Exciting times in Old Wyoming!!

[jnyork]

Our statewide newspaper, the Casper Star-Tribune, occasionally prints a few interesting "blasts from the past", this one appeared this morning:

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NATRONA COUNTY TRIBUNE, 1912

Town terrified -- "Convicts Make Getaway From Penitentiary. ...

"Rawlins People Alarmed. ...

"Nineteen convicts, led by the notorious Jim Dalton, escaped from the state penitentiary at Rawlins Saturday through a broken fence and made a dash to the hills north of the city. Nine have been recaptured and a posse is searching the hills for the rest. In the excitement of pursuit another convict made his escape.

"Rawlins is in terror and armed citizens are patrolling the streets and men and women sit in locked homes, guns close at hand. The fugitives are known to include some of the most desperate of the 'bad men' of the west.

"The mutiny occurred shortly before 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon. The men, under the leadership of Dalton, Turner and Wilson, said to be former members of the imfamous Whitney gang of Wyoming outlaws ..., dashed to a board stockade. With the aid of picks, it was only a matter of a minute before a portion of the fence was destroyed and the men jumped through. ...

"The men dashed down one of the streets in the residence district of the city, and when three blocks from the prison began to scatter. ...

"A dispatch to the TRIBUNE states that on Sunday ..., ten more convicts made their escape. Altogether twelve have been captured. One convict and two citizens were killed in a running battle with the escaped men.

"Governor Carey and Secretary of State Houx are absent from the capitol at Cheyenne. Both are campaigning and the wires have been kept busy trying to locate them for advice and instructions. ...

"A later dispatch, received by the TRIBUNE Monday evening, was as follows: 'Thirty-five convicts escaped Saturday and Sunday. Nineteen were led by Butch Dalton, and sixteen by Anton Paseo on Sunday. ... The convicts rushed the inner guards, operpowered the turnkey and then climbed the walls and escaped fully armed. Paseo was killed. Two citizens dead and others injured. Convicts are all desperate characters. Five were recaptured. Others hiding on ranches and about town.'"
_________________________

[Blaine]

Interesting.....That might be a Back To The Future scenario for the day after the election.....

[Old Ironsights]

Interesting.....That might be a Back To The Future scenario for the day after the election.....

Ranged Weapons, lots of ammo...

[Mescalero]

This time of year.............. should'nt you be in Yuma?

[jnyork]

I am. Got there last Thursday. Read the Casper paper over the internet.

[Mescalero]

Oh!

[Blaine]

I am. Got there last Thursday. Read the Casper paper over the internet.

I got a good buddy in Sedona that goes down there to fish....Is it any good?

[Mescalero]

Must be in the Coloreado river, I think that is the only water down there.

[jnyork]

Yeah, there are a lot of guys spend the winter fishing along the Colorado.

[Griff]

I am. Got there last Thursday. Read the Casper paper over the internet.

Be glad, I delivered yesterday evening in Williston, ND, left this morning and had snow! Headed south myself. Wouldn't have gone up there, but paid copious amounts of money, and got lied to. Supposed to reload there and head directly south... havin' to find my own loads now. Texas, by way of Chicago, South Carolina and Tennessee... What a mess.

[Blaine]

Yeah, there are a lot of guys spend the winter fishing along the Colorado.

He's talking about monster catfish.....I need to get down there....maybe even snow bird, if possible.

[Mescalero]

Blaine,
That is quite common, you will fit right in.

[Leverluver]

Sounds like poor planning. Unless you had accomplices on the outside with horses, food, and water, I sure want to be wandering in "the hills north of Rawlins". In fact, I might prefer prison than be on foot in "the hills north of Rawlins"

[Leverluver]

Hey Griff, sorry you had to find out the hard way but that bunch involved with anything to do with the Bakken area are a fibbing bunch of knuckleheads. They have a big problem getting truckers to bring anything in just because they are no loads going out (unless you are pulling an oil tanker), so they resort to what you experienced; good money to come in but left high and dry from there.

I am. Got there last Thursday. Read the Casper paper over the internet.

Be glad, I delivered yesterday evening in Williston, ND, left this morning and had snow! Headed south myself. Wouldn't have gone up there, but paid copious amounts of money, and got lied to. Supposed to reload there and head directly south... havin' to find my own loads now. Texas, by way of Chicago, South Carolina and Tennessee... What a mess.

[Don McDowell]

in just because they are no loads going out (unless you are pulling an oil tanker), so they resort to what you experienced; good money to come in but left high and dry from there.
]

Have heard of truckers getting 5$ mile for loads of hay coming south out of North Dakota and Minnesota.

[Irelander]

"Rawlins is in terror and armed citizens are patrolling the streets and men and women sit in locked homes, guns close at hand."

That sounds right. Too bad some American citizens don't have the ability to protect themselves and their families like they could back then.

[Old Ironsights]

Sounds like poor planning. Unless you had accomplices on the outside with horses, food, and water, I sure want to be wandering in "the hills north of Rawlins". In fact, I might prefer prison than be on foot in "the hills north of Rawlins"

Roger that.

The Basin between Rawlins and Muddy Gap is no place for anybody, at any time...

[jnyork]

Sounds like poor planning. Unless you had accomplices on the outside with horses, food, and water, I sure want to be wandering in "the hills north of Rawlins". In fact, I might prefer prison than be on foot in "the hills north of Rawlins"

Roger that.

Rawlins is no place for anybody, at any time...

Fixed it for ya!!

[Hobie]

Looks like a whole lot of nothing north of Rawlins. What exactly is in Rawlins anyway? Seems a fair size town.

[Don McDowell]

Looks like a whole lot of nothing north of Rawlins. What exactly is in Rawlins anyway? Seems a fair size town.

Not as much as there used to be, but at one time it was a terminal on the UPRR, and there was a lot of coal and oil activity, plus the prison.
The UP has cut quite a bit, the coal activity is almost nothing, and the oil and gas comes and goes. The prison stays busy.
The BLM also has a large office there.
At one time there was a busling small city, now it's basically just a big town. Down to one grocery store a couple of fast food places and some restraunts and a couple of truck stops.
They do have a nice shooting complex tho...

[Leverluver]

Yes, but it is surrounded but such lovely bedroom communities like Wamsutter and Bairoil Actually Wamsutter is sort of booming again with oil. I think it is Exxon (could be wrong) that has that big new building...three stories I think. Hate Wamsutter though...goes back to a near gun fight in a bar there while snowed in over 40 years ago. Far as I'm concerned they can use it for neutron bomb practice.

[Don McDowell]

Webcam view from 14 mi. north of Rawlins today. http://www.wyoroad.info/highway/webcame ... wHill.html

[Old Ironsights]

Webcam view from 14 mi. north of Rawlins today. http://www.wyoroad.info/highway/webcame ... wHill.html

Tell ya what though, I'll take 287 to/from Rawlins any day over I-80 in the winter when the wind is blowing.

Isn't I-80/Arlington the only place in the world where the wind is bad enough to actually blow over one of those windmills (and not just destroy the turbine...)?



Nov 2010...

[rat patrol]

Looks like a whole lot of nothing north of Rawlins. What exactly is in Rawlins anyway? Seems a fair size town.

Nothing really between Rawlins and Casper other than wide open country and Muddy Gap as well as Independance Rock.