https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/cc4af188488ec47f78bb89ef6ddfedd6.pdf daafc999b80810821f6c093ceddf0ef4 PDF Text Text 8TARTIN0 A CATTUS RAW IN WTCaiZm Zb Febrwry, 1882, I oelebra^ ny wist btr^idi^ bir tr*dlag six Maver trap* and a •aek of flour f(»r a famtor** oabia oa th* head of UoARy eroelu Thi* oabia, built th® prrriou* year by P*t th* Tra >p«P and Black Jiaok, w* about 14 foot •quar®, aado out of largo grooa plao logo, with a dirt roof and dirt floor* A big atoae fireplace ia one oad, with tho ohiaaoy built up oa th® outsld® of th* buildiBg* furaiohod both heat and light. Thmro wore ao wiadowo and tho floor was made f>om aa oik hide stretched cm topee pole*. A ln>ooK. mdo from willow twigs, wa* used to sweep the dirt floori aad all the oookiag was oror tho coals from tho fireplace, using dutoh oreas aad rery thiok skillets. Tho oabia was well sheltered sad half hidden ia tho willow brush. I spent the winter of *82 aad *89 ia the oabia, aost of the tiae alcmo, except for a month or so whim Bill Foalx lived with ao. time was fully oo» snqsied trapping aad hunting sad during th* winter, 1 aad* rathmr elaborate plans to build a aow house aad start ranch life oa ay own hook. ffli* game was <piite plsaiful. There were aaay bmver in tho hoad«<waters of the stream aad also a few otter aad mink. Th* coyotes and tiaber wolves wore howling tho foot hillsi and the furs gathered that fall and wintw brought m several Inindred dollar*. Runwrous White-tailed deer lived in the brush along the creeks and thousands of antelope grazed <m the broad plateaus. Large bands Of elk aumiered ia the BKRmtains and both black and grizzly bear were plentiful. Zb tho winter time, many of the aatelop* aad elk crossed to tho north side of tho Platte river to winter la the send hills. Tho buffalo wore practically ex- twpainatod, exc^t for a few stragglers on the north side of tho Platte IMver. Fro«ju«atly in the fall small bands of Indians, hunting parties, visited that section aad for several year* I did oonsidmrable trading with �Z « starting oattla ranch ohanglng augar end ooffaa Sot tlwir tanned huok*alcin« la the spring of *8S« I started with a four-horse teaa for Fort Collins to ship the hides end furs aoousulated through the e&ntiMPi and on ny return Joums;'* stopped in Laraaie City te lay in ay aunner «ipplies^inoludii^ first aoeiag snskiae «ad hay rake* There, Z deeidod I would need a hired nan and was very fortunate in seourlng the serviees of a young fellow ay osn age, who had lived on a raaeh at Virginia Dale, Colo*, and was familiar with all kinds of ranah weric* Together, we left Laranie City with our four-horse load of supplies* At letrsBie river, we net our first diffioulty* The water in the river was dangerously high with a great flood sweeping around the west approaoh ot the bridge, threatening to oarry awiy the entire struoture. Fearing the bridge would be washed out, we hurriedly orosoed, but mired dean in the flood waters on the west side of the bridge and spent the rest of the day trying to salvage our supplies* Most of then had to be oarried to the bank on horse baok and the fans maohinery draggod ashore with long ropes. We were both soaking wet and spent a very disagreeable night trying to dry things out around our oamp fire. Late in the aftemoflai ^uat as we were over most of troubles, along e—e tee big freight outfits, headed by Al Ayers, and some neighboring ranohers on the La Prele. One of their wagona was loddod with a sheet iron Mpping vat fkr sheep and I know we speoulated about It, beeauso we were unaware of aiywno ossdng shssp in that seotion. We reloaded mir outfit and reaohod the eabin on oro^ on the seocnd 0t Jvlyt 1889, There were no wagon roads in that country, excepting an old one irtiloh followed up Deer oxwek^ and we then took some gome trails aoross the Middy, The country was unsurveyed and I was the first settler on the creek. �S « Startlzis a aattla ranoh mMb oonaiatad af a •quattarb rl|^ md Z only plaaaad a vary aaall aatflt* I fait that abaut ISO aoraa af laad with a few head af aattXa vattld ba all I would avar aara fwr* Baaa to aaoura a tvtt aattla would raquira aona outslda aapltal,aad I had plaaaad aaating Inrothar, dolma la Chloago July 4 to or» goalsa a llttla cattle ooBqpaay* Tha delay at Laramie river had made oqr tlaa very shot,00 I told Jack to make hlmaelf at hone at the eabla aad thea go up the oreek about half a mile to ahere the etr«san eoaw through a ridge of roaka aad otart dlgglae a Una of poet holaa a rod apart* going eaat uatll he reariiad tha higher table laad aad lhaa dlgglag north uatll 1 returaad* I told