A Young Wyoming Author's First Foray into Publishing, New Year's Eve, 1911

Happy New Year's Eve from the Wyoming Room!

On this day in 1911, 11-year-old ranch girl Mary Olga Moore's chapbook on the history of Lake DeSmet appeared in the Sheridan Post. We have copies of her original chapbooks, pictured below, as well as her two novels...

Click on image to enlarge.

A University of Wyoming graduate, Moore wrote for the Sheridan Post-Enterprise, the Laramie Daily Boomerang, and The Denver Post. In 1937, she published a novel about Wyoming, Wind-Swept, and in 1949, an autobiographical novel about her colorful experiences in Washington D.C., I'll Meet You in the Lobby. The Sheridan County Library also houses some of her fiction.

Moore worked in Washington D.C., New York, and London for the Office of War Information and was later a public relations specialist in D.C. She eventually returned to her beloved home state where she passed away in 1981. Click on the image of Moore's chapbooks below to enlarge (the book at center, red cover, is her history of Lake DeSmet).

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Christmas Newspaper Illustrations from the 1920s

A look back at Christmastime in Sheridan newspapers. In the early and mid-1920s, our newspaper went all out for its Christmas editions with beautiful, full-page art with decorative ads sprinkling other pages. Comic strips had fun with the season as well: the Freckles and His Friends comic pictured below reads “The day before Christmas." Click on images to enlarge.

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A Letter to Santa, Circa 1927

90 years ago today, six-year-old Sheridanite, Byron Elmgren, wrote the letter below to Santa. Elmgren went on to become a renowed geologist and WWII fighter ace.

One our amazing volunteers found the letter in Mr. Elmgren's personal effects, donated to the Wyoming Room after his passing in 2016.

If you had a hard time deciphering young Mr. Elmgren's letter, you're not alone. Below is the best 'translation' we can muster:

Dear Santa,

I want a wagon and a few cars and [a] pair of boxing gloves and a pipe org [organ?] and 10$ and a few pen. and a grows see [sic] and a few box of palmas and a bow and arrow.

Very truly yours,

Byron Elmgren Merry Christmas

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