By Phil Roberts.
The decades of the 1960s through the 1980s marked a maturation of public interest in Wyoming history. In 1951 Wyoming laws designated a state agency, the Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department, to foster such interest.[1] In fact, by statute, the agency was required to “Promote the founding and development of a state historical society and of county historical societies.”[2]
Two years after the legislature created the department, its first director, Lola Homsher, called a meeting in Casper during which the Wyoming State Historical Society was formed.[3] Such an organization, a non-profit statewide society with chapters organized on a county basis, seemed designed at the outset as a support group for preserving state history and, by implication, to aid the State Archives and Historical Department. In fact, the law creating the department required it to establish and promote such an organization, not as a branch under the department’s absolute control, but as a non-profit volunteer group.
In the organizational chart of State government, the Department director was not answerable to the governor, but to a gubernatorial-appointed board, members chosen from each of the state’s appointment/judicial districts and one selected at-large. The board was abolished with state reorganization in the early 1990s, but throughout the board’s existence, governors commonly appointed Society members to it. Even though some governors were frustrated with the structure, the Board had direct oversight over the Department, including the authority to hire and fire its director.[4]
The Society’s constitution specified that the department director also serve as Society executive secretary.[5] Later, state legislation also designated such a combined role. Throughout her tenure, Homsher fostered close ties between the state agency and the Society. In fact, the record suggests she considered the Society as the “friends group” for the state agency.
Homsher left the directorship of the Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department a dozen years later in the fall of 1965. Her successors in that position continued to forge a close relationship of Society and agency. Each director served as Society executive secretary, albeit sometimes more in title than in actual practice.[6] Because the two positions were directly tied by legislation, resignation as director meant also stepping down as Society executive secretary. That ex officio legal tie also remained in force for the next 30 years.[7]
While in most cases, the Society did not benefit exclusively from the state agency’s projects, the Department’s state funding frequently aided Society activities and furthered their mutual aims.[8] The Department continued to publish Annals of Wyoming, as it had been required to do by legislation since its formation.[9] Annals already had been published, off and on, for a quarter century when the department was created. Publication duties were shifted to the Department with volume 24, number 1. From that point until her resignation 12 years later, Homsher was listed as the editor although much of the routine work was done by staff members. Department personnel in its Historical Research and Publications division copyedited the Annals articles, worked with a Lusk printer holding the production contract, and prepared the labels for mailing.[10] When the Society was established, “membership of the Society became the mailing list for Annals, with each member receiving the magazine as a benefit of membership.”[11]
Also, after the Society was formed, Homsher started publication of Wyoming History News, essentially a newsletter, usually of four pages, to keep Society members current as to both Department and Society activities. Until the late 1980s, department personnel wrote and edited most of the stories for the newsletter.[12]
They also wrote popular newspaper columns syndicated to Wyoming papers, provided history programs not only to history groups, but for civic and educational organizations.[13] That division of the Department instituted the Wyoming History Calendar and published numerous books and pamphlets promoting state history.[14] The first book published by the department was Gordon Chappell, Summer Helmets of the U. S. Army, 1875-1910, in 1975, based on a lengthy article that appeared initially in Annals.[15] Later books were not expanded articles, but published from manuscript. The first of these was Robert L. Munkres, Saleratus and Sagebrush: The Oregon Trail through Wyoming.[16]
Publications was an area where some overlap occurred because, while the Department’s publication agenda was well established by the 1980s, the Society also initiated a publications program, primarily to publish county histories commissioned from historians in various counties.[17] An example of a successful joint project was Peopling the High Plains: Wyoming’s European Heritage. Essays in the book on various ethnic groups were written by historians, several of them affiliated with either the Department, the Society or both.[18]
Sometimes lines of authority for book projects were not clearly drawn. On occasion, questions arose as to which entity was the lead book underwriter on a particular project. One example is noted in Library, Archives and Historical Board minutes in January 1981. Department Director/Executive Secretary Michael Boyle reported to the board that an individual had submitted a county history, presumably to the Department, and it apparently had been accepted for publication by his predecessor, Vincent P. Foley. Society members working on a project to publish county histories thought the manuscript was sent for Society publication. Boyle said there was “some confusion as to whether or not Foley promised [the author] as the department director or as executive secretary of the Society.”[19]
The archives division managed state government records and microfilmed back issues of nearly every existing Wyoming newspaper. Editors furnishing copies for microfilming of their current newspapers received Annals as a free exchange. Thus, not only did the Department add to its newspaper holdings, it gained additional valuable connections with the state’s print media.[20]
The State Museum mounted exhibits for its own galleries as well as for interpretive museums at state sites.[21] The Department and Society co-sponsored colloquia and from the materials generated, circulated exhibits based on the research. One of the most successful focused on Wyoming’s home-front activities during World War II. The cooperative venture resulted in a well-attended conference, followed by exhibits mounted for display at the State Museum. The project culminated in a publication. The Society’s publications committee reprinted Wyoming’s War Years, 1941-45, written by T. A. Larson and originally published by Stanford University Press in 1954, but long out of print.[22]
The Department’s photographic collection was extensive, including the thousands of glass-plates made by Cheyenne photographer J. E. Stimson. Local Society chapters often sought images from the Department for various projects or publications, but they also provided tips on where to locate obscure images in private hands and helped set up venues for the Department’s photographic section to increase its holdings. For instance, joint projects in the early 1980s brought previously unavailable photographs from private citizens in Sublette County to be copied for preservation in the State collections.[23]
The Department’s reading room contained the most complete collection of Wyoming newspapers on microfilm existing anywhere. In those times before digitization, scholars and writers descended on the half dozen microfilm readers or wrote letters to the Department, asking for photocopies or specifics from various collections. Department historians answered hundreds of such inquiries per month, ranging from genealogists or lay people curious about frontier characters to motion picture companies seeking materials for future film projects.[24]
Not only did agency historians provide research for genealogists and local historians, but also interpretation for signs and brochures at state historic sites.[25] In 1987, the legislature assigned the department control over historic preservation, sole management of many state sites, and authority over most state historic signage.[26]
Department employees conducted oral history workshops to help local chapter members do their own oral history interviews. The Department’s collection was augmented by numerous oral histories recorded by the Department’s oral historian, often aided by Society members located in the communities in which the interviews were made.[27]
These close connections had been well known and the symbiotic ties were obvious both to Society members and to officials in state government throughout the period.[28] What was not appreciated, however, is that when the state historical agency from which the Society had sprung, lost its independence as a state entity under the direction of its own governing board, the Society lost its utility to state government officials.
The Society had been cherished for its value in lobbying for department causes and providing much-needed volunteers to further the agency’s legal commitment.[29] But that was when the Archives and Historical Department had power and independence within state government to determine its own goals. By the early 1990s, individuals within the agency continued to dedicate time (even on a volunteer basis) to Society programs, but the new leadership of the “super-agency” had no appreciation nor interest in history matters. Inevitably, state government turned on the Society that had supported its history activities for decades.
