Oregon Trail Marker, South of Douglas Wyoming

Oregon Trail marker, dated 1913, on a highway south of Douglas, Wyoming.

Pearl Harbor Marine Corps Memorial, Pearl Harbor Hawaii

This monument commemorates the Marines who lost their lives in the December 7, 1941 attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor.  The monument lists each Marine killed on that fateful day.

Hanna Wyoming VFW Memorial Park

Hanna Wyoming, somewhat unusually for a small town, features a variety of memorials in different locations, including two different locations with war memorials. The other war memorial is featured just below, and is specific for World War One.  This memorial is an all war memorial.  It's additionally surprising as Hanna is a very small town.

The memorial features a M110 8in. howitzer, surplus form the Wyoming Army National Guard.  Carbon County Wyoming, where Hanna is located, was the situs of the Service Battery of the 3d Bn 49th FA, an 8in howitzer unit that was headquartered in Casper.

An unusual feature of this memorial is the helmeted rifle feature, symbolic of the battlefield method of marking the location of the dead.  The rifle, bayonet attached, is bayoneted to the ground with the soldier's helmet on the butt.  Here, in an oddity, the rifle used for the memorial is a World War Two era Japanese Ariska rifle, which was presumably used because it was available.

Here the markings on the Arisaka's receiver are visible.

By way of some added information, Mike Lewis, who viewed these photographs, informed me that the interesting cloud that appears in the last several photographs "is an altcumulus stqnding lenticular (ACSL)."  Additionally, the cloud type "is usually caused by moutain waves nad is an indicator of potentially bad turbulence."  For weather observers, because of the risk to flight, observation of this type of cloud requires mandatory recordation in a weather observer's log.  On the day I took these photographs, ground conditions were appalling, with winds gusting up to 60 mph on a regular basis.  Indeed, dust from a reclamation site is visible in the background.

World War One Service Memorial, Hanna Wyoming

This is a memorial in Hanna Wyoming dedicated to all from the region who served in World War One.  Hanna is a very small town today, and the number of names on this memorial is evidence of the town once being significantly more substantially sized than it presently is.

The memorial is located on what was the Lincoln Highway at the time, but which is now a Carbon County Highway.  This was likely a central town location at the time the memorial was placed.

Carbon County Miners' Memorial, Hanna Wyoming

This Miners' Memorial commemorates all Carbon County Wyoming miners who have lost their lives in the mines. This is one of two memorials to miners near Hanna which I am aware of.

Number One Mine Memorial, Hanna Wyoming.

 

A memorial to the men who lost their lives in the Number One Mine at Hanna, Wyoming.

The 1903 and 1908 Mine No. 1 explosions claimed 169 and 59 lives respectively, with the majority of the 59 killed in the 1908 disaster being men who were killed in an explosion that occurred after the first 1908 explosion.  The bodies of 201 men from the 1903 and 1908 disaster remain buried in the underground mine.

Hot Springs County, Wyoming; World War Two Memorial

This memorial at the Hot Springs County Wyoming Courthouse lists every resident of Hot Springs County who served in World War Two, including my wife's grandfather, who served in the United States Marine Corps during WWII.

Crazy Horse Monument, Ft. Robinson Nebraska

Ft. Fetterman Cemetary, Wyoming

This is the military cemetery at Ft. Fetterman, Wyoming. The cemetery continued in use as a civilian cemetery after the post closed.

Ft. Fetterman was not an active post all that long. The number of soldiers buried there gives a good idea of the hard nature of frontier soldiering. For that matter, the civilian list gives a good idea of the harsh nature of 19th Century life.

Monuments in Lewistown, Montana

Lewistown Montana, which I recently went through, has a nice assortment of public monuments, several of which I missed, including a veterans park. Therefore, this is only a selection of the monuments that are located there.

The Fergus County Courthouse has a nice selection of monuments, at least one of which I was too hurried to photograph. This one is probably a post WWI vintage monument, but recalls the veterans of all wars. 

This is the first time I've seen a memorial of this type.  It's to Pioneer Freighters of Central Montana.

This is a park in Lewistown, which appears to feature retired heavy ordnance.  The gun appears to be a 155 Long Tom of WWII vintage, while the missle is a Minuteman, I think.

Bighorn Mountain Sheep Trailing, Wyoming

This may seem like an odd one to add here, but it does commemorate, in part, the dead  of a war, albeit a private war. This Federal monument commemorates the Wyoming sheep industry, now a mere shadow of its former self.  In its early days, the hill behind what is displayed here was the "Deadline", literally the line which sheepmen were not to cross, according to cattlemen, lest they end up dead.

The monument itself recalls a "Sheepherders Monument", a type of rock cairn that sheepherders once used to mark trails, and which are still very common in Wyoming.

Legacy Park, Gillette Wyoming

These photos depict memorials in Legacy Park, in Gillette Wyoming.  An earlier war memorial outside of the Campbell County Courthouse appears earlier in this blog.

This park is a bit unusual in that it combines an all war memorial with a memorial to an individual soldier. The park also includes a memorial, not depicted in these photographs, to cancer victims.

Ft. Reno, Wyoming

This is the marker for Ft. Reno, Wyoming. Ft. Reno was occupied from 1865 to 1868, with the nearby (three miles) Reno Cantonment being occupied from 1876 to 1878. The history of the post can be read on the entry on it at the Society of the Military Horse site.

The post had a cemetery, but the bodies located t here were relocated to the national cemetery at Little Big Horn some years after the post was abandoned.