Wyoming Folklore: Reminiscences, Folktales, Beliefs, Customs, and Folk Speech (review)

Wyoming Folklore contains a range of mostly previously unpublished folklore materials collected by the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) that editors James Dow, Roger Welsch, and Susan Dow have culled from the state’s archives. The book is largely documentary in nature, offering not only a glimpse into the actual folklore of Wyoming that was perceived by FWP workers to have existed during the 1930s, but also, for those who look to read between the lines, an informative documentation of the folklore portion of the FWP itself.

Reflecting the discipline’s philological and antiquarian origins, FWP folklore projects sought to collect folklore texts, and so the book contains a variety of tales, legends, beliefs, anecdotes found within the borders of the state of Wyoming but unsurprisingly offers little or no contextual information. The book is divided into four major sections. “Part I: Pioneer Memories” consists of thirteen stories, which are largely reminiscences of settlement life based on oral history interviews conducted by FWP workers. “Part II: White Man’s Tales” is the largest section of the book and is subdivided into “Lost Mine Tales,” “Tall Tales and Humor,” “Characters, Big and Little,” “Ghost Tales,” and “Folk Etymologies.” I presume that it is called “White Man’s Tales” to parallel Part III, which is called “Indian Folktales.” This section, collected in some cases from whites and Native informants, is subdivided into “Creation Myths,” “Tales and Legends,” “Indian Legends of Jackson Hole,” “Indian Place Name Legends,” and “Medicine Wheel Legends.” “Part IV: Folk Belief, Custom, and Speech” is subdivided into the categories of its title. In total, the book consists of eighty-six tales or narratives, plus an additional twelve sections containing individual items of belief, customs, or folk names, which are grouped together thematically. The book also contains an introduction and brief headnotes to each example.

The introduction asserts the importance of folklore within the context of history and then segues into a brief overview of the history of the state of Wyoming, unfortunately without ever explicating how or why folklore might play a role in fleshing out the history of the state. It also introduces the reader to the depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) folklore project generally. The most fascinating moment in the introduction occurs when the editors compare their experience in the Wyoming archives with the WPA folklore project in Nebraska, where editor Roger Welsch has extensive experience. They point out, for example, the subjective nature of folklore collections by comparing differences between the WPA workers in those states. Nebraskans apparently were largely enthusiastic about the idea of collecting folklore, and the Nebraska WPA folklore project employed professional folklorists such as Louise Pound. In Wyoming, however, the population was less inclined to view FDR and his government-subsidized writing projects favorably; consequently, the Wyoming FWP staff itself was not very interested in collecting folklore either. Although they don’t go into great detail, the editors suggest such differences are reflected in the materials themselves, and this possibility of comparing state collections is an interesting suggestion for future research. I was also glad to see that the editors chose to reproduce an information sheet that the FWP workers actually used. Although they note that folklore paradigms have changed greatly, it struck me how similar the sheet remains to the ones required by various folklore archives today. It also gave me a new respect for what the FWP was trying to accomplish as well as ever more admiration for directors John Lomax and Benjamin Botkin.

As the editors point out, the contents lean heavily toward narrative and other verbal forms. I enjoyed reading what for the most part are familiar western tropes of lost mines, sea serpents, and ghost stories, and it’s always good to read accounts of old-fashioned cannibalism (in this case Alfred Packer, the Man-Eater). The book also contains examples of “Indianist” stories, including an...