Wyoming transplant brings love of history to Hanna

For six months, the Hanna Basin Museum operated without a director while the board waited for the right candidate. They finally found one with Geraldine Hutchins, who moved to Wyoming in 2011 and moved to Carbon County a year ago.

Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, Hutchins moved to Wyoming-and later Carbon County-to work as an Alzheimer and dementia care nurse. She currently works at the Saratoga Care Center and, while she works in Saratoga, she lives in Hanna.

"I found this house with an incredible view of Elk Mountain," Hutchins said. "It has a deck, and one of my hobbies is astronomy so I can go out on my deck and get a clear view of the Southern sky. It is amazing."

Before moving to Wyoming, Hutchins went to nursing school in California. She practiced there until she got a job in Douglas, Wyoming.

"I worked in Douglas until 2020 when I got a job at the State Penitentiary," Hutchins said. "They had a form of housing there, but I wanted a place of my own."

Hutchins started looking around Carbon County.

"I looked at Medicine Bow because I like the history, but there wasn't anything available," Hutchins said. "My house was sold in Douglas and I had 60 days to find a place."

Her real estate agent realized Hutchins liked the north of Carbon County and asked her if she had considered Hanna.

"We looked at a few places and I found the place I live in now," Hutchins said. "It was great and the price was good too. I was lucky when I got in, because in six months, I would have paid double."

She said it feels right for her to be living in Hanna and it has led her to want to know all about the town's history.

"I had come to the Hanna Basin Museum a couple times and I really liked the energy April (Avery) brought to the museum," Hutchins explained. "I thought to myself, 'That is someone I would like to work with,' and she had the same kind of passion for history that I do."

Avery is a part-time worker at the Hanna Basin Museum.

When Hutchins became aware the museum was looking for a director, she put in her application.

"I had worked before at a children's museum in Fresno, California and I had really enjoyed that experience," Hutchins said. "The Hanna Basin Museum intrigued me because there is so much history I had no idea about. I didn't realize how many immigrants from Finland settled the place."

She said the more she learned about Hanna, the more questions she had about the town.

"I wondered where so many of the buildings went," Hutchins said. "My feeling is this, if you go to a history museum you should not leave knowing all the answers. You should leave with more questions so you can research them and find more answers."

Hutchins said she has always had a passion for history.

"When you are raised in Boston, history is all around you," Hutchins said. "I had taken so much history around me, I couldn't help but be interested. My house where I grew up was a very short distance from where Paul Revere made his famous ride and, every year, they recreated it."

Hutchins said her passion for history has gone with her every place she has lived. Hanna is no exception.

"I come across people sometimes who find out I live in Hanna and go 'Oh Hanna, I don't know why you live there'," Hutchins said. "I tell them immediately if it were not for Hanna, Union Pacific would not have been able to build the transcontinental railroad. Manifest Destiny might have stalled in Cheyenne. I don't know, but I do know this was a very important town in the history of the West and the United States."

Hutchins has been fascinated by the coal culture represented in the Hanna Basin Museum.

"Hanna was a company town for the railroad and that makes the place unique in many ways from a historical perspective," Hutchins said. "The museum has quite a few artifacts from this time. The cottage on the museum grounds is amazing. It allows the visitor to really get a feel of what people lived like back in those times."

Hutchins said, as the director, she is hoping to do more outreach projects.

"I am hoping to get the community more involved in what we have here," Hutchins said. "I am hoping at the Boys and Girls Club, one day a month we can do a history day, where I introduce games and activities that were from the past. I want kids to know what their grandparents and great grandparents did for fun back in those days."

She wants to also connect with other Carbon County museum directors. 

"I am very impressed with the Saratoga Museum," Hutchins said. "It is really done."

Hutchins said she is hopeful to put on events for the community and travelers to draw more visits in the summer.

"This is such an excellent museum and my goal is to let more people be aware it is here," Hutchins concluded.