Let's Talk Wyoming
A podcast about Wyoming and everything we talk about including the weather, politics, energy & agriculture, sports & everything else effecting our state.
Let's Talk Wyoming
Smoke, Sports, and Japanese History: A Wyoming Perspective
The smoke hangs thick across Wyoming skies, a stark reminder of the environmental challenges we face as summer transitions to fall. From critically low reservoir levels to the persistent haze that won't dissipate until winter snows arrive, our landscape tells a concerning story about climate realities in the Mountain West.
Against this backdrop, life in Wyoming continues with its rhythms and traditions. The Wyoming Cowboys kicked off their football season with an impressive 10-0 shutout victory against Akron, bringing hope and excitement to fans statewide. Local high schools have launched their sports seasons too, creating those community gathering points that define small-town life across our state.
But beyond these current events lies a profound historical narrative that deserves greater attention. Long before the infamous Heart Mountain Relocation Center imprisoned thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II, Japanese immigrants played a crucial role in building Wyoming's infrastructure. Beginning in 1892, these laborers worked on the Union Pacific and other railroad lines, enduring discrimination, violence, and "coolie wages" while helping construct the transportation network that would shape Wyoming's development.
Their story—from facing threats of hanging in Laramie to eventually rising to become section supervisors despite overwhelming odds—reveals a complex chapter in our state's labor history. These immigrants showed remarkable resilience, contributing to war bond drives during WWI and volunteering for military service despite facing legal barriers to citizenship until 1952.
As we reflect on Labor Day's meaning and Wyoming's past and present, these interconnected stories remind us how environmental challenges, community celebrations, and historical reckonings all shape our collective identity. The Japanese cemetery plots in Cheyenne and the internment camp museum near Cody stand as physical reminders of this legacy that deserves recognition.
What forgotten stories shape your community's history? How do these narratives help us understand our present challenges? Share your thoughts and join us next time for more explorations of Wyoming's rich tapestry of stories.
Good morning and welcome to let's Talk Wyoming. I'm Mark Hamilton, your host, and today we'll be looking at Labor Day and happy Labor Day to everyone. Also, we'll be looking at our weather, our smoke, we'll be talking about some vehicles and also data centers and finally we'll close on a story from wildhistoryorg on the Japanese here in Wyoming. Thanks for joining us and we hope you enjoy the pod Taking a look at Wyoming weather here on the fourth day of September. I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. I was just looking here on Gronk on X and, as I put in Labor Day it came up with.
Speaker 1:Labor Day in the United States is a federal holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September, which in 2025 would fall on September 1st. It honors the contribution of workers and the labor movement, recognizing the role in the country's economic and social development. The holiday originated in the late 19th century, with the first celebration in New York City on September 5th of 1882, organized by labor unions. It became a federal holiday in 1894 under President Grover Cleveland following the significant labor strikes like the Pullman Strike. Typically, labor Day is marked by parades, picnics, barbecue and community events. It also signifies the unofficial end of summer, with many schools resuming classes afterwards, retail sales, travel and outdoor activities peak during the long weekend, though in 2025, some regions may have adjusted schedules due to local events or weather. It's seen as seen in PostNX mentioning early dismissals or event plans. So there we go, labor Day. I hope you all enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:Looking at Wyoming weather, it had been warm. We have cooled down and we are having some warmer days Low 90s, 91, 92, 80s, high 80s it just depends on the day and then cools off and overnight we're getting down to anywhere between 48 to 52 degrees. So it does cool down. Nice so you can open those windows up. But what we're facing now is smoke. Smoke's our issue. We had fires here in Hot Springs County and we had nothing like the smoke that we're seeing now and today. It just really laid in in the whole region and with this smoke we can plan on it being around for quite a while and, just depending on which way the jet stream is going and the winds, how bad it's going to get and, like I said earlier on earlier podcasts, all this will finally dissipate when we finally get some moisture and get into wintertime, start getting some snow.
