Sweetwater County, WY (6/26/19) – June 27, 1919, was a busy day in Rock Springs.​


Among the news on the front page of the Rock Springs Miner, that day was the report of a shooting at Bitter Creek, east of Rock Springs, involving two members of a railroad section crew. According to the article, one man shot at the other nine times with an “automatic pistol” obtained in Rock Springs or Green River, hitting him four times. He then tried to escape, but was prevented by yet another man, armed with a “.303 Savage rifle.”​

The victim went to the hospital in Rock Springs, and the shooter to the county jail in Green River. It was reported that the victim was expected to recover.​


Another front-page story described the arrest of a man in Rock Springs identified as George Mason, (alias Pete Birrell), a Canadian, in possession of 71 pounds of opium, worth, (according to the article), a total of $28,400. (In 2019 dollars, well over $360,000. The current street value of 71 pounds of opium is over one million dollars.) Also arrested were two other men, identified as Lee Young and One Chung.​

A beverage called “Bevo,” a non-alcoholic “near beer” manufactured by Anheuser-Busch since the early 1900s was touted in an ad as “The All-Year-Round Soft Drink.” Bevo saw a major upsurge in sales after national prohibition went into effect on January 17, 1920. Over the years, however, its popularity waned. With the country awash in bootleg beer, sales plummeted and production ceased in 1929.​

Showing at the Grand Theatre in Rock Springs was a seven-reel feature film called The Warrior, starring “Maciste” (real name Bartolomeo Pagano), an Italian film star. Pagano, a giant of a man, was a sort of Arnold Schwarzenegger of silent films. In The Warrior, Maciste, a World War I soldier, is on a quest to rescue a young woman imprisoned in a mountain castle.​

Admission was 25 cents for adults, 10 cents for children.​

A clip from The Warrior can be viewed on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlpxNO8IUUY.​