P.W Jenkins

One of our large collections in our archives is that of Perry Wilson Jenkins.
In his article John W. Shields tells of the life of Mr. Jenkins. Here are a few excerpts from it. For the whole article visit http://www.crwua.org/documents/about-us/oral-histories/Perry-Jenkins.pdf

"Perry Wilson Jenkins – known almost universally as “P.W.” to his many friends and colleagues –
earned the honorary title “Father of Sublette County” by introducing and championing the
legislative bill that designated Sublette County as one of Wyoming’s twenty-three counties. This
title also arose from the fact that he filed numerous water right applications and performed the
surveys for a considerable number of irrigation ditches in Sublette County."

"P.W. Jenkins was a most fascinating individual. His journey to being a prominent figure in
natural resource politics and policy in Wyoming is, itself, a fascinating story that is recounted  here. P.W. was, in the classic sense, a 20th Century “renaissance man”4
 who had many, many
occupations, avocations and interests throughout his long and interesting life. Jenkins was
himself a contributor to the “Annals of Wyoming” publication and served on the Wyoming State
Historical Advisory Board.5
 In recognition of his many contributions to his fellow Wyomingites
through service in many capacities – as measured at the national, regional, statewide, county and
local levels, Jenkins was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the University of Wyoming in
1955.6
 Jenkins’ journey to that extraordinary recognition was a most interesting one."

Below is a picture of Jenkins journals that he kept for a number of years, In his 1911 journal, Sat. Jan. 7, we see where he wrote about "starting a petition for a new county."
Before this petition we were part of Fremont County, and it took too long to make any state decisions, having our own county gave us more local control. How thankful we are to him that because of this Pinedale, Big Piney and Marbleton can be part of their own county.