Is this spot too busy?

Recently I was in Albany County and I stopped by a rest stop, just to visit the Lincoln Memorial, and found that the stop is jammed packed with memorials.

It has, of course, the Lincoln Memorial:

Abraham Lincoln Memorial, Interstate 80, Wyoming

This is the very large bronze of Abraham Lincoln located on Interstate 80 just east of Laramie, Wyoming.  Interstate 80 is located on what was once the Lincoln Highway, hence explaining the very large bronze, which is otherwise somewhat unusual for a Wyoming monument.

 It also has the Henry B. Joy Lincoln Highway Memorial:

Henry B. Joy Memorial, Interstate 80, Albany County Wyoming.
 

This is a monument to one of the founders of the Lincoln Highway, located along its successor, Interstate 80.  The art deco memorial was created in 1938, the "L" cement markers are markers for the Lincoln Highway that can be found here and there along its route.

While this blog started out with war memorials, it's covered quite a few trail markers over the years, and indeed I will now be adding that as a category here, meaning I have to go back and edit quite a few old posts.  This marker, however, is only the second one I've posted on any of my blogs to highways, the other being the Black and Yellow Road near Gillette.

This marker is quite elaborate and very nice, being both a suitable marker for the Lincoln Highway and a nice example of an art deco piece of art.

Wyoming has also commemorated the highway, the noted individual, and the marker, with its own highway sign.

All of this is located at the same rest stop on Albany County that the Lincoln Memorial is located at.  Of note, this marker was moved from its original location, which might have been one that was preferred by the individual commemorated by the marker.

And it has been designated the Purple Heart Trail:

Purple Heart Trail Memorial, Interstate 80, Albany County, Wyoming.
 

This monument is placed at the same rest stop that the Lincoln Memorial and the Lincoln Highway Memorial featured below are located.  It's obviously in honor of those who have been wounded in action, and therefore eligible to receive the Purple Heart.

 And it also features a marker honoring ranching in Albany and Laramie Counties:

"Ranching from the high point" marker, Albany County, Wyoming.
 

This is a marker dedicated to agriculture in Albany and Laramie Counties, Wyoming.  It's located at  the same rest stop that features the Lincoln Memorial, the Purple Heart Trail marker, and the Henry Bourne Joy marker.

The final paragraph of this marker is quite true and highly significant.  In this region of the country, environmentalist like to take pot shots at ranchers all the time, but if they weren't here, the wild spaces wouldn't be here either.

Does this seem like a bit much?

All of these monuments are fine, but in one single place?  There was even one I didn't photograph. It's darned right crowded.

The Henry B. Joy monument, I'd note, was originally over by Rawlins, at a spot that Henry B. Joy liked.  Maybe they should have left it near there.  Maybe the Purple Heart Trail marker could be closer to Cheyenne?  Anyway you look at it, this is a lot of markers in a concentrated amount of space.  It risks diminishing them all, or so it seems to me.

The Sundance, Wyoming Rest Stop Memorials.

 Memorials at the Sundance Wyoming Rest Stop.

I usually don't put a bunch of memorials, even at one single spot, in one single post.  Each, I generally feel, deserves its own post as each is its own topic, in terms of what it commemorates.

 Black Hills Sign at the Sundance Wyoming Rest Stop.

I'm making an exception here, however, as these are grouped so nicely, they seem to require a singular treatment. 

The first item we address is the Black Hills sign. This sign discusses the Black Hills, which straddle the Wyoming/South Dakota border.

 Crook County sign.

The second sign discusses Crook County, named after Gen. George Crook, and in which Sundance is situated.

The sign oddly doesn't really go into Crook himself, but then its a memorial for the county, not the general.  Still a controversial general, Crook came into this region in the summer campaign of 1876 which saw him go as far north as southern Montana before meeting the Sioux and Cheyenne at Rosebud several days prior to Custer encountering them at Little Big Horn.  Crook engaged the native forces and then withdrew in a move that's still both praised and condemned.  At the time of the formation of Crook County in 1888 he was sufficiently admired that the county was named after him, at a time at which he was still living.

 Custer Expedition Memorial.

Finally, the Rest Stop is the location of an old monument noting the passage of Custer's 1874 expedition into the Black Hills, which is generally regarded as the precursor of the European American invasion of the Black Hills and the Powder River Expedition of 1876.  Obviously, it's more complicated than that, but its safe to say that the discovery of gold in 1874 gave way to a gold rush which, in turn, made conflict with the Sioux, who had taken over the Black Hills (by force) from the Crow, inevitable.

This memorial is interesting in the super heated atmosphere of today given that the historical view has really changed since 1940, when this roadside monument was dedicated (surprisingly late, I'd note, compared to similar Wyoming monuments). In 1940 Custer was still regarded as a hero.  By the 1970s, however, he was regarded in the opposite fashion, by and large, at least in terms of his popular portrays are concerned.  The 1874 expedition into the Black Hills is not favorably recalled in history now at all.

