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WVOMING 


The  ^(^oming  History  Journal 
Winter  2002  Vol.  74,  No.  1 


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YvUrSfe 


ov-v"\\. 


The  Cover  Art 


Early  Storm, 

a  watercolor 

by  Merritt  Dana  Houghton 

This  image  illustrates  the  itnpredictahility  of  spring  time  weather  in  Wyoming.  Snowstorms  dur- 
ing the  three-month  spring  calving  season  are  a  major  hazard  for  ranching  families.  It  is  not 
unheard  of  for  temperatures  to  reach  a  high  of  72  degrees  during  the  day.  with  a  low  of  17  that 
night.  Severe  weather  ccm  result  in  cUsastrous  losses  of  young  livestock. 

The  artist,  Merritt  Dana  Houghton  (b.  1846-d.  1919),  settled  in  Laramie  in  1875  and  later  lived 
in  both  Encampment  and  Saratoga.  The  artist  executed  many  pen  and  ink  draM'ings  of  historic 
forts  and  stage  stations.  He  also  recorded  in  drawings  numerous  ranches,  mines  and  towns  of  his 
time.  The  Wyoming  State  Museum  holds  the  largest  known  collection  of  Houghton  's  work,  which 
includes  both  pen  and  ink  drawings  and  watercolors.  This  collection  cdloM's  a  glimpse  of  our 
past  and  provides  a  valuable  record  of  Wyoming  at  the  turn  of  the  century. 

—Dominicpte  Schultes,  Curator  of  Art,  Wyoming  State  Museum 


The  editor  of  Annals  of  Wyoming  welcomes  manuscripts  and  pliotograplis  on  every  aspect  oftlie  historv  of  Wyoming  and  tlie  West. 
Appropriate  for  submission  are  unpublished,  research-based  articles  which  provide  new  information  or  which  offer  new  interpretations 
of  historical  events.  First-person  accounts  based  on  personal  experience  or  recollections  of  events  will  be  considered  for  use  in  the 
"Wyoming  Memories"  section.  Historic  photo  essays  for  possible  publication  in  "Wyoming  Memories"  also  are  welcome.  Articles  are 
reviewed  and  refereed  b\  members  of  the  journal's  Editorial  Advisory  Board  and  others.  Decisions  regarding  publication  are  made  by 
the  editor  Manuscripts  (along  w  ith  suggestions  for  illustrations  or  photographs)  should  he  submitted  on  computer  diskettes  in  a  format 
created  by  one  of  the  widely-used  word  processing  programs  along  with  two  printed  copies.  Submissions  and  queries  should  be  ad- 
dressed to  Editor,  .-innals  of  Wyoming.  P.  O.  Bo,\  4256.  University  Station.  Laramie  W\'  8207 1 .  or  to  the  editor  by  e-mail  at  the  follow  ing 
address:  annals;5  uwvo.edu 


Editor 

PhllRc.lrrts 

Book  Review  Editor 

CarlHalllierg 


Editorial  Advisory  Board 

Barhiiiii  HoL^art,  L\aiistitn 

Mallei  Hrciwri.  Newcastle/Cheyenne 

Katlleiiiie  C  urtiss,  Sliernlan 

Dudley  (.a.ilnei-,  R.kI,  Spunks 

Sallv  F  (.riftith.  Liisk    Havel  to«n.  Pa, 

Don  HihIi^sou,  Tiirnnntcin 

Loren  .lost.  Ri\et  ton 

.lames  R   Laird.  Wapm 

Sherry  L,  Smitli,  Miinse/Dalla.s.  Te\ 

Thrinias  F  StroneK.  Casper 

Lawrence  .M.  Woods,  \Vorlant.i 

Wyoming  State  Historical  Society 
Publications  Committee 

Rick  E^^'il;.  Laramie 

Daxkl  Katlika.  Ro^  k  Spring's 

Shei-ry  1.   Smith.  Monsi- 

Amy  La\\  lence.  L.iiamie 

Nancy  Curtis.  Cileiido 

Brian  Hosnier,  Laramie  (e\  otlicio) 

Patty  Myers.  Wheatland  {e\-otiicio) 

Loren  .lost.  Ri\erton  {ex-otla  lo) 

Phil  Rolierts.  Laramie  (e\-..ltiuo) 

Wyoming  State  Historical  Society 
Executive  Committee 

Da\e  Taylor.  Picsulfnt,  Natrona  County 

Amy  Lawrence,  1st  \'ke   Pies.  .Alliaiu'  Ci 

Patty  Myers.  Jnd  \Ke  Pies  .  Platte  Co 

Linda  Faliian.  Secretary.  Platte  County 

Dick  Wilder.  Treasurer.  Park  (.oiinty 

Clara  \'.iiiier.  Weston  Counts' 

.lames  Van  Scoyk..  St.ii  \'alley  C  hapter 

.loyce  Warnke.  Cioslu  n  County 

Lloyd  Ttidd,  Sheridan  County 

.ludy  We.st.  Memliership  Coordinator 


Governor  of  Wyondiig 

.lim  Cierint^er 


Wyoming  Dept.  of  State  Parks  and 
Cultmal  Resources 

.k.hn  Keck,  Direa.ii 
Cidtural  Resources  Division 

Wendy  Hiedeliotl.  .Admimstl  atoi 

Wyoming  Parks  &  Cultural  Resources 
Commission 

William  Duliois,  (,  he\fnne 
Emerson  W    Scott,  ,lr.  Ruflal.. 
Oiann  Reese,  Lyman 
Vern  Vi\  ion.  Raw  I  ins 
l)a\  id  Reet/,  Powell 
Herb  Freiuh.  Newcastle 

Ernest  C,  ()\er.  Pax  illion 
Carolyn  Hiift.  Casper 
.lerrilynn  Wall.  Evanston 

University  of  Wyoming 

Philip  Ouiiois.  President 
t)ll\er  Walter.  De.m. 

Collei^eot   .Arts  and  Sciences 
Hrian  Hosmer,  Chair,  Dept.  ol  Histoi'y 

Printed  by  Pioneer  Printintr.  Cheyenne 


nnals  of  ; 

WYOMING 


\ 


llie  Wyoming  History  Journal  '•, 


Winter  l'OOl?  Vol.  7  K  No.  1 

Discovering  Her  Strength:  The  Remarkable  Transformation  of 
Nellie  Tayloe  Ross  i  ',    .        ..  \'  ;        \\'  ^ 

By  Lori  Van  IVlt : i2 

Till  list  into  the  governor  ship  suddenly  Nellie  Ross  h.ul  little  I'lllillC  spe.iklll'4  e\f1erielHe 
and  slenitii  .lilt  allMetv  .ll'out  t.llkine  111  tl  out  ot  crowds  rhis  is  the  stoi\  ( it  how  she 
o\ercame  the  .iii\iet\  .md  liecanii'  ,i  nation. ill\  renowned    speaker 

Robert  Foote:  A  Forgotten  Wyoming  Pioneer 

By  Murray  L.  Carroll  9 

Early  resident  of  Carbon  Counl\ .  pioneer  merchaiu  in  Hultalo,  and  kc\  participanl  in 
the  Johnson  Counts  Invasion.  \et  Foote  is  practicalh  unknown  What  accomplish- 
ments make  this  pioneer  uorthv  ot  remembering'  Historian  Murray  L  Carroll  makes 
the  case  that  his  deeds  were  siynificanl 

Murdered  by  Madness:  The  Case  of  Geneva  CoUett 

By  Larry  K,  I^row  ii  '2h 

She  murdered  another  woman  in  a  tit  ok  rage  in  a  Sheridan  store  What  is  the  story  of 
the  llrst  woman  in  W\oming  ever  sentenced  to  life  in  prison  formtirder'  Crime  writer/ 
historian  1  arr\  Brown  tells  her  poignant  story 


Book  Reviews 


.36 


Delona.  Playine;  liuhan.  rc\  ii-weil  \<\  Matthew   Dennis 
Tate.  The  Krnntier  .\nm'  in  the  Settleiiieiit  of   tlic  West, 

re\  leweil  liy  M,ih  dliii  K     I'.u  hu 
Pram  II,  Ci  nssing;  the  Piind,  H'\  lewed  liy  .luliii  W  1  leatmi 
.'\i"iii)hl,  r II ion  I'acit'ic  Crossmu;  Sherni.in  Hill  ami  Other  Stones, 

re\'ieweil  liy  Charles  .-\llii 

Index 39 

Wyoming  Picture 40 


\ 


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Copyright  2002,  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society 


ISSN:  1086-7368 


DISCOYERIMG 


HER 
STREMGTHj 

THE  REMARKABLE 

TRAMSFORMAnOM 

OF 

MELLIE  TAYIOE  ROSS 


SY 

LOKI 
VAN  fELT 


On  Jan.  5, 1925,  a  slender  woman  dressed 
in  a  simple  black  dress  and  black  hat  with 
upturned  brim  took  the  arm  of  her  brother 
and  approached  the  dais  of  the  Senate 
Chamber  in  the  State  Capitol  in  Cheyenne, 
Wyoming.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  the  Equalit}'  State,  a  woman  governor 
would  present  an  inaugural  address.  Nellie 
Tayloe  Ross's  election  as  Wyoming's  chief 
executive  bestowed  an  additional  title.  She 
became  the  first  w  oman  in  the  United  States 
to  be  elected  the  governor  of  a  state.' 


American  Heritage  Center.  UW 


Winter  'iOOii 


^  acing  Wyoming  lawmakers  at  the  inaugLiral  cer- 

-f  emony  marked  the  tlrst  such  public  address  of 
Nellie  Ross"  life.  Prior  to  her  election,  her  only  speak- 
ing experience  amounted  to  addressing  a  kindergarten 
class  and  presenting  informative  papers  at  meetings  of 
her  local  women's  group.  From  this  inauspicious  begin- 
ning, she  honed  her  speaking  skills  into  her  most  re- 
markable asset  during  her  tenure  as  governor.  Her  dedi- 
cation and  perseverance  in  improving  her  public  speak- 
ing skills  benefited  not  only  the  State  of  Wyoming  but 
Nellie  herself.- 

But  on  the  day  of  her  inaugural,  the  curious,  standing- 
room-only  crowd  remained  silent.  No  one  spoke  or 
cheered  when  she  entered  the  room,  certamly  not  the 
cnstomarx  greeting  for  an  incommg  governor.  The  re- 
centl_\  widowed  woman  wore  black  and  had  requested  a 
simple  ceremonv  out  of  respect  for  her  late  husband. 
William  Bradford  Ross  had  died  of  complications  due 
to  appendicitis  surgery  on  Oct.  2.  1924.  He  had  been 
ser\  ing  as  W\oming"s  gosernorat  the  time  of  his  death.' 

Because  William  Ross'  death  occurred  so  near  to  an 
upcoming  election,  the  state  held  a  special  election  to 
choose  a  replacement  for  the  last  two  years  of  his  term. 
Dr.  .1.  L.  Hylton.  chairman  of  the  Wyoming  Democratic 
Party,  asked  Nellie  to  run  for  his  office.  She  had  no  ex- 
perience, but  Nellie  and  her  husband  had  been  close  con- 
fidants. Throughout  William's  career,  tlrst  as  an  attor- 
ney and  then  as  governor,  they  often  discussed  political 
and  legal  questions.  Nellie  was  elected  in  November  by 
a  wide  margin,  defeating  Republican  candidate  Eugene 
J.  Sullivan."* 

Acting  Governor  Frank  Lucas  (the  Secretary  of  State) 
introduced  her.  Nellie  began.  "iVIy  friends,"  she  said,  in 
a  steadv.  low-pitched  voice,  with  a  slight  Southern  ac- 
cent, "owing  to  the  tragic  and  unprecedented  circimi- 
stances  which  surround  my  induction  into  office.  I  have 
felt  it  not  onl>  unnecessai-y  but  inappropriate  for  me  now 
to  enter  into  such  a  discussion  of  policies  as  usually  con- 
stitutes an  inaugural  address."  People  in  the  front  row 
leaned  forward  to  hear  her  almost  inaudible  words.  She 
continued,  saying.  "This  occasion  does  not  mark  the 
beginning  of  a  new  administration,  but  rather  the  resump- 
tion of  that  which  was  inaugurated  in  this  chamber  two 
years  ago."'' 

Many  of  Nellie's  family  members  attended  the  event. 
Her  brother.  Judge  Samuel  Tayloe  of  San  Antonio. 
Texas,  escorted  her.  Nellie's  sister-in-law,  Mrs.  George 
(Nelle)  Tayloe  of  Memphis,  Tenn..  sat  with  Nellie's  sons. 
George  and  12-year-old  Bradford,  just  behind  the  dais. 
Nellie's  other  son.  Ambrose.  George's  twin,  was  work- 
ing in  New  Mexico,  in  her  grief.  Nellie  had  neglected  to 
make  arrangements  in  time  for  Ambrose  to  attend,  a  fact 


that  caused  her  "poignant  regret."  As  a  result,  some 
sources  incorrectly  reported  she  had  only  two  sons,  an 
error  repeated  throughout  her  term.  Also  among  the 
group  of  onlookers  was  Dr.  Grace  Ravmond  Hebard. 
well-respected  Wyoming  historian  and  staunch  suffrag- 
ette.'^ 

Nellie's  first  legislative  address,  delivered  to 
Wyoming's  predominantK  Republican  18th  Legislature 
on  .lanuary  15.  was  based  on  William's  policies.  She 
stated,  "...preparation  [of  this  address]  has  been  facili- 
tated not  alone  b\  such  knowledge  of  the  state's  prob- 
lems as  I  had  the  privilege  of  gaining  during  the  past 
two  vears  from  association  with  the  Governor.  m\  hus- 
band, but  also  by  the  extensive  notes  which  he  had  al- 
ready assembled  and  designated  to  be  embodied  in  his 
message  to  vou."^ 

She  relied  heav  ily  on  William's  ideas  but  Nellie  dis- 
played her  own  grit  during  her  appearance  before  this 
Joint  session  of  Wvoming  legislators.  For  example,  if 
she  needed  a  reminder  that  everything  he  did  and  said 
was  of  national  interest,  she  got  one.  The  Doirer  Pasi 
carried  her  speech  before  she  presented  it.  Nellie's  leg- 
islative address  had  been  erroneouslv  released  to  a  press 
agencv  prior  to  the  opening  of  the  legislative  session. 
She  learned  of  the  mistake  from  a  friend  w  ho  telephoned 
her  the  night  before  she  was  scheduled  to  speak  to 
Wvoming's  lawmakers. 

'  II  ]'<)niiiig  Stale  Tiibuiie  and  Clieyeime  Suite  Leader.  5  .lanuarv 
1425;  Grace  Ra)  mond  t-lehard  Collection  8.  Box  3.  Folder  1.  corre- 
spondence. ,\iiiencan  Herilage  Center  (hereafter  ,'\11C).  Uni\ersit> 
of  \\  \  oniing.  l.aramie,  Miriam  1-erguson  of  fe\as  was  elected  go\  - 
ernor  ol  her  state  prior  to  Nellie's  election  because  the  texas  prima- 
ries were  held  in  August  l'-^24.  However.  Nellie's  inaugural  preceded 
Miriam's  and  thtts  Nellie  became  known  as  the  nation's  tlrst  woman 
gONcrnor. 

-  Il'vonuiio  Eoole.  l^.lulx  1 425.  Called  Nellie  "the  best  ad\ertise- 
meiu  the  stale  has  e\er  had," 

\c\i  )i>ik  limes,  fi  .lanuarv  1425:  Nellie  1  a\  loe  Ross.  "  f he 
(jo\ernor  1  ad>."  (iond  Housekeeping  (September  1427).  211; 
Riverion  Revie^v.  4  ( )ctober  1424. 

"*  Hugene  1.  Sullivan,  former  speaker  of  Wyoming's  House  of 
Representatives,  was  a  Casper  attorney,  former  mayor  of  Basin. 
Wyoming,  and  an  oilman  and  farmer  In  Big  Horn  County.  T.  A. 
Larson.  Histoir  of  ll'yoiuing {Lincoln.  Nebr.;  finiversity  ofNebraska 
Press.  2nd  edition,  revised.  1478).  457. 

'  Ihul..  457;  Brown.  Mabel,  ed.  "■Nellie  lay  loe  Ross:  First  Ladv 
and  first  Woman  Governor."  First  Ladies  of  ll'yoming  1869-1991) 
(Cheyenne:  Wyoming  Commission  for  Women.  1440).  I;  Ross.  "  the 
Governor  Lady."  Good  Housekeeping  (August  1427).  1  IS.  120; 
ll'xoming  State  Tribune  and  Cheyenne  Stale  Leader.  5  .lanuarv  1425. 

"  Hebard  and  Ross  were  friends.  Hebard  had  campaigned  for 
Nellie's  election.  See  Nellie  Tayloe  Ross  to  Hebard.  24  October  1424 
Nellie  Tavloe  Ross  Collection  448.  Box  2.  Correspondence.  Safe 
Letters  1424-1453.  AHC. 

'  Larson.  457:  Ross.  "The  Governor  Ladv."  September  1427.  37 
House  JournaL  Fighteenth  State  Legislature  of  Wyoming  1425.  26; 
IVyomingState  Tribune  and  Cheyenne  State  Leader.  5  Januan  1 425. 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Before  the  governor  spoke.  Senate  President  Lewis 
H.  Brown  read  two  telegrams  to  his  colleagues.  M.  F. 
Dacey,  manager  of  the  International  News  Service,  wired 
his  regrets  about  the  incident,  attributing  the  error  to  an 
"unfortunate  misunderstanding  on  part  of  time  it  was  to 
be  delivered."  W.  C.  Shepherd,  managing  editor  of  the 
Denver  Post,  also  sent  an  apology  for  his  newspaper 
publishing  Nellie's  address  in  one  edition.  He  explained 
the  news  service  had  first  told  the  Post  Nellie's  message 
was  to  be  delivered  on  Wednesday,  but  less  than  an  hour 
after  the  paper  had  been  printed,  the  service  announced 
her  speech  was  to  be  made  on  Thursday  instead.^ 

Though  the  mistaken  release  was  regrettable.  Nellie's 
address  became  most  notable  for  what  was  not  included. 
Suffragettes  and  others  curious  as  to  what  exactly  a 
woman  governor  would  do  perhaps  expected  a  lengthy 
pronouncement  on  the  abilities  of  women  and  announce- 
ments of  female  appointments  to  come.  Nellie  forged 
ahead  with  other  issues  of  the  day.  Tax  reduction  and 
banking  difficulties  facing  the  state  were  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  the  new  governor.  She  asked  legislators 
to  pass  safety  laws  to  help  coal  miners,  advocated  the 
federal  Child  Labor  Law,  included  information  on  the 
budget  and  state  oil  royalties,  and  reported  she  was 
staunch  supporter  of  Prohibition  and  expected  that  law 
to  be  rigidly  enforced.  She  mentioned  women  only  in 
connection  with  her  views  on  the  welfare  of  all  wage- 
eamers  in  the  state.  She  advocated  legislation  for  the 
protection  of  "those  women  who  are  engaged  in  indus- 
try," saying  that  men  had  the  right  to  an  "unqualified 
eight-hour  day,"  and  explaining,  "I  feel  sure  this  Legis- 
lature will  not  refuse  to  women  the  same  protection  and 
privileges  granted  to  men."'^ 

I  n  February  1925,  she  made  her  first  "offlcial"speech 
\  as  Governor  of  Wyom  ing.  Collier 's  Weekly  presented 
the  Collier  Trophy  to  the  State  of  Wyoming  for  achiev- 
ing "the  largest  proportionate  increase  in  1 924  over  four 
years  ago  of  any  state  in  the  Presidential  vote."  Two 
representatives  from  the  magazine  attended  the  cer- 
emony. Nellie  deemed  the  Collier  award  "significant  of 
progress  and  growth  and  of  the  superior  intellect  of  the 
men  and  women  who  compose  the  citizenship  of  Wyo- 
ming." Of  the  award,  Nellie  said,  "We  tnid  ourselves 
proud  winners  in  a  contest  before  we  are  scarcely  aware 
that  we  were  participants  and  with  little  conscious  effort 
on  our  part.  How  satisfactory  it  would  be  if  all  the  con- 
tests in  life  could  be  won  in  such  a  pleasant  way!"  In  a 
letter  to  her  brother,  George,  she  admitted  her  anxiety 
about  giving  the  speech,  writing,  "Such  as  it  was  I  deliv- 
ered it  without  manuscript  or  notes  of  any  kind.""^ 
Nellie  attacked  her  public  speaking  anxiety  by  study- 


ing her  topics  so  thoroughly  she  didn't  need  notes.  Her 
ability  to  speak  without  notes  became  her  trademark. 
She  often  wrote  her  speeches  in  longhand,  but  trained 
herself  to  become  so  familiar  with  their  content  that  she 
didn't  need  reminders.  In  this,  she  credited  her  experi- 
ences as  a  member  of  the  Cheyenne  Women's  Club. 
Members  of  that  group  often  presented  papers  on  a  vari- 
ety of  topics  to  each  other  to  further  their  educational 
and  cultural  goals.  Reading  aloud,  a  beloved  activity  for 
the  Ross  family,  became  another  informal  training 
method.  Nellie  and  Will  began  this  practice  early  in  their 
marriage.  Reading  aloud  developed  Nellie's  voice  and 
trained  her  mind.  Allusions  to  Shakespeare,  the  Bible, 
and  mythology  often  appear  in  her  speeches. 

This  casual  training  gave  her  a  good  foundation  for 
public  speaking.  Many  more  talks,  presented  to  a  vari- 
ety of  audiences — local,  regional,  and  national — would 
be  expected.  In  March  1925,  Nellie  attended  the  inau- 
gural ceremonies  of  Republican  President  Calvin 
Coolidge.  The  Woman  Citizen  reported,  "[Nellie's]  poise 
was  excellent,  her  appearance  splendid,  her  stories  good, 
and  her  speeches  modest  but  full  of  fact  as  well  as  spirit. 
She  was  not  the  'shy,  timid,  little  Governor  journalists 
tried  to  preconceive  her.  She  resented  such  descrip- 
tion...."" 

Nellie's  presence  was  so  much  in  demand  that  she  re- 
ceived as  many  as  six  invitations  daily  during  her  term. 
While  in  Washington,  she  spoke  to  the  National 
Women's  Democratic  Club  on  March  7,  1925,  at  its  first 
anniversary  dinner.  Nellie's  views  were  perhaps  best 
encapsulated  in  a  single  sentence  of  her  talk.  She  said, 
"there  never  was  a  suggestion...  that  if  a  woman  were 
elected  she  would  conduct  her  administration  with  less 
concern  for  the  welfare  of  the  whole  state  than  for  that 
of  women  in  particular."  Her  suggestions  that  women 
cooperate  with  men  ratherthan  issue  "militant  demands" 
to  achieve  desired  political  results  and  that  women  rely 
on  the  advice  of  more  knowledgeable  men  undoubtedly 
irked  the  suffragettes. '- 

Nellie  herself  relied  on  the  advice  of  men  at  the  top 


^  Senate  Journal  of  the  Eighteenth  State  Legislature  of  Wyoming. 
24;  Ross,  "The  Governor  l,ady.'"  (September  1927).  212. 

''  House  Journal  of  the  Eighteenth  State  Legislature  of  Wyoming 
1925.  32.  Nellie's  address  is  on  pp.  26-34  of  the  House  Journal. 

'"  Nellie  Tayloe  Ross.  "On  Presentation  of  Collier  Trophy,"  Feb- 
ruary 1 925.  Nellie  Tayloe  Ross  Collection  948  (hereafter  NTR  948). 
Box  3.  Folder  1920- 1953  (3)  Speeches.  AHC;  Nellie  Tayloe  Ross  to 
George  Tayloe.  14  February  1925.  NTR  948.  Box  I.  Correspon- 
dence Professional  1924-1926.  AHC. 

"  Ross.  "The  Governor  Lady."  (August  1927).  120;  Woman  Citi- 
zen. 2\  March  1925. 

'-  Ross.  "The  Governor  Lady."  (October  1927),  73;  NTR  948. 
Box  3.  Speeches  1920-1953.  Folder  1.  AHC. 


Winter  i^OO'i 


echelons  of  Wyoming's  Democratic  Party,  friends  of 
Will's,  men  who  had  much  more  political  savvy  than 
she.  Nellie's  goal  was  to  serve  the  residents  of  the  state 
of  Wyoming  in  such  a  manner  that  no  one  would  be  able 
to  say  that  she  had  not  done  as  good  a  Job  as  a  man 
would  have  done.  Her  advisors,  dubbed  the  "Kitchen 
Cabinet,"  included  U.  S.  Senator  John  B.  Kendrick,  At- 
torney General  David  Howell,  Avery  Haggard,  Leslie 
Miller,  S.  G.  Hopkins,  and  Tracy  McCraken.  McCraken 
served  as  William's  secretary  and  as  Kendrick's  secre- 
tary and,  eventually,  became  editor  of  the  Wyoming 
Eagle.  Probably  closest  to  Nellie  was  Joseph  C. 
O'Mahoney,  a  long-time  family  friend  and  attorney.  She 
confided  to  her  brother.  George,  that  O'iVIahoney  was 
"smartest  of  them  all."''' 

In  May  1925.Nellie  gave  her  first  radio  address.  KOA 
radio  in  Denver  broadcast  her  promotional  talk  for  the 
upcoming  29th  annual  Cheyenne  Frontier  Da\s.  The 
broadcast  was  heard  across  the  nation  and  even  bevond 
the  East  Coast.  Sailors  on  the  steamship  Mauritania,  trav- 
eling from  England  to  the  United  States,  heard  her  dis- 
cuss "the  thrill  of  that  epic  conquest  of  the  prairie  by  the 


pioneers"  and  "the  bucking  broncho  [sic],  wild,  untamed 
Pegasus  of  the  plains — mounted  and  mastered  by  the 
cowboy...."'"* 

That  same  month,  she  took  time  during  a  train  trip 
from  Cheyenne  to  Sheridan  to  write  her  son.  Ambrose, 
a  long,  cheery  letter  about  her  activities  as  governor. 
Among  them  were  an  upcoming  address  to  the  Wyo- 
ming Stock  Growers  Association  in  Douglas  and  a  speech 
to  a  group  of  2.000  Shriners  who  were  visiting  Che>- 
enne.  She  also  had  Just  been  invited  to  give  the  response 
to  the  welcoming  address  at  the  Conference  of  Gover- 

"  Larson.  460,  Larson  stated  thai  Ncilic  admitted  ni  an  intcr\ic\\ 
\uth  hini  that  she  relied  on  ()'\Uihone\  and  Howell  mostly. 
O'Malioncx  was  appomted  to  till  the  United  States  Senate  seat  of 
John  B  Kendrick  in  1433.  L.  A.  Larson,  interview  with  author. 
Laramie.  W\oming.  17  .lul>  l'^96;  Nellie  Fayloe  Ross  to  George 
la\loe.  30  .August  1925.  Brown  Palace  Hotel.  Denver.  Colorado. 
NTR  948-97-10-07.  Box  10.  Correspondence:  KaveTayloe  Collins. 
AHC;  ll'yniuiiig  Eui;le.  24  .lanuary  1 926;  Ross.  "I  he  Governor  Lady ." 
(October  1927).  72. 

'-•Ross.  Nellie  layloe.  "Frontier  Day  Speech."  1 8  May  1925.NTR 
948.  Box  3.  Speeches  1920-53  (3).  AHC;  ll'yomiiig  Slale  Tribune 
and  Cheyenne  Slate  Leader.  19Mav  1925. 


Gov.  Nellie  iuyluc  Ro.s.s  .spcuL\  tn  ^i  ^iimd  at  the  dcdicuiion  Lcrcnuinie.s  jor  the  eompletton  of  the  Sno^sy  Range  road. 
One  of  her  biggest  challenges  in  public  office  was  to  overcome  the  anxiety  of  public  speaking. 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wj^oming  History  Journal 


nors  in  Maine.  Siie  asl<.ed  if  Ambrose  heard  her  KOA 
broadcast.  remari<ing  that  the  Denver  Women's  Press 
Club  had  given  her  "the  loveliest  reception,"  and  say- 
ing. "I  had  to  beg  off  from  other  organizations." 

Publicly,  she  tackled  her  speaking  chores  with  a  busi- 
nesslike demeanor,  but  her  letter,  written  prior  to  her 
keynote  address  at  the  annual  opening  of  Yellowstone 
National  Park  in  June,  provides  some  insight  into  her 
true  feelings.  She  wrote.  "Ambrose,  that  is  the  one  thing 
about  this  office  I  don't  like — this  eternal  speech  mak- 
ing. It  will  either  develop  my  mind  though,  or  ruin  it  so 
I'll  be  read}  for  an  institution,  soon.  Really  the  strain  of 
applying  myself  to  so  many  subjects  is  terrible." 

When  Nellie  addressed  the  Wyoming  Stock  Growers 
Association  convention,  she  used  the  opportunity  to 
present  her  ideas  on  tax  reform.  She  believed  too  much 
property  was  going  untaxed  and  that  the  state  should  be 
receiving  that  revenue.  Her  opinion  didn't  generate  as 
much  attention  as  the  governor  herself  did.  The  Omaha 
Bee  stated.  "[S]he  made  a  complete  conquest  of  the  vis- 
iting commission  men  and  packers  from  Omaha  and 
Chicago,  as  well  as  of  the  cattle  growers  of  the  state."'- 

In  late  June,  she  delivered  the  response  to  the  wel- 
coming address  at  the  annual  Conference  of  Governors 
in  Maine.  The  Portland  (Maine)  Press  reported  she  ap- 
peared "quite  at  ease"  but  that  she  had  to  raise  her  "sweet 
and  well  modulated  voice"  to  be  heard  in  the  large  con- 
ference room.  She  invited  the  governors  to  visit  Wyo- 
ming, saying.  "You,  who  are  unacquainted  with  the  West, 
would  1  feel  sure,  find  fascinating  interest  and  a  surpris- 
ing revelation  in  its  natural  beauty,  in  its  diversity  of 
resources,  and  best  of  all,  in  the  spirit  of  its  people." 

Nellie  charmed  not  only  her  audience  but  many  local 
reporters  as  well.  The  July  6,  1925,  issue  of  the  Casper 
Herald  carried  a  report  from  the  Portland  Eveiiiug  Ex- 
press by  reporter  Helen  Havener.  She  wrote,  "Governor 
Ross  appears  to  have  the  first  essential  qualification  for 
executive  office  either  in  an  imperturbable  temperament 
or  a  wonderful  gift  of  counterfeiting  good  humor  w  hether 
she  feels  it  or  not..."'^ 

Despite  the  fact  Nellie  generated  positive  publicity  on 
a  national  level,  some  Wyoming  newspapers  criticized 
her.  In  July,  1925.  the  Kemnierer  Gazette,  a  Republican 
newspaper,  chided  the  governor  for  attending  the 
Yellowstone  opening  and  the  Maine  governors'  confer- 
ence because  of  the  expenses  involved.  The  Torringlon 
Telegram  criticized  her  attendance  at  President 
Coolidge's  inauguration,  accusing  Nellie  of  riding  in  a 
private  rail  car  paid  for  by  the  State  while  explaining 
that  the  President  rode  in  an  ordinary  Pullman.  The 
Cowley  Progress  accused  her  of  attending  Miriam  "Ma" 
Ferguson's  inauguration  as  governor  of  Texas.  She 


hadn't  even  attended  that  event.  She  had  sent  a  telegram. 

The  Wyoming  Eagle,  always  a  staunch  defender, 
scolded  the  Gazette's  editor  and  stated  that  Wyoming 
governors  had  attended  the  governors'  conference  "ever 
since  it  was  first  established  by  President  [Theodore] 
Roosevelt."  Wyoming  governors  received  a  $500  ap- 
propriation form  the  Legislature  to  attend.  With  tongue- 
in-cheek,  the  Eagle  editorialized.  "Mrs.  Ross  is  a  woman 
and  she  ought  to  know  enough  to  stay  at  home."  The 
newspaper  explained  that  Nellie  responded  to  the 
President's  inaugural  invitation  as  a  mark  of  respect,  and 
retorted,  "It  was  a  great  mistake  for  her  to  pay  the  ex- 
pense herself."  The  Eagle  also  called  her  "the  best  ad- 
vertisement the  state  has  ever  had."'^ 

In  a  letter  to  her  brother  George  she  explained  her  hec- 
tic schedule  and  revealed  its  toll.  Nellie  wrote,  "I  have 
now  hanging  over  me  seven  or  eight  speeches — Isn't  it 
awful  for  one  who  never  said  a  word  in  public  till  a  few 
months  ago?"  Her  schedule  included  three  speaking  en- 
gagements in  Casper  on  Labor  Day  weekend,  with  at- 
tendance of  1,500  expected  at  one  event.  "Then  I'm  to 
go  on  and  speak  at  a  county  fair — after  that  to  the 
Woman's  Fed  [sic]  of  Clubs— the  State  WCTU,  etc., 
etc.  and  so  it  goes!"  She  confessed,  "At  times  I  do  get 
so  tired  and  so  harassed  that  1  feel  my  burden  is  almost 
too  great  but  I  get  restored  and  go  on." 

On  Jan.  23,  1924,  she  attended  the  National  Western 
Stock  Show  in  Denver,  for  "Wyoming  Day."  She  spoke 
at  a  luncheon  held  in  her  honor  by  the  Business  and  Pro- 
fessional Women's  Club  bureau.  A  comment  she  made 
to  a  Denver  reporter  showed  that  even  after  holding  of- 
fice for  a  year,  Nellie  remained  insecure  about  public 
speaking.  She  said,  "I  am  much  more  at  home  attending 
to  the  duties  of  office  than  I  am  wandering  around  mak- 
ing speeches,  but  a  certain  amount  of  that  is  necessary,  1 
presume.""* 

She  kept  her  anxieties  in  check,  however.  In  April, 
Nellie  spoke  to  a  large  crowd  in  Lingle,  Wyoming,  for  a 
Parent-Teacher  Association  gathering.  The  Fort  Laramie 
Scout  congratulated  her  for  inspiring  "a  feeling  of 

'^  Nellie  Tayioe  Ross  to  Ambrose  Ross.  Burlington  Route.  Na- 
tional Park  Line.  24  May  1925.  NTR  948.  Box  2.  Folder  1,  AHC; 
ll'yoming  Eagle.  2  August  1925;  9  August  1925. 

'"  Casper  Herald.  6  July  1925. 

'^  Ifyoming  Eagle.  7  June  1925;  14  June  1925;  19  July  1925; 
26Julyl925;  Ouida  Ferguson  Nalle.  The  Fergusons  of  Texas  (San 
Antonio.  Texas:  The  Nay  lor  Company.  1946);  William  B.  Ross.  Wyo- 
ming State  Budget  1923-1924,  8  January  1923.  Wyoming  State  Bud- 
get. 1921-193!.  Wyoming  State  Library. 

'^  Wyoming  Eagle.  24  January  1926;  Nellie  Tayioe  Ross  to  George 
Tayioe,  30  August  1925.  Brown  Palaee  Hotel.  Denver.  Colorado. 
NTR  948-97-10-07,  Bo.\  10.  Correspondence:  Kaye  Tayioe  Collins, 
AHC. 


Winter  'iOO'i 


THE  FIRST  WOMAN  GOVERNOR 

Wyoming's  Governor 

THE  WOMAN  WHO  MADE  GOOD 


The  Wromiu^  Eagle  ran  a  two-col- 
umn story  about  the  event,  attended 
b\  about  1.200  people.  The  emcee 
welcomed  the  crowd  and  then  asked 
the  pianist  to  play  America  so  that  ev- 
eryone could  sing  together.  What  he 
did  not  know,  however,  was  that  no 
pianist  had  been  provided.  The  Eagle 
reported:  "He  was  in  a  quandary,  but 
only  for  a  moment  or  two.  for  from 
the  platform  from  which  he  was 
speaking  the  gentle  voice  of  a  lady 
modestly  suggested  that  if  no  one  else 
could  be  found  she  would  be  glad  to 
furnish  the  accompaniment  on  pi- 
ano." The  "gentle  voice.""  of  course. 
was  Governor  Ross"s.  and  the  fact 
that  she  could  plav  came  as  a  surprise 
to  most  people.-" 

In  mid-September,  with  the  elec- 
X\on  approaching.  Nellie  braved  an- 
other level  of  speech-making,  as  she 
faced  the  challenge  of  campaign 
talks.  She  hit  the  campaign  trail  with 
Senator  Kendrick  in  svv  ings  through- 
out the  southern  and  eastern  portions 
of  the  state.  Following  their  Joint 
kick-off,  they  traveled  separately .  In 
late  October,  Nellie  appeared  in  Pine 
Bluffs,  Bums,  Jay  Em,  and  Lusk  w  ith 
"the  largest  crowds  in  historv ""  greet- 
ing her.- '  She  often  appeared  w  ith  W. 
S.  Kimball,  the  Democratic  candidate 
for  Secretary  of  State,  who  traveled 
with  his  wife. 
Nellie  closed  her  campaign  on  Nov.  1.  1Q26.  v\ith  a 
many  of  those  who  were  seeing  her  for  the  first  time.""      rallv  and  public  meeting  at  Cheyenne's  Capitol  Theatre. 
The  Governor,  an  honorary  Girl  Scout,  addressed     The  Eagle  reported  that  Nellie's  campaign  was  marked 
scouts  in  Rock  Springs  that  same  month.  She  said,  "Km     "hy  the  largest,  and  doubtless  the  most  enthusiastic 
old-fashioned  enouuh...to  believe  that  no  career  for     crowds  that  have  ever  greeted  any  Wyoming  candidate 


NELLIE  TAYLOE  ROSS 


businesslike— Able— Courageous.  She  Has  Earned  Re-election 

Campaign  poster  fur  Governor  Ross  '  re-eleelion  campaign.  l'^26 
confidence. ..a  feeling  that  was  a  pleasant  surprise  to 


women  is  as  glorious  or  satisfying  as  that  which  wife- 
hood and  motherhood  offer,  and  it  is  there  [a  woman] 
fultllls  her  highest  destiny."  Though  she  often  used  the 
theme  that  marriasie  and  motherhood  were  women's 


for  state  or  Congressional  office.""— 

Voters  displaved  less  enthusiasm.  She  lost  her  bid  for 
re-election  bv  onK  1.365  votes.  She  was  so  distraught 
over  the  loss  that  she  asked  Tracv  McCraken  to  write  to 


"highest  destiny,""  she  did  not  disparage  career  women.  Her  brother,  Alfred  Tayloe.  to  e.xplain  what  had  happened. 
While  speaking  to  the  May  convention  of  the  Business  McCraken  noted  a  number  of  factors  contributing  to  her 
and  Professional  Women"s  Club  in  Casper.  Nellie  said,  defeat,  including  the  "very  strong  machine""  of  the  Re- 
"Practically  every  vocation  is  now  open  to  a  woman, 
and  she  has  proved  she  can  fill  her  position  with  abso- 
lute success.""  '** 

On  Labor  Day,  1 926.  the  governor  appeared  in  Casper 
to  give  a  keynote  speech  and  ended  up  "saving  the  day."' 


'''  Wyoming  Eagle.  \^x\\-\\a\  1926. 
-'^  Casper  Herald.  10  September  1926. 
-'  Wyoming  Eagle.  1  October  -  29  October  192(i. 
--  Casper  Herald.  24  September  1 926;  Eagle.  September-October 
1926;  November  1926. 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


publicans.  Wyoming's  elderly  Republican  U.  S.  Sena- 
tor Francis  E.  Warren's  health  also  became  a  factor,  as 
Republicans  feared  that,  if  re-elected,  Nellie  might  ap- 
point a  Democrat  to  his  seat  if  his  health  failed. 

McCraken  did  not  mention  the  fact  that  suffragettes 
had  been  disturbed  by  the  small  number  of  appointments 
of  women  that  Nellie  had  made  during  her  two  years  in 
office.  But  that  factor  annoyed  at  least  one  feminist — a 
woman  who  had  strongly  supported  her  during  the  1 924 
election.  Dr.  Grace  Raymond  Hebard  hinted  at  the  dis- 
satisfaction of  the  suffragettes  in  her  letter  to  Carrie 
Chapman  Catt,  at  that  time,  the  chief  contributing  editor 
to  the  Woman  Citizen.  Hebard  wrote  that  she  believed 
the  "outstanding  reason"  for  Nellie's  defeat  "was  due  to 
the  advisors  that  Governor  Ross  selected,  all  men." 

Nellie's  political  defeat  did  not  end  her  speech- 
making  responsibilities.  On  Nov.  22.  1 926,  she 
spoke  at  the  dedication  ceremonies  for  the  Gimbel  Broth- 
ers department  store  in  Philadelphia.  She  reiterated  some 
of  her  remarks  to  the  Girl  Scouts  months  before  and  sug- 
gested women  seeking  careers  in  business  were  raising 
the  moral  standard  in  their  industries.  In  Syracuse,  New 
York,  she  addressed  the  League  of  Women  Voters  and 
attended  a  meeting  protesting  a  nuisance  tax  in  New  York 
as  a  special  guest  of  Gov.  Al  Smith.  At  that  meeting, 
Nellie  said,  "corrupt  control  of  political  affairs  can  exist 
only  so  long  as  women  consent  to  it"  contending  that 
"women  have  the  numbers  and  they  have  the  power  to 
thwart  it.'"--'' 

Even  though  she  considered  speech-making  one  of  her 
most  arduous  tasks  when  she  first  assumed  office  as 
Wyoming's  governor,  her  increasing  skill  and  growing 
confidence  transformed  this  tedious  duty  into  a  promis- 
ing new  career.  On  Dec.  31,  1926.  the  Eagle  broke  the 
news  that  Nellie  had  accepted  a  ten-week  summer  con- 
tract with  the  prestigious  Swarthmore  Chautauqua  Cir- 
cuit, headquartered  in  Pennsylvania.  The  Swarthmore 
Chautauquas  were  run  by  Paul  Pearson,  professor  of 
rhetoric  at  Swarthmore  College  and  the  father  of  author/ 
columnist  Drew  Pearson.  Chautauquas  were  educational 
lectures,  musical  programs,  puppet  shows,  and  children's 
programs.  The  Eagle  stated,  "Of  particular  interest  to 
Wyomingites,  in  this  connection,  is  the  fact  that  it  is  on 
the  Swarthmore  Chautauqua  circuit  that  the  late  Will- 
iam Jennings  Bryan,  silver-tongued  orator,  made  most 
of  his  Chautauqua  speeches."  Nellie's  contract  was  con- 
sidered among  the  "very  best  contracts  offered  by  the 
bureau."  she  would  not  comment  on  the  salary  she  had 
accepted,  but  the  newspaper  estimated  that  the  single 
ten-week  contract  would  far  surpass  her  annual  $  1 2,000 
salary  as  governor  of  Wyom ing.-'* 


Before  she  embarked  on  these  new  oratorical  adven- 
tures, she  had  another  official  speech  to  give — the  open- 
ing address  at  the  inaugural  of  Governor-elect  Frank  C. 
Emerson.  In  her  remarks  on  Jan.  7,  1 927,  she  said,  "As  I 
relinquish  now  the  responsibilities  of  the  executive  of- 
fice, I  render  acknowledgement  to  the  people  of  Wyo- 
ming of  the  debt  of  gratitude  I  owe  them,  that  through 
their  grace,  mine  has  been  the  privilege  of  serving  them 
as  their  governor.  However  great  or  however  limited  has 
been  the  benefit  of  that  service,  it  has  been  one  conse- 
crated to  a  single  and  unfailing  purpose,  and  that  has 
been  the  advancement  of  their  welfare.  It  is  a  service  in 
which  I  have  found  great  joy  and  interest  for  however 
exacting  at  times  have  been  the  duties  of  the  office,  they 
have  never  been  irksome...."--^ 

As  Wyoming  residents  welcomed  a  new  administra- 
tion, Nellie  Tayloe  Ross  celebrated  new  confidence.  She 
turned  a  weakness  into  a  strength,  failing  only  in  the 
sense  of  losing  the  re-election  to  the  governorship,  but 
emerging  victorious  as  a  speaker  of  national  renown. 
She  had  proved  equal  to  her  task. 

-'  Vote  totals  are  in  Virginia  Cole  Trenholm.  ed.  Wyoming  Blue 
Book.  II.  Che_\enne:  Wyoming  State  Archives  and  Historical  Dept., 
1 9741.  The  final  election  tally  was  Emerson  35.651;  Ross.  34.286; 
and  William  B.  Guthrie,  radical.  104;  T.S.  McCraken  to  Alfred 
ra>  loe.  1 1  November  1926.  NTR  948.  Box  1.  Correspondence  Pro- 
fessional 1924-1926.  AHC:  Wyoming  Eagle.  12  November  1926; 
1 9  November  1 926;  26  November  1 926;  Hebard  lo  Carrie  Chapman 
Catt.  9  November  1926.  Hebard  Collection  8.  Box  3.  Correspon- 
dence. AHC. 

-■'  Wyoming  Eagle.  24  December  1 926.  3 1  December  1 926;  Mary 
Ellen  Chijioke.  Friends  Historical  Library.  Swarthmore  College,  tele- 
phone interview  with  author.  10  February  1999;  William  B.  Ross. 
Wyoming  State  Budget  1923-1924.  8  January  1923.  Wyoming 
Slate  Budget.  1921-1931.  Wyoming  State  Library. 

--  Wyoming  Eagle.  7  January  1927. 


Lori  Van  Pelt 's  award-winning  articles  have  ap- 
peared in  the  WREN  (Wyoming  Rural  Electric 
News)  Magazine  and  the  WOLA  (Western  Out- 
law and  Lawmen  Association)  Journal.  Her  non- 
fiction  articles  have  been  published  in  a  variety 
of  regional  and  national  magazines.  Along  with 
short  fiction  pieces  in  several  national  antholo- 
gies, she  is  the  author  of  the  "Dreamers  and 
Schemers  "  series  published  by  High  Plains 
Press.  Lori  is  currently  working  on  a  biography 
of  Nellie  Tayloe  Ross,  scheduled  for  completion 
later  this  year.  She  lives  with  her  husband  on  the 
family  ranch  near  Saratoga. 


ROBERT  FOOTE: 

A  FORGOTTEN 
WYOMING  PIONEER 

By  Murray  L.  Carroll 


WPA  Photographic  Collcclion. 
Wyoming  State  Archi\es. 
Dept  of  State  Parks  and 
Cultural  Resources 


Roheri  Foole 


In  Jul\  1999  a  new  s\stem  of  wind  turbine  electric 
power  generators,  consisting  of  105  units  divided  into 
three  fields,  went  into  operation  in  southeastern  Wyo- 
ming. The  location  of  the  units  is  close  to  the  old  Rock 
Creek  station  on  the  Overland  Stage  trail.  Since  the  fields 
are  located  on  Foote  Creek  Ridge,  they  were  designated 
at  "Foote  Creek  One."  "Foote  Creek  Two."  and  "Foote 
Creek  Three."  In  an  indirect,  and  most  probably  unin- 


tentional ua\.  the\  memorialize  Robert  Foote.  an  al- 
most forgotten  W>oming  pioneer.  In  1865.  Robert 
"Uncle  Bobby"  Foote.  post  trader  at  Fort  Halleck.  opened 
a  store  where  the  Overland  Trail  crossed  the  creek  that 
came  to  bear  his  name.  Later,  he  established  a  ranch  in 
the  creek  valle_\. 

Foote  was  born  Feb.  2.  1834.  in  Dundee.  Forfarshire, 
Scotland.  He  spent  his  childhood  and  early  youth  in 


10 


Annals  of  Wyoming;  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Dundee,  where  he  received  his  education.  There  is  no 
record  of  how  much  formal  schooling  he  had,  however. 
From  his  activities  in  later  life,  it  seems  he  had  a  re- 
spectable education  for  the  time.  Upon  completing  his 
schooling,  he  apprenticed  with  a  tailor.  When  he  become 
a  full-fledged  craftsman  in  his  trade  in  1856,  he  emi- 
grated to  New  York.  He  was  22  years  old.' 

Lt.  Thomas  Hight.  recruiting  officer  for  the  2"'^  United 
States  Dragoons  in  Chicago,  enlisted  Foote  on  Feb.  24, 
1 857,  who  had  just  turned  23,  into  the  dragoon  regiment 
for  a  five-year  term.-  From  Chicago,  Foote  went  to  the 
Mounted  Services  Recruit  Depot  at  Carlisle  Barracks, 
Pa.'  He  was  outfitted  with  his  uniforms  and  personal 
equipment,  taught  basic  drill,  military  courtesy,  and 
military  discipline."" 

In  May,  Foote  completed  his  depot  stint,  and  was  as- 
signed to  "F"  Company,  2"''  U.S.  Dragoons,  at  Fort  Riley, 
Kansas.  "F"  Company  was  part  of  the  troops  assigned  to 
try  and  keep  the  peace  in  "Bloody  Kansas."*  In  June,  all 
of  the  companies  of  the  2"''  Dragoons  were  ordered  to 
Fort  Leavenworth  from  the  outposts  where  they  were 
stationed.  Reorganized,  re-equipped,  and  with  enough 
recruits  to  be  brought  up  to  full  strength,  the  2"'^  Dra- 
goons" new  assignment  was  as  the  mounted  unit  for  the 
Utah  Expedition.  The  expedition,  being  organized  at  Fort 
Leavenworth,  had  the  mission  to  invade  Utah  Territory, 
put  down  the  rebellion  supposedly  brewing  there,  then 
serve  at  the  call  of  the  new  governor  as  a  posse  comita- 
tus  to  help  enforce  the  law  and  maintain  order. 

At  the  time,  Fort  Leavenworth,  and  the  town  of 
Leavenworth,  which  was  founded  just  three  years  ear- 
lier, were  wild.  A  second  lieutenant,  freshly  graduated 
from  the  United  States  Military  Academy  at  West  Point, 
was  assigned  to  the  2"''  Dragoons  as  one  of  the  replace- 
ment officers.  He  arrived  at  Fort  Leavenworth  about  the 
same  time  as  Foote's  company.  He  wrote: 

Sometimes  we  would  visit  the  town  of  Leavenworth, 
and  if  we  chanced  to  remain  after  dark  would  set  out  for 
the  fort  at  a  sweeping  gallop  to  diminish  the  chance  of 
being  hit  should  someone  take  a  crack  at  us — not  that  we 
feared  anything  from  personal  enemies,  but  simply  be- 
cause it  was  not  wise  to  take  any  chances  . — So  frequent 
were  assassinations  that  each  man  traveling  on  the  prai- 
rie, as  soon  as  he  perceived  another  approach  him.  slipped 
his  six-shooter  to  have  it  most  conveniently  at  hand.  Of 
course,  the  flap  of  the  holster,  placed  to  protect  the  pistol 
from  rain,  had  long  before  been  cut  off.  It  was  preferable 
to  suffer  a  little  rust  on  the  weapon  rather  than  run  the 
risk  of  losing  a  fraction  of  a  second  in  drawing  it." 

Evidently  Foote  had  no  trouble  adjusting  to  the  new 
life  on  the  frontier,  and  in  the  2"''  Dragoons.  While  he 
was  at  Fort  Leavenworth  waiting  for  the  expedition  to 


organize,  he  took  out  United  States  citizenship.  His  unit 
stayed  in  Kansas  longer  than  anticipated.  The  first  ele- 
ments of  the  Utah  Expedition  started  leaving  Fort 
Leavenworth  on  July  1 8.  The  Governor  of  Kansas  asked 
President  Buchanan  that  Brevet  Brig.  Gen.  W.  S.  Harney, 
commander  of  the  2"''  Dragoons,  and  the  commander 
designate  of  the  Utah  expedition,  with  the  regiment,  be 
retained  in  Kansas  at  least  through  the  summer  to  re- 
store order  in  Lawrence,  and  elsewhere  in  Kansas. 

Six  companies  of  the  2""^  Dragoons,  including  Foote's 
"F"  Company,  finally  left  Fort  Leavenworth  the  after- 
noon of  September  1 7,  under  the  command  of  Lt.  Colo- 
nel Philip  St.  George  Cooke,  the  assistant  regimental 
commander.  They  were  serving  as  rear  guard  for  the 
column,  as  well  as  escorting  the  new  Governor  of  Utah 
and  the  other  newly-appointed  civil  and  judicial  offi- 
cials and  their  families.  Not  surprisingly,  the  column  was 
encumbered  by  a  large  baggage  train.  Because  of  the 
carriages  of  the  civilians  and  the  baggage  train,  it  could 
not  make  good  time.  Under  the  best  of  circumstances, 
they  had  started  too  late  in  the  year  to  reach  Utah  before 
the  onset  of  winter.  The  California-Oregon  trail,  the  route 
of  march,  was  often  snowed  in  by  mid-October.  They 
reached  Fort  Laramie  on  October  23.  Grass  was  scarce, 
and  the  wind  and  snow  made  travel  difficult.  When  they 
camped  at  Pacific  Springs,  the  thermometers  registered 
13  degrees  below  zero;  the  next  night,  they  froze  and 
burst.  They  finally  reached  the  burned-out  remains  of 
Fort  Bridger  on  November  1 9.  The  first  elements  of  the 
expedition  had  arrived  just  two  days  earlier,  and  were 
busy  trying  to  construct  winter  quarters  out  of  logs  and 
adobe.  The  dragoons  still  had  144  horses,  but  between 
Fort  Laramie  and  Fort  Bridger,  the  regiment  lost  all  but 
ten  to  cold,  hunger,  and  exhaustion.' 

'Mrs.  Charles  (Olive  Herman)  Ellis.  "Robert  Foote."  Annals  of 
Wyoming  15  (January,.  1943).  50. 

■^National  Archives,  Old  Military  and  Civil  Records,  Textual  Ar- 
chives Services  Division.  Robert  Foote  Enlistment  Documents.  Chi- 
cago. Illinois.  Feb.  24.  1857. 

'Theophilis  Rodenbough.  From  Everglade  to  Canyon  with  the 
Second  United  States  Cavalry.  (New  York:  D.  Van  Nostrand.  1875 
[reprint.  Norman:  Universit}'  of  Oklahoma  Press.  2000]).  245-252. 

■'Recruits  were  not  taught  horsemanship  and  weapons.  They  leamed 
these  subjects  under  the  tutelage  of  the  non-commissioned  officers 
of  the  company  to  which  they  were  assigned  after  they  left  the  depot. 
Randy  Steffen.  The  Horse  Soldier,  I~~6-l9-f3.  Volume  11.  The  Fron- 
tier. The  Mexican  IVar.  The  Civil  War.  The  Indian  Wars.  1851-1880. 
(IMorman:  University  of  Oklahoma  Press.  1978).  34;  S.  E.  Whitman, 
The  Troopers.  (New  York:  Hastings  House  Pubs..  1962).  82-84. 

^Returns  From  Regular  Army  Cavalry  Regiments.  1833-1916.  (2"'' 
Dragoons.  January  1856-July  1861.)  National  Archives.  Microfilm. 
M-744.  Roll  17. 

''Gen.  Samuel  W.  Ferguson.  "With  Albert  Sidney  Johnston's  Ex- 
pedition to  Utah.  1857."  Kansas  Historical  Collections,  12  (191 1- 
1912).  305. 


Winter  'iOO'i 


11 


As  spring  approached,  the  livestock  and  the  dragoons 
graduall\  nio\ed  closer  to  Fort  Bridger.  rhe\  arri\ed 
near  the  tort  in  IVla\.  and  the  march  into  I  tah  was  un- 
dertaken in  June.  Mediators  resolved  the  difficulties  with 
the  Mormons,  so  the  march  into  Utah  was  unopposed. 
General  Johnston  settled  on  the  location  for  the  troop 
encampment  in  the  north  end  of  Cedar  Vallc\.  on  the 
west  side  of  Lake  Utah,  and  about  36  miles  southwest  of 
Salt  Lake  City.  ImmediateK  the  troops  undertook  con- 
struction of  the  new  post,  named  Camp  Floyd,  after  John 
B.  Flo\d.  Secretar\  of  War.  The  missions  now  became 
tA\ofold.  one  of  SLipporting  the  new  l_\ -installed  ci\  il  go\- 
emment.  the  other,  protecting  the  trails  west  through  Utah 
tVom  Indian  depredations. 

In  August  1858.  Robert  Foote  was  permanently  de- 
tailed compan\  tailor.^  This  relieved  him  of  all  other 
compan>  duties.  .At  all  times  when  Company  "F"  was  in 
garrison,  he  was  detailed  to  this  dut\.  however,  when 
the  compan\  took  to  the  field,  he  assumed  his  regular 
duties  as  a  dragoon.  In  earl\  1859.  Companx  "F"  was 
assigned  to  the  garrison  at  Fort  Bridger.  as  the  troops  at 
Camp  Flo\d  returned  to  the  pre-e\pedition  polic\  of 
assigning  various  companies,  usually  singly  or  in  pairs, 
to  separate  garrisons.  Some  of  the  dragoon  companies 
were  assigned  to  posts  as  far  away  as  Nevada  and  Cali- 
fornia. On  July  6.  1859,  Company  "F"  mo\ed  again,  this 
time  it  was  assigned  to  dutN  as  the  mounted  unit  at  Fort 
Laramie.  In  September,  it  was  Joined  b\  Company  "D". 
2"''  Dragoons,  and  Companies  "A."  "D."  and  "\"  of  the 
2"^*  U.S.  Infantry."  The  Fort  Laramie  garrison  patrolled 
the  California-Oregon  trail  east  and  west  from  the  post: 
making  scouting  expeditions  along  the  Laramie  and 
Platte  Rivers,  and  scouting  the  area  north  to  the  Chey- 
enne River. 

Foote  continued  his  duty  as  compan\  tailor.  By  get- 
ting in  a  little  extra  time  each  da\  working  on  his  own. 
he  accumulated  money  well  in  excess  of  his  private's 
pay.  Sometime  during  this  period  he  began  trading  fresh 
livestock,  particularly  horses,  to  the  emigrants  for  their 
broken-down  ones."  The  usual  pattern  for  this  com- 
merce was  in  the  case  of  a  trade,  two  or  three  broken- 
down  animals  were  exchanged  for  each  fresh  one.  Al- 
ternatively, the  deal  could  be  all  or  partly  in  cash.  Foote 
hired  Bob  Smoke,  a  half-Sioux,  one  of  the  so-called 
"Coffee  Coolers"  Indians  who  li\ed  around  the  post,  to 
herd  his  livestock  just  outside  the  post  boundaries.  In 
this  wa\.  he  managed  to  accumulate  a  large  and  valu- 
able herd. 

During  this  time  Foote's  career  took  on  a  mystery. 
On  Feb.  13,  1861,  Sgt.  William  Wright,  also  of  Com- 
pany "F,"  but  on  a  detail  with  Company  "C".  2"^*  Dra- 
goons at  Fort  Leavenworth,  wrote  a  letter  to  Seth  Ward, 


post  trader  at  Fort  Laramie,  instructing  him  to  deliver  a 
$1 .00(1  treasur_\  note  to  Foote  that  \V  right  left  with  him. 
Foote  signed  for  the  note  on  February  25."  At  this  time, 
the  monthly  pay  of  a  mounted  sergeant  was  $17.  while 
that  of  a  mounted  private  was  $13.'-  A  $1,000  treasury 
note  was  a  huge  sum  of  money  for  a  sergeant  to  own. 
and  e\en  more  so  to  be  pa>ing  to  a  private.  It  raises 
speculation  about  Foote's  activities,  and  the  nature  of 
the  business  dealings  between  a  noncommissioned  of- 
ficer and  a  private  under  his  command. 

On  Aug.  10.  186L  General  Order  Number  55.  Adju- 
tant General's  Office,  abolished  the  two  dragoon  regi- 
ments and  the  regiment  of  mounted  rilles.  The  2"^  Dra- 
goons, as  the  second  oldest  mounted  unit,  became  the 
2"^  Cavalry."  The  regiment  was  ordered  to  Washing- 
ton. D.C.  to  protect  the  capital,  and  Companv  "F"  de- 
parted Fort  Laramie  Nov.  1  1 .  1  86 1 .  and  arrived  in  Wash- 
ington on  Foote's  birthday.  Feb.  2.  1862.  On  Februar\ 
24.  the  fifth  anni\ersar\  of  his  enlistment.  Foote  was 

CookL"  and  his  dragoons,  together  with  the  expedition's  herders, 
were  direeted  to  take  all  of  the  remaining  beefeattle.  oxen,  mules 
and  horses,  exeept  for  those  absoluteh  required  tor  the  camp's  use. 
twenty  miles  south  to  Henrx's  Fork.  Altogether.  the\  had  between 
six  and  seven  thousand  head  of  stock  to  graze  and  guard.  The  camp 
moved  frequentlv  searching  for  sufficient  forage  for  the  animals, 
this  was  made  even  more  dittieult  b>  the  ei>ld  and  the  drifting  snow . 
Also,  close  guard  had  to  be  kept  on  the  herds  to  prevent  the  stock 
from  stra>  ing  or  from  being  stolen  b\  Mormon  guerrillas  who  often 
harassed  the  troops  bv  sniping  at  them,  or  at  the  livestock.  The  snow 
was  too  deep  for  drill  or  parade;  there  was  little  reading  material: 
the\  were  praeticall>  cut  off  from  all  mail  and  communications  with 
the  outside  lor  four  months,  and.  the>  were  on  quarter  rations  since 
Lot  Smith's  guerrillas  destro\ed  three  of  the  expedition's  suppiv 
trains.  Hunting  sage  hens  and  jackrabbits  not  only  provided  enter- 
tainment, but  was  a  prime  source  of  neeessarx  food  as  well  The 
other  entertainments  seemed  to  be  drinking  and  poker  Cooke  quar- 
reled with  Brig.  Uen.  .Albert  Sidnev  .lohnston.  the  expedition  com- 
mander. In  a  series  of  acrimonious  dispatches.  Cooke  complained 
about  the  difficulties  of  his  troops,  and  what  he  perceived  as  lack  of 
support.  In  the  spring,  .lohnston  sent  him  a  small  augmentation  of 
infantrx.  and  essentiallv  told  Cooke  not  to  register  an\  more  com- 
plaints. Ferguson.  307-310:  "March  of  the  2'"'  L^ragoons.  Report  of 
Ij.  Col.  Philip  St.  George  Cooke  on  the  March  of  the  2"''  Dragoons 
froin  Fort  Leavenworth.  Kansas  to  Fort  Bridger  in  1 857."  Annals  of 
iryoiiiing.  27  (April.  1955).  55-60:  Otis  F.  ^'oung.  The  West  of  Philip 
St.  Geoi-ge  Cooke  (Glendale:  Arthur  H.  Clark  Co..  1955).  302-306. 

'Returns  From  Regular  Army  Cavaliy  Regiments.  I,S33-I9I6  (2'"' 
Dragoons.  Januaiy.  1856-July.  1861).  National  .Archives.  Micro- 
film. M-744.  Roll  17, 

'Returns  From  Regular  Army  Cavuln  Regiments 

'"Fills.  50, 

"Sergeant  William  Wright.  2"^  Dragoons.  Fort  Leavenworth.  Kan- 
sas, to  S.  E.  Ward  &  Companv.  Fort  Faramie.  Feb.  13.  1861.  Wyo- 
ming State  Archives,  [department  of  State  Parks  and  Cultural  Re- 
sources. 

'■Revised  Regulations  for  the  Army  of  the  Inited  States.  1 86 1 
(Philadelphia:  .1.  G,  T,  Brown.  Printer.  1861).  351. 

"Steffen.  67. 


12 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


discharged.  In  spite  of  the  pending  crisis,  he  did  not 
choose  to  reenlist.  nor  was  he  required  to  stay  in  ser- 
vice.'^ 

Apparently  he  returned  to  Fort  Laramie  as  quiciciy  as 
possible,  and  as  a  private  citizen,  resumed  his  various 
business  activities,  particularly  tailoring  and  stock-trad- 
ing. He  had  an  excellent  reputation  for  tailoring  offic- 
ers' uniforms.  Bob  Smoke,  his  half-Sioux  herder,  con- 
tinued pasturing  the  livestock  outside  the  boundaries  of 
the  post.  It  is  not  clear  where  Foote  lived,  but  there  was 
a  large  community  of  whites.  Indians  and  half-breeds 
living  around  the  post.  It  is  probable  that  he  bought,  or 
built  a  cabin  in  the  area  of  the  rest  of  the  community.  In 
spite  of  the  war,  traffic  on  the  California-Oregon  trail 
remained  heavy,  and  with  it,  the  demand  for  fresh  horses, 
mules  and  oxen.  The  influx  of  volunteer  regiments,  re- 
placing the  departed  regular  regiments,  also  increased 
the  demand  for  Foote's  services  as  a  tailor. 

In  the  spring  of  1 864.  an  increasing  number  of  young 
Sioux  warriors  quietly  intermingled  with  the  "Coffee 
Coolers.""  One  evening  in  mid-May.  Bob  Smoke  did  not 
bring  Foote"s  horses  in  from  pasture.  The  next  morning, 
it  was  evident  that  Bob  Smoke,  the  horses,  the  Sioux 
warriors,  and  some  of  the  permanent  Indian  residents, 
had  all  disappeared.  Their  tracks,  which  they  made  no 
effort  to  hide,  indicated  that  they  crossed  the  Platte  River 
and  traveled  north  toward  the  Cheyenne  River.  It  was 
two  days  before  Foote  could  get  organized,  and  get  per- 
mission to  go  after  them.  John  Hunter  and  Tom  Max- 
well, two  civilian  friends  living  near  Fort  Laramie,  agreed 
to  go  with  him.  Lt.  Col.  William  O.  Collins.  1 1"' Volun- 
teer Ohio  Cavalry,  the  Fort  Laramie  commander,  sent 
Sgt.  Herman  Haas  and  a  cavalry  squad  with  him.  Haas 
was  ordered  not  to  go  beyond  the  Cheyenne  River  val- 
ley. The  Indians  with  the  horses  left  a  clear  trail  for  the 
pursuers  to  follow.  When  they  reached  the  Cheyenne 
River.  Sergeant  Haas  suggested  that  the  three  civilians 
turn  back  with  him.  but  Foote  was  adamant.  Haas  and 
his  troops  reluctantly  returned  to  Fort  Laramie,  and 
Hunter.  Maxwell  and  Foote  continued  the  pursuit  alone. 