Prior to that point, with the aid of its “friends group” supporting appropriations requests and helping lobby for new attention to Wyoming’s history needs, the Department (renamed Archives, Museums and Historical Department in 1979) enjoyed significant support from Wyomingites and legislators.[30] On rare occasions, some friction developed between the Department and the Society, but those spats seemed driven more by personality or between Society chapter officers and State Museum or Archives personnel rather than by conflicting policy objectives between the segment of the state agency housing the Society’s “executive headquarters”—the Historical Research and Publications division or the executive secretary.[31]
Internally, the Department seemed to be constantly roiling with internal dissension and battles for power with other state agencies.[32] Many of these internal issues within the department could be attributed to the organizational structure initiated by Lola Homsher. The direct management came, not from the director, but from division chiefs of the Archives, Historical Research and Publications, and Museum divisions. The former two divisions had chiefs with long tenures, Julia Yelvington in Archives and Katherine Halverson in Historical. They made all hires within their divisions and carefully guarded each division’s prerogatives. The Museum division had a succession of chiefs, but each was a strong personality not deferring to his senior chiefs in the other divisions. After Homsher’s tenure as director, the directors continued to hold the title of executive secretary of the WSHS, but the day-to-day liaison work with the Society usually fell on Halverson, the Historical Research and Publications division head, or her successors and other personnel in that division.
As the 1980s came to an end, increasing consolidation of history functions (some drawn from other state agencies) and a new status within a larger agency, put the Department initially into a strong position. One could hardly imagine that in a few short years, protracted controversies would leave the Department diminished and divided, having to face the wrath of what had once been its closest allies, members of the Wyoming State Historical Society.
If one looked at the historical record of Department and Society relations during this period (1965-1994), by all appearances, one could believe the Society was little more than an arm of the state agency, the Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department, from which it had been created. But glancing at any organizational chart, one could have incorrectly assumed that support came only one way—from the department to the Society. Formally, for instance, the department essentially underwrote and even seemed to direct many Society activities as well as providing a history journal and a newsletter.[33] The agency served as the repository for Society papers and accepted donations of artifacts and documents from individuals ear-marked as being given to the Society. Department personnel often helped with the coordination and logistics for treks and annual meetings.[34]
The Department maintained the Society’s mailing list. It employed a secretary who had the responsibility for keeping the records current and informing the Society’s annually elected officers as to their duties and the role of the Executive Secretary, the only permanent officer in the Society’s hierarchy.[35]
Society officers were elected for one-year terms, but rarely were the offices contested, except for second vice president. The successful candidate for that position usually moved up to first vice president the following year and then to organization president the year after that. While it provided for a measure of continuity, in reality, the election process surrendered extensive oversight authority over policy measures to the executive secretary who was also department director.
Membership in the Society was not exclusive. All that was required of “membership” was payment of the annual membership fee.[36] Indeed, individuals could join any of the local chapters or only the State Society. Membership during this 30-year period ranged from about 1,200 to 2,100, mostly residents of Wyoming.[37]
While Department aid to the Society was obvious, unfortunately, the crucial support role the Society provided to the Department was rarely expressed formally. Those reciprocal contributions, to anyone unfamiliar with the history of the relationship, could be overlooked or badly misunderstood. However, nearly every Society officer and most department directors clearly understood how one organization was dependent on the other.
The association between the Society and department was made very obvious after Homsher’s departure. A department employee, Paul Edwards, served briefly as interim director, but the Library, Archives and Historical Board hired Neal Miller as the second permanent director.[38] The WSHS president in 1964-65, Miller became not only director of the Archives and Historical Department but, by statute, also was handed the duties as WSHS executive secretary.[39] The new director/executive secretary did not come to the position with any formal history education or management background. He came, not from the Department, but from the Society. A former auditor for the Rawlins office of the Employment Security Commission, Miller essentially was hired because he had served as Society president over the previous year. That role gave him familiarity with how the Society could continue to be an effective lobbying arm for his new agency. His hiring signaled how important the board must have believed the WSHS had become with respect to the Department’s work.
The first issue of History News published under Miller’s direction hinted at the symbiotic relationship between the agency and Society. Most of the issue focused on Society news, but a brief article on the back page listed the names of donors to the State Museum and the Historical Division of the Archives and Historical Department.[40]
By the next issue, however, the agency’s stewardship over the Society became even more obvious. In that issue of the newsletter, news about the department was interspersed with items dealing exclusively with the Society. The front-page stories included news of a new exhibit at the State Museum and efforts by the Society’s Sheridan County chapter to save Sheridan Inn. The back page was given over to a listing of all new Society members (34 in-state individuals and couples; just five from out of state; 15 new institutional members in Wyoming and eight from outside of the state). This mix of news about department projects and Society activities continued throughout the period, well beyond Miller’s service as department director/Society executive secretary.[41]
The flag for Wyoming History News, first used soon after both the department and Society were founded, also reflected the close relationship between the Society and the agency. During Miller’s first year, under the publication title, History News, was the official seal of the WSHS. To the right under the title was a photograph of the State office building with a caption below it stating it was the structure housing the State Archives and Historical Department and the “Headquarters” of the WSHS. The Society officers were listed below the Society’s seal with Miller listed as executive secretary.[42]
Most of the rest of the issue contained news specific to the Society. Front page news included a story about a new exhibit at the State Museum and a call for help to save the Sheridan Inn. A brief article noted the names of donors to the Museum and Historical Divisions of the Archives and Historical Department.[43]
A single paragraph written in that March issue by Miller noted the simultaneous resignation of Henryetta Berry at the same time Homsher resigned. “Her able help in both the Society and the Department will be greatly missed.” He wrote that he appreciated the “fine cooperation and continuing assistance” provided to him by both women.[44] Homsher was honored again later that year. In September, the Department announced that a “reserve room” had been set up in Homsher’s honor. “The room, to be open to qualified researchers and historians, will be established within the Archives and Historical Department.”[45]
Throughout the decades, the department worked with the Society to plan and promote the Society’s annual meetings.[46] For most years, trek highlights and papers presented at various stops, often by Society members, were published in Annals of Wyoming.[47] While treks were open to all wishing to pay the nominal fee, listings included at the end of each trek showed that most participants were Society members.[48] The Society president’s message to the membership and lists of winners of Society awards often were included in annual meeting reports published in Annals.[49] Even though county chapters were expected to organize the annual meetings, the agendas often were prepared by the Executive Secretary. With respect to Society annual awards, announcement letters and invitations to the awards banquet came from the Executive Secretary.[50]
Throughout each year, the department called on Society members to help seek out donations for the State Museum collections.[51] The Historical Research and Publications division offered books and other publications for sale. In 1966, for example, the division was selling photocopies of the seven topographic maps of the Fremont expedition.[52] Throughout the years, the Department promoted its publications at Society events and, sometimes, the two organizations shared co-publication efforts.[53]
During the annual meeting in September 1969, Miller (wearing his hat as Archives and Historical Department director) told the Society that the legislature had authorized establishment of a state art gallery. Some art works from the state collection became the basis for it, but Miller said, “…since no appropriation was issued with the responsibility, funds are needed to buy works of art that come to the Department’s attention.”[54]
