Grandma Vivian Luce took a trip to Alaska after she retired. We kids had a discussion about it recently, and found out none of us really knew the story. Here’s the basic story as I remembered it. Some caution is warranted here because I was only 10 or 11. No one told me the story. I remember hearing bits and pieces. I put them together for myself. Grandma disappeared. Her kids hadn’t...
Grandma Vivian (Luce) Swanstrom ran away from home when she was 25. Her parents had great ambitions for her, but she had other ideas. They sent her to finishing school in Denver, but she didn’t like it. She came home to the ranch at Big Piney after the first semester, and refused to go back. She was an accomplished pianist, so her parents sent her to University of Wyoming to study music...
Ivinson Memorial Hospital, about 1960 (Credit: Laramie Plains Museum) I was born at Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie, Wyoming (According to my birth certificate–Mom teases that I was born in a log cabin at Tie Siding, but that’s a different story. She means I was born when we lived on the ranch at Tie Siding.) I was looking for the CPS coordinates not long ago. (Trying to resolve...
I always loved the Episcopalian church in Eden, Wyoming but I always thought it was called Garden Church of Eden. Guess not. I did a Google search and quickly found it’s really called Oregon Trail Memorial Church. I wonder if the name might have changed. My grandparents Harry Swanstrom and Vivian (Luce) Swanstrom didn’t belong to any of the local churches, although they contributed to...
A video about the scenic beauty of Sublette County. That’s where my grandmother was born and raised. So many familiar names. Big Piney, Marbleton, Daniel, Cora, Pinedale, Boulder. Someday I’m going to take a couple of weeks to explore.
Bridger Productions, Sublette County and Pinedale Wyoming, YouTube <youtube.com>, Nov. 12, 2012, retrieved Aug. 17, 2020.