Roberts Roots & Branches

Pictures of the Rock Springs Municipal Building: Rock Springs Municipal Building, published, 9 August 1894, in the Rock Springs Miner Old black and white photograph of the Rock Springs Municipal Building, unknown date. Rock Springs Municipal Building (now the museum) September 2013. Painting of the Rock Springs Municipal Building, September 2013, Rock Springs Historical Museum. Rock Springs Miner, 11 May 1893, Town Election where the City Hall was submitted for a vote:  196 votes for and 151 votes against.  The proposition carried by a mere 45 votes!  (Wyoming Newspaper Project online) Rock Springs Museum, jail windows, September 2013, RR&B

The Rock Springs Historical Museum 201 B Street, Rock Springs, Wyoming 82901, 307-362-3138 Painting of the Rock Springs Municipal Building, September 2014, Rock Springs Historical Museum. The building was empty until the Rock Springs Centennial Celebration in 1988. Through the hard work and dedication of volunteers, the museum was opened on 4 June 1988. Artifacts were loaned and donated by local residents and the volunteers created many exhibits to show what it was like to live in Rock Springs. In 1991-1992 with funds from the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program the building underwent a 1.7 million dollar restoration to bring it back to its 1890’s condition. Exhibits are rotated regularly. Display from coal mining exhibit, September 2014, Rock Springs Historical Museum The museum houses a coal mining exhibit that features many historical photographs, coal miner’s lamps, coal miner’s tools, maps, and other interesting features that examine the life and ti...

National Bank Building, 1892, Rock Springs, Wyoming, September 2013, RR&B

Park Hotel, Rock Springs, Wyoming, September 2013, RR&B 19 Elk Street, Rock Springs, Sweetwater, Wyoming The Park Hotel opened in 1914 and was the hub of Western Wyoming until the late 1950’s. It was the largest and most modern hotel in the city. Advertisements boasted of hot and cold water in each of its 38 rooms, twenty of which had private baths and toilets. The fourth floor was added in the 1920’s. The Park Hotel catered to commercial men and automobile tourists traveling the Lincoln Highway. The hotel had a boisterous barroom and a sedate restaurant with sparking white table cloths. Rock Springs Miner, 30 January 1914, page 1, Wyoming Newspaper Project online. One memory of the Park Hotel, is related by Thomas P. Cullen, “One summer afternoon while walking up Elk Street toward the C Street Crossing, my attention was drawn to the small crowd assembled near the north end of the Park Hotel. A slight man, of short stature, stood rolling up his pantlegs...

Federal Post Office, Rock Springs, Wyoming, Sept 2013, RR&B Federal Post Office Building 210 B Street, Rock Springs, Wyoming The Rock Springs Federal Post Office was built in 1911 directly over the coal mine tunnels.  Because of  this sixteen holes were drilled, pipes inserted in each hole and concrete poured down each pipe until the coal mine tunnels were filled. Source:   “Rock Springs, Historic Downtown Walking Tour”, Rock Springs Historical Board, Norma Jean Robins, 1996.

  Old Timers Association, Rock Springs, Wyoming, September 2013, RR&B Old Timers Association, Rock Springs, Wyoming, September 2013, RR&B June 13, 1925, about 269 employees who had worked at the UP and its predecessors for at least 20 years joined the Old Timers Association and were placed on the registration roll. Each man pinned a badge on his lapel with the name of the mine in which he first worked. The Old Timers Association was organized with the intent of honoring those miners who had given their youth and strength to the mines. Membership would confer distinction and recognition to faithful loyal miners. The Old Timers Association belonged completely to the members and not the coal mines. Four years after its beginning, the Association built its first auditorium in Rock Springs. Old Timers Day became one of the major holidays celebrated in Rock Springs and included miners from Rock Springs and Hanna. Old Timers Association, Rock...

  The quilt my grandmother Dorcas Dunn Roberts made for me for my wedding. The calendar on which my grandmother Dorcas Dunn Roberts  recorded when she mailed my quilt to me for my wedding. See the April 2014 newsletter for more information!

The newsletter is in the mail. . .  did you get your copy? photographs from the Rock Springs Historical Museum.  9 September 2013

RootsTech 2014 conference presenter James Tanner broke the art of blogging down into six steps for his class: [and in brackets I have answered the questions pertaining to the RR&B blog as per our goals here under "Why"] 1. Be passionate: Focus on the thing or things you really want to write about, and stick with them. Make sure you have a lot to say about your blog topic.(1) [and in brackets I have answered the questions pertaining to the RR&B blog as per our goals] 2. Decide on an audience: Are you writing this blog just for you and your personal records? Is it meant to link all members of your extended family? Is it a how-to blog for other members of the genealogy community? Choose beforehand whom you are intending to address.(1) [numbers 1 & two of RR&B goals:  1--Share & exchange information about the Roberts family, and 2--Keep in touch with the Roberts family members] 3. Decide on a title: Tanner suggests being extra careful with this ...

RootsTech 2014 conference presenter James Tanner began by asking his audience, “Why do you want to blog?”   “Here’s the important thing about blogging — you need to have something to say,” Tanner said. “You need to be very passionate about what you’re blogging about. If you’re fixated on the fact that you’ve only got 20 people reading the blog, you’ve missed the point of blogging.”(1) * * " If you’re fixated on the fact that you’ve only got 20 people reading the blog, you’ve missed the point of blogging. ”(1) It was so refreshing to read this.  I put soooo much time into this blog and quite frankly the "pay" is not good.  Yes, I have had a couple of distant relatives reach out to me--Yay--but, it can be really frustrating to post and  write as much as I do and not reap very much!  Honestly, I spend several hours a week researching topics, writing, and compiling my research to share on the blog and it is daunting.  Several times I have thought ...

  source Nurse wearing a mask as protection against influenza. September 13, 1918     

The January Newsletter has been mailed and have you enjoyed reading it?  So, now you know half of your family who died in the great flu pandemic--what about the other half of your family?  Curious, then do some researching!

Source Local health departments  warned those who were ill  to stay away from theaters  and other public places.   [Credit: Office of the Public Health Service Historian] Source

Source By educating people on how influenza could spread,  public health officials hoped to help people avoid it.    [Credit: National Library of Medicine] Source

United States Census Facts 1890 1940 1980 2010 US Resident Population 62,979,766 132,164,569 226,542,199 308,745,538 Population per square mile of land area:   17.8 37.2 64.0 87.4 Official Enumeration Date:   June 1 April 1 April 1 April 1 Number of States:   42 48 50 50 Cost:   $11,547,000 $67,527,000 $1.1 billion $12.9 billion Cost per Capita (cents):   18.3 51.1 486.5 4778 Number of Enumerators: 46,408 123,069 458,523 635,000 (est) Number of Questions Asked:   30 ——— 19 10 Source:  US Census Bureau online