Two years earlier (1967), just as Miller’s second year as the department director began, the State Historic Preservation Office was created through federal legislation. The department newsletter confidently predicted that the establishment of SHPO would “have a substantial effect on much of the work of the [Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department] once it is funded and the participating agency is named on the state level.” Probably alarming to department personnel, however, was the concluding statement that: “To date no participating agency in Wyoming has been designated.”[55]
The law allowed each state to place the office in any agency it might choose. In the case of Wyoming, SHPO went to the newly created Wyoming Recreation Commission.[56] In a guest column in the September 1967 issue of Wyoming History News, WRC historian Ned Frost tried to minimize the blow to the already-existing historical agency: “The WRC’s presence should prove a boon to historic development. Money and manpower is available for maintenance, new projects and local assistance. Working in cooperation with the older Department, the long-sought continuous and disciplined unfolding and presentation of Wyoming’s unique historic wealth appears within reach.”[57]
Two years later, the WRC won authority over a location that would have seemed to be within the province of the State Archives and Historical Department. In the early 1960s, the parks commission (predecessor agency to the WRC) was unsuccessful in buying South Pass City, even though the 1963 legislature appropriated $50,000 for the purpose.[58]
When the matter came to the attention of the 75th Anniversary Commission (a temporary agency created to coordinate statehood celebrations with most board members holding Society membership[59]), it gained the strong support of the historical department, the Wyoming Federation of Women’s Clubs and the State Historical Society. All lobbied for state purchase of South Pass City.[60] When the legislature failed to act on the purchase, the 75th Anniversary Commission allocated its excess funds on May 13, 1966, to buy the site for $25,000, expending additional monies for upkeep and repair.[61] The following year, the legislature acquiesced to the purchase.[62]
The commission’s purchase and resulting political controversy over the action may have influenced the Society’s decision to establish the Wyoming State Historical Foundation in May 1967.[63] Chairman Ed Bille, Casper, told History News that the foundation would be better positioned to accept financial donations and fund special projects than from the Society itself. Other members of the initial Foundation board were: Edness Kimball Wilkins, Casper; T. A. Larson, Laramie; Alice Messick, Douglas; Thomas Nicholas, Casper, and Glenn Sweem, Sheridan. [64]
The close ties between the Society and Department continued after Miller’s departure as director in 1970. His successor, William H. Williams, became the first Department director with dual responsibility as State Librarian, a position he retained until the board decided to split the two positions in 1978.[65] He was followed as AMH Director/Society Executive Secretary by Vincent P. Foley (1978-1980), Dr. Michael Boyle (1981-82), Dr. Robert Bush (1982-87) and, finally, by another director with very close ties to the Society, Dr. David Kathka, who served even after the AMH became a division of a larger agency. Kathka, like Miller, had served as WSHS President, but unlike Miller, Kathka was superbly qualified for the post. He held a Ph.D. in history from the University of Missouri, had taught history at the college level, and brought to the position administrative experience as dean of academic affairs and acting president of Western Wyoming College.[66]
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, History News continued to print a fairly equal number of articles on Society business and on Department activities. The contents of Wyoming History News during the period demonstrate the thorough integration of Department and Society activities. For example, the January, 1973, issue, to an outsider, would have seemed a confusing mixture of stories about the Society and the Department. The featured long story on page 2 was about the Governor’s Mansion (still home at the time to the state’s chief executive) added to the National Register of Historic Places. A second article described “living history” demonstrations at Fort Bridger State Historic Site. Noting the Society’s 20th anniversary, editor Katherine Halverson wrote: “A 1973 Society membership approaching 1,200 and a Wyoming History News which is double in size, and a much more sophisticated printed publication, are, in part, evidence of the sound growth and development of the Society in 20 years.”[67]
The emphasis between Society-Department functions sometimes seemed to shift, depending on personalities, but also on the level of activity within each organization. While the January, 1973, issue of History News demonstrated a balance, the next History News veered toward exclusive coverage of Department news. The front page of the March 1973, issue included notice that the State Museum had earned national accreditation, listed the hours for all state historical sites in another article and announced that a “Fort Fetterman Historical Society” had been formed. Inside, a long story was about Buffalo Bill Dam being added to the National Register, and new exhibits opening at the State Museum. To cap it off, on the second page was a position vacancy announcement for a museum registrar at the State Museum.[68]
The next issue, published in July, again accentuated the ties of Society and Department. The front page story on the “Oregon Trail Trek Held July 14-15” emphasized that the treks had been “sponsored since June 1953, by the Wyoming State Historical Society and the Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department.” (p. 1). A story on the second page implied that Society lobbying may have influenced a positive legislative result for the Department. The article pointed out: “New Vault Approved for Archives and Records Division” by the 1973 Legislature, noting that the vault would be important protection for the Department’s “$600,000 microfilm collection.”[69]
The Society regularly provided funds to benefit Department activities. For example, in 1982 and 1983, the Society gave money to fund the Department’s summer interns.[70] The Society also helped the Sheridan County chapter transfer Trail End to the State in 1982-83 as a state historic site, to be administered by the Department.
The relationship between any executive secretary and board officers demonstrated how dependent the Society often was—but also how significant Society projects were for the benefit of the Department. At least one director, Vincent P. Foley, seemed not to understand what the Society could bring to the department—and it proved to be his undoing.
Appointed director in 1978 by the Library, Archives and Historical Board, his relations as Society’s executive secretary never were smooth. In June 1980, the conflict between Foley and the Society board boiled over when the board discovered that the executive secretary had refused to provide a membership list to the Custer Battlefield, claiming the executive committee had barred him from doing so.[71]
A rancorous exchange between Foley and Bill Bragg, Society 1st Vice President and a Wyoming legislator, began when Bragg criticized the action that Bragg claimed mis-stated the WSHS position. When Foley accused Bragg of not understanding the issue, Bragg criticized Foley for not consulting with the Society or even seeking out its lobbying help. Foley responded by complimenting Bragg for carrying the department’s budget and getting essentially all that the department sought, but he said of the Society: “I’m in a very touchy political situation down in Cheyenne. I really can’t—because of the two hats I wear—ask the SOCIETY to support us in the budget directly. And I really do mean that.” Foley later added that he’d been called in by the governor who told him not to ever sic the historical society on him. “I can’t give you the exact verbiage because it contains a lot of profanity.” Bragg, not satisfied with the answer, emphasized that as Society executive secretary, Foley was not accountable to the governor.[72]
As possible confirmation of the Society’s influence over agency personnel, in late August 1980, Foley resigned as director and Katherine Halverson retired as division head of Historical Research and Publications. As in-coming Society president, Bragg, who seemed to express Society feelings about Foley’s unfitness as director/executive secretary, was not pleased to read about Foley’s resignation in the Casper paper. “Bill is concerned about the fact that the Society members are the last to know anything that is going on and they have to find out from the newspapers,” the Society coordinator wrote to the new director.[73]
Later Library, Archives and Historical boards and directors did not overlook the Society’s value for lobbying help—something the department employees, like all other state workers, was barred from doing directly. In January, 1981, the Library, Archives and Historical Board considered items relating to the Society.[74] They discussed how legislators might be provided with more information about the Department’s activities. Board member June Casey suggested that the board see about the possibility of making “members of the legislature honorary society members.”[75] No action was taken, but AMH Director Dr. Michael Boyle said he would discuss such matters with the Society in his capacity as executive secretary later in the year. A board member asked about the forthcoming appropriations process. Director Boyle responded that the process was going to be different this year—“a committee member would be assigned an agency and go directly to them [and] report back his findings to the committee of the whole.”
