Daniel Sandoval

Change has a tendency to conjure up insecurity issues in people; consequently, planning new things can be a pain in butt, metaphorically, met with resistance, literally. Planning was in the news for the fourth week in June.

100 years ago

There was no turning back on the courthouse location in Casper because the cornerstone was laid in auspicious ceremony, and the cadre of residents who didn't like the site were not mentioned in the June 24, 1908, Natrona County Tribune.

Masonic rites - Dignified eloquence filled half of the front page of the June 24 Tribune because the laying of a cornerstone was a complicated affair, with the utmost of decorum, and the language in the article tried to convey momentousness.

But grandiloquence can be used to cover the smugness of influential people congratulating themselves for getting their names attached to history. And the Masons had enough ritual and titles and dignitaries to dazzle.

The actual cornerstone was a three-foot square, 1,600-pound block of pink sandstone with a lengthy inscription. The graffito: "Natrona County Court House. L.L. Gantz, C.C.P. Webel, C.A. Hall, commissioners. F.H. Sawyer, clerk. C.A. Randall, architect. Schmidt & Esmay, contractors. Laid by the Grand Lodge of Wyoming, A., F. and A.M., June 22, 1908. A.L. 5908."

Name sync - Boney Earnest got to see one of his own bones after a mishap with a heavily loaded wagon gave him a compound fracture of his left leg. Something required Earnest to get out of four-horse freight wagon and a wheel rolled over his leg.

After pulling the bone back inside the flesh, Earnest wrapped his leg with strips of his slicker and traveled home, a distance of 15 miles. Dr. Lathrop tended to the fracture and Earnest was expected to recover.

Obvious choice - The Tribune was promoting the Fourth of July shindig being planned in Casper and shamelessly claimed tourists from Lander, Riverton, Shoshoni, Wolton, Douglas and Glenrock, totaling an estimated 5,000 people for the three-day celebration.

O'Day O'Day - Tom O'Day was released from the state penitentiary not long before he was in trouble again, though his recent legal issue wasn't horse theft or robbery. It was gambling.

O'Day was a model prisoner and forswore himself of breaking the law upon his release, but he didn't know it was illegal to gamble, well, technically, sure, but in all his time in the joint, no one told him they really do enforce the law.

So O'Day didn't think a game a floor above Harry Hynds saloon in Cheyenne was running afoul of the law, but it was. And Hynds posted $300 bond for O'Day's appearance in district court.

75 years ago

The grim news of the Depression crowded the columns of the June 23, 1933, Casper Tribune-Herald let the travails of the nation and world overwhelm the reader with kidnapping trials, government programs and war in China.

Essential grain - Casper bakers announced capitulation in adopting uniform bread prices in response to an initiative from President Franklin Roosevelt to stabilize commodity prices and better regulate commerce.

Working in the spirit of the Industrial Control Act, local bakers agreed to all sell bread at the price of nine cents for a small loaf and 12 cents for a large loaf.

The control bill expected to pass in Congress was aimed at stabilizing prices, wages, working conditions and agreements. If the federal government was to find a marketing agreement that was unfair, the new law would allow the government to draft a different agreement and make it compulsory.

Posterity - A photography studio opened in Casper, adding one more hopeful enterprise to the city's businesses. Sevey's Photo shop opened in the 100 block of East Second Street next to Naylor's.

Proprietors Mr. and Mrs. Frank Sevey expressed optimism because of a fortuitous purchase of equipment from Pikes Peak Studio in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Lonely death - A shepherd found a human skeleton in a cave 50 miles south of Lander. Sheriff James Thompson said he believed the deceased to be a cavalryman who was wounded decades earlier in a skirmish with Indians.

The skeleton had the remains of a boot such as boots worn by soldiers and there was an arrowhead lodged between the person's shoulders.

50 years ago

The grand opening of Casper's newest edifice, the First National Bank and Tower Building, June 21, was advanced by a First National Bank of Casper Edition of the June 20, 1958 Casper Morning Star. The special edition covered the operation of the bank and published dozens of profiles of bank employees.

Real decisions - The hubbub about the bank opening must have died down quickly because the lead story in the June 24, 1958, Casper Morning Star was about the City Council turning down two bids for separate units of the city's hot mix plant.

The bids of $48,000 and $28,500 were too low, according to the Council, and they decided to advertize for bids in a broader area.

Candidacy - History professor Dr. Gale McGee filed his petition June 24, 1958, for nomination from the Democratic Party of the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Sen. Frank Barrett, who was running for a second term.

McGee would face Hepburn T. Armstrong in the Democratic primary held in August.

25 years ago

The June 23, 1983, Casper Star-Tribune profiled a man who had to surrender his house and two lots because he couldn't afford to keep the property. Michael Joe Kirkwood took out a classified ad to surrender the property back to his mortgagers.

Bad banditry - A bank robber chose an off day to pull a robbery. Witness describe a scene of a man in a white motorcycle helmet brandishing a revolver but patrons hesitating and being confused by his orders for people to get down on the floor.

His bag for loot tore open and he had to borrow another. His getaway motorcycle didn't start as police arrived at the scene, so he threw away the gun and fled on foot. He dropped the money as he jumped a fence. The police surrounded a near-by house and the suspect was found hiding in the yard.

"A Look Back in Time" is made possible with the help of Western History Archivist Kevin S. Anderson at the Casper College Western History Center, which is open to the public.