Speaker 1:I was talking to a gentleman earlier today and he was talking about up in the Matitsi country that the sunshine reservoirs. There's the upper and the lower that they are getting so low you can't even put a boat in now the upper and the lower that they are getting so low you can't even put a boat in now. And they plan on continuing to run the water for the irrigation. Those are both irrigation lakes and or reservoirs, and so the area up there there's just a lot of reservoirs that are just bone dry and it's going to take a pretty good snowfall this winter to start putting water back into these. So it's dry out there, folks. And again, we are in September and right now we could sure use a little bit of moisture, but I guess we'll just keep our fingers crossed. I keep looking at the long-range forecast, but it doesn't look too favorable right now. But we'll continue on and be really vigilant on our fires and what we're doing to make sure we don't get anything else started. I can't believe the amount of effort and work these firefighters are going through. They've got to be getting pretty well worn down by now. It looks like no end in sight. So remember those people now. It looks like no end in sight, so remember those people and other stuff around the area. We are at that point.
Speaker 1:The Wyoming Cowboys played last weekend or last Thursday night, I should say. They played in Akron, ohio, and they took on the University of Akron and they came out victorious 10-0 and pitched the shutout. The Cowboys start out the season 1-0, a real improvement for them. They take on Northern Iowa this Saturday 2 pm in the War Memorial in Laramie. First home game. Looks like there's going to be a pretty good crowd there. Looks like the weather should be good for everyone. I don't know much about Northern Iowa but we'll see what type of a game it ends up being. And I know the Cowboys have to make the trip to Boulder to take on Colorado and Coach Prime coming up and said that should be interesting. But the Cowboys were victorious.
Speaker 1:High school sports they started a football Now the 4A schools that actually had their first football games. Everybody else was in zero-week games. They'll start their regular season at all other classifications this Friday night. So we'll keep track of what's going on in the state. Volleyball is going, volleyball got started and all your other sports are going. So busy time here in our state of Wyoming. Everybody's back in school and we got that push where after Labor Day there's no vacations until November. I always hated it at work when the Memorial Day, you knew that 4th of July was coming and after 4th of July you were going to have Labor Day. So it's a long time between now and Thanksgiving. But if you look at that calendar, we're here in September, october, november we're going to be there and it'll be Christmas time and I haven't even started my Christmas shopping. So I've got a bathroom remodel that I need to take care of and some other stuff I've been searching for.
Speaker 1:I'd like to upgrade on my vehicle. I haven't figured out what to buy. All I know is that the price of vehicles keep going up. These used vehicles, they just keep creeping up. My daughter, she did get a Tesla and a used one a 2022, but that car has gone up 15% and she just bought it a little over a month ago now and it's amazing the way these prices are going up. So you keep looking and wondering what to do. I'd love to get electric. I always said I never would get one, but after driving one our only issue we have here in Wyoming we're a long ways away from any type of repairs with the nearest Tesla in Salt Lake or in the Denver area, so I don't know what we'll get.
Speaker 1:We're a lot of Subarus around here. I don't really need to get a full-size pickup. I want something that I can get a little better mileage, and I've got a couple of things I'm going to be involved with this winter and I'll be putting quite a few miles on the vehicle, so I'd like to get an upgrade. I've been looking at Subarus Also. I kind of like the Volkswagen Golf All-Track station wagon, and I even looked at a Volvo their V60 station wagon. The only thing that scares me about the Volvo is that the repair costs on some of their cars. Now it'll be very safe. They are definitely one of the safest vehicles you can ride in. So that's what's happening Just waiting to try to figure that out, trying to get projects done, and this is time of year where you're trying to get some water on everything and make sure you've caught up with everything in your yard and try to get some other yard work done.
Speaker 1:Good time to do it, and but it's getting to that point. We get up in the morning, I do with the dogs and, yeah, at six o'clock it's still it's dark. So we get up about five, four30 to 5, and then we head to town, to where we walk, and it's been dark when we get to the our walk area, and so these days are definitely getting shorter and I'm going to have to look at my calendar to see when we actually fall back with our time change, and then we know after that that we're not close or not too far away from, I should say, from winter really starting to be a factor. So, and finally, I wanted to bring up a subject that I've been following data centers. I know everybody that listens to the pod, wherever you live in the United States, even if you live overseas, these data centers are getting to be quite the trend. Right now they're talking about a data center down in the Cheyenne area Cheyenne, wyoming area and that data center will use way more electrical power than the entire state of Wyoming uses electrical power than the entire state of Wyoming uses and they're going to try to generate on-site and also use some solar or wind renewables, but they also use tons of water. So I'm just a little bit concerned about these things. They're going across the country and when they start using a bunch of this excess power, don't know what we plan on doing right now. The electric rates are up everywhere. So keep track of that, keep that on your radar, the data centers and see where they go and see what will actually happen. But I'm a little concerned at this time.