Boyle noted he already had met with the appropriations committee member assigned to the department: Rep. T. A. Larson. Larson, who had retired from UW four years earlier, was serving in the legislature from Albany County. Fortuitous for the department and Society perhaps, Larson had been one of the Society founders, a former WSHS president, and long-time advocate for Society programs.[76] For perhaps the first time, in the critical area of appropriations, the department did not have to rely exclusively on their allies within the WSHS for lobbying legislators as it had in the past. Larson’s influence is hard to measure, but in a report to the board in September of that year, Boyle reported that the department’s $4.4 million budget had been increased for the biennium by almost $1.2 million from the previous biennium.[77]
Not only did Society members serve as volunteer lobbyists in support of the Department, frequently, the Society itself passed resolutions urging legislative action on various items. In 1983 the Society passed a motion offered by Frank Bowron, Society member and also a board member of the Library, Archives and Historical Board. The motion called for “transfer of the State Historic Preservation Officer and all acquisition, development and administrative responsibilities of historic sites, monuments and markers” to the AMH Department. “The Society feels that this should be a high priority item for passage by the Wyoming State Legislature.”[78]
In 1982, Boyle resigned as director to accept a position in the U. S. Department of State. After protracted discussion, the board hired Dr. Robert Bush as the new director. When Society President Clara Jensen appeared before the board in January 1983, she was asked if she had any comments. She said that “the facts the Governor was getting concerning the agencies [AMH and WRC] were gossip dating from six months to a year ago.” When a board member asked her if the reason for some of the gossip was due to enemies made by Foley, Boyle’s predecessor, Jensen replied, “Yes.” But she added: “The Society has loyalty to AMH….”[79] Earlier, Mrs. Jensen told the Society in her President’s Report: “…the AMH has done everything to make it possible for the Historical Society to operate with every knowledge they have ever since she has been president of this organization. The department has leaned over backward to get things done that they have needed….”[80] Similar sentiments were expressed by Society presidents in later years. For example, Ellen Mueller “reiterated how much she has appreciated working with the staff in Cheyenne and how much help they have been to her and to the Society.”[81]
Yet, despite the close associations, Society officers occasionally reminded the Department that the WSHS was not one of its appendages. “The Society is totally independent from AMH, not accountable to anyone but their board, however, they love the assistance they get from AMH,” Society President Fern Gaensslen said to the AMH Board in 1984.[82]
Probably the most successful of the cooperative projects was the Wyoming History Day program initiated with joint support of the Society and Department in 1980. The Society funded the program in the early years. Dr. Robert Bush told the Society membership at the 1982 Annual Meeting: “[H]e has spoken with his AMH Board and they agree with him that the program is very worthwhile. …However, the AMH Dept will not be able to include this item in their budget until the next budget session of the legislature. He will ask the WSHS underwrite the costs of the program, and his Dept will do the planning, publicity and clerical work, until such a time as it can be included in their budget. With close cooperation, it can be worked out.”[83]
In the following annual meeting, Bill Barton, the head of the Historical Research division who succeeded Halverson in 1980, said he’d like to “go on record as saying the department as a whole is grateful for the support of the WSHS and as the board is aware, they are funding the History Day program in Wyoming.”[84]
Into the early 1990s, the Society continued to provide the financial support for the program while the Department provided administrative help. During those years, a succession of Department employees (including Dona Bachman and Linda Fabian) worked on History Day. The longest sustaining administration of the program came from Society member and Department employee, Rick Ewig, who also accompanied the students winning state competition to the national contest in Washington, D. C.[85] Ewig pointed out in 1987 that the Society had “been a co-sponsor of this project for five years, but has not contributed actual money for the past two years.” He noted that the “project needs the stability which a definite commitment from the Society would provide.” Ewig continued: “With the State budget being continually reduced, funding for staff travel and postage are becoming more and more difficult. The Society has always had a policy of encouraging young persons who are interested in history and has awarded young historian monetary amounts for many years. History Day is a logical project for the Society to support.”[86] The Society voted to appropriate money for 1988 and to commit monies from a trust, established through the donation of Lola Homsher, for continuing support in later years.[87]
Minutes from the 35th Annual Meeting in 1988 demonstrate the continuing cooperation between Society and Department. In his report as executive secretary, Dr. David Kathka “reported that there were some concerns on problems with donated collections and individual articles in museums around the state. The AMH Department is looking at the possibility of legislation for setting up a process for establishing title to articles in the various museums.”[88]
Two other department employees spoke that year to the Society membership. Judy West, Society coordinator, reported that membership stood at 2,145, “with members in 40 states…. and nine foreign countries.”[89] Jean Brainerd, Historical Research and Publications Division, reported on the progress of Annals and Wyoming History News, and “on other publications available through that division.”[90]
Later, in the same meeting, “State Society member and Public Information Officer for the AMH Department,” Linda Rollins, “thanked the county chapters and individual Society members for their legislative backing….” Mary Nielsen, the WSHS president, “also thanked the Legislative Committee for their help and support during the legislative session.”[91] Jim Beahm, an employee of the Museums Division of the AMH Department, “thanked Converse County [chapter] for their help in keeping Fort Fetterman open with the use of their county volunteers.”[92]
At the end of the 1980s, the scope of the Society’s support for history programs throughout state government and beyond was illustrated in the report issued by the Society’s Goals Committee. Chaired by Loren Jost, the Goals Committee set forth a three-page “Statement of Purpose” to “serve as a guide for members and officers in the development of the Society.” [93] The committee report listed 12 broad areas where the Society should have a role. Some involved internal operations (better communication among chapters) while others advocated for Society support for use of history in tourism.[94]
The list was an example of how extensive the Society’s interests had moved over its existence, but nonetheless, there was one item that may have easily come from the days of Lola Homsher. The 11th item on the list demonstrated the desire for continued support to “state agencies involved in promotion, interpretation, preservation of Wyoming history.” Under that heading were the following: “a. Financial support; b. Recognize public employees’ contribution to promoting Wyoming history and express appreciation; c. Encourage individuals to express support of agencies that support history by contacting decision makers.”[95]
Before many of the goals could be acted on by the Society, State government was reorganized and the state’s economy continued to suffer from a prolonged recession. By the fall of 1990, the Board was still the Library, Archives, Museums and Historical Board, but the hierarchy within what had been the Department had changed. Previously answerable to the Board directly, Kathka was now “State Historian” and under the authority of the Director of the Department of Commerce, Max Maxfield. Nevertheless, he was still listed as “executive secretary” of the Society.
At the annual meeting in the following year (1991), “Dave Kathka reported that a number of positions have been cut from the department along with reduced operating costs due to the state budget cuts.”[96] The meeting minutes contain many committee reports, but there is no evidence of a “legislative committee.”
In the winter 1992, the Library, Archives, Museums and Historical Board no longer existed. The new governing board over the newly reorganized Department (now a part of a larger agency), was now named the Wyoming Parks and Cultural Resources Commission.[97] The masthead of Annals of Wyoming showed the chain of authority. The first name on the list was Mike Sullivan, governor; next was Max Maxfield, Director of the Department of Commerce; and below his name was Dave Kathka, listed simply as “State Historian”.[98] He still served as the Society’s executive secretary.
By the summer of 1993, Kathka was identified as Parks and Cultural Resources “Division Chief”.[99] He continued as Society executive secretary, but at the annual meeting that fall, he reported as State employee that the Department, now a division in Commerce, had lost a number of positions. In all, he calculated that 44 park and sites part-time positions had been lost.[100] The Society apparently discussed passing a motion protesting the move, but clearly, its role likely would have no impact.