I have to wonder, however, in terms of the history if this expedition changed history the way it is recalled.  The Black Hills always seem to be an attractant.  They attracted the Sioux who took them (in living memory in 1874) from the Crows and it seems highly likely that they would would have attracted European Americans as well.  Certainly they continued to even after the hopes of gold seekers were dashed.

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.

Lex Anteinternet: Blog Mirror: Today In Wyoming's History: June 6, 1944. Operation Overlord

Lex Anteinternet: Blog Mirror: Today In Wyoming's History: June 6, ...:

Blog Mirror: Today In Wyoming's History: June 6, 1944. Operation Overlord

Today In Wyoming's History: June 6:



While the rest of the history minded world has been focusing on 1944 this week, we as usual have been focusing on 1919.



But the focus on 1944 is well placed. Today is the 75th Anniversary of Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy.  Or "D-Day" as its sometimes commonly referred to.



We noted it on our companion blog Today In Wyoming's History quite awhile back, even though its not really a Wyoming historical item.  We've posted that item below.



Operation Overlord is truly remarkable.  It was the largest seaborne landing ever attempted and is likely to remain so for all time.  The number of ships involved was so large its not really known and never will be.  It also featured a massive airborne phase.



Contrary to the way its sometimes slightly portrayed, it wasn't a "return" of the Western Allies to Europe.  The Western Allies had done that when they'd landed in Sicily on July 10, 1943.The fact that the Germans had been unable to push the Allies off Sicily made it clear how the rest of the war would go to some degree, even if a lot of hard fighting lay ahead. That was further emphasized that following September when the Allies landed on the Italian mainland.



But those operations didn't compare in scope or size to the landings in France on this day seventy five years ago.   Landing in France, in a war that was as mobile as World War Two was, was a game changer.  A straight path lay ahead towards Germany and the end of the war with the only question being how long it would take.  Germany could not push the Allies out of Italy, but invading the German homeland from Italy was basically impossible.  Things were completely different in regard to France.  Following this day a relentless Allied advance from two sides, with occasional set backs, defined the character of the war against Germany.



This blog has of course tended to focus on an earlier era, although it strays occasionally. Given that, it's hard not for us to comment that with lots of posts on the course of World War One and the progress in Paris towards a treaty, June 6, 1944 seems remarkably close in time to June 6, 1919.  And it is. Only twenty five years separate the two.  World War Two was truly close the World War One.



Technology had certainly advanced between the two and even though there many World War One weapons in use in World War Two, the mobile character of the war, brought about by mechanization, was remarkably different. World War Two remains a war of our own era in a way that World War One doesn't quite.  It's still with us.



Less with us are the veterans who fought the war. With it being seventy five years in the past, no wonder.  Here too we pause.  When we first posted this item on Today In Wyoming's History there were quite a few World War Two veterans left alive.  There still are by that's changing daily.  When we started posting on this blog, there were living World War One veterans.  Now there are none.

June 6

1944 Allied forces land in Normandy, in an event remembered as "D-Day", although that term actually refers to the day on which any major operation commences.  This is not, of course, a Wyoming event, but at least in my youth I knew more than one Wyoming native who had participated in it.  Later, I had a junior high teacher whose first husband had died in it.  A law school colleague of mine had a father who was a paratrooper in it.  And at least one well known Wyoming political figure, Teno Roncolio, participated in it.  From the prospective of the Western Allies, it might be the single most significant single day of the campaign in Europe.

All the photos above are courtesy of the United States Army.

Sweetwater Station, Freemont County Wyoming.

There's a highway rest station on top of Beaver Rim at Sweetwater Station that I've stopped in a million times, but I've never photographed it before.  Probably because there's always been a lot of people there and I felt self conscious about it.  Anyhow, the other day I went through and it was just me, so I took these photos with my Iphone.

The photos here will be left large so that the details on the signs can be read.  I didn't do a very good job of photographing them while there, but it was relatively early in the day and light conditions were not idea.

This is a converging location on the trail and a lot of different things are significant about the spot.  It's a significant Oregon Trial spot in and of itself.  It was also the location of an Army post, protecting the trail, during the 1860s.  Lt. Caspar Collins, who lost his life famously leading a mixed company at the Battle of Platte Bridge Station, was stationed at Sweetwater Station.

Monument to Wyoming Highway Patrolman Chris Logsdon, near Wheatland Wyoming.

This memorial at the Rest Stop at the intersection of the state highway to Wheatland and Interstate 25 is the second monument to Wyoming Highway Patrolman Chris Logsdon.   A second one off of I25 is nearby, but isn't really safely accessible to the public.

I somehow managed to miss this one even though I've stopped here many times.  It may be a more recent addition commemorating this Troopers tragic loss.

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.