Wyoming Trivia & Tidbits - Page 4

Looking for Wyoming trivia? Try our list Wyoming little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

—Custer’s Last Stand, buffalo driven over a cliff, mountain men throwing tomahawks during a rendezvous, and Sioux warriors attacking a trading post are some of the historical and frontier scenes depicted in the Old West Miniature Village & Museum in Cody (pop. 8,835). The diorama, containing thousands of miniature figures, spreads over 7,000 square feet to trace the history of Wyoming and Montana from the 1600s to the late 1890s. The small-scale, three-dimensional scenes are the life work of owner Jerry Fick.

first appeared: 8/12/2007

—Opened in 1994, Glenrock (pop. 2,231) Paleontological Museum is the home of Stephanie the Triceratops, whose remains were found near Glenrock. The museum exhibits other fossil remains of Wyoming dinosaurs, as well as fossilized mammals, reptiles and fish. Visitors also can view the laboratory where fossils are cleaned, repaired and assembled, and participate in digs.

first appeared: 7/29/2007

—W. Edwards Deming, the management guru and father of the Japanese post-war industrial revival, spent much of his childhood in Cody (pop. 8,835) and Powell (pop. 5,373) and graduated from the University of Wyoming in Laramie (pop. 27,204) in 1921. After World War II, he taught Japanese businessmen his principles of quality service and products, inspiring the Asian nation’s spectacular economic rise.

first appeared: 7/15/2007

—The Murie Center in Moose (pop. 1,439) is located on the Murie Ranch, home of wilderness advocates Olaus and Mardy Murie, and carries on their legacy and work. The couple’s pioneering conservation work led to passage of the federal Wilderness Act of 1964 and to creation of what would become the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

first appeared: 7/1/2007

—The Heart Mountain Relocation Center, between Cody (pop. 8,835) and Powell (pop. 5,373), housed up to 11,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II, making it at the time the third-largest population center in the state. Today, the site features a few abandoned camp structures, including a hospital, as well as a walking tour and an honor wall with the names of hundreds of Japanese-American veterans of U.S. military service. The site, much of it private farmland now, is a National Historic Landmark.

first appeared: 6/17/2007

—Fisherman Tom Durst of Casper (pop. 49,644) reeled in the largest sauger on record in the state in January at the Boysen Reservoir in Fremont County (pop. 35,804). The sauger, similar to a walleye, weighed 7.5 pounds and was 26.5 inches long.

first appeared: 6/3/2007

—When weeds overwhelm their land, ranchers in 10 Western states can call on Lani Malmberg of Lander (pop. 6,867) for an all-natural remedy—1,900 weed-chomping cashmere goats. Malmberg, 49, a full-time traveling goat herder with a master’s degree in weed science, seeds the soil with native grasses before dispersing the goats to graze, fertilize, mulch and aerate the soil with their hooves.

first appeared: 5/28/2007

—Mark Nethercott, who teaches science at Star Valley High School in Afton (pop. 1,818), is the Wyoming Teacher of the Year for 2007. Nethercott has taught for 22 years, 14 of them at Star Valley High.

first appeared: 5/6/2007

—In 1951, J.D. Love of the U.S. Geological Survey discovered uranium deposits on outcrops near the Pumpkin Buttes area of the Powder River Basin, which is one of the largest uranium-producing regions in the nation. The most popular baby names in the state in 2005 were “Madison” for girls and “Jacob” for boys, based on applications filed with the Social Security Administration.

first appeared: 4/22/2007

—Poet, musician and writer David Romtvedt is the state’s poet laureate. Romtvedt, who lives in Buffalo (pop. 3,900), is the author of nine books of poetry and prose, including A Flower Whose Name I Do Not Know, which won the National Poetry Series Award in 1991. He also is a member of the musical group The Fireants, which has performed at schools, libraries and festivals throughout the state and region.

first appeared: 4/8/2007

—Newcastle (pop. 3,065) boasts of having the world’s only producing hand-dug oil well. Operated as the Accidental Oil Co., the well was created in 1966 when a rancher dug a hole more than 20 feet deep with a pick and shovel. An oil storage tank at the site has been turned into a gift shop. Greybull (pop. 1,815) and the nearby Greybull River were named for a legendary albino or gray buffalo considered sacred by American Indians.

first appeared: 3/25/2007

—Furniture designer Thomas Molesworth started the Shoshone Furniture Co. in Cody (pop. 8,835) in the 1930s, and from there popularized “cowboy furniture.” The style features peeled-pole furniture brightened by Indian weavings, stretched rawhide lampshades and leather-covered tables and chairs. Among his commissions were the Wyoming retreat of publishing magnate Moses Annenberg, Coca-Cola executive Robert Woodruff’s TE Ranch, originally owned by Buffalo Bill Cody, and even the Pennsylvania farmhouse of President Dwight Eisenhower.

first appeared: 3/11/2007

—Cheyenne (pop. 53,011) Botanic Gardens, Wyoming’s only public botanical garden, depends almost entirely on volunteers. From its roots in 1977 as a community garden and orchard, the garden has provided therapeutic activity to seniors, youth and handicapped volunteers.

first appeared: 2/27/2007

—Last October, Kit DesLauriers of Teton Village (pop. 175) became the first woman to ski down 29,035-foot Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. DesLauriers, who has won the Women’s World Freeskiing and U.S. Freeskiing titles, also became the first woman to ski the “seven summits”—the tallest peaks on each continent.

first appeared: 2/11/2007

—The C & H Refinery in Lusk (pop. 1,447) began petroleum distillation in 1933 with a capacity of 190 barrels a day. Though closed today, the refinery is intact and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

first appeared: 1/28/2007

Easterners may rely on that famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, to predict the coming of spring, but in Lander (pop. 6,867) the toothy bewhiskered meteorologist is a prairie dog named Lander Lil. Lore has it that if a groundhog sees his shadow on Feb. 2, he’ll crawl back in his den and winter will last another six weeks.

first appeared: 1/14/2007

—Lower Slide Lake near Kelly was formed in 1925 when the Gros Ventre landslide dumped huge amounts of sandstone, limestone, shale and rock across the Gros Ventre River, forming a dam. A portion of the dam gave way two years later, sending mud, rock and a wall of water cascading down the canyon, nearly destroying Kelly, seven miles north of Jackson (pop. 8,647).

first appeared: 12/17/2006

—Excelsior Geyser in the Midway Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park hasn’t had a major eruption since the 1880s, when a series of eruptions spewed water and steam up to 300 feet in the air, making it the largest geyser in the world. After nearly 100 years of inactivity, Excelsior sprang to life in 1985 spraying water about 75 feet skyward. Even when inactive, Excelsior still produces a huge runoff, about 4,500 gallons per minute, or 6 million gallons per day.

first appeared: 12/3/2006

A modern-day boomtown, Jeffrey City (pop. 106) sprang up in the 1950s to accommodate uranium miners during the Cold War and atomic bomb era. Today, it’s a virtual ghost town with school buildings, businesses and houses boarded up and antelope roaming the deserted streets.

first appeared: 12/3/2006

—Elsa Spear Byron picked up a Brownie camera at age 12 and snapped pictures for the next 80 years. In the process, she documented a vanishing way of life with her photographs of Crow Indians and ranchers. Byron was born in 1896 to one of Wyoming’s first ranch families in what is now Sheridan County (pop. 26,560). Her photographs are exhibited in the Sheridan County Museum.

first appeared: 11/19/2006

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