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                    <text>ROUNDUP OF E 1ST (SIC AL MVERICKS
THE RANGING OF TOM HCP.N
Iteny -time it has been said, especially in recent years and so proclaimed by
uninformed authors, that Tom Horn was not hanged and that the body of an unknown
tramp was substituted for that of Horn,
In a recent conversation With Dr* G, P, Johnston, who was present at the
time Horn was hanged, he stated that he held Tom Horn’s pulse and told executioners
when he was dead and when to cut him doivn. That at that time he removed a cuff
button from the sleeve of Horn’s shirt and has the button in his possession.
Dr, Johnston went on to say that he doubts very much that Horn killed Willie
Nickell J there was a neighbor of the Nickell family and somewhere way back the two
families were very much on the outs, in other words, feudists. He stated that TYillie
Nickell was killed with a bullet of large calibre, a "minnie'' bullet as Dr, Johnston
described it, from an old smooth-bored musket such as vzas used during the Civil Vvbr.
When he performed the autopsy he carefully took measurements, and found that the
bullet killing Willie Nickell left a very large hole, whereas Tom Horn carried an
up-to-date automatic gun that left a bullet hole about thesize of a lead pencil.
The above statements made by Dr, Johnston cannot be denied,

JOHN CHARLES THOMPSON, noted editor of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Tribune, and
author of the outstanding daily column, "In Old VJyoming," in an address before the
"Westerners," Denver, said:
For more than forty years there has endured in the minds of a numerous com­
pany a suspicion, which has acquired now the tenaciousness of tradition, that Tom
Horn did not die at the end of a rope in the Laramie County jail at Cheyenne on
November 20, 1903, This fantastic tradition is that the hanging of Horn was a mock
exdcutionj that he was out down alive, revived, spirited away; that the cadaver car­
ried from the jail was that of an unidentified tramp; that it was the body of this
tramp which was taken to Boulder, Colorado, and thore buried as that of Horn. I can
testify othervj-ise—I'saw Horn hanged and I saw his dead body on a mortuary slab, I
kn.ew him personally; there was no mistaking the identity of that body,
Horn was a professional murderer. He operated in Wyoming in the ’90’s and
in Colorado in 1900, then again in lYyoming in 1901, He was employed by a group of
cattle ranchers to liquidate rustlers and sheep-owners whose flocks intruded in
"cattle country," His fees for murder ranged from $500 to $700. He "dry-gulched"
his
trad© mark was a rook placed beneath the head of a victim for the
purpose of proving to his employers that the "dirty work" had been his. He v/as
hanged for ambushing a 13-year-old boy v/hom he mistook for the lad's father. No
other murder was proved against him but there was general belief that he committed
at least four others. He was hanged not because the murder of the boy was fastened
upon him "beyond peradventure of a reasonable doubt," but on "general peinciple"
that he "had it coming,". , ,
Before he appeared on the Wyoming scene, Horn had a notable career as a scout
in Indian warfare and as a stock detective in Arizona and New Mexico, There is not
much time to sketch this here. His Wyoming advent vzas during a troublous era there.
The famous and irifamous "Johnson County invasion" was little more than three years
past; the lynching of Jim Averell and "Cattle Kate" had been perpetrated only five
or six years previously; there had been numerous other dark crimes to avenge alleged
cattle stealing. There was "blood on th© moon" and Horn was to add to it.
As the mid-nineties approached, the T/yoming Stock Growers Association, a
powerful society of cattle-raisers, appointed a secret committee to employ a stock
detective to obtain evidence against rustlers. United States Senator Joseph M, Carey
of the firm of J, M, Carey &amp; Bro,, the far-flung range of which in Laramie, Converse
and Natrona counties was being raided by thieves, was chairman of this committee.
The committee dug up Horn, whose real name was said to be Horner, and brought him to
Wyoming, Soon after his employment, John C, Coble of the Iron Mountain Ranch Company,
which also was suffering heavy losses to rustlers, is said to have broached a prop­
osition that Horn was ready to kill cattle thieves for a fee of $500 a head, Carey,
horrified by this proposal, demanded and obtained tjje discharge of Horn, Thereafter
Horn was employed independently by a group of big cattlemen, reputed to have included
Coble, Ora Haley and several others.
Forthwith things began to happen, A small-time rancher named Lewis was shot
in the back while working in the corral of his ranch about 35 miles northwest of
Cheyenne. This was in 1895, A brief period later, a neighbor of Lewis, Levi Powell,
was murdered from ambush as he worked in his meadow, accompanied by his six-year-old
son,,,.
Now back to Horn's "last mile," ¥/e newspapermen were crammed into a little
space at the ©nd of the platform adjoining Horn's cell; the visiting sheriffs were
marshaled on the first-tier level below. The Irwin brothers, flanked by guards,
stood beside them. The executioners and a venerable Episcopal clergyman. Dr, George
C. Rafter, an acquaintance of Horn, were on the gangway at the opposite end of the
platform. Beside the Irwins sitood two physicians. Dr, George P, Johnston and Dr,
John H, Conway, They were gentlemen of the highest integrity whom nothing could
have induced to contribute to a criminal conspiracy.

�The Hanging of Tom Horn, continued
Horn, his back against the cell grill, was half-reclining on his narrow bed,
puffing a cigar. He was perfectly composed. His soft shirt v;as unbuttoned at the
collar, thus exposing the scar of the wound he had suffered in the fight at Dixon,
"Ready, Tom," said Proctor,
Horn arose, carefully placed his cigar on a cross-reinforcement of the grill,
strode firmly the few steps required to take him to the side of the gallows platform.
He nodded to the Irwinsj sardonically scanned the peace officers below,
"Ed," he commented to Smalley, "that's the sickest looking lot of damned
Sheriffs I have ever seen,"
"Would you like us to sing, Tom?" said Charlie Irwin.
"Yes, I'd like that," responded Horn.
So, while Proctor buckled straps that bound Horn's arms and legs, the Irwins,
each in a rich tenor, sang a rather lugubrious song popular on the range, "Life is
Like a Mountain Railroad,"
The clergyman read his church's prayer for the dying, Horn, standing relaxed
listened without a tremor,
"Would you like to say anything?" asked Smalley,
"No," replied Horn.
"Tom," spoke up Charlie Irwin, "did you confess to the preacher?"
"No," was the reply.
Proctor adjusted the noose, formed with the conventional knot of 13 wraps
to Horn s neck; drew a black hood over his head, Smalley on one side and a friend of
Horn, T. Joe Cahill, on the other, lifted the doomed man onto the trap,
nessj thA
running water permeated the breathless stilllistLers tilt
? had begun to operate. To the straining ears of the
listeners that little souno had the magnitude of that of a rushing torrent.
malley, his face buried in the crook of his arm resting against the gallows
was trembling,
°
’
"iVhat's the matter," came in a calm tone through the black cap, "getting
nervous I might tip over?"
Seemingly interminable, the sound of escaping water ran on.
"Joe," said Horn, addressing Cahill, "they tell me you're married now. I
hope you’re doing well. Treat her right."
Indubitably, he was the best composed man in that chamber of death.
Still the sinister sound of running water; then mercifully, the leaves of the
trap
Horn's body dropped through the opening.
Thirty-one seconds had elapsed since h© had been lifted onto the trapl
He fell only four and one-half feet, his head and shoulders projected above
the gallows floor. This drop was not sufficient; his neck was not broken, Proctor
had feared to arrange a longer drop, apprehensive that stoppage of the fall of a body
so heavy as Horn's might tear the head off. The slam of the massive hangman's knot
against the side of H rn's skull shocked him into unconsciousness, however, and he
did not suffer. For 17 minutes the physicians, with fingers on his pulse, felt im­
pulses as a mighty heart labored on; then the pulse ceased.
Tom Horn was dead—unconfessedi
I did not see him die. Immediately upon his plunge through the trap the
witnesses were required to leave, I hesitated sufficiently to watch the dangling
ra,
+
precisely one-half turn-stopped. Proctor's reckoning in this
respect had been accurate,
®
1
first man to get out of the court-house. I emerged at a hieh lone
Ze?
“v"' f?""*
"’•kin ’ho hfa cZntZiZJd to “ '
ger rnrough the police line,
"Is the son-of-a-bitch dead?" he demanded,
replied, and loped on--I had an extra to get out.
An hour later I saw the Horn cadaver on a
a ola
slab at the Gleason Mortuary,
There was no mistaking the body—it was that of Horn.
Take it from me, gentlemen, Tom Horn is dead
notwithstanding.
’ the myth of a fake execution

U, S. government establishes a hard and fast quarantine against importation
of cattle from Old Mexico,
It is believed the infection came from the second shipment of Brahma bulls
from Brazil, which arrived in the harbor of Vera Cruz about May 1, 1946, The United
States government strenuously protested the acceptance of this shipment, but the
Mexican importers had too much pull in high places in Mexico City; and again it is
demonstrated that virhen politics and sanitary measures are mixed, the result is bad
for the livestock industry.
The outbreak was traced to premises where this shipment of bulls had been
held. It is not established that any of the bulls in question themselves had given
visible evidence of the disease, due to the fact that they were vaccinated before
leaving Brazil; but it is believed certain that they carried the disease to the
premises v.'here the infection first developed.
It is understood that Mexican officials are on their way to Washington to ask
for help in combating the outbreak.

�. ROUNDUP CF HISTCRICAL MAVERICKS
TOM HCRN - David J, Nolan, Upton, writes:
I vzas very much interested in the last issue of COIT COUNTRY, The story of
Tom Horn, in which interest never seems to die out, was'in my opinion incomplete,
I thinlc that if you will remember or look it up, especially in the files of
the Denver Post for the yeo.r 1903, along about January or February,' that you will
find the cause for the Tom Horn case being played up in a large way.
It hinged on House Bill No. 100, which was introduced into the Seventh State
Legislature by John Nolan, then representative from Tfeston County. The bill, if pass­
ed, would have abolished capital punishment in the State of ViTyoming. The exception
that the correspondent for the Denver Post took was that it would provide that any per­
son under sentence of hanging in Wyoming, would have his sentence changed to life
changed to life imprisonment. I have a copy of this bill as introduced, and that is
just what it vzould do.
The Denver Post played up the story, and it was vzorked strong that Represent­
ative Nolan was influenced by the Stock Growers Assn., of ".'yoming, to introduce this
bill. The write-up was carried at that time in almost every paper in the West, and
brought Tom Horn's name to people who would have never heard ot it otherwise.
The story was played up by the Denver Post in such a manner as to oast re­
flection on Nolan and the Stock Growers Assn, to such a degree that the Seventh State
Legislature went on record as barring the correspondent of the "Post" from the floor
of the House of Representatives,
But I believe that the reflections cast on Nolan and the Wyoming Stock Growers
Assn, were unjust, as at that time there was grave doubt in many people’s minds as to
the guilt of Tom Horn, as well as to the convictions of many other men who had been
convicted and hanged on circumstantial evidence.
In the case of Tom Horn, many people believed then, as they do now, that
Horn was just "blowing his top" when he confessed to Joe LeFors that he had killed
Willie Nickels, mostly because he wanted a job and thought that vzas the only way to
make the job secure.
The story that the hanging of Horm was bvmgled v/as passed around in ’./■yoming
for years aftenmrd. The story passed around was that when Horn was dropped through
the trap on the scaffold, he was dropped on a short rope that did not kill him; that
he even got his feet above the platform and thrashed around until he strangled to
death, as he could not get the rope loose because his hands and feet were bound.
They had it that all the vzitnesses to the execution'vzere sickened by the sight, but
of course this story may have been pure imagination,

THE DENVER POST, MARCH 25, 1947, SAYS;
Laying a Ghost
Unlike Jesse James and Rails Gambler Jim Fiske, Tom Horn, "professional
murderer" at 0500 to $700 a head, has inspired no ballads, but his ghost still rides
on. Horn'was hanged in the Laramie county jail in Cheyenne, Wyo., Nov. 20, 1903.
The court, the sheriff and the sheriff’s witnesses all knew it.
But for more than 40 years, Wyoming has buzzed with the fantastic yarn that
Tom Horn was not hanged at all; that, through connivance of big cattlemen,the body
carried from the jail on that hanging day and buried in the Boulder, Colo., cemetery,
was that of a tramp; that Horn himself was smuggled, alive, out of the building and
avzay. Torrents of words and gallons of printer’s ink have not yet stilled the story.
Time and again, newspapermen and others are told, "’Thy, Tom's alive and'kicking,
living right now in Chugwater--or Sundance, or Big Piney, any old place."
The persistency of these tall tales recently promptly John C. Thompson, vet­
eran editor of the Cheyenne Tribune, a witness at Horn’s execution with T. Joe Cahill,
the Irwin Brothers and others, to tell about the hanging again. His eye-witness
account was presented in an address to the Westerners in Denver and'was then published
in COW COUNTRY, official bulletin of the ''Wyoming Stock Growers Assn, It gave full
details. Horn, he said, "indubitably was the best composed man in that chamber of
death." In conclusion, Thompson said: "Take it from me, gentlemen, Tom Horn is
dead, the myth of a fake execution notwithstending."
Thompson’s story is a little classic in the chronicle of the Wyoming cattle­
men’s campaigns against the cattle rustlers.
In the mid-’90s, the '^lyoming Stock Growers Assn, named a secret committee to
engage a stock detective to obtain evidence against the, thieves. The late U.S, Sen­
ator Joseph M, Carey was the chairman. The committee dug up Horn, who had vzon a name
as an Indian scout, stock detective and daredevil in the southwest. Soon aftervzard
one cattleman vzas said to have reported that Horn was ready to kill cattle thieves at
$500 a head. This proposal so horrified Senator Carey that he demanded and obtained
Horn’s discharge. Thereafter, Thompson says, other cattlemen employed Horn independ­
ently. Subsequently, five killings were laid to Horn, the last that (for vzhich he
hanged) of a 13-year-old boy whom Horn had mistaken for the lad's rancher father;
Today Tom Horn’s crimes, committed secretly in the name of law and order,
seem only like an incredible and ugly dream from the past. They don’t jibe with the
dignity and fairness expected in the achievement of law and order. Horn's record
and the "Johnson county war" which preceded his furtive forays on the range are only
grim memories now of a grim western era.
But Thompson's record of Horn's "last mile" is a nugget for any collector's
mine of western lore.

�HELL’S
HALF
ACRE

on your way to the

Yellowstone National Park

**********************************

*****************************************************************

I

****************K-*********************************************** ’

VISIT

�HELL’S HALF ACRE, an enormous depression
in the rolling plains of Central Wyoming, cohsists
of several hundred acres of had lands, and is con­
sidered as one of the numerous scenic spots in
Wyoming. It is located between Casper, Wyo­
ming, and the Yellowstone National Park, fortyfour miles west of the city of Casper, on U. S.
Highway 20.

At Casper (the hub of Wyoming) there are
plenty of hotel and tourist facilities and HELL’S
HALF ACRE is only an hour’s drive to the west.

In traveling over Highway 20, through Central
Wyoming, there are many places of interest to the
tourist, such as the Natural Bridge, about fortyfive miles east of Casper. In Thermopolis on the
same highway is the largest hot water mineral
spring in the United States. By traveling Highway
20 you can reach the Yellowstone National Park by
either the east or south entrances, through the
east by the way of Thermopolis, Worland and
Cody or through Riverton, Lander, Dubois and
Moran in the famous Jackson Hole country over
Wyoming Highway 320 from Shoshoni, which
town is the junction of Highways 20 and 320.

The views on the outside of the “first day
envelope” are only a few of the fantastic sights
that greet the eye of the visitor to HELL’S HALF­
ACRE. The pictures as reproduced on this en­
velope are pen and ink sketches from photographs
of formations in HELL’S HALF ACRE. You will
also see such formations as the PULPIT, SA­
TAN’S CAVERN, SATAN’S FOOTSTOOL, THE
MOSQUE, IDOLS, THE PAINTED CLIFFS, THE
DRAGON, THE SENTINEL, REGISTER, (in­
cluding names from practically every State in the
Union and several foreign countries.) Many other
weird and peculiar formations are located in this
grotesque cavern. One columnist has written:
“It is a broad basin, filled with freakish for­
mations resembling columns, pillars, spires,
minarets, pagodas, all in many fantastic colors.”

Indian legends bring to us that late in the six­
teenth century HELL’S HALF ACRE was called

the “burning mountain,” but it is not known
whether those conditions existed at that time or
whether it was known by that name from other
legends, because history of the first white man
to reach this location in 1807 does not state that
it was still on fire. It is claimed by some who
are acquainted with the volcanic regions that it
is very similar to those districts, and if such is
true, it would lead to the conclusion that the leg­
ends had been handed down for the hundreds of
years from the time that it was an active volcano.
There is some evidence to bear out this theory, as
considerable lava and petrified wood is found at
the bottom of the depression, which in many
places is 500 feet in depth. Some people claim
that it was a burning coal vein, but due to the
ruggedness and varying depth, this theory is ques­
tioned by scientists. However, it is generally un­
derstood that erosion of hundreds of years has
had its effect, and the wind, rains and snows have
done wonders in carving out the fantastic and
colorful sights that await the visitor. Inasmuch
as geologists, archaeologists and other scientists
do not agree on its origination or how it was
formed, it would be well for the layman to take
it as nature has provided and see the wonders
that have been developed by Mother Nature, the
foremost of all artists.
HELL’S HALF ACRE is claimed by a great
many to be one of the most beautiful and peculiar
works of nature they have ever seen. Different
from most places of scenic beauty throughout the
United States, HELL’S HALF ACRE is just off
the highway, and no admission is charged to see
any or all of the sights.

In your travels from Casper to HELL’S HALF
ACRE you cross Powder river, made famous dur­
ing the World War, and described as “a mile wide
and an inch deep.”
Indian arrow heads and other artifacts have
been found at the bottom and around the rims,
thus proving that it was used by the Indians as a
camping place, and, no doubt, bears out the theory
that it was used as a “buffalo drive,” or “trap.”

�******-55-*********'»*****************

“THE DEVIL’S IN”

CURIO STORE

HELL’S HALF ACRE

Colored post cards of HELL’S HALF ACRE
at 3 for five cents; packets of eight photographic
pictures of HELL’S HALF ACRE at 25c per
packet. All kinds of curios of the west.

V. W. MOKLER
Box 1
Casper, Wyo.

Box 1
Hell’s Half Acre, Wyo.

**********************************

�FIRST DAY MAlLiNO

Mr. &amp; Mrs. A. J. Mokler,
655 So. Park Ave.,
Casper, Wyoming

“THE GATEWAY”

Hell's Half Acre, Wyoming.

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�28

The Mountain States Monitor, March, 1927

LOOKING OVER THE RIM ROCKS INTO “HELL’S HALF-ACRE.” NEAR CASPER, WYOMING

Hell's Half Acre
By Carrie fTMiams, Casper, JTyoming
Instead of a half acre, this place contains
GREAT point of interest near Casper, about three hundred acres of land.
Wyoming, and in Natrona County, is
It is a wonderful sight and one that cannot
the natural curiosity known as “Hell’s Halfhe anticipated as it is approached. As one
Acre.”
drives along the west Yellowstone highway
This name is very misleading as to area. toward Thermopolis there is nothing in the

A

landscape to warn you that the traveler is
nearing one of the most interesting spots in
this part of the state.
After leaving Casper and traveling west for
about fifty miles, there are signs advising the
(Continued to Next Page)

traveler where to turn off from the highway.
There is an unfounded Indian legend in
The rim of “Hell’s Half Acre” is only a few which the name “Enchanted Land” is used,
feet from the road.
but has no foundation and really is not at
— One staiide-en the edge and gazes- down intoall-suitable to the weird place:-------- — -----the immense pit and wonders, awe-struck, what
You may wonder how it received its present
could have caused these formations. Stories name, which seems so inadequate. Some­
of rattlesnakes, etc. keep some folks from where on the north side of the Platte river
venturing down, but most always curiosity is a piece of boggy land, about twenty-two
gets the better of their fears and they go miles from Casper. Around a large bend in
down to better examine and view what seems the river is a nice stretch of meadow land,
to be an ever-changing scene.
making a fine grazing patch for cattle. But
In this great depression there are caverns in order to reach this meadow from the north
which appear bottomless, crevices and pits;
it is necessary to pass through a patch of bad
also what seems at a glance to be the ruins of land, with the appearance of white ashes,
a man-made creation; towers, spires and many but which proves to be a scum of alkali over
fantastic forms difficult to describe. Then the the marsh. The cowboys coming through this
light effects as the sun and shadows strike
way with cattle called it “Hell’s Half Acre,”
on the rocks reflect gorgeous colors in laven­ and later some one confused the two places
der, red, white, etc.
until the name seems to be a fixed one for the
The name, “Hell’s Half Acre,” is not very wonder spot.
appropriate. One of its former names, “Dev­ / Another item of interest in regard to this
region is the fact that fossils of prehistoric
il’s Kitchen,” seems far more suitable.
animals are found in the vicinity. Professor
Years ago, when the Indians had possession
Reed of the Wyoming University made sev­
of this land, it was called the “Burning Moun­
eral very important discoveries in 1907. These
tain, Near Powder River.” Bonneville visited
he mounted and placed in the museum of the
the place in 1832, and the place was then said
University at Laramie, Wyoming, and they
to be “abounding with anthracite coal, the
are considered very valuable.
earth hot and cracked, with smoke and sul­
In March, 1922, through the efforts of the
phurous vapors arising as if from concealed
Casper Chamber of Commerce, an act of
fire.”
Congress was passed which withdrew this land
A man named John Colter visited here in
from all forms of entry, and Natrona County
1808 and told such stories of its hidden fires agreed to accept it and protect it as a public
and all its terrors and smells that it was park if the land be given to the county. In
named “Colter’s Hell” by the trappers. There December of the same year Senator Warren
is no doubt, in view of all evidence, but that introduced the bill favoring the turning over
it is an old bumed-out coal bed.
of this land to Natrona County.

�'

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r

■■••■■'&lt;

CH30kfci&gt;
'

■k’.

3&lt;=jT-si-8

.

�Hell’s Halfacre—In Wyoming’s Wonderland
''
In that interval between sunrise and sunset, when Time, acting only as a color organ
casts dancing lights and shadows upon this stage set by Nature in a mood of strange
unrest, the expanse of caverns, chasms and peaks pictured here is a thing of intricate
grandeur. But when the shadows of evening fall, the blackness of night descending
upon it transforms the scene into one of stark beauty, suggestive of a mythical lane
of terror, worthy of the name given it—Hell’s Halfacre.
Not a half acre, but interminable acres stretching finally into nothingness, this
peculiar formation
Casper, whose rocks and soil bear every color of the rainbow;
Located on the Yellowstone highway, it draws hundreds of tourists every year to view

�Agents UilL
Half a dozen Stand­
ard Oil agents from
Wyoming.
No. 1: L. G. McKinnis, Lusk.
Wo. 2: Allan C. Jones,
Torrington.
Ao. 3: Hans Gautschi,
Lusk.
No. 4: Clarence Saw­
yer, Torrington.
No. 5: Howard Gilkeson, Sheridan.
No. 6: Robert L. Gal­
lant, Cheyenne.

�Devil’s Bee Hive, Hell s Half Acre, Wyoming.

�LIB BLOfSJ OFF X9 HADES

nll«8 vest of CospoTc «i the Yellowstoae Mgta«By« ia &lt;ma

of tlMi ffloat wmdarfol MuplM

world. It has bean viewed

Batsre*s haaadiiRnrlc aoan aagnibaaro In the

thocaMmdae ea^ eno of whoa forraod his oan

theory with referonoe to it.

There any be »ore subliae wlova along the Arkaana and Colorado

rivers, more iBqpressiva aoeaes al«ig the trails of Tellowstono and Glaeier

imrks, but oertainly no laor^ strange and unaooountable wondw* than Hell*8
Half Aoro. There it ia, a great basin, in which has been wrought and set down

by a master arohiteot, ammtain ranges, plaim, hills, valleys, castles,

kos-

q^es, pyranids, watah tearars, anoimit ruins, eavems, tunnels, shafts, all
in varigated oolorlng aad

aat^rials unlike ai^ythiag in the adjacent regitm.

of tiae and aeticnx of the olesieata Iwvo done their share in adding fora
and graoefulnMS

wmtour to the eeaq^site pheneamum.

SoiKf iiliyila and ad^ Hell's Half Aere is mystery,

one knows. Ho one

ev«r will know. Soima^tists nay grope and spin theories. So the layman. For
truth and exaotness we aeoept wlmt pleases us.

For the origin of Hell's Half Acre, the mythology of Mount Casper ante­

dating that of Mount Oly^ius possibly offers the most rational oqplanation.

the fanciful tale goes, it is related that in the heaving and bulging of
the earth's surface ia the cooling process from a molten state after having
been thrown off from another planet Mount Casper suddenly appeared one morn­
ing in early spring. In time trees gi^ew, grass and flowers came and on the

lower stretches ths fragrant sagebrush made its appearance. With the jmssing
of tile centuiries came the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air.

�Lid Blown Off In iladesj

Page twoJ

Ftnally 1±ie gods, the anoestora of those who later reigned in Olympus, the

nsraM and legends eonoeming them being to great extent lost or rmaodeled to

glorify those of the later p«*lod«
The tale of Hell *8 Half Acre, however, surviTed and ochsm down to the

present day through an Indian ehief to early travelers on the Or^«m trail.
In brief it runst The son of the tyraimical ruler over all things on Moiast

Casper, fell into dissolute habits and for punishment -was banished to hell.
On his arx*ival he undertook to teach Satan, the ruler of the lower regions,
an earthly gambling gsiae. While thus engaged, Satan assigned the duty of

stoking the grMt fumaoes under the middle kettle to the imps with idiioh
hell at that tine and erwr sime has been overinin. The imps, in the absenoe

et ^9 master, and after the nature of imps, labored assiduously and brought
great stores of fuel which they poured into the vast fumaoes eausing auoh

exeessiTs hMt that the gases from the sulphur with which -^e middle kettle
ws filled and into whi&lt;di sinners from earth were to be tossed, eaqploded,
blowing the roof

hell md eausing a terrific uph^val, Wmb de^light eeme

the next morning Hell's Half Acre was there to greet the chance passerby.
That is the story. It is not for us to doubt its authenticity. If any

geologist er other soientist can read a suure plausible &lt;me from the inresant

scene we will give it velotaae.

Bibliography:
Col. W. H. Huntiey la Casper Hally Tribune,
Septeidjor 19, 1921.

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                <text>Cow Country</text>
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          <element elementId="56">
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            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="1326">
                <text>1927</text>
              </elementText>
              <elementText elementTextId="1327">
                <text>1940</text>
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                <text>1947</text>
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                <text>This Letterbox contains an essay titled "Roundup of Historical Mavericks," Cow Country (January 25, 1947), a Visit Hell's Half Acre mailing card (1940), a handwritten article, and an article published in The Mountain States Monitor (March, 1927). Researchers will also find an article titled "Lid Blown Off in Hades."</text>
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                <text>The reformatted text and images in the Alfred J. Mokler Letterboxes are for personal, not-for profit use of students, researchers, and the public. Any use must provide attribution to the Casper College Archives and Special Collections (Western History Center). While being the property of Casper College, all text, images and other materials are subject to applicable copyright laws. Commercial use, electronic reproduction, or print publication ot text, images, or other materials is strictly prohibited without written permission. All permissions to publish must be obtained from the rights holder and are not the repository's responsibility for securing. The rights holder may or may not be the repository. Users also agree to hold the repository harmless from legal claims arising from their use of material held by the institution and made accessible in this digital repository.</text>
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                    <text>Frank Julian Writes of

SOME EARLY RANCHES
By FRANK JULIAN

(Editor’s Note: ’The author of
the following interesting article
came to Natrona County in 1896
and has lived in this county continually since that date. He first
came to Wyoming in 1889. Mr.
Julian is an authority on horti­
cultural matters and has won
scores of blue ribbons for his work
as a horticulturist. The article
below deals with the ownerships
of Natrona County ranches in the
early days.)

In the year, 1870, a young man who
had come to this country with a
wagon train, stopped and said to
himself, “This country looks good
to me and I believe I will stay here.”
He built a half-dugout half-log
cabin at a point about three miles
southwest of the mouth of the
Sweetwater river and at the south­
east comer of the Sweetwater rocks.
Prom Rawlins, his closest town, he
packed in supplies on a horse. He
lived here for three years, hunting,
trapping and looking the country
over. ’This man was Tom Sun and
in the spring of 1873 he picked as
the most promising land for his fu­
ture cattle ranch,” the Sweetwater
river country just above Devil’s
Gate. His son, Tom, now owns the
ranch and it is known as the Tom
Sun Ranch.
THE FL COW RANCH at the
head of Poison Spider Creek was
started in 1822 by a Mr. Wade. Wade
ran the FL for several years before
selling it, along with the UC Ranch
and lower UC Ranch on Horse Creek,
to Robert Taylor, The late Oscar
Helstand was Mr. Wade’s last fore­
man at the FL. Robert Taylor, who
was later a senator from Natrona
County, ran sheep on these rjinches
for a great many years before selling
the properties to the Grieves who
still own them.
About ia7»-Alex' »wan -Df Chey­
enne and Scotland started the Two
Bar Ranch on Bates creek. This
ranch is now owned by John Tobin.
Mr. Swan also started the 07 about
this time. The 07 is located at the
lower end of Bessemer Bend and is
now owned by Mr. William Hufford.
Mr. Swan also owned ranches on the
Chugwater, using these mostly for
stock cattle. He called his company
The Swan Land and Cattle company.
’The Pathfinder Reservoir now oc­
cupies the land Which was formerly
the TW Ranch, owned by A. J. Both­
well. Mr. Bothwell started his ranch
on the Sweetwater river at the
mouth of Horse creek, about four
miles below Independence Rock in
1882. It was a cattle ranch until
1907 when the U. S. government
bought it for the Pathfinder Reser­
voir site.
THE DUMBELL RANCH located
just below Devil’s Gate was started
in 1882 also by Dr. Schoomaker. This
prc^erty is now owned by William
Grieve.
About 1881 two ladies from Eng­
land started the Goose Egg Ranch
on the Platte river at the mouth of
Polson Spider. They employed a gang
of stone cutters for about one year,
cutting and dressing native stone
for the two story ranch house. In
1886 they sold Goose Egg to J. M.
Carey and his brother. While the
ranch was operated by two ladies
from England, William Ervlne was
their range foreman, Ervine later
left here to go to northern Wyoming
where he managed the Half Circle L
Ranch for many years.

rest of their lives. In 1908 he passed
away and in 1914 she passed away.
It takes a lot to feed four healthy
youngsters and two grownups. Then
there were the transients that ex­
pected to be fed. I have heard cow­
boys say that Mrs. Stroud never
allowed anyone to go by her place
hungry. She was a fitting wife for
a frontiersman. An expert shot with
a rifle, many are the elk and ante­
lope she added to the family pot
from her dooryard.
The station four miles east of Cas­
per is named Stroud after this fam­
ily. The Stroud ranch is now owned
by Homer Lathrop.
Of the youngsters mentioned, three
are now living. Mrs. Laura McGrath
and Mrs. Bell Patton in Casper and
Charley Stroud in Washington state.
THE FIRST HOUSE built on Can­
yon creek was a log cabin, 16’ by 20’,
and was located at a point about
two miles east of the m.outh of the
creek on the north side. It was
built by Jack Roberts who came up
the trail from Texas with a herd of
steers in 1882. Roberts did not stay
long, but shipped his cattle out and
left the country. He did not file on
the land and Mr. Boney Earnest
filed on it, added four more rooms
to the cabin and made it his home
ranch. Earnest lived here until 1907,
when he sold to the government for
the Pathfinder reservoir.

FRANK JULIAN

THE OLD GOOSE EGG ranch
house received much publicity in
Owen Wister’s book, “The Virginian,”
for it was there the babies’ clothes
were changed, causing some parents
an anxious hour or two.
This ranch, comprising 1,200 acres,
was later sold to D. N. Speas who,
in 1888, had located his Cross S
Ranch at the upper ehd of Bessemer
Bend, Mr. Speas passed away several
years ago, but his widow, Mrs. Mary
N. Speas, still lives on the ranch.
In 1880, J. M. Carey oi Cheyefne
located his CY ranch two mi]e.&lt;
southwest 01 where Casper is today.
For a good many years he ran cattle
on the CY and this ranch is now
owned by Harry Yesness, Casper
clothier. Mr. Carey at one time own­
ed the Y Ranch on the Greybull, the
SO Ranch down the Platte at the i
mouth of Boxelder, the C Lazy Y
also on the Platte and his home ,
ranch, Careyhurst, on Boxelder. Mr.
Carey, who passed away several
years at a ripe old age, served one
term as governor of Wyoming and
also as United States senator from
Wyoming.

THE WRITER BUILT the next
cabin on the creek, near the mouth
on my homestead and I lived there
♦' • •
until I sold it to the government.
FRANK ERVINE took up land at
The first house built on the little the Cottonwoods mentioned above
Canyon creek was a three-room the Earnest ranch on Big Canyon
hewed log built by Mr. Dan Fitger creek and was named for a nice
for Pedro Arisola, a Spanish-Amer­
ican who was a cowboy for the Pick
outfit. Arisola did not prove up on
this land, but left to work in Utah.
In 1896 I bought his Improvements,
moved the fencing and sold the
house to Mr, E. M. Irwin who filed
on the land and proved up on it&lt;
Irwin later sold to Mr. Roy Cardwell and moved on down the creek
to a new location, which is now his

THE V BAR V ranch was located i
on the Muddy in 1881 by B. B. I
Brooks. This ranch is about 251
miles east of Casper, and Gov.
Brooks built it to a large ranch in
a few years by buying small holdings.
The V Bar V is now owned by Dr.
H. E. Stuckenhoff of Casper. Mr.
Brooks served two terms as governor
of Wyoming and was prominent in |
oil and banking circles. At the time
of his death, a few years ago, he
was president of the Wyoming Na­
tional Bank. His widow, Mrs. Mary
N. Brooks still lives in Casper.

IN 1876 JOSHA STROUD took the
advice of Horace Greeley to go West
young man, go West, Taking his
wife and four young children he
left his home in Indiana and in a
reasonable time he arrived in Chey­
enne, Wyo. He lived in Cheyenne
for several years and then decided
to file on a piece of land about four
miles from where Casper is now
located, where the Oregon ’Trail
crossed Elkhorn creek. After filing
on this land, he took out a ditch, put
in a garden and some alfalfa and
i they made themselves at home. For
I the next four years he had to haul
his supplies from Cheyenne with

home ranch. At this point a bear little grove of cottonwoods that grew
there on the creek.
story will be in order.
In 1900, Henry Cardwell establish­
MR. FITGER, while building. the ed a homestead on little Canyon
creek, just where it comes out of the
Arisola home, had his brother-in- Pedro mountains. After living there
law, Hans Neilson, working for him. a good many years, he sold it. Don
Hans was wrangling horses one day Ervine now owns this place and* uses
down at the cottonwoods, a place 1 it as his home ranch. Don also
will mention later in this article. He owns his homestead west down to­
was up on a cliff looking down on a wards the river and two homesteads
little brush patch. Wanting to try on Big Canyon creek, the Frank
out his new 45-90 Winchester, he Ervine place at the Cottonwoods and
threw a rock in the dead brush, plenty of leased land from the gov­
thinking to scare out a deer. .A deer ernment.
did not come out, but a bear did.
Hans downed the bear in two shots,
AT THIS TIME I want to menand out came another bear. Well, tion a spot I found in the Pedro
he shot bears for a few minutes and mountains, It is about two miles
then got too scared to go down and south and a little west of the Ervine
investigate. Hans went over to home ranch and is almost inaccessi­
Boney Earnest’s for help, but Cap­ ble.
I discovered while hunting
tain Bayley was there alone and deer in the winter of ’96. Some
thought it too late in the day to boulders have been arranged by hu­
hunt crippled bears. So they waited man hands and there are pieces of
until the morning to go down and arrow lying around. I asked Boney
look the situation over. In the Earnest what he knew about it and
morning they found five dead bears, he said they called it an old Indian
meat and hides all spoiled in the fort. He thought two bands of In­
July weather.
dians had fought to the death at
Hans became a good cowman and this place. He said, “Your guess is
was foreman for Dr. E. P. Schoo­ as good as mine.”
maker on his Dumbell ranch on the
I also must mention a spot I found
Sweetwater river. I knev/ him very on the Platte river near my house.
well. In 1900 he moved to Canada.
It looks like a house had once stood
In 1894, Horatio Burtch filed a there and the remains of a fireplace
homestead on little Canyon creek, are around. I found it in 1877 while
about one mile above Pedro Arisola’s
place. He proved up and sold it
and it now belongs to Roy Cardwell.
Burtch was a rider for the Pick out­
fit for many years.

fishing at the mouth of the cree'
It looks just the same now as it di
then. Someone must have live
there at some time in the past.

�Vol. 2

SEPTEMBER, 1925

No. 1

Independence Rock and other Historic Land Marks
Along the Casper - Rawlins Route
seekers for gold in California, and then
later by the settlers bound for Oregon.
In Alfred J. Mokler’s History of Na­
trona
County, Wyoming, we find the fol­
HE Old Oregon Trail is said to have
been 2,000 miles long. Doubtless to lowing story of Independence Eock.
“Independence Eock, the ‘Eegister of
most of the pioneers westward bound
it seemed to be 20,000 miles long. This pio­ the Desert, ’ is probably the most interest­
neer route is generally conceded to have ing landmark on the whole of the old Ore­
begun at Independence, Missouri. If we gon Trail. It was at this spot the weary
■aro-tn ju(]ge by the atm-les of misfortunes., ])ilgrims, who traveled bv slow-going teams
stopped to rest and refresh themselves.
Whi('h occurred along this famous route
and the time it took to travel its course It was here that they found pure, fresh
we are certain to conclude that it was in­ water and an abundance of feed for their
stock. It w’as here that they gathered
deed a trail.
It has been a question as to who laid out about the campfires in the evening and
the “Oregon Trail” and it will undoubt­ sang the old-time songs while the young
edly remain unanswered. It seems to have people danced in the moonlight on the
been the natural route and was undoubted­ well-beaten area. It was here that they
ly selected by the earliest explorers and cared for their sick and buried their dead.
trappers. These were later followed by
“This isolated mass of granite stands
missionaries, then by Mormons, later by out on the desert plains at the foot of the

Remove not the ancient landmarks
which thy fathers have set.” Prov.
22-28.

Eocky mountain range in the Sweetwater
country. When the emigrants reached
here from Independence, they had traveled
838 miles, and they considered that they
had covered half their journey. The Sweet­
water Eiver flows along the southern base
and, according to many writers and his­
torians the old Oregon Trail was on the
north and west sides of the Eock, where
-the—county road is-now loc-ate4-,--and thc-old bridge was supposed to be just east
of where the new county bridge was built
in 1920. This was not the ease however.
The old Oregon Trail crossed the river
about a mile east of the Eock, w’here the
Sweetwater stage station was located, and
passed by the Eock on the south side of
the river, and of course south of the Eock.
“From the very first the emigrants made
Independence Eock their camping place

View of the new treated timber bridge over Sweetwater River, Natrona County, Project No. 164B, Casper-Rawlins Road under con­
struction. Historic Independence Rock in the background, old Oregon Trail in the foreground. The original route of the pioneers
was around to the right or south of Independence Rock, while the new highway passes to the left or north of the Rock where suit­
able markers have been installed to perpetuate the memory of the pioneers of those days.
This point is 56 miles from Ca sper and 65 miles from Rawlins.

�4

WYOMING ROADS

September, 1925

and the custom of inscribing on it their
bows, arrows, lances and shields; no more
names caused Father DeSmet to call it
will it mark for weary migrating hosts a
INDEPENDENCE BOCK
‘ ‘ the great register of the desert. ’ ’ The
spot of solace and of rest; for it forever,
Probably discovered by returning AsIndians in the early days came here to
probably, will remain only the quiet soli­
torians, 1812. Given its name by emi­
paint their picture—writing on its smooth
tude of a lonely place, peopled solely by
grants who celebrated Independence
walls. It is said to have been named
the memories of sunshine and shadow from
‘ ‘ Rock Independence ” by a party of trap­
day here July 4, 1825. Captain Bonne­
days that are no more. But as the soft
pers who passed there early in the nine­
whispering winds of summer play about
ville passed here with first wagons, 1832.
teenth century. It is known that Robert
its massive flanks let us believe they bring
Whitman and Spaulding, missionaries.
Stewart and his party passed by here in
to it a message to mingle with those memo­
With wives, stopped here, 1836. Father
November, 1812.
ries; let us believe they re-echo to it as
DeSmet saw it and owing to many
they pass the Song of the West, which tells
“There is no record of the exact date
names upon it called it the “Eegister
to us all:
of the first white man to pass this way,
of the Desert,’’ 1840. Gen. John C.
’At first ’twas the lure of metals, the dullbut Rev. Samuel Parker, who was there
Fremont camped here with U. S. army,
red stream borne gold.
on the 7th of August, 1835, says ‘this rock
Aug. 2, 1842. Fifty thousand emigrants
When the weaklings died by the roadside,
takes its name from the circumstances of
passed here in 1853. It is the most fa­
when the slid snows buried the bold.
a company of fur traders suspending their
mous landmark on the
And then ’twas the lure of the ranges, the
journey and here observing in due form
miles of unbroken sod.
the anniversary of our national freedom. ’
OLD OREGON TRAIL
Where the herder spread his blankets
Captain Bonneville was here on or about
’neath the scintillant stars of God.
the 14th of July, 1832, for he says: ‘On
A bronze tablet measuring 24"x36" was But now ’tis the song of the water fioodthe 12th of July we abandoned the main
ing the thirsty soil;
stream of the Nebraska (now the Platte), placed on the northwest corner of the
which was continually shouldered by rug­ rock recently and bears the above inscrip­ The grind of the stamps, quartz crushing,
the gush of the spouting oil.
ged promontories, and making a bend to the tion.
The crash of the fall­
southwest for a cou­
ing timber, the
ple of days, part of
murmuring
fields
the time over the
of grain.
plains of loose sand,
The hum of the
encamped on the 14th
blooming orchards,
on the banks of the
the road of the la­
Sweetwater, a stream
boring train’.’’
about twenty yards
How fitting that qua.
in breadth and four
of the highways of
or five feet deep,
the Wyoming Federal
flowing between low
Aid System passes
banks over sandy
by this venerable
soil, and forming one
landmark! The new
of the forks or up­
highway from Casper
per branches of the
to Rawlins follows
Nebraska. Frequently
the old County road,
the plains were stud­ Mastic wearing surface under construction on the new treated timber bridge over
ded with isolated Sweetwater River, Natrona County, on Federal Aid Project 164-B, showing a portion in some places cross­
of the famous Independence Rock in the background.
ing and in some places
blocks of rocks, some­
paralleling the old
times in the shape
“In the year 1843 the Oregon Trail first Oregon Trail. That section of the high­
of a half globe, and from 300 to 400 feet
high. These singular masses had occa­ became a great national highway, when a way passing close by the Rock is known
sionally a very imposing and even sublime thousand homeseekers passed over the as Federal Aid Project Number 164-B., re­
appearance, rising from the midst of a Trail with their teams, ‘ and each year cently completed.
The new highway
thereafter’ writes Ezra Meeker, ‘wagon
savage and lonely landscape.’
passes to the West side of the rock where
‘ ‘ Captain Bonneville was preceded by teams passed over the whole route to the
Nathaniel Wyth, who was there during the Oregon country in varying numbers, wear­ suitable markers have been placed, and
month of May of the same year. Dr. Mar­ ing the track deeper and deeper, until fi­ to the South crosses the Sweetwater over
cus Whitman and his bride, who were mak­ nally the greater exodus in 1852, when a new treated timber bridge, replacing the
ing their wedding tour as missionaries to a column of 50,000 strong moved out from County bridge mentioned in Mokler’s His­
the Indians on the Pacific coast, and Rev. the Missouri rvier and lined the Trail with tory.
H. IT. Spalding and his young wife, were dead, 5,000 or more in number for that
Just adjacent to the rock at the point
at the rock in 1836. These were the first one year alone. Fully 300,000 people where the tablet has been placed is one of
white women that crossed the Rocky crossed over what might be termed the the standard markers of the Oregon Trail,
mountains, and of course the first white eastern section before the advent of the similar to a number of other markers
women to set foot on Independence Rock. Pacific railroad in 1869, which diverted
which have been placed at various points
“Father DeSmet was here in 1840. He later traffic, and the Trail again became a
along the route.
writes: ‘It is the first massive rock of solitude.’ ’’
The highway also passes near Devil’s
that famous chain which divides North
In 1920, Judge W. A. Riner of Cheyenne,
America, and which travelers call the back­ in an address at Independence Rock before Gate, another object of historic note,
bone of the universe. It is the great regis­ several hundred people eulogized as follows: thence through what has been known for
ter of the desert; the names of all the
“No more will this great rock behold years as Muddy Gap, and a few miles fur­
travelers who have passed by are here to the wild troops of savages, bedecked with ther to the southwest joins the Rawlinsbe read, written in course characters.’
paint and war plumes, fluttering trophies. Lander road.

