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An Outlaw and His Rock Springs Lawyer

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Butch Cassidy is pictured wearing a loose jacket and shirt with top buttons in front of a dark background.A group of men sit in a court room. One of those men is Douglas Preston. Another is Judge David H. Craig. Several items pictured including the table and balustrade are now in the collection of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum.Left a historic shot of North Front and J Street in Rock Springs, Wyoming. A man stands outside his store front. Right: A modern shot of the same scene.

Photo No. 1 - Robert Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy, inmate number 187, Wyoming State Penitentiary

Photo No. 2 - Douglas Preston and associates at the Sweetwater County Courthouse, Green River, in 1898 or 1899. Preston is marked Number 4. Number 16 is Judge David H. Craig. The table and the courtroom balustrade are part of the collection of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, though they are not currently on exhibit.

Photo No. 3 - Douglas Preston maintained his law office in this building at the corner of North Front and J streets in Rock Springs, Wyoming. At different times an opera house, a labor temple, and the Grand Theater, it currently houses a tattoo parlor.

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - January 21, 2025)     A new article on WyoHistory.org, the online platform of the Wyoming Historical Society, tells the story of two men famous (or infamous) in Rock Springs and Sweetwater County history.

“The Outlaw and His Lawyer: Butch Cassidy and Douglas Preston,” by Dick Blust of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River, chronicles the interwoven careers of outlaw Robert Leroy Parker - better known by his alias, Butch Cassidy - and his friend, Rock Springs attorney Douglas A. Preston.

Though he was a member of Wyoming’s Constitutional Convention of 1889, a signer of Wyoming’s State Constitution, a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives, and served two terms as Wyoming’s attorney general, Preston is best remembered as the lawyer for one of the Old West’s most well-known bandits.

Read more: An Outlaw and His Rock Springs Lawyer

County Museum volunteer digitizes over 20,000 historic photographs

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Diane Butler poses next to a bookshelf full of 3 ring binders.The entrance to a theater, a light bulb marquee above the entrance reads grand theater. Big Lions on Parade and A Tale of Two Worlds, are advertised next to the door.South Main Street in Rock Springs in 1921 including the site of the New Studio.

Photo #1 - Diane Butler with the “Album Collection” she recently completed digitizing  at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River:   198 albums containing 21,000 photographs.

 

Photo #2 - A photograph from the extensive New Studio Collection at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, taken in 1921: the entrance of the Grand Theater in Rock Springs.

 

Photo #3 - The New Studio on what is now South Main Street, circa 1950. It remains open for business at the same location to this day.

 

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - July 19, 2024)     Diane Butler, a volunteer at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, recently reached a major milestone in her work for the museum. She has been engaged in digitizing historic photographs in the museum’s archives and has now completed digitization of the “Album Collection;” 21,000 photographs in 198 three-ring binder albums.

“Diane isn’t missing a beat,” said Executive Director Dave Mead. “She has already begun her next project - digitizing the museum’s New Studio Collection, some 100,000 negatives and glass photographic plates.”

The New Studio, believed to be the oldest still-operating business in Rock Springs, opened in 1919 under the ownership of Charles August. Charles ran the business until his retirement in 1945, when he turned it over to his sons, Mike and Anthony. The brothers operated the Studio until 1976, when it was purchased by a staff member, Oliver "Bud" Tebedo. Bud ran things until 1994, when he sold the operation to sisters Diane Butler and Susan Knezovich. In 2000 Susan sold her share to Diane. Diane began working at the Studio at age 17 and retired in 2019, passing the torch to R.J. Pieper and Angela Thatcher, the current owners.

The museum acquired the extensive New Studio Collection of negatives and glass plates in 2015. “The New Studio Collection represents a timeline of over a century of Sweetwater County history,” Mead said. “And there could not be a more suitable or better qualified person than Diane to take on digitizing it.”

Unique photograph discovered at County Museum

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9 individuals in suits and hats stand in a line June, 1925 the day before they return to China. They are identified in museum records as Leo Chung, Ah Sung, Sing Lee, Joe Bow, Yon Kwong, Ah Fan, Ah Chung, and Ah How

Photo #1 - Nine Chinese miners in Rock Springs on the eve of their return to China, June, 1925. They are identified in museum records as Leo Chung, Ah Sung, Sing Lee, Joe Bow, Yon Kwong, Ah Fan, Ah Chung, and Ah How. Taken in front of the “Joss House” in Rock Springs’s “Chinatown.”

