Hey, Answer Girl --

What happened to the noose from the hanging of Charlie Woodard? It used to be in Fort Caspar Museum, but it's not there any more.

-- Lonnie (Charlie's great-nephew)

Unfortunately, no one seems to have any idea what happened to the noose that was rumored to have hung Charles F. Woodard.

You're right, it was definitely in the Fort Caspar Museum, but disappeared sometime before 1981.

According to Rick Young, who's run the museum for a couple of decades, an "object card" is on file at the museum for the noose. This object card says the noose was originally donated to the Natrona County Historical Society, in 1928.

When Fort Caspar Museum was built in 1936, the historical society collections were moved to the museum. This all happened long before the Casper city government took over operation of the museum.

By the time the city took over and did inventory in 1981, the noose was missing.

The catalogue card doesn't give a current location for the noose, and Young said he doesn't recall ever having seen it in storage. Dana Van Burgh, president of the historical society, also wasn't sure what had happened to it.

Young suggested the noose may have been given back to the Woodard family -- but that would be the man who asked the question, so perhaps not. Sorry that I can't give you a definitive answer, but perhaps a distant relative could hold the key to the noose's whereabouts.

Luckily for people who donate items to museums these days, records-keeping is a much more specific art now than it was even 10 or 20 years ago. Back when the noose was donated, the item's description would probably be written down on an index card, maybe in pen, and then stored in a card catalogue. Now, museum directors and historians file the item, its description, its location, who it came from and when on paper copies in two locations, burned on a disc, and in a computer database. That way, if there's a fire, or a computer breaks down, or some other disastrous event occurs, there's still a record of the object.