A series where we take a #lookback at the stories and history of our community, brought to you by Mick Pryor, Financial Advisor with Edward Jones.
The Wynn family were long time Lander and Fremont County residents who were heavily involved in the newspaper business. Isaac C. Wynn, born in 1830 in Scioto County, Ohio began his newspaper career in 1860 with the first paper he purchased, naming it the Pike County Republican. He moved out west in the 1880s, first to Colorado and then to Lander in 1884 with his wife Eliza and daughter Cora Viola. He started the first newspaper in Lander, the Wind River Mountaineer in January of 1885 and ran this until selling in 1887 and started a second newspaper, the Fremont Clipper (this paper would later become the Wyoming State Journal).
His daughter Cora assisted him as well as her brother Edwin ‘Ed’ Ruthven. Ed moved to Lander in 1887 from Colorado, where he himself has been doing newspaper work. Ed helped his father as assistant editor for a short period on a special writing project about the mining area of Atlantic City and South Pass in the Clipper and then returned to Colorado to start a newspaper of his own, The Arlington Reader in 1888. While Isaac was running the Clipper, he was also appointed postmaster at Lander in 1889, serving for several years with Cora working as assistant postmistress. Likely, this additional work may have been the cause for him to sell the Clipper to a syndicate in spring of 1890, named as the ‘Clipper Publishing Company’. Isaac however, remained as editor of the paper, with his son Ed returning at one point to be assistant editor.
Isaac once again left the Clipper in 1893, moving to California for health reasons. Daughter Cora, who had married local lawyer Douglas Preston and had a son, Donald, joined Isaac with her son in California. By 1895, Isaac seems to have decided his health was improved and they returned to Lander. On his return he purchased the Wind River Mountaineer. In 1896 he also bought out a third newspaper that existed very briefly in town, The Gazette (unfortunately no known copies of this third newspaper are known to exist at time of writing) that was run by the Rathbone Brothers and absorbed it into his own paper. Isaac passed away in 1897, and his son Ed, who had been assistant editor, and his daughter Cora, stepped up to take over the newspaper.
Ed worked off and on with his sister on the Wind River Mountaineer over the years, sometimes alongside her or on his own, and outside of this he worked as a sheepherder and rancher for various companies until ultimately homesteading his own land out near Beaver Hill. He was however, still often writing, or working on special projects. In 1906, he assisted Frank S. Smith on a special publication called The Shoshone Pathfinder, meant to help boost for the opening of Reservation lands and showcasing local businesses in order to draw new people in to homestead on the opened land. He kept up newspaper writing, including for The Bell Syndicate Company, Inc. who would publish his work in papers such as the Chicago Herald and Examiner. In this Chicago paper, an example of his work showed his witty personality with a question-and-answer format:
Dear Mr. Wynn:
You are so smart and claim you know so much, here’s one for you. Answer this – Did you ever see a dog without eyes, without ears, without hair, without a nose, without a mouth, and without feet?
Yours truly, Vetter N. Arian
Answer: Yes, I saw a dog like that – a “hot dog”.
In his personal life, Ed had been married in 1887 briefly to Annie McLaughlin, and they divorced within a year. When he was homesteading out on Beaver Hill in the 1920s, she reconnected with him and they remarried in 1927. Ed wrote poetry on occasion in addition to him and Annie running a small inn and motorist stop for travelers on the highway they named the ‘Dew Drop Inn’. Ed passed away February 21, 1936, after a brief illness.
Cora was an industrious editor and writer in her own right, having grown up around the newspaper business and assisting her father since her youth. She was an administratrix and business manager of the Wind River Mountaineer in the late 1890s, on her own at first. She married John Wesley in 1899, having divorced Douglas Preston in 1895. She and John both worked on the paper together and had a daughter in 1899, Beatrice, although her second marriage also ended in divorce by 1904. Her third husband was Karl DeForest Graves, who also was a newspaperman. Cora sold the Wind River Mountaineer in 1904 and she and Karl moved to Thermopolis, where she purchased The Big Horn Pilot changing the name to the Thermopolis Optimist, with both she and Karl running the paper. She and Karl had a daughter, Alberta, and lost daughter Beatrice to illness in 1905. By 1906, she and Karl seemed to have returned to take over a new publication, The Fremont Republican, which they ran for two years before selling their interests. After this, they moved a few more times as Karl was employed by other newspapers, first to Centennial and then to Casper where Karl worked as a foreman for The Tribune. They returned to Lander where Karl once again worked with The Wyoming State Journal (formerly The Clipper), while Cora ran a millinery and clothing store. The death of her mother to pneumonia and son Donald from cholera in the same year of 1919 seems to have affected her greatly. She started having health issues and the family decided to relocate to California, settling down in Ojai. Karl wrote a long article for the Wyoming State Journal about their trip to California, as they drove themselves the entirety of the way. Karl continued in his trade, starting a newspaper in Ojai called The Midway Journal, and working later at another Ojai newspaper where their daughter Alberta began working alongside him. Alberta continued the family trade of newspaper work and married an assistant editor herself. Cora died January 8, 1926 and Karl October 8, 1955, two longtime journalists whose accomplishments were many.
Cora and Ed did have an older brother, John ‘Jack’ Brooks Wynn, although he did not follow in their father’s footsteps. He instead worked in the ranching industry, herding animals or working sheep camps. He also worked as a barber over the years and homesteaded near Lost Cabin – Lysite. He did, however, have a daughter Maud who went on to become an accomplished writer.
The Wynn family has lasting influence on the Lander community, as the Wyoming State Journal continues to be published to this day. An industrious family, they helped to start up and strengthen local newspapers, and their publishing legacy lives on. The cabin where Isaac first ran the Wind River Mountaineer is still standing, located at the Pioneer Museum.
By Hailey Redden: Pioneer Museum Staff Member
Next up for the Fremont County Museum
January 24, 3-5pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Sweetwater Ranch Life, The Paintings of Jack Corbett” Exhibition Opening
February 19, 6-8pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Rag Rug Class” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speakers Series Program
February 19, 6:30pm at the Dubois Museum, “Cattle and Range Management w/Reg Phillps” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speakers Series
March 6, 6:30pm at the Dubois Museum, “Life in Crowheart w/ The Haslam Family” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speakers Series
March 12, 9am at the Dubois Museum, “Crowheart Store & Haslam Family Ranch Trek” Wind River Visitors Council Adventure Trek Series
March 14, 10am at the Dubois Museum, “Kids Corner: Saddle Making & leather carving w/ Steve Mecum” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
March 21, 6pm at the Dubois Museum, “Homesteading Series: High Altitude Bread Baking w/ Barb Lorentzen” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speaker Series
March 23, 1-3pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Women’s Tea” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speakers Series
We will be announcing a full 2026 schedule of programs very soon, Stay Tuned!
Call the Dubois Museum 1-307-455-2284, the Pioneer Museum 1-307-332-3339 or the Riverton Museum 1-307-856-2665 for detail regarding their programs.
The Dubois Museum, the Pioneer Museum in Lander and the Riverton Museum need your financial support. In the current economic environment, the museums are more reliant than ever on donations from the private sector to continue to provide the quality programs, collections management, exhibits and services that have become their hallmark over the last four years. Please make your tax deductible contribution through the Wind River Cultural Centers Foundation https://windriverccf.funraise.org/ or by sending a check to Fremont County Museums 450 N 2nd Rm 320 or taking it directly to the museum you choose to support.