Wyoming State Slogan

Wyoming State Slogan

If you are like me, not a good deal, you may not know that Wyoming has a state slogan.  Stop roaming; try Wyoming, healthy, wealthy, growing Wyoming.  Not very catchy in today’s world, much too old fashioned.

The slogan was picked as the winner of a contest in the Wyoming State Tribune, and the winning slogan was announced on February 20, 1917. The winner was actually submitted by two people. The first part was by Harry McCraken of Casper, and the last part was submitted by George Stough of Cheyenne. I am not sure how the judges called the winner after changing the entries to make one they liked.

Much like our own holiday, Wyoming Day, December 10 each year, the state slogan has been, pretty much forgotten.

In today’s world we are still all about branding, not sure the state slogan would fit into today’s version of Wyoming.

Speaking of branding. In 1936, Wyoming trademarked the bucking bronco logo for license plates. But that logo of the famed bucker Steamboat goes all the way back to the time of the state slogan, 1918. One of the reasons that today we are the Cowboy State today, instead of the Sagebrush State or the Equality State of 100 years ago, is that famous logo seen on Wyoming license plates. 

A Retired Life

Today some true Wyoming facts, all presented in photos.

15 miles west of town and the traffic does not appear to be too heavy

Nothing like a drive on a nice spring day. I know it is not spring yet, but it is sure starting to look like it.

Mountain stream running blue and cold

We took a drive out of town toward the Laramie Range yesterday, it was spectacular.

And a little closer to our pickup this little guy

The Pronghorn are in big bunches right now and make for some interesting photo opportunities.

A Raven amidst the Pronghorn

The snow up high always makes the mountains look perfect, with the big spring runoff yet to come.

Looks a bit like a painting

Thought today I would just blog out a few photos that I took on our trip.

Total trip, 72 miles, 36 out, turn around and 36 back. Only a couple of hours but most enjoyable.

The end of our trip, about three feet deep, we turned around and headed home

 

This was our view after we turned around

The Wild West

The Wild West

In his autobiography Standing Bear, a Sioux chief said that the white man, not the Indian made the west wild. “We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, the winding streams with tangled growth, as wild. Only to the white man was nature a wilderness, and only to him was the land infested with wild animals and savage people, To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful, and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.” Interesting!

When the whites came into Indian lands, they tried to change the native peoples way of life. Religion, living style, lifestyle, food, cooking/eating utensils, dress, war, relationships and tribal makeups and hierarchy were all wrong – according to the new people, from the east, and now in the west.

In my view, the wild west came about as more and more non-Indian’s moved and crossed the west. Civilization movements and a clash of cultures changed the American West and created our, modern, view of the wild west. But, I’m most sure that this was not something new. Civilizations change as new people become more and more a part of something, where at one time they were outsiders. People being forced to change or obliged to accept what they do not want will fight, always have, probably always will.

Sometimes we do not look at the big picture, probably it was not as wild as Hollywood has made it out. Indian encounters are much more prevalent in old television series, movies, and novels than they were in real life. But the wars in the west were genuine, and were brought on as Standing Bear so eloquently stated, when the new people saw things as savage and wild instead of the way they were and had always been.

Tie Up That Horse Cowboy

The cowhand raced to save the distressed maiden, he leapt from his trusty steed, and ground tied him, as whistling lead and the smell of gun powder filled the air.
I made that up, but did recently finish reading books by two different authors, where the hero ground tied his horse under all conditions- they ground tied so much I got tired of waiting for the horse to run off. Things that I have read, and or tried with ground tying indicate the cowboy may need hiking boots instead of cowboy boots if he ground ties too much.
Much like the cowboys that loop the reins around the hitching post in the old movies, horses will shy and get the heck out of Dodge if too much action and noise starts. Heck my pick-up doesn’t like to stick around if things get to wild-------but I do.
I like well researched western reads, not sure these writers had spent much time around horses. Too bad, one of them was fast paced and fun.