Wyoming Trivia & Tidbits - Page 6

The Piedmont Charcoal Kilns in Uinta County (pop. 19,742) were built in the late 1800s to process charcoal used in mining smelters. The area's 40 kilns produced an estimated 100,000 bushels of charcoal per month in 1873. Today, three of the conical limestone kilns remain.

The state is launching a five-year, $8.8 million project to "seed" clouds with silver iodide in an effort to increase snowfall. Researchers will measure runoff from melting snow in places such as the Wind River, Medicine Bow and Sierra Madre mountains to assess whether cloud seeding can be used to manage water resources, especially in dry regions.

Known as the "world’s oldest cabin," the Fossil Cabin near Medicine Bow (pop. 274) was built in the early 1930s from more than 5,000 fossilized dinosaur bones. The bones came from the nearby Como Bluff site, from which more than a dozen dinosaur skeletons were excavated in the late 1800s.

In 2004, bareback rider Kelly Timberman, who hails from Mills (pop. 2,591), set a single-season earnings record—$225,181—in the rodeo event and won his first world title at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Timberman had another excellent season last year, finishing second in the world standings for bareback riding, with winnings of $167,835.

Custer the Coyote is the official mascot of the Wyoming Cavalry professional indoor football team based in Casper (pop. 49,644). Named best mascot in the Pacific Conference in 2005, Custer lists "Who Let the Dogs Out" as his favorite song and Dances with Wolves as his favorite movie.

The state built its governor’s mansion in Cheyenne (pop. 53,011) in 1904, at a cost of $33,253, including the lot, landscaping and furnishings. Nineteen of the state’s governors lived in the house, which was used until a new governor’s residence was built in 1976. The original mansion recently underwent a $1 million restoration and is now a museum.

About 165 million years ago, a two-legged dinosaur with three toes on each foot waded into an inland sea in northern Wyoming—near the present-day Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area east of Lovell (pop. 2,281). Researchers recently identified the dinosaur’s tracks, which show full footprints gradually becoming more shallow as the animal moved into deeper water.

Wyoming’s record high temperature was set July 12, 1900, at Basin (pop. 1,238), when the mercury rose to 114 degrees. The state’s lowest temperature, minus 66 degrees, was recorded at Riverside Ranger Station in Yellowstone National Park on Feb. 9, 1933.

Lightning sparked a series of forest fires in Yellowstone National Park in May 1988, with a hot summer later allowing flames to sweep across some 793,000 acres, more than one third of the park. On Sept. 11, 1988, the season’s first snow began to calm the flames, but the fires weren’t extinguished until two months later.

One of the state’s tallest manmade structures is the LORAN-C facility antenna near Gillette (pop. 19,646). Owned by the U.S. Coast Guard, the 700-foot tower is part of a global marine navigation network, and is used specifically by ships on the Great Lakes. LORAN stands for LOng RAnge Navigation; originally a military application, the civilian version was developed in the 1950s.

MISS WYOMING 2006—Heather Nicole Jackelen earned her college degree in criminal justice from the University of Wyoming and has plans to enroll in law school. But what’s also important to her is raising awareness of educating deaf youngsters. Jackelen is a talented dancer, but it was her sign-language performance of Martina’s McBride’s hit "Concrete Angel" that helped her win the state pageant title. The Rock Springs (pop. 18,708) native also is a gifted athlete who competed in a variety of college sports, including women’s rugby.

The Union Pacific Railroad rolled into Evanston (pop. 11,507) in 1868, adding passenger and maintenance buildings over the next several decades, including a depot, station and two roundhouses. More than a century later, the Union Pacific presented its depot to the city, which restored it for use as a community center. Today, the depot is part of the Evanston’s historic downtown district. The Wyoming Honor Farm, a minimum-security prison near Riverton (pop. 9,310), is well-known for its Wild Horse Program, operated in partnership with the federal Bureau of Land Management. As part of their rehabilitation, inmates work with horses rounded up from BLM land, taking them through a four-level training process before the federal agency auctions them to the public.

Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez star in the recently released movie An Unfinished Life, based on the novel of the same name by Mark Spragg, of Cody (pop. 8,835). Spragg worked with his wife, Virginia, to write the screenplay as he was writing the book, which centers on the theme of forgiveness and is set in Wyoming.

Born in 1937 in Rock Springs (pop. 18,708) and raised in Cheyenne (pop. 53,011), receiver Boyd Dowler was drafted by the Green Bay Packers football team in 1959. In 1963, Dowler had 53 receptions for 901 yards and six touchdowns. He earned two Super Bowl rings (in 1967 and 1968) with the Packers and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 1978. He now works as a college scout for the Atlanta Falcons.

Cowboy Kevin McNiven, who grew up in Star Valley, in northern Lincoln County, is known as Wyoming’s singing cowboy ambassador. A longtime horseman, McNiven also is a world champion yodeler and works on movies, commercials and documentaries, assisting with horses and background settings. The first of his music CDs is titled It’s Wyoming and features songs about the state.

Commercial extraction of coal began in Wyoming in 1869, after the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad. In 2004, 400 million tons of were extracted from Wyoming mines, a level that maintains the state as the nation’s top coal producer. Today, 10 giant mines in the state produce about 40 percent of the nation’s supply.

Milward Simpson (1897-1993) is reported to be the only person in the University of Wyoming’s history to have captained the football, basketball and baseball teams. Born in Jackson (pop. 8,647), he chose Harvard Law School over major league baseball and went on to serve as state governor from 1955 to 1959, and in the U.S. Senate from 1962 to 1967. He was the father of Alan Kooi Simpson, who also served as a U.S. senator from 1979 to 1997.

Ten years ago, a group of AARP members in Cheyenne (pop. 53,011) launched the first National Senior Spelling Bee for people age 50 and up. During this year’s bee, California attorney Dave Riddle earned first place among 21 participants by spelling "ptosis," which is a medical condition. Competitors face both written and oral spelling tests.

The Bighorn Basin in northern Wyoming is bordered by the Absaroka Range to the west, the Bighorn Mountains to the east and the Owl Creek Mountains to the south. John Colter explored the region in 1807, and Jim Bridger, in 1864—when he blazed the Bridger Trail, which connected the Oregon Trail with the gold fields of Montana.

Founded in 1896 and named for the Bighorn Basin, Basin (pop. 1,238) also is known as the Lilac City, after a 1936 lilac planting campaign ensured that the community’s streets were lined with the fragrant, blossoming shrubs.