�I

p/'

The Blackfeet Indians

The Blackfeet (Algonquian) Indians were the scourge of the Upper Missouri country

during the existing period of the wars between the white man and redmen in the North­

west country. The territory of the Blackfeet was the watershed of the Missouri river
above the mouth of, and including, the Milk river, although it may be a doubtful ques­

tion if the territory above the Three Forks ought not rather be considered as common
or fighting ground of the various tribes. The heart of the Blackfoot country may be

taken as the immediate valley of the Missouri, near the mouth of the Marias, where the

river makes it great bend from north to east. There were included under the general
term Blackfee1j4’our distince bands; the Slackfeet proper (Siksikau), the Piegan (Pikuni),

the Bloods (Kainah), and the Groventres of the Prairies or the Falls Indians (Atsinai),
numbering all told about 14,000 souls. The origin of the naraS”Blackfeet" is said by tra­
dition to arise from the fact that in some of the tribal disputes of this nation the
Siksikau separated from the rest of the tribe, then on the Saskatchewan river, or even

farther north, and resolved to take up their new abode in the south. It was in the fall
of the year when they reached the valley of the Missouri, and prairie fires had swept

the country in every direction. After traversing this burnt district until their moccasins

were blok with the ashes, they were met by a band of Crow, who, from their appearance,
called them Blackfeet. This tradition may not be entitled to any greater weight than the
following which accounts for the bitter hostility of these Indians to the whites. When

they first saw the effect of firearms they were so much impressed that they wanted to
know where they could procure some powder.

They were told that it was a kind of a grain,

which, if sowed in the spring, would, like any other grain, multiply in the harvest. They

procured a large qxiantity of the powder at great cost and made the experiment. Nothing

could ever induce them afterwards to treat the white man as a friend.

BEbnencv^t cEnxwvr ccw*ai
i-IVIWOHV COnUXA
'•.* M’

2--:'

f

�trail memorial ASSor,
CENTEN A RY
April 10, 1930

CELEBRATION

December 29, 1930

PRESIDENT HOOVER’S PROCLAMATION
Washington, D. C., Feb. 22 1930 President
Hoover in a formal proclamation today cal­
led upon the nation to commemorate April
10, the one hundreth anniversary of the de­
parture of the first wagon train from St.
Louis, Mo., toward the Oregon country.
The proclamation read:
“The congress by unanimous vote has
authorized commemoration of the heroism
of the fathers and mothers who traversed
the Oregon Trail to the far west.
“On April 10, 1830, the first wagon train
left St. Louis for Oregon, pioneering the
way for the thousands of men and women

who settled the Pacific states. On Decem­
ber 29, 1830, Ezra Meeker was born, who
carried over into our day a personal memory
of this historic epoch. The Oregon Trail
Memorial association, which he founded and
which includes men and women in all walks
oi life in all parts of the country, has spon­
sored the movement to observe the period
from April 10 to December 29 of this year
as the covered wagon centennial, to recall
the national significance of this centenary
of the great westward tide which establish­
ed American civilization across a continent.
“Therefore, I Herbert Hoover, president

of the United States, do call upon our people
to employ this fitting occasion to commem­
orate the lives and deeds of the heroic
pioneers who won and held the west.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set
my hand and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed.
“Done at the city of Washington this
twenty-first day of February, in the year
of Our Lord, ninteen hundred and thirty,
and of the independence of the United
States of America, the one hundred and
fifty-fourth.
“HERBERT HOOVER.”

by
Joseph G. Masters, Omaha, Regional Director
BLAZING THE TRAIL
ma
advent of the first wagon train over the
Old Oregon Trail. On that date Capt. Wm. Sublette set out from St
Loins with ten wagons and two Dearborn carriages for the Rendezvous
on Big Wind River in Wyoming. He followed the general route of Robert
Stuart of the Astorians and others of the great iur-trapping brigade.
These tracks were followed a little later by the men of the covered wagon
who set out for homes in that far-off country of Oregon,—hence the
name The Oregon Trail.
' ihele was born 'thaf same year—December 29,
looO near Huntsvielle, Ohio—a man who was to make the long journey
in 1852 as a pioneer to Oregon. Many years later (in 1906) he was to retrace the tracks of the old trail with an ox-team telling again the story
of its romance and tragedy to a generation that had never known that
terrible battle through the great American wilderness, across miles and
miles of trackless and treeless desert, over almost impossible mountain bar­
riers, through torrential streams that took its human toll as well as that
of the sturdy oxen, and past mountain defile with its waiting ambush of
the lurking savage—all in the old ox-wagon making from twelve to fif­
teen miles per day.
This man, Ezra Meeker, made still other trips over this great high­
way by ox-team, automobile, air plaine; erecting many monuments
at the great landmarks along this mighty highway. He may well be called
the “Daddy of the Trail,” and so conspicuous has been his services in ex­
ploring and marking its pathway, in making known its struggles and
hardships, in organizing the Oregon Trail Memorial Association, that it
is altogether fitting that the one hundredth anniversary of his birth, mark
the closing date of our centenary celebration.
At the age of 98 this remarkable old man set out again from head­
quarters in New York in an “ox mobile” given him by Henry Ford for
one more trip over the great sunset trail. By the time he had reached
Detroit he was so ill and so nearly worn out that he was compelled to
finish the journey to the land he loved in a pullman. Here at Seattle,
surrounded by his loved ones, he crossed the last great divide, December
3, 1928. His last words form our challenge today: “I am not quite ready
to go; my work is unfinished.”

THE GREAT TREK
The Oregon Trail and the Santa Fe Trail were one for 41 miles out
of Independence, Mo. At a point just west of what is now Gardner,
Kansas was a sign post pointing to the northwest with the legend “Road
to Oregon.” The trail crossed the Kansas or Kaw just west of Topeka,
crossed the Big Blue at Marysville, and entered Nebraska at the south­
east comer of Jefferson county. Just a short distance north was the
famous Rock Creek station where Wild Bill Hlckock killed McCanles in
the ’6O’s. This is about six miles southeast of Fairbury. A mile south­
west of this spot, high on Inscription Rock, may still be seen the names,
“Kit Carson, Col. John C. Fremont, 1842.”
Three and a half miles north and a half mile west of Fairbury one may
see Dripping Springs and the Mormon graves nearby. Six miles north
and a half mile west is Winslow Grave. From Jefferson county the trail
went west along the Little Bl le four miles north of Hebron, past what
is Oak, Nebraska where in tht terrible Indian raid of 1864 a part of the
Eubanks family was murdered and Mrs. Eubanks and Laura Roper were
taken captives by the Indiana. The trail followed west past Spring
Ranch to the Old Dinner Station, (nine miles southwest of Hastings,) on
northwest to the Lone Grave five miles northwest of Kenasaw. Thence

Platte River and joined the Nebraska City Road
(which left Nebraska City, ran west to Ashland, north of David City
SIX miles north of Osceola to Dog Town and Point City, two very small
towns a mile north of Lowell.) Both towns have long since disappeared.
From here the trail ran west to Fort Kearney, the site of which is four
M south and four miles east of Kearney and is now owned by the state
of Nebraska. On the north side of the main highway may be seen the
deep trenches of the fort. A part of the modem flag pole may b^found
over among the trees.
west to Plum Creek where occurred some of
. hardest f^hting with the Indians. On west it went to the stage
stations near Gothenburg, west past Brady’s Island to Ft. McPherson
Oust southeast of the present national cemetery across the river from
Maxwell). The trail passed at the bottom of Sioux Lookout behind which
Indians would hide and swoop down on the passing wagon-trains
I he Oregon road went on the south side of the South Platte to a point
tour miles west of Brule, Nebraska where many crossed and made their
way over the high table land to Ash Hollow' which is just south across
the river (and east) from Lewellen, Nebraska. What a wonderful place
IS Ash Hollow! As one approaches from the north there is, on the right
in the little cemetery, the grave of Rachel Patterson, a ’49’er, whose
original grave stone now rests beside a beautiful Oregon Trail Marker
Farther up the canyon south is the pond now formed by the spring
which offered such a wonderful camping place in trail days. There were
many trees too, in the hollow in the old days. About three or four miles
up the canyon high on the west side of Windlas Hill one may still see
the deep gulches of the old trail ruts as the wagons were let down the
long hill to the bottom of the canyon.
Instead of crossing just west of Brule many kept on up the south
Platte to where Pt. Sedgwick was built later, the site of which may be
seen today six miles southwest of the present Julesburg on the south
side of the river. The trail crossed the river here and came out on the
north side, just below Lodge Pole Creek. This branch of the trail follow­
ed west to a large pine tree, struck northwest to Mud Springs (now
Simla), going just east of famous Court House Rock and Jail (ten miles
south of Bridgeport) on to the North Platte where it joined the trail made
by those who had gone via. Ash Hollow. Wonderful Chimney Rock so
famous in trail days is just south of Bayard, Nebraska. These great
landmarks could be seen for days enroute for it must be remembered that
Oregon Trail Caravans moved only about a dozen miles a day.
Scott’s Bluff was the next great landmark and the old trail here
made its way through Mitchell Pass where so many thousands of wheels
cut the gulch so deep that only the bare tops of the wagons might be
seen by an observer a few feet away. Prom here the trail swept into
Wyoming to that wonderful haven and refuge. Old Fort Laramie. This
great fort was the mecca of all who moved west over the trail,—ibr here
they could rest, purchase supplies, and have their wagons repaired and
their oxen or mules shod by the blacksmith. In the old days the fort
was adobe. In 1849 the government bought it as a military post. Three
of the old buildings erected in the early ’5O’s—the suttler’s store. Old Bed­
lam, and the guard house,—are still standing.
Prom this point the pioneer battled to a point three miles west of
what is now Gasper where later was built Platte Bridge which was
destooyed by the Indmns who, (in the terrible attack on a wagon train in
186^) killed CaspOrfcollins for whom the city was later named. The trail
here crossed to the north side of the river and for the last time joined

�the California and Mormon Trail (called also the Overland Trail and the
3 a board or headstone, and hundreds of graves left without
Oregon Trail) which took its beginning at Kanesville (Council Bluffs),
this affectionate token ot remembrance, furnished abundant evidence of
Omaha, and Mormon Hollow north of Bellevue. One branch of this
the unsparing hand with which death has thinned their ranks. The
trail ran through a part of what is now Omaha. The Mormons crossed
®attered fragments of the vehicles, provision, tools, etc., in­
the river and built Winter Quarters on the present site of Florence. +tended to be
taken across these wild plains, tell us another tale of reck­
During the winter of 1846-47 some 500 died and their graves may be
less boldness with which many entered upon this hazardous enterprise,
seen in Pioneer Cemetery, west from the park in Florence.
undertake this long trip except with very good animals,
The Mormons began their great journey to the Promised Land in the
vehicles and with a good supply of light provisions,
spring of 1847. Their road, generally speaking, was that followed later
such as tea, coffee, sugar, rice, dried apples, peaches, flour and peas or
by the Military Highway, the Union Pacific, and the Lincoln Highway.
Deans.
Three miles southwest of Central City was the famous Cottonwood tree
STORY OF MARCUS WHITMAN
which has long ago disappeared but now replaced by one of concrete.
In the summer of 1832 three Flathead chiefs and a Nez Perce came
As the caravans dragged their weary miles over the two trails in
to Saint Louis seeking the “Book of Heaven” and the White Man’s God
Nebraska they could often see each other across the Platte,—the great
whom they had heard about in their home beyond the Rocky Mountains.
white winged argonauts moving always into the Great West.
The story of this search spread so that in the spring of 1835 Dr. Marcus
From Platte Bridge west of Casper the old trail made its way 55
Whitman and Samuel Parker set out from New York as missionaries to
miles southwest to great Independence Rock,-a mighty landmark of the
these Indians. Going west to the Green River Rendezvous they found the
desert covering 27 acres. This was a famous place for camping, for mar­ Indians anxious to have the missionaries in the homes of the red men
riages, and even many who died near were carried here for burial,-for
Thereupon’ Whitman arranged to take back with him two Indian boys
graves out on the desert or along a stream were so difficult to mark that and tell the story at home. Here Dr. Whitman removed two arrow heads
they were seldom found in later years of search. Five miles west of here irom the back of the famous old mountaineer, Jim Bridger, while the Inwas Devil’s Gate, a great gap where the Sweetwater cut an enormous dians looked on with the utmost wonder at such surgical skill.
gorge directly through the mountain range. And now came that delight­
ful drive west along the winding channel of the Sweetwater out on the
Green River Rendezvous of
1835 related by Parker of the great Kit Carson, that is worth telling
open prairie and the desert. All along through Nebraska and to South
here: I will relate an occurrence which took place, near evening, as a
Pass in Wyoming might be seen thousands of buffalo in the early days
of the trail. Black tail deer, antelope, elk, grouse, prairie chicken, sage specimen of frontier life. A hunter, who goes technically by the name of
the great bully of the mountains, mounted his horse with a loaded rifle
chicken, and occasionally mountain sheep were to be had by the skillful
and challenged any Frenchman, American, Spaniard, or Dutchman, to
shot of that day.
Split Rock, Dangerous Three Crossings, the great Wind River Range, fight him in single combat. Kit Carson, an American, told him if he
wished to die, he (Carson) would accept the challenge. Shunar defied
Rocky Ridge, and Burnt Ranch (of later days) were all of the utmost in­
terest to the trail-maker. When the crest of gentle South Pass was him. Carson mounted his horse, and with a loaded pistol, rushed into close
reached and the weary traveler could look off to the Pacific Slope there contact, and both almost at the same instant fired. Carson’s ball entered
Shunar’s hand, came out at the wrist, and passed through the arm above
was an unbounded joy,- and yet this was only the half-way mark. How
the elbow. Shunar’s ball passed over the head of Carson; and while he
fortunate that so many could not realize the terrible journey still ahead.
went for another pistol, Shunar begged that his life might be spared.”
Camping at Pacific Springs just over the Divide the weary caravans
It was spared.
finally crossed the little Sandy, the Big Sandy, the Green River and
made their way on to Fort Bridger. From this point those going to Utah
Dr. Whitman told his story of the Indians to the American Board
but most of all to Narcissa Prentiss, a beautiful strong and courageous
and some going to Californiii turned south, but many swung again to
the great Northwest with a renewed determination to go on to Oregon. young woman who had wanted since early girlhood to go west as a mis­
These with others who had followed up Ham’s Pork, to Smith’s Fork, now
sionary. Dr. Whitman and Narcissa were married and with Rev. H. H.
crossed the mountains and went down Bear River to Soda Springs with its Spalding and his wife, Eliza Spalding, together with the two Indian boys
medicinal waters bubbling high in many sprays and jets. As the Bear
and Wm. H. Gray, set out with two well filled wagons in the spring of
River made its great loop and turned to the south another road led away
1836 for the mountains. They moved west to the landing near Liberty,
to California. The Oregon Trail then took a northwesterly course
Missouri. Dr. and Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding proceeded by boat to
through what is now Pocatello to Fort Hall on the banks of the Snake
what is now (Council Bluffs while Gray and Spalding came overland with
River.
the wagons, eight mules, twelve horses, and sixteen cows.
From Fort Hall the old trail swept around that vast semicircle of the
They crossed the Platte River in boats of skins, and fortunately fell
SnaKe in southern Idaho, on past Thousand Springs for 40 miles along
in with the expedition of the American Fur Company, under the highly
the Snake. It crossed the Snake at (Renn’s Ferry^Idaho where we found _skn!ed leadership of Fitzpatrick. The company caravan consisted of 19
a rearOregon TraTil grave,—marked with three-fourths buried wagon-tires. carts each with two mules hitched tandem, one light Dearborn wagon,
The trail crossed again at Ft. Boise and left the Snake at Farewell Bend,
and two mules and two wagons belonging to an English nobleman, “titles
Thence it made its way up Burnt River, over the Powder, down Ladd’s
and all on.” He had with him another of blood “Who, between them, had
Canyon, to the Grand Ronde, over difficult Blue Mountains, and down
three servants, two dogs, and four extra fine horses to run and hunt the
the Umatilla to the Columbia. Here the emigrants floated down the
buffalo.”
great river to the places they wished to settle. The vast trek of over two
There were almost no trail marks of any kind except that of the
thousand miles across the western half of the continent was at an end.They
buffalo which were often worn deep and at right angles to the road they
had reached home at last and were now ready to settle down as the
were to take up the Platte. So out on the great sea of billowing prairie
empire builders of the West.
launched this interesting caravan with the first white women ever to go
ALONG THE TRAIL
over the dim trail which in time was to be called by the Indians, “The
There were usually two, three, and even four or five tracks of the old Great Medicine Road of the Whites.” They killed game as they went,
trail in the sod or desert. As soon as one was cut deep another would traded with Indians for buffalo meat, made two dug-out boats with
be formed, and, often a driver would make a new track in trying to find which they crossed the Platte when they reached Fort Laramie. Some­
a better road or cutoff. Frank Helvey who first saw the Old Trail in times the nobleman’s dogs would give chase to the fleet-footed antelope
what is now Jefferson County, Nebraska in 1858 thus describes it: “I but were generally so outdistanced that Sir William would return to the
shall never forget that sight. Endless lines of white top wagons, drawn train swearing that the antelope could outrun a streak of lightning.
by oxen, mules, horses winding and trailing through the blinding clouds
From Fort Laramie west Dr. Whitman was determined to take
of dust that hung in the air, and driven to their utmost energy by the his wagon and the fur company retained a single cart with the goods
goading and hallooing of many men. I had never before seen such a loaded on pack animals. A special detail of men had to help the wagon
sight so we camped that night near by and watched the wonderful scene and the cart when they overturned or were stuck in the mud. At the
of the twinkling miles of camp fires up and down the whole valley.”
crossing of the Platte below Red Buttes buffalo were killed, their hides
Father DeSmet who made so many trips into the Old West as a mis­ sewed together and stretched over frameworks of willows. With tal­
sionary says, “The 2nd day of September, 1851, we found ourselves on low thoroughly rubbed into the skins and dried, these “Bull boats” ser­
They made their way
the Great Route to Oregon, over which, like successive ocean surges, ved as excellent conveyances across the river.
the caravans, composed of thousands of emigrants from every country past Independence Rock (after carving their names on the south side)
and clime, have passed during these years to reach the rich gold mines to be met soon by one of the wildest cavalcades ever seen in the moun­
of California, or to take possession of the new lands in the fertile plains tains.
and valleys of Utah and Oregon. These intrepid pioneers of civilization
Joe Meek, the old mountain man with his band of trappers and a doz­
have formed the broadest, longest and most beautiful road in the whole en Indians came over the hill from the west riding like wild men to give
world—^from the United States to the Pacific Ocean. On the skirts of the Whitman party a real welcome to the mountains. On they came,
this magnificient highway there is an abundance of grass for supplying riding faster and faster, yelling louder and louder, and gesticulating
the cattle and animals appertaining to the caravans which are incessantly more and more madly, until they met and passed the caravan, they dis­
traveling on it, from early spring to autumn, every succeeding year. The charged their guns in one volley”. They paid great deference to the two
road is fine, broad, and perhaps the longest in the world. This immense ladies in the party and told them many wonderful tales of this new life
avenue is like a barn-floor swept by the winds. No blade of grass springs in the west.
up, so unceasingly is it trodden by the feet of thousands of Americans
The caravan soon passed Split Rock and moved on to South Pass
and Europeans hastening to California. Our Indians, who had seen only
pathless wastes, crossed at most by a hunter’s trail, thought, on behold­ where one may still see the markers calling attention to the tracks of
ing it, that the whole nation of the whites had passed over it, and the the Oregon Trail and the fact that Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spald­
the land of the sunrise must be depopulated. They could hardly ing were the first women ever to cross the Rocky Mountains. As they
believe me when I told them that the multitudes who had gone were passed over this great divide and looked into the slope of the Pacific
“they alighted from their horses and kneeling on the other half of the
scarcely missed.”
continent, with the Bible in one hand and the American Flag in the other,
“The scene we witnessed on this road presented indeed a melancholy
proof of the uncertainty which attends our highest prospects of life. took possession of it as the home of American mothers and the church of
Christ.”
The bleached bones of animals everywhere strewed along the track, the
At the American Rendezvous on Green River they met the vast con­
hastily erected mound, beneath which lie the remains of some departed
friend or relative, with an occasional tribute to his memory roughly course of trappers, Indians, traders in their wild orgy of yarns, trading,

�fighting, drinking, racing, gambling and sometimes killing. From this
point they set out with a Hudson Bay party for the long stretch to Fort
Hall on the banks of the Snake. Whitman persisted in taking his wagon
as far as this fort. Here Dr. Whitman converted the wagon into a cart
and with it the party struggled forward to Ft. Boise where he was
forced to leave it for the time being,—and, where it proved of immense
service to the Hudson Bay Company in completing their fort.
Four
years later carts, and seven years later, wagons were to come on
through to Oregon. It is to Marcus Whitman, however, that we must
give the larger credit in making the great trail a roadway.
From Ft. Boise they made their way along the Snake, thence up
the Burnt River, down Ladd’s canyon into the Grande Ronde, thence over
difficult Blue Mountains. Gray, who was a member of the party, says,
“As the party began to descend from the western slope of the Blue Moun­
tains, the view was surpassingly grand. Beiore us lay the great valley of
the Columbia: on the west, and in full view. Mount Hood rose amid the
lofty range of the Cascade Mountains, ninety miles distant. To the
south of K. t. H ood stood Mt. Adams, and to the north Mt. Rainier; while
with the assistance of Mr. McKay, we could trace the course of the
Columbia, and determine the location of Walla Walla.”
Making their way down to the British posts of Ft. Walla Walla and
Ft. Vancouver where they were courteously received and cared for,
Whitman selected as the place for his mission, Waiilatpu, some 30 miles
east of Ft. Walla Walla, while Spalding settled among the Nez Perces,
120 miles farther east. Dr. and Mrs Whitman at once erected buildings,
called the Indians around them, planted and harvested their crops from

season to season, attended the sick, taught the Cayuses the Christian
faith, and fed and cared for many weary immigrants at the end of their
long struggle across the continent. All of the time the entire Oregon
country (now Oregon, Washington, Idaho) was claimed by the Great
Hudson Bay Company for the British.
One day in the fall of 1842 when Dr. Whitman was at Ft. Walla
Walla, it was announced that the Hudson Bay Company was at last
bringing settlers into the country. One of the guests was so greatly elat­
ed that he arose from the table and shouted. “Hurrah for Oregon, Ameri­
ca is too late; we have got the country.” Something surged deep within
the heart of this great American. In two hours he was back at his mis­
sion and within twenty-four hours he swung into the saddle for a 4,000
mile journey to the capital of the United States.
With a small escort he was at Ft. Hall in eleven days and knowing
of the terrible snows in the mountains, he left the Oregon Trail and
turned south toward the Santa Fe Trail. Passing Ft. Unita and Ft.
Uncompahgre and striking boldly over the terrible snows of the moun­
tains the party lost its way. Lovejoy says that after hours of waiting
in the storm, an old mule pointed his ears forward and when urged ahead
guided the party back to the camp of the previous night. Whitman rode
back to the fort, secured a new guide, and was again soon fighting his
way through the terrible drifts, and gorges, over almost impassable
barriers, through icy streams and with frost-bitten fingers, nose, toes,
and ears, finally reached Taos. From here the party went to Santa Fe,
where they picked up the well worn tracks of the Santa Fe Trail through
New Mexico to that wonderful haven. Bent’s Fort, in Colorado. Thence
Whitman made his way on east to Independence. He arrived at St. Louis
about the last of February, 1843, and hurried by stage to Washington.
Still dressed in his buckskin breeches and his great buffalo coat with
hood, heavy fur leggings and boot mocassins, he arrived at the nation’s
capital about the time the Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, was say­
ing, “But you are too late. Doctor, for we are about to trade off Oregon
for the cod-fisheries.” It is said that he got a better hearing with the
frontiersman, John Tyler, President of the United States. At all events,
they at the capital, would remember the intrepid courage of one of
America’s great men of the trails and his plea for the land beyond the
Western Mountains.
All the way east Whitman had stirred up the people by telling them
of the wonderful country on the last frontier. As he came back to Inde­
pendence in the spring, a great party of 200 wagons and 1,000 men,

women, and children were ready for that Great Migration in its mighty
trek across the plains. Again following the trail into the great west this
party organized, quarrelled, divided, but kept the divisions within supporting distance of each other. Whitman was always in the van pointing
the way, swimming the streams to guide the caravan to the best crosslooking after the sick at night, and encouraging every one by hi®
hopefulness and promise of land and plenty in the great western empire,
ihis time they reached the Columbia with their wagons. Two succeed­
ing emigrations added greatly to the number of Americans spreading
over Oregon. These tides of humanity were too staunch to be turned aside, or trifled with. Thus, in 1846, Great Britain recognized the Amer­
ican pioneer (who went into the west for homes) by signing the treaty
giving to the United States the Oregon Country as far north as the 49th
parallel.
The great missionary and the emigrants had won, but Dr. and Mrs
Whitman were to pay the great price. The Cayuse Indians, because
many of their number had died of a strange malady, believed the doctor
was the sourse of the illness, and hearing also the great numbers of
whites now coming to the new land, brutally murdered Dr. and Mrs.
Whitman, little Mary Ann Bridger, and Helen May Meek, daughters of
the great fur trappers, together with some nine others in November of
1847.
Six miles southwest of Walla Walla today the traveller and explor­
er of the Old Oregon Trail may behold the beautiful monuments an&lt;f
markers which a grateful and thoughtful people of a great state hav«
erected to the memory and heroism of theseintrepid
..........................
American pioneers.
IN CAMP ON
THE PLATTE
“ An unoccupied spec­
tator, who could have be­
held our camp today, would
think it a singular specta­
cle. The hunters returning
with the spoil; some erect­
ing scaffolds, others drying
meat (of the buffalo). Of
the women, some were
washing, some ironing,
some baking. At two of
the tents the fiddle was
employed in uttering its
unaccustomed voice among
the solitudes of the Platte;
at one tent I heard sing­
ing; at others some were
engaged in reading, some
the Bible, others pouring
over novels. While all of
this was going on,. that
nothing might be wanting
to complete the harmony
of the scene, a Campbellite
preacher, named Foster,
was reading a hymn, pre­
paratory to religious ser­
vice.”
Joel Palmer in 1846.
A DAY WITH THE COW COLUMN IN 1843
by
Jesse Applegate
The above title represents the story of one day’s travel on the old
trail and has now become a classic. It is written by Jesse Applegate who
went out with the “Great Migration,” of the Whitman party of 1843.
The Oregon Historical Quarterly (Dec. 1900) has done a great service in
preserving such an intimate word picture of life on the trail. Some ex­
cerpts appear below:
“The emigrants were also assured that the Sioux would be much
opposed to the passage of so large a body through their country, and
would probably resist it on account of the emigrants’ destroying and
frightening away the buffaloes, which were then diminishing in numbers.
“The migrating body numbered over one thousand souls, with about
one hundred and twenty wagons, drawn by six-ox teams, averaging about
six yokes to the team, and several thousand loose horses and cattle.
“The emigrants first organized and attempted to travel in one body,
but it was soon found that no progress could be made with a body so cum­
brous, and as yet so averse to all discipline. And at the crossing of the
“Big Blue” it divided into two columns, which traveled in supporting
distance of each other as far as Independence Rock on the Sweetwater.”
“It is four o’clock A. M.; the sentinels on duty have discharged their
rifles—the signal that the hours of sleep are over—and every wagon
and tent is pouring forth its night tenants, and slow-kindling smokes be­
gin largely to rise and float away in the morning air. Sixty men start
from the coral, spreading as they make through the vast herd of cattle and
horses that make a semicircle around the encampment, the most distant
perhaps two miles away.
“The herders pass to the extreme verge and carefully examine for
trails beyond, to see that none of the animals have strayed or been stol­
en during the night. This morning no trails led beyond outside animals
in sight, and by 5 o’clock the herders begin to contract the great, mov­
ing circle, and the well-trained animals move slowly towards camp, clip­
ping here and there a thistle or a tempting bunch of grass on the way.
In about an hour five thousand animals are close up to the encampment,
and the teamsters are busy selecting their teams and driving them inside
the corral to be yoked. The corral is a circle one hundred yards deep,
formed with wagons connected strongly with each other; ths wagon in
front by its tongue and ox chains. It is a strong barrier that the most
vicious ox cannot break, and in case of an attack of the Sioux would be

�BO contemptible intrenchment.
From 6 to 7 o’clock is a busy time; breakfast is to be eaten, the
tents strucK, the wagons loaded and the teams yoked and brought up in
readiness to be attached to their respective wagons. All know when 7
©clock, the signal to march sounds, that those not ready to take their
proper places in the line of march must fall into the dusty rear for the
cay.
“There are sixty wagons. They have been divided into fifteen diinsions or platoons of four wagons each, and each platoon is entitled to
lead in its turn. The leading platoon today will be the rear one tomor­
row, and will bring up the rear unless some teamster, through indolence
or negligence, has lost his place in the line, and is condemned to that
uncomfortable post. It is within ten minutes of seven; the corral but
BOW a strong bayicade is everywhere broken, the teams being attached
to the wagons. The women and children have taken their places in them
The pilot (a borderer who passed his life on the verge oi civilization and
has been chosen to the post of leader from his knowledge of the savage
smd his experience in travel through roadless wastes), stands ready, in
the midst of his pioneers and aids, to mount and lead the way. Ten or
fifteen young men, not today on duty, form another cluster. They are
ready to start on a buffalo hunt, are well mounted and well armed as
ttiey need be, for the unfriendly Sioux have driven the buffalo out of the
Platte, and the hunters must ride fifteen or twenty miles to reach them.
The cow drivers are hastening, as they get ready, to the rear of their
charge, to collect and prepare them for the day’s march.
“It is on the stroke of seven; the rush to and fro, the cracking of
whips, the loud command to oxen, and what seemed to be the inextricable
confusion of the last ten minutes has ceased. Fortunately every one has
been found and every teamster is at his post. The clear notes of a trum­
pet sound in the front, the pilot and his guards move out of the encamp­
ment, and take up the line of march the rest fall into their places with
the precision of clock work, until the spot so lately full of life sinks
back into that solitude that seems to reign over the broad plain and
rushing river as the caravan draws its lazy length towards the distant
El Dorado.”
“They (the wagons) form a line three-quarters of a mile in length;
some of the teamsters ride upon the front of their wagons, some march
besides their teams, scattered along the line companies of women are taking exercise on foot; they gather bouquets of rare and beautiful flowers
that line the way; near them stalks a stately greyhound, or an Irish wolf
dog apparently proud of keeping watch and ward over his master’s wife
and children. Next comes a band of horses; two or three men or boys fol­
low them, the docile and sagacious animals scarce needing this attention,
for they have learned to follow in the rear of the wagons, and know that
at noon they will be allowed to graze and rest. Their knowledge of time
seems as accurate as on the place they are to occupy in the line, and
even a full-blown thistle will scarce tempt them to straggle or halt until
the dinner hour has arrived. Not so with the large herd of homed beasts
that bring up the rear; lazy, selfish and unsocial, it has been a task to
get them in motion, the strong always ready to domineer oyer, the_,weakt. -■Will I.—Il ■■ ' halt hl the front and rofbidfhu weak to pass thein.” "
“But from the standpoint of the hunters, the vexations are not appar­
ent; the crack of whips and loud objurgation are lost in the distance.
Nothing of the moving panorama, smooth and orderely as it appears, has
more attractions for' the eye than that vast square column in which all
colors are mingled, moving here slowly and there briskly, as impelled by
horsemen riding furiously in front and rear.”
“But the picture in its grandeur, its wonderful mingling of colors
and distinctness of detail, is forgotten in contemplation of the singular
people who give it life and animation. No other race of men with the
means at their command would undertake so great a journey, none save
these could successfully perform it, with no previous preparation, relying
.
only on the fertility of their own invention to devise these means to overi'
come each danger and difficulty as it arose. They have undertaken to
perform with slow-moving oxen a journey of two thousand miles. The
■way lies over trackless wastes, wide and deep rivers, ragged and lofty
mountains, and is beset with hostile savages. Yet, whether it were a
deep river with no tree upon its banks, a rugged defile where even a
loose horse could not pass, a hill too steep for him to climb, or a threat­
ened attack of an enemy, they were always found ready and equal to the
occassion, and always conquerors. May we not call them men of des­
tiny?”
“It is now one o’clock; the bugle has sounded and the caravan has
resumed its westward journey. It is in the same order, but the evening
is far less animated than the morolng march; a drowsiness has fallen
apparently on man and beast; teamsters drop asleep on their perches
and even when walking by their teams, and the words of command are
now addressed to the slowly creeping oxen in the soft tenor of women or
the piping treble of children, while the snores of the teamsters make a
droning accompaniment.”
“The sun is now getting low in the west and at length the painstak­
ing pilot is standing ready to conduct the train in the circle which he has
previously measured and marked out, which is to form the invariable
fortification for the night. The leading wagons follow him so nearly
around the circle that but a wagon length, separate them. Each wagon
follows in its track, the rear closing on the front, until its tongue and
ox-chains will perfectly reach from one to the other, and so accurate the
measure and perfect the practice, that the hindmost wagon of the train
always precisely closes the gateway, as each wagon is brought into posi­
tion. It is dropped from its team (the teams being inside the circle), the
team unyoked and the yokes and chains are used to connect the wagon
strongly with that in its front. Within ten minutes from the time the
leading wagon halted, the barricade is formed, the teams unvoked and
driven out to pasture. Every one is busy preparing fires of buffalo chips
to cook the evening meal, pitching tents and otherwise preparing for the
night.”
“All able to hear arms in the party have been formed into three
companies, and each of these into four watches; every third night it is

the duty of one of these companies to keep watch and ward over the
camp, and it is so arranged that each watch takes its turn of guard duty
through the different watches of the night. They begin at 8 o’clock P M
and end at 4 o’clock A. M.”
Before a tent near the river a violin makes lively music, and some
youths and maidens have improvised a dance upon the green; in another
quarter a flute gives its mellow and melancholy notes to the still night
air, which, as they float away over the quiet river, seem a lament for the
past rather than a hope for the future. It has been a prosperous day;
more than twenty miles have been accomplished of the great journey.”
“But time passes; the watch is set for the night; the council of old
men has been broken, and each has returned to his own quarter; the
flute has whispered its last lament to the deepening night; the violin is
silent, and the dancers have dispersed; enamored youth have whispered
a tender “good night” in the ear of blushing maidens, or stolen a kiss
from the lips of some future bride—for Cupid here, as elsewhere, has
been busy bringing together congenial hearts, and among these simple
people he alone is consulted in forming the marriage tie. Even the doctor
and the pilot have separated for the night. All is hushed and repose from
the iatigues of the day.”
DATA AND DISASTER
For the first few years after the opening of the trail by the SublettJackson-Smith initial wagon-train of 1830 only a few hundred set out
each year. The year of 1843 with the Great Migration marked the first
large numbers into the West. In 1844 from 500 to 700 went out; in 1845
over 3000 with 460 wagons made their way into the West; while in 1846
approximately 1600 went to Oregon and California. In 1847 at least 3000
Mormons made the trip over the two branches of the trail, finally reach­
ing Salt Lake; in 1848 a large number of Mormons and others were again
found on the trail. This year may be said to close the pioneer-emigrant
period.
With the great gold excitement spreading over the world in 1848 and
1849, thousands upon thousands started for California. Some -went around
the Horn (a few paying $1000 each idr passage), others via Panama, and
by April 1, 20,000 had gathered along the banks of the Missouri ready to
begin the trip over the trail just as soon as the spring grass would make
its appearance to sustain the oxen and mules. The St. Joseph Advocate
states that by May 18 of that year 2850 wagons had crossed the river at
that point, and l^y June 1, 4000 wagons had passed Pt. Kearney on the
south side of the river alone. It is estimated that from 8000 to 10,000
wagons went over the trail that year. There were often as many as ten
oxen to each wagon.
In the year of 1852, 500 wagons passed Fort Kearney in a single day.
In a period of twenty-four hours, 888 wagons were counted on the trail
between Fort Kearney and Julesberg on the south side of the river. In
1857 Albert Sidney Johnson passed over the trail with 2500 soldiers en­
route to quell the Morihons. Large numbers again fared forth with the
“Pike’s Peak or Bust” discovery of gold in 1858 and 1859. In 1859 the
secretary of the Columbus Ferry Co. at Loup Pork (just west of what is
now Columbus, Nebraska) counted the following by the middle of June:
1987 wagons, 5401 men, 429 women and 48 children, 1610 horses, 406
mules, 6010 oxen, and 6000 sheep.
With the moving of such vast hordes into the West, many started
poorly prepared and outfitted. Worst of all, the dread scourge, the “Asi­
atic Cholera,” broke out in 1849 on the trail. Its victims would often live
for only a few hours after the first attack. A multitude of graves soon
lined both sides of the great roadway. Thus, the pioneers ol the plains
lay dead in rows of fifties and seventies along the great highway. It is
estimated that 5000 perished in the two or three years’ ravages of this
terrible disease. Chenoweth, who ■went over the trail at this time, says,
“But the name of cholera in a multitude—unorganized and unnumbered—
is like a leak in the bottom of a ship whose decks are thronged with pas­
sengers. The disturbed waters of the ocean, the angry elements of Nature,
when aroused to fury, are but faint Illustrations of the terror-stricken
mass of humanity, when in their midst are falling with great rapidity
the comrades—the strong, the young and the old—the strength and vigor
of youth melting away before the unseen foe. All this filled our ranks
with the utmost terror and gloom. This terrible malady seemed to spend
its most deadly force on the flat prairie east of about Fort Laramie.”
In 1860 the Omaha Republican estimated that a person could see
from 50 to 100 teams at once on the trail. By May 23 of that year,
residents declared that between 2500 and 3000, wagons had passed along
the roadway of the trail. It was claimed on May 19, 1860 that 700 teams
crossed in a single day between the Elkhorn and Loup Pork on the north
side of the Platte.
In the latter part of the ’5O’s the great firm of Russell, Majors and
Waddell began their freighting business into the West. From April 25,
to October 18, 1860 they had transported 2,750,000 pounds of freight. At
one time this firm had in use on the trail 6000 wagons, 10,000 men,
100,000 oxen,, and many hundreds of mules. The enormous wagons
carried from 5,000 to 15,000 pounds each.
Stage coach travel was begun in 1858 across the 1900 miles from the
Missouri river- to the western coast. At first it took 38 days carrying
both passengers and mail, but this time was soon reduced to 24 or 26
days. In the early ’6O’s Ben Holladay had 135 stations, with 500 coaches
and 150 drivers pushing on night and day to make the trips from river
to coast.
By 1860 the Pony Express riders were carrying the mail at break­
neck speed from St. Joseph to San Francisco in 10 days. Each rider
carried the mail a distance of from 75 to 100 miles with two minutes for
changing horses every 10 or 15 miles.
Altogether, hundreds of thousands moved into the Far West as
trappers, traders, voyageurs, gold seekers, soldiers of fortune, emigrants,
soldiers, and settlers. One writer estimates that all in all there were
2,000,000 to pass over the old trail in helping to build the great westerB
empire of the trans-Missouri country.

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                  <text>Casper (Wyo.) -- History</text>
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                  <text>The Alfred J. Mokler Letterboxes are a series of the larger archival collection that are his papers. Both his Letterboxes and his Notebooks available in this digital repository include holograph manuscripts, which is to say, manuscripts written in the author's hand. Much of the material in Mokler's Letterboxes dates to the 1920s and 1930s.</text>
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                <text>Letterbox 1-F</text>
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                <text>Oregon Trail Memorial Association</text>
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                <text>Alfred J. Mokler Papers, NCA 01.v.1992.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections.</text>
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                <text>This Letterbox contains an article titled "Frank Julian Writes of Some Early Ranches," an issue of Wyoming Roads (September, 1925), a paper titled "The Blackfeet Indians," and a copy of the Oregon Trail Memorial Association's December 29, 1930 newsletter.</text>
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�ADDRESS BEPCHE SHERIDAN AND JOHNSON COUNTIES PIONEER ASSOCIATION

Av. Stor'/, VJyoraing, August g4th, 1947
By Russell Thorp

We vvho have experienced many of the pioneer days have an obligation to
interpret them honestly for the benefit of our successois. This involves not
only the preservation and making accessible of documentary material but the
arrangement of historical objects in such a way that a complete and accurate
story of Wyoming and its environs will be unfolded to those who visit our
state historical museum and other historic shrines such as Fort Bridger,
Fort Caspar, and similar places.

The citizens of Casper and Natrona County did a fine piece of work in re­
storing old Fort Caspar. The members of the V/yoming Land Mark Commission, of
which I have the honor of being a member, are now at work, through the
generosity of the recent legislature, in restoring old Fort Bridger. We hope
to make it so attractive in its restoration that thousands of tourists will
linger annually to enjoy it and will learn from it much about Wyoming that
they otherwise might not know.
Because of its geographical location, V/yomlng has and will continue to be
a most important link in the chain of western history. Although it was one of
the last territories to be settled permanently, it figured in every important
era of western development.

Back and forth across what is now our state, went various Indian tribes,
pathbreakers, fur trappers and traders, explorers, missionaries, soldiers,
emigrants, miners, cattlemen, stagecoach men, freighters, railway builders,
and homesteaders.
Right now there is unprecedented interest in Western Americana. No doubt
this is due to the fact that here in the West lie unmined treasures in the
form of unpublished lore, unassembled historical data, uncollected relics.
Professors, students, vrriters, publishers and collectors of all kinds of
western data are finding VJyoming a rich field for their work.

We must be alert to protect our interests and to save for our ovjn
citizens what historical material we have left, before it is too late.
VJyoming has long been a free foraging ground. Think for a moment of what
has already happened to many of our treasures of the past. You all know how
various scientific expeditions have come into ths state and have carried away
some of the most remarkable dinosaurs and archaeological specimens ever dis­
covered. Not a hand was lifted to prevent these things from leaving our borders
and going into museums in the east, or middle-v&gt;Fest.

You no doubt know, too, how trucks from California and other states
carried away load after load of petrified wood from our petrified forest north
of Medicine Bow, because we had no lav; to protect the removal of such matter
from the state.

�The sane thing has been happening tc seme extent to our -hlstarical
materials. As early as th? 1330’3, Hubert Bancroft came into Wyoming and
neighboring states and collected extremely valuable original manuscripts,
records, pamphlets and bocks which ho placed in his large collection in
California. Bancroft is to be commended upon the fine histories which he
published and also upon the fact that he has saved for posterity much valuable
data on the old West. But the fact remains that records which might now be
within our own state are novr out in California‘because Bancroft was first on
the job.

It is true, of course, that it would be impossible to pass a law to pre­
vent individuals from giving away, selling, or destroying things of historical
value which they own, but the state could provide inducements of such a caliber
that our citizens would want to entrust their relics, manuscripts, photographs
and pic neer keepsakes into the hands of the state rather than to let them go
elsewhere.
If a fine historical museum building were erected that would assure
permanent security to donations, there soon would be a stream of valuable
things flowing into the keeping of the state.
I do not wish to discount the excellent work already accomplished in
Wyoming. Much credit is due organizations such as the D.A.R., the S.A.R.,
county historical societies, the University of Wyoming, and the state his­
torical S'-'Ciety for past endeavors.

The Wyoming Historical Society was established by an act of the legis­
lature in 1895. As originally planned it was to be "a safe depository for
valuable books, files of newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, maps, charts,
portraits, mineral specimens, and articles of value illustrative of the
history and progress of our State,”
A splendid start was made with Robert Morris as the first secretary.
Volume 1 of the Wyoming Historical C-'llecti^ ns was assembled and published.
Exhibits of relics and minerals were placed on display in the Capitol in
Cheyenne. But as the years went by and the demands for more office space in
the Capitol increased, the interest in the historical society seemed to de­
crease. The collection of the society was pushed arcund until it landed at
last in boxes in a basement vault.

The State Librarian, who was ex-officio historian, had only $250
appropriated annually for the work of the society. This sum was not even
sufficient to bind the newspapers. No money was provided by the legislature
for publishing historical papers, nor for traveling about the state to collect
data.

