Little library lives again in Hudson, Wyoming

FROM WYOFILE:

Following a period of inactivity, volunteers revive the town’s tiny Yablonski Memorial Library.

HUDSON—The diminutive white building in this diminutive central Wyoming town might be mistaken for a home if not for the faded book drop outside and the large blue words adorning its front exterior wall: Yablonski Memorial Library.

Those letters, which are new, signify fresh life in a facility revived after a period of dormancy.

A group of volunteers called Hudson Community Heroes reopened the community library in late November after months of work. It will be open on Mondays from 2-6 p.m. for residents of this 435-person town near the Little Popo Agie River — and anyone else who wants to pop in.

In reviving the library, volunteers have also uncovered more about the former company town’s history of mining and labor.

Maralyne Middour and Susan Bronson launched the effort after realizing the library, which could be used as a community space for programs like the Girl Scouts, hadn’t been open for some time, Middour said. After asking around, they discovered the elderly woman who formerly managed it had been moved to a senior facility in Lander, leaving nobody at the helm.

“We were like, ‘this should be an asset for the community,’” Middour said. “‘This shouldn’t be something that’s shuttered.’”

Community libraries like Hudson’s aren’t typically government-funded and maintained, unlike their public counterparts. Instead, nonprofits or groups manage them.

The Hudson Community Heroes obtained permission from the town to run the library, but the task wasn’t as simple as opening the doors. The building had been neglected, Middour said, and a significant amount of decluttering, organizing and cleaning was in order.

“When we walked in here for the very first time, you couldn’t really tell what it was,” she said. “I mean, it looked so cluttered. It was so full of stuff. And there was definitely a spider and centipede infestation.”

Now, books, DVDs and puzzles line the shelves in orderly rows. The collection includes authors from CJ Box to Charles Dickens and the prolific Clive Cussler — whose books fill an entire shelf. Many items can be borrowed on the honor system.

Middour, who is a keen history buff, was also able to reconstruct some of the history of the town and its library. When the project started, she heard a couple different accounts of why it was called the Yablonski Library, she said. After some digging, she discovered the building was formerly the United Mine Workers of America Union Hall. “So that was the original intended purpose of this building.”

In 1974, a group of women called the Hudson Hudsonettes negotiated the union hall property’s transfer to the town of Hudson to be maintained in perpetuity as a library in memory of the Yablonski family, Middour said, “and that’s how it became the Yablonski Memorial Library.”

Joseph “Jock” Yablonski was a labor leader in the United Mine Workers in the 1950s and ‘60s known for demanding better working conditions. Along with his wife and adult daughter, Yablonski was brutally murdered on New Year’s Eve in 1969 in his Pennsylvania home by men hired by a union president he had challenged in an election. After his death, Jablonski became known as a hero for workers in union circles. Cillian Murphy is reportedly playing Yablonski in an upcoming film about the labor leader’s life.

When they began going through the library’s materials, Middour found a framed piece of children’s art. It was labeled on the back as “Portrait of Joseph Yablonski.” She opened the frame and found a photograph of the man behind the art.

The whole experience, Middour said, is a good example of how history can slip away.

“If a couple of generations go by and certain stories aren’t passed along, it’s like history’s just lost,” she said.

Middour and her husband moved to Fremont County from Natrona County in the ‘90s. As she’s driven through Hudson over the decades, she’s watched as businesses have closed and the town has grown quieter. She hopes the library helps in a way to keep the town — which at its peak was home to 1,500 people, including immigrants from many European countries — vibrant.

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

This story was posted on December 6, 2024.