Daniel Sandoval

No matter where we are, we live in our minds, our own personal montage of thought, emotion, perception, imagination and desire. Most people manage consciousness well. Some don't. The life in the mind was in the news for the fourth week of September.

100 years ago

One headline certain to get the reader's attention in the Sept. 23, 1908, Natrona County Tribune said, "Irwin and Seese captured," referring to Adia Irwin and Frank Seese, who escaped six weeks earlier from the Casper jailhouse.

The fugitives were captured in Nevada, and Sheriff Sheffner was going to retrieve his jailbirds.

Hallucinations: James Kenworthy was found insane in a court proceeding in early 1907, during which testimony from Casper Drs. Rohrbaugh and Dean helped send Kenworthy to the asylum.

The testimony from doctors was hardly needed to see that Kenworthy was delusional. He claimed to be a part of the Freemason hierarchy, a "Knight of the White Cross," and Kenworthy claimed he was victim of a conspiracy to make him live as a lowly sheepherder.

Kenworthy also threatened those who dared tamper with his fate by saying that he was in contact with allies by means of mental telepathy.

Justice of the Peace Warren Tubbs received a letter from Kenworthy in September 1908. The issue was over $20 that Kenworthy claimed the "Republican machine" in Casper had cheated from him.

Warning Tubbs, Kenworthy said, "I am not as easy as I look." He wanted his money.

In context mostly lost in the lore of the time, insults were traded between the letter and the Sept. 23, 1908, Tribune with the two sides calling one another "Bryan-Tamany" men.

The Tribune got the last word when the article concluded by pointing out that the $20 Kenworthy was looking for was retained by the land office to help him keep his shoddy homestead while he was in the loony bin.

Condescension: Balanced coverage in the Sept. 23, 1908, Tribune included an article that said remarkably few supporters attended a Democratic rally in Casper. One of possible explanations for the lack of people was that the "Democratic brand of politics was obnoxious to them."

75 years ago

The Fifth Annual Wyoming Ram Sale was an unqualified success, according to a front-page article of the Sept. 22, 1933, Casper Tribune-Herald. Despite high prices and volume, the sales were brisk enough to finish a day earlier than scheduled.

Death indignity: The Tribune-Herald wanted to make sure no reader might mistake the deceased for white people so the headline made it clear: "Chinese Murders Mexican Woman; Takes Own Life."

The article referred to George Leo, "a Chinese," shooting Jennie Wilson, "a Mexican woman," before turning the gun on himself. The incident took place in the back of a Chinese restaurant in Laramie. Authorities thought the deaths were a part of a suicide pact.

Leo was found dead at the scene. Wilson died on the way to the hospital.

Passengers: W.S. Hansen of Collinston, Utah, had 10 rams he wanted to bring to the ram sale, but a freight train wasn't available for the journey from Cheyenne to Casper.

After some consternation, negotiation between the Union Pacific and Burlington railroads, and some rule bending, a stock car containing Hansen's rams was hitched to the back of a passenger train bound for Casper.

Hansen made it in time to sell all his rams for $60 a head.

Visibility: Authorities with the state, county and city were gearing up for a rigid enforcement campaign to issue citations against drivers of vehicles without tail lights.

50 years ago

The tradition of selling rams continued, this time under the auspices of the Wyoming Woolgrowers Association, and the Sept. 23, 1958, Casper Morning Star reported that there were 1,400 rams slated to be sold.

Munitions: Some 300 cyanide shells were stolen from a trapper's cabin near Alcova. Sheriff Louis Cooper appealed for anyone with knowledge about the shells to contact his office.

The missing shells were said to resemble .38 caliber shells with purple wads where the lead would be and improper handling of the shells could result in death. The purpose of the cyanide loads was to put a quick end to animals caught in a trap.

Strange rubbish: An Evansville man was building a fence near the town dump when he happened upon a garbage can containing a paper wrapped bundle. The man called the sheriff.

The bundle turned out to be more than 6 pounds of marijuana. Sheriff Louis Cooper and Deputy William Romer set up a stakeout and watched to see if anyone would come to get the dope. No one did.

25 years ago

The Wyoming school lunch program purchased 58 tons of ground beef from a questionable source, according to an article by staff writer Andrew Melnykovych in the Sept. 22, 1983, Casper Star-Tribune.

Rambunctiousness: Casper Events Center Director Jim Walczak admitted that little could be done about pot smoking during concerts.

Walczek (spelled both ways in the article) said that sending security guards into the crowd to apprehend a person smoking would be putting personnel into a "den of lions."

"A Look Back in Time" is made possible with the help of Western History Archivist Kevin S. Anderson at the Casper College Western History Center, which is open to the public.