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Happy New Year! What better way to celebrate than to travel back in time to 1884 in the Wyoming Territory.

Warning... Sprinkled in with the 1884 New Years predictions are superstitions and even an old-fashioned romance. We are celebrating the 1884 New Year just as residents did that same year and reading through the Cheyenne Daily Sun after staying up to bring in the New Year!

1883 had been a time of prosperity for many in Wyoming and the fledging city of Cheyenne. The cattle were thriving, and the railroad was bringing in opportunities to the young territory. The Wyoming and cowboys of the 1880's would soon be immortalized by author Owen Wister in his famous book, The Virginian, but today, as 1884 dawned, the territorial citizens were still living in the world Wister would depict less than 20 years into the future.

As the citizens welcomed in 1884, little did they know that the future, for some, was going to be dire. For, in just two years, a severe winter would kill thousands of cattle.  It would became known as “The Great Die-Up" and help bring on the war between the wealthy cattlemen association and the small-time homesteaders they saw as a threat to their vast empire.

In 1884, the thoughts were on New Years celebrations and superstitious from the old world. The modern world of electric lights made it easier to enjoy love stories from their homes back east and to look forward to a bright future.

Hello 1884!
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The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association and was a production of Legend Rock Media Production. Your hosts are Jackie Dorothy & Dean King.

Season two will be exploring the Wyoming of Owen Wister, the author of The Virginian

This program has been made possible through a grant from Wyoming Humanities.
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Your hosts are Jackie Dorothy and Dean King and you can find us at (20+) Pioneers of Outlaw Country | Facebook

This is a production of Legend Rock Media Productions.