Speaker 1:Today in our history section this comes from wildhistoryorg Before Heart Mountain Japanese in early Wyoming and this is by Mr Dan Lyon. The history of Japanese people in Wyoming is most often connected with the Heart Mountain Relocation Center north of Cody, where more than 10,000 Japanese nationals and people of Japanese descent from California and the West Coast were confined behind barbed wire by the US government during World War II. By contrast, early Japanese immigrants in Wyoming was always connected to. Railroads were in Wyoming at least as early as 1892, when the Oregon Short Line Railroad employed 40 Japanese laborers on its route from Oregon to Granger, wyoming. The Oregon Short Line was a Union Pacific subsidiary that ran from Granger in southwest Wyoming to Oregon.
Speaker 1:Beginning in 1899, the Union Pacific Railroad, emerging from receivership after the nationwide depression of 1890, rebuilt its entire line from Omaha, nebraska, to Ogden, utah. Workers straightened curves, replaced old bridges, lowered grades and bored new tunnels. As part of its restructuring, the railroad cut wages, which made any willing worker hard to find. As a result, the UP tapped into an increasingly new Asian labor market which satisfied the demand for laborers and the hiring also boosted shareholder confidence because Japanese immigrants worked for coolie wages. Chinese laborers, which had built the western half of the transcontinental railroad in 1860, were no longer available as Congress had shut down Chinese immigration with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Speaker 1:Though some were undocumented, the majority of the Japanese came to Wyoming legally through such ports as San Francisco, tacoma and Seattle. Union Pacific labor contractors and subcontractors made the arrangements. The immigrants also had to prove that they would not be a financial burden to America. Meanwhile, the Chicago, burlington and Quincy Railroad, better known later as the Burlington, had entered into northeast Wyoming in early 1890 and crossed from there into Montana In 1901, the Burlington brought in a crew of Japanese laborers to help extend its line from Toluca near Billings, south Dakota. Ironically, therefore, the stretch of railroad on which the Heart Mountain interns arrived four decades later may have been constructed by Japanese immigrant laborers. The Rollins-Wyoming semi-weekly Republican reported in April of 1901 that the Burlington had employed Japs for the work, and a large shipment of the Little Brown Men arrived at Toluca last week and have been distributed among the grading and track laying gangs. Some four decades later, the Japanese immigrants who left their families behind in Japan to seek a better life in America and laid the tracks that helped build Cody's economy would not be welcomed because of the color of their skin and the shape of their eyes. But it is by their relations with the Union Pacific, with its main line across southern Wyoming, that we know the most about the Japanese immigrants in the state's early decades. Stories about Japanese people appeared frequently in Wyoming's newspapers during those years. These articles rely largely on those accounts and on census records.
Speaker 1:Japanese laborers worked on railroads, in the Pacific coal mines and, the time went on, opened businesses and raised families in the communities along the UP line. Working for the railroads was dangerous work. While the railroads didn't keep records of workers' death during the construction of the original transcontinental railroad, researchers at Stanford University believe that as many as 1,000 unskilled workers, mostly Chinese, died during the construction in the 1860s of the Central Pacific from California to Utah, california to Utah. In addition, a report by the Census Office in 1908 and 1909 noted accidents caused 52.5% of the deaths of untrained railroad employees. A study by two sizable industrial life insurance companies said deaths from the accidents in the case of railroad tracks and yard workers were so numerous they outnumbered deaths from all other causes in the industry.
Speaker 1:Japanese laborers on the Union Pacific and Wyoming generally came seeking prosperity like immigrants arriving from Europe in large numbers in the same years, but they faced different kind of resistance and rhetoric that bred violence. Labor unions, threatened by what they saw as foreign workers willing to work at the same coolly wages as the Chinese, had been wanted to see the Chinese Exclusion Act to include the Japanese. As a result, newspapers revived yellow journalism propaganda once used against the Chinese. The United States adopted stricter policies aimed at curbing Japanese immigration. This sometimes led to violence. In 1900, the citizens of Evanston threatened Japanese newcomers by placing a can of gunpowder under the railroad car they were living in. The Rollins Republican noted. For many years Rollins had placed a ban on the yellow race and both Mongolians and Japanese had found it impossible to live in town owing to the abuse heaped upon them, not as a body of people but as individuals. In 1908, the young boys of Laramie waged a four-day riot against the Japanese, threatening to hang immigrants from trees, vandalizing a Japanese boarding house and roping and dragging a Japanese man through the streets.