Two  and  a  half  days  later,  they  came  upon  the  Indian 
camp.  Bob  Smoke  came  to  meet  them,  claiming  the 
Sioux  had  taken  him  and  the  horses.  John  Hunter,  who 
lived  with  the  Sioux  and  had  a  Sioux  wife,  spoke  Sioux 
fiuently.  He  also  knew  many  of  the  Indians  who  had 
taken  the  horses.  He  thought  that  Bob  Smoke  might  have 
let  the  Indians  believe  the  horses  were  his.  Hunter  was 
highly  respected  by  the  Sioux,  who  thought  he  was  in- 
vulnerable. The  three  were  banking  on  this.  They  were 
finally  invited  into  the  camp.  Hunter  suggested  it  might 
be  an  ambush,  and  they  should  be  prepared  to  ride 
through  the  camp.  It  was  an  ambush,  and  Foote  and  Tom 


Maxwell  each  was  struck  by  two  arrows,  while  John 
Hunter  came  through  without  a  scratch,  even  though  the 
one  Indian  with  a  rifie  shot  directly  at  him. 

They  found  refuge  in  a  patch  of  willows  under  a  clay 
bank.  They  stopped,  built  a  small  fortification  of  logs, 
dressed  their  wounds  and  ate.  They  still  had  their  pack 
horse,  so  they  did  have  food,  water  and  ammunition. 
Hunter  was  sure  the  Indians  would  attack  again  just  be- 
fore sundown,  after  they  had  time  to  scout  around  and 
make  sure  the  three  were  alone,  and  there  were  no  sol- 
diers with  them.  As  Hunter  predicted,  the  Indians  re- 
newed their  attack  at  dusk.  Their  arrows  couldn't  pen- 
etrate the  willows  with  any  accuracy,  and  the  fire  of  the 
three  held  the  Indians  back.  Hunter  jumped  on  a  log  to 
get  a  better  shot,  and  the  Indian  with  the  rifie,  who  missed 
him  before,  shot,  and  this  time  killed  him.  Hunter  did 
manage  to  stay  standing  on  the  log  long  enough  to  empty 
both  of  his  revolvers,  stepped  off,  and  fell  dead.  With 
his  reputation  of  invulnerability,  the  Indians  evidently 
thought  the  shot  had  missed  him,  and  they  faded  away. 
Foote  and  Maxwell  loaded  Hunter"s  body  on  his  horse, 
took  him  out  on  the  prairie  where  they  buried  him,  then 
removed  every  evidence  of  a  grave. 

Slowly  and  painfully  they  made  their  way  back  to  Fort 
Laramie.  Their  wounds  were  serious  and  they  stayed  in 
the  hospital  some  six  weeks.  A  few  days  after  they  were 
released  from  the  hospital,  Foote  was  lying  on  the  cot  in 
his  cabin.  Bob  Smoke  came  in.  pounded  his  chest,  and 
proclaimed  loudly  that  he  was  a  good  Indian.  Foote  had 
his  revolver  on  the  bed  beside  him.  He  raised  up.  shot 
Smoke,  and  said  "Now.  you"re  a  good  Indian."'" 

According  to  Lewis  B.  Hull,  who  was  a  member  of 
the  I  1  "^  Ohio  Volunteer  Cavalry,  Bob  Smoke  did  not  die 
immediately,  but  was  taken  to  the  post  hospital  where 
he  died.  Foote  had  shot  him  in  the  stomach  and  the  ball 
lodged  against  his  back  ribs.  On  June  13.  there  was  a 
skirmish  about  five  miles  north  of  Fort  Laramie.  The 
Indians  evidently  came  back  to  kill  Foote.  since  White 
Eyes,  Smoke's  half-brother,  swore  he  would  get  revenge. 
A  cavalry  patrol  shot  two  of  the  Indians,  killing  one.'" 

Colonel  Collins  confined  Foote  to  the  guardhouse. 
Ostensibly  for  shooting  Bob  Smoke,  but  probably  as 
much  for  his  own  protection  from  the  Indians  who  were 
after  him.  According  to  Foote,  he  remained  in  the  guard- 
house until  Colonel  Thomas  Moonlight  arrived  at  Fort 
Laramie,  and  ordered  Foote"s  release.'^  This  seems  un- 

'■"National  Archives.  Returns  From  Regular  Cavaliy  Regiments. 
IS3J-I9I6. 

'T.llis.  51-55. 

"'Lewis  Byram  Hull  (Myra  E.  Hull.  Editor).  "Soldiering  on  the 
High  Plains.  I'he  Diary  of  Lewis  Byram  Hull.  1864-1866."  Kansas 
Historical  Quarterly,  7  (February.  1938),  13-14. 

"Ellis.  55. 


Winter  •200'2 


13 


likely,  since  Moonlight  was  assigned  to  Fort  Laramie  as 
Commander.  Notlh  Sub-District.  District  of  the  F^lains. 
in  April  1 865."  This  would  have  meant  some  ten  months 
of  confinement  without  a  trial  for  Foote.  He  also  states 
that  Moonlight  offered  him  the  position  of  post  trader  at 
Fort  Halleck.  in  compensation  for  his  loss.  Since  he  did 
move  to  Fort  Halleck  in  that  capacity  in  the  spring  of 
1865.  it  is  probable  the  Colonel  Moonlight  did  make 
those  arrangements.  Moonlight,  like  Foote.  was  born  in 
Forfarshire.  Scotland,  and  he  was  Just  a  little  over  a  year 
older  than  Foote.  Also  like  Foote.  he  had  started  his  life 
in  the  United  States  by  enlisting  in  the  regular  army 
shortly  after  his  arrival."  It  is  possible  the\  found  they 
had  a  great  deal  in  common.-" 

John  Loree,  the  Indian  agent  at  Fort  Laramie,  suggested 

that   White   Eyes.   Smoke's     

brother,  be  given  some  gifts  and 
that  Foote  and  Hunter  be  ban- 
ished from  Indian  territory  to 
restore  the  peace,  save  the  two 
men's  lives,  and  pacify  the  In- 
dians.-' Evidently  he  did  not 
know  .lohn  Hunter  had  not  survived  the  attack.  1  he  rela- 
tions between  Hunter  and  Loree,  and  probably  Foote. 
were  less  than  friendly.  Shortly  after  Brig.  Gen.  Robert 
B.  Mitchell  assumed  command  of  the  Department  of  Ne- 
braska in  early  March  1864.  he  had  an  inter\iew  with 
John  Hunter  of  whom  he  said.  "'I  think  him  honest  and 
intelligent.  Citizens  here  who  know  him  say  that  he  is 
reliable."  Hunter  told  Mitchell  that  the  unrest  among  all 
the  tribes  in  the  region  could  be  traced  directly  to  Agent 
Robert  Loree.  In  his  report.  General  Mitchell  said  he 
had  conversations  with  two  other  persons  who  made  the 
same  statements  regarding  Loree.'- 

Loree  canceled  the  licenses  of  all  regular  Indian  trad- 
ers, and  licensed  friends  and  relatives;  he  took  a  major 
share  of  the  Indian  annuit\  goods  from  each  shipment, 
sold  them  to  the  traders,  who  in  turn,  traded  them  to  the 
Indians.  With  the  monopoly  he  established,  the  price  the 
Indians  received  for  their  hides  was  much  lower  than  it 
had  been  under  the  old,  established  traders;  their  annu- 
ities were  reduced  by  Loree's  thievery;  and  the  quality 
and  variety  of  the  trade  goods,  other  than  their  annuity 
goods,  were  much  lower.  Loree  did  not  stay  around  to 
see  whether  or  not  his  solution  for  Foote  was  put  into 
effect.  Hunters"  statements  to  General  Mitchell  were 
proving  true.  Fearing  for  his  life  in  the  face  of  rising 
Sioux  anger,  Loree  submitted  his  resignation  from  Mis- 
souri on  September  30.  1 864,  where  he  tied  with  a  wagon 
and  team  belonging  to  the  Indian  Bureau.  -'  Since  Loree 
left  Fort  Laramie  in  disgrace  before  Foote  went  to  Fort 
Halleck.  in  all  probability  his  suggestion  played  little  or 


He  also  started  a  ranch  and 
tradins  post  where  the 
Overland  Trail  crossed 
Foote  Creek. 


no  part  in  Foote's  removal  from  Fort  Laramie. 

Foote  expanded  his  activities  at  Fort  Halleck.  He  was 
awarded  the  contract  to  freight  supplies  from  Fort 
Laramie  to  Fort  Halleck.  He  used  wagon  trains  of  double 
wagons  with  ten  or  twelve  yoke  of  oxen  to  each  pair  of 
wagons,  and  usually  drove  one  outUt  himself  He  also 
started  a  ranch  and  trading  post  w  here  the  Overland  Trail 
crossed  Foote  Creek.  In  his  diar\  entry  for  July  13,  Hull 
notes  that  information  came  that  Foote's  ranch  vsas 
burned,  and  all  of  his  stock  stolen.-^ 

Foote  received  an  arrow  wound  in  the  leg.  and  as  his 
store  burned,  he  retreated  back  to  Foil  Halleck.  On  his 
way.  he  discovered  an  emigrant  wagon  train  also  under 
attack.  The  emigrants  wanted  to  make  a  run  for  the  fort. 
He  convinced  the  wagon  master  that  it  was  safer  to  circle 
the  wagons,  and  organized  a  de- 
fense, fhe  defense  was  strong, 
and  the  attack  was  short.  How- 
ever, two  wagons  did  not  make 
it.  The  wagons  belonged  to  the 
Fletcher  famiK .  Lagging  behind 
the  train,  they  were  cut  off  The 
father.  Jasper,  was  wounded,  but  he  and  three  sons  es- 
caped. Mrs.  Fletcher  was  killed  and  scalped  and  two 
daughters.  13-year-old  Mary,  and  two-year-old  Lizzie, 
were  carried  otT.  But  for  Foote's  bravery  and  quick-think- 
ing, the  entire  train  could  well  ha\e  met  the  same  fate.-^ 
On  Sept.  1 0.  1  865.  Foote  and  Frank  Dale\  were  bring- 
ing a  double  wagon  rig  loaded  with  Hour  from  Fort 
Laramie  to  Fort  Halleck  when  they  were  attacked  by 
Indians.  Initially.  the\  tried  to  take  refuge  behind  the 
wagons.  The  Indians,  armed  with  ritles.  immediately 
killed  the  oxen,  and  kept  the  men  pinned  down.  A  sack 

'"  The  II  iir  of  the  Rebellion  A  Coinpilalioii  of  the  (Official  Records 
ol  ihe  I  lunn  ami  Confederate  Annies.  Series  1.  V,  XI  \111.  Part  II, 
(Washington:  (iovernment  Printing  Office.  1S46.)  27,^, 

'"Dan  L.  Ihrapp.  Encyclopedia  of  Western  Hiograpln.  )'  //  (Glen- 
daie;  Arthur  H.Clark  Company.  1918).  1008-10(19. 

-"Letter.  Brig.  Gen.  P.  K.  Connor.  Fort  Laramie,  to  Major  (len.  G. 
M.  Dodge.  Commander.  Department  of  the  Missouri.  .lul>  fi.  1865. 
The  War  of  the  Rebellion.  1059.  Colonel  Moonlight's  opportunitN  to 
do  anything  for  Foote  was  very  short.  He  crossed  General  P.  E. 
Connor.  Commander.  District  of  the  Plains,  who.  on  ,lul>  6,  1865. 
suspended  him  from  command  and  ordered  him  to  Lort  Kearny  to  be 
mustered  out  of  ser\  ice. 

-'Daniel  L.  Kinnaman.  .-1  Little  Piece  oj  ll'yoiuini;  (Rawlins: 
Kinnaman  Publications.  1997).  67-68. 

■■Letter  Brig.  Gen.  Robert  Mitchell  to  Capt.  John  Williams.  Asst. 
Adjutant  General.  Department  of  Kansas.  March  24  1864.  The  li'ar 
of  the  Rebellion.  Series  1.  V.  ,\LV11L  Part  II.  p.  275. 

■^Remi  Nadeau.  Fort  Laramie  and  the  Sioilx  (Lincoln:  Uni\ersity 
of  Nebraska  Press.  1982).  161-167. 

-^Hull.  42. 

-"Elias,  W.  W'hitcomb.  "Reminiscences  of  a  Pioneer.  1857-1869.'" 
Wyoming  Historical  Collections  (1920).  93. 


14 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


at  a  time,  they  removed  enough  flour  to  fortify  them- 
selves under  the  wagon,  where  tiiey  spent  the  night.  In 
the  middle  of  the  affray.  Foote  took  a  bullet  in  the  shoul- 
der. When  they  were  late  arriving  at  Fort  Fialleck.  a  cav- 
alry patrol  went  in  search  of  them,  frightening  off  their 
assailants.  Foote's  wound  was  dressed  at  the  fort.  While 
he  was  recuperating  at  home,  an  Indian  whom  he  knew 
slightK  asked  to  see  him.  saying  he  had  an  antelope  quar- 
ter he  wished  to  give  to  him.  When  the  Indian  was  ad- 
mitted to  Foote's  room,  he  drew  a  pistol  with  the  evi- 
dent intent  of  killing  Foote.  As  usual,  Foote  had  his  pis- 
tol under  his  pillow,  outdrew  the  Indian  and  killed  him.-" 

Despite  the  Indian  attacks  on  the  Overland  trail,  the 
traffic  was  heavy.  The  army  posts  along  the  trails  were 
charged  with  keeping  a  count  of  the  emigrants  passing 
the  post.  In  most  cases,  this  was  an  extra  duty  of  the  post 
surgeon.  In  1864.  the  tally  of  Dr.  J.  W.  Finfrock.  post 
surgeon  at  Fort  Halleck,  showed  4,264  wagons  and 
1 7.584  emigrants  passing  the  fort  during  the  travel  sea- 
son." Traders  such  as  Elias  W.  Whitcomb  and  Foote 
were  in  a  position  to  make  a  good  profit  from  the  traffic. 

General  Order  No.  33.  dated  March  10,  1866.  Head- 
quarters, Department  of  the  Missouri,  ordered  the  aban- 
donment of  Forts  Halleck  and  Collins,  to  be  replaced  by 
a  new  post  at  the  Big  Laramie  River  crossing,  to  be 
named  Fort  John  Buford.  Foote  chose  to  stay  at  the  Fort 
Halleck  location.  The  business  with  the  emigrant  trains 
traveling  the  Overland  Trail  remained  good.  In  addition, 
he  was  postmaster  as  well  as  justice  of  the  peace.  The 
Coad  brothers  were  doing  extensive  logging  on  Elk 
Mountain,  providing  ties,  fire  wood,  and  bridge  timbers 
forthe  construction  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  Foote 
had  the  contracts  to  supply  the  logging  camps,  and  also 
had  contracts  to  run  the  wagon  trains  used  by  Mark  Coad 
to  haul  the  logs  to  the  railroad  right  of  way.  He  had  staked 
out  claims  on  Foote  Creek,  and  was  raising  livestock  as 
well  as  cutting  hay  for  his  own  livestock.  Wells,  Fargo 
&  Company's  overland  stage  line,  Coad  brothers,  and 
the  emigrants.  He  also  had  contracts  to  rebuild  Pine 
Grove  and  Bridger  Pass  stage  stations  for  the  Overland 
Stage  Company  after  they  were  destroyed  in  Indian  at- 
tacks. He  evidently  felt  that  these  multiple  enterprises, 
for  the  time  being  at  least,  would  offset  the  loss  of  the 
army  business,  and  that  he  was  better  off  where  he  was. 

The  Dakota  territorial  legislature  organized  the 
territory's  western  region  as  Laramie  County,  with  the 
county  seat  at  Fort  Sanders  on  Jan.  9,  1 867.  The  county 
commissioners  were  William  L.  Kuykendall,  J.  N. 
Hinman  and  William  Hopkins.  Robert  Foote  was  ap- 
pointed county  sheriff  Kuykendall  tried  to  get  the  other 
two  commissioners  to  meet  to  organize  the  county,  but 
they  failed  to  act,  so  at  that  time,  the  county  was  never 


actually  organized.  For  that  reason,  Foote  actually  never 
served  as  sheriff-** 

Although  never  a  sheriff,  Foote  did  make  one  arrest, 
of  L.  H.  Musgrove  one  of  the  most  daring  of  all  western 
outlaws.  Foote  knew  him  when  Musgrove  was  an  In- 
dian trader  at  Fort  Halleck.  One  day  a  half- Arapaho  jok- 
ingly called  Musgrove  a  liar.  Musgrove's  answer  was 
to  put  a  bullet  in  the  man's  brain.  This  effectively  ended 
Musgrove's  career  as  an  Indian  trader.  He  turned  to 
horse-stealing,  and  when  working  alone  was  not  as  lu- 
crative as  he  had  hoped,  he  organized  a  syndicate  with 
agents  in  Kansas,  Nebraska,  Colorado.  Arizona,  New 
Mexico,  Texas,  Dakota  and  Montana.-"  Musgrove's  syn- 
dicate was  too  big  to  be  successful  for  very  long.  He  had 
been  headquartered  in  Denver,  but  as  things  began  to 
fall  apart,  he  returned  north  and  hid  out  in  the  vicinity  of 
Elk  Mountain.  One  day  he  came  down  to  the  railroad  at 
Percy  station.  He  was  sitting  in  a  restaurant  eating  break- 
fast when  Foote,  who  had  just  delivered  a  wagon  train 
of  railroad  ties,  decided  he  would  have  breakfast. 
Musgrove  had  his  back  to  the  door,  but  Foote  recog- 
nized him.  He  quietly  drew  his  pistol,  stepped  up  to 
Musgrove  and  told  him  to  put  up  his  hands.  He  took 
Musgrove  to  Fort  Steele,  where  the  army  blacksmith  put 
him  in  irons.  A  few  days  later,  en  route  to  Denver, 
Musgrove  escaped.  He  was  recaptured  shortly  after  by 
the  U.S.  Marshal  from  Cheyenne,  H.  D.  Haskell,  and 
returned  to  Denver.'"  He  was  taken  from  jail  by  a  mob 
and  lynched  on  November  23,  1 868.- ' 

-"Ellis.  56.  57. 

•'  General  G.  M.  Dodge,  commander  of  U.S.  Forces  in  Kansas 
and  the  Territories,  in  his  report  oTNon.  I.  1865  to  the  Commander. 
Department  of  the  Missouri,  called  it  the  best  natural  road  from  the 
Missouri  to  the  Pacific,  and  noted  that  the  traffic  between  I  March 
and  10  August  was  1 1.  854  persons.  Letter.  General  G.  M.  Dodge  to 
Brevet  Lt.  Colonel  Joseph  McC.  Bell.  Assistant  Adjutant  General. 
Department  of  the  Missouri.  War  Department.  War  of  the  Rebellion: 
Official  Records  of  the  liiion  and  Confederate  Armies.  Series  I. 
Volume  XLVIII.  Part  I;  Washington:  Government  Printing  Office. 
1902.)  p.  342. 

-"Judge  W.  L.  Ruvkendall.  Frontier  Days.  (.1.  M.  and  H.  L. 
Kuyendall.  Publishers.  1917).  101. 

-'There  are  estimates  that  his  gang  at  one  time  numbered  200  men. 
They  would  steal  horses  and  mules  in  the  border  states  and  run  them 
north,  particularh'  along  the  route  of  Union  Pacific  construction.  With 
doctored  brands  and  forged  bills  of  sale,  they  marketed  them  to  the 
railroad,  contractors,  and  other  potential  buyers.  They  then  reversed 
the  process,  stealing  livestock  in  the  north,  doctoring  the  brands, 
forging  bills  of  sale,  and  peddling  them  in  the  south.  They  robbed 
stages,  wagon  trains,  emigrant  trains,  anything  that  offered  possible 
loot,  including  army  livestock  and  funds.  General  D.  J.  Cook.  Hands 
I  p:  or.  Twem\'  years  of  Detective  Life  in  the  .Mountains  and  Plains. 
(Norman:  University  of  Oklahoma  Press.  1958).  39-60;  William  Ross 
Collier  and  [:dw  in  Victor  Westrate.  Dave  Cook  of  the  Rockies.  (New 
York:  Rufus  Rockwell  Wilson.  1936).  80-96. 

'"Collier  and  Westrate.  95. 


Winter  :200^i 


15 


For  Foote.  1 868  proved  to  be  an  eventful  year.  In 
the  fall  of  1  862.  shortlv  after  the  establishment 
of  Fort  Mai  leek,  a  young  lady.  Amanda  Norris.  came 
West  from  Fort  Leavenworth.  She  was  the  half-sister  of 
John  Sublette,  a  frontiersman  who  lived  near  Fort 
Halleck.  Sublette  and  Foote  occasionally  were  business 
partners.  Amanda  was  one  of  the  few  women  at  the  fort. 
She  worked  at  various  jobs  on  the  post,  including  clerking 
in  Foote's  store.  On  April  10.  1868.  Amanda  and  Foote 
were  married  at  Fort  Leavenworth.  Kansas. '- 

With  the  increased  demand  for  hay.  Foote  expanded 
his  production  w  ith  one  of  the  first  irrigation  projects  in 
the  territory.  With  a  team  and  plow,  and  a  lot  of  hand 
work,  he  dug  ditches  on  the  upper  reaches  of  Foote  Creek, 
bringing  the  water  down  to  irrigate  the  creek  bottoms.'' 
He  was  operating  under  squatters"  rights,  without  title 
to  the  land  and  without  legal  water  rights. 

While  Foote  was  engaged  in  his  other  enterprises, 
Amanda  managed  the  store.  She  also  helped  \sith  the 
hay  operations,  including  the  irrigation,  cutting  and  stack- 
ing. In  the  next  few  years,  the  Footes  became  parents  of 
five  boys.  Amanda  received  an  inheritance  from  her  fa- 
ther which  she  invested  in  property  in  Omaha.  When 
the  boys  were  of  school  age.  she  took  them  to  the  city 
for  the  school  term.  While  in  Omaha,  three  of  the  five 


William  Bevins.  He  and  Herman  Lessimin,  atuicked 
Foote  at  Fort  Halleck. 


children  died.  Only  Robert  .Jr..  and  Bvron  survived  to 
adulthood.'' 

On  August  13.  1876.  Foote  again  tangled  with  a  pair 
of  outlaws.  About  dusk,  he  noticed  two  men  camping  in 
the  willows  along  a  stream  a  short  distance  from  his 
house.  When  he  approached  the  camp,  he  recognized 
one  of  the  men  as  Bill  Bevins.  Sometime  before.  Bevins 
held  Foote  up  and  robbed  him  of  a  sum  of  money.  In  the 
ensuing  shooting,  neither  Bevins  nor  Foote  was  hit.  but 
a  bullet  lodged  in  the  Foote's  family  Bible.  This  time. 
Bevins  attacked  Foote  immediatelv .  knocked  the  gun  out 
of  his  hand,  forced  him  down,  and  choked  him. 

Amanda  was  watching  from  the  window.  She  grabbed 
a  stick,  jumped  out  of  the  window,  and  attacked  Bevins. 
He  took  the  stick  from  her.  and  grabbed  her  bv  the  ankle. 
She  screamed  for  help,  and  Mrs.  Hansen,  a  woman  who 
lived  nearhv.  brought  her  a  pistol.  Bevins  let  them  both 
go,  and  ran  into  the  willows.  Amanda  shot  at  him,  but 
missed.  Bevins  and  his  partner,  Herman  Lessman.  left 
the  area. 

Foote  offered  the  Lee  brothers,  two  trappers  who  lived 
nearby.  $200  if  the\  captured  the  two  and  brought  them 
back.  In  a  few  days  they  returned  with  Bevins  and 
Lessman  tied  on  a  horse.  Foote  paid  them:  took  Bevins 
and  Lessman  to  Rawlins,  the  Carbon  County  seat,  and 
turned  them  over  to  Sheriff  D.  F.  Rennie.  ,A  grand  jury 
returned  a  true  hill  on  both.  Lessman  was  tried  on  Sep- 
tember 24.  1 876,  and  found  guilty  of  assault  with  intent 
to  kill,  and  sentenced  to  term  of  two  years,  six  months 
in  the  territorial  penitentiary.^'  Bev  ins  won  a  change  of 
venue  to  Albany  County.  On  February  7.  1877.  he  was 
tried  and  found  guilty  on  charges  of  assault  and  attempt 
to  murder.'"  On  Februarv  14.  he  was  sentenced  to  a 
term  of  eight  years  in  the  territorial  penitentiarv." 

"Herbert  Howe  Banerot't.  Populav  Tribunals.  V.  1.  (San  Iran- 
cisco:  lheHistor\  Pllbll,'^hing  Co.  1887).  670. 

'■According  to  the  United  Stales  Census  for  1871).  .Amanda  was 
listed  as  age  26  and  mulatto;  Foote  was  listed  as  age  ?<2.  a  carpenter, 
and  having  a  personal  estate  of  $10,000.  Their  son.  lesse.  was  listed 
as  age  I.  and  mulatto, 

"Robert  Homer  Burns.  .Andrew  Springs  (lillespie,  and  \\  illuig 
Gay  Richardson.  \i'yi»iiiiig's  Pioneer  Randies  (l.aramie:  lop-ot- 
the-World  Press.  1455).  638. 

^■"Mrs.  Alfred  M.  (Cora)  Beach.  Women  ofllvoiiiini;.  II.  (Casper: 
S.  H.  BoyerandCo..  1404).  2.  3, 

''Carbon  Counl\  [W\omuig  I  errilorx  |  District  Court.  Crimmal 
Indictment  No.  261.  Pt'o/'/t' ()/;/)t'  I'ernlon-ol  Wyoimngy  (C  Sevens 
and  H  Lessnuni.  tiled  September  26.  1876. 

"•Ihul 

"Bevins  escaped  from  the  .-Mbany  Counl\  .lail  on  .April  3.  1877. 
while  awaiting  appeal  ofhis  conviction.  He  became  one  ot'the  most 
notorious  "road  agents"  on  the  Cheyenne-Deadwood  stage  route. 
He  was  tlnally  recaptured  near  lander  on  .lul\  6.  1877.  He  sersed 
five  >ears  and  seven  months.  EInora  1,.  Vr\c.  .tllas  of  ll'vonnng 
Outlaws  at  the  Territorial  Peiiilenlian\  (Laramie:  .lelm  Mountain 
Publications,  1990),  43-44. 


16 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


By  1 88 1  traffic  on  the  Overland  Trail  had  deceased 
to  a  trickle:  logging  on  Elk  Mountain  had  de- 
clined; and.  the  post  office  at  Fort  Halleck  was  moved 
to  the  new  town  of  Elk  Mountain.  Since  Foote's  store 
and  hay  businesses  were  declining,  he  decided  to  look 
for  a  new  location. 

Johnson  County  had  recently  been  organized  in  the 
north-central  part  of  the  territory,  and  the  town  of  Buf- 
falo, its  county  seat,  was  growing  rapidly.  It  was  head- 
quarters for  many  of  the  large  new  cattle  companies 
forming  out  of  what  until  recently  had  been  Indian  terri- 
tory. The  ranches  needed  a  ready  source  of  supplies  and 
services  and  the  convenience  of  the  county  seat.  The 
nearby  military  post.  Fort  McKinney  also  afforded  the 
townspeople  with  the  additional  opportunity  for  contracts 
for  supplies  and  services  to  fulfill  its  needs.  The  oppor- 
tunities in  Buffalo  were  just  the  thing  to  sharpen  Foote's 
entrepreneurial  appetite.  He  sold  his  holdings  in  the  Elk 
Mountain  area  and  took  a  short  trip  to  Scotland  to  visit 
his  family.  On  his  return,  he  went  to  Denver,  and  at  the 
■■Red  Bam."  he  hired  John  Barkey  to  help  move  his  live- 
stock, dry  goods  and  personal  belongings  from  Fort 
Halleck  to  Buffalo.''^ 

In  the  center  of  downtown  Buffalo,  Foote  built  a  large, 
two-story  log.  general  store  building  with  the  usual  false 
front.  Rows  of  dormer  windows  on  both  sides  made  the 
store  light  and  pleasant.  On  the  south-side  of  the  build- 
ing was  a  wide,  covered  veranda  with  benches  and  chairs 
which  proved  to  be  a  popular  gathering  place  for  the 
residents.  The  store  hours  were  6  a.m..  to  8  p.m.  Through 
his  skill  as  a  tailor,  the  former  dragoon  and  former  fron- 
tiersman transformed  himself  into  a  gentleman.  In  Buf- 
falo, he  always  wore  a  Prince  Albert  coat,  striped  trou- 
sers, a  brocade  vest  and  top  hat  and  carried  a  walking 
stick.  He  also  tailored  Mrs.  Foote's  and  the  boys' 
clothes.'" 

Foote  found  living  in  Buffalo  to  be  both  e.xciting  and 
lucrative.  In  addition  to  the  store,  he  started  a  small  live- 
stock operation  and  contracted  with  the  army  for  sup- 
plies for  Fort  McKinney.  He  became  active  in  Johnson 
County  Democratic  politics,  and  played  a  leading  role 
in  the  party.  There  was,  however,  a  deep  rift  which  un- 
derlay both  the  social  and  economic  structures  of  Johnson 
County. 

When  the  Siou.x  War  of  1876-1877  drew  to  a  close, 
the  Powder  River  basin,  the  prized  land  of  the  Siou.x  and 
Cheyennes.  was  opened  for  white  e.xploitation.  The  ex- 
cellent cattle  ranges  of  the  basin  and  vicinity  created  an 
immediate  land  rush,  a  rush  to  establish  claims  to  the 
best  range  land  and  the  limited  water  resources  of  the 
region.  In  addition  to  the  large,  well-financed  cattle  com- 


panies, mostly  absentee-ownership  corporations,  there 
were  many  smaller  ranches,  one  or  two-man  concerns, 
operating  on  a  shoestring  on  the  fringes  of  the  larger 
outfits.  They  competed  for  the  same  rangelands  and  wa- 
ter. There  were  also  bands  of  rustlers  who  victimized 
both.  The  larger  companies  were  the  rustlers'  preferred 
targets.  They  had  the  largest  herds  spread  over  the  wid- 
est territory,  making  them  the  easiest  prey.  The  small 
ranchers  often  found  that  it  was  to  their  advantage  to 
cooperate  with,  if  not  join,  the  rustlers. 

The  owners  and  managers  of  the  large  companies 
lumped  the  small  ranchers  and  the  rustlers  into  a  single 
category,  and  a  "we  and  they"  attitude  developed.  By 
the  time  Foote  established  his  store  in  Buffalo,  and  his 
nearby  ranch,  the  lines  were  clearly  drawn.  The  Wyo- 
ming Stock  Growers  Association,  with  its  limited,  se- 
lect membership,  had  control  of  the  roundup  and  mar- 
keting system.  It  also  had  a  private  detective  force  to 
execute  its  rules  and  protect  the  interests  of  its  mem- 
bers. The  association's  membership  also  included  most 
of  the  politically  and  financially  powerful  men  in  the 
territory.  The  smaller  ranchers  found  it  difficult  to  hold 
on  to  their  land  and  water  rights,  to  have  their  brands 
recognized,  to  participate  in  the  range-wide  roundups. 
The  roundups  were  conducted  under  the  auspices,  ini- 
tially of  the  Association,  and  later  of  the  Territorial  then 
the  State  Livestock  Commission.  Both  of  the  latter  were 
under  the  control  of  the  association.  When  the  smaller 
ranchers  did  ship  cattle  to  market,  the  shipments  often 
were  confiscated  by  the  brand  inspectors  at  the  receiv- 
ing stockyard  as  illegally  branded  or  improperly  docu- 
mented. They  were  then  auctioned  off,  and  the  proceeds 
sent  to  the  Association,  until  January  1890,  when  they 
were  deposited  in  the  general  funds  of  the  Territory.^" 

Initially,  most  of  the  townspeople  in  Buffalo  tried  to 
stay  neutral.  They  did  business  with  both  the  large  out- 
fits and  the  small  ones,  and  could  not  afford  to  antago- 
nize either.  Others  felt  that  the  issues  were  not  vital 
enough  to  become  involved.  Pressures  increased,  how- 
ever, for  them  to  declare  their  support  for  one  side  or  the 
other.-" 

'"Charles  Gray  Miller.  Bujfalo  Bulletin.  November  16.  1916.  I. 

'''Buffalo  Centennial  Committee.  Buffalo's  First  Century.  (Buf- 
falo: Buffalo  Bulletin.  1984).  4.  5. 

^"Oscar  H.  "Jack"  Flagg,  The  Cattle  Business  in  Johnson  County. 
(New  York:  Arno  Press  and  New  York  Times.  1969).  40.  41. 

■•T.  P.  Hill,  an  attorney  in  Buffalo,  was  one  of  the  few  who  man- 
aged to  stay  neutral.  When  a  delegation  called  on  him  to  express  his 
loyalty  one  way  or  the  other.  Charles  T.  Hogerson.  president  of  the 
First  National  Bank,  told  the  delegation  that  any  man  who  preferred 
to  stay  neutral  should  be  allowed  that  privilege.  Hill  was  not  dis- 
turbed again.  Burton  S.  Hill.  "Frontier  Lawyer.  T.  P.  Hill."  Annals 
of  morning.  34  (April.  1962).  49. 


Winter  'iOO'2 


Foote  could  not  remain  neutral.  With  his  son,  Robert 
Jr.,  he  was  a  small  ranch  operator,  just  as  he  had  been 
for  much  of  his  life  in  Wyoming.  Many  of  his  custom- 
ers were  small  ranchers  and  their  families.  The  manag- 
ers of  the  large  companies  accused  him  of  stocking  his 
range  with  mavericks,  stolen  calves,  or  calves  with  al- 
tered brands,  rustled  from  their  ranges  and  taken  b\  him 
in  pa\ment  for  goods  from  his  store. '^' 

In  IS'^l,  Foote  had  anotiier  problem.  He  was  also  in- 
dicted by  a  federal  grand  jury  in  Cheyenne  on  nine  counts 
of  defrauding  the  government  on  grain  sales  to  Fort 
McKinncN.^'  The  case  was  postponed  from  court  term 
to  court  term.  Foote's  attorney  asked  for  continuances, 
and  the  government's  witnesses,  mostly  army  officers, 
were  now  scattered  throughout  the  country,  and  were 
difficult  to  subpoena.  Also,  the  U.S.  Marshal's  budget 
did  not  have  sufficient  funds  to  pay  the  necessary  wit- 
ness fees.  Trial  was  tuialK  held  in  Ma\  18Q4.  A  nolle 
prosequi  was  tiled  on  the  first  count  by  Benjamin  Fowler. 
United  States  District  Attornev,  and  in  a  jur>  trial,  Foote 
was  found  innocent  on  the  other  eight  counts. "'"' 

In  the  meantime,  the  tensions  in  Johnson  County  in- 
creased. The  Wyoming  Stock  Growers  Association  had 
fallen  on  hard  times,  and  the\  were  no  longer  able  to 
employ  the  stock  inspectors  and  detectives  who  had  pre- 
viously safeguarded  their  interests.  Frank  Canton,  who 
had  served  two  terms  as  Johnson  County  sheriff  1  882- 
1886.  was  defeated  for  a  third  term.  In  January  1887. 
the  stock  growers"  association  appointed  him  to  head  its 
detective  force  in  the  northern  part  of  Wyoming  with 
headquarters  in  Buffalo.^"  In  this  position,  he  held  war- 
rants as  a  deputv  sheriff  in  everv  northern  county  as  well 
as  a  commission  as  Deputy  United  States  Marshal.  As 
sheriff.  Canton  supported  the  position  of  the  big  cattle 
interests,  and  as  their  chief  of  detectives  in  the  north,  he 
came  down  hard  on  small  ranchers  and  rustlers  alike. 
By  the  end  of  1 888,  the  Association  was  no  longer  able 
to  pay  its  bills,  and  the  Cheyenne  banks  had  cut  off  all 
credit.  Since  the  association  could  no  longer  afford  to 
keep  him  on  their  rolls.  Canton  again  considered  run- 
ning for  sheriff^" 

In  the  summer  of  1891.  death  came  to  a  number  of 
accused  or  suspected  rustlers.  On  June  4,  three  men  went 
to  Thomas  Waggoner's  house  near  Newcastle,  ostensi- 
bly, to  arrest  him.  Fifteen  days  later  his  body  was  found 
hanging  from  a  tree  two  miles  from  his  house.  Waggoner 
was  suspected  of  horse  stealing,  and  at  least  one  of  the 
three  men  who  came  for  him  was  a  Wyoming  Stock 
Growers'  Association  detective.^' 

On  October  7,  1891,  Foote  had  his  own  problem  with 
the  system.  He  made  a  shipment  of  cattle  to  the  Omaha 
stockyards.  Claude  L.  Talbot,  stock  inspector  for  the 


Wyoming  Board  of  Livestock  Commissioners,  seized 
three  head  of  cattle  from  the  shipment  as  estrays.  sold 
them,  and,  as  prescribed  by  law,  sent  the  proceeds  to  the 
secretary  of  the  state  board.  1  he  state  board  refused  to 
recognize  Foote  as  the  legal  ovsner  of  the  cattle.^'*  There 
is  little  doubt  that  Talbot  was  a  "company  man."^' 

The  brand  on  the  cattle  was  Foote's  own,  FOOT,  on 
the  left  ribs.'"  The  cattle  originally  carried  the  "hat"  brand 
when  he  purchased  seven  head  from  L.A.  Webb  in  No- 
vember 1 890,  and  were  rebranded  by  Webb  with  Foote's 
brand  at  the  time  of  the  sale.  The  "hat"  brand  was  con- 
sidered by  the  cattlemen  to  be  an  outlaw  brand,  even 
though  it  was  legally  registered.' 

Foote  tiled  a  request  for  reimbursement,  w  ith  the  docu- 
mentation proving  ownership  required  by  law.  to  the  sec- 
retary of  the  State  Livestock  Commission  on  October 
3 1 .  Payment  was  refused,  and  he  filed  a  petition  for  man- 

^-Frank  Canton.  Iroinicr  Trails  (Norman;  llni\ersit\  of  Okla- 
homa Press.  V)hh).  82.  83- 

""■'  I'nilcd  Stales  v,v  Roberl  Foote,  el,  ai.  Case  No.  120.  District  of 
\V_\oming.  .lune  14.  1891.  Records.  IJ.  S.  District  Court  for  the  Dis- 
trict of  Wyotning,  National  .Archives.  Denver  Branch, 

""■•Beniamin  F".  Fov\lcr.  US.  .Attorney  for  Wvoming.  to  the  Attor- 
ne>  (Icneral  of  the  United  States.  Nmemher  26.  1893.  R.(i  60.  Na- 
tional  Archives. 

■''  Frank  Canton  to  the  Wyoming  Stock  tjrowers'  .Association,  lanu- 
ar>  22.  1887.  Wyoming  Stock  Growers"  Association  collection. 
.American  Heritage  Center.  UniversitN  of  Wxoniing, 

^'In  a  letter  to  1  homas  B  Adams.  Secretary  of  the  Association,  he 
slated,  \^ilh  some  hittcrncss.  "In  regard  to  m\  chances  for  reelection 
to  the  oflice  of  sheriff-!  will  sa\  that  at  present  I  don't  think  1  stand 
an\  show  whatsoever — so  far  the  rustlers  have  run  everything,  .lack 
Flagg  and  three  of  his  gang  will  be  here  as  delegates  trom  Powder 
River,"  I- rank  Canton  to  Thomas  B.  Adams.  October  8.  1888,  Wyo- 
ming Stock  (irovvers"  Association  collection.  American  Heritage  Cen- 
ter. I  niversity  of  Wyoming 

^'Helena  Huntington  Smith,  flic  \\\ir  on  I'owiler  River  (lincoln: 
University  of  Nebraska  Press.  1467).  148.149. 

^'  Stale  ex  re  I  hooie  v  Board  of  l.ivestoek  (.'oininissioners.  4  It'vo- 
luing  Reports,  1 27  It  was  designated  Wyoming  Stale  Supreme  Court 
Case  #2-1.^1, 

^'Inspector  Talbot  was  a  part  of  the  Wyoming  Stock  Growers  power 
structure.  He  was  a  signer  of  the  original  petition  to  organize  .lohnson 
Countv  in  1880.  and  at  the  time,  worked  lor  Moreton  Frcv\en  and 
the  76  ranch.  I'albot  was  emploved  as  stock  inspector  b\  the  Wvo- 
ming  Stock  Growers  Association  from  1885  until  1890.  then  by  the 
Wyoming  State  Ldvestock  Board  from  1 890  to  1 892.  while  it  had  the 
inspection  responsibility.  In  1893.  when  the  Wyotning  Stock  Grow- 
ers Association  again  assumed  the  stock  inspection  responsibilities. 
Talbot  returned  to  its  employment,  and  at  his  retirement,  had  been  an 
inspector  for  the  .Association  for  46  \ears,  ,lohn  Rolfe  Burroughs. 
Ciuardian  of  the  Gra,sslaiids  (Chevenne:  Wvoming  Stock  Cirowers 
Association.  1971).  69, 

'"Slate  Board  of  livestock  Commissioners  of  Wyoming,  ll'vo- 
iiiiiig  Brand  Book,  1919  (Cheyenne;  State  Board  of  1  ivestock  Com- 
missioners of  Wyoming.  1919).  85. 

"  Charles  H.  Burritt  to  S.  M.  Allen  (Denver.  Colorado).  May  10. 
1892.  Burritt  Papers.  American  Heritage  Center.  University  of  W\o- 
niina. 


IS 


Annals  of  Wyoming;  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


damus  with  the  Wyoming  State  Supreme  Court  on  Dec. 
29.  1 892.  In  December  1 893.  the  court  returned  a  unani- 
mous decision  that  the  manner  in  which  the  law  was 
written  gave  the  Livestoci<  Commission  full  authority 
to  determine  ownership  of  cattle,  and  to  determine  the 
nature  of  the  e\  idence  required  to  prove  it;  therefore,  no 
writ  of  mandamus  could  be  issued. " 

As  relations  between  the  small  operators  and  the  as- 
sociation worsened,  a  group  of  Cheyenne-based  asso- 
ciation members  put  together  an  "invasion"  force,  in- 
tended to  "eliminate"  rustlers  in  Johnson  County.  The 
stor\  includes  hiring  of  Texas  gunmen,  moving  men  and 
equipment  under  cover  of  silence  north  into  Johnson 
County,  and  the  killing  of  Nate  Champion  and  Nick  Ray 
at  the  KC  Ranch  cabin.'' 

At  the  same  time  the  Invaders  were  moving  north, 
Robert  Foote.  Jack  Flagg.  John  R.  Smith.  Thad  Cole  and 
D.  C.  Brown  were  preparing  to  go  to  Douglas  for  the 
State  Democratic  Convention.'^  The  plan  was  for  Flagg 
and  his  1 7-year-old  stepson.  Alonzo.  to  spend  the  night 
at  the  KC  with  Ray  and  Champion.  Foote.  Cole  and 
Brow  n  were  going  straight  to  Smith's  ranch,  w  here  they 
would  spend  the  night.  Flagg  was  to  meet  them  at  Smith's 
the  next  morning,  then  all  five  delegates  would  ride  to- 
gether to  Douglas.'' 

Flagg's  stepson  was  going  to  Powder  River  Crossing. 
He  had  a  team  and  the  running  gear  of  a  wagon,  while 
Flagg  was  on  horseback.  They  reached  the  KC  ranch 
about  2:30  p.m..  when  the  Invaders'siege  of  Champion 
and  Ray  was  well  underway.  At  the  moment,  neither 
party  was  firing,  so  there  was  nothing  to  warn  nor  alarm 
Flagg  and  Alonzo.  Flagg  did  see  a  few  men  around  the 
bam,  but  did  not  consider  it  unusual.  When  Alonzo  came 
abreast  of  the  house,  he  was  ordered  to  halt,  instead,  he 
whipped  the  team  to  a  gallop.  The  Invaders  immediately 
opened  fire.  The  tiring  scared  the  horses  and  by  the  time 
Alonzo  had  them  under  control,  he  was  well  past  the 
house  and  out  of  sight  of  the  gunmen. 

In  the  meantime.  Flagg's  horse  was  recognized,  and 
he  became  the  target.  Charlie  Ford,  foreman  of  the  TA 
ranch,  took  deliberate  aim  w  ith  his  Winchester,  and  fired 
at  Flagg  but  missed.  Flagg  was  unarmed,  so  he  slid  over 
on  the  side  of  his  horse,  and  made  a  run  for  it.  When  he 
caught  up  with  Alonzo.  he  took  his  rifle  from  the  wagon, 
told  Alonzo  to  cut  loose  the  horses,  take  the  fastest  one. 
and  make  a  run  for  it.  By  the  time  the  Invaders  could 
mount  a  pursuit,  both  were  well  out  of  danger. 

When  Flagg  reached  Smith's  ranch,  the  rest  of  the 
delegation  already  was  there.  Flagg,  Alonzo.  and  three 
of  the  others  started  back  to  the  KC  ranch  to  see  if  they 
could  raise  the  siege  on  Champion  and  Ray.  At  the  Carr 
ranch  they  met  a  posse  of  twelve  men  from  Buffalo  on 


the  same  mission.  Terrance  Smith,  whose  ranch  was 
close  to  the  KC.  heard  the  tiring  suspected  what  was 
occurring,  and  rode  into  Buffalo  to  report  it.  Sheriff  An- 
gus called  on  Captain  Menardi  of  Company  "C,"  of  the 
Wyoming  National  Guard  for  men  and  arms.  In  compli- 
ance with  General  Order  No.  4.  sent  by  Gov.  Amos  Bar- 
ber earlier  in  the  month.  Menardi  refused.  Angus  then 
set  out  for  the  KC  w  ith  a  posse.  The\  arrived  to  fmd  the 
smoldering  ruins  of  the  house.  Champion's  body  in  a 
gulK  a  short  distance  from  the  house,  and  the  burned 
torso  of  Ray's  body  in  the  house.  The  posse  immedi- 
ately started  back  to  Buffalo.  They  made  the  round-trip 
ride  of  120  miles  in  fourteen  hours.'" 

Foote  rode  from  John  R.  Smith's  ranch  back  to  Buf- 
falo to  alert  the  town.  Terrance  Smith's  report  already 
had  the  town  in  an  uproar.  The  citizens  were  unsure  of 
the  Invader's  identity  or  their  intentions.  Although  they 
were  already  warned,  the  Buffalo  residents  had  the  treat 
of  seeing  their  usually  staid,  well-tailored  merchant  re- 
vert to  his  days  as  a  dragoon  and  Indian  fighter.  He  roared 
down  the  street  on  his  well-known  black  stallion,  no  hat, 
hair,  beard  and  coattails  flying,  yelling.  "Come  out  you 
and  take  sides."  He  then  opened  his  store  and  pro- 
vided arms,  ammunition,  clothing,  food  and  anything 
else  he  had  in  stock  to  any  of  the  posse  volunteers  who 
needed  it."  It  is  estimated  that  to  equip  the  posse.  Rob- 
ert Foote  gave  away  between  $15,000  and  $20,000  in 
merchandise,  little  of  which  was  ever  returned  to  him  or 
paid  for. 

The  hunters  now  became  the  hunted.  While  they  pro- 
ceeded slowly  toward  Buffalo,  a  messenger  rode  out  to 
meet  them  to  warn  them  that  Buffalo  was  in  an  uproar; 
their  motives  and  goals  were  "misunderstood";  that  fami- 

'-The  decision  in  the  case  is  reported  at  4  IVyomiitg  Reports.  126. 

''  Numerous  authors  ha\e  written  on  the  .lohnson  Count\  Inva- 
sion. For  a  view  extremely  sympathetic  to  the  .lohnson  County  resi- 
dents, see  the  classic.  Asa  S.  Mercer.  The  Baiulilli  of  the  Plains:  The 
Crowning  Infamy  of  the  Ages.  (Norman;  University  of  Oklahoma 
Press.  1954).  Less  one-sided,  but  still  sympathetic  to  .lohnson  County 
is  Helena  Huntington  Smith.  War  on  Powder  River.  (Lincoln:  Uni- 
\ersit\  of  Nebraska  Press.  1965).  For  an  account  more  sympathetic 
to  the  ln\aders.  see  Robert  B.  Da\ id.  Malcolm  Campbell.  Sheriff 
(Casper:  Wyomingana,  1932). 

-^Cheyenne  Daily  Leader.  April  13.  1892. 

'"  O.  H.  ".lack"  Flagg.  was  an  outstanding  cow bo\  w ho  came  to 
Wyoming  with  a  herd  of  Texas  cattle  in  1882.  He  was  sought  after 
immediately  by  many  of  the  large  livestock  companies.  When  he 
tiled  on  some  land,  bought  some  cattle  and  registered  a  brand,  he 
was  entered  in  the  stockgrovvers'  black  list.  He  became  a  leader  and 
a  voice  for  the  small  ranchers,  and  in  1892.  he  purchased  the  S!<//a/o 
Echo  and  became  a  inajor  spokesman  for  the  small  ranchers  and  the 
Democratic  Party.  He  and  Robert  Foote  were  friends  as  well  as  po- 
litical allies. 

'"Smith.  214. 

''Smith;  A.  S.  Mercer.  83.  84. 


Winter  ■200^2 


19 


lies  from  outlying  areas  of  the  county  were  crowding 
into  town:  and,  previously  neutral  townspeople  were  tak- 
ing up  arms.  The  Invaders  turned  back  to  the  TA  ranch, 
about  14  miles  from  Buffalo.  Dissension  broke  out  again 
with  Canton.  Hesse,  and  Smith,  the  leader  of  tiie  Texas 
mercenaries,  favoring  continuing  on  to  Buffalo  and  do- 
ing battle,  even  though  the  element  of  surprise  was  lost. 
and  the  odds  were  shifting.  Waicott  and  the  "CheNenne 
Club"  contingent  were  in  fa\or  of  fortif\  ing  the  fA  and 
going  on  the  defensive.  Again,  they  prevailed. 

The  people  of  Buffalo  soon  located  the  Invaders.  Jack 
Flagg.  and  about  50  men  formed  a  series  of  pickets 
around  the  TA  buildings  about  midnight.  April  10.  The 
next  morning,  after  his  14-hour  ride  to  the  KC  ranch  and 
back.  Sheriff  Angus  Joined  with  40  more  men.  The 
churches  and  schools  in  Buffalo  served  as  mobilization 
points  for  the  men  coming  in  to  join  the  posse.  The 
women  of  Buffalo  prepared  food  for  them,  and  arranged 
care  for  their  families.  After  the  men  were  fed.  those 
who  needed  equipment  repaired  to  Foote's  store.  They 
were  then  organized  into  bands  of  20  men.  and  moved 
out  to  join  the  force  investing  the  TA.  The  field  com- 
mander of  the  operation  was  Arapahoe  Brown,  operator 
of  a  flour  mill  in  town.  His  chief  of  staff  was  lilias  Snyder, 
a  pioneer  rancher.  Sheriff  Angus  spent  most  of  his  time 
in  Buffalo  organizing  the  overall  operation.  Robert  Foote 
was  quartermaster  and  commissary. 

The  hnaders  were  stunned  b\  the  size  of  the  force 
opposing  them.  They  had  planned  on  help  fVom  some  of 
the  Johnson  County  residents,  and  reinforcements  from 
Montana  and  Idaho,  none  of  which  had  materialized. 
Their  first  two  errors,  going  first  to  the  KC  ranch,  and 
failing  to  kill  Jack  Flagg  and  his  stepson,  cost  them  time. 
the  element  of  surprise,  and  the  advantage  of  secrecy.  It 
had  also  given  the  opposition  ample  notice  of  what  to 
expect,  and  time  to  plan  countermeasures.  Additionallv. 
they  also  had  overestimated  the  appeal  of.  and  sympa- 
thy for.  their  cause.  The\  were  now  both  outnumbered 
and  surrounded,  and  their  opposition  was  angry,  well- 
armed  and  well-organized.  When  the  part  of  the  posse 
guarding  the  road  into  Buffalo  intercepted  and  captured 
the  Invaders"  three  wagons,  the  anger  in  town  increased 
even  more.  The  wagons  contained  hundreds  of  rounds 
of  ammunition,  dynamite,  giant  powder  and  handcuffs. 
In  the  surgical  kit  of  Dr.  Charles  Bingham  Penrose,  the 
volunteer  surgeon  for  the  Invaders,  they  found  a  bottle 
of  bichloride  of  mercury  labeled  "Poison."  While  its  in- 
tended use  was  as  an  antiseptic  for  dressing  wounds,  the 
posse's  interpretation  was  that  they  intended  to  poison 
wells.  The  kit  also  contained  evidence  that  it  belonged 
to  Governor  Barber,  who  was  a  surgeon,  and  had  lent  it 
to  Penrose.  Also  in  one  of  the  wagons  they  found  Frank 


Canton's  briefcase,  containing  a  copy  of  the  infamous 
"hit  list."  of  those  70  men  marked  for  death,  including 
Robert  Foote.  Jack  Flagg.  Joe  DeBarthe.  and  Sheriff  An- 
gus.■'* 

The  number  of  posse  members  continued  to  grow,  fi- 
nally reaching  nearly  500  men.  A  camp  was  set  up 
nearby,  out  of  range  of  rifle  fire,  so  that  the  members 
could  be  fed  and  rest  in  shifts.  The  new  arrivals  were 
from  as  far  awa\  as  the  Montana  border,  and  south  to 
the  Llnioii  Pacific  Railroad. 

The  telegraph  service  to  Buffalo  finally  was  restored. 
For  the  first  time.  Acting  Governor  Barber  learned  of 
the  precarious  situation  in  which  the  invaders  found 
themselves.  He  ordered  Capt.  C.  H.  Parmalee  of  the  Wyo- 
ming National  Guard  to  mobilize  his  company  and  take 
control  of  the  situation.  Parmalee  replied  that  the  prob- 
lem was  too  big  for  him  to  handle,  and  suggested  that 
the  Governor  ask  President  Harrison  to  order  the  Fort 
McKinney  troops  to  intervene  and  "restore  order." 

On  Tuesday.  April  1 2.  Governor  Barber  sent  a  wire  to 
President  Harrison  stating  that  there  was  an  insurrection 
in  Wyoming  with  open  hostilities  between  ""two  large 
bodies  of  armed  men."  He  requested  that  the  President 
order  out  the  troops  at  Fort  McKinney  to  "'assist  in  sup- 
pressing this  insurrection."  He  failed  to  mention  that  one 
bod\  of  ""armed  men"  was  a  legal  posse,  organized  bv 
the  dul\  elected  sheriff  of  the  count},  while  the  other 
bod\  was  an  illegal,  unconstitutional  in\  ading  force  from 
outside  the  state.*"  Also  on  Monday,  it  became  clear  that 
the  situation  at  the  TA  ranch  was  close  to  a  stalemate. 
The  ranch  buildings  were  built  like  a  fortress,  and  while 
the  Invaders  could  not  escape,  the  posse  members  could 
not  take  them  w  ithout  suffering  unacceptable  casualties. 
Atthisjuncture,  Robert  Foote  went  out  to  Fort  McKinney 
and  asked  Colonel  Van  Horn,  the  commanding  officer, 
for  the  loan  of  a  cannon.  When  the  Colonel  politely  re- 
fused the  request,  Foote  then  offered  to  pay  $500  for  it, 
and  was  again  refused.'"" 

Colonel  Van  Horn  received  orders  at  1 2:30  a.m..  April 
13.  to  intervene.  At  2  a.m..  he  set  out  for  the  TA  ranch 
with  three  troops  of  the  6"'  Cavalry.  Arapahoe  Brown 
and  SherifT  Angus  told  him  thcN  had  no  objection  to  the 
Invaders  surrendering  to  Colonel  Van  Horn,  provided 
they  would  be  turned  over  to  civil  authorities  for  trial  in 
the  future. 

Major  Waicott  came  out  under  a  flag  of  truce.  He 
agreed  to  surrender  to  Colonel  Van  Horn,  but  stated  he 
would  never  surrender  to  Sheriff  Angus.  The  invaders 
were  disamied,  and  together  w ith  their  horses,  were  taken 

"Chcyi'ww  Daily  Leader.  April  20.  1892. 
^''Cheyenne  Daily  Leader.  April  13.  1892. 
'"Smith.  219. 


20 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wj'oming  History  Journal 


Foote  's  General 
Store  in  Buffalo 
was  a  prime  provi- 
sioning point  for 
residents  warding 
off  the  Invaders 
during  the 

Johnson  County 
War.  The  building 
burned  in  March. 
1895.  three  years 
after  the  invasion. 


-^   "  '^  n  ,   C.  :%    . 
.-i  J  ->  -     ,  -.  ^-;  ;'-  >-«   A  N  „  i  ~-   r- 

G-N:-::'^"^       ^       m        -^ 


% 


to  Fort  McKinney  and  placed  under  military  guard  in  an 
empty  barracks.*"' 

The  armed  war  was  over.  For  Robert  Foote  and  the 
others  prominent  in  the  ranks  of  the  anti- Wyoming  Stock 
Growers  Association  faction,  the  sub  rasa  war  now  be- 
gan. The  roundup  scheduled  by  the  Northern  Wyoming 
Farmers"  and  Stock  Growers'  Association  still  was  set 
to  begin  May  1 .  However,  the  membership  took  no  steps 
to  do  the  planning  or  organizing  to  get  it  started  on  time. 
No  one  had  been  named  to  replace  Nate  Champion  as 
the  roundup  foreman.  On  May  3,  U.  S.  District  Judge 
John  A.  Riner.  on  behalf  of  the  Western  Union  Beef 
Company,  Wyoming  Cattle  Company,  Ltd.,  and  the 
Ogalalla  Land  and  Cattle  Company,  issued  two  injunc- 
tions against  thirty-six  members  of  the  association,  pro- 
hibiting the  roundup.  Both  Robert  Foote,  Sr.,  and  Rob- 
ert Foote,  Jr.,  were  named  in  the  injunctions.  U.  S.  Mar- 
shal Joe  Rankin  and  his  deputies  served  the  injunctions." 

The  regular  June  roundups,  scheduled  by  the  Board  of 
Livestock  Commissioners,  in  accordance  with  state  law, 
were  revised  slightly  as  to  boundaries,  times,  and  per- 
sonnel. There  were  four  roundup  districts  scheduled  for 
Johnson  County.  All  of  the  original  roundup  commis- 
sioners and  foremen  were  among  the  Invaders,  and  were 
held  with  the  rest  under  arrest  at  Fort  D.  A.  Russell  near 
Cheyenne.  The  State  Board  had  to  appoint  replacement 
commissioners  and  foremen." 

The  Johnson  County  Board  of  Commissioners  sent 
letters  to  all  of  the  Johnson  County  livestock  owners 
being  held  at  Fort  D.  A.  Russell  inviting  them  to  send 
"suitable,  truthful,  and  trustworthy  persons  to  their 
ranches,  to  attend  to  the  roundup  and  preservation  of 


their  property."  They  pledged  the  resources  of  the  county 
to  see  that  their  rights  and  property  were  protected.'*'' 

The  roundups  were  opened  to  the  small  ranchers  in 
the  Powder  River  Basin  for  the  first  time  as  well.  Rob- 
ert Foote  provided  a  wagon  in  support  of  his  own  crew, 
and  the  representatives  of  the  other  small  ranchers  who 
wished  to  use  it.  The  relationship  between  the  crews  of 
the  large  ranches  and  the  small  ranchers  was  one  of  wari- 
ness, but  there  were  no  incidents. 

At  the  request  of  Walter  Stoll,  an  attorney  for  the  cattle- 
men, on  June  21  Edmund  Churchill,  Commissioner  for 
the  LI.  S.  District  Court  in  Cheyenne,  issued  arrest  war- 
rants for  2 1  Johnson  County  residents  for  "a  conspiracy 
to  obstruct  and  defeat  the  due  course  of  justice,  with 
intention  to  deny  citizens  the  equal  protection  of  the  law, 
and  to  injure  them  and  their  property  for  lawfully  at- 
tempting to  enforce  their  rights  to  equal  protection  un- 
der the  law.""  U.  S.  District  Judge  John  Riner,  who  was 
holding  court  in  Kansas,  had  no  knowledge  that  the  war- 
rants were  sworn  out.  Neither  did  Benjamin  F.  Fowler, 

'"'Cheyenne  Daily  Leader,  April  15.  1892. 

''  Judge  John  H.  Riner.  U.  S.  District  Judge  for  Wyoming,  to  W. 
H.  H.  Miller.  United  States  Attorney  General,  August  3.  1892.  in- 
cluding copies  of  the  injunctions.  Marshal  Joseph  Rankin  File.  Na- 
tional Archives. 

''^Cheyenne  Daily  Leader  May  3.  1892. 

"'Cheyenne  Daily  Leader.  April  26.  1892. 

''  Statement.  Joseph  P.  Rankin.  United  States  Marshal  for  Wyo- 
ming, to  the  United  States  Attorney  General.  October  31.  1892.  13, 
14.  Appended  to  report.  F.  B.  Crosthwaite.  Investigator.  United  States 
Attorney  General's  Office,  regarding  Marshal  Rankin's  activities 
during  the  Johnson  County  Invasion,  dated  November  2.  1892.  At- 
torney General's  Files.  National  Archives. 


Winter  'iOO'2 


'21 


Fowler,  United  States  Attorney  for  Wyoming.''''  Tiie  war- 
rants were  pail  of  a  complex  plot  on  the  part  of  the  cattle- 
men to  force  Rankin  and  his  deputies  to  serve  the  arrest 
warrants,  with  the  knowledge  that  in  all  prohahilitv ,  \  io- 
lence  would  result  in  which  Rankin  or  his  deputies  could 
be  killed.  There  would  then  be  a  legitimate  reason  for  a 
request  from  Governor  Barber,  backed  by  Senators 
Warren  and  Carey,  for  President  Harrison  to  invoke 
martial  law  on  Johnson  County.  In  effect,  this  would 
provide  the  results  for  the  cattlemen  that  they  had  not 
achieved  with  the  invasion. 

Charles  H.  Burritt,  Mayor  of  Buffalo,  and  one  of  the 
attorneys  on  retainer  for  the  Wyoming  Stock  Growers 
Association,  also  served  as  the  intelligence  center  for 
the  Association  in  Northern  Wyoming.  In  a  letter  to 
Walter  Stoll,  dated  May  8,  1 892,  he  suggested  that  Rob- 
ert Foote  might  "be  reached"  through  W.  A.  Paxton  of 
Omaha.  Paxton  was  one  of  the  owners  of  the  Transfer 
Stockyards  in  Council  Bluffs.  Iowa;  he  had  an  interest 
in  the  Ogalalla  Land  and  Cattle  Company  in  Johnson 
County;  he  had  belonged  to  the  Wyoming  Stock  Grow- 
ers Association  since  1883;  and,  he  owned  a  wholesale 
mercantile  company  in  Omaha."'  According  to  Burritt, 
Foote  bought  most  of  his  merchandise  from  Paxton.  He 
also  stated  that  Foote  banked  in  Omaha  and  owed  large, 
outstanding  balances.  The  implication  was  that  if  the  As- 
sociation applied  pressure  to  Paxton  to  cut  off  Foote's 
credit,  and  to  the  Omaha  banks  to  call  their  notes,  it  w  ould 
effectively  put  Foote  out  of  business.  He  also  noted  that 
Foote  won  the  beef  contract  for  Fort  McKinney  at  $5.84 
per  hundredweight  when,  in  his  opinion,  the  price  should 
have  been  closer  to  $7.  "Docs  it  not  indicate  that  he  in- 
tends to  fill  that  contract  with  rustler  beef;  taken  at  a 
nominal  figure  by  him  to  balance  rustler  accounts'.'"  He 
also  suggested  that  the  brands  on  the  hides  of  all  the 
stock  delivered  by  Foote  to  fill  the  contract  should  be 
carefully  inspected."'* 

On  May  16,  Burritt  again  wrote  to  Stoll.  On  May  10, 
to  report  the  ambush  murder  of  George  Wellman,  newly- 
appointed  foreman  of  the  Hoe  ranch,  who,  at  the  request 
of  the  stock  growers,  had  also  been  appointed  Deputy 
U.  S.  Marshal  by  Marshal  Rankin  to  help  ser\  e  the  crimi- 
nal warrants  issued  by  Commissioner  Churchill.  He  out- 
lined the  testimony  given  so  far  in  the  inquest  of  the 
killing  of  Wellman,  and  promised  to  send  him  a  com- 
plete transcript  at  the  end  of  the  inquest.  He  also  wrote 
that  J.  J.  McCullough,  the  owner  of  the  stage  line  from 
the  end  of  the  railroad  in  Gillette  to  Buffalo,  told  him  he 
was  holding  a  shipment  of  20  guns  in  Gillette,  shipped 
express  from  Simmons  Hardware  and  consigned  to  Rob- 
ert Foote.  The  guns  had  not  been  delivered  to  Foote  be- 
cause they  were  too  heavy  for  the  stage  to  carry  on  the 


muddy  roads.  Finally,  he  complained  that  he  had  not 
heard  anything  from  Stoll  or  Judge  Van  Devanter,  and 
still  had  not  been  provided  w  ith  "the  promised  cipher" 
so  he  could  have  secure  telegraph  communication  with 
them.""  Burritt  was  dissatisfied  with  Sheriff  Angus'  in- 
vestigation of  the  Wellman  murder,  so  he  had  his  own 
agents,  presumabK  in  the  pa\  of  the  Wyoming  Stock 
Growers  Association,  start  a  separate  investigation. 

