100 Years Ago
Nov. 12, 1914
The Tribune has been asked the meaning of the “maverick vote,” which in close contests sometimes affects the result. The term maverick vote is a mere popular or slang term applied to a Wyoming statute by which an elector who is absent from his home voting precinct on election day, may, by following a certure, cast his vote for any office under consideration.
Briefly such an elector must obtain from the registration officers of the precinct showing his right to vote, with other details necessary to establish his identity.
If, for instance, such a voter being a railroad conductor is in Rawlins on election day he prevents himself with his certificate at the polls and takes an oath, whereupon he is given a blank election ballot on which he makes the proper marks for state offices and write in the names of the local officers for whom he desires to vote. Such a ballot is securely sealed in an envelope and at the proper time is mailed to the county clerk of the county wherein such an elector claims residence.
There is some doubt about the constitutionality of this law on the ground that it is not a secret ballot because when canvassed by the local board the identity of the voter is known, but the matter has never been tested in the state supreme court. That, in substance, is the meaning of the “maverick vote.”
75 Years Ago
Nov. 16, 1939
Believe it or not, a real honest-to-goodness mountain lion has apparently taken up residence on the river below town. Ben Seahorn, local mine operator, reports having seen and attempted to shoot the big cat, near the bridge across Cottonwood draw on the Pick Springs road, and C. C. Hickok and another Saratoga sportsmen report having come across the lion’s tracks in many places in the Pick Springs area.
50 Years Ago
Nov. 12, 1964
Two men, as yet unidentified, fled after attempting to hold up the Cowboy Bar in Encampment last Thursday night about 8:00 o’clock. According to Mike Blake, deputy sheriff, the men fled after James Reed, owner of the tavern, pulled a gun from under the bar in defiance of their demands. Roadblocks set up near Walden and Laramie soon after the incident were unsuccessful and the would-be robbers are still at large.
Mr. Reed described the vehicle used int he escape as a 1955 or 1956 dark colored Oldsmobile without license plates. Mr. Blake and Sheriff C. W. Ogburn of Rawlins investigated the incident.
25 Years Ago
Nov. 15, 1989
Space Age Cowboy Lee Ackerley of Sheridan will be among the featured entertainers at the next Wyoming-Rocky Mountain Country Music Association concert in Saratoga. Nashville recording artist Rene Davault of Saratoga, and founder of the association, said the concert will be Dec. 9 at the Middle School gymnasium.
Ackerley was among the winners of the country music festival held in Saratoga by the association last Labor Day weekend and was the 1988 Wyoming Top Male vocalist and instrumentalist and 1989 Entertainer of the Year in competitions sponsored by the Wyoming Country Music Foundation.
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