CHEYENNE– Interesting and perhaps unknown facets of Wyoming history will be explored during March’s Wyoming State Museum lecture series event, to be held March 13 at 7 p.m. The March lecture will feature five presentations, each lasting approximately 10 minutes.
Beth King, Senior Cultural Resources Specialist with the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office, will begin the panel by exploring “Teepees and Giraffes.” During King’s presentation, attendees will discover the history of two unusual Lincoln Highway landmarks in Laramie County.
Next, David Marcum, Instructor of Political Science & International Studies at LCCC will share his research on a secret surveillance system the USAF operated from Laramie in the 1950s. It was designed to detect Soviet nuclear detonations. His program is titled “Looking for the Bear’s Bombs, 1947-1963: Cold War Seismology in Wyoming.”
Three University of Wyoming graduate students will then share some of the things they found interesting during their research. Jamie Gooch will present “Labor Standards Issues and the Rock Springs Massacre.” According to Gooch, “this presentation will explore how labor standards enforced by the Union Pacific in 1880s resulted in one of the darkest events in Wyoming’s history, the Rock Springs Massacre.”
Chandler Harris will then explore the dramatic impact that a large influx of Eastern-born soldiers had on the cultural landscape of the Wyoming Territory in the late 1800s during his presentation “Soldiers, Sutlers and Cultural Ambassadors: The Transplantation of Culture in the Wyoming Territory from 1865-1890.”
Finally, Chelsea Frazier will present “The U.S. and Lakota Political Implications of the Sioux Wars, 1854-1876.” Frazier’s presentation will examine the political role that the conflict between the Lakota and the United States government played in shaping the formation of the West.
The Wyoming State Museum’s Thursday Night Lecture Series is held the second Thursday of each month, September – May, at 7:00 p.m. The Lecture Series is free and open to the public. The Wyoming State Museum is located in the Barrett Building, 2301 Central Avenue in Cheyenne.
