What made the news in Big Horn County in 1924

Newspapers from 100 years ago looked much different than today’s papers. Deaths and obituaries were often on the front page. The front page also carried a lot of national news, because that is how people got the national news. Radios were in their infancy and TV hadn’t been invented. Often things like inaugural addresses were printed in their entirety. But there were almost no pictures. There were a few from national sources, and some advertising might have pictures or graphics, but the copy had no pictures. 

So without further ado,  here is a sample of what was in the Big Horn County Rustler in 1924:

In national news the first big headline was the death of former president Woodrow Wilson. Later in the year, a beloved senator from Basin, Simon Skovgard, took  ill and died. 

Little news items of interest to the people of Basin made up most of the paper. 

“At the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lou Blakesley on Monday morning a defective furnace came, near causing asphyxiation of the family.”

“Mr. C.A. Zaring has given to the school a set of ‘The American Encyclopedia” of twenty volumes.”

“Wesley, 5-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Collingwood, passed away at the home on Shell Creek on April 10, the cause being diptheria. Dr. H.T. Harris went over to the house on Thursday and found Floyd, another son, desperately ill with the same trouble. He was brought to Basin where he could get treatment. He is improving.  

The Big Horn Co-operative Marketing Association had its first annual meeting with glowing reports and plans for more and better marketing of grains, seeds, and poultry to support the farmers in their success. Throughout the year, mention is made of how many pounds of turkeys and other poultry was marketed to Chicago and Omaha. That fall a headline read, “Market 125,000 pounds of turkeys.”

Moving toward spring, the sugar beet contracts were a big news item. In fact the beet men got a bonus of an extra $1 a ton for the 1923 crop.  

The law enforcement battle against liquor was constant. “A.E. Carey from Greybull was charged with transporting and possessing intoxicating liquor. It was also Carey who got into trouble along with Scotty Shirran who was killed while getting away from officers and whose dead body Carey hauled all the way from Cody to Greybull.”

Basin was vying to be the location of the State Sanitarium, with people campaigning for Basin to be the location over Greybull or Lovell.

Sports of various things were reported throughout the year. A local youngster Arthur Zaring won accolades at the Rocky Mountain wrestling tournament. “When the information came that he had won at Fort Collins and then later that he had won at the Rocky Mountain wrestling tournament at Boulder, Colo., Dad came near to getting excited and all Basin folds were tickled stiff at the success of the young man. Word comes that Arthur has never been defeated.”

Weather throughout the winter of 1923-24 was harsh and many of the stockmen in the higher country were reporting 14 inches of snow and above. They were hoping to have enough feed. Later in the spring, some had to trail their cows to pasture on lower country. “Messrs J.S. Gapen and son Clark drove two hundred head of cattle from their ranch on the Paintrock to the Josh Ellis place on Orchard Bench the latter part of last week. They had bought 50 tons of hay from Josh.“

In Court news there was a tragic event in Burlington and Edgar Perkins was charged with the murder of Richard Neves. The murder happened in 1923, but came to court in early 1924. Perkins was found not guilty. 

With spring runoff came bridge trouble for the county. Because of continued high water in the Big Horn River, the west approach to the bridge at Greybull went out. There was a footbridge, but no vehicle traffic could cross. Along about that time some big storms in the western part of the Basin country caused a volume of water that washed out three Sage Creek bridges and the made it impossible to get from Greybull to Cody or from Meeteetsee to Cody.

In May Basin graduated its largest class of graduates to date, 17. The class included: Marie Calame, Doris May Ewers, Lura May Frisby, Gladys Gurley, Laura Haley, Bethel Elsie Hoel, Frances R. Moon, Cary Juanita Plasters, Doris E. Sykes, Patty Juanita Sowers, Mary Leticia White, William Fredrick Gibson, Frank L Kendall, Harry Martinez, Paul B Morton, Leon Forest Robertson, John C. Snyder. 

Baseball was a big thing in the 1920s and not just school sports either. Every town had a team and in the first baseball game of the season Basin played Hyattville. The game ended in a tie. 

The road through Wind River Canyon opened for traffic in 1924. “The first trip over the Yellowstone Highway through Bea Ogwa Canyon above Thermopolis, was made on Tuesday of this week, when a party of 25 automobiles made the trip.”

When Governor William Bradford Ross passed away, his wife Nellie Ross appealed to be his successor and was appointed governor of Wyoming. She then ran for the position and was elected. 

Wyoming was primarily a Republican state then and the election that year was pretty much all Republican as was expected.

This is but a glimpse of what actually was in the newspaper in 1924, but it does show the hardships and victories of this area from 100 years ago.