On  Ma\  24,  Burritt  again  wrote  to  Stoll.  He  wrote  that 
he  had  a  visit  from  a  "granger,"  John  McCrae,  who  lived 
about  seven  miles  from  town.  McCrae  had  inquired  about 
how  long  they  were  going  to  have  to  live  with  a  "rustler 
government,"  and  "rustlers"  controlling  the  range.  He 
admitted  that  not  all  grangers  were  completely  honest, 
that  some,  a  minority,  did  occasionally  rustle  cattle  from 
the  large  ranches,  and  that  their  sympathies  were  with 
the  rustlers,  but  that  they  were  not  the  majority.  His  next 
complaint  was  about  Robert  Foote's  contract  to  supply 
beef  to  Fort  McK.inne\  "at  a  ruinous  low  figure  for  which 
he  cannot  afford  to  supply  the  post  with  honest  beef" 
He  added  that  Foote  would  fill  the  contract  with  rustled 
beef  he  took  in  pavment  for  accounts  on  his  books.  He 
wanted  a  stock  detective  hired  to  check  the  brands  on 
the  hides  of  all  the  beef  Foote  slaughtered  to  fill  the  con- 
tract, and  was  willing  to  pay  an  assessment  "to  catch  the 
thieves,  as  to  have  the  thieves  collect  an  assessment  on 
his  herd  of  cattle."  He  said  he  asked  Foote  why  he  was 
sending  a  wagon  on  the  roundup  since  he  only  had  a 
little  bunch  of  cattle;  "He  was  going  to  run  a  wagon  for 
the  'rustlers"  and  that  none  but  'rustlers"  should  go  with 
his  wagon,'"  was  Foote's  probably  facetious  answer.'" 

The  reason  for  Burritt's  rancor  toward  Robert  Foote 
ina\  have  been  rooted  in  political  rivalrx  within  the 
Democratic  Party.  The  Republican  Party  was  being 
blamed  for  the  invasion,  largely  because  Senators  Carev 
and  Warren,  Representative  Clarence  D.  Clark,  Judge 
Willis  Van  Devanter,  and  Acting  Governor  Barber,  were 
all  Republicans.  They  also  all  had  a  close  relationship 
with  the  Wyoming  Stock  Growers  Association.  Sena- 
tors Care>  and  Warren  were  Association  members.'' 

""Letter,  .lohii  H,  Riner.  .liidge,  I'ighth  Cireiiit.  District  of  \\\o- 
ining,  to  Hon.  W.  H.  H.  Miller,  United  States  Attorney  General,  Au- 
gust 3,  1892.  .Attorney  General's  Files,  National  Archi\es. 

""  Burroughs,  52,  IS4. 

"''Charles  H.  Burritt  to  Walter  R.  Stoll,  May  8,  1802,  Burritt  Col- 
lection, American  Heritage  Center.  University  of  Wyoming, 

""Charles  H.  Burritt  to  Walter  R.  Stoll.  May  16,  1892.  Burritt  Col- 
lection. American  Heritage  Center.  University  of  Wyoming, 

'"Charles  H.  Burriu  to  Walter  R.  Stoll,  May  24,  1 892.  Burritt  Col- 
lection, American  Heritage  Center,  University  of  Wyoming. 

''  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  were  members  of  both  parties  on  both 
sides  of  the  issue.  Stoll  and  Burritt  were  both  attorneys  for  the  cattle- 
men. Stoll  also  was  chairman  of  the  State  Democratic  Party.  Burritt 
was  active  in  Democratic  politics  and  had  political  ambitions. 


•21 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


On  July  3,  1892.  Burritt  wrote  a  letter  to  Frank  Can- 
ton, who  was  also  a  Democrat  who  had  run  unsuccess- 
fully for  the  House  of  Representatives  from  Johnson 
County  in  1890.^-  In  his  letter  Burritt  stated.  "1  am  out 
of  politics  this  year  altogether.  The  firm  of  Robert  Foote 
and  Co.  are  running  the  political  machine  up  here:  at  the 
County  Convention  yesterday  [July  2]  the\  had  things 
all  their  own  wa\.""  He  sent  similar  letters  to  Walter 
Stoll  and  to  Samuel  T.  Corn.'^  Corn  was  a  prominent 
attorney  in  Evanston,  and  a  leading  member  of  the  Demo- 
cratic Party  in  the  western  part  of  the  state.  He  also  was 
a  justice  in  the  Territorial  Supreme  Court.^"  Since  Buiritt 
was  not  part  of  the  Johnson  County  delegation  to  the 
state  Democratic  Convention  due  to  convene  in  Rock 
Springs,  he  was  evidently  trying  to  build  support  to 
thwart  the  Johnson  County  delegation  in  the  event  they 
took  such  undesirable  action  as  introducing  a  plank  in 
the  party  platform  strongly  condemning  the  invasion. 

Under  pressure  from  Senators  Warren  and  Carey,  and 
Governor  Barber,  on  behalf  of  the  stock  growers,  for 
President  Harrison  to  declare  martial  law  in  Johnson 
County,  the  president  responded  with  a  compromise 
measure.  Six  troops  of  the  9"^  U.S.  Cavalry,  from  Fort 
Robinson.  Nebraska,  were  sent  to  the  point  where  the 
Burlington  Missouri  Railroad  planned  to  cross  Powder 
River:  six  troops  of  the  6"'  U.S.  Cavalry  were  sent  to  a 
point  about  half  way  between  Casper  and  now-aban- 
doned Fort  Fetterman.  Both  encampments  were  close 
enough  to  Johnson  Count\  to  mo\e  in  quickly  to  rein- 
force the  troops  at  Fort  McKinney  in  case  martial  law 
was  declared.  The  thin  cover  given  for  the  movement 
of  these  troops  was  embodied  in  the  statement.  "The  en- 
campments thus  made  to  be  utilized  for  the  purpose  of 
instruction  in  tactics,  etc.."'"  The  troops  remained  from 
June  10  until  September  23,  when  four  troops  were  re- 
moved from  each  encampment  for  dut\  at  the  Chicago 
Worlds"  Fair.  The  last  two  troops  were  withdrawn  from 
each  on  November  13." 

The  delegates  from  Johnson  County  to  the  Democratic 
State  Convention  were  Robert  Foote.  O.  H.  "Jack"  Flagg. 
Howard  Rolles,  Thad  S.  Cole,  John  R.  Smith,  and  G.  E. 
A.  Moeller.  The  only  two  statewide  offices  to  be  filled 
were  governor  and  United  States  representative.  The 
party  nominations  at  the  Rock  Springs  Democratic  Con- 
vention were  Dr.  John  E.  Osborne,  of  Carbon  Count\, 
for  governor,  and  Henry  A.  Coffeen.  a  banker  from 
Sheridan,  for  United  States  Representative.  In  the  gen- 
eral election,  November  8,  1  892,  Dr.  Osborne  won  the 
gubernatorial  race  over  the  Republican  candidate,  mer- 
chant-banker Edward  Ivinson  of  Albany  County;  Henry 
A.  Coffeen  won  over  the  Republican  incumbent  repre- 
sentative, Clarence  D.  Clark  of  Uinta  County.'* 


In  one  of  the  legislative  contests,  Foote  was  the  Demo- 
cratic nominee  for  the  Johnson  County  seat  in  the  State 
Senate.  He  also  had  been  the  party's  nominee  in  the  1 890 
election,  where  he  was  opposed  by  Republican  John  N. 
Tisdale  who  won  the  election  by  7 1  votes.'"  Tisdale  was 
one  of  the  owners  of  the  Three  T  ranch,  and  was  one  of 
the  invaders.  It  was  Tisdale's  ranch  where  the  Invaders" 
made  their  first  stopover  after  leaving  Casper.  In  the  1 892 
election  Tisdale  was  in  no  position  to  run  for  a  reelec- 
tion, and  the  Republicans  did  not  nominate  another  can- 
didate to  replace  him.  This  time,  Foote  ran  unopposed. 

In  spite  of  his  political  success,  and  the  favorable  out- 
come of  the  Johnson  County  invasion,  Foote  was  in  a 
precarious  financial  position.  He  lost  between  $15,000 
and  $20,000  in  merchandise  when  he  equipped  the  posse 
and  verv  little  of  it  was  paid  for  or  returned.  He  had  the 
ongoing  legal  expenses  for  his  defense  in  the  case  of  the 
Federal  indictment,  as  well  as  the  legal  expenses  stem- 
ming from  his  suit  against  the  State  Livestock  Board.  In 
addition,  the  conspiracy  charges  against  Robert  Jr..  on 
the  warrant  issued  by  Commissioner  Churchill,  still  re- 
mained unresolved. 

The  Wyoming  Supreme  Court  ruled  against  him  in 
his  case  against  the  Board  of  Livestock  Commissioners 
in  a  decision  announced  Feb.  9,  1  893.  The  news  brought 
loud  cheers  from  John  Cla\,  President  of  the  Wyoming 
Stock  Growers  in  the  Li\e  Stock  Report,  a  weekly  paper 
published  by  Cla\,  Robinson  &  Company,  the  commis- 
sion house  in  which  he  was  a  partner."'  Aside  from  los- 

'- Virginia  Cole  Trenholm.  ed..  It'yoiniiig  Blue  Book.  II.  (Chey- 
enne: Wyoming  State  Archives  and  Historical  Dept..  1972).  536. 

"'Charles  S.  Burritt  to  Frank  M,  Canton,  .lulv  3.  1892.  Burritt 
Papers.  American  Heritage  Center.  University  of  Wyoining. 

''Charles  S.  Burritt  to  Walter  M.  Stoll.  and  Samuel  T.  Corn,  .luly 
3.  1892.  Burritt  Collection.  American  Heritage  Center.  University  of 
Wyoming. 

'"  Elizabeth  Arnold  Stone.  L'iiila  CoiiiUy  lis  Place  in  Histoiy. 
(Laramie:  Laramie  Printing  Company.  1925).  170. 

^"Caltle  Troubles  in  the  State  of  ll'yoming  and  the  Use  of  U.S. 
Troops  in  Suppressing  Insurrection  in  the  State.  29763  P.R.D.  1 892. 
War  Department,  reproduced  from  holdings  of  the  National  Archives. 
Record  Group  94. 

"In  addition  to  the  presence  of  troops,  on  .luly  30.  as  a  further 
possible  precedent  to  declaring  martial  law.  President  Harrison  is- 
sued a  Presidential  Proclamation  ordering  "all  persons  within  the 
State  of  Wyoining  resisting  the  laws  and  processes  of  the  courts  of 
the  LInited  States,  to  cease  such  opposition  and  resistance  and  to 
disperse  and  retire  peaceably  to  their  respective  abodes  on  or  before 
Wednesday,  the  third  day  of  August  next."  Benjamin  Harrison.  By 
the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  a  Proclamation.  Na- 
tional Archives. 

'*  T.  A.  Larson.  Histoiy  of  Wyoming.  (Lincoln:  University  of  Ne- 
braska Press.  2nd  rev.  ed..  1978).  268-288. 

"Trenholm.  536. 

""  Lawrence  M.  Woods.  John  Clay.  Jr. :  Commission  Man.  Banker 
and  Rancher.  (Spokane:  The  Arthur  H.  Clark  Company.  2001 ).  133. 


Winter  '200'2 


'23 


ing  the  money  for  the  three  head  of  cattle,  to  Foote  and 
the  other  small  ranchers,  the  decision  indicated  that  the 
W\oming  court  system  was  not  going  to  question  the 
Wyoming  Stock  Growers  Association,  nor  the  s\stem 
of  marketing  cattle  it  controlled. 

As  previously  noted,  the  Federal  criminal  case  of  de- 
frauding the  Government  for  which  Foote  was  indicted 
in  1891.  final  l\  came  to  trial  in  May  1894.  Of  the  nine 
counts,  the  first  count  was  removed  on  nolle  prosequi. 
filed  by  Benjamin  Fowler.  L'nited  States  District  Attor- 
ney, and  a  jury  found  Foote  innocent  on  the  other  eight 
counts.^'  The  criminal  indictment  against  Robert.  .Ir..  was 
thrown  out  earlier,  so  all  the  legal  problems  of  the  fam- 
ily were  finally  settled. 

In  the  1894  election.  Foote  was  returned  to  the  state 
senate  for  another  Uvo-year  term.  His  opposition  this  time 
consisted  of  an  Independent  and  a  member  of  the  Popu- 
list Party.'*-  The  coalition  between  the  Democratic  and 
Populist  Parties  did  not  last  through  the  previous  term, 
and  the  Republican  Part\  regained  the  governorship  and 
the  House  of  Representati\es  seat.^' 

The  army  closed  Fort  McKinney.  The  loss  was  a  blow 
to  Buffalo,  and  to  contractors  such  as  Foote  who  had 
supplied  it.  Beef.  fuel,  feed  grains,  hay-all  were  locally 
procured  for  the  post  b\  contract,  and  were  a  lucrati\e 
source  of  income  for  the  communit\.  Additionalls.  the 
troops  stationed  at  the  post  spent  money  in  town.  With 
the  decline  in  the  cattle  business  since  the  invasion. 
Buffalo's  financial  recovery  had  been  slow,  making  the 
loss  of  the  fort  an  even  harder  blow. 

in  March  1895.  Foote's  store  burned  to  the  ground. 
Some  30.000  pounds  of  sugar  he  had  just  received,  and 
had  stored  in  the  back  of  the  building,  added  to  the  fury 
of  the  fire.  He  had  no  insurance  on  the  bmlding  or  the 
stock.  Foote's  financial  decline  that  started  with  the 
Johnson  County  War  was  completed  by  the  fire.^^  Foote 
completed  his  second  term  as  state  senator  from  Johnson 
Countv  in  1896.  and  did  not  run  for  office  again,  nor 
was  he  able  to  rebuild  his  store. 

His  son.  Robert  Foote,  Jr..  continued  to  run  the  tamilv 
ranch.  In  1 906,  he  did  what  would  have  been  impossible 
and  unthinkable  ten  years  earlier,  he  became  a  member 
of  the  Wvoming  Stock  Growers  Association.*"  Once  un- 
der a  federal  indictment  brought  about  b\  some  of  its 
members,  his  brand  listed  as  an  outlaw  brand  by  its  in- 
spectors, and  a  pariah  to  the  organization's  membership, 
he  was  now  a  part  of  it.  This  was  probably  partly  due  to 
changes  in  the  nature  of  the  organization,  and  partK  due 
to  a  change  in  the  way  Robert  Foote  did  business.  It  was 
a  mark  of  the  maturity  and  tolerance  that  developed  in 
the  Powder  River  Basin  ranching  industry.  Changes  in 
the  rules  for  using  public  rangelands  and  water  rights 


revealed  that  many  small  ranchers  had  more  problems 
in  common  w  ilh  what  remained  of  the  large  cattle  com- 
panies than  the>  had  differences. 

In  1916.  Robert  and  Amanda  Foote  moved  to  Phoe- 
ni.\.  Arizona,  where  they  lived  with  their  youngest  son. 
Byron.  Robert  Foote  died  there  on  November  1 2.  at  the 
age  of  82.  He  was  buried  in  Phoenix  with  militarv  hon- 
ors. 

Robert  Foote  had  lived  in  Wyoming  in  58  of  its  most 
exciting,  adventurous  years— the  period  when  it  was 
transformed  from  a  raw.  lawless  frontier  into  a  civilized 
state.  Soldier.  Indian  fighter,  freighter,  postmaster,  law 
officer,  carpenter,  merchant,  tailor,  politician — he  was 
the  epitome  of  the  true  pioneer.  In  his  book  on  the 
Johnson  Countv  War.  fonner  governor  Jack  Gage  said 
of  Foote.  "Much  more  could  have  and  probably  should 
have  been  said  about  this  Buffalo  storekeeper."*"  This 
is  not  true  of  just  the  Johnson  Countv  War.  but  of  the 
history  of  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  of  the 
area  which  became  Wsoming  as  well. 

*'  (  nitcil Stales  v.v  Fooic.  ci  al .  .lun  Verdict.  Records  ofthe  LI.  S, 
District  Court  for  the  District  of  Wyoming.  National  Arclii\es.  Den- 
ser Branch 

"-Trenholm.  544. 

"■  Henr\  Coffcen  pro\ed  to  be  an  ineffectual  legislator  His  onl_\ 
success  was  getting  the  V\  ar  Department  to  abandon  Fon  McKinne_\ , 
fk  proposed  to  the  Secretar>  of  War  that  Port  \'lcKinne\  be  aban- 
doned, and  a  new  post  built  in  his  hometown  of  Sheridan,  The  War 
Department  was  happv  to  oblige  him  half'wa\.  and  abandoned  Fort 
McK.innc>  in  1844,  Lewis  1  ,  (iould.  il'vomiiii;  From  Tcrritun'  lu 
Slalehiuht  (Worland:  High  Plains  Publishing  Co..  \^^'^).  216.  \ 
new  post.  Fort  MacKenzie.  was  built  in  Sheridan  in  IS'^'J.  See  Gould. 
124.  13(1 

^^  Buffalo  Centennial  Committee.  Buffalo  's  First  ( \-iUitn-  ( Buf- 
falo: Butfalo  Centennial  Committee.  1484).  .s. 

"'  Burtoughs.  201 

*".lack  R,  Gage.  I'he  Johnson  ^'()iinr\-  liar  Aui'i  a  Pack  of  Lies. 
(Chexenne:  Flintlock  Publishing  Companv.  I4(i7).  "  I  he  Rustler's 
Side."  75. 


Historian  Murray  L.  Carroll  is  a  nalive  of  Laramie 
ami  a  {^raihiale  of  I  he  University  of  IVyoniing.  fie 
earneJ  the  M.  S.  degree  in  lrairsportatio?i  anil  logis- 
tics f7-om  the  University  of  Tennessee,  the  M.  .A.  in 
government  from  the  College  of  William  and  Mary, 
and  the  Ph.D.  iti  political  science  from  the  i'niversilv 
ofConnecticut.  He  retired  as  a  lieutenant  colonel  af- 
ter a  26-year  career  in  the  U  S.  Army.  A  widely  pub- 
lished author  with  specialization  in  Western  and  mili- 
tary histoiy.  he  has  taught  political  science  at  the  Uni- 
versity ofConnecticut  and  the  University-  of  Wyoming. 
.A  former  director  ofthe  Laramie  Plains  Museum,  he 
now  lives  in  retirement  in.Anacortes.  Washington.  His 
latest  article  in  .Annals.  "The  Wyoming  Sojourn  of 
the  Utah  Expedition.  "  was  published  in  2000. 


Nurdered 
by  Nadness 


Yhe  Case  of 
Geneva  Collett 

By  Larry  K.  Brown 


^f:' 


t  i-siimMtitt^ 


.#' 


On  a  cold  March  19.  1927,  Geneva 
Collett  lamented.  "This  is  a  bad  day  to 
start  what  1  hax'e  before  me.  I  was  hop- 

III  1925,  a  woman  named  Geneva 
Collett  lived  in  Wyoming.  In  that 
30th  year  of  her  life,  some  thought 
her  to  be  good  and  kind,  as  well  as 
one  who  feared  God  and  shunned 
those  things  thought  to  be  bad.  But 
in  a  span  of  but  22  months,  shame 
and  grief  filled  her  heart.  In  fact,  the 
Lord's  own  much-plagued  Job  may 
well  have  wailed  and  failed  if  he  had 
tried  to  match  her  woe  for  woe. 

In  January  1925,  one  of  her  broth- 
ers, Robert,  passed  a  fistfull  of  bad 


in^  ihe  sun  would  be  shining  and  die 
birds  singing  so  I  would  hcrve  something 
happy  to  remember  the  world  by.  The 

checks  to  land  in  the  Colorado  State 
Penitentiary.  Robert,  about  37  years 
old,  was  charged  on  criminal  counts 
of  having  passed  bad  checks  and  "un- 
lawfully and  feloniously  obtained 
money  from  one  I.H.  Williams  by 
means  of  a  confidence  game."  He 
was  convicted  in  Glenwood  Springs, 
on  Nov.  11,  1926.  The  judge  sen- 
tenced him  to  3  to  4  years  on  Dec.  I , 
1926.' 

A  lightning  bolt  stunned  her  father 
as  he  walked  horses  at  his  southern 


weather  makes  me  blue...  andl'msony.  " 
She  had  just  entered  the  Colorado  State 
Penitentiaiy  as  inmate  #13916. 

Montana  ranch.  Eight  months  later, 
he  stirred  up  and  drank  a  glass  of 
water  and  cyanide,  not  the  mix  with 
baking  soda  that  he  thought  would 
cure  his  upset  stomach.  Samuel  A. 
Collett,  rancher  [age  67],  died  within 
five  minutes  at  his  ranch  [at  "First 
Ck.,  Big  Horn  Co.,  Mont."]  after  ac- 
cidentally ingesting  the  poison  that 
he  had  purchased  the  previous  win- 
ter to  kill  coyotes.  His  place  was  lo- 
cated sixmiles  west  of  Senator  John 
B.  Kendrick's  OW  ranch,  40  miles 


Winter  '200i 


•25 


northeast  of  Sheridan.  At  the  time  of 
the  accident,  Collett  was  with 
Charles  Winters,  "a  former  rider  for 
the  Flying  V  ranch"  with  whom  he 
had  shared  quarters  since  about 
1917.- 

As  her  family  grieved.  Geneva's 
sister.  Pearl,  split  with  her  husband 
and  she  took  in  her  mother,  sister,  as 
well  as  Robert's  young  daughter. 
Virgie.  To  help  make  ends  meet,  she 
opened  a  boarding  house  in  Sheridan 
that  specialized  in  "hot  and  cold  run- 
ning maids. "-^  Authorities  frowned  on 
the  niece's  life  in  such  a  place,  so 
they  had  Virgie  placed  in  the  Wyo- 
ming Girls"  Industrial  Institute."* 

With  Geneva's  morale  in  shreds, 
her  surgeon  told  her.  for  reasons  not 
clear,  that  she  would  need  surgery  to 
slice  out  parts  that  he  deemed  not 
only  as  key  to  her  physical  well-be- 
ing, but  to  the  stabilitN  of  her  mind." 

While  she  was  still  on  the  mend, 
her  brother  Robert's  tiance.  Mattie. 
joined  the  Collett  family  in  Sheridan. 
There,  they  pooled  their  cash  and 
Geneva  signed  a  $1,000  promissory 
note  to  hire  an  attorney,  who  they 
hoped  would  bring  her  male  sibling 
Robert  back  home." 

Robert's  fiance— the  bride-to-be- 
lodged  with  the  Colletts.  she  met  and 
fell  for  Shorty,  a  Sheridan  barber  who 
was  Pearl's  live-in  lover.  What  next? 
The  pair  eloped  and  stiffed  the 
Colletts  with  a  pile  of  bills.  Although 
Mattie  had  been  working  at  the  local 
Superior  Laundry,  she  left  town  on 
Oct.  14.  1926.  and  apparently  linked 
up  the  following  day  after  Shorty  also 
skipped  town.  They  went  to  Alliance. 
Neb.,  where  they  were  married,  then 
went  to  Davidson.  Okla.,  before  con- 
tinuing on  to  Shorty's  home  in 
Frederick.  But  a  warrant  was  out  on 
Mattie  and  she  was  arrested.' 

Following  Mattie's  capture,  she 
was  returned  by  Sheridan  County 
Sheriff  George  Lord  to  Sheridan  on 
Friday,  October  29,  and  charged  with 
"obtaining  money  under  false  pre- 


tenses." On  their  way  back  from     "ready-to-wear"  store  at  176  North 

Oklahoma,  Mattie  asked  Sheriff  Lord     Main  Street  in  Sheridan.'" 

to  stop  off  at  Denver  to  see  Attorney 

Ben  B.  Laska,  who  she  said  could        

substantiate  her  claim  that  he  had 
received  the  money  from  the 
Sheridan  National  Bank  through  a 
draft  signed  by  Pearl  Logan.  The  de- 
fense attorney  had  taken  Robert 
Collett's  case  after  being  paid 
$2,000.  The  familv  raised  $1,200  - 


"Hello.  Mattie.  How  are  you?" 
The  voice  came  from  near  a  rack  of 
coats. 

"Hello.  Geneva."  replied  the  new 
bride  as  she  went  to  step  toward  the 
front  door. 
With  that  swift  swap  of  pleasant- 
which  was  paid  by  Mrs.  Collett  on  ries.  the  smile  left  Geneva's  face  and 
Sept.  24.  1926.  Before  the  case  went     she  pulled  a  .38  caliber  Colt  revolver 


to  trial,  she  paid  him  $300  more  and 
gave  him  a  note  for  $500.  To  help 
defray  those  costs.  Mattie  gave  Mrs. 
Collett  a  promissory  note  for  $  1 .000, 
which  she  said  she  would  repay 
within  two  years  out  of  the  $65  a 
month  that  she  received  from  her 
dead  husband's  war  insur-ance.  Af- 
ter collecting  his  ex- 
penses, Laska  subse- 
quently agreed  to  with- 
draw from  Robert's 
case  and  return  the 
money  to  the  family. 

Mattie  was  released 
on  a  bond  of  $500  to 
secure  her  appearance 
in  circuit  court  planned 
for  that  November  4.^ 

With  her  past  so 
plagued,  Cjeneva  called 
on  a  fortune  teller  in  the 
last  week  of  October 
1926  and  begged  her 
for  the  "money  card": 
the  ace  of  diamonds." 
She  said  she  "had  to  ob- 
tain a  large  sum". ..and 
soon.  But.  as  bad  as 
Geneva's  life  may  have 
been,  neither  she  nor 
the  card  reader  could 
know  that  a  far  worse 
fate  lay  in  wait.  But, 
she  would  learn  that  at 
2  p.m.  on  Monday.  No- 
vember 1.  1926.  when 
she  went  to  the 
Toggery  Shop,  a  lady's 


from  her  coat  pocket  and  fired  five 
shots  -  point  blank  -  at  her  one-time 
friend.  Four  slugs  found  their  mark: 
two  hit  Mattie's  arms,  the  third  hit 
her  in  the  back  while  the  fourth  struck 
the  lobe  of  her  left  lung  and  clipped 
a  chunk  from  her  aorta." 
In  the  next  few  seconds,  as  store 


Geneva  Collett  (left)  and  a  woman,  probably  her  older 
sister  Pearl,  soon  after  they  had  moved  with  their 
parents.  Samuel  ,4.  and  Maty  .Jane  "Jenny"  Collett. 
to  Sheridan  in  Wl~.  Geneva  M-as  born  Feb.  1~.  1895. 
and  Pearl.  Feb.  4.  IS9i.  both  in  Sweetwater.  Texas. 


26 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


"Over  the  Moon.  "  the  store  iii  the  same  hiiildiiig  and  at 
the  same  address  as  the  Toggery  Shop  where  the  crime 
took  place,  also  specializes  in  women  's  wear. 


owners  June  and  Vera  Fulmer  tried 
to  hide.  Mattie  spun  and  her  wounds 
spewed  blood  as  she  raced  to  the  rear 
of  the  room.  But  then,  in  shock,  she 
turned  in  vain  and  flailed  her  way 
back  toward  the  light  that  shown 
through  the  large  panes  of  plate  glass 
at  the  front  of  the  building.  A  trail  of 
dark  red  drops  marked  her  round-trip 
path  before  she  fell  and  died  near  the 
door.'- 

Still  stunned  by  what  she  had  seen, 
June  heard  Geneva  say,  "She  double 
crossed  me."  Then,  the  tall  woman 
loped  with  gun  in  hand  out  the  back 
way  and  down  the  alley  to  the 
Winterling  &  Davis  garage.  From 
there,  she  phoned  the  Sheridan 
County  sheriffs  office  to  tell  what 
she  had  done.  It  fell  to  Deputy  John 
H.  Ladd,  who  took  the  call,  to  rush 
to  the  Nash  dealership  on  West 


Brundage  Street,  where 
he  nabbed  her.'^ 

Less  than  an  hour 
prior  to  that  crime,  the 
feuding  families  had 
settled  their  legal  dif- 
ferences. When  Mattie 
paid  Pearl  her  board 
bill  and  gave  back  the 
diamond  ring  Geneva's 
brother  Robert  once 
had  put  on  her  hand, 
the  Colletts  tore  up  her 
outstanding  note.'"* 
According  to  police  of- 
ficer Elsie  Wood,  who 
first  responded  to  the 
shooting,  he  had  been 
present  in  the  office  of 
R.E.  McNally  a  few 
minutes  before  when 
1-  the  agreement  between 
I'  Mattie  and  the  Colletts 
■E.  had  been  reached. 
5  "[S]he  signed  a  con- 
I  tract  to  pay  the  note,  the 
money  to  come  at  $50 
monthly  from  her  gov- 
ernment insurance,  her 
first  husband  having 
been  killed  [during  World  War  1] 
overseas.  In  addition  to  this,  she 
agreed  to  pay  her  board  bill,  turn  over 
a  diamond  ring  which  had  belonged 
to  Bob  Collett,  and  further  agreed  to 
immediately  pay  an  account  at  the 
Toggery  Shop  which  Pearl  Logan 
had  guaranteed.  The  charges  against 
her  were  then  dropped."'"" 

But  on  that  day,  Mattie  went  next 
to  the  Toggery  Shop  to  pay  off  the 
$9.70  bill  that  she  owed.  As  she  did 
that,  her  husband.  Shorty,  took  her 
seven-year-old  son,  Charles,  to  the 
Pallas  Candy  Kitchen  for  a  treat. 
They  said  they  would  wait  there  for 
her.  (E.A.  Evans  and  Walter  Davis, 
who  barbered  at  the  OK  barber  shop 
with  Shorty  Tidwell,  testified  that 
they  saw  Geneva  and  Pearl  "going 
north  on  the  east  side  of  the  street, 
and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tidwell  walking 


almost  opposite  them  at  the  same 
time  on  the  other  side  of  the  street, 
shortly  before  the  shooting.")'" 

When  she  failed  to  show,  they 
went  to  the  dress  shop  and  found  her 
stone  dead  on  the  floor,  with  her  arms 
stretched  out  and  foam  on  her  lips. 
Mattie's  body  was  taken  to  the 
Champion  funeral  home,  where  her 
autopsy  was  conducted.'^  Later,  her 
body  was  shipped  to  Cincinnati, 
Ohio,  for  burial.'^ 

Sheriff  Lord  later  testified  that  af- 
ter Geneva  had  been  brought  to  his 
jail,  she  admitted  that  "I"ve  done 
something  awful."  And,  the  next  day, 
"she  asked  to  vote  as  it  was  election 
day."'^ 

In  the  next  few  weeks.  Geneva 
shared  a  Sheridan  County  Jail  cell 
with  "Moonshine  Mary  Beloburk."-^ 
As  she  awaited  trial,  at  least  some 
who  came  to  call  found  her  more 
shamed  by  her  darned  stockings  than 
by  the  crime  with  which  she  had  been 
charged. 

On  November  17,  Geneva  ap- 
peared at  court  in  the  sheriffs  cus- 
tody to  plead  "not  guilty"  as  charged 
in  the  complaint."'  By  agreement  of 
counsel  and  the  defendant,  she  would 
return  before  Judge  Hoop  the  follow- 
ing day  at  i  :30  p.m. 

On  November  1 8,  as  the  accused 
slept  beneath  a  flowered  comforter 
on  an  iron  cot,  a  few  newsmen 
stopped  at  her  cell.  When  they  found 
her  at  rest,  they  turned  to  leave.  "No, 
don't  go,"  she  said,  as  she  roused 
from  her  sleep.  "I'll  get  up.  It  seems 
good  to  see  somebody.  Gee.  but  1  get 
lonesome."  First  though,  she  slipped 
patent  leather  pumps  on  her  feet  and 
combed  fmgers  through  her  bobbed 
hair,  blushed  with  a  touch  of  dye. 
That  done,  she  and  the  men  walked 
to  a  room  next  door.  There,  as  she 
stooped  to  take  a  seat,  she  found 
some  flaws  in  her  blonde  silk  hose. 
Shamed  by  what  she  saw,  she 
moaned,  "I  could  never  dam  very 


Winter  iJOO'2 


27 


well"  and  pulled  down  the  hem  of 
her  fine  wool  dress  so  as  to  hide  her 
knees. 

Geneva  told  the  newsmen  that  "she 
did  not  know  Mattie  was  in  the 
Toggery  when  she  went  there  to  pay 
tor  a  pair  of  stockings  she  had  bought 
there  the  week  before." 

As  if  to  break  the  ice.  Geneva 
picked  up  a  sack  of  grapes  from  a 
stand  and  shared  them  with  her 
guests.  That  is  when  one  of  the  men 
asked  why  she  had  shot  Mattie 
Tidwell.  Her  face  went  blank.  "She 
double-crossed  me,"  she  said.  That 
line  had  served  as  her  mantra  since 
the  law  first  took  her  in  tow.  But.  in 
the  next  breath,  she  seemed  to  change 
her  mind. 

I  don't  think  I  ever  shot  her.  No- 
bod)  can  make  me  believe  1  did.  I 
don't  believe  I  ever  went  there  with 
a  gun  in  the  tTrst  place.  I  went  there 
to  pay  a  bill.  What  would  I  have  a 
gun  for.  just  to  pay  a  bill?  ...  I  wish 
people  would  quit  asking  me  about 
the  gun.  I  don't  know  an\thing 
about  it.  I'm  tired  of  hearing  about 
the  old  gun.'" 

Would  she  say  she  killed  in  self- 
defense,  they  asked.  Geneva  shook 
her  head  from  side-to-side.  Well 
then,  would  she  plead  insanity?  To 
that,  she  gave  no  clue.  She  just 
rubbed  her  right  arm  from  which 
blood  had  been  drawn  for  tests.  "It 
hurts."  she  said.  "They  must  have 
taken  a  quart."  She  also  whined  that 
she  found  it  hard  to  sleep  at  night, 
because  "the  wind  whistles  around 
the  jail  so  hard."  And  she  added: 
"The  fellows  upstairs  [prisoners?]  eat 
onions  all  the  time  to  make  them 
sleepy,  but  they  can't  sleep  either."-- 

But,  though  she  may  have  bad- 
mouthed  her  doctors  and  the  noise, 
she  gave  thanks  to  the  jaiFs  staff, 
who  had  been  good  to  her.  Most  of 
all.  she  praised  the  "good  neighbor" 
Serb  with  whom  she  shared  her  cell. 
Mary,  she  said,  "took  care  of  me 


when  I  was  sick  a  while  back.  Wish 
she  could  get  out.  I  feel  sorry  for  any- 
bodv  who  has  to  stay  here."-' 

At  1  p.m.  that  day  [November  I  8], 
.Justice  of  the  Peace. I.  F.  Hoop  called 
her  to  his  court  for  a  preliminary 
hearing.  There.  County  Attorney  and 
Prosecutor  .lohn  F.  Songer  charged 
that  Geneva  had  murdered  Mattie  in 
the  "first  degree."  Without  counsel, 
the  accused  sat  with  her  head  bowed 
and  hands  clasped  in  her  lap.  Onl\ 
when  the  judge  asked  how  she  would 
plead  did  she  stand,  step  toward  his 
bench  and  speak.  "Not  guilty."  she 
said  in  a  low,  soft  voice.  A  bailiff 
then  led  her  back  to  her  cell.-^ 

One  week  later,  as  Geneva  stood 
mute,  but  moved  her  head  in  replv  to 


appearance  would  be  on  November 
22.  A  committee  of  nine  physicians 
was  assigned  to  examine  her:  Dr. 
R.W.  Soper  and  Dr.  Henry  W.  Bar- 
rier of  the  U.S.  Veterans"  Bureau  at 
Fort  Mackenzie,  and  seven  Sheridan 
physicians:  Drs.  W.A.  Steffen,  S.  W. 
Johnson.  R.  E.  Crane.  T.  E.  Marshall. 
W.  H.  Roberts.  V.  J.  Keating,  and  C. 
E.  Stevenson. 

The  state  contended  later  that  the 
defense  attorneys,  "in  company  with 
a  group  of  doctors,  appeared  before 
the  board  of  [Sheridan]  county  com- 
missioners early  in  the  year  in  an  at- 
tempt to  avoid  a  trial:  and  make  a 
settlement  on  a  guilty  plea  of  man- 
slaughter." The  state  further  con- 
tended "that  countv  attorney  Cone 


the  court's  questions.  Judge  Hoop     refused  the  manslaughter  plea  and 


ruled  that  she  would  be  bound  over 
to  the  Fourth  Judicial  District  Court 
to  be  tried  for  first  degree  murder. 
Until  then,  the  judge  said,  she  would 
be  held  in  jail  without  bail  and  given 
a  thorough  "insanity  investiga- 
tion."-'At  the 
follow  up  hearing,  tes- 
timony by  Toggery 
Shop  owners/opera- 
tors June  and  Vera 
Fulmer,  Deputy  Sher- 
iff Ladd.  and  Coroner 
Dr.  W.  A.  Steffen  con- 
vinced the  judge  that 
a  sanity  investigation 
was  in  order.  Accord- 
ing to  Wyoming  law, 
an  insanity  hearing  at 
that  time  could  be  re-  s 
quested  for  any  person  - 
in  jail  awaiting  trial  or  2 
otherwise  serving  sen-  t 
tence  by  any  relative  -| 
or  by  any  officer  or  ~^. 
citizen  of  the  county,  g 
Such  an  insanity  hear-  = 
ing  would  have  to  be  \ 
held,  however,  within  ^ 
"a  reasonable  time" 
after  the  petition  was 
filed.    Geneva's  next 


that  the  commissioners  declared  thev 
had  no  criminal  jurisdiction  and  that 
the  case  would  have  to  go  to  court." 
Prosecutor  Songer  filed  his  Infor- 
mation [indictment]  the  following 
week  [November  30],  charging  that 


'1    ^ 


Dr.  C.  E.  Stevenson,  Sheridan  physician,  removed 
Geneva  Collet!  's  appendix  in  March  1925. 


28 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Geneva  "did  wilfully,  unlawfully,  fe- 
loniously, purposely  and  with  pre- 
meditated malice  kill  and  murder 
Mattie  Tidwell.  a  human  being."-''  In 
the  meantime.  Geneva's  family  hired 
for  her  the  best  local  attorneys  their 
money  could  buy:  the  team  of  Metz, 
Sackett  &  Metz.-'  As  the  defense 
planned  its  strategy,  the  State's  pros- 
ecutors. Maurice  A.  Cone  -  Songer'  s 
recently  elected  successor  -  and  his 
chief  aide.  Charles  A.  Kutcher. 
moved  forward  to  trial. 

On  Februar>'  11.1 926.  they  took  a 
statement  from  Mrs.  Tudor  Smith, 
whose  poor  health,  they  knew,  would 
keep  her  from  taking  the  stand  at 
Geneva's  trial.  In  her  deposition,  the 
beautician  swore  that  she  had  first 
met  the  accused  the  prior  spring 
when  she  came  to  her  shop  to  have 
her  hair  shampooed  and  curled.  Af- 
ter that.  Geneva  returned,  she  said, 
"I  imagine  once  a  month."  But  her 
last  visit  to  the  beauty  parlor  in  the 
Jackson  Apartments  -  about 
2:30  p.m..  the  Friday  before 
the  shooting  -  proved  the 
most  memorable.  Though, 
Tudor  claimed  Geneva  had 
"Never  before  complained 
of  anything"  and  that  "She 
was  always  more  or  less  of 
a  good  disposition,"  this 
time  the  beautician  said  she 
saw  a  great  change.  When 
chided  that  she  had  not  ^ 
made  an  appointment,  i 
Geneva  snapped  back,  "^ 
"Well,  that  I  would  have  to  i 
do  it  any  way  [sic]  because  J 
this  may  be  the  last  time  [I]  £ 
would  get  this  done,  maybe  ^ 
[I]  would  have  to  go  to  I" 

jail.  O 

Then,  as  Geneva  had  her  | 
hair  treated,  she  suddenly  s 
blurted  "that  Pearl  was  go- " 
ing  to  get  them,  or  one  of 
them. ..Mattie  Morgan  and 
Shorty  Tidwell."  Because  of 
what  she  had  heard  of  their 


ill  will  from  her  other  customers, 
Mrs.  Smith  said  this  came  as  no 
shock.  But  then  Geneva  "made  a  re- 
mark-something about  [Mattie]  tak- 
ing her  money  and  leaving  her 
mother  ill  and  breaking  Pearl's  heart" 
when  she  wed  Shorty.  Still,  even 
though  Geneva  sometimes  "would 
have  been  drinking"  before  she  came 
in  to  the  shop.  Mrs.  Smith  told  Cone 
that  on  this  occasion,  she  seemed 
"perfectly  normal."  In  fact,  she  said, 
"1  took  the  whole  conversation  more 
as  a  joke  than  anything  else.  She 
didn't  talk  like  she  was  serious."-* 

Before  the  accused  murderer  could 
be  brought  back  to  court  as  planned 
later  that  month,  measles  swept 
through  the  town,  and  as  the  sole  pris- 
oner in  the  Sheridan  County  Jail's 
woman's  ward,  Geneva  caught  a  bad 
case  of  the  "spots."-" 

Once  back  on  her  feet,  however, 
the  law  marched  her  to  the  district 
courtroom  of  Judge  Harry  P.  llsley. 


SheriffGeorge  Lord,  who  "hosted"  her  in  the  Sheridan 
County  Jail,  drove  Corlett  to  Casper  in  his  roadster  and 
then  escorted  her  by  train  to  the  prison  in  Canon  City, 
Colo. . 


who  first  heard  her  case  on  the  morn- 
ing of  March  7.  1927.3°  She  sat  in 
front  of  the  jury  box,  at  the  end  of 
defense  table. 3' 

If  the  jurors  orthe  crowd  that  came 
there  hoped  to  find  proof  of  guilt  in 
her  eyes,  they  failed.  As  one  scribe 
wrote,  "her  face  rests  on  her  hand 
most  of  the  time."  At  other  times  of 
the  trial,  she  sat  with  head  bowed 
low.  It  so  drooped,  in  fact,  that  her 
black  feh  hat  blocked  from  view  her 
large  grey  eyes. 

While  some  may  not  have  seen  her 
full  face,  most  made  note  -  especially 
the  many  women  in  the  gallery  -  of 
what  she  wore  as  well  as  her  de- 
meanor: "a  tan  wool  dress  and  with 
a  plaid  coat  resting  over  the  back  of 
her    chair. ..comely,     neat    and 
exacting.. .of  striking  appearance."  in 
fact,  said  one  woman,  she  "was  the 
last  one  in  the  world  you  would  ex- 
pect to  see  in  such  a  position."" 
The  spectators  wanted  to  hear  of 
her  life.  They  found  out  that 
her  mother  had  given  birth 
to  her  in  Sweetwater,  Texas, 
on  February  17.  1895.  She 
gained  her  education  in  that 
town's  public  classrooms, 
culminating    in    a   high 
school  diploma.  From  that 
small  town,  she  went  to 
Dallas,  where  she  graduated 
from  a  business  college.  At 
the  age  of  twenty-two,  she 
moved  with  her  family  to 
Sheridan.  When  she  found 
no  stenographic  or  book- 
keeping positions  available 
there,  she  went  to  work  for 
Eula  Kendrick,  the  wife  of 
Senator  Kendrick  at  the 
famed  OW  Ranch.  That 
November,  she  moved   to 
Buffalo,  Wyoming,  and 
worked  briefly  for  the  Buf- 
falo-Clearmont  Railroad 
before  going  to  Casper 
where  she  kept  books  for  a 
year  at  the  Henning  Hotel. 


Winter  ;200'2 


She  also  worked  in  that  cit>  for  three 
years  at  the  Elgin  Shoe  and  Clothing 
Store.  In  1923,  she  apparently  ac- 
cepted a  position  with  a  wholesale 
house  and  clerked  in  a  grocery  store 
at  Billings,  Montana. 

After  brief  stints  there,  Geneva 
hopped  a  train  to  California.  She  later 
said  that  she  stayed  for  two  years,  but 
had  to  leave  when  she  had  "spent  all 
her  money."  After  moving  back  to 
Wyoming,  she  worked  a  short  time 
in  a  railroad  office  in  Rock  Springs. 
She  returned  to  Billings  to  apply  for 
a  Job  there,  but  she  had  to  have  a 
major  operation." 

Those  who  sat  through  her  trial 
would  hear,  too,  more  than  they  may 
have  wished  to  have  known  about  her 
state  of  mind  when  she  came  back 
from  Montana  just  four  months  prior 
to  Mattie's  murder.  As  defense  wit- 
nesses trooped  to  the  stand,  many  of 
them-including  Dr.  C.E.  Stevenson, 
who  operated  on  her-told  of  "a  great 
change  in  her  condition  since  her  last 
operation  that  past  June." 

Dr.  R.P.  Smith,  a  defense  expert, 
said  he  had  diagnosed  her  "with  that 
form  of  insanity  generally  known  to 
experts  as  catatonia  dementia  pre- 
cox''... a  type  of  schizophrenia.   He 


added:  "There  is  a  point  of  tolerance 
in  everyone  and  if  that  line  is  passed 
the  person  breaks  in  mind."  He  clas- 
sified the  defendant  "as  belonging  to 
the  class  of  insane  patients,  termed 
'shut-ins,'  who  live  in  a  world  to 
themselves  and  see  their  wishes  as 
true."" 

Why,  asked  some  who  thought  that 
she  may  have  feigned  madness,  did 
she  call  the  sheriffs  office  if  she  did 
not  know  right  from  wrong?  "Be- 
cause," said  Dr.  Smith,  "she  consid- 
ered that  a  part  of  finishing  her  job, 
and  she  was  under  such  stimulus  that 
she  was  revived  to  some  conscious- 
ness, although  she  soon  lapsed  back 
into  her  former  condition."  Contrary 
to  his  colleague  Dr.  Stevenson's 
opinion.  Smith  said  that  he  belie\ed 
"it  was  not  the  final  operation  that 
caused  the  contended  insanity  of  the 
defendant."  Rather,  he  said,  "the 
shock  of  her  father's  death  was  the 
prime  thing  that  made  her  insane."^' 

Her  mother,  too,  found  her 
daughter's  sad  state  hard  to  bear.  As 
she  sat  next  to  Geneva  at  the  defense 
table,  she  tried  to  look  in  her 
daughter's  eyes,  but  scarce  got  a 
glance  back.  Nor  did  they  seem  to 
share  but  a  few  words.'"   Perhaps  to 


Judge  Harry  P.  llsley  presided 
over  tiie  Collett  trial  in  4lli  Dis- 
trict Court  in  llie  Slieridun  County 
Cinirtliouse. 

ti\  to  bridge  that  gap  as  well  as  to 
help  make  Geneva  feel  a  bit  more 
comfortable  in  the  court,  Mrs.  Collett 
midway  through  the  trial  brought  her 
daughter  a  round  pillow,  about  the 
size  of  a  chair  seat,  made  of  soft  \  el- 
low  fabric  on  which  tlowers  had  been 
sewn,  and  trimmed  with  a  blue 
bow."  Even  that  kind  act  did  not 
seem  to  help.''^ 

One  of  the  few  things,  however, 
that  did  seem  to  make  Geneva's  face 
light  up  came  at  the  mid-point  in  her 
trial.  In  those  days-at  least  in  the 
Sheridan  County  Jail  -  the  guards  let 
their  female  prisoners  shave  the  men 
who  served  time  there.  It  came  out 
in  testimony  that  Geneva,  more  than 
once,  had  groomed  a  fellow  prisoner 
named  Frank  Snively.  When  he 
swore  that  he  "knew  positively  she 
was  insane."  the  State's  attorney, 
Kutcher,  at  once  turned  to  the  jury. 
"Do  you  believe  Frank  would  have 
allowed  her  to  shave  him  if  he 
thought  her  to  be  insane?"  he  asked 
w  ith  a  keen  edge  to  his  voice.  While 
it  seems  the  jurors  did  their  best  to 
keep  still,  much  the  crowd  of  80  or 
more  -  mostiv  women  -  burst  into 
laughter.  Geneva  smiled,  too.-"' 

With  the  sounds  of  such  levitv,  as 


30 


0^ 


1^' 


-- 1 


Genera  Corlett  was  incarcerated  in  the  Colorado  State  Penitentiaiy.  Canon 
Cit}\fi-om  March  19.  1927,  to  May  30.  1930.  when  she  was  moved  to  the  Kan- 
sas State  Industrial  Farm  for  Women  in  Lansing,  Kansas. 


well  as  the  facts  of  the  case,  still  in 
their  ears,  the  jurors  filed  from  the 
court  about  9:45  p.m.,  Saturday 
evening,  March  12.  It  took  them  but 
three  hours  and  twenty-five  minutes 
to  reach  their  decision,  which  came 
soon  after  midnight.  When  they  went 
back  to  the  near-empty  room, 
they  saw  Geneva  sitting  next  to 
Sheriff  Lord.  She  must  have 
steeled  herself  for  what  she 
feared  might  come,  for  when  the 
jury  foreman,  H.E.  Zullig,  said 
his  group  had  found  her  "guilty 
of  murder  in  the  first  degree  with- 
out capital  punishment,"  it  is  said 
that  she  moved  not  a 
muscle. ..made  not  a  sign  as  to  ^ 
how  she  felt.  Judge  lllsley  left  the  .§ 
courtroom  to  weigh  all  that  he  o 
had  heard  before  sentencing.^"  | 
On  Monday  [March  14],  heu 
came  back  to  his  bench  at  1 1  a.m.  ° 
"Did  she  [Geneva]  have  more  to  3 
say?"  he  asked.  She  stood  ands 
raised  her  chin  from  her  chest. 
"No,"  she  said.  The  judge  set  her 
sentence.  She  would  sent  to  the 
"Colorado  State  Penitentiary  for 
female  prisoners...  near  Caiion 


City...  to  be  therein  kept,  and  con- 
fined for  the  period  of  time,  during 
your  natural  life  at  hard  labor." 
Wyoming,  at  that  time,  did  not  have 
a  place  in  which  to  house  its  own  fe- 
male prisoners."" 
Geneva  became  the  first-ever 


Robert  K.  Collett.  Inmate  #I3'^29.  met  hi.s 
sister  briefly  in  prison  in  Colorado.  He  was 
paroled  Nov.  12.  1928.  after  serving  23 
months.  His  eventual  whereabouts  are  not 
known. 


Annal.s  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 

woman  in  Wyoming  to  be  given  a 
life  sentence.^-  Despite  the  deep 
despair  that  verdict  may  have 
brought  her,  she  did  her  best  while 
back  in  the  jail  to  keep  on  a  "game 
face"  when  her  mother  and  the 
press  came  to  call.  On  the  day 
prior  to  her  departure  to  prison,  she 
told  a  reporter,  "You  want  some- 
thing to  put  in  the  paper  about  me 
today,  don't  you?  Well,  1  don't 
blame  you,  and  its  all  right  with 
me."  She  got  up  and  gave  the  man 
her  own  chair  in  the  small  cage. 
She  then  walked  to  the  window 
and  gazed  out  the  same  bars 
through  which  she  had  watched 
the  world  since  the  day  of  Mattie's 
murder.  When  asked  if  the  ruling 
had  surprised  her,  she  shook  her 
head  and  said,  with  the  trace  of  a 
sob,  "No.  Tell  them  that  I'm  tak- 
ing my  medicine,  and  thank  God 
I'm  not  a  quitter."^^ 

On  Thursday,  as  usual,  Geneva 
got  up,  cleaned  her  cell,  and 
smoothed  her  bunk.  Just  past 
noon,  Geneva  took  hold  of  her 
jail-mates'  hands,  then  bid  them 
"Goodbye,  and  may  God  bless 
you."  Sheriff  Lord  then  led  her 
past  her  sobbing  mother,  who  had 
spent  the  last  two  days  with  her 
there  in  the  jail.  Her  sister.  Pearl, 
stood  by,  too,  as  the  lawman  led 
the  lady  into  the  street. ^^  Lord 
helped  her  in  to  the  roadster 
parked  at  the  curb  as  the  wife  of 
Undersheriff  G.  A.  Braucht  took 
a  seat  next  to  her.  With  Lord  at  the 
wheel,  the  three  left  for  Casper  to 
catch  a  train  for  Denver.  They 
spent  the  night  there.  The  next  day, 
they  drove  to  Canon  City,  where 
they  arrived  at  9:45  p.m..  that 
evening.  With  flie  prison  closed  by 
that  time,  they  checked  into  the 
Strathmore  Hotel.'' 

The  next  morning  [Saturday, 
March  1 9],  after  she  sent  a  wire  to 
let  her  mother  know  she  had  ar- 
rived safely,  Geneva  and  Mrs. 


Winter  •iOOi 


31 


Braucht  left  their  suite  to  join  Sher- 
iff Lord  for  a  breakfast  of  grapefruit, 
toast,  eggs,  and  coffee.  Later,  in  the 
lobby,  she  said,  "This  is  a  bad  day  to 
start  what  I  have  before  me.  1  was 
hoping  the  sun  would  be  shining  and 
the  birds  singing  so  1  would  have 
something  happy  to  remember  the 
world  by.  The  weather  makes  me 
blue. ..and  Fm  sorry. "^" 

At  1 0  a.m..  Geneva  donned  her  felt 
fedora  and  plaid  wool  coat,  with  its 
lush  fur  collar,  pulled  high  and  close 
to  her  neck.  The  three  walked  "seem- 
ingly carefree"  through  a  snow  storm 
to  the  front  gate  of  the  Colorado  State 
Penitentiary.  An  armed  guard  let 
them  past  the  great  door.  Once  in- 
side the  "bull  pen"  [check-in  room], 
the  calm,  dry-eyed  Geneva  with  "an 
embarrassed  smile"  took  pen  in  hand 
and  signed  in  as  "Prisoner  #13916." 
A  person  there  noted,  "Too  bad,  she 
sure  don't  look  like  the  kind  offish 
we  usually  get  here."  Nonetheless, 
they  snapped  her  mugshot,  inked  her 
prints,  medically  inspected  her,  and 
logged  her  vitals: 

Age:  32.  Height:  5'  8-1/2", 
Weight:  [blank].  Complexion: 
Fair.  Color  of  Eyes:  Gray.  Color 
of  Hair:  Brown,  Occupation: 
Bookkeeper.  Where  Bom:  Texas, 
Name  of  Parents:  Mrs.  S.A. 
Collett  (mother),  260  No.  Main. 
Sheridan,  WY.  Religion:  Meth- 
odist'' 


With  that  done,  the  prison  matron, 
Mary  Fitzgerald,  marched  her  off  to 
the  woman's  ward,  where  she 
plucked  the  fine  feathers  from  her 
new  Jail  bird  and  had  her  wear  an 
inmate's  blue  and  white  garb.^*  The 
square-necked  dress,  made  of  a 
coarse,  small-checked  cloth,  hung 
like  a  sack  on  Geneva's  lank  frame. 
Once  dressed,  she  went  to  her  small 
cell,  where  she  spent  the  next  few 
days  adjusting  to  her  new  life.  The 
room,  bare  but  for  a  steel  cot.  had 
one  port  from  which  she  could  see 
the  neat,  frost-edged  lawn  that  sloped 
south  to  a  tall  stone  wall."'" 

Once  in  those  first  da)  s.  her  keep- 
ers let  her  meet  and  talk  for  a  few 
minutes  with  her  brother,  Robert, 
who  like  her.  made  his  home  there 


behind  bars.  Apparently,  they  did  not 
speak  again.'" 

Like  the  50  or  so  other  women  w  ith 
whom  she  lived,  she  soon  learned 
how  to  cope  with  her  new  life.  That 
meant,  for  example,  sweeping  her 
cell  each  morn  as  well  as  eating  her 
meals  with  a  bone-handled  knife  and 
fork  of  black  steel  from  an  aluminimi 
dish.'' 

While  Geneva  did  her  best  to  live 
day  to  day.  her  mother,  friends,  and 
attorneys  did  all  that  they  could  to 
ha\e  the  Wyoming  Supreme  Court 
throw  out  the  district  court  deci- 
sion.'- When  that  did  not  work,  they 
tried  to  get  Wyoming's  Board  of  Par- 
dons as  well  as  the  Governor  to  act 
ill  her  behalf.  Those  maneuvers 
failed,  too." 


The  Kansas 
Women  's  Indus- 
trial Farm  at 
Lansing,  where 
Geneva  Collett 
M-as  ser\'ing  her 
sentence  when 
she  died  Oct.  5. 
1930.  Collett 's 
body  was  buried 
in  the  cemetery 
in  Sweetwater. 
Texas. 


■3- 


iJ^V 


■  jWi*.'* 


f^**^;  M"ji^4^% 


'J 


■L 


-i^gtfu  iin* 


Russell  Jones.  Sweetwater,  lexas 


Kansas  State  Historical  Socierv 


32 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


In  December  1 929.  a  foe  swore  to 
do  what  her  friends  could  not:  put  an 
end  to  her  suffering.  Geneva  saved 
the  life  of  her  matron  when  a  young 
Black  woman  convict  tried  to  stab  the 
official  with  a  pair  of  shears.  Though 
the  guard  at  once  locked  up  the 
would-be  assassin,  the  inmate  made 
it  clear  that  she  would  soon  tr\  to  take 
Geneva's  life.  And,  said  the  warden, 
he  feared  "what  might  happen  when 
she  is  released."'"* 

Faced  w ith  that  threat  to  Geneva, 
as  well  as  with  the  rising  costs  at  the 
Colorado  prison,  Wyoming's  offi- 
cials moved  quickly  to  find  a  new 
home  for  their  women  inmates.^' 
Four  months  later,  of  the  12  states 
that  had  been  contacted,  just  the  Kan- 
sas State  Industrial  Farm  for  women 
at  Lansing  seemed  willing  to  take 
what  Wyoming  could  pay:  $  1 .25  per 
day  per  prisoner.  According  to 
Wyoming's  State  Auditor,  Roscoe 
Alcorn,  who  went  to  see  the  place, 

they  use  a  cottage  system  and  for 
two  years  there  had  not  been  an  es- 
cape. They  now  have  475  prison- 
ers. They  keep  them  employed  at 
housework  and  farm  work.  They 
have  an  orchard  in  connection  with 
the  farm  and  they  carry  on  some 
special  industries  such  as  basket- 
making.  The  work  seemed  to  be 
organized  very  efficiently.'*'' 

Consequently,  the  officials  struck 
a  deal.  Wyoming  began  transferring 
their  prisoners  on  May  1,  1930,  to 
the  Sunflower  State,  where  Geneva 
would  spend  the  rest  of  her  life.-' 

So,  what  may  we  learn  from  this 
tale?  First,  there  is  no  moral  here.  It 
is  the  story  of  a  woman,  whose  one 
terrible  deed  tried  to  steal  her  soul.  It 
also  shaped  what  few  years  she  had 
left,  and  those  came  to  an  end  with  a 
heart  attack  about  1 :20  p.m.,  on  Sun- 
day, October  5,  1 930.  Prison  officials 
found  her  when  they  took  lunch  to 
her  cell.-* 

When  her  mother  and  sister  learned 


of  that  death,  they  rushed  to  Lansing 
and  took  her  body  back  to  Texas,  the 
place  of  her  birth.  There,  her  body 
was  buried  on  October  8,  deep  in  the 
hot,  dry  soil  in  the  City  Cemetery  of 
Sweetwater,  Texas.-" 

But,  unlike  Job  in  his  last  days, 
Geneva  won  no  wealth. ..had  no 
spouse  or  child. ..found  no  peace  on 
earth.  Death  was  her  reward. 


'  "Check  Artist  in  Toils."  Durango 
Evening  Herald.  Durango.  Colo..  20  Jan. 
1925.  i;  also.  "This  Fellow  Handy  With 
l-'ountain  Pen."  Glenwood  (Colo.)  Post.  23 
Jan.  1925.  1;  "Collins  Has  A  Shady  Record." 
Glenwood  Post.  29  Jan.  1925.  1;  "Four 
Glenwood  Prisoners  Stage  Another  Jail 
Break."  Glenwood  Post.  5  Mar.  1925.  1; 
"Robert  K.  Collett  Is  Con\icted  by  Jury." 
Glenwood  Post.  11  Nov.  1926.  1.  He  was 
paroled  on  12  Nov.  1928.  Robert  K.  Collett. 
Inmate  #  1 3729.  Colorado  State  Penitentiary 
files.  Colorado  State  Archives. 

-  "Rancher  Takes  Poison  Potion  Instead 
of  Baking  Soda  and  Is  Dead  Within  Few  Min- 
utes." Sheridan  (Wyo.)  Post-Enterprise.  1 
Apr  1926.  1.2:  also,  J.  Heath.  Deputy  Clerk 
of  District  Court.  Hardin.  Mont.,  to  author.  5 
Apr.  200 1 ;  "Geneva  Collett.  Girl  Slayer.  Says 
'She  Double-Crossed  Me"."  Sheridan  Post- 
Enterprise.  18  Nov.  1926.  1:  Geneva  Collen. 
Certificate  of  Death.  Kansas  State  Board  of 
Health.  Div.  of  Vital  Statistics.  Sam  w  as  bom 
in  Rockwood.  Tenn..  and  he  married  Jennie 
Harrison,  (b.  Johnson  County.  Tex.).  I'heir 
oldest  child.  William  Burl  (W.B.)  was  bom 
24  Mar.  1882.  at  Alvarado.  Tex.  In  Nov. 
1 889.  the  famih  moved  to  Nolan  County  and 
settled  seven  miles  north  of  Roscoe.  In  1 890. 
they  moved  to  Sweetwater,  where  their  sec- 
ond child.  Robert  K..  was  born.  The  family 
later  moved  into  Roscoe.  About  1917.  Sam 
and  Jennie  moved  to  Sheridan,  where  thev 
split  that  y  ear.  before  Sam  moved  north  into 
southern  Montana,  where  he  homesteaded 
southeast  of  Billings,  south  of  Hardin.  He  was 
buried  in  the  Mount  Hope  Cemetery,  later 
renamed  the  Sheridan  Municipal  Cemetery. 
Their  eldest  son.  W.B..  died  in  1 964.  and  was 
buried  in  lexas.  "W.B.  Collett  Roscoe  Rites 
Set  Tuesday."  Sweetwater  (Tex.)  Reporter. 
7  Dec.  1964.  According  to  Heath.  Sam's 
death  certificate  is  "filed  in  the  Big  Horn 
County  Clerk  and  Recorder's  Office  in 
Hardin.  [but]no  probate  record  or  record  of 
inquest  could  be  found  following  his  death." 

'  "Mary  J.  Collett  Succumbs  Here." 
Sheridan  Press.  3  May  1932.  2:  Sheridan 
Press.  20  Jul  1977;  "[Clayton]  Logan  Dies." 


Sheridan  Press.  5  May  1972;  "Working 
Girls."  by  Larque  Richter.  Sheridan  Press. 
21  Aug  1999;  Minutes  re:  Girls'  Industrial 
Institute.  Wyoming  Board  of  Charities  &  Re- 
form. Book  J.  6  June  1927.  53-54.  386.  10 
March  1930.  Wyoming  State  Archives. 
Cheyenne.  Mrs.  Collen  died  at  Pearl's  home 
at  260  North  Main  St..  in  Sheridan  on  May 
3.  1932.  at  the  age  of  70.  She  was  a  member 
of  the  Methodist  Church,  buried  in  the 
Sheridan  Municipal  Cemetery.  She  was  bom 
in  Johnson  Co..  Tex.,  while  her  father.  Ben- 
jamin Harrison,  was  bom  in  Tennessee  and 
her  mother.  "Miss  Frost."  was  bom  in  Ala- 
bama. [Sheridan.  WY.  Funeral  Records.  Fu- 
neral #1619.  p.  225]. 

Pearl  [also  known  as  Mrs.  Pearl  Logan; 
Mrs.  Collett;  Mrs.  Charles  A.  Cook]  died  at 
Memorial  Hospital  in  Sheridan  July  19. 1977. 
At  her  death  she  lived  at  183  West  5"'  St.. 
Sheridan,  with  her  daughter  Lorena  H..  and 
son-in-law.  William  Fluke.  Born  Feb.  4. 
1 893.  in  Sweetw  ater.  Tex.,  she  was  preceded 
in  death  by  her  "husband."  Ira  L.  Logan,  who 
died  in  1 96 1 .  and  by  a  son.  Clayton  Logan, 
in  1971.  [No  wedding  certificate  has  been 
found.]  She  was  buried  in  the  Sheridan  Mu- 
nicipal Cemetery  23  Jul  1977.  [Sheridan. 
Wyoming.  Eiineral  Records.  162]  She  also 
had  referred  to  herself  as  Mrs.  Cook,  the  wife 
of  Charles  A.  Cook,  with  whom  she  lived, 
according  to  a  Sheridan  City  Directory,  in 
1933-1934.  although  no  marriage  certificate 
has  been  found.  According  to  Richter.  who 
wrote  the  "Working  Girls"  article.  "Pearl 
Logan. ..was  one  of  the  best  known  local  mad- 
ams [in  Sheridan].  She  operated  rooming 
houses  for  at  least  40  years. ..The  Rex  [which 
was  closed  by  1965]  was  a  large  rooming 
house  with  up  to  five  ladies  of  the  night  in 
residence.  Local  old-timers  say  Logan  had 
great  rapport  with  law  enforcement,  tenants 
and  the  girls.  She  was  known  for  holding 
money  for  sheepherders  and  ranch  hands  who 
came  to  town  for  a  bender  or  an  entire  off 
season.  Their  summer  wages  were  safe  from 
being  stolen  or  blown  gambling  because  of 
Logan..."  Hugh  Bird,  recalled.  "I  was  in  the 
cab  business  at  that  time.  1 950-52.  They  [the 
prostitutes  and  madams]  used  to  be  pretty 
good  tippers...  The  Rex  was  the  big  house 
you  know,  that  was  Pearl  Logan.  That's 
where  Sheriff  Marshall  was  shot.  It  was  the 
biggest  one.  yeah.  We  didn't  make  much  for 
tips  then:  they  were  always  good  for  50  cents 
or  a  dollar.   Fares  were  35  or  40  cents." 

