All posts by CavalrymanSteakhouse

Lottery Pattee

Lottery Pattee

There’s nothing worse than buying a ticket for a fake lottery!

In 1875, a man named William Pattee began a phony lottery-by-mail operation aptly named the “Wyoming Lottery.” Everybody loved it…but nobody won! After Congress made it a felony to swindle the public through the United States mail, Pattee came up with new schemes. The Laramie Sentinel’seditor Haford, who had originally enjoyed sizeable advertising proceeds from the lottery scam, called Pattee’s new investment ventures a “swindle.” Although arrested in his home state of New York for mail fraud in Wyoming, Pattee was never convicted.

In August 2014, the State of Wyoming instituted a real lottery branded as WyoLotto. Wyoming was the 44th state to create a lottery.

Learn more about Wyoming’s early-day phony lottery scam.

Lottery Ticket

Lottery Ticket

There’s nothing worse than buying a ticket for a fake lottery!

In 1875, a man named William Pattee began a phony lottery-by-mail operation aptly named the “Wyoming Lottery.” Everybody loved it…but nobody won! After Congress made it a felony to swindle the public through the United States mail, Pattee came up with new schemes. The Laramie Sentinel’seditor Haford, who had originally enjoyed sizeable advertising proceeds from the lottery scam, called Pattee’s new investment ventures a “swindle.” Although arrested in his home state of New York for mail fraud in Wyoming, Pattee was never convicted.

In August 2014, the State of Wyoming instituted a real lottery branded as WyoLotto. Wyoming was the 44th state to create a lottery.

Learn more about Wyoming’s early-day phony lottery scam.

Wilcox Train Robbery Baggage Car & Safe

Wilcox Train Robbery Baggage Car & Safe

Train robbers –possibly Butch Cassidy and his “Wild Bunch” –boarded an Overland Flyer train near Wilcox, Wyoming, blew up this safe and escaped with thousands of dollars!

The Wilcox train robbery occurred at 1:00 a.m. on June 2, 1899, near Wilcox, Wyoming, outside of Laramie. Masked men boarded the Overland Flyer, forced it to a halt and ordered the attendant to open the door. When he refused, the car and safe were blown up; the thieves escaped with $30,000.

The Sun-Leader reported that suspects were the Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy. On the other hand, the Wyoming Derrick reported that the culprits were George Curry and the Roberts brothers. Whomever they were, the authorities believed some of the robbers were heading for Hole in the Wall country in Central Wyoming. There, in a gunfight, Sheriff Joe Hazen was shot and killed, and the robbers escaped across the river.

Another train robbery occurred on August 29, 1900, when robbers seized $50,000 in gold from a Union Pacific train near Tipton, Wyoming. While the robberies were successful, they marked the beginning of the end for the “Wild Bunch.” In 1897, E.H. Harriman took over the railroad and its reconstruction. The special agents he hired, along with the modern communication of long distance telephone service that allowed the agents to trace gang member movements, proved to be the undoing of the gang.

Learn more about the Wilcox robbery and the undoing of the “Wild Bunch.” 

Resources

Elmer Lovejoy – Inventor Extraordinaire!

Lovejoy Garage Opener

Elmer Lovejoy of Laramie invented and manufactured the automatic garage door opener  for several years.

Elmer Lovejoy was a Laramie inventor and bicycle advocate whose inventions may be something you use even now.

Not only did he build bicycles in the late 1800s, he also invented the “steering knuckle,” which is still used in cars today.

“Elmer Lovejoy’s” is a local bar and grill named after him and is located at the corner of Grand Ave. and 1st Street.

Learn more about Elmer Lovejoy.

 

 

 

Bicycling in Laramie

Charlie Bristol & Sister SadieCharlie Bristol & Sister Sadie after a bicycle trip to Laramie.

When man first invented the wheel, who could have imagined he would have so much fun on two of them?

With the advent of the bicycle, people in Laramie loved the new form of transportation to travel through the flat terrain of the city.

Elmer Lovejoy built many bicycles in Laramie and early bicycle clubs.  The bicycle also played an important role in the Women’s Suffrage movement by allowing women greater access to personal freedom.

Today, Laramie is a center for mountain biking with nationally renowned mountain bicycling trails nearby in Curt Gowdy State Park.

Love Wyoming history?  Let us connect you!

 

Marilyn Kite Horseback Riding

Marilyn Kite Horseback Riding

Marilyn Kite horseback riding with friends in the Teton Mountain Range (Kite is fourth one in from left).

