Category Archives: Uncategorized

Declutter and Bee Mine

Posted on January 24, 2026 | 17 comments

Have you been decluttering this month?

This is my sixth year doing Karen Brown’s Declutter Challenge.

I haven’t really had to do all that much decluttering in my sewing studio this year.

I have, however, taken the decluttering principles into my kitchen, laundry room, and entryway closet. Those areas have definitely benefited from the decluttering!

For once, I have actually sewn a seasonal project before the holiday has arrived!

Hello, Valentine’s Day!

I got the Bee Mine pattern by Jen Daly from Quiltmaker January/February 2019 magazine that a friend gave to me.

You can also find the pattern in Jen Daly’s Etsy shop.

And, yes, mine does look different from the original.

I made a mistake. Oops. That’s okay. I went with it and I like the version that I came up with.

Have fun and carry on!

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Bee Mine, declutter, Declutter Challenge, hearts, Jen Daly, Karen Brown, LCsCottage, pillow, Valentine

Cross Country Vacation Sept./Oct. 2025-Post 28

Posted on January 23, 2026 | 6 comments

Wyoming Territorial Prison – Part 3

The most infamous prisoner at the Wyoming Territorial Prison was Robert LeRoy Parker, also known as Butch Cassidy.

Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site

*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!

Maximilian and Annie Parker, Robert’s parents. Robert was the eldest of 13 children.

Parker Ranch near Circleville, Utah.

By the age of 13, Robert clashed with the law. He stole a pair of trousers, and left an IOU. The store owner called the authorities who issued Robert a warning.

Cassidy hit a patch of bad luck when he bought a stolen horse for five dollars from a rustler name Billy Nutcher in Fremont County, Wyoming. Authorities caught Cassidy with the stolen horse and arrested him. His trial was held in Lander, Wyoming, where he was convicted for grand larceny and sent to the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Laramie City. Sentenced to two years of hard labor, Cassidy was incarcerated at the Wyoming Prison at Laramie on July 15, 1894.

This would be the only prison to ever hold Butch Cassidy.

George ‘Butch’ Cassidy’s (Robert LeRoy Parker) actual mug shot:

There is no record of who shared Cassidy’s cell. There were convicts incarcerated at the same time as Butch who probably knew him from his rustling days. Cassidy took every opportunity to network with these outlaws and other men while he was imprisoned, ensuring the success of his future gang, the Wild Bunch.

A lot of people wanted to be part of Butch’s gang. He was successful and seen as a celebrity among outlaws. Butch chose his gang carefully. He knew most outlaws were neither trustworthy nor reliable. He didn’t look for the hard drinkers, braggarts, bullies, and the hot-tempered. He chose with purpose…wranglers, gunslingers, sharpshooters, teamsters, safecrackers, scouts, powder men, railroaders…he chose skills. The locals, who were unhappy with the big cattlemen, railroaders, bankers and miners, all of whom took advantage of the common people, hid Butch when he was on the run. They also supplied him with fresh horses and food.

The big banks, the railroad, and the Stock Growers Associations all played a role in shrinking the West and its way of life. There was no room for open range cowboys, like Butch Cassidy, who made a living traversing the grasses and foothills of the Wild West, or for the homesteader with his fences. The outlaw, Cassidy, and his Wild Bunch targeted the powerful – the railroad, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, and their strongest allies, the banks and the mining companies.

Upon his release he would establish the most successful band of bank and train robbers this country has ever seen. Butch and his gang, the Wild Bunch, would steal over $233,905.00 from trains, banks, and mining payrolls all over the West in five years. Cassidy, the Sundance Kid (Harry Alonso Longabaugh), Kid Curry and other Wild Bunch gang members were some of the most wanted men in four states with Pinkerton detectives, posses and bounty hunters dogging their steps. Butch and the Wild Bunch would become the country’s last horseman outlaws.

*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!

Harry Alonso Longabaugh (Sundance Kid):

Pictured below is an actual safe dynamited by Cassidy and the Wild Bunch. It is difficult to get a good photo without reflections, so you just might want to go and see it for yourself. In fact, the prison has quite a large display with lots of information about this gang…too much for me to share here!

The popular Bowler hat:

*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!