On  13  July  1928.  640  acres  of  land  previ- 
ously owned  by  "Logan.  Pearl  E."  was  in- 
corporated into  the  Kendrick  OW  Ranch's 
holdings.  Bucky  King.  The  Empire  Builders: 
The  Development  of  Kendrick  Cattle  Com- 
pany {Privaxdy  printed.  1992).  57,  Pearl  and 
her  husband.  Ira,  were  employees  on  the  OW 
Ranch  in  October  1917.  King.  100.  Other 


Winter  'iOO'i 


33 


Kendrick  records  show  a  "Mr.  Collett,"  -pre- 
sumably. Pearl's  father.  Sam  -  who  was  paid 
$14.65  for  11  days'  work  in  June  1924. 
Pearl's  daughter.  Lorena  was  born  6  Jan. 
1910.  in  Odessa,  Tex.;  her  father  was  Ira  L. 
Logan.  She  married  William  Fluke  in  1942. 
in  Nevada,  and  the  couple  moved  to  Sheridan 
in  1978.  She  died  in  the  Memorial  Hospital 
there  on  7  Dec  1983.  at  age  73.  "Lorena  H. 
Fluke."  Sheridan  Press.  8  Dec  1983.  Will- 
iatn  Fluke  was  93  when  he  died  28  Mar  1988. 

"*  At  the  time  of  the  first  action,  the  Board 
authorized  Virgie's  parole  to  her  maternal 
grandmother,  who  lived  at  Sweetwater,  Tex. 
At  the  time  of  the  subsequent  action,  she  was 
paroled  to  "a  tnie  old  couple."  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
F.H.  Lawton  in  Berkeley.  Calif  Virgie,  how- 
ever, apparently  "got  homesick  and  ran 
away."  After  authorities  picked  her  up,  they 
determined  that  she  "had  gone  to  San  Fran- 
cisco and  found  emplo>ment  with  a  good 
family  taking  care  of  children." 

'  Dr.  C.  E  Stevenson,  who  removed  her 
appendix,  also  carried  out  this  operation. 
"Geneva  Collett  on  Trial  for  Her  Life,"  "In- 
sanity Plea  Offered  By  Defense."  Sheridan 
Post-Enterprise.  9  Mar  1927.  1;  "Alienists 
Testify  In  Collett  Trial."  Sheridan  Post-En- 
terprise. 10  Mar  1927.  1;  "Jur\  Did  Ignore 
Expert  Testimonv ."  Sheridan  Journal.  1 ; 

"  "Genevieve  Collett  Shot  and  Killed  Mrs. 
B.F.  Tidwell  Here."  Sheridan  Journal.  4  ^ov 

1926.  1.  4;  "Events  Leading  to  Murder  of 
Mattie  Tidwell.  Sheridan  Journal,   10  Mar 

1927,  1. 

'  Shorty  and  his  brother.  Hartley,  lodged 
at  Pearl's  rooming  house  at  Main  and  Alger 
streets  at  the  same  time  as  had  Mattie  Mor- 
gan. Hartley  said  at  Geneva's  trial  that  he 
"had  been  acquainted  with  the  Colletts  while 
in  Texas."  Twenty -four  year-old  Mattie.  bom 
in  Tennessee,  was  the  daughter  of  A.M.  and 
Fannie  (nee  Fepter  [sic]).  Before  he  left 
Sheridan.  33-year-old  Shorty  had  worked 
there  as  a  barber  at  the  OK  shop.  He  was  born 
in  Texas,  the  son  of  George  and  Svrlde  [sic] 
(nee  Ribble)  Tidwell.  "Story  of  Tidwell 
Shooting  Retold."  Sheridan  Post-Enterprise. 
8  Mar  1927.  1;  "Genevieve  Collett  Shot  and 
Killed  Mrs.  B.F.  Tidwell  Here."  Sheridan 
Journal.  4  Nov  1926.  1.  4;  "Events  Leading 
to  Murder  of  Mattie  I  idwell;  Marriage  Cer- 
tificate. Dept.  of  Public  Welfare.  Bureau  of 
Health-Division  of  Vital  Statistics.  Lincoln. 
18  Oct  1926;  "Married  By  Judge."  Alliance 
(Neb.)  A'eii'5.  21  Oct  1926.  1;  "Sheridan  Has 
Killing  Alfair  in  Which  Principals  are  Both 
'^omen."  Alliance  News.  II  Nov  1926;  "In- 
quest Wednesday,"  Sheridan  Journal. 

8  [bid. 

"^  According  to  Margaret  Lavbourn.  a 
Chevenne  writer,  the  ace  of  diamonds  is  the 
"money  card"  for  those  who  need  a  large  sum 
quickly. 


'"  The  building  at  the  address  is  occupied 
by  a  different  store  now,  but  it  also  sells 
women's  clothing. 

"  "Genevieve  Collett  Shot...";  "Geneva 
Collett  on  Trial  for  Her  life."  Sheridan  Jour- 
nal. 10  Mar  1927.  1;  "Sheridan  Has  Killing 
Affair...";  "Effort  To  Prove  Geneva  Collett 
Insane  Leaves  Woman  Slayer  Expressionless 
Through  Longs  Days  in  Courtroom  Here." 
Sheridan  Post-Enterprise.  10  Mar  1927.  1. 

'-  During  the  Coroner's  Inquest  -  directed 
by  Dr.  W.A.  Sleffen  at  4  p.m..  November  3. 
at  the  Champion  funeral  home  —  Dr.  S.W. 
Johnson  determined  that  "The  bullet  which 
caused  [her|  death  entered  the  left  shoulder 
cutting  the  main  arten. .  Another  bullet  which 
struck  her  in  the  back  would  have  caused 
death  in  time.  The  third  bullet  hit  her  in  the 
front  arm  below  the  elbow,  and  the  fourth 
struck  the  left  ami  above  the  elbow."  Wit- 
nesses included  Vera  and  June  Fulmer  of  the 
Toggery  Shop;  Patrolman  E.  Wood,  and  Dr. 
S.W.  Johnson,  who  performed  the  procedure. 
Doctor  Steffen  added  during  Geneva's  trial 
that  "Two  shots  had  been  tired  from  the  front 
and  two  from  the  rear,  showing  that  Mattie 
Tidwell  was  doing  her  best  to  escape  from 
Geneva  Collett,  the  final  and  fatal  shot  caught 
her  just  as  she  was  about  at  the  door,  where 
she  fell."  The  coroner'sjup.'- A.J.  Ham.  H.J. 
Hewitt,  and  Chas.  J.  Johnstone,  rendered  the 
follow  ing  verdict:  ". . .  by  a  gun  shot  wound, 
homicide,  and  not  self-inflicted"  caused 
Mattie's  death. 

'  ^  "(jenevieve  Collett  Shot  and  Killed  Mrs. 
B.F.  Tidwell  Here";  also  "Geneva  Collett  on 
Trial  for  Her  life."  Sheridan  Journal.  1 0  Mar 
1927.  I;  "Sheridan  Has  Killing  Affair  in 
Which  Principals  are  Both  Women."  ;  "Mattie 
Tidwell  Is  Victim  at  Toggery."  Sheridan 
Post-Enterprise.  1  Nov  1926.  1;  "Inquest 
Wednesdav.";  "Murder  Charge  Faces  Girl 
Here  After  Inquest."  Sheridan  Post-Enter- 
prise. 4  Nov  1926.  I;  "Mrs.  Tidwcll's  Bod\ 
to  Be  Sent  Fast  for  Burial."  Sheridan  Post- 
Enterprise.  5  Nov  1926.  8;"Stor>'  of  Tidwell 
Shooting  Retold."  Sheridan  Post-Enterprise. 
8  Mar  1927.  1. 

'"■  "Mattie  Tidwell  Is  Victim  at  Toggery." 
Sheridan  Post-Enterprise:  also.  "Inquest 
Wednesday."  Attomeys  involved  in  the  fi- 
nal settlement  were  the  R.E.  McNalK  and 
John  W.  Songer.  who  represented  the 
Colletts.  and  John  F.  Raper.  the  fidwell's  at- 
torney. 

'^"Attorneys  for  Defense  Seek  to  Show 
Insanity  of  Collett  Woman  by  Details  of  Life 
in  leslimony  Presented  lucsda) ,"  Sheridan 
Post-Enterprise.  9  Mar  1927.  1. 

'"  Sheridan  Post-Enterprise.  Ibid. 

'^  Coroner's  Inquest  #283  re  Mattie 
Tidwell,  6"'  Judicial  District  Court,  Sheridan 
Count)',  6  Nov  1926.  Dr.  S.W.  Johnson  per- 
formed the  autopsy  on  Mattie  about  9  p.m. 


that  night.  He  described  her  as  "A  woman  of 
medium  size  who  was  about  twentv -four  or 
five  years  of  age.  Upon  examining  the  body. 
1  discovered  four  wounds..."  He  said  her 
death  came  in  a  "very  few  minutes. ...Very- 
short  time."  It  was  caused  when  "the  left 
pleural  cavity  was  filled  with  blood-hemor- 
rhage of  the  aorta."  Policeman  Elzie  Wood 
testified  at  the  inquest  that,  when  he  leamed 
of  the  crime,  he  and  a  "Mr.  Fow  ler."  also  w  ith 
the  Police  Department,  went  to  the  scene. 
Mattie  still  was  alive  when  they  arrived  al- 
though "She  was  just  breathing,  just  a  little. 
There  was  a  lot  of  foam  coining  out  of  her 
month  [sic].  1  could  see  the  foam  rather  move 
like  she  was  breathing.  I  saw  1  couldn't  do 
her  any  good." 

'*  On  Sunday.  November  7.  Shorty  accom- 
panied Mattie's  body  back  to  her  hometown. 
Cincinnati.  Ohio;  he  and  her  father.  A.M. 
Smith,  buried  her  there. "Mrs.  B.F.  Tidwell's 
Body  Sent  to  Cincinnati.  Ohio,"  Sheridan 
Journal.  II  Nov  1926.  11(1). 

'"  Coroner's  Inquest  #283;  '•Miss  Collett 
Will  Be  Held  Without  Bail."  .Sheridan  Post- 
Enterprise.  22  Nov  1926.  1 ;  Geneva  Collett 
Record.  Inmate  #13916.  Colorado  State  Peni- 
tentiary. Cafion  Cit>'.  on  file  at  the  Colorado 
State  Archives.  Denver,  n.d. 

-■'  The  Dietz.  Wyoming,  home  of  Geneva's 
Serbian  cellmate,  had  been  the  site  of  a  mur- 
der the  previous  March  18.  when  Veda 
Gregovich.  a  2 1 -year-old  waitress,  shot  to 
death  her  estranged  husband,  a  miner  called 
"Big  Mike"  Gregovich.  The  incident  brought 
to  a  head  a  long  series  of  allegations  con- 
cerning Mary's  "unruly"  house.  Veda 
Gregovich  and  her  mother.  Mrs.  Miklovitch. 
had  been  some  of  Geneva's  first  visitors.  Mr. 
Miklovitch  also  recentlv  had  been  a  prisoner 
there  in  count)  jail  on  a  liquor  charge.  Ac- 
cording to  the  prison's  records.  Geneva  was 
"5'  8-1/2"  tall;  Weight:  n/a;  Complexion: 
Fair;  Color  of  Eyes:  Gra);  Color  of  Hair: 
Brown;  Occupation:  Bookkeeper;  Marital 
Status:  Single;  Religion:  Methodist  Jlike  her 
mother]. 

-'  Criminal  Complaint.  State  of  Wyoming 
V.  Genevie  [sic]  Collett.  Sheridan  County 
Criminal  Case  File  #1708  filed  by  John  W. 
Songer.  Sheridan  County  Attorney  and  Pros- 
ecutor. Sheridan.  4  Nov  1 926.  original  file  at 
the  District  Court  Clerk's  Office  in  Sheridan. 

-"  "Genevieve  Collett  Shot  and  Killed  Mrs. 
B.F.  Tidwell  Here";  also  "Inquest  Wednes- 
day"; "Geneva  Collett  on  Trial  for  Her  Life"; 
"Events  Leading  to  Murder  of  Mattie 
Tidwell";  "Inquest  Wednesday." 

=3  Ibid. 

-■*  Justice  of  the  Peace  Interiin  Ruling  by 
Judge  J. F.  Hoop.  State  of  Wyoming  V.  Genevie 
[sic]  Corlett.  Her  name  subsequentl)  was 
corrected  on  the  Criminal  Docket  and  Infor- 
mation b\  the  court  via  "Criminal  Cause  No. 


S-i 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


1708."  when  her  case  went  that  December 
1 1  to  Judicial  Court  of  the  Fourth  Judicial 
District.  Sheridan  Count)'  Criminal  Case  File 
#1708..  22  Nov  1926:  also  "Miss  Collett 
Enters  Plea  of  Not  Guilty."  Sheridan  Jour- 
nal. 18  Nov  1926.  1(2); 

-^  "Doctors  Examine  Geneva  Collett  To 
Determine  Sanity."  Sheridan  Post-Enter- 
prise. 19  Nov  1926.  1. 

-*  "Geneva  Collett  Held  to  District  Court 
for  Trial."  Sheridan  .lournal.  25  Nov  1926. 
10(2) 

-'  "Geneva  Collett  Trial  Postponed  Two 
"Weeks."  Sheridan  Journal.  1 7  Feb  127.  1(6- 
7);  also  "Gene\a  Collett  on  Trial  for  Her 
Life."  Judge  D.D.  Murane  from  the  Hagens 
and  Murane  law  firm  of  Casper,  and  attor- 
ney H.C.  Crippen  of  Billings,  also  were  part 
of  the  defense  team  that  included  William 
■■Will"  G.  Metz  and  Carl  L.  Sackett.  The 
newspaper  reporter  also  claimed  that  "the 
attorneys  for  the  defense. ..did  not  take  this 
case,  until  after  the\  had  the  advice  of  physi- 
cians as  to  her  [Geneva's]  mental  condition, 
that  it  was  h>  no  means  normal,  and  that  they 
could  expect  to  pro\  e  insanity  when  the  case 
comes  to  trial." 

-'  Deposition  of  Mrs.  Tudor  Edwards.  1 1 
Feb  1927.  Slate  of  Wyoming  v.  Genevie  [sic] 
Collett.  Sheridan  County  Criminal  Case  File 
#  1 708;  also.  ■■District  Court  Convened  Mon- 
day." Sheridan  Journal.  1 6  Dec  1 926,  3(1); 
Notice  to  Take  Depositions.  State  of  Wyo- 
ming vs.  Geneva  Collett.  Sheridan  County 
Criminal  Case  File  #1708.  n.d.;  "Defense 
Again  Uses  Expert  Testimony  To  Pile  Up 
Evidence  Tending  To  Slayer  Of  Young 
Sheridan  Bride  Insane."  Sheridan  Post-En- 
terprise. 11  Mar  1927.  I.  During  her  sworn 
testimony  at  the  City  Hall  office  of  Justice 
Hoop  at  2  p.m..  on  11  Feb  1926.  Mrs. 
Edwards  said  that  her  shop  was  located  in 
the  Jackson  Apartments. 

-*  Ibid  Mrs.  Edwards,  who  came  to 
Sheridan  in  June  1925.  later  operated  the  Rex 
and  Modern  Beauty  Parlors  in  the  Anderson 
building  and  then  at  Jackson  apartments.  She 
later  claritied  her  statement  about  the  mone> . 
saying  Geneva  "didn't  tell  me  about  the 
money:  it  was  Mrs.  Hotchkiss." 

-^  "Geneva  Collett  Trial  Postponed  Two 
Weeks":  also  Geneva  Collett  Gets  Measles. 
Trial  Delayed."  Sheridan  Post-Enterprise.  1 7 
Feb  1927.  I .  Authorities  speculated  that  she 
may  have  contracted  the  disease  either  from 
a  visitor  to  the  jail  or  ■■on  one  of  her  trips 
down  town,  which  she  has  at  times  [been] 
allowed  to  do  in  custody  with  an  officer." 

3°  '-Collett  Murder  Trial  will  Start  Mon- 
day Morning."  Sheridan  Post-Enterprise.  6 
Mar  1927.  1.  Ilsley.  Judge  of  the  7"'  District 
at  Sundance,  filled  in  forjudge  James  H.  Bur- 
gess, who  was  holding  court  in  Newcastle. 

^'  "Geneva  Collett  on  Trial  for  Her  life." 


Sheridan  Journal.  10  Mar  1927.  1(6-7):  also 
"Trial  Notes."  Sheridan  Journal.  10  Mar 

1927.  12(2). 

'-  Ibid:  also.  Colorado  State  Penitentiary 
Record  for  Geneva  Collett  on  file  at  the  Colo- 
rado State  Archives.  Denver,  n.d. 

■'^  "Events  Leading  to  Murder  of  Mattie 
Tidwell."  Sheridan  Journal.  10  Mar  1927. 
1(7);  also.  ■■Geneva Collett.  Girl  Slayer.  Says 
■She  Double-Crossed  Me'";  "Attorneys  for 
Defense  Seek  to  Show  Insanity  of  Collett 
Woman  by  Details  of  Life  in  Testimonv  Pre- 
sented Tuesday."  op.  cit.:  "Effort  To  Prove 
Geneva  Collett  Insane  Leaves  Woman  Slayer 
Expressionless  Through  Longs  Days  in 
Courtroom  Here."  Sheridan  Post-Enterprise. 
1 0  Mar  1 927.  I :  Colorado  State  Penitentiary 
Record  for  Geneva  Collett.  Mr.  Elgin,  a 
former  employer  in  Casper,  said  later,  that 
he  ■■never  saw  Miss  Collett  angrv  during  the 
years  she  worked  for  him.  She  was  always 
good  natured.  efficient,  and  made  friends  rap- 
idl\."  She  had  an  appendectomy  on  31  Mar 
1925.  then  came  the  June  1926  surgery  that, 
medical  experts  would  claim,  changed  her  life 
.  .  .  and  mind. 

.According  to  several  newspaper  accounts 
[■■'Insanity'  of  Geneva  Collett  More  Notice- 
able Since  Trial  Started  State  Witnesses  Say." 
Sheridan  Post-Enterprise.  II  Mar  1927.  1]. 
There  also  were  allegations  at  Geneva's  trial 
that  she  had  been  arrested,  charged,  and  had 
plead  guilty  to  bootlegging  on  31  Dec  1925 
in  Billings.  The  author  however,  has  not  been 
able  to  substantiate  that  accusation. 

'■"  ■■Geneva  Collett  on  Trial  for  Her  Life": 
also.  ■■Insanity  Plea  Offered  B,\  Defense." 

^-  ■■Alienists  Testify  In  Collett  Trial":  '■Jury 
Did  Ignore  Expert  Testimony":  Minutes. 
Wyoming  Board  of  Pardons.  Vols.  #2.  26  Jul 

1928.  265-266;  Dr.  Courtney  Anne  Brown 
[board  certified  clinical  psychiatrist],  Louis- 
ville. KY.  to  author.  According  to  Dr.  Brown. 
■■Dementia  Precox  is  one  of  the  original  terms 
used  to  describe  schizophrenia.  There  are  dif- 
ferent types  of  schizophrenia.  One  type  is 
catatonic." 

""^  ■■Guilt)  of  Murder  in  the  First  Degree 
Is  Decision  of  the  Jur>."  Sheridan  Journal. 
18  Mar  1927.  I  (6-7).  1 2(2).  Included  in  those, 
who  noticed  the  great  difference  in  Genev  a's 
demeanor,  were  Mrs.  Andrew  McNeil  of 
Casper,  who  had  roomed  with  her  while 
Geneva  worked  in  that  cit\.  C.  M.  Elgin, 
proprietor  of  the  Elgin  Studio,  for  whom 
Geneva  worked  in  Casper  also  testified,  "she 
was  not  as  mentally  efficient  now  as  then." 
Other  w itnesses  as  to  her  mental  health  were 
I.  E.  Gilbert  of  Buffalo,  and  Mrs.  Bemice 
Webber,  who  roomed  with  her  in  that  city. 
Collett's  operation  was  performed  at  the 
Sheridan  County  Memorial  Hospital.  Ac- 
cording to  the  testimony  of  at  least  one  of 
the  doctors,  the  procedure  "removed  com- 


pletely most  of  her  vital  organs."  In  fact,  such 
vivid  descriptions  so  affected  one  elderly 
woman  at  the  March  7  hearing  that  she 
"fainted  while  listening  to  the  trial."  Accord- 
ing to  Doctor  Stevenson,  he  said  he  "felt  con- 
fident that  such  an  operation  might  have  a 
serious  effect  upon  the  nervous  system  and 
mental  faculties."  although  there  is  no  men- 
tion as  to  whether  Geneva  and  her  family 
were  so  warned  in  advance  of  that  procedure. 
Another  witness.  Dr.  F.A.  Dolan.  corrobo- 
rated practically  all  that  Doctor  Stevenson  had 
said,  stating  that  such  an  operation  "could 
cause  insanity."  and  that  he.  too.  had  noticed 
considerable  change  since  her  operation.  '■At 
least  five  or  six  doctors  and  mental  experts." 
according  to  one  article,  appeared  on  the  stand 
and  swore  "a  belief  that  the  defendant  was 
insane,  both  at  time  deed  was  committed"  as 
well  as  at  the  time  of  trial.  Nearly  the  same 
number  of  medical  experts,  however,  took 
the  stand  and  offered  conflicting  opinions. 

"  ■■Effort  To  Prove  Geneva  Collett  Insane 
Leaves  Woman  Slayer  Expressionless 
Through  Longs  Days  in  Courtroom  Here"  ; 
■"Several  Odd  Happenings  In  Woman's 
Trial."  Sheridan  Post-Enterprise.  1 3  Mar 
1 927.  I .  To  be  more  precise,  the  pillow  was 
"about  18  inches." 

^^  ■■Effort  To  Prove  Geneva  Collett  Insane 
Leaves  Woman  Slayer  Expressionless 
Through  Longs  Days  in  Courtroom  Here." 

■'"  ■■Collett  Trial  Opens  Here."  Sheridan 
Post-Enterprise.  1  Mar  1927.  1 :  also  "Effort 
to  Prove  Geneva  Collett  Insane  Leaves 
Woman  Slayer  Expressionless  Through 
Longs  Days  in  Courtroom  Here";  '■Collett 
Murder  Case  Goes  To  Jury":  "Guilty  of  Mur- 
der in  the  First  Degree  Is  Decision  of  the 
Jury ."  A  ripple  of  amusement  also  swept  the 
courtroom  when  a  T.  L.  Davis,  a  city  fire- 
man, testified  that  he  "had  been  keeping 
steady  company  with  the  defendant  'as  a 
sweetheart:'"  that  followed  his  previous  tes- 
timony that  he  knew  her  to  be  insane  at  that 
time.  Regarding  her  "love  life."  Dr.  C.  M. 
Schick,  who  examined  her.  said  Geneva  told 
him  that  she  '■didn't  care"  if  she  got  married 
although  she  acknowledged  that  she  had 
"men  friends."  Then,  with  a  laugh,  she  said 
that  she  didn't  care  for  women  as  friends  be- 
cause ■"you  can't  trust"  them." 

""'  Ibid. :  also  "Guilty  of  Murder  in  the  First 
Degree  Is  Decision  of  the  Jury.";  Journal 
Entr>'  and  Verdict  of  the  Jurv.  Stale  of  Wyo- 
ming V.  Geneva  Collett.  Sheridan  County 
Criminal  Case  File  #1708.  n.d.  The  jurors 
were;  Fred  Welter,  Henry  C.  Wales.  John 
Johnson,  James  D.  Reyhnolds,  CM.  Bayless, 
J.E.  Reisenweaver.  and  H.  E.  Zullig.  all  of 
Sheridan:  and  Frank  B.  Lotspeich  and  W.  H. 
Strayer  both  of  Kleenbum:  George  Williams. 
Ucross:  Alonzo  R.  Shreve.Wolf:  and  J.T. 
Kessinger.  Acme. 


Winter  '■200'2 


35 


■"  "Guilty  of  Murder  in  the  First  Degree 
Is  Decision  of  the  Jury";  also  "Woman  Sen- 
tenced to  Life  in  Prison,"  Sheridan  Post-En- 
terprise. 14  Mar  1927.  1;  "Geneva  Collett 
Murder  Trial  Cost  $3,504.86."  Wyoming 
Eagle.  Cheyenne.  22  Apr  1927.  10(  1);  State 
of  Wyoming  v.  Geneva  Collett.  Sheridan 
County  Criminal  Case  File  #  1 708.  n,d.  Nei- 
ther her  mother  nor  any  relative  was  with 
Geneva  either  at  the  time  of  the  verdict  or  at 
her  sentencing.  The  only  relative  represent- 
ing Mattie  was  Hartley  Tidweil.  her  brother- 
in-law.  Her  husband  and  child  did  not  return 
for  the  trial,  nor  did  her  father  attend.  The 
principal  expenses  for  her  trial  involved  the 
jur).  amounting  to  $1,100.  .Additional  ap- 
proximate costs  were  for  counsel  ($1,000). 
witnesses  ($900).  and  miscellaneous  ex- 
penses. ($500) 

"*-  Not  only  was  Geneva  the  "first  woman 
to  be  given  a  life  term  in  Wyoming."  but  "the 
state  has  never  condemned  a  woman  to 
death."  "Sheridan  Woman  First  to  be  Given 
Sentence  of  Life."  Sheridan  Post-Enterprise. 
14  Mar  1927.  1.  Also,  according  to  records 
of  the  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Reform, 
at  the  time  of  "Geneva's  sentence,  only  "36 
women  have  been  given  penitentiary  terms 
since  Wyoming  became  a  state  while  3.850 
men  have  been  sent  to  the  state's  penal  insti- 
tution." The  correct  number,  however,  was 
55  women  sentenced.  Geneva  was  the  36th 
woman  prisoner  to  be  sent  out  of  state. 

■•-'  "I'm  faking  My  Medicine  Now." 
Sheridan  Post-Enterprise.  16  Mar  1927.  1. 
She  also  said  that  "I'm  still  very  tired  and 
worn  out  from  the  long  trial  ...  No.  1  didn't 
read  the  papers  during  m\  trial ...  to  read  some 
papers  w  ilh  their  sensational  crime  news  will 
drive  one  'nuts'  anyway."  she  added.  As  the 
reporter,  on  leaving,  closed  the  heavy  iron 
door  of  her  cell,  she  bade  him  goodbye  and 
said.  "Well.  I  may  see  >  ou  again  as  long  as  1 
am  here,  there  is  still  a  chance." 

■'"'  Miss  Collett  Sent  to  Colorado  Pen." 
Sheridan  Post-Enterprise.  17  Mar  1927.  1. 
Before  being  driven  awa\.  Geneva  thanked 
each  member  of  the  sheriff's  staff  for  the 
way  they  had  treated  her  during  her  four-and- 
a-half  months  in  jail. 

■*'  "Guilty  of  Murder  in  the  First  Degree 
Is  Decision  of  the  .lury";  also  State  of  Wyo- 
ming V.  Geneva  Collett.  Sheridan  County 
Criminal  Case  File  #1708. 

■•"  "Prison  Gates  Clank  On  Pretty  Woman 
Life  Termer  Who  Sighs  Because  Birds  Aren't 
Chirping."  Canon  City  Daily.  19  Mar  1927; 
also  Geneva  Collett  Records.  Inmate  #13916. 
Colorado  State  Penitentiary.  Before  leaving 
the  hotel,  her  last  act  was  to  send  the  follow- 
ing telegram  to  her  mother:  "We  arrived  here 
at  nine  forty-five  last  night.  We  are  going  out 
this  morning.  Goodbye,  with  love  Geneva." 

■"  Geneva  Collett  Records,  Inmate 


#13916,  Colorado  State  Penitentiary. 

■"*  "Woman  Recalls  Events  During  Prison 
Career."  Post-Advocate.  San  Gabriel.  Calif. 
1956;  also  "Search  Topic  was  Mar\ 
Fitzgerald  -  Supt.  at  women's  Prison  at  Canon 
City.  CO"  researched  by  Lucile  Sanger,  on 
file  at  the  Local  History  Center.  Canon  City 
Library.  Carton  City.  January,  1943.  1  he 
original  building  was  a  stone  structure  48'  b> 
109'  and  was  a  two-stories  high.  There  was 
a  basement  that  measured  18'  by  30'.  This 
facility,  built  in  1908-1909.  had  40  cells  along 
the  outer  walls  of  the  second  fioor.  The  hall- 
u  a>  between  the  two  rows  of  cells  was  called 
the  "Rec.  Corridor"-  an  area  for  exercise.  I  he 
first  floor  of  this  building  had  a  reception 
room  and  the  few  necessary  hospital  rooms, 
bath  and  toilet.  The  basement  contained  an 
1 8'  by  30'  dining  room,  kitchen,  laundry,  fur- 
nace and  storage  Heat  was  provided  by  a  hot 
water  system.  In  the  1920s,  inmates  and  stalT 
had  a  radio  and  a  phonograph  in  the  "Red 
Corridor."  During  the  3  Oct  1929  not  -  the 
worst  in  the  prison's  historv' -"Mrs.  Fitzgerald 
was  held  hostage  for  29  hours  w  ithout  lights 
or  phone."  Near  the  tiine  of  the  riot,  there 
were  25  women  inmates.  I'hey  wore  the  tra- 
ditional blue  and  white  uniforms.  No  educa- 
tional or  recreational  activities  were  offered 
the  women.  The\  did  some  sew  ing  and  craft 
things.  Marv' [the  matron  I  worked  12-hour 
shifts  and  was  relieved  at  night  by  a  G.S. 
Campbell. 

■•"  Ihid  After  adjusting  to  her  new  lite, 
the  authorities  let  her  -  like  other  inmates  - 
"furnish  her  cell  as  comfortablv  as  the  hotel 
room  she  left"  that  morning. 

^"  "Collett  Case  Is  Carried  to  Higher 
Court."  Sheridan  Post-Enterprise.  17  Mar 
1927.  I. 

^'  "Prison  Cjates  Clank  (^)n  Prettv  Woman 
Life  fermer  Who  Sighs  Because  Birds  Aren't 
Chirping." 

^-  "Collett  Case  Is  Carried  to  Higher 
Court";  also,  "Mrs.  G.S.  Loubct  Now  In 
Cation  City  Trv  ing  to  Get  Geneva  Out  of 
Prison."  Sheridan  Post-Enterprise.  25  Mar 
1927.  1;  Minutes.  Wyoming  Board  of  Par- 
dons. Vols  #2,  (microfilm).  11  Jul  1928. 
261.271-272,  Wyoming  State  Archives. 
Cheyenne.  Mrs.  Loubet.  who  claimed  to  be 
a  "sister  of  Geneva's  father,"  seems  to  have 
been  a  fraud  as  well  as  a  mvsterv'.  because 
nothing  further  has  been  learned  other  and 
her  motiv es.  She  repeatedlv  went  to  the  Board 
of  Pardons  on  Geneva's  behalf  and  visited 
the  murderer  in  the  penitentiary  at  Canon 
City.  According  to  the  minutes  of  the  State 
Board  of  Pardons,  the  secretarv'  "read  to  the 
board  a  letter  from  the  Warden  of  the  Colo- 
rado State  Penitentiary  with  reference  to  the 
illness  of  Geneva  Collett  and  the  cost  of  treat- 
ment. He  stated  that  Geneva  had  a  peculiar 
skin  trouble,  treatment  for  which  is  too  ex- 


pensive to  be  covered  by  the  sum  paid  by  the 
State  of  Wvoming  for  care  of  prisoners. 
Motion  carried,  if  nothing  appears  in  the  con- 
tract to  the  contrary .  the  state  [  W\  oming]  pa\ 
for  the  medical  care." 

-'  "Girl  Slayer  Waits  Action  Of  Court 
Here,"  Sheridan  Post-Enterprise.  13  Apr 
1927.  1;  also.  Minutes,  Wyoming  Board  of 
Pardons.  Vols.  #2.  26  Jul  1 928.  265-266.3 1 6: 
30  Feb  1930.  376;  10  Mar  1930.  390-391. 
Mrs.  Collett  and  her  brother-in-law.  a  "Mr. 
Cook."  appeared  before  the  Board  of  Pardons 
and  asked  that  Geneva's  sentence  be  "com- 
muted to  five  years  and  that  she  be  moved  to 
some  institution  in  Wyoming.  The  mother 
reported  that  Geneva's  health  is  not  good  and 
that  she  is  much  dissatisfied.  Mr.  Cook  asked 
if  it  would  be  possible  to  have  her  transferred 
to  Evanston."  Even  Sheridan  County  Sher- 
iff Lord  recommended  that  "some  change 
should  be  made  for  this  girl  as  present  condi- 
tions in  Canon  Cit\  are  not  good."  The  Board, 
however,  recommended  no  clemencv .  De- 
fense attorney  Will  Met/  went  to  the  peni- 
tentiarv  in  Canon  Cit\  "for  the  purpose  of 
investigating  her  condition.  Dr.  Holmes,  the 
prison  physician.  sa\s  the  medical  bills  for 
her  have  been  more  than  for  the  entire  insti- 
tution." Other  medical  experts,  including  a 
psychiatrist,  urged  the  Board  of  Pardons  to 
have  her  transferred  to  a  hospital  that  not  onK 
specialized  in  mental  problems,  but  could 
treat  Geneva's  phvsical  ailments  as  well. 
The_\,  too.  proved  unsuccessful  in  having 
Geneva's  circumstances  changed.  Geneva 
herself  wrote  several  times  to  Governor 
f-^merson.  asking  him  to  grant  her  clemency. 

^^  Minutes.  Board  of  Charities  &  Reform. 
Cheyenne.  3  Feb  1930.  376, 

^^  Minutes.  Board  of  Pardons.  Vols.  #2, 
26  Jul  1928.265-266. 

'"  Minutes.  Board  of  Pardons.  Vols.  #2. 
10  Mar  1930,  390-391.  Although  the  ma- 
tron in  charge  of  the  woman's  facilities  in 
Lansing  -  Miss  Amy  G.  Abbott  -  originallv 
said  she  "could  not  take  Wyoming  prison- 
ers," she  subsequentlv  went  to  her  Governor. 
C.  M,  Reed,  who  arranged  for  the  agreement 
to  be  approv  ed. 

-''  Mike  Neve.  Classification  Administra- 
tor. Kansas  State  Industrial  Farm,  Lansing, 
KS,  to  author,  8  Dec  1997;  also,  "Claimed 
She  Was  Improved,"  Sheridan  Post-Enter- 
prise. 6  Oc\  1930,  I.  "For  a  number  of  V  ears 
the  state  of  Wvoming  has  been  keeping  its 
women  pri.soners  at  the  penitentiarv  here  and 
[of  30  w  omen  inmates,  including  Colorado 
women  plus  a  few  federal  con\  icts]  four  or 
five  of  them  are  now  imprisoned  here." 
"Wyoming  Women  Convicts  to  be  Sent  to 
Kansas."  Canon  City  Daily  Record.  Canon 
City.  25  Apr  1930. 

Despite  continued  efforts  in  her  behalf 
Geneva  wrote  the  following  on  15  Septem- 


36 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


ber  1930  to  Miss  Abbot,  her  matron:  "'Sorry 
friends  speaking  in  tn\  behalf  have  exagger- 
ated m>  phs  sical  condition.  I  feel  much  bet- 
ter here  than  1  did  in  Colorado.  I  believe  that 
I  am  stronger  from  the  standpoint  of  having 
abetterview  of  lifethan  when  1  came  here.  I 
am  reallv  stud.ving  my  real  self  and  am  try- 
ing to  get  adjusted  in  such  a  \va\  that  1  may 
be  an  asset  to  the  state  to  which  I  may  go." 

-^  "Geneva  Collett  Is  Found  Dead  In  Bed 
At  Kansas  Prison  Farm."  Sheridan  Post-En- 
terprise. 6  Oct  1930.  1(1);  also.  "Geneva 
Collett.  Murderer  of  Mrs.  Mattie  Tidwell, 
Dead  at  Kansas  State  Industrial  Farm." 
Sheridan  Journal.  7  Oct  1930.  1(7-8),  Her 
sister  Pearl,  who  had  visited  her  just  three 
weeks  prior  to  her  death,  said  "she  was  in 
critical  condition  at  that  time." 

5'  "Heart  Attack  Proves  Fatal  After  Ill- 
ness." Sheridan  Post-Enterprise.  6  Oct  1 930. 
1(1  ):aIso.  "Geneva  Collett.  Murderer  of  Mrs. 
Mattie  Tidwell.  Dead  at  Kansas  State  Indus- 


trial Farm."  Sheridan  Journal.  7  Oct  1930. 
1(7-8):  Minutes.  Board  of  Pardons.  Vols.  #2. 
I  [or  4?]  Dec  1 930. 49 1 :  Geneva  Collett.  Cer- 
tificate of  Death:  Ray  Adames.  Sweetwater. 
Texas,  to  author.  26  Jun  2001.  At  the  re- 
quest of  the  Collett  familv.  the  State  Board 
of  Pardons  agreed  to  reimburse  the  family 


$60  for  Geneva's  burial  expenses.  That  was 
the  amount  the  it  would  cost  the  State  of 
Wyoming  to  bury  a  male  prisoner  at  its  peni- 
tentiary in  Rawlins.  According  to  Mr. 
Adames.  w  ho  is  responsible  for  the  Cit>'  Cem- 
eterv'  records  in  Sweetwater.  Geneva  is  bur- 
ied there  in  Block  39.  Lot  10. 


Larn'  Brown  is  author  of  six  books  and  numerous  articles.  He  also 
has  written  short  stories  published  in  prestigious  magazines.  Wyo- 
ming Writers.  Inc.,  honored  his  Hog  Ranches  of  Wyoming:  Liquor, 
Lust  and  Lies  Under  Sagebrush  Skies,  with  a  "Western  Horizon" 
Award.  The  Old  Pen  Joint  Powers  Board  in  Rawlins  published  his 
Petticoat  Prisoners  of  the  Wyoming  Frontier  Prison  (1995).  Petti- 
coat Prisoners  of  Old  Wyoming,  published  by  High  Plains  Press  in 
2001.  received  the  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society:  "Publications" 
award  last  year.  Brown  has  been  a  frequent  contributor  to  Annals. 


Book  Reviews 

Significant  Recent  Books  on  Western  and  Wyoming  History 

Edited  by  Carl  Hallberg 


Playing  Indian.  By  Philip  J.  Deloria. 
New  Haven:  Yale  University  Press, 
1998.  264  pp.  llhis..  notes,  index. 
Cloth.  S30: paper,  SI 3.95. 

Reviewed  by  Matthew  Dennis,  Univer- 
sity of  Oregon 

For  more  than  two  hundred  years,  even 
before  Crevecoueur  asked  his  famous 
question  -  "What.  then,  is  the  American, 
this  new  man?"  -  white  Americans  have 
struggled  with  an  identity  problem,  and 
their  imaginative  solutions  have  often 
involved  "playing  Indian."  Philip  J. 
Deloria's  Playing  Indian  brilliantly 
limns  the  complicated  process  in  which 
non-Indians  imagined  themselves  as  In- 
dians, claimed  Indian  identities,  and 
acted  out  their  fantasies  in  their  efforts 
to  define  and  redefine  themselves  as 
Americans.  Playing  Indian  is  sophisti- 
cated, theoretically-informed  cultural 
history,  yet  throughout  it  remains  engag- 
ing, accessible,  and  compelling,  free  of 
jargon  and  inviting  to  general  readers. 
A  rare  achievement.  Playing  Indian 
changes  the  way  we  see  American  cul- 
ture. 


Deloria's  chronological  range  is  aston- 
ishing, as  he  moves  from  the  Boston  Tea 
Party's  Mohawk  masquerade  to  the 
postmodern  rites  and  festivals  of  late 
20th  century's  counterculture  and  New 
Age.  Throughout  this  tour,  the  analysis 
is  perceptive,  fair,  and  respectful  as 
Deloria  reconstructs  the  experiences, 
thoughts,  and  expressions  of  historical 
actors,  not  to  ridicule  or  dismiss  them 
but  rather  to  make  their  (often  strange) 
behavior  comprehensive  and  to  explain 
white  America's  love-hate  relationship 
with  North  America's  native  people. 
Nonetheless,  the  author  pulls  no  punches 
in  analyzing  the  impact  and  failures  of 
non-Indians  appropriation  of  Indian- 
ness.  Though  his  focus  is  primarily  on 
non-Indian  imaginers.  he  offers  signifi- 
cant insights  as  well  on  the  historical 
experience  of  real  Indian  people  and  their 
own  struggle  to  endure  and  sometimes 
even  use  white  Indian  play  for  their  own 
empowerment.  This  is  no  mere  clever 
textual  or  disembodied  investigation; 
unlike  some  works  in  cultural  studies. 
Playing  Indian  s  arguments  are  expertly 
placed  in  the  context  of  American  so- 
cial, economic  and  political  history. 


During  the  American  Revolution, 
Americans  masked  themselves  as  Indi- 
ans to  assert  physically  and  metaphori- 
cally their  new,  non-British  identity, 
which  they  grounded  in  the  North 
American  landscape  associated  with  na- 
tive people.  After  the  Revolution's  suc- 
cess, patriotic  and  fraternal  organizations 
-  like  the  Tammany  Society,  in  the  days 
before  it  became  a  political  machine  in 
New  York  City  -  dressed  up  like  Indi- 
ans to  dissociate  themselves  from  Brit- 
ain and  to  lay  claim  to  a  unique,  indig- 
enous status  in  America.  As  the  heirs  of 
Tainmany,  or  other  mythic  Indians,  these 
men  and  others  could  believe  themselves 
entitled  to  possess  not  merely  a  new 
American  identity  but  title  to  the  land 
itself  supposedly  abandoned  by  the  "van- 
ishing" American  Indian.  Yet,  as  white 
Americans  pushed  westward  and  en- 
countered real  Indians  ~  who  have  never 
vanished  -  and  engaged  them  with  vio- 
lence, imaginative  association  with  In- 
dians became  more  problematic. 

By  the  late  19th  century,  modernity 
made  this  early  American  world  seemed 
distant,  while  the  changes  (and  prob- 
lems) associated  with  population  expan- 


Winter  200'2 


sion,  urbanization,  massive  immigration, 
and  industrial  capitalism  were  both 
proximate  and  daunting.  Indians  again 
served  as  models  for  anxious  white  elites 
who  hoped  to  restore  a  sense  of  authen- 
ticity and  vitality  to  American  life,  to  cul- 
tivate manliness  among  men  and  natu- 
ral feminine  qualitiesto  women,  particu- 
larly in  programs  designed  for  children. 
like  the  Boy  Scouts.  Camp  Fire  Girls,  and 
various  summer  camps.  Following 
World  War  II.  Indian  play  addressed 
anxieties  about  personal  identity  and 
meaning  in  an  age  often  characterized 
by  mass  conformity.  In  more  recent 
times.  non-Indians  appropriated  Indian 
identities  to  cope  with  their  fragmented, 
"postmodern" condition.  Delorias stor> 
ends  in  the  multicultural  present,  as 
Americans  continue  to  act  out  their  In- 
dian fantasies  into  the  21st  century, 
sometimes  harmlessly,  sometimes  not. 
but  as  always  tilled  with  contradictions 
and  ironies. 

The  above  summary  cannot  do  justice 
to  Deloria"s  important  book,  a  bright  il- 
lumination about  the  history  of  white 
America's  understating  of  Indians  and 
of  itself  Playlni^  Imiiun  is  an  essential 
text  in  American  cultural  history. 


The  Frontier  Army  in  the  Settle- 
ment of  the  West.  By  Michael  L. 
Tate.  Norman:  University  of  Okla- 
homa Press,  1999.  416  pp.  Illus.. 
maps,  notes,  bib.,  index.  Cloth. 
$34. 95. 

Reviewed  by  Malcolm  E.  Taylor,  .Albu- 
querque, l\M 

Michael  L.  Tate's  The  Frontier  .Army 
in  tlie  Settlement  o{ the  H'est  is  an  ex- 
ceptional book  for  its  genre.  Each  of  the 
twelve  chapters  contains  the  seeds  of  one 
or  more  full-length  books.  That  is  both 
its  strength  and  a  source  of  frustration. 
Tate  has  managed  to  provide  just  enough 
information  to  pique  the  reader's  inter- 
est but  not  enough  to  sate  it.  In  this,  he 
has  accomplished  two  of  his  stated  goals: 
to  write  a  book  that  "provides  the  neces- 
sary synthesis  to  tie  together  the  diverse 
topics  [found  in  the  various  chapters] 
into  an  understandable  whole"  and  "to 
suggest  to  other  researchers  how  much 
still  needs  to  be  done  with  the  individual 


dimensions  of  the  army's  role."  One  can 
only  accept  his  word  that  he  has  accom- 
plished his  third  goal  -  to  give  the  reader 
"the  most  complete  bibliography  yet  as- 
sembled on  the  multipurpose  army  con- 
cept." 

Whetherornot  his  bibliography  is  the 
most  complete  yet  assembled  on  the 
topic.  The  Frontier  .Irmy  in  llie  Setlle- 
meni  of  the  We.si  is  v\ell  written  and  thor- 
oughly enjoyable  to  read.  Tate  makes 
extensive  use  of  primary  and  secondary 
sources  to  show  that  two  common  ste- 
reotypes regarding  the  frontier  amiy  are 
essentially  false.  The  soldiers  who  made 
up  that  army  were  neither  the  glamor- 
ous and  dashing  heroes  portra\ed  in  the 
paintings  of  Frederick  Remington  and 
the  movies  of  John  Ford,  nor  the  blood 
thirsty  racists  portra\ed  in  Kevin 
Costner's  Danees  Wiih  Wolves  (I9Q0). 
Rather,  the  frontier  army  was.  in  Tate's 
words,  a  "multi-purpose  army."  It  was 
made  up  of  explorers,  road  builders,  and 
men  who  improved  the  nation's  river 
transportation.  Many  officers  and  en- 
listed men  collected  scientific  data, 
which  the\'  shared  with  eastern  scholars. 
A  number  were  artists,  and  more  than  a 
few  were  writers.  Their  works  published 
in  newspapers  and  magazines  did  much 
to  popularize  and  romanticize  frontier 
life.  Tate  also  makes  it  clear  that  the 
army  played  a  significant  role  in  the  ex- 
pansion of  rail,  telegraph,  and  postal  ser- 
vice to  the  western  United  States,  and 
was  responsible  for  the  establishment  of 
the  weather  service.  He  also  points  out 
that  civilian  communities  frequently 
grew  up  around  the  army's  frontier  out- 
posts. When  this  happened,  civilian  com- 
munities profited  from  the  army  payroll 
and  with  their  access  to  schools,  librar- 
ies, chapels,  and  hospitals  that  the  army 
provided  for  the  welfare  of  its  troops. 

This  book,  in  all  likelihood,  will  be  rel- 
egated to  the  reference  section  of  col- 
lege and  university  libraries.  There,  it 
will  not  be  available  to  secondary  school 
students  who.  if  they  read  it.  would  t1nd 
the  stimulus  to  scholarship  that  Tate  is 
hoping  his  fellow  professors  will  find. 
The  Frontier  .Army  in  the  Settlement  of 
the  West  belongs  in  classroom  reference 
sets  of  every  United  States  history  ad- 
vanced placement  class. 


Crossing  the  Pond:  The  Native 
American  Effort  in  World  War  II. 

By  Jere"  Bishop  Franco.  Denton: 
University  of  North  Texas  Press, 
1999.  296  pp  Illus..  notes,  bib., 
im/e.x.   Paper.  $29.95. 

Reviewed  by  John  W.  Heaton,  Utah 
Stale  L  niversity 

Jere'  Bishop  Franco's  Crossing  the 
Pond'\s  volume  seven  in  the  University 
of  North  Texas  Press's  War  and  the 
Southwest  Series.  This  collection  exam- 
ines the  actions  of  southwest  veterans 
around  the  world  as  well  as  militar\'  life 
in  the  region  itself  and  spans  the  contact 
period  between  Europeans  and  Native 
Americans  to  the  present.  As  such. 
Franco's  book  seems  an  odd  fit.  The 
author's  narrative  ranges  well  beyond  the 
experiences  of  southwestern  Indians. 
Crossing:  the  Pond a\so  explores  w artime 
contributions  of  Indians  from  New  York, 
Canada,  Alaska,  and  other  Nonh  Ameri- 
can locations. 

According  to  Franco.  American  Indi- 
ans took  the  notion  of  serving  their  coun- 
try seriously  during  World  War  II  and 
contributed  to  the  war  effort  in  a  variety 
of  ways.  When  the  war  ended,  they  re- 
turned to  their  reservations  and  expected 
to  "participate  in  "a  better  America"  as 
the  'First  Americans'"  (p.  ix).  These  pa- 
triotic Indians,  the  author  asserts, 
served  not  only  as  role  models  for  their 
peoples  but  for  all  Americans. 

This  book  is  a  response  to  Sherry 
Smith's  challenge  in  a  Western  Histori- 
eal  Ouarlerly  article  to  focus  on  "rela- 
tionships between  ethnic  groups,  the 
military,  and  the  government"  (p.  xv). 
Using  government  documents  and 
manuscript  interviews,  the  author  has 
crafted  a  narrative  detailing  many  aspects 
of  Indian  contributions  to  the  w  ar  effort. 
Chapter  one  tells  the  story  of  Nazi 
Gennany's  attempt  to  use  Indians  to  sub- 
vert the  Roosevelt  administration  during 
the  1930s  by  supporting  the  efforts  of 
Indian  critics,  such  as  Alice  Lee  Jemison, 
of  the  Bureau  of  Indian  Affairs.  The 
Nazi's  overestimated  their  success  in 
winning  Indian  allies  and  their  failed  ef- 
forts demonstrated  that  most  Indians  re- 
mained loyal  to  the  United  States.  In 
chapter  two.  Franco  considers  the  re- 


38 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


sponse  of  Indians  to  Uncle  Sam's  call  to 
arms.  Although  many  individuals  and 
tribal  groups  did  not  want  to  enlist,  Indi- 
ans as  a  whole  committed  to  the  war  ef- 
fort by  volunteering  in  relatively  high 
numbers.  Moreover,  despite  early  bu- 
reaucratic confusion  over  jurisdiction 
and  status,  government  officials  were 
pleased  with  the  one  hundred  percent 
Indian  registration  rate  for  the  draft.  The 
war  provided  new  opportunities  for 
chronically  underemployed  reservation 
Indians  who  were  not  eligible  for  the 
draft.  The  third  chapter  reveals  that  al- 
though full  tribal  employment  brought 
obvious  benefits,  it  ultimately  threatened 
Indian  status  when  post-war  critics  of 
federal  Indian  policy  used  Indian  war 
contributions  as  proof  that  Indians  could 
and  would  assimilate.  Chapter  four 
proves  the  level  of  tribal  economic  sup- 
port for  the  war  effort.  Many  tribal 
groups  purchased  war  bonds  and  allowed 
the  government  to  lease  and  develop  cru- 
cial natural  resources  on  reservation 
lands.  In  chapter  six,  the  author  discusses 
the  largely  unknown  use  of  Indians  in 
government  propaganda  to  build  popu- 
lar support  for  the  war.  While  the  gov- 
ernment portrayed  Indians  in  a  positive 
light,  Indians  did  not  control  the  new 
media  image  being  created  of  patriotic, 
but  still  e.xotic,  Indians.  The  only  chap- 
ter to  consider  the  overseas  duty  of  Indi- 
ans during  the  war,  chapter  seven,  fo- 
cuses not  on  combat  but  on  the  experi- 
ences unique  to  Indian  servicemen  as 
they  attempted  to  deal  with  loneliness 
and  culture  shock  in  distant  lands.  The 
Santa  Fe  Indian  Club,  originally  an  In- 
dian school  social  club,  evolved  into  an 
institution  for  Indian  servicemen  from 
New  Mexico,  providing  a  news  forum 
and  message  board  to  help  Indian  sol- 
diers stay  in  touch  with  fi-iends,  relatives, 
and  news  about  other  Indian  soldiers 
from  their  state.  Chapter  eight  examines 
the  positive  impact  of  World  War  II  ser- 
vice on  Indian  activism  and  self-deter- 
mination. In  her  afterword.  Franco  ar- 
gues that  the  government  rewarded  In- 
dian patriotism  with  termination  and  re- 
location. As  a  result,  Indian  rejection  of 
mainstream  culture  helped  create  a  revi- 
talization  movement  in  the  1960s  and 
1970s  known  as  Red  Power. 
This  solidly  researched  study  provides 


a  good  overview  of  the  World  War  II  era 
of  American  Indian  history.  Although 
the  book's  title  infers  a  study  of  Indian 
military  service  during  the  war,  students 
of  American  military  history  will  be  dis- 
appointed in  the  focus.  However,  those 
interested  in  the  World  War  II  home 
front,  Indian  history,  or  the  civil  rights 
movement  will  find  much  to  admire  in 
this  work. 


Union  Pacific:  Crossing  Sherman 
Hill  and  Other  Railroad  Stories. 

By  Bess  Arnold.  David  City,  Nebr.: 
South  Platte  Press,  1999.  81  pp. 
I/his..  bib..  Paper,  $19.95. 

Reviewed  by  Charles  AIbi,  Executive 
Director,  Colorado  Railroad  Museum 

Books  about  railroads  tend  to  fall  into 
two  categories.  Some  are  academic  busi- 
ness histories  written  by  professional 
historians.  Many  others  are  published 
for  rail  enthusiasts  and  are  filled  with 
photographs  and  technical  data  about 
locomotives  and  cars.  Union  Pacific: 
Crossing  Sherman  Hill  and  Other  Rail- 
road Stories  addresses  a  previously  ne- 
glected topic,  recording  the  first  hand 
accounts  of  those  who  have  spent  their 
working  lives  as  railroaders.  An  intro- 
duction by  Union  Pacific  Manager  of 
Train  Operating  Practices  Stephen  A. 
Lee  provides  an  historical  perspective  for 
this  fine  collection  of  reminiscences. 

The  author,  a  freelance  writer  who 
graduated  from  the  University  of  Wyo- 
ming after  a  career  with  the  Wyoming 
Education  Association,  has  interviewed 
27  Union  Pacific  railroaders  whose  col- 
lective experience  spans  the  period  from 
1917  to  the  present.  Their  jobs  range 
from  locomotive  engineer  to  club  car 
steward,  from  section  hand  to  division 
superintendent.  Today,  when  a  person 
must  anticipate  working  for  several  em- 
ployers during  a  lifetime,  it  is  remark- 
able that  this  group  averaged  40  years 
each  and  one  55  years  before  retirement. 

Their  accounts  are  presented  in  a 
straightforward  manner  and  avoid  the 
unnecessary  embellishments  that  often 
characterize  memories  of  the  "good  old 


days."  While  some  recall  unusual 
wrecks,  blizzards  or  an  encounter  with  a 
traveling  movie  star,  their  common 
theme  is  the  satisfaction  derived  from 
overcoming  the  daily  challenge  of  get- 
ting trains  over  the  hill.  Railroads  were 
then  and  remain  vital  to  the  well-being 
of  the  nation,  although  this  fact  is  not 
generally  appreciated  today.  These  folks 
knew  their  jobs  were  important. 

Several  individuals  vividly  remember 
the  notorious  blizzard  of  1949.  Others 
mention  C.  J.  Colombo,  an  official  tough 
enough  to  have  bossed  the  Wyoming 
Division  longer  than  any  other  superin- 
tendent, yet  known  for  his  fairness,  his 
willingness  to  work  alongside  his  men, 
and  even  for  his  occasional  sense  of  hu- 
mor. In  spite  of  hard  work,  long  hours, 
danger,  intennittent  layoffs,  and  ornery 
officials,  these  railroaders  reflect  pride 
in  their  work  and  loyalty  to  the  company. 
There  is  a  lesson  here  that  could  benefit 
modem  corporate  managers. 

Although  a  chapter  is  devoted  to  wives 
who  had  their  own  special  challenge  in 
raising  a  family  during  a  life  of  frequent 
moves  and  extended  periods  of  "single 
parenting,"  one  wishes  that  the  author 
had  been  able  to  interview  some  women 
railroaders.  There  have  been  many  over 
the  years,  especially  during  World  War 
II.  Today  female  engineers,  while  not 
numerous,  are  by  no  means  uncommon. 

More  than  50  excellent  photographs 
evoke  the  drama  of  railroading  over 
Sherman  Hill,  perhaps  the  most  famous 
locale  on  Union  Pacific's  transcontinen- 
tal mainline.  One  of  an  engineer  high  in 
the  cab  of  a  "Big  Boy"  steam  locomo- 
tive, ready  for  another  battle  with  the 
grades  over  Sherman  Hill,  personifies  a 
memory  for  many  of  us  who  grew  up 
before  1960.  The  view  on  page  43  cap- 
tures the  ferocity  of  a  Wyoming  blizzard 
better  than  any  other  this  reviewer  has 
seen.  Several  images  were  taken  by 
eminent  rail  historian  and  photographer 
Jim  Ehrenberger  of  Cheyenne,  himself 
a  retired  35-year  Union  Pacific  veteran. 

There  is  a  little  bit  of  a  railfan  in  ev- 
eryone. Bess  Arnold's  book  helps  one 
understand  why  this  is  true. 


Winter  2002 


39 


INDEX,  Winter,  2002 


Alcorn.  Roscoe  32 

Angus.  SheritT  Red   IQ 

Barber.  Gov  Amos   1 8.  22 

Barkey.  John   16 

Barrier.  Dr  Henr\  W,  27 

Beloburk.  Mar\   26 

Bevins.  Bill    15 

Big  Laramie  River  crossing   14 

Billings.  Montana  2*^ 

Board  of  Livestock  Commissioners 

Board  of  Pardons  3  1 
Braucht.  G.  A.  30 
Bridger  Pass  stage  station   14 
Brown.  Arapahoe   1 9 
Brown.  DC    18 
Brown.  Larrv  K    24.  (bio.  36) 
Broun,  Lewis  H    4 
Bryan.  William  Jennings  8 
Buffalo.  Foote  moves  to   16 
ButTalo-Clearmont  Railroad  28 
Burritt.  Charles  H,  21,22 
Business  and  Professional 

Women's  Club  6.  7 
Camp  Floyd   1 1 
Campaign  poster  (illus.)  7 
Canton,  Frank   17.  19.22 
Capitol  Theatre  7 
Carey.  Joseph  M  21 
Carroll.  Murray  L,  9.  (bio.  23) 
catatonia  dementia  precox  24 
Catt.  Carrie  Chapman  8 
Champion.  Nate   18 
Cheyenne  Frontier  Days  5 
Cheyenne  River   11.   12 
Cheyenne  Women's  Club  4 
Chicago  Worlds'  Fair  22 
Child  Labor  Law   4 
Churchill.  Edmund  20,21,22 
Clark.  C,  D.  21 
Clay,  John  22 

Clay,  Robinson  &  Company  22 
Coad,  Mark   14 
Coffeen.  Henry  A.  22 
Cole.  Thad   18.22 
Collett.  Geneva  24 
Collett.  Mary  Jane  "Jenny"  2.5 
Collett.  Pearl  25 

Collett.  Robert  24.  26.  (photo.  30) 
Collett,  Samuel  A    24 
Collier  Trophy  4 
Collins,  Col.  William  O,    12 
Colorado  State  Penitentiary 

24.  30.  31.  (photo,  30) 
Cone,  Maurice  A.  28 
Conference  of  Governors  5.  6 
Cooke.  Philip  St,  George   10 
Coolidge.  Calvin.  Ross  attends 

inaugural  of  4 
Com.  Samuel  T.  22 
Cowley  Progress  6 
Crane.  Dr  R  E    27 
Crossing  the  Pond:  The  Native 

American  Effort  in  World 

War  IL  reviewed  37 


Dacey,  M.  F.  4 

Daley,  Frank   13 

Davis,  Walter  26 

Deloria.  Philip  J  ,  Pla\  ing  Indian 

36 
Dennis.  Matthew,  rev  iewer  36 
Denver  Woman's  Press  Club  6 
"Discovering  Her  Strength:  1  he 

Remarkable  Transformation 

of  Nellie  Tayloe  Ross."  2-8 
Dundee,  Forfarshire.  Scotland  9 
l-lgin  Shoe  and  Clothing  Stor  29 
1 1th  Ohio  Volunteer  Cavalry    12 
Elk  Mountain   14.   16 
Emerson.  Gov,  Frank  8 
Evans.  E,  A,  26 
Ferguson.  Miriam  "Ma"  6 
Finfrock,  Dr  J,  W,    14 
Fitzgerald,  Mary  31 
Flagg.  Jack   18.  19 
Fletcher.  Mary    13 
Floyd,  John  B,   1 1 
Foote,  Amanda  23 
Foote,  Byron   15.  23 
Foote  Creek   13.   14.   15 
Foote  Creek  Ridge  9 
Foote.  kills  Indian   14 
Foote.  Robert  8-23.  (photo.  9) 
Foote.  Robert,  Jr.   15.   17.  20.22. 

23 
Foote's  (ieneral  Store  (photo,  20) 
Ford.  Charlie   18 
Forfarshire.  Scotland   13 
Fort  Bridger   10.11 
Fort  D.  A,  Russell  20 
FortHalleck   13.   14.   15.   16 
Fort  John  Buford   14 
Fort  Laramie   10.   11.   12.   13 
Fort  Laramie  Scout  6 
Fort  Leavenworth.  Kansas   10.  1  1, 

15 
Fort  McKinney 

16,   17,   19,  20,  21,  22, 
closed  23 
Fort  Riley,  Kansas   10 
Fort  Sanders   1 4 
Fowler,  Benjamin   17.  20.23 
Franco,  Jere'  Bishop,  Crossing  the 

Pond,  reviewed  37 
Frontier  Army  in  the  Settlement  of 

the  West,  reviewed  37 
Fulmer,  June  and  Vera  26,  27 
Gage,  Jack  23 
(iimbel  Brothers  store  8 
Girl  Scout  7 
Haas,  Sgt  Herman   12 
Haggard.  .<\ver\   5 
Hartley,  Gen.  W,  S    10 
Hartison,  Pres.  Benjamin  22 
Haskell,  H  D.   14 
Havener,  Flelen  6 
Heaton,  John  W,,  reviewer  37 
Hebard,  Dr.  Grace  Raymond  3,  8 
Henning  Hotel  28 
Hight,  Lt  Thomas   10 
Hinman,  J  L    14 
Hoop,  J,  F,  26,  27 
Hopkins,  S  G    5 
Hopkins,  William   14 
Flowell.  David.  Wyoming  Attorney 

General  5 
Hull,  Lewis  B.   12 


Hunter,  John    12,   13 

Hylton,  Dr  J   L    3 

llslev.  Judge  Han^  P    28.  (photo, 

29) 
inaugural  ceremony  ( 1924)  3 
Inlernalional  News  Service  4 
Ivinson,  Edward  22 
Jackson  Apartments  28 
Johnson  County    16 
Johnson  County  Board  of 

Commissioners  20 
Johnson  County  Democratic 

politics   16 
Johnson  County  Invasion   18-20 
Johnson.  S,  W,  27 
Johnston.  Gen  Albert  Sidney   1 1 
Kansas  State  Industrial  Farm  30. 

32,  (photo)  31 
KC  ranch   1 8 
Keating.  Dr  V,  J,  27 
Kemmerer  Gazette  6 
Kcndrick.  Eula  28 
Kendrick.  John  B  .  advises  Ross  5. 

7 
Kimball.  W  S    7 
KOA  radio  5 

Kutcher.  Charles  A.  28.  2^* 
Kuykendall.  William  L     14 
Labor  Day   6.  7 
Ladd.  John  H    26 
Laska,  Ben  B    25 
League  of  Women  Voters  8 
Lee  brothers   1 5 
l.essman.  Flemian   15 
Livestock  Commission   18 
Logan.  Pearl  25.  26 
Logan,  Virgic  25 
Lord  26,  K).  31 
Lord.  Sheriff  George  25.  26.  30. 

31.  (photo,  28) 
Loree.  John   1 3 
Lucas,  Frank  3 
Marshall.  Dr  T  E    27 
Mauritania  (steamship)  5 
Maxwell,  Tom   12 
McCrae,  John  21 
McCraken,  Tracy  5,  7,  8 
McCullough,  J  j    21 
McNally,  R  F    26 
Menardi.  Capt  -   18 
Met/.  Sackett  &  Metz  28 
Miller.  Leslie,  as  Ross  advisor  5 
Mitchell.  Robert  D    13 
Moeller.  G.  E,  A.  22 
Moonlight.  Thomas   12,13 
Morgan,  Mattie  (See  also,  fiduell. 

Mattie)  28 
Mounted  Services  Recruit  Depot. 