Nonetheless, a year later (1994), in her President’s Annual Report to the membership at the annual meeting, Sally Vanderpoel was up-beat about Society accomplishments. “The single dark cloud on the horizon of the Society is the unsettling news of the resignation of Executive Secretary, Dr. David Kathka. David has guided the agenda and the officers of the Society through the years with good humor and inventive ideas.”[101]
At the same annual meeting, Kathka submitted a proposed amendment to Article III of the Society’s constitution relating to the executive secretary’s post, a feature in the constitution since the Society’s formation. He suggested it now read: “Section 3. The Executive Secretary of the Society shall be an employee of the division of Parks and Cultural Resources designated by the Director of the Department of Commerce in consultation with the Executive Committee of the WSHS. The Executive Secretary shall have a graduate degree in history.”[102] The amendment passed.[103]
The following paragraph appeared in the minutes of the annual meeting for 1994:
The society has an interest in who will be appointed director of the Parks and Cultural Resources Division of the Department of Commerce following the election in November. The executive secretary of the Wyoming State Historical Society comes from that division. The society needs to talk to the candidates to get their ideas as to appointments for this position. Dave [Kathka] recommended a change in the by-laws [sic] that will recommend the director or, at least, the head of the section that deals with historical things have a historical background. The Department of Commerce is going through a strategic study and efficiency plan. This involves looking at ways to cut programs. The executive committee should meet with Don Rolston, the Director of the Department of Commerce, to see what he is planning as far as the historical society is concerned Some of the members of the executive board will meet with Don Rolston in the near future.[104]
By the following annual meeting (1995), Rolston no longer served as Commerce director and Kathka, still Society executive secretary, no longer worked in state government.
***
Reorganization of state government made the Department a mere division of the State Department of Commerce, one of several “super-agencies” created by legislation passed in 1989. The effects of the merger apparently did not affect Department/Society relations initially, but over the next four years, some personnel resigned from what had been the Department, disillusioned with how the new plan had diminished the agency and, inevitably, the state role in promoting and advocating for history.
After reorganization, the now-diminished history agency lost its need for the Society as a supporting arm in advocating for Wyoming history, in its many forms, including legislative funding for agency programs and initiatives. Consequently, when Gov. Jim Geringer hired a new director, Celeste Colgan, for the super-agency, the State Department of Commerce, the special relationship between the Society and one of Commerce’s now-divisions was placed in serious jeopardy.
Colgan, who had served on the board of the Wyoming Council for the Humanities prior to her career in the federal government in Washington, D.C., never had strong connections with the Society. Apparently, she was entirely unaware of the history of the Society and how the Society’s relationship had long existed–as a friends support group for the former Department, but what was now a mere branch within the “Cultural Resources Division” in her much larger State Department of Commerce.
During the Society’s 1995 annual meeting, a letter was introduced from Celeste Colgan, the new director of the Department of Commerce.[105] In it, she scolded the Society for not meeting with her over “suggested topics for collaboration.” Instead, she claimed, “The executive committee replied with a point-by-point statement that essentially said it did not want a partnership with State Government.”[106] She concluded the letter by announcing that she had appointed Dr. Karyl Robb to be the new director of the Division of Cultural Resources. “By virtue of her appointment, she assumes the title of State Historian.”[107] The Society had no input into the selection.
In the end, Colgan failed to recognize the utility of working with dedicated volunteers and how a volunteer “friends organization” could effectively augment the work of her agency, much of which was legislatively mandated. The result, a story beyond the scope of this article, was a split that arguably led to a stronger independent Society and, for state government, a less significant role in conducting its legal responsibilities.
[1] Originally, statutory authority for a State Library and Historical Board, and with it, an Archives and Historical Department, was authorized in 1951. Session Laws 1951, ch. 160. Later, the outlines for the agency with respect to historical functions were more carefully spelled out by statute. Session Laws 1953, ch. 143, §§ 10, 13-15.
[2] Laws 1953, ch. 143, §13; W. S. 1957, §9-211 (a)(vi).
[3] Homsher was initially hired as State Archivist in October 1951 and made director of the new agency in March 1953. Virginia Cole Trenholm, (ed.) Wyoming Blue Book III (Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department, 1974), p. 153. The connection also was spelled out in the Society’s Constitution, Article III, Section 3: “The Executive Secretary of the Society shall be the same person as the Wyoming State Historian and Director of the Archives, [Museums] and Historical Department.” Except for updating the Department’s name, the sentence was unchanged throughout the period covered by this article.
[4] For example, Frank Bowron, Casper attorney who was the Society’s first president, was appointed to the Library, Archives and Historical board and served in the 1970s and 1980s. With respect to appointment/dismissal powers of the boards, a succession of governors expressed frustration with their inability to exert control over agencies governed by boards. See, for example, former Gov. Stan Hathaway’s comments in “The Trouble with Commissions,” Capitol Times (Cheyenne), September 1983, pp. 10-11.
[5] “Constitution,” in Wyoming State Historical Society Records, 1873-1999. Coll. 10504, Box 26, Folder 1. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, hereafter cited as WSHS Records.
[6] A common practice was for the director to designate the head of his Historical Research and Publications division to act on his behalf as Society executive secretary. William H. Williams, department director who also served as head of the State Library, formalized the arrangement in 1977 when he “designated Mrs. [Katherine] Halverson Acting Executive Secretary to take over his duties so that she may be able to work more closely with the society chapters.” “Twenty-fourth Annual Meeting,” Annals of Wyoming 50 (Spring 1978), p. 178.
[7] For an overview of the Department’s statutory history, see “Administrative History of the Archives, Museums and Historical Department,” in Jim Donahue (ed.), Wyoming Blue Book: Guide to the Archives of Wyoming (Wyoming State Archives, Department of Commerce, 1991), p. 44-46. Oddly, the brief history makes no reference to the Wyoming State Historical Society.
[8] An important example is Wyoming History Day, (discussed below) begun in 1980, and jointly sponsored by the Wyoming State Historical Society and the Wyoming State Archives, Museums and Historical Department (and successor division in the Department of Commerce) to 1995.
[9] For the department’s statutory obligation to publish a history journal, see Wyoming Statutes 1957, §9-211 (a)(ii).
[10] For a brief history of Annals of Wyoming, see Katherine Halverson, “History of Annals,” Annals of Wyoming 50 (Spring 1978), pp. 173-76. Initially, the Annals printing and mailing was paid by the department from state funds. Later, much of the direct costs were shifted onto the WSHS. See, for instance, treasurer’s reports printed in articles about Society annual meetings throughout the period. After a format change in 1979 from 8 1/2 inches high by 5 1/2 inches wide to the more standard magazine size of 8 1/2 x 11 inches, and the printing contract moved from the Lusk Herald to Frontier Printing Company in Cheyenne, the department and Society divided costs. Circulation in 1978 was 1,350. Halverson, p. 176. Reference to the work done by staff is from the author and his conversations with Halverson and other department employees in the late 1970s.
[11] Halverson, p. 175.
[12] Throughout Homsher’s tenure, her name was listed as editor even though much of the writing and preparation was done by staff, including Katherine Halverson after she started work in the agency in 1962. When Halverson became division director after Homsher’s departure, her name started to appear as editor, even though, after the early 1970s, much of the editorial work was done by her subordinates, usually identified as “publication assistants,” including John Corneilson, Ellen Glover, Phil Roberts, Tracy Stoll, and Jean Brainerd. Mastheads of Wyoming History News; author’s recollections and informal conversations with past division employees.
