Museum parade entry focuses on sheep industry

An estimated 1,500 people attended Green River's Trunk or Treat Halloween Parade Saturday morning, and the entry of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, "Bill Taliaferro's Haunted Sheep Camp," highlighted in a fun, seasonal way an important part of Sweetwater County and Wyoming's old west history: the sheep industry

In 1870, Wyoming's sheep herds amounted to only about 6,000, but by 1900 that number had grown to 5,000,000, and many of the sheep operations were located in south-central and southwest Wyoming, including Sweetwater County. The sheep camp (or sheep wagon) was invented in 1884 by a Rawlins blacksmith named James Candish. A forerunner of today's SUVs and camp trailers, horse-drawn sheep camps were ingenious, mobile housing units complete with wood-burning stoves, folding tables, benches, bunks, and storage cabinets - everything sheepherders needed in for their lonely work tending the huge flocks.

Bill Taliaferro of Rock Springs loaned his vintage sheep camp to the Museum for the parade, and the staff converted it to a parade entry combining Halloween and history.