Ice Slough, Fremont County, Wyoming

The Ice Slough, or what I used to always hear people around here refer it by, the "Icey Slough".

Little Sandy Crossing, Sweetwater County, Wyoming.

This is a State of Wyoming monument to the Little Sandy Crossing in Sweetwater County, near Farson.   

Pony Express Monuments, Farson Wyoming

One of the disadvantages of taking these photos the way I do, on a catch as catch can basis, is that you get some truly lousy photographs that way. Weather and light conditions can simply be against you. But, on the passing by basis I take these, there's not much I can do about that as a rule.  I've driven past these monuments to the Pony Express at Farson a few times, but this is the first time I had time to stop and take a picture.  Unfortunately these late afternoon, sub zero photographs, are not good, and there isn't much I could do about it.

While you could never tell from this bad light photograph, this 2003 monument to the Pony Express shows to riders greeting each other on a starry night.  The winter snow has obscured, and dirtied, the monument.  If I have a  chance to photograph it again in morning light, I will.  The top of the monument says "East meets West".

This is an older State of Wyoming monument to the Pony Express which also notes the Big Sandy Station that was once on this location.

This monument to the Big Sandy Station was dedicated at the same time, and by the same donors, as the East Meets West monument. For some reason, this one looks just as clean as when it was dedicated, while the East Meets West monument does not.

Owen Wister Monument, Medicine Bow Wyoming

This is a monument to Owen Wister in Medicine  Bow, Wyoming.  Granted, it isn't in the "some gave all category", but we have strayed from the strict criteria that implies a bit.  Wister is famous, of course, for writing The Virginian, in which Medicine Bow plays a prominent part.

The monument is located just outside of a museum, which was not open when I drove through and stopped (I'm afraid I've driven through many times and not stopped).  The same location has a plaque with a large collection of the local brands on it, scene here.

Today In Wyoming's History: September 27. Disasters and ships.

From Today In Wyoming's History: September 27:

1923  Thirty railroad passengers were killed when a CB&Q train wrecked at the Cole Creek Bridge, which had been washed out due to a flood, in Natrona County.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1944 USS Natrona, a Haskell class attack transport, launched.

There's something in the county memorializing the latter (the ship's wheel, in the old courthouse), but not the former.

Such an awful disaster, you'd think there might be.

Ft. Fred Steele, Carbon County Wyoming

In the past, I haven't tended to post fort entries here, but for net related technical reasons, I'm going to, even though these arguably belong on one of my other blogs.  I'll probably cross link this thread in.

These are photographs of Ft. Fred Steele, a location that I've sometimes thought is the bleakest historical site in Wyoming.

One of the few remaining structures at Ft. Steele, the powder magazine.  It no doubt is still there as it is a stone structure.

The reason that the post was built, the Union Pacific, is still there.

Ft. Steele is what I'd regard as fitting into the Fourth Generation of Wyoming frontier forts, although I've never seen it described that way, or anyone other than me use that term.   By my way of defining them, the First Generation are those very early, pre Civil War, frontier post that very much predated the railroads, such as Ft. Laramie.  The Second Generation would be those established during the Civil War in an effort to protect the trail and telegraph system during that period during which the Regular Army was largely withdrawn from the Frontier and state units took over. The Third Generation would be those posts like Ft. Phil Kearney that were built immediately after the Civil War for the same purpose.  Contemporaneously with those were posts like Ft. Steele that were built to protect the Union Pacific Railroad.  As they were in rail contact with the rest of the United States they can't really be compared to posts like Ft. Phil Kearney, Ft. C. F. Smith or Ft. Caspar, as they were built for a different purpose and much less remote by their nature.

What the post was like, when it was active.

A number of well known Wyoming figures spent time at Ft. Saunders.

Ft. Sanders, after it was abandoned, remained a significant railhead and therefore the area became the center of a huge sheep industry. Quite a few markers at the post commemorate the ranching history of the area, rather than the military history.

One of the current denizens of the post.

Suttlers store, from a distance.

Union Pacific Bridge Tenders House at the post.

Current Union Pacific bridge.

Some structure from the post, but I don't know what it is.

The main part of the post's grounds.

Soldiers from this post are most famously associated with an action against the Utes in Utah, rather than an action in Wyoming.  This shows the high mobility of the Frontier Army as Utah is quite a distance away, although not so much by rail.

This 1914 vintage highway marker was on the old Lincoln Highway, which apparently ran north of the tracks rather than considerably south of them, like the current Interstate Highway does today.

About 88 people or so were buried at this post, however only 60 some graves were later relocated when the Army undertook to remove and consolidate frontier graves.  Logic would dictate, therefore, that some graves likely remain.

Unusual civilian headstone noting that this individual had served with a provisional Confederate unit at some point that had been raised in California.  I'm not aware of any such unit, although it must have existed.  The marker must be quite recent.