University of Wyoming
The Natrona County Public Library began as a conglomeration of seven small traveling libraries that each contained about 50 books. Beginning in 1920, these libraries would make their way through small petroleum mining towns between Salt Creek Oilfield Community to Grass Creek and allow the residents in these towns to read the books before passing them along to the next mining camp. In 1929, Henry H. Patterson drafted and circulated a petition asking for the establishment of a permanent community library. This library was stationed inside the Midwest Refining Company Club in 1930 with Ella Chandler as its first librarian. She managed upwards of 1,500 books and 29 different magazine titles and witnessed the book collection grow. Construction for a new building began in 1969, and the new library opened to the public in 1971.
Collection contains bound newspapers: The Buffalo Bulletin, The Inland Oil Index, The Casper Daily Tribune, The Casper Herald, The Casper Press, The Casper Record, The Casper Tribune, The Casper Tribune Herald, and The Inland Oil Independent.
There are no access restrictions on the materials for research purposes, and the collection is open to the public.
The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.
The American Heritage Center aspires to approach all areas of our work in ways that are respectful to those who create, use, and are represented in our collections. For a variety of reasons, however, users may encounter offensive or harmful language or images in some of our finding aids, catalogs, and collection materials.
Note that the AHC does not censor or alter contents of the collections as they provide context and evidence of a time, people, place, or event.
Therefore, we encourage users to bring questions and concerns about descriptions in our finding aids to our attention via
Item Description, Box Number, Folder Number, Collection Name, Collection Number, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
This material was received from the Natrona County Public Library between May 1959 and March 1986.
There are no known other archival collections created by the Natrona County Public Library at the date of processing.
The American Heritage Center is in the process of converting its older container lists to a more accessible format. This link is to an older version of a container list for 294 items.