Pages of the Past

100 years ago

July 23, 1925

The people of Otto and this part of the county will celebrate Mormon Pioneer Day tomorrow at Otto with a big program of speeches, music, etc. The program is to begin at 10:30. At noon a big basket dinner will be enjoyed. Afterward will come a baseball game between the teams of Basin and Greybull, after which the wild west program will be given, with bucking broncos, races, etc. At 7 o’clock a big minstrel show will be given and boxing and athletic stunts will continue until 9 o’clock when the big dance, the really big event of the day, will begin. 

As of July 15, 51,036 people had entered Yellowstone National Park compared to 48,958 for the same period last year. 

75 years ago

July 20, 1950

Plans aimed at the re-opening of the Wigwam Theatre for its replacement in Basin by a new motion picture theater were set in motion on Monday night by representatives of the Basin club, the Basin Rotary Club and the Basin Junior Chamber of Commerce. Representatives of the three groups will hold joint meetings in the future as plans for bringing motion pictures back to Basin continue. 

Sheriff Don C. Parkin has announced that he will not seek reelection to the office because of failing health. Through cooperation with Sheriff Parkin and other law-enforcement agencies, W.E. (Ed). Shaffer has helped to bring the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office to the high standard of efficiency it enjoys today. Studying fingerprinting in his spare time, Ed set up a classification record system and now approximately 10,000 fingerprints are in the file in the sheriff’s office at Basin. 

50 years ago

July 24, 1975

Basin firemen were summoned about 7 p.m. last Thursday to the Bud Nelson farm north of Basin on the golf course road. A blaze believed to have been caused by a failure in the ignition system had damaged the diesel motor in a tractor. 

The U.S. Postal Service as agreed to buy a site for a new main post office in Burlington, Postmaster V.B. Neves said today. The 7,000 square foot parcel is located on the east side of Main Street, just north of the present post office. Seller is Mrs. Tom Dunsworth of Burlington. A Postal Service-owned modular unit of 864 square feet will be located on the property. 

The annual Big Horn County 4-H Camp is being held this week at the Sheridan County 4-H Camp on the Big Horns. Members of the Camp Council are Nancy Jo Eckerdt, Susan Lopp, Sheryl Emmett, Terre Doerr, DeAnna Michelena, and Patty Alexander. 

25 Years ago

July 20, 2000

Come the first weekend of August, when motorcyclists are roaring into Sturgis, S.D. breaking the peace and quiet of the small town for the annual rally, it will be in far greater numbers than those descending on the town for the first-ever rally that was held 60 years ago. Don Welton of Basin was at that first rally, although he was not astride a motorcycle. “I was 16 then, so now you know how old I am,” he laughs. “I was just a poor teenager and couldn’t afford a motorcycle, so I hitch=hiked from Sheridan to Sturgis with a bedroll and stayed in the park for free.”