In the report of the State Librarian for 1916-1918 there appeared the
following statement: "Wyoming is far behind other states in historical work
simply because the matter has not been thoroughly considered by the Legislature,

-2-

�In 1919, the Wycning Legjsleturs Croated the 'Office of State Historian
and. apnropriatei $5,000 for her vjork. This v/as reCueed to $5,COO by the
Governor. Tv.'o years lete:^ r Stele Historical B'ard, a State Historian, an
Advisory Board, and a Slate HiotoricaJ. Society were provided for by law.
Later, as an eo.'&gt;n'riy nieasure, the governor reconinended that the
historical department be letumed to the State Librar’y, aa it is today. Time
does not permit a disoussion of whether this is a satrsfactory arrangement.
I do, however, wish to bring out the fact that the state has
receive many valuable donations because it has not had a separate
museum of sufficietn size and quality to attract such donati'^ns.
not mere heresay. I quote from the Second Biennial Report of the
Historian for Wyoming for 1922:

failed to
historical
This is
State
y

*An offer has come to Wyoming for a complete library of
Wyoming and v/estem literature which includes almost
every published book on this section and which is valued
at $75,000. The conditions under which the state may
own this priceless library have not as yet been met—the
erection of a suitable fire-proof building in which to
house it. This is a wonderful opportunity vrhich Wyoming
should not allow to pass."
The state did allow this opportunity to pass. The collection, assembled
by William R. Coe, which in its final state was valued at hundreds of
thousands of dollars went to Yale University. It is perhaps the most complete
collection of its kind. Its loss to Wyoming cannot be estimated.
At present a number of federal bureaus are interested in historical
projects of me type or another. Included among these is the National Park
Service, which has its so-called Historical Technicians who are at work on
many commendable things. In one instance, however, it is reported that an
historical technician was asked to unearth historical data to prove a
national m&lt;^nument historic after the monument had been created. The monument
might be within the borders of V/yoming. I shall leave the answer to you.

It is within the power of these various federal bureaus to put their
own interpretation upon our local history, to select and reject data to fit
their desires.

I feel confident that a well-financed, modem state museum maintained by
our legislative support, could put a much more unbiased interpretation upon
Wyoming’s history and could create greater pride in the story of the state’s
achievements than could be developed by technicians who are not sc in tune
with the citizenry of our commonwealth.
Speaking of state pride—let us consider the case of the Minnesota
Historical Society, which is the oldest institution in its state. It is
housed in a massive, threestoiTr, fireproof building, erected in 1918 at a
cost of $500,000.

In Wisconsin, the historical society has a building of Bedford limestone
which cost, with equipment, $610,000. It is true that Wisconsin is a much
older, more thickly populated, and wealthier state than V’yoming,but it is
interesting to note that this magnificent sum of $610,000 was appropriated
bv f^e state ’’e-sris"*atn’'ns of 1895- 1897 and 1899:

�Nebraska, our neighbor, is nakirg a drive toward a new historical
building. The Nebraska
Eistorieal Society, founded and incorporated In
1867, id the oldest state institution in Ne’o:?asha.

Great interest is be ■’.ng shovjn throughout the state of Colorado in the
longrange improvement pr~gic,’i n w under way for the development of the State
Museum, which is a sepai-’ « bui.lciing just south of the Capitol in Denver.

Plans call for doublirg the present exhibit space and a complete reclasRification of some 20,000 exhibits in accordance with modern standards and
for more practical use. As part of the work, exhibits will be segregated that
are suitable for traveling I'^an exhibits, so that che Historical Society may
extend its service throughout the state to local nureums, libraries, and
schools.
A second phase of development approved by the Colorado State Historical
Society is the establishment of several branch or historic house museums at
points of statewide historic importance.
It is understood that the request of the Board of Directors for
^103,000 for the Museum improvement, to be provided from the Capitol Building
Fund, was met with hearty approval by the State Planning Commission.
It may be an inspiration to us here in the West who are struggling along
faint trails to know that the private funds which made up the endowment of the
Historical Society of Philadelphia total |1,250,000. The New York Society with
its monumental home on Central Park West, is privately endowed at #4,600,000
and receives no financial support from the city.

The teaching or writing about antiquity often fails to arouse a real
understanding because it is not connected With any tangible experience of
the listener or reader. Often, too, professional historians are apt to be
more theoretical than practical.

Historical societies with fine displays can prove to be real citadels for
democracy.
We all know that this is an age of visulization. The younger generation
is notion-picture minded. Many Of our magazines are largely pictorial so that
**he who runs may read." Our children have a well-developed appreciation of
things they can see. There are so many diversions these days that the average
person will not spend the tine digging out facts, as did many persons of an
older generation. We must keep pace with the times in presenting historioal
material in a visual fashion.
It stands to reason that a person who has inspected a real state-coach
will be better able to appreciate our methods of early transportation than
one who has merely seen a picture of a coach in a book.

There is one modem phase of historical work that could be expanded
with a new museum,—the making available to the public of microcopies of

�docunents, letters, papers, and other things pertaining to the 1 istory of the
State which could not otherwise be consulted.
In a recent issue of the Mississippi Valley Historical Revj ew there
app'-o.red a statement to the effect that the records of the WyoLdng Stock
Qrowors Association were "probably the most complete and valuao'e collection
of oapers covering the range industry found anywhere, covering the period
1673-1923."

This collection did not happen by accident. The officers of the
Association carefully preserved all records and during the past decade especial
thought was given to the indexing, classification, and permanent preservation
of this valuable data vdiich now is housed permanently in the Archives of the.
University of Wyoming.

We have reached the place in the development of Wyoming where some of
the oldest and most substantial homes are being sold. Family possessions are
being divided, scattered, or destroyed. We must not delay. We must strive
to provide a large, fireproof historical building of a caliber that will induce
our pioneer families to deposit their possession within its walls.
Teachers of history report that the better and more extensive is a person’s
acquaintance with the history of his locality, the better he appreciates
international problems.
A study of past records shows that whenever the women of Wyoming made up
their minds to elect a certain candidate, to back a certain legislative
measure, or to kill a certain proposed bill, they were victorious. If you
decide now to unite in a drive for a fine state historical museum building
there is no question of the outcome.

Such a building would serve as a stockade to fence Wyoming in and to
prevent it from continuing as a free forage ground for hunters of Western
Americana.

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                <text>Russel Thorp</text>
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                <text>This Letterbox contains a handwritten paper on  Steve Tobin, who came to Wyoming from Ireland in the fall of 1895 and "in charge of 120 blooded rams." He met friends of his from Ireland in Casper and it is here he came to be engaged in the sheep business. Researchers will also find an address by Russell Thorp to the Sheridan and Johnson Counties Pioneer Association and a handwritten paper titled "Grandeur of Teton Mountains." Lastly, there is a newspaper clipping on the death of  Casper businessman W.F. Henning.</text>
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                <text>The reformatted text and images in the Alfred J. Mokler Letterboxes are for personal, not-for profit use of students, researchers, and the public. Any use must provide attribution to the Casper College Archives and Special Collections (Western History Center). While being the property of Casper College, all text, images and other materials are subject to applicable copyright laws. Commercial use, electronic reproduction, or print publication ot text, images, or other materials is strictly prohibited without written permission. All permissions to publish must be obtained from the rights holder and are not the repository's responsibility for securing. The rights holder may or may not be the repository. Users also agree to hold the repository harmless from legal claims arising from their use of material held by the institution and made accessible in this digital repository.</text>
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                    <text>THIS

CHANGING

WORLD

(By Alfred J. Mokler)
Spread over the entire Northwest and part of the Southwest portion of the United
States, and almost as mysterious as the mirages of the desert, are the remains of civ­

ilization that peers at us through the murky gloom of the past.
Cradled in the desert, humanity and citizenship survived for centuries under such

adverse conditions as no other people on earth were called upon to endure, and,

in

dying, gave unto the keeping of the desert its sacred relics. Today, wherever men
trevel the wiste plf ces they ere «aBnfronteyv»ith thia evidence, shrouded in the dust
of centuries, with desolation surrounding it.

The prehistoric people of Western America, neglected through the ages,

labored

for love of home and land and gave to mankind priceless gifts that we, in the light
of little understanding,

perhaps have failed to appreciate fully. Just how many

of the arte of civilization they gave to us is not known. Certainly they are the fath­
ers of irrigation, and it may well be that they gave to us the arts of pottery-making

and weaving.

Who these people were, science does not know. The Indians may be their descend­

ants, though these Indians, with the possible exception of the Pueblos and i.unis, are
far removed. How far back into the past history of this ancient people extends^ science
has not discovered. Geology and anthropology, working in harmony, ere agreed that it
must have been very close to that time in life of mankind when the dawn of civiliza­

tion first showed through the darkness of savagery.
Nearly 400 years ago, when the army of buncaneers under General Francisco de Coro­
nado moved up fran Mexico, bent on looting the rich cities reported to exist far to

the north, they found, instead of stately municipalities,

rich in gold and silver,

only

the remnants of this once powerful nace. Gone was their glory. Forgotten were their
1

airts except those necessary to supply mieager needs. Ko longer were there soldiers in
the mighty battlements of stone that crowned the hillstops. Death or other lands had
claimed all those who had traveled the highways of the homeland and left from sandled

feet endless miles of trails worn deep in solid rock. These trails today stand unchal-

Z31dest

lenged as the world's/highways.

�The oenturiee of time and the numberlesE feet that went into the making of these

trails oan be appreciated only when we stop to consider that our own modern sidewalks,
on the busiest streets of our oities; resist the tread of millions of feet, year after

year, with no appreciable wear. Then do these ancient trails, some of them worn almost

knee-deep in solid granite, and inches deep in carboniferous lime, as impervious to

wear as cement, speak to us of antiquity that staggers the imagination.

It is unfortunate that until almost the last 20 or 30 years this wealth of historic
and roraantic material was neglected. Men, more interested in loot than in truth, have

/ n fo
sailed away^the the Valley of the Nile to rifle the tombs of the Pharaohs. During the
past several decades, however, an increasing number of students in the "science of
man" have answered the oall to our own Great Northwest with the result that startling
new discoveries have been made. Some of these discoveries compel the re-writing of the

history of mankind. Tourists, traveling westward, find a land of roamnce, where the

trails of today, winding through painted desert and purple sage, blend into the trails
of long ago that lead us back to the time when mankind wore the swadling clothes of
eivilizetion. As we follow these ancient trails across the desert space to some lonely

canyon and come to an anoient home, perched,
overhenging cliff,

like an eagle's nest, high up under some

let us sit in the doorway that looks out over the endless waste and

speculate on the courage of those who, barehanded, wrested a livelihood from this un­
friendly land.
Even if we do not know their names, or whence they came, we do know much of their
history. Fran sand-strewn desert floor to terraced hill and from cavern shelter to

great buildings of stone in Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, and other western
states, there are numerous groups of rooms which once sheltered the anoient people.

It was these people, struggling to maintain their homes in a land where climatic
changes briught endless drought, that gave to the world the art of irrigation, and

made it possible for us, their heirs, to reclaim for agriculture these very lends
that have lain fallow through the centuries.

No more dramatic chapter is recorded in the annals of man than that of these an­
cient people

who, for love of home,

lifted themselves fran savagery into the light

of civilization that freed the race from the misery of famine that stalks where water

�Science has proved from the presence of prehistoric lakes end the fossil remains

of plant and animal life that at one time in mary pieces of 'Wyoming and other western
states that this was a land of plenty. It was here that a primitive people basked in

the warmth of a benevolent climate, and, with little effort,

gathered from vine and

tree, sufficient food for the day, with no thought of the morrow.

There came, however, in the lives of these primitives a time when the warm, moist­
ure-laden winds from the Pacific no longer found their way inland with the regularity
that had marked the centuries before. One of those climatic changes in the life of the
«arth that so baffle the students of nature was taking place,

reducing to a desert waste

a country ftir larger than all of Europe, and rendering destitute millions of prosperous
people. The security of their old life was taken from them, not in one devastating cat­

astrophe, but by the slow attrition of time that stretched into ages, keeping alive the
flickering flame of huj^ian hope.

Year after year saw a diminishing rainfall. Finally, no longer did grass grow in
the open places or water course through the channels that once jwui full. Animal life

gradually disappeared—dead or migrated to greener fields. Only the deer and mountain
sheep remained. With the exception of these two hardy animals, marijvas alone in his des­

olation. Loving his land with that fervor

known only to primitive mtn, he stayed on.

Loath to leave it for the terrors of unknown places, he exerted every effort to sustain
himself. Ko longer able to gather his food from forest or stream, he stored water behind

crude dams and planted his seeds and nursed them to maturity from his precious store.

Thus he gave to the world the art of irrigation, and in so doing learned that ”in the
sweat of thy face shall ye eat your bread? It could well be that it was here in our own

land of Wyoming that Old Mother Nature geve to mankind its first lesson in the art of
self-support.
The ebb and flow of humanity over the habitable portions of the earth through the

countless ages of human existence, and the inevitable exchange of arts and
companying this movement,

cuetrans

ac­

imposes a Herculean task on that branch o;J^cience whose busi­

ness it is to classify and credit to the different races their contributions to civilis­

ation. Never has this task been approached with minds as alert to the truth as it is at
the present time, when science is seeking evidence for the sake of truth rather than the
hope of perpetuating tradition.

�js
Science^persuaded

from the study of ample evidence that men did have a humble

beginning, and that he did not spring from the earth fully armed, ready to fight the
battles of life.

It ia for this reason that scholars are ignoring greet ancient culture

and seeking among the lov/ly home of the most primitive people the clew that shall event*

ually lead to the exact spot where man started on his long, slow, upward journey to his

present development.
So long have we been eduo ted to stand in awe before the greet age of such coxintries as Egypt, Asia Minor, and China, while our own evidence of antiquity reamined

unpublished, that it may come as a surprise to seme people

to learn that origin of

the Chinese picture-writing, accredited the world’s oldest written language, did not

have its wonderful beginning in Asia, but in our own far vzest. Long before the riign
of Fu-Hi, first emperor of China, more than 2,800 years before Christ,

the people of

our own America were carving on imperishable stone the history of their own lives,

using characters that are proven to be parent to the language of the whole world,
We have abeolute and positive proof of the existence of a race

of people in the

Muddy and Virgin River Valleys, near whet is now beint Thomas, fcievuda,(9,000 years be­

fore Christ. The "Lost City of the Pueblo Grande," which for four years, beginning
in 1830, was excavated by end under the direction of the Museum of the American Indian
of Kew York City, The ruins that were restored to light at that place were proren to
have been the largest prehistoric settlement ever found on the western hemisphere,

Europe was citiless then.

Culture had not even found its way into the barbaric coun­

tries to the north of the Italian peninsula, end Christianity was unheard of at

time the Ancient

the

of Hevada were worshiping the sun, shaping graceful urns, Em­

bellished with colored geometric designs, weaving rugs of feathers, wool and fur, cul­
tivating corn and squash, spinning threads of silk, msde from a then common desert
shrub. They were wearing tunics, after the fashion of early Greece,

living in orderly,

well-planned cities, end writing history.
The anthjropologists and acbheologists in charge of the excavat'on work, with whom

I had some correspondence, say that the "Lost City" wet, eight miles in width and
miles in length. When we take into consideration that Casper,

55

a city of about 20,CXX)

population, is less than thiree miles square, we can mofc fully realise what a large

�city thie “Pueblo Grande" must have been. In unearthing this ancient metropolis, strata
upon strata were found, denoting a certain well-defined period in the ancient civili­

sation of America, The vanished race was identified as the Pueblo Indians, giants in
stattiire, the many skeletons which were found measuring more than seven feet in height.
Not only were the Pu^jIqs large in stature, but the well-established houses, with their

dosens of rooms, the corrugated and painted pottery, the carved shell jewelry, the fine

furnishings of their dwellings, the txxrquoise end other precious atones, their intric­
ately carved altars of stone, the weaving of silks, the cultivating of corn and veget­
ables, all would indicate that they were a race of intelligent and industrious people.
The planning of the city, with its

large buildings encircling a common center, with a

ceremonial fire-place in the center, would show that the prehistoric Pueblo;; were wor­
shipers of a god—probably sun worshipers, and that they had a knowledge of astrony.

But another matter of no small interest concerning this ancient city and its people
is the fact that some distance to the north of the main thoroughfare of the city there

was unearthed three immenoe triangles, laid out, themselves in a triangle, end among
numerous rock-writings that were found there were many understandable picture-writ-

sniong which were geometric designs of squsrey, triangles,

ings

spirals end oir0 U.S fillet

cles, all of which were depicted by these Indians

5oime.

years ago. The

archeologists claim that these rock-writings show the characteristics of five distinct
knovm races: The Maya, Toltec, Chinese, Egyptian and Pueblo.
yaiat became of these people is a mystery. Like the pygmy cliff dwellers of the

south,

they vanished. One theory explaining their extinction, according to the scien -

tists,

is the progressivey^up of the country. The inhabitants could no longer got suf­

ficient water tc raise their crops, and they perished; the winds of the desert eroded

their dwellings, weeds grew in their gardens, temples caved in, and the relentless

desert sand drifted in and covered the whole city, buiying all evidence of a once
great race, and keeping the secret locked in the depths for centuries. Such were the

ravages of time end the elements.
But even if we do not know whence these people came, wo have learned much of their

history from the rook-writings and their unearthed dwellings, where,

900 rooms were grouped under one roof....

in one instance,

�The "Cliff Dwellers" is a term applied to designate the houses in the cliffs of the
arid jregion which were occupied by a race of Indians now extincfefe The plateau country

of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah abounds in natural recesses and shallow cav­
erns weathered in the feces of the cliffs, not from choice, but because of the en­

croachment of war-like tribes, who were non-agricultural, and having no established
place of abode. Many of these cliff sites were near streems and fields, and were occu­

pied because they afforded shelter and were natural dwelling places.

The area in which the cliff-dwellings occur is practically co-extensive with that
in which ere now found traces of town buildings and relics attributable to the Pueblo

tribes. The most noteworthy of these groups of built cv.ellings are found in the canyons
of the Mesa Verde in Colorado. Many of these places of abode are capable of accommodat­
not merely single households, but communities of considerable size.

ing

shelters the buildings are much diversified in plan end elevation, MmH,

In the larger
owing to irreg­

ularities in the conformation of the floor and walls. The first floor was the rock sur­
face,

or,

if that was uneven, of ol^ or flagstones, and the upper floors were constructed

of polesj^et in the masonry, after projecting through the walls and overlaid with similar

poles and willows, fin5.8hed above with adobe cement. The doonvays were small and SQarith.

The lintels were stone slabs, or consisted of e number of sticks or small timbers. Win­
dows, or outlook aperatures, were numerous fnd generally small.
The antiquity of the cliff-dwellings can only be surmised. That many of th^jwere

occupied in comparatively recent times is apparent from their excellent state of pres ervation, but their greet numbers and the extent of the work aoocxaplislied suggest very

considerable antiquity. Just when the occupancy of the cliffs began, whether 500 or
5,000 years ego, must remain a question. Some archeologists have reported the occurennce
of ancient stone houses overwhelmed end destroyed by flows of leva, and have inferred

greet age from this.

Intimately associated with these cliff-dwellings, and situated in

the plateaus immediately above or at the base of the cliffs below, are ruins of pueblos

in every way identical with the pueblos in the open country. « ♦ •

Now, during the remainder of my time let us

glimpse of prehistoric Wyoming,

as has been made by discoveries by reputable scientists:
The rem ins of reptilian, fish, mamal and plant life alike are preserved in geolog-

�Icel fonnt'tions

that hold no rival for palentological research, end they are so recog­

nised by authorities. In southern and southeRstern Wyoming dinosaur graveyards have

given up hundreds of specimens. Among recent discoveries v.as the five-toed horse which

roamed in that part of the country known as the Big Horn Basifc country a hundred million
years ago. Near Chugwater,

in the southeastern area, a fossil camel was uncovered.

It

was found intact in river deposited sands end was removed to the Wyoming University.

In

the Jackson Hole country there was found a fossil member of the deer family, said to
have been exposed to erosion of the shale in which it was embedded. The fish beds of

southeastern ’joining are distinctive,

the town of Fossil taking its nsme from the deposit.

Here are found many remains of marine life,

including fish,

snakes and birds. Coming

down to petrified forests, those of the Yellowstone National Perk are the most f&amp;moue
of the area, although another exists about seventy miles south of Casper,

off the road

to Medicine Bow, w’here the trunks of trees litter a large area. The petrified trees of

the Yellov/stone are of different species than those which are growing there today. They
include a broad-leaved species, including leural, sycamore end oak.

In some places

,,

scientists have distinguished a succession of forests, twelve in number, and one abOHe
the other, representing as many repititions of the volcanic process that petrified them
oyer a period covering many thousands of years, hhen one forest grew it was covered and

petrified,

then another grew above until it was also covered and petrified....

Independence Pock, covering an area of twenty-five acres,
west from Casper,

fiyv.

fifty-three miles south­

is said by geologists to have ccme down to its present location, in

a great sheet of ice about 200,000 years ago. Its formation is different from the other
rooks in that immediate vicinity which came down in the several glacial periods. Iftriae

of the same character may be seen at the end of the Pathfinder dam. This old rock is an

rich

b'l si of 14.0.1 ii-iie.res't

outstanding landmark of the Oregon Trail daysj^as well as being of prehistoric signif­
icance.

Up to the present time we have been dealing with conditions as they existed from
2,000 to 200,000 years ago. Now let us go back to about 150,000,000 years ego, when
that part of the covmtry known as Wyoming was inhabited by dinosaurs, a Miocene genus

of elephant-like mammals. Or,

in plain English language, a huge, slab-sided creature,

weighing from fifteen to twenty tons, and measuring frcsn fifty to sixty feet in length.

�- 8 They hed whip—like

necks, 6% the end of which

web

a ridiculously small

Bead, containing a small brain. They floated, swam end fed in the waters with unhurried

languor, end were sluggish, cold-blooded creatures.
The olimte Vv^as tropical. The country was a flat land,

rich in vegetation, and

dotted by countless shallow lakes, swamps and rivers. Pines, bananas and figs covered
the uplands. Thick, heavy grass grew along the banks, and rank vegetation thrived in

o r Soj
the TOters. After a million yearsMother Nature slowly changed the setting of the stage
The lakes dried up, and the swamps vanished. The naKjHlw» dinosaurs become more and more
concentrated as they were pushed together in huge herds by the drying-up process. They
were water animals, and the disappearance of water was their death sentence. They could

not migrate becadse of their great bulk. Some starved to death, others were stranded in
the mire, while others in their frenzied rush to escape destruction, struggled to solid

land only to be killed by the fleeh-eating monsters that skulked around the pools
lived

high for a time on the remains of the hapless sauropod.. ..

Thus Jd presented^ only a glimpse of looming and the Great Northwest country, which

is borne out by discoveries of petrified skeletons in all parts of the country. The
remains of reptilian,

fish, mamal and plant life are also preserved in geological for­

ever
metions, that hold no rival for paleontological research in this^Changing World.

�-------------------- ---------------------------------------

5TATE OF
WYOMING
Agricultural mb
tndiislridl Production
M Miscellaneous
Statistical Report

This compilation is a revision of statistical reports on Wyo.
ming previously released under a project developed by
Governor Hunt when Secretary of State. The original and
subsequent reports met with such favor and the demand
for them was so large that we have prepared this up-to-date
pamphlet .as a continuation of this service to the State.
Additional copies are available at the Governor’s Office.

�COUNTY

General
Election
Vote
1946

Passenger
and Truck
Registration
1946

Miles
State
Highway

Area
Square
Miles

County
Seat
Elevation

Taxable
Valuation
1947

Tons of
Coal
1946

Barrels
of OU
1946

Albany

7
4,450

5
5,955

7
218

8
4,399

2
7,165

5
$ 25,587,516

Big Horn

8
3,784

10
4,021

4
239

12
3,110

22
3,870

10
$ 17,192,086

12
369

Campbell

15
1,988

18
1,871

8
216

7
4,761

17
4,544

16
$ 10,497,307

5
179,455

Carbon

5
4,834

8
5,051

2
333

3
8,007

4
6,755

4
$ 33,736,752

3
1,080,479

8
1,835,293

Converse

14
2,300

13
2,231

17
137

11
4,133

13
4,815

13
$ 14,106,124

7
14,034

9
520,103

Crook

18
1,811

21
1,641

12
171

13
2,866

14
4,750

$

Tremont

6
4,637

6
5,085

1
373

2
9,225

9
5,357

8
$ 19,479,591

Goshen

11
3,168

9
4,788

15
150

20
2,186

20
4,104

9
$ 18,614,939

Hot Springs

19
1,729

20
1,796

22
89

23
2,025

19
4,326

$

17
9,434,259

6
73,413

Johnson

17
1,847

19
1,831

13
170

10
4,164

16
4,645

$

18
7,878,419

9
5,856

Laramie

1
11,617

1
14,192

11
183

15
2,678

8
6,062

2
$ 39,238,835

Lincoln

10
3,364

12
2,673

5
239

9
4,227

3
6,927

14
$ 13,648,217

Natrona

2
8,417

2
9,816

6
220

4
5,322

10
5,123

3
$ 37,815,593

Niobrara

21
1,545

16
1,954

16
140

16
2,664

12
5,015

12
$ 14,541,234

3
4,731,245

Park

9
3,605

7
5,073

9
200

5
5,175

11
5,018

6
$ 25,215,294

1
10,347,334

Platte

13
2,482

11
2,917

18
137

21
2,125'

15
4,733

15
$ 13,544,935

Sheridan

4
5,867

3
7,011

10
187

17
2,574

23
3,745

7
$ 23,734,139

Sublette

22
1,044

23
969

14
166

6
4,959

1
7,175

$

Sweetwater

3
7,512

4
6,647

3
316

1
10,495

6
6,271

1
$ 47,841,436

Teton

23
830

22
1,030

21
109

14
2,795

7
6,209

$

Uinta

12
2,635

14
2,181

20
120

22
2,094

5
6,748

11
$ 15,963,669

Washakie

16
1,918

15
2,043

23
86

19
2,241

21
4,061

$

Weston

20
1,702

17
1,930

19
127

18
2,403

18
4,334

$

83,086

92,706

4,326

94,628

Total

11
283,624

5
3,538,118

21
6,935,535
8
7,806

4
4,003,138

6
2,722,405

General
School
Aid
1946

School
Equalization
1946

17
3,988

5
$ 17,900

2
$ 47,732

12
$ 10,720

9
$ 13,603

$

11
$ 12,016

4
$ 20,328

$

13
9,050

19
3,405

$

17
5,062

5
$ 31,565

$

16
5,360

3
$ 47,193

$

15
8,110

1
$ 59,286

11
$ 10,848

$

$

22

947

$

22
1,462

$

20
2,354

$

23
487

15
14,385

10
$ 13,164

1
$ 45,911

4
389,934

13
86,165

7
$ 24,684

7
$ 15,369

11
388

2
4,947,223

2
1,330,954

22
5,720,559

10
358,758

1
4,538,617

7
2,308,459

2
$ 39,518
4
$ 32,239

$

19
2,924

16
5,730

8
$ 14,911

13
$ 10,580

9
$ 13,297

8
$ 20,658

3
$23,797

$

12
$ 10,581

$

21
1,868

$

15
6,962

6
$ 16,547

$

14
9,096

$

16
5,607

$

18
3,713

10
$ 11,346

20
7,414,436

14
15,775

$

21
1,759

$

14
8,479

19
7,783,903

12
129,617

6
$ 25,958

$

18
3,968

35,847,249

$387,213

$289,455

23
3,308,814

$419,233,592

13

99
10
2,564

7,623,968

20
2,193

�lame &amp; Fish
Fees
1946

AU OatUe
Preliminary
1-1-47

Stock Sheep
Preliminary
1-1-47

Hogs &amp; Pigs
Preliminary
1-1-47

Dairy Gattie
Preliminary
1-1-47

Horses
Mules
Preliminary Preliminary
1-1-47
1-1-47

Tons Sugar
Beets
1946 Crop

Tons AU
Hay
1946 Crop

Bushels
AU Wheat
1946 Crop

Bushels
of Oats
1946 Crop

7
67,400

23
1,500

9*? .
10,500

8
65,400

13
54,500

1
504,300

5
$ 40,005

10
55,300

13
70,000

20
600

11
1,900

8
4,700

9
60

15
$ 12,897

17
28,300

10
80,000

3
6,400

5
5,400

12
4,000

16
10

&gt; 11,339

1
80,600

8
113,000

11
2,800

22
500

6
5,400

17
10

15
36,500

5
514,000

5
354,200

7
5 34,942

6
59,400

1
308,000

18
700

12
1,900

3
6,600

3
90

1
99,500

11
62,100

16
86,400

19
1 9,987

4
61,300

5
152,000

12
1,700

14
1,500

9
4,600

11
40

12
46,400

14
53,400

15
98,400

1

20
9,697

7
59,400

17
58,000

7
5,400

8
3,200

7
5,200

8
60

11
50,800

4
608,500

6
353,800

3
5 41,183

12
49,100

6
133,000

6
6,000

2
6,900

1
7,300

6
70

7
20,236

4
85,900

8
103,600

3
484,200

15,369

5
60,400

18
51,000

2
8,300

3
6,000

11
4,200

1
140

1
171,079

9
55,500

1
1,337,200

7
270,000

I 99
II 6,569

18
26,000

19
51,000

14
1,300

17
1,200

21
2,400

14
20

11
1,228

20
28,400

16
16,200

19
72,000

i
(114,040

8
58,500

4
165,000

8
3,500

15
1,500

10
4,500

18
10

12
1,172

13
41,700

9
80,100

13
129,700

1
89,916

9
57,400

14
63,000

1
8,700

4J00

13
4,000

13
30

8
9,802

17
35,200

2
925,100

2
487,500

1 9
1} 30,791

19
24,600

7
116,000

10
3,000

1
7,200

14
3,700

15
20

2
97,600

15
51,000

14
100,800

4
$ 40,858

16
36,700

2
295,000

23
300

23
500

15
3,700

5
80

21
21,100

22
3,000

22
21,000

9^
fl 2,474

11
50,600

11
76,000

16
900

16
1,400

16
3,300

20
10

19
29,600

12
56,100

9
189,000

6
138,073

15
41,500

15
62,000

5
6,200

6
4,600

5
5,600

2
120

6
20,364

6
69,700

10
72,300

4
418,600

16
fl 11,791

14
44,200

21
31,000

9
3,300

10
2,800

17
3,100

7
70

4
36,921

14
40,800

3
849,900

10
183,600

J 8
^| 34,252

2
70,300

20
47,000

4
6,400

4 •
5,600

4
5,800

10
40

5
24,619

5
80,400

6
407,300

8
(
259,200

11
122,521

3
67,800

16
62,000

21
400

21
600

2
6,900

12
30

3
95,600

20
4,200

21
23,200

10
=126,630

23
8,100

3
234,000

17
800

18
900

19
2,500

23
16,700

21
3,100

17
78,000

2
-} 83,673

22
14,100

23
6,000

22
300

20
700

23
1,400

16
35,300

19
10,300

18
72,600

13
114,045

20
21,600

12
76,000

19
600

9
3,100

20
2,500

19
10

10
53,400

18
11,500

20
30,800

18
=110,601

21
21,000

9
92,000

15
1,000

13
1,700

22
2,000

4
80

3
58,679

18
35,100

17
15,500

12
133,200

; 21
^1 9,608

13
46,800

22
29,000

13
1,400

19
800

18
2,600

10
1,333

22
18,000

7
247,600

11
153,000

■1611,269

1,043,000

2,370,000

70,000

64,000

96,000

420,363

1,206,000

5,488,000

4,514,000

i

1,000

2
72,592

9
2,338

�Bushels
of Barley
946 Crop

Bushels
of Corn
1946 Crop

23
6,000

Bushels of
Potatoes
1946 Crop

100 Ib. Bags
Edible Beans
1946 Crop

21
3,500

Bushels
of Rye
1946 Crop

Sales &amp; Use
Tax Collections
10-1-46 to
9-30-47

Population
County Assess­
ors Estimate
1947

6
$ 11,793,806

6
$ 315,072

6
16,000

5
$ 13,726,638

17
240

10
$ 162,302

10
12,928*

$

12
6,190,520

$

10
5,771,936

$

17
5,022,074

$

16
3,532,280

11
24,500

12
18,000

12
Lll,000

4
148,500

18
7,700

5
4,380

$

17
75,925

17
6,100

16
9,900

10
1,800

7
$ 248,249

9
14,500

15
58,000

Total Non-Bank
Savings Bonds
October, 1947

18
140

4
348,300

2
340,800

Total Bank
Deposits
October, 1947

6
$ 12,008,797

5
$ 12,988,066

16
58,000

8
32,400

7
37,000

9
2,400

6
3,900

$

15
84,486

13
8,700

$

13
5,796,585

$

14
4,265,557

8
!37,500

6
52,700

14
13,300

13
400

4
5,270

$

22
36,782

21
5,550

$

19
3,299,547

$

21
2,052,668

5
!75,200

7
44,200

3
360,400

4
210,000

16
500

8
$ 217,006

5
20,000

$

9
8,434,805

$

8
6,924,841

1
&gt;53,600

3
158,400

1
1,196,800

3
271,900

3
13,600

g
$ 170,029

7
16,000

$

8
8,438,902

$

11
5,001,474

11
20,800

15
6,200

15
11,200

8
4,400

19
120

$

16
77,056

18
6,098

$

20
3,219,326

$

20
2,625,610

13
09,600

13
14,000

8
34,200

11
500

8
2,660

$

20
63,644

19
5,995

$

16
5,023,787

$

15
3,745,330

9
36,500

1
322,300

2
432,300

6
14,400

2
21,500

2
$ 805,865

1
37,500

1
$ 35,220,248

19
7,300

11
1,500

13
$ 110,389

11
10,564

$

13
1,400

1
$ 815,828

2
35,400

2
$ 32,613,704

19
67,040

16
6,400

$

21
2,405,283

$

19
2,832,198

2
64,600

14
5,767,472

1
$ 42,159,979

$

9
5,830,214

22
9,000

16
3,500

22
2,200

18
35,100

10
30,600

10
22,300

12
500

1
29,140

6
51,300

14
10,500

4
165,600

1
367,100

15
660

4
$ 355,946

8
15,000

$

7
9,905,430

$

7
7,910,118

7
39,200

2
168,500

9
23,100

7
14,400

7
3,400

14
$ 110,002

12
8,854

$

15
5,529,440

$

13
4,385,848

3
57,200

12
21,400

6
50,400

10
700

12
1,450

5
$ 346,642

3
28,000

23
27,849

23
2,336

4
22,500

$

21
13,000

23
2,000

20
31,500

11
19,300

3
$ 400,682

19
32,300

5
52,000

$

14
62,000

17
9,600

10
25,400

9
31,500

13
14,400

17
54,900

5 '
52,800

20
5,500

90,000

1,122,000

2,498,000

$

6
77,500

1,305,000

21
54,568

4
$ 17,320,185

$

23
1,416,642

3
$ 20,109,859

2
$ 28,056,458

4
$ 15,201,478

$

23
1,413,976

3
$ 17,520,991

22
2,500*

$

22
2,323,693

$

22
1,788,659

11
$ 113,113

15
7,471

$

10
7,395,543

$

12
4,783,363

14
840

12
$ 112,629

14
7,500

$

11
6,799,856

$

18
2,859,381

9
2,500

$

18
69,305

20
5,650

$

19
4,008,098

$

17
3,110,099

95,000

$5,202,806*
♦Includes
$362,397 col*
lected out-state

301,546
*1940 Federal
Census

$221,976,434

$196,554,330

�*

I
CASPER TRIBUNE-HErIlD

USTRIAL EDITION—1926

»

PAGE 15

LD OREGON TRAIL HISTORY HOLDS LIVE INSPIRATION
Historic Landmarks Included in Markings Authorized by State
Carried Out in Late Years; Fort Caspar Site Made Park

ueiit eerected near ScattsKebecca Burdick, who died
on the old Oregon trail.

lued from Page Fourteen.)
the Trails. The commislad a number of granite
made, to be set up on the
ton Trail. Three of these
were furnished to Natrona
and the first one to be set
erected alongside the Alcova
tout eighteen miles southm Casper, in 1917. This site
marker, which was selected
toard of county commissionfrom twelve to fifteen miles
from the Old Oregon Trail,
was said to be near the
Trail, passing from the
iter country into the Bates
Inuntry. In 1920, this marker
ren up and moved by the
tf county commissioners at
tigation of the author, who
sirous of having the marker

per creek, where the Old Oregon
Trail crosses the Yellowstone High­
way, and it was dedicated and un­
veiled in the forenoon of Jidy 5,
1920. In addition to this being a
marker for the Old Trail, it also is a
monument commemorating the death
of Lieut. Caspar W. Collins, who
was killed by the Indians in this vi­
cinity on July 26, 1865. The unveil­
ing and dedication services of this
marker 'W’ere also conducted bjj' the
local chapter of the Daughters of the
American Revolution. Prayer was
offered by Rev. P. K. Edwards, and
an address was made by John C.
Friend of Rawlins, who was -a tele­
graph operator at Sweetwater sta-"
tion in June, 1865, when the battle
of Platte Bridge Station occurred
and who was one of a party of thirty
sent from that station to Platte
Bridge to restring telegraph wires
which the Indians had cut.
After Mr. Friend’s address the
marker was unveiled by Mrs. Tom
Cooper, regent of the local chapter
of the Daughters of the American
Revolution, and presented to the
state in the name of Port Caspar
chapter, the Oregon Trail Commis­
sion and Natrona County.
Miss Hebard, who unveiled the
marker at Independence Rofe the
day before, was the principal speak­
er for this occasion. She vividly
outlined the course of the Oregon
Trail from Fort Laramie to the
Platte Bridge Station, the name of
this post later being changed to Fort
Caspar; from this point she de­
scribed the course of the Trail to the
Sweetwater and then westward to
South Pass. She said the Indians con­
tested the white man’s progress as
far as South Pass, and soldiers were
stationed along the Trail at Laramie,
Platte Bridge, Sweetwater Station
and South Pass to protect travelers
and keep up the telegraph lines. She
presented an Interesting description
of the old military post, first called
“The Mormon Ferry,” then “Platte
Bridge Station,” and later given the
name of Fort Caspar, and then she
Another of these markers had been presented a minute description of the

It was taken to Independence Rock,
fifty-five miles southwest of Casper,
where it was set up in a cement
base, and on July 4, 1920, it was ded­
icated and unveiled, the ceremonies
being under the auspices of Fort
■Caspar Chapter of the Daughters of
the American Revolution, with Mrs.
Byrant B. Brooks, state regent, pre­
siding, and Miss Grace Raymond
Hebard, state historian for the chap­
ter and secretary of the Oregon
Trail commission, unveiling the
marker. Several hundred people
were present at the ceremonies,
many of whom were there to attend
a special communication of the Ma­
sonic order which was held on top
of the historic rock, commemorative
of the first meeting of Freemasons,
which was held in this territory, and
which was opened and closed in
form. The date of this meeting was
July 4, 1862, and there were about
twenty Masonic members present
who were on their way to the "Ore­
gon Country” in emigrant trains,
and they had stopped here to rest
and refresh" themselves.
The unveiling ceremonies of this
marker were unostentatious, but
nevertheless very impressive. At
11:30 a. m., the assemblage was call­
ed together and all bowed reverently
and repeated the Lord’s Prayer.
Then the national hymn, “America,”
was sung in unison, and as the sol­
emn strains of the anthem rose up­
on the summer breeze, old echoes
from this historic rock were awak­
ened to mingle in perfect cadence
with the majestic measures. P. G.
Burnett, of Fort Washakie, who
made his first visit to this spot in
1865, addressed the assemblage, af­
ter which Miss Hebard removed the
American flag from about the gran­
ite marker and in the name of the
State of Wyoming presented it to
the people as a permanent monu­
ment of the first highway from east
to west that brought civilization to
the great Oregon Country.

accomplished, and on March 20,
1925, Mr, and Mrs. Thomas Mills
executed a deed to the Natrona
County Historical society for a
tract of land 100 feet wide covering
the approach of the old bridge and
connecting with the land occupied
by the old fort which was purchased
by the city of Casper. It is the in­
tention, as soon as convenient, to
have a replica of the old bridge
constructed across the river, and the
piers built on the same site that
they were in 1858-9. When this is
done it will give the people of Cas­
per a six mile circular drive to Mills,
over the bridge, through the fort
site, past the cits' pumping plant
along the river, then connecting
with the Alcova highway and back
to Casper through the Standard ad­
dition, one of the most modern ad­
ditions to the city, where a great
many beautiful residence have been
erected.

---------

e

Other markers on the Old Trail
In Natrona county are of stone slabs
and boulders, as nature built them.
A large boulder, weighing many
tons, located at the Tom Sun
ranch, in the Sweetwater country,
near Devil’s Gate, has an appro­
priate description chiseled upon it,
another on Independence Rock and
another at Split Rock. At the lo­
cation of the “Three Crossings”
stage and telegraph station, in Fre­
mont county, which was main­
tained by the government in the
*60’s, chiseled on the face of a large
gianite bluff is the inscription
“Oregon and California Trail, 1843-9,
1914.” Fremont, Lincoln and Sub­
lette counties have erected a num­
ber of markers similar to those in
Natrona county. There are nu­
merous other markers on the Old
Trail in Wyoming, erected by the

Erected on the site of old Fort Cas­
par on land to be made part of a
memorial park.
Oregon Trail commissioners, one of
which is located on the boundary
line of Nebraska and Wyoming.
This monument is in an alfalfa field
on the south side of the North Platte
river, near the village of Henry,
Neb. The Old Trail at this point
has long since been abandoned and
a new road established, and a
“finder” or “lead” stone has been
erected on the now main highway,
and near the “finder” there is a
gate in the fence surrounding the
alfalfa field leading to the boundary
marker. It was near this marker
that Robert Stuart and his six com­
panions camped for several months
(Continued on Pa.ge Twenty-two.)

We Are Not Waiting for Business to Pick
Up—We Are-Picking Up the Business!

�as intended

it

should

battle where Lfeutenaril* Carpar W.
be. Casper, a short distance from Cas- Collins, with six of his men, were
killed by the Indians and the massa­
cre of Sergeant Custard and his seventeen men,
ExGovernor Bryant B, Brooks
closed the services with a short address. In which he mentioned the
heroism of Lieutenant Collin.s and
the value of his life as an example,
and while the speakers were painting
word pictures of that long ago day,
so vivid that the hearers could al­
most see the 3,000 Indian warriors
skirting the skyline, modern travel­
ers in their automobiles with their
tents and camp outfits strapped to
the running boards swept by on the
highway.

’S TO SERVE YOU
OUR MOTTO IS QUALITY WORK

^ackardSix

Packard
Eight

k the Man Who Owns One

NOW SHOWING
The Popular

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E E. MANSFIELD, Inc
South David St.

Phone 346

Fifty-seven years after Its aban­
donment by the government and
destruction by the Indians, and
long-since obllterate'd by the sweep­
ing winds, the barren spot upon
which Fort Caspar was located, the
last marker furnished Natrona
county by the Wyoming Oregon
Trail commission, was erected by
the county commissioners and the
unveiling and dedication ceremonies
of the monument were held under
the auspices of the Lions club of
Casper, assisted by the Rotary and
Kiwanis clubs, the Charnber of
Commerce and the Boy Scouts at 5
o’clock in the evening on October
1, 1924. Dr. M. C. Keith, president
of the Lions club, presided at the
ceremonies and Robert S. Ellison,
president of the Chamber of Com­
merce, gave a history of the old
fort and told of the part It had in
the protection of the emigrants and
described the battle of the small
number of soldiers had with 3.000
Indians when Caspar W, Collins .
and six of his men were killed and
the massacre of the seventeen men
with Sergeant Custard a few miles
further to the west. William B.
Cobb of the Kiwanis club followed
Mr. Ellison with a short address,
and at the conclusion of the cere-,
monies a select detachment of the
Boy Scouts, under the direction of
Frank B. Taylor, removed! the
American flag from the monument,
while Mrs. Berta Smith san| the
state song, “Wyoming.”
’
And thus the site of Port Cas­
par, after which the city of Casper,
Casper mounta'in and Casper creek
were named, wa.s definitely marked.
It may be said in passing that
after more than twenty-five years
of effort on the part of a few citi­
zens of Casper to have the city of
Casper acquire title to this tract
of land, that It might be used for
park and other public purposes, in
the spring of 1925 the matter wa-s

. We are not only a friend of the housewife but a
friend of the entire family. Why? Because when
services she is not tired and weary
of the labors of wash day. She has a smile for every
member of the family, and has more time to devote to
the little ones. Even has a sm.ile for dad.
Dad is a friend of ours because we do his full dress
shirts and collars in a manner that pleases him.
_ If you aie not familiar with our different services
give us a call and we will have our representative call
on you and explain

Our Finish, Flat, Rough Dry, Dry Wash
and Wet Wash Services
We also have one-day special service.
We use soft water only—and we employ nothing
but the most efficient help and have the most modern
and up-sto-date equipment.

CDwALMCe

TROY LAUNDRY CO.
326 NORTH DURBIN
PHONES 1672—1673
Our Drivers Pass Your Door.