Carlisle  Barrack   10 
"Murdered  by  Madness:  The  Case 

of  Geneva  Collett"  24-36 
Musgrove,  L  H    14 
National  Western  Stock  Show   6 
National  Women's  Democratic 

Club  4 
Norris,  Amanda  (Foote)  15 
Northern  Wyoming  Farmers'  and 

Stock  Growers"  Assoc  20 
Ogalalla  Land  and  Cattle  Company 

21 
OK  Barber  Shop  26 
Omaha  Bee  6 


O'Mahoney,  Joseph  C    5 

Osborne,  Dr  John  22 

Overland  Stage  trail  9 

OW  ranch  24 

Pacific  Springs,   10 

Pallas  t  andy  Kitchen  26 

Parent-Teacher  Association  6 

Parmalee,  C  H    19 

Paxton,  W   A    21 

Pearson,  Drew  8 

Pearson,  Paul  8 

Penrose.  Dr  Charles  Bingham   19 

Percy  station   14 

Pine  Cjrove  stage  station   14 

Playing  Indian,  reviewed  36 

Populist  Party  23 

Portland  (Maine)  Press  6 

Portland  Evening  Express  6 

posse  comitatus   10 

Powder  River  Crossing   1 8 

Prohibition  4 

radio  broadcast.  1st  Wyoming 

governor's  5 
Rennie,  Sheriff  D  F    15 
Riner,  John  A    20 
"Robert  Foote:  A  Forgotten 

Wyoming  Pioneer"  9-23 
Roberts,  Dr,  w'  H    27 
Rock  Creek  station  9 
Rolles,  Howard  22 
Ross,  Ambrose  3.  5.  6 
Ross.  Bradford  3 
Ross.  George  3 
Ross.  Nellie  Tayloe  2-8 
Ross.  William  Bradford,  death  of 

2nd  United  States  Dragoons   10 
Shepherd.  W   C    4 
Sheridan  County  Courthouse. 

(photo  29 
Sheridan  County  Jail  26.  28 
Sheridan  National  Bank  25 
Simmons  Hardware  2 1 
Smith.  Dr  R  P    29 
Smith,  Gov  Al  8 
Smith,  John  R    18 
Smith,  Mrs,  Tudor  28 
Smith,  Tertance   18.  22 
Smoke.  Bob   11.  12 
Snively.  Frank  29 
Snyder,  Elias   19 
Songer,  John  F    27 
Soper,  Dr  R  W    27 
State  Democratic  Convention  22 
State  Livestock  Commission  16 
Steffen,  Dr  W,  A    27 
Stevenson,  Dr  C  E  29,  (photo. 

27) 
Stoll.  Walter  20.21 
Strathmore  Hotel  30 
Sublette.  John   15 
Suffragettes  4 
Sullivan.  Eugene  J    3 
Superior  Laundry.  25 
Swarthmore  Chautauqua  Circuit  8 
Swarthmore  College  8 
Sweetwater.  Texas  28,  32 
TA  ranch   19 
Talbot,  Claude  L     17 
Tate,  Michael,  Frontier  Army  in 

the  Settlement  of  the  West, 

reviewed,  37 


40 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Tayloe.  Alfred  7 
Tayloe.  George  4.  5.  6 
Tayloe.  Judge  Samuel  3 
Tayloe.  Nelle  3 

Taylor.  Malcolm  E..  reviewer  37 
territorial  penitentiary    \> 
Tidvvell,  Mattie  25.  27.  28 
Tidvvell.  Shorty   26.  28 
Tisdale.  JohnN,  22 
Togger\  Shop  25 
Torrington  Telegram  6 
U.  S.  Military  Academy   10 


Utah   11 

Utah  Expedition   10 
Van  Devanter.  Willis  21 
Van  Horn.  Col.   19 
Van  Pelt.  Lori  2.  (bio.  8) 
Waggoner,  Thomas   17 
Walcott.  Frank   19 
Ward.  Seth   1 1 
Warren.  Francis  E.  8.  21 
Webb.  L.  A.   17 
Wells.  Fargo  &  Company 
Whitcomb.  Elias  W.   14 


14 


White  Eyes  12.   13 
Williams.  I.  H.  24 
wind  turbines  9 
Winterling  &  Davis  garage  26 
Winters.  Charles  25 
Woman  Citizen  4.  8 
Wood.  Elsie  26 
Wright.  Sgt.  William   11 
Wyoming  Board  of  Livestock 

Commissioners   17 
Wyoming  Democratic  Party  3. 
Wyoming  Eagle  6.  7.  8 


Wyoming  National  Guard   18 
Wyoming  State  Capitol  2 
Wyoming  Stock  Growers 

Associatio  23 
Wyoming  Stock  Growers 

Association  5.  6.   16.   17 
Wyoming  Supreme  Court  18. 

22^31 
Yellowstone  National  Park.  Ross 

speaks  at  opening  6 
Zullig.  H.  E.  30 

Indexed  by  Phil  Roberts 


Wyoming  Picture 


From  Photographic  Collections 
in  Wyoming 


Thermopolis  Nursery  School,  "Kid's  Lunch,"  1936 

This  photograph,  made  by  an  unknown  Works  Progress  Administration  photographer  on  April  16,  1936.  shows  three 
women,  apparently  teachers,  posed  with  nearly  20  nursery  school  students  at  lunch  time  in  their  school.  Statewide, 
Wyomingites  were  sujferingfrom  a  severe  economic  depression  and  drought.  These  difficulties  seem  to  be  apparent  just 
from  the  expressions  on  the  faces  of  children  and  teachers  (none  identified  on  the  photograph)  as  well  as  from  their 
clothing.  The  photograph  is  held  in  the  WPA  Photographs  collection,  Wyoming  State  Archives,  Division  of  Cultural 
Resources,  Cheyenne. 


nals  of 

WVOMING 

The  Wyoming  History  Journal 
Spring  2002  Vol.  74,  No.  2 


""'■'•^"'^m^^iimit  ■;-,  ■  ,.,^1'.''*' 


In  This  Issue 

*  A  Tale  of  Two  Sisters:  Pryor  &  Trischman  In  Yellowstone 

*  Ridgway  Glover,  Photographer 

*  Target  Practice  and  Firing  Ranges  at  Fort  Fred  Steele 


The  Cover  Art 


''Fort  Fred  Steele'' 

a  painting 

by  Phillipe  Denis  De  Trobriand 

The  cover  painting  of  Fort  Fred  Steele  was  made  in  the  1870s  by  Phillipe  Denis  De  Trobriand. 
He  was  a  Frenchmen  of  noble  birth  who  had  been  educated  at  the  College  of  Tours  and  awarded 
a  law  degree  from  Poitiers.  He  toured  the  United  States  in  184L  married  an  American  woman, 
then  returned  to  France  for  several  years.  In  1847,  he  came  back  to  this  country  to  live  perma- 
nently. During  the  Civil  War.  taken  with  "a  cause  that  had  immortalized  Lafayette,  "  he  became 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States  and  assumed  command  of  a  group  of  Union  Army  volunteers  as  a 
general.  He  was  assigned  to  duty  in  Dakota,  Montana.  Utah  and  Wyoming  in  the  course  of  his 
military  career.  A  diarist,  poet,  and  novelist,  De  Trobriand  was  also  a  gifted  amateur  painter. 
Everywhere  in  his  travels  he  saw  subjects  for  pictures--his  sketches  and  paintings  include  works 
on  Indians,  landscapes,  and  Western  military  structures.  Both  in  his  journals  and  his  art  works, 
he  revealed  a  remarkable  perceptiveness  of  the  world  around  him.  He  was  sensitive  to  people  he 
encountered  and  to  the  environment  in  which  he  found  them.  De  Trobriand' s  literarv  and  artistic 
endeavors  serve  not  only  as  aesthetic  expressions  of  life  in  the  American  West  more  than  a  cen- 
tury ago,  but  as  valuable  historical  documents  that  provide  a  realistic,  accurate  picture  of  that 
lifestyle.  The  cover  painting  and  a  companion  piece  were  purchased  many  years  ago  by  the 
Wyoming  State  Art  Gallery  with  funds  contributed  by  members  of  the  Wyoming  State  Historical 
Society.  The  original  painting  is  housed  in  the  collections  of  the  State  Museum,  State  Parks  and 
Cultured  Resources  Department,  Cheyenne. 


The  editor  oi  Annals  of  Wyoming  welcomes  manuscripts  and  pliotograplis  on  ever>  aspect  of  the  history  of  Wyoming  and  the  West. 
Appropriate  for  submission  are  unpublished,  research-based  articles  which  provide  new  information  or  which  offer  new  interpretations 
of  historical  events.  First-person  accounts  based  on  personal  experience  or  recollections  of  events  will  be  considered  for  use  in  the 
"Wyoming  Memories"  section.  Historic  photo  essays  tor  possible  publication  in  "Wyoming  Memories"  also  are  welcome.  Articles  are 
reviewed  and  refereed  by  members  of  the  journal's  Editorial  Advisory  Board  and  others.  Decisions  regarding  publication  are  made  by 
the  editor.  Manuscripts  (along  with  suggestions  for  illustrations  or  photographs)  should  he  submitted  on  computer  diskettes  in  a  format 
created  by  one  of  the  widely-used  word  processing  programs  along  with  two  printed  copies.  Submissions  and  queries  should  be  ad- 
dressed to  £i\\.or .  Annals  of  Wyoming.  P.  O.  Box  4256,  University  Station,  Laramie  WY  82071,ortotheeditor  by  e-mail  at  the  following 
address;  philrffluwyo.edu 


Editor 

PhilRnlH.-rts 

Book  Review  Editor 

Carl  Hallbero; 


Editorial  Advisory  Board 

Barliara  Bogart.  Evan.ston 

Mahel  Brown,  Neucastle/Clit-vt-nnf 

Kathenne  Ciirtiss.  Shtridan 

Dudley  (lardner.  Rock  Springs 

Sally  F  Clriflith.  Lusk/Haxertown.  Pa 

Don  HocJgson.  Torrmgton 

Lort-n  .lost,  Ri\  crton 

James  R.  LaMLl.  Wapiti 

Mark  Miller.  Laramie 

Mark  Nelson.  Ciieen  Ri\er 

Sherry  L.  Smith,  Moose'  Dallas,  Te\ 

Thomas  F.  Stroock,  Casper 

Lawrence  M.  Woods.  Worland 

Wyoming  State  Historical  Society 
Publications  Committee 

Rick  E\\  ig.  Laramie 

David  Kathka,  Rock  Springs 

Sheiry  L.  Smith,  Moi.se 

Amy  Lawrence,  Laramie 

Nancy  Curtis,  Cilendn 

Brian  Hosmer.  Laramie  {e\  otticio) 

Patty  Myers,  Wheatland  (e\-iitficio) 

Loren  .lost,  Ri\erton  (e\-ofiie  lo) 

Phil  Roberts,  Laramie  (ex-otflcio) 

Wyoming  State  Historical  Society 
Executi\e  Committee 

Da\e  Taylor.  President.  Natmna  L'nunty 

Amy  Lawit-nce.   1st  Vice    Pies.  Aliiany  Ci 

Patty  Myers.  L'nd  Vice  Pres..  Platte  Co. 

Linda  Fabian.  Secretary.  Platte  County 

Dick  Wilder.  Treasurer,  Park  County 

Clara  Varner,  Weston  County 

.lames  Van  Scoyk.,  Star  Valley  Chapter 

.Joyce  Warnke,  CJoshen  County 

Lloyd  Todd,  Sheridan  County 

.ludy  West.  Membership  Cooidinatnr 

Govemor  of  Wyoming 

Jim  (ieringer 

Wyoming  Dept.  of  State  Parks  and 
Cultural  Resources 

.lohn  Ke.k.  Diieani 

Cultural  Resources  Division 

Wendy  BredehoH,  Administrator 

Wyoming  Parks  &  Cidtural  Resources 
Commission 

William  Dubois,  Cheyenne 
Emerson  W  Scott,  Jr ,  Buttalo 
Diann  Reese,  Lyman 
Vern  Vi\  ion.  Raw  lins 
David  Reet/,  Powell 
Herb  French,  Newcastle 
Ernest  C.  ()\er.  Pa\  illion 
Carolyn  Butt,  Casper 
•lerrilynn  Wall.  Evanston 

University  of  Wyoming 

Philip  Duboi.s.  Pre.sident 
Oliver  Walter.  Dean. 

College  of  Arts  and  Sciences 

Brian  Ho.smer.  Chair,  Dept.  of   History 


nals  of 

WYOMING 


The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Spring  l'OOl'  Vol.  7  1-.  No.  l' 

A  Tale  of  Two  Sisters:  Pryor  &  Trischman  in  Yellowstone  in 
the  Best  and  Worst  and  Times 

By  Robert  \'  Goss 2 

T\sn  M.stfi-s  opt-t.itt-il  a  piiinfefing  toruevMnn  id  'it-llnw  st<  int-  N;itinn;il  Park.  Their 
stofy  1-^  f'illt-(.l  \Mth  triumph  and  tfa^it-ih'.  iiuhuiini;  tht-  sukklr  nt  their  niotlier  and  tht- 
rnurdt-r  -it  thfir  liinlhc-r  Th(-\  weatht-rt-d  ad\t-rsH\  and  tinalK  sold  [ht-  npt-ratmns  and 
retiretl.  Thfir  .story  dt-scriht-s  the  '  iiji.s  and  d(>\\ns"  ot  concessiDns  ni  the  Park. 


Ridgway  Glover,  Photographer 

By  Paula  Richardson  F^leming 17 

Glover,  a  Philadelphia  photographer,  eame  West  in  the  middle  1  SfiOs  uhere  he  was 
killed  h\  Indians  near  I  ort  Phil  Keam\  Did  he  make  photographs  in  the  area'  Fleming 
reveals  long-lost  examples  ot  Glover's  work  and  postulates  that  other  ot  his  photo- 
graphs nia\  he  oul  there  someuhere 


Target  Practice  and  Firing  Ranges  at  Fort  Fred  Steele 

By  Mark  D.  Hanson l' + 

Soldiers  during  the  frontier  period  were  required  to  praetice  marksmanship  Hanson 
reveals  the  possihie  loeations  of  firing  ranges  at  one  ot"  VVvoming's  frontier  militar\ 
posts.  Fort  Fred  Steele  He  argues  that  target  practice  on  the  frontier  required  similar 
materials  and  facilities  as  practice  elsewhere  in  the  I'Jth  centun.  militar\. 


Index Inside  bactc  cover 


Annals  of  Wyoming  The  Wyoming  Hi.slon'  Journal  \i  pubWihed  quarter]).  b\  the  Wvoming  State  Historical 
Societv  in  association  with  the  Wyoming  Department  of  State  Parks  and  Cultural  Resources,  the  .Ameri- 
can Heritage  Center,  and  the  Department  of  History.  University  of  Wyoming  The  Journal  was  previously 
published  as  the  Oiiarlerly  Bulletin  (1923-1925).  Annals  of  Wyoming  (1925-1993).  Wyoming  Annals 
(1993-1995)  and  Wyoming  Hisloiy  Journal {\^^>-\^'^b)  The  Annals  has  been  the  official  publication  of 
the  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society  since  1953  and  is  distributed  as  a  benefit  of  membership  to  all 
society  members.  Membership  dues  are  single.  $20:  Joint.  $30.  student  (under  21 ).  $15.  institutional. 
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your  local  chapter  or  write  to  the  address  below  .Articles  in  Annals  ot  Uyoming  are  abstracted  in  Hision- 
cal  Ahslracis  and  America  Hislory  and  Life 

Inquiries  about  membership,  mailing,  distribution,  reprints  and  back  issues  should  be  addressed  to  .lud\ 
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ISSN:  1086-7368 


A  Tale  of  Two  Sisters 


Speciman  House,  c.  1900.  NFS  Yellowstone  collection 


Pryor  &  Trischman  in 

Yellowstone  in  the  Best  and 

Worst  of  Times 


By 
Robert  V.  Goss 


The  story  of  the  Park  Curio  Shop  at  Mammoth  Hot  Springs  and  the  related 
businesses  of  Pryor  &  Trischman  seem  to  be  a  neglected  tale  in  the  annals  of 
Yellowstone's  concession  history.  They  ran  a  successful  business  for  45  years, 
and  in  the  last  20  years  of  their  operation  controlled  essentially  all  the  general 
merchandise  sales  in  the  northern  portion  of  the  park.  They  also  shared  in  the 
operation  of  the  park  service  stations  with  park  businessmen  Harry  Child  and 
Charles  Hamilton.  The  roots  of  their  business  stem  from  many  of  the  early  pio- 
neers in  the  park  concessions  operations,  including  Ole  Anderson,  George 
Whittaker,  Alexander  Lyall,  Walter  Henderson  and  Jennie  Ash. 


Spring  'i00i2 


Anna  Kather>Ti  and  Elizabeth  "Belle"  Trisch- 
man  were  daughters  of  George  Trischman 
who  came  to  work  at  Fort  Yellowstone  in  1899  as 
post  carpenter.  Both  teenagers  at  the  time,  it  did 
not  take  very  many  years  before  they  began  to  make 
their  mark  in  the  predominately  male-dominated 
business  scene  in  the  park. 

In  the  early  1900"s  Anna  married  George  R.  Pr\'or 
and  together  they  purchased  the  interests  of  Ole 
Anderson's  Specimen  House  in  1908.  Elizabeth 
became  a  partner  with  Anna  in  1912  and  the  busi- 
ness continued  to  expand  and  prosper.  In  1932, 
the  sisters  bought  out  the  stores  and  gas  stations 
of  George  Whittaker  that  were  located  at  Mammoth 
and  Canyon,  giving  themsehes  a  monopoly  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  park.  The  store  they  purchased 
at  Mammoth  was  the  current  Hamilton's  Store. 

Yellowstone  National  Park  was  created  March 
1,  1872.  Along  with  other  provisions,  the  act 
stipulated  that  the  Secretary'  of  the  Interior  "...may 
in  his  discretion,  grant  leases  for  building 
purposes. ..of  small  pieces  of  ground. ..for  the  ac- 
commodation of  visitors."'  This  authoritv'  allowed 
the  Secretarv'  to  permit  the  establishment  of  vari- 
ous businesses  to  serve  the  visitors  to  the  park.  The 
sheer  size  of  the  park,  at  2.2  million  acres,  and  its 
distance  from  major  population  centers,  made  it 
necessarv'  for  the  creation  of  transportation,  lodg- 
ing, and  general  merchandise  systems  in  order  for 
the  tourist  to  enjoy  his  visit. 

The  early  years  of  the  park  were  ones  of  experi- 
mentation and  change.  As  Yellowstone  was  the  first 
National  Park  established,  the  government  had  no 
experience  in  operating  one.  Nathaniel  Langford 
was  selected  as  the  first  Superintendent,  but  Con- 
gress did  not  allocate  any  funds  for  the  manage- 
ment of  the  park  until  1878.  Langford  held  the 
unpaid  position  until  1877,  but  spent  verv'  little  time 
actually  in  the  park.  Philetus  Norris  took  over  the 
position  until  1882  and  set  about  building  crude 
roads  with  the  initial  appropriations  from  Congress. 
He  established  rules  and  regulation  for  the  park, 
but  he  had  no  actual  authoritv'  to  enforce  the  rules 
and  had  little  help  to  patrol  the  vast  wilderness. 
Three  more  superintendents  were  assigned  during 
the  next  four  years,  but  none  accomplished  signifi- 
cant safekeeping  measures  for  the  park.-  Poach- 
ing was  rampant,  careless  campers  caused  forest 
fires,  and  natural  features  were  chiseled  away  by 
visitors  desiring  'souvenirs'  from  the  park.   Ruth- 


less businessmen  connived  to  control  all  conces- 
sions for  their  personal  profit. 

To  save  the  park  from  destruction.  Congress 
passed  a  Sundrv'  Civil  Bill  in  March  of  1883  that, 
among  others  things,  gave  the  Secretary  of  War, 
upon  the  request  of  the  Secretarv-  of  Interior,  the 
authority"  to  station  troops  in  the  park  in  order  to 
enforce  the  laws  and  provide  protection  for  the 
park.  3  On  Aug.  20,  I886,  the  r'  Cavalrv',  under 
Capt.  Moses  Harris,  assumed  control  of  the  park. 
The  Army  would  be  in  charge  of  the  park  until  1918, 
when  the  newly  formed  National  Park  Service  took 
over  administration  of  the  park.  Among  the  many 
new  duties  for  the  Army  was  the  responsibilitv'  for 
managing  the  concession  operations  that  had  been 
formed,  and  reviewing  the  applications  for  new 
businesses  that  v\ished  to  operate  in  the  park.  Ul- 
timate approval  rested  with  the  Secretary  of  Inte- 
rior, but  he  depended  on  recommendations  of  the 
Army's  Acting  Superintendents  at  Fort  Yellowstone. 

By  the  time  the  army  took  over,  two  hotels  had 
been  established  at  Mammoth.  Primitive  hotels,  or 
tent  hotels,  existed  at  other  major  locations,  and  a 
varietv'  of  transportation  companies  were  travers- 
ing the  crude  roads  in  Yellowstone.  Frank  Havnes 
had  established  his  photo  business  at  Mammoth 
and  the  Upper  Geyser  Basin,  and  a  few  other  small 
businesses  were  in  operation  selling  curios  and 
some  general  goods. 

One  of  these  early  businessmen  was  Ole  .Ander- 
son, whose  business  eventually  ended  up  in  the 
hands  of  Anna  Prvor  and  Elizabeth  Trischman.  Ole 
Anderson's  father  was  the  winterkeeper  at  the  Can- 
yon Hotel  for  at  least  the  1888-89  seasons.-^  Ole 
opened  a  tent  store  at  Mammoth  in  order  to  sell 
"coated  specimens"  and  bottles  of  colored  sand 
from  the  Grand  Canjon  of  the  Yellowstone.  "Coat- 

'  President  Grant  signed  Senate  Bill  S  392  creating  Yellowstone 
National  Park.  The  Act  speciHed  that  the  area  be  "...set  apart  as  a 
public  park  or  pleasureing-ground  (sic)  for  the  benefit  and  enjoy- 
ment of  the  people... That  said  public  park  shall  be  under  the  exclu- 
sive control  of  the  Secretary  of  Interior,  whose  dut>  shall  be.  .to 
make  and  publish  such  rules  and  regulations  as. . .  necessan.  or  proper 
for  the  care  and  management  of  the  same...  [and]  shall  provide  for 
the  preservation... of  all  timber,  mineral  deposits,  natural  curiosities, 
or  wonders  within  said  park..."  Aubrey  L.  Haines.  The  Yellowstone 
Sioir.  II.  (Niwot;  Colorado  Associated  Univ.  Press.  1977).  471. 

'  Robert  V,  tjoss.  Yellowstone  -  The  Chronolog\  of  Wonderland. 
(^'ellowstonc.  2000).  25-27. 

'  Haines.  472. 

^  Newell  F.  .loyner.  "History  of  Improvements  in  \'ellovvstone 
National  Park."(LISNPS.  1929).  File  No.  I  101  1-02.  Structures.  Ver- 
tical Files.  VNP  .Archives. 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


MMIJUbiiyilllfiil 

tmmm 


'WMw^www'* 


Specimen  rack.  c.  1908  (above).  Ole  Anderson 
and  "specimen  rack,  "  1895  (left). 


YNP  collection 


ing  specimens"  was  a  popular  tourist  pastime  at  the 
Mammoth  Terraces.  The  great  volume  of  dissolved 
minerals  in  the  water  that  gushed  from  the  various 
formations  was  capable  of  building  up  fast  on  for- 
eign objects  placed  into  the  waters.  Tourists  would 
take  a  variety  of  common  objects,  such  as  bottles, 
pine  cones,  combs,  and  horseshoes,  let  the  waters 
run  over  them  for  a  period  of  days  and  then  they 
would  have  their  momentoes  covered  with  glisten- 
ing white  minerals.  However,  some  tourists  were 
destructive  of  the  terrace  formations  and  the  Army 
issued  Anderson  a  permit  in  1889  to  conduct  a  busi- 
ness coating  specimens  for  the  tourists,  hoping  that 
his  enterprise  would  satisfy  the  visitors  needs. ^ 

The  permit  issued  in  1889  seems  to  be  the  first 
legal  contract  Anderson  had  with  the  Army,  al- 
though he  had  been  operating  his  tent  store  there 
since  1883.  Hewaschargedayearlyfeeof  $20and 
allowed  to  sell  "curiosities'",  but  not  general  wares.'' 
The  year  1883  was  a  good  time  to  start  a  business 
at  Mammoth  as  the  new  National  Hotel  was  just 
opening,  and  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  had  just 
completed  its  Park  Branch  Line  to  Cinnabar,  only 
eight  miles  away.  Visitors  now  had  an  easy  way  to 
get  to  Yellowstone,  and  visitation  increased  five- 
fold that  vear.^ 


In  1894  Anderson  \NTOte  requesting  permission 
to  build  a  permanent  structure.  He  stated  that  "a 
neat  cottage  would  look  much  better  to  the  public" 
[than  tents]  and  that  he  "would  like  sufficient 
ground  in  front  to  be  able  to  plant  a  flower  garden 
to  beautify  the  store."®  His  request  was  approved 
the  next  year,  and  construction  began  on  the  Speci- 
men House.  The  new  building  was  ready  for  busi- 
ness in  1896  and  the  government  issued  a  10-year 
lease  to  him  in  April.  He  seemed  to  have  done  well, 
as  in  1906,  his  lease  was  renewed  for  10  more  years, 
allowing  him  to  also  sell  the  newly  popular  "pic- 
ture postcards".  The  cost  of  the  lease,  however,  in- 
creased to  $50  per  year.  "* 

By  1908  Ole  had  been  in  business  for  25  years 
and  was  ready  to  retire.  He  began  negotiations  with 
George  and  Anna  Pr>'or  for  the  sale  of  his  opera- 
tion. George  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Acting  Superin- 
tendent on  April  10  requesting  permission  to  in- 


'  Capt.  Anderson  to  John  W.  Noble.  March  9.  1891.  Army  Files 
Doc.  412.  YNP  Archives. 

''  Ole  Anderson  operated  his  tent  store  as  early  as  1883.  as  indi- 
cated in  his  letter  of  1894  to  the  Secretar>  of  Interior  requesting  that 
he  be  allowed  to  erect  a  permanent  building  to  replace  his  tents.  He 
stated  that  he  had  been  doing  business  and  living  in  the  tents  for  1 1 
years.  Acting  Superintendent  Capt.  Anderson  wrote  to  the  Secretary 
in  1891.  passing  on  a  request  from  Ole  to  build  a  permanent  store 
and  stating:  "I  have  known  him  for  over  eight  years  and  can  speak 
from  personal  knowledge  of  his  good  conduct  and  trustworthy  char- 
acter." Capt.  Anderson  to  Noble.  W.  W.  Wylie  and  O.  Anderson 
File.  Box  C-17,  "Concessioners  1879-1916."  YNP  Archives 

'  Anderson  to  Noble. 

*  Ole  Anderson  to  Secretary  of  Interior,  Army  Files  Doc.  1828, 
YNP  Archives. 

''  Wy lie/Anderson  File. 


Spring  'iOO'i 

Stall  a  complete  soda  fountain,  which  would  include 
ice  cream,  hot  and  cold  drinks,  and  a  bakery.  He 
felt  that  since  there  was  no  other  similar  facilit>'  in 
the  park,  the  business  would  "add  materially  to  the 
comfort  of  everyone  engaged  in  or  visiting  the 
park."'°  The  Interior  approved  his  request  on  May 
12,  but  by  that  time  Anderson  has  already  signed 
an  Assignment  of  Lease  to  the  Pr\ors.  Anna  and 
George  did  not  sign  the  official  lease  agreement  with 
the  government  until  August  26,  but  it  was  retro- 
acti\'e  to  April  3.  The  new  Pr>or  lease  was  for  eight 
years." 

The  lease  required  a  fee  of  $50  per  year,  a  usage 
tax  of  $115,  and  covered  a  plat  of  ground  13,880 
square  feet,  located  immediately  north  of  the  U.S. 
Commissioner's  residence.  They  were  allowed  use 
of  the  building(s)  as  a  dwelling  and  a  store  in  "which 
to  keep  coated  specimens,  bottled  sand,  post  cards, 
spoons,  and  other  wares  and  curiosities."  They  were 
also  permitted  to  install  and  conduct  a  complete 
soda  fountain  with  ice  cream,  coffee,  tea,  non-alco- 
holic drinks,  and  a  bakeiy  to  supply  cakes,  pastry, 
\iands,  and  bread.  A  stipulation  in  the  lease  en- 
titled them  to  take  such  timber  and  other  materi- 
als from  the  park  to  maintain,  repair  and  upgrade 
their  facilities,  as  long  as  the  materials  were  from 
areas  specifically  designated  by  the  Interior.  An 
accounting  of  all  such  materials  had  to  be  presented 
to  the  authorities  on  a  semi-annual  basis.'-  The 
Pr>ors  named  their  enterprise  the  Park  Curio  & 
Coffee  Shop.'-* 

After  two  seasons  of  business,  the  Pr>ors  must 
have  been  confident  in  their  success,  as  in  No\'em- 
ber  they  asked  the  Interior  to  double  the  size  of  their 
store.  The  Secretar\'  appro\"ed  blueprints  for  the 
project  on  November  17,  but  construction  had  al- 
ready started  by  that  time,  no  doubt  in  order  to  get 
a  headstart  before  the  onset  of  winter.  The  blue- 
prints showed  a  2-stor>'  addition  on  the  left  side  of 
the  building  with  the  first  floor  featuring  a  li\ing 
room,  kitchen  dining  room,  front  porch,  and  stair- 
way to  the  upper  floor.  The  upstairs  included  a 
bathroom  and  fixe  bedrooms  spreading  out  o\er 
both  portions  of  the  building.  A  sitting  alcove  was 
located  in  the  center  facing  the  front  of  the  build- 
ing and  included  a  balcony  on  the  outside.  The  store 
itself  occupied  the  first  floor  of  the  original  struc- 
ture.'"* 

Sur\iving  business  letterhead  refers  to  the  busi- 
ness as  "The  Park  Curio  Shop",  with  A.  K.  Pr>or  as 
Manager.  The  letterhead  also  indicates  they  were 
selling  Indian  moccasins,  Navajo  goods,  Mexican 


zerapes  (serapes)  and  blankets,  fur  rugs,  and  burnt 
leather  novelties.  They  also  advertised  "Magnesia 
Coated  Souvenirs  from  the  Mammoth  Hot  Springs" 
and  "Bottled  Variegated  Sands  from  the  Grand  Can- 
yon of  the  Yellowstone." 

In  addition  to  the  business  responsibilities,  Anna, 
age  24,  gave  birth  to  her  first  child  on  April  18, 1908, 
in  Helena,  Montana.  The  daughter  was  named 
Georgann  Pr\or,''  and  would,  in  future  years,  help 
her  mother  and  aunt  in  the  operation  of  the  stores. 
Raising  an  infant  and  managing  a  business  must 
ha\e  been  quite  a  challenge,  and  no  doubt  Anna's 
sister  Elizabeth  played  a  large  part  in  helping  out 
with  the  store  and  Georgann's  rearing.  Sometime 
in  the  next  few  years  Anna  had  a  second  daughter 
named  Margaret.  Howe\er,  it  appears  that  rela- 
tions between  George  and  Anna  must  have  soured 
at  least  by  1912.  On  October  19  of  that  year  George 
assigned  all  of  his  "rights,  pri\ileges,  and  franchise" 
of  the  Park  Curio  Store  lease  to  Elizabeth.  Appar- 
ently, Elizabeth  had  already  been  an  active  partici- 
pant in  the  operation  of  the  store.  The  business 
legally  became  the  partnership  of  Pryor  & 
Trischman,  with  appropriate  lease  documents  not- 
ing the  change  in  ownership.'" 

George  probably  had  been  planning  his  exit  from 
the  business  for  a  while.  In  earh'  September  he  sub- 
mitted a  letter  of  application  to  Acting  Supt.  Col. 
Brett  requesting  permission  to  operate  a  dair\'  herd 
at  Mammoth  to  supply  milk  and  cream  to  the  mili- 
tary' and  civilian  reservations.  He  chose  a  location 
described  as  on  the  bench  lands  about  one  mile 
southwest  of  Mammoth  Hot  Springs,  "sufficiently 
remote  and  so  located  that  it  cannot  be  seen  from 
any  point  around  the  resenation."  He  proposed 
the  construction  of  buildings  and  fences  as  required 
for  the  operation,  and  quoted  prices  of  lOcf  a  quart, 
and  cream  at  40(1'  per  quart.  These  prices  were  to 
be  competitive  with  those  at  Li\ingston,  Billings, 


'"George  Pr\orlo  MaJ,  H  T^  Allen.  Ami>  Files  D(u\  7888.  VT-JP 
Archives 

"  Wylie/Anderson  File. 

'-  PpiorA  Pr\or;  Holm  Iransportation  Folder.  Box  C-16.  YNP 
Arelii\es 

"  Aeling  Seerelar>  to  MaJ.  Hetir\  1.  Allen. . lime  2.i.  1^08.  Ami\ 
FileDoe.  8179.  YNP  Archives 

'Hieo.  Pryor  to  Maj.  H.C.  Benson.  Oct.  25.  1404.  wuh  blueprints 
of  store.  Army  Files  Doc..  YNP  Archives 

'"  Livingston  Park  C'liunn'  .\ews.  clipping  from  14(il.  Cieorgann 
Pryor.  Box  11-2.  liiographical  tiles.  YNP  Archives 

"'Assignment  of  l,ea,se  (Copy  ).  George  Pr\or.  dated  Oct.  14.  1412. 
Box  C-16.  Prvor  ct  Pr\or  Folder.  ^NP  Archives 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Butte,  and  Helena.'"  A  permit  was  granted  to  him 
on  Januan-  4, 1913,  but  he  never  followed  through 
with  the  enterprise.  It  was  noted  in  a  letter  of  Sep- 
tember 1913  by  the  Acting  Superintendent  that  Mr. 
Pr\or  decided  he  did  not  want  to  engage  in  this 
business,  "is  no  longer  in  the  park"  and  was  unable 
to  fulfill  the  obligations  of  his  permit."^ 

In  September  1912  George  also  applied  for  per- 
mission to  establish  a  permanent  steam  laundr\'  at 
Mammoth  to  serve  post  employees  and  other  local 
residents.  A  Chinese  man  named  Sam  Toy  oper- 
ated the  only  other  laundry  service  in  one  of  James 
McCartney's  old  hotel  buildings.  The  Post  Surgeon 
described  that  business  as  an  "eyesore"  and  noted 
that  the  poor  quality  of  work  done  was  such  that 
many  of  the  post  employees  were  having  their  laun- 
dry- done  in  Gardiner  or  Livingston.  However,  like 
the  dairy  proposal,  nothing  came  of  this  enterprise, 
and  there  is  little  mention  of  George  Pryor  in  later 
business  records  of  the  store  or  of  the  park.'" 

The  Trischman  sisters  were  now  firmly  in  con- 
trol of  the  business,  and  life  appeared  to  be 
going  quite  well  for  them,  but  things  had  not  al- 
ways been  that  way.  Their  introduction  to  life  in 
Yellowstone  began  with  a  bad  experience  that  surely 
affected  them  throughout  their  lives. 

Anna  was  born  to  George  and  Margaret  Gleason 
Trischman  on  July  18, 1884,  in  Montana.  Brother 
Harr>'  was  born  early  in  1886  at  Fort  Custer,  and 
sister  Elizabeth  followed  on  December  22,  1886.-" 
The  fourth  child,  Joseph,  was  born  July  29, 1893." 

Early  in  1899  the  Trischman  family  was  residing 
in  Billings,  Montana.  According  to  the  June  10, 
1899,  issue  of  the  Livingston  Enterprise,  Mrs. 
Trischman  attempted  suicide  in  the  cowshed  be- 
hind their  house  with  a  large  butcher  knife.  Al- 
though trying  to  sever  her  jugular  vein,  she  suc- 
ceeded only  in  making  an  ugly  wound  on  her  throat. 
She  claimed  to  have  been  assaulted  by  an  unknown 
man,  but  authorities  doubted  her  story  and  she  was 
judged  insane  and  sent  to  the  mental  hospital  at 
Warm  Springs,  Montana.  The  newspaper  clipping 
indicated  that  she  had  improved  enough  by  late 
May  to  be  discharged  from  the  institution."  George 
was  anxious  to  reunite  his  family  in  Yellowstone 
where  he  was  newly  employed  as  the  post  carpen- 
ter, and  he  secured  her  release  from  the  asylum  on 
May  29.^3 

However,  she  was  not  cured,  as  was  indicated  in 
a  letter  of  June  10  from  O.  G.  Warren,  M.D.,  Su- 
perintendent of  the  Insane  Asylum  at  Warm 


Springs,  to  Timothy  Burke,  U.S.  Attorney  for  the 
District  of  Wyoming  in  Cheyenne.  He  stated  that 
Margaret  was  admitted  on  April  16  suffering  from 
melancholia  and  that  she  was  removed  by  her  hus- 
band on  May  29.  He  emphasized  that  "There  was 
no  improvement  in  her  condition. "-"♦  The 
Livingston  Enterprise  noted  that  the  family  spent 
the  following  night  at  the  Park  Hotel  in  Livingston 
before  taking  the  train  up  to  Cinnabar.-''  The  fam- 
ily was  barely  settled  into  their  new  residence  at 
Mammoth,  when  on  June  3'''  around  5  p.m.,  Mar- 
garet took  a  large  hunting  knife  and  slashed  the 
throat  of  young  Joseph,  almost  severing  his  head 
from  his  body.  She  chased  the  other  horrified  chil- 
dren, but  they  safely  escaped  to  a  neighbor's  house. 
She  was  found  later  back  at  the  cottage  and  was 
taken  to  the  post  guardhouse  by  authorities. 

U.S.  District  Attorney  Burke  came  up  from  Chey- 
enne a  few  days  later  and  ascertained  her  to  be  quite 
insane.  On  July  8  she  was  sent  by  train  to  a  mental 
institution  in  Washington,  D.  C.  Somewhere  be- 
tween Point  of  Rocks  and  Dailey's  Ranch  in  Para- 
dise Valley,  she  jumped  from  the  train  into  the 
Yellowstone  River,  and  despite  intense  searches, 
her  body  was  never  found.  Joseph  was  buried  June 
4  in  the  cemetery  near  the  current  horse  operation 
at  Mammoth,  and  his  marble  headstone  featuring 
a  pair  of  small  shoes  and  socks  on  its  top  can  still 
be  seen.-*' 

Despite  the  tragedy,  life  went  on  for  the 
Trischman  family.  Sometime  afterward,  Anna 
taught  school  at  Fort  Yellowstone  before  marrying 
George  Pryor.-"  Elizabeth  spent  her  last  year  of  high 
school  at  the  Park  County  High  School  in  Livingston 

'"Geo.  Pryor  to  Col.  L.M.  Brett,  Sept.  9.  1912,  Box  21,  Item  42. 
File  No.  30.  YNP  Archives. 

'"  However,  some  question  exists  in  this  matter,  as  F.  E.  George, 
Chief  Engineer  for  the  Yellowstone  Park  Hotel  Co.,  mentioned  in  a 
letter  to  architect  Robert  Reamer  that  "George  Pryor  is  now  propri- 
etor of  a  dairy,  furnishing  milk  for  people  around  the  Post."  The 
letter  was  dated  October  23,  1912.  Original  letter  from  the  author's 
collection. 

'"  H.D.  Bloombergh  to  the  Commanding  Officer,  Post,  Sept.  17, 
1912.  Box  21,  Item  42,  File  No.  30,  YNP  Archives 

-"  Social  Security  Death  Records,  RootsWeb.com,  Inc.  http:// 
vitals.rootsweb.com 

-'  Lee  H.  Whittlesey,  Death  in  Yellowstone  (Boulder:  Roberts 
Reinhart  Publishers,  1995),  210 

-"  "Shocking  Infanticide,"  Livingston  Enterprise,  June  10,  1899. 

-■  O.G.  Warren,  M.D.,  to  Timothy  F.Burke,  June  10.  1899,  Box 
81,  Meldrum  Papers,  A-B  File,  YNP  Archives 

-^  Ibid. 

--  "Social  column,"  Livingston  Enterprise,  June  3,  1899. 

-''Whittlesey,  159-60. 

-'Haines.  182. 


Spring  'iOO'2 

and  graduated  in  June  of  1904.^^  Brother  Harry 
entered  government  service  in  1907,  served  as  a 
scout  from  1909  to  1915,  and  became  one  of  the 
first  park  rangers  in  1916,  ser\ing  in  various  capaci- 
ties until  his  retirement  in  1946.-'' 

The  stor\'  of  the  other  branch  of  the  Pr\-or  Store 
family  tree  began  several  years  before  the  ar- 
rival of  the  Trischman  family  in  Yellowstone. 
George  Whittaker  arrived  in  1891  as  a  soldier  in  the 
6""  Cavalry,  and  served  until  his  discharge  in  Sep- 
tember 1896.  The  following  year  the  4"^  Cavalry 
took  over  the  post  and  Acting  Supt.  Gen.  S.  B.  M. 
Young  appointed  Whittaker  as  a  Scout.  George  per- 
formed as  a  scout  for  about  two  years  before  he  left 
for  the  Philippine  Islands  in  July  1900.-"  He  was 
employed  as  a  Chief  Packer  while  in  the  Philip- 
pines.3' 

George  returned  to  Yellowstone  in  1902  and  by 
March  was  again  employed  as  a  packer  and  scout 
for  the  Army.^^  The  following  year  he  took  a  job 
with  the  Yellowstone  Park  Transportation  Com- 
pany as  a  saddle  horse  guide.  During  the  next  ten 
years  he  worked  summers  as  agent  for  the  trans- 
portation company  at  Canyon,  and  as  a  scout  for 
the  Army  during  the  winters.  In  1913  Whittaker 
was  appointed  Postmaster,  and  he  bought  out  the 


Lyall-Henderson  store  at  Mammoth,  which  is  the 
current  Hamilton  Store." 

The  Lyall-Henderson  store  had  its  beginnings 
with  Jennie  H.  Ash,  daughter  of  George  Henderson. 
Her  family  constructed  the  Cottage  Hotel  at  Mam- 
moth in  1885,  and  even  though  they  sold  out  to  the 
Yellowstone  Park  Association  in  1889,  they  contin- 
ued to  assist  in  management  of  the  hotel  for  some 
time  afterward. "  Jennie  began  the  combination 
store  and  post  office  in  1895,  recei\ing  a  10-year 
lease  from  the  government,  which  was  renewed  for 

-'  "Social  column."  Wonderland  newspaper.  June  18.  1^(14. 

-"  Haines,  447. 

'"  George  Whittaker  to  William  Nichols.  April  8.  ca.  1921. 
Whittaker  Papers.  1925-34.  Montana  Historical  Society.  Helena. 

"  A  newspaper  account  from  the  Livingston  Enterprise.  June  10. 
1899.  mentioned  that  the  two  companies  of  the  Fourth  Cavaln.  at 
Fort  Yellowstone  had  been  ordered  to  Manila  to  Join  six  other  com- 
panies already  there.  Charles  Pember.  a  saddler  with  the  unit,  noted 
that  it  would  be  several  weeks  before  the  units  could  be  assembled  at 
Mammoth  as  communications  with  outlying  stations  at  Thumb  and 
Snake  Ri\er  stations  could  be  accomplished  only  on  snow  shoes. 
"Charles  P.  Pember."  Livingston  Enterprise.  June  10.  1899. 

"  "Local  Layout."  Livingston  Enterprise.  Jan.  25.  1902.  Ma'rch 
29.  1902. 

'^  Whittaker  to  Nichols;  Lease  Agreement.  George  Whittaker. 
March  1,^.  \9\}.  Box  C-17.  J.H.  .Ash  &  G.  Whittaker  File.  YNP 
Archives 

'■■Goss,  95.  106. 


Lyall-Henderson  store  at  Mammoth,  c.  1895. 


YNP  collection 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


10  more  years  in  1905.^''  Three  years  later  she  trans- 
ferred the  operation  to  her  brother  Walter  J. 
Henderson  and  brother-in-law  Alexander  Lyall.^'' 

Upon  the  purchase  of  his  new  business,  George 
Whittaker  obtained  a  10-year  lease  for  his  new  busi- 
ness on  August  7  that  included  a  rental  rate  of  $  100 
per  annum.  He  was  also  assessed  a  usage  tax  of 
$800  per  annum.  The  lease  was  effective  from 
March  13  of  that  year.-^^  A  small  flyer  put  out  by 
George  in  June  advertised  his  enterprise  as  the 
"Yellowstone  Park  Store."  It  appeared  he  was  sell- 
ing a  bit  of  everything,  including  souvenirs,  post 
cards,  Kodak  supplies,  groceries,  hardware,  sport- 
ing goods,  tobaccos,  clothing  and  other  items  the 
traveler  might  find  useful.  Hay  and  oats  were  also 
listed  in  his  advertising  so  that  tourists  could  keep 
their  "weed-burners"  moving  along  on  the  road.^*^ 

Late  in  1913  Whittaker  sought  to  take  some  of  the 
Curio  Shops'  business  by  requesting  permission  to 
install  a  soda  fountain  in  his  new  store  at  Mam- 
moth. The  Pryor  women  countered  his  move  with 
a  request  to  the  government  that  they  be  allowed 
to  sell  general  wares  and  Kodak  film,  items  that  had 
been  reserved  for  sale  in  Whittaker's  lease.  Acting 
Superintendent  Col.  Lloyd  Brett  solved  the  predica- 
ment, at  least  temporarily,  by  refusing  both  re- 
quests.'" 

Like  the  Pryors,  Whittaker  must  have  been  suc- 
cessful his  first  year,  because  in  April  1914  he  ap- 
plied for  a  permit  to  remodel  and  enlarge  his  store. 
Superintendent  Brett  approved  the  expansion  and 
Whittaker  built  a  24'  x  30'  addition  to  the  front  of 
the  store  that  was  faced  with  ornamental  plate  glass 
windows.  The  cost  of  the  project  was  $1746."*° 

The  following  year  big  changes  were  in  store  for 
everyone  in  the  park.  On  April  21  the  Secretary  of 
Interior  announced  his  decision  to  allow  motorized 
autos  in  the  park.  Whittaker  began  thinking  ahead 
and  realized  that  potential  profits  could  be  obtained 
from  this  new  breed  of  visitor  that  would  begin  en- 
tering the  park  on  August  T'.  He  submitted  a  re- 
quest for  permission  to  sell  gasoline,  tires,  lubri- 
cating oil,  and  other  auto  supplies.  Interior  granted 
him  permission  on  July  17  and  Whittaker  began  a 
new  phase  of  his  business  in  Yellowstone.  ■*'  The 
first  few  years,  gasoline  was  stored  in  drums  and 
measured  out  at  a  dollar  per  gallon.  In  the  fall  of 
1919,  Whittaker  opened  up  a  real  filling  station  with 
pumps  on  the  site  of  the  current  operation  at  Mam- 
moth. The  following  year  he  added  a  station  to  his 
operation  at  Canyon.""^ 

Other  park  concessioners  joined  into  the  compe- 


tition for  this  new  source  of  revenue.  Charles 
Hamilton  opened  up  a  single-pump  filling  station 
at  his  Old  Faithful  and  West  Thumb  stores  in  1917, 
and  added  a  station  to  his  Lake  store  in  the  early 
1920's.'*3  Yellowstone  Park  Transportation  Com- 
pany began  offering  gasoline,  oil,  and  repair  ser- 
vices at  their  depots  in  1919.  By  that  time,  prices 
had  dropped  to  a  more  reasonable  price  of  40-45 
cents  per  gallon.''"' 

Whittaker  continued  to  prosper  and  in  1918  he 
established  a  general  store  at  Canyon.  He  utilized 
a  log  building  that  had  been  recently  abandoned 
by  the  Holm  Transportation  Company  after  the 
1917  consolidation  of  the  transportation  companies 
under  Harry  Child.  The  business  was  located  on 
the  west  side  of  the  Canyon,  near  the  present  Up- 
per Falls  parking  lot.  Encouraged  by  the  business 
he  was  doing  at  Canyon,  he  erected  a  new  store 
three  years  later.^"' 

Pryor  and  Trischman  also  attempted  to  cash  in 
on  the  gasoline  and  oil  trade  when  they  made  a  re- 
quest to  Interior  on  June  4,  1915,  to  allow  sales  of 
these  items  at  their  store.  The  Secretary  of  Inte- 
rior responded  to  Col.  Brett  in  mid-July  stating 
merely  that  "Pryor  and  Trischman  have  privilege 
to  operate  a  store  for  specific  purposes  which  does 
not  cover  sale  of  gasoline,  oils,  etc."'"'  The  women 
were  no  doubt  disappointed,  but  their  business  at 
Mammoth  thrived.  Financial  reports  for  the  1915 
season  indicate  five  employees  were  working  at  the 
store.  Those  employed  were  a  cook,  soda  fountain 
girl,  clerk,  yardman,  and  sand  artist.  Revenues  for 

"J.  H.  Ash,  Lease  Agreement.  Aug.  7,  1895,  BoxC-17.  J.H.  Ash 
&  G.  Whittaker  File,  YNP  Archives. 

'"  J.H.  Ash  &  Henderson.  Lease  Agreement.  Bo.\  C-17,  H.L.  & 
W.J.  Henderson  File,  YNP  Archives. 

'  ■  George  Whittaker  Lease  Agreement. 

'*  Sample  Letterhead  &  Brochure,  1913,  Bo,\  C-16,  George 
Whittaker  Folder,  YNP  Archives. 

'"Brett  to  Pryor,  Nov.  19,  1913,  Box  72,  Letter  Box,  "Rates  1911- 
16,"  Store  Privileges  1915.  YNP  Archives. 

^"  Brett  to  Secretary  ot'the  Interior,  April  20,  1914,  Box  Item  60, 
George  Whittaker  File,  YNP  Archives. 

■"  Secretary  of  the  Interior  to  Brett,  July  24,  1915,  Box  34,  Item 
73,  "Store  Privileges  1915,"  YNP  Archives 

^-  Haines,  358-59. 

■"  Gwen  Petersen,  Yellowstone  Pioneers-The  Story  of  the  Hamilton 
Stores  and  Yellowstone  National  Park.  (Yellowstone:  Hamilton 
Stores,  Inc.  1985). 

"  Haines,  258-59. 

^^  Lease  of  April  20,  191 8,  Box  C 1 6,  Concessions  Records.  George 
Whittaker  File,  YNP  Archives. 

""'  Interior  Secretary  to  Pryor  and  Trischman,  June  4,  1915,  and 
July  18,  1915,  Item  73,  Letter  Box  34,  "Store  Privileges  1915,"YNP 
Archives. 


Spring  'iOO'i 


«.?LXl!!L!*4i?--»<^5<?^CU4^1» 

Candies                         Cigars 

Hay 

T0URI8T   SUPPLIES 

Fruits                Tobaccos 

Oats 

GENERAL    MERCHANDISE 

SOUVENIRS  —  CURIOS 

MEN'S  and  WOMEN'S  FURNISHINGS 

POST    CARDS  —  PICTUHBS 

DRV    OOODS  —  BEDDINQ 

NAVAJO    BUANKBTP 

^tau 

STATIONERY  _  DRUGS 

NOVELTIES  —  NOTIONS 

ijeuouisiou^  p^tH 

BOOTS  —  SHOES 

FISHINO    TACKLE 

56                                                  V 

GROCERIES  —  HARDWARE 

KODAK     SUPPLIES 

(SEORGE  WHITTAKER 

SPORTiNO    OOODS 

Maaatfer 

C»CiM5=»«i;>t;»Ci>GS> 

Yellovriitime 

Park.  Wyo., 

IJrlUmtstinir  \k\vk 
,.*turr  anil  jjiuilnttiti'. 


Tounst  s  Supplies 

Hal:,,  Caps  Gloves,  Vciliriy, 

Cosmetics,  Patent  Medicines, 

Smoked  Glasses 

Biiuts  Shoes  and  Rubbers 

Lownev  s  Candies,  Chewiii;^  Gum, 

Fruit,  Cigaj^  and  Tobacco 
Groceries  Drv  Goiids,  Notions   Etc 

Kodak  Supplies  Fishing  Tackle, 

Park  Souvenirs,  Views  and  Spoons 

Navaio  Blankets  and  Indian  Cnrios 

Hav  and  Grain 


Whittaker  store  at  Canyon,  c.  1915.  Whittaker  subntitted  the  two  sample  ads  to 
the  Park  Service  for  approval  in  June  191 3.  Ins  first  year  of  operation.  Ads  cour- 
tesy ofYNP  Archives. 


the  year  included  S757  for  cigars,  $7,483  for  cu- 
rios, and  $2,880  from  the  soda  fountain.  Expenses 
accounted  for  $5,600  in  merchandise,  $400  for 
freight,  and  $2,200  for  wages  and  salaries,  half  of 
which  were  designated  for  Anna  and  Elizabeth. 
Total  income  for  the  year  was  $11,120.34,  and  total 
expenses  amounted  to  $10,173.28,  showing  an  ap- 
parent gain  of  only  $947.28.  However,  with  a  little 
accounting  magic,  a  true  gain  $3,163.91  was  actu- 
ally shown. ^"^  That  same  year  they  made  a  request 
to  Col.  Brett  to  erect  a  stand  at  Devil's  Kitchen  to 
sell  ice  cream,  soft  drinks,  and  similar  items.  Brett 
denied  their  request,  citing  the  law  prohibiting  con- 
cessions nearer  than  1/8  mile  to  "any  object  of  cu- 
riosity." However,  the  women  did  not  forget  the 
idea.  They  would  revive  it  later.''^ 

The  year  1916  was  a  pivotal  one  for  all  conces- 
sionaires in  Yellowstone.  The  National  Park 
Ser\ice  was  being  formed  and  wealthy  businessman 


Steve  Mather  was  destined  to  be  Director  with  his 
\ision  of  a  system  of  monopolies  in  the  national 
parks.  Part  of  the  percei\ed  problem  in  the  park 
was  that  too  many  businesses  were  competing  for 
the  same  tourist  dollars.  The  "pie"  could  only  be 
split  so  many  ways  and  competition  for  those 
■pieces'  was  fierce.  By  1915  concessions  in  the  park 
included:  five  hotels  and  two  lunch  stations  run  by 
the  Yellowstone  Park  Hotel  Company;  three  stage- 
coaches lines;  three  permanent  camp  companies, 
each  offering  five  camps,  two  lunch  stations,  and 
transportation  services;  several  different  traveling 
camps;  the  Haxnes  Photo  Shops;  and  several  dif- 
ferent general  store  operations,  including  those  of 
Pryor  &  Trischman,  Whittaker,  and  Charles 
Hamilton. 
Mather  felt  the  situation  was  too  competitive. 

■"  Pr\  or  &  Pr\  or.  Letter  Box .  Item  52.  "Financial  Reports  of  Con- 
cessionaires." File  130.  YNP  Archives 

"Col.  Brett  to  Pr\  or.  Nov,  19.  1915.  Box  72.  ^'NP  Archives. 


10 


Annals  of  Wyoming;  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Companies  were  trying  to  undermine  their  com- 
petitors and  there  was  a  duplication  of  services  at 
all  locations.  This  resulted  in  excessive  park  lands 
being  used  for  concession  acti\ities,  and  poor  ser- 
vice for  the  customer.  Businesses  competing  against 
each  other  were  not  generating  enough  revenue  to 
provide  for  increased  service  and  improved  facili- 
ties. Mather's  solution  was  a  system  of  "controlled 
monopolies."  Government  could  control  excessive 
charges  to  the  public,  and  fewer  businesses  would 
be  easier  to  administer.  The  remaining  companies 
would  in  theorv'  generate  enough  income  to  build 
new  facilities,  upgrade  existing  buildings,  and  to 
provide  for  improved  or  additional  services.^"" 

In  1917  Mather's  ideas  were  implemented  and 
drastic  changes  resulted.  All  hotel  operations  were 
brought  under  the  control  of  the  Yellowstone  Park 
Hotel  Company,  and  the  Yellowstone  Park  Trans- 
portation Company  was  designated  to  operate  the 
transportation  system.  Harry  Child  owned  both  of 
these  companies.  The  Wylie  and  Shaw  &  Powell 
camping  companies  were  consolidated  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Yellowstone  Park  Camping  Com- 
pany, with  duplicate  operations  being  eliminated 
at  all  locations.  By  1924  Harry  Child  would  also 
own  this  company.  The  Old  Faithful  Camps  Com- 
pany, which  operated  on  a  year-to-year  lease,  and 
run  by  the  Hefferlin  brothers  in  Livingston,  Mon- 
tana, was  denied  renewal  due  to  poor  service.'^" 

Luckily  for  Pr>or  &  Trischman  and  Whittaker, 
Mather  had  not  focused  his  reorganizations  on  the 


general  retail  businesses.  Hamilton  was  firmly  in 
control  of  the  stores  at  Old  Faithful,  Lake  and  West 
Thumb.  Whittaker  enjoyed  no  competition  at  Can- 
yon, and  he  shared  the  commerce  at  Mammoth  with 
the  Trischman  sisters.  Each  concern  at  Mammoth 
was  allowed  certain  privileges  that  were  not  shared 
with  the  other.  Apparently  Mather  felt  the  general 
stores  were  not  a  problem  at  this  time  and  they  were 
allowed  to  operate  unmolested  after  the  Park  Ser- 
vice took  over  in  1918. 

With  all  the  prospective  changes,  Pryor  & 
Trischman  were  issued  a  lease  for  only  one  year  in 
1916.  Their  yearly  rental  fee  remained  at  $50,  but 
the  lease  now  also  allowed  the  sale  of  toiletries, 
newspapers,  hats,  veils,  gloves,  and  colored 
glasses.^'  By  1918  the  dust  had  settled  from  the 
shakeouts  in  the  transportation  and  camping  com- 
panies, and  due  to  their  favorable  business  (and  no 
doubt  personal)  relationships  with  the  previous 
administrations,  the  women  were  again  given  a  10- 
year  lease  for  their  store.^-  The  Wylie  Camp  at  Swan 
Lake  Flats  was  closed  and  a  new  camp  established 
at  Mammoth  on  the  flats  on  the  south  side  of  Capi- 


^"  Robert  Shankland,  Steve  Mather  of  the  National  Parks  (New 
York:  A.  A.  Knopf.  1451).  120-27. 

"•  Ibid. 

"  Pryor  Lease.  April  10.  1'^I6.  Box  C16,  Pryor  &  Pryor;  Holm 
Transportation  Folder,  YNP  Archives 

'-  Lease  of  Aug.  18,  1917.  Box  C8,  Pryor  Stores.  Inc.,  folder, 
YNP  Archives 


Park  Curio 
Shop,  1917. 


Spring  '200^2 

tol  Hill.^^  This  would  prove  to  be  good  news  for 
both  the  Trischmans  and  Whittaker  as  it  meant  the 
potential  for  increased  business  to  them. 

By  1917  Anna  was  spending  winters  in  Helena 
where  daughter  Georganna,  now  9  years  old, 
attended  school.  A  letter  that  year  from  neighbor 
Judge  John  Meldrum  to  his  niece  indicated  that 
Anna's  youngest  daughter  Margaret  was  staying  at 
Mammoth  during  the  winter  with  her  grandfather 
and  "Aunt  Hattie",  who  was  probably  Elizabeth. 
Meldrum,  74  years  old,  had  been  appointed  the  first 
U.S.  Commissioner  in  Yellowstone  in  1894.  The 
Trischman  sisters  had  taken  their  neighbor  "under 
their  wings"  and  he  spoke  fondly  of  them  in  his  let- 
ters. When  Anna  and  Georganna  came  to  Mam- 
moth for  Christmas,  Anna  had  a  full  Santa  suit 
made  for  Meldrum.  He  visited  the  children  and 
brought  them  each  four  or  fi\'e  dolls  and  a  2 -story 
doUhouse,  six  feet  long,  and  3  feet  wide,  complete 
with  six  furnished  rooms. ^^  If  the  girls  knew  Santa 
was  the  "Judge",  they  never  let  on. 

In  1920  the  ladies  began  conducting  weekly  pic- 
ture shows,  and  dances  twice  weekly  at  the  Mam- 
moth Post  Exchange.  Records  do  not  indicate  how 
long  they  provided  this  service,  but  the  park  Su- 
perintendent noted  in  his  annual  report  that  the 
activities  were  "especially  appreciated  by  park  em- 
ployees."^^  Financial  figures  for  the  1922  season  at 
the  Curio  Shop  show  yearly  sales  of  over  $24,000, 
with  a  profit  of  just  under  $3,000,  in  addition  to 
the  ladies'  yearly  salaries.  Employees  received 
board  as  part  of  their  earnings;  the  yardman,  cooks, 
and  sand  artist  earned  $60  per  month,  and  wait- 
resses $40  per  month,  plus  tips. 

Two  years  later  the  lease  of  1917  was  relinquished 
and  a  new  10-year  lease  negotiated.  The  basic  fee 
structures  changed,  and  Pr>or  &  Trischman  were 
committed  to  fees  of  1%  on  gross  sales  up  to 
$20,000.  An  additional  1%  was  to  be  levied  for  each 
$20,000  over  that,  up  to  a  maximum  of  4%  for  gross 
revenues  exceeding  $60,000.'^''  A  new  provision  of 
the  lease  allowed  the  establishment  of  a  deli  at  the 
newly  established  "free  auto  camp"  at  Lower  Mam- 
moth. The  ladiesjointly  ran  this  new  business  with 
George  Whittaker.  At  this  same  time  George  had 
also  been  allowed  to  establish  small  branch  stores 
at  both  the  Mammoth  and  Canyon  campgrounds. ^^ 
Judge  Meldrum  described  the  campgrounds  in 
1925  as  "veritable  beehives... with  [fire]  wood,  run- 
ning water  toilets,  laundries,  shower  baths,  and 
electric  lights.  "^"^ 


1 1 

In  the  early  1920's,  the  sisters  apparently  saved 
enough  money  to  buy  a  house  in  Los  Angeles  where 
they  began  spending  their  winters.  Other  conces- 
sion operators  and  Yellowstone  personnel  did  the 
same.  Meldrum  drove  to  Los  Angeles  with  the  sis- 
ters after  the  1924  season  and  spent  several  months 
there,  enjo>ing  himself  immensely.  He  mentioned 
in  his  1925  letter  that  he  "met  more  old  Wyoming 
friends  here  during  the  three  months... than  I  would 
see  here  [Yellowstone]  in  that  many  years.'"'" 

Although  the  Trischmans  had  been  turned  down 
in  their  request  to  establish  a  refreshment  stand  at 
Devil's  Kitchen  in  1915,  Interior  approved  a  later 
one  in  1924.  The  lease  allowed  them  to  establish 
the  Devil's  Kitchenette  and  sell  nonalcoholic  cold 
drinks  and  ice  cream.""  The  following  year  the  10- 
year  lease  of  1924  was  amended  to  include  the 
Kitchenette.  Financial  reports  for  1925  show  that 
there  were  16  employees  in  the  operation  and  Pr\'or 
and  Trischman  each  earned  a  salary  of  $12,000.*" 
Georganna  was  now  16  years  of  age,  and  probably 
was  one  of  those  sixteen  employees.  In  1925 
Whittaker  left  the  deli  business  at  Mammoth  and 
sold  his  share  to  Pryor  &  Trischman.*^ 

The  women  continued  to  expand  their  business 
and  in  1927  they  added  a  cafeteria  to  their  opera- 
tion at  the  Mammoth  campground.  At  this  time 
financial  reports  state  that  Anna  owned  a  two-thirds 
interest  in  the  business,  and  Elizabeth,  the  one- 
third  portion. 

The  upcoming  Great  Depression  days  did  not 
bode  w-ell  with  concessioners  anywhere  in  the 
National  Park  system.  Pr>'or  &  Trischman  showed 
a  loss  for  the  first  time  in  1931  and  1932.   Luckily 

"Goss.  72.  110. 

'•' Judge  Meldrum  to  Niece. , Ian.  10.  1917.  .A.nn\  Files  Doc.  9306. 
YNP  Files.  Mrs.  Meldrum  died  in  1908  at  Mammoth. 

"  "Superintendent's  Annual  Report  of  1920."  58.  \NP  .Archives 

^"  The  "sand  artist"  listed  was  no  doubt  .Andrew  Wald.  who  was 
well-known  for  his  expert  ability  to  create  beautiful  park  scenes  within 
bottles  of  multi-colored  sands.  ""Prior&  Trischman  Annual  Reports, 
1922."  Box  C8.  YNP  Archives 

"  Pryor  Stores.  Inc.  Folder.  Box  C8.  "Concessions  Records."  YNP 
.Archives 

'*  Judge  Meldrum  to  Niece,  Sept.  8,  1 925.  Army  Files  Doc.  9304, 
YNP  Files.  Apparently,  the  site  was  a  good  one.  Photographer  Jack 
Havnes  set  up  a  new  Photo  Shop  next  door  to  them  a  few  years  later. 

