This e-newsletter is designed to provide a brief update on the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund and the happenings of its grant recipients.
It is our promise that this e-newsletter be brief, interesting and hopefully something that will provide you with ideas and contacts with other organizations around the state. If you wish to have your activity highlighted in this e-newsletter, please contact Renée Bovée, WCTF Administrator.
Museum of the American West’s family history project – Pioneer Homesteader’s of Lander Valley
Here’s a nice update from Jack States, Emeritus director, and Bonnie Willhelm, curator
This project is to record and document the life stories of the Lander Valley pioneer homesteaders as recounted through both oral and written histories provided by their living descendants. With funding from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund we have, since January of this year, located descendants of 25 homesteader families that settled here during Wyoming territorial time, 1868-1890.
The history we are capturing is the untold story of these families. In early May we hosted an oral history workshop offered through the Wyoming State Historical Records Advisory Board and conducted by Dr. Barbara Bogart. This greatly enhanced our ability to conduct and digitally record oral interviews for our archives.
On June 3, we will present the first of several family history exhibits highlighted by family biographies, photographs, heirlooms, and oral interviews with family descendants.
Steers/Wroe exhibit: The John Steers family arrived at Fort Bridger on the Oregon Trail in 1865. After a stay in the mining town of South Pass City they took up a homestead near North Fork City (Milford) Wyoming Territory in 1880. William Steers, John’s brother, was briefly married to Martha Jane Canary, better known as Calamity Jane, and together they had a daughter, Jessie. The history of the Steers family is intertwined with the family of South Pass miner and early Lander Valley homesteader George Neff Wroe. The combined family exhibit promises unique stories and artifacts of frontier life in the exciting and adventurous Wyoming Territory.
Admission by donation. Museum hours posted on the Museum’s website.
Wyoming Cultural Trust Awards $195,678
The Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund has awarded $195,678 to 30 cultural organizations around the state at their recent grant review board meeting held in Pinedale. This grant round was very competitive with 45 excellent grant applications requesting essentially $1 million in grant support.
Awards were given to support a wide variety of projects, including historic preservation activities, community performances and marketing, exhibitions and museum equipment, folk arts programming, oral histories, and endowment challenges. Below is a completing listing of awards by county.
Albany County
- City of Laramie, Edgar J. Lewis Bandshell Renovation, $10,000
- Laramie Main Street Alliance, Alive in Laramie, $5,000
- Wyoming Women’s Business Center, WyoFiber Live!, $3,000
Big Horn County
- The American Legion, Greybull Post 32, Legion Hall Historic Renovation, 2015 Phase, $5,000
Carbon County
- Carbon County Museum, 2015 High Plains Pow Wow, $2,000
- Town of Medicine Bow, Historical Museum Security System, $2,500
- Wyoming Frontier Prison, Gallery Upgrades, $5,518
Crook County
- Crook County Museum District, Old Stoney Window Replacement Project, Phase II, $10,000
Fremont County
- Lander Community Foundation, Lander Valley Ranching Oral History Project, $4,040
- Central Wyoming College, Anthropology Department, Dinwoddy Glacier Archaeology, $1,760
- Wind River Visitors Council, Native American Folkways and Horse Culture, Double D Wild Horse Sanctuary, $12,000
Johnson County
- Johnson County Library Foundation, Zelestrina Urza in Outer Space, Author David Romtvedt Educational Tour in Wyoming; $5,000
Hot Springs County
- Hot Springs Greater Learning Foundation, Big Horn Basin Folk Festival, $8,000
Laramie County
- Boulder Community Media, Virtual Art of the Hunt – Digital Convergence, $13,500
- Cheyenne Arts Council, Wyoming: Landscapes, Soundscapes & Dancescapes Wyoming Tours, $8,000
- Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum, Focus on Parades’ Exhibit Interpretation Plan, $5,710
- Cheyenne Greenway Foundation, Wildlife Landscapes for Holliday Park Greenway Underpass, $5,500
- Cheyenne Historic Preservation Board, Warren Rest House Restoration Project, $10,000
- Cheyenne Little Theatre Players, Inc., Mary Godfrey Playhouse Exterior Rehabilitation, Phase 1, $5,000
Natrona County
- The Casper Artists’ Guild, Inc., ART 321: Building an Endowment for the Future, $15,000
Park County
- Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, Bring a Barrack Back to Heart Mountain WWII Japanese American Confinement Site, $10,000
- Northwest College Foundation, Establishing a Steel Band Ensemble at Northwest College, $5,000
Sheridan County
- Sheridan Artist Guild Et Al, Miss Indian American Invitational Art Show and Exhibit, $2,500
Teton County
- Dancers’ Workshop, Outreach Residency Programs, $5,000
- Grand Teton National Park Foundation, Historic Preservation Work on the T.A. Moulton Barn, $7,000
- Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, WILD Music Interactive Installation & WILD Festival, $4,000
Statewide
- Division State Parks, Historic Sites and Trails, Camp Douglas Window Restoration Project, $10,000
- George C. Frison Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, Endowment, $5,000
- Wyoming Chapter, American Institute of Architects, Computer Modeling for WY PBS, $2,000
- Wyoming State Historical Society, Wyoming Oral History Online Database, $8,650
For more information about the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund and the grant application process, contact the WCTF Administrator, Renée Bovée, at 307-777-6312 or renee.bovee@wyo.gov.
Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund 