Wyoming Veterans Museum, Natrona County International Airport

This is the Wyoming Veterans Museum in Natrona County, which is located in the former Enlisted Mens Club of the U.S. Army Air Corps base which is now the Natrona County International Airport.

When this museum first opened, I frankly didn't care for it much as it had poor organization and some errors, and some of the displays didn't have a direct bearing on Wyoming, which a museum of this type should.  However, the current director was hired, and it really began to rapidly improve.  It's been a good museum for several years.

I hadn't been in it for awhile, and when I recently went in it, I was quite impressed.  My former complaints about it are no longer valid at all.  Its now a nice, relevant, museum.

These photographs do not depict all the displays, and I was really remiss in regards to that. The museum covers the World War One to the second Gulf War.  I hope that, in the future, something might be added on the Spanish American War and Philippine Insurrection, but I have no complaints about the museum at all.

Wyoming Veterans Memorial Museum, located in what was originally the Enlisted Mans Club on the Casper Air Base during World War Two.

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Olin Francis Jacquot World War One Collection.

Case in which this display is housed, dedicated to World War Two servicemen who trained at the Casper Army Air Field during World War Two.

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Casper Army Air Field

.50 BMG cartridges. These can be found all over western Natrona County, left over from WWII. Air crews routinely dumped them out of aircraft.
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World War One

Cotton summer uniform of WWI vintage.

Christmas card.

Trench knives.

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World War Two.

Utility jacket of a "China Marine."

Enlisted dress uniform, USMC.

Dress uniform, United States Army Air Corps.

 Display of items from Donald G. Smith, who served in World War One as a bayonet instructor, and in World War Two as a chaplain..

 Display of items from Jim Hawkins, who started off in the 115th Cavalry Regiment and ultimatley retired from the Army Reserve as an officer in the 1970s.

 Note the spats.

Marine Corps uniforms.


 US World War One and interwar type helmet, as painted for Civil Defense use in World War Two.

 
 US M1 helmets and British helmet.

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East German, Cold War Era.

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Special Display, items brought back by U.S. GI's from World War Two. Axis items.

German Items:

 German Army MP gorget, a device worn by MPs in German armed forces, leading to their nickhame of "chain dogs." This one is marked "Feldgendarmerie", or "field police."

 SS gorget, for "patrol service."  Off to right is a glass item depicting Hitler.

 German Automobile Club badge from Nazi era.

 

 
The large item is a Wound Badge, and the small one an Armored Assault badge.

 
German Youth Day pin, 1935.

 Nazi armbands.

 

 Captured Nazi flag, details of capture written on flag.

 
 Hat device, Nazi era German veterans' organization.

 
Infantry assault badge.

 
Edelweiss insignia, German mountain unit (Gebergsjaeger).

 
Collar device, Gebergsjaeger.

 

German Nazi era veterans' organization peak cap.

 Civil German helmet (Stahlhelm) for civilian policing unit.  This is a different model of helmet from that worn by German military units, although the designs were obviously very close.
 
 German M1935 Stahlhelm, according to the data on display this camouflage pattern was associated with desert use.

 
 Luftwaffe M1935 Stahlhelm.

 
 German army M1935 Stahlhelm.


 M1918 pattern of Stahlhelm which, according to the information on display, had a latter pattern of interior webbing indicating post World War One use.
 
 M1935 and M1918 Stahlhelms, demonstrating webbing in reflection.

 Nazi era military and civil daggers and knives.

 

 German Army tunic and Navy submariners deck clothing.

 German Kreigsmarine (Naval) sumbariner's deck coat.

 German Heer (Army) tunic.  This one would appear to be prewar or very early war to me, and does not appear to me.

 Epaulet of German army tunic.

 Button of German navy deck coat.

 German Army boots (jackboots)

Italian Items:





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Japanese Items:

Japanese Able Seaman insignia, Japanese Imperial Navy.

Imperial Japanese Army helmet.

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Firearms:

U.S. firearms from World War Two, top to bottom.  M1 Garand, scabbard for M1 Garand, M1 Carbine and M1903 Springfield.

German double barreled flare pistol.

Japanese Type 26 Pistol.

German P08.

Spanish pistol, likely in German use prior to capture.

German P38

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Edged Weapons:

Top to bottom, Japanese Katana (Samurai sword), Prussian cavalry officers saber, Prussian 1889 infantry officers saber.

Prussian Cavalry Officers Saber.

Prussian cavalry officers saber, Prussian 1889 Infantry Officers Saber, Prussian deegan.

Hilt of Prussian infantry officers saber, 1889.

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Enlisted Mens Club Murals

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Update:

M114 Armored Personnel Carrier, which was recently added to be on display at the museum.

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Update.

Updated Vietnam War display:

 New Punitive Expedition case:

East German police display:

New photographs of Japanese swords:

Updated Air Base display:

Sweetwater County Wyoming World War Two Memorial

 

This is the Sweetwater  County memorial to Sweetwater County residents who served in World War Two. The name of everyone who served in the war is found on the memorial, with those who died listed in a separate part of the memorial stone.

The memorial is located in Rock Springs, which is not the country seat, that location being Green River, which is just a few miles away.

The artillery piece is a M1 57mm anti tank gun.

Ft. Halleck-Ft. Laramie Road, Rock River Wyoming.

A memorial just north of Rock River Wyoming commemorating the Frontier era Ft. Halleck to Ft. Laramie Road in southern Wyoming.

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.

Bridger Trail, Wyoming

Washakie County Pioneers' Memorial, Worland Wyoming

This memorial in the Washakie County Wyoming Courthouse commemorates the early residents of the county.

Thermopolis Historical Museum Veterans Memorial, Thermopolis Wyoming

This is the Veterans' Memorial outside of the Historical Museum in Thermopolis Wyoming.  The memorial features a M2 105mm howitzer.

Old Trail Town Cemetary, Cody Wyoming

 This is the cemetery at the Old Trail Town in Cody Wyoming. The cemetery includes the graves and markers for several well known frontiersmen.

 This is the marker for John "Liver Eating" Johnson, more popularly known ad "Jeremiah" Johnson due to the film.  Johnson was a cavalryman, mountain man, and in later years, a law man in Wyoming and Montana.  His marker is marked with, in addition to his name and nickname, "No more trails".

 Marker for Jim White, buffalo hunter

Markers for Floyd Stillings, early rodeo cowboy, and William Garlow "Cody", grandchild of Buffalo Bill Cody and attorney in Big Horn County Wyoming.

Wyoming National Guard Headquaters Displays, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

F86D at Wyoming National Guard Headquarters, Cheyenne Wyoming

M7 105 Howitzer Carriage

These displays are at the Wyoming National Guard Headquarters in  Cheyenne, Wyoming. Both displays commemorate the Wyoming National Guard, Air and Army, during the 1950s.

Shoshone Forest Fire of August 21, 1937 Memorial (Blackwater Fire)

This memorial is to the Civilian Conservation Corps, United States Forest Service, and Bureau of Public Roads men who died in the Blackwater Fire of 1937.  The fire is the fourth deadliest forest fire in the U.S. history.

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.