Marilyn S. Kite of Jackson, Wyoming was the first woman to serve on the Wyoming Supreme Court and as its chief justice.

Appointed by Republic Governor Jim Geringer, she was sworn into office in to become the first woman to serve on the Wyoming Supreme Court in June 2000 and the chief justice in July 2010. She retired in 2015.

Kite received her B.A. from the University of Wyoming in 1970 and her J.D. from the University of Wyoming Law School in 1974. She served as senior assistant attorney general for the State of Wyoming from 1974-1978. Kite entered into private practice with the law firm of Holland and Hart in 1970 and was a partner in the Jackson office until her appointment to the Supreme Court.

Learn more about Chief Justice Marilyn Kite.

Lynching of Con Wager, Asa Moore & Ned Wilson

Lynching of Con Wager, Asa Moore & Ned WilsonCon Wager, Asa Moore & Ned Wilson were lynched in 1868 by the “Committee of Vigilance.” The three had intimidated many ranchers to sign over the deeds to their ranches.

Asa “Ace” Moore, Con Wagner (a.k.a. Con Moore), and an individual known as “Big Ned” or “Big Ed” Bernard were hanged in 1868 for their part in unlawful and violent acts against area ranchers.

Their leader was “Big” Steve Long, a gunfighter who had been elected deputy marshal of Laramie during its early lawless days at a time when even the newly elected mayor and other government officials resigned within six weeks of each other in 1868.

Long was a violent man who intimidated, robbed and killed many honest men. He and Moyer and Wagner, owners of the Belle of the West Saloon– forced several ranchers to sign over the deeds to their ranches. Many who protested ended up dead, but with no witnesses to the crime.

Finally, N.K. Boswell, a local rancher and later the first sheriff of Albany County (1869), organized several other ranchers to conspire against the three. Their determination resulted in the hangings of Moyer, Wagner, “Big Ned” and eventually “Big” Steve.

Learn more about how the “Committee of Vigilance” brought Laramie back under control.

Wilcox Train Robbery

The Wilcox Robbery

Officials survey the damage to an Overland Flyer train car caused by an explosion that allowed train robbers to escape with $30,000. 

The Wilcox train robbery occurred at 1:00 a.m. on June 2, 1899, near Wilcox, Wyoming, outside of Laramie. Masked men boarded the Overland Flyer, forced it to a halt and ordered the attendant to open the door. When he refused, the car and safe were blown up; the thieves escaped with $30,000.

The Sun-Leader reported that suspects were the Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy. On the other hand, the Wyoming Derrick reported that the culprits were George Curry and the Roberts brothers. Whomever they were, the authorities believed some of the robbers were heading for Hole in the Wall country in Central Wyoming. There, in a gunfight, Sheriff Joe Hazen was shot and killed, and the robbers escaped across the river.

Another train robbery occurred on August 29, 1900, when robbers seized $50,000 in gold from a Union Pacific train near Tipton, Wyoming. While the robberies were successful, they marked the beginning of the end for the “Wild Bunch.” In 1897, E.H. Harriman took over the railroad and its reconstruction. The special agents he hired, along with the modern communication of long distance telephone service that allowed the agents to trace gang member movements, proved to be the undoing of the gang.

Learn more about the Wilcox robbery and the undoing of the “Wild Bunch.” 

Resources

Liver Eating Johnson

Liver Eating Johnson

John “Liver-Eating” Johnson was a mountain man of the American Old West. Legend has it that he would cut out and eat the liver of each man he killed.

Johnson served in the Mexican-American War and then set out to strike gold in Montana Territory.

The story goes that in 1847, a Crow brave and his fellow hunters killed Johnson’s wife, a member of the Flathead American Indian tribe. This Crow killed- a heinous insult because the Crow believed the liver to be vital if one was to go on to the afterlife.

Learn more about the legend of “Liver-Eating” Johnson. 

 

 

 

 

Trapper Knives

Knives

Typical trade knives used by the trappers were inexpensive to buy and were made with some of the best steel of the day, namely from the Sheffield area of England.

Trappers used knives for everything from skinning a beaver or buffalo, to eating, to cutting hides for clothing and even doing some surgery on a wound.

Typical trade knives used by the trappers were inexpensive to buy and were made with some of the best steel of the day, namely from the Sheffield area of England including the I. Wilson and Green River Company.

Learn more about the “tools of the trade” used by trappers and mountain men.