation

Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. End of the f...: HB 264 would appropriate funds to memorialize the mining industry:

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0264

Mining mural.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Conrad, Berger, Larson, JT and Sommers

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to the legislature; authorizing the painting of a mural in the state capitol house chamber; providing an appropriation; providing requirements; creating a selection committee; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  

(a)  Five hundred twenty thousand dollars ($520,000.00) is appropriated from the general fund to the legislative service office. These funds shall be used only for the purpose of the planning, design and painting of a mural in the house chamber at the Wyoming state capitol building. The mural shall depict the history of mining in Wyoming and shall match historically and artistically with the Allen True murals that are currently in the house chamber.

(b)  The legislative service office, with assistance from the Wyoming arts council, shall issue a request for qualifications to commission an artist or artists to paint the mural specified in subsection (a) of this section.

(c)  A selection committee consisting of the five (5) members of the management council who belong to the house of representatives and three (3) other non-legislative members as determined by the speaker of the house, with assistance from the legislative service office, shall select an artist or artists to paint the mural using criteria established by the selection committee. Members of the selection committee who are not members of the legislature shall receive the same per diem and mileage as members of the legislature traveling to and from meetings or while in actual attendance of meetings of the selection committee and during the performance of their duties relative thereto. The state building commission shall approve of the process to affix the mural required under subsection (a) of this section to the house chamber wall, pursuant to W.S. 9-5-106(e), before any alteration is made to the house chamber under this section.

(d)  The funds appropriated in subsection (a) of this section shall not be transferred or expended for any purpose other than for the planning, design and painting of the mural required by subsection (a) of this section. Notwithstanding W.S. 9-2-1008, 9-2-1012(e), 9-4-207(a) or any other provision of law, the funds appropriated in subsection (a) of this section shall not lapse or revert until the mural required by subsection (a) of this section is complete.

Section 2.  This act is effective July 1, 2023.

Slavic Apothecary, Sheridan Wyoming.

 

Some sort of Slavic apothecary in Sheridan, Wyoming.  As I'm not otherwise familiar with it, and as the green in such shops tends to indicate products I'd just as soon avoid, that's all I know.

It is, I'd note, very unusual in this part of the country to see anything in a Slavic language outside of Rock Springs, which traditionally had an Eastern European population.  Sheridan, on the other hand, has traditionally had a much more English population and is a ranching center.

The Aerodrome: Medicine Bow Aiport (Site 32 SL-O (Salt Lake-Omaha) Intermediate Field Historic District).

The Aerodrome: Medicine Bow Aiport (Site 32 SL-O (Salt Lake-Omaha...: 

Medicine Bow Aiport (Site 32 SL-O (Salt Lake-Omaha) Intermediate Field Historic District).

Teletype hut and beacon tower.

I didn't know that Medicine Bow had an airfield at all until MKTH photographed it.  I've never been to it myself.

But it does, as these photos show.

As these photos show, not only is a strip still there, but one of the big concrete arrows (which I've never seen in person myself either) is on the strip, indicating that it was once part of the Transcontinental Air Mail system.  It must have been part of a connection between Cheyenne and points further west, but what the next western airfield was, I don't know.  My guess would be Rawlins, but that would be just a guess.  According to the submitting material for its placement on the National Register of Historic Places, it was an emergency field on "Route T".  This was "Site 32" on the route.

Today the strip is owned by the Town of Medicine Bow, and is little used, apparently.  It's still there, however, including the noted remnants of the near century old teletype hut and its beacon tower.

Nolan Chevrolet, Casper Wyoming

Nolan Chevrolet was an early Chevrolet dealership in Casper, Wyoming, probably the town's first.  It opened in this building, which was built for it, in 1924.  The company originally operated in this location on South David Street until it outgrew it, becoming Schulte Chevrolet in 1965 and then being bought out by the Schellerbargers in 1966.

In 1969 the Chevrolet dealership moved out of this downtown location into a new facility on East Yellowstone, where it is today.  While this facility was still in use when I was a kid, I don't ever recall it being a Chevrolet dealership and until this recent work was done on it, I didn't know that it had been.

In 1973 this building and a neighboring one became Plains Furniture, which I do recall. A childhood friend of mine's father worked there.  It was completely redone at that time.  Plains closed some time ago and these buildings have changed hands again and are part of a restoration process which is restoring the look of the block to its 1920s appearance.  The area here, which was once a display yard for the dealership, had been enclosed by the Plains remodeling but has been re exposed, along with the Nolan sign and a Schellabarger sign as well.

