Some residents of the Cowboy State hold a very strict definition of who they consider to be newcomers. On the beautifully rugged expanse of the High Plains anyone who is not a homesteader or descendant of homesteaders seems to be considered a newcomer. Wandering the dirt roads that meander through and between ranches, seemly stretching into infinity, I have begun to understand why.

Last week we were visited by Wyoming newcomers, Anne Carter Mears and Brainerd “Nip” Mears. Anne and Nip were born and raised in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, respectively. They first met in 1946 while attending a summer science camp in the Snowy Range Mountains just west of Laramie, WY. Nip had just completed his service with the Marine Corps and both he and Anne were undergraduate students, studying at schools in New York State. They dated through college and were married soon afterward. In 1949 Nip accepted a job at the University of Wyoming teaching geomorphology, bringing the newly weds back to the mountains where they had met. Geomorphology is the study of landforms and the processes that shape them, so the striking, almost prehistoric looking scenery of the West was a playground for Nip. Mrs. Mears joked that every car ride was filled with a detailed tour of the geological scenery that colors and shapes the region.

Anne Carter Mears and Nip Mears (R-L)

The couple were invited to the StoryCorps MobileBooth by their nephew Jeffery Mears Bratspis, who was happy his Aunt and Uncle had the chance to share some family memories. One question Jef was interested in finding out was how his Aunt and Uncle came to own a horse ranch outside Laramie, Wyoming.

It all started, she remembered, with her daughters love of horses. Anne’s daughter was so enraptured by beautiful mares that the little girl called all her relatives to ask that instead of sending her a present, they send her money because she was saving up to buy a horse. Eventually, she had saved enough money and bought her first horse, a Morgan Mare named Lori Rose. A daughter’s love quickly rubbed off on her mother, who also fell in love with the great disposition and athleticism of Morgan horses. So much so, she decided to go into business as a horse rancher, breeding beautiful, award winning, Morgan horses.

Renee Greenberg, Jef Mears Bratspis, Anne Carter Mears, and Brainerd “Nip” Mears (R-L) in front of the MobileBooth.

At that time not many men would take a women’s attempt at buying a ranch seriously, so Nip helped handle the negotiations. One day over coffee at a local diner, after a year of back-and-forth negotiating, a local rancher finally agreed to sell part of his property to Anne. And with that Anne Carter Mears became the owner operator of Mear’s Morgans and for almost 40 years now, has been breeding, training, showing, and selling Morgan horses. In 2000 she was inducted into the American Morgan Horse Associations hall of fame for her dedication to the breed.

Anne graciously invited facilitators Michael Premo and Rachel Falcone out to her ranch so we could see a working horse ranch. Thank you for the invitation. We are both glad that the Mear’s family had an opportunity to record your family memories.

????????????????? Happy 4th of July from Laramie, WY.

Since May of 2005 StoryCorps’ Airstream MobileBooths have been roving the country creating a space for people to interview their loved ones. In the last three years we have been to nearly every state in the continental United States, except Wyoming. That all changed two weeks ago when we pulled into a public parking lot next to the Albany County Courthouse at 5th Street and Grand Avenue in Laramie, Wyoming to begin recording stories in the place affectionately dubbed “the least populated state in the Union.”

Among some of the ranchers, cowboys, and folks from as far away as Green River and Casper, Wyoming who have come to share their stories was Laramie resident Catherine Mealey. One of the memories Mrs. Mealey shared with her daughter, in the MobileBooth, was from her time as a student at Iowa State University in the early 1940s. Mrs. Mealey remembered being one of the only girls she knew to take pilot lessons with a flight instructor who looked like Spencer Tracy, which made her lessons all the more worthwhile. Her biggest obstacle while learning to fly was her sense of direction, which she admitted, wasn’t so great at the time. She remembered one day, during a solo flight, getting lost. In an attempt to get her bearings she began flying low to the ground so she could read the town names written on water towers. After circling several water towers she became increasingly unnerved because she didn’t recognize any of the towns. Fearing she would run out of gas, she decided to land in someone’s field. Mrs. Mealey and her daughter joked that the landing must have caused quite a commotion because the entire town came out to see her make her emergency landing. To this day Mrs. Mealey isn’t quite sure how it happened, but her Spencer Tracy look-a-like instructor appeared out of the sky, and came to her rescue. He and another instructor landed in that farmer’s field somewhere in Iowa and flew her back to school.

After Catherine Mealey retired as a founding Law Librarian at the University of Wyoming she opened a book shop in downtown Laramie called Second Story Bookstore. She likes to tell people that half of the store was once a brothel overlooking the Laramie train yard, that cuts through the heart of town. Her grandson now runs the store, but you can find Catherine there on most afternoons.

Facilitator Rachel Falcone prepares a participant’s memories to be preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress

The work of preserving the memories of everyday folks across the country does not end with the facilitator. Working hard at our home office in Brooklyn, New York is our Facilities & Archive department, affectionately known to the StoryCorps family as F&A. F&A works tirelessly to maintain our recording facilities as they crisscross the country. And after the facilitator creates an archive entry of each recording, F&A is there to ensure that each recording is properly preserved.

Earlier this month Facilities & Archive Coordinator Mike Dougherty traveled to Wyoming for a routine inspection of the West MobileBooth, now parked in Laramie. Mike works daily with facilitators making sure that all our equipment is working in peak performance. Before he left Laramie he recorded a conversation between facilitators Michael Premo and Rachel Falcone, to make sure that everything was running smoothly.

Facilities and Archive Coordinator Mike Dougherty making some final adjustments before heading back to Brooklyn.