Over the Mountain

The First Wyoming Public Health Nurses Chapter 2

Over the Mountain

Since I couldn’t cook in my room, I ate all of my meals at Mrs. Anderson’s boarding house that was located next door to the Russell’s. Three meals a day cost twenty-five dollars a month. And I rented a garage a couple blocks down the street for ten dollars a month so my pay of $100 a month went a long way.”

The first Big Horn County Public Health Office was located upstairs in the Hyde Building which was owned by a lawyer named Hyde. The building stood at the comer of 4th and C Street which is now the RW. Russell Memorial Park.

“I went to look at some office space in Natler’s Drug Store at the comer of 4th and B Street which is now Wheeler’s IGA Mr. Natler told me not to waste my time looking because Mr. Hyde had vacant space in his building. Obviously, Mr. Natler knew where my office would be before I did.”

As recorded in the 14th Biennial Report (1937·1938) of the State Board of Health, “The services of the public health nurse are those of health education, through service largely. In some instances talks are given, classes are taught in home hygiene, and 4-H Club projects are planned. The largest share of the nurse’s day is given over to individual or family teaching in the home.”

Penny remembers one of her most embarrassing moments.

And once when Penny was talking about head lice at the Basin Grade School, Orville Wright, who was the superintendent, told her that whenever he thought a child had head lice, he moved the child close to the hot water radiator. The heat made the lice active and the child would start scratching. Orville laughed and said, “It works every time.”

Being the first public health nurse in the Big Horn Basin was not a glamorous job. The roads were bad, the distances were great, the people were poor, and the need for nursing services and education was great. Fortunately, Penny Gordon Johnson, the Basin’s first “Woman in Blue”, met every challenge head-on.