�A
'

jrarcFB TO

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• -

r, s 1

CASPER TRIBUNE-HERAW

INDUSTRIAL EDITION^l

DUDE RANCHING STILL IN INFANCY BUT IS GROWING .FAS
Outdoor Recreation
In Heart of Wilds
Holds Many Thrills
iT^OR sundry decades the, immigrant
trains Inched westward to Cali­
fornia and Utah and Oregon and
their bronzed pilots regarded Wyo­
ming merely as a segment of
thoroughfare and never as a poten­
tial abode, with rich resources that
demanded only diligence and persev­
erance for the reaping. When at
last huddles of log buildings began
to sprout in coulee and creek bot.
tom as the nuclei of an empire of
sheep and cattle, other decades
I&gt;assed before some Inquisitive soul
chanced to probe beneath the sage­
brush af bunchgrass and unleashed

J-

the green-black reservoirs of power
which lay couchant in subterranean
sands. And the sequence of dis­
covery had not yet been exhausted.
Only in the last few years has there
been a consistent effort to cultivate
and reap Wyoming's most magnifi­
cent crop of all—her scenery.
Dude ranching, youngest and lust­
iest of Western industries, simmers
down to just that—selling scenery.
That term comprises, of course, a
host of things—^fishing and hunt­
ing, camping, mastery of the rudi­
ments of horsemanship and wood­
craft—every novelty of outdoor life
which yields a new thrill to jaded
city appetites and warms asthmatic

and swimming pools, select comI&gt;any. For ruggeder tastes there
are pack trips deep into the tene.
brous recesses of primitive forests,
sturdy fare prepared over an open
fire, dreamless sleep beneath the
stars," the thrill of undiscovered
beauty waiting around every crook
of the trail, the zest of conquest in
outgaming mighty cutthroat of rain­
bow trout in their native waters.
So in many parts of Wyoming
ranches that found the fortunes of
stockraising too hazardous and unprofi^ble have turned to farming
the rich and inexhaustible and un­
profitable resources of natural
beauty and the glamour which the
mere word “West” conveys to East­
erners. The cowpuncher who found
his profession slowly growing ob­
solete before the influx of nesters
has become a dude wrangler. And
if riding herd on tenderfeet is often
fully as ticklish as valeting a bunch
of temperamental “dogies,” the re­
wards are far more generous and
certain.
Industray in Infancy.
Dude ranching had its inception
and has reached its greatest perfec­
tion in three principal sections—•

bling loghouse mothering a covey of
cabins, a corail full of well broken
saddle and pacTc horses, a staff of
personable young men endowed at
once with a knowledge of the
.technique of outdoor life and a
tolerant understanding of the idiosyncracies of men and women—
given these three and you have a
dude ranch. The raw materials
are to be found almost anywhere in
the state. And publicity is largely
taken care of gratutlously by the
movies and the horde of fiction
writers who have Wyoming sym-

Hayden Forest Turns
To Livestock Grazing
For, Major Revenues

By JAMES BLACKHALL.
Supervisor, Hayden National Forest
he Hayden National Forest is
situated in southern Wyoming.
It lies along the continental divide,
just north of the Colorado line, in
Carbon county. A small portion
of the forest (72,000 acres) on the
Encampment and Big Creek water­
heads is In Jackson county, Colo­
rado. The waters of the west side
of the forest drain into Little Snake
river; the east side drains into the
North Platte river. The forest has
a gross area of 437,542 acres, and
the elevation runs from 7,000 to
11,000 feet. It contains some beau­
tiful tracts of lodgepole pine and
Englerqan spruce timber, but at the
present time no timber 4a being cut
except for local use, due to lack of
Jackson Hole, a valley flanked on transportation facilities.
one .side bv the maiestlc Tetons, on
Grazing of live-stock et the nrea-'

bolic with adventure and romance
throughout the world.
Highways Are Boon.
' A. farsighted program of road
building has made every part of
the state readily and comfortably
accessible for tourist travel. The
great arteries of t ranseontlnental
traffic throb through the heart of
the state—the Lincoln highway, the
Yellowstone highway, the Rocky
Mountain highway, the Atlantic-Yel­
lowstone-Pacific highway, the Blackand Yellow trail. Four great rail­
road systems serve it—the Union
Pacific, the Chicago &amp; Northwest­
ern, the Chicago, Burlington &amp;
Quincy, the Chicago, Milwaukee &amp;
St. Paul.
And for all that Wyoming Is
amazingly unspoiled. Nowhere else
within the borders of the United
States can the visitor find natural
beauty so fresh and unsullied. No.
where else can he so easily escape
the drone of motors and the bark
of voices &amp;.nd lose himself in the
mighty solitudes, of mesa and tim­
berland. Nowhere else can he re­
capture so perfectly the ancient
glamour of the frontier and live so
thoroughly the simpler, sturdier life
of his pioneer fathers.
■So history Is repeatng itself.

the appetite. The dude ranch’
testify that transients tend to yf
to an established clientele. On tn
guest roster are names famous i
every field, society, art, polity
finance.
Year after year MS
Roberts Rinehart had spent 1
summers In Wyoming and do
much of her work here.
Winter Guests Next.
Hitherto dude ranching, lnde(
has been a seasonal profession, B
already indications are plentiful th
within a decade it will handle wi
ter guests almost, if not aa n
merous, as those who now se
refuge from the torrid Easte
climate. Already shrewd perso
are laying plans to make Wyomli

Where once the tourist caravan
streaked throug as heedlessly as the
covered wagon trains a half century
ago, with no thought but to cut
short the distance separating coast
from coast, more and more it is
breaking up to explore the fresh
beauties that lie off the beaten
track. And a taste merely whets

a haven for winter sports fans.
is as accessible aS Banff In Cana(
or Truckee in California: it hi
every facility of Ski-ing, tobogga;
ing, ice sports.
The weather is invigorating b
never unduly arduous.
The American St. Moritz, som
one has suggested. Well, why no

T

�city appetites and warms asthmatic
bosoms with the forgotten joy that
comes of contact with fundamentals.
Accommodations Suit Taste.
A dude, in short, is a seeker of
outdoor recreation and dude ranch­
ing is the process of providing It for
him in whatever state of dilution or
concentration he prefers. For the
softer ^reed there are all the com­
forts of home with none of its re.
sponsibillties; all the luxuries of
the finest resort hotel—a perfect
cuisine, golf links and tennis courts

one side by the majestic Tetons, on
the other by the towering Gros
Ventre range and offering scenic
marvels no whit inferior to the Alps
and far more virgin and untram­
meled; the region around Cody and
adjacent to the eastern entrance to
Tellowstone park, and the Big Horn
range west of Sheridan and Buffalo.
But the industry is in its Infancy
and the recognition of its possibili­
ties is spreading rapidly to other
sections of the state, A mountain
and a stream or lake, a big, ram-

The Kistler Tent and Awning Co
Tents* Awnings
Camp Supplies
Decorations

FAIRNESS ALWAYS
IN BUSINESS TO STAY

Auto Supplies
Auto Tops
Tire Repairing

The Kistler Tent and Awning Co.
617-619 East Second St.

Phone 2065

L. D. Branson Service
AUTHORIZED

UNITED MOTORS
SERVICE STATION
Headquarters for

Grazing of livestock at the pres­
ent time constitutes the major use,
and 100,000 sheep and 7,000 cattle
are grazed on this forest during the
summer months. The forest is a

The Lee Doud Motor Co.
DISTRIBUTORS

Willys-Overland
Fine Motor Cars

very important one from a grazing
standpoint, as it contains the last
stretch of timber land along the
continental divide for many miles.
North bf the forest, the divide con­
sists of a high sage brush plateau,
sloping off into unwatered desert
range, on which sheep are grazed
during the winter months.
Be­
cause of the Hayden’s proximity to
these winter ranges, its summer
forage has always been in great de­
mand for sheep. It also supplies
summer range for cattle that are
winter^ in the Platte valley and in
Snake river.
Recreational Advantages.
The Hayden offers many desirable
camping places, most of them at
present accessible only by horse or
on foot. There is a good system of
trails
horseback travel, but auto
roads bre lacking at present, althouglt a highway crossing the di­
vide
Battle and connecting the
Snake river and Platte river val­
leys iSj HOW under construction. Ex­

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Phone 383

Phone 1700

424 West Yellowstone

cellent trout fishing Is to be had
in antr of the many streams and
lakes tn the forest. The public may
camp and fish anywhere within the
forest, provided the state game laws
are ob^rved and care is taken with
camp jlires.
Only one fire occurred in this for­
est dtirtng-.the season just passed.
This itas caused by lightning and
was extinguished by a ti-ail creW be­
fore any damage was done. .....

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�INDUSTRIAL EDITION--192&lt;;

i SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
Markers and Memorials Along Old Oregon
Trail Link Present With Pioneer Past
(Continued from Page Fifteen.)
In the winter of 1812, after being
driven out by the Indians, from
their cabin which they had built on
the Platte river in the Bessemer
Bend, about twelve miles west of
Casper, where they had intended to
remain during the winter. The ex­
act site of this cabin has never been
established, but it was somewhere
on the 07 ranch, and the Natrona
County Pioneer Association and the
Natrona County Historical society
hold their picnics there each sum­
mer. The Stuart cabin was the first
cabin built in the territory w’hlch
now comprises the state of Wyo­
ming.
A large marker has been erected
at Port Laramie, at a point
where the Old Trail entered the
fort.
John Hunton and Joseph
"Wilde donated this monument,
which is built of concrete, and is
fourteen feet high, and the stateof Wyoming furnished the tablet,
built of stone two feet square, which
is imbedded in the monument. Fort
Laramie was undoubtedly the most
significant fort on the Oregon
Trail, and was the first fort to be
established in Wyoming.
. One of the regular markers, such
as those erected at Port Caspar and
Independence Rock, is located on
the Old Trail near Torrington.
Three of these markers are located
in Platte county, one on the divide
east of Badger creek, one on the
divide between Little Cottonwood
creek and the Platte river and one
at the site of the old telegraph and
stage station, on Horse creek, south­
west of Glendo.
Converse county has five of these
markers on the Old Trail. One at
the junction of the Cheyenne-Fetterman and Port Laramie and Fort
Petterman road, one just south of
the Wagon Hound, one at the LaPrele school house and one west of
the SO ranch, at the junction of the
trail and the new highway.
A
: .larger monument has also been
erected in Converse county, five
miles ■ west of Douglas, where the
Old Trail crosses the road that leads
to Fort Pettermam.

On the site of Old. Fort Bridger
the citizens in that neighborhood
erected a large monument in 1915,
built of cobblestones set in cement,
the pyramid is ten feet in height
and seven and one-half feet at the
base. The state of Wyoming fur­
nished a bronze tablet for thia
monument.
Markers at South Pas.s.
Two markers are located in
South Pass, one of which was placed
near Pacific Springs by Ezra Meeker
In 1903, and the other was placed
by Captain Nickerson of Lander,
chairman of the Oregon Trail com­
mission, two miles east of Pacific
Springs. The Meeker marker is . a
large boulder with the inscription:
‘‘Old Oregon Trail, 1843-57,” and the
latter was erected in honor of the
two first white women to cross the
continental divide, with the follow­
ing inscription: ‘‘Narcissa Prentiss
Whitman, Eliza Hart Spalding,
First White Women to Cross This
Pass. July 4, 1836.”

Rebecca Winters Marker.
A marker of greater human in­
terest and one in which there is
a touching sentiment is located on
the Old Oregon Trail and now
alongside the Burlington tracks
about a mile east of Scottsbluffs.' At
the time the engineers were making
the survey through this part of the
country they came upon a grave in
the direct line of the survey. Over
the grave was an arch-shaped
■wagon tire, rusted and crusted with
time and upon the wagon tire was
chiseled these words: ‘‘Rebecca Win­
ters, Aged 50.”
“Boys,” said the chief, ‘‘we’ll turn
aside;
Here, close by tbe trail, her grave
shall stay.
For she came first to thia desert
■wide;
Rebecca Winters holds the rightof-way.”
A fence was" built around the
grave by the railroad engineers and
authorities of the Latter Day
Saints (Mormon) church, in Salt
Lake City were communicated with,
and they had erected over the grave
a substantial granite monument,
annronriateiv'inscribed. And thii»

�appx-opriaieiy inscrioea. Ana thus
tlie line of a great railroad was
"turned aside” in order that Re­
becca Burdick-Winters, who had
started with her people to help sub­
due the wilderness, might lie un­
disturbed in the grave she had oc­
cupied for nearly three-fourths of
a century.
Hundreds of Markers Along Trail.
Through the states of Kansas,
Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon
and Washington, extending from In­
dependence, Mo., to Seaside, Ore.,
and Olympia, Wash., hundreds of
these "man-made” markers have
been erected along the Old Trail in
recent years, but at the time the
thousands upon thousands of peo­
ple were on their westward way
for the purpose of establishing for
themselves a home and to build an
empire there were no markers set
up along the roadside to guide the
travelers, except one at Gardner,
Kans., at the junction of the Santa
Fe and Oregon Trails. At the forks
of these roads there was a sign:
"Road to Oregon.”
Just three
words pointing out the 2,000 mile
route, about which hundreds of
thousands of pages have since been
written describing the adventures,
the adversities, the trials and hard­
ships, suffering and death of the
thousands who started over this
great pathway.
Occasionally the emigrants would
find the white-bleached skull of a
buffalo along the roadside with a
message written upon it by those
who had gone before; messages and
names were also inscribed upon the
sandstone and shelf-rock by the
wayside, but the God-made markers,
such as Scottsbluffs, Emigrant Gap,
Iron Creek Pass, Independence
Rock, Devil’s Gate, Split Rock,
South Pass, and others, were the
only guides for the weary travelers,
but no other signs were needed, for
the wheels of ths wagons and the
hoofs of the beasts and the foot­
steps of the pioneers had worn a
pathway along the 2,000-mile route
several feet deep and many yards
wide. To remain on the trail was
the least of their dangers and
troubles.

An extended description of the
"God-made Markers On the Old
Oregon Trail” Is being written by
the author, which will be published
In series by an Eastern magazine,
after which the story will bo printed
In book form.

�CASPER TRIBUNE-HERALD

PAGE 14

INDUSTRIAL EDITION—1!

MARKERS AND MEMORIALS LINK PRESENT WITH THE PAS
Memorial Shaft to Trail Blazers Near Northwestern Station Is Re­
sult of Movement Launched by Women Pioneers in 1907

Pioneer shaft erected near NorthWestern station to commemorate
trail-blazers of west.
By ALFRED J. MOKLEB
O the men and women of the
Natrona County Pioneer Asso­
ciation belong the credit for the first
movement that resulted in the erec­
tion of a marker, or monument, that
would endure in Natrona county to
appropriately mark and thereby per­
petuate to memory the old Oregon
Trail that passed through where the
City of Casper is now situated, and
■where some of the most substantial
business blocks are located. Some
people are wont to give Ezra Meeker
the distinction of conceiving the idea
of the erection of these monuments
on the Old Trail, and perhaps he is

T

there he would go to Washington,
the National Capital, and advocate
the passage of a bill through Con­
gress for an appropriation of $30,000
to assist in defraying the expenses
of erecting these markers. The bill,
however, failed to pass.
At the meeting in the old town
hall in 1907, the ladies of the* Na­
trona County Pioneer Association
were favorably impressed with the
idea of having a monument erected
in the town of Cagper, and they im­
mediately set to work to raise funds
for the purchase and erection of a
shaft that would not only be a credit
to the Old Trail and the town of
Casper, but one that would always
reflect favorably upon this worthy
organization. The money was not
raised by popular subscriptions and
“drives,” that are so numerous nowa-days, but it'was actually earned by
the ladies, who gave entertainments
and dinners and sold articles of
fancy work which were made by
them. They worked two years be­
fore they had sufficient funds to
warrant the ordering of the memor­
ial, which would cost about $1,500,
exclusive of the cost of the freight
upon the stone from Indiana and the
cost of its erection, both of which
were donated by the Chicago &amp;
Northwestern
Railway company.
The ground upon which the shaft is
erected, in the center of the small
park directly north of the railway
company’s passenger station, was
also given without charge. The
shaft was erected during the sum­
mer of 1914.

Rev. Hutt of the Episcopal church,
and the ceremonies were concluded
by the unveiling of the monument by
Miss Irma Patton.
This “Pioneer Monument,” as it
deservedly should be named, is an
obelisk twenty-six feet in height
from the top of its base, the bottom
of which is four feet square and ta­
pers to thirty inches square within
two feet of the top, where it termi­
nates
a four-square point. The
shaft .is in three sections, and is
matte 4rom Indiana limestone. The
base
the monument is also in
three Actions, each of which is eigh­
teen wChea in height, the first being
sixteen feet square, the second twelve
feet arcl the third eight feet square,
there being a two-foot offset from
each iff the sections of the base.
Addiii the freight, the cost of the
erectj^i, the chiseling of the inscrip­
tions fend the setting of the bronze
tablet, all of which cost no less than
$3,000, this is probably one of the
most elaborate and expensive monu­
ments on the Old Oregon Trail.
The Inscription on the South side
of the shaft is as follows.
Pioneer Monument
Erected on the Site
of the
Old Oregon Trail
In Memory of the Pioneers
Who Blazed the Way.
Built by
Natrona County Pioneer
Association
1849
1911
The date on the monument, 1849,
would indicate that the Oregon Trail

Fort Caspar in the Days of the Platte Bridge Battle

the establishment of such an im­
portant military post as Fort Caspar,
and it is even more regrettable that
the date on the tablet should be al­
lowed to remain unchanged, and thus
mislead those who are not familiar
with the facts. The word “about,"
in the third line from the top, is
equal to an acknowledgement that it
is not known when the post was es­
tablished. But by referring to the
records in the War Department it
will be seen that “on July 29, 1858,
Companies D and E, Fourth Artil­
lery, Captain Joseph Roberts, Cap­
tain G. W. Getty, being a part of
the second column of the Utah ex­
pedition, occupied this point (Mor­
mon Ferry) for the purpose of keep­
ing open the communication with
Salt Lake City and to aid in the
prompt forwarding of supplies.” A
bridge was built across the river
here during the winter of 1858-59 by
Louis Guinard and the name of the
post was then changed to Platte
Bridge Station, and on March 23,
1859, an order was issued from the
War Department to “abandon the
post at Platte Bridge.” The troops
were withdrawn on April 20, of that
year. No more troops were sta­
tioned here until May, 1862, when it
was again occupied by volunteer
troops who were serving as escort
for emigrants and the protection of
the telegraph line. November 21,
1865, Major General Pope ordered
that: “The military post situated at
Platte Bridge, between Deer and
Rock creeks, on the Platte river,
will be hereafter known as Fort Cas­
par, io. bouor oC Lieut. Caspar, 11th
par, in honor of Lieut. Caspar Col­
lins, 11th Ohio cavalry, who last his
life while gallantly attacking a su­
perior force of Indiana at that
place."
The post was abandoned on Octo­
ber 19, 1867, and the Indians imme­
diately set fire to the buildings and
the bridge.
The Wyoming state authorities
who furnished the copy for the tab­
let are to be congratulated upon

Marker erected by D. A. B.
spot where Lieutenant Caspar
Uns, for whom Casper was nai
was kiUed in defense of a w!
train,

having the date of the abandonn
of the post correct.
The site of the old fort is
miles west from the monument,
stead of one, as stated upon
tablet.

During the session of the twc
legislature of the State of Wyom
In 1913, a bill was enacted provi&lt;
lor the appropriate marking of
Old Oregon Trail, and historic li
marks in the State of Wyoming,
the establishment of an Oregon 1
Commission, consisting of tl
members.
An appropriation
$2,500 was made at the time the
became a law, to purchase appro
ate markers, and it was provl
that the several counties in wl
the markers were placed should I
the expense of setting them up.
the subsequent sessions of the s:
legislature $500 was appropriatet
be expended by the commlssior
(Continued on Page Fifteen.;

IllllllllllllillllllllllilllllUllllllllllillillllllllllllllllllltllllllllllltliillUIIIIWIIIItllllU^

�I
bflJi
I BOTTLING WORKS
I CASPER, WYO.
PHONE 136

I
I
entitled to that honor, for he passed
over the Old Trail in a prairie
schooner, drawn by an ox team, in
the summer of 1907, advocating the
marking of the Trail that he first
passed over in 1852.
A meeting was held in the old
town hall of Casper at that time, to
which the public was invited, and it
was at this meeting that Mr. Meeker
told of his plans of traveling over
the Old Trail from the “Oregon
Country’’ to the site of the old town
of Independence, Missouri, and from

It was more than six years after
the movement was started to raise
the funds for the purchase of the
monument that -the unveiling cere­
monies were held, which was on
November 20, 1914, under the aus­
pices of the Natrona County Pion­
eer Association and the local chapter
of the Daughters of the American
Devolution. At these ceremonies an
address was made by ex-Governor
Bryant B, Brooks; students from the
Natrona County High School sang
‘‘America;’’ prayer was offered by

ANNOUNCING

TALBERT OFFICE
APPLIANCE CO.
109 S. Center

Casper

Phone 502

Which will conduct the business begun by W. L.
' Talbert a little over a year ago.

AUTHORIZED SALES AND SERVICE
for
Kardex
All-Steel
Office Furniture
L. C. Smith
Error-No
Corona
Copy Holders
Remingten Portable
Multistamp
Shipman-Ward
Bates
Numbering Machines
Rebuilt Underwoods
SUPPLIES
RENTALS
REPAIRS
Sundstrand
Adding Machine Line

was established at that time. This
is misleading. From 1840 to 1843, a
decided flow of emigrants from the
east traveled over the Oregon Trail
from Independence, Missouri, to the
Columbia river, and thus into the
"Oregon Country.” American set­
tlers became so numerous in this
part of the country that the United
States actually laid claim to this re­
gion, and after quarreling over It
several years, final settlement was
made in 1846 between America and
England, with definite boundaries be­
tween the United States and Canada.
The Oregon territory was formed In
1848, therefore it is conclusive that
the date on the monument is mis­
leading, Why this date was en­
graved upon the shaft, the writer
cannot explain, unless those who
had the matter in charge took it toe
granted that the Trail was estab­
lished at the time of the “gold rush”
to California, forgetting all about the
flow of emigrantion to the “Oregon
Country” for nine years previous.
The figure “9” should be changed to
tions, who, no doubt, will be deeply
interested in these historical facta,
may not accuse the Pioneers of thia
ago of being too careless with the
recording of facts and dates.
A tgonze tablet imbedded In the
monUBoent on the east side bears this
inscription:
Fort Caspar
U. S. Military Post
Established About 1864
For Volunteers
A^ndoned October 19, 186T
'
' Shunted One Mile West'
of This Spot
Marked by the State of Wyoming
1914,
It I^ very regrettable that the
stat© authorities who had th© re­
sponsibility of furnishing th© copy
for tbi© tablet displayed such care­
lessness, or Ignorance, in regard to

Pure Fruit Flavored
Beverages

IN BOTTLES

‘'Oatt Ltt* ftr

ef Strvft^

CASPER BATTERY CO.
Factory Representatives
VESTA BATTERIES
GABRIEL SNUBBERS
NORTHEAST ELECTRIC SYSTEMS
EISEMANN MAGNETOS
K. W. MAGNETOS
PUROLATORS
WICO IGNITERS

Storage Battery and Electrical Repairing
E, R. EARNSHAW, Prop.
119 E. Fifth St

CASPER, WYO.

Phone GO'*

�j

I
i'

Know Your Wyoming

doming is a mountainsgroup state.

It is bounded on

the north by Montana, on the the east by South Dakota and
Nebraska,

on the south by Colorado and Utah, and on the

west by Utah,

Idaho and Montana.

It is a lofty region,

its

mean elevation being about 6,000 feet--a broad plateau
traversed by the Rocky mountains, the highest point of

which is Mount Gannett,
the state is varied.

13,785 feet. The topography of

Its waters flow in all directions;

drainage by the Green river to the

southwest, by the Yel-

and Snake rivers
lowstaone/to the northwest, by the Big Horn to the north,
and by the North Platte, Sweetwater end Laramie rivers to

southeast. ^'*one of these rivers a^e navigable. The climate
is that of the rarefied air of high elevations, and is

salutary, with moderate winters and pleasant summers. The

moisture precipitation is low, being at about twelve inches
mean annually. The soil, almost in its entirety, requires

irrigation, and there are more than 5,000 miles of ditches

in the state. The crops include corn, wheat,

oats, potatoes

hay, alfalfa, and there is a considerable amount of fruit.

No state in the Union produces a sugar beet with a higher
sugar content, and the avearge yield of the beets is 13.5

tons an acre. The production of certified potatoes is ex­
tensive. Great mineral resources,
clude coal, petroleum, gold,

not fully developed,

silver,

in­

iron and copper.

Since the days of the cattle kings, Wyoming has been rec-

�(2)

ognized as one of the greatest of livestock states. More
tha’^00,000 head of fine beef catt^le and 4,000,000 head

of sheep end lambs graze on, the open rang^^d ranches.

The wool clip is of great value. The chief industries are

petroleum refining, coal mining,

lumber and timber prod­

ucts, bakery products, and dairying is important in a num­

ber of sections of the state. The population, according
to the 1940 census, was 250,742, an increase of 25,177
over the 1930 census. Four cities in the state have a pop­

ulation of over 10,000, Casper, with 17,964; Cheyenne,
22,474; Laramie,

10,627;

Sheridan,

10,529. Rock Springs

is just under the 10,000 mark, with a population of 9,827.

In the last decade the state’s urban population increased
33,5 perkent. Urban areas are towns of 2,500 or more. The
urban population was 93,577; rural population, 157,165.
There are twenty-three counties in the state, seventeen

of which showed an increase and six a decrease in their
population during the past ten years.

o 0 o

�Agriculture is the basic industry of United
States. The happiness and prosperity of the
American farmer is the happiness and prosperity
of all other classes of citizenry. In analyzing the
trend of events at Washington, D. C. from
month to month, Our Observer covers a wide
field. He does not confine himself to a strictly
agricultural survey but delves into those things
that are of interest to the farmer as they concern
American citizens in general.
—Editor THE CmZB&gt;{.

Washington, D. C., May 1, 1940

Economy Eorces Lose
In a Spectacular Battle
THE economy-minded Congress was short
lived. With the constant pounding of
pressure groups, representatives were com­
pelled to relent in their efforts to save
money to the taxpayer.
Expenditures for national defense found
little opposition because of the war situa­
tion in Europe. Farm groups succeeded in
adding to appropriations in more than one
instance. Relief has faced a tempestuous
sea, one of the most threatening of the
storms produced by the White House re­
quest to be permitted to spend all the money
within a span of eight months, which would
bring the spending within the presidential
campaign era.
The one serious problem that is yet to
be faced is how and where will be found the
funds with which to provide the staggering
appropriations. Torn between a conflict of
heart and mind, fear that the limitation of
the national debt may be overreached
weighs almost as heavily with the repre­
sentatives as does their determination to
avoid new taxes in an election year.
• • •

World Market About Lost
To Cattle From United States
JN Wyoming, the Stock Growers Association

publishes a bulletin of information to its

MAT. 1940

members. It carries the well chosen title
of “Cow Country” and has wide distribution
throughout the country.
In a recent issue of this bulletin, appears
a statement that should attract the atten­
tion of all classes of citizenry.
“South of the Equator,” runs the state­
ment, “steers are selling at $3.92 and the
ships go out of those ports with the weight
of a billion and a half pounds of beet for
the European and Asiatic trade. American
beef went to sea in the same way fifty years
ago.
“But, last year. United States imported 80
million pounds of canned beef from South
America and Australia and 3 million pounds
of fresh and cured beef from Canada. United
States beef exports found only 2 per cent of
the world’s trade in meat.
“The average American’s beef appetite has
dropped from 75 to less than 50 pounds.
“This is what the American cattlemen and
their 75 million beeves face in the future.”
And in spite of the decline, loss of mar­
kets, and, the paralyzing of the stock rais­
ing industry in Wyoming, it is now proposed
by Secretary of Interior to convert much of
the remaining fertile acres of Wyoming farm
land into park and public domain.

Wallace Admits Mistake
Farmers Have Been Losers
In Government Spending Spree
pE reversal of form in government spend­
ing exhibited by Henry W. Wallace, Sec­
retary of Agriculture, has aroused consid­
erable speculation in Washington adminis­
tration circles.
Wallace pointed out, in a statement, “that
the Farm Credit Administration, which
adopted a liberal lending policy in 1933 and
1934 to ‘save the farmer’ actually succeed­
ed in saving the ‘bankers and insurance
(Continued on Page 22)

Page T^ineteen

�A fish pole, white water tumbling down from the
melting snows, those hard fighting mountain trout
. . . . what a life I And what a vacation!
A couple of pretty dudines are looking at the mighty
Tetons from across Jenny Lake.

This Year is Wyoming’s GOLDEN
WYOMING—The twenty-fourth state of the
Union will be fifty years old
this year and those cow-hands
plan a real birthday party . . .
Colorful Pageants, Celebra­
tions, Festivals!

e
e
e
e

e

Its majestic mountain scenery

Its unexampled fishing and hunting
Its world-famous dude ranches
Its parks and playgrounds and rodeos

Its sheep and cattle and elk and ante­
lope

• Its hospitable people—no more friendly
anywhere
• Its roads—one of the finest systems in the
nation, with paved highways leading to
all points
Page Twenty

THIS YEAR—1940, Wyoming will attract
travel from all parts of the
country, in greater numbers
than usual—the GOLDEN
JUBILEE will be a magnet
drawing thousands who have
been shut off from foreign
countries because of war . , .
All the superlatives of a Hollywood movie
studio would not do full justice to Wyoming.
Amongst its many and varied attractions
are:
• YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, one oi the
world's most popular resorts—its great geysers,
waterfalls, wildlife, high coloration of deep can­
yons, have attracted world-wide interest.
• GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARE, within the
boundaries of the state, is in the Grand Teton
range, the most beautiful mountain range in Amer­
ica—the center of the famous Jackson Hole country.
• DEVIL S TOWER, in northeastern Wyoming, an
awe-inspiring spectacle of nature—the first na­
tional monument to be created.

THE CITIZEN

�Devil s Tower, rising 865 feet above the surrounding
terrain, is a mighty monument to the work of Mothe*
Nature. This first national monument to be created
is located in northeastern Wyoming.

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone drops twice the distance
of Niagara Falls and holds you spellbound as you
watch Yellowstone River tumble into the Grand Canon.

JUBILEE of the Wonder State
On a lake in the high mountain reaches near Pine­
dale, Wyoming, where the solitude brings you close
to nature ond causes you to ponder over its great­
ness.
—Photo by C. C. Feltner.

• OLD FORT LARAMIE NATIONAL MONUMENT,
with its romantic history of the early west.

There are many other places to see and enjoy
and things to do in the delightful summer climate
of Wyoming: RANCH LIFE retains much of the
early-day flavor of the old west . . . many eastern­
ers enjoy it at the famous dude ranches

FRONTIER DAYS in the old cow-town of Cheyenne,
is a colorful event and rightfully described as the
"daddy of 'em alll" .... then there is the SHERI­
DAN RODEO—the old west at its bestl

WYOMING has great, undeveloped resources.
Its steady growth will continue under our demo­
cratic system of government .... here, the Old
Timer is still an individualist .... one of the last
frontiers of old-fashioned Americanism. Wyoming
is intensely loyal to these United States of America.

MAT, 1940

For information, please write
STATE BOARD OF INDUSTRY 4 COMMERCE
Capitol Bldg., Cheyenne, Wyoming

Page Twenty-one

�I

THE AMERICAN FARM

I

(Continued from Page 19)
|
----------------------------------------------------------

|

companies. The farmers were left with
debts they can never pay.”
Mr. Wallace admits that he is “now try­
ing to rectify the earlier mistake by re­
amortizing loans and giving borrowers
longer periods in which to pay.”
Most of the dependable farm leaders ques­
tion whether this new program will offer
any relief from an already unfortunate
situation. “Farmers are finding that it is
just as unpleasant to be wiped out by gov­
ernment in 1940 as it would have been to
be wiped out by a bank in 1934,” commented
one farm leader.

American Farmers May
Regain Allied Markets
As Result German Invasion
concerted drive on the part of farm
groups to induce the Washington ad­
ministration to re-open markets in Great
Britain and France is under way. Leaders
insist that the German invasion of Norway
and Denmark has shut off one of the prin­
cipal sources of supply to the Allied nations
and that United States should benefit as a
result. Up to the present, allied purchases
in United States have been largely confined
to aircraft and war material and equipment.
This has been, in a large sense, responsible
for much of the stagnation in the industrial
and agricultural fields. Anticipated war
purchases did not materialize as far as the
American farmer is concerned.

Step Follows Step
Agreements Supercede
Treaties—And So On!
^HE reciprocal trade agreements delegate
to the Secretary of States the power to
fix customs duties or tariff rates on imports
covered in the agreements.
Senator O’Mahoney, Wyoming, suggests
that if it is all right to do this, then, there
is nothing to prevent Congress delegating
to Secretary of the Treasury authority to
fix income tax rates.
Constitution of United States provides
that all bills for the raising of revenue shall
originate in the House of Representatives.
Secretary of State contends that the “agree­

Page Twenty'two

ments” are not “treaties,” and therefore
exempt from the demands of the Constitu­
tion. In the case of the agreement with
Columbia, one clause provides that the
“agreement” shall supercede all treaties.

Farm Benefits Do Not Go
To Nation’s Farmers But
To Banks and Insurance Cos.
^ADMINISTRATION statistics show that
the largest payments under the program
of farm benefits have not gone to farmers
at all. The biggest single beneficiary in
1937 was Metropolitan Life Insurance Com­
pany whose checks totalled $257,000. In­
surance companies and banks, drew down
the largest payments. Foreclosure of mort­
gage gave them this advantageous position.
According to the record, approximately
3,750,000 of the 6,000,000 farmers of the
country participated in the government’s
1937 program. The average payment should
have been $75.00 per farmer. But more than
20,000 farmers received payments in excess
of $1,000 while the vast majority will b'
found in the brackets of less than $50 per
capita. To be exact, there were 1,182,387
farmers who received between $20 and $40
each.

Many New Frontiers
Before American People
If Research Is Employed
gIXTY per cent of all the units manufac­
tured in United States are made in six
per cent of the nation’s area. Decentraliza­
tion of industry, combined with a plan of
honest co-operation between business and
government, would mean fuller development
of the remaining ninety-four per cent of the
country’s area.
It requires research in the agricultural
field, the industrial field, the commercial.
Research brought us the automobile, the
radio, electricity and countless other facil­
ities with which Americans are endowed.
The futunre use of farm products for the
benefit of industry offers a field of wide
research. The story of the soy bean offers
a typical case of what can be done.
Engineering principles should be applied
to United States. More prosperous farmers
and happy, contented workers in the in­
dustrial world would be one of the results.

THE CITIZEN

�INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT WYOMING
The Wyoming State flo'^er is the Indian Pgint JBrush.
The Wyoming State bird is the meadow lark.
Tba^inpiilatinn of Wyoming is 240,000r
Thc-Staie is 36S miles long and 2/0 miles wide With an area of 62,430,720
acrea^
Wyoming has thirteen State institutions.
Wyoming has nearly 2,000 miles of railroad.
Ninety-eight per cent of the population of Wyoming is white.
Wyoming has 8,500,000 acres of forest land.
Wyorning-has-e©Bi«-ef-the-wofl41».greaiest-h«t-sp«Bgs.
Wyoming has rivers flowing into the Missouri, the Columbia, and the Gulf of
California.
Wyorning ranks first in known coal reserves, second in annual wool produc­
tion and third in known oil shale deposits.
Wyoming was the first State to have a woman governor.
Wvomiae-wnH ndmifti-d nr. .n Rtatp July 10, 48P0.
In 1869 Wyoming granted political suffrage to women and was the firsvState
to do so.
Wyoming territory was created from portions of Utah, Dakota and Idaho ter­
ritories in 1868.
183^’’®
settlement in Wyoming was established at Fort Laramie in

RIVERS IK WYOMING^

BadLwater, Belle Eourche, Big Horn, Cheyenne, Fall,
Gray’s, Gros Ventre, Hoback, Laramie, Lewis, KlecLicine
Bow, North Platte, Popo Agie, Powder, Shoshone, Snake,
Sweetwal^er, Tongue, Wind, Yellowstone.
WYO^II-NG LEALS IN BIG

Wyoming leads all other Spates in big game re*
-sources. All the varieties of game, including elk,
^eer, moose, mountain sheep, antelope, black, brown
and grizzly bear, and many smaller animals are found
within the--S^ate.

�The Midwest Review
Published Monthly by the Department of Industrial Relations and Distributed Free to the Midwest Family
Issued Under Authority of the Midwest Refining Company
Address All Communications to The Midwest Review, Post office Box 1075 Casper, Wyoming

Volume VI

August, 1925

Number 8

One of Wyoming’s Worthiest Projects
The Annual State Fair at Douglas is the Clearing House through which the State’s Varied and
Wonderful Resources are Exhibited to the World.

By D. W. Greenburg

All great commonwealths recognize the
need and necessity for continuous educa­
tion of its people towards development of
its latent and potential resources. This
was recognized by the constructive citi­
zens of Wyoming many years ago. In
1901 a State Industrial Conference was
held at Laramie to devise ways and means
to stimulate the commercial and industrial
growth of the state. It was attended by
our leading citizens and out of its delib­
erations came a well defined program
which included the gathering of a diversi­
fied exhibit of the State’s resources for
display at the St. Louis World’s Fair and
for annual exhibitions at various points
in the State.
The Wyoming State Fair becomes of
age this year. It was 21 years ago that
it was given life by the Wyoming State
Legislature which made a modest appro­
priation for the founding and mainten­
ance of the institution. The State Indus­
trial Exposition was the forerunner of
the State Fair. This exposition, the first
which made any pretense of being a State­
wide show, was held at Sheridan in 1903
and was sufficiently successful to be held
the following year in Casper. Following
the Casper show a strong sentiment de­
veloped for a permanent State Fair and
Douglas at once entered the field as a can­
didate for the location of the Fair.
At the 1905 session of the Legislature,
a bill was introduced appropriating mon­
ey for the establishment of the Fair, with
the location at Douglas. The sentiment
for the bill was by no means unanimous
and the measure met with much opposi­
tion. Other towns wished to be consider­

ed for location and some of the legisla­
tors were in favor of putting the fair on
wheels, giving every section of the State
a chance at it. The Converse County
delegation, at that time consisting of Ly­
man Cooper, who was speaker of the
house, J. T. Williams, the representative
in the senate, and John Morton of Doug­
las and Thomas Bell of Lusk, house repre­
sentatives, were able to get the bill
through. The bill called for an appro­
priation of $10,000 to acquire land, erect
buildings, and pay the premiums and ex­
penses of the Fair for the two year period.
The Board of Trustees, to be appointed
by the Governor, was to be in charge of
the Fair. Governor Brooks named as
members of this board Dr. Mortimore
Jesurun, M. R. Collins, of Lusk, E. J. Bell
of Laramie, H. L. Patten of Casper, and
Alex McDonald of Sheridan. The board
held its first meeting on April 5, 1905 and
organized. There were two vacancies
among the original appointments, those
of Dr. Jesurun and H. L. Patten. These
vacancies were filled by the appointment
of Dr. J. M. Wilson of Douglas and A. E.
Campbell of Glendo. The board organized
and elected Dr. Wilson as president, A.
E. Campbell as treasurer and M. R. Col­
lins as secretary.
There was much doubt of the possibility
of the Pair being a success that year, as
the board had but $10,000 for the two
year period and with this it must secure
the land, erect the buildings and pay the
premiums and expenses of running the
fair for two years. The people of Doug­
las signified their willingness to guarantee
the Fair and the Board proceeded to make

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its plans for the 1905 Fair. Practically is happily qualified to carry on this work.
all of the appropriation of $10,000 was Undoubtedly the Pair this year will excel
expended in the preliminary work and it all previous efforts. In the handling of
was necessary for the people of Douglas details of the Pair a local board composed
to subscribe the money necessary for the of leading citizens of Douglas work in
running of the Pair. The dates were fixed harmony and cooperation with the Secre­
for October 3, 4, 5 and 6.
tary. The board consists of James Wil­
A race track was constructed with a lox, Jr., LaBonte; Roy 0. Westley, Lara­
modest grand stand; an Art Hall was mie ; W. J. Dalton, Dr. J. R. Hylton, J.
built and the town of Douglas built an Jeff Scott, Mrs. W. B. Musch, Vera S.
Agricultural Hall. Considering the hand­ Trumper, J. L. Carmin and Frank T. Cum­
icaps and the short time for preparation, mings, all of Douglas.
the Fair was wonderfully successful. The
It is an interesting fact that last year
date was late and the Pair management and the previous year the Pair weathered
was anxious as to the possibilities of a through without going to the State Legis­
spell of winter weather, but fortunately lature without a deficit, probably the first
the week was exceptionally warm. The time in the history of the organization,
Pair managers worked without compen­ and at the last session $40,000 was appro­
sation. However, a good show was staged priated for handling the Pair on a twowith fine racing and sports, a large con­ year basis. This will not be ample to pro­
tingent of soldiers of the regular army vide for any new buildings which are
helping greatly with their military man­ sadly needed because the Pair is growing
euvers. There was a splendid agricultural to greater proportions, however, with con­
exhibit from the several counties of the servative management it is expected the
State. The attendance was good and sum provided will meet all expenses.
there was never any doubt after the first
Something worthy of note in connection
Pair had been held that the institution with the development of the State Pair
was a necessary one and a permanent one. is the interest taken by both the North­
Prom 1905 to 1920 the Pair has been western and Burlington railroad systems,
under the direct management of a State each taking a keen interest in the Pair
Pair Board, the members being appointed and its success. The Northwestern rail­
by the Governor. The first president was road, recognizing the true worth of the
Dr. J. M. Wilson and his successors were State Pair, donated to its perpetual use
E. T. David of Douglas, K. D. Carey of a large tract of land at Douglas for Pair
Caryhurst, J. M. Flynn of Douglas, Luther grounds. This valuable property will
Freeman of LaBonte, Russell Thorp of eventually pass into the hands of the State
Lusk, W. C. Irvine of Ross, Dr. B. P. for this purpose provided a Pair shall be
Davis of Cheyenne, and Joseph Garst of held each successive year for 25 years.
Douglas. In 1921 the management of The donation was made in 1913. Failure
the Pair was given by the Legisla­ to hold a State Pair in any single year
ture to the State Board of Charities will automatically revert the land back
and Reform. This board controlled for to the original owner.
two years, after which it was made a
The citizens of Douglas take no small
part of the Department of Agriculture. pride in the success of the Pair each year
At the present time A. D. Paville, Com­ and in addition to providing entertain­
missioner of Agriculture, has supervision ment for the visitors, show that courteous
of the State Pair, the active management and friendly spirit toward the visitor that
being in the hands of Thomas P. Doyle, always has such a wholesome and lasting
named secretary of the Pair this year.
effect. No effort will be made here to
Commissioner Paville has the coopera­ go into detail concerning the virtues of
tion of the University Extension and Ag­ Douglas and Converse County because of
ricultural College departments in perfect­ the intention at some future time to make
ing details for the Fair and this year has Converse County a special feature of the
devoted much time towards arranging for Midwest Review. In connection with the
extended exhibits and educational pro­ Pair the City of Douglas furnishes to the
grams. Mr. Doyle is a newspaperman and Pair ground the free water and does many

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state Fair
9/ic

SULc 3air building '05

3

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other things to relieve the Pair of a great
burden of expense.
Before leaving the subject of Pair man­
agement, the State Board of Agriculture,
of which A. D. Paville is the Commission­
er and active head, composed of promi­
nent men in several sections of the State,
has an important part in giving stability
and permanence to the State Pair. The
Board is composed of Governor Nellie T.
Ross and J. A. Hill, Dean and Director of
the College of Agriculture and Experi­
ment Station, Laramie, as ex-officio mem­
bers; Loraine Rollins of Lyman, presi­
dent; Paul Dupertuis of Lingle, vice pres­
ident; Herbert E. Sabin, of Node; Doug­
las B. Sparks, of Buffalo; and John Hen­
dricks, of Powell.
The Pair has grown since 1905. The
fine brick building. Agricultural Hall, has
been erected. The steel grandstand has
supplanted the wooden affair of 21 years
ago. The Art Hall has been enlarged and
remodeled. A fine exhibit pavilion for
horses, cattle and sheep has been erected
and the institution today is equipped to
care for the wants of the exhibitors in a
much different manner from the days of
the first Pair. The Agricultural hall
which was donated by the citizens of
Douglas is still in use for other purposes.
One of the chief needs for the Pair today
is another building, modern and of ample
proportions, to care for the increasing de­
mands of growing Wyoming.
The Wyoming State Pair is primarily
an exposition showing Wyoming’s re­
sources, indicating the progress which
has been made in agriculture, livestock
and industry. It is a revelation to those
unacquainted with the State to visit Agri­
cultural Hall, which is crowded to its cap­
acity with agricultural exhibits from
every part of the State. Prom the irri­
gated sections come every variety of fruit,
grains and vegetables. Prom the vast
empire of the Big Horn Basin, from Pre­
mont and from Platte, Goshen, Sheridan
and Converse come exhibits which would
be a source of pride at any State Pair.
Prom the dry land sections come a sur­
prising lot of grains and vegetables in­
dicating the possibilities of Wyoming’s
dry farm lands.
The cattle and sheep exhibitions at the
State Pair have for many years been com­

posed of the best representatives of the
popular breeds. While cattle and sheep
have long predominated, in recent years
the swine department has made wonderful
growth and this department this year will
show that the raising of swine has grown
to be a great industry.
A new departure this year will be the
exhibits of feeder stock. Livestock grow­
ers of Wyoming are beginning to realize
that much of the profit of raising stock
goes to Nebraska and Colorado feeders,
and it is planned to utilize the abundant
feed from Wyoming ranches for the feed­
ing of Wyoming stock. To encourage the
exhibit of this class of stock and to edu­
cate the growers as to the financial ad­
vantage offered in this industry, former
Governor Robert D. Carey, a former presi­
dent of the State Pair, has offered a regis­
tered Hereford Bull as first prize in this
department. Governor Carey has always
taken an active interest in the success of
the Pair and is a leader in educating the
farmer and livestock man of the State in
better methods. Mr. Charles J. Hauf of
Glendo, a prominent Shorthorn breeder,
offers a registered Shorthorn Bull as first
prize in the Shorthorn Class. The Wyom­
ing State Pair adds $60 and $30 as second
and third prizes in each class.
One of the interesting exhibits at the
Pair this year will be that of the United
States Agricultural Department. This ex­
hibit pertains to things in which Wyoming
is interested, such as the care of range
cattle and sheep, the rodent control and
numerous features which will both inter­
est and instruct.
The Extension Department of the State
University has always been a great aid
to the Pair. It has been of exceptional
educational value bringing to the farmer
and stockgrower all that is new and prac­
tical. Daily demonstrations are given
with lectures by experts so that the knowl­
edge gained by study and research may
be imparted to those who need it.
Of late years more attention has been
paid to industrial exhibits of the Pair and
this year promises to excel all previous
years experience. One of the chief indus­
tries of Wyoming, the oil industry, will be
represented by the Midwest Refining Com­
pany, Ohio Oil Company, and the Texas
Company, who will contribute exhibits

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5

�6

THE

MIDWEST REVIEW

which show the vast range and impor­
tance to the State of this industry. The
Great Western Sugar Company of Wor­
land will have an exhibit showing what
the growing of sugar beets means to Wyo­
ming farmers. Many other industries of
Wyoming have secured space in the In­
dustrial building, showing that the State
is depending more than ever upon its own
manufacturers.
The Boys and Girls Club Work has
proved an interesting feature of the Fair.
They come in force; dormitories are pro­
vided for the girls and the boys camp on
the grounds. The special prizes which
are provided in the Club work are of
value; demonstrations are given daily by
the young people; judging contests are
held and it is the aim of the management
to make the Fair a school for spreading
knowledge to the farm and the home.
The State spelling contest arouses each
year as much interest as any one feature
of the Fair. Practically every county in
the State has its representative in the con­
test. The Wyoming State Tribune has
offered prizes in the sum of $100 in this
contest, which is under the supervision of
the State Educational Department.
Many years ago the Old Timers’ Asso­
ciation was formed, and since its incep­
tion, it has been a valuable and interest­
ing feature of the Pair. In conjunction
with the State Historical Society, a meet­
ing is held each year, with a program of
exceptional merit and interest. Much his­
tory of the State has been procured from
those gatherings of men and women who
participated in the events that have made
history. The Old Timers look forward
each year to the time when they can meet
their pioneer friends from all over the
State. John Hunton of Old Fort Laramie
fame and Malcolm Campbell of Casper
have never missed a Fair. They have been
residents of AVyoming for 60 years and
participated actively in the building of
the State.
Realizing that visitors to the Fair must
be entertained, a program of amusements
has been arranged, which will appeal to
all tastes. The rodeo is still a strong fea­
ture of the program. It will be under the
direction of Mr. J. L. Carmin and the best
riders in the country and the worst buckers of the west will be present. The

Fourth United States Cavalry, under the
command of Colonel Latrobe, will be
camped on the grounds. The soldiers will
participate in the daily programs and the
regimental band, one of the best in the
service, will be one of the musical organi­
zations present at the Pair. Two other
bands will furnish music during the entire
four days of the Pair. A number of
free acts, the best from the vaudeville
circuits, have been secured. A Midway
with a carnival company will add to the
interest of the night entertainment. Sat­
urday, as an added attraction, there will
be automobile races with some of the best
drivers in the State contesting. Chief
Yellow Calf and a band of Arapahoe
braves will be there to lend a touch of
color to the old West.
The City of Douglas will be in gala at­
tire for the occasion and there promises
to be enough diversity in the city proper
during the evening periods to satisfy the
most exacting. It is an opportunity this
year for all loyal citizens of Wyoming to
meet their friends and neighbors at the
Annual Fair and to give its support and
approval by being present. An informa­
tion bureau is maintained in Douglas for
the convenience of Fair visitors. Reserva­
tions for rooms or any other information
desired will be provided on application,
either in person or by letter.
The people of Douglas have always giv­
en the finest cooperation to the manage­
ment of the Pair. They take it as their
duty to care for the people who come from
outside points and it will be a pleasure for
them to make the stay of Fair visitors a
pleasant one.

