The Pickleville Philosopher

History

By Jim Stone, The Pickleville Philosopher

So I bought this old store in 1999.  I was up on the roof fixing water leaks just re-tarring the roof to fix the water leaks and found a signature in the top of one of the concrete blocks.   The name was Paul Hodges built in 1940, so it’s a pretty old building and in the winter time let me tell you it's cold up here, me and my dogs can see our breath all winter long.

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