hla X would be ewoy about a weak or 10 dayo* aad ^mo wo would go up la tha aouatalao mid aaaa poles to build our faaoa wlldu It woe 80 Biles from ay eabla to Rook Upeek^on the imioa Paolflo railroad* and ahlle I was giving Jaek his inotruoti<ms I was also saddling ny horse and putting la a eouple sandwlohes to eat on the road* as Z wanted to keep ny appointment la Chicago as nearly on tine aa possible* X left ny eabla 11130 that Morning aad rode into Baek Creek the next aoralBg la tine to oatoh tdie 9 o’olook train* I think It wan eao of the longest aad beot«tlBod rides I ever Bade* la Chioago, X setsvod into a partBsrshlp with ay fa^er aad brother* they puttlag la a thousand dollars oaeh against ay aoounulated outfit la V^o- Blngi and X went up into '"isoonsln aad purohased 80 head of yearling heifers froci the farmers* These* I shipped to Rook Creek and branded T»V froB an old 7 shaped Iron whioh X found thrown away at the stoohyards* X thoa took ay saddle horse* whioh I had left at ths Seven-Mile Spring ranoh* purohased a little ooffee aad eon Boal froa Charlie Clay* who was at that time ruanlag a grooery store at Book Creek* (he afterward aovod his laoroantile eotabllshsMBt to Doug­ las. } sad opening the gate at the oorral started ny 80 head of yearling heifers �< - starting a oattle raac^ for ia^ laaeae rent^ I had little diffioulty getting then hone alone, as I simpler followed them along and whecever they wwe ready I oeasped wl'^ thOBa Of eourse, this all toelE time, «sd instead of being away a week «r ten deys as 1 had palnned, I had been gone nearly a month, and aattnrally wondered what ny first hired nan had been doing all the time I was away, Wan I reaohed the eabln, I found ante That thirty da^w* worie of Jack’s laid the foundation for all ay life’s real trouble* The line of post holes he had dug north during ay absenoe was about the most dlsoouraglng thing I erwr looltwd at, and from that day to this, 1 hare worked night and <kiy trying to oateh with then* Z didn’t wish to waste the pent holes, and in order to sake use of then* I had to revise all ny plana* My 160>*«ore ranoh stretahed out into a large doandn* Ihr two ears oattle had to be followed wl^ naay others. Instead of a t9ti poles from the mountains to build the fenee, Z had to go In debt for a lot of barbed wire. Jack’s great line of postholes wee one of the aevsn wanders of the territory, lie beaasn maowned as Poet Bole Jaok, and Is tod^ living in Casper^ still ohuekllng ov«r the trouble hla famous post holes Inrought me* Ills brother, TMrt, was oalled Post Bimber Two, and in later years started a part- nershlp business la Gleorook under the zubbo ot a>^ Post* Sven now, after a lapse of 48 years, I am still striving to eatoh up with that line of poet holes* When the gevenesont surveyed ^e ls»d in that seotion, Z found he had run his line of post holes north by ths stars without allowing any variatioa* Z still use that line fenoe, but have had to buy an awful lot of land to pretest it* During the sua-.ser and fall of ’83, we eosapleted our new house anH re­ luctantly abandoned the old eabla* This new ranoh house was 18 feet wide nd e 36 feet long, made of hewed logs* I insisted on having all the logs peeled* �S » Startlzifi a oattXe raooh baoausa la tha first aaUa I bought -tiia alaa aad paokorats as wall as aumaroua smaller animals maoyed me greatly by getting under the loose bait; of tha house logs* Qne-half of ny naw oabla* a large room 18 feat square, was used tor o, kitohen, dining room and parlort aad the other half was divided Into IdiTM bedrooms* It seemed to no tha last word la western luxury* About that time Fort Fattaraaa was abandanad* aad I saeurad two old doors and six double windows from some of tha abandoned buildings at tha post* These were all dif­ ferent sites and both doors rather low| tha windows of different widths aad heli^ttst but It was all oomfortable aad hows llks* tho ouaoassful ranehaaa la a new oountry aust ba more or lass a jaok-of all trades* As engineer, wa had to run out our Irrlgatlag ditches, largely by the use of a 16-foot board aad spirit level* Ona of ay neighbors, used thi« same oootrlvanoa, but unfortunately used the short leg In front and spent natay ot iiio best years of his life digging dltehes that failed to nake water rtm hill* Tha first year, wa had great difficulty la saeuring anoui^ Iwqr tw oaar oattla* Most of It had to ba out la out-of-the way plaeao wliereaar wa could find patohas of j^rass wnth aowlag* We ware quite busy finishing our house before winter aad building shelter sheds for the cattle* la the suomer of *84, ay father and brother