Our Cover Designs
The three pictures which make up the
front cover design for this special State Fair
issue of the Review, are made from actual
photographs of scenes at the State Fair, held
at Douglas. The agricultural products are
from one of the county exhibits; the two
girls with their cake and bread are Wyom­
ing Girls, members of the Boys and Girls
Club, and the third picture is from an actual
scene at the Rodeo feature of the Fair. And
the little Indian Malden on the back cover
is likewise an actual photograph. We feel
that the Kistler artist in Denver, who did
this work for us, is to be complimented upon
the results. We like the effect, and hope
our readers will be likewise pleased.

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7

The First Annual State Fair
Back in 1905 Bill Barlow’s Budget at Douglas describes in detail the successful conclusion of the first
State Exhibition.

By Bill Barlow
It was nearly 21 years ago that the First
Annual Wyoming State Fair was held at
Douglas. In that year of 1905 the fair was
held October 3, 4, 5 and 6 and was the occa­
sion for a gathering of many Wyoming citi­
zens at Douglas. Among those who partici­
pated was Governor Bryant B. Brooks and
his staff. It will be interesting to our readers
to get a slant on the happenings of that
week. Bill Barlow’s Budget, in its issue of
October 11, 1905, tells the story of the first
fair. It is reproduced herewith.—Editor.

Well, to begin with, the weather was
perfect, as though made to order—bright
sunshine, warm, and but little wind. The
attendance estimated at about 2500—pos­
sibly a little more than that. Sensational
reports of a typhoid fever epidemic said
to be raging here unquestionably kept
hundreds away, particularly from the
south and remote sections of our county.
The best of order prevailed, during the
entire four days—Chief of Police Proctor,
Sheriff Messenger and Marshal Davis are
to be congratulated. There was plenty
doing each day—uptown, on the grounds
each afternoon, and at night a half dozen
attractions served to keep everybody
amused and entertained according to his
or her inclination.
The big show was all that. Six coun­
ties were not represented; but will be
next time. Fremont, Laramie, Weston,
Albany and Converse were at the front,
as will be seen by the list of awards else­
where. The agricultural display was as
good as down-east ever produced; the
livestock show limited but first class; the
mineral exhibition calculated to drive the
show-me pessimist into his hole.
Only five ladies entered in the relay
race—Miss Maggie Reid, of Douglas; Mrs.
Guy Newell, of Springhill; Mrs. Mott
Quest, of Newcastle; Mrs. William Irwin,
of Cheyenne and Mrs. Sturgeon, of Cas­
per. Refusal on the part of the committee

to permit her to ride two of the horses
she had brought here for the purpose and
the fact that she was thrown twice the
first day, resulted in the withdrawal of
Mrs. Irwin; later Mrs. Sturgeon also with­
drew. The race was not decided until
the last day, and was won by the Con­
verse county champion, with Mrs. Newell
a close second, and Mrs. Quest third. Miss
Reid received $375 in cash, the $400 piano
given by the city of Douglas, the loving
cup given by the Denver Post, one pair
of blankets, five pounds of creams, and a
handsome cut-glass prize offered by J. J.
Steffen and valued at $25. Mrs. Newell
received $355 in cash, a pair of blankets
and the cream and sugar set given by the
Cheyenne Leader. Mrs. Quest received
$230 in cash and a set of solid silver tea­
spoons given by the Cheyenne Tribune.
In the horse race Douglas won first
money in the wet test as the result of an
accident to the Cheyenne team—who later
won the straightaway by the close mar­
gin of two-fifths of a second. The huband-hub was not run owing to an accident
to the Cheyenne cart whereby someone
put it out of commission. There has been
much controversy over these races, result­
ing in bitter feeling on both sides—that
which the Budget refuses to judge. Cer­
tain it is that the Douglas team made every
concession asked in the two races run, and
should not have broken that record by
refusing their visitors the use of their
carts in the last contest, regardless of the
circumstances attending “accident” to
the Cheyenne cart. It is equally true that
the abuse of the Douglas team and its cap­
tain appearing in the Cheyenne press is
entirely uncalled for and based on mere
presumption—of which there is plenty of
circumstantial evidence to reply in kind
if we were so minded.
It goes without saying that much of the
success of the races was due to the con­
stant supervision of Commissioner Don­
aldson, who has had much experience in
such matters, together with the work of

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Governor Bryant B. Brooks (wearing beard and in civilian clothes) with Regimental Staff and Wyoming
National Guard officers, in attendance at the first Annual Wyoming State Fair—1905.

Messrs. Kay and Bailey, of Sheridan, who
officiated as starter and timekeeper. It
is rather late, now, to attempt a resume
of the horses and purses; but certain it
is that it was far and away the greatest
race meet in the history of the state. The
wonderful performances of “College
Maid,” the Laramie guideless wonder,
comprised an especially interesting fea­
ture, and the events introduced by the
Tenth cavalry were enjoyable. Every­
body pronounced the track one of the
best in the west and requiring only slight
alteration to make it perfect.
The Williams-Mustain fight went twen­
ty rounds without a knock-down, and was
awarded to Williams by Referee Hynds.
The contest was devoid of brutality, and
as handled by Mr. Hynds could have been
pulled off in a parlor. The Shoels-Kid
lightweight scrap was refereed by Johnny
Green, of Cheyenne, and was given to
Shoels on the Kid refusing to continue
the fight when his claim of a foul had
been disallowed.
The visit of the Denver chamber of
commerce, Friday, was an event long to
be remembered. They arrived by special
train about 8 a. m. and headed by their
own band marched to breakfast and later
to Temple hall where Chairman Barrow

introduced Governor Brooks and Presi­
dent Wilson in turn, each of whom wel­
comed our guests in such manners as to
leave no room for uncertainty as to
whether or no they had title to the keys
of the state and city. Responses were
made by President J. S. Temple of the
chamber of commerce. Lieutenant Gov­
ernor Parks, Parson Uzell, Senator Pat­
terson and others, and the meeting closed
with an address by our own Senator C. 1).
Clark, who came all the way from Evans­
ton to endorse our greeting and to point
out to our visitors the importance of go­
ing after the trade of what he character­
ized as an empire yet to be developed.
The Denver bunch, among which were
“Walt” Davis of the Post and a news
representative, spent the day on the
grounds and about town, leaving for home
that evening. All were pleased, and out­
spoken in their belief that the Colorado &amp;
Southern should be extended to Douglas
and eventually to the Northern Pacific,
and it is certain that their visit will bear
fruit along this line in due time.
One of the most interesting exhibits on
the grounds was the Cyclone irrigation
pump, which was installed on the river
just below the wagon bridge, and which
was visited by hundreds of people. With

�THE MIDWEST BETIEM

ten horse-power this pump lifted 7,000
gallons of water ten feet, every minute.
The stock in this enterprise is owned
largely by Casper and Douglas people,
who believe that through it the question
of irrigating Platt bottom lands has been
solved.
The game of football Saturday forenoon
between Douglas and Chadron teams re­
sulted in a victory for our visitors by a
score of fifteen points to nothing. The
game of quoits for which a purse of $75
was hung up was witnessed by a large
crowd of interested spectators.
Mr.
George Walkenshaw, of Glenrock, who is
the champion of the world, won first on a
score of twenty-one, and in the finals for
second Noah Young won over John Miller
by a score of twenty-one to nineteen.
The Militia broke camp Thursday, and
the northern boys left for home that af­
ternoon, the balance remaining until next
day. The Tenth cavalry, who thanks to
Major Read and his staff, contributed so
much toward the success of the fair and
whose courtesies will be long remembered,
set out for Port Robinson Saturday morn­
ing.
The State Teachers association, at the
close of a very interesting and profitable
two-days’ session, elected as officers for
the ensuing year, president, C. R. Atkin­
son, of Sheridan; secretary, Miss Effie
Cumming, of Casper; treasurer, Miss
Alice M. Sampson, of Cheyenne. The
joint institute of Converse and Natrona
counties was voted a success, and the
plans will probably be followed next year
again. In connection with the work of
these bodies, addresses were made by
Governor Brooks, Superintendent Tisdell
and Dr. Brown. Resolutions of thanks
were passed by unanimous vote, compli­
menting and thanking the retiring offi­
cers of the association, the people of Doug­
las, the speaker, and Rev. Tancock for
the use of the church.
The livestock sale was something of a
disappointment to both the public and the
promoters—owing doubtless to the fact
that it was the first, and more or less an
experiment. Fair prices were realized on
what was offered, however. The sale of
the Jesurun herd was accomplished by
assignee Morton at good figures.

9

Secretary Collins, of the Pair commis­
sion, announced that premiums awarded
will be paid just as soon as they can be
reached. Several hundred checks must be
made out, however, and these sent to
Treasurer Campbell at Glendo for signa­
ture, so that it will be ten days probably
before they can be mailed to individuals.

A Carnival at Midwest
Pqr the first time in the history of the
Home Camp, a carnival pitched its tents
here. The Clark Carnival Company hav­
ing approached the management with a
fair proposition, the proceeds to go to the
“Yellow Dogs,” Big Boy Scouts of Mid­
west, permission was granted by Vicepresident Ellison, and the company gave
an exhibition from July 21 to July 25 in­
clusive. Arrangements were made where­
by coupons were accepted by all the at­
tractions and concessions, a convenience
which was appreciated by the employees.
The features were good and clean, and
the attendance, considering all the counter
attractions, was all that could be expected.
The carnival company put up a cash guar­
antee of $400.00 in place of the usual per­
centage, but the receipts exceeded the
amount that would earn that much com­
mission if figured the usual way, conse­
quently the Big Boy Scouts received as
their share an amount in excess of the
guarantee.
The relations of the carnxval manage­
ment and the representatives of the Boy
Scouts were most pleasant, but from the
standpoint of the owners erf carnival at­
tractions, two incidents occurred which
took some of the joy from their lives.
The carnival wrestler was defeated by
our local star. Tommy Tomlinson pf Lewis
Camp, in 33 minutes, and the forfeit and
side bet was paid. The lady rifle expert
offered $25.00 to any one who could dup­
licate her feat of shooting two rifles in
crossed arms, both scoring a bull’s eye,
and one of our crack shots stepped up and
demonstrated his ability to claim the
money to the satisfaction of every one,
except the unfortunate owner of the con­
cession, who wondered how a man of such
skill could be working in the oil flelds.
She didn’t know we have “well shooters”
here.

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�14

THE

MIDWEST REVIEW

Wyoming—Its Meaning, Origin and Application
By John E. Bees*

The first race of people to occupy the tribes inhabiting the Great Basin while the
country which afterwards became known Nahautl included all those inhabiting Mexico
as the State of Wyo­
down to and including
ming was a member of
the valley of Mexico.
A Historian Passes
the Shoshonean-NaThe Wind River
*John E. Rees,
hautl family of the
country
of western
the a u t h o r of
Amerindoid stock'.
this
valuable
Wyoming is visited by
contribution
to
This family was
a continual and prev­
the
annals
of
western
history,
evolved and developed
alent southwest wind
was a pioneer
of Idaho and a
along the Rocky Moun­
from
whence it derives
high type of
tain system as that
American
citi­
its name'. This windy
zen.
On June
range was formed and
condition made the
11, 1927, he sent
the
accompany
­
grew geologically-. The
country bleak in places
ing paper to the
and produced turbu­
probabilities are very
Editor, the
friendship
be­
lent waters over the
great that this was one
tween them be­
ing
of
long
lakes and ruffled the
of the places where
standing, and it
streams into falls,
human beings first de­
then
was
the
intention of publishing it In The Mid­
veloped on this con­
rapids and swells, a
west Review at the first opportunity.
Mr. Rees passed away in September
condition which the
tinent and, perhaps, of
1928, and it is with regret that it has
Shoshoni termed
the earth’’. There are
not been published before this time, so
as to have added during his lifetime
‘ ‘ Washakeek ’ ’, mean­
several centers from
another of his fine contributions of
ing wasters shooting and
which the Amerind de­
this nature.
Mr.
Rees enjoyed a
nationwide reputation as an author­
dropping. Por this
velop. The center
ity on Indian Sign Language and In­
dian Lore, and also was as well versed
reason the western part
from which the Shoin the history of western America as
shonean family de­
of Wyoming is known
are many leaders now in that line.
He was the author of many historic
as “Washakeek’”*.
veloped was in the
monographs, particularly those relatWind River country'.
ing to the origin of the names of
The next people to
“Oregon,” “Idaho,” and “Utah”, and
The artifacts of their
take up their abode in
with this was completed the fourth,
“Wyoming,” now published for the
primitive civilization
Wyoming w ere the
first time. An intensely valuable pub­
have been found in
lication for which he was best known
“ Shy-en-nah ”, a tribe
in his state, was “Idaho, Chronology,
western Wyoming on
of the Algonquain, the
Nomenclature,
Bibliography.”
Mr.
Rees was a native of DuQuoin, Ills.,
the headwaters of the
largest family of In­
born January 17, 1868.
With his
Yellowstone and in the
dians on the North
parents he moved to Lemhi County,
Idaho In 1877, and aside from a period
Bighorn and Wind
American continent;
when he attended university at Val­
River valleys". Prom
paraiso, Indiana, as a student, his en­
the Siouau, being sec­
tire
life
was
spent
near
Salmon
City.
this center spread the
ond ; Shoshonean,
Fo’’ seventeen years he lived at Lemhi
Indian agency during which period
Comanche, east and
third; they occupied
Mr. Rees made an exhaustive study
south; the Ute, west
the greater part of
of the western Indians and their ways.
He was an attorney, and practiced his
and south; the Sho­
eastern Wyoming and
profession in his home community; he
shoni, west and north;
served in the state senate and the
after about 1800 began
lower house of the Idaho leaislature
the Tukuarika, north­
to come in contact with
for several terms. Early Western His­
tory was his pastime and he lived to
ward; and the Moqui,
the
Shoshonis of the
enjoy that phase of his life. In order
southward®.
Prom
to follow his bent in later years, he
western part. The
taught history in the Salmon hiah
these all other ShoShoshonis called them
school.
He is survived by a widow
shonean tribes were de­
and one son, both now residing in
“ P a w k - a -naw-vo ’
California,
and to them we
now
rived. So, at the ad­
meaning painted ar­
acknowledge a deep aopreciation of
the privilege of publishina what is
vent of man upon the
rows in allusion to
oerhaps the last monog^'ach of this
western continent the
nature that Mr. Rees had written.
their use of the striped
Shoshonean family
—EDITOR
turkey feather on their
constituted all the
arrows’.

�THE

MIDWEST

REVIEW

13

�THE MIDWEST BETIEW

15

Qrave5 in Fremonh
Count)? oP ti^o Famouj
■' ’ * Indians -* ■&lt;
Ijr^

BB ■
■B

OraiPe of SfieajaWen

.
'"■■■*&lt; ■

Graine of Chief^aihafie

■ ■

While the name “Wyoming” is of In­
dian origin yet it was not designated for
or by any tribe inhabiting its territory.
The appellation came from the Lenape or
Delaware Indian language. It is derived
from the words “Muh-ehu”, meaning tlte
end and “Wau-Mic”, plains or “Muh-chuwau-mic”, the end of the plains^'*. The
Lenape Indians occupied, aboriginally, the
valley of the Delaware river and when that
stream was named in honor of Lord Dela­
ware the appellation was attached to them
and they were henceforth called “Dela­
ware” Indians”. In the western part of
the State of Delaware is an elevated table­
land forming the water shed between the
Delaware and Chesapeake bays. This water­
shed was the original home of the Lenape
Indians and as it marked the end of the
Atlantic Coast plains, they called it “Muhchu-wau-mic”, meaning the end of the
plfiTnE'E This name has undergone an
etymological change into the euphonious
word, “Wyoming” which we now have.

In 1742, the Lenapes were crowded out
of their possessions along the Delaware
and removed to the Susquehanna river and
on a small tributary of that stream, where
the level country gave way to the hills,
they named the place in likeness to their
original home, “Wyoming”. This is the
Wyoming of colonial history'^. Crossing
the Alleghany mountains, they were
settled upon a tract of land in Ohio under
the treaty of 1795, and here on a small
stream flowing into the Ohio river at Cin­
cinnati, another home was established and
called “Wyoming”''.
These Indians were then pushed across
the Mississippi rivet''" and in 1829 given
and guaranteed all the country lying be­
tween the Missouri and Kansas rivers, ex­
tending north to the Kansas line'**. Within
this territory and on a small stream which
flows into the Black Vermilion and thence
into the Big Blue river, in Marshall county,
Kansas, they established a home for the
fourth time and called it “Wyoming’”’.

�iii-

16

THE

MIDWEST

They remained here until 1866, when they
were removed to their final home with the
Cherokees in Indian territory, now Okla­
homa’**.
In their Kansas home near what is now
Bigelow they were located on what was
afterwards developed as the “Oregon”
trail which was, at this place, formed by
the junction of the roads coming up from
Independence, Missouri and across from
Leavenworth, Kansas’", and lived here dur­
ing all the western emigration of the ’30’s,
’40’s, ’50’s and ’60’s. There are several
other places in the United States possessing
the name “Wyoming” and they have been
so called by emigrants from one of these
localities"".
"
In quest of furs, the Delawares traversed
much of the interior country"’. The Platte
river was their natural route into the Rocky
mountains and when they had proceeded
upstream to its head tributaries, where the
plains ceased and the mountains began,
they once more applied the home name
“Wyoming” to the surrounding country,
meaning the end of the plains, alluding in
this case, to the Great Plains of the United
States. Knowing the country so well, mem­
bers of this tribe oftimes acted as guides
and helpers to fur companies, emigrants
and people going into the mountains, by
which means they made known the name
“Wyoming” and it became a familiar
appellation"".
The name “Wyoming” for this particu­
lar geographical section became so preva­

RE 1- 1 E IV

lent that when the first bill was introduced
into Congress, in 1865, to form this region
into a territory, the word and its connec­
tion to this particular topography was quite
well understood by all"'* and it eventually
became the name of the present State of
Wyoming. The first name, “Washakeek”
that was ever applied to any portion of
the country survives, only, in the name
“Washakie”, meaning the chief of the
Washakeek band.
Footnotes

and

Explanatory

(Note; In view of the importance of the foregoing paper,
and the care exercised by Mr. Rees in giving the authorities, the
same are given herewith as he had submitted them. It makes a
splendid bibliography bearing' on this subject and one which
our readers undoubtedly will be glad to have should they desire
to make further research into the subject.—EDITOR.)
’—Kroeber, American Archaeology and Ethnology, IV, 164.
Brinton, The American Race, 118.
Rees, Idaho, Chronology, Nomenclature and Bibliography.
2—Bancroft, History oj the Pacific States, XXV, 325.
—Pierson &amp; Schuchert, Text-Book oi Geology, 1915, II, 962,
976.
*—Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, XXV, 673.
®—Norris, Fifth Annual Report, Yellowstone National Park,
32-8.
®—Hodge, Handbook of North American Indians, II, 555.
—Chittenden, American Fur Trade, II, 733.
Irving, Astoria, 1836, I, 278.
*—Stuart, Montana As It Is, Note 53.
®—Hodge, Handbook of North American Indians, I, 251.
’•’—Ibid, II, 278.
Ibid, I. 385.
—Winston, Cumulative Loose-Leaf Encyclopaedia, III, Dela­
ware.
’’—Hodge, Handbook of North American Indians, II, 978.
—Royce, Indian Land Cessions, 654.
Rand, McNally &amp; Co., Universal Atlas, 1902, 35.
—Jackson, A Century of Dishonor, 48.
—Royce, Indian Land Cessions, 724.
—Rand, McNally &amp; Co., World Atlas, 1882, 717.
—Royce, Indian Land Cessions, 840.
—Chittenden. American Fur Trade, I, 465.
—Upham, Minnesota Geographic Names, 110.
—Jackson, A Century of Dishonor, 50-52.
“—Irving, Adventures of Captain Bonneville, 1850, 94.
—Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, XXV, 739.

FORT LARAMIE
Famed as a fur trading post and rendezvous for Indian Treaties as it
appeared to Fremont in 1842, later rebuilt and made into a
military post during Oregon Trail days.

. -. ...PtMT-aMrlMitlnir t-

___

�THE

MIDWEST REVIEW

15

The Natural Resources of Wyoming •
Bn Bernice Berry

Wyoming is a magnificent Empire where
soil, water, sunshine, minerals, and oils
united in making this state one of the most
productive areas of the Rocky Mountain
region, and where faithful citizens have
built prosperous cities, towns, and com­
munities.
In 1868 when Wyoming was admitted as
a territory little thought was given to the
values contained in the vast plains called
Wyoming. Since then many valuable
assets of the state have been revealed. To­
day Wyoming provides grazing ground
for millions of head of livestock and soil
for extensive agricultural development,
while under its surface valuable minerals
have been discovered. Industries of many
kinds are now established and new ones
are continually enlarging the long list.
The best scenic places and out-of-door ad­
vantages of the state are visited by a great
many people from all over the United
States. There is still much to learn of the
great commonwealth of our state.
With the establishment of the territorial
government began the great development
of the basic industry of Wyoming—that of
raising livestock. Great herds of buffalo
and other wild grazing animals had lived
upon the grasses found on the plains and
mountains. The same plains were found
to afford the best grazing ground for cat­
tle and sheep. The Indian’s pony gradu­
ally found its place by the sturdy mount
of the cowboy, and within a quarter of a
century Wyoming became a leader in the
production of beef, wool, and mutton.
During later territorial days the establish­
ment of ranches for growing winter feed
for livestock was introduced. On July
10th, 1890, the Territory of Wyoming was
admitted by Congress as a state of the
same name—Wyoming.
This new chapter in Wyoming’s prog­
ress may be considered as the closing of
adventures and romance of pioneer days.
Changing conditions did not, however,
block the course of the fundamental indus­
try of livestock-raising.
♦This story won first award for g’irls in contest
for The Ellison Awards.—The Editor.

At one time the typical cowman and
sheep-owner thought of Wyoming only as
a ranching state and could little picture
our present state with its cultivated fields,
flour mills, sugar refineries, canning fat,
tories, and other advanced agricultural in­
dustries. A part of Wyoming will always
remain as range country, but some of its
richer range country has been converted
into satisfactory farming land. The value
of farm crops in 1928 proved their success
and equaled the value of livestock sold.
Farming is practiced profitably in Wy­
oming, both by irrigating the farms and
by dry farming. Under irrigation, fine
crops of alfalfa, sugar beets, beans, pota­
toes, corn, vegetables, and small grains
are raised. Forty-five thousand acres of
sugar beets were grown in 1928 to supply
the state’s four sugar refineries. A fifth
sugar mill is now under construction at
AVheatland this year. With an acreage of
22,000 in 1928, dried beans brought nearly
$1,200,000 to their producers. Dry farms
are now in use in the eastern part of the
state. They produce good harvests of al­
falfa, wheat, oats, barley, corn, potatoes,
and various grasses. The abundant sun­
shine and other climate conditions furnish
a better quality of product, therefore we
receive a better price.
The dairy industry also has its proper
place in agricultural development. The
thousands of head of dairy stock have
brought their producers an ever increasing
profit up in the millions of dollars. Ilogs
have brought a profitable return, too. Wy­
oming is not thought of as a honey state
but in 1928 nearly 3,000,000 pounds of
honey were produced. Turkeys alone
brought $1,000,000. The yearly output of
eggs and poultry is worth about $3,000,000.
In the recording of our agricultural de­
velopment, it is important to take into con­
sideration that there are only 250,000 peo­
ple in the state. The previous figures are
more outstanding when the relation is
shown between them and the population.
The value of the mineral resources of
Wyoming has reached the enormous sum
of $150,000,000,000. This seems a large

�16

THE M1DWE8T

figure but if you consider when mineral
development began, it is a more reasonable
sum. Coal mining has been a leading in­
dustry of the state for many years. The
production during the last decade is an
extremely high number of tons. Wyoming
leads all other states in coal reserves. Mar­
kets are the largest problem now. AVyoming is also rich in iron. With the Seminoe
district in the central part of the state, the
reserves of iron are estimated at about five
hundred million tons.
The greatest developing mineral asset
of the state at this time lies in its rich oil
production. Eventually the black oils of
AVyoming will become of greater value to
the industry and to the state, but as it is,
they can best be left in the ground except
for some small present use as road oil, as­
phalt, and fuel oil. Its high sulphur con­
tent and the lack of gasoline make it unfit
for the present markets, for it is now too
costly to refine and compete with light oils
at present prices. The value of nearly 30,000,000 barrels of crude oil produced in
1925 was $50,000,000. Due to low price
and the closing down of oil fields in 1928
the production had dropped to 21,000,000
barrels.
The Salt Creek Field, greatest light oil
field in the world, located forty-five miles
from Casper, Wyoming, is operated under
most efficient methods. Gas pressures are
preserved to force the oil from the sands,
thus preventing water from entering the
sands. Many of the fine highways and
public schools would not be possible if it
were not for the production of petroleum.
Eleven National Forest Reserves of over
8,500,000 acres are in this state. These re­
serves furnish large amounts of merchant­
able timber.

BEVIEW

Wyoming is outstanding for its scenic
attractions. The great Yellowstone Na­
tional Park, recognized as the greatest
natural wonderland and summer play­
ground in the world, may be considered to
head the scenic attractions of the state.
The Park is in nearly the same condition
that it was in previous years, therefore it
is the place where man and nature come
closer together and I think it will always
be held priceless for this one purpose.
Much development has taken place in four
or five centers of attraction of the Yel­
lowstone. The lake, the canyon, the for­
ests, and the waterfalls are some of the
Park’s earliest features but many new
ones, such as the “1928 Geyser” have
sprung up in unexpected places. Old
Faithful Geyser is the biggest attraction
of the Yellowstone.
Every summer thousands of Eastern
tenderfeet get a rare glimpse of the AVest
—of vast areas, of cowmen and wranglers,
of bucking bronchos and rodeos. There
are now located in AVyoming about one
hundred ‘ ‘ Dude ’ ’ Ranches. These ranches
are maintained by old time AA^esterners.
These “Dude” Ranches are summer homes
for the man who seeks adventure like that
of the rough cowboy days of old.
AHsualize the total amount of the re­
sources of the state, and you will see Wy­
oming as a common-wealth now making
good progress in the development of her
extensive resources and with a future of
more wealth than previously secured.
Sources of Material and Statistics:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Frank C. Emerson. “Wyoming's Resource As­
sets.’’ Midwest Refining Co., Midwest, Wyom­
ing, July and August. 1929.
Bancroft. “The History of Oil.’’ XXV.
Hodge. “Handbook of North American Indians.’’
R. H. Alcorn. “Wyoming’s Advantages.’’ Wy­
oming Press Association. Cheyenne, Wyoming,
Jan., 1930.

�April,

1932

THE VOICE OF THE SPORTSMAN

Page S

Scenic Beauties of the CHest
By
ALFRED I. MOKLER

PALISADES OF THE WIND RIVER.
Looking Northeasterly from Brooks Lake. One of the many charming spots in the Rocky Mountains.
Courtesy of Alfred J. Mokler’s “Transition of the West.

Words are inadequate to properly describe the
wonderful scenic beauties of the West. The rugg-ed
mountains, mighty plains, dense forests, pictur­
esque lakes, marvelous geysers, snow-capped peaks,
petrified forests, great glaciers, marvelous hot
springs, and above all the glorious sunsets, must be
seen to be fully appreciated.
In the spring and early summer months the vast
undulating plains are covered with verdure and
adorned with a great variety of wild flowers, re­
sembling the green waves and white-capped swells
of the sea; along the banks of the mountain streams
there is a fringe of timber; the foothills are covered
with dense green forests, and the summits of the
mountains, some of which are covered with eternal
snow, stretch out like a long, low line of white
clouds along the western sky.
In the fall of the year the leaves on the trees are
to purple, red and
'gold, of the most beautiful hues, the grass and flow­
ers of the plains have changed to gray and in the
winter months the whole is covered with the white
shroud of snow. Volumes have been written about
these wonderful attractions, and after the first visit
among them there is instilled in the human breast
always to return, and after having re­
sided here for a time, few people are satisfied to live
any place else.

The world’s greatest natural wonders and most
beautiful scenery are in the Rocky Mountain Coun­
try. More healthful attractions, alluring forests and
streams for the pleasure-seeker and inviting pros­
pects for varied industries are here than in any other
region in the world. A vast and rich territory, which,
less than 100 years ago was a wilderness, inhabitated only by wild animals and hostile Indians and
almost impenetrable by white man, now contains
ten millions of people who have builded for them­
selves pleasant homes and modern, thriving cities
Of this country it may be truly said: “The wilder­
ness has blossomed like a rose and the waste places
have been made glad by the industry of civilized
man. ’
The Indians called these mountains and valleys
and plains their “La-no-wa,” meaning the land of the
road to paradise. The white man has made the In­
dian s La-no-wa a land of peace and plenty.
The Far-Famed Tetons
The far-famed Teton range, lying south of the
y ellowstone National Park, presents a splendid and
magnificent piece of scenery. The “Three Tetons”
are culminating points of this Alpine range and the
mountains is the Grand Teton,
which pierces the blue sky with an altitude of 13 747
^et. Of the mighty and majestic Tetons, Hiram M
Chittenden presents this beautiful pen pictureH

'' ill FT'TTilf ili'liBiiiibb i "

�capacity, when pr(\periy
MHHMMIIHHgMkiaSHHW
fished. A recent sih;;^vey
. |
of Nebraska t r dtU t
streams showed th'^t ’
the beautifl
the necessity of 1^™^SigJtwe®™
proving natural conaP^^
than\hTneJd fo? restoci\ing, and the remits will be
better in proportion to th^ effort expendefci.
Good Results With Little Effort
The winter months offer^n excellent opportuniy
to improve streams conditions by building retards
and dams, which serve sevei^al
to aerate the water, vary tho„ speed of the cu"e
to form deep pools, to increase food suppb and to
help prevent erosion of creek banks.
The cost of construction of the retards will vary
with stream conditions. By caref^ul selection of the
retards there are few streams which cannot be
nroved at a minimum of cost and\labor.
r'
P In the spring of 1930, the State o| Nebraska Game
Forestration and Parks Commissi^
StS
construction of a number of retards along Sted
Creek in Holt County and on the Verchgres Cre^k
in Antelope County. The condition ,of the streains
had become such that there was littU food or coi e
left Stock had trampled down the banks and oxer
hanging grass and shrubs which furnished food and
shelter
the trout. Obstructions of naany different
kinds were used. Brush, logs ^tumps ^nd old trees
■ such as willow, which have little valine as fuel o
^^*Trees ^were felled so that their tops\were down
stream, the butts were wired to tree
number 9 wire. They were sP fastened Jhat fihe ed
dies formed by them would wash outi holes and
create pools. In some places? a tree was ^stened on
either side of the stream and,tops were tied toget,
thus forming a deep, narrow channel, which afford
ed excellent places for fish to hide, and ^eed on the

‘"Tstill different type of dam was made by laymg
----- several logs lengthwise inffhe stream, and^ on these
were laid logs crosswise in the stream with their
butts buried in the bank. The purpose of the length-

^l,e”»t^'«^^kes to ;

; ' e■

.et a

will beat this range ,
•
j i ^.^rrel and the
As to accuracy the
the world
.30-06 cartridge are the.most^ccut
LT %t°'cl,”i:'':be‘’re';?Sa’ and see ^ba. the
believe this cnecK n
cbnots and Camp
boys are shooting at your
about the super­
Perry. You are going to ask
accurate 22 long rif
taro-et rifles with hand
really good one) an som
g
ranges
loads, but remember 1 saicl irom
to 1,200 yards.

I. wH, pay the sman bore jho»tor‘o take a ^ood
look at the new Lyman 48 J rear signi ____ _______
.

Tur__ 1 1 rn

—

�May, 1932

THE VOICE OF THE SPORTSMAN

Page 7

Scenic Beauties of the West
Ry

ALFRED J. MOKLER
Mr. Mokler’s graphic description of western wonders is continued from the
April number of this magazine

THE FAR-FAMED TETON MOUNTAINS, VIEWED FROM THE EAST SIDE OF JACKSON LAKE. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL
SCENERY IN THE WORLD IS IN AND AROUND THESE “ALPS OF AMERICA.” (NOTE THE FACE OF THE DOG IN THE
PEAK TO THE EXTREME RIGHT.)
—Courtesy of Alfred J. Mokler’s “Transition of the West”

The Yellowstone National Park
The Yellowstone National park is the wonderland
of the West. With its geysers, boiling pools, cav­
erns, terraces, petrified forests marvelous hot
springs, mud volcanoes, crystal lakes, lofty moun­
tains, beautiful streams—with their wonderful cas­
cades and waterfalls—-dense forests, the home of
birds, elk, deer, bear, moose, buffalo, beaver, moun­
tain sheep, and other wild animals of many kinds,
attracts hundreds of thousands of people from all
parts of the world, and it is undoubtedly the bestknown national park in America. This park is
sixty-two miles long and fifty-four miles wide,
giving an area of 3,348 square miles, or 2,142,720
acres.
It is located in northwestern Wyoming, encroach­
ing slightly upon Montana and Idaho; 3,114 miles,
or 1,992,962 acres being in Wyoming; 198 square
miles, or 125,720 acres in Montana, and thirty-six
square miles, or 23,020 acres in Idaho. It has an
average elevation of about 8,000 feet above the sea
level. The entire region is volcanic, and is remark­
able for its hot water phenomena. The internal
heat of the earth which approaches close to the

surface causes the geysers to play at quite regular
intervals. For many years the geyser known as Old
Faithful has played with an average regularity of
every sixty-five minutes, and some of the quite
small ones play every few minutes, while some of
the larger ones play at irregular intervals of days,
weeks or months. There are hundreds of small, bub­
bling hot springs in this park which throw water
from two to three feet in the air from once to three
times a minute; these springs are really small, im­
perfectly formed geysers. The action of the geysers,
which are regarded with wonder by many people,
is caused by water from the surface trickling
through cracks in the rocks, or water from subter­
ranean springs collecting in the bottom of the gey­
ser’s crater, down among the strata of immense
heat, which becomes itself intensely heated and
gives off steam, which expands and forces upward
the cooler water that lies above it. It is then that
the water at the surface of the geyser begins to
bubble and give off clouds of steam, which is a
prelude to the playing, or spouting of the geyser.
When the water at the bottom reaches so great an
expansion under continued heat that the less
heated water above can n.b longer weigh it down.

�Page 8

THE VOICE OF THE SPORTSMAN

May,

1932

it bursts upward with great violence, rising at quite they lie in straight lines at easy angles, from which
a distance in the air and continues to play until jut high rocky prominences. Sometimes they lie in
practically all the W’ater in the crater has been huge hollows carved from the sidewalls. Here and
expelled. The water, which cools after coming in there jagged rocky needles rise perpendicularly for
contact with the air, falls back to the ground and hundreds of feet like groups of gothic spires.
again seeps through the surface to gather as before
“And the whole is colored as brokenly and vividly
in the crater’s depth, and in a greater or less time, as the field of a kaliedoscope. The whole is streaked
accor ding to
and spotted
difficulities in
and stratified
the way of its
in every shade
return, be­
from the deep­
comes heated
est orange to
to the bursting
the faintest
point, when
lemon ; from
the geyser
deepest crim­
spouts again.
son through all
These hot wa­
the grays and
ter formations
pearls to glis­
and spouting
tening white.
spouting gey­
The greens arc
sers are interfurnished by
esting ankl
the dark pines
beautiful to
above, the
look upon. But
lighter shades
more beautiful
of growth
and awe-in­
caught here
spiring is the
and there in
Grand Canyon
soft masses on
of the Yellow­
the gentler
stone, a scenic
slopes and the
feature of mar­
foaming green
velous hue and
of the plung­
coloring.
ing river far
Quoting from
below. The
a publication
blues, ever
tion of the In­
changing, are
terior Depart­
found in the
ment : “The
dome of the
Grand Canyon
sky overhead.
of the Yellow­
“It is a spec­
stone affords a
tacle which
spectacle wor­
one looks up­
thy of a na­
on in silence.”
tional park
But the gey­
where there
sers and cas­
are no geysers.
cades and falls
Standing upon
are by no
I n s piration
means all the
Point, which
wonders of the
pushes out al­
park. The fos­
most to the
sil, or petrified
center of the
forests, which
canyon, one
are said to
seems to look
cover more
almost verti­
than 35,000
cally down up­ “CHIMNEY ROCK,’’ AS SEEN FROM THE EAST ENTRANCE TO THE YELLOWSTONE acres, contain
NATIO.NAL PARK
on the foam­
many trunks
ing Yellowand branches
stone river. To the south a waterfall twice the of trees which thousands of years ago were alive
height of Niagara rushes seemingly out of the pine­ and green as are the trees in the park today. “Trav­
clad hills and pours downward to be lost again in ersing the valley of the Lamar river one may see
green. From that point two or three miles to where at many places numerous upright fossil trunks in
you stand and beneath you widens out the most the faces of nearly vertical walls. These trunks are
glorious kaliedoscope of color you will ever see in not all at a particular level, but occur at irregular
nature. The steep slopes, dropping on either side heights; in fact, a section cut down through these
a thousand feet and more from the pine-towered 2,000 feet of beds would disclose a succession of
levels above, are inconceivably carved and fretted fossil forests. That is to say, after the first forest
by the frost and the erosion of the ages. Sometimes grew and . was entpmbed there was a time without

�May, 1932

THE VOICE OF THE SPORTSMAN

Page 9

volcanic outburst—a period long enough-to permit
Outdoor Playgrounds
a second forest to grow above the first. This in
turn was covered by volcanic material and pre­
The grandeur and fastnesses of any and all of
served, to be followed again by a period of quiet, these ranges of mountains in the midwest of the
and these more or less regular alternations of vol­ Continent appeals to those who are seeking rest,
canism and forest growth continued throughout the recreation and re-creation of nerves and body, and
time the beds were in process of formation. Geo­ every summer many visitors find their way to the
logical change.s are exceedingly slow. No geologist timber-clad hills and snow-capped peaks, where
would dare predict that a few thousand years from they forget their business cares and enjoy fishing
now the present forests of Yellowstone park may lie and hunting during the day, a hearty supper and a
buried under another layer of lava on top of which tranquillizing pipe in the evening, a sound sleep
may flourish a new Yellowstone.”
during the night, and a sunny disposition and con­
The first American to enter the region of this park tented mood in the morning. These are the great
■was John Colter of Saint Louis, but he received outdoor playgrounds where nature has been undis­
little credit for his discoveries. He was in the em­ turbed by the hand of man and people come to visit
ploy of Manuel
them from eve­
Lisa, a fur trad­
ry state in the
er, in the sumunion, and
m e r of 1807,
many come here
and when they
from Europe to
reached the
remain during
mouth of the
the summer
Big Horn river,
months. The
Lisa sent Colter
snow-storms of
out to inform
the
late spring
the Indians that
and early fall
he was in their
are somewhat
country and
of a handicap,
wished to trade
but
the snows of
with them. Colwinter
must
ter traveled
melt and the
more than 500
flowers of sum­
miles, crossing
mer must with­
the Wind river
er, in the moun­
and the Teton
tains as well as
mountains, go­
in the valleys,
ing through
and the people
what was after­
who camp in
wards known as
the
mountains
Union, but now
must prepare a
Two - gwo - tee
shelter for bad
Pass, and trav­
MAMMOTH CAMP FROM TERRACES. THIS IS YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
weather if they
eled diagonally
HEADQUARTERS
go in the early
across what is
—Photo by Haynes, St. Louis
spring
or expect
now the Yellow­
, , .
, ,, T
•
remain until
stone Park.
(To-go-te, or Two-gwo-tee, was a late
in the fall. In midsummer the splendor of the
mountain Shoshone, or sheep eater Indian, the name climate is beyond adequate description; the morn­
meaning in the Shoshone Indian language, a spear. ings and evenings are always cool and the middle
To-go-te and one or two others of his clan, being of the day is pleasant; extreme heat is seldom
more familiar with the mountain passes than other known, and the cool, refreshing temperature is
Shoshones, were designated by Chief Washakie to enjoyed; the sky is of a deep blue color and in the
guide President Chester A. Arthur and his party evenings the sunsets are magnificent.
from Fort Washakie to the Yellowstone National
During your travels you find many canyons and
Park in 1883. Since that time the trail they traveled chasms. Ihey are deep and dark and dangerous to
over the divide has been called To-go-te Pass.) descend, and there are also monstrous rocks that
When Colter told his companions of the hissing rise like walls of the skyscrapers of the large cities.
sounds of the hot water emitting from the earth, of
When you return to your camp after a day’s ex­
the spouting springs, the roaring falls, the wonder­ plorations and have finished your plainly-cooked
ful lake and the many other wonders of this region, but wholesome supper and sit around the camp fire
they considered his yarns as one of their own kind m the evening enjoying your pipe your are undis­
and did not believe him. After returning to his turbed with the thoughts of commercialism or so­
home in Saint Louis, he told of his discoveries to cial contests. A mountain fire need be your only
explorers and historians, but they did not take him fear. These fires are caused only by the careless
seriously and it was not until many years later that or inexperienced camper, but when once started
tliey cause more damage and are more dangerous
explorers entered into the region and found all that than a prairie fire. The rushing blasts which roar
Colter had related to be true.
wX
«‘’‘‘"'S and find their
way to the deep gorges. The crash of the fallen
trees, tumbling from crags and precipices, the lick­
ing flames and clouds of dense smoke is a sight that
never can be forgotten. Frequent but briS raim
storms come hurrying past amLrage with great fory
or a short time, and then pass off, leaving even­
thing fresh, calm and serene
restful and rapturous to hear

�for a short time, and then pass off, leaving every­
thing fresh, calm and serene.
It is truly delightful, restful and rapturous to hear
the song of the birds, to behold the verdure of the
valley and the grove, the beautiful clouds, and the
glowing rays of the sunset, all of which gladdens
the heart and brings contentment to the mind.
Imangine yourself, you who do not know the
wonder of the West, standing upon the spur of some
granite range that rises several thousand feet above
the plains; back of you and above you are the
mountains; before you and below you lies the
world. In the distance to the north and west more
than a hundred miles away, rises groups of snow­
capped peaks through air so clear you see the shad­
ows on them. Between you and these snow-capped
peaks, and to the far West there are miles upon
miles of the plains; league upon league they stretch
away to the shifting elusive horizon, and mile upon
mile beyond that, hidden only by the curve of the
earth itself. Here and there a tiny blur, detected in
the midst of their color, rises the smoke from the
engine of some loaded train following its thread
of steel across the emptiness, yet no sound of man
comes to your silence. Wheel and whistle are lost
in the mightiness below you. Vast, sunlit, frail, the
peopled world is airy as a dream. So dreamlike are
its colors, so fleeting that you find yourself holding
your breath lest it vanish quite away. It is a land of
color, and the masses of stone which form the bleak
cliff, spire and gorge seem to vary in tint and hue,
the prevailing ashy gray changing at dawn and twi­
light by the sun's rays, which transforms them into
glowing masses of rose and red, making a harmon­
ious contrast with the vivid greens of grassland
along the foothills.
But the deserts of the far West show the utter­
most glory of color. Crimson and dun and blue,
rifted with the golden sands of some dried water­
course, far and away stretch the desert flowers,
the white skies over them and always the mountain
purple and lavender beyond their horizons. Deeper
become the colors; richer, more luminous as the
westward miles are traversed, until one catches up
with the sunset. The loneliness and mystery of the
West, as well as its color, are in the desert.
The desert loneliness is not that of the prairies,
that seem free from the tread of human foot since
the world began, but is a loneliness forever bur­
dened with a sense of haunting, vanished races.
Vanished races have been there; their trail is worn
across the painted desert; some of them are nestling
in the crannies of the cliffs, but trail and home have
nothing to do with the sense of their presence in the
land; it is felt, not inferred. But with all this vast
waste of land, with all the mystery and loneliness
it creates to look upon it, there dwells a spirit that
once it has touched the wanderer, leaves him home­
less in other places forever after.
Much of the old wilderness is practically un­
changed. The mountains are the same, except that
the menacing Indians are gone and men of science
are free to come into them and locate the rich min­
eral deposits that have been hidden there for thou­
sands of years; artists and poets may come and seek
inspiration in them; the overworked and weary
busines tnan may leave the turmoil of the city and
in these enchanting, soul-inspiring giants of rfature
of matchless grandeur, find quietude and a variety
of scenery that will satisfy the mind and relax his
tightened nerves.
With the thousands of prosperous cities and 10,000,000 progressive people in the valleys, with this
free, health-giving, God-loving country, transformed
from a desert waste to a land of plenty, reclaimed
from barbarism to civilization, surely it was not
against the will of God that the white man should
incite this glorious Transition of the West.

