Natrona County Tribune, 1909

Movers and shakers - "CASPER'S AUTOMOBILES

"A Dozen Will be in Service During This Summer.

"… J. P. Cantillon, superintendent of the Wyoming & Northwestern railroad company, … was the first of Casper's citizens to start the fashion. Mr. Cantillon owns a Pope-Toledo, 20 horse power. … (T)o its use is due the fact that very few of the ranchers about here now have any teams that are afraid to meet an auto in the road. …

"C. M. Elgin … has a Chalmers-Detroit 30-horse power," which he drove to Casper after purchase. "The time made on the trip … (was) eighteen hours and forty-five minutes from Denver.

" … M. N. Castle (Shorty) owns a 20-horse power Reo [possibly the one pictured]. … (He) deserves credit for a new mixture … for fuel for his machine, but he only used it once, and says that he will never do so again if he can help it. … (H)e ran out of gasoline and could procure no more, but the ranch where he stopped had plenty of coal oil. Shorty tanked up with the coal oil and the mixture … sufficed to run him into town, a distance of twelve miles."

Casper Tribune-Herald, 1934

Just the facts - "Two strangers, believed to be fugitives from justice, took James McCullough, of Osage, Wyo., for a ride last night. …

"(T)he two men jumped on the running board. … One of them confronted him with a revolver and ordered him to 'move over.' The other man proceeded to take the wheel."

Three days later, the fugitives had come forward. Captain Frank B. Lammons and William B. Cobb, a Casper attorney, "noticed a car speeding at a high rate. … (T)he speeding car went into the ditch." After extricating the vehicle, Cobb and Lammons drove it to a Glenrock hotel "and told the clerk the man was not to be released from his room and given his keys until he had become sober."

Without a country - "CIVIL WAR VETERAN WHO DESERTED ARMY ASKS FOR CITIZENSHIP RESTORATION

"When the drums roll each Memorial day, … Henry Stephen Smith, 91, Omaha (Neb.), finds himself a man without a flag to follow. Smith, a veteran of both the Union and the Confederate armies, has been listed for 69 years as an army deserter."

A Union soldier held prisoner by the Confederates, Smith switched sides to obtain his release. He "then allowed himself to be captured by Union troops," and rejoined the Union Army. At the end of the Civil War he was "sent to Niobrara, Nebr., then an outpost in the Indian campaign." He said he deserted "to get away from the grumbling men" disappointed with their assignment.

"'Each Memorial day I have shamefully watched and listened,'" he said. "'I am broken hearted.'"

Casper Morning Star, 1959

Second chance - "Police End 11-Month Chase

"It was on the night of July 3, 1958 when a city patrol car turned into an alley near the Shell Oil Parking lot near A and Wolcott. The car's lights picked up the figures of two men struggling with burdens. One man dropped his and headed for parts unknown." The other, after being apprehended, managed to escape.

"Yesterday afternoon Rookie Policeman Robert Marshall arrested William H. VanMeter, 36," charging him with vagrancy. "Another policeman asked … 'Aren't you the man I was chasing last year?' … A short while later, William H. VanMeter was charged with grand larceny. …

"Some of the missing goods were found in a slightly used condition in VanMeter's room. But his partner of July 3, 1958, is still among the missing."

Casper Star-Tribune, 1984

Lawless - "In major shakeups in the town of Bar Nunn, the police department has been disbanded and the mayor is under a federal subpoena to appear before a federal grand jury with all the town's records. …

"In an emergency meeting, … Town Council members … voted unanimously to disband the town's police force. … (T)he council asked part-time deputy Jim Jongsma to turn in his badge, keys and patrol car. … The council cited a 'lack of funds and supervision' when it dismissed the deputy, who was paid $50 per month. He is a law enforcement student at Casper College.

"… (Mayor Carol) Tipton said she does not know why the town's records are being investigated by the FBI. 'I don't have any idea. I also don't have any problem with it because we have always had everything out in the open public.'"

Wyoming connection - "Nine of the nation's 10 fastest growing cities are in Texas or Florida with Midland, Texas, at the top of the list, according to a study of population changes. …

"Casper was rated 15th with an estimated population in 1983 of 83,054, an increase of 15.6% from the 1980 census. …

"The losers included six cities in Michigan, five in Indiana and three in New York state, all in the so-called 'Rust Belt,' where heavy industries have been hard hit by foreign competition and domestic recession."

"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. Quotation marks surround stories as they appeared in the Casper newspapers 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago, with their original grammar, punctuation and spelling, except where noted.