Old Dinosaurs
Rawlins, Wyoming
2014
The company town of Sinclair housing a big refinery is six miles from Rawlins, so there is no wonder Sinclair stations and memorabilia have a major presence in the area. When I was a kid growing up in Kansas, there were no local Sinclair stations so we only saw them when traveling out west on vacation. I remember them distinctly because one summer they were giving away small toy dinosaurs of different species with each fill-up. Being enamored with dinosaurs (and free toys in general) as are most kids, once we figured out that they were being given away, our parents would hear about it if they even considered stopping for a different brand of gasoline.
Like me, this particular gas pump is a dinosaur of sorts itself. When was the last time you pulled into a gas station where the prices on the pumps could only be set as high as 99.9 cents per gallon? (Or perhaps the question should be have you every pumped gas from such a pump.)]]>
Old Dinosaurs
Rawlins, Wyoming
2014
Near the end of his career(s) my father-in-law drove highway and off-road tanker trucks for Sinclair. He collected Sinclair memorabilia such as toy tanker trucks from the 20’s through 90’s. It was probably one of the best jobs he ever had, although he had to live away from his beloved Dubois in Rawlins and would return home every couple of weeks. The story behind Sinclair WY is interesting as it was a company town run very much the way Henry Ford tried his hand at social engineering.
Steve do you suppose your father-in-law has any of those plastic dinosaurs?
When Ken,Michelle, and I did Bikecentential back in 1976 we stayed at the hotel in Sinclair I believe it was the company hotel. Anyhow back then the Bikecentential organization had made arrangements for us to stay at hotels in several cities for a whopping $6 quite a bargain even back then. I want too impressed with your first photo in this series but almost everyone since then has been interesting.
I did a little searching on the internet because I wanted to find a photo of the old hotel.
I found out the town was originally called Parco (for Produces and Refiners Corporation) an independent oil company that originally started the town. Looks like Sinclair Oil Company bought the company when they had financial difficulties in the early 30’s.
http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/lincoln3a.html
With all the comments about Sinclair I guess I should have stopped there after we left Rawlins.