Private Memorial, Haleiwa, Hawaii.

 On a man made pier at Haleiwa.

A Cottonwood Memorial.

Even though I've been in City Park in Casper lots of times, I managed to have never noticed this memorial to James Cobb Barlow.

James A. Barlow Jr. was a noted Wyoming geologist.  He was the son of the elder James Barlow who was a homesteader first in Colorado and then later in Wyoming, but who had relocated to the East Coast prior to marrying.  James A. Barlow came to Wyoming to study geology, and had one of the first two Ph.D's from the University of Wyoming's geology department.  While I hadn't realized it, he obviously served as Mayor of Casper, Wyoming in 1965-66.

Private Memorials: Tombstones

They can be things of real beauty, deeply personal, and yet public at the same time.  Perhaps the last word in private memorials.

They were clearly Irish, recalling the old country, or at least its heritage.

I love this grave marker.  Probably because of my Irish heritage.

People who had raised cattle. . . and loved what they raised.

I love this one too.  Would that most people would seek to be so closely identified with an occupation so natural.

Ivinson Memorial Hospital, Laramie Wyoming

Residents of Laramie are well familiar with Ivinson Memorial Hospital, but may not be aware that it was originally located across from the University of Wyoming campus.

This memorial commemorates the building of the hospital in 1916, and depicts what the original structure looked like.

 

Lex Anteinternet: July 4, 1920. Remembrance and Forgetting

Lex Anteinternet: July 4, 1920. Remembrance and Forgetting:

July 4, 1920. Remembrance and Forgetting

On this day in 1920, the coal mining town of Hanna, Wyoming dedicated its memorial to its World War One Veterans.  

The monument before it was damaged.

An item about that appears in one of our companion blogs here:



Today In Wyoming's History: July 4: Today is Independence Day



1920  Veterans memorial to World War One veterans dedicated in Hanna, Wyoming.



The Hanna Museum's website has an article about the dedication here.



The monument is still present, and it looked like this 2012 when I photographed it.  However, since that time the actual plaque on the monument was stolen in 2015.  It was found damaged in a nearby ditch. The town was working to raise funds to repair the monument and buy a new plaque, which was apparently still the case at least as of 2019.

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.

Hanna also is the location of the Carbon County Veterans Park which contains a substantial number of additional monuments.

I'd note that this entire item is nearly symbolic of where we are at, in some ways, as a nation today.  In 1920 the town, heavily made up of immigrants from Eastern Europe, proudly dedicated a memorial to its sons who had served in the recent war.  The Town had, at that time, barely recovered from two prior major disasters, the mine collapses at its Number One Mine. Those events had resulted in massive loss of life, and yet the town survived it.

The names of Hanna's men who served in World War One.

A century later its monument to its men who served in the Great War was damaged by would be thieves and the town is a mere shadow of its former self.



This is, of course, the second memorial I've written about this week that was damaged in acts that are acts of vandalism, not social justice.  The word "vandalism", of course, comes from the name of one of the Germanic tribes that invaded Rome in its late period who became famous for acts of destruction due to their ignorance.  The name has been used ever since for people who commit similar acts, the difference in our case is that our own failings have lead to the ignorance and the modern vandal is part of us, not an invading army from the north.



Even the monument to the huge loss of life at the Number One Mine bears a scar from a bullet.

It's pretty hard to be really optimistic on July 4, 2020.



On the same day, in the same region, Lewistown Montana endured a major flood.

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.

Henri Guillaumet, Pilot from Ligne

A memorial in Ligne, France, to Henri Guillaumet, a pilot who lost his life in World War Two.

The memorial was placed on the 50th anniversary of his death.

MKTH photograph.

In memory of Paul Vincent.

A monument to Paul Vincent, who was arrested on May 12, 1944, deported to Nevengamme, and who died at Bergen Belsen on April 13, 1945.

Mormon Pioneer Memorial, Lyman Wyoming.

This is a Mormon Pioneer Memorial at the rest stop in Lyman, Wyoming.  It was obviously originally a private memorial and was likely moved to its current location after the rest stop was built and Interstate 80 altered the original path of the Lincoln Highway.

Lowell O'Bryan Memorial, University of Wyoming, Laramie Wyoming.

This is the monument to Lowell O'Bryan at the University of Wyoming.  O'Bryan was a University of Wyoming student who was topping off horses that were to be used in a celebration to greet incoming University President Arthur G. Crane when one of the horses broke and headed towards a fence and a group of students.  O'Bryan, an experienced rider, went to dismount the horse and turn it while it was breaking, which was experienced at doing, but the saddle slipped and he was thrown under the horse, receiving fatal injuries as a result.  O'Bryan's 1922 death was memorialized by this feature, which is a drinking fountain of an unusual design.

O'Bryan might also be commemorated in the murals that were formerly in the student lounge and which are now in the west ballroom of the Student Union, although that is not clear.  Several different figures in the murals may depict O'Bryan.

The lamps shown here are near the fountain are not part of its design, but rather were placed in that location in front of Old Main in 1911.

Standard Oil Refinery Building, Casper Wyoming

Headquarters for the former Standard Oil Refinery in Casper Wyoming.  This building, with additional new construction is now a branch of branch of tbe University of Wyoming's Wyoming Technology Business Center.

Every once in awhile I'll have some of these photos, taken for one of my blogs, that I end up not being sure what to do with. This is an example of that.

I took these sometime during the summer of 2015, while down on the Platte River Commons pathway.  I was probably riding my bicycle down there.  After that, I didn't put them up as I wasn't quite sure where they belonged.  My original thought was that they should go on Painted Bricks, our blog dedicated to signs painted on buildings, but there aren't any signs painted on this building, and the old Standard Oil sign has been removed.  Having said that, there is a major sidewalk feature here, and I do put sidewalk features on our Painted Bricks blog, so there will probably be an entry there after all.

Instead, I decided to put this up here because of this somewhat sad memorial at this location.

Now, there were people who died one way or another at the refinery over the many years it was in operation, but this monument is simply to people who worked there from 1913 up until it closed in 1991.  When it closed, it came somewhat close to being a mortal blow to the city, which was already really hurting at that time.  Having said that, the decline of the refinery, which had at one time been enormous and one of the prime economic engines of the city, was obvious for years.

When the refinery was operating, this building was on the edge of the refinery, along the old Yellowstone Highway, prior to that highway being moved across the river. As a kid I must have ridden as a passenger in my parents vehicle past it countless times.  I can remember it quite well, and frankly it looks newer now than it did then.

I don't know when the building was built, but as the refinery opened in 1913, chances are that it was right around then.  The substantial refinery, now a golf course, was a major Natrona County employer and its closure really nearly ended an era in the town.  The town had three refineries up until about that time, but only one of them, the  Sinclair refinery, remains today.  The Standard Oil refinery was the largest of the three.

John E. Boltz Memorial, Washakie County Wyoming.

Memorial to Wyoming Department of Transportation engineer John E. Boltz, who was killed in a construction accident near where this memorial is located.