7-12-2018 Laramie, WY Part II

In the wild and woolly west where cattle are the name of the game, we figured there had to be a slaughterhouse somewhere.  We had an excellent ribeye and a flight of home brews at a restaurant in Laramie called Altitude Chop House and Brewery.  The spirited waiter told us that, while there were no slaughterhouses here, there is an excellent place in town called the Butcher Block that is open to the public.  The Altitude, in fact, gets all of their fine cuts of meat there, right off the hoof.  Andrew gave us directions.  One of the skilled butchers, it turns out, is from Springbrook, WI, 275 mi. north of Neenah.  Not the most bizarre coincidence but it is, indeed, a small world.  And I am not sure if moving to Laramie, WY from northern WI is an improvement but to each his own.  We departed the shop stocked with ribeyes, brats, a beautiful flank steak (which is already history) and a pound of smoked bacon.  What a lucky find! 

Carlie and Treigh, our curators in the
Union Pacific train depot museum

Jubilee Days are slow to start, not much going on earlier in the week.  In addition, a squall passed over Laramie and drenched the town and the little carnival. That usually means an indoor activity such as a museum like The Union Pacific train depot.  Naturally, the original train station burned down and this landmark was built to replace it in 1924.  It is a gorgeous old building with all the original furnishings including the ticket booths, the telegraph office, “Men’s Smoking Room” and the weigh scale for luggage, which is a big platform in the floor that actuates a meter.  We were fortunate that there were two chicks there, Carlie and Treigh, enthusiastically unlocking doors for us and showing us all around.

Union Pacific train depot - beautiful!

Rob stands on the luggage scale.  Do I stand
on a scale in public?  I don't think so!

When the squall passed, we could walk around outside a bit.  There is a monstrous walking bridge that crosses over the railroad tracks in the heart of town.  Rob counted 13 sets of tracks including the sidings.  While we were on the bridge, long trains passed beneath pulling double-decker loads of shipping containers and oil tanker cars.  They were hauling ass at a pokey 60 mph or so and shook the bridge under our feet.  There were other lengths of coal cars standing and awaiting their cargo.  Laramie is definitely a railroad worker’s paradise.

On the tracks walk-over bridge

Pedestrian bridge over 13 sets of tracks in Laramie

Lindy in the paddy wagon

The Wyoming Territorial Prison is located in Laramie.  It’s the oldest building in the state, built in 1872 and was later replaced by the more “modern” one in Rawlins.  Of the 1,063 convicts incarcerated here, 12 were women.  Across from the warden’s office is the processing room where prisoners were stripped of their personal belongings, given prison garb and a list of the rules they were to follow.  These rules included tidying the cell and making the bed each morning, no speaking to other inmates except outside and on neutral topics and washing their underwear once a week on Sunday.  Bad behavior was recorded and punishment followed.  The cells are 6 X 6 X 8 with an iron door and held two convicts on bunk beds.  Some smaller cells in the north block were furnished with hammocks.  (Oh my aching back.)  It was difficult to control the heat in the prison and it was often only 10-20 degrees warmer inside than outside, which can be uncomfortable when the  WY winter temperature dips to a chilly +35 to -20F.  Solitary confinement involved being cuffed to the cell door in complete darkness on a diet of bread and water for 1 day to 3 weeks.  The convicts’ crimes included everything from forgery and robbery to manslaughter.  One 80 year old man was imprisoned for killing his wife.  She had broken his firearm and he could no longer hunt.  One less mouth to feed, I suppose, especially if you can’t hunt!  The notorious Butch Cassidy, born Robert Leroy Parker, was imprisoned here but public outcry eventually gained him a pardon because, they argued, he was such a nice guy.  He robbed from the rich, they said, and gave to the poor, helping single mothers with food and rent, for example.  Of course, once freed, Butch-Peter-Pan-Cassidy returned to his evil ways, mostly train and bank robberies.

So what did this guy do?

Cell block

For the record, we had a rattle snake brat today at the street fair.  One can’t let life pass by without trying a rattle snake brat.