History & News

“Obituary Scrapbooks” donated to the Sweetwater County Museum available for viewing

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Photo #1 - Sweetwater County Clerk Cindy Lane and Sweetwater County Historical Museum Executive Director Dave Mead with the two “Obituary Scrapbooks” the clerk’s office donated to the museum on Tuesday

 

Photo #2 - The scrapbooks’ timeline runs from 1972, when this page was created, to 2010

 

Photo #3 - This page, from 1996, chronicles the passing of singer Ella Fitzgerald and high-profile attorney Melvin Belli as well as seven Wyomingites, including Mary Mead, the daughter of former Wyoming Governor Cliff Hansen

 

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - April 12, 2022)      Two special “Obituary Scrapbooks” donated to the Sweetwater County Historical Museum by the Sweetwater County Clerk’s Office provide a unique, if melancholy glimpse into events in Sweetwater County from 1972 to 2010.

Sweetwater County Clerk Cindy Lane explained that among a Wyoming county clerk’s office’s responsibilities is keeping track of deaths in the county to ensure that county residents who have passed on are removed from the voter rolls.

In 1972, a number of deputy county clerks began clipping Sweetwater County obituaries, pasting them into special scrapbooks. The practice continued until 2010, resulting in two very large scrap journals containing many hundreds of obituaries, not only from Sweetwater County, but around the world, primarily those of celebrities.

Lane contacted the museum not long ago about donating the books in order to preserve them and Executive Director Dave Mead took possession of them on behalf of the museum Tuesday.

Mead said the museum is making the “Obituary Scrapbooks” available for those who wish to examine them. Located at 3 E. Flaming Gorge Way in Green River, the museum is open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Tuesday through Saturday. There is no charge for admission.

A Rock Springs man’s film career

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Photo #1 - Rock Springs native Mickey Daniels, second from left, and other Our Gang cast members from the original silent film series

Photo #2 - Mickey Daniels, second from left, in 1932's Too Many Women

Photo #3 - Daniels received prominent billing for Roaring Roads (1935)

Photo #4 - The Rialto Theater, circled at right, circa 1930, as evidenced by the featured film Up the River, starring Spencer Tracy and Claire Luce. Now long gone, the Rialto was located on South Main Street in Rock Springs just west of South Main’s intersection with C Street.

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - April 9, 2022)     One of the hardworking volunteers at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River recently came across a portrait of a young man named Mickey Daniels and inquired about who he was. Daniels, from Rock Springs, was a prolific film actor in the 1920s and 1930s

In 2019 museum staff prepared an article about Daniels and his career, which was the subject of a special updated release on Saturday.

Rock Springs native broke into the movies in 1922

At least one Rock Springs native was able to break into the movies, and he did it after appearing at the Rialto Theater in the early 1920s.

Mickey Daniels, born Richard Daniels, Jr. in Rock Springs on October 11, 1914, was the son of Richard Daniels, himself an actor born in Wales, and his wife Hannah. Mickey started performing young, and he was spotted by a talent agent during a performance at the Rialto Theater on South Main Street in 1921. (Like many theaters of the time, the Rialto offered live entertainment as well as films.)

By the next year he’d been signed by producer Hal Roach for the groundbreaking Our Gang series, whose stars were a group of loveable, ragtag kids.

Daniels appeared in over 100 short and feature films between 1922 and 1941. Film buffs in particular remember him as Mickey the Truant Officer in 1933's Fish Hooky, one episode of the Our Gang series later syndicated on television.

Daniels left acting in the 1940s and died in San Diego, California, in 1970.

A YouTube video about Daniels and his film career can be found at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECSRz-9UOko .

A Reliance Snapshot

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS BUDGET MEETING

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The Sweetwater County Historical Museum Board of Directors is having a special budget meeting on Tuesay, April 5th at 5 P.M. via GoToMeeting. The link will be posted for the meeting.