One photograph can hold more than a moment.
This image shows the Gillette Post Office under construction on August 1, 1935, at the corner of Gillette Avenue and Third Street. Two men stand on the sidewalk beside stacks of bricks while the building rises behind them. At first glance, it is a construction photo. But the longer you look, the more it begins to tell.
The information preserved on the back gives us more than a general scene. It tells us the photograph was taken from the northwest corner looking southwesterly. It names the contractor, Blauner Construction Co. of Chicago, Illinois. It includes the words of Elmer F. Cummings, construction engineer, who certified that the photograph represented the condition of the work on that date.
Those details matter.
They turn a photograph into a record. They place us at a specific corner in Gillette on a specific day in 1935. They remind us that history is not only found in finished buildings, major events, or names already written in books. It is also found in progress, paperwork, street corners, local businesses, handwritten notes, and the people who helped shape a community one brick at a time.
That is the heart of this year’s WyoGives campaign for the Rockpile Museum Association:
One Story at a Time.
On Wednesday, July 15, the Rockpile Museum Association will participate in WyoGives, a statewide day of giving that supports nonprofit organizations across Wyoming. For the RMA, WyoGives is an opportunity to celebrate and support the work of preserving Campbell County’s local history.
The Rockpile Museum’s collection is filled with objects, photographs, documents, textiles, and stories that connect us to the people and places that came before us. Some items are immediately recognizable. Others are quiet at first, waiting for someone to look closer, read the note on the back, ask the next question, or connect one detail to another.
A photograph of a building under construction becomes a story about a growing town. A quilt becomes a story about friendship and community. A letter becomes a story about love, service, hardship, or hope. A donated object becomes a link between one family’s memory and the larger story of Campbell County.
This is why preservation matters.
When local history is cared for, researched, and shared, it gives people a way to understand where they live. It helps families see their own stories as part of something larger. It gives students, researchers, visitors, and longtime residents a connection to the people who built, worked, gathered, celebrated, struggled, and made a life here.
The Rockpile Museum Association exists to support that work. Through memberships, donations, fundraising, and community support, the RMA helps strengthen the museum’s ability to preserve and share the history of Campbell County.
This WyoGives season, we will be sharing a few pieces from the collection and the stories they help preserve. Each one is different, but together they point to the same truth: local history is built one story at a time.
We hope you will follow along, read the stories, share them with others, and consider supporting the Rockpile Museum Association during WyoGives on July 15.
Because every photograph, every object, every name, and every memory adds something important to the story of this place.
One Story at a Time.