[13] During Homsher tenure, the Department sent a column titled “From the Archives” to Wyoming newspapers. The most popular column syndicated during the post-Homsher period was “Buffalo Bones: Stories from Wyoming’s Past,” printed regularly in some 35 Wyoming newspapers. Selected columns were compiled and published by the department in four paperback books: Buffalo Bones: Stories from Wyoming’s Past (1980); Buffalo Bones II (1981); More Buffalo Bones (1982); Buffalo Bones IV (1984). The name for the column was suggested by veteran newsman Burton Thompson, son of long-time Wyoming State Tribune editor John Charles Thompson who wrote a column titled “In Old Wyoming.” Toward the end of the elder Thompson’s life, his son Burton wrote many of the columns. See “Preface,” Buffalo Bones: Stories from Wyoming’s Past. (Cheyenne: Wyoming State Archives, Museums and Historical Department, 1980). The information about Burton Thompson’s role in his father’s column came from the author’s personal correspondence with Burton Thompson’s daughter in the spring of 2013.
[14] The first Wyoming History Calendar, proposed by department historian Phil Roberts and photo archivist Paula West Chavoya, was published by the AMH department in the fall of 1980. Announcement of its publication came with a front-page story in History News 27 (November 1980). The department was the publisher but stated that if society members renewed memberships for 1981 before Dec. 31, they would be “entitled to purchase a calendar at the reduced price of $2.50. The regular selling price is $3.” (p. 1). Throughout its publication by the Department, the calendar made money, albeit, for the State general fund and not directly returned to the Department. The first calendar (1981) cost $1,996 to produce and returned to the State $4,120 (not including the 110 complimentary copies, many of which had been presented to legislators and other officials). See “Meeting, Jan. 16, 1981,” Minutes of the Library, Archives and Historical Board, Oct. 17, 1980-Jan. 24, 1981, p. 4. Microfilm 19421, 92-9-18. Wyoming State Archives.
[15] Gordon Chappell, Summer Helmets of the U. S. Army, 1875-1910. (Cheyenne: Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department, 1975).
[16] Robert L. Munkres, Saleratus and Sagebrush: The Oregon Trail Through Wyoming (Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department, 1974); and a reprint of a 1930s history of one of the state’s historic sites, Robert Ellison, Fort Bridger:A Brief History (Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming, 1938; revised edition,Wyoming State Archives, Museums and Historical Department, 1981). The Department also published a guide to the WPA Guidebook collection and a limited edition index to its oral histories.
[17] Peopling the High Plains: Wyoming’s European Heritage was the only volume published in hard cover.
[18] Gordon Olaf Hendrickson (ed.), Peopling the High Plains: Wyoming’s European Heritage (Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department, 1977). Hendrickson, who also wrote one of the essays, worked in the department as the project director. Another chapter was written by John Paige, senior historian in the Department. Other authors were: Dr. David Kathka, WWC; David Cookson, CWC; Donald Hodgson, EWC; Earl Stinneford, Sheridan College; Vivien Hills, Torrington folklorist; and Dean P. Talagan, priest of Cheyenne’s Greek Orthodox Church. Kathka and Hodgson were active in the Society and both served as president of the WSHS, Kathka in 1984-85 and Hodgson in 1981-82. UW faculty and full-time Department employees served on the advisory board for the project. Each essay author was assisted by research teams, many of whom were students, but also numerous members of the Wyoming State Historical Society. For names of the research teams, see Peopling, pp. 197-98.
[19] “Meeting, Jan. 16, 1981,” Minutes of the Library, Archives and Historical Board, Oct. 17, 1980-Jan. 24, 1981, p.4. Microfilm 19421, 92-9-18. Wyoming State Archives.
[20] Throughout the period covered in this article (1966-1994), relations between the Department, Society and the print media in Wyoming were particularly warm. In 1980, the Department and Society co-sponsored, with the Wyoming Press Association, a traveling exhibit of the “WPA Prize-winning Photographs” for the previous year. Robert Warner, photojournalism professor at the University of Wyoming, served as coordinator for the WPA. The project continued for four years with each year’s winning photographs being added to the Department’s photographic collections. During much of period, the Department employed a public information officer. Among those holding the position were: Lynn Rounds, Rose Wagner, Bruce Koerwitz and Linda Graves-Fabian.
[21] Wyoming History News issues for the period are full of examples. For instance, see the entire front page feature on army uniforms being displayed in the State Museum. Wyoming History News 15, (May 1968).
[22] T. A. Larson, Wyoming’s War Years, 1941-45. (Stanford University Press, 1954; reprinted by the WSHS, 1993). Funds for reprinting came from the Society’s Wyoming Historical Foundation. Dr. David Kathka, as the Society’s executive secretary, wrote the new foreword. At this writing (2013) even the reprint is out of print!
[23] Department personnel regularly reported acquisitions of new photographic collections to the board and to the Society members at annual meetings. See, for example, “Major Accomplishments, Historical Research and Publications Division,” WSHS Records, Box 16, Folder 3. “The Research Division has been actively involved with the acquisition of historical glass plate negatives from three areas of the state: Saratoga, Glenrock and Centennial.” (p. 7).
[24] A public relations firm representing Steve McQueen inquired about the Tom Horn case for a movie loosely based on his life. Time-Life Books was a common out-of-state patron, gathering materials for the company’s “Old West” coffee-table book series. Information in this paragraph comes from the author’s own experience as historian in the department from 1978-83.
[25] Op.cit.
[26] Session Laws 1987, ch. 20. From 1966 to 1987, the Historical Research and Publications division of the department approved all sign legends, many prepared by historians in the Wyoming Recreation Commission or by local historians and civic groups around the state.
[27] See “Major Accomplishments, Historical Research and Publications Division,” WSHS Records, Box 16, Folder 3, p. 5, noting interviews made of Edness Kimball Wilkins (six hours), Paul Frison, William Dereemer, and T. C. Hearn. Among those working with oral histories were Bill Barton, Phil Roberts, James Laird, Tim Cochrane, Rick Ewig, and Jean Brainerd.
[28] Best evidence for the close connection between the department and the State Historical Society comes from articles and features published in both Wyoming History News and Annals of Wyoming. Also, see the miscellaneous correspondence held in the Wyoming State Historical Society Records, 1873-1999. Coll. 10504, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
[29] As evidence of emphasis on Society lobbying for history causes, the annual meeting reports noted appointments to five committees: Awards, Grant-in-Aid, Legislative, Nominating and Projects. Over the years, other committees were added, but it was not until 1992 that reference to the Legislative Committee is no longer mentioned in Society reports.
[30] For the name change, see Session Laws 1979, ch. 40.
[31] An example is a dispute between the State Museum and members of the Niobrara County chapter over the museum’s ownership of a historic stove from the Hat Creek Stage Station. Discussions over whether the stove had been given or loaned continued for more than a decade.
