Ramblings from ‘Health Reporter’

“Mental suffering is the worst of all human illness. Yet, curiously, 75 percent of this illness is the result of self-pity,” reads an editorial quip in the April 1927 edition of the “Big Horn Hot Springs Health Reporter,” a journal devoted to health, happiness, news comment on community and human affairs published in Thermopolis.

Other interesting comments – maybe, or maybe not, factual – follows. Read with an open mind and then judge or just enjoy these stories from the “Health Reporter” of 1927.

Old timers

Mr. John Sherlock and son Mr. Richard Sherlock, old-time residents of romantic South Pass, are at the Washakie Hotel and Baths for a week, coming up from Casper where they have been as witnesses in the Ediin murder trial. Mr. Sherlock is one of the oldest citizens now in the State of Wyoming. His people came into the state in 1868, and Mr. Sherlock has resided in the South Pass district almost continuously since that time.

It is quite a treat to hear old timers like “Billie” Simpson, Colonel George Sliney and Mr. Sherlock discuss the days gone by. Many bits of real history are often told in these meetings which, if written, would add materially to the recorded history of early days in Wyoming. Mr. Sherlock remembers the days when trappers observing the steam from the springs thought it the smoke of Indian encampments and in haste turned back from the summit of Copper Mountain from whence they observed it. In all these years past Mr. Sherlock has believed in the merit of the Big Horn Hot Springs Mineral waters and has proven his faith by repeated visits and always with happy results.

Personal mention

Everybody knows Eugene McCarthy, the genial, prominent sheepman from Casper. Eugene has made the Washakie Hotel his home for two or three weeks twice and three times a year for lo these many years. He believes that more good is accomplished here for humanity than anywhere else on earth according to the population served. Mr. McCarthy is an honest Irishman and believes in honest treatment and natural remedies. His out-of-door life has taught him the wonder of nature and her disposition to care for her children if given opportunity. The management of the Washakie Hotel and Baths swear that Mr. McCarthy is a clean character because he takes two baths a day, some days.

Mr. J.G. Nygren, of Oshkosh, Neb. is on his first visit to the wonderful Big Horn Mineral Hot Springs and is stopping at the Washakie Hotel and Baths. “J.G.” ever wears a genial smile, but since his course of baths, he just beams. All his hometown friends will be coming to the Washakie as soon as they have seen him after his return home.

What’s a chiropractor?

The Chiropractor of today undoubtedly has the “Indian sign” on the “Yerb Doctor” of recent years. Your chiro doesn’t even gather roots, neither does he dose or physic. His blacksmith physical structure is such that he could throw a physic scare into a Jack Johnson. If a misguided invalid is led into his dormer room office and yields in fear and trembling to having his or her back cracked to cure ulceration of the stomach there’s always the possibility that the patient won’t die of stomach trouble. The homo americanus was a noble race, even if they were Indians and believed in signs, mystery and “yerbs,” but he, as a race, couldn’t stand the treatment.