Category Archives: Events

Lloyd Baker, Centenarian Surveyor and Singer

28 Saturday Jul 2018

Posted by in Blog, Events, History, Humor, Places, Senior Citizens, Wyoming

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IMG_9727 Lloyd Baker age 106

Born in Afton, Wyoming in 1911, he was raised on a farm south of Etna and graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1940 with a degree in civil engineering.

With very primitive tools, Lloyd performed his first survey in Cokeville, Wyoming, about 75 miles down the road from Etna, the town he settled in when he “came home.” The loop within those few miles took him from coast to coast working as a surveyor. Continue reading →

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Speaking of Love

08 Thursday Feb 2018

Posted by in Blog, Events, flowers, Food, Humor, Love, Places, Valentine's Day

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February is the month when you will find the florist’s shops overflowing with roses.  Floriography was a method used by Victorians to send messages to others without uttering a word – thus the roses became symbolic of love, especially for Valentine’s Day.

There are several other flowers or plants that suggest love as well.  Lovegrass is a very beautiful perennial with ornamental, wispy plumes. Its Greek name is eragrostis:  eros meaning love and agrostis meaning grass.   It’s also used as fodder for livestock. Continue reading →

Fly, Turkey, Fly!

22 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by in Blog, Events, Food, Humor, Places, Thanksgiving Day, Wyoming

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The first Thanksgiving in this country has many variations including what was for dinner. (Hint: it wasn’t beef.) They had whatever they could get their hands on which included different kinds of birds, deer, and crops they had grown. The cornucopia, also called the horn-of-plenty, is a symbol of those crops.
The origin of the turkey as the preferred bird for the meal is also debatable but the story I like best is that in the 1950’s the Saturday Evening Post ran a Thanksgiving cover (painted by Norman Rockwell) of a family around the dinner table with a scrumptious turkey as the main dish. It caught on like wildfire!
We all strive for the perfect
Continue reading →

Sunday Morning Breakfast

27 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by in Blog, Events, Food, Places, Restaurants, Wyoming

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Sunday Morning Breakfast.

I love small towns!  It’s just that simple.

We have been blessed to go to breakfast with some very special friends on Sunday mornings at Tootsie’s in Thayne, Wyoming for several years now and I am ever more aware of just what a gift that is.   They are wonderful people.

I also enjoy the camaraderie of the other breakfast guests in the restaurant.  Friends may wave at each other across the room, call out a greeting, or just smile – but it’s special.  Some may stop for a minute Continue reading →

Crazy Woman Creek – The Story of a Heartbroken Woman

20 Wednesday Sep 2017

Posted by in Blog, Events, History, Nature, Places, Wyoming

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Twelve miles from Buffalo, Wyoming, you can step back in time and feel the presence of a woman gone mad.  Wyoming has never been an easy place to live – you have to really want to be here, but at the beginning – when this wonderful chunk of real estate was not yet a territory – things were much more difficult. 

There are a number of stories as to how the name Crazy Woman Creek, Crazy Woman Canyon, and Crazy Woman Battlefield, came to be – the name alone conjures up visions of horror

One of the most valid stories seems to be that during the era when whites traded Indians for their furs, a misunderstanding led to some Indians scalping a white man right in front of his bride (also white). Her blood-curdling cry was so horrifying that the Indians were afraid of harming her.

She, no doubt, had the same dream most of us have – a future- with her husband, children, a warm, loving home, only to have it shattered right in front of her eyes.  In a split-second, all of that was taken from her.

She wandered the hills alone the rest of her life, never finding her sanity again.  Often she was sighted and fed by various mountain men, only to disappear once more.  One kindly gentleman built her a cabin and she was eventually found dead there, apparently of starvation, years later. 

If you listen carefully, while winding your way through that hauntingly beautiful canyon, you may hear the maniacal cry of a distraught, heart-broken woman.  The wind gently whispers its sad secrets as the creek ripples through the canyon, leaving history in its droplets. Such tragedy in the shadow of the beautiful Big Horn Mountains is beyond sad.

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The Oregon/California Trail Center

21 Sunday May 2017

Posted by in Blog, Events, History, Links, Patriotic, Places

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We went to Montpelier, Idaho yesterday and visited The National Oregon/California Trail Center there.  It has so much to offer!   You can step back in time and visit a gun shop and mercantile, or ride in a covered wagon simulating the rock-n-roll of an actual journey, except it’s done inside in comfort.

It’s hard to  imagine the “luxury” of riding in a wagon across this wonderful chunk of real estate, changing off to walking because it was hard to determine which was the least miserable, stopping at night in the middle of somewhere, taking care of the animals, laundry, fixing meals, tending children, maybe being pregnant, ill, or any number of difficulties that had to be dealt with on the journey.

I applaud our ancestors who braved those trips, giving up all they had, not knowing what lay ahead.  It was a daunting endeavor and many lost their lives doing it, but it was part of settling this country.  We owe them so much!

There is a gift shop, rail exhibit, art gallery,  and murals to enjoy.  Restaurants and motels are nearby.  It’s time well spent.  www.oregontrailcenter.org

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© Copyright 2013 Life in the Loony Lane | June Johnston. All Rights Reserved
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