Wednesday in Wyoming - October 30, 2024

 

The dinosaur might seem serious, but I smiled when I looked up and saw it perched near the ceiling at the Tate Geological Museum in Casper. 

Although it's a relatively small museum, the Tate is filled with exhibits of everything from over 3,000 fossils and minerals to the skeleton of Dee the wooly mammoth as well as this recreation of a dinosaur.

If you're in the Casper area and have even the slightest interest in dinosaurs, be sure to visit the Tate.

Wednesday in Wyoming - October 23, 2024

 

How would you like to cook all your meals over an open fire for months and months? That's what the pioneers did on their journey west.

As you probably guessed, this picture came from the Historic Trails Museum in Casper, which is one of my favorite Wyoming museums.

Wednesday in Wyoming - October 16, 2024

 

One of the sadder aspects of the second World War was the internment of Japanese American citizens in camps like Heart Mountain. Can you imagine being forced to abandon your home and in many cases your business and be forced to live in cramped quarters behind barbed wire in a place vastly different from your home, even though you were a citizen of the United States? 

Wednesday in Wyoming - October 9, 2024

 

The JC Penney Mother Store that I featured in last week's post isn't a full-fledged museum, but the Fossil Country Frontier Museum, also located in Kemmerer, is.

It's a small but intriguing museum with exhibits ranging from a replica coal mine and a lamb with one head but two bodies to this button attaching machine. 

You'll note that it's only a pair of short boots that has buttons. I can't imagine how long it would have taken to put on those women's shoes if they'd had buttons rather than laces. 

Wednesday in Wyoming - October 2, 2024

 

Where do you find a store that's half store/ half museum? In Kemmerer, Wyoming, that's where. The JC Penney "mother store" still sells the merchandise you'd expect from Penney's, but it also has a number of historic items on display including old cash registers, sewing machines, lunch pails, and -- my favorite -- the pulley system that moved money from the main floor to the cashiers on the mezzanine.

 Definitely a fun place to visit!