COUNTY MUSEUM RESEARCHES WORLD WAR I-ERA MILITARY RIFLE
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(Sweetwater County, Wyo - May 22, 2021) A recent research request about the location of two long-disused railroad sidings reminded staff at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum of the worst train wreck in Sweetwater County history.
The caller requested information about Marston and Azusa, sidings he believed once existed between Green River and Granger. Working from a special United States Geological Survey map from 1915, museum researchers identified the locations of the Marston and Azusa sidings and the location of what is often called the Azusa Wreck.
At about 11:59 PM on November 11, 1904, a westbound passenger train, Passenger Number 3, collided head-on with an eastbound freight, No 1661, some four miles east of Granger
The impact was horrific and 14 people were killed, including both engineers, two firemen, a brakeman, a conductor, and several passengers. The conduct of the Union Pacific operator stationed at Granger, who was responsible for train orders and scheduling, came under scrutiny, and a coroner’s jury empaneled by Sweetwater County Coroner Mike Dankowski on November 18 ruled that
“We the jury further find that said collision was caused by the carelessness and gross negligence of J.E. Miller, the operator at Granger, Wyoming, in furnishing wrong orders to the conductor and
engineer of said freight train and the carelessness of said conductor and engineer in leaving Granger, Wyo, under such orders.”
According to newspaper accounts and testimony given at the coroner’s jury, Miller dropped out of sight immediately after the crash.
Staff members at the museum are searching its archives for photographs of the crash, though none have come to light as of yet.
(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - May 12, 2021) A French television crew was in Rock Springs and Green River this week shooting a feature about Sweetwater County history.
Headquartered in Paris, Invitation au voyage, (“Invitation to Travel”), which covers international travel, culture, and history, spent the last two weeks in Wyoming, shooting in Cody, Casper, Yellowstone Park, and elsewhere, profiling episodes in Wyoming history. Their subject in Sweetwater County - the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872, arguably the greatest criminal swindle of the Old West.
Over a two year period, from 1870 to 1872, a pair of swindlers conned a group of prominent investors from both coasts out of about $650,000 (some $13 million in current currency) with the tale of a fabulous gem field straddling the Wyoming-Colorado border south of Rock Springs.
Phillip Arnold and John Slack “salted” a remote mesa that is still marked on United States Geological Survey maps as “Diamond Field” with industrial-grade diamonds and other gemstones, then convinced their wealthy victims the bonanza was real. Topnotch self detective work by a government geologist named Clarence King exposed the hoax.
In March of last year, Dick Blust of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum published an article about the hoax on WyoHistory.org, the history website maintained by the Wyoming State Historical Society, and it caught the attention of Invitation au voyage’s producers. Blust and Don Hartley of the Canyon Creek Ranch took the French team to the Diamond Field for on-site exploration and filming.
The feature is tentatively scheduled to be aired around the end of 2021. The WyoHistory article about the swindle, “The Diamond Hoax: A Bonanza That Never As,” can be found online at
https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/diamond-hoax-bonanza-never-was .
(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - April 30, 2021) The Sweetwater County Historical Museum and its non-for-profit partner, the Sweetwater County Museum Foundation, are sponsoring a Scholarship Program and Essay contest for 2021.
Scholarship Program
The Scholarship Program is open to Sweetwater County high school seniors who will attend a college program in the summer or fall of 2021. Participants will write and submit an essay of no more than 3,000 words - its theme: “How a Local Historical Event or Person Impacts my Life.”
The winning essay will be published in local newspapers and will earn a $1,000 scholarship.
Essay Contest
The Essay Contest is for Sweetwater County students in grades 10 and 11. Each grade will feature its own participants and its own winner. Essays written and sent in by competitors can be no longer than 1,500 words. The subject: “A Local Historical Event That Inspires Me.” The winning essay in each grade will earn its writer a $100 prize and will be published in local newspapers.
Submissions for the Scholarship Program and Essay Contest must be sent or postmarked by June 1, 2021.
For more information, check the Museum website at
https://www.sweetwatermuseum.org/index.php/learn/scholarship-and-essay-contest
or contact Museum Public Engagement Coordinator Aidan Brady at (307) 872-6435, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
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