Art or vandalism?

We don't like to put up photos of graffiti here as it's not in the same category as what this blog is dedicated to depict.  Here, we make a bit of an exception.

The scenes depicted above are of the backs of two local office buildings.  Both are actively occupied. I.e., there's going businesses in them. They aren't abandoned buildings.

So what, you may ask.

Well, graffiti has been a feature on the back of these buildings for a long time, but it's grown markedly worse in recent years.  The amount of graffiti has increased as the building on the right has been oddly popularized in the local press. And when I say the building, I mean the alley.  For reasons that aren't apparent to me, the fire escape  has become locally celebrated as some sort of a wonder.  That's drawn people to trespass on it and as that's occurred, graffiti has likewise increased as well.  So have high school graduation pictures with the staircase as a backdrop and even wedding photos.

And now a local theater company.

I'm not a big fan of local theater, which speaks poorly of me. When I was very young my parents introduced me to the theater at the local community college which was a real treat for all of us grade school kids.  I can dimly recall seeing You're A Good Man Charlie Brown and The Man From Lamancha at the college theater.  While in high school I was never in theater but about that time I was introduced to the text of plays as literature, and I really like some of those.  I've seen more college production in latter days, including when I was in college, including, by my recollection, The Dark Of the Moon, which I don't particularly care for, and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, which I do.  When our kids were little, we took them to a college play about the Wright Brothers.

Local theater, however, is another deal entirely and you have to admire the people who are willing to do it.  It doesn't get hte same viewership as college theater, for one thing.  And the quality fo the volunteers is bound to be uneven.

Anyhow, there's a couple local theater companies around here and one of them decided to put on a version of a famous Greek play.  I've read the text of the play as a college student, which is a long time ago, but I can dimly recall the outline of it.  In this production of the play, apparently, there's an element that emphasizes the need to put on a play in spite of hte presence of an Athenian plague, which apparently might be a real background story to the original play.  I.e., it was staged during a plague, perhaps, during which the author felt it critical to reopen the Athenian theaters in spite of hte risks.

There's a lot of things that are interesting about that, including that if that's correct, ancient Greeks, while they may not have had the germ theory of disease, grasped that hanging around in groups spread it.  Athens apparently closed up shop to try to combat it, something that might seem familiar to the readers here.  If my understanding of the views at the time are correct, there were also those who dissented from that view. . . which is also interesting in context.

In the current context, it's generally those who are on the left to the center left, politically, who have been for keeping things shut down and a tight quarantine, while on the right to the center right the view is the opposite.  In the middle, where most folks are, the views are nuanced.  On the edges, they aren't.

Anyhow, most theater people are on the hard left.  It's the hard left that generally would really have a really tight quarantine.  Probably most people in local theater on are the left somewhere.

Which makes a play all about protesting quarantines oddly ironic.

Anyhow, that's not why we have posted this here.  Apparently determining to stage this out in the open for a certain sort of street cred feel to it, the producers have added to the graffitti.

This may make the town about hte only town around which graffitti making reference to ancient Greece, but it's still graffitti.  Of course, there was a lot of it before.

I'm not quite sure what to think.

The play on opening day.  I happened to be in the building at the time and so I snapped this photo.  There wasn't a large crowd, but then it was opening day during a time of pandemic too.

One thing maybe the theater company and the audience might think is how gracious the building occupants are.  It's impossible not to notice a thing like this and in a lot of places the reaction would have been hugely negative.  No reaction at all isn't permission, but it is pretty gracious.

Vita Sana Olive Oil Company, Casper Wyoming

These are paintings on the side of the Vita Sana Olive Oil Company in Casper, Wyoming.  The speciality food store sells more than olive oil, but its focus originated with that, as one of these paintings depicts.

 

Antelope mural, Laramie Wyoming

 

Somehow I missed this mural in downtown Laramie when I was otherwise photographing the excellent set of murals there.  This one depicts Wyoming scenes very skillfully, along with a state map, on the side of a building.

It also contains a sketch of the mythical Wyoming jackalope and a quote from D. L. Moody.  The quote depicted with the jackalope is; “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter.”

Elk Mountain Trading Company. Elk Mountain, Wyoming.

