November 2010

The museum’s ship, The Friends Good Will, is a replica of an 1810 square topsail sloop, commissioned by and built for the Michigan Maritime Museum in 2004.

It was 1:20 a.m. when eight cops stomped into the Stonewall Inn, a dive in Manhattan's Greenwich Village district that had no liquor license but served watery drinks to a mix of drag queens, street kids, gay professionals and closeted and straight mafiosi. Within two hours, the Village was bleeding and burning as hundreds rioted. How did the nightly saturnalia at Stonewall produce protests that would kick start the modern gay-rights movement? The uprising was inspirited by a potent cocktail of pent-up rage (raids of gay bars were brutal and routine), overwrought emotions (hours earlier, thousands had wept at the funeral of Judy Garland) and drugs. As a 17-year-old cross-dresser was being led into the paddy wagon and got a shove from a cop, she fought back. "[She] hit the cop and was so stoned, she didn't know what she was doing—or didn't care," one of her friends later told Martin Duberman, author of the history of Stonewall. Later, the deputy police inspector in charge would explain that day's impact: "For those of us in [the] public morals [division], things were completely changed ...

The museum went under complete renovation in 2005 and has been converted into a center for maritime and natural history programming. It featurea seven galleries filled with exhibits on the maritime and nature history of the region, an education building which include touch tanks and hands-on learning activities, and a museum shop.

The museum is located on the grounds of the former Casper Army Air Base, constructed during the Second World War. The building that now houses the Wyoming Veterans Memorial Museum was originally the Servicemen's Club for enlisted personnel. It is the most interesting of the approximately 100 Second World War buildings that are still perserved at the airport. It contains 15 wall murals that depict aspects of Wyoming history. The murals were painted over an eight month periord by four enlistd men, only one of which had some previous training in art. The murals were dedicated in June 1944.

While the museum contains artifacts, uniforms, memorabilia and personal and historic records from the military service and conflicts, it focuses on the personal stories of the nation’s servicemen and women. It’s scope is not restricted to the Air Force, but covers all branches of the military. The museum’s collection follows the history of the U.S. military, from the frontier outposts to the present.

The museum begin with the natural history of the region. Developed in cooperation with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the Wild Bunch gallery acquaints visitors with some of the state's more common wildlife. The gallery Swamped With Coal also describes the geologic events in the distant past which created modern Wyoming's vast mineral wealth. The collection also contains some of the state’s oldest fossil remains.
Some of the more artistic or popular pieces in the museum's collection are on exhibit in the Barber Gallery. Highlights include firearms, Native American beadwork and baskets, and a 1950s diorama of Wyoming cowboys at work. In the hands-on history room, touchable reproduction artifacts, a chuck wagon, a curiosity cabinet filled with objects to examine, and a child-sized tipi are just some of the many features that bring Wyoming's history to life. Finally, the museum has a large interactive map that highlights archaeological sites, mountain man rendezvous sites, trails, military forts, and military battles.

The museum features an exhibit on the Colby Site, the earliest mammoth kill site found in North America, located in the area. It also includes fossils of prehistoric plants and animals and a collection of spears from the prehistoric Clovis people. There is also an exhibit on the geology of the Big Horn Basin.
The museum also has an exhibit on the Shoshone Sheepeaters, a tribe of natives from the Bighorn Mountains. The exhibit contains replicas such as a lodge room and rock shelter.
The Pioneer Spirit exhibit uses a hands-on approach to immerse its visitors in the life of the travelers. It includes a covered wagon, a sheep wagon, a sod house. It also has a display of western tack, including the saddle of the first governor, Francis E. Warren.

The museum has collections ranging from fossilized fish to native tribal spearheads. I has a large collection of items from the area’s days as a coal mining center in the 19th century, as well as railroad memorabilia from that period. Many of the exhibits focus on the daily life of the inhabitants of the county, from the native tribes and pioneers whose wagons crossed the county, to the soldiers and various workers who later settled in the region. It has a collection of artifacts representing the Rock Springs Chinatown from late 1800s.

The Ziibiwing Center is a distinctive treasure created to provide an enriched, diversified, and culturally relevant educational experience. This promotes the society’s belief that the culture, diversity and spirit of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan and other Great Lakes Anishinabek must be recognized, perpetuated, communicated, and supported.

The museum highlights life in Sheridan County with dioramas, photographs and artifacts. Exhibit topics address local American Indians, military, ranching, railroad, timbering, mining, artists, photographers and events from the 19th-century through today.
During the summer months, the museum has a children’s morning education program called Tidbit Tuesdays. From telling a story on a hide painting to building a western town diorama and playing old time children's games, Tidbit Tuesdays will give children and their families an opportunity to explore history together.

The Museum now housed there is the home of thousands of items of personal and public property collected by the citizens of Rock Springs. One of those items is the Rock Springs Coal sign that graced the city's major crossroads for more than 50 years announcing the town's special place in the pre-diesel railroad world. The sign is flanked by the Depot park which contains other remembrances of the town's coal mining past.

Rock Springs was an integral mining town during the days of westward expansion. Butch Cassidy worked as a butcher here, the genesis of his nickname. The town gained notoriety in 1885 during the Rock Springs Massacre, a race riot against Chinese workers. The town remains linked to coal today.