Carbon County Museum lights up local history

Dino the Sinclair dinosaur and an unnamed mule deer in front of the Carbon County Museum in Rawlins. Photo by Annie Shay.

Daughter Annie and I traveled to Rawlins a few Fridays ago to cover a story on the Carbon County Museum. Annie's a photographer and this is the first story we worked together. I've watched her start her own photography business. She's assembled some good photo equipment. I've watched her edit her work on PhotoShop, a world of mystery to me. Photography has been a hobby and part of my job several times, including my time at the Wyoming Arts Council. My skills have always been rudimentary. Over the years, I've found that I can interview the subject or take photos but not both. I need to query the subject, watch their body language, and study the face. 

So it was a bonus for me to work with a photographer. We also traveled and had lunch together. How cool is that? It's fun to talk and negotiate the snowless Snow Chi Minh Trail over Elk Mountain, there and back again. Always a good stop at that rest area, although not so pleasant in January when frigid 80 mph winds freeze your hands and buffet you about. Annie shot photos of the mountain, free of snow in late June which I found odd but in keeping with climate change. 

But, summer. It's short but glorious.

Annie and I cruised to Anong's for lunch and then found the museum at 9th and Walnut. It's in an old LDS church and it looks church-like but for the museum's sign and the big green dinosaur staring off to the north and the mule deer lying in the shade. 

Annie: Is that real?

Me: Dinosaurs are extinct.

Annie: No, the deer.

Deer (looking at us): It's a damn sight cooler here in the shade. Think I want to be out on the parched prairie and its 95-degree heat and coyotes and rattlers and the sudden urge to dart into speeding traffic? I'd be inside if I could figure out a way to open the doors (raises hoofs) See?

Annie and Me: Oh

After our deer encounter and, equipped with opposable thumbs, we go inside. Dr. Steven Dinero sits behind the old bank teller's cage. He's the ED and serves some shifts as the official greeter and gift shop cashier. 

You have to read "From outlaw skulls to rail stories, Rawlins Museum animates history" on WyoFile's Studio Wyoming Review. Take a look at the accompanying photos and click on the captions so you can see Annie's credit line, her first-ever. She's proud of it and so am I. 

A note about museums: I've lived in Wyoming for 30 years but I'd never been to this museum. I've been to the Frontier Prison and the real prison south of town. I've toured the old train depot and stopped for food and bio breaks dozen of times. Weather stopped me one February day and I chose to go the northern route back to Cheyenne so I didn't miss Chris's birthday. I wonder how many other of the state's 100-plus museums have I passed by. Dozens, I suspect. Take an hour break on your summer sojourn and visit a museum.