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.

 

Prairie mural, downtown Denver

 

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.

Train mural, Casper Wyoming

This train mural is on the Platte River Parkway that runs through downtown Casper along a rails to trails easement.   The building is the 321 Art Works building, formerly an industrial warehouse.

Blog Mirror: Historic Casper Theaters For Sale With Legal Stipulation They Can't Be Theaters Again

 From the Cowboy State Daily:

Historic Casper Theaters For Sale With Legal Stipulation They Can't Be Theaters Again

As the owners they can, of course, do whatever they wish, including putting stipulations in the sale.  It's sad, however.

Assuming that anyone buys them with that stipulation present.

Painted Bricks: Tumble Inn, Powder River, Wyoming.

We recently ran this story. 

Painted Bricks: Tumble Inn, Powder River, Wyoming.:   As this institution is in the news, and as I knew I'd taken these photographs, I looked to see if I had posted them. Of course, I had ...

News now comes that the new owner will have the sign restored, but will not place it back up in Powder River, the reason being that in the process he discovered many broken bottles near the sign.

Well, that's no surprise.

Here's the thing, however. Out of context, it's just a big weird old sign.   

Tumble Inn, Powder River, Wyoming.

 

As this institution is in the news, and as I knew I'd taken these photographs, I looked to see if I had posted them.

Of course, I had not.

The Tumble Inn was a famous eatery and watering hole in the small town of Powder River for decades.  As odd as it seems now, particularly as it would have been practically impossible to leave the establishment without having had at least a couple of beers, it was very popular for travelers and people in Casper, who'd drive the nearly 30 miles for dinner and then drive back.

Open well into the unincorporated town's decline, in its final years the restaurant, which had rattlesnake and Rocky Mountain Oysters on the menu, closed under new ownership and in its final stage was an alcohol-free strip club.   Apparently it recent sold and the new owner has taken down its famous sign in an effort to preserve it.

On that sign, I don't know how old it is, but from the appearances, it dates from the 40s or 50s.

The recent news article:

Powder River’s Iconic Tumble Inn Neon Cowboy Hasn’t Blown Over, It’s Being Restored

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.

Bricktown, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

These are all bad photographs from my hotel window of the Bricktown district of Oklahoma City.  I didn't have time to tour it, so this is what I have

I've been to Oklahoma City quite a few times over the years, but several of my visits predate the period at which I packed around an iPhone for photographs.  I'm sure the first time I was there I didn't take any photos at all, and I probably didn't have a cell phone.

Bricktown is the name that's been attached to the old downtown section of the city.  Oklahoma City has done a really nice job of making this old section of what's now a fairly old Midwestern city pretty hip and cool.

Colorado Baseball. Coors Field, Denver Colorado.

 

Lower Downtown Denver

 A building baring a variety of old signs in Lower Downtown Denver

Grain/Hay elevator, Lower Downtown Denver.

 A grain and elevator in Lower Downtown Denver, clearly no longer serving that purpose.

Denver in 1859 Mural, Denver Colorado.

 A mural on a building in the Denver Heights district of Denver.

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.

The Big Chief Bottling Company, Denver Colorado.

Big Chief was a soda brand that was bottled across the United States including Colorado, where this building housed that enterprise.

Women of Wyoming, Casper Wyoming

The spectacular, but hard to photograph, mural Women of Wyoming in downtown Casper.  It really must be seen, in part because It's hard to photograph it when it's not in shadow.

 

Prairie Woman, Casper Wyoming.

 A mural on one of the newer downtown building in Casper, entitled Prairie Woman.

James Reeb Mural, Casper Wyoming

This is the memorial to civil rights activist James Reeb in Casper Wyoming.  I should have taken this photograph when this mural was new, as its faded considerably since first painted, and it isn't even very old.

Given that, I'm taking the unusual step of posting it in full size here as well.

James Reeb was a Presbyterian minister in Casper when first ordained.  He lost is life when murdered by segregationist in Selma, Alabama, where he was attending civil rights demonstrations, in 1965.  The mural depicts scenes from his life, as well as honoring the Civil Rights movement.

