Leslie Waggener

Leslie Waggener has been a faculty archivist at the American Heritage Center (AHC) at the University of Wyoming since 2000, currently serving as Outreach Coordinator and Simpson Institute Archivist. She holds a BA in Anthropology and Archaeological Studies and an MLIS from the University of Texas at Austin. Waggener has directed multiple oral history projects, including most recently “Life Between the Rails: An Oral History of the Union Pacific Railroad,” and has published extensively on Wyoming history, including recent articles on the Second KKK in Wyoming for Annals of Wyoming.

“Don’t Squat with Your Spurs On”: The Life of Alan K. Simpson

On a freezing New Year’s Eve in 1978, a handful of friends gathered at Christ Episcopal Church in Cody, Wyoming, to watch Alan Simpson sworn into the U.S. Senate by candlelight. Only about twenty people attended the midnight service, but the moment vaulted Simpson ahead in seniority and launched a career that would make him one of the most recognizable—and quotable—political figures in Wyoming history.¹

Reborn in Robes: The Second Klu Klux Klan in Wyoming, 1921-1930

Founded in 1915, the Second Klu Klux Klan spread rapidly across the United States in the 1920s—including in Wyoming. Governor Nellie Tayloe Ross and prominent historian T.A. Larson claimed that the Klan did not have much influence in Wyoming, but newspaper records show otherwise. Uncover the hidden truth of Klan activities in Wyoming.

The Great Cheyenne Flood of 1985: A Devastating Storm That Changed Wyoming’s Capitol

Forty years ago, Cheyenne experienced one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in Wyoming’s recorded history. The devastating flood claimed the lives of twelve people, the youngest of whom was only 3 years old, and forever altered the landscape of Wyoming’s capitol. Read more about the most damaging flood in Wyoming history.