came out from Chioaro to sea how I was getting along with their two thousand dollars* They took the stage from Bosk Craide to Fort Fattaraaa where I net them with a wary dalapldatad buak beard aad asagy team* They ware eartalaly a dlsaouraged looking outfit when wa reached tha ranoh^ aad ay baehelor haras did not seem to la|irass them favorably* I was doing sy oen cooldag, aad the saaond noraiag aftsr their ar­ rival, fath r was slightly under tha weather aad ay sour dough panoakee aad �0 « starting a cattle nooh fried antelope meat did not appeal to hiia. All he wanted waa piollee. At that tine X bought salted pieloela the keg ih Laraisie and then ehen needed would freshen Ihm in a large operwaouthed ehowoohosr bottle* The night before X had forgotten to cover up "Uie mouth of the ohow»oho« bottle, ehioh was standing as usual in Vjf hand«nade oupboard, and a eouple of ad.co had fallmi into it* X up frost table and brought ^th«r the bottle of pielM edthout notioing the niee* X will neeer fos^et the look of dlseeuragosMBt sdiioh smpt over his foes shea he reaohsd his fork into the ehow>ehow bottle for a piokle and brought out a MUSS* ^jr ftther, with a look of disguot* shoved the bottle of pioles aomss the table toward ns and said, ^Bryant, there is a nouse in ^e j^oklM*" brother, winked at ne aoross t^ table and I gotup, very solenly, Mrried the ehow-ohow bottle to the door, oarefully threw the mous^ out, dlsoovered the seeond one there, told ay father ywre were two then, bhu^ht the bottle baek and placed it bmide his plate at the table, saying, "I an very sorry, but X usually throw the niee out before brsakfast** Tkther got up front the table and went into the other roon, and ^y Brother J(ha, and X spent the rest at the nomiag lai^^iiag about it* Tkthm^ eould not see the Joke and said he would like to get even with John for so aueh laughing* The next morning. Post hole Jack killed an «Bu>naous rattle snake Just out­ side the front door* This rattle snake we oarefully ooiled on the door sill md thm mlled to ay broiler to oene out ami see the son rise* John was wear­ ing a long shite night shirt, the first ever seen in our part of the oountry and when he opened the low door and stepped out in his bare feet to gase at ths glorious noming sun Just appeariag above the distant nountain, his bare foot rested squarely on the dead rattle snake* wyi an unearthly scream, his hand hit the top of the door sill and the next noneat he was hopping around in the dewy grass in front of the house* Bost Hole Jack rushed op with a olub and �I - exaTKuag a oaxxxo rancn pouxided the aaake dead, idiile I slipped over to iqr hrether «sd showed a little spot above his ankle where the snake aust have bitten hisu Very ttn-ilTr- ly. Jack and Z eseorted ay imfcHrtiiBate brother into -tiie hoasa end pat Idn to bed. I asked .Mok to find sone oaotus as qulokly as he oould, while I laotted a stroae oord very tightly around brother's li^ at the knee to prevent the poison from rea<diiag his heart. Thon wo split the oaotus and bandaged up the leg vMle Post Hole suggeMrted ‘teat perhaps we should kill a ohlcken as the fresh blood fron the ohioken might help draw out the poison. I had made the bsn^ige so tight that his foot was eoeiaeneing to swell and wy father was gett» Ing terribly worried and thought vw should send to Fetteman right aaay fbr Dr. Mrber. I finally took ny father outside, aade him {sroedse aoareay and told hi* it was all a joke, that the snake had been dead sens tins before, John stepped OB it. Father thought we were oarryiag Idle j<d» too far. but in those days real aanoesNBt had to be hone«nade and Peat Bole desk and I were having so mueh fun out of it that we kept it up sens time. Along toward noon, we made ny brother a pair of emtohes from soim old Indian ti^ee poles, making one oruteh several inohm shorter they, the ether, and in the ev« aing he was able to hobble around a little, but oould graphloally desoribe just how it felt to have the rattle snake poison workis^ his left side toward his heart. It took him several days to reoover from this rattle snake bite, but he ms always very proud of it and later oa glowingly piotured all his smisations to Dr. Barber and others at Fetteman. Of oourse they knew the real inside of the story but would egg him on as his desoriptloos were trul^ thrilling. The gradual buildln; up of the ranch ms a souros of kesa oourse -ttie work was frequmtly disooura^ng and tdw workiag hours vary of �8 • Starting a cattle ranoh bttt tlMi 4«jr of tra&sfttndoK the 4oo«rt woto lato floltfo of wRving grain and ■f alfalfh la truly wondorful and inspiring* Aa the yaara