�Page

10

THE VOICE OF THE SPORTSMAN

May,

1932

H Day s Runt in the Long Hgo
Ry

DR. FRED HORTON
In the early Nineties, antelope in countless thou­
sands roamed the prairies of northeastern Wyo­
ming. It was not unusual to see them in sight of
town, I have gone out in the early dawn on my
faithful hunting horse and would be back with my
antelope in time for breakfast with the family. At
that time the season was open from January first to
December thirty-first.
Where game wfis abundant predatory animals,
such as the grey wolf, coyote and bobcat lived and
thrived abundantly on'the game and livestock.
Usually my two buddies, Al, Put, and myself,
hunted together and a finer pair of buddies no man
ever had. Thanks to the early training of our fath­
ers we had been taught to never waste game or fish.
I don’t think that any one of us ever wasted an
edible piece of a game animal. However, I have
seen sportsmefi, so called, cut off the saddles of their
antelope and leave the rest of the careass for the
coyotes. We never hunted antelope in the summer
time with the exception of one day.
An antelope is at his prime 'for eating purposes
along about the first of June, Then the bucks are
fat, lazy and juicy. The three families could dis­
pose of this one animal before any of the me-at
would spoil and no meat would be wasted. Then we \
laid off on the antelope until fall when we went on
our annual hunt which usually lasted for a week
or ten days of glorious hunting and camping.
In pursuance of our usual custom we planned for
a day’s hunt early in June. Shells were loaded (in
those days we loaded our own rifle shells), lunch
put up and alarm clocks set for two A. M. We
wanted to get out in the antelope country by day­
light as the first two hours of daylight are worth
all of the balance of the day for hunting antelope
and daylight comes very early in this latitude.
I had developed a strong desire to capture a
young antelope for a pet for my young son, then
three or four years of age and hoped to accomplish
the feat on this trip. There is probably no wild ani­
mal that is easier to tame and domesticate than the
young antelope. Within forty-eight hours after you
put one on the bottle he is yours entirely and will
follow you any place but he requires about the same
care in feeding that does a babe of his age.
We retired early, full of hope and anticipation. A
few minutes before two my door bell rang. I jumped
up with a muttered exclamation, of “There goes my
hunt,’’ and with further exclamations on the way to
the door, which my wife declared sounded like
swear words, I found a young man who said, “My
brother is very sick and we want you to come right
out and see him.” My heart missed a few beats but
I said, “Where do you live?” He said, “Out on Oil
crefek.” My heart came back with a snap; that waS-.
within a half mile of where we expected to start our^,
hunt. Every thing was looking auspicious.
’■

This was long before the advent of the automo­
bile. Our equipment for travel consisted of a single,
light top buggy and our three saddle horses. I
hastily hitched the horse to the buggy and, leaving
the other boys to bring the saddle horses, I drove
to the home of the sick boy and by the time the
boys arrived I had the lad attended to and made
comfortable and was ready for the hunt.
We drove down to the ranch about a half mile,
where we were to leave the buggy and take to our
horses, but here we discovered that Put had pulled
one of his not infrequent boners. He had the bad
habit, when starting on a hunt, of forgeting either
his gun or his ammunition. This time he had for­
gotten both. We sent him back to the home where
I had visited the sick boy to borrow a rifle and Al
and I rode up on the top of the ridge to await his
return. From this ridge, where we were reclining,
there was spread out before us one of the most
beautiful panoramas that the eye of man has ever
beheld.
To the east some twenty miles away the morning
sun was just tinging the highest pinnacles of the
beautiful Black Hills, painting each spire in colors
of red, gold and blues, while to the west as far as
the eye could see, rolled the undulating prairies
clothed in soft grasses of early summer and dotted
with the most gorgeous display of wild flowers in a
riot of all the colors of the rainbow. It was good
just to be alive on such a morning and brought to
mind the words of the poet, “Where every prospect
pleases and only man is vile.”
We were soon brought to our feet by a flash of
brown and white, where Put on his way back had
flushed a doe and fawn who were heading our way.
We hastily mounted and the chase was on. The
fawn gave us a hard race for a mile or two but soon
began to tire and we picked him up. Object number
one accomplished within one hour. Then for the
buck. Following down the ridge for a short dis­
tance, we spied a fat buck, some two hundred yards
away lying down on a side hill taking a siesta. As
there was no cover whereby we might approach
closer, we decided to all take a shot at him together.
With the usual result of such tactics, we all missed.
After watching the buck disappear in the distance,
we turned around to retrieve our mounts only to
discover that Al’s horse had bolted and was heading
for South Dakota at no mean pace. He gave us a
hard run for about three miles before I cornered
him under a cut bank and led him back.
As I turned I saw Al slipping back and forth
along a ridge; he would slip along a short distance,
then crawl up and peak over the ridge, then slip
back the other way and repeat the maneuver. I
knew that he had a bunch of antelope spotted that
were feeding along this ridge. As I came up to him,
he said, “There is a nice buck in this bunch. Get

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�Whichever way Shb turn«rt lite eye i»tewsw3 confounded by the vastnees and varlety oi objecte.

Beneath Mmn the Rocky Viountain£^n,8aoraipl to open all their

secret receeeas; deep, soleran valleys; treaiured likeej dreary passes; rug­

ged dexiles, and toazning toxoents; while beyond theit savage precincts the

eye «»s lost in almoct iiwneasurable landscap?; stretching on evry side into

dim and hazy distance, like the expanse of a summer’s sea.
look«8i

Whichever way'ife

beheld vast plains glimjiering with reflected sunshine; mighty

streams wandering on their shining course toward either ocean, and snowy
mountains, chain beyond chain, and peak beyond peak, till they msltMB like

clouds into the horizon.

df

The peak upon whinh

oi.y'

standACommandte the whole Wind River Bhagh; which, in fact, may be consid­
ered

one immense mountain, broken into snowy peaks and lateral spurs,

seamed with narrow valleys.

Pome of these valleys glitt.ersii with silver

�lakes and gushing st reams; the fountain head, as it were, of the niighty~trib-

utaries to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Beyond the snow pe-»ka, to the

south, and far, far below the mountain range, the gentle river, C'lled the
Swaetv^ater,x\ilj^ seen pursuing its tranquil way tlirough the rugged regions

ot the Black Hills.

In the east, the head- aters of the Wind/iver wander^

a plain until, mingling in one powerful current, they force# thelx
way through the Fig Horn mountains and wm lost to view.

To the north

caught glimpses of the upper streams of the Yellowstone, that great tributary

of the Missouri.

In ether directions

to be seen some of the sources of

the Oregon, or Columbia, flowing to the northwest, p^st those towering land­
marks, Ghe thr^^Tetons, ana pouring down into the great lava plain; while

almost a-

feat, the CreenXiver, or the Colorado of the ^?e6t,

ipt

SQtS'forth on its wandering pilgrimage to the Gulf of California’; at first a
mare mountain torrent, rtaahins northTOrd over ciag and preoiploa.in a euo-

eeeeion ot ORoaaioa. end tumbling Into the plain, .here, expanding into an
ample river, it oiroleS away to the aouth, and after alternately ihlning out

and iie.-.ppeering in the mazes of the vaot landeoape,
of mountains," S

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Wind river flow's toward the north through the
Wind River canyon. As the water leaves the canyon
it becomes Big Horn river. In this cawyon there are
many interesting formations. Oblique’rocks'rise in
sphinx-like shapes a thousand feet above the bed of
the river. There are castle formations. Waterfalls
corne tumbling out of the rock-formed canvon sides
falling hundreds of feet, joining their voices ' with'
that of the river in a mighty chorus that resounds
like an echo through the
flowing east and
then south to the sea.
Ten years after Bonneville visited these wonderful mountainsycame John C. Fremont, and it was on
this expedition in 1842 that Fremont Peak and Freniont Lake were given a permanent name. Excerpts
report to Congress enable the reader
To gam a»» excebent word picture of this most beautiful mountain range:
At sunrise a lofty snow peak of the mountain is
glittering in the first rays of the sun, which has not
yet reached us. The long mountain wall to the east,
rising 2,000 feet abruptly from the plain, behind
which we see the peaks, is still dark, and cuts clear
against the glowing sky. The scenery becomes
hourly more interesting and grand and the view here
is truly magnificent. The whole valley is glowing
and bright and all the mountain peaks are gleaming
like silver. We come unexpectedly upon a most
beautiful lake, set like a gem in the mountains. Here,
again, a view of the most romantic beauty met our
eyes. It seemed as if nature had collected all her
beauties together in one chosen place. It is not by
the splendor of far-ofif views, which have lent such
a glory to the Alps, that these impress the mind, but
by a gigantic disorder of enormous masses and a
savage sublimity of naked rock, in wonderful contrast with innumerable green spots of rich floral
be_auty, shut up in their stern recesses.”

�“Lake Geneva” in the Big Horn Mountains under “Cloud Peak”-^fed by the waters of living glaciers^j^^There are more
than 200 shimmering lakes and 1^00 miles of trout streams in this region. Peaks rising to elevations of from ten to twelve
thousand feet may be seen from the Black and Yellow Trail which crosses this range. ParHre¥'4^^^©^‘^»atieTl'-»egal&gt;d«^g---the

bovettz-antP-GteyfeulL

Laramie Peak/one of the most picturesque in the Kocky Mountain Region. The Old Oregon Trail, where thejCovered
.M agon broke thro'Qgh, passes between this mountain and the Platte^River. It is tributary to the Park to Park and AtlanticYellowstone-Pacinc Highways, -(liswer^

Natural Bridge, on LaPrele /€Jreek, between Douglas and Glenrock, yone of the most remarkable freaks of rugged
scenery in the Rockies. Located in a natural park setting it is the rendezvous for tourists and picnic parties. The
immediate vicinity was the scene of many Indian skirmishes in the days of long ago and is along the route of the Old
Oregon Trail.

The Devil’s Tower (Matoe Tepee)
of the twenty-four National ^Monuments, is located in northeastern Wyoming.
Towering 1^80 feet above the Belle Fourche River, it is majestic and awsome. The shaft proper is 800 feet high
above its stump. In the coloring nature has painted it with a multicolored brush and has excited the admiration of some
of the most noted artists. It is tributary to the Custer Battlefield Highway and Black and Yellow 4'rail. G41L&gt;4:tond a n

CTmmf&gt;»flMi&gt;&gt;fcbrhe-^Iejlly-&lt;£iu-&lt;xiah--cniap1ete informqtian

Rugged Shoshone jGanyon west of Cody-on the road to
grand scenic points of the state. The walls of the canyon are
and Cedar^^Mountain on the left. The two constituted a single
center of solid rock. At the upper end of the canyon is located

voglnp

the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park, one of the
nearly perpendiculaiu with Rattlesnake Mountain on the right
mountain urjtil the river cut a deep, narrow gash through it?
Shoshone ^am, second highest in the world.

T T. Premont Lake^in the heart of the Rockies, is one of Wyoming’s most famous sheets of water. Discovered by General
Premont, the grea&gt; pathfinder. The water of this lake is so pure it may be used in a storage battery. The lake is
tributary to the Hoback-Canyon region,

Safe in Jackson Hole, the wonder wild game retreat of the world. Elk gather by the thousands in their winter preserve
maintained by state and federal governments. Under the shadow of the majestic 'Tetons it is a virgin wonderland where
the elk, moose, deer and mountain sheep are making their last stand against the onward march of civilization. S7--i'f&gt;-ieeli&lt;
gives-'ilhi«lu:a^ed-J^cij«?es^4«i--+ou*iBts--each
.sunirti^.

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WYOMING FOR HEALTH AND
PLEASURE
Wyoming is the health and pleasure state of the nation.
It IS not difficult to demonstrate that Wyoming possesses more
natural and genuine attractions for -the health and pleasure - .seeker than any region of similar extent in the known world.
Her towering mountains,
mountain-locked parks, her grand
t/
rivers and awe-inspiring cartons and her broad areas, so tempt- V
ing to the research of all, have reaped the richest homage from,—~
the most cap.'^ble explorers and the best scholars of our land "
The savant, the sportsman and the pleasure seeker alike find
their ideal, and the invalid requiring an elevated region, and
in search of health-giving ^,atww-oii_^gfgm”esC
,
neverib* disappointed.
Wyoming’s many natural resources have attracted within
her borders the farmer, livestock man, the miner and the oil
producer^^aitfd.in these lines the best efforts of man have gone
tort^to make for the commonwealth a place among the lead­
ing states of the nation.
Wyoming has been progressive. Capable hands have been
at work to make thecate inviting to thewhether he
comes by rail or motor. The three principal railways serving
Wyoming are the Chicago and Northwestern, the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy and the Union Pacific. Its system of
highways are built on the highest standards,
great""'
trunk lines^ are the Park-to-Park Highway/, and the Lincoln
rHgfiwayi trtncr highways of national importance reaching
Cl”*
into every corner of the ,,H{ate are the Custer Battlefield,
Atlantic-Yellowstone-Pacific, Black and Yellow Trail and the
newly projected Glacier-to-Gulf Highway. Every city and
village in Wyoming extends a friendly greeting to the visiting
tourist and the homeseeker and have established information
bur^^s^^i tourist parks^a««i camps comparable with the best
in the nation.^ Tiw»^bg»6hure_Ls hut a. sbghi^rjKute-te-Wyo
in-caeye -detail
-ar-aa^^-cofiiaxacciaL^opganizatio»^^
-stfnriar seryrcer-We-iByrte-Hiquiri^s.

s

�Motor Travel

Picturesque and Historic Wyoming
The Casper District, Once Crossed Only by the Old
Oregon Trail, Now Reached Over Great Modern Highways

Alfred J. Mokler
Assessed valuation of city property, approximately $27,000,There are five banks and tioo trust companies, with
total resources of $15,750,000. Bank deposits have increased
1,100% in six years.
Casper is the most important city on the Yellowstone High­
way, and a division point on both the Burlington and Chi­
cago &amp; Northwestern railways. It has an abundant supply
of rMtural gas, a great factor in the industrial development
of the community.
Caspers educational system supports a corps of 176 highly
paid teachers; sixteen churches minister to the religious life
of the community. The Casper Chamber of Commerce is a
very active commercial organization; Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions
and Business and Professional IT Oman’s Clubs are among
the leading service organizations in the State.

Casper, the County seat of Natrona County, fFyoming, has
a population (estimated by averaging the increase of five
business indicators since 1920), of 32,114, a gain of 180%
in four years. In the oil refining industry alone, it employs
approximately 4,000 men, with an annual pay-roll of $12,000,000. The daily output of its refineries is about 1,171,428
gallons of gasoline, 320,000 gallons of kerosene, 50 tons of
wax and 20 tons of asphalt.
Casper has 57 miles of water mains, 39 miles of sewers and
30 miles of concrete and bitulithic pavement; improvements
by the city during 1923 totaled $770,000. Building permits
by individuals and business houses, irrespective of the re­
fineries, totaled $4,063,618 during 1923. The building of the
first units of the llliite Eagle Refinery was practically com­
pleted last year.

any

people have had an en­

erroneous conception of
M tirely
the extent of the Oregon Trail,

which was at times several miles wide,
and traveled for so many consecutive
years that all of them could not fol­
low in the same path. The Old Ore­
gon Trail in fact “hugged” the hank of
the North Platte Jtiver all the way
from Fort Larami; to the Sweetwater.
It not only f.-.lh wod the oorth hank
of the Platte, but there were times
when the emigrants stayed on the
south side of that stream for miles.
There are many crossings between the
Sweetwater and old Fort Laramie, as
will be seen from reading accounts
of early trips over this route.
Last summer the writer, in company
with Ezra Meeker, patriarch of the Ore­
gon Trail, inspected an old crossing
site just east of Glenrock, which is ap­
proximately twenty-eight miles east of
Casper; and were confident that we
located the crossing described in the
diary of W. P. Woods of June 21,
1849. To all appearances the emi­
grants of the 4O’s and 5O’s crossed
from the south bank to the north bank
at this point; and crossed again from
the north bank to the south bank at a
point approximately four miles east
of Casper.
They crossed again from the south
bank to the north bank at a point ap­
proximately
and one-half miles
west of the present city of Casper, and
the trail is very clearly outlined from
the crossing west of Casper all the
way to the Sweetwater. In some places
the trail is still visible thirty or forty
feet deep in the sand; at other places
out on the level plain numerous tracks
are discernible, and the trail as a whole
has rather a “washboard” effect.
There is evidence that the Oregon

000.

Trailers, or some of them at least,
traveled the north bank between
Douglas and Casper; and as stated be­
fore, there is unmistakable evidence
that they crossed at a point three or
four miles east of Glenrock, near where
Deer Creek enters the Platte. They re­
crossed again three or four miles east
of the present city of Casper, and
again at a point about a tfiile and 'a
haff, west of Casper, vdiirh was known
as the Mormon Ferry in 1847, changed
to Platte Bridge Station in 1858, and
named Fort Caspar in 1865, in honor
of Lieutenant Caspar W. Collins, who

CENTER STREET, CASPER
Looking south, with a dim view of Casper Moun­
tain in the background. The parked automobiles
and buildings under construction index the busi­
ness activity and prosperity of the city and the
surrounding region.

15

was slain by the Indians at this point.
A ferry was in operation here inter­
mittently from 1847 to 1858, and a
wagon bridge was maintained from
1859 to 1867. In view of these facts,
it would be a mistake to say that the
early emigration “followed the north
bank of the Platte from old Fort Lara­
mie to the Sweetwater.”
It is our opinion that while the trail
followed generally the Platte Rivei all
the way from old Fort Laramie to the
Sweetwater, the emigrants were gov­
erned by the amount of water flowing
in the Platte at the time they happened
to be traveling. If the water was low,
they undoubtedly made several cross­
ings; but if the water was high they
evidently followed one side of the
river as far as they could possibly go.
The trail was never any great distance
from the river on either side, and for
that reason must have gone through
what is now the City of Casper or its
outskirts.
We doubt if there was ever any
great amount of travel along the south
bank between the present city of Cas­
per and the Sweetwater crossing, for
the reason that the walls of the can­
yons along the south bank were very
steep, and the south bank is more
mountainous from here on than the
north bank. The Oregon Trailers
could not possibly have taken a more
southerly route passing a little below
Casper, for the reason that they would
be shut off by the Casper range of
mountains.
Thirty-six years ago there was no
Casper; where the city is now located
was then a sandy sagebrush flat, home
of the prairie dog and coyote. It was
announced that the Northwestern Rail­
way Company would extend its line to
a point near old Fort Caspar during

�Motor Travel
the summer of 1888, and a town would
be built at the end of the road; but its
exact location had not been decided
upon.
John Merritt was the first to locate
here; he came in on horseback early in
June without even a tent. He had a
round-up bed, a few provisions and
an oyster can in which to make coffee
—all brought on a pack-horse. He
made his home under a cottonwood
tree on the river bank at a point about
due north from Ash street.
C. W. Eads was the second man to
come here to locate; he had learned
that the railroad was to be extended
and a town built at the end of the
line, and wanted to be one of the first
settlers in the new place. Mr. Eads ar­
rived in the evening of June 7, 1888,
when he found Mr. Merritt preparing
for supper by frying a piece of meat
on a stick and boiling his coffee in the
oyster can. Eads asked Merritt if he
had any idea where the town of Casper
was, and Merritt replied that he had
been here for some days, but had not
seen anything that looked like a
“town.”
Eads had a team and wagon, a tent,
sheet iron stove, a few utensils and
some provisions. With him were his
daughter Fannie, and his son, Kise.
The men put up the tent near the spot
where Merritt was cooking his supper,
and the next morning after breakfast
they looked over the ground. They
moved their tent to a spot now known
as McKinley and A streets, where they
established the town of Casper; others
came in the next day after Mr. Eads
arrived, and still others followed close­
ly in their steps.
The temporary town was built near
the tent which had been erected by Mer­
ritt and Eads on a strip of ground

about half a mile east of where the
Natrona County Court House now
stands, the exact location being be­
tween First and A streets and between
McKinley and Jefferson streets. About
a dozen business buildings stood on
this strip of land, half of them facing
the south and the other half looking
toward the north. The main street was
running east and west, and was about
the length of a city block.
These buildings were, of course,
only temporary structures, in which to
transact business until the permanent
location could be surveyed and
platted by the townsite company. The
material used in the construction of
these buildings was plain rough lum­
ber, hauled down from a sawmill on
Casper Mountain. A few carried on
their business in tents. The flooring in
most of these buildings, and in all of
the tents, was just earth with the sage­
brush and cactus cleared off. There
were three general merchandise stores,
one drug store, a hotel, one restaurant
and several saloons. Cowboys and
Indians were about the only people
that came in to do any trading, and
they spent most of their time and
money in the saloons.
The railroad was built in and
stopped near where the stock yards
are located, about a mile east from the
Court House. The first train arrived
on June 15, 1888; there were about a
hundred actual residents in Casper at
that time; and the event was celebrated
by the residents and visitors in a
manner long to be remembered. The
present townsite had not yet been sur­
veyed or platted when the railroad was
built in; it was late in the fall of 1888
before any of the lots were sold, and
none of the business houses were
moved to their permanent locations

until about the middle of November
of that year. The first business lot to
be sold in Casper was No. 13, in block
8, which is on the northwest corner of
Second and Center streets, where the
Stockman’s National Bank is located.
Nathan S. Bristol, the purchaser, put
up a small frame building on his lot,
in which he carried a small stock of
groceries and a line of grain and
stock-feed. The employes of the store
slept in this building, and for the first
few years their beds were surrounded
with sacks of grain to protect them
from bullets often fired during the
night by cowboys who had come in
from the range to celebrate. The pros­
pects for Casper to become anything
but a shambling, temporary frontier
village were not very encouraging.
Town lots were sold at a very small
price and the buildings erected were
put up as cheaply as possible. Most
of the people in business here were
of the opinion that the railroad would
soon be extended; and it was their in­
tention to move further west with the
railroad.
Application was made for the in­
corporation of the town of Casper by
John Merritt on April 9, 1889, to the
Board of County Commissioners of
Carbon County; there was no Natrona
County then. The county commis­
sioners acted favorably upon the ap­
plication, and a to.vn election was
ordered to be held on July 8, 1889. A
mass meeting of the citizens was held
at the Congregational Tabernacle on
July 6 for the purpose of nominating
candidates for mayor and councilmen;
at the first town election George Mitch­
ell was elected mayor; Robert White,
P. A. Demorest, A. McKinney and
John Adam, councilmen.
People who lived here then were

Photograph from Casper Chamber of Commerce
A CROSS SECTION OF CASPER, WYOMING
Taken from a point somewhat to the left of the view on page 15, showing in the background an extensive vista of comfortable homes, nearly all built within com­
paratively recent years. The oil tanks seen at the top of the opposite page are only a short distance over to the right (across Center Street) from this view.

16

�Motor Travel

From a Diary of 1849
Account of Crossing the North Platte Nearly 75 Years Ago.*

W. P. Woods ,
hursday,

June 21, 1849.—We

an early start and drove 12
Tmade
miles to the mouth of Deer Creek,

where we found teams crossing the
Platte. Four boats, each consisting of
two dugouts fastened together, had
been made by emigrants who had
crossed before and gone on, others
buying their rights and continuing the
work. We paid $3 per wagon for
the use of the boats, and swam the
oxen.
Just before reaching here the acci­
dental discharge of a gun by a mem­
ber of the Pittsburg Company, who
was unloading a wagon to make the
crossing, killed a man from Illinois,
the ball passing through the body just
above the heart. A man was drowned
here yesterday; and just 12 miles
above seven men have been drowned
in two days while rafting their wagons
across.
Buffalo have been seen again today.
A party of soldiers were met returning
to Fort Laramie with some stolen cat­
tle and horses, and two of the thieves.
We have driven the wagons on to the
bank of the stream and the cattle over
the hills to feed, and are waiting for
supper.
Friday, June 22, 1849.—We were
roused early and in good season com­
menced crossing our wagons. The line
for two miles along the river bank
presented as busy an aspect as it ordi­
narily does in St. Louis, or any other
small town in the States. Wagons in
* See reference to this diary in “Picturesqu^^
and Historic Wyoming,” page 15, column 1. /

pieces, boxes and chattels of al! kinds
made a scene of extraordinary activity
far out in this uninhabited western
country.
Our “boat” was called the “Two Pol­
lies and Betsy,” from there being two
dugouts, with a log between them.
Joining forces with the twelve Cincin­
nati mule trains, the “boat” started
off in style with 30 men to cordelle it
against the current. The men were
obliged to work in the water, which
rendered it quite unpleasant; but by '
4 o’clock p. m. we were across and
then drove the oxen down to swim.
With all of our efforts, swimming
and wading from that time until dark,
we could only get three of, them to
cross; so had at last to let them re­
turn to the shore, and weye obliged to
keep watch of them until tnorning. The
water is remarkably swift and cold, the
low temperature probably due to our
proximity to the snows of the moun­
tains. To the south of us, about four
miles from the Platte, there arises a
range of very high, pine-clad hills,
which appear to terminate in the_Laramie Mountains.
Saturday, June 23, 1849.—Again re­
sumed our labors by recrossing the
river for the purpose of crossing our
ox-teams, but at first with no better
success than the day before. Here we
witnessed scenes far surpassing any­
thing the imagination ever conceived—
.the long to be remembered crossing
of the Platte. No pencil can portray
or pen depict the scene as it really
was.

From the report of the Fremont expedition of 1842
HOT SPRING GATE, WYOMING
A deep channel cut by the North Platte River for about 400 yards through a sandstone ridge. Near this
spot the westward Oregon Trail leaves the North Platte and crosses over to the Sweetwater River.

20

Fancy for one moment our feelings
on observing the vast aggregation of
oxen, mules, horses and wagons, mixed
indiscriminately with men clothed,
half-clad and even almost naked, en­
countering the elements that were tem­
porarily stopping our progress. By
about noon we succeeded in crossing;
but . both men and teams were ex­
tremely exhausted.
/' The onlookers witnessed sights
ranging from the laughable to the
alarming. In one place six men were
assisted ashore by hanging to the tail
of a mule, with a rider on him at that,
while in another case, extreme effort.s
were being made to save a man from
drowning. A boat sank with a wagon
containing women and children, but
was saved by striking a bar.
I was carried by the swift current
outside the jam of cattle, and saved
myself by catching hold of the tail of
one as I passed him, and letting him
tow me to shore. Those scenes are
over, though we shall long remember
the crossing of the Platte. We yoked
mir teams and drove on over a very
rough and sandy road for about four
miles, where we encamped on the
river bank to feed our oxen and rest
ourselves. Many a man here wishe.s
himself back in the States.
For two days a dense cloud of smoke
has been rising from a hill far off to
the south; it may be pine timber fired
by Indians or hunters, or a bed of
coal on fire. We are camped in a
pleasant spot among a grove of cotton­
woods; the smoke from the stoves
curls up among their branches. It has
rained and hailed a little today; but
at times the sand was so hot that I
could not endure it barefooted, and
preferred walking along on the prickly
pears.

Tractors Supplant Horses
The tractor is slowly shoving the
horse from Pennsylvania farms. In
the past year 10,000 horses disap­
peared.
There are apparently ample horses
to go around, because, while the num­
ber decreased, the price has also gone
down an average of $12.
Over 218,000 farmers use not quite
an average of three horses and mules.
According to the Agricultural Depart­
ment the horse and mule power on the
average Pennsylvania farm is worth
less than $270.

�Motor Travel
The Indians of today frankly acknowl­
edge their ignorance of either its his­
tory or meaning. One Crow chief said,
“It was built before the light came,”
meaning it was prehistoric, while an­
other claimed it was a shrine for the
worship of the sun. The Medicine
Wheel can be reached by highway
from Sheridan, Wyoming.
The Shoshone Dam, built between
the almost perpendicular walls of the
Shoshone Canyon, backs up millions
of acre feet of water, which serve to
run a hydro-electric plant and furnish
water for 136,000 acres of highly
productive irrigable land in the Big
Horn and Shoshone river basins. The
Yellowstone Highway may be seen at
the base of the right wall winding up­
ward and upward on its way from
Cody to the eastern entrance of Yel­
lowstone Park. This scenic stretch of
highway is rivaled for beauty by the
Wind River Canyon road on the Yel­
lowstone highway and Two-Gwo-Tee
pass route to the southern entrance
of Yellowstone Park, through the
famous Jackson Hole and Teton
mountain country.
Moose, elk and deer are still plenti­
ful in that vast region. Wyoming is
the last of the big game states. Here
in this virgin wonderland, the “Jackson Hole,” flanked on one side by the
Tetons and on the other by’ the Wind
River mountains, elk, moose, deer and
mountain sheep are making their last
stand against the onward march of civ­
ilization—the greatest foe to wild life.
To the real sportsman, Wyoming is
the greatest playground in the world;
with the protection of the State the
great elk herds which range in the
Jackson Hole country, bordering the
Yellowstone Park, are holding their
own, while the moose and deer are said
to be actually increasing in numbers.
The antelope is the most interesting
of all the game animals in the State
of Wyoming, and in spite of the strict
game laws the species is slowly dimin­
ishing.
The largest live glaciers in the
United States surround Gannet, Helen
and Chimney Peaks in the Wind River
range of the Rocky Mountains. These
glaciers are located in Fremont
County, Wyoming, and can be reached
by pack train from Lander, Wyoming.
The trip is not difficult for anyone who
can ride horseback. There is a variety
of scenery, lakes, canyons, streams,
waterfalls, and a wall of ice five hun­
dred feet in height, clear and streaked
with blue and green metallic tints.
The water, as it leaves the snout of
the glacier, is not unlike that which is
discharged from the battery of a stamp
mill. The stream passes under a
natural bridge; from the top of this
bridge one sees the water, blue and

clear, disappearing through a deep box
canyon, dashing over rapids to the foot
of the mountains.
These glacial
streams never fail, and the dryer and
hotter the summer the stronger the
flow.
Independence Rock, a mass of black
granite rising out of the plains, about
55 miles southwest of Casper, which
was the halfway station or resting
place for the wagon trains on the
“Old Oregon Trail” from Indepen­
dence, Missouri, to the Oregon coun­
try, is probably the most interesting
landmark on the whole of that historic
route. It was here that the Oregon
travelers stopped to rest and refresh
themselves. Here also they found
pure fresh water and an abundance of
feed for their stock; here they cared
for their sick and buried their dead.
Many graves of emigrants, even now
discernable, bear mute testimony to
the toll of death resulting from the
saving of a vast territory for the United
States. From the very first, emigrants
made Independence Rock their camp­
ing place; and the custom of inscrib­
ing on it their names caused Father De
Smet to call it “The great register of
the desert.”
Robert Stuart and his party passed
by the Rock in November, 1812; Na­
thaniel Wyeth was there in May, 1832;
Captain Bonneville’s party was there
in July, 1832; Rev. Samuel Parker was
there in 1835; Dr. Marcus Whitman
and his bride and Rev. H. H. Spauld­

ing and his bride were there in 1836.
These were the first white women that
crossed the Rocky Mountains, and
were the first white women to cross the
American continent by wagon. Father
DeSmet was there in 1840, John C.
Fremont and Kit Carson in 1842; and
from that time on until and including
1852, an ever-increasing tide of emi­
gration and travel went by on the way
to the Oregon Country and California.
Thousands of names, monograms
and dates are chiseled on this massive
rock, some of them dating as far back
as 1832. Independence Rock is 193
feet high at the north end, 167 feet
high at the south end, 1,950 feet in
length and 787 feet in width. On July
4, 1920, Wyoming Masons celebrated
the 58th anniversary of the first meet­
ing of Masons ever held in what is
now the State of Wyoming, which con­
vened on top of Independence Rock,
July 4, 1862. One of the best and
most interesting pictures of the rock
will be found in Chittenden’s “Fur
Traders of the Far West.”
Wyoming’s historical and scenic
wonders are more attractive and in­
teresting than can be found in any
other state in the Union. It has a
splendid, healthful climate. The win­
ters are moderate; the summers are
cool in the mornings and evenings, and
pleasant in the middle of the day.
Wyoming is a vast natural parkland,
covered during most of the year with
almost indescribable beauty.

Photograph from U. S. Geological Survey
ONE OF THE RED BUTTES OF WYOMING
These conspicuous natural monuments are the result of extensive erosion from red sandstone of the
Casper formation. This particular one is along the Overland Trail, or Lincoln Highway, about 9 miles
southeast of Laramie City; but there is also an extensive area, known also as the “Red Buttes,” south*
west of Casper.

19

�Motor Travel

From a, drairnng by Blanche McManus
THREE STAGES OF WESTERN TRAVEL
First, the typical and picturesque cowboy and pony, now gradually disappearing^ second, the steam locomotive,
whose tracks now almost literally gridiron the trans-Mississippi River country; and, third, the motor car,
which within the past 25 years has become the well-nigh universal means of travel in the “wide, open spaces.”

resembles the Grand Canyon of the
Yellowstone. It has been dedicated by
the Federal government to Natrona
County for park purposes.
This place was visited by a detachmenLof Captain B._L. F. Bonneyillelsparty in July, 1833, and was named
by them the “Burning Mountain,” as
it was at that time emitting sulphurous
fumes and gases from burning bitu­
minous deposits. Captain Bonneville,
an army officer, who secured a special
dispensation from the army to conduct
a party of fur trappers and hunters
through what is now Wyoming, guided
the first wagon train from the Missouri
River up the Valley of the “Platte,”
then called the “Nebraska,” and on
into the Green River country which
was then, except for the Indians, a
hunters’ and trappers’ paradise.
The Wind River Canyon Highway,
one of the most beautiful in the West,
passes through a most wonderful can­
yon of the Rocky Mountains, where
its almost perpendicular walls tower
2,000 feet above the level of the river.
This cuts through a crack in the rim
of a natural basin in which is the city
of Thermopolis, where some of the
most famous mineral hot springs in
the world are located.
Among the numerous interesting
formations is a huge shaft of granite
shaped like the Washington monument,
which stands out on a base half-way up
the wall, and rises to a height of
750 feet above the base. The forma­
tion is capped by a sphinx-like head
so apparently exact in its proportions
that it has the appearance of having
been chiseled by a master sculptor.

Ancient castles, great tombs with sol­
diers standing guard, pyramids that
might rival those of Egypt, were their
history known, all look down upon
the river and highway.
- They Imve-- looked down fw aeonsof time, unmolested, as the walls are
so high and precipitous that none have
dared explore them. Small waterfalls
and springs spouting water so pure
and clear that it may safely be used
in a storage battery, add to the many
interesting things to be seen in this
great canyon, which has only within
the last decade been made to yield to
the tools of man.
Probably no other relics of early
Indian occupation of the United
States are so shrouded in mystery as
the medicine wheels of the Big Horn
Mountains in Wyoming. These, dis­
covered in the early part of the present

century, have since been an object of
much discussion and conjecture as to
their origin and antiquity.
In the American Anthropologist of
March, 1903, C. S. Simms, of the Field
Columbian Museum, gives an account
of the wheels found on the summit of
Medicine Mountain of the Big Horn
Range at an altitude of over 12,000
feet. Mr. Simms was conducted to the
spot by “Silver Tip,” a prospector and
hunter who had lived with the Indians
when a boy.
The circumference of the wheel
measures 245 feet. In the center,
which corresponds to the hub of a
wheel, is a circular structure built of
stone, about three feet high; from this
radiates twenty-seven lines of stone,
forming the spokes. The outer circle
or rim is marked at seven different
places by stone structures, erected on
the rim, except the one on the south,
which is built several feet beyond, but
connected to the whole by an elongated
“spoke.” The eastern rim structure
differs from the others in construction,
and is nearly square; and, unlike the
others, is higher, while the opening
faces out instead of in.
On the projecting slabs of this struc­
ture rests a perfectly bleached buffalo
skull, so placed that it looks into the
rising sun. Within the central struc­
ture, which resembles a truncated cone,
there is a slightly circular depression
in the ground. While the existence
of the Medicine Wheel is, of course,
known to the Crow Indians, and was
undoubtedly erected either by their
forebears or an earlier tribe, none
know of its origin, excepting that it
was made by “people that had no
iron.”
Several years ago a trip to the Medi­
cine Wheel was made by Doctor Long,
of Sheridan, Wyoming, going up
through the main canyon of the Little
Big Horn. He says in writing of the
trip that the history and origin of the
Medicine Wheel is veiled in obscurity.

From an old print
INDEPENDENCE ROCK, WYOMING
Famous as a resting place for emigrants on the long western trail; and the scene, on July 4, 1862,
of the first regularly conducted Masonic Lodge meeting in Wyoming. A later view of Indepen­
dence Rock was shown on page 12 of Motor Travel for March.

18

�Motor Travel

Photograph from Casper Chamber of Commerce
A WYOMING “TANK FARM *
Looking southeast over a number of immense oil tanks toward the Standard and Mid-West refineries: the city of Casper is in the left background and Casper
Mountain in the extreme distance. There are more tanks in, this immediate vicinity than could be included in the view. Scenes like this may be duplicated to-day
in several parts of the State of Wyoming.

compelled to put up with many incon­
veniences and hardships that we of to­
day would think were terrible if we
had to endure half the privations they
did then. But they struggled on, and
after about ten years the town proudly
boasted of a population of 8J0; in
1910 our population was 2,639; in
1922 we were credited with 11,447,
but we really had a population of
18,000 or more; and today there are at
least 32,000 people living in the city of
Casper, making it the largest in the
state.
We were made a city of the firstclass in January, 1917; we have thirty
miles of paved streets, and the best
water works system in Wyoming. The
largest oil refineries in the United
States are located here; and Casper
is blessed with a happy, healthy, con­
tented and prosperous people.
The first step toward the division of
Carbon County and the organization
of a new county was taken when a bill
was introduced in the territorial leg­
islature in 1888 for such a purpose.
The bill passed the legislative body,
but was vetoed by Governor Moon­
light; the legislators passed the bill
over the governor’s veto. On January
31, 1889, a petition was formally pre­
sented to the governor requesting that
three commissioners be appointed for
the purpose of organizing the new
county of Natrona; but on February
26 the governor announced that he
would not make the appointment, and
nothing more at that time could be

done toward the forming of the new
county.
Governor Moonlight was succeeded
by Francis E. Warren, to whom a new
petition was presented early in 1890,
requesting that three commissioners
be named for the purpose of organiz­
ing the new county of Natrona. On
March 3, 1890, Governor Warren made
the appointments as requested in the
petition; the commissioners took the
oath of office March 5, and ordered
that an election be held on April 8,
1890, for the purpose of electing
county officers and the selection of a
county seat, the candidates for which
were Bessemer and Casper.
Bessemer received more than twice
as many votes as Casper; but they were
declared irregular, and Casper was
named the seat for the new county.
The newly elected officers took the
oath of office and at a regular meeting
of the board of commissioners held
on April 12, 1890, the county of
Natrona, Territory of Wyoming, was
declared duly and regularly organized.
The county derives its name from the
natural deposits of natron or carbon­
ate of soda found in numerous basins
and lakes that abound within this part
of the state.
Teapot Rock, near the Teapot Dome
oil field, about 35 miles north of Cas­
per, from which the Teapot Dome de­
rived its name, is an interesting land­
mark and responsible for the name as
applied to nearly everything in the
vicinity. This rock is approximately

75 feet from the base to the top. At
the left may be seen the “spout” of the
teapot, which has the appearance of
being about to fall; but has been
standing at the same incline for years.
Actual production in the Teapot
Dome field is small in comparison with
many other Wyoming fields. Its giant
neighbor, the Salt Creek field, which
in the main supplies four different re­
fineries in Casper, is considered by
eminent geologists to be the greatest
light oil field in the world. It can pro­
duce 150,000 barrels of petroleum
daily under present conditions, against
4,000 barrels from Teapot.
If Teapot were unknown or undis­
covered, the oil industry in Wyoming
as a whole would hardly miss its pro­
duction. Casper, the oil center of the
Rocky Mountain region, undisturbed
by the Teapot investigation, continues
to turn its wheels of industry, and is
looking forward to continued develop­
ment. Casper ships more oil by rail
than any other city in the world.
“Hell’s Half Acre,” a tract of natu­
ral scenery, a marvel to tourists and
travelers, is located approximately 45
miles west of Casper on the Yellow­
stone Highway. It is peculiar in
natural and picturesque scenery, re­
sembling a giant bowl or depression in
the earth, covering approximately 320
acres, which from its great depth, the
coloring of its walls and pinnacles and
the beautiful weather carving on the
surface shales and talcs, enhanced by
the contrasting colors of the strata.

