Time For A Comeback

It might be time for a comeback - not a 2025 resolution, a simple statement of fact.

This blog started on December 29, 2006, to post some of my Wyoming and the West fiction. Posts were rare, with a total of twelve over the first four years—not much. Then, in 2010, it became a Wyoming history blog with posts about little-known or studied things, people, and places in Wyoming history.

After 331 posts, I have not posted on Wyoming Fact and Fiction since September of 2022. Where Have I been? Well, that is not a long story. By October of 2022, I had reached the point where I could not type, or for that matter walk, except for a few halting steps at a time. Two months later, In December, I had four herniated discs removed from my neck and had vertebras, c3 – c7 fused, and five vertebras bracketed together with titanium. Now I am walking, typing, playing golf, gardening, mowing the yard, and overall, back to normal. It's time, and the blog is back. I'm hoping for once a month to start.  

Our first order of business for this January 2025 post –

Wyoming Triva – answers are at the bottom of the post, and there is no peaking until you have contemplated an answer.

1. How long was Fort Laramie open for business as a full-time military fort?

2. How many senators and how many representatives are in the Wyoming state house?

3. This is the last one – How many years did Butch Cassidy serve in the Wyoming Territorial Prison?

First, before we get to the answers, today's photos are all from within 50 miles of where we live. Beautiful Wyoming at its best!

Answers

1.   1849-1890: 41 years – not long.

2.   31 Senators and 62 Representatives – don't feel bad; my guess is less than 10% of Wyoming residents will get this one right.

3. Butch Cassidy served 18 months in the Wyoming Territorial Prison. He was sentenced to two years for receiving a stolen horse but was released after serving half the sentence

 

 

Wyoming History - So How Hot Was It?

 With today's temperature hanging around the century mark - I wondered. How hot is too hot in Wyoming? 

Where we live in Guernsey, an east central town with a population of a bit over 1,100  and at an altitude of 4368 feet, it gets hot. We average 41 days above 90 each year. The good news is that we are also much warmer in winter than most of the state.

Basin, located in north central Wyoming, holds the record for the hottest day in the Cowboy state - 115 on August 8, 1983. We, old-timers, refer to temperatures like that as warmish. 

We lived in Laramie for many years - there, if the temps got to the high 80s, we thought it was hot. Living at 7,200 feet does have its summertime advantages. 

Wyoming Trivia - (answers under the photo - no cheating)

1. How close did the 115 degrees at Basin come to the nation's all-time high?

2. What well-known Wyoming place was called Tso-aa (tree rock) by the Kiowa Tribe?

3. The Sioux name for "people of alien speech" is well known to everyone in Wyoming, but most are surprised that they know it. What is that name?

Trivia Answers

1. The hottest temperature recorded in the U.S. was 134 degrees in Death Valley, California, more than 100 years ago in 1913. Looks like we need another 20 degrees to set a record - pretty sure we will never get there.

2. Devils Tower

3. Cheyenne

All of today's photos are from Guernsey State Park.