"'  Ihid 

''"  Pry  or  Stores,  Inc.  Folder,  Box  C,  "Concessions  Records."  YNP 
Archives 

"'  "Pryor  &  Trischman  Annual  Reports,  1925."  Box  C8.  Conces- 
sions Records,  YNP  Archives 

"  Marsha  Karle,  ed..  A  Yellouslone  Album  {Y^P:  The  Yellowstone 
Foundation,  1997).  Commentary  b\  Lee  Whittlesey  and  Park  staff 


I '2 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  JoLirnal 


Devil  .s  Kiicheneiie.  Miiiiniiulh  Terraces,  1924 


bad  times  did  not  last,  and  in  1934  they  were  back 
in  the  black  again  with  profits  of  more  than  15  per- 
cent. Profits  remained  in  double  digits  through 
1940,  with  the  exception  of  1939.  In  1936  they 
showed  a  profit  of  $26,015  on  gross  revenues  of 
$176,  859.*^ 

Even  with  the  bad  times  in  1932,  the  women  were 
looking  fonvard  to  better  times.  George  Whittaker 
was  now  about  62,  and  had  been  in  business  for  20 
years.  He  was  ready  to  retire  from  the  park  and 
sell  his  properties.  His  lease  would  expire  in  1933, 
and  according  to  letters  written  between  George 
and  "Billie"  Nichols,  head  of  the  Yellowstone  Park 
hotel  and  transportation  companies,  Whittaker 
would  be  required  to  invest  $20,000  in  improve- 
ments in  the  nex1:  two  years.  He  complained  to  Billie 
that  he  became  "disgusted  with  this  park  stuff  at 
times  and  [I]  feel  like  getting  out  of  it."  Charles 
Hamilton  made  numerous  overtures  to  buy  out  the 
Whittaker's  business,  but  he  was  never  able  to  raise 
the  funds  Whittaker  required.*'"'  When  Anna  ap- 
proached him  about  their  purchasing  his  business, 
he  was  interested.  According  to  1932  financial 
statements,  Pryor  &  Trischman  agreed  upon  a  pur- 
chase price  of  $75,000.  A  cash  down  payment  of 
$5,000  was  made  to  Whittaker  along  with  notes 
totaling  $40,000.  They  also  obtained  a  $17,000 
loan  from  the  National  Park  Bank  in  Livingston, 
along  with  a  loan  of  $13,000  from  the  Yellowstone 
Park  Transportation  Company.'''^ 

Early  in  1932,  having  come  to  an  agreement  on 
the  purchase  with  Whittaker,  Anna  traveled  to 
Washington,  D.  C.,  to  negotiate  with  officials  there 
on  transfer  of  Whittaker's  lease  agreement  to  Pryor 


&  Trischman.  The  acquisition  was  effective  April 
1,  and  included  a  half  interest  with  the  Yellowstone 
Park  Transportation  Co.  to  operate  the  gas  stations 
at  Mammoth  and  Canyon.*""  Interior  issued  a  new 
10-year  lease  in  July  that  included  both  operations, 
and  a  new  provision  prohibiting  Pryor  &  Trischman 
from  selling  photographs  of  Yellowstone  or  photo- 
graphic supplies  and  equipment.^-  This  was  the 
result  of  Jack  Haynes,  of  Haynes  Picture  Shops, 
managing  to  gain  exclusive  rights  in  1930  to  the  sale 
of  all  Yellowstone  images  in  the  park.**^ 

Whittaker,  although  now  retired  from  Yellow- 
stone, maintained  an  active  interest  his  business 
in  West  Yellowstone,  which  included  63  "modern" 
tourist  cabins,  gas  station,  barber  and  beauty  shops, 
and  a  store.""  He  was  also  instrumental  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  first  airport  in  West  Yellowstone  in 


*■■'  "Pryor  &  Trischman  Annual  Reports  1 922-39."  Box  C8,  Con- 
cession Records,  YNP  Archives 

"•'  Whittai<er  to  Nichols,  Dec.  24,  1931.  George  Whittaker  Files, 
1 925-35,  Montana  Historical  Society.  Nichols  took  over  the  compa- 
nies in  1931  following  the  death  of  Harry  Child,  his  father-in-law. 

"'  Year-end  statements  for  1933-35  show  interest  payments  being 
made  on  notes  to  John  Olsen,  neighbor  and  friend  Judge  Meldrum, 
daughter  Georganna  (now  using  the  name  of  Georganna  Pryor 
Lockridge),  and  brother  Harry,  in  addition  to  the  original  loans.  By 
season's  end  in  1935,  the  ladies  had  paid  off  half  of  the  $70,000  in 
notes.  "Pryor  &  Trischman  Annual  Reports  1922-39." 

<"'  "Park  Curio  Shop  Financial  Report,  Sept.  30,  1932,"  Box  C8, 
Concessions  Records,  YNP  Archives 

"•^  "Pryor  &  Trischman  .Annual  Reports,  1932." 

"■^Goss,  122. 

'■''  "Park  Concession  Bought  Saturday,"  unidentified  newspaper. 
Mar.  22,  1932,  Box  H2,  YNP  Archives. 


Spring  'JOO'i 

the  mid-1930's.^°  He  lived  for  almost  30  more 
years,  dying  in  1961  at  the  Old  Soldiers  Home  in 
Sawtelle,  California.^' 

The  purchase  proved  to  be  a  good  move  for 
the  sisters.  The  depression  soon  lessened, 
and  business  greatly  increased  for  them.  By  1936 
the  general  stores  at  Canyon  and  Mammoth  pro- 
duced over  $110,000  in  sales,  the  gas  stations  con- 
tributed $51,000,  and  the  women's  original  busi- 
nesses at  Mammoth  grossed  around  $50,000.  Al- 
though sales  at  the  Devil's  Kitchenette  continued 
to  increase  during  those  years,  only  $850  in  sales 
resulted  in  1937,  and  that  seems  to  have  been  the 
last  year  of  operation.  Financial  reports  for  the  fol- 
lowing years  made  no  further  mention  of  the  ICitch- 
enette.  Salaries  for  the  sisters  during  this  decade 
varied  with  business  conditions.  The  years  1932- 
33  were  the  low  with  Anna  drawing  only  $1000, 
and  Elizabeth  $750.  Four  years  later  those  figures 
increased  to  $6,000  and  $4,000  respectively."^ 

The  deli  and  cafeteria  operation  at  the  Mammoth 
Auto  Camp  lasted  through  the  late  1940's,  with 
some  closures  during  the  war  years,  but  after  that, 
they  consolidated  their  operations  in  the  hotel  area 
in  upper  Mammoth.  Pr>or  & Trischman  received  a 
new  lease  in  1941,  this  time  for  20  years.  However, 
in  return  for  the  extended  time  period,  they  agreed 
to  invest  over  $50,000  in  five  years  for  additions 
and  improvements  to  their  facilities.  As  years  went 
by,  lease  agreements  got  more  complicated,  and  this 
one  gave  the  Interior  department  the  option  of  re- 
quiring new  services  to  be  provided,  if  a  reason- 
able need  was  shown.  It  also  required  that  any 
abandoned  sites  be  restored  to  their 
natural  condition.  A  new  fee  struc- 
ture allowed  for  net  profits  of  6  per- 
cent on  their  investments.  If  net 
profits  exceeded  6  percent,  a  fee  of 
22-1/2  percent  of  the  excess  was  to 
be  paid  to  the  government.  Yearly 
fees  amounted  to  $500  for  the  tirst 
10  years  and  $1000  thereafter."' 

The  war  years  again  took  a  toll  on 
park  businesses,  with  most  park 
operations  being  closed  or  curtailed. 
The  main  Coffee  Shop  at  Mammoth 
closed,  along  with  the  cafeteria  and 
store  at  the  campground.  What  few 
visitors  arrived  in  1943-44  could 

Mammoth  Cafeteria  at  Auto  Camp.  I9i0 


13 

take  meals  in  the  employee  dining  room,  while  em- 
ployee rooms  near  the  Coft'ee  Shop  became  avail- 
able for  overnight  lodging.  The  store  and  gas  sta- 
tion at  Canyon  closed,  but  the  main  store  and  sta- 
tion at  Mammoth  remained  open."^ 

After  the  war,  business  not  only  resumed,  but  also 
greatly  increased  in  the  park.  A  previous  high  of 
over  580,000  park  \isitors  had  been  established  in 
1941,  but  that  dropped  to  just  over  64,000  in  1944. 
Four  years  later  in  1948  that  figure  increased  to  over 
1  million  \isitors,  most  now  \isiting  in  private  au- 
tos,  rather  than  by  train.''' 

By  1947  the  sisters  were  definitely  feeling  their 
age  -  Anna  was  62,  and  they  had  been  in  busi- 
ness for  almost  40  years.  It  was  brought  to  their 
attention  that  if  one  of  them  were  to  die,  their  part- 
nership legally  would  be  dissolved.  In  order  for  the 
survivor  to  continue  business  in  the  park,  she  would 
have  to  go  through  the  permitting  process  vNith  the 
government  all  over  again.  To  avoid  this  scenario, 
they  decided  to  incorporate.""  On  May  27  a  corpo- 
ration was  formed  v\ith  Anna  as  president  and  hold- 


"'  Whittaker  to  Nichols.  Feb.  4  und  Mar.  16.  1434.  George 
Whittaker  Filcs- 

"  Haines.  448. 

"■"Pr>or&  Irischman  Annual  Reports.  1422-39.'" 

"  Lease  Agreement  June  16,  1941.  Pr\'or  Stores.  Inc..  Folder.  Box 
C8.  "Concessions  Records."  YNP  Archives 

"  PPior  Stores  File.  File  No.  900.  Part  three.  PLIC.  Box  C35 
"Concessions  Records."  YNP  Archives. 

"  Haines,  479,  485 

'"•  Pryor  to  O.  Taylor.  Supv.  Concessions.  ,lan.  27.  1 948.  Box  C35. 
File  No.  900.  PUC.  YNP  Archives 


14 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


75? 

Special  Luncheon  or  Dinner 

750 

,„,. 

ROAST   MEATS 
^ALL  STEAK  OR   CHOPS  16  P  M.  TO  B  ^U  P  M  1 

V£C,rTABLFS 

HOME  MADE  ROI.L5.  BUTTER 
Pli                     ICt  CREAM                     C-AKE 

TOES 

TtA 

COFFFE                         MILK                         rCf.P   TEA 

..  vf.v...  .Han».N  L-..E.  ,..  v^.>.  c.M,rT,.„  ....r>  .^ 

Pcvot!   Store;5 

corrrE  smop 

JlAmmotK  Hot  Springa 


Cold  Sandwiches 

KoasL  Fork.  Veal,  or  Beef.  Cold        25 

Baked  Ham  Sandwich.  Tuna  Salad  Sandwich 20 

American  or  PinientoChcese.PcanutButter.  Minced  Ham,  Deviled  Ekk  15 
Toasted  Sandwiches  5c  Extra 

Hot  Sandwiches 

Ham  and  Melted  Cheese.  Toasted 30 

Bacon  and  Tomato        25 

HamburL'er.  Bun,  Ctnion.  Sliced  Tomato.  Pickle 20 

i-Yied  Ham  /io         Fried  Egg 20 

Denver.  Toasted  "0        Meltcil  Cheese    20 

Tempting  Luncheon  Sugsestions 
Hot  Roast  IJeef,  Veal,  or  Pork  Sandwich,  Mashed  Potatoes  and  Drink  4U 

Vepetahle  Plate.  Poached  EKK^  Rolls.  Drink       60 

Mashed  Potatoes  and  Gravy,  Portion    .  10 

Cooked  Vejietabies.  Portion  10 

Truzzolino's  Famous  Chicken  Tamales,  Chili  Sauce     35 

Vegetable.  Rico,  Noodle,  or  Broth  Soups  10 

All  Heinz  Soups  or  Cieam  Soups 15 

Tomato.  Pineapple.  Oranne,  Grapefruit  Juice 10 

Fresh  Oranw;e  Juice,  Small         15         Large 25 


Rolls  and  Butter.  Bread  and  Butter 
Tea.  Coffee.  Mdk,  Postum.  Iced  Tea 
Hot  ChiK-olaie.  Wafers 


I'otnl 


■  Ch.-i 


A':rniiod  Cold  Meat-.. 
Shcpd  'rotnatoes 
Pineapple  and  (^uttaire 
Combination 
Potato .      , 
Head  Lettvice  - 

Choice  of  French.  lllOO  Island,  or  Mayonnaise  Dressing 
Saltine  Flakes  Ser\'ed  with  Salads 

Fresh  ColtaKe  Cheese.  Portion  

Eastern  Cheese  and  Crackers  .  

Apple,  Berry,  or  Cream  Pies.  Made  in  Our  Kitchen.  Portion 

Home  Made  I-iyc r  Cake,  Portion  .  , 

Pie  or  Cake  a  la  Mode  


ing  1000  shares,  and 
Elizabeth  as  vice-presi- 
dent/treasurer with  500 
shares.  Daughter 

Georganna  was  also  added 
to  the  board  of  directors." 

The  two  women  were 
ready  to  consider  retire- 
ment with  the  realization 
that  "it's  later  than  we 
think,  and  the  extremely  heavy  work  of  the  past  few 
years  has  been  a  definite  strain  on  us."  The  main 
problem  preventing  their  retirement  seemed  to  be 
their  inabilit\-  to  find  a  suitable  buyer.  Several  pro- 
spective buyers  had  approached  them  about  a  pos- 
sible sale,  but  the  sisters  did  not  believe  that  any  of 
them  could  meet  the  stringent  demands  and  quali- 
fications required  by  the  Park  Service.  During  the 
summer  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Trevor  Povah  of  the 
Hamilton  Stores  operation  expressed  interest  in 
buving  the  business.  Mrs.  Povah  was  the  daughter 
of  Charles  Hamilton  and  was  described  by  Anna  as 
a  "splendid  woman."  Anna  also  described  Trevor 
as  "liked  by  his  associates  and  has  the  respect  of 
his  employees  [and]  is  well-fitted  for  any  responsi- 
bility." Although  both  Anna  and  Elizabeth  seemed 
confident  with  the  abilities  of  the  Povahs  to  run 
their  business  in  a  professional  manner,  no  actual 
offers  were  made  at  this  time,  and  business  contin- 
ued as  usual. '^ 

Shortly  after  the  incorporation  of  the  Pryor 
Stores,  the  sisters  made  a  new  agreement  with 
Yellowstone  Park  Company  (YPCo)  on  the  joint 
operation  of  the  gas  stations  at  Mammoth  and  Can- 
yon. Under  this  agreement  each  partner  would  re- 
tain an  undivided  half  interest  in  the  stations  un- 


SeUds 

s 

ilacl. 

Koll-,.  Ill 

ink 

25 

CuL-uniber, . 

15 

Frutt 

25 

Shrimp 

or  C 

rab 

.10 
10 
.10 

.05 
.Z5 
,25 
.25 

60 
60 


10 
.25 
10 
10 
.15 


Pryor  Coffee  Shop  menu.  1941.  Author's  collection. 


der  the  auspices  of 
Yellowstone  Park  Ser- 
vice Stations  (YPSS), 
which  managed  all  the 
stations  in  the  park.  The 
contract  was  effective  on 
a  year-to-year  basis,  and 
could  be  terminated  by 
either  party  with  90-day 
notice  prior  to  season 
opening.""  The  business 
was  a  lucrative  one  for 
Pryor  Stores  and  by  this 
time  provided  about  half 
of  their  yearly  net  profit. 
However,  this  high  pro- 
portion was  due  partly 
to  the  fact  that  the 
women's  salaries  came 
out  of  the  store  end  of 
the  business. *^°  In  1948 
Trevor  Povah  was  super- 
vising the  YPSS  opera- 
tions. He  was  paid  $500 
from  the  joint  operating 
funds  of  the  three  part- 


ners, Pryor,  YPCo,  and  Hamilton  Stores."' 

By  1952  sales  figures  for  Pryor  Stores,  Inc. 
reached  their  highest  level  ever  at  $383,406.26.  Net 
profits  were  more  than  $29,000  and  salaries  for 
each  partner  remained  at  $12,000  per  year."^  The 
sisters  proceeded  with  negotiations  for  sale  of  their 
stores  to  Charles  Hamilton,  and  on  September  23 
he  offered  $250,000  cash  for  the  Pryor  Store  hold- 
ings, to  be  effective  on  September  30.  He  proposed 
that  all  accounts  receivable  generated  up  to  that 
date  go  to  Pryor  Stores,  and  that  all  debts  be  paid 
off  by  then.  In  the  spirit  of  good  faith  he  asked  that 
no  inventory  reduction  sales  be  held  and  that  "we 


"NPS  Audit,  1958,  Pryor  Stores,  Inc.,  Folder,  Box  C8,  "Conces- 
sions Records,"  YNP  Archives 

'"  Pryor  to  O.  Taylor. 

'"  "Memorandum  of  Agreement,  Pryor  Stores,  Inc.  &  Yellowstone 
Park  Co.,"  1947,  Wm.  Nichols  Files  1947-53,  Montana  Historical 
Society.  The  Yellowstone  Park  Company  wa  formed  in  1936  with 
the  consolidation  of  the  hotel,  transportation,  lodge  and  boat  compa- 
nies. William  Nichols  remained  in  charge. 

«"  Pryor  Stores,  Inc.,  Annual  Reports,  1947-52,  Box  C8.  "Con- 
cessions Records,"  YNP  Archives 

*'  Pryor  to  Nichols,  Jan.  30,  1950,  Nichols  Files  1947-53,  Mon- 
tana Historical  Society.  YPCo  also  held  a  half  interest  in  Hamilton's 
service  stations. 

*-  Pryor  Stores,  Inc.  Annual  Reports,  1947-52. 


Spring  ■200^2 

play  the  game  honestly  and  as  friends  of  over  the 
past  40  years."  Hamilton  told  them  that  "We  do 
not  need  a  lawyer  or  any  auditors  for  this  is  a  clean 
cut  deal  between  us."  Hamilton  admitted  in  a  let- 
ter to  Anna  on  September  23,  "I  would  not  be  in- 
terested for  a  minute  if  it  were  not  that  I  have  a 
younger  generation  to  take  over.  From  my  angle  I 
will  never  see  the  above  obligation  worked  out  be- 
fore I  pass  on,  but  I  guess  I  will  gamble  until  that 
time  arrives. ""^^  His  gamble  paid  off,  but  only  for  a 
few  more  years  as  he  suffered  a  fatal  heart  attack  in 
May  1957.**-' 

Although  Hamilton  expected  to  make  money  on 
his  imestment,  a  review  of  correspondence  between 
him  and  William  Nichols,  head  of  YPCo,  indicates 
more  important  reasons  for  the  buy-out.  Both  men 
were  concerned  that  an  outside  buyer,  particularly 
one  with  deep  financial  pockets,  could  purchase  the 
Pryor  business  and  cause  financial  havoc  between 
both  of  their  operations. ^^  -phg  service  stations  at 
Mammoth  and  Canyon  generated  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  Pr>'or  Stores'  yearly  profits.  An  out- 
side buyer  could  eliminate  YPCo's  interest  and 
bring  in  a  competing  oil  company  to  represent 
them.  This  might  adversely  affect  both  YPCo  and 
Hamilton's  gas  stations  in  the  southern  portion  of 
the  park.  YPCo  already  had  a  shared  interest  in 
Hamilton's  gas  stations,  so  a  takeover  of  the  Pryor 
operations  by  Hamilton  would  also  benefit  YPCo. 
And,  too,  an  outside  buyer  could  adversely  aftect 
Hamilton's  curio  and  general  store  businesses  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  park.  A  buy-out  by 
Hamilton  would  give  him  a  monopoly  of  the  gen- 
eral store  business  in  the  park,  and  allow  Hamilton 
and  YPCo  to  evenly  split  the  service  station  busi- 
ness. 

No  doubt  Anna  Pryor  was  aware  of  these  poten- 
tial scenarios,  and  she  upped  the  ante  by  making  a 
counter-offer  on  October  7, 1952,  of  $300,000  for 
the  business,  which  Hamilton  accepted.  Anna 
would  receive  $200,000  from  the  deal,  and  Eliza- 
beth, $100,000.*^"  Out  of  the  total  sale  amount, 
which  amounted  to  $333,000  by  the  time  the  books 
were  closed,**^  the  sisters  realized  a  paper  profit  of 
$102,000.  The  deal  was  finalized  on  January  5  of 
1953,  with  Hamilton  receiving  1498  shares,  and  Mr. 
&  Mrs.  Povah  each  receiving  one  share.  The  assets 
were  then  sold  to  Hamilton  Stores,  Inc.,  and  Pryor 
Stores,  Inc.  was  officially  dissolved  on  March  20.*^* 
According  to  an  insurance  audit  in  September  of 
1950,  the  Pryor  Stores'  property  at  Mammoth  con- 
sisted of  the  Park  Curio  Shop  itself,  with  a  single- 


13 

Story  garage  and  warehouse  located  behind  it,  and 
the  general  store,  service  station  and  single-story 
employee  dormitory  located  at  the  rear.  Also  at 
Mammoth  were  the  general  store,  gas  station,  caf- 
eteria, and  dormitor\'  facilities  at  the  Mammoth 
Auto  Camp.  The  Canyon  properties  consisted  of 
the  single-story  general  store  and  gas  station,  which 
housed  the  post  oftice,  soda  fountain,  residence, 
storage,  and  a  two-story  dormitory  building  located 
nearby.**'' 

Four  years  later,  a  brand  new  facility  replaced  the 
Canyon  service  station,  and  was  located  a  few  miles 
away  at  the  current  Canyon  Junction.  The  station 
opened  on  June  1,  1957,  at  a  cost  of  $99,000.  A 
new  store  with  12,000  square  feet  of  selling  space, 
warehouse  facilities,  and  apartments  for  five  em- 
ployees, replaced  the  aging  buildings  near  Upper 
Falls.  The  store  was  located  in  the  newly  established 
Canyon  Village,  opening  July  15  of  that  year,  and 
costing  $650,000.  Construction  of  a  new  dormi- 
tory accommodating  100  employees  brought 
Hamilton  Stores'  total  investment  at  Canyon  for  the 
year  to  one  million  dollars.'"' 

After  the  sale  in  1953,  the  two  sisters  and 
Georganna  returned  to  their  winter  home  in  Los 
Angeles.  In  Hamilton's  letter  he  suggested  that  "It 
is  time  you  let  down  on  your  battles  and  started  to 
enjoy  life  because  as  the  Second  Chapter  of  St.  Luke 
says,  you  cannot  take  it  with  you."'"  It  would  seem 
that  the  women  were  able  to  do  this  and  both  out- 
lived daughter  Georganna,  who  died  in  November 
1961  from  a  stroke. ''^  Anna  lived  to  be  89,  dying  on 
October  27,  1973.  Sister  Elizabeth  outlived  her  by 
eleven  years,  spending  her  last  night  in  a  Glendale 
hospital  on  November  20,  1984-''' 

A  sad  coincidence  occurred  that  same  year  when 

"-  Hamilton  to  Pryor,  Sept.  23.  1952.  Pryor  Stores  File.  No.  300- 
01  Part  Six.  Box  C35.  YNP  Archives 

"  Haines,  422.  n40 

«'  Hamilton  to  Nichols.  .Ian.  9.  I9.'i2;  Nichols  to  H.C.  .Ir.  Feb.  27. 
1952.  Nichols  Files. 

«"  Pryor  to  Hamilton.  Oct.  7.  1952.  File  No.  300-01. 

"Galusha  letter.  Dec.  15,  1953.  Annual  Hamilton  Stores  Report 
1953-54.  Box  C9.  YNP  Archives 

**  Report  on  Audit  of  the  Operations  of  Pryor  Stores.  Inc..  Pryor 
Stores.  Inc.,  Folder.  Box  C8,  YNP  Archives 

*''  Insurance  Questionnaire,  Sep.  14,  1950.  File  900  Part  Four - 
Pryor  Stores.  Box  C35.  YNP  Archives 

""  Povah  to  Supt.  Garrison.  Mar.  25.  1958.  Box  C30,  File  C58. 
Buildings.  Hamilton  Stores  1953-59.  YNP  Archives 

"  Hamilton  to  Pryor,  Sept.  23.  1952. 

'''  "Georgann  Pryor... Dies."  Livingston  Park  Conn!}'  News.  n.d.. 
1961.  Box  H2.  Biographical.  YNP  Archives 

"  Social  Security  Death  Records,  from  RootsWeb.com.  Inc.  http:/ 
/vitals. rootsweb, com 


16 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


final  approval  was  given  for  the  demolition  of  the 
Park  Curio  Shop  at  Mammoth.  A  letter  to  the  NPS 
Regional  Director  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  Region 
by  the  Associate  Director  of  Cultural  Resources  in 
Yellowstone  asserted  that  the  condition  of  the 
building  in  general  had  deteriorated  and  that  a  sig- 
nificant amount  of  non-fire  retardant  materials  had 
been  used  in  construction  of  the  structure.  Ongo- 
ing studies  indicated  that  high  levels  of  radon  and 
carbon  dioxide  were  in  the  basement,  causing  a 
potential  health  hazard  to  employees  and  visitors. 
Based  on  these  factors,  it  was  decided  that  renova- 
tion would  not  be  feasible  or  prudent,  and  plans 
were  put  in  motion  for  the  destruction  and  removal 
of  this  historic  88-year-old  building.''^ 

The  action  closed  out  the  final  chapter  in  the  tale 
of  these  two  sisters  -  a  tale  that  began  at  the  turn  of 
the  century  with  an  emotionally  scarring  episode 
in  a  land  that  was  untamed  and  far  away  from  the 
pleasantries  of  "civilized"  life.  The  women  began  a 
business  in  the  days  when  the  Army  controlled  the 
park  and  civilian  administration  was  still  a  dream. 
They  passed  through  the  rocky  transition  from  mili- 
tary rule  to  administration  by  the  new  National  Park 
Service  with  apparent  ease.  Many  other  businesses 
in  the  park  either  did  not  survive  this  transition,  or 
survived,  but  with  serious  changes  in  their  opera- 
tions. The  sisters  not  only  weathered  the  uncer- 
tainties and  rigors  of  World  War  I  and  the  Great 
Depression,  but  also  emerged  stronger  than  ever. 
They  adapted  their  operations  to  survive  the  hard 
times  of  World  War  II,  and  once  again,  thrived 
when  times  returned  to  normal.  After  spending  a 
half-century  in  Yellowstone,  they  retired  with  their 
careers  at  a  pinnacle  and  left  a  legacy  of  a  solid  re- 
tail business  operation.  Surely  they  had  been 
through  the  best  and  worst  of  times  in  the  nation's 
first  national  park. 

The  story  of  the  concessions  does  not  end  here. 
Issues  change,  along  with  the  names  of  some  of  the 
players.  As  of  2001,  Hamilton  Stores  still  operates 
the  general  stores,  but  Amfac  Parks  &  Resorts  man- 
ages the  lodging  and  transportation  systems. 
Yellowstone  Park  Service  Stations  continues  under 


joint  ownership  of  Hamilton  and  Amfac.  The  con- 
tracts of  both  these  companies  are  up  for  renewal, 
and  outside  bidders  are  making  their  plays  in  an 
attempt  to  wrest  control  of  the  business  in 
Yellowstone.  Public  opinion,  politicians,  business 
and  environmental  groups  lobby  to  influence  policy 
decisions  made  by  the  Park  Service.  The  original 
intent  of  the  act  to  set  aside  Yellowstone  for  the 
"benefit  and  enjoyment  of  the  people"  is  interpreted 
differently  by  each  generation.  Protection  of  wild- 
life and  the  Greater  Yellowstone  ecosystem  cur- 
rently plays  a  greater  role  in  policy-making  than  in 
previous  years.  Groups  continue  to  advocate 
changes  in  the  monopolistic  business  atmosphere 
in  the  park  to  allow  for  increased  competition. 
Controversy  stemming  from  the  air  and  noise  pol- 
lution of  snowmobiles  and  the  overcrowding  of  the 
roads  during  summer  has  the  potential  to  change 
transportation  operations  drastically  in  the  future, 
affecting  businesses  both  inside  and  outside  of  the 
park.  Changes  are  inevitable  for  all  those  involved 
in  Yellowstone,  and  the  "Best  and  Worst  of  Times" 
may  still  be  ahead  for  many  concessionaires. 

After  87  years  of  business  in  the  park,  Hamilton 
Stores  lost  their  contract  through  the  competitive 
bidding  process  that  no  longer  rewards  prior  ser- 
vice. Delaware  North  Park  Services  will  take  over 
the  operation  beginning  Jan.  1,  2003. 

"■*  J.  Rogers  Memorandum  to  Regional  Director,  Rocky  Mountain 
Region,  Oct.  1,  1984,  Box  S6,  File  S7417,  "Property  Accountabil- 
ity, Disp.  of  Real  Property,"  1984,  YNP  Archives 


Robert  Goss  has  lived  and  worked  in  the 
Yellowstone  and  Gardiner,  Montana,  area  for 
almost  30  years  and  has  spent  countless  hours 
exploring  historic  sites  in  the  park.  He  has  self- 
published  two  reference  books  concerning  the 
history  of  the  concessions  in  Yellowstone.  He  is 
currently  employed  by  Xanterra  Parks  and  Re- 
sorts at  Mammoth  Hot  Springs. 


Purirait  nt  RiJgwii}-  Glover 
Aulhors  collcclion 


Ridgway  Glover, 
Photographer 


By  Paula  Fleming 


"Did  Ridgway  Glover  lake  photographs  of  Fori  Phil 
Kearny?' " 

This  is  one  of  I  he  many  inlriguing  queslions  ihal  has  en- 
gaged scholars  of  I  he  American  Weslfor  decades,  nol  I  he  least 
of  which  was  Dr.  John  C.  Ewers  who  regularly  inspired  me  to 
find  an  answer  to  this  and  many  other  queslions.  Frequently 
he  would  drop  by  the  National  Anthropological  Archives  on 
one  of  his  many  research  quests,  always  taking  time  to  ask 
about  my  own  investigations.  As  anyone  who  ever  had  a  dis- 
cussion with  Jack  on  a  subject  of  mutual  interest  will  know, 
these  chats  usually  lasted  longer  than  time  he  allotted  for  his 
own  research.  Inspiration  leading  to  inspiration:  supposi- 
tion leading  to  new  directions:  bits  of  obscure  data  dredged 
up  from  memories  all  came  together  to  deepen  understanding 
and  advance  the  line  of  knowledge  for  both  parties  in  what 
was  trulv  a  nvo-wa\-  intellectual  street. 


What  more  could  one  want  from  a  mentor?'  Clearly  Jack 
Ewers  had  a  profound  impact  on  my  career.  With  his  high 
standards  of  scholarship  and  clear,  easy  style  of  writing,  he 
encouraged  and  guided  me  to  the  very  end.  It  was  with  great 
sadness  that  the  work  on  Glover  had  to  continue  without  the 
benefit  of  his  presence.  While  all  of  the  questions  still  ha\'e 
not  been  answered,  he  would  be  pleased  to  know  that  progress 
has  been  made,  especially  as  prospects  were  bleak.  It  is  to  his 
memoiy  that  I  dedicate  this  summary  of  my  work  on  Glover: 
Breakthroughs,  thoughts,  failures  and  questions  still  unan- 
swered all  included.  While  it  would  haw  been  nice  to  have 
answered  every  question,  his  legacy  reminds  us  that  one  can 
never  really  come  to  a  complete  answer  on  any  topic  -  there 
are  always  new  questions  and  lines  of  thought  to  inspire  fu- 
ture scholars.  So  it  is  with  this  background  that  I  present  my 
research  thus  far  on  RidgwLn^  Glover. 


Annals  of  Wyoming;  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Ridgway  Glover  was  bom  into  a  Quaker  family  of 
Mount  Ephraiin.  N.  J.,  the  son  of  Elizabeth  (Lewis)  and 
John  Glover.  The  first  census  record  to  contain  specific 
information  about  Ridgway  is  the  1 860  New  Jersey 
record  for  Camden  County,  Newton  Township, 
Haddonfield  Post  Office  taken  on  July  17  of  that  year. 
He  is  listed  as  a  29-year-old  fanner  born  in  New  Jersey 
owning  real  estate  valued  at  $1 1,000  and  a  personal  es- 
tate of  $2,000.  If  his  listed  age  is  correct,  he  was  born  in 
1831.  He  lived  on  a  farm  with  Maria  Glover,  33,  likely 
his  sister,  and  various  farm  workers.  Other  Glover  fam- 
ily members  resided  in  the  area.  Clearly,  they  were  suc- 
cessful farmers  enabling  Ridgway  to  pursue  photogra- 
phy as  a  career.' 

Nothing  is  known  of  why  or  how  he  took  up  photogra- 
phy, but  Philadelphia,  a  major  center  of  early  photogra- 
phy, is  a  short  distance  across  the  Delaware  River.  In  all 
probability.  Glover  was  inspired  by  photographers  in  that 
city  and  learned  the  craft  by  a  combination  of  self-in- 
struction and  contact  w  ith  various  studios  in  the  region. 
He  opened  a  studio  at  818  Arch  Street  in  Philadelphia 
and,  in  1 864,  advertised  himself  in  the  Philadelphia  Pho- 
tographer as  an  animal  and  view  photographer.  His  com- 
petitors included  Frederick  Gutekunst,  just  down  the 
street,  and  proposed  future  collaborators,  Wenderoth  & 
Taylor.- 

No  doubt  images  of  both  animals  and  local  portraits 
exist  with  Glover's  imprint,  but  the 
first  photographs  of  historic  impor- 
tance were  those  he  made  of  the 
Lincoln  funeral  and  associated  lo- 
cations which  he  copyrighted  on 
May  22,  1865.'  The  imprints  on 
these  show  that  by  1 865,  he  was  in 
partnership  with  one  of  the 
Schreiber  family  at  the  Arch  street 
location.  George  Schreiber  was  an 
important  early  Philadelphia  pho- 
tographer. At  least  five  members 
of  his  family  worked  in  his  studio 
including  a  son  who  specialized  in 
animal  photography.  This  son 
probably  was  Glover's  partner  and 
he  would  inevitably  have  learned 
more  tricks  of  the  trade  by  asso- 
ciation with  such  a  professional. 

c 

o 

Stereo  photograph  by  Glover  of  = 

house  where  he  was  born.  " 

Among  those  pictured  are  his  5 

sister  and  brother.  J 


According  to  the  Philadelphia  Photographer, 

He  was  rather  eccentric  in  his  ways.  We  have  often 
been  amused  at  his  odd-looking  wagon  as  it  passed  our 
office  window,  and  as  frequently  wondered  that  he  se- 
cured as  good  results  as  he  did.  But  he  had  his  own  way 
of  thinking,  and  cared  very  little  whether  any  one  else 
agreed  with  him  or  not. ..We  shall  not  soon  forget  our  first 
acquaintance  with  him.  A  rough,  shaggy-looking  fellow 
entered  our  office  with  two  foolscap  sheets  full  of  writ- 
ing hanging  in  one  hand,  and  with  very  little  ceremony 
threw  them  down  before  us,  remarking  that  there  was  an 
article  for  the  Journal,  and  walked  out.  We  promised  to 
examine  it;  we  did  so,  and  next  day  it  was  our  painful 
duty  to  inform  him  that  his  paper  was  of  no  use  to  us. 
This  brought  us  another  foolscap  sheet  full  of  abuse  and 
condemnation  of  ourselves  and  the  poor  innocent  Phila- 
delphia Photographer.  We  used  about  six  lines  in  reply- 
ing to  that,  [specific  article  not  located]  and  were  again 
favored  with  a  fourth  sheet  crowded  with  apologies.  That 
was  his  nature.  Impulsive,  generous,  and  goodhearted,  to 
a  fault.  No  one  suffered  if  he  could  help  them.^ 


'  U.  S.  Bureau  of  the  Census.  1860  New  Jersey  record  for  Camden 
Count}.  Newton  Township.  Haddonfield  Post  Office.  836. 

-  Philadelphia  Photographer.  #8  (Aug.  1864).  5. 

^  A  set  of  26  stereos  is  in  the  Huntington  Library-,  rare  book  de- 
partment. San  Marino.  California. 

*  Philadelphia  Photographer.  3  #36.  (Dec.  1866).  371. 


Glover  siert'o  af  Lincoln  's  funeral.  Note  ihe  poor  i/iuilily  of  the  print  Author  's  collection. 


Perhaps  his  personality  is  why  the  partnership  with 
Schreiber  did  not  last. 

In  June,  1 866,  Frank  Leslie  's  Illustrated  Newspaper 
published  a  line  drawing  based  on  a  photograph  Glover 
took  of  an  albino  deer  in  captivit\  in  Philadelphia.  He 
also  photographed  Lucretia  Mott"s  house,  also  in  the  cit\ . 
These  were  clearly  run-of-the-mill  subjects  and.  from 
what  evidence  we  have,  rather  run-of-the-mill  photo- 
graphic skills  are  shown  as  well.  At  best,  those  Glover 
photographs  that  survive  are  average  and  certainly  not 
artistically  inspired.  Later,  Col.  Henry  B.  Carrington 
would  note  that  Glover  appeared  to  have  suffered  some 
great  disappointment  in  life,  but  whether  this  was  true 
or  not,  we  do  not  know.  He  did  not  have  a  family  of  his 
own  and  clearly  the  fanning  life  seems  not  to  have  ap- 
pealed to  him.  For  whatever  reason,  he  decided  to  take 
his  camera  and  head  West. 

The  late  1  860s  were  a  time  of  great  change  for  the 
country.  The  Civil  War  was  over  and  the  country  was 
changing  its  focus.  The  great  photographic  surveys  of 
the  American  West  would  not  begin  until  the  1 870s,  but 
Westward  expansion  was  well  underway  through  Indian 
territory  resulting  in  both  wars  and  treaties  with  the  In- 
dians. If  a  photographer  planned  to  record  this  land,  es- 
pecially given  the  cumbersome  equipment  necessary  at 
the  time  and  the  foolhardiness  of  traveling  alone,  he 
would  have  to  travel  with  an  organized  group,  prefer- 
ably a  military  one,  and  that  is  exactly  what  Ridgway 
set  out  to  do. 


On  November  27,  1865,  Glover  wrote  from  his  Phila- 
delphia studio  to  Spencer  Baird.  the  Assistant  Secretary 
of  the  Smithsonian  institution  in  Washington,  D.C.: 

Dear  Friend I  have  been  in  formed  that  an  expedi- 
tion through  Utah  and  Teritorys  North  of  Salt  Lake  Cir\ 
intends  to  start  next  Apriel.  1  am  ver\  mutch  interested 
in  getting  up  a  set  of  photographic  negatives  illustrating 
the  Geology  of  the  U.S.  and  wish  to  have  an  oportunity 
of  traveling  through  that  country  and  as  my  means  are 
ver\  limited  1  would  like  to  go  with  the  expedition  if  a 
photographer  is  needed.  I  consider  mvseif  competent-to 
give  satisfaction  in  my  line  of  business  and  if  I  go  can 
make  myself  useful  I  hope  in  other  ways  as  I  am  used  to 
taking  care  of  and  driving  horses....!  can  fare  as  roughly 
and  stand  as  much  hardship  as  most  men." 

Perhaps  he  wrote  to  other  organizations  as  well,  but 
he  contacted  the  Smithsonian  because,  ""Any  aid  \ou  can 
give  me  will  I  believe  be  to  the  forwarding  of  the  object 
for  which  The  Smithsonian  Institute  was  established." 
i.e.,  the  increase  and  diffusion  of  knowledge.  He  offered 
references  from  local  photographic  professionals  such 
as  Edward  L.  Wilson,  a  contributor  to  the  Philudelphia 
Photographer  and  later  editor  of  his  own  journal,  and 
promised  to  send  samples  o'(  his  stereoscopic  photo- 
graphs." 

^Glover  to  Baird.  Nov.  27.  1865.  Smithsonian  Institution  Ar- 
chives (henceforth  SIA).  Record  Unit  52.  letter  22.  The  original  spell- 
ings are  maintained. 

"SIA.  Record  Unit  52.  Ilr,  22.  Glover  to  Baird.  Nov.  27.  1865. 


io 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Baird  wrote  back  on  Nov.  30  that  he  was  unaware  of 
any  expedition  being  contemplated  by  the  Institution 
such  as  Glover  requested,  but  if  he  heard  of  one,  he  would 
forward  his  request.  By  January  1866  Glover  had  sent 
Baird  a  sample  of  his  photographs  and  a  sample  of  a 
photograph  on  wood  to  a  Dr.  Gill,  and  added,  "Should 
you  have  the  opportunity  of  exerting  your  influence  in 
my  favour,  1  shall  be  under  much  obligation  and  endeav- 
our to  do  my  duty  to  the  utmost.'"' 

Baird  thanked  Glover  for  "these  beautiful  specimens." 
He  stated  that  he  was  still  unaware  of  any  expeditions 
going  West.*  Perhaps  believing  that  a  more  aggressive 
approach  was  needed  to  further  his  case.  Glover  went  to 
Washington,  D.C..  and  visited  Baird's  superior,  Joseph 
Henry,  the  first  Secretary  of  the  Smithsonian.  He  brought 
letters  of  reference.  While  no  record  has  been  located  of 
this  meeting,  successive  letters  show  that  Henry  redi- 
rected Glover  to  the  Office  of  the  Interior. 

In  early  February  Glover  reported  back  to  Henry.  He 
said  he  could  not  get  an  interview  with  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  but  the  Chief  Clerk  was  of  the  opinion  that 
the  War  Department  rather  than  the  Interior  Department 
was  the  place  to  apply.  He  left  the  rest  of  his  letters  with 
the  Chief  clerk  and  a  note  to  the  Secretary.  He  further 
asked  for  Henry's  backing  as  well  as  Baird's." 

Glover  was  back  in  Pendleton,  Indiana,  in  March  and 
impatient  to  be  getting  on  with  his  plans.  He  again  wrote 
to  Baird:  "I  do  not  wish  to  bore  thee  any  more  than  I  can 
help  but  I  thought  I  would  keep  thee  in  mind  of  my  ex- 
pected expedition."'" 

When  they  met,  Baird  apparently  mentioned  an  uni- 
dentified doctor  who  was  planning  to  go  to  Dakota  Ter- 
ritory. Glover  said  he  would  still  like  to  accompany  him, 
but  if  that  is  not  possible  he  would  like  to  go  with  a 
government  group.  "I  will  send  you  pictures  as  fast  as  I 
can  get  my  negatives  back  to  Philadelphia.  Wenderoth 
Taylor  and  Brown  No.  9 1 4  Chestnut  St.  will  do  my  print- 
ing." (It  is  curious,  and  perhaps  indicative  of  a  less  than 
friendly  breakup  of  his  partnership  with  Schreiber  that 
he  intended  to  use  another  Philadelphia  photographic 
firm  to  print  his  negatives).  He  added  that  he  would  like 
a  reply  by  the  end  of  the  month,  "if  it  ain't  too  much 
trouble,"  and  if  Baird  can  not  arrange  transportation,  he 
should  send  all  of  the  introductions  possible.  Glover 
ended  with  a  sadly  prophetic  statement,  "  I  have  turned 
my  face  westward  and  shall  not  back  out  untile  1  get 
through  if  it  takes  my  lifetime."" 

It  was  at  this  point  that  events  moved  rapidly.  Baird 
wrote  to  Glover  in  Indiana  on  March  1 5  to  tell  of  several 
opportunities:  one  was  in  connection  with  the  Pacific 
Railroad  and  another  concerning  a  wagon  road  expedi- 
tion to  Virginia  City,  the  latter  being  the  best  and  start- 


ing on  May  1 .  He  added,  "There  is  also  to  be  an  expedi- 
tion to  Fort  Laramie  and  to  the  Upper  Missouri  to  treat 
with  the  Indians  to  which  you  might  be  attracted?"'" 

About  the  same  time,  Baird,  on  Glover's  behalf,  wrote 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  stating  Glover's  desire  to 
accompany  an  expedition.  Baird  pointed  out  that  he  asked 
for  no  pay  but  simply  subsistence  and  transportation.  In 
return  he  would  provide  both  the  Department  of  the  In- 
terior and  the  Smithsonian  with  copies  of  the  photographs 
that  were  made.'^ 

Forgetting  that  Glover  left  his  letters  of  reference  dur- 
ing his  visit,  Baird  asked  Glover  for  the  testimonials  from 
the  Philadelphia  Academy  [of  Art?]  that  he  was  shown 
before.'^  Glover  replied  that,  except  for  the  letter  of  in- 
troduction to  Prof  Henry  that  he  had  to  leave  with  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  the  rest  of  the  letters  were  al- 
ready at  the  Institution.'^ 

Glover  just  barely  received  Baird's  letter  before  leav- 
ing Pendleton.  He  replied,  "'beggars  should  not  be  choos- 
ers'," but  he  preferred  to  join  the  Indian  mission  instead 
of  the  one  to  Virginia  City.'" 

There  had  been  some  discussion  of  taking  meteoro- 
logical observations  and  Glover  said  he  was  ready  to 
undertake  this  as  well  if  he  could  get  the  proper  sched- 
ules. He  again  stressed  that  he  cared  "not  on  which  rout 
I  commence  for  I  anticipate  visiting  all  the  most  impor- 
tant localitys  before  I  am  through."" 

The  final  letter  setting  forth  terms  of  Glover's  trip  was 
sent  by  Joseph  Henry  on  April  30,  1 866: 

In  accordance  with  your  request  we  made  application 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  in  your  behalf  for  permis- 
sion to  accompany  the  commissioners  who  are  about  to 
proceed  to  the  west  for  the  purpose  of  treating  with  the 
Indians  and  with  the  understanding  that  you  are  to  re- 

'  Glover  to  Baird.  rec'd  Jan.  4,  1 866.  SIA.  Record  Unit  52  (hence- 
forth RU).  Box  24.  letter  365.  His  retum  address  is  Pendleton.  Indi- 
ana, where  he  was  staying  with  his  relatives  on  his  mother's  side. 

"Baird  to  Glover,  Jan.  4,  1866.  SIA  RU  53.  vol.  34.  letter  332. 
These  photographs  have  not  been  located. 

'  Glover  to  Henry,  Feb.  6.  1 866.  SIA  RU  26.  Box  6. 

'"  Glover  to  Baird.  March  5.  1 866.  SIA  RU  52.  Box  24.  letter  366. 

"Ibid. 

'■  Baird  to  Glover  March  1 5.  1 866.  SIA  RU  53,  Outgoing  vol.  35, 
letter  #3. 

"  Baird  to  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  March  [?]  1866.  SIA  RU  53. 
vol.  35.  letter  4. 

"  Baird  to  Glover,  Mar  2 1.  1866.  SIA  RU  53.  vol.  35.  letter  33. 

"  Glover  to  Baird.  rec'd  April  5.  1866.  SIA  RU  52,  Box  245. 
letter  368.  Except  for  one  letter  of  reference  for  Glover  from  a  G.  W. 
Fahnestock.  no  other  letters  of  reference  have  been  located  in  the 
Smithsonian. 

"■  Glover  to  Baird.  received  March  28.  1 866.  SIA  RU  52.  Box  24, 
letter  367. 

"  Glover  to  Baird,  rec'd.  Apr  12,  1866,  SIA  RU  24,  letter  369. 


Spring  '200^2 

ceive  subsistence  and  transportation  but  no  pay,  and  that 
a  full  series  of  all  your  photographic  pictures  is  to  be  pre- 
sented to  the  interior  Department  and  another  to  the 
Smithsonian  institution. 

We  are  now  advised  by  the  Secretary  of  the  interior, 
of  his  assent  to  our  request,  and  are  informed  that  if  you 
are  still  desirous  of  accompanv  ing  the  expedition  and  will 
write  to  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  Hon.  D.  M. 
Cooley,  to  that  effect,  the  latter  officer  will  furnish  you 
with  the  necessary  letter  to  Mr.  Taylor,  Superintendent 
of  Indian  Affairs  at  Omaha.  Nebraska  to  whom  it  \\'\\\  be 
necessary  that  you  report  by  the  12""  of  May  next. 

Two  parties  will  be  sent  out  by  the  Indian  Department, 
one  to  proceed  by  land  to  Fort  Laramie,  the  other  by  wa- 
ter to  Fort  Union  at  the  mouth  of  the  Yellowstone.  It  is 
probable  that  you  can  accompan\  either  party  as  you  may 
prefer.  In  view  of  the  destruction  of  the  gallery  of  Indian 
portraits  of  the  Institution  by  fire.'"  we  would  suggest  that 
you  lose  no  opportunity  to  obtain  likenesses  of  distin- 
guished chiefs  and  such  representations  of  Indian  life  as 
may  tend  to  illustrate  their  manners  and  customs.'" 

Glover  quickly  responded  that  he,  "■will  complv  with 
thy  request  with  regard  to  the  Indians  and  have  no  doubt 
that  I  will  be  able  to  sucede.  I  always  have  in  every  un- 
dertaking so  far."-"  He  then  wrote  more  completely  of 
how  rejoiced  he  was  in  receiving  the  news  and,  in  par- 


'1 

' 

.-^^    .,; ,..__ 

,*s^ 

.s.. 

^O-- 

¥d[ 

'>■ 

m- 


"^; 


1866  Peace  Commissioners 


'21 

ticular,  his  happiness  to  learn  of  Baird"s  desire  to  obtain 
pictures  illustrating  Indian  life  and  portraits  of  distin- 
guished chiefs.  '"It  is  a  little  out  of  the  line  I  had  marked 
out  but  gratitude  commands  the  first  claim.  I  shall  there- 
fore make  solars  [in  affect,  an  enlargement]  so  as  to  en- 
able me  to  furnish  life  size  portraits  for  a  set  for  your 
museum  of  oil."-'  When  this  was  written.  Ridgvvav  was 
alreadv  on  his  wa\  West  to  meet  up  with  the  commis- 
sioners. He  used  (3maha  as  his  return  address.  This  was 
to  be  his  last  communication  with  the  Smithsonian. 

On  May  1 5  he  arrived  in  Omaha.  Nebraska  Territory, 
and  registered  at  the  Herndon  House.  A  local  newspa- 
per recorded  his  arrival  by  reporting. 

Ridgway  Glover  Esq.,  Photographer  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institute,  Washington,  arrived  in  this  city  last  night.  He 
accompanies  the  Fort  Laramie  Indian  Commission  for  the 
purpose  of  taking  solar  and  stereoscopic  pictures  of  the 
various  Indian  chiefs  who  participate  in  the  Treaty  of  Fort 
Laramie  ...  Mr.  Glover  is  also  engaged  upon  the  pictorial 
staff  of  F/'(//?A'  Leslie 's  llluslrated  Newspaper  and  we  un- 
derstand that  he  proposes  to  take  several  views  in  and 
about  this  cit\.  with  a  view  of  forwarding  them  to  New 
York  for  publication  in  that  widely  circulated  journal. -- 

Upon  leaving  Omaha.  Glover's  peace-loving  world 
would  change  dramaticalK  as  he  left  behind  the  Qual^er 
culture  and  large  Eastern  cities  he  knew  for  the  western 
expedition  he  so  desired. 

The  expedition  he  chose  to  accompany  was  one  of  two 
Indian  peace  commissions  sent  out  by  the  U.S.  Gov  ern- 
ment.  One  went  up  the  Missouri  River  to  Fort  Berthold 
and  Fort  Union  and  the  second,  which  Gkner  selected, 
to  Fort  Laramie.  Dakota  Territory.  Regardless  of  treaty 
agreements,  there  was  a  great  amount  of  travel  by  set- 
tlers and  gold  speculators  through  this  part  of  Indian  ter- 
ritory, disturbing  both  the  Indian's  lives,  the  best  of  their 


'"The  disastrous  lire  of  .Ian,  24.  1865.  dcstro\ed  not  onl\  earl> 
Smithsonian  records  but  also  paintings  of  Native  .American  delegates 
to  Washington.  D.C..  b\  Charles  Bird  King  and  scenes  of  Indian  life 
made  out  West  by  John  Mix  Stanley.  Joseph  Henry  was  particularly 
interested  in  photographic  images  of  Native  .Americans  and  was  in- 
strumental in  working  with  William  H.  Blackmore  and  A.Z.  Shindler 
in  establishing  the  Smithsonian's  first  photographic  exhibit  in  the 
late  I86()s.  which  consisted  of  .'<04  images  of  Native  Americans.  No 
photographs  that  can  be  credited  to  Glover  were  included. 

'"  Henry  to  Glover.  Apr.  30.  1866.  SIA  RC  53.  \ol.  35.  letter  247. 

'"  Glover  to  Baird.  May  2.  1866.  SIA  Rtl  52.  box  24.  letter  371. 

■'  Glover  to  Baird.  rec'd.  May  9.  1 866.  SIA  RC  52.  box  24.  letter 
372. 

"  Charles  W.  Martin.  "Herndon  House  Register.  1865-1866." 
Sebraska  Hisioiy.  48  (Spring  1967).  42.  Perhaps  Glover  took  pho- 
tographs while  in  Omaha,  but  no  images  have  been  found  in  Leslie  's 
and  any  negativ es  would  likely  have  sutfered  the  same  fate  as  those 
taken  in  Fort  Laramie. 


22 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


remaining  hunting  grounds  and  their  sacred  lands.  The 
government,  therefore,  decided  to  send  two  Peace  Com- 
missions to  negotiate  additional  treaties  with  the  Ogiala 
and  Brule  Sioux,  and  bands  of  the  Arapaho  and  North- 
em  Cheyenne.  The  goal  was  to  allow  travelers  safe  ac- 
cess through  the  territory,  to  compensate  the  Indians  for 
damages  resulting  from  this  invasion  of  their  hunting 
grounds  and  to  encourage  them  further  toward  "civili- 
zation" by  teaching  them  to  farm  while  they  gave  up 
their  hunting  lifestyle.  At  the  same  time,  the  military 
was  sent  to  build  and  secure  forts  along  the  Bozeman 
Trail  to  protect  the  settlers  whether  or  not  the  Indians 
agreed  to  the  treaties. 

The  Peace  Commission  going  to  Fort  Laramie  con- 
sisted of  six  men:  Edward  B.  Taylor,  Superintendent  of 
the  Northern  Superintendency  at  Omaha,  Nebraska  Ter- 
ritory,  and  President  of  the  Commission;  Frank  Lehmer, 
Assistant  Secretary,  also  at  Omaha:  Col.  Henry  E. 
Maynadier,  Fifth  U.S.  Volunteers  and  commander  at  Fort 
Laramie.  Dakota  Territory  [now  Wyoming];  Thomas 
Wistar.  a  Quaker  from  Philadelphia;  Col.  R.  N.  McLaren, 
of  Minnesota;  and  Charles  E.  Bowles  of  the  Indian  De- 
partment. At  the  same  time.  Col.  Henry  Beebe  Carrington 
was  en  route  to  Fort  Laramie  and  then  on  to  establish 
Fort  Phil  Kearny  on  the  Piney  Fork  of  the  Powder  River. 

By  early  June,  the  commissioners  and  several  thou- 
sand Indians  were  gathered  at  Fort  Laramie.  The  arrival 
of  Col.  Carrington  and  the  U.S.  Eighteenth  Infantry  on 
the  June  13  indicated  to  Red  Cloud  and  other  Ogiala 
leaders,  already  weary  of  the  continued  encroachment 
into  Indian  territory  regardless  of  treaty  agreements,  that 
the  U.S.  government  meant  to  have  the  land  by  what- 
ever means  necessary— whether  by  treaty  or  force.  Red 
Cloud  was  equally  determined  to  protect  his  people  and 
lands.  The  government's  actions  ignited  Red  Cloud's 
war  and  several  tribes  joined  in  a  coalition  against  the 
U.S.  The  establishment  of  Fort  Phil  Kearney  in  the 
middle  of  the  Sioux  hunting  grounds  further  inflamed 
the  situation. 

Ridgway  Glover  was  in  the  middle  of  this  volatile  situ- 
ation as  the  first  photo  journalist  to  record  treaty  nego- 
tiations in  the  field,  but  by  both  word  and  action,  he  never 
acknowledged  or  possibly,  truly  understood  that  he  was 
in  danger. 

In  his  first  letter  to  the  Philadelphia  Photographer  on 
June  30,  written  during  the  treaty  negotiations,  he  was 
hard  at  work  photographing  the  various  activities.  He 
wrote: 

I  have  been  in  this  wild  region  nearly  a  month,  taking 
scenes  in  connection  with  the  Treaty  that  has  just  been 
made  with  the  Sioux,  Arapahoes  and  Cheyennes,  and  have 
secured  twenty-two  good  negatives  ...  that  will  illustrate 


the  life  and  character  of  the  wild  men  of  the  prairie.... 
They  will  come  in  with  the  Commissioners.  They  return 
on  the  2d  of  July. -^ 

But  the  complex  photographic  process  of  applying 
collodion  to  the  glass  plates,  sensitizing  and  exposing 
them  while  still  sticky,  and  then  developing  them  was  a 
challenge.  The  water  was  muddy,  hard  and  full  of  sand 
due  to  the  rapid  currents  and  of  the  50  negatives  he  ex- 
posed, more  than  half  were  unusable.  This  was  critical 
because  he  was  using  up  precious  supplies.  The  frontier 
photographer  had  to  carry  everything  needed  with  them 
except  water.  If  anything  happened  to  his  equipment  or 
supplies,  his  activities  were  at  a  stand  still  until  they  could 
be  repaired  or  replaced.  Even  in  Omaha  there  were,  "but 
few  people  [who]  know  much  about  the  art."-^  The  fur- 
ther he  went  into  the  wilderness,  the  more  difficult  it 
would  be  to  restock.  He  would  have  to  rely  on  the  mili- 
tary to  bring  chemicals  and  other  supplies.  No  doubt, 
they  would  be  loathe  to  take  up  too  much  precious  cargo 
space  from  much  needed  medical  and  other  supplies. 

Technical  problems  were  not  the  only  obstacles  he 
encountered: 

I  had  much  difficulty  in  making  pictures  of  the  Indi- 
ans at  first,  but  now  I  am  able  to  talk  to  them,  yet  I  get 
pretty  much  all  I  want....  I  have  succeeded  very  well  with 
Indian  ponies  as  you  will  see.. .  Some  of  the  Sioux  think 
photography  is  'pazutta  zupa"  (bad  medicine). ...Some  of 
the  Indians  think  they  will  die  in  three  days,  if  they  get 
their  pictures  taken....  1  pointed  the  instrument  at  one  of 
that  opinion.  The  poor  fellow  fell  on  the  sand,  and  rolled 
himself  in  his  blanket.  The  most  of  them  know  better 
though,  and  some  I  have  made  understand  that  the  light 
comes  from  the  sun.  strikes  them,  and  then  goes  into  the 
machine.  1  explained  it  to  one  yesterday,  by  means  of  his 
looking-glass,  and  showed  him  an  image  on  the  ground 
glass.  When  he  caught  the  idea,  he  brightened  up,  and 
was  willing  to  stand  for  me.-- 

He  mentioned  making  ferrotypes,  ("tintypes")  for  the 
Indians.  Because  he  could  not  print  his  negatives  in  the 
field,  this  would  have  been  the  only  process  available  to 
him  for  giving  the  Indians  positive  images.  This  diplo- 
macy also  means  that  he  was  using  up  valuable  photo- 
graphic supplies.-^ 


^'  Glover,  "Photography  Among  the  Indians.  Fort  Laramie,  June 
30.  1866.""  Philadelphia  Photographer  3  (Aug.  1866).  239. 

-'  Ibid. 

■'  Ibid 

■"'  There  is  the  hope,  however,  that  some  of  these  tintypes  have 
survived,  but  to  date  none  have  been  identified  and  likely  given  their 
exposure  to  the  elements,  unlikely. 


Spring  :200'i 

On  June  30,  he  photographed  some  of  the  treaty 
activities  and  further  reactions  of  the  Indians. 

To-day  1  was  over  trying  to  take  the  "Waheopomony 
at  the  great  Brulie  Sioux  village.  The  wind  blew  so  hard 
1  could  not  make  but  one  passable  negative,  though  I  had 
some  of  the  most  interesting  scenes  imaginable.  Here  the 
division  of  the  presents  from  the  Government,  was  made 
and  some  1200  Sioux  were  arranged,  squatting  around 
the  Commissioners  in  a  large  circle,  three  rows  deep.  The 
village  embraces  more  than  200  tribes  (lodges)  led  by 
'Spotted  Tail,"  'Standing  Elk,'  'The  Man  that  walks  un- 
der the  ground,"  and  'Running  Bear.'  'The  Man  that  walks 
under  the  ground'  is  a  good  friend  of  mine.  He  and  the 
'  Running  Bear"  have  had  their  pictures  taken.  I  have  been 
introduced  to  the  other  two,  and  they  are  friendly.  So  1 
took  all  I  chose,  or  rather  all  I  could. -^ 

He  also  hinted  at  the  dangers  of  being  a  frontier  pho- 
tographer: "There  was  a  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Laramie-"  who 
used  to  take  a  mean  style  of  ambrotypes  here,  but  he 
died,  and  she  was  captured  by  the  Indians,  and  after  suf- 
fering many  hardships,  escaped  and  returned  to  the 
States."-" 

Glover  expounded  on  the  scenery  and  wildlife  and  went 
into  detail  about  several  images  he  took  on  .luly  2  at  the 
end  of  the  negotiations.  These  comments  provide  us  with 
clues  to  identify  existing  Glover  photographs.  He  was 
able  to  photograph  the  fort  from  across  the  Laramie 
River,  and  he  had  the  good  fortune, 

to  be  present  when  Colonels  McLean  and  Thomas 
Wistar  were  distributing  the  goods  to  the  Chiefs,  and  al- 
though the  interpreters  were  discouraged,  and  the  Indi- 
ans seemed  unwilling,  Thomas  and  McLean  at  last  per- 
suaded them  to  sit,  and  I  got  a  stereoscopic  group  of  six 
Ogholalla,  and  eight  Brulie  Sioux.  The  wind  was  blow- 
ing, and  the  sand  tlying.  The  negative  is,  therefore,  not 
quite  clean,  but  all  the  likenesses  are  good,  and  they  can 
be  readily  recognized.  They  are, 
BRULIES, 

'Spotted  Tail,"  'Swift  Bear," 

'Dog  Hawk,'  'Thunder  Hawk," 

'Standing  Elk,"  'Tall  Mandan," 

'Brave  Hear,"  'White  Tail." 

OGHALOLLAHS  (They  pronounce  it), 
'The  Man  that  walks  under  the  ground," 
'The  Black  War  Bonnet, 
'Standing  Cloud,"  'Blue  Horse," 

'Big  Mouth,"  'Big  Head." 

The  Signers  of  the  Treaty.'" 

His  listing  has  been  reproduced  exactly  as  it  may  indi- 
cate the  arrangement  of  individuals  in  a  group  which 
may  help  in  identifying  one  of  the  missing  Glover  im- 
ages. Of  importance  in  this  group  is  "Standing  Elk" 
which  will  be  discussed  later.  The  two  imaijes  of  the 


■23 

fort  and  the  treaty  signers  brings  the  total  of  good  nega- 
tives which  Glover  mentions  to  twenty-tbur. 

Because  Glover  makes  no  further  reference  to  these, 
we  must  assume  that  at  least  all  of  the  good  negatives 
were  given  to  the  Commissioners  to  bring  back  to  Wash- 
ington. D.C.,  and  thence,  to  ship  them  to  Philadelphia. 
The  bad  negatives  were  probably  cleaned  for  reuse.  The 
editor  of  the  Phikidelphia  Phoiograplier  contlrms  that 
the  plan  was  to  send  Glover's  negatives  to  "Messrs. 
Wenderoth,  Taylor  &  Brown"  for  printing  and  circula- 
tion." 

Glover  then  started  the  next  phase  of  his  trip-the 
journey  to  Fort  Phil  Kearny.  He  left  Fort  Larainie  on 
.luly  18  and  joined  one  of  Carrington"s  trains  under  the 
command  of  Lt.  Templeton.  The  party  consisted  of  six 
other  officers,  the  post  chaplain,  a  Mr.  White,  ten  pri- 
vates, nine  drivers,  three  women  and  five  children  and 
Glover.'-  The  tlrst  70  or  so  miles  he  saw  little  scenery 
worth  photographing  until  he  made  a  stereoscopic  view 
of  the  Platte  River  above  Buyer's  Ferr\'. 

Glover's  first  impressions  of  the  Indians  were  made 
during  the  treaty  negotiations.  "I  there  saw  the  lazy, 
sleepy  red  man  treating  for  peace  and  tViendship."  But 
that  view  would  change.  After  three  more  days  travel 
they  reached  Fort  Reno  and  about  .luK  22  they  traveled 
to  Crazy  Woman's  Fork  of  the  Powder  River.  "[The  In- 
dian] has  since  appeared  to  ine  as  the  active,  wide-awake 
savage  in  the  war-path,  and  made  me  think  of  two  lines 
of  an  old  song:  "They  you  have  Indian  allies-\ou  styled 
them  by  that  name-Until  they  turned  the  tomahawk,  and 
savages  became.""'' 

The  party  was  surprised  by  Indians  at  Crazy  Woman's 
Fork.  Lt.  Templeton  returned  to  the  group  ahead  of  a 
string  of  Indians  and  Lt.  Daniels  was  killed.  "Our  men 
with  their  rifles  held  the  Indians  at  bay  until  we  reached 
a  better  position  on  a  hill,  where  we  kept  them  off  until 
night,  when  Capt.  Burroughs. ..coming  up  with  a  train, 
caused  the  red-skins  to  retreat.  They  looked  very  wild 
and  savage-like  while  galloping  around  us."  Glover,  the 
peaceful  Quaker,  instead  of  defending  the  party,  reacted 
as  an  outside  observer.  "I  desired  to  make  some  instan- 
taneous views,  but  our  commander  ordered  me  not  to."'"" 

-'  lbui.2i9-240. 

-*  The  correct  spelling  of  the  name  was  "Larimer". 

-''  Glover.  "Photography  Among  the  Indians.  Fort  Laramie.  June 
.^0.  1866."  Philadelphia  Photographer  2,  (August  1866).  239-240. 

'"  Ibid 

"  Ibid 

'-  Glover,  "Photography  Among  the  Indians,  Fort  Laramie.  June 
yi).  1866."  Phdadclphia  Photographer  3  (Nov.  1866).  339. 

"//'(W.July  29.  p.  339. 

'■•  Ibid. 


24 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Burroughs  led  them  back  to  Fort  Reno  where  they  re- 
stocked and  joined  two  other  trains  before  heading  out 
again.  This  time  they  were  not  attacked  and  Glover  made 
a  picture  of  the  battleground.  Twenty  miles  beyond,  they 
stopped  at  Clear  Creek  where  they  again  encountered 
Indians.  "Cheyennes  came  into  camp;  but  my  collodion 
was  too  hot,  and  my  bath  too  full  of  alcohol,  to  get  any 
pictures  of  them,  though  I  tried  hard.  They  attacked  our 
train  in  the  rear,  killed  two  of  the  privates,  and  lost  two 
of  their  number."" 

They  reached  Fort  Phil  Kearny  on  the  next  day,  ap- 
proximately July  24.  Glover  wrote:  "I  am  surrounded 
by  beautiful  scenery,  and  hemmed  in  by  yelling  savages, 
who  are  surprising  and  killing  some  one  every  day.  I 
expect  to  get  some  good  pictures  here..."'"' 