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                  <text>Alfred J. Mokler Letterboxes</text>
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                  <text>Local authors -- Wyoming -- Natrona County -- Casper</text>
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                  <text>Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.)</text>
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                  <text>The Alfred J. Mokler Letterboxes are a series of the larger archival collection that are his papers. Both his Letterboxes and his Notebooks available in this digital repository include holograph manuscripts, which is to say, manuscripts written in the author's hand. Much of the material in Mokler's Letterboxes dates to the 1920s and 1930s.</text>
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          <element elementId="50">
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            <name>Creator</name>
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                <text>Alfred J. Mokler</text>
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            <elementTextContainer>
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                <text>&lt;a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/"&gt;http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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            <name>Contributor</name>
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                <text>Casper Tribune Herald</text>
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              <elementText elementTextId="1400">
                <text>Midwest Review</text>
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                <text>The American Farm</text>
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          <element elementId="56">
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            <description>Date of creation of the resource.</description>
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                <text>1925-1925</text>
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                <text>Alfred J. Mokler Papers, NCA 01.v.1992.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections.</text>
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                <text>This Letterbox contains an address to the Casper Literary Club on April 26, 1945, titled "This Changing World," a State of Wyoming Agricultural and Industrial Production and Miscellaneous Statistical Report, sections of the Casper Tribune-Herald from 1926, a paper titled "Know Your Wyoming," along with pages from The Citizen and Midwest Review from 1940 and 1925 respectively. Researchers will also find an article Mokler published in the May, 1932 issue of The Voice of the Sportsman, titled "Scenic Beauties of the West." There are also handwritten pages on the Oregon Trail, and pages from Motor Travel. The latter contain an article by Mokler titled "Picturesque and Historic Wyoming." This article discusses Casper and the first people to locate here.</text>
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                <text>ENG</text>
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            <description>Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.</description>
            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="1408">
                <text>The reformatted text and images in the Alfred J. Mokler Letterboxes are for personal, not-for profit use of students, researchers, and the public. Any use must provide attribution to the Casper College Archives and Special Collections (Western History Center). While being the property of Casper College, all text, images and other materials are subject to applicable copyright laws.  Commercial use, electronic reproduction, or print publication ot text, images, or other materials is strictly prohibited without written permission. All permissions to publish must be obtained from the rights holder and are not the repository's responsibility for securing. The rights holder may or may not be the repository.  Users also agree to hold the repository harmless from legal claims arising from use of material held by the institution and made accessible in this digital repository.</text>
              </elementText>
            </elementTextContainer>
          </element>
          <element elementId="45">
            <name>Publisher</name>
            <description>An entity responsible for making the resource available</description>
            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="1409">
                <text>Goodstein Foundation Library Archives and Special Collections (Western History Center)</text>
              </elementText>
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            <description>A related resource</description>
            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="1410">
                <text>Alfred J. Mokler Papers</text>
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                    <text>Loading Up the Freight Wagons

Indians

on

Second Street, Casper, Coming to Town for Supplies—1892

�Wtiomincj S^ate
(By Charles E. Winter)
In the far and mighty west,
Where the crimson sun seeks rest,
There’s a growing, splendid state that lies above
On the breast of this great land.
Where the massive Rockies stand.
There’s Wyoming, young and strong
The state I love.
CHORUS:
Wyoming,
Wyoming,
Wyoming,
Wyoming,

Wyoming,
Wyoming,
Wyoming,
Wyoming,

land of the sunlight clear.
land that we hold so dear.
precious art thou and thine
beloved state of mine.
«*^.2

oless Gmeiica
While the storm clouds gather
Far across the sea
Let us swear allegiance
To a land that’s free.
Let us all be grateful
For a land so fair,
" 'T'
As we raise our voices
.
'
In a solemn prayer—

CHORUS:
God bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above;
From the mountains, to the prairies.
To the oceans white with foam,
God bless America
My home sweet home.

�How to Pronounce
Names of Places on
the Battle Front

Gerald L. Schcyler
General agency
1068 Gas g. Electric Elec.
Denver, Colorado

�COMPLIMENTS OF

Ah-sy
Acy .
Ain-yee
Aigny
Ain
Aisne
Agincourt
........ Ahl-bair
Albert ..
Alincourt
...............................................................
Ah-lan-ko
............................................. Om-bon-nay
Ambonnay
Om-bree
Ambrief ... ..................................
Ah-me-ang
Amiens ... .....................................
............................................................. On-se-on«veel
Ancienville
..................................................................................... Ank'r
Ancre
Antilly ..................................................................................... Ahn-tee
.....................
Ar-see
Arcy
Ar-mon-te-air
Armentieres
Arras
Ar-rass, or Ar-rah
Artois
............................................................... Ar-twah
Arvillers
Ar-vil-lair
Assainvillers
As-sain-vil-lair
Atbis
Ah-tee
Aure
Ore
Auteuil
0-tur-yee
AvaQon
...............................................................Ah-vah-song
Avesnes
Ah-vain
Avize
Ah-veez
Ay
I
Azy
Ah-zee
Basel
Baume
Beaune
Bellot
Besangon
Bethune
Billy
Blanzy
.
Blerancourdelle
Bligny
Bouchoir
BoufFioulx ....
Bouillon
Boulogne ....
Bourgoin
Bourgogne ....
Bourre
Bray
Brenne

.................................... Bai-zy (Flemish)
Borne
Bone
Bel-lo
.......................................................... Bay-zahn-song
..................................................................... Bay-tune
............................................................................... Bee
..................................................................Blahn-zee
Blay-ran-koor-del
................................................................. Bleen-yee
............................................................... Boo-shwah
................................................................ Boof-fee-oo
.....................................................................Boo-yong
..................................................................... Boo-lone
. ................................................................. Boor-gwon
Boor-gone
...............................
...................
Boor
............................................................................. Bray
Brenn
..........................................................

This Company Paid San Francisco

�CALIFORNIA INSURANC]

HOME OFFICE, 550 SACRAMENTO STREE^

Srie ....
.....................................................Bree
Brienne
.................................................Bree-enn
Bruyeres ................................................................................. Bru-yair
Bruz ... ... 1...................................
Bruze
Bucquoy ..................................................................................Bu’kwah
......................................................... Buse-song
Bussang
Buzancy
.
........................................... Bu-zahn-see

Caix
............ ............
C&amp;7
Cambrai
. .................................
Cahm-bray
Chantelle ... 1., .................................................................... Shan-tell
....................................... Shan-tay-nay
Chantenay ....
Chantilly
............................................................... Shan-tee-yee
Charleville .... ....................................
Shar-luh-veel
Chateau-Thieiry
Sha-to-tee-air-ree
Chateauroux ... .................................................................. Sha-to-roo
....................................................................... Shah-tel
Chatel
Chaudefontaine ........
Shoad-fon-tain
Chaulnes
. .......................................................................... Shone
Chipilly
....................................................................... Shee-pee
Coligny
.................................................................Ko-leen-yee
Combles
...........................................................................Combi
Commercy .... ............................................................ Kom-mehr-see
.............................................................. Eom-pee-ain
Compiegne
Conde
....................................................................... Kon-day
Congy
.................................................................... Kon-zhee
Consenvoye .... ............................................................. Kon-son-vwah
Corbie ...............
;............................................ Cor-bee
Cornet-Malo
Cor-nay-mah-lo
Craonne ...... ...................................................................... Krah-on
Crecy
................................................................... Kray-see
Dijon
................................................................................. Dee-zhon
Dompierre
Dom-pee-air
Dompremy
Dom-pray-mee
Douai ...
.................................. Doo-ay
Doullens
Dool-long
Epernay
Epinal

Ay-pair-nay
Ay-pee-nal

Fere-en-Tardenoi» .. .................................... Fair-on-tar-den-nwah
Fismette .................
:.......................................... Fee-met
Fontenoy .............
:.................................. Fon-ten-nwah
Fresnes ..........., ............................... Frayne
Fresnoy-en-Chanu^e .... .................
Fray-nwah-on-show-say

mflagration Net Losses, $1,845,000.00-

�: COMPANY OF SAN FRANCISCO
Fresnoy-le-Grand
Fray-nwa-luh-grahn
Gironville ......... .......................................................
...
Givet
.......
.
......................................................
Zhee-vay
Givry
..............
.
................................................
Zhee-vree
Grammont .....
..................................Gram-mon
Guise ...................
• • ................
Geez
Ham
.............
Hahm
Haramont ............
... Ar-rah-mon
Harbonnieres ....
Ar-bon-nee-air
Hartennes-et-Tanx
.. Ar-ten-eh-to
Hautevesnes
..........
Ote-vain
Herpont
.........
Ehr-pon
Hurlus ...................
................ Ur-lu
lale-sur-Suippea
Y-leh-sur-s weep
Ivors .................
................. Y-vore
Jalons
.............................. Zyah-lon
Janvry
......................... Zyahn-vree
Jaulgonne ................
................................
Zho-gon
J onchery-sur-Suippes
Zhon-shay-ree-sur-sweep

Langi ?s ...
.......................................
Lon-gr
Laon
Lah-ou
Lassigny .., ...............................
....................................................................
...
Le Catelet .
Luh-kat-lay
Le Fretoy .. ........................................
Luh Fret-twah
Le Quesnel . .............................................................
Le Tronquoy ...................................................................... Luh Kes-ne
Luh
Tron-Kwah
Lens ............
Longwy .... ................................................................................... Lons
Louvain .... ...........................................................................Long-vee
..................................
Loo-vane
Louveignd
Loo-veen-yay
Louers ........
...............................................................................
Loo-ay
Luce
................................
Luce
Lucon
..............
.................................................................
Lu-son
Lys
................................................................................. Leese
Mailly
........................................................................May-ye
Malines
.........................................................
Mah-leeu
Marie-auz-Mines
... -ree-o-meen
Marseilles
Maubeuge ......... ............................................................. Mar-say-yuh
Meaux ............... ................................................................... Mo-burge
.................................. Mo
Merville ........... .....'.
........................Mair-veel

)ne Hundred Cents on the Dollar

�Meuse
................................................................................... Murze
Mezieres
................... May«ze-air
Mons
.................................................................................... Mons
Montdidier
Mong-dee-de-ay
Montmirail
............................ Mon-mee-ri-ee
Montron ...
.......................................................... Mon-tron
Morangis
Mo-ron-zhee
Moreuil
........................................................
Mo-ruh-yee
Morlancourt
Mor-long-koor
Mouilly
. -Moo-yee
Mouron
• ........................................................................... Moo-ron
Muizon ...
...................................... Mwe-zon
Muret
................................................................................ Mu-ray
Mutigny .. ..................................
Mu-teen-yee
Nesle
Nancy
Nanteuil
Neuf chateau ...
Nivelles
Nogent-le-Ketrou
Nomeny
Noyon

Oeuilly
Oigny
Oise ..
Ourcq
Ourthe

TTh-ee
Wahn-yee
.................................................................................. Wahz
........................................... Oork
Oort

Facaut
Pargny
Peronne
Petit-Croix ....
Petit-Morin ..
Pieronne
Plessier
Pont-a-Mousson
Priez
Proyart
Prunay

Quatre-Bras

Hamillies ..
Raon-l’Etape
Remirremont
Revigny ...
Rbeims . ...
Rocroi
Roisel
Romilly ....
Rosiere
Roubaix ....

...................
Nail
...................................................................Nahn-see
...................................................
Nahn-tuh-ee
.............................................................. Nuh-sha-to
. ................................................................... Nee-vell
No-zhahn-luh-ret-troo
............................................................No-may-nee
................................................................ Nwah-yon

........................................................................ Pah-co
...................
Parn-yee
...................................................................... Pay-ron
..........................................................Pet-tee-krwah
.......................................................Pet-tee-mo-ran
.................................................................... Pay-ronn
.............................................................. Pless-see-ay
Pont-ta-moo-son
......................................................................Pree-eh
............................................................... Prwah-yar
...................................................................... Pru-nay

Kat’r-brah
................................................................... Rah-mee-yee
Rah-own-lay-tap
.................... Rem-meer-mon
................................................................... Rev-veen-yee
.............................................................................. Rance
......................................................................... Rokr-wah
........................................................................ Rwah-zel
.................................................................... Ro-mee-yee
Ro-zee-air
.......................................................
........................................................................... Roo-bay

�Roye
Rozieres
Rozoy-Bellevalle
Rozet-St. Albin
Ruasy
Rozainvillers ..

......................................................................... Rwab
.....................................
Ro-zee-air
Ro-zwah-bell-vall
Ro-zay-san-tal-ban
..................
Ru-sy
4............................... Ro-zain-vil-lair

Sacy
. .............Sab-see
Sancy
.............. Son-see
Sault-St. Remy
So-san-ray-mee
Savigrny
...................................................... . .Sab-veen-yee
Sedan
............Seh-don
Sezanne
........... Say-zan
Soissons
.. ............................................. Swab-son
Somme
. ... .............. Som
Sonilly
........ Son-ee-yee
Sonplets
......... Son-play
St. Blaise
.............................................................. ........ San-blaze
Ste. Cecile
...................................................... .. Sant-say-seel
St. Die
..........................................
... .San-dee-ay
St. Mihiel ................................................
... San-mee-yel
St. Pol
...................................................... .......... Sang'pol
St. Quentin
................................. ... San-kon-tan
Tagnon
............Tan-yon
Termes
........................................................ Term
Thionville
........................... .. .Tee-yon-veel
Thory
....................................................... Tore-ee
Tirlemont
.\
....... Teerl-mon
Tongres
................. Tong’r
Tournai ......................................................
. ■........... Toor-nay
Tournant
...........................
........ Toor-nahn
Treves ................................. ;
..................Trayv
Trois-Vierges
Trwab-vee-erzh

Unchair
............
Ung-shair
Ussy ..................................................................................................
Vadenay ...............
Vab-den-neb
Vailly .. .........................................................
Va-yee
Versailles
..........................Vair-si-yee
Verviers
Vair-vee-ay
Vervins . ................................................................................... Vair-van
Vesle ...............................................
Vail
Vise
............................................................Vee-zay
Vitry-le-Frangois ....’.
Vee-tree-luh-fron-swab
Vosges
.............................................................. Vozb
Vraux
Vro
Vregny
Vrayn-yee
Villers-aux-Erables
Vil-lair-zo-ray-rabbi
Villers-Bretonneux
Vil-lair-bray-ton-nub

Witry-les-Rheims

Vee-tree-lay-rance

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�INVENTORY

(Manusoripts* books and pamphlets.)
October 31, 1936
*
Holy Bible
Ancient Egypt
McCoy’s Egypt
Susana and Sue
*
Calamity Jane
|
Soul of Parts
Monroe Do Balzac
Indian Odyssoy
Cook’s Attainment of the North Polo
More Power to You
Pardners
Goldsmith’s Poems
T.’hittior’s Early Poems
John Halifax
Kate Mulhall
Jaoob Hamblin
Pioneering the West
On the Face of the Waters
Shakespeare’s Works
The Old Timer’s Tale
An Aray Boy of the Sixties
Four Hundred Million Acres
2 @ 2.00
The Challenge to Liberty
Over Land and Under Ground
Frank Gouard Indian Fighter
Eugene Field’s Works
12 © 2.00
Reminiscences of Chicago During the ’40’a.
Inaugaural Addresses of Presidents
Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard
John Long’s Voyages
Alexander Ross’ The Fur Himters of the Far West
Alexander Ross’ Adventurers on the Oregon
Josiah Gregg’s Comeroe of the Prairies
Zebulon Pike’s Southwesteim Expedition
Win. Louis Manly’s Death Valley in ’49
Memorable American Speeches - Secession, War, Reconstruction
Kendall’s Texan Santa Fe Expedition
Waubun The "Early Day" in the Horth-West
McKenzie’s Voyage to the Pacific Ocean 1793
Narrative of the Adventures of Zenas Leonard
Larpenteur’s Forty Years a Fur Trader
Pattie’s Personal narrative
Bidwell’s Echoes of the Past
Steele’s In Camp and Cabin
Kit Carson’s Autobiography

2.00
3.00
2.50
1.50
3.75
2.50
2.00
2.50
5.00
2.00
2.00
2.50
2.50
2.00
1.50
1.25
2.00
2.00
1.50
1.50
1.50
4.00
3,00
2,00
3,00
24.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5,00

5,00
5,00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5,00
5,00
5,00
5.00
5.00

�Cyclopedia end Diotionary
12 volumes
30.00
Teacher’s and Pupil’s Cyclopedia 4 @ 4.00
16.00
Our Times
4.00
Only Yesterday
4,00
Resouroes and Men of Mwitana---------------------------------------------------------- -------The Cambridge Modem History end Atlas
18*80
TIJyaaBing Compiles Statistics
12.50
The Adams’ Family
4.00
History ef the lMlted Statee (naaK^hewie) 8 velumee
'
— ...lOyOeTrailing Goromimo
2.00
Darwin’s Decent of Man
3.00
Wine, Women and Song
1.00
Ths World of Just You and I (BillBarrow)
5.00
Meeker’s Busy Life of Eighty Years
2.00
Government of Teaming (Hebard)
2.00
Pathbreakers (Hebard)
2.00
Every Man a King (Huey Long)
1.25
Wild Fire (Zane Grey)
2.00
Madam Therese
2.00
The Blockade of Pahlsburg
2.00
Middleimaroh
1,50
That Printer of Udells
1.50
A New Philosophy of Life (Wemner)
,50
Popo’s Poems
2,00
Bancroft’s Works Vol, 25
5,00
Death on the Prairie
2*50
History of Natrona County XS@ 7,50
USr56
Longfellow’s Works
5,00
Gould’s History of Free Masonry Throughout the World 6 © 10,00
60,00
Mackey’s Encyclopedia of FreeMastmry 2 © 7,50
15.00
The Book ef History—18 © 8.00-----------------------------------The-Boek ef Baewledge—80 © 8.00------------------------------------------------*60.00
History Grand Chapter, R, A, M, Illinois (itesenle)
3,00
Grand Lodge of Washington (Masonic)
3.00
Histery ef Free Maeenry la Indiaaa------------------------------------------- 2.00
Mackey’s Principals of Mascaiio Law
3,00
The Maseaie Eeleetle
- '—.. ... .... —......... .......... -....———............... —............ 8.00"
dltstcrieal T.awdmarlfs ef Free Maseasy—8-© 4.60
... . "OrOO’
-------- 2V8O
Hletery ef Maseaie Initiatiea----------------------- -—
1.00
Ancient Craft .’&lt;!as(mry in Vermont
.1.50
Centennial Anniversary of Masons in Maine
2.50
Washington Grand Lodge History
2,50
Grand Lodge of Maine
2,50
Territorial Masonry
3.00
Nebraska Grand Lodge Masonry 2 @ 1*50
2.50
Intermountain Folk
1']^ K.OO
Banditti of the Plains (Mercer) a typewritten copies © 6.00
r Histery ef the Jtesoaie flgand Lodge, of Iowa 8 © 4.00
------- 3MO2,50
Centennial Gi*and Lodge of Masons in Kansas
Centennial Grand Lodge ef Masons ta Delaware.....

�History of Freimsonry In Illinois
History of Frswnasqnry In Ohio—3 S 3,00---------------------------*■ History of King Ilirsm&lt;o Lodge in Cosinootlswt 1783 to 1888
History of grand Lodge of rdaeone Bl atriot ^f-Oelumbia------Viyooilng Masonio Bulletin 1929»1931
-Hletei^ of Freenaaenry-ln Mguyland—8
— ----------------Hi atary ■ of ffreemaaonry. tn PeBnsyleania—3 @ 6,00--------------Poetical Works of Thessas Moore
Soi*apbook8 }C|»000 pages 10 volumes (Indexed)
Robert Stuairfc’s Dleoovery ot the Oregon Trail
Maloom Campbell, Sheriff
Trails Plowed Under (Russell)
The Day of the Cattleman
Nebraska State Historioal Soolei^ Publloatlons
Saoajawea (Hebard)
Washakie (llebard)
fu\
ftlstory of Preeaasonry In wyeislgg—---------------Transition of the West
%
Caspar Collins (Wright-Spring)
American Fur Trade of the Far West (Chittenden) 3 vols.
Story of the Early Days in Wyoning
Coutant’s History of ’'doming (with special index)
Forty Years Among the Indians
Our National Government (Mrs John A, Logan)
Dictionary of Thoughts
Mareus Wilson*s Aa^ioan History 1847______________________
The Crime of Cuba
Porflrio Diaz
Inumorable pamphlets (estimated @)
War on the Rebellion - official records 8 @ 6*00
When Day is Done
From Friend to Friend
The Book of Mormon
Deliveranoe
The Weird Orient
The Werld*B One Hundred Best Otesdee 10"e"w80'.... —.... -..
Menusorlpts of the Westwm Frtmtier
Manuscripts of Bibliography of Alfred J. Mokler
Western Historical Collections
Half-tone outs for "Guardtena. of the Weatei^-FroHt3ber"
Half-tone outs for "Transition of the West"
Half-tone outs for History of Natrona flounty"
Brass stamping die for "History of Natrona County"
Brass Stamping die for "History of Freemasonry"
Ealf-tcmes and die for "History of Freemasonry"
Desk Standard dlotionary

Total

1.50
-------------- 9*00
- ------------ 8^
-------------- 4&lt;00
5.00
--------------- -g^iggr

------------ ifitoe
3,00
7*60
3.50
&gt;
4.00
fl. 00
3*75
6*50
6*50
----- a4»00

3.50
25*00
2*50
17*50
4*00
7*50
5*00
------------ 12*50
4*00
5*00
20*00
10*00
1*00
1*00
1*00
1*00
1*50

300.00
150*00
50*00
66*00
87*00
353*00
26*50
18*50
659.00
2.50

�IHVaiTORY

(Pumlture - November 1, 1936)

88888888088080808883s

Section bookcases 9 © 2.50
22,
One new- Royal- typewriter
---------------- ——------ lOOi
Six chairs
20.
Five desks
25.
One filing and book cabinet
5,
One gxm cabinet
7,
One loose«*leaf ledger
10«
Two Filing oabinets
12.
One radio • Airline
20«
Two brief eases
6«
One gas heater
15«
One desk set •&gt; Shaeffer
14,
One Shaeffer life tiaie pen
8,
Fourteen pictures and frames © 2.50
35.
Ono W-^wSnith typewriter (~pld.)1?oj a I
One chandelier and lamps
10,
One 8 X 12 rug
10,
Ten letter files © ,50
5,
Shades and curtains
6,
Office supplies
15,
Miscellanoous
25,

Total

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                    <text>1

Wyoming State Journal, Lander, Wyoming, Jan. 25, 1933
&gt;4"' ceased to fall and the wi^ -was
f* less furious.-. Mr. Ryder, .there­

frozen but her hand.s, feet and
! face were quite badly frosted and
for, although badly frozen,,'a.gain [
the awful ordeal thru which she
A set out in a last heroic attempt t
had passed had completely unf to. secure help. In this effort he ,
nerved her. She, however, re­
5 succeeded in reaching the. Dry |
sponded at once to the rest and
i Sandy station, but he was .’in al
care accorded her at the Dry
^ terribly exhausted condition and
Sandy station and it seemed that
waa able to give to the stock fen­
she would recover. Several days
Stage Drivers Worked Heroically to Get Thru
der,. John Thorn, -little informa- I
passed before her family at South
❖
With Passengers Who Suffered Greatly
tion as to where he had left his!
Pass learned of her plight, b,ut as ■
*
passenger, Maggie Sherlock and I
soon as the roads had been igain
(By Peter Sherlock of South Pass)
the horses and sleigh. Mr. Thorn, I
opened to travel, her stepfather,
however, gained some idea of
James Smith, went out to Dry
where the sleigh had been left, I
Sandy and brought her home, ar- j
riving with her at South Pass on !
While, the fi.rst half , of the win­ bearings, he set out again. Short­ and with a fresh team of horses,
February 11th. After her return '
ter of 1882-3 in Wyoming, had ly after the second start was he at once started out in quest of
home she continued to improve for i
not been marked by the usual se­ made, the wind Increased in ve­ the .missing girl. After searching
several days, giving rise to fond ;
vere December and January locity, the snow fell faster and the for some time, Mr. Thorn finally
hopes on the part of the faoiily
storms, there had been a number storm assumed the proportions of • saw the seat of the sleigh,, pro
i truding from, a deep snow, .drift
; and friends that she would iiot ,
of light falls of snow and the I a blizzard.
i only be completely restored 1 to i
weather, for the most, part, , had [
George Ryder was a young man, and removing the seat of;, the
complete health but that her
been cold and disagreeable, but! a Texan by birth, who had come J sleigh and digging down into, the
hands and feet would also l^a
up to January 3.0th, 1883, the i north during the summer of 1882 snow beneath it, he found .MagWhoozit No. 142
saved from the surgeon’s knil^
snow which- had accumulated on ! and he was therefore unacquaint­ ; gie Sherlock, wrapped in a buffa­
the ground, had not reached such i ed with the rigorous winter cli- lo robe, still alive, but in a semi­ could and after proceeding about There hopes, however, were d™j!
Adepth
zirtf 1^ rtasei +toi-i make
rr* a V Q it-necessary
i 4co . fO'c! mate of Wyoming. Soon after |
condition. He extrifl a mile, he came upon Mr. Stuart fined to be creully crushed as t^^
J. L. Sanderson &amp; Co. then oper- j making the second start from the I cated ,lhe sleigh from the snow, a'a lying in a bed of a deep gulch, al­ ! period of recovery was follow®!
ating a stage line, furnishing mall ( Dry Sandy station, he again lost 'speedily as possible and hifching i most burled in snow and in an al- ( by a sudden change for the worsH
and passenger service between the the road and he became so be- the team to it, he returned with ! most unconscious condition. With until on February 21st, deal®
town of Green River, on the U. P.-■ wlldered by the blinding storm, the girl to the pr^l Sandy station ! great difficulty Mr. Manning suc­ claimed her as its shining mark.H
R. R. and Ft. Washakie, 150 miles that he had no idea where he was ■Where/ Mrs. Thorn received her ! ceeded in reviving him and in get­ !
'W. J. Stuart and Al Doughert®
to the northward, .andy serving, en or what course to pursue to pro­ and tenderly chred for her, for ! ting him to Pacific Springs sta­ /were taken to Green River as sooiw
route, the towns Of South Pass, ceed on his way, or to return to several ' days, until she could be tion where first aid ti-eatment was ! as possible after the roads hadB
Atlantie-C it y :and. rLanide r,-. :to-'in ake-.'■ the'shelter of the station at Dry rernoved to her home in South ' applied to his feet, hands and face I been opened. Mr. Stuart received!
which were found to have been
■'' '
attention at Green River!
the usual winter change in mode Sandy. He drove about for some Pass. '/' *■’
of conveyance, from spring wagons hours but made little headway be­
I and Mr. Dougherty was sent to at
The .stage for South ^ass left I terribly frozen.
to sleighh On Jan. 30th. howev- cause of the snOw which the wind the station at, Big Sandy , pn the i
Mr. Clark, like Mr.. Scott, per- ! hospital in Laramie, Both ultl- i
or, a heavy snow storm set in now blowing at a terrific rate, evening of Jan. 30th with a man ! ished in the effort to reach safety. ihately recovered, but Mr. Stuart [
along the line of this route and'as .had piled in huge drifts through by' the name of Scott as driver and Mis body was found little more lost both hands, portions of both i
the stor'm' Continued throughout which the horses drawing the William V. Clark, a ranchman of ' than a mile frOm Pish creek, feet, his nose and both ears, and J
the night tand ■was unaccompanied .■sleigh, floundered with great dif- the Lander valley, as passenger, i where the sleigh was abandoned, Mr. Dougherty had one foot am­
by wifid,^ the show lay Where it ;: flculty,: Night had closed in and The snow which had been falling! but buried in a deep drift of snow, putated above the ankle and the'
fell, with the result, that by naofn- imi&gt;enetrable darkness added to all day and which continued to-1 it "was not discovered until several other at the instep. He also lost !
ng of Jah. 31st. hilltop And low- the blinding fury of the storm; the fall throughout the night, com­ weeks after the tragedy.
portions of most of the fingers of ;
.ahd were blanketed twith hnow to _ temperature; too, had dropped pletely obliterated the track and !
The stage scheduled to leave both hands. Both men were there-!
V depth of Over 12'inhheg; "
rapidly and the cold had become as darkness closed in, the driver; the station . at Bi^ Sandy
, for Green fore hoplessly crippled for the re-!
i
The schedule on the Green Rlv- intense. In spite of the intense lost the road and wandered about ! River dti’ the mOfUing of January malnder of their lives.
5r, Ft,. Washakie stage line call- cold, the- smothering snow with making little headway, until morn- 31st, with Al DOugherty as driver,
Wyoming has long been noted
3d- for the trip, one way, to be which the air was laden, was ex­ ing, With daylight, the road was delayed startiiig for several hours as ,a land of rigorous winters .
^ave been the blizzards
hade in 36 hours and this was di­ tremely wet, this being a charac­ located and the stage proceeded awaiting the arrival Of the stagej
vided into three drives of about teristic of the north east blizzard, on its way toward South Pass, ar­ : due from South Pass, but as the that have swept over the moun­
10 miles each, these being a ^day |I and the wet snow, driven by the riving at Pacific Springs . about i South'Pass stage failed to arrive, tains and across the prairies tak­
I fierce wind, adhered tenaciously noon Jan. 31st, where Mr. Stqart Mr. Dougherty started for Green ing their toll of human lives and
Jrlve between . Green River 'and
&lt;
3ig Sandy, a night drive hetween j to whatever it came in contact boardeil it to return to South.,; River in the afternoon.
He ----had leaving widespread destruction in
.
Jig Sandy and South Pass and a. Vflth .and ,^t,, once fornie^
a Pass; there were therefore on the i Proceeded on his way Only about their wake, but never since the !
iay drive between South Pass and ! sheet of ice. To face such a stage leaving Pacific Springs for j ®®von miles when the blizzard I! earliest white settiers entered this :
i;t. Washakie. ! lt.-had however, storm was. a human impossibility South Pass, Mr. Scott, the driver,/ struck him and so fierce was the !: section has it been visited by a
that he.was unable to either ii blizzard equal in intensity, duraP^'actice of the stage com- and’ to 'travel' with it, through Mr. Stuart, superintendent of the !
)any to discontinue the night deep drifts of snow,' in impene- stage company and Mr. Clark, the [SO forward or return to the Big !j tion and fury to that of 1883. No
'.five, during fhe. winter, months;’^Wable darkness, and t with Uhe :air passenger. Mr. Scott had sug- j Sandy station, and to remain record is available of the temper- j
ereby increasing the time . re- J thick,.with whirling, wind-driven gested that the stage lay over at ."^i’ere he was seemed a;imost cer-!! ature which prevailed thruout the
ired for making the through, snoyv, was almost equally impos­ Pacific Springs until the tblldwing | tain death. He knew that the Big !I storm, as no one in the region
to .60 hours, but because of sible. Under these frightful con­ morning, as he and Mr. Clifk were i Sandy river, on which the stage !I where the blizzard reached its
absence of serious, snow ditions, the team driven by Mr. weary from a sleepless night and ! station bearing that name was sit- greatest intensity, was provided
s up to the last week in Jan- Ryder became exhausted and day of travel, and signs of the im-J uated, ran two or three miles to with a spirits thermometer, but
1883, this change from sum-' when he drove into a depression, pending blizzard were already in the west of the point he had reach­ it.is known that the temperature
to winter schedule had not, filled yVith snow, he waS unable evidence, but Mr. Stuart insisted ' ed with the stage, and he there­ was far below zero as the mercury
Igne into effect. The storm.' t0 urge the horses forward and on proceeding on the way to South ' fore decided to make an effort to in the ordinary thermometers des­
^lary 3ofh prevented ttie arr", tj)pre.' the sle,igh remained until Paas, saying that as the road had ! r^.&lt;lb...t.h.e strga.m hoping , that he cended into the bulbs and
Just been staked the remainder of ! mig’llf tiien be able to fbliow 'up mained frozen for two days. Sii
g* South Pass of the stage the/s,torm was over.
^eft Pt. Washakie that ■ ' It is proHabla that Mr. Ryder, the trip could be made without the streani ',to th,e station. He ac­ ! the time of this blizzard it 1
cordingly unhitched the horses and
and was due to arrive ,at like most persons after becoming serious difficulty, ■
been the practice of old settl
ss In the. evening and be-' lo^t; had traveled, for the most
The furious north east blizzard with a Arm hold on-the traces he' ! in discussing any storm of unu
the failure of the Ft., pirt, in a Circle, as the place where was encountered shortly- after
the., v---scveiny
severity to Compare it with
,
■St stage to arrive the stage ''his sleigh was found after the stage left Pacific-Springs and al-: tng westward, with the storm hn,,.,rd nf isss

Fifty Years Ago Many Pioneers Lost Lives
When Exposed to the Terrible Cold in the

BLIZZARD OF 1883

�^^^T^nd .gloomy, ine sl^
^^Vvily pvercas},_and snow was^, which the stage road pa’^ed ’and^ Pass, but the .storm .had , now travel up stfCarh. He finally go'
BR^bt^t there was no wind ai],d he was therefore unable to recog­ reached its. height and the worn this, question straightened out ii
nize the gulch and to take advan­ out horses could no longer be in-1 his rnind, hut found that in ordei
|n.empevature, was soriiewhat
----- "
tage of
of making
wt it
XV as
I*u a
*-&gt; means
—
- c3
UUVCM to
duced
LU face
X&lt;XVC: it.
it.
X'Xg 11 V' had
Night
’ilCvVl come!
VVUltJS to follow Up the stream
oviv^Clllt he
IIC woUlc
TVWUXV
*^jve normal for
that
time
ef
-- - Sandy station, qj^ and inky darkness added ■ to j he cohipelled to face the storm t&lt;
[,'It was therefore thought! his’Way to the Dry 'Kio
Tl 1 1 and
Fti O M
.1. v _ . . _ . . n .1
■ j __ . •
2 tj rSi TVl /S ' ' ici v+
' ‘a « J ' X V 1 _ ' 1 ■
L.
[thereby saving his own/nXTlife
Ryder, driver of„ the,■. that
“
,■
,lady
, passenger the, horrors of the situation. The j ®h.uie extent' and[ this he was un
ini-en. George
~
of the young
three
men
held
a[
hurried
consul,
hble
able
to
,do.
,dq.[
He
therefore
decidec
’jge 'le'ft South Pass for Big San- I who ahardd his awful plight.
tatidh, in which it was decided to remain, where he was and hj
that morning that he would
Jjite the 'drive without serious- ■ ; Throughout the night of ' Jan. that to. face the storm for the dis- rlgprous exercise escape freezins
..ijjfticUlty. He had with him, as,■^ist the blizzard raged with un- tance of 4 tniles to the town of until the storm had abated. The
J passenger,’Maggie Sherlock, the. ■dilmihlshed ' fury. Maggie Sher­ South Pass wpuld be a physical , h’-'y ^iP^ along the east side o,
lock"Was wafnfljr clad an'd_ well impossibility, but they thought'*
: the.
’’'' riyer hfdhe the wind, to somt
eighteen year old daughter'qf Mrs.
provided
with
wraps
and
crouch
­
[extent,
and a'patch Of willows
that
they
might
be
able
to
retrace
j&gt;.net Shiith, of South Pass, who
[ growing along the banks of the
plahhed ’ gotn^ to Salt Laite City ing in the box of the sleigh, she their steps traveling with the
(fherO she intended atteudlng protected herself, ad best she storm, and reach the shelter of stream furnished a little proeccould, from the bitterly cold wind the station at Pacific Springs eight tion. He thought of trying tc
school. ' W'. J." Stuart, the super­
intendent Of the'stage company, and the whirling snow: JJt. JRyd- miles distant. They unharnessed start a fire but in that hurricane
er unhitched the horses and he the worn out horses and turned of wind and with the air a mass
was also on the outgoing stage
,'ind the stagewas loaded to ca­ spent the night in walitfng back them loose and they then set out of. wet. driving snow, he knew that
pacity, wifh'''fcuridies of long wil- andforth, beside the sleigh, in an to battle for their own lives in he .ivquld never be; able to get a
10ws^ which Mr,...Stuart, intended effort to keep;.up circulation and an effort to reach Pacific Springs. fife s.farted; therefore, fastening
using to [stake, .t^e^ tqad ajs he went withstand the penetrating death- 1 For a time the two men remained the ends of the traces of the hardealing " cold.? Both fervently J_
_ of the
______________
at_one
stakes alongside the hess Oh'one of the horse’s together
along, from Hq^'th [Pass to. Pacif­
hoped
that-with
the
light
of
day
j
poad
while
the other weqt forward, and funning his.arm thru the loop
ic 'Spriii'g^ th’e'..fir3t[ .atatiqn Out
- the
- pext stake,.!
- ' thus formed he. drove the horse
fromi. Soti'l:h ,[Fais. . The ^ '['distance the storin' would abatef.and that: until he had- found
of .Pacific fepriiigs ffpni [ South they would then be-able'to reach i when he would call td his two rbefpfe him thru the snow alongPass' was 'afou't'.'12 ’’milesi'. The shelter, or that _help.--woUld come companions and when 'they had [side the 'patch of willows oh the
staMrt.g"[.d'7th®.
whs done by to them, but theTnorning of Feb., come up to him he would again I hahk of the stream and forward
pla’nting. 'a if&gt;lllp^*'.upfight‘in the 1st broke with no cessation lir the go forward and locate the next! and back he drove and, followed
sndV," ^!' iiife'rvals’’of '26[['Or .30 fury of the elements and the storm stake, but as the progress made [ and stumbled'afUf the horse thrufeet, along the side or the road continued with undiminished in­ in this way was, very- slow and as [ piit the night and the next day and
and the purpose was to enable the | tensity throughout that day and Scott and Clark felt ■ that they f the night following, until at last
stage dri^r .to follq^ the road in the night which followed. Dur­ could not long endure the terrific; on Fehruafy 2nd the storm modsevere storm ~or when the track ing the day, Mr. Ryder made sev­ storm, they set out Saying the [ efated.
had become obliterated bjr, heavy eral futile attempts to make his case was one in which each man,' Al Dougherty was a young man
falis of sno'W.' This was the first way to the Dry Sandy station, but should strive to save himself, an(li of powerful physique, but his
trip for the winter of ,a sleigh ov­ each time, he returned to the leaving Stuart who because of his hands and feet were badly frozen
anxious buffalo overcoat and heavy cloth­ and he was nearly exhausted by
er'th.e road and'its prdgrOss was sleigh, to report to his
retarded, to some extent, by the passenger, the failure of his ef­ ing was unable to keep pace with the terrible experience thru which
work of Staking the road .and the fort; he also got Miss Sherlock on them. None of the three men he, had passed. He therefore
depth Of the nfe'W unpacked snow. one of the horses and mounting succeeded in reaching - Pacifi&lt;| realized that if he would save his
• life,he must seek aid without de­
It -was therefore nearly noon when the other horse himself, they Springs during the storm,
On February 2nd Rafter thq day, and with this end in view, he
the station at Pacific Springs was started out, hoping to be able to
on
reach the Dry Sandy station
blizzard had subsided,sJoe Johnl started up the stream driving the
reached. [ ["
'”
HCre ilTr. ■Stuart remaihed in­ horseback; but this too proved un­ son, the stocktender ^t * Pacifii i horse before him and clinging tc
successful and returning to the Springs started on foot’ifor South i the traces of the harness as he had
tending to await the incoming
remain Pass and a short distanch, from the
done for the proceeding forty
stage and to. return, with it, to sleigh, they decided to
there
until
the
storm
had
passed,
South Pass. A change of horses [
road on top of the dividC between hours, but the snow was deep and
which they accordingly did.
Pacific Springs and the Sweetwater! .horse and man were worn out alfor the outgoing stage, was had
'With the dawn of day, on Feb. rlver. about three and one halt mostto the point of collapse,
at Pacific Springs and’the driver,
Mr. Ryder, with his youfig lady 2nd, the storm gave signs of miles from Pacific Springs, hi therefore, progress was slow.
passenger, proceeded on their way breaking. The cold was still in­ found.the trozen and lifeless body ;Mai|y times; the struggling man
for the next drive of 11 miles, to tense, but the snow had almost of Scott. Loyal Manning, also ai lost his hold on the traces and
employee of the stage company a| fell in the snow, but with desper­
the station at Dry Sandy. This
Pacific Springs had left the stai ate tenacity, he each time regained
drive was made without serio-us
tiOh a short time after the depart his feet and again securing his
incident’, but travel Was slow be­
ture of Mr. Johnson and made hij^ hold on the - traces he once more
cause of the constantly increasing
way to the top of the divid^ moved slowly forward. Within
defith of the sndw which had con­
toward Sweetwater, thinking thaj two hundred yards of the station,
tinued to fall throughqhf the day.
he might possibl}^.; find spuieon^ ' at Big Sandy, he fell and it seem­
By the time the Dry Satidy station
had been reached, the day was
[ who had been caught in the storr^ ed to him that the end of the
well Spent, and to add to the
[ and who would be in need of a^ struggle had been reached as he
gravity of’ the situation, a strong
! sistance. When he had reached was now so utterly exhausted that
north east wind had sprung up
! a high emminance,'comm,anding d he could not regain his feet, he
and the snow had commenced to
good view of the surrounding however, made one desperate ef­
drift. It would have been the
country, he saw on a. hillside some fort and crawling on his hands and
part' of wisdom for’the driver to
distance off to the north west ft knees reached the station in that
have remained at the Dr'S; Sandy
dark object. He started toward way.
station until the storm had abated,
this object which he later found
When George Ryder reached the
'But Mr, Ryder insisted on going
to be only a dark rock which had station at Big Sandy, his hands,
^rward, and after securing a
been swept bare by the wind, buj feet and other portions of his
kange of horses, he set out, with
while traveling toward this object, body were found to have been ter­
■passenger, on the next drive of
he discoverd a line of indistincjl ribly frozen, and although Mr. and
^H|ailes to the station on Little
! marks in the snow, and believing Mrs. Thorn did everything within
He had proceeded only a
! that these might be footprints Of their power for him, it was evi­
^^^^^^ance when he lost the
[ some one traveling thru the snoW dent from the first that he could
after some difficulty he
during the storm, and that thp not survive his awful experience.
the Di'y Sandy station,
footprints had been nearly obliter­ He died on the third day after
^^^^^Believlng that be could
ated by the drifting snow, he fol- [ reaching the station. Maggie Sher­

after securioi bie

Whoozit No, 137 S

' lowgd the line »»

cipsely »» b( lock bad not b?ep

so sortousiy

�Bridger also named Alum creek
a tributary of the Yellowstone
One 7

in cjj

'^day he crossed a creek and rode
several miles out into the prairie.
The return journey seemed only
about half the distance of his out­
going trip, and his horse went lame
He dismounted to look at his ani­
mal’s feet and discovered that they
had shrunk to pin points. He tasted
some water near by and found it
heavily charged with alum. He at­
tributed the shrinkage of the dis­
tance and the condition of his
horse’s feet to the astringent quali­
ties of the alum water, and named
the creek accordingly. Alum creek
it is to this day.