In 1901 the gang dissolved. On February 20, 1901, Butch, the Sundance Kid and Etta (also known as Ethel) Place set sail for South America from New York aboard the British steamer Herminius.

Cassidy may have died in a gun-fight with local law enforcement authorities in San Vicente, Bolivia, in 1908, or he may have returned to the United States under another identity. There is lots of conjecture, but his fate remains a mystery.

See the world around you!

Cross Country Vacation Sept./Oct. 2025-Post 27

Posted on January 19, 2026 | Leave a comment

Wyoming Territorial Prison – Part 2

What makes visiting historical places so interesting is the people that lived during the times of these places. Wyoming Territorial State Prison Historical Site, also known as ‘the big house across the river’, does a great job of sharing their stories. I am sharing a few in this post, so if you want to stick around, you might want to get yourself a cup. The photographs of the convicts are taken from their actual mug shots and are on display all over the walls of the penitentiary (from the word penitent).

Dr. May Preston Slosson was a very accomplished and gifted woman. In 1880, she became the first female doctoral graduate from Cornell University, as well as the first woman in the U.S. to earn a PhD in philosophy. She was an author, an educator, a painter, world traveler, and a suffragette.

In 1898, Slosson was chair of the prison committee of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and she organized lectures for prisoners at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Laramie. Prison Warden N. D. McDonald submitted her name, and Slosson was appointed Prison Chaplain on July 7, 1899, becoming the first female prison chaplain in the U.S.

Dr. Slosson aimed to build up the prisoners’ sense of self-respect and provide education that she believed would assist in an orderly transition from prison life to life outside the walls. Beyond leading religious services, she continued the lecture series, provided study programs, counseled prisoners, provided church services, arranged social programs, and served as a librarian and record keeper. In prisons of silence chaplains often acted as the voice of the prisoners. Warden McDonald supported her work because under her guidance as Chaplain, the prison punishment rate dropped by fifty percent.

“I enjoyed the work . The place was tragic, that is true.” – May Preston Slosson

Let’s meet a few of the prisoners who occupied cells like this one:

*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!

Out of 1063 prisoners at the penitentiary, there was a total of 13 women, with one of them serving time twice.

The women’s quarters offered no special amenities to the women. However, they did have relative privacy as their quarters were set well away from the male prisoner’s quarters. They had their own bathroom as well.

The women were not allowed out of the cellblock during their stay except to go to chapel. They did have use of the library. The wardens were determined to keep the women totally segregated from the men. They did not wear uniforms, nor did they have their heads shaved. Female convicts were perceived as a nuisance by male administrators throughout the West.

The women prisoners were not required to do heavy labor. They made and mended clothing for the male and female convicts.

Minnie Hulett Snyder and her husband, Peter, ranched in the Big Horn Basin region of Wyoming. They were having troubles with S. W. Aldrich, a neighbor.

An unknown person fired into Aldrich’s window one night and he claimed it was Minnie. Following horse tracks, April 3, 1898, led Aldrich and his men to the Snyders’ home. The Snyders and the Aldrich group set off to talk to Judge Benedict on Bull Creek. At the crossing of Belknaff Creek, near present day Cody, someone opened fire, and everyone took cover and pulled weapons. When the shooting was over, John Rooks, a friend of Aldrich, was dead and several believe Minnie fired the fatal shot with a Winchester.

The Snyders called it an ambush. Aldrich and his men claimed Peter was cattle rustling. Minnie told the jury that Aldrich was making advances and she wanted him to stop. Aldrich had been known to make unwanted advances towards women. Some said Aldrich wanted the Snyder ranch. In the end, the Snyders were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to terms in prison. Aldrich was never implicated in any wrongdoing.

Letters from friends requesting her pardon attest to Minnie’s innocence. Minnie kept houseplants and a pet canary; she couldn’t be a killer. Opponents called Minnie debased, lewd, and ‘having no womanly instincts’.

95-pound Minnie kept her silence and endured years behind bars. The whole time, she and Peter were never allowed to speak to each other. Aldrich got the Snyder ranch, but, in the end, the entire Marquette area where these events occurred went underwater with the construction of the Buffalo Bill Dam and Reservoir in 1910.