Basin, WY, part 2, and Greybull, WY

On the way to Greybull this morning, we stopped in Basin to look inside the Post Office and the Courthouse since the last time we went here was on a Sunday. The inside of the Post Office didn't merit any photographs, so I took these three additional shots. (For more shots of the Post Office and Courthouse, see Basin, WY, part 1.)


Here is a link to William Gibbs McAdoo (see below). Here is a link to James Alphonso Wetmore.

This is the main entrance to the Big Horn County Courthouse:

As you can see, the driver's license department proudly displays the licence plates donated by George H. Hoffman who had the honor of being #1. The county code for Big Horn County is 9.

After taking the above pictures of the Courthouse, we went outside to walk around the building to see what else might be of interest. We were chased down by Annette from the Clerks Office who gave us a four page excerpt of A Survey of Wyoming County Courthouses: Their history, architecture, documents, proceedings, and personnel (1972). Thank you, Annette! You can find some real nice people in Wyoming.

Here is a quote which begins the chapter on Big Horn County:

The Commissioners of Big Horn County, Wyoming, made the following Resolution at their meeting of January 4, 1910:

"Wheras, the present County Courthouse is falling to pieces and is liable to collapse at any time, and is a menace to the lives of the public and the county officers therein and all the county records are liable to be destroyed because of the unsafe conditions of said building..., Be it resolved that the Chairman of the Board be directed, authorized and empowered to make any and all contracts and leases necessary to induce and secure some person to erect a building for county purposes upon the Courthouse square and to lease said building."

So by 1918 Big Horn County had a new Courthouse for $60,000.

This is downtown Greybull, just eight miles north of Basin:

We stopped in at Probst Western Store.

We also spent some time admiring Big Horn Quilts and talking to the clerks about its fame as one of the biggest on-line quilting fabric stores in the world (see the Montana Billings Gazette Newspaper, July 17, 2005). Julie Owens is the owner, and here is her blog (this is her biography).

Farther east on Greybull Avenue is this map on the side of a building. The Girl Scout National Center West, at the bottom of the map, is no longer in operation.

The building on the right used to be a lodge for IOOF, it was built in 1919.

This is the United States Post Office in Greybull:

Here are links which describe the photograph below: Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and James A Farley.

The next four shots I took at the Greybull Library (click on the link for a good shot of the library itself).

This photograph is of the west end of Greybull Avenue (on the other side is the railroad). Below the mural, the town plants blooming flowers, and often the flowers are in the shape of the Wyoming flag.

North of the above mural, along 7th and Railroad Street, are these buildings:

This is the old Masonic lodge on 6th Street or US-14/16/20:

Next door to the above, I found this old gasoline station sign:

This is Greybull's Town Hall and Police Department:

The day began with rain and hail (between Thermop and Worland), then to a partly cloudy sky, and finally such strong winds that it took the fun out of taking photographs. So we went home.

4 April 2010

Often, before I take a series of photographs of a place, I drive through it and get a feel for what I want to do. On the 4th of April, that's what I did with Basin and Greybull. Because of the evening sun, I decided to take a few photographs. Here are four of them:

Because of flooding, Greybull built a levee to protect itself from the Big Horn River. For some old photographs of the flooding (and other old shots of Greybull), click here.

link: index to photographs

Riverton, WY

Thermopolis has some excellent medical personnel, but sometimes we have to travel to bigger towns for a specialist. Today we took Grandma to Riverton. This is a picture of their hospital.

Down the road from the medical complex is this structure which, I think, was used for coal mining.

It is adjacent to this office building.

The sculpture above is better seen in the next two photographs.

Just before getting to Central Wyoming College, I had to stop to take the above shot of Wyoming's logo.

Note the snowy mountains in the distant background.

The above sculpture is explained below. The plaque reads,

Just as freedom liberates the human spirit, so too, education liberates the mind. "Rising Promise" captures the emerging human intellect. The bronze figures portray three humans struggling to rise from the rigid confines of ignorance. The timeless universality of the human figure serves to link the past, present and future.

I think this sculpture is of Sacagewea who some believe is buried near Fort Washakie.

Click on the picture below to better see the baby.

As you can see, there are a variety of sculptures on the small campus, which made our experience there more interesting.

The Arts Center is worth visiting because of the art on display.

The Central Wyoming College mascot is the Rustler.

Above and below are two of the dormitories.

Below is another one of the sculptures at CWC.

Just a few more miles down the road and up on a plateau is the Riverton Regional Airport which was built in 1998. Here is a satellite view of the airport.

The interior is nicely decorated, if you like hunting trophies.

If you click on the picture below, you can enlarge it to better see different aspects of life here in Riverton.

For my Michigan friends, note the logo for Great Lakes Airlines in the shot below.

On the way back into Riverton, I had to stop at this used car lot. Where I come from, these are not called used cars.

We then stopped at the Visitor Center for brochures to help me locate the sights of Riverton. The gentleman there informed me that the name "Wyoming" is a Native American word roughly translated as "a wide prairie place." This interesting fact is taken from the book, Wyoming Trivia.

Across the street from the Visitor Center is this mural.

Even though it is a boring shot, I like taking note of places like this (below). Click here for more on the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. It's near the Visitor Center.

Grandma needed a break, so we went to the city park.

On the left, above, is the bandshell and on the right is the Ten Commandments.

What follows are mostly shots of buildings I found along Main Street, the old business center of Riverton.

After visiting the Post Office, I stopped at the local newspaper, The Ranger (note the logo). Given the fact that today is the 15th of April, the front page story was to be expected.

The design of the sidewalks along Main Street have a river theme (it goes along with their name).

This is one of the biggest Masonic Temples I have seen in a long time. Most of it, however, is for businesses. The Masons meet on the top floor.

Click here for a picture of this building decades ago.

This is one of the businesses. Just $11 gets you a haircut.

The shot below is of the second floor:

The original movie theater:

I found the theater's light fixtures interesting.

The building below has a bank on the first floor and senior apartments above.

Statues of horses in connection with shops like these are common here in Wyoming.

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks has a lodge here.

It was pointed out to me that the bar is one long tree trunk—impressive. The logo is a part of it.

Aleix and Erin were friendly enough to be included in this blog. :)

A block away from Main Street, this Motel 6 caught my attention. They don't make them like this anymore.

The railroad no longer goes through Riverton, so the tracks were torn up and made into a walking trail. This is the old depot which was made into a restaurant (The Depot: Historical Mexican Dining).

Next to The Depot are these giraffe sculptures...

... and this cast iron commemoration of a bridge built for a location "out east," according to Kent, an owner of The Depot. The bridge was then dismantled and brought to the Riverton area to be used here until the railroad discontinued its need for it. I think this is a link to the bridge.

link: index to photographs