What Daniel Boone was to Ken-1
^cky Bridger was to Miiiilwmi'THII
' ' . He was the true type of
i mountain man. He was one of the
best of the fearless generation which
scouted out the obscure trails, out­
guessed the Indians at their own
game, and made the way clear for
the more settled life of the pioneers
who were to follow. Bridger deserves
a high place in AtoaMaMb nail of '
fame^
Colter he was tli&gt;n»&lt;i»it.
' white
known to have visited the
Yellowstone National park, his per­
sonal knowledge of the wonderland
dating back to 1829&lt;fff
&lt;^Eridger haa'^seEIimany wonderful
things in the west, of which he told
j his friends, but the public was inclineej to doubt his veracity. So,
when he tried to inform his ac­
quaintances on the lower Missouri,
where he would go occasionally with
a boatload of furs, of tl^ scenicmarvels of the Yellowstonejlaiis, he'
TOS laughed out of countenance.^
^ne of the stories credited to him
had to do with the celebrated obsid­
ian cliff, of black volcanic glass,
familiar to tourists who have visited
the park. Bridger claimed to have
discovered it on a hunting trip. His
story was that one day he was in
the park hunting. He came up to
a bull elk of gigantic proportions
which, apparently, was grazing only
a short distance from him. He took
careful aim at the animal and fired.
To his astonishment, and he was a
dead shot, the elk did not appear
to have been wounded, and paid no
i attention to the report of the rifle.
I He shot again, with the same result,
i Four times in all he fired, missing
each time. The elk continued to
graze undisturbed, and paid not the
slightest attention to Bridger. Dumfounded, he rushed toward the elk.
crashing into a wall of transparent
glass. He walked around t^e glass
cliff, but the elk had disajjpeared.
Then he walked back and the elk
was again grazing within a few
feet of him. He repeated the per­
formance with the same result. Sev­
eral miles away and just discerni■ ble, he saw his elk. The obsidian
glass, according to his explanatiorx 7
was a telescopic lens and brought
the elk up to within a few feet of
him.

snciksrffianr-iupidiy

'■Another Bridger story was about
a hot lake which he discovered in!
the Yellowstone park. Thousands of i
young ducks covered its surface.!
When he got to the lake shore he
noticed that every few minutes more!
young ducks would pop up out of
the water in every direction. He
found that the mother duck laid'
her eggs in the warm water, which
hatched out the young ducks, and
as they freed themselves from the
shells they would pop up to the
surface. The lake was a natural in­
cubator.
"Along the shores of the Yellow-1
stone lake are several immense
springs which discharge boiling wa­
ter into the lake. About the place
where the hot water flows into the
lake it lies several feet thick above
the cold water, on account of the
difference in specific gravity be­
tween the hot and cold water.
Bridger’s story was that he would
bait his fish hook, and with weights
on his hne, sink it through the hot
and into the cold water, when he
had hooked his trout he would pulli
it into the hot water just above!
and let it remain there until it wa«i
cooked.
____
. —Xhese wereia fe^df 'thFstbfiM
with which old Jim Bridger regalfd.
the tenderfeet living in
and other Missouri river towns, oni
his occasional trips back to civili­
zation. Because of them he made a!
Munchausen reputation for himself.
So when he told the world of the
wonders of the Yellowstone park,
along in 1835, his story QiUih£_ri»F
was discredited, and no one
would believe him. He went to the
newspapers and publications of the
time with his narrative, but the edi­
tors laughed at him. One western
newspaper, which had ridiculed his

Describefl EcW’Vtvidly
Bridger also told of a remarkable!
echo, near a spot where he frequent­
ly made camp. According to hisi
story, it took the words thrown;
against the cliff just six hours to
come back after utterance. When
he was retiring he would say to the
cliff, “jrane to get up!” Six hours
later, at a time he wished to arise
, from his slumbers, his own words
would awaken him.

Another of his stories was to the effect that while
Ore^^lalTS^ the bweetwater country on his way to the
S
valley at a point about five miles east
o&lt; Devil s Gate, he picked up a stone and threw it across
the river at an antelope. He missed the antelope and ^h^
stone sank into the ground. Several years later, when he
returned, the mistle he had thrown across the river had
grown to, such proportions that it was as large as a goodsized h^se, and finally grew into what is now known^as
which covers an area of twenty-five
acres and it its highest point is 193 feet.

years after the derisive publication^
apologized to Bridger editorially
after the knowledge of the existence,
of the Yellowstone park became!
generally known. &gt;)
I

sd

'tiaL

�1

/*

&lt;

CAPTAIN BOKKEVILLSli ADVENTUBSft

-——.

*'

Most Interesting, Fascinating and Enchanting Stories of
the Far Vilest -Ever Published.
Mors than a century ago Captain Benjaioin L.3. Bonneville re­

turned to the ^JBl^tes" from the "Fur Country of the Far West”, after
a ■Bhr_99 year’s experience of hardships in the mountains among the

trappers and traders and the Indians. The expedition had coat the

people who furnished the money for the enterprise more than $75,000.
Bonneville himself had lost his standing in the army by violating

end overrunning his leave of absence{ he was generally discredited,
and he was decidedly a disheartened man. Today he is looked upon by
'^&lt;njany'/as the moat popular "explorer” that ever invaded this then wild,
{rv^

savage country, aed the man who crowned this venturesome, valorous,
distinguished hero v/ith so much fame and glory by transcribing his

jumbled notes into a fascinating,bewitching story v/as never west of

the hiissouri^Rivar at St. Louis.
It was mors than a century and eighty years before Bonneville
was bom that Shakespeare wrotsi "Some men are bom great; some

achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them." Many

historians and authors claim that Bonneville came under ths lattsr
classification; that the wily captain not only had greatness thrust
upon him, but that he was a speculative adventurer and a deceptive

faker.

Whatever may have been the captain's true standing as an ex­
plorer or a fur trader, it cannot be denied that he performed a great
and lasting service to thia wonderful west, even though all may be
,4
true that his opponents have written
him.
Benjamin Louis Bulalie de Bonneville was 'oom in Francs April

14, 1796. He came to America with Thomas Pains and secured a cadet-

,

�ship at West Point and graduated in 1819. He returned to France in
1825 with General LaFayette where he remained several years and upon

his return to America he was assigned to duty on the western frontier.
He secured a leave of absence from August, 1831, to October, 1833, with

permission to explore the Far West, The letter from the War Department

specified that he vzas to "explore the country to the Rocky fountains
and beyond, with a view to ascertaining the nature and character of
the several tribes of Indians inhabiting those regions} the trade which

might be profitably carried on with them; the quality of the soil, the
productions; the minerals, the natural history, ths climate, the geog­
raphy and topography, as well as the geology of the various parts of
the country."

Alfred Seton, a Kew York capitalist, provided the funds for the
Bonneville expedition. One hundred ten men composed the party, and

they had the finest assortment of goods and equipment that was ever
taken into the mountains, tiiagons drawn by oxen and mules - were ths

first to go forth on an expedition of this nature. They left Fort

Osage, ten miles from Independence, tiseouri, on Lay 1, 1832. The
route was up the valleys of ths Platte and Sweetwater, through South
Pass, and then on to the Green river valley.
Bonneville erected his first permanent trading post on the
west shore of Green river, about five miles above the mouth of Horse

creek. In history this was called Fort Bonneville, but the trappers

called it "Fort Nonsense” or "Bonneville’s Folly", because of the
fact that the winters at thia point were so severe the Indians and
trappers sought a more convenient climate, and Bonneville, for the

same reason, after he made the discovery of his mistake, set out for
a new location, and finally established his headquarters on the Lemhi

�fork of tha Salmon river. After hunting and trapping in this part of
the country all winter and meeting with many disappointments and

some misfortune, Captain Bonneville in the early spring set out for
the headvzatera of Powder River. Here ho was oeaieged by the Aricara
Indians who pilfered and robbed him of horses, furs and supplies,

and as a result of his year's work, the captain hadyjbwfe about twenty-

three packs of beaver, and on^ a few horses.

In the valley of the Godin river, and on the plains of the
Snake river, where can be seen the Three Buttes to the south and the

Three Totons to the far southeast, on June 22, 1833, Nathaniel J.
Wyeth met one of Bonneville's clerks, a man named Hodgkiss, and by

him Wyeth sent a letter to Bonneville proposing a joint hunt in the
country south of the Columbia river as far as the vicinity of the

Spanish settlements in California. The proposition was accepted Iqr
Bonneville, and Wyeth joined Bonneville on July 2, at a point about

eighteen miles east of Henry river, where they remained for five
days, writing letters and making arrangements for ths hunt. It was

arranged that Wyeth should lead the party. In less than two weeks,
however, the//pgwpoiaiittun Qmd fitl.lan thrsugh, and Bonneville continued

on his own resources.
In a letter written by Fontenelle to KcKenzie at the Green

River rendezvous on September 25, 1833, he says* •'Bonneville, seeing

that he is nearly gone, playa the devil with us. He offers to common
hands $350 to $1,000 per annum, knowing that when the time is up he
r
will pay them with wind. Kany of the men that I have ^ught out, having

received a larger allowance in ^S^' Louis, have left ma ... He
(Bonneville) is out of goods and can get no supply thia year. I am ir&gt;

hopes we shall get clear of him ... If he continues as ha has done,

�$80,000 will not save him,"
Bonnsville*8 leave of absence would expire in October, but

in ths face of this he did not return to the '^Htates" with his
meagre returns, but detailed his first assistant, M.S. Carre, udio
was to deliver them at St. Louis, while he decided to inaugurate

his fall hunt in the Crow country, but in order to make a "thorough

exploration of the Great Salt Lake and the country around it," he

sent out one of his men, I.R. ffalker, by name, whom he considered
coispetent to make the important "exploration." But on thia “explor­

ation" Bonneville's instructions to Walker were to "Xeep along the
shores of the lake, and trap in all the streams along the route,"

Walker took with him on his Salt Lake "expedition" forty men, and he
was to be absent a year. Bonneville was to meet him the following

summer in ths Bear river valley.
The Walker party departed for the Salt Lake country on July

24, 1833. It is evident they had explored sufficiently the "Great
Salt Lake and the country around it* in a vary short time, for on

iUigust 7, they set out in a westerly course through the Salt hake

desert and after several weeks* travel over the barren plains they

reached the Hxuabolt river. Indians were encountered while following

down this stream, and a number of the red man were killed by the
trappera because of their thieving propensities. This enraged the

Indians, and a few days later a battle ensued in vhich thirty-nine
of the rod men were killed, and only one or two of the white men
slightly wounded with arrows. This ended the trouble with the mis­

chievous Indians, and the men proceeded on their westward way, to be
hindered only by the mountain fastnesses. They encountered many hard­

ships, found no game, and finally were compallad to kill their poor

�horaea for food. After weeks of wandering, suffering and consuming
seventeen of their horses, they reached the foot of the main range
of the Sierra/l^ountaina on October 30. They then came upon the
Yosemite river, which they followed and finally, in the middle of

Hovamber, reached the San Francisco bay, then traveling in a

southerly direction the party on Kovember 20, first caught sight
of the Pacific ocean,
fhe Walker party remained in sunny California during the
winter and on Fabniairy 14, 1834, started on their return trip to

again join Bonneville in the Rocky Mountains. They encountered
nearly as much hardship on their return trip as they did on their

westward journey, and they again came in contact with the same

tribe of Indians with whom they had had trouble^another
battle was fought and fourteen Indians ware killed and mAwy were
wounded.

Three of the man ware slightly wounded. The party made

its way up the Snake river, and on June 1, arrived at the appointed
rendezvous on Bear river where they were mot on June 20, by Captain

Bonneville. Ths California trip by the Walker party was a disappoint­
ment to Bonneville, and he deamad it a great failure, for the

•‘Great Salt Laka and the country around it* had not been sufficient­

ly explored, and no furs ware brought in.
On July 25, 1833, the captain and his full party left the
rendezvous fa* the headwaters of the Sweetwater rivar and arrangements

ware made to transport what furs they had to^^ Louis. After much
maneuvering to avoid the troublesome Indians, the captain finally re­
turned to headquarters on the Snaka river where his men were to trap,
while he decided to explore the Columbia river. After toiling over

the mountains, having numerous encounters with the thieving Indiana,

�and meeting with great hardships, Bonneville and his two men on liar ch

4, 1834, reached the Hudson's Bay post near walla'Walla, where they
were graciously received, but they ware denied supplies, because

Bonneville was considered a competitive trader to the Hu/idson’s Bay

company, and not an explorer for the United States government. On
account of being wholly without supplies, Bonneville was precluded

from further descending the Columbia river, and on liarch 6, started
on his return trip to his winter camp on the Fortnauf, arriving

there on May 12.

From hare the reunited party left for tha Bear river valley
rendezvous, whara they found Walker and his party, and soon after

Cerra ratui*ned from

Louis with the annual supplies.

Thera was

general rejoicing among tha mountain men on account of once more

being united and they indulged in the customary celebration of
feasting and drinking, but not so v/ith the leader. On account of the
poor supply of furs gathered during the year there was but gloom for

him, and it was ths general opinion among the traders and tappers
that another year "would ba the end of him in the mountains", for

the niuabsr of furs that had been sent to the market would not bring
a sufficient sum to pay the man half the money due them.

In the face of the gloom and the past two unsuccessful years

the captain decided to stay another year in the mountains. Tha furs

that had been accumulated the past winter were sent to

Louis and

hia men were sent to different sections of the trapping country, and

Bonneville himself decided upon another trip to the Columbia. He
left on July 3, with twenty-three men, going via the Snake river,
and in due time reached the Columbia about fifty miles below the

Walla Walla, but tha Indians showed their prefaranca for the Hudson's

�Bay company, and ones mors the expedition proved unaucGsssful—or
rathar a complete failure, and the captain once more faced toward the
east, and after a great deal of suffering and hardship they arrived
on the Snake river on October 30, and on November 17 they arrived at

the caches on Baar river, and spent the winter on the upper ©id of

that river, where game was plentiful and hardship and want was un­
known, The party was visited by many bands of Indians, and occasion­

ally some white trappers. In the early spring of 1835, Captain Bonne­
ville commenced to make arrangements to leave the mountains, and on

April X he broke camp on Bear river. On June 10, ha had arrived at a
point a short distancevto the east of the Wind River Jfiountaina. On

June 22, he reached the rendezvous on the forks of Wind Jtiver where
he was joined by his men who had been sent to the Crow country, and
the united party here celebrated the Fourth of July, after which
Bonneville started on his journey toward the states, arriving at (S^

Louis on August 22, 1835.
The captain’s leave of absence had expired in October, 1833,
and he was dropped from the rolls of the anay on May 31, 1834, He

immediately set out to be re-instated, but there was a strong oppo­

sition to his re-instat ament among the aray authorities, but on
April 19, 1836, he was re-instated by President Jackson "on account

of his contributions to geographical knowledge of the mountain coun­
try, and for the further reason that his expedition had been at his

own expense and none whatever to the United States government,"
After being re-instated. Captain Bonneville served in the Seminole
and Mexican wars. He was wounded in the latter war.

It is said that his sympathies were with the secessionists

during the Civil War, but he remained loyal to the Union, In due

�time ha was advanced to idajor and later to Lieutenant Colonel, than

to Colonel and finally to Brevet Brigadier General on liarch 13, 1865.
Soon after the Civil War he retired from the army and made his
home at Fort Smith. He was married twice, end died June 12, 1878, and

hie remains ware interred in Belle-fontaine cemetery at St. Louis.

Commercially, Bonneville’s expedition was a failure, for the
captain was not trained in business, especially to compete with ths
Hudson’s Bay and the other companies that were then in the fur trad­

ing business, for he held himself above the base methods resorted to

by the other traders. He was always hospitable and quite popular
among the Indians as well as the whites. During his four years in
the mountains not one of his men were lost and not and Indian was

killed by his orders.
Xt is claimed that the two maps of the western country he

furnished the goverament wore "filched" from the maps made by Albert
Gallatin the year before, but Bonneville has been given full credit

for them, and it was these maps, mors than anything else, that caused
President Jackson to re-instate him in the army,

No doubt ths greatest debt the people of the United States owe
to Bonneville of a historical nature was the furnishing to Washington
Irving the notes from which ware written that intensely interesting

description of the Rocky Uountains, which, when it first appeared

bora the title of "The Rocky Uountaina, or Scenes, Incidents and Ad­
ventures of the Far Y/estj Digested From the Journal of Captain B.L.B,

Bonneville, of the Army of the United States, and Illustrated From

Various Other Sources," In later years the revised and re-printed edi'fei
bear the name of "Adventures of Captain Bonnevilla,"

**By tha Eternal

’

S'?

I’ll

that you are ra-instatad to your

�conmaad. For this valuable aarvica to the War Department and the

counti*y you deserve high promotion.'* Thia was the exclamation of
President Andrew Jackson when Bonneville showed him his two maps of

the mountain country, one of them being the region about the sources

of the laissouri, Yellowstone, Snake, Green, Wind and Sweetwater Rivers,
which also included the region of the Great Salt Lake. The other map

included the country westward to the Pacific ocean.
Albert Gallatin had prepared maps the year before which con­

tained nearly all the important features of the Boiuxeville maps, but
in some instances ths Gallatin maps were more nearly correct than
BonnevilH’s, It is evident that Washington Irving’s emballieliment of

Bonneville’s adventures into high-class literature mads them mors in­
ters sting and gave the captain more fame than his actual discoveries

during his ^Exploration" of the Mountain Country of four years.

It will be noted on the maps furnished by Bonneville that he

gave the name Youta (Stau) to the Great Salt Laks, but posterity has
very propsrly refused to recognize that great body of water undsr that

name.
Additional light discovered since Washington Irving wrote
Bonneville’s Adventures disclose many discrepancies and considerable

presun^tuousness on the part of Captain Bonneville upon his "explor­
ations'* and "discoveries", which are too numerous and too extended to
mention hers.

It may be said in Captain Bonneville’s favor, however, that he

was a popular leader of men on his expedition to the Mountain /dwntry,
and that he managed the men in his party with open and splendid judg­

ment, and during his four years in ths mountains not a man of his

party lost his life, while great numbers of men from other companies

�lost thair lives through sickness and being killed by the Indians.
Bonneville was popular with the Indians, and although they robbed

him and imposed upon him, he never killed any of them and seldom had
a dispute with them. Ho never furnished liquor to the Indians to in­

duce them to trade with him, and this, no doubt, was one of the con-

tributing factors for his expedition^ being a complete failure from
a comercial standpoint. It was the rule among the Indians in those
early days to trade with no one who would not furnish them with

enough Tire water” for a week or ten day’s debauch. "Mo fire water,*
no trade*, was ths universally adopted slogan among all the tribes
of ths red men.

iill through life Bonneville was lucky. -Even his unsuccessful
expedition to the Mountain^pduntry proved to be his most successful
adventure, for his luckiest day was when he met Washington Irving,
who took his notss and worked them into one of ths most interesting,

fascinating and enchanting atories of the Far West that has ever been

published.

Alfred

Mokler, Author

\

Bibliography}
Washington Irving’s "Adventures of Captain Bonneville."
Putnam n.d
Hiram M. Chittenden’s "History of the Fur Trade of the Far V/est."
Harper 1902

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                <text>Lander Journal</text>
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                <text>" other newspaper articles and captions, and a paper titled "Captain Bonneville, a Speculative Adventurer: Most Interesting, Fascinating and Enchanting Stories of the Far West Ever Published."  </text>
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                    <text>The question has often been asked how the town of Greybull and the river hard by

L
wore gibon such a strange appelation. There are several versions, but I will tell you

of an old legend, and I will tell it to you as it was told to me in the summer of 1901
while C. H. Townsend and I were traveling by team and buokboard through the Big Horn
country. Readers of thia interesting and informative daily column may take it for what

it ia worth—believe it or not, as you wish.
* ♦ ♦

This is the story: In the very, very early days a gray buffalo bull ranged in

the Absaroka valley, along what is now known as the Greybull river, feeding on the

luscious grasses of the broad, verdant meadows. In this valley ranged wild animals of
many kinds, because there was always an abundance of feed, and the water was good. This

was the only gray bull that had ever been seen in that part of the country by the red

men. It was considered a good omen.
♦ » ♦

Arapooish, chief of the Crow tribe, who had possession of the vast Absaroka domain

issued an edict that the extraordinary animal, which excited so much wonder and admira&gt;
tion among his people, should not be molested or harassed in any way. In honor of the
bull Arapooish named the stream of water in the valley "Greybull," After a number of

years, as must all living things, the bull died. The carcass was skinned and the pelt

was made into a beautiful rug for Arapooish, which was placed in the center of the great
chief’s tepee. Only the most honored guests were allowed to tread upon it.
• ♦ *

In a very few months after the death of the deeih ef the bull, which had been
held in such high reverence and awe, hard luck, disater and death overtook the Crow

tribo. Came the Sioux, the Cheyenne, the Blackfoot and the Pawnee Indians from the east
and the south. The Absaroka country and the Crow tribe wore encircled by the invading

enemy. Hany of the Arapooish fighting men were killed. Their horses were stolen and
several hundred Crow children were carried away. Young squaws were captured and forced

to become the wives end slaved of the hated Sioux and their allies.
♦ ♦ ♦

Forced to retreat, after many moons of hard fighting, Arapooish and what was left
of his people, established themselves on land farther to the north. The invaders took

possession of the Absaroka country end held it for many years. Although, by conquest,
the ownership of the rich hunting ground was changed to the Sioux and theiriallies, the

name of the stream given by the Crow chieftain, remained unchanged.
* * *

Later came the white man from the east, far beyond the 'ather of the Waters. The
great government these pale faces represented gave to the rod man allotments, annuities,
reservations, pensions, chatties, schools, missions, liberty, and everything under the

�- 2 -

sun that could be given for their comfort, happiness and convenience, in exchange for
their hunting grounds, which were now almost depleted of game. The red man accepted
the generous gifts from the Great V^hite Father, but they wanted to "eat their cake and

still have it." It cost the United States givernment billions of dollars end the lives
of more than a million white men, women and children to convince the red man of his error.

* • *
After years and years of warfare between the Indians end the United States government,
the Absaroka country, the fertile valley and the placid stream in the Big Hom Basin re­

tained the name given it by the Crow chieftain, Arapooish.
« * *

Translated from the Crow language, Absaroka, means sparrow hawk, or the land of the

Crow. The Cx*ow tribe was not numerous, end probably did not number more than 10,000 in

their most flourishing days, but their land was the richest hunting ground in the Great
Northwest country, and it was considered the most pleasant place in the vast Rocky Moun­

tain region to live. The Crow Indinas were physically and morally the best of the West­
ern Indians, and in proportion to their numbers they possessed more and better horses

than any of the other tribes.
• ♦ ♦
Absaroka was the valley and watershed of the Big Horn and the Little Big Horn

rivers, and it extended considerably to the eastward, including the valleys of the
Rosebud, Tongue, Powder, Sweetwater and Platte rivers, as well as a strip of territory

on the north bank of the Yellowstone. Arapooish was chief of the Crow tribe for many

years, and in addition to being friendly to the whites, he was always loyal to his own
people and their country. That he was possessed of great wisdom may be judged frcm the

following eulogixan:
» * ♦

"The Crow country," he said, "is a good country. The Great Spirit has put it

ex­

actly in the right p&gt;abe. While you are in it you fare well; whenever you go out of it,

whichever way you travel, you fare worse. If you go to the south, you have to wander
over great, barren plains; the water is warm and bad, end you meet the fever and ague.
To the north it is cold; the winters are long end bitter; with no grass you cannot keep
horses there, but must travel with doge. What is a country without horses.* On the Colum­

bia they are poor and dirty; they paddle about in canoes, and eat fish. Their teeth are
worn out; they are always taking fish bones out of their mouths. Fish is poor food. To
the east, they dwell in villages; they live well, but they drink the muddy water of the
Missouri—that is bad. A Crow's dog would not drink such water. About the forks of the

Missouri is a fine country; good water; good grass; plenty of buffalo. In summer it is
almost as good as the Crdw country, but in winter it is cold; the grass is gone, and
there is no salt weed for the horses.

• * *
r
V**

The Crow country is exactly^the right place. It has snowy mountains and sunny pl»i«5^*

�all kinds of climates and good things for every season. When the summer heats scorch the
prairies, you can draw up under the mountains, where the air is sweet and cool, the grass
fresh, and the bright streams come tumbling out of the snow-banks. There you can hun^ the

elk, the deer, and the antelope, when their ekins fre fit for dressing; there you will

find plenty of white bears and mountain sheep. In the autumn, when your horses are fat

and strong from the mountain pastures, you can go down into the plains and hunt the buffalo,
or trap the beaver on the streams. And when winter comes on, you can take shelter in the

woody bottoms along ths rivers; there you will find buffalo meat for yourselves, and cot­
tonwood bark for your horses; or you may winter in the Wind River valley, where there is

salt weed in abundance. Tes, the Crow oountzy is eaakly in the right place. Everything
good is to be found there. There is no country like the Crow country."
* ♦ ♦
It was some time after the Crow Indians lost possession of their valuable lands
that Port Reno and Port Phil Kearny were established, and soldiers were stationed at

these posts for the protection of ths white people who were passing through that part
of the country over the Bozeman Trail, but the Sioux and the Cheyenne stole their horses

end killed the defenseless emigrants, who believed that the Indians would respect the
ft
treaties signed at Fort Lramie by the heads of the different tribes. These forts were

as cities of refuge in a boundless wilderness, but it was not long until the hostile
such
Indians had congregated iiv'great numbers that the soldiers and forts were attacked by
large bands of Indians, which finally resulted in the Petterman massacre.
* * *
* in*

* this *perti *ef *the *eewntry *wae 1‘absndened *by * the *white *peep le * *

When I made my first trip into the Big Horn country a few months more than forty-

two years ago there was no town of Greybull, and only a few Bettered settlements in that
vast territory. The land where the thriving little city of Greybull now stands was as

free as the sky above and primeval as the redman's trail. It was still a wilderness. But

in the space of two score years flourishing settlements throughout the Big Horn Basin
have developed into bustling trade centers. Their patterns of paved streets, public
squares, comfortable homes, substantial business blocks, factories, modem school build­

ings and churches ^ave advanced by stages into numerous little cities of charm and beauty.

�Block

Precinct

Street

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                <text>The reformatted text and images in the Alfred J. Mokler Letterboxes are for personal, not-for profit use of students, researchers, and the public. Any use must provide attribution to the Casper College Archives and Special Collections (Western History Center). While being the property of Casper College, all text, images and other materials are subject to applicable copyright laws. Commercial use, electronic reproduction, or print publication ot text, images, or other materials is strictly prohibited without written permission. All permissions to publish must be obtained from the rights holder and are not the repository's responsibility for securing. The rights holder may or may not be the repository. Users also agree to hold the repository harmless from legal claims arising from their use of material held by the institution and made accessible in this digital repository.</text>
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                    <text>"MAGAZINE SECTION

THE DENVER POST—FIRST IN EVERYTHING—SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 17, 1938

TAe Post Phone—'Main '2121

�Crossed the Plains
day, July 24, hailed
thruout the intcrmountain sec­
tion, is the Mardi Gras of the

ORJION

M

west.
The date—a state holiday in Utah—
calls for a solid week of celebration
and from July 19 to 25, this year, the
event will be widely and wildly her­
alded, in Salt Lake City and Ogden
especially. Annually there are solid
rounds of parades, processions, wild
West shows, rodeos and dramas depict­
ing the trek of the Mormons (LatterDay Saints) in the early days to Utah.
The celebration this year will com­
memorate the ninety-first anniversary
of the state’s founding.
On July 24, 1847, Brigham Young,
Mormon pioneer leader, with his band
of Mormons, arrived in Salt Lake City
(then a wilderness) after a trek by
handcart and oxteam across the plains,
from Nauvoo, Ill., to found his western
empire.
“This is the place,” cried Pioneer
Young, setting his staff in the ground
end halting his followers.
Today nearly one million Mormons
In all parts of the world echo this cry
end on Mormon day revere his mem­
ory, The west is colonized.
OVERED wagons have been greased
for the long lines of parades which
will be staged daily. Oxen have been
given final training in drawing heavy
oxcarts for the processions planned for
thousands of spectators which annually
ere drawn to Ogden and Salt Lake City
by the celebrations.
Pioneer costumes have been made
ready for the dances and pageants
which will be held. Sagebrush days
will come to life as Utah gets “wild”
and the “good old days of the west”
will be relived by the Beehive state.
Mormon day queens are chosen anrually from among the fairest in Mormondom. This year, at Ogden, for the
pioneer Days celebration, blond Mar­
jorie Anderson, 16, will reign, heading
the procession on her buckskin pony.
Pal. Helen Vent, curly-haired eques­
trienne, will head the horse .show and
jodeo.
At Salt Lake City, for the Covered
Wagon Days celebration, brunet Kay
Robins will reign, assisted by her aids,
Elaine Hatch and Betty Lee Buehler.
The beauties will reign supreme at
the rodeos, parades and head pageants
into which will be woven the back­
ground of Mormondom, followers ol
the Angel Moroni. Heber J. Grant,
bearded president of the Mormons, an­
nounces that services will be held thrucut Mormondqm—Pioneer day comes
cn Sunday.
Tributes will be paid in the various
Mormon wards or branches and at the
world-famrfus Tabernacle Square, in
Salt Lake City, to the valiant colonizers
■who braved the wilderness, Indian.s,
starvation and thirst on that perilous
1,037-milo trek across the plains west­
ward.
The movement began at Nauvoo, 111,,
February, 1846, when the Mormons

C

Kay Robins, center. Is
queen of the Salt Lake
City celebration. Her as­
sistants are Elaine Hatch
and Betty Lee Buehler.

Bridger helped guide them part' of the'
way, pointing out the route to Great
Salt Lake valley. He said, however, it
would be useless to try to farm—he
would give $100 for the first bushel of
corn grown on the alkali flats. '•
On July 23, 1847, Pioneer Young,
lying ill in the wagon of Edgar 'Wilford
■Woodruff, obtained his first view of
the land in -which he purported to find
rest and peace for his weary people. '
Young gazed out upon the Salt Lakei
valley for a long time and then said;
“Enough. This is the place. Drive on,”
The pioneer band passed thru Emi«
gration canon and came into the val­
ley of the Great Salt lake on July;
24, 1847.
_
Then came “hard times,” the build--';
ing of the commonwealth; days of
bread and molasses, the discovery of i
the sago and other edible roots on
which the pioneers might survive; the
sowing of grains and the coming of.
the Mormon cricket scourge—but thru
it all lived the pioneers and others who.
followed.
Ci
They raised the Stars and Stripes
everywhere over the new Mormon
empire in the Rockies, then Mexican
territory, and in a few years applied
for admission to the union as the
State of Deseret.
A great commonwealth which fed
the California goldseekers en route
west and others had been founded.
A NNUALLY, on July 24, the achievejnent of conquering the plains,
and the making of the desert “blos­
som like a rose” i.s celebrated.
In Salt Lake City the so-called Covcred Wagon Days celebration extends
from the year 1849, when the Mormon
pioneers gathered in “Pioneer Park,”
then a stockade of protection against
Indians.
Mormon day ha.s codtinued intermit- ,
lently thru the semicentennial celebra­
tion in 1897 and is designed to reach
its climax with a government-spon­
sored “Centennial Celebration,” ob­
serving the hundredth celebration of
the settlement of the territory.
Ogden, second largest city of the
state, caught this spirit five years ago
and staged a mammoth Pioneer Days
celebration, led by Mayor Harman W.
Peery, Utah’s “cowboy mayor.” The
event was one of the most successful
This great Mormon cathedral in Salt Lake City, Utah, will be the center
celebrations—bar none—ever held,
of Founders day activities.
and each year the day has been re­
peated.
day in Salt Lake City, Og­
band followed the meanderings of the the bare skin of the feet was covered denMormon
and thruout Mormondom will com­
Platte river, keeping mostly on the with bark and animal hides.
The pioneers were a determined lot. bine the pioneer spirit and the gaiety
north side of the stream. They touched
Fort Laramie, an old trading post, and Braving the scarcity of food and water of modern days.
(Copyright. 1938.)
also Red Buttes, Independence Rock, and the danger .of .nearby redskins.
Page TItre±

Devils’Gate, Little and Big Sandy and
Fort Bridger^
Finally the pioneers arrived at Echo
canon, where ..they met certain trap­
pers—among them being Martin Harri.s and Jim Bridger. • These two gave
the pioneers very dismal pictures of the
Salt Lake valley, on the shores of
America’s great inland sea. Great
Balt lake.
The trappers urged the pioneers to
go on to the fertile lands of the Pa­
cific coast. But Pioneer Young had
decided to seek shelter in “the great
basin in the Rocky mountains.” Joseph
Smith, founder of Mormonism, had
conceived this idea—the building up
of a permanent abiding place of the
people belonging to the Mormon
church.
He would not be dissuaded and the
pioneer band trudged on. Skulls of
oxen, bulletins of the plains, marked
their route. Shoes were worn out and

Heber J. Grant, left, president of
nearly oiie million Mormons, and
Reuben Clark, high in Mormon ■
church circles, will greet their fol- ,
lowers on Mormon day.

banded together to flee from religious
persecution. The multitude of church
folk numbered 12,000 persons, who
possessed 30,000 cattle, mules, horses
and sheep. Leaders were chosen in the
first exodus from Illinois, with Brig­
ham Young at the head.
The companies left Nauvoo in the
winter under the command of Pioneer
Young, 400 wagons stopping to pitch
tents at the first of the “Camps of
Israel” upon snow and ice. They renewed the journey on the first day of
March, when they traveled five miles
and rested on Sugar creek. Permission
had been obtained to cross thru Iowa.
The company was divided into two
parts and each of these into hundreds,
fifties and tens, with captains. The
prescribed outfit for a family was one
wagon, three yoke of cattle or three
teams, two cows, two beef cattle, three
sheep, 1,000 pounds of flour, twentyfour pounds of sugar, a tent and bed­
ding, seeds, farming tools and rifle, a
total being estimated at the value
of $250.
But in addition to. those which were
thus equipped there was a large num­
ber of nondescript outfits, the make.shifts of poverty, from the unsuitable
heavy cart that lumbered on mysteri­
ously, with its crazy two-wheeled
trundle, to mere handcarts pushed by
humans.
Roadf? were bad most of the way
and wagon.s were always breaking
down, so that the company considered
it had made remarkable progress when­
ever it covered fifteen miles in a day.
The people of Iowa used to tell that all
day long the slow procession' passed
over their prairies—the strangest spec­
tacle they had ever witnessed—and
that they sjnnpathized with the toil
of those quiet but zealous pioneers.
*T^HE main camp established itself at
winter quarters, on the east bank
of the Missouri, partly occupying some
bluffs at which the Indians were wont
to hold their councils, whence the later
name of Council Bluffs. The house.s
were built of logs, a fortification was
erected, a grist mill and log taber­
nacle put up and school established—altho the Mormons knew they were to
stay a short time, a year or two at
most.
The winter was a hard one and the

Thi» monument marks the spot •where Brigham
Young halted his followers and said: “This is
the place.”
Their long journey across the
plains was ended. Ross Beatty will re-enact
.
the scene.

Marjorie Anderson is queen of the
Pioneer day celebration which will^
be held at Ogden, Utah
real cowgirl and quite
the saddle.

journey just complet^ had its dark-i^
side. Sickness had beeij|general. Deaths i)
had been so frequent (that burials had ,
to be performed wjxhout ceremony. H
Sorrow and lamentatjbn had been daily ■
visitors. No family had escaped; few ,i[
but had buried one or more.
Early in the spring of 1847 PioneerYoung gathered the famous Pioneer 4
company together at winter quarters J
and on April 17, 1847, they crossed’,
over on the north side of the Platte
river, breaking a trail toward the ’
Ko&lt;;ky mountains.
Pioneer Young took with him 143 ;
men, three women, two children, 148
souls in all; seventy-two wagons,
ninety-three horses, fifty-two mules,
sixty-six oxen, nineteen cows, seven­
teen dogs and some chickens. He also
took along a cannon to awe the Indians.
The men were farmers, mechanics
and blacksmiths—sturdy pioneers from
all walks of life, and progenitors of the j
present “hardy” Utahans who today
celebrate this famous trek westward. I
The women did their share of the work,';
being tender persons who nursed the '
feet and wounds of the men folk and
helped to cook the meals and arrange
the tents and the wagons. They cheered •.
with songs such as “The Girl I Lett:
Behind Me” and the religious favorite
of the Mormons: “Come, Come, Ye
Saints,” the latter ending: “No toil i
and labor fear, all is well, all i.s well.” ;
For hundreds of miles this pioneer '

�THE DENVER POST—FIRST IN EVERYTHING—SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 17, 1938

■ MAGAZINE SECTION

The Roaring Machine Lurches to the Side . • .

The Helpless Driver Is Shot High in the Air . ..

Racing Enthusiasts Everywhere Go to See the Spills. This One Ended Tragically
for the Driver. George Herzog, 23, Is Shown Falling from His Racing Machine as

Both Man and Machine Spin Above Track . . .

It Turned Upside Down. A Moment Later It I.anded on Top of Him and Snapped
His Neck. He Died in an Ambulance on His Way to the Hospital.

was the Canada Rid, himself,
TA
•
71
7
ITsU^^frhTnXSlVtXaS
Jewel Acquires Some Mighty

whence

he

had

sprung

(one

his haven of sanctuary.
“With all this here org’nizin’ an’

HiJfaintin’ Ideas Which Sort
£

y

jr

\J

The Driver Falls, the Engine Bears Upward ...

J

-jy" • J

The Post Phone—Main 212T '

Another Victim for the God of Speed.

This Spill Occurred at the Memorial Day Race at Indianapolis When the Car of
Al Gordon and Frank Howard Went into a Spin. Miraculously, They Lived.

�back. An’ my business, bein’ in a sort
o’ luxury bracket for its source, is
feelin’ the pinch.”
The Kid’s business, of course, is
that of being the slickest pickpocket
in all the Americas.
"I was sayin’ to Jewel,” he con­
tinued, bringing in, as he always did,
his adored red-headed wife, “that
it’s no use stickin’ your fingers into
kicks what ain’ got nothin’ in ’em.
“Big shots ain’ makin’ no profits,
most o’ the workers is on strike an’
most o’ the rest of ’em is out o’ jobs.
I s’pose I could lift a few relief
checks, but I ain’ fellen that low yet.
i‘I figger these here lib’ral labqr
laws is what’s at the bottom o’ the
brief. An’ yet, I belong to one o’ the
oldest an’ most hon’rable unions in
the land.
“For half a cench’ry or more, the
Pickpockets’ Trust, or Dips’ Union,
has had headquarters in Ch’cago an’
branches aroun’ the country.
“Ev’ry p’fessional is a member. The
dues is on percentage, the amounts
is paid on the honor system, an’ our
bpys play on the up-an’-up with the
org’nization. The dues is a tenth .o’
the take; the scripchural tithe.
“It’s what we call ‘fall dough.’ A
‘fair is when one o’ the lads gets in
trouble. Then the fund gets him a
square mouthpiece if that’ll help, or
a fixer what can reach the right peo­
ple—judges, juries or prosecutors—

a^tiTITHE
A True Story From Real Life

!*‘My Business, Bein’ in a Sort o’ LuxSury Bracket for Its Source, Is Feelln’
»
the Pinch, Too.”

By Jack Lait
or it puts up in cash so he can lam
the bail if it’s hopeless.
“It don’ say ‘Pickpockets’ Trust’;
on the door, o’ course. But it’s a law
firm, see ? That firm ain’ got no other
kind o’ cases. An’ they gets paid by’
the year, so much.
“The head office is in a skyscraperowned by a big bank, an’ the rent is’
paid on the'line.
“lye got ev’rything an org’niza­
tion o’ workers or industrialists—fig-;
ger us either way—could need, excep’
a press agent or a senator.
,
“We exchange inf’mation about
conditions aroun’ the country, where
the bulls is tough, where a new D. A/
can or cannot be reached, what race­
tracks is bearin’ down, where we can

So She
Throws a Book
at Me—an’ the
Book Is b.y One
o’ the M a r X
Brothers — 1
Think Karl.”

Illustration
by Geo. A. Fish

slip a few grand in the campaign
fund of a right judge—an’ if any
brother is in distress, penal or
pers’nal.
“We even got international c’nections to fence bonds an’ di’monds an’
such where it ain’ too close to their
home. I, my?elf, never touch securi­
ties or ice. Currency is my dish. It
ain’ got no identity. It’s tough
enough to chance a rap for ‘larceny
from the person’ wit’out havin’ to
get by ‘possession o’ stolen goods’
or c’nspiracy falls.
“But I say I’m a good org’nization
man. I come clean with my tithe an’
I appreciate what p’tection it gets
me.
“But we ain’ in no fed’ration or
other union o’ unions. We ain’ tryin’
to shape over the world. We’re sim­
ply one for all an’ all for one; we ain’
lobbyin’ for no floor'under what a
sucker can carry in his wallet or a
ceilin’ over how long one of us can
chump cased.
“Some weeks I work forty hours
an’ some I jus’ lay aroun’ the house
an’ look at Jewel, an’ some weeks I
stay on a trail night an’ day till I
clip my cluck.
“If Stalin Is handin’ out
orders to all these here unions,
he hasn’t got aroun’ to ourn
yet, an’ if he ever shows up
at our headquarters one o’ the
members’ll prob’ly frisk him
for his five-year plan.
“Nach’rally, like in all
groups, we have our radicals.
Some o’ the tithe-payers in
good standin’ are defi­
nitely for packin’ the
Supreme Court the
New Deal way, though
me, myself, I don’ see
how you’re gonna get
in the pockets of a sapi
all covered up in a Ku1
Klux kimono.
“My Jewel — who’sI
got some red in her.

Sideswiped! Charles Engles Ploughs Over the Side Wall After Striking Car No.
34, Driven by Don McKenzie, Whose Machine Was Turned Completely Around.
-mostly in her hair—says as how
he
bein
’ byI’m
trade
a shoplifter
—•
“—
She
says
a tory,
an Indivij;fould never
nothin
out ofana’
ualist,
out of swipe
time wit
’ the’ times
torenowhat
a picket-line; she
^ot
sense had
o’ solidarity.
zouldn
’ work
a place
what
“I says
it ainin’ so.
I’m for
old was
age
[nfair.
I saysyour
that hands
was a flock
o’
msionsSo when
get so
loloney
an’can
I’d’t not
go at’empty
rough
laky you
put only
’em in
1itch-pocket
picket-line wit
but’out
go turnin
t’rough
aa
picket
’ in
riot
i—
if heI’m
had for
anything.
ill.
share-the-wealth—I
ant a share of anybody’s wealth,
n’ I can sit down with as much enirance an’ enthusism as any man.
“Jewel asks me am I for c’lective
irgaining, so I tells her no but she
bughta be. ’Cuz when them mammas
p’lect for bargains in them stores,
that’s when she can put in her best
licks. An’ she says stop kiddin’—do
stay on the job if he’s got a good--.. I ptand for the closed shop? So I

i

says avboob what marries a red-head
learns to stand for anything. So she
Ithrows a-book at me—an’ the book
is by one V the Marx brothers—I
think Karl.
\
w’ cho
ii■? “An
she says she’s a hund’ed per
;ent behind the ti
tirls in our hand
the corner, what’s
laundry aroun’ thi
been out now for two months for a
livin’ wage an’ shorter hours.
i “So I says, well if them laundry
girls wasn’ gettih’ no livin’ wage an’
struck for one, how was they livin’
ipp to then? An’ she says maybe I
Bbetter not ask. Girls who can’t get
&amp; livin’ wage have been forced to
feates worse’n death. I says I don’
tbelieve it, ’cus I’ve seen the girls in
phis laundry.
|. “Anyway, Jewel says, they’re right
fin demandin’ shorter hours. So I says
|l don’ know. How many hours was
[they workin’ before they struck an’
^demanded shorter hours? An’ she
bays she don’ know an’ that’s beside
fehe point.
I “I says how ? If you don’ know
blow many hours they was workin’,
plow can you say that many hours
ithey was workin’ was too long an’
tthey’re right in strikin’ for less
|hours ?
j “An’ Jewel says, bless her, she
Ididn’ unde’stand they was strikin’ for
jUESS hours—they was strikin’ for
SHORTER hours!”

Al Gordon Does a Solo Flight This Time. He Crashed Through the Fence Below
the Wheels and Flew 125 Feet In the Air. He Received a Broken Nose and Bruises.

Note How This Thrill-Provider Is Trying to Extricate Himself Before His Whirl­
ing Slachine Falls on Top of Him. The Driver Escaped with Minor Injuries.

Copyright. 1338, King features Syndicate, Inc.

Page Four
'

,, '• i.

-.1

............

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                  <text>The Alfred J. Mokler Letterboxes are a series of the larger archival collection that are his papers. Both his Letterboxes and his Notebooks available in this digital repository include holograph manuscripts, which is to say, manuscripts written in the author's hand. Much of the material in Mokler's Letterboxes dates to the 1920s and 1930s.</text>
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                <text>Letterbox 2-G</text>
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                <text>1938</text>
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                <text>This letterbox contains a magazine section of the Denver Post from July 17, 1938 with a large article about the celebration of Mormon Day and the Mormons' arrival in Utah.</text>
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                <text>The reformatted text and images in the Alfred J. Mokler Letterboxes are for personal, not-for profit use of students, researchers, and the public. Any use must provide attribution to the Casper College Archives and Special Collections (Western History Center). While being the property of Casper College, all text, images and other materials are subject to applicable copyright laws. Commercial use, electronic reproduction, or print publication ot text, images, or other materials is strictly prohibited without written permission. All permissions to publish must be obtained from the rights holder and are not the repository's responsibility for securing. The rights holder may or may not be the repository. Users also agree to hold the repository harmless from legal claims arising from their use of material held by the institution and made accessible in this digital repository.</text>
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                <text>Goodstein Foundation Library Archives and Special Collections (Western History Center)&#13;
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            <name>Subject</name>
            <description>The topic of the resource</description>
            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="1497">
                <text>Utah -- History</text>
              </elementText>
              <elementText elementTextId="1498">
                <text>Mormons -- Utah -- History</text>
              </elementText>
            </elementTextContainer>
          </element>
          <element elementId="46">
            <name>Relation</name>
            <description>A related resource</description>
            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="1499">
                <text>Alfred J. Mokler Papers</text>
              </elementText>
            </elementTextContainer>
          </element>
        </elementContainer>
      </elementSet>
    </elementSetContainer>
  </item>
</itemContainer>