Speaker 1:But though newspapers often describe the Japanese immigrants as a failure, light in physique and staying qualities and as lacking in moral steadfastness as he was in physical force, veteran roadmasters and railroad supervisors thought otherwise. In 1912, fw Green, a roadmaster on the Canadian Pacific Railroad, reported that they, the Japanese, are quick to learn the work and are intelligent and can be used in any kind of track work, from putting in the switches down to cleaning up or fencing the right-of-way. They, the Japanese, will do any work as cheaply as it can be done by other nationalities. Although it is an unwritten law in this locality not to promote an Asian to foreman, I believe there are a few Japs on the coast who would make great foremans over the gangs of their nationality. The coast who would make great foremen over the gangs of their nationality. That same year, ja Ottoman, an assistant superintendent for the Union Pacific and Cheyenne, also praised Japanese laborers, saying they were far superior to any other foreign nationality and were producing more satisfactory results. As early as 1902, short after their introduction to Wyoming, the Union Pacific promoted Japanese men to track foremen. This was also partly out of necessity because of the diminishing supply of workers. Eventually, however, 96 of the 126 section supervisors in the Wyoming Division of the Union Pacific were Japanese. Contributing to their success was the fact that the Japanese foremen translated Union Pacific work manuals into Japanese, so all Japanese laborers knew how to perform their job. Of those Japanese enumerated in Cheyenne during the census of 1910, 60% indicated they had some command of English. Those who didn't speak English learned on the job through fellow countrymen who taught them three words a day.
Speaker 1:The Union Pacific hired Japanese immigrants with the help of labor contractors. The business was profitable for everyone involved. Contractors recruited Japanese immigrants with a promise of higher wages, arrange transportation from the homeland and provide housing for the immigrants. Once the immigrants arrived, however, their dream of prosperity evaporated because of the circumstances involved. But the Japanese immigrants had little recourse other than to accept new low-wage jobs. Japanese immigrants earned $1.25 a day for the same work as European immigrants who earned $1.65 a day a day. Labor contractors also deducted a 10% commission to cover labor's expense such as food, shelter, clothing and supplies.
Speaker 1:The Japanese immigrants lived in the principal towns along the UP line Cheyenne, laramie, rollins, rock Springs and Evanston, as well as smaller coal mining communities and some other forgotten places. Railroad crews lived in boxcars along the track. Japanese coal miners lived in the camps, generally on the outside of a community. The section crews worked year-round in all weather conditions to keep the UP moving. Once a week a passing train brought food to these crews who were out working in fresh drinking water. One passing train dropped wheat, flour and bacon which the men ate daily, until the next train dropped off more supplies. Many of the men, if not all, suffered from night blindness because of their unbalanced diet. The Japanese and coal mining communities fared a little better. They generally were crowded into fixed structures. Rock Springs still had some of those wooden barracks. Cemeteries in Rock Springs and Hanna had some Japanese headstones. Laramie has a couple of Japanese immigrants buried in the local cemetery.
Speaker 1:Cheyenne too had evidence of the Japanese community. When the New Pacific first hired Japanese immigrants at the turn of the century, census records showed communities were made up of single males. Married men left families behind in Japan until they saved enough money to send for their kin. By the 1910 census many Japanese were laying down last roots in the capital city. Families had little privacy. Laying down last roots in the capital city, families had little privacy. However, the census reported as many as 15 individuals occupying a two-bedroom bungalow in Cheyenne, but their children attend public schools. There were photos of Japanese children in elementary and high school yearbooks and class photos.
