https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/d3aa8b98d2ab63b73e0e132bef6fd5bf.pdf 04d0d389074c10441cd9f9fc2aa6a030 PDF Text Text CASPER SHOPPER JAN 28, 1976 Over 16.800 Casper Shoppers are dis­ tributed in Casper,Mills,Mountainview, Evansville,Allendale,Paradise V alley, Dempsey Acres,Red Butte,Westland I parl,Vista West,Homa Hills,Wardwell, Swingle Acres,Powder River,Hiland, Waltman,Natrona. P.O.Box 3318 or ■ call 265-3870 iV*/ On His Way To California . . . and Douglas, although the tressel was only roughly In 1955 a magazine called “Man's World” describ­ twenty miles down the Platte River from Casper.” ed Casper as a city of dope, gambling, prostitution and Shortly after he arrived in Casper Gene Borders went free love. But Eugene Borders, 73, said 1955 was tame to work for the J.S. Brown Mercantile located in the in comparison to lune of 1923 when he arrived in Casper. old Virginian Hotel which was in back of the old Glad­ In 1923 the big oil boom that began in 1917 was stone Hotel. When the train wreck happened two men just beginning to taper off. Housing was critical in Cas­ that Borders worked with were going out to the scene per and workers were resorting to renting garages to in an old Ford. Mr. Borders said he didn’t go with them have a place to stay, according to Mr. Borders. He said, because he was afraid the old car would get stuck in the “Casper was really wild then, especially down on the mud and he never would get back. Sand Bar where there were seventy-five to a hundred In 1932 Borders joined a government survey team prostitutes. I used to drive around down there and they and one of the places they went to survey was close would walk up and tap on your cat window.” to a ghost town called Kerwin about twenty-five or Gene Borders was 21 years old when he and his cou­ thirty miles south of Meeteetse or about half way to sin, Wayne Borders, age 20, arrived in Casper on their Duboise. Borders said they spent about a week trying way to Berkley, Calif. They stopped here to visit their to locate a line established by an earlier survey about uncle, Henry Borders, who had a homestead fifty miles 1890. He said they could only find a couple of markers north of Casper. Mr. Borders said he and his cousin that had been thrown over the side of a cliff. Borders • had traveled on the railroad living on nothing but sand­ explained that the earlier crew probably conducted wiches and when they arrived in Casper after two nights a “barroom survey.” and two-and-a-half days they were nearly starved. They walked to the old Poodle Dog Cafe (where the Federal Building now stands) and ordered what turned out to be the biggest steak Borders has ever seen. uary 14 of this year. Mr. Borders said Mr. Walkers would come into the store and talk by the hour. Borders stayed in Worland until 1950 when he re­ turned to Casper and in 1951 he established the West­ ridge Hardware Store which he owned and managed until 1970 when he sold the store and retired. Gene Borders’ wife, Mabel. Gene Borders recalls his uncle Hemy sold his home­ stead in 1926 and bought some land in Michigan. Henry’s son, Carl, who spent most of his life in Boy Scout work, retained leases on 640 acres of the homestead and a The ghost town of Kerwin. In attempting to find their uncle and his homestead the two cousins came upon a cab driver who knew a government trapper who could draw a map for them. The next morning, armed with the ijiap, the cabbie drove the cousins over nothing but wagon trails fifty miles north to Bear Creek and found a small general store and got further directions. When they arrived at their uncle’s place, the taxicab was boiling over. “I figured we would be riding back with the cab driver, so I didn’t pay him just yet just to hold him there while we talked with my uncle.” While the cabbie was getting water from the creek, the cousins located their uncle Henry. His cousin, Wayne, remarked, “Did you ever think a Borders would ever get into a place like this?” (Way out in the middle of nowhere). Their uncle Henry talked the two young men into helping him build a corral and finding work in Casper instead of continu­ ing on to California. “Haven’t been to California yet,” said Mr. Borders. “My cousin, Wayne, who came west with me, worked in Casper for a time then went back to Virginia, bought a farm and made a lot of money. But someone tried to rob him one night and he was murdered.” In September of 1923, Mr. Borders recalls, the Coal Creek disaster occurred. He said he wasn’t in on the clean-up of the train wreck but he heard plenty about it. He said the railroad tressel spanned a long draw and, following a hard rain, a flash flood washed out the tim­ bers from under the tressel and a train wreck resulted. Borders guesses there was an express car and two or three coaches involved. He didn’t know haw many people were killed. “They didn’t find the body of one man until the following summer between Glenrock Mr. Borders in 1932 or 1933 with his wife’s new car. Kerwin was a mining community of a peak popu­ lation of 3,000 that only lasted from about 1895 to 1905, according to Borders. He said the boom began after someone found a pocket of gold and got about $6,000 out of it. The trouble with the area is lack of transportation. “It’s a real tough area to get into,” Borders said. He said, “A story goes that everyone left Kerwin except the storekeeper who believed Kerwin would come back and be a thriving community again ...but years later someone found him dead; he had com­ mitted suicide.” It was while Borders was on this survey that he met Amelia Earhardt and her husband George P. Putnam, the publisher. Mr. Putnam had purchased some min­ ing leases in the area and had come west to look at them and do some fishing in the Greybull River. Borders recalls the two had lunch with the survey crew on a few occasions. During the Great Depression in 1939, the PaxtonGallager wholesale grocery outfit, for which Mr. Borders had been working, went out of business and Borders went to Worland to find employment. It was in Wor­ land while working at the Washakie Trading Company that Gene Borders met Loyd L. Walker, who was the subject of the Casper Shopper’s feature story on Jan- Eugene Borders in 1974 at his home at 1128 W. 22nd. year ago last December they discovered oil on the land. He said last summer his cousin Carl came up from Texas in a new Cadillac to inspect his holdings. Borders said aUhough he has worked on oil rigs before he had never seen oil like that discovered on his imcle’s homestead. “It’s orange and a very high grade with plenty of nat­ ural gas.” Gene Borders married his wife, Mabel, in 1936 and she was a housewife until the time when he started Westridge Hardware. Then she helped out in the store. Mabel Borders died two years after they sold the store and retired. Now Gene Borders has little to occupy his time. “I just sit and batch,” he savs. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Walter R. Jones Sand Bar Research Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/</a> Subject The topic of the resource <span>Sand Bar (Casper, Wyo.) -- History.</span> Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Walter R. Jones Papers, NCA 01.v.1996.01 US WyCaC. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Walter R. Jones 1976 Sand Bar Research File Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/ Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1976 Subject The topic of the resource Sand Bar (Casper, Wyo.) -- History. Description An account of the resource Research collected and used by Walter R. Jones while he was writing his history of the Sand Bar. This file consists of copies of newspaper articles and other textual documents pertaining to the year 1976. This file is found in the Walter R. Jones Papers which contains manuscript versions of The Sand Bar. His papers also contain photographs, other background research, and ephemeral and evidential materials relating to the history of the Sand Bar and Casper more broadly. Early versions of the Sand Bar manuscripts primarily date to 1975 through 1979. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Walter R. Jones Papers, NCA 01.v.1996.01 US WyCaC. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context NCA 01.v.1996.01_NewspaperFiles_1976 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Extent The size or duration of the resource. 1 page