Monday, March 30, 2020

Some Gave All: Wyoming Veterans Museum, Natrona County International Airport

We have a very lengthy post on this museum in Natrona County located here:
Some Gave All: Wyoming Veterans Museum, Natrona County Internatio...: 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 wh...
Recently, this memorial was placed at the museum.





Saturday, February 29, 2020

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.

Friday, February 7, 2020

Lex Anteinternet: The 2020 Wyoming Legislative Session. Proposed Dr. Leonard L. Robinson memorial bridge.

Lex Anteinternet: The 2020 Wyoming Legislative Session. The early c...There's a proposal to dedicate a bridge in Casper that crosses Center Street in honor of a veteran of the Bataan Death March.



2020
STATE OF WYOMING
20LSO-0464



HOUSE BILL NO. HB0096


Dr. Leonard L. Robinson memorial bridge.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Harshman, Blake, Brown, Lindholm, MacGuire and Walters and Senator(s) Anderson, Landen, Pappas and Von Flatern


A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to highways and bridges; designating a bridge as specified; providing for signage; providing an appropriation; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  W.S. 241138 is created to read:

241138.  Dr. Leonard L. Robinson World War II Bataan Death March memorial bridge.

The bridge on United States Interstate Highway 25 crossing over Center Street in Casper, Wyoming shall be known as the "Dr. Leonard L. Robinson World War II Bataan Death March Memorial Bridge."  The department of transportation shall install appropriate signage, in compliance with applicable federal and state law, to identify the Dr. Leonard L. Robinson World War II Bataan Death March Memorial Bridge.

Section 2.  Nothing in this act shall require the department of transportation to remove or modify any designation of the bridge specified in section 1 of this act submitted to the federal highway administration.

Section 3.  There is appropriated five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) from the general fund to the department of transportation for purposes of installing signage required by this act.  This appropriation shall be for the period beginning with the effective date of this act and ending June 30, 2022.  This appropriation shall not be transferred or expended for any other purpose and any unexpended, unobligated funds remaining from this appropriation shall revert as provided by law on June 30, 2022.  It is the intent of the legislature that this appropriation not be included in the department of transportation's standard budget for the immediately succeeding fiscal biennium.

Section 4.  This act is effective July 1, 2020.

(END)

1
HB0096

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

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.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Today In Wyoming's History: The Bates Battle, July 4, 1874

Today In Wyoming's History: The Bates Battle, July 4, 1874: We were fortunately recently to be able to tour one of Wyoming's little known battlefields recently, thanks due to the local landowner ...

Friday, June 28, 2019

Monday, June 24, 2019

Wednesday, June 12, 2019