 

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - May 31, 2024)     A rare photograph of Chinese miners about to return to China in 1925 was discovered recently in the archives of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum. It was uncovered by volunteer Diane Butler, who has been digitizing the museum’s extensive photograph and negative collection.

The Transcontinental Railroad, which was completed in 1869, reached Rock Springs and Green River in 1868. It carried with it a tremendous demand for coal, which was readily available in the vast coal fields in and around Rock Springs. Mining commenced in earnest almost immediately, attracting miners from all over the world, including China.

By 1880, some 370 Chinese were working in Rock Springs - mostly in the Union Pacific Coal mines - and living in “Chinatown,” now the site of St. Cyril & Methodius Catholic Church on Bridger Avenue, the old Washington School, and the Slovenski Dome.

The Chinese population in Rock Springs continued to grow, and racial tensions arose. On September 2, 1885, a mob of about 150 white coal miners attacked “Chinatown” and set it afire. Over two dozen Chinese workers were killed and the rest fled the area. All 79 of the Chinese shacks and shanties were looted and burned by the mob.

To restore order and protect the hundreds of Chinese miners soon to be returned to Rock Springs under heavy army escort, Territorial Governor (later United States Senator) Francis E. Warren arranged for soldiers of the 7th U.S. Infantry Regiment to establish a base sited between “Chinatown” and downtown Rock Springs, which was designated Camp Pilot Butte. A new “Chinatown” was hastily built, the miners returned to work, and, by November 30, 532 Chinese and 85 white miners were producing about 1,600 tons of coal per day. Camp Pilot Butte continued to be garrisoned until March of 1899, when the post was closed.

By the turn of the 20th century, the Chinese population in Rock Springs had begun a steady decline. By 1920, only 73 men and two women remained. In the middle and late 1920s, the Union Pacific Coal Company decided to pay fares to China for those workers past or nearing retirement age. At least 14 men received passage to Canton between 1925 and 1927. By 1929, Rock Springs’s “Chinatown” was no more.

Women’s History Month - Women War Workers at the Reliance Tipple

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Top: A black and white side shot of the Reliance Tipple, made of corrugated metal. Train cars in various states of being filled with coal sit on tracks beneath portions of the tipple. Bottom: Annie Krek, Christine Cukale, Zabia Mangelos, and Sumiko Hattori in work wear stand at a conveyor built sorting coal from the surrounding rock.

Photo 1 - The Reliance Tipple in Sweetwater County, one of only two coal tipples still standing in Wyoming. The “boney pickers” at the Tipple in 1943 are, left to right, Annie Krek, Christine Cukale, Zabia Mangelos, and Sumiko Hattori.

 

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - March 26, 2024)     The Sweetwater County Historical Museum is continuing its celebration of Women’s History Month with a wonderful photo from World War II, when women entered the civilian workforce as millions of men were called to serve in the armed forces. The women in the photo are “boney pickers” on the job in 1943 at the Reliance Tipple.

Tipples were large structures used to sort and load coal. Coal was transported from the mines to the Tipple in four-ton capacity rail carts. When the carts arrived at the upper level of the Tipple, the coal was dumped into a chute by tipping the mine carts over – hence the name “tipple.” The coal passed down the chute and was sorted by size when it passed through heavy shakers and screens, then loaded onto train cars.

From Sweetwater Women, by Christine Alethea Williams and Brigida R. Blasi:

“Boney Pickers

“Because the Wyoming State Constitution barred women from working underground in coal mines until 1979, women were employed only above ground in Union Pacific mining occupations during World War II. Boney (slate) pickers worked in the tipple, separating waste rock from coal. They joined the United Mine Workers of America union and started working as pickers of slag, apprentice electricians, welders, and machinists in the shops.”

Sweetwater Women profiles over 100 women with important places in Sweetwater County history. It’s available at the County Museum’s bookstore and on Amazon.

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