https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/84f8a650bb516b7e73547679b8e6c7eb.pdf a4b167b035e5b943c2c838a17b0617bb PDF Text 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 & 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. & Mrs. A. J. Mokler, 655 So. Park Ave., Casper, Wyoming “THE GATEWAY” Hell's Half Acre, Wyoming. ���fU ■r-c ,AXZ/*'uV AZ^-’ a/p ^-,0'-^''^ W- QaM^u. Tr9-‘‘^^-^ 1xt)t^ CA-AZ -i^ (La^z^zr''^^^ AA'-A-^ ii-^'' Czf^c cr\^ / ^t..'^~'t~'^^~r^ r- ‘dZ'Z^^ Z J ■'’H' ?1 igpj !T-^ -'■} ,: ' i,w, '^if^ . ’ -■>■• ?'J :' J ."’ 0©^-<''X^-t7 M(/ii' "”^ii^7'’~"'"'’^-^' ■ -' ■ ... .. _. .. ... .: ... . : ;,. . . . .. 1 . . .jJ........... - '\. ,. 'T'^'^r^ 11^ , _ I . _ . tJ.. .'L'.. . .- „-:— -I �•, _ .'...:______ • ■, . . _’ ''yy'c^ f ■ , ‘’U- . - .y.,- ■■•;■ '• —-- ;; :'! ■'£' i,. . '. • ■ ■ q : a : ■ r r ^-T :.. ■r^u... ,...., .......... t 1 I ■ '/■? i • > i,'j7;!j,‘:/. j;;q j jti!^:.:ii;f,:, ij/; >' ; ()iSNr;L/s «i!!!-,f; ? : t'i‘"' '' //'-''if ifi/n'-s £;rv\’ ■ f: '<;.•' ?'■'.."ffiiS'.i) rssiijq i^oi jli.'ssq - vs ■ t! 7; si |»i I ■• ■r-r-T“r ’i;;t'«’v'^-^'?/SS«‘*" i {’jt!yjj/<j!.r ; i!i,..:/jj;«a jftrafeft Huwsej Sf«<{ jffax&iJ ' S:J*<b{! - I - '' J <„ ,A\ 1 G ). *^ 'i<“^''M'/A'•'*•' '•’'i'C, ■•W'.Ji.K ;iOia« ;jt<"t?.X (t’Sia;.-£ t^SWri* GGajO'Jlirt'qjija^ ! j^f’!.<!E5j.<Xj {;,J1?S.«* ? «S,Ki.E‘j!.S S'A! — hf;^ ZF F.|' : J. . >i;s'>j)(;a‘; .-^,-.-.f,„».,„^,,^-..^..„.._., y.E»ipi,sq:ife-d; J^&tMfaap&sc giKr^’wcs 4yrf Ju. \. r”, ,iS» ) ij,f=j-j:-' -siiKi 7* vfe f^SSS>J ,.,. ,, ' '\V '';:7i" > i. .,1 -, ^4-^^ H ■ ! ' ■ 1 ?(?’0C iOO’OV' , --------------- s . .L-.•.I.X,. . ■ ^Jia £1.0'00 L VtjSI 3'00 i^r a ifi .■•Trsi' -i—u -— ; ■ £11 ....;, —_4,,..«-,,._,fc.j_..n,..,..j_.j.._,..,i.,.j|^.j., ... . .u-jj.. ..-X-Ti. .4. ii-1. . I"'.- .-.. jw;. v?i;iJFe!,C5-9T tiflljxjif!’?’? i- '.;; E^^j C.it.T - . ................. p. ... ■ ....1..J. ..»,,.. .;E.i... .„ .,-4^-. . i—wi.i I ^ ■!. I. ■ L. 1 —. I II — 1^1.1.—.11 ., £,■ ■ ,--.■ --•■'»• "l^l* ■■!■; mt w''. ' " I’y-*!' ■ ~ — , ^• !r. -■:i. 1 --------------------- ----- ---------''" . ' ----------- -- --- .. .,^-.._ i ■ .- j^..*4^....4--.-..li.L ^ .■ . x^^~jnIuX2£4U- :----- ___._—. -'f,. -.''=._ 1, ^ZV".- ,ri ==a=Tr-- .’.,.1.11 not,' '';.g8S^5gai.‘.E:aT . i. .. .„ J 1 . �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. �' ' :a r ■■••■■'< CH30kfci> ' ■k’. 3<=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 <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<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 <me from the inresant scene we will give it velotaae. Bibliography: Col. W. H. Huntiey la Casper Hally Tribune, Septeidjor 19, 1921. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Alfred J. Mokler Letterboxes Subject The topic of the resource Local authors -- Wyoming -- Natrona County -- Casper Casper (Wyo.) -- History Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.) Natrona County (Wyo.) -- History Description An account of the resource 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 A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letterbox 1-E Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Alfred J. Mokler Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/</a> Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Cow Country The Mountain States Monitor Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1927 1940 1947 Description An account of the resource 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." Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Language A language of the resource ENG Access Rights 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. 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. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Goodstein Foundation Library Archives and Special Collections (Western History Center) Relation A related resource Alfred J. Mokler Papers