SWEETWATER COUNTY — If you enjoy listening to music, hearing stories and learning about the history of the West, the Sweetwater County Library System has two upcoming events for you.
The library system is hosting two Wyoming Humanities Council presentations by Bill Rossiter. The first presentation, “Stories, Songs and Sodbusters,” will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5 at the Sweetwater County Library, 300 N. 1st East, Green River.
In this program, Rossiter will look at homesteaders as they traveled West. His performance will include stories and songs about how they braved the “Great American Desert” singing about the land of milk and honey. But by the time the homesteaders settled on their claims, their songs included lyrics about alkali water, grasshopper plagues and leaky sod huts.
Rossiter’s second presentation is called “Magic Carpet Made of Steel” and will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6 at Rock Springs Library, 400 C Street. Magic Carpet Made of Steel focuses on the railroad. Rossiter will use songs and stories to help recapture the wonder that railroads once inspired and what they meant to the West and to Americans in general, in the distant and not-so-distant past.
Rossiter is retired from Flathead Valley Community College in Montana. He holds a master’s degree in English literature from Marquette University in Milwaukee.
The Wyoming Humanities Council provides public humanities-based programs in partnership with local organizations and is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
These programs are sponsored by the Sweetwater County Library System.
For more information on library events and services, drop by any Sweetwater County Library System location, visit the library system online or follow the libraries on Facebook.
