Wednesday in Wyoming - November 20, 2024

 

What could you buy at the mercantile in South Pass City? Everything from tea to spices to hats and kerosene lanterns. And let's not forget fishing supplies and soap. 

As the only store in the town, it needed to stock everything miners and residents might need. 

Wednesday in Wyoming - October 5, 2022

 

To celebrate the first full month of autumn, I'm featuring pictures of Wyoming's fall colors. The golden aspens and rabbit brush made me nickname this town "Golden." Its real name is South Pass City.

Does the picture look familiar to you? That might be because it was used for the cover of Brides of the Old West. 

You'll notice that talented artist L.A. Sartor changed the sky to turn an ordinary photo into what I consider to be a stunning cover.

Wednesday in Wyoming - June 24, 2020

You've probably guessed that this is a lunch bucket miners at South Pass City used. It's fairly large, but that's because mining was hard work, and they'd bring a lot of high-calorie food.

What you might not know is that sometimes they took more than chicken bones back with them at the end of their shift.

Yes, there were thieves in the mine shafts.

Wednesday in Wyoming - June 17, 2020

Can you guess what this is?

Since this month's posts are about South Pass City, if you guessed it has something to do with gold mining, you're right.

This is a metal sole that miners wore to protect their feet. You'll see that there are small tacks around the top, presumably to attach the sole to their shoes.

Ingenious, isn't it?

Wednesday in Wyoming - June 10, 2020

What did the inside of the gold mine at South Pass City look like? This model shows the details.

To give you an idea of the sheer size of the mine, look at the man pushing a cart at the top left.

Wednesday in Wyoming - June 3, 2020

Welcome to South Pass City, one of Wyoming's historic mining towns.

It was here that miners spent their days bringing precious ore from the hillside, that others made their fortunes providing services to the miners, and that Esther Morris became the nation's first female judge.

For more information, visit South Pass City's website.