Lincoln seems to finally be settling into the autumn season with bright leaves blowing across streets and people dressing in cozy sweaters. For this week, Wyoming Folklore is hot off the press. This book is based on writings collected via the Federal Writer's Project, which was issued by Franklin Roosevelt in an attempt to employ out-of-work teachers, writers, and scholars. They fanned out across the country to collect and document local lore. This book reveals the remarkable results of the FWP in Wyoming at a time when it was still possible to interview Civil War veterans and former slaves, homesteaders and Oregon Trail migrants.

 
If this sounds familiar, it might be because the Federal Writer's Project was also the subject of a recent article in the New Yorker. Between 1910 and 1930, thousands of African Americans fled the rural south for New York, Chicago and other American cities, in what is now known as the Great Migration. FWP writers interviewed dozens of African-Americans who moved to cities at this time, and through those interviews, readers can see how the Great Migration shaped many American cities, as well as African-American culture.

 
Likewise, Wyoming Folklore captures the shaping of the American West, through the life stories, ghost stories, tall tales, myths and, yes, folklore of the homesteaders, cowboys, miners, Native Americans, and others who lived there. Read an excerpt at the link.