Trivial Matter
Here is a trivia question for Medicine Bow
residents: Do you remember where the Medicine Bow
Post newspaper office was located? (Hint: There
were five different locations.)
Originally, the plan was for the Medicine Bow
Post newspaper office to be located on a small lot
that the Roberts family had purchased from the
Union Pacific Railroad. The lot, which the Roberts
family still owns, is just north of the current
Baptist Church on Highway 487. Because the town
wasn't very well developed on that side of the
highway back then, we had to look elsewhere to
locate the newspaper office.
1). The first location, in 1977, is shown in the
photo below. The building had served as a gas
station, cafe, and gift shop before becoming a
newspaper office. The building, owned by Merle and
Juanita Allen, was rented to the Medicine Bow Post
for a mere $50 per month, which said a lot about
Merle and Juanita's generosity and support for a
new newspaper in town. A room in the back of the
building also later served as my brother Phil's
first law office. Back then, the building had only
cold running water, so for my photo darkroom
chemicals, I used to say that I had hot running
water when I would "run" next door to the
convenience store and get it! Occasionally, a
tourist would stop at the building in order to
purchase a stamp and we would have to explain that
this was the "Medicine Bow Post newspaper office,"
not the "U.S. Post Office."
2). When Wally and Kaye Burnett purchased the
building and acquired the town's third liquor
license, it was time for the Bow Post to find a new
home because the building would then become a bar.
(It currently is the Old West Bar.) The second
location for the newspaper office was in the
Burnett Apartments (owned by a different Burnett
family--Bob and Cheryl Burnett of Laramie) on
Highway 487. When the town population dramatically
decreased in the mid 1980s, new owners of the
apartment buildings decided to move the apartments
to a better housing market in Colorado. So, the
Post packed up and moved again.
3). The third site for the newspaper office was
in a house on Sage Street that was owned by Tal and
Penny Dredge. The house was across the street from
the town hall and police department.
4). When the University of Wyoming took over the
newspaper in 1988, the office was moved to the
large and elegant building that had once housed the
Medicine Bow State Bank on Highway 487.
5). And the last site of the newspaper office
was at the new building that had once served as the
office for the Medicine Bow Telephone Company, not
far from the U.S. Post Office.
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Standing On Ceremony
Here is a helicopter's view of the first two
giant wind turbines near Medicine Bow. A dedication
ceremony for the first two turbines was held in
September 1982, with Wyo. Governor Ed Herschler and
U.S. Senator Malcolm Wallop in attendance.
Residents of the Medicine Bow area and
representatives of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation,
NASA, the Hamilton Standard division of United
Technologies, and the Boeing Company were also
present. (And, by the way, Daisy Epperson, a
resident of Rock River, had written a letter about
wind energy to a U.S. senator of Wyoming way back
in 1948.)
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