History & News

In the Old West, photographers traveled the rails in highly mobile “photo cars”

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- Two babies photographed in his photo car by W.A. Bradley, identified as twins, the “Cary Babies.” Bradley charged $3.00 per dozen for copies. - (Sweetwater County Historical Museum photo)

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - July 20, 2021)       Frontier-era cameramen once roamed the west in special railroad cars configured as traveling studios called “photo cars.”

Photo cars were converted cabooses, fitted out with a small studio, a skylight for illumination, a darkroom, and living quarters for the photographer. Historians believe the first was J.B. Silvis, who began traveling the Union Pacific tracks in his photo car in 1870. His photo car made frequent stops, with people all along the line eager to have their pictures taken. Business was brisk and Silvis could make $100 per day. (His success did not go unnoticed by the criminal element. In Evanston, Wyoming, in 1881, he was awakened in his car one night by a burglar armed with an iron bar. Silvis shot the intruder, who fled.)

Silvis retired in 1882. In its collection, the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River has portraits taken by another such roving photographer, W.A. Bradley, who continued operating the photo car until at least 1889.

The Sweetwater County Historical Museum is located at 3 E. Flaming Gorge Way in Green River. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and admission is free.

New firearms display at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum

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(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - June 30, 2021)     A new firearms exhibit - the first in a series - is now complete and on display at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River.

“Single Action Revolvers” is the first of a planned series of exhibits titled “Firearms of the American West.” The exhibit features six vintage revolvers, a contemporary Ruger Vaquero,

and an Uberti reproduction of the Colt Walker of 1847, a huge pistol that was, arguably, the most important handgun in American history; a powerful, six-shot percussion revolver that

rescued the Colt company from certain bankruptcy.

The Walker reproduction and Ruger Vaquero are included in the exhibit to provide museum visitors the opportunity to handle a single-action percussion revolver as well as a cartridge revolver, if they so desire. Upon request, patrons can request the “hands-on” feature from museum staff, which includes a short presentation about single-action revolvers on the frontier.

Among the handguns in the exhibit are the .44-caliber Remington New Model Army percussion revolver that belonged to “Big Nose” George Parrot, and old west highwayman and cattle rustler. In 1878, Parrot and his gang murdered a Carbon County, Wyoming, deputy sheriff named Robert Widdowfield and Union Pacific special agent Tip Vincent in the wake of a bungled train robbery not far from Medicine Bow. Parrot was later arrested in Montana and returned to Rawlins, the county seat of Carbon County, for trial. He was sentenced to hang on April 2, 1881, but attempted a jailbreak, fracturing the skull of a jailer in the process. After the failed escape, a lynch mob took him from his cell and hanged him from a telephone pole.

Murderous in life, Parrott’s story was bizarre in death. Two doctors named Thomas Maghee and John Eugene Osborne took charge of Parrott's body after his death. The top of his skull was sawed off and is believed to have been used as an ashtray. Much of his skin was removed, tanned, and incorporated into a pair of shoes, which Osborne wore to his inaugural ball after being elected Governor of Wyoming.

Also included in the exhibit is a special display of Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office badges; some from the museum’s collection, and others on loan from Gary Bailiff, himself a retired Sheriff of Sweetwater County and Sweetwater County Commissioner, and Betty Blackwell of the High Desert Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The museum is located at 3 East Flaming Gorge Way in Green River. Hours are 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Tuesday through Saturday, and admission is free.

Frontier-era Winchester rifle now on display at county museum

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(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - June 26, 2021)    The Sweetwater County Historical Museum recently added a rifle to its exhibit gallery known by many as “The Gun That Won The West” - a Model 1873 Winchester lever-action.

A .44/40, the museum’s 1873 was manufactured in 1884. Winchester’s first rifle was the Model 1866, basically an improved and modified version of the Henry rifle that saw combat as a Union arm late in the Civil War. The Model 1873 came next. Basically a modified and improved Model 1866, (with an iron or steel frame rather than the 1866's brass frame), the 1873 was chambered for the .44/40 cartridge which, while essentially a pistol round, was substantially more powerful than the Henry and Model 1866's .44-caliber rimfire. (Later, it was also produced in .38/40 and .32/20.)

While “The Gun That Won the West” tag is commonly associated with the Model 1873, it was actually a clever advertising ploy that was not used by Winchester until well into the 20th century.

Though the standard Model 1873 was produced in three basic variations - a long rifle fitted with a 24-inch barrel, a 20-inch barrel carbine, and a musket designed for the military market with a full-length stock - Winchester’s practice was to make individual special-order rifles according to customers’ specifications, including non-standard barrel and magazine lengths, engraving, and special stocks.

Over 720,000 Model 1873s were manufactured; production ceased in 1923. The museum’s 1873 is now on display as part of its “Cattle Ranchers and Sheep Herders” exhibit.

The museum is located in Green River at 3 E. Flaming Gorge Way. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and admission is free.

COUNTY MUSEUM RESEARCHES WORLD WAR I-ERA MILITARY RIFLE

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