Denver Heights Sign

I'm not sure what this building was, but to the extent that I can read the sign, suitcases and traveling bags are advertised.

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.

Wyoming Territorial Seal, Big Hollow Food Coop, Laramie Wyoming.

This is a nice rendition of the Territorial Seal of Wyoming on the Big Hollow Food Coop building in Laramie.  We've featured this building before, but we missed the seal in our prior photographs.  Indeed, one of our remote roving contributors to this blog just picked this one up.

Wyoming has a complicated history in regard to seals, and this one was actually the state's third.  This is additionally slightly complicated by the fact that some versions have the year 1868 at the top, rather than 1869.  1869 is, I believe, correct.

The seal depicts a mountain scene with a railroad running in the foreground in the top field.  In the bottom left it depicts a plow, shovel and shepherd's crook, symbolic of the state's industries.  The bottom right field depicts a raised arm with a drawn sabre.  The Latin inscription reads Cedant Arma Togae, which means "let arms yield to civil authority", which was the territorial motto.

This seal was an attractive one and in some ways it was a better looking seal than the one the state ultimately adopted.  The state actually went through an absurd process early in its history in attempting to adopt an official state seal that lead, at one time, the Federal mint simply assigning one for the purpose of large currency printing, which featured state seals at the time.  Part of the absurdity involved the design, which was describe in the original state statute rather than depicted, which lead to the sitting Governor hiring his own artist as he didn't like the one art of the one that had been in front of the legislature.  That caused a scandal as the one that he picked featured a topless woman, which had not been a feature of the legislative design, and ultimately it was corrected to the current design.

All in all, looking at the original one, I think they could have stuck with it.

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.

Shoshoni Lumber Company, Shoshoni Wyoming.

One of the numerous buildings in Shoshoni that have seen better days.

Shoshoni street scene

A recent street scene from Shoshoni, Wyoming.

The lumber and furniture stores are closed, and the mural of an Indian family, on a building in this tiny town which borders the Wind River Reservation, is not only probably offensive but clearly from a bygone era.  The bar remains open. The big red building used to be the legendary Yellowstone Drug Store, famous for its malts, but its relocated down the street in a location that borders the highway.  I haven't been in it since it moved.

Morey Mercantile Company Building, Denver Colorado

This building, and the one to the immediately left, were owned by the C. S. Morey Mercantile Company.  I'm not sure of its vintage or what its used for today.

"LoDo Wellness Center", Denver Colorado

I've been going by this giant mural of a guitar playing cowboy for years and I have in mind that it used to be a Sheplers store in downtown Denver.  Now, of course, in weedy Denver it's apparently a marijuana dispensary.  Oh well.

Wax Trax, Denver Colorado.

This is a photograph of Wax Trax, the legendary Denver record story located in two side by side old buildings in that city.  Currently its adorned with a large painting of Lemmy Kilmister, the late front man for the band Motorhead.

This photo was obviously taken from a distance, and inside a vehicle, so the large mural isn't easily visible in the photo but it was taken from a well known photograph of Kilmister in which he's wearing a short brimmed hat featuring a U.S. Army crossed saber device and an Ordinance branch device.  Kilmister had a thing for military paraphernalia.

Sonic Rainbow, Casper Wyoming: Independent Record Store Day, 2017

This store has featured here before. This is the Sonic Rainbow record store in Casper Wyoming.  Every year it features new original window art for Independent Record Store Day.  On this occasion, its patrons were lined up early in the morning waiting for it to open for that event.

The crowd would grow larger on this rainy morning. These people were there early.

The ? Supply Company, Denver Colordo

A snapshot, this depicts a building that has a tile sign noting that its a supply  company, but I'm not sure what sort of supply company, as a tree obscures that part of thesign.

Sonic Rainbow, Casper Wyoming.

 1960s themed Record Store Day poster, commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the store, Sonic Rainbow, in Casper.

Somewhat off topic, independent record store Sonic Rainboy, in Casper, features interesting window art and window paintings fairly frequently, examples of which are here for Independent Record Store Day.

Record Store Day is the third Saturday in April and commemorates independent record stores.

Wyoming Automotive Company and the Rock Srpings City Hall, Rock Springs Wyoming.

This photo, taken with an Iphone on my way to a deposition, is far from ideal, and was intended to be of the Rock Springs City Hall.  It's also included on our Courthouses of the West blog.  But, more or less coincidentally, the sign for Wyoming Automotive Company can be seen on the building next to the city hall.

I don't know about this particular Wyoming Automotive, and the sign is barely depicted because the trees in the photograph obscure it, but the Wyoming Automotive in Casper was an automobile parts store, and I suspect that this one was or is.

Plaza Hotel and Montgomery Wards, Rock Springs Wyoming

A lot of the photos I take on this blog are taken on the way to, or from, a work function. So it's frequently the case that I can't really frame them like I would if I had more time in which to do it.  So, to some degree, you catch these buildings the way a hurried pedestrian would.

That makes for a lot of bad photos that get posted here, but it also sometimes means you have something illustrated that you wouldn't otherwise, and here is such an example.  This shows the purpose of painting these large signs on the side of a building.

The building shown in the distance in this photo is the former Plaza Hotel and Montgomery Wards in Rock Springs, Wyoming.  The hotel sign is clearly visible, the Montgomery Wards sign less so.  This hotel was an old Rock Springs hotel on a main street downtown, but like most such hotels, it's now used for other businesses.

The Asher-Wyoming Company building, Cheyenne Wyoming

A building just off the Union Pacific in Cheyenne that at one time was used by a wholesale grocery establishment.

Livingston Quality Furniture Sign, Santa Fe New Mexico.

Painted over Livingston Quality  Furniture sign in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Based on the brick work, the facade of this building has been redone in the area adobe style.

Wolcott Galleria, Casper Wyoming.

A modern example of something old, the Wolcott Galleria sign in a heavily traveled alley in Casper Wyoming.

Lex Anteinternet: Railhead: Arminto Wyoming

Lex Anteinternet: Railhead: Arminto Wyoming:

This thread includes, through the generosity of Ray Galutia, the only photographs on the web of Arminto Wyoming during the height of its existence, in the 1940s.

Black Cat Books, Greybull Wyoming

This doesnt' really fit our normal topic category here, but interesting advertisement theme nonetheless.

Gamble Store, Casper Wyoming

This is the painted sign for the Gamble Store, in downtown Casper Wyoming.  This building is now occupied by other establishments.

Gambles was a department store. As the sign indicates, the stores offered a wide range of products, although as I don't ever recall this business operating here, and therefore don't know, I have to wonder how this range of products was offered in a relatively small retail space.  Anyhow, the Minnesota based company expanded from an initial store in that state in the late 1920s to being the 15th largest retailer in the United States by the end of the 1970s.  In the 1980s, it was so large that it attempted to take over Brooks Brothers.

Since that time, the company's fortunes declined.  A descendant company still exists, but it does not operate under the Gambles name as a storefront name.