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.