History rally held
Photos by Walter Sprague/NLJ Dean Johnson, above, gives the final lecture for the 71st annual meeting of the Wyoming Historical Society, at the original LAK Ranch, on Sunday, Sept. 8. The weekend event was hosted by the Weston County Historical Society. Johnson’s lecture took listeners back over 100 years to the founding of the ranch and brought them through time to the present day; the ranch is still in operation.
Walter Sprague
Art and Culture Reporter
The 71st annual meeting of the Wyoming Historical Society took place this past weekend in Weston County. Hosted by the Weston County Historical Society, several dozen people from around the state came for tours and lectures about some of the history of this area.
There was an awards luncheon to honor authors and artists, tours and young historians from around the state who did projects during the year.
Starting on Thursday night, the Historic Antlers Hotel was the site of a lasagna reception dinner, put on by Newcastle Mayor Pam Gualtieri, and local historian Lucille Dumbrill lectured about the Schwiering project. The Dumbrills had a landscape painting by Wyoming artist Conrad Schwiering that was signed by the five living Wyoming governors at that time. One thousand prints were sold to raise money for historical preservation.
Member and executive meetings were held throughout the weekend but there were several other lectures and tours as well. They included a lecture by the Rev. Steve Christy at Christ Episcopal Church, the Beaver Creek loop tour and a lecture by Walt Soper, with help from Lucas Keeler.
Also featured were tours of Upton, including Old Town and the Red Onion Museum, and a dinner at the Red Onion. The Upton dinner was followed by a lecture about the preservation milestone the museum represents for the Weston County Historical Society. The lecture was given by Sam Haptenstall, who was the mayor of Upton when the museum opened and instrumental in getting it started.
These events took place on Friday and on Saturday, the fun continued with an awards banquet at the Newcastle Lodge and Convention Center. Of special note, almost 75% of the young winners, nine in total, received awards for different projects.
Other events that day included a lecture titled “Cheyenne River Cowboys and Cowgirls,” by Rhonda Stearns at the library, a lecture by Lucas Keeler about Whoopup Canyon’s petroglyphs at the lodge, and a President’s Reception Dinner, which was followed by author Paul Horsted’s talk about the 1874 Custer Expedition mapping out the Black Hills.
The weekend closed on Sunday, with the election of officers, which was followed by an onsite lecture at the LAK Ranch about the history of that area and the ranching that took place from the beginning of the operation to the present day.
As a whole, members of the Wyoming Historical Society said that they had a wonderful weekend and many were amazed at how beautiful Weston County is.