Pages of the Past

100 years ago
May 9, 1924
Mr. Eric Ericson was over from Otto and reported a fire, which destroyed his nine room house yesterday morning between 12 and 1 o’clock. The fire was caused by the explosion of a gasoline lamp. As the gasoline was thrown all over the room in which the lamp was located, it was but a few moments until the whole place was a roaring furnace.
Big storms in the western part of the Basin country on Monday last caused a volume of water that washed out three sage creek bridges and the Highway Department was notified that there was no way to get from Basin to Cody or Meeteetse to Cody over the highway.
75 years ago
May 5, 1949
John William Eckardt of Worland, a sophomore agricultural student at the University of Wyoming, has been elected President of the Independent Students Association, it was learned this week. Mrs. Eckardt, the former Miss Ethel Johnston, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Johnston, was named Treasurer of the same organization. Mrs. Eckardt is a freshman student in the University College of Liberal Arts.
Joe Johnson and Marshall Jones welded covers on two open wells on the Booker-Harrington lots, across from the Burlington club and Schlaf’s store. Those wells have been a death trap for small children for several years. One of them was 24-inches across. Joe and Marshall should receive a vote of thanks from the citizens of Burlington.
What may prove to be the beginning of a baseball revival in Basin got under way Monday afternoon when the cub scouts turned out to begin practice. Members of the teams include. Dick Hammond, Dennis Beck, James Clack, Tommy Ellison, Bob Holland, Larry Miller, Billy and Jimmy Saban, Myron Hastings, Raymond Christian, Gary Skovgard, Marvin Marcus, Bob Caines, Bob Severy and James Ray McKim.
50 years ago
May 8, 1974
Principal Everett March of Basin High School announced that Larry Akin, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Akin, has been selected as valedictorian of the class of 1974. Joyce Shimogaki, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Riki Shimogaki, has been selected as salutatorian of the class of 1974.
Patti Diane Akin, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Akin, has been initiated into the National Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.
25 years ago
May 5, 1999
Do you remember, years and years ago, when a sign on the outskirts of Basin proclaimed it as the Lilac Town? And is there anyone who remembers the long-ago Lilac Festivals the town sponsored? Those memories will become a reality once again as the Basin Chamber of Commerce prepares to revive the Lilac Festival. June 5 has been set for the special one-day festival.
A local veterinarian’s suspicion that an Otto-area horse had been infected by rabies was verified late last week by the state laboratory. This is the first case of rabies found in a domestic animal in the Big Horn Basin in over five years and the first case of a horse being infected since one in Ten Sleep was infected eight years ago.