Speaker 1:Wyoming State Archives has among its collection a diary of Mary Julia Moore Aaron, founder of the First Baptist Church's Americanization of Japanese program. Although the Japanese by then could legally become American citizens, the program taught English as a second language and valuable life skills such as how to cook American-style meals. One eager Japanese woman who attended the classes after she learned to make a lemon pie served her family the tasty tart on three consecutive days. Members posing with Japanese women and children in front of a section housing located south of the UP roundhouse. One of the teachers in the photo is Zena Emerson, the wife of Governor Frank Emerson. She sometimes hosted Japanese families in the governor's mansion. The community south of the roundhouse unfortunately ceased to exist after the Union Pacific expanded its railroad further south and around that time, the early 1930s, an entry in the Allen Diary said many of the Japanese families started to return to Japan to educate their children.
Speaker 1:Cheyenne's other Japan town was north of the roundhouse near the depot. The Wakamoda Nisomura Labor Agency conducted its business there. The agency built a combination Japanese boarding house and a hospital on 15th Street, but it, as well as other Japanese boarding houses, are now vacant or parking lots. Today, only one former Japanese boarding house remains of Japan Town North.
Speaker 1:The only significant concentration of Japanese found in the Cheyenne's Lakeview Cemetery In the southeastern corner is the Japanese plot, an extension of Porter's Field. Here nearly 100 people of Japanese descent are buried. The plot was founded in 1924, the same year Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924, which shut down Asian immigration, including, for the first time, japanese immigration, entirely. Approximately one-third of the burials have a memorial. The remaining burials are in Porter's Field. Not all the people buried in the Japanese plot at Lakeview Cemetery are Japanese. Sadie Nokogawa, for example, was a white woman who was murdered by her Japanese husband. She is unique because it was once legal for a Japanese or a Chinese to marry a white woman. This was Wyoming's law since the Wyoming became a territory until the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. The law was reintroduced in 1913 and aimed specifically at the Japanese.
Speaker 1:Japanese immigrants were never fully assimilated into Wyoming in the early 20th century because of the prevailing political climate. Many communities, however, did to some extent accept the Japanese. The Japanese routinely sponsored local firework displays in such communities as Oakley and Diamondville, near Kemmerer and in Rock Springs. The Japanese also showed their loyalty, supporting Red Cross subscriptions and war bonds during World War I. In 1918, japanese residents raised $5,300 for Oakley's third Liberty Loan Drive. $5,300 for Oakley's third Liberty loan drive, the equivalent of more than $104,000 in 2022.
Speaker 1:Many Japanese also volunteered for the draft during World War I, believing it was a pathway to citizenship. The US Army inducted few Japanese volunteers, however, because of existing treaties, gave them an exemption to the draft. Tom R Yamoto, a cook at a ranch in Cokeville, was just one of 500 Japanese in the nation granted citizenship for military service. He trained at Fort Riley, kansas, but he did not serve overseas. He received his citizenship on March 7, 1921 at the ceremony in Kemmer. Other Japanese would have to wait until 1952 before they could apply for citizenship. Another Japanese who volunteered for the draft during World War I was Dan Horeik. He was 25 and a section gang foreman for the CB&Q railroad at Ralston, near the Heart Mountain train stop between Cody and Powell. One has to wonder whether he too worked on the railroad lines that led to Heart Mountain.
Speaker 1:When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 and World War II began. Hundreds of Japanese stole work for the Union Pacific and coal mines and on the tracks. In February of 1942, the UP dismissed 75 Japanese employees who had been replacing a main switch at Howell, north of Laramie, under the suspicion of sabotage which was never proven. Later that month, the New Pacific President, william Jeffers, wrote Make no mistake about it, I am alterably opposed to the employment of all Japanese on these railroads, whether they are Japanese nationals or whether they are Japanese born in this country. Tom Kawaguchi, who had worked as a coal miner since 1905, died on November 15, 1945, after spending the war years harvesting the coal that fueled the troop trains. Not all Japanese who worked for the Union Pacific were fired, however. The company retained Japanese coal miners since they were essential to the American war effort.
Speaker 1:A very good story about our world and our early years here in Wyoming and I have been to the Heart Mountain Internment Camp that they put up. It is definitely worth the trip up there to make the stop. It's located between Cody and Powell. It's real easy to find right alongside the road and plan on staying for a few hours. Thanks for joining us today and we hope you enjoy our podcast. As per the code of the West. We ride for the brand and we ride for Wyoming. We'll be right back ¶¶. Thank you.