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.

Today In Wyoming's History: Casper's Historical Preservation Commission Meets Tonight, May 13, at Black Tooth Brewery.

Today In Wyoming's History: Casper's Historical Preservation Commission Meets ...:  The event is its first "meet and greet".  It starts at 5:00 p.m.

Southern Rockies Nature Blog: Amber and Her Arborglyphs

Southern Rockies Nature Blog: Amber and Her Arborglyphs: M. and I were poking around in the Wet Mountains two days ago, at the site of a now-vanished picnic ground that I think dated from the 1920s...

Historic Sidewalk Maps, Denver Colorado.

The City of Denver has municipal offices right downtown, and in front of their municipal office building, they have a series of maps in the sidewalk, depicting Denver in prior eras.   These are photos of a few of them.

Baseball mural, 1998 All Star Game. Denver Colorado.

This mural is directly across from Coors field in downtown Denver.  The All Star Game was played at Coors Field in 2021, but this mural celebrates the 1998 game.

Street corner, Denver Colorado.

 

West of Surrender, Denver Colorado.

 

From a bar and grill, West of Surrender, in downtown Denver.

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.

Lex Anteinternet: "Denver has outgrown us". El Chapultepec closes.

Lex Anteinternet: "Denver has outgrown us". El Chapultepec closes.: .

"Denver has outgrown us". El Chapultepec closes.

I really wondered how it was hanging on.

I'd never been in there, and I apparently never got a picture of it from the outside for our Painted Bricks blog.  It wasn't very photogenetic anyway.  But when the Mexican restaurant turned jazz club found itself no longer in the seedy Five Points district it had survived in for years, but in the new gentrified up and coming Coors Field area, without moving an inch, it just didn't look quite right.  It's old school "the nightlife ain't the right life, but it's my life" type of genuine atmosphere didn't squire with the hipsterization of where it was.

COVID 19 didn't help things, but the owners were quick to note that it wasn't solely responsible for brining its 87 year existence to an end.

Jazz musicians and blues musicians, they shouldn’t have to time their sets around baseball innings and when the crowds are going to get out and be wild. They should be able to play their music, and the crowd should just be there to enjoy them, The employees and our musicians, our customers, we shouldn’t have to be worried about our safety when it’s time to leave.

Denver’s outgrown us.

So stated one of the owners.

I love Coors Field and baseball, about the only thing about Denver I actually like. But there isn't anything I like about Denver without some degree of reservation.  Like everything else, there really isn't a permanent "old Denver" that was in some state of perfection.  The area that El Chapultepec was in prior to Coors Field was a scary dump which was a bit scary to drive through in the middle of the day.  It wasn't until Coors Field overhauled everything downtown that it changed.

But it was a change that to an end the feeling that the jazz club belonged there.  A jazz club could probably exist somewhere else in Denver, but it wouldn't be genuine in the same fashion that El Chapultepec was.

But that's true of a lot of Denver now.

Indeed, that's true of a lot of the US, but Denver is somehow sort of unique in this way.  The town that my father was born in, four years before El Chapultepec opened, was still around in many ways into the 1980s when I first started to go there on my own. Bits of that, indeed, still are.  But when it pulled out of the oil recession of the 1990s it really started off in another direction even as the oil companies came back.  Prior to that point it was sort of an overgrown cow town in some real ways. Then it started to become a hipster epicenter, followed soon thereafter by a new weedy culture based on pharmacological stupefaction. That's what basically characterizes the town town today.  And the change hasn't overall been a good one.

Not that those who hung out at the jazz club were models of universal clean living.  It was a bar. But the set in seediness in the old Five Points district was of a different sort than the new widespread seediness that characterizes a lot of Denver.  In between was sort of a high point when it looked like the city would overcome its decay without creating a new one, based on Coors Field and what it brought to the downtown.  It did partially succeed but weed took a lot of it away.

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.