Douglas
Douglas

Author: Linda Graves Fabian

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780738580593

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The town of Douglas is located in east-central Wyoming in a gentle valley, with the mountains of Medicine Bow National Forest on one side and the beautiful Wyoming plains on the other. Established in 1887 by the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad, the town was named by representatives from the railroad's Chicago headquarters after the great orator and Illinois senator Stephen Douglas. Douglas, probably known best for his part in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, was an enthusiastic advocate of westward expansion. To many of the locals--and by official proclamation in 1985--Douglas is considered the "Home of the Jackalope," an animal well known in American folklore as being part antelope and part jackrabbit. Be it fact or fiction, the town has successfully marketed the Jackalope through festivals, souvenirs, and even hunting licenses. The area is rich in history, from military establishments, immigrant trails, ranching, and homesteading, to its beautiful scenery, such as the Ayres Natural Bridge, depicted on the cover.

Pioneer Cemeteries
Pioneer Cemeteries

Author: Annette Stott

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2008-11-01

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 9780803216082

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As pioneers attempted to settle and civilize the ?Wild West,? cemeteries became important cultural centers. Filled with carved wooden headboards, inscribed local stones, and Italian marble statues, cemeteries functioned as symbols of stability and progress toward a European-inspired vision of Manifest Destiny. As repositories of art and history, these pioneer cemeteries tell the story of communities and visual culture emerging together within the developing landscape of the Old West. Annette Stott traces this story through Rocky Mountain towns on the western frontier, from the unkempt ?boot hills? of the early mining camps and cattle settlements to the more refined ?fair mounts.? She shows how people from Asia, Europe, and the Americas contributed to the visual character of the mountain cemeteries, and how the sepulchral garden functioned as an open-air gallery of public sculpture, at once a site for relaxation, learning, and social ritual. Here, widespread participation in a variety of ceremonies brought mountain communities together with a frequency almost unimaginable today. Illustrated with eighty-three striking photographs, this book shows how the pioneer cemetery emerged as a site of public sculpture and cultural transmission in which each carved or molded monument played dual (and sometimes conflicting) public and private roles, recording the community?s history and values while memorializing individuals and events.