GOSHEN COUNTY – Earlier this month, we learned just how important the women of Wyoming history really are when we saw Wyoming women being the first women ever seated on a jury and Martha Symons Boies who became the first women bailiff.

Over the years, women continue make history in our state through hard work, determination and in some cases, sewing patterns. 

The Sun Bonnet Gals, a locally organized group whose name has been spotted in the Telegram archives as far back as the early 1920s, have been quietly making history in Wyoming and even better yet, right here in Goshen County. Although no connection has been discovered relating the 1920’s organization and the ladies of the club today, there have been decades of women making a bit more than history.

Terry Haines has been working with the group of iconic women since her retirement, 18 years ago. 

“In the mid 1970s, the superintendent of Fort Laramie Historical Society approached the senior center and ask them if they would make sun bonnets that they could sell at the Fort Laramie Historical site,” Haines explained. “He provided an original 1840s sun bonnet pattern and that’s how the sun bonnet gals got started.”

Every week, on Tuesday morning, the 11 club members gather to sew bonnets at the Senior Friendship Center, in Torrington, at 8:30 a.m.

“Over time, we have added other places to sell the sun bonnet too. We now sell bonnets to the interpretive center and Casper, and we have sold to place in Texas. We’ve sold to couple places in Utah, place in Oregon and, one in Nevada,” Haines said. “We have sold to a number of places and most of these are museums and historical places. We’ve also sold to the Wyoming State Museum and the frontier days museum.”

Since the 1970s a piece of Goshen County has nearly spread across the United States.

“A lady recently bought a bonnet in Utah.  She lives in West Virginia, and she called us at the senior center and asked if she could buy some more bonnets and so she bought four more bonnets and they went to West Virginia,” Haines explained. “I thought that was pretty cool. I thought it was cool she managed to track us down. We put a little tag in our in our bonnets saying, ‘made by the Sun Bonnet Gals, Torrington Senior Center, Torrington, Wyoming’ and she tracked us down.”

Haines said the West Virginia customer planned to give the additional four bonnets to friends. 

“We have made over 32,000 bonnets,” Haines said. “We try to keep a lot of bonnets in every size on hand so it will get orders we aren’t panicking them.”

The gals make bonnets in a few different sizes.

“We make two adult sizes, child and baby,” Haines explained. “We also sell matching sets of a child bonnet and a doll bonnet that match. The doll bonnets fit the American Girl sized dolls. They have a little girl with her doll and their bonnets match.”

The gals have found best use of their time in manufacturing bonnets if they utilize one another’s skills and form an assembly line. 

“A couple of us cut out bonnets at home. Then in making the bonnets, the brims are lined with four layers of sheets and one layer of denim and then the brims are quilted. The body of the bonnet has to be hem, the part that goes down the back, has to be hemmed. There is a channel sewn into the back of the bonnet that a pulley runs through so that it can be adjusted in size so it can fit the wearers head. Those pulleys, the strips of fabric, have to be sewn and then inserted. The ties have to be hemmed and the body of the bonnet is sewn to the brim and the ties are sewn on and they’re finished,” Haines explained. 

“All the bonnets are made exactly the same. Even the doll bonnets are made just like the big one, only in smaller scale,” Haines said.

Haines explained the composition of the club has changed over the years to reflect the gals who are no longer with us. 

“Most of us are retired. There’s one other lady that has been sewing as long as I have, sewing bonnets, as long as I have of the other some of them have been with us for 12 or 13 years,” Haines said. “That have just started within the last year or two. We do have one young lady, who knew somebody who was in the group, who likes to sew and even though she’s not retired, she comes sometimes and sews with us. There’s a variety of people.”

The bonnets are made from 100% cotton fabric, in small prints and according to Haines, some of the fabric gets donated to the gals. 

“You know and people were going through the fabrics, and they come across something they know they never use or somebody’s going through grandmas, so we do get some of our fabric donated,” Haines said. “We also purchase fabric when we can get a good deal on it. But it all has to be smallish prints so that it is somewhat authentic.”

The gals gather every Tuesday at the Senior Friendship Center, in Torrington, at 8:30 a.m. and the gladly accept donations.

“We do take donations of old sheets and denim. Denim jeans or skirts or you know whatever and if the jeans maybe have a hole in the knee, we cut around that, so they don’t have to be in real good condition” Haines expressed. 

Haines explains, expert sewing skills are not needed to participate with the group.

“Some people aren’t real interested in doing the sewing, but they will pin together the brims and the bonnets,” Haines said. “That’s their specialty, to pin. Some people like to quilt the brims so that’s what they do every day. You don’t have to be an expert seamstress to be part of our group.”

Haines explained she will find tasks for every skill. 

The proceeds of the sun bonnets sold go right back to the Senior Friendship Center in a variety of ways. 

“The two biggest things that we have help to pay for have been for the kitchen at the Senior Center and we help to buy new ovens and new kitchen cabinets to replace the ones that were literally falling apart,” Haines said. “In the last year we donated quite a lot of money towards that. We have helped pay for some painting and we replaced the window and a number of years ago we bought a couple of computers. It’s things that the senior center needs but doesn’t have the money to pay for.” 

The gals have also helped with the Meals-on-Wheels truck used for food service in the area. The gals are also committed to the maintenance of the vehicle as well. 

“One biggest motivating factors of the sun bonnet gals, the actual people who come, is we just have a good time,” Haines said cheerfully. “We visit. We laugh. Sometimes the topics that we discuss are kind of surprising and we will laugh. It’s a social thing we have fun.”

If you are interested in purchasing a bonnet or becoming involved with the gals, please stop by the Senior Friendship Center on 216 E 19 Ave., Torrington.