[32] Tensions existed for many years between the WRC and the AMH Department. Following a later incident at South Pass City between employees of the two agencies on Sept. 24, 1980, acting director Dr. Michael Boyle explained it had been resolved and relations between the two agencies “were excellent.” Less than a year later, other similar conflicts arose. See, for example, the unofficial memo and a 12-page verbatim transcript of a meeting in Jackson on Jan. 15, 1981. Microfilmed just before “Minutes, July 17, 1981.” Library, Archives and Historical Board members sometimes weighed in on the problems. In at least one case, one board member “replied that the Board doesn’t have to keep going over this [disputes with WRC] time after time, and doesn’t need to think of the WRC as the enemy.” Minutes, Jan. 16, 1981, p. 5. Nonetheless, difficulties between the department and the Wyoming Recreation Commission did recur, mostly from joint duties assigned to each agency at state historic sites. Often, memoranda of understanding would be required to designate specific duties. Even then, problems arose. One of the more repeated stories of conflict was when Gov. Ed Herschler was forced to convene a meeting of the two agencies because there were problems at South Pass City State Historic site with respect to overlapping duties. Gov. Herschler asked why it was so difficult when the MOU seemed to be clear that WRC would be responsible for exteriors and grounds while the Archives and Historical Department would handle interiors, including exhibits. “But what about breaking windows?” one state employee asked the governor. “Who is responsible for their replacement?” The governor replied, “Well, if the broken glass fell INTO the building, the historical department should fix it; if it fell OUTSIDE the building, the WRC is responsible.” Author’s recollections.
[33] The agency used a variety of means to promote the Society’s annual summer treks and annual meetings in the early fall. Announcements of the forthcoming events were the mainstay of History News throughout the period. For instance, see Wyoming History News 13, (July 1966).
[34] The early treks were done in conjunction with other organizations, but by the 1960s, individual Society county chapters hosted them, providing the programs and the routes, sometimes hiring buses for transport of trek participants. Department personnel aided in preparation of brochures and promotional materials.
[35] The primary contact usually was with a state employee, commonly a secretary within the Department, charged with carrying out the Department’s mandate to “Promote the founding and development” of the WSHS. During these years, the secretary, called the Society coordinator, was always a woman and took direction from either the department director or the division chief of the Historical Research and Publications division, often serving as the main liaison between them and the elected Society officers
[36] This contrasts with the exclusive membership requirements in other historical organizations, even in Wyoming. For instance, the Wyoming Pioneer Association required ancestral connection to an individual living in Wyoming before statehood, not unlike the requirement of the Mayflower Society, a national organization with a Wyoming chapter, requiring direct ancestry from a Mayflower passenger. “Wyoming State Historical Society Constitution, Article II-Membership—Section 1: Membership in this Society shall be open to all persons who actively support the organization, and upon payment of dues as set forth in the By-Laws of the Society.” See “Constitution,” in WSHS Records, Coll. 10504, Box 26, Folder 1.
[37] A key accusation made against the Society by Department of Commerce director Celeste Colgan in 1995 was that the Society was elitist and membership was exclusive. Members were astonished at the interpretation, given that “anyone giving us a five-dollar bill” could join, as former Society president Sally Vanderpoel (1993-94) observed at the time to this author!
[38] Trenholm, Wyoming Blue Book III, p. 153.
[39] Wyoming History News 13 (January 1966). “As director of the department, Mr. Miller will also succeed Miss Homsher as Executive Secretary of the Wyoming State Historical Society.” The article noted that Miss Homsher had resigned in the fall of 1965.
[40] Ibid.
[41] Miller’s tenure as director ended in 1970. He died in 2013.
[42] Wyoming History News 13 (March 1966), p. 1.
[43] Wyoming History News 13 (March 1966), p. 2.
[44] Wyoming History News 13 (March 1966), p. 2.
[45] Wyoming History News 13 (Sept. 1966), p. 2.
[46] For example, announcement of the 13th Annual Meeting to be hosted by the Fremont County chapter in Riverton was published on the front page of the July,1966, issue (Vol. 13, #4). That September, 1966 issue included the annual meeting report and a brief item on Bridger Trail trek. Wyoming History News 13 (September 1966), p. 1. For examples of correspondence of the Society coordinator with trek and annual meeting organizers, new members and with Society officers, see WSHS Records, Box 20, Folder 4, “Correspondence.”
[47] For instance, see “The First Fifty Miles of the Oregon Trail in Wyoming,” Trek No. 20 of the Historical Trail Treks, Annals of Wyoming 42 (April 1970), pp. 77-103.
[48] Ibid., pp. 102-3.
[49] “Wyoming State Historical Society President’s Message and Sixteenth Annual Meeting,” Annals of Wyoming 42 (April 1970), pp. 104-116. Treasurer’s reports frequently were published as well. For the year Sept. 7, 1968-Sept. 6, 1969, the Society held cash and investments amounting to $17,768.63. Annual dues brought in $4,854. The largest disbursement was $3,561.65 for Annals of Wyoming. Ibid., p. 106.
[50] For example, the Sept. 1, 1983, letter to a society award winner noted in the final paragraph: “The AMH Department joins the WSHS in congratulating you for your efforts in promoting Wyoming history. It is through the interest and energies of individuals such as yourself that a part of Wyoming’s unique heritage is saved.” Bill Barton, Senior Coordinator, WSHS, to William C. Sniffin, Wyoming State Journal, Lander, Sept. 1, 1983. Carbon copy in WSHS Records, Box 20, Folder 4, “Correspondence.”
[51] Wyoming History News 13 (July 1966), p. 2, an article noted that the State Museum was seeking donations of Indian artifacts. The State Museum sought artifacts from the fur trade era in the September issue; items from the “frontier military” era in the November issue. In March 1967, the need for mining materials for State Museum was highlighted. Wyoming History News 14, (March 1967), p. 2. History News also regularly announced receipt of new collections. For instance, the issue in November 1967, noted the donations by film actress Isabel Jewell of her father’s materials to the State Museum, including a ledger of Lysite Hotel, 1916-29. Wyoming History News 14 (November 1967). As another example, a 1973 article announced receipt of the Shangreaux collection, donated to the State Museum. Wyoming History News 20, (January 1973), p. 1.
[52] Wyoming History News 13, (November 1966), p. 3.
[53] During the directorship of Dr. Robert D. Bush, the Library, Archives and Historical Board agreed to create a publishing arm within the Department to be known as the “Wyoming State Press.” The imprint was sometimes used on later Department-produced publications, but as noted above, the Society had its own publishing program supervised by a Publications committee.
[54] Miller not only asked for individual help, he asked for Society funds. A motion made to transfer $1,000 from the Society’s savings account to the new State Art Gallery failed through lack of a second. It was unusual for the Society to turn down a request for financial help from the Department. This instance demonstrates that the Society was losing confidence in his leadership. He resigned later that year. “Wyoming State Historical Society Sixteenth Annual Meeting (Newcastle),” Annals of Wyoming 42, (April 1970), p. 109.
[55] Wyoming History News 14, (January 1967), p. 1.
[56] Session Laws 1967, ch. 187.
[57] Wyoming History News 14, (September 1967), p. 3.
[58] The legislature authorized state purchase of much of the site in 1963 for $50,000. Session Laws 1963, ch. 69, p. 88, but two years later, withdrew the funding.
[59] Gov. Stan Hathaway appointed the seven members: Alice Messick, Bessie Anderson, Johanna Means, Bill Nightingale, Edness Kimball Wilkins, Lewis E. Bates and Jerry King. Wilkins had served as Society president in 1961-62; Nightingale served on the Library, Archives and Historical Board and, from 1975-76, served as board chairman. See “Commission named to Preserve South Pass Area,” Wyoming History News 14 (March 1967).
[60] For a brief overview of the state purchase and the politics involved, see “Drop the Cave, Add the Ghost Town,” in Phil Roberts, Cody’s Cave: National Monuments and the Politics of Public Lands in the 20th Century West (Skyline West, 2012), pp. 73-82. See also Tom Lindmier and Cynde Georgen, South Pass City: Wyoming’s City of Gold (Donning Co., Publishers, 2004), and Jim Donahue (ed.), Wyoming Blue Book: Guide to the Archives of Wyoming. (Wyoming State Archives, Department of Commerce, 1991), pp. 674-76.