Glover's  third  and  last  letter  to  the  Philadelphia  Pho- 
tographer was  dated  August  29,  but  it  was  not  published 
until  the  December  issue.  He  was  living  in  the  Pineries 
with  the  group  of  wood  choppers  six  miles  from  the  fort 
at  the  foot  of  the  Big  Horn  Mountains.  Although  he  had 
hoped  to  send  more  information  on  his  photographic 
activities,  that  was  not  the  case.  "Here  1  have  been  wait- 
ing for  the  medical  supply  train  to  come  up,  to  get  some 
chemicals,  being  at  present  in  a  'stick;'  but,  though  un- 
able to  make  negatives,  I  have  been  enjoying  the  cli- 
mate and  scenery,  both  being  delightful."  Not  only  has 
he  run  out  of  supplies,  but  he  broke  the  ground  glass  of 
his  camera  and  had  to  make  a  new  one  using  charcoal 
from  soft  wood  to  polish  the  glass." 

He  spent  much  of  his  time  hiking  alone  for  days  in  the 
mountains,  sometimes  traveling  as  much  as  50  miles  and, 
again,  apparently  unconcerned  for  his  safety.  The  most 
dangerous  situation  he  noted  was  an  encounter  with  a 
large  grizzly  bear.  "I  was  about  firing  a  ball  into  his  rump, 
but.  fortunately,  thought  what  he  was  in  time;  had  I  fired, 
you  would  have  received  no  more  letters  from  me. "In 
his  last  sentence,  he  reported  that  he  expected  to  remain 
there  for  the  winter.  Unfortunately,  his  luck  ran  out.'^ 

The  same  issue  of  the  Philadelphia  Photographer  csiv- 
ried  the  following: 

Obituary.  Our  apprehensions  concerning  our  Indian 
correspondent,  Mr.  Ridgway  Glover,  have  proven  too  true. 
On  the  14th  of  September,  he  left  Fort  Philip  Keamey 
[sic],  with  a  private  as  a  companion,  for  the  purpose  of 
making  some  views.  It  was  known  that  the  hostile  Sioux 
were  lurking  around,  but.  knowing  no  fear,  and  being  ar- 
dent in  the  pursuit  of  his  beloved  profession,  he  risked 
everything,  and  alas!  The  result  was  that  he  was  scalped, 
killed,  and  horribly  mutilated....  The  study  of  the  red  man 
was  a  favorite  one  with  him,  and  he  asserted  his  belief 
that  they  would  not  hurt  him.'" 

A  Glover  friend  and  the  post  chaplain  wrote  letters  to 


Frank  Leslie 's  Illustrated  Newspaper  concerning  the 
death  of  their  photographic  journalist.  (Several  accounts 
have  been  written  and  they  vary  in  terms  of  details). 
David  White,  the  chaplain  who  traveled  with  Glover  to 
the  fort  wrote: 

...he  was  coming  from  a  cabin,  some  six  miles  from 
this  place,  by  himself,  when  he  was  killed  by  Arapahoe 
Indians  (supposed  to  be)  and  scalped.  His  body  was  re- 
covered and  brought  in,  and  will  be  buried  in  the  Post 
burying-ground.  He  was  shot  with  a  ball  and  instantly 
killed,  the  ball  passing  near  his  heart.  I  mention  this  fact 
that  his  friends  may  be  relieved  of  the  horrors  of  savage 
torture.  I  do  not  know  his  address,  and  so  the  publication 
of  this  seems  the  more  necessary  for  the  information  of 
any  relative  or  near  friends. ■'° 

His  friend.  Samuel  Peters,  told  a  slightly  different 
story: 

He  was  out  sketching  for  you-his  long  absence  occa- 
sioned no  little  anxiety-and  a  party  went  out  (members 
of  the  IS""  Infantry),  and  found  his  body.  The  head  was 
found  a  few  yards  off,  completely  severed  from  the  trunk, 
scalped.  The  body  was  disemboweled,  and  then  fire 
placed  in  the  cavity.  His  remains,  horribly  mutilated,  were 
decently  interred,  and  search  made  for  his  apparatus,  but 
it  could  not  be  found.'" 

F.  M.  Fessenden,  a  musician  with  the  Eighteenth  U.S. 
Infantry  Band  at  the  fort  provided  additional  informa- 
tion. He  believed  that  Glover  had  a  camera  outfit  with 
him  and  was  taking  views  for  Leslie 's  at  the  time  of  his 
death.  Fessenden  had  often  joked  with  Glover  about  his 
long  yellow  hair  and  that  the  Indians  would  delight  in 
clipping  it  for  him,  but  Glover  remained  firm  in  his  be- 
lief that  as  he  was  Mormon  and,  thus,  would  be  safe 
with  them.  Fessenden's  prediction,  however,  proved 
correct  when  he  and  two  other  men  found  the  body, 
"...they  had  clipped  that  long  hair,  taking  the  entire  scalp. 
He  was  lying  on  his  face,  and  his  back  was  slit  the  entire 
length.  Several  arrows  were  sticking  in  the  body."''- 


■"  Ibid 

-"'  Ibid 

"  Philadelphia  Photographer  3  (Aug.  29.  1866).  367. 

""  Ibid 

'''Ibid.  371. 

■"'  Frank  Leslie  's  ll/uslrated  Newspaper.  23  (Oct.  27.  1866),  94. 
The  post  graves  were  disinterred  and  reburied  at  the  Custer  Battle- 
field National  Cemeter>'  in  1888.  Glover's  was  probably  one  of  the 
104  unidentified  bodies. 

"Ibid. 

■■'  Grace  Raymond  Hebard  and  E.A.  Brininstool,  The  Bozeman 
Trail:  Historical  .Accounts  of  the  Blazing  of  the  Oxerland  Routes 
into  the  Northwest,  and  the  Fights  with  Red  Cloud's  Warriors. 
(Cleveland:  Arthur  H.  Clark  Company,  1922).  11.  96. 


Spring  i200i2 

The  authenticity  and  reasons  for  variations  in  the  re- 
ports on  Glover"s  death  and  the  subsequent  treatment  of 
the  body  are  interesting  points.  Even  the  date  of  his  death 
varies  from  September  14  to  17.  (The  correct  date  is 
Sunday,  September  16). 

To  ascertain  if  Glover  made  photographs  at  the 
fort,  the  photographic  aspects  require  examination.  The 
crux  of  the  problem  depends  upon  whether  or  not  he 
was  able  to  acquire  the  necessary  supplies  and  whether 
his  equipment  remained  functional.  Although  a  medical 
suppK  train  eventuallv  did  get  through,  whether  Glover 
received  the  necessary  chemicals  before  he  died  is  still 
a  matter  of  speculation. 

The  Philadelphia  Photographer  said  he  was  out  mak- 
ing views.  Fessenden  believed  he  had  a  camera  and  was 
taking  photographs;  Peters  said  he  was  out  sketching. 
No  camera  equipment  was  found  near  the  body. 
Carrington  wrote  to  Glover's  brother  that  the  only  per- 
sonal possessions  Glo\er  had  left  were  a  few  letters  and 
incomplete  photographic  equipment.^' 

If  Glover  had  both  the  necessary'  supplies  and  a  com- 
plete camera  outfit,  it  would  be  very  unlikely  that  this 
would  have  gone  unnoticed  as  it  was  very  cumbersome 
and  usually  required  some  kind  of  transport  vehicle. 
which  he  clearly  did  not  have.  As  such.  Glover  likely 
did  not  take  photographs  at  Fort  Phil  Kearny.  It  is  pos- 
sible, however,  that  he  did  have  his  camera  with  him 
and  may  have  been  using  it  as  a  camera  obsciira  whereb> 
the  image  is  focused  on  paper  and  traced  rather  than  being 
recorded  on  a  sensitive  emulsion.  Like  the  way  he  dem- 
onstrated photography  to  the  Indians  at  the  treaty  nego- 
tiations, the  process  required  no  photographic  supplies. 
This  might  also  explain  why  he  broke  his  ground  glass 
and  found  it  necessary  to  make  another.  AdditionalK.  it 
would  explain  why  his  affects  did  not  include  a  com- 
plete photographic  outfit. 

Although  Fessenden  states  that  no  equipment  was 
found,  they  may  not  have  had  sufficient  time  to  make  a 
safe  and  complete  search  or.  perhaps,  it  had  been  de- 
stroyed and  the  pieces  dispersed.  Unless  the  unlikely 
event  occurs  that  Glover  photographs  are  located  with 
the  proper  provenance  and  identification,  this  aspect  of 
Glover's  photographic  activities  will  remain  a  mystery. 

The  fate  of  his  Fort  Laramie  negatives,  however,  may 
yet  be  solved.  According  to  Glover,  the  Peace  Commis- 
sioners were  to  bring  the  negatives  back  with  them  and 
then  forward  them  on  to  Philadelphia  for  printing.  Cer- 
tainly the  commissioners  returned  with  their  reports.  Of 
the  six  commissioners  who  attended  the  negotiations, 
the  three  men  most  likely  to  have  returned  to  Washing- 
ton, D.C.,  along  with  their  escort,  were  Edward  B.  Tay- 


!25 

lor.  the  president  of  the  commission,  who  probably  re- 
turned to  Washington  to  present  his  report  in  person: 
Charles  E.  Bowles  of  the  Indian  Department,  and  Tho- 
mas Wistar,  the  Quaker  from  Philadelphia. 

Assuming  that  the  negatives  made  it  back  to  the  East 
intact,  two  possibilities  can  be  suggested  as  their  most 
likely  fate.  The  first  is  that  they  made  it  to  Philadelphia. 
Photo  historian  Robert  Taft  stated  that  the  negatives 
reached  Wendroth,  Taylor  and  Brown  in  Philadelphia 
and  were  printed  although  he  did  not  note  his  source.^"" 
As  important  and  interesting  as  these  photographs  would 
be  to  the  photo-buying  public.  especialK  after  the 
Fetterman  Massacre,  if  these  negatives  had  been  made 
available,  they  would  have  been  popular  and  copies 
would  have  survived.  To  date,  not  even  one  image  un- 
der the  Wendroth  imprint  has  been  located. 

If  the  negatives  actually  made  it  to  Philadelphia,  and 
Wistar  returned  home,  he  would  have  been  the  most 
likely  person  to  have  transported  them.  Several  histo- 
rian ha\emade  in-depth  searches  of  Philadelphia  reposi- 
tories, but  to  no  avail.  Nonetheless,  the  possibility  ex- 
ists that  the  negatives  are  associated  with  Wistar's  pa- 
pers if  the\  exist,  or  some  as  yet  untapped  resource.  A 
second,  and  perhaps  more  likelv  explanation  of  the  fate 
of  the  negatives  is  the  possibility  that  they  made  it  back 
to  Washington.  D.C..  and  no  further. ^- 

In  1 868.  the  U.S.  Government  again  held  treaty  nego- 
tiations at  Fort  Laramie.  Alexander  Gardner,  who  had 
made  photographs  in  the  Civil  War,  accompanied  the 
Peace  Commission  and  photographed  the  events. 
Gardner  was  an  experienced,  master  photographer.  He. 
too.  had  to  contend  with  the  difficult  regional  photo- 
graphic conditions  that  Glover  encountered.  Nonethe- 
less, he  knew  how  to  frame  and  focus  shots.  Yet  when 
one  compares  the  photographs  that  were  circulated,  \  ar>  - 
ing  levels  of  skills  can  easily  be  detected.  Many  of  these 
views  are  sub-standard  to  those  Gardner  nonnally  pro- 
duced in  the  field.  (These  are  also  general  camp  scenes 
not  tied  to  specific  individuals  or  e\  ents,  such  as  shots 
of  Indian  ponies,  and  further  the\  match  some  of  the 
scenes  described  by  Glover). 

It  is  my  belief  that  at  least  some  of  Glover's  nega- 
tives got  only  as  far  as  Washington,  D.C.,  and  further, 
that  Gardner  may  have  later  acquired  and  printed  them. 
It  is  important  to  note  that  Gardner  himself  does  not  take 

■"  Barr>  Hagan.  '"Ridg\va>  Glover."  in  Portraits  of  Fort  Phil  Kearny 
(The  Fort  Phil  Keam\ /Bozeman  Trail  Association.  1993).  42. 

"  Robert  T  aft.  Photography  ami  the  American  Scene  (New  ^'oriv: 
Dover  Books.  1938).  276. 

""*  They  ha\e  not  been  located  in  the  collections  of  the  National 
Archives  and  Records  Administration. 


Peace  commissioners 


•26 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Standing  Elk  portrait 


credit  for  these  views.  They  are  merely  on  the  same 
mounts.  Earlier  in  his  career  when  he  vvorls.ed  for  Mathew 
Brady,  it  was  Gardner's  position  that  photographers 
themselves  should  get  credit  for  their  work  instead  of 
the  studios  for  which  they  worked,  it  is  possible  that 
Gardner  had  to  contend  with  new  equipment,  which 
could  explain  some  of  the  difference  in  quality,  but  it  is 
just  as  likely  that  he  fulfilled  the  Government's  plan  to 
print  the  Glover  negatives,  the  images  merely  being  used 
to  round  out  the  impression  of  the  negotiations  at  Fort 
Laramie,  regardless  of  the  year. 
Unfortunately,  none  of  Gardner's  Fort  Laramie  nega- 


tives have  been  located  either.  If  they 
could  be  found,  their  chemical  make-up 
would  quickly  answer  the  question  as  each 
photographer  had  their  own  collodion 
"recipe"  which  is  as  individual  as  fmger- 
prints.  Fingerprints,  too,  could  be  present 
in  the  once-sticky  emulsions  and  while 
names  could  not  be  attached  to  specific 
prints,  they  could  be  compared. 

I  think  it  is  likely  that  at  least  some  of 
Glover's  negatives  did  survive  the  return 
trip.  The  first  image  to  support  this  is  a 
carte  de  visite  of  the  1 866  Peace  Com- 
missioners. The  entire  Commission  was 
present  and  identified,  and  posed  in  front 
of  a  wooden  building.  The  image  carries 
the  imprint  of  "D.  Hinkle,  Germantown." 
Germantown  is  a  suburb  of  Philadelphia 
that  was  settled  by  Quakers  and  Menno- 
nites.  Clearly  the  commission  did  not  sit 
for  their  portrait  in  Pennsylvania,  and  thus 
the  image  had  to  have  been  made  during  the  time  they 
were  convened.  The  only  available  photographer  was 
Glover.  Further  the  print  itself  appears  to  be  half  of  a 
stereographic  pair  with  its  curved  upper  edge.  We  know 
that  stereographs  were  a  favorite  format  used  by  Glover, 
and  further  it  is  very  unusual  for  this  shape  to  appear  on 
a  non-stereo  card.  Thus,  it  is  very  likely  that  this  group 
portrait  was  taken  by  Glover  and  proof  that  at  least  some 
of  the  negatives  did  make  it  back  to  the  East. 

There  is  a  second  image  that  is  also  likely  to  have  been 
taken  by  Glover.  A  poor  quality  stereo  photograph  of 
Standing  Elk  is  held  in  the  British  Museum  collections. 


British  Museum 


Gardner  photographed  the  1868  Fort  Laramie  treaty  negotiations.  Was  this  photo  made  by  Gardner  and  at  that  time? 


Spring  200'2 

This  was  collected  by  William  Henry  Blackmore,  an  En- 
glishman with  a  deep  interest  in  Native  Americans. 
Blackmore  travelled  around  the  United  States  contract- 
ing photographers  and  collecting  images  of  the  Indians. 
It  was  his  vision  to  produce  a  multi-volume,  photographi- 
cally illustrated  publication  on  the  various  tribes.  Cop- 
ies were  deposited  in  the  Smithsonian  Institution  and 
most  of  the  originals  went  to  his  museum  in  Salisbury. 
England.  The  museum  eventually  closed  and  the  collec- 
tions were  transferred  to  the  British  Museum.  It  is  im- 
portant to  look  at  a  note  Blackmore  attached  to  this  im- 
age, "Dahcotah's.  Fort  Phil  Kearney  Massacre.  Stand- 
ing Elk  [illeg.]  Carrington."  Given  the  subject,  the  qual- 
ity, and  the  fact  that  Glover  stated  that  he  photographed 
Standing  Elk.  there  is  a  good  potential  that  Glover  took 
this  image. 

How  did  Blackmore  come  by  the  image?  The  most 
likely  answer  is  that  it  was  obtained  from  Alexander 
Gardner,  who  worked  closely  with  Blackmore,  or  else 
from  Carrington  himself  who  knew  Blackmore.  Further, 
the  images  Gardner  took  and  provided  to  Blackmore 
carry  his  credit  line.  This  portrait  is  uncredited. 

To  date,  these  two  portraits— the  carle  de  visile  of  the 
1866  Peace  Commission  and  the  stereograph  of  Stand- 
ing Elk—are  the  most  likely  images  to  have  been  taken 
by  Glover  at  Fort  Laramie  in  1866.  Nonetheless,  there  is 
hope  that  more  have  survived. 

In  the  niid-1990s,  a  small  photographic  auction 
in  Canada  listed  a  group  of  photographs  taken  by 
Ridgway  Glover.  The  lot  consisted  of  stereographs 
Glover  had  taken  of  his  family,  both  in  Camden.  New 
Jersey  and  Pendleton,  Indiana,  in  1 865.  (See photograph 
on  p.  18).  Included  in  the  lot  was  a  modem  photographic 
copy  of  a  portrait  of  Glover  f/;/jo?ogrc7/7//. /?.  1").  The 
portrait  had  been  made  by  a  Indianapolis  department 
store  portrait  studio  in  1967.  Pendleton.  Indiana,  where 
Glover's  relatives  lived  and  he  visited  frequently,  is  just 
on  the  outskirts  of  Indianapolis.  Further  the  stereos  had 
both  vintage  and  modem  notations  delineating  the  rela- 
tionships of  the  people  to  Ridgway.  This  was  clearly  the 
collection  of  a  relative  and  not  a  historian  who  was  in- 
terested in  their  family  history. 

Discussions  with  the  collector  selling  the  lot  provided 
some  clues.  He  had  acquired  this  small  group  of  photo- 
graphs from  an  antiques  dealer.  The  dealer,  in  turn,  had 
acquired  them  either  directly  or  from  another  dealer  who 
had  purchased  the  remains  of  an  estate.  Apparently,  other 
photographs  had  been  sold  during  the  initial  estate  yard 
sales.  Further  information  on  the  location  of  the  estate 
or  any  names  could  not  be  traced.  What  the  photographs 
depicted  is  also  unknown.  They  may  have  been  only 


•21 


This  image  circulated  witli  tlie  /56<S  Fort  Laramie  im- 
ages by  Gardner.  However,  tlie  pliolo  men'  ficnv  l^een 
made  by  Glover  in  1S66.  given  tlie  poor  prim  qualitv 

generic  portraits  in  nice  albums,  valuable  to  dealers 
mostly  for  the  albums  themselves,  or  they  may  have  in- 
cluded prints  from  the  missing  negatives.  Further  re- 
search in  Indianapolis  or  Pendleton  should  be  reward- 
ing. 

Although  the  main  cache  of  Glover's  photographs  has 
not  yet  been  located,  positive  leads  and  potentialK  fruit- 
ful new  areas  to  search  are  yet  to  be  explored.  To  date  a 
combination  of  research,  inspiration,  and  pure  luck  have 
proven  successful.  Given  the  rising  value  of  vintage  pho- 
tographs and  widely  accessible  online  auction  sites,  it  is 
probably  only  a  matter  of  time  before  the  m  issing  Glover 
photographs  or  negatives  resurface,  or  the  storv  of  their 
demise  is  uncovered.  The  scholarly  hunt  continues. 


Paula  Richardson  Fleming  is  Pholographic  Ar- 
chivist Specialist,  National  Anthropological  Ar- 
chives, Smithsonian  Institution.  She  joined  the 
stajfofthe  Smithsonian  in  1970  after  graduating 
from  GeorgeWashington  University.  She  has  re- 
searched and  created  photographic  exhibits  for 
the  Smithsonian,  lectured  on  photographic  top- 
ics to  organizations  throughout  the  country,  and 
served  as  consultant  on  photography  for  nutner- 
ous  museums  worldwide.  A  uthor  of  several  books 
and  numerous  articles,  her  book  titled  Native 
American  Photography  at  the  Smithsonian:  The 
Shindler  Catalogue,  will  he  published  in  21)03. 


Research  Notes 


TARGET  PRACTICE  AND  FIRING 
RANGES  AT  FORT  FRED  STEELE 


By  Mark  D.  Hanson 


Likely  firing 
range  localities 
at  Fort  Fred 
Steele 


Editor's  Note:  This  is  the  second  in  a  series 
of  articles  highlighting  on-going  research  in 
history  and  allied  fields,  but  this  is  the  first 
article  published  by  Annals  in  cooperation 
with  the  Wyoming  Archaeologist,  the  offi- 
cial journal  of  the  Wyoming  Archaeological 
Society.  Our  thanks  to  Dr.  Danny  Walker 
and  Dr.  Mark  Miller  for  their  help  in  mak- 
ing this  installment  of  our  new  Annals  fea- 
ture possible. 


In  August  1990,  an  archaeological  siirve\  of  Fort 
Fred  Steele  revealed  a  high  concentration  of  metallic 
cartridge  cases  located  near  the  1876  stone  corral.' 
Avocational  archaeologists  subsequentlv  disco\ered 
three  lead  slug  concentrations  each  adjacent  to  a  pile  of 
river  cobbles  and  weathered  wood  fragments.  Two  of 
the  slug  concentrations  are  in  close  proximity  to  the  car- 
tridge case  concentration.  Also,  additional  Field  survey 
in  2001  located  an  additional  target  position  and  rem- 
nants of  a  second  tiring  position. 

'  Mark  F..  Miller  and  Dale  L.  Wedcl.  '"Behavioral  Inferences  De- 
ri\ed  from  Preliniinar\  Anahsis  of  Militar\  Cartridge  Cases  at  Port 
Fred  Steele."  paper  presented  at  the  49th  Plains  .Anthropological 
Conference.  Lawrence  Kansas.  1991. 


Spriiii;  -'(lO-' 

Two  archaeologists,  Mark  i;.  Miller  and  Dale 
L.  Wedel.  suggest  the  concentrations  of  metallic  car- 
tridge cases,  and  the  lead  slug  concentrations  represent 
one  or  more  of  Fort  Fred  Steele's  tiring  ranges.- Later 
research  concluded  tiiat  the  cartiidge  case  and  slug  con- 
centrations were  indeed  the  reninanlsoftwo  llring  range 
complexes  at  Fort  Fred  Steele,  each  with  target  posi- 
tions represented  b\  slug  concentrations  and  cobble  piles, 
and  tiring  positions  represented  b\  cartridge  case  con- 
centrations.' E\en  though  the  cobble  piles  do  not  appear 
to  conform  to  any  historical Iv  documented  target  archi- 
tecture, the  location  of  the  firing  ranges  and  the  attributes 
of  the  cartridge  cases  and  slugs  do  conform  to  the  time 
period  of  Fort  Fred  Steele's  militar\  occupation  and  the 
historical  documentation  of  tiring  langes  and  target  prac- 
tice at  the  fort. 

Target  practice  and  tiring  ranges  had  an  in- 
teresting historx  in  the  arm\  from  I85S-I885.  Close- 
order  combat,  the  mainsta\  of  tactical  thinking  e\en  af- 
terthe  American  Ci\  il  W  ar.  demanded  well-disciplined 
and  well-drilled  soldiers  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  a 
formation  while  still  being  able  to  tight.  Obedience  and 
cooperation  were  much  more  important  than  a  soldier's 
accuracy  with  his  tlrearm.  Iherefore.  close-order  drill 
encompassed  most  of  a  soldier's  training.  Iea\  ing  little 
or  no  training  in  the  use  of  their  tlrearm.  1  lo\\e\er.  the 
importance  of  firearms  training  did  not  go  unnoticed  by 
the  U.S.  Arnn.  or  the  garrison  at  Fort  Fred  Steele. 


L'9 

C'apt.  Ilenr\  lleth  was  the  foimder  of  small  arms  in- 
struction in  the  U.S.  Arm_\.'  Heth's  course  of  small  arms 
instruction  was  ofllcially  adopted  in  1  8.s8  and  later  pub- 
lished in  1  862.'  Flowever.  Fleth's  name  was  not  associ- 
ated w  nil  the  publication  because  he  had  resigned  to  join 
the  Confederate  Arnn  in  1861.' 

Soldiers  were  trained  in  the  assembl\  and  disassem- 
bl_\  of  their  firearms,  then  in  the  actual  use  of  those  weap- 
ons. Soldiers  were  coached  in  the  proper  positions  for 
firing  and  taught  how  to  properix  aim.  but  the  most  im- 
portant aspect  off  leth's  course  of  stud_\  was  learning  to 
eslimale  distances,  which  was  a  "radical  departure  from 
the  da\s  of  the  smooth-bore."^ 


-' Maik  I  Miller  and  Dale  1  \\  cdcl.  '  (.  nnlinumii  Xixhacolouical 
lincsliyalKins  at  fori  i  red  Slcclc  Stale  Historic  Site.  \\'\  oiiiiny." 
paper  preseiHed  at  the  loiiit  Midwest  \reliaeolo,<:ieal  and  flams  \n- 
Ihropoloyieal  t  onlereiKe.  St   i'aiil.  Minnesota.  201)0 

Mark  I)  llanson.  Mchillid  'cirlruli^c  (  \isc\  miil  I  ciiil  Shii;\  Inmi 
II  V(>iiiiiii;\  Ion  hiwl  Sicl'Ic  In  lihihwis  oj  I'o.vMhlc  lining  /u;/;<,'t' 
/  'iciililicy  ciihl  hsi>cui:cil i  \irlricloc  <  'i/ve  (  'nixhuis:  \faster"s  I  he- 
sis    Department  ol  ,\nlliropolog\     I  ni\ersii\  ot  \\'\  omini:.  2001 , 

M)ouylas('  Met  hristian.  (/;  Inin  nl  \hirksmcii  ( I  ort  (  ollins: 
(  lid   \rni>   I'ress.  1  >),S  I  ) 

id\\ards  i  arrow. /i»7iMi  s  \liliiiiii  I  ncw/n/tciliti  (New^'ork: 
pri\alel\  printed.  liS.Ss).  MeChnstian.  I  mor\  I 'plon.  I  Sv:.icni  o/ 
Icii'^cl  I'riiilicc  /iir  ihc  I  sc  n/  I  nui/is  IrDial  with  l/ic  \lii^kcl.  Ki/lc 
\lnskci.  Ri/lc.  or  (  \irhiiic  ( W  ashmylon:  IS,  (.io\ei"nment  I'rmling 
Oltiee.  I.SfO) 

'AleChristian 

'Met  hristi.in.  14, 


The  original  caption  reads  "A  Troop  of  U.S.  Ccivcilry  Drilling  near  Fori  Steele.  "  Tlil.\'  image  i.s  looking  roughly  to 
the  east  haek  toward  the  fort  iieross  the  area  helieveil  to  contain  the  iiorihcrniiKisi  firing  riingc  i'oiiiplex. 


30 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


SCHEMATIC  OF  BASIC  PRIMER  TYPES 


Irleinal 
Bar  Arft'i 


£Z^, 


me-nal 
Cup 


roJ 


>a_ 


Ei-ernsl 


ttlMt 


The  internal  bar  anvil  is  the  earliest  (oldest)  and  the  external  is  the  latest  (youngest).  These  are  only  basic  types.  Many 
different  variations  e.xist.  However,  each  of  the  basic  t\-pes  is  represented  at  Fort  Steele.  Externals  are  reloadable,  and  the 
others  are  not. 


Aside  from  Heth's  system,  the  only  official  manuals 
dealing  with  target  practice  were  the  1 874  revised  infan- 
try and  cavalry  tactics  manuals  written  by  Brevet  Ma- 
jor-General  Emory  Upton/  Upton's  revisions  were 
spurred  by  the  adoption  of  the  .45-caliber  Springfield 
breech-loader  as  the  official  rifle  and  musket,  correct- 
ing deficiencies  in  earlier  courses  and  tailoring  tactics 
to  the  new  firearms.'  Unfortunately.  Upton's  treatment 
of  target  practice  was  very  brief,  covering  aiming  tech- 
niques, physical  characteristics  of  targets,  and  procedures 
for  firing. 

The  renaissance  of  small  arms  instruction  and  target 
practice  was  initiated  by  the  official  adoption  of  Colo- 
nel Theodore  T.  S.  Laidley's.4  Course  of  Instruction  in 
Rifle  Firingby  the  U.S.  Army  in  1 879."'  Much  like  Heth. 
Laidley  discussed  the  physical  attributes  and  handling 
of  the  rifle,  carbine,  and  cartridges,  followed  by  ballis- 
tics, estimation  of  distance,  and  proper  aiming  and  fir- 
ing exercises.  Laidley  also  explored  target  shape,  target 
architecture,  range  layout  and  location,  duties  of  range 
personnel,  and  even  the  best  time  of  day  to  use  firing 
ranges. 

Externally  primed  metallic  cartridge  cases,  adopted 
in  1 866  by  the  Army,  were  easily  reloaded,  and  in  1 879 
the  Frankford  Arsenal  began  producing  reloading  equip- 
ment. The  significance  of  reloading  equipment  lies  in 
the  impact  it  had  on  target  practice.  Reloaded  cartridges 
were  considered  less  reliable  than  new  cartridges,  and 
were  not  used  in  combat."  However,  reloaded  cartridges 
increased  the  number  of  available  rounds  for  practice. 


Not  surprisingly  Laidley's  course  of  instruction  provides 
an  in-depth  discussion  of  cartridge  reloading. 

Despite  the  adoption  of  Laidley's  system,  the  ordnance 
department  actively  sought  to  improve  the  effectiveness 
of  their  weaponry,  and  published  extensively  on  both 
the  training  of  soldiers  and  the  problems  associated  with 
small  anns  fire.  In  1876,  the  anomalies  of  small  arms 
fire  was  analyzed,'-  followed  in  1880  with  a  report  of 
the  effectiveness  of  long  range  firing,'^  and  1881  with 
an  explanation  of  projectile  deflection."  Published  three 
years  later.  Ordnance  Notes  No.  340  dealt  directly  with 
target  practice.  Intended  for  soldiers,  the  publication  syn- 
thesized small  amis  instruction,  summarizing  the  essen- 
tial points  to  successful  marksmanship.'" 

Due  to  ambiguities  and  vagueness  in  the  Laidley  sys- 
tem. Capt.  Stanhope  E.  Blunt  was  charged  with  devel- 

"Emop.'  Upton.  Cavalry  Tactics.  United  Slates  .Army.  (New  York: 
Appleton  and  Company.  1 874);  Upton.  Infantry  Tactics.  Double  and 
Single  Rank.  (New  York:  Greenwood  Press.  1968.  reprint  of  1874 
edition). 

''  McChristian. 

'"  Theodore  T.  S.  Laidley.  .4  Course  of  Instruction  in  Rifle  Firing. 
(Philadelpliia:  J.  B.  Lippincott&  Co..  revised  ed.,  1880). 

"  McChristian. 

'-  .Anomalies  in  Small  .Arm  Practice.  Ordnance  Notes.  No.  86. 
(Washington.  D.C.:  GPO.  1878). 

"  Long-Range  Firing.  Ordnance  Notes.  No.  141.  (Washington, 
DC:  GPO.  1880). 

'^  Deflections  ofSmall-.4rm  Projectiles.  Ordnance  Notes.  No.  1 63 
(Washington.  D.  C:  GPO.  1881). 

'^  Target  Practice-Information  for  Soldiers.  Ordnsmce'Noles.  No. 
340  (Washington.  D.  C:  GPO.  1884). 


Sprmt;  _'()()■_' 

oping  another  new  eourse  in  small  aims  insliuelion.'  In 
1885,  Bkuits  Iii.slniclion.s  in  Rifle  liiuI  i'lirhiiic  Firiin^ 
was  otTieiall\  adopted.  Blunt  initiated  the  use  of  an  el- 
liptieal  target  with  a  veilieal  long  axis  to  compensate 
Tor  an  uncontrollahle  \eilical  dispersion  of  shots  caused 
b\  anomalies  in  cartridge  manufacture  and  \ertical  flex- 
ing of  the  tlrearm  barrel.  Bkmt's  sNstcni  also  was  the 
first  official  couise  of  small  amis  instruction  to  include 
discussion  of  gallcrv  practice  (indoor  target  practice  and 
drill  using  reduced  charge  cartridges),  and  mounted  and 
dismounted  rexolver  tiring.'' 


Small  arms  instruction  was  a  significant  part 
of  the  mililar\  regimen  at  Fort  I'red  Steele  from  the  post's 
establishment  in  1868  until  its  abandonment  in  1886. 
Perhaps  the  fust  mention  of  target  practice  is  in  the  Sep- 
tember 30.  1 869.  Inspection  Report  for  Fort  Fred  Steele. 
The  Inspecting  Officer  wrote:  "Usual  Siuiday  morning 
and  montliK  inspections  held,  as  also  target  practice. 
There  have  been  no  drills  held,  the  dut\  at  the  post  re- 
quiring the  whole  command. '""^  The  following  \  ear.  Pri- 
vates Martin  Etlnger,  Isaac  Kuilz,  and  Henry  Baker  were 
reported  as  the  best  shots  in  their  inf~antr\  companies, 
and  subsequently  exctiscd  from  guard  and  fatigue  du- 
ties.'" Soldiers  were  e\en  killed  on  firing  ranges  at  Fort 
Fred  Steele.  On  September  13.  1882.  Private  J.C.  Walters 
was  accidentalK  shot  and  killed  during  target  practice.-" 

Miller  and  Wedel  point  out  early  Fort  Fred  Steele  docu- 
ments seem  to  mention  target  practice  onl\  when  it  was 
not  held.-'  Post  Returns  note  bad  weather,  lack  of  am- 
munition, and  other  duties  of  the  post  as  Justitlcation  for 
canceling  target  practice.--  However,  mention  of  onl\ 
canceled  target  practice  implies  scheduled  target  prac- 
tice was  a  common  occinrence.  even  if  haphazard  or 
irregular.  Details  of  target  practice  ma\  ha\e  been 
unnoteworthy.  because  practice  was  a  common  event. 
like  raising  the  flag,  feeding  the  stock,  or  dailv  drill. 

Incentiv  es  for  regular  practice  include  increased  avail- 
ability of  ammimition  for  target  practice.-'  acknowledg- 
ment of  target  practice  and  exceptional  marksmen  in 
official  documents,  annual  prizes,  and  official  marks- 
manship decorations.-^  Orders  issued  in  Februarv  1883 
reveal  gallerv  practice  was  conducted  on  the  porches  of 
the  barracks  during  the  winter  when  snow  made  out- 
door practice  impractical.  ' 

The  frequency  of  target  practice  w  as  nev  ertheless  qiutc 
variable.  The  September  1"  Inspection  Report  filed  in 
1879  states  target  practice  was  held  as  often  as  the 
weather  and  duties  of  the  post  allowed.  With  supple- 
mentary lumting  opportunities,  "almost  the  entire  com- 
mand have  materiallv  attained  a  fair  deuree  o\'  accu- 


31 


racv."'  From  1880  to  1  886  the  frequency  of  target  prac- 
tice increased  from  one  da\  a  week  to  dail\ .  "  The  1 881 
Inspection  Report  has  small  arms  instruction  scheduled 
as  follows:  target  practice,  once  a  week;  estimating  dis- 
tance drills,  once  a  week;  and  four  mounted  cavalry  drill 
per  week  w  illi  a  Sundav  inspection.  In  1  882  target  prac- 
tice was  conducted  fouito  se\en  times  per  month,  twice 
a  week  in  1883.  and  dail>  in  1884.  ,\  letter,  written  in 
1  882.  noted  that  the  most  suitable  time  of  \  ear  for  out- 
door target  practice  at  Fort  Fred  Steele  was  .June  through 
September.-^ 

Laidlev  "s  coiu'se  of  instruction  was  likel\  used  shortiv 
alter  its  adoption  in  I  879.  but  it  does  not  appear  in  offi- 
cial Fort  Fred  Steele  documentation  until  1881.-  The 
1881  general  order  noted  the  construction  of  a  target 
range  with  a  new  1  aidlev's  Resolving  Target.  Despite 
the  adoption  of  Blunt's  system  in  1885.  Fort  Fred  Steele 
continued  to  use  the  Laidlev  System  until  the  post  was 
aliandoned. '"  Prior  to  1  879.  no  s>  stem  of  target  practice 
is  mentioned  bv  name. 

Geographically,  the  firing  ranges  at  Fort  lied  Steele 
were  never  clearl\  defined.  An  1882  letter  to  the  Adju- 
tant General  of  the  L^epartment  of  the  Platte  describes 
one  1.60()-vard  range  with  post,  flags,  and  two  sizes  of 
cloth  and  paper  targets.'  Dnfortunatelv.  the  location  was 
not  gi\en.  The  same  letter  mentions  the  capabilit\  of 
reloading  cartridges,  and  "facilities  for  indoor  practice. ""'- 

In  1  8S3.  two  firing  ranges  were  mentioned.  One  was  a 
3()0-yard  range  and  the  otliei'.  a  l.200-\ard  range.  One 


"  McCliristiun 

■  Stanhope  I  Hluill.  Insli-ucliiiiis  in  Rifle  uihl  (  urhiiiL'  lii-iin^. 
(\c\\  York  C'liarlcs  Scnhncr's  Sons.  1885). 

'^  \  S  .\riii\  Inspcclion  Report,  f'ort  Fred  Steele.  September  30. 
I  HM.  h  Copies  on  llle  at  the  1  iii\  ersil\  ol  \\  \  oniiiiL!  Arehaeologi- 
c.il  Repositoi^  .  I  araiiiie 

'■'  Cleneial  (  )rLlers.  I  oil  J-reJ  Steele.  Sept   2^.  1870 
"  Letters  Sent.  I'ort  Ired  Steele.  Septciiilier  l.v  1882 
'  Miller  and  Wedel.  "Behax  loral  Inlerenees    ."  3 

--  Post  Returns.  Tort  Ired  Steele,  .lime  18(i8-No\  188h  Miero- 
film  on  file  at  the  (  )fllce  of  the  \\\oniini;  State  \rehaeologist. 
I  aramie 

'  .Adjutant  Cieiicrars  Ot'tlee.  (icncnil  Onlcr  \i)  5IK  General  Or- 
ders. 18fiM.  (Washington.  D.  C:  C'lF'O.  IHW) 

•'  Inspeelion  Reports.  Sept  .lO.  I8fi^).  .Adiiitant  ( leneral's  ( )rnee. 
iiciicral  Order  \i>  Ml  C  ieneral  (  trders.  I  Xdi)  (Washington.  D.C: 
(il'O.  1870), 

-'  General  Orders.  No.  13.  Ion  I  red  Steele.  1883 

-"  Inspeelion  Reports.  Sepleniher  1.  1874. 

"  Inspeetmn  Reports.  Sept  15.  1881;  Sept  30.  1882:  Oet  13. 
1883:  .lime  2h.  1884:No\    2(i.  1  88h. 

■'  Letters  Sent.  I  ort  Ired  Steele.  Sept,  30.  1882. 

-"  General  Orders  No.  32.  Fort  I  red  Steele.  I  88 1 , 

'"Inspeelion  Reports.  I883-1SS6 

"  Letters  Sent.  I  ort  I  red  Steele.  Sept.  30.  I8,S2 

'-  Ihhl 


32 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


range  was  located  north  of  the  post  near  the  stable  and 
one  south  of  the  post  near  the  trader's  house."  Which 
was  at  each  location  was  not  specified.  These  range  lo- 
cations conform  to  the  recent  archaeological  discover- 
ies. In  the  1885-1886  annual  report,  two  300-yard  and 
two  1000-yard  targets  were  specified." 

As  many  as  eight  different  ranges  are  historically  docu- 
mented. However,  the  documentation  is  far  from  clear. 
Eight  separate  firing  ranges  were  probably  not  in  exist- 
ence at  any  one  time.  Different  ranges  may  have  been 
reconfigured  from  exiting  ranges,  and  new  ranges  could 
have  replaced  old  ones.  Also,  some  ranges  may  have 
been  abandoned  and  reused  later. 

Archaeological  research  reveals  that  a  post  dump  over- 
lies the  northern  tiring  range  complex.  Whether  or  not 
the  dump  and  the  firing  range  were  used  at  the  same 
time  is  unclear,  but  firing  range  locations  appear  to  have 
had  multiple  uses. 

Collection  of  spent  cartridge  cases  from  the  firing 
ranges  at  Fort  Fred  Steele,  for  either  destruction  or  re- 
loading, has  not  been  documented.  However,  collection 
probably  was  conducted  for  reloading,  based  on  the  ref- 
erences to  cartridge  reloading  equipment  and  facilities." 
Spent  cartridge  cases  may  also  have  been  intentionally 
crushed  on  Fort  Fred  Steele's  firing  ranges  in  response 
to  orders  issued  in  1 876  by  the  Adjutant  General,  known 
as  General  Orders,  No.  13. 

The  order  stated: 


severely  damaged,  suggesting  at  least  some  intentional 
crushing,  but  the  relation  ship  to  apparent  cartridge  crush- 
ing and  General  Order  No.  13  is  unclear." 


Target  practice  and  firing  ranges  at 

Wyoming's  Fort  Fred  Steele  are  not  historically  well 
documented.  However,  spurred  by  archaeological  dis- 
covery, historical  research  has  shown  target  practice  to 
be  a  significant  part  of  garrison  life  at  Fort  Fred  Steele. 
Awards  were  given  for  good  marksmanship,  firing  ranges 
were  built  and  upgraded,  official  reports  made  regular 
mention  of  both  the  failings  and  triumphs  of  garrison 
target  practice,  and  a  soldier  was  even  accidentally  killed 
on  a  firing  range.  Understanding  target  practice  and  fir- 
ing ranges  is  yet  another  chapter  in  the  broader  under- 
standing of  Fort  Fred  Steele,  and  may  also  provide  a 
glimpse  into  the  history  of  other  Wyoming  military  gar- 
risons and  the  diverse  history  of  Wyoming  in  general. 


"  inspection  Reports.  Oct.  13.  1883. 

'^  Miller  and  Wedei,  "Continuing  Archaeological...."  2000. 

-"  Letters  Sent.  Fort  Fred  Steele.  July  14.  1881;  September  30. 
1882. 

'"  Adjutant  GeneraFs  Office.  "General  Orders  No.  13."  General 
Orders:  I8''6.  (Washington.  D.  C:  Government  Printing  Office, 
1877). 

-"  Hanson.  44-45. 


It  appears  from  reports  of  officers  serving  on  the  plains, 
as  well  as  from  experiments  conducted  in  the  Ordnance 
Department,  that  the  empty  metallic  cartridge-shells  for 
the  Springfield  carbine  and  musket  can,  after  being  fired, 
be  used  an  indefinite  number  of  times  by  refilling  and 
recapping.  Great  care  will  therefore  be  exercised  by  all 
officers  to  prevent  Indians  from  procuring  the  empty  shells 
thrown  away  by  troops  after  firing,  either  in  action  or  at 
target  practice.'" 

Clearly,  the  U.S.  Army  wanted  to  prevent  the  use  of 
U.S.  ammunition  components  against  U.S.  soldiers  by 
Native  Americans.  The  order,  however,  did  not  provide 
guidelines  for  compliance  although  the  collection  and/ 
or  destruction  of  spent  cartridge  cases  would  have  been 
the  most  obvious  mechanisms  for  compliance  with  Gen- 
eral Orders  No.  13.  Historical  documents  from  Fort  Fred 
Steele  do  not  specifically  address  the  issue.  Whether  col- 
lection for  reloading  at  Fort  Fred  Steele  was  a  response 
to  General  Orders  No.  13  is  unknown.  Archaeological 
research  revealed  virtually  all  of  the  metallic  cartridge 
cases  recovered  from  the  firing  range  complexes  were 


Mcvk  D.  Hanson  earned  a  Bachelor  of  Science 
degree  in  Earth  Science  Geology,  with  minors 
in  History  and  Anthropology,  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Wisconsin-Eau  Claire  in  1997,  and  a 
Master  of  Arts  degree  in  Anthropology  from  the 
University  of  Wyoming  in  2001.  He  has  worked 
in  curation  and  collection  management  at 
Chippewa  Valley  Museum  in  Eau  Claire,  Wis- 
consin, and  the  University  of  Wyoming  Archaeo- 
logical Repository  in  Laramie,  Wyoming,  where 
he  currently  serves  as  assistant  curator.  His  in- 
terests in  military  history  and  historical  archae- 
ology include  the  American  Civil  War,  military 
operations  on  the  western  frontier,  and  World 
War  II  and  Korean  War  aviation. 


Spring  200a 
INDEX 


airport.  West  Yellowstone.  12 

ambrot\pcs.  2} 

Anitac  Parks  &  Resorts.  16 

Anderson.  Ole.  2.  .1  4.  .s.  (photo)  4 

.Arapaho.  22 

arms  instruction.  3 1 

Army,  in  Yellowstone.  4 

Army,  target  practice.  28-32 

Army.  U,  S  .  4th  Cavalrv.  7.  6th 

Cavalry.  7.  18th  Infantry.  22.  18th 

Infantry  Band.  24 
Ash.  Jennie  1 1.2.  7 
autos.  allowed  into  bellow  stone.  8 
Baird.  Spencer.  14.20.21 
Baker.  Ilenrs.  31 
Big  Horn  Mountains.  24 
Billings.  Montana.  6 
Blackmore.  William  H.  21.  27 
Blunt.  Capt  Stanhope  H  .  30 
Blunt's  system. 3 1 
Bowles.  Charles  F..  22.  2.^ 
Bozeman  Trail.  22 
Brady.  Malhew.  26 
Brett.  Acting  Supl  Col   l,lo\d.  .s.  X 
British  Museum.  26.  27 
Burke,  fimothy.   6 
Burroughs.  Capt  .  23.  24 
Buyer's  Ferry.  23 
Camden.  New  Jersey.  27 
camera  equipment.  2,s 
camera  ohscura.  2,s 
Canyon  campground.  I  1 
Canyon  Hotel.  3 
Canyon  Junction.  15 
Canyon  service  station,  15 
Canyon  Village.  15 
Canyon.  Whiltaker  store  at.  8 
Carrington.  Col   Henry  B  .  IQ.  22.  27 
carte  de  visite.  26 
cartridge  cases.  28.  20.  32.  (illus  .  30) 

externally  primed  metallic.  30 
cartridge  crushing.  32 
Child.llarry.2.  8.   10 
Christmas,  in  Nellow stone.  1  1 
Cinnabar.  4.  6 
Clear  Creek.  24 
Coffee  Shop  at  Mammoth.  13 
collodion.  22.   26 
Commissioner's  residence. 

Yellowstone.  5 
concessions.  Ncllowstone.  2 
Cooley.  DM.21 
Cottage  Hotel  at  Mammoth.  7 
"Course  of  Instruction  in  Rille 

Firing."  30 
Crazy  Woman's  Fork.  23 
Dailey's  Ranch  in  Paradise  Valley.  6 
Daniels.  It  .  killed.  23 
Delaware  North  Park  Services.  16 
Devil's  kitchen.  0.    II 
Devil's  Kitchenette.  11.    13.  (photo, 

12) 
Dog  Hawk.  23 
Ftlnger.  Martin.  3  1 
Ewers.  Dr.  John  C  .  1  7 
ferrotypes.  22 
Fessenden.  25 
Fessenden.  F.  M  .  24 


lire.  Smithsonian,  2  I 

tiring  ranges.  28.  3  I 

firing  ranges.  Fort  Fred  Steele.  31 

Fleming.  Paula  Richardson  (author 

bio).  27 
Fort  Custer.  6 

Fort  Fred  Steele.  28.  24.  31.  32 
Fort  Faramie.  20.  23,  26 
Fort  Faramie  Indian  Commission, 

21 
Fort  Faramie  treaty  (photo).  26 
Fort  Phil  Kearn\,  17,  22.  23. 

24.   25 
1  on  Reno.  23.  24 
Fort  'Sellow stone.  3 
Frank  Leslie's  llluslraled 

Newspaper.  10.  24 
Frankford  Arsenal.  30 
Gardner.  Alexander.  25.  26.  27 
gasoline,  price  in  >'cllowstone,  8 
gasoline  station.  Mammoth.  8 
gasoline  stations,  Yellowstone, 

12,    14,  15 
(jermantoun,  Pcnn  ,  26 
Glover.  Ridgway.  18-27.  (photo. 

I  7);  obituary.  24 
Cjlover.  Elizabeth  (1  ewis)  and 

John.  18 
Glover  family  (photo).  18 
Glover.  Maria.  18 
Goss.  Robert  (author  bio).  16 
Grand  tan\on  of  the  Yellowstone, 

3 
grizzly  bear,  24 
Gutekunst,  Frederick,  18 
Haddonfield.  N   J  ,  18 
Hamilton,  (^harles.  2.  8.  4.  10.     12, 

14,    15 
Hamilton  Stores,  7,    14,    16 
Hamilton  Stores,  Inc  ,  15 
Hamilton's  Store.  Mammoth.  3 
Hanson.  Mark  D.  (bio).  32 
Harris.  Capt.  Moses.  3 
Haynes.  Frank.  3 
Haynes.  Jack.  12 
Haynes  Photo  Shops,  o 
Hefferlin  brothers.  10 
Henderson.  George.  7 
Henderson.  Walter.  2 
Henderson.  Walter  J  .  8 
Henry.  Joseph.  20.  21 
Hemdon  House.  Omaha.  21 
Heth's  system.  30 
Hinkle.  D.  26 

Holm  Transportation  Companx.  8 
Instructions  in  Rille  and  t  arhine 

Firing.  31 
King.  Charles  Bird.  21 
Kurtz.  Isaac.  31 
Faidley.  Theodore  J  S  .  30 
I  aidley  s  course.  3  1 
Faidley 's  Revolving  Target.  3  1 
Faidley  s  system  .  30 
Langford,  Nathaniel,  3 
Farimer,  Mr  and  Mrs  ,  23 
Lehmer.  Frank,  22 
Lincoln's  funeral,  IX,  (photo)   10 
Lyall.  Alexander  2.  8 
Lyall-Flenderson  store  at 
Mammoth.  7.  (photo)  7 
Mammoth  .'\uto  Camp  .  13.   15 


Mammoth  Cafeteria.  11. (photo).  13 

Mammoth  Hot  Springs   2.  5 

Mammoth  Post  Exchange.  I  1 

Mammoth  lerraces.  4 

Mather.  Stephen.  0.  10 

Maynadier.  Col   Henry  F'  .  22 

McC  artnev.  James.  6 

Mel  aren.  Col  R  N  .  22 

Mel  can.  -  23 

Meldrum,  Judge  John.  1 1 

Mennoniles.  26 

Miller.  Dr  Mark.  28.  20.  31 

Moll,  Fueretia.  house  photo.  10 

Mount  Lphraim.  N.  J.  18 

National  Anthropological  .Archives. 

17 
National  Hotel.  4 

National  Park  Bank  in  Livingston.  12 
National  Park  Service.  3.  0 
Nichols.  William.  12.  15 
Norris.  Philetus.  3 
Northern  Cheyenne.  22 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad.  4 
Oglala  and  Brule  Sioux.  22 
Old  Faithful  Camps  Compain.  10 
Omaha.  Nebraska.  2 1 
Park  Branch  Line.  4 
Park  C  ounty  High  School  in 
Livingston.  6 

Park  C  urio  &  Coffee  Shop.  5 
Park  Curio  Shop  2.    II.    15.  (photo. 

10).  demolished   16 
Park  Hotel.  Livingston.  6 
Peace  Commissioners.  25.  26. 

(photo.  21 ) 
Peace  Commissions.  22 
Pendleton.  Indiana.  20.  27 
Peters.  Samuel.  24 
Philadelphia.  25 

Philadelphia  Academy  of  .Art.  20 
Philadelphia  Photographer. 

18.    10,  22.  23.  24.  25 
Philippine  Islands.  7 
photographers 

Ridguav  Cjlover.  17-27 
V'ellowstone.  3 
photography.  Sioux  view  of  22 
Povah.  Jrevor.  14 
Pryor&  Trischman.  2,  0,   10,   1  1, 

12,    13 
Pryor  Georganna,  1 1 
Pryor,  A  K  .  5 
Pryor.  Anna.  3.   11.   13 
Prvor.  Anna,  death.  1  5 
PrxorCoffee  Shop  menu  (illusl.  14 
Prsor.  Georganna.  5.  14.  15 
Pryor.  George.  3.  6 
Pryor.  Cjeorge  and  .Anna.  4.  5.  8. 

marriage,  6 
Pryor.  Margaret.  5.   1  I 
Prsor  Stores.  7.  14.    15 
Pry  or  Stores,  sale  of  1 5 
Quakers.  26 
Red  Cloud.  22 
"Ridgway  (ilover.  Photographer.  "  17- 

27^ 
Salisbury.  England.  27 
Savvtelle.  California.  13 
Schreiber.  George.  18.  20 
Shaw  &  Powell  Camping  Co  .  10 
Shindler.  A.  Z,.21 


Smithsonian  Institution   10.  20. 

21.   27 
soda  fountain,  in  'I'el  low  stone.  5 
souvenirs.  Yellowstone.  5 
Specimen  House.  3.  4 
Specimen  rack  (photo).  4 
Spotted  Tail.  23 
Springfield  breech-loader.  30 
Standing  Elk.  23.  26.  27. 

portrait.  26 
Stanley.  John  Mix.  21 
stereographs.  26.  27 
Sundry  Civil  Bill.  3  F 
Taft.  Robert,  photo  historian.  25 
"Tale  of  Two  Sisters."  2-16 
target  practice  28-31 
Jaylor.  Edward  B  .22.  25 
Templeton.  It  .  23 
tintypes  .  22 
Toy.  Sam.  6 

Treaty  of  Fort  Laramie.  21 
Trischman.  Elizabeth  "Belle."  3. 

II.  14:  death    15 
Trischman.  George.  3 
Trischman.  Harry,  6.  7 
Trischman.  Joseph,  6:  murdered.  6 
Trischman.  Kathervn.  3 
Frischman.  Margaret  Gleason.  6. 

attempted  suicide.  6 
US  Cavalry  Drilling  (photo).  20 
Tipper  Geyser  Basin.  3 
lipton.  MaJ  -Cien   l;mor\.  30 
Virginia  City.  Mont .  20 
Walker.  Dr  Danny.  28 
Walters.  J  C.3I 
Warm  Springs.  Montana.  6 
Warren,  (.)  Ci  .  6 
Wedel.  Dale  L  .20.  31 
Wenderolh  &  Taylor.  IX 
Wenderoth.  Jaylor  &  Broun.  20. 

23.  25 
West  Yello\sstone.  12 
White.  David.  24 
Whittaker.  Cieorge.  2.  3.  7.  8. 

10.  11.  12 
Whiltaker  store  at  Canyon. 

(photo).  0 
Wilson.  Edward  I    .  10 
Wistar.  Thomas.  22.  23.  25 
Wylie  Camp  at  Swan  Fake  Flats. 

10 
Wylie  camping  company.  10 
Wyoming  .Archaeological  Societv. 

28        " 
Wyoming  Archaeologist.  28 
■Yellowstone  Park  .Association.  7 
Yellowstone  Park  Camping 

Company .  1 0 
Yellowstone  Park  Company.  14 
Yellowstone  Park  TTolel 

Company.  0.    10 
■ScHowstone  Park  Service 

Stations.  14.    16 
Nellov\ stone  Park  Store.  8 
N'elloustone  Park  Iransportation 

Company.  7.  8.    10.   12 
Yellowstone  River.  6 
Noung.  Gen  S   B  M  .  7 

Indexed  bv  Phil  Roberts 


^jm^mmmmmm^m^ 


nnais  o 


Is  of 


WVOMING 

The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Summer  2002 


Vol.  74,  No. 


The  Cover 


"Crystal  Falls,  Targhee  Creek" 

a  photograph 

by  William  Henry  Jackson 

Born  in  New  York  in  1843,  Jackson  began  woric  as  a  pliotographer  in  Vermont.  After  service  in 
the  Civil  War.  he  moved  by  wagon  train  to  California,  later  returning  to  settle  in  Omaha,  Ne- 
braska. From  1870-78.  he  m'OS  official  photographer  for  the  Hayden  survey.  It  was  while  serving 
with  Hayden  that  Jackson  made  the  first  photographs  of  Yellowstone  in  1871.  From  1879  to 
1894,  he  operated  a  photography  studio  and  publishing  company.  It  was  during  this  period  that 
the  cover  image  was  executed.  After  an  assignment  photographing  around  the  world  for  a  New 
York  magazine,  Jackson  moved  to  Detroit  where  he  operated  a  publishing  business  until  his 
retirement  at  the  age  of  81.  He  moved  to  Washington.  D.  C.  wrote  about  the  Old  West  and  painted 
a  series  of  Western  scenes  for  the  U.  S.  Government.  He  made  a  number  of  trips  to  Wyoming  and 
elsewhere  over  the  years,  including  a  famous  visit  to  Independence  Rock  during  the  centennial 
year  of  the  Oregon  Trail.  He  died  in  New  York  City  in  1942.  The  cover  photograph  is  in  the 
collections  of  the  American  Heritage  Center,  University  of  Wyoming. 


The  editor  of  .Annals  of  Wyoming  welcomes  manuscripts  and  photographs  on  every  aspect  of  the  history  of  Wyoming  and  the  West. 
Appropriate  for  submission  are  unpublished,  research-based  articles  which  provide  new  information  or  which  offer  new  interpretations 
of  historical  events.  First-person  accounts  based  on  personal  experience  or  recollections  of  events  will  be  considered  for  use  in  the 
"Wyoming  Memories"  section  Historic  photo  essays  for  possible  publication  in  "Wyoming  Memories"  also  are  welcome.  Articles  are 
reviewed  and  refereed  by  members  of  the  journal's  Editorial  Advisory  Board  and  others.  Decisions  regarding  publication  are  made  by 
the  editor.  Manuscripts  (along  with  suggestions  for  illustrations  or  photographs)  should  be  submitted  on  computer  diskettes  in  a  format 
created  by  one  of  the  widely-used  word  processing  programs  along  with  two  printed  copies.  Submissions  and  queries  should  be  ad- 
dressed to  Editor.  Annals  of  Wyoming.  P.  O.  Box  4256.  University  Station.  Laramie  WY  8207 1 .  or  to  the  editor  by  e-mail  at  the  following 
address:  philr@uwyo.edu 


Editor 

Phil  Roberts 

Book  Review  Editor 

Call  Hallberjr 


Editorial  Advisory  Board 

Barliara  Bogart,  E\  anston 

Mabel  Brown,  Newcastle/Cheyenne 

Katherine  Curtiss.  Sheridan 

Dudley  Ciardner.  Rock  Sprinfjs 

Sally  F.  Ciritlith,  Lnsk/Ha\erto\vn,  Pa, 

Don  Hodgson,  Torringttm 

L<iien  .lost,  Riverton 

■lame.s  R.  Laird,  Wapiti 

Mark  Miller,  Laramie 

Mark  Nelson,  Green  Rner 

Sherry  L.  Smith,  Moose/Dalla.s,  Tex. 

Thomas  F  Stroock,  Casper 

Lawrence  M   Woods.  Worland 

Wyoming  State  Historical  Society 
Publications  Committee 

Rick  Euig,  Laramie 

David  Kathka,  Rock  Springs 

Sherry  L.  Smith,  Moose 

Amy  Lawrence,  Laramie 

Nancy  Curtis,  CJIendo 

Brian  Hosmer,  Laramie  {ex  oflicio) 

Patty  Myer.s,  Wheatland  (ex-otlicio) 

Loren  .lost.  Riverton  (e\-otTicio) 

Phil  Roberts,  Laramie  (ex-oHlcio) 

Wyoming  State  Historical  Society 
Executive  Committee 

Da\e  Taylor,  President,  Natrona  County 

Amy  Lawrence,  1st  Vice   Pres.,  Albany  Co. 

Patty  Myers,  'ind  Vice  Pres.,  Platte  Co, 

Linda  Fabian,  Secretary,  Platte  County 

Dick  Wilder,  Treasurer,  Park  County 

Clara  Varner,  Weston  County 

.lames  Van  Scoyk,,  Star  Valley  Chapter 

.Joyce  Warnke.  Goshen  County 

Lloyd  Todd.  Sheridan  County 

Judv  West.  Membership  Coordinator 

Governor  of  Wyoming 

Jim  Geringer 

Wyoming  Dept.  of  State  Parks  and 
Cidtural  Resoiu-ces 

.lohn  Keck.  Director 
Cultural  Resources  Division 

Wendy  Bredehoff,  Administrator 

Wyoming  Parks  &  Cultural  Resources 
Commission 

W'illiam  Dubois,  Cheyenne 
Emerson  W.  Scott.  .Ir,  Buffalo 
Diann  Reese,  Lyman 
Vern  Vi\  ion,  Rawlins 
David  Reetz,  Powell 
Herb  French,  Newcastle 
Ernest  C.  Over,  Pavillion 
Carolyn  Buff,  Casper 
Jerrilynn  Wall,  Evanston 

University  of  Wyoming 

Philip  Duboi.s.  President 
Oliver  Walter,  Dean, 

College  of  Arts  and  Sciences 

Brian  Hosmer,  Chair,  Dept,  of  History 


The  Wyoming  History  Journal 
Summer  'iOO'2  Vol.  74,  No.  3 


Inside  Federal  Prohibition  Enforcement  in  Wyoming: 

The  Case  of  Bootlegging  Busts  in  Northern  Natrona  County,  1928 
By  Phil  Roberts 2 

Few  of  the  investigative  files  from  the  federal  Prohibition  Bureau  still  exist  In  researching 
for  this  article  about  investigations  into  bootlegging  around  Edgerton.  Wyoming,  in  the 
late  1420s.  Roberts  used  unique  Hlcs  held  in  the  National  Archives  Seattle  Branch 

The  Question  of  Districting:  The  Legislature  and  the 

Clear  Use  of  Power,  1992 

By  Matilda  Hansen 9 

Hansen,  a  veteran  legislator,  recalls  the  slop,  of  the  Wyoming  legislature's  struggles 
with  districting,  following  a  court  decision  requiring  a  change  from  at-large  county 
elections  oflegislalors  This  extract  is  from  her  rcccnilv  published  hook  on  the  history 
of  power  and  reapportionment. 

Rustic  Roosevelt  Lodge 

By  Tamsen  Emerson  Hert 16 

Hen.  Wyoming  bibliographer  at  the  llniversity  of  Wyoming  Libraries,  writes  about  a 
little  known  Yellowstone  tourist  spot  in  the  early  days  Hert  has  written  on  Yellowstone 
and  she  has  presented  slide  programs  on  the  various  hotels  and  lodgings  in  the  park. 

T.  A.  Larson,  Wyoming  Historian 

An  Inter\'ie\v  by  Eric  Nye  '20 

Larson,  who  died  in  January  2001.  spoke  with  Nye.  a  UW  English  professor,  in  1498. 
about  his  life,  education,  and  ideas  about  history. 

Crossing  the  North  Platte  River:  A  Brief  History  of 
Reshaw's  Bridge,  1852-1866 

By  Jefferson  Glass   25 


Wyoming  pioneer  John  Richard  (Reshaw)  built  a  bridge  over  the  North  Platte 
River  The  bridge  hastened  overland  travel,  but  also  provided  Richard  with  a 
launching  point  for  a  multi-faceted  business  career  The  story  is  told  by  a  vet- 
eran Casper  historian, 

Wyoming  Picture Inside  back  cover 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal  is  published  quarterly  by  the  Wyoming  State  Historical 
Society  in  association  with  the  Wyoming  Department  of  State  Parks  and  Cultural  Resources,  the  .Ameri- 
can Heritage  Center,  and  the  Department  of  History,  University  of  Wyoming.  The  journal  was  previously 
published  as  the  Quarterly  Bulletin  (1923-1925).  Annals  of  Wyoming  (1925-1993).  Wyoming  Annals 
(1993-1995)  and  Wyoming  History  Journal  (\99'i-\99()).  Iht  Annals  has  been  the  official  publication  of 
the  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society  since  1953  and  is  distributed  as  a  benefit  of  membership  to  all 
society  members  Membership  dues  are:  single,  $20;  joint.  $30.  student  (under  21),  $15;  institutional. 
$40.  contributing.  $100-249,  sustaining,  $250-499;  patron,  $500-999;  donor.  $1,000+.  To  join,  contact 
your  local  chapter  or  write  to  the  address  below  Articles  in  Annals  of  Wyoming  are  abstracted  in  Histori- 
cal Abstracts  and  America   History  and  Life. 

Inquiries  about  membership,  mailing,  distribution,  reprints  and  back  issues  should  be  addressed  to  Judy 
West.  Coordinator.  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society.  PMB#  184.  1740H  Dell  Range  Blvd..  Cheyenne 
WY  82009-4945,  Editorial  correspondence  should  be  addressed  to  the  editorial  office  of  Annals  of  Wyo- 
ming. American  Heritage  Center.  P,  O.  Box  4256,  University  Station,  Laramie  WY  82071, 
Our  e-mail  address  is:   philr;</uwyo,edu  Printed  by  Pioneer  Printing,  Cheyenne 


Copyright  2002,  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society 


ISSN:  1086-7368 


Results  of  a  raid  made  in  Bales  Hole.  Nov.  12, 
1923,  at  the  height  of  prohibition  enforcement. 


