Master's Club celebrates 100th anniversary

Saturday, March 3 was the 100th anniversary and the 106th meeting of the Big Horn Basin Master's Club, held at Malta Lodge No. 17, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Wyoming. There were 31 Masons from Basin, Powell, Cody, Shoshoni, Thermopolis and Riverton as well as guests from Casper. The Grand Master of Masons of Wyoming, Mark S. Young, also attended the meeting.

The meeting opened at 10 a.m. by Dennis Wilson, master of the Malta Lodge here in Thermopolis, with business and election of officers. Vesper Chapter No. 19 Eastern Star provided lunch at noon. Each lodge attending gave a brief history of their individual lodges to start the afternoon program.

Following the history presentations, a masonic trivia contest was held. Eric Kay provided questions and each lodge selected two members to compete. There being three degrees of initiation in masonry, there were 20 questions for each. The team from Wind River Lodge No. 25 in Shoshoni consisting of Jake Stetler and George Schaefer were the final winners, answering a sudden death question as there was a three-way tie.

The Big Horn Basin Master's Club was formed during an area convention on Dec. 21, 1917. The reason for the club was to have a semi-annual gathering of Masons to compete in ritual work as well as meet brother Masons from all areas of the basin.

The first official meeting was held in the spring of 1918 in Worland with over 100 Masons attending. This meeting was to establish rules and bylaws concerning ritual competition.

The members also proposed a resolution to the Grand Lodge to standardize and establish a ritual exclusively for Wyoming. Up until then each lodge used whatever ritual was available. The rituals came from whatever state the members came from.

The first three years meetings were held biannually. The club then decided to meet only once a year due to the distances members had to travel at the time.

Over the years, lodges from Deaver, Meeteetse, Greybull, Worland and Ten Sleep were also members of the Master's Club. The Deaver lodge moved to Lovell and the others mentioned have closed or combined with other lodges in the area.

There are records of several meetings where the attendance was several hundred and the meetings were held in high school gyms. In recent years the annual attendance runs about 30 to 40 members.