Alfred Nelson! The man.

Thanks to the University of Wyoming American Heritage Center for their amazing digital archives! This wonderful resource for Wyoming history has several images of Alfred Nelson, the ubiquitous Laramie sidewalk maker. They include code to directly link to the archive - so see below. It may be a bit awkward, but you can zoom in and out. This image is from 1918-1919. A cement crew with horses! Hard to imagine today. So amazing. I am eager to learn more about Nelson, his crew, and sidewalk making over the last century.

I mean...seriously. According to this walking guide for Laramie, he was the Reverend Alfred Nelson. You know, who also just laid a bunch of sidewalks in town too. It just shows how full and multidimensional our lives may be.

I realize that I seem obsessed with Alfred Nelson. But his stamps are everywhere. I live less than a mile away from my work, and on a given day, depending on the route, I may walk by ~15 Alfred Nelson stamps. The man was overzealous. I commented about this to an acquaintance of mine, a man who had worked as a mason for 30 years. He replied that it was a good thing - to be proud of your work and take ownership of it.

One good thing about all the stamps - it keeps my son and I entertained to scream "ALFRED NELSON!" loud as we can every time we see one.

My first stamp.

I have always really liked walking. If I can walk somewhere rather than drive, I will. It's peaceful and good for me and it gives me a chance to look around. As I've gotten older, I've become much more observant. Or at least, I've tried to be. It's amazing how much stuff still passes me by (my brother-in-law once said, "Randa, OPEN YOUR EYES." I don't recall what we were talking about, but it's been a calling ever since.) As a biologist, my curiosity has led to learning to identify plants, trees, birds, and insects. I moved to Laramie, Wyoming in August 2013. Very soon after moving, I noticed my first sidewalk stamp: "Alfred Nelson, Maker, Laramie Wyoming." I started to see them all over the place. My son and I would count all the "Alfred Nelsons" when we would go on dusky evening walks to the park. I thought to myself, "how endearing - apparently I've moved to a town where one man made all the sidewalks."

 

On January 1, 2014, we dropped some family off at the Denver airport, and went into Denver to have lunch with a friend. The restaurant we planned to visit was closed for the holiday, so we walked one mile down 17th to go to another good spot. Along the way, I couldn't believe my eyes! SO MANY SIDEWALK STAMPS. To go from the steady beat of Alfred Nelson, Alfred Nelson to this - 15 unique stamps in one mile of sidewalk! And that was that - I had a new hobby. To keep my eyes peeled in this bird watching alternative, or rather, stamp scouting . Since then, I've logged sidewalk stamp sightings in 2 counties, 4 states, and several cities and towns. I'm eager to see the world and see more stamps, but I'm also so pleasantly surprised when new ones jump out at me right in my own little neighborhood. OPEN YOUR EYES. There are surprises awaiting you.