Fifth-grader Ella Thatcher wrote a paper about the history of the “K” on the hillside in Kemmerer. Thatcher searched old copies of the Gazette and Kemmerer yearbooks to find information. Her paper was recognized by the Wyoming State Historical Society. (GAZETTE PHOTO / Theresa Davis)

Ella Thatcher is a 10-year old in fifth grade at Kemmerer’s Canyon Elementary. Last year she wrote a paper about the history of Kemmerer’s hillside “K,” which earned her a Young Historian award from the Wyoming State Historical Society. Ella talked to more than 40 Kemmerer old-timers and searched old copies of the Gazette and high school yearbooks to learn about the “K.”

The Kemmerer K

One of the first things you see when you come into Kemmerer is the big K on Oyster Ridge…unless there is snow on the ground, that is.  The K is an amazing sight.  It also has a lot of cacti around it if you have been up there, and those are beautiful, too.  Do you know anything about the K? When or why it was built?  Here is what I found out. 

Back when it was made, people must have been very interested in the K but not everyone remembers when that was. Frank Sigliano, a long-time Kemmerer resident, said, “It has just always been there. I’m not sure when it was built.” Shirley Ulrich gave me the same response.

I kept asking Kemmerer’s oldest minds and finally Roger Gunter and Mickey Fagnant pointed me towards the late 1920s or early 1930s. I started digging In Kemmerer High School yearbooks and found the 1934 class stated that the second week of their sophomore year the juniors made them paint the large white figure “K.” This would have been the year of 1931.

The way the class spoke about it in the yearbook made it sound like something that had not been done before and like it was an initiation of some sort…not necessarily an honor. I knew we had to look to earlier years and soon I found the October 25, 1929 Kemmerer Gazette that reported the K was painted by the first class at KHS!

The article was titled “Students to Put K on the Hillside” and went on to say: “Students of Kemmerer High School assisted by the Lions Club, will soon place a large K on the Oyster Ridge hillside, directly east of Kemmerer, in keeping with the scholastic spirit. A committee of Lions Club members such as President R. H. Embree, Platt Wilson, S.M. Bouncher, and Supt. E.D. Bloom of the schools made a trip up the hillside Monday last and staked off the outline of the K. Dimensions of the letter will be 100 by 75 feet. Students will assemble rocks to make the letter, after which it will be white washed.  It will be visible from all parts of the city and surrounding country.”

Finding out when the K was built and who built it was exciting for me, but learning how the tradition of the K has changed over the years was the most interesting. 

Ella Thatcher wrote this paper on the history of Kemmerer's "K" on Oyster Ridge. (GAZETTE PHOTO/ Theresa Davis)

Mickey Fagnant said, “Only the boys used to get to white wash the K because it was too dirty and hard for the girls. Also, it was found that back in 1924, only the Kemmerer elite athletes got to paint the K.  Shirley Ulrich said even though she went to KHS she lived in Diamondville so she did not get to help paint the K.  Very interesting. 

Today, all seniors — no matter where you live, and not just boys or the “ elite” athletes — get to help paint the K.  Diane Avery went to KHS in 1962 and 1963 and she said at that time the whole school helped paint the K.

The freshmen cleared out and cleaned up the K area, the sophomores white washed the rocks, the juniors got the cans ready with the oil and rags and then the seniors got to light it. 

In the 1942 year book it says the freshman class lit the “K” for the first time in Kemmerer history.  It has been lit ever since, but now it is done in a more modern and safer way than oil and fire. 

So the evolution of the K has gone from just white washing rocks in the form of a K in 1929, to burning oil in cans to light the white washed K in 1942, and then in 2000 the K got moved to a new location on the ridge, where it is now. 

I found that they moved the K because the school wanted to buy the property where the K was originally, but a person named Mickey Tholman didn’t want to sell the land.The school then decided to just move the K to a different location, where it is now.  I was told that the K can be seen better in the location it is now so that turned out to be a blessing.  It is now a huge concrete K, no longer individual rocks, and it is lit with lights and a generator on homecoming. 

It is evident that the K has a long history here.  Many people I spoke with recalled lighting the K in their pajamas and/or in the snow. 

Many recalled the hard work it took to get all the cans and to climb that hill and do the work.  Many recalled what an honor it was to be part of the white washing and/or the lighting of the K. 

All recalled loving to see the K lit on all home football games.  This K has been a fixture in Kemmerer since 1929.  It has become a tradition in the school and means a lot to the community and holds more history that what meets the eye.

I would love to see the tradition of the K continue, and I would love to see that K lit up at every home game again, like it used to be.

It was so hard for them back then to light it.  They could not just drive right to it like we can and flip a generator switch.   But they made the sacrifice… to not only light the K but to light the KHS pride through the whole town.  I think we need that again! GO RANGERS!!