Caring for Family Treasures - Episode 20

This episode I came to realize that the older I get, the more my house starts to feel like my own family history museum. That thought reminded me of a packrat, which is the Wyoming Wildlife featured in this episode. I turned to Sara Davis of the Wyoming State Archives for help on the “family treasures”. She gives us some great insights into the care and preservation of our own family heirlooms - things like this notebook, belonging to my great grandfather Alonzo Peterson. He was a miner for the Owl Creek Mining Company in Gebo WY, and before that in Cambria WY. Gebo is pretty close to Powell, which is this episode’s Dot on the Map.

Below are some resources from this show:

• Sara Davis is the Wyoming State Archivist, learn more about her here. 
  
• Sara mentioned the Mass Memories Roadshow
  
• Wyoming State Archives, and SHRAB board
  
• The American Heritage Center at UW houses a lot of historical material and is open to the public for research
  
• Packrats thrive in rocky, very dry climates such as here in WY. In fact, they don’t drink water at all, but hydrate by eating plants. In dry climates middens are known to last tens of thousands of years!
  
• Powell has the Homesteader Museum with a collection of artifacts, historic buildings, oral histories, and photographs that offer a peek into the rugged life of homesteaders that pioneered the Big Horn Basin. 
  
• Northwest College in Powell not only provides a range of academic programs, but is an important cultural and educational resource for the region.  
  
• Somewhere in there I talked about Knife & Pen - essays from Christina Holzhhauser’s childhood church’s cookbook, she’s “a writer who likes to cook”. Christina fires up the oven for classic recipes from her childhood like Beef Hash, and Tuna Casserole. 

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