amt ty, the is^rovonants inereaaad along with the oattie and may visitors enjoyed life with us during the swaner oonths* There ws so auoh garae in the country with no nearby indueesient to spend laoney* that aetual naming expenses were very low, so in the eourae of three brief years our rancdi on the laiddy had gmrwn to be quite an attraoUve plate and I deeidf^ to go baoh to Nahamaka and bring out a aohool mana to <to the otM^Lag* This prove: to be the wisest anve I ever node* She is here with ne today* after 44 years assistance in buildiag up «iit partioular cattle nmoh* and I tn sure it enjoying ^8 old-tiaer’s eelebratitm at nueh aa asqr of iiie rest of US* e e e (The above is part of an address delivered by foraanr Gov* B* B* Breeks at the Old Tiatr*t reunion at the ^aaalng state fair at Oou^^las in Septe^er of 1930* It hM been espied from the Tribuno-IIerald, Septe* 21, 1930* p* 3.) � 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 Articles, Bulletins, Compliments, Correspondence and Speeches Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/</a> Description An account of the resource This digitized collection contains material from the Articles, Bulletins, Compliments, Correspondence and Speeches series of the Alfred J. Mokler Papers. At the collection-level the the Alfred J. Mokler Papers consist of holograph manuscripts, which is to say, manuscripts written in the author's hand, and typescripts from the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writer's Project which date to the 1930's. Much of this material may be found in Mokler's notebooks. In addition, researchers will find Mokler's unpublished typescript of a Chronology of Wyoming written for the Works Progress Administration. Material from some of these pages was used in Wyoming: A Guide to its History, Highways, and People. Mokler's papers also consist of approximately 300 original photographs, many of which were used in his publications. There are 15 scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, personal diaries and yearbooks, and 10 Letterboxes, of which contain publications and other materials Mokler collected as well as correspondence. Copies of Annals of Wyoming and books from Mokler's library were also gifted to the repository. Researchers will find a lot of Casper and Natrona County history in Mokler's papers. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Alfred J. Mokler Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Alfred J. Mokler Papers, NCA 01.v.1992.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context NCA_01.v.1992.01_Articles-Speeches 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Typed address 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/. Description An account of the resource Part of an address delivered by Wyoming Governor Bryant Butler "B.B." Brooks. His address was given at the Old Timer's reunion at the 1930 Wyoming State Fair in Douglas, Wyoming. This address is found in the the Articles, Bulletins, Compliments, Correspondence and Speeches series of the Alfred J. Mokler Papers. At the collection-level the the Alfred J. Mokler Papers consist of holograph manuscripts, which is to say, manuscripts written in the author's hand, and typescripts from the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writer's Project which date to the 1930's. Much of this material may be found in Mokler's notebooks. In addition, researchers will find Mokler's unpublished typescript of a Chronology of Wyoming written for the Works Progress Administration. Material from some of these pages was used in Wyoming: A Guide to its History, Highways, and People. Mokler's papers also consist of approximately 300 original photographs, many of which were used in his publications. There are 15 scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, personal diaries and yearbooks, and 10 Letterboxes, of which contain publications and other materials Mokler collected as well as correspondence. Copies of Annals of Wyoming and books from Mokler's library were also gifted to the repository. Researchers will find a lot of Casper and Natrona County history in Mokler's papers. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Governor Bryant Butler "B.B." Brooks Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Alfred J. Mokler Papers, NCA 01.v.1992.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context NCA_01.v.1992.01_Articles-Speeches_CattleRanch Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1930 Subject The topic of the resource Frontier and pioneer life -- Wyoming Title A name given to the resource Starting a Cattle Ranch in Wyoming