This is the Elk Mountain Trading Company building in the tiny town of Elk Mountain, Wyoming.  Built in 1932, the building and business name is presently used by a restaurant.

Graffiti Records Mural, Rock Springs Wyoming

This is a mural on the side of Graffiti Records in Rocks Springs, Wyoming.A fox and a jack rabbit adorn the buidling.

Grant Street Grocery, Casper Wyoming

Grant Street Grocery in Casper Wyoming is the only surviving small neighborhood grocery store in the town and even advertises the same.

Opened in 1921, the store was converted into a specialty grocery store and deli some years ago, and features meats and cheeses, as well as many other items, that are unlikely to appear on the counters of regular grocery stores.  It's featured here for its simple sign, as well as being a remnant of something that was once very common, a neighborhood store.

Paleontologist Mural, Laramie Wyoming

Indian Mural, Laramie Wyoming

I know that this mural's image is taken from a photograph, but unfortunately I don't know who the photograph was of.  Should anyone recognize the subject, let us know who it is in the comments.

Cowgirls, Laramie Wyoming

Wyoming Scenes Mural. Laramie Wyoming

Another Laramie alley mural, this one featuring various scenes of Wyoming, both current and historical.

Tree Mural, Laramie Wyoming

We noted this mural a couple of days ago when the larger mural next to it was featured.  Here's a closure view.

The Black Fourteen, Laramie Wyoming Mural

The Black Fourteen were fourteen University of Wyoming football players who lost their positions on the football team in 1969 when they sought to wear black armbands during a scheduled football game between UW and BYU.

As noted in our entry on our companion blog, Some Gave All;

The action was intended to protest the policy of the Mormon church in excluding blacks from leadership roles in their church.  Coach Eaton, the UW football coach at the time, dismissed all fourteen players prior to the game, ending their football careers at UW and, at least in some cases, simply ending them entirely.

As also noted in that entry, which depicted a memorial in the UW Student Union, and which was posted in 2017:

The event was controversial at the time, and to a lesser degree, has remained so.  Generally, in most of Wyoming, Coach Eaton was supported, rather than the players, which doesn't mean that the players did not have support.  As time has gone on, however, views have changed and generally the players are regarded as heroes for their stand.  Views on Eaton are qualified, with some feeling he was in the wrong, and others feeling that he was between a rock and a hard place and acted as best as he could, even if that was not for the best.

It is indeed possible even now to see both sides of the dramatic event.  The players wanted to wear black armbands in protest of the Mormon's policy of not allowing blacks to be admitted to the Mormon priesthood and therefore also excluding them from positions of leadership in the Mormon church.  This policy was well know in much of Wyoming as the Mormon theology behind it, which held that blacks were descendant of an unnatural union on the part of Noah's son Cain, resulted in black human beings.  This was unlikely to be widely known, however, amongst blacks at the University of Wyoming, most of whom (but not all of which) came from outside of the state.  A week or so prior to the UW v. BYU game, however, Willie Black, a black doctoral candidate at UW who was not on the football team, learned of the policy.  Black was head of the Black Students Alliance and called for a protest.  The plan to wear armbands then developed.

The protest, therefore, came in the context of a civil rights vs. religious concepts background, a tough matter in any context.  To make worse, it also came during the late 60s which was a time of protest, and there had been one against the Vietnam War just days prior to the scheduled game. Following that, Eaton reminded his players of UW's policy against student athletes participating in any demonstration, a policy which raises its own civil liberties concern. The players went ahead with tehir plans and Eaton removed all of them from the team.

Looked at now, it remains easy to see why Eaton felt that he had to act, while also feeling that he acted much too harshly.  Not everyone agrees with this view by any means, however.  Many, but a declining number, still feel Eaton was right.  A much larger number feel he was definitely wrong.  Few hold a nuanced view like I've expressed.  Even those who felt that Eaton was right often admire the protesting players, however.

Anyway its looked at, the Black 14 are now a definite part of Wyoming's legacy as The Equality State, even if most of them were not from here (at least one, and maybe more, were).  This year at Wyoming History Day, a statewide high school history presentation competition, which had the theme of "taking a stand", they were the subject of one static display and two video presentations.  They may be more well remembered now than at any time since the late 1970s, and this memorial in the student union certainly contributes to that.

The mural is located in an alley in downtown Laramie.  As noted earlier in this series of posts, downtown Laramie has had a mural project and, in fact, most of the murals are located along the same alley over the course of several blocks.