Scottsbluff, Nebraska

Scottsbluff Nebraska Zoo, 2012 Slideshow

Desk Job

Yet another wild fire

Yet another 2012 wild fire. This one in the Laramie Range on August 11, 2012.  Photographed by MKTH from the highway.

Ample Warning

The Intersection of Lost Cabin and Bad Water

Gas Hills-Crook's Gap Monuments

This has to be one of the most obscure monuments in Wyoming. These are signs dedicated to the history of uranium mining in the Gas Hills region of Wyoming.  Once fairly extensive, uranium mining in this immediate area is no longer occurring, and most uranium mining is now in situ, rather than the open pit type of mining that occurred here.

This area has been undergoing reclamation work, so these monuments are brand new.  I have to think that the number of viewers will be small, given their location.

Lost Cabin, Wyoming

Big Horn Sheep Company bunk house.

 Big Horn Sheep Company headquarters.

 J. B. Okie mansion.

 Big Horn Sheep Company headquarters.

These photographs are from the town of Lost Cabin.  Lost Cabin was a company town, with that company being the enormous Big Horn Sheep Company.  The company, founded by J. B. Okie, the son of a prominent Washington D. C. physician, owned vast numbers of sheep as well as a small chain of stores located in small Wyoming towns.

Okie was a financial wizard, making and losing fortunes over time but generally coming out ahead, but perhaps his life is a cautionary tale as his personal life was turbulent.  He was sued by his mother over her being bought out of this company (she was a Washington D. C. real estate businesswoman) and he was married three times.  He died rather tragically when he fell into a pond near Lost Cabin during the winter, while duck hunting.

 Today the Okie mansion belongs to Phillips Conoco Petroleum, which has a major gas plant in the near vicinity.  The town, however, is a shadow of its original self.