History
By Jim Stone, The Pickleville Philosopher
So any ways back in the oil boom days in Wyoming, there were a lot of people making a lot of money and the one place they could
spend it was here at the Pickleville. Back
then it was named El Centro, the main floor
was a beer bar, the downstairs was illegal moonshine, fist fighting , gambling
and the 9 motel rooms were a brothel. Supposedly
the buildings that were a brothel were dragged in by horses on big wood timbers.
At that time Garden City had no mayor or sheriff. John
Hansen who is my friend and in his 90s now, is one very great man. One of my most admired men in my life. He used
to come in the store all the time. I
have some other fun stories about John but I’ll save them for another time. Any ways he was in the oil fields I think and
in those days if you were elected the mayor and there was no sheriff then you
were both. John came home to garden city
and he was not only the mayor, he was the sheriff too.
And his first duty as mayor and sheriff was to shut El
Centro down. He told me that he strapped
his 45 auto on (that’s a gun for you). John
had to use it several times. In his lifetime he was a legend and a hero at war fighting
for all of our well being and freedom.
He walked through through the front door, grabbed the business
license and tore it in half, and then he said I’m closing this establishment
down! That was the end of that history of
this old place.
Any way I’ve found some history; I’ve found old baseball
cards’ old comic books. old coins, but today
I got bored. I found an old Field and Stream picture, I found three of
them but this was the only one that was still in the frame. It looks like an early 40’s or 50’s picture
from the magazine, it was a cool find. It
makes me wonder if there is some old history in the old buildings that used to
be a brothel out back.
Any way just a short thought for everyone it’s just a thought. History is amazing in never ends, just like
time never ends either. It just keeps moving on. If you really think about it, time
might be the mother or father or even a mixture from another mate . You just
never know. But to me without time as the creator history would never have
grown up and come forth. There would be
no history without time.
Well I don’t know if that story was exact, but when John
told me the story I believed him, it’s real cool.
The thing that worries me is I’m wanting to sell the old store
but I don’t want the old store to be mowed off for a new store it has two much
history behind it. It’s been heritage in
Bear Lake for thousands and thousands of people. I think our history disappears every day.
Well just a long story that has my mind heavy wanting to
keep history part of our future. Big
smiles from me to all of you sleep tight and nice dreams
