The passing of Marine Corps Corporal Remigio "Ray" Barela.

Marines on Tarawa, November 1944.

In Casper, Wyoming this past week a crowed gathered to observe the passing of World War Two Marine Corps Corporal Ray Barela.

Not much was really known about him, other than that he lived to be 101 years old. 

Cpl. Barela had been born in Ft. Collins Colorado in 1918, a then much smaller and very agricultural town.  He therefore by default grew up in the Great Depression and was in his early 20s when World War Two broke out and he joined the Marines.

For unknown reasons, he simply dropped out of communication with his family, forever.  For some time they thought he may have been killed by the Japanese during the war.  At any rate, he returned to the region and after the war worked as a vegetable picker and sheepherder, the latter job being one that classically favored people who love isolation.  Those who knew him in later years said that he loved dogs and horses, but people not so much, something that also would have favored his occupation.

His first and last name are Latinate names, common among Italian and Hispanic families. Based upon the location of his birth and the names of his closet relatives, who until the funeral had thought that he had died decades ago, he was from an Hispanic family in Colorado.  The post war occupations he chose would have been common pre war ones for Hispanics in the region, although they became increasingly less so as every decade following the war moved on.  His omission of his family is odd and its connection with World War Two unmistakable.  His family, which he claimed to have outlived, apparently never forgot him, and when news of his funeral spread they came to pay their respects, joined back to his family in the end.

Maud Toomey Memorial, Evansville Wyoming

Maude Toomey was a 33 year old high school Latin teacher, and an oil company bookkeeper, in Casper when she took a ride as a passenger in a plane owned and piloted by Casperite Bert Cole on January 14, 1920.  Something went tragically wrong during the flight and Cole's plane crashed near what is now the Evansville water treatment plant, which is not far from what was Natrona County's first airport.

A cement cross was placed in the ground at the spot where the plant crashed.  Oddly, no inscription was placed on it, leading to a small element of doubt about its purpose later on when it was rediscovered during the construction of the water treatment plant.  Since that time, an inscription has been placed at its base and the location is now an Evansville park.

Evansville has sort of a unique history in that regard as two of its somber memorials are located in areas where children now play, which is perhaps a more appropriate placement than many might suppose, honoring the dead in a way that they might have appreciated.

These photographs were taken near the centennial of the accident, which contributed to very long shadows, even though they were taken near 1:00 p.m.

Oregon Trail State Veterans Cemetary, Natrona County Wyoming

The memorial depicted above is located at this veterans' cemetery, and is dedicated to a US submarine lost with all hands during World War Two. I do not know that the submarine had any connection with Wyoming, and finding the memorial there was a bit of a surprise.

This bridge crosses the North Platte River just below the cemetery, and has a series of memorials on the north side, which can be seen here and in the photographs below. The bridge is very near where Richards Bridge, a pioneer bridge with a trading post and an Army outpost, was located in the 19th Century.

Updated.

The following photographs were taken on May 23, 2015, when this cemetery was decorated for Memorial Day, 2015.

Richard's Bridge Cemetary Mausoleum, Evansville Wyoming

This mausoleum was built when at least part of the cemetery of the military post at Richards Bridge was located at the time Evansville, Wyoming built a water plant near the river. The former location of the Frontier Era bridge across the North Platte had not been precisely known up until that time. When three bodies, believed to be the bodies of two soldiers and one woman, were disinterred they were reburied here, on the grounds of the Evansville grade school. The school grounds were the only nearby public land at the time.

This creates a very odd situation in a variety of ways and the mausoleum is not well maintained. While worse fates could exists than spending eternity near a grade school, it is generally the case that the Army has recovered the lost remains of Frontier Era soldiers when they were located, and it would seem that moving these victims of Frontier conditions would be a positive thing to do.