[61] The Society’s continuing interest in South Pass City, even when the Archives and Historical Department had no formal presence there, is demonstrated in Wyoming History News 20, (May-July 1973). A photo shows Society treasurer Maurine Carley presenting a check for $10,000 to Marvin Harshman, president of the Wyoming Recreation Commission, for restoration of the Houghton-Colter store at South Pass City.
[62] Session Laws 1967, ch. 86. The Old South Pass Historical Preserve was created by legislation to take over management of the site. Session Laws 1967, ch. 68, pp. 87-90. The official elimination of the Preserve and authority over the site passed to the Wyoming Recreation Commission occurred in 1969. See Session Laws 1969, ch. 205.
[63] Wyoming History News 14, (May 1967).
[64] Jim Donahue (ed.), Wyoming Blue Book: Guide to the Archives of Wyoming. (Wyoming State Archives, Department of Commerce, 1991), p. 674.
[65] Virginia Cole Trenholm (ed.), Wyoming Blue Book III (Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department, 1974), p. 103.
[66] He also was founder of Wyoming History Day, prior to serving as WSHS president in 1984-85. For a brief biography, see nomination biography for first vice-president of the Society in 1984 in “Annual Meeting,1984,” WSHS Records, Box 22, Folder 1.
[67] Wyoming History News 20, (January 1973).
[68] Wyoming History News 20 (March 1973).
[69] Wyoming History News 20, (July 1973). An article titled “Personnel Matters” introduced to Society members a listing of new hires in the Archives and Historical Department. (p. 4.) Among those listed were: Bart Voigt as the new Museum Registrar; Gordon Olson as new historian in the Historical Division, and Gay Vanderpoel, as clerk typist in the Historical Division. At this writing, Voigt is associate justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court; Vanderpoel/Woodhouse, later went to law school and eventually became the first woman to serve as Wyoming Attorney General. Both parents were active in the Society; her mother served as WSHS president in 1993-94.
[70] Executive Board Meeting, Sept. 9, 1983, p. 3. WSHS Executive Board Correspondence, 1983, WSHS Records, Box 20, Folder 6.; Library, Archives and Historical Board, “Meeting, April 26, 1983, Report to the Board,” p. 1.
[71] What the board specified was that the mailing list could not be given or sold to a for-profit operation. Sharing the list with other non-profits was not only allowable, but encouraged.
[72] Executive Committee Meeting, June 28, 1980, Casper. WSHS Records, Box 17, Folder 3, “Executive Committee.”
[73] Memo, Better Jo Gilblair to Mike Boyle, Acting Director, August 26, 1980. WSHS Records, Box 17, Folder 3, “Executive Committee, 1980,”
[74] “Meeting, Jan. 16, 1981,” Minutes of the Library, Archives and Historical Board, Oct. 17, 1980-Jan. 24, 1981. Microfilm 19421, 92-1-19. Wyoming State Archives. Board members at the Jan. 16, 1981, were: Ken Richardson, Suzanne Knepper, Frank Bowron, Eugene Martin, Jerry Rillahan, June Casey and Mae Urbanek.
[75] Ibid., p. 2.
[76] Ibid., p. 3. Boyle’s mother, June Boyle, was a Democratic state senator from Albany County.
[77] “Meeting, Sept. 10, 1981,” Ibid.
[78] “Motion,” WSHS Records, Box 20, Folder 6, “Executive Board Correspondence.”
[79] “Meeting, Jan. 20, 1983,” p. 3. Ibid.
[80] Executive Board Meeting, Jan. 20, 1983, p. 17. p. 18.
[81] “Minutes, 34th Annual Meeting,” p. 5. WSHS Records, Coll. 10504, Box 26, Folder 1. See also “President’s Report,” “29th Annual Meeting, Sept. 11, 1982, Rock Springs,” Box 19, Folder 1.
[82] Board Minutes, Library, Archives and Historical Board, Oct. 9, 1984, p. 5.
[83] Executive Board Minutes, Sept. 10, 1982, Rock Springs,” WSHS Records, Box 19, Folder 1.
[84] Executive Board Meeting, Jan. 20, 1983, p. 17.
[85] Ewig reported to the annual meeting in 1987 that Tina Clark, a Laramie student, had won first place in the national competition. “Minutes, 34th Annual Meeting, Jackson,” p. 2. WSHS records, Box 26, Folder 1. After the Department/Society split in 1995, Wyoming History Day administrative responsibilities shifted from the Department in Cheyenne to the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. Ewig continued his key role in the program as AHC faculty and while serving in several Society offices, including WSHS president from 2012 to the present.
[86] Ibid., p. 3.
[87] Ibid.
[88] “Minutes of the 35th Annual Meeting, Sept. 10, 1988, Powell,” p. 4. WSHS records, Box 26, Folder 1.
[89] Ibid.
[90] Ibid.
[91] Ibid., p. 5. At this writing, Linda Graves-Fabian serves as the Society’s executive director (2013).
[92] Ibid., p. 6.
[93] Memorandum and “Statement of Purpose,” Box 26, Folder 1, Wyoming State Historical Society Records, Coll. 10504, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming. The committee, chaired by Jost (Society president in 1988-89), also included Mabel Brown, Newcastle, (president in 1978-79); Don Hodgson, Torrington (president in 1981-82); and Dave Candey, Casper. “Memo, To New Committee Members, From Judy West, Coordinator, Nov. 5, 1987, in Society papers, Box 26, Folder 1.
[94] “1. Promote involvement/communication with local chapters…” and “3. Use history to promote tourism in Wyoming.”
[95] “Statement of Purpose,” p. 3. The Society’s Executive Committee accepted the statement on March 3, 1988, and in the following September, the Society membership adopted it as the official statement for the Society.
[96] Quoted in “Executive Committee Minutes, Oct. 13, 1992,” p. 2, WSHS Records, Box 33, Folder 10.
[97] Board members were: George Ziemans, Lingle; Frances Fisher, Saratoga; Pam Rankin, Jackson; Karin Cyrus-Strid, Gillette; David Peck, Lovell; Norval Waller, Sundance; Jere Bogrett, Evanston; Mary Ellen McWilliams, Sheridan, Hale Kreycik, Douglas.
[98] The list is from the inside front cover of Annals 66, (Winter 1992).
[99] Masthead, Wyoming Annals 64 (Summer/Fall 1992). The journal name had changed to Wyoming Annals with that issue.
[100] “Executive Committee Meeting, Feb. 13, 1993, WSHS Records, Box 33, Folder 10.
[101] “Annual Report, 1993-94,” WSHS Records, Box 36, Folder 1, “Annual Meeting, 1994.”
[102] “42nd Annual Meeting, Sept. 9, 1995,” WSHS Records, Box 36, Folder 1.
[103] “WSHS Business Meeting, Sept. 10, 1994,” WSHS Records, Box 36, Folder 1, pp. 7-8.
[104] “WSHS Business Meeting, Sept. 10, 1994,” WSHS Records, Box 36, Folder 1, pp. 7-8.
[105] Colgan letter to Members, WSHS, Sept. 9, 1995, WSHS Records, Box 36, Folder 1.
[106] Ibid.
[107] Ibid.