Inside  Federal 
Prohibition  Enforcement 
in  Wyoming: 


By  Phil  Roberts 

This  is  the  story  of  some  long-lost  files,  some 
citizen  complaints  about  wide-open  bootleg- 
ging and  official  corruption  in  a  remote  Wyo- 
ming boomtown.  It  may  be  that  the  case  was  quite  or- 
dinary, but  it  never  may  be  known  because  the  file  is 
one  of  a  mere  handful  that  survives  from  the  Bureau  of 
Prohibition's  records  created  in  the  1920s.  Agency  files 
for  much  of  the  United  States  are  either  missing  or  were 
destroyed  when  Prohibition  was  repealed  and  the 
agency  went  through  a  series  of  reorganizations.  Con- 
sequently, there  are  few  examples  of  the  process 
through  which  federal  officers  tried  to  break  up  illegal 
liquor-making  and  selling. 

One  such  file,  held  in  the  collections  of  the  Seattle 
Branch,  National  Archives,  probably  was  typical  of 
other  cases.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  unusual  for  insight 
it  provides  into  the  workings  of  a  small  oil  patch  town 


The  Case  of  Bootlegger  Busts  in 
Northern  Natrona  County,  1928 


in  the  1920s,  an  era  of  intense  depression  in  Wyoming. 
It  also  demonstrates  how  important  informants  were 
to  enforcement  of  Prohibition  laws. 

An  examination  of  the  files  and  newspaper  accounts 
of  the  incidents  surrounding  the  case  reveal  that,  con- 
trary to  popular  notion,  the  Bureau  was  an  organized, 
carefully  administered  federal  agency  with  competent, 
honest  investigators  who  responded  to  citizen  com- 
plaints. The  Bureau  faced  a  disinterested,  often  hostile 
public  and  state  officials  with  political  concerns. 

Prohibition  had  lost  much  of  its  appeal  in  Wyo- 
ming by  1929.  Nonetheless,  federal  officials 
continued  to  enforce  the  act,  ensnaring  numer- 
ous Wyomingites  for  illegally  manufacturing  and  sell- 
ing alcohol.  In  some  places  in  the  state,  government 
prohibition  agents  knew  that  local  officials  were  in 


Summer  !200'2 


league  with  the  makers  of  the  illegal  booze  and  they 
organized  a  series  of  investigations  designed  to  break 
up  the  collusion. 

On  November  1 0,  1 928,  Lon  Davis,  chief  deputy  fed- 
eral prohibition  director  for  Wyoming,  received  the 
following  letter  sent  to  his  office  in  Cheyenne  from  an 
anonymous  writer  in  Edgerton,  Wyoming: 

Dear  Mr.  Davis, 

You  being  State  Federal  Officer  I  am  wondering 
whether  some  information  about  the  Bootleggers  here 
would  be  of  interest  to  you  or  an  annoyance.  I  know 
where  their  cashes  [sic]  are  and  you  can  get  all  the  way 
from  two  to  a  hundred  pints  of  liquor.  Please  treat  this 
offer  confidential  and  if  the  information  will  be  of  any 
use  to  you  I  will  give  it  to  you.  1  met  you  some  time  ago 
Mr.  Davis  and  1  believe  if  you  are  interested  in  this  1  can 
be  of  services  [sic]  to  you.' 

Davis,  who  had  held  the  highest  federal  prohibition 
position  in  the  state  since  March  1923,  apparently  re- 
sponded immediately,  because  four  days  after  the  date 
on  the  earlier  letter,  he  received  a  follow-up  in  which 
the  details  of  the  situation  were  laid  out.  A  former 
deputy  U.  S.  Marshal,  Davis  was  well  acquainted  in 
the  Seattle  headquarters.  Car!  Jackson,  the  divisional 
chief  there  w  ith  jurisdiction  over  Montana.  Idaho. 
Washington.  Oregon  and  Alaska,  had  been  Davis"  pre- 
decessor in  the  Wyoming  job." 

"We  have  a  whiskey  ring  here  and  the  head  of  the 


ring  are  Edgerton's  officers,"  the  anonymous  writer 
alleged  on  Nov.  14.  After  naming  several  local  offi- 
cials, the  letter  continued:  "This  ring  think  they  are  just 
about  immune  from  the  law.  Your  men  have  been  out 
here  but  don't  get  any  evidence  because  everyone  is 
tipped  off  As  far  as  drying  up  Edgerton.  that  is  impos- 
sible but  their  ears  can  be  knocked  down." 

The  writer  then  provided  a  store-by-store  descrip- 
tion of  where  illegal  booze  was  being  hidden.  "The  large 
cache  is  in  the  vacant  building  next  to  the  Highfull 
Cafe."  the  letter  noted.  Even  legitimate  businessmen 
were  involved,  the  writer  said.  "Charley  the  Greek 
keeps  his  pints  under  the  Soda  Fountain  behind  the 
bar..."  After  naming  several  others,  the  writer  empha- 
sized, "You  can  see  that  if  my  information  wasn't  se- 
cret, these  fellows  would  about  hang  me.  I  don't  want 
any  of  the  local  law  even  to  know  about  this  infonna- 
tion  because  I  don't  know  how  far  this  ring  extends...."" 

The  official  record  is  silent  as  to  what  happened  next. 


'  Anonymous  to  Lon  Davis.  Nov.  10.  1928.  Bureau  of  Prohibi- 
tion ln\estigation  Case  File.  1924-33.  Box  1 1.  RG436  Records  of 
the  Bureau  of  Alcohol.  Tobacco  and  Firearms.  National  Archives — 
Pacific  Northwest  Branch.  Seattle. 

-Davis  had  served  as  Laramie  Count)  undersheriff  for  Sheriff 
Fd  J.  Smalley  for  two  years  and  had  been  deputy  I'.  S.  Marshal  for 
only  20  months  when  he  accepted  the  Prohibition  position.  Jack- 
son was  a  Laramie  native.  "Lon  Davis  Given  Office  Director  of 
Prohibition."  IVyommg  Tribune.  March  1 1.  1923.  p.  1. 

'Anonvmous  to  Davis.  Nov.  14.  1928. 


-i&nt  oHIll'e,  2000,  "aiBlione  of  seeh.  45,eRXiOtta  of  ooonshine, 
,*tEf  ■'?i»»<i,  by     o.w.Plaga,  Federal  Agent.   .Alex  A.KoHierson. 
-I.   and  C.J.Csjter, Under  aheriff.  of    u.tronjs   Co. 
*  21a%,,tey  of  A»xil,1925,  at  Tee  Potj,  \lyo. 


"Eight  stills.  2.000  gallons 
of  mash.  45  gallons  of 
moonshine,  were  seized  by 
O.  W.  Plaga.  federal  agent, 
Alex  A.  McPherson.  sheriff, 
and  O.  J.  Carter,  undersh- 
eriff Natrona  County. 
Made  2 1st  of  April.  1925. 
at  Teapot.  Wyoming.  "  The 
Edgerton  investigations, 
held  three  years  later,  were 
made  near  the  site  of  this 
moonshine  bi(St. 


Plaga  collection.  American  Heritage  Center.  University  of  Wyoming 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


but  in  a  later  letter,  the  anonymous  writer  described  to 
Davis  how  his  men  had  conducted  the  raid:  "They  got 
some  stuff  alright  but  it  has  been  kept  very  very  quiet. 
Not  a  word  about  it  in  the  papers."  the  writer  pointed 
out.  indicating  that  a  raid  made  at  Salt  Creek  the  previ- 
ous day  probably  gave  a  warning  '"so  some  of  them 
had  their  stuff  put  away. ...there  were  four  stills  dis- 
mantled right  here  in  town  when  your  men  commenced 
looking  around."^ 

At  this  point,  Davis'  informant  implicated  the  local 
justice  of  the  peace  who  also  happened  to  be  editor  of 
the  local  newspaper,  the  Salt  Creek  Gusher.^  "You  see 
a  fine  before  the  Judge  doesn't  mean  anything.  You 
see  this  ring  has  arrangement  made  that  they  pay 
$178.90  each  month  to  run  and  then  if  they  are  picked 
up  by  anyone — county  or  federal — they  are  fined  be- 
fore the  Judge  whatever  they  are  fined  is  deducted  from 
this  monthly  payment." 

The  anonymous  writer  complimented  Davis  for  hav- 
ing "a  bunch  of  trustworthy  men'"  in  his  employ,  be- 
cause they  had  made  two  raids  and  no  "tip-off  had 
been  made  beforehand.  The  writer  then  detailed  how  a 
whiskey-selling  operation  was  functioning  quite  openly 
in  Edgerton.  Again,  complete  with  maps  and  descrip- 
tions of  the  buildings  in  which  such  activities  were  tak- 
ing place,  the  writer  provided  what  Davis  took  to  be  an 
allegation  beyond  the  simple  report  of  disreputable 
parties  making  and  selling  liquor. 

After  describing  where  he  might  find  the  still,  the 
anonymous  source  wrote:  "The  stills  that  are  running 
are  what  are  known  as  official  stills  either  run  by  the 
officers  themselves  or  the  man  that  runs  it  gives  one 
per  gallon  for  all  they  turn  out."  Further,  the  writer  al- 
leged that  at  least  three  truckioads  of  illegal  alcohol 
brought  in  from  Casper  had  been  unloaded  behind  the 
local  pool  hall.  One  bootlegger,  according  to  the  writer, 
"sells  very  little  whiskey  around  here  but  takes  it  to 
Dubois."  Another,  the  writer  alleged,  "lives  in  Niobrara 
County,  about  30  miles  from  Lusk"  and  "supplies  Lusk. 
Newcastle.  Hot  Springs  also  Edgemont."'' 

Davis  reported  to  his  superiors  in  the  Seattle  office 
before  deciding  whether  or  not  to  send  his  agents  to 
back  to  Edgerton.  The  next  month,  Sam  H.  Scott,  spe- 
cial inspector  in  Chicago,  wrote  to  B.  W.  Cohoon.  de- 
scribing the  information  about  the  Edgerton  investiga- 
tion. When  Cohoon  asked  for  more  specifics.  Scott 
wrote  that  he  had  received  the  information  from  the 
Commissioner  of  Law  Enforcement  for  the  state  of 
Wyoming  "whose  name  has  escaped  me  at  the  mo- 
ment." The  agent  added  that  the  man  had  "personal 
knowledge  of  conditions  at  Salt  Creek  and  Edgerton" 


and  could  be  relied  on  to  help  develop  the  case.  Scott 
told  Cohoon  that  since  Wyoming  had  no  conspiracy 
statute,  that  federal  agents  would  have  the  best  chance 
to  make  a  case.' 

In  May,  the  case  was  assigned  by  the  Seattle  district 
agent  to  Robert  B.  Melville  and  Charles  A.  Murphy.* 
Three  days  after  the  case  was  transferred  to  the  two 
men,  Bemon  reported  to  his  superiors  about  a  meeting 
with  Jack  Allen.  Commissioner  of  Enforcement  for  the 
State  of  Wyoming,  but  Allen  was  unable  to  confirm 
any  of  the  charges  leveled  against  the  Edgerton  offi- 
cials. Because  the  earlier  cases  had  been  made  by  fed- 
eral officers,  but  oddly  filed  in  state  court  in  Casper, 
Allen  did  not  know  how  they  were  handled. 

Allen  was  still  unfamiliar  with  many  aspects  of  the 
position  he  had  held  only  since  the  previous  Decem- 
ber. Gov.  Emerson  had  appointed  Allen  state  law  en- 
forcement commissioner  when  W.  C.  Irving  resigned 
under  a  cloud  in  December  1928. 

"Happy  Jack,"  as  he  was  known  to  friends  in  Casper, 
was  a  Brooklyn,  N.  Y..  native  who  had  come  to  Wyo- 
ming at  the  age  of  1 3  to  work  as  a  cowboy  for  the  P  and 
O  Ranch,  14  miles  north  of  Cheyenne.  In  1891,  he 
signed  on  as  a  cowboy  for  J.  M.  Carey's  CY  Ranch 
near  Casper.  A  young  man  on  the  way  up  hardly  could 
dream  of  a  better  employer  than  Carey,  Wyoming's 
first  U.  S.  Senator,  governor  from  191 1-15,  and  prob- 
ably the  wealthiest  man  in  the  state. 

Later.  Allen  joined  the  Wyoming  Volunteer  cavalry 
unit  raised  by  Colonel  Jay  Torrey  to  fight  in  Cuba  in 
the  Spanish  American  War.  The  unit,  made  up  of  cow- 
boys riding  perfectly  matched  horses  and  named 
"Torrey's  Rough  Riders,"  never  saw  action.  While  en 
route  to  the  staging  area  in  Florida,  the  train  carrying 
the  troop  met  with  a  serious  accident  near  Tupelo,  Miss., 
and  they  never  made  it  to  Cuba. 

After  he  was  mustered  out,  Allen  returned  to  Casper 
to  run  unsuccessftilly  for  sheriff  Nonetheless,  he  con- 
tinued to  work  in  the  field  of  law  enforcement  in  the 
county  until  his  appointment  to  the  Prohibition  posi- 
tion. 

When  the  special  agent  asked  Lon  Davis,  the  federal 
deputy  prohibition  officer,  Davis  urged  that  nothing 


'  Ibid. 

^  Microfilmed  copies  of  the  Gusher  are  on  file  in  the  collections 
of  the  Historical  Research  Division.  Wyoming  Parks  and  Cultural 
Resources  Department,  Cheyenne. 

^  Anonymous  to  Davis,  Feb.  1.  1929. 

'Letter.  Sam  H.  Scott,  Special  Agent.  Treasury  Dept..  Chicago, 
to  B.  W.  Cohoon 

'R.  A.  Beman  to  Melville  and  Murphy,  May  20.  1929. 


Summer  'iOO!2 


be  done  until  his  officers  made  at  least  1 6  cases.  While 
the  two  men  were  visiting,  one  of  Davis  officers  called 
from  Casper,  asking  to  meet  with  Davis  the  next  day 
about  a  raid  scheduled  at  Salt  Creek  and  Edgerton  at 
the  end  of  May.  "It  is  Davis"  theory  that  if  the  bootleg- 
ger is  knocked  over  too  often — oftener  than  the  amount 
he  is  supposed  to  give  to  the  city,  he  will  squeal."  Davis 
was  surprised  that  the  special  agents  were  showing  in- 
terest in  the  Edgerton  case.  "He  does  not  understand 
why  Salt  Creek  and  Edgerton  should  be  selected  when 
there  are  such  places  as  Casper.  Cheyenne,  Kemmerer 
and  others.""' 

Any  individual  conversant  with  statewide  happen- 
ings would  have  shared  Allen's  wonderment.  On  May 
18,  1929,  the  Wyoming  Tribune,  in  a  front  page  story, 
disclosed  that  the  federal  grand  jury  had  adjourned  the 
previous  day  after  bringing  indictments  against  29  in- 
dividuals for  conspiracy  to  evade  Prohibition  laws. 
Heading  the  list  was  W.  C.  Irving,  the  man  Jack  Allen 
had  replaced  as  the  head  of  Wyoming's  law  enforce- 
ment department.  Irving  was  charged  with  collecting 
"thousands  for  protection  money  during  the  time  he 
served"  in  that  office.  Also  indicted  was  Irving's  assis- 
tant, James  Ader,  along  with  various  suspected  boot- 
leggers from  Rawlins,  Thermopolis,  Cheyenne,  Rock 
Springs  and  Evanston."  The  Edgerton  "cabal"  seemed 
minor  indeed,  given  the  events  in  Cheyenne  and  else- 
where. 

Nonetheless,  Federal  investigators  continued  to  press 
the  Edgerton  case.  Besides  being  skeptical  about  the 
importance  of  the  case,  Davis  was  suspicious  about  the 
impetus  behind  the  Salt  Creek  area  probe  for  another 
reason.  "He  expressed  a  fear  that  perhaps  Salt  Creek 
and  Edgerton  case  may  be  the  outgrowth  of  politics," 
the  Seattle-based  agent  wrote.  Davis  had  told  the  agent 
that  Allen  had  lost  a  bid  for  Natrona  County  Sheriff 
and  that  "his  worse  reverses  were  in  the  districts  of 
Salt  Creek  and  Edgerton."  When  the  agent  returned  to 
ask  Allen  about  more  details,  he  told  the  federal  of- 
ficer that  he  was  not  able  to  help  with  their  investiga- 
tion. "All  my  men  are  now  up  in  that  district  and  it 
would  be  impossible  for  us  to  make  any  buys  there."'- 

On  June  2 1 ,  Murphy  and  Melville  paid  a  visit  to  Salt 
Creek  where  they  examined  the  books  of  R.  E.  Arnold, 
City  Treasurer.  They  checked  the  amount  of  fines  sub- 
mitted by  the  Justice  of  the  Peace  W.  J.  Stull  from  July 
12,  1926  to  June  12,  1929.  On  average,  the  JP  (and 
editor  of  the  Gusher)  turned  in  about  $1 50,  the  highest 
amount,  more  than  $450  in  February  1928  and  the  least 
amount,  just  $20  in  April,  1929. 

Armed  with  their  audit,  the  investigators  then  inter- 


viewed Justice  of  the  Peace  Stull.  State  Prohibition 
Agent  L.  C.  Hurtt  attended,  too.  After  looking  at  his 
records,  the  agents  pointed  out  that  the  numbers  did 
not  correspond  with  those  of  the  treasurer.  Judge  Stull 
had  a  ready  reply:  "In  a  great  many  cases,  men  came  to 
his  office  and  pleaded  guilty  to  liquor  violations  with- 
out there  having  been  any  form  of  complaint  filed  and 
no  records  were  made  in  the  office  in  these  cases." 
When  asked  about  what  was  done  with  the  evidence, 
he  said  it  was  "always  destroyed." 

The  agents  told  him  that  the  whole  case  could  be 
turned  over  to  a  federal  grand  jury.  "Whereupon  the 
Judge  inquired  about  what  it  is  we  want  to  know  about 
the  monthK  payments  by  bootleggers." 

The  judge  "asked  why  we  did  not  tell  him  that  when 
we  first  came  and  he  then  admitted  collecting  $50  a 
month  from  the  men  running  the  joints."  He  knew  of 
no  ordinance  that  allowed  such  collections.  But  it  wasn't 
really  fines,  he  said.  It  was  an  "occupation  tax.""  Stull 
then  explained  that  the  practice  had  been  going  on  for 
at  least  five  years  through  the  administrations  of  three 
mayors.  He  named  four  men  who  had  paid  $50  each  in 
fines  for  May.  All  four  were  bootleggers,  he  admitted. 

Later,  the  same  day  Murphy  interviewed  Dora  Pocan 
who  claimed  to  have  lived  in  Edgerton  from  Feb.  1 1- 
July  23,  1927.  "On  or  about  July  9,  1927.  I  was  ar- 
rested by  Deputy  Sheriff  Tom  Heaney  and  Town  Mar- 
shal Fred  Rose  on  a  charge  of  possession  of  intoxicat- 
ing liquor,"  her  affidavit  said.  When  taken  before  Judge 
Blake's  court,  she  was  fined  $50  plus  costs.  She  claimed 
she  continued  to  be  harassed  by  local  officers  who  or- 
dered her  to  leave  town,  "saying  it  was  the  order  of 
Mayor  Mike  Keifer."  She  said  she  went  to  Casper  and 
complained  to  Sheriff  G.  O  Housley  that  she  was  the 
only  one  being  prosecuted  for  liquor  violations  in  the 
area  while  it  was  known  that  many  others  were  in- 
volved. The  statement  was  taken  by  Murphy  at  Lavoye 
where  she  had  been  operating  a  small  restaurant  with 


"When  U.  S.  Marshal  Hugh  Patton  died  in  1932.  Allen  was 
named  his  replacement,  serving  until  June  1.  1934.  That  fall,  he 
was  elected  sheriff  of  Natrona  County,  a  post  he  held  continuously 
until  his  death  in  October  1942.  Obituary,  li'yoming  Tribune.  Oct. 
13,  1942,  p.  11. 

'°Capt.  R.  A.  Beman,  Special  Agent  in  Charge,  letter  to  superi- 
ors. May  23,  1929. 

"  Wyoming  Tribune.  May  18.  1929,  p.  1. 

'-  Beman  letter.  May  23,  1929. 

'^  Memorandum,  Murphy  and  Melville,  Casper  Wyoming,  June 
21,  1929. 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


"a  small  stock  of  groceries"  since  that  May.'-'  Despite 
her  complaint  to  the  sheriff,  she  said,  "nothing  was 
done." 

StulTs  newspaper  had  remained  relatively  silent 
about  the  presence  of  federal  officers  and  totally  quiet 
about  any  suspected  bootlegging  in  the  vicinity.  In  the 
June  21,1 929,  edition  of  the  Gusher,  published  the  day 
"Judge"  Stull  was  interviewed  by  federal  officers,  the 
Gusher  ran  the  following  story  in  the  local  news  with- 
out a  headline: 

Dan  Shea,  proprietor  of  the  Half  Way  House,  had  an 
unannounced  visit  from  federal  men  Saturday  evening. 
The  minions  of  the  law  were  en  route  to  Casper  and  one 
decided  he  wanted  some  cigarettes  when  the  Half  Way 
House  was  reached.  He  entered  the  place  and  found 
Danny  in  the  act  of  serving  liquor  to  a  guest.  He  was 
invited,  and  without  hesitancy,  accepted  the  invitation 
of  the  federal  men  to  accompany  them  into  Casper  where 
Mr.  Shea  appeared  before  U.  S.  Commissioner  M.  P. 
Wheeler  and  put  up  a  bond  of  $2,000  for  appearance 
before  the  federal  court  to  answer  to  a  charge  of  illegal 
possession  and  sale  of  liquor." 

Two  weeks  later,  in  the  July  5  edition  of  the  Gusher, 
Stull  commented  again  about  the  local  situation  but, 
not  surprisingly,  with  none  of  the  emotion  of  the  anony- 
mous letter  writer.  " 


Word  reached  Washington  that  the  1 8th  Amendment 
was  not  being  rigidly  enforced  or  generally  observed  in 
Natrona  County,  so  a  bunch  of  federal  investigators  were 
sent  out  to  look  into  the  matter.  They  have  honored  the 
field  with  their  distinguished  presence  quite  often  the 
past  two  weeks  to  check  up  on  reports  reaching  Wash- 
ington and  have  found  to  some  extent  that  they  are  not 
wholly  without  foundation.'^ 

The  two  investigators  issued  their  preliminary  report 
on  July  27.  "Owners  of  pool  halls  and  gambling  halls 
in  the  town  of  Edgerton  had  been  paying  stipulated 
monthly  fines  to  the  town  in  exchange  for  the  privilege 
of  being  allowed  to  operate  unmolested  by  town  au- 
thorities." The  report  was  particularly  critical  of  Blake, 
the  municipal  judge.  "His  records  show  monthly  fines 
have  been  paid,  and  that  if  a  citizen  of  Edgerton  had 
been  fined  in  some  other  jurisdiction  for  violation  in 
Edgerton,  the  amount  of  such  fine  was  placed  to  his 
credit  by  Judge  Blake  against  future  monthly  fines  to 
be  paid  to  the  town." 

'''  Sworn  statement  of  Dora  Pecan,  June  21,1 929,  Lavoy  e,  Wyo- 
ming. The  cafe"s  opening  was  noted  in  the  Salt  Creek  Gusher.  May 
10,  1929,  p.  3:  "The  place  is  on  the  highway. ..Chicken  will  be  a 
specialty." 

"  Salt  Creek  Gusher,  June  21.  1929,  p.  1. 

"^  Salt  Creek  Gusher,  July  5,  1929,  p.  1  (no  headline). 


The  Midwest  oilfield,  pictured  here  in  a  1920s  era  postcard,  is  located  near  where  Federal  prohibition  officers  were 
investigating  bootlegging  in  1928. 


Summer  2002 


The  report  was  promptly  filed  in  the  agency  records 
in  Seattle.  The  two  investigators  turned  their  attentions 
to  cases  in  the  Pacific  Northwest  and,  a  few  months 
later,  the  agency  field  offices  were  reorganized.  On  July 
26,  1 929,  barely  a  month  after  the  report  was  filed,  the 
case  was  transferred  from  Seattle  to  Denver.  An  order 
from  the  Seattle  headquarters  directed  that: 

Because  of  the  fact  that  the  states  of  Idaho,  Montana 
and  Wyoming  are  now  to  be  included  in  the  newly  cre- 
ated Denver  Division,  it  is  requested  that  authority  be 
granted  this  office  to  transfer  to  the  Special  Agent  in 
Charge,  Denver  Division,  such  jacketed  and  unjacketed 
cases  which  have  to  do  with  investigations  in  the  states 
above  mentioned  and  which  are  now  under  investiga- 
tion by  special  agents  of  this  office." 

The  Wyoming  cases,  including  the  Edgerton  files, 
no  longer  would  be  handled  out  of  the  Seattle  office. 
Somehow,  the  Edgerton  case  files  missed  being 
shipped.  Apparently,  the  papers  sat  in  a  file  drawer  for 
many  years  until  they  were  transferred  to  the  National 
Archives  Seattle  Branch. 

In  the  interim,  all  other  investigative  files  of  the  de- 
partment were  transferred  to  Washington,  D.  C,  when 
the  agency  in  April  1930  was  renamed  the  "Bureau  of 
Industrial  Alcohol."  In  January  1934,  the  agency  was 
transferred  from  Treasury  to  the  Department  of  Justice 
where  it  became  the  "Alcoholic  Beverage  Unit,  Divi- 
sion of  Investigation."  Four  months  later,  portions  of 
the  reorganized  agency  went  back  into  Treasury  as  the 
"Internal  Revenue  Alcohol  Tax  Unit."  Eventually,  its 
functions  were  absorbed,  part  into  the  Federal  Bureau 
of  Investigation  and  part  into  what  became  the  Bureau 
of  Alcohol,  Tobacco  and  Fireamis,  Department  of  the 
Treasury.  The  investigative  files  apparently  were  trans- 
ferred along  with  the  other  agency  records  at  each  stage. 
What  files  that  were  not  absorbed  into  those  records 
apparently  were  destroyed — except  for  the  wayward 
Edgerton  file  and  several  dozen  others.'^ 

Like  the  Bureau  of  Prohibition,  the  town  of 
Edgerton's  fortunes  went  into  similar  eclipse.  On  May 
1 ,  1 930,  the  Salt  Creek  Gusher  reported  that  the  "Scott 
block,"  a  dance  hall,  cafe,  market,  post  office  and  tele- 
phone exchange, — ten  buildings  in  all — were  destroyed 
by  fire.  The  Gusher  suspended  publication;  Stull  re- 
signed his  justice  of  the  peace  office  and  moved  away. 
Bootlegging,  presumably,  disappeared  with  the  dra- 
matic drop  in  population. 


Even  though  the  investigation  came  to  naught,  the 
process  provides  a  fascinating  picture  of  the  federal 
investigative  process  carried  out  by  the  Bureau  of  Pro- 
hibition and  how,  even  in  the  case  of  remote  towns  in 
one  of  the  most  lightly  populated  states,  the  agents  re- 
sponded to  citizen  complaints.  The  exhaustive  investi- 
gation into  the  illegal  activities  supposedly  taking  place 
in  Edgerton  seemed  to  contradict  Judge  T.  Blake 
Kennedy's  retrospective  assessment  of  the  Bureau  some 
20  years  later: 

Even  though  the  law  would  have  a  reasonable  expect- 
ancy of  enforcement  under  ordinary  circumstances,  the 
Prohibition  Department  was  not  by  any  means  equal  to 
the  occasion.  The  enforcement  agencies  were  not 
equipped  with  agents  and  employees  who  were  skilled 
in  the  matter  of  preparing  cases  for  prosecution  like  those 
who  were  in  charge  of  the  other  classes  of  Federal 
crimes — the  Post  Office  Department  or  the  Treasury 
Department.  No  doubt  it  was  very  difficult  to  secure  the 
proper  types  of  men  to  fill  the  positions  in  the  Prohibi- 
tion Agencies.  This  added  greatly  to  the  matter  of  secur- 
ing convictions  and  also  to  the  trials  and  tribulations  of 
the  Judge  upon  the  bench.'" 

"  Unsigned  memo;  letter  from  W.  D.  Smith.  Denver,  to  Beman. 
Seattle,  Aug.  29,  1929.  acknowledged  the  transfer  order.  National 
Archives.  Seattle  Branch. 

"  My  thanks  to  Joyce  Justice.  National  Archives.  Seattle  Branch, 
for  bringing  the  long-lost  files  to  my  attention  in  the  summer  of 
1993.  .After  inquiries  to  the  National  Archives  and  to  other  branches, 
it  was  determined  that  the  Edgerton  file  and  the  few  others,  amount- 
ing to  less  than  two  cubic  feet,  were  all  that  remained  of  the  exten- 
sive investigative  files  maintained  b_\  the  Bureau  of  Prohibition,  at 
least  in  the  form  orginalK  used  by  the  agenc\  and  not  later  interfiled 
with  other  records. 

'**  Unpublished  memoirs,  T.  Blake  Kennedy,  vol.  1.  p.  483.  T. 
Blake  Kennedy  Papers.  Collection  #405.  American  Heritage  Cen- 
ter, UniversitN  of  Wyoming. 


Phil  Roberts  is  editor  of  Annals  of  Wyoming, 
an  unpaid,  volunteer  position  he  has  held  since 
1995  (as  co-editor  with  Rick Ewig  until  1999). 
and  for  a  time  in  the  early  1980s,  as  a  paid 
employee  of  the  state.  Since  1990.  he  has  been 
associate  professor  of  history.  University  of 
Wyoming.  This  article  was  independently  ref- 
ereed.  A  graduate  of  the  University  of  Wyoming 
and  the  UW  College  of  Law.  he  holds  the  Ph.D. 
from  the  University  of  Washington  in  Seattle. 
This  article  is  extracted  ft-om  a  forthcoming 
book  on  Prohibition  in  Wyoming. 


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The  Question 

of 

Districting; 

The  Legislature  and 
the  Clear  Use  of 
Power,  1992 


By  Matilda  Hansen 


Editor's  Note:  This  article  is  derived  from  a 
chapter  of  the  author  's  recently  published 
book  titled  Clear  Use  of  Power:  A  Slice  of 
Wyoming  Political  History,  a  study  of  politi- 
cal power  in  Wyoming.  This  selection  focuses 
on  a  period  after  the  last  court  decision 
struck  down  the  legislature  's  reapportionment 
plan,  ordered  that  Wyoming  break  with  a  cen- 
tury-old method  of  legislative  selection  and. 
instead,  create  single-member  districts. 
Hansen,  a  veteran  Albany  County  legislator, 
participated  in  the  districting  debates.  Rick 
Miller,  a  featured  player  in  this  segment,  now 
is  employed  as  special  assistant  to  the  presi- 
dent of  the  University  of  Wyoming. 


Rick  Miller's  Challenge 

Serious  reapportionment  began  as  soon  as  Ri- 
chard Miller.  Director  of  tiie  Legislative  Service  Of- 
fice, read  the  October  15.  1991  opinion  in  Gorin  v. 
Karpan.'  Tlie  terse  opinion  indicated  two  things:  the 
Court  wanted  no  more  obtuse  arguments  justifying  con- 
tinued avoidance  of  the  federal  case  law;  and  they  de- 
manded the  legislature  make  a  good  faith  effort  to  achieve 
equal  voting  strength  forall  Wyoming  citizens. 

His  bosses,  the  Management  Council,  would  "have  had 
his  head"-  if  he  had  done  contingency  planning  prior  to 

'Gorlnv  Karpan.  775  F.  Supp.  1430  (D.  Wyo.  1991). 
-From  the  interview  with  Rick  Miller.  April  9.  2001 


10 


Annals  of  Wyoniing:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


the  opinion.  As  the  top  person  in  the  LSO,  it  was  Miller's 
job  to  make  sure  the  legislators  had  the  wherewithal  to 
generate  a  timely  districting  plan  that  met  the  standards 
of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court. 

From  an  administrator's  perspective.  Miller  faced  his 
worst  nightmare.  It  was  like  'searching  for  needles  in  a 
haystack"  because  somehow  from  somewhere  he  had  to 
pull  together  all  the  elements  legislators  needed  to  create 
a  new  constitutional  reapportionment  plan.^ 

The  districting  had  to  be  done  quickly,  correctly — in 
completely  uncharted  Wyoming  waters  with  an  inexpe- 
rienced crew.  It  would  be  an  enormous  task.  By  the  time 
Miller  got  to  the  first  of  the  1 7  Saturdays  and  1 7  Sundays 
he  had  a  'hold  on  the  monster". 

Time — the  ponderous  process  of  law  making  can  be 
time  consuming.  Reapportionment  was  not  easy.  The 
opinion  required  the  new  plan  to  be  delivered  to  the  Fed- 
eral Court  by  close  of  business  on  Monday,  February  24, 
1992. 

That  gave  the  legislators  and  staff  132  days.  Not  132 
working  days  but  1 32  consecutive  days:  work  days,  Hal- 
loween. Opening  of  Hunting  Season.  Thanksgiving,  Christ- 
mas, the  'down"  week  after  Christmas.  New  Years,  17 
Saturdays  and  1 7  Sundays.  October  1 5*  was  the  first  of 
Miller's  132  days. 

Census  blocks — the  smallest  area,  for  which  the  Cen- 
sus Bureau  released  data  was  where  districting  began. 
Since  Baker  v.  Carr.*  the  Census  Bureau,  as  part  of  the 
census  in  1970,  1980  and  1990,  required  the  chief  elec- 
tions officer  of  each  state,  and  the  county  clerks,  to  have 
a  program  to  match  census  blocks  to  precincts  to  make 
voter  districts — VTD"s. 

During  those  30  years  the  required  plan  was  written — 
then  ignored.  Consequently,  in  October  1991  no  correla- 
tions between  census  blocks  and  precincts  existed.  Ex- 
cept for  inadvertent  congruity  Rick  Miller  declared,  "The 
twain  of  which  had  never  met.'"^ 

Money — no  budget  was  available  for  districting.  Be- 
cause the  majority  party  planned  to  defend  the  constitu- 
tionality of  the  1 99 1  Plan,  funds  were  provided  for  law- 
suits but  not  for  map  drawing.  Other  states  spent  millions 
or  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  preparing  plans  on 
legislative  districting.  But  Rick  Miller  had  no  money — 
only  a  court  order  to  produce  a  constitutional  plan. 

Consultants  on  Redistricting — Miller  had  none.  There 
was  not  enough  time  for  an  RFP  (Request  for  Proposal) 
to  be  circulated  to  qualified  vendors  should  there  happen 
to  be  someone  out  there  somewhere  interested  in  'do- 
ing' Wyoming.  Some  legislatures  assigned  redistricting 
to  'special  offices'  or  to  redistricting  commissions — but 
not  Wyoming.  Miller  had  to  set  up  in-house  districting. 

Staffing — to  "do"  districting  was  not  available  within 


the  Legislative  Service  Office.  There  the  assignments 
were  already  made  to  budgets,  audits,  committees  and 
bill  drafting.  Each  person  carried  a  heavier  than  usual 
load  because  Miller  was  on  reapportionment.  He  told  his 
staff,  "Unless  there  is  a  fire,  don't'  come  to  me.  I  will 
answer  no  legislator's  request.  I  will  draft  no  bills.  I  will 
do  nothing  on  State  Budget  matters.  I  will  spend  all  my 
time  on  districting." 

Equipment  and  office  space — Rick  Miller  had  to  find 
it.  Fortunately  he  was  no  novice  to  Cheyenne.  During 
1 987  and  1 988  he  was  on  Governor  Mike  Sullivan's  staff. 
Prior  to  1987,  himself  an  LSO  staffer,  he  worked  with 
other  state  agency  employees — notably  the  number 
crunchers  at  the  Department  of  Administration  and  Fis- 
cal Control  (DAFC).'= 

Miller  began  by  looking  for  employees  to  borrow  from 
other  state  agencies.  His  first  choice  was  Steve  Furtney. 
Prior  to  the  1990  Governor  Sullivan  designated  him  as 
Wyoming's  Census  Coordinator.  Furtney  was  adminis- 
trator of  the  Division  of  Economic  Analysis  in  DAFC. 
By  no  stretch  of  anyone's  imagination  was  Economic 
Analysis  kin  to  reapportioning.  Furtney  had  good  ana- 
lytical skills.  He  knew  how  to  make  computers  spit-out 
information  for  specific  purposes. 

The  next  to  be  borrowed  was  Rick  Memmel,  an  infor- 
mation technician  for  the  Highway  Department  stationed 
in  Furtney's  division.  Memmel  was  a  geographic  sys- 
tems man.  Memmel  led  Miller  to  David  Clabaugh,  a 
Highway  Department  map-man  with  expertise  to  make 
maps  large  enough  to  manipulate  the  data  of  Wyoming's 
97,548  square  miles  and  453,588  people.  He  also  had  a 
roller  copier  at  his  workstation  in  the  1-25  Highway  De- 
partment Complex. 

Next,  Miller  needed  someone  with  specialized 
districting  experience.  The  Revenue  Department's  sales/ 
use  tax  collection/distribution  districts  had  some  simi- 
larity to  the  districts  Miller  needed.  Their  man-with-the- 
know-how  to  craft  census  blocks  into  precincts  was 
Bryce  Freeman.  Miller  wanted  him. 

But  these  four  men  were  full-time  state  employees  in 
essential  positions  in  their  respective  departments.  How- 
ever much  Miller  wanted  them,  he  couldn't  just  snatch 


'The  justices  wrote  in  Gorin  v.  Karpan,  at  1443.  that  "redistricting 
versus  reapportionment  is  a  distinction  without  a  difference  under 
the  equal  protection  clause  . . . (because). . . all  citizens  must  be  equally 
powerful  at  the  ballot  box."  Hereafter,  these  terms  will  be  used  inter- 
changeably. 

'Baker  v.  Carr,  369  U.  S.  186  (1962). 
■  Miller  interview,  April  9.  2001 . 

'  The  executive  branch's  Department  of  Administration  and  Fiscal 
Control — later  to  be  named  the  Department  of  Administration  and 
Information. 


Summer  2002 


11 


them  away  and  sit  them  down  at  new  desks  in  a  new 
location. 

As  a  former  Sullivan  staffer,  he  went  to  the  Governor 
and  asked  for  assistance.  "I  need  your  help.  We're  talk- 
ing about  four  men.  1  want  them  assigned  to  me  so  they 
will  be  mine — for  as  long  as  I  need  them.  I  will  pay  their 
salaries,  their  benefits  and  their  overtime.  1  will  provide 
the  workstation.  I  ask  you  to  request  each  department 
head  to  release  them  to  me."' 

Sullivan  wrote  the  letters  in  support  of  the  top  legisla- 
tive administrator's  request  that  four  of  the  Governor's 
department  heads  temporarily  give  away  key  staff  for 
an  unspecified  amount  of  time.  The  department  heads 
accepted  the  governor's  demand  and  Miller  got  his  men. 

Having  promised  workstations.  Miller  had  to  find  them. 
With  Furtney's  help  they  found  pre-session  space.  It  was 
three,  hard-to-fmd  empty  rooms  and  hall  on  the  third  floor- 
east,  at  the  back  of  the  Emerson  Building,  converted  into 
state  offices  years  ago  out  of  the  former  Johnson  Junior 
High  School,  with  public  accessibility  only  by  elevator 
and  w  ith  no  windows.  During  the  1 992  session  they  moved 
to  the  offices  of  LSO  staffers  temporarily  assigned  to 
desks  in  the  House  or  Senate  chambers. 

Furnishings  were  not  so  difficult.  Miller  purchased  some 
"odds  and  ends".  For  most  of  what  they  needed  he  scav- 
enged from  other  agencies  and  from  the  state's  Surplus 
Property  warehouse. 

Computers — access  to  adequate  capability  and  capac- 
ity was  a  challenge — even  to  Miller.  "Nothing  was  easy 
and  portable  then."  Intergraph  was  a  private  company 
with  whom  Miller  built  a  contractual  public/private  rela- 
tionship. 

They  were  geographic  information  people.  He  bor- 
rowed, begged  and  legally  used  their  equipment  and  soft- 
ware capable  of  manipulating  the  data  with  the  capacity 
to  draw  the  maps  he  and  his  four  men  needed.  Multiple 
licensing  agreements  were  made  with  Intergraph.* 

When  Furtney,  Memmel  and  Freeman  finished  with 
computer  map  drawing.  Miller  had  to  drive  the  disks  to 
David  Clabaugh  and  his  roller  copier  at  the  Highway 
Department  offices  at  the  Central  Avenue  Exit  of  1-25. 
This  was  the  only  place  in  Cheyenne  able  to  print  and  to 
copy  the  large  32"  x  24"  maps. 

Only  legislators  had  access  to  Miller's  districting  set- 
up. Each  version  of  each  plan  had  six  pages:  a  statewide 
map  for  the  House,  a  statewide  map  for  the  Senate,  two 
town/city  sheets  for  the  House,  two  town/city  sheets  for 
the  Senate. 

Because  the  districting  was  Court  ordered.  Miller  went 
to  the  Management  Council  for  the  authority  to  access 
ftinds.  On  January  29,  1 992,  he  told  the  Council  the  "cur- 
rent allocation"  for  both  the  Joint  Corporations  and  the 


Management  Council  "will  be  exceeded"  because  of  ad- 
ditional meetings."  Also,  before  he  could  authorize  pay- 
ments from  the  $50,000  in  HB  295,  he  needed  the 
Council's  approval.  The  Intergraph  Corporation  reached 
their  contract  maximum  of  $35,000.  The  $40,000  for  in- 
terim work  of  the  Joint  Corporations  Committee  was 
spent.  Salaries,  benefits,  overtime,  equipment  rentals  and 
photocopy  exceeded  $60,000.  Miller  had  'slack'  in  both 
his  Central  Duplicating  budget  and  the  Temporarv  Ses- 
sion Staff  budget,  but  he  needed  Management  Council 
approval  to  make  budget  transfers.'" 

Many  districting  plans  were  drawn.  Some  legislators 
were  satisfied  with  just  learning  the  dynamics  of  com- 
bining precincts  into  contiguous  clusters  with  popula- 
tion variations  no  greater  than  1 0%. 

Other  legislators  drew  complete  plans  using  the  docu- 
ment that  listed  all  the  precincts  in  each  county — its 
number,  name  and  how  many  people  lived  there,  accord- 
ing to  various  combinations  of  census  blocks."  Plan- 
drawing  legislators  received  multiple  32"  x  24"  maps 
on  which  to  indicate  their  precinct  combinations  for  elec- 
tion districts. '- 

'  From  October  1 5.  1 99 1  through  March  3 1 . 1 992  Miller  autho- 
rized payment  of  $100,526.39  for  staff  salaries,  overtime  and 
logistical  support.  See  Minutes  for  April  28.  1 992.  of  the  Man- 
agement Council.  Staff  received  overtime.  Miller  got  no  over- 
time pay — only  a  Joint  Senate  and  House  resolution  thanking 
him  and  from  the  Senate,  a  necktie  from  Janice  Bodine's  cloth- 
ing store  in  Evanston. 

'  Rick  Miller  interview.  April  9.  2001.  He  kept  some  of  the 
Intergraph  capability  for  training  the  county  clerks  after  the 
Court  approved  the  1992  Plan.  His  staff  did  not  return  to  their 
departments  until  each  clerk,  separately,  was  given  the  data  on 
the  composition  ofthat  clerk's  election  districts  as  created  by 
the  legislature. 

"  Management  Council  Minutes  for  January  29.  1 992 
'"  The  Annual  Reports  of  the  Legislative  Service  Office  for 
1991  and  1992  contain  numerous  line  items  related  to  reap- 
portionment— a  total  of  at  least  $157,777.60.  Considerable 
effort  was  made  to  identify  the  expenditures  on  reapportion- 
ment by  the  Attorney  General's  office — including  plaintiffs 
fees  and  expenses  in  Gorin  v.  Karpun.  Other  than  the  $250,000 
in  the  Mark  Braden  contract  additional  numbers  were  unreach- 
able due  to  the  accounting  method  used  by  the  Auditor's  Of- 
fice during  that  biennium. 

"  Besides  census  blocks,  census  bureau  ID  numbers  were 
used  in  the  people-scarce  parts  of  rural  Wyoming.  For 
instance  0001  Rural  in  northwest  Carbon  Count)  covered 
160  nearly  empty  square  miles.  A  100  square  mile  precinct 
in  southeast  Carbon  County  had  7  people. 
'■  In  many  instances  Miller  and  his  men  were  able  to  match 
precincts  and  census  blocks.  However.  thcN  were  not  always 
successful. 


12 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Federal  case  law  required  election  districts  to  be  com- 
pact, contiguous  and  share  a  community  of  interest.  The 
first  two  criteria  were  manageable  using  data  from  Miller's 
documents.  The  community  of  interest  criteria  was  un- 
manageable due  to  the  lack  of  comprehensive  consis- 
tent, definitive,  dependable  statewide  data. 

The  legislators  who  made  multiple  versions  of  their 
plans  for  House  debate  were  Les  Bowron.  Eli  Bebout, 
Matilda  Hansen.  April  Brimmer-Kunz  and  Don 
Sullivan."  The  Senators  with  plans  were  Jim  Applegate, 
Charlie  Scott  and  Gary  Yordy  (who  alone,  drew  up  six 
plans).  There  were  plans  labeled  ScottA'ordy  melds. '^ 

Before  a  plan  was  discussed,  copies  were  distributed 
to  all  members  as  'home  work"  prior  to  full  committee 
consideration.  Thus,  for  each  version  of  each  plan  Miller 
had  prepared  84  32"  x  24"  sheets  of  paper  or  at  least 
1,344  maps.  There  were  at  least  two  versions  of  every 
legislator's  plan(s). 

In  1991  copying  technology  was  not  as  sophisticated 
as  it  became  later  in  the  decade.  The  black  delineating 
precinct  lines  often  were  too  faint  to  read.  There  was  no 
"darkening"  command  on  the  Highway  Department's 
roller  copier  to  improve  print  clarity.  Therefore,  most 
maps  needed  to  be  retraced.  Miller  decided  it  made  no 
sense  for  his  computer-smart,  census  block-precinct  en- 
abling gurus  to  redraw  the  lines.  His  solution  was  to  'con- 
script" his  LSO  audit  division  people  to  do  line  retracing. 
Lead  auditor  Barbara  Rogers,  with  Joyce  Hron  and  Gerry 
Hoppsmann,  set  aside  their  auditing  work  to  spend  count- 
less hours  at  large  tables  using  smelly  black  grease  pens 
drawing  in  the  faint  or  missing  black  lines  on  the  white 
pieces  of  paper." 

Miller  wanted  it  easy  to  make  comparisons  among  the 
several  plans  so  he  ordered  a  system  of  overlays — printed 
on  transparent  Mylar.  But  the  lines  on  the  Mylar  were  as 
unsatisfactory  as  the  lines  on  the  paper. 

So,  Barbara  Rogers  and  her  auditors,  bored  stiff, 
worked  day  after  day  doing  kindergarten-level  tracing 
with  smelly  pens  on  stinky  Mylar — another  672  maps! 
With  so  many  maps,  the  exposure  to  the  ink  and  Mylar 
made  them  ill.  But  there  would  be  no  sick  leave  for  this 
job.  Miller's  132  days  were  dwindling.  Readable  maps 
were  essential. 

By  October  3 1 , 1 99 1 ,  Rick  Miller  and  his  men  had  their 
'ducks  in  a  row'  when  the  Joint  Corporations  Commit- 
tee met  in  Casper.  Plaintiffs,  lobbyists  and  interested 
citizens  were  in  attendance — some  of  whom  testified — 
as  many  reluctant  legislators  began  yet  another  round  of 
deciding  on  districting. 

First  to  address  the  Committee  was  Rick  Miller.  "We 
lost  the  case.  We  have  to  district  within  the  10%  range 
of  deviation,  or  else  have  very  goot/ reasons  to  justify  a 


larger  range.  We  have  to  forget  about  county  bound- 
aries. We  have  a  lot  of  work  to  do.  We  have  to  show  a 
'good  faith  effort'.  We  have  to  seriously  consider  all  al- 
ternatives. We  have  to  get  our  new,  1992  legislative 
districting  law  down  the  street  to  the  Federal  Building  no 
later  than  close  of  business  on  Monday,  February  24, 
1992.  We  have  to  be  cognizant  of  relevant  federal  case 
law."'^ 

He  was  direct.  He  was  concise.  He  did  not  mince 
words.  All  the  1990-1991  work  to  reapportion  the  legis- 
lature was  down  the  drain.  He  might  have  said  "down  a 
rat  hole."  He  was  gracious,  but  with  intention  and  suc- 
cess he  stated  there  was  to  be  no  wiggle-room  or  dis- 
sembling in  this  reapportionment — no  more  espousing  of 
"regional  interests"  or  "rational  state  policy".  The  Court 
had  spoken:  only  citizens  can  have  representation. 

"Reasonable"  Republicans  like  John  DeWitt  of  Park, 
Tom  Kinnison  of  Sheridan  and  Carol  Jo  Vlastos  of 
Natrona  were  saddened  about  losing  in  Court,  but  they 
were  philosophical  and  willing  to  get  to  work.  The  min- 
eral lobbyists  were  anxious — but  comforted — because 
three  of  their  people  were  on  this  Committee:  Eli  Bebout 
of  Fremont".  Bruce  Hinchey  of  Natrona  and  Laramie 
County's  April  Brimmer-Kunz  with  mineral  interests  in 
Carbon  County. 

But  the  'fire-brands'  were  'chomping  at  the  bit'.  The 
Court  succeeded  in  thwarting  State  Sen.  Charles  Scott's 
attempt  to  write  new  federal  case  law  defining  "regional 
interests"  and  "rational  state  policy".  Laramie  County's 
Rep.  Gary  Yordy  (who  held  both  a  law  degree  and  the 
M.D.  degree)  saw  his  'state's  rights'  proclivities  tromped 
on  by  the  good  Wyoming  justices. 

Democrats  Delia  Herbst  of  Sheridan,  Jim  Applegate 
and  Don  Sullivan  of  Laramie  and  Matilda  Hansen  of 
Albany  counties  were  thinking.  "We  told  you  so."  They 


"  Lawyer  Les  Bowron  of  Natrona  County  was  not  on  the  Joint 
Corporations  Committee.  Patti  MacMillan,  House  Corporations 
chair  and  co-chair  of  the  Joint  Committee,  did  not  draw  a  plan. 
She  perceived  her  role  to  be  manager  of  districting  and  of  the 
committee  activities. 

'^  A  meld  plan  combined  the  work  of  two  or  more  legislators 
where  election  districts  were  taken  from  different  plans  and 
melded  together  for  varying  combinations  of  precincts  and/or 
districts. 

'^  Interview  with  Barbara  Rogers,  April  1 8, 200 1 . 
"'  From  notes  and  materials  of  the  author,  a  member  of  this 
Joint  Corporations  Committee.  She  attended  all  meetings. 
' '  In  October  1 99 1,  Eli  Bebout  was  still  a  registered  Democrat. 
He  often  voted  with  and  usually  worked  closely  with  the  Re- 
publican leadership.  He  was — always  would  be — a  minerals 
man.  After  the  1 994  session,  he  switched  political  parties. 


SENATE  DISTRICTS 


Ert>(R)    SHERIDAN 

r 


Boggs(D)  '3 
ROCK  SPRINGS  AND  GREEN  RIVER 


Ma5s^e(D)    9 
LARAMIE 


Hanes(R)  5  CHEYENNE 

Sessions(D)  7 


The  districting  map.  as  it  appeared  after  the  legislative  actions  in  1992.  The  top  map  shows  the  Senate  districts:  the 
bottom,  the  House  districts. 

HOUSE  DISTRICTS 


SHERIDAN  „ 

29  BadgettlR)        Lar>doo(R) 


GILLETTE 
12  Wasserbu(9er(R) 
U    Deegan(D) 


60    Ryc*mar,<D)      ,7   ParadylR)  «  N«»son,D,  tST   Ro*,R,  «   ^   john»on(D,  Mo-gan,D)  Samu^ls.nm, 

GREEN  RfVER  ROCK  SPRINGS  RAWL  NS 


CASPER 
Befr>(D)    M 
Tempe3t(R)  37 
CohewR)   J5 
Tanr>ef(R)  57 

Flem(ng(0(36 
Nage)(R)  « 


CHEYENNE 

VU   Johnson(Rt9 
Meuli{R)   8 
Eaqurt>el(D)« 
Reese(D)  n 
McGraw(D)  41 


13  J  Rose(O) 
LARAMIE 


R   Ander3on(R) 


14 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


were  pleased  those  three  Wyoming  judges  brought  Wyo- 
ming, though  kicking  and  screaming,  into  compliance  with 
the  rulings  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  Finally, 
the  people  achieved  equal  voting  strength  guaranteed  by 
the  Fourteenth  Amendment  and  equal  representation 
mandated  by  the  Wyoming  Constitution. 

Each  committee  member  made  a  significant  time  com- 
mitment to  draw  and  to  read  plans — homework  done  on 
their  own  time.  For  committee  meetings  they  were  paid 
$75  per  diem  and  $60  per  day  salary  plus  34  cents  a 
mile. 

Drawing  election  districts — VTD's —  according  to  the 
new  rules  was  a  major  challenge.  The  Joint  Corpora- 
tions Committee  set  the  size  of  the  House  at  60  seats, 
the  Senate  at  30  seats.  Each  House  district  had  to  have 
7,560  people,  each  Senate  district  15,120  people.  The 
allowable  10%  range  of  deviation  applied  to  all  House 
districts — collectively  and  to  all  Senate  districts — collec- 
tively. 

Miller  laid  out  the  ground  rules.  He  gave  specific  di- 
rections for  accessing  the  computer-crammed  Emerson 
Building  office.  Each  committee  member  was  invited  to 
create  as  many  plans  as  each  wished — then  to  set  up 
appointments  with  Furtney,  Memmel  and  Freeman  for 
finalization  and  distribution  of  each  plan. 

Because  the  Census  Bureau  and  the  County  Clerks  did 
not  agree  on  the  bedrock  data  for  reapportionment — 
VTD"s  or  voting  districts — Miller  and  his  men  faced  the 
same  dilemma  as  the  1905  and  1915  State  Census  Enu- 
merators. The  dilemma  was  finding  people  in  Wyoming's 
open  spaces.  In  1905  and  1915  county  assessors  were 
sent  to  count  people  and  economic  activities.  In  1991 
Miller  and  his  men  counted  people  for  representation  in 
their  legislature. 

The  reason  the  dilemma  was  so  acute  in  1991  was  be- 
cause, since  1 864,  county  clerks  indiscriminatingly  drew 
precinct  lines  wherever  in  those  open  spaces  they  choose. 
Polling  places  were  'handy'  to  clusters  of  people — with 
many  living  far  from  their  neighbors. 

Thus  the  precinct  political  boundaries  in  non-urban  ar- 
eas were  casual  at  best — too  often  non-existent.  Cre- 
ative license  was  used  by  the  headcounters  in  1905  and 
1915.  The  1991  headcounters  also  used  creative  license 
to  draw  the  VTD's. 

An  example  of  this  creativity  was  Wardwell  Water 
precinct  8-3  in  Natrona  County  comprising  most  of  the 
area  immediately  north  and  east  of  Casper.  In  it  no  one 
lived  in  134  census  blocks,  six  blocks  had  one  person 
each,  four  blocks  had  two  people  each.'*  The  remaining 
46  census  blocks  contained  1 ,090  people — most  of  whom 
were  in  the  outskirts  of  Casper. 

In  Fremont  County,  there  were  challenges.  The  pre- 


cinct containing  the  Training  School  had  206  people.  First, 
Miller's  men  looked  east  and  south  hoping  to  find  more 
people  in  precinct  21-1,  Reclamation.  This  was  Sand 
Draw  country,  then  along  the  Beaver  Rim  to  Separation 
Flats  and  the  Ferris  Mountains — and  they  found  four 
people  at  a  ranch  headquarters.  It  was  still  not  enough 
people,  so  perusal  of  more  and  more  empty  census 
blocks — finally  getting  to  Jeffrey  City,  94  road  miles  from 
the  Lander  Training  School. 

But  those  251  people  (plus  Atlantic  City's  48)  were 
needed  in  the  west  Albany  (Rock  River),  north  Carbon 
(Medicine  Bow,  McFadden,  Shirley  Basin,  Hanna,  Leo, 
west  Rawlins)  and  east  Sweetwater  County  House/Sen- 
ate district.  Drawers  of  plans  and  Miller's  men  had  to 
ignore  natural  features  whether  mountain  ranges  or 
deserts,  lakes  or  reservoirs,  to  keep  all  election  districts 
within  the  allowable  1 0%  range  of  deviation.  For  the  first 
time  in  the  state's  history  the  legislature  and  the  Court 
dictated  to  the  clerks  the  specific  boundaries  of  each 
precinct  in  each  county — right  down  to  the  nitty-gritty 
detail  of  which  house  on  which  block  on  which  side  of 
the  street  went  into  which  VTD. 

According  to  Kathy  Karpan,  Secretary  of  State  (who 
is  the  state's  Chief  Elections  Officer),  county  clerks 
seemed  to  lack  knowledge  or  understanding  of  the  sub- 
stantive elements  in  the  court's  decision  in  Gorin  v. 
Karpan.  Miller  agreed.  Therefore,  before  Christmas 
1991,  Karpan  called  the  clerks  to  a  session  in  Casper, 
with  Miller  as  'the  program'.  Near  the  beginning  of  the 
meeting  Mary  Ann  Collins,  the  County  Clerk  and  chief 
elections  officer  of  Natrona  County  asked,  "Why  is  this 
important  to  us?" 

Her  question  hit  Karpan  and  Miller  hard  because  of 
their  assumption  the  county  clerks  knew  and  understood 
the  integral  connection  between  census  blocks,  precincts, 
legislative  reapportionment  and  the  Courts.  Suddenly, 
Karpan's  meeting  became  a  fast-paced  teach-in.  With 
Miller  now  in  the  role  of  teacher,  he  explained  how  the 
decision  had  turned  the  familiar  world  of  Wyoming  elec- 
tions upside  down.  "The  Federal  Court,  not  you,  will  have 
the  final  authority  over  where  your  precinct  lines  are 
drawn,"  he  told  them. 

By  the  end  of  the  meeting,  the  county  clerks  under- 
stood districting.  They  recognized  the  significance  of 
Karpan  and  Miller's  help.  And,  in  future  days,  they  fol- 
lowed the  tortured  course  of  numerous  plans  through  the 
House  and  Senate.  When  HB  1 1 7  got  to  the  Governor, 
they  quickly  told  him  exactly  what  they  thought  of  it. 

Section  2  of  the  Voting  Rights  Act  did  not  apply  to 
Wyoming.  Soon  after  the  October  15  opinion,  Republi- 
can leaders  looked  at  Wyoming's  minority  population.  The 
Census  Bureau  said  Hispanics  accounted  for  4.8%  of 


Summer  200:2 


15 


the  state's  population  dispersed  in  varying  size  clusters  in 
every  county.''  Even  in  Cheyenne  Hispanics  lived  "all 
over  town."  thereby  not  qualifying  for  their  own  VTD. 

Because  Shoshone  and  Arapaho  on  the  Wind  River 
Reservation  dominated  clusters  of  small  communities 
in  Fremont  County,  Wyoming  may  have  had  exposure  to 
the  Voting  Rights  Act.  At  the  request  of  Republican  lead- 
ers a  voter  analysis  was  done  of  the  precincts  where, 
during  the  1980"s,  Native  Americans  were  the  predomi- 
nant voters.  The  analysis  showed  during  that  decade  the 
reservation  precincts  provided  the  margin  of  victory'  for 
four  of  the  five  Fremont  County  House  members.  Thus 
the  'will  of  the  majority "  had  not  been  frustrated;  in  fact 
it  prevailed.-"  Therefore,  the  Voting  Rights  Act  did  not 

apply- 
After  many  plans  were  distributed  to  committee  mem- 
bers and  to  the  public,  the  Joint  Corporations  Committee 
met  in  Casper  on  December  9,  in  Cheyenne  on  January 
7  and  8,  held  a  hearing  in  Buffalo  on  January  20  and  a 
hearing  in  Casper  on  January  27.  The  Budget  Session 
was  to  begin  on  Monday,  February  1  7 — just  seven  days 
before  the  Governor-approved  plan  had  to  be  down  the 
street  in  the  Federal  Building.  The  Management  Council 
requested  a  Special  Session — to  begin  Monday,  Febru- 
ary 10. 

But  before  the  Management  Council  agreed  to  a  Spe- 
cial Session,  they  considered  doing  districting  during  the 
Budget  Session  with  "mirror'  bills  considered  at  the  same 
time  in  each  chamber.  This  was  Fred  Harrison's  motion 
with  Ron  Micheli's  second.  Because  mirror  bills  gave 
conference  committees  enormous  power,  mirror- 
districting  bills  provided  considerable  latitude  for  mischief 
in  drawing  district  lines.-'  This  idea  was  defeated  with 
only  Harrison,  Micheliand  Eli  Bebout  voting  "aye." 

Prior  to  this  January  29"*  Management  Council  meet- 
ing. Miller  and  his  men  foresaw  a  potential  logistics  night- 
mare-serious enough  to  doom  districting  in  1 992. ". .  .even 
with  computers,  developing  new  plans  and  amendments 
was  very  time  consuming.  It  will  be  physically  impos- 


sible for  us  to  analyze  a  new  plan  and  prepare  it  as  an 
amendment  if  it  is  submitted  when  the  Session  is  under 
way."-- 

Upon  Deimer  True's  motion  and  Bebout's  second. 
Speaker  Cross,  as  chair  of  Management  Council,  was 
directed  to  write  each  legislator. ". .  .any  new  plan  or  major 
amendment  submitted  to  the  Legislative  Service  Office 
after  5  p.m.,  on  Thursday,  February  6  will  not  be  pro- 
cessed in  time  for  the  Special  Session." 

Then  Management  Council  requested  the  Joint  Rules 
be  changed:  ".  ..no  reapportionment  amendment  will  be 
considered  unless  it  is  submitted  to  the  Legislative  Ser- 
vice Office  by  4  p.m.,  on  the  da\  before  debate."-^ 

Thus  was  catastrophe  averted. 

Rick  Miller,  Steve  Furtney,  Rick  Memmel,  David 
Clabaugh,  Bryce  Freeman  and  the  14  members  of  the 
Joint  Corporations  Committee  spent  1 1 7  of  the  1 32  da\  s 
in  preliminary  work  on  Wyoming's  first  foray  into 
districting.  The  calendar  moved  to  February  10'\  Roll 
was  called  for  the  Special  Session.  It  was  time  to  listen 
to  the  Governor.... 


'*  The  usual  census  block  contained  about  70  people — give  or 
take  a  few. 

'"  Rounded  up  to  the  nearest  whole  number.  5°o,  Hispanics 
qualified  for  one  delegate  at  the  1 996  Democratic  National  Con- 
vention in  Chicago. 

-"  Frustration  of  the  will  of  a  minority  group  was  the  major 
criteria  to  ascertain  potential  application  of  the  Voting  Rights 
Act.  The  "majority"  in  Fremont  County  in  the  1980"s  was  of 
BOTH  Native  American  and  non-Native  American  voters.  The 
Republican's  interpretation  for  the  1992  Plan  bordered  on  the 
nonsequitur.  Some  might  call  it  "slippery". 
-'  Mirror  bills  work  for  appropriations  where  the  issue  is  speci- 
fied amounts  of  money.  Conference  committees  accept  one 
version  or  another,  or  they  split  the  difference. 
■-  January  29,  1 992  Minutes  of  the  Management  Council 
-'  In  this  context.  Legislative  Service  Office  means  Miller  and 
his  workers. 


Rustic  Rooserelt  Lodge 


KyTaiiiHCMi  Emerson  ll<>i*t 


A  stop  at  Camp  Roosevelt  will  not  appeal  to  every- 
body. It  is  well  to  understand  that  there  are  no  rooms  with 
bath,  or  other  service  elements  of  an  elegant  or  luxurious 
nature.  It  is  well  to  know,  also,  that  there  is  little  opportu- 
nity for  "dressing  up"  and  formal  entertainment.  Camp 
Roosevelt  is  a  comfortable  western  camp  surrounded  by 
a  wilderness.  Its  primary  appeal  is  to  visitors  who  delight 
in  (or  who  need)  foot  trails,  saddlehorse  trails,  trout  fish- 
ing, exploration,  nature  study  or  relaxation.' 

Tucked  away  in  the  northeastern  comer  of  Yellowstone 
National  Park  stands  Roosevelt  Lodge.  Constructed  in 
1919  and  opened  the  next  year,  it  is  one  of  the  few  "origi- 
nal" lodges  remaining  in  the  park. 

William  Wallace  Wylie  initiated  camping  tours 
through  "Wonderland"  in  1892  using  portable  equip- 
ment. From  then  until  1905.  he  was  a  Park  fixture.  In 
1896  Wylie  was  granted  a  long-term  lease  and  estab- 
lished four  permanent  camps  at  points  of  interest  around 
the  Grand  Loop.  His  camping  tours  provided  a  less  ex- 
pensive alternative  to  the  hotel  system.  By  1898  the 
Wylie  Camping  Company  had  camps  at  Apollinaris 
Spring,  Upper  Geyser  Basin,  Lake  Outlet  and  Grand 
Canyon,  with  lunch  stations  nearNorris  and  Thumb.  The 
success  of  Wylie's  permanent  camps  did  not  set  well 
with  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  or  with  Harry  Child, 
owner  of  the  hotel  and  transportation  companies. 


"Wylie  constantly  irritated  the  wealthy  and  snobbish 
Child  because  the  tourists  who  used  his  camps  were  a 
different  sort,  not  at  all  like  those  who  stayed  at  the  posh 
hotels;  his  guests  paid  low  prices  for  Spartan  accommo- 
dations and  dust-plagued  stagecoach  tours. "- 

Ed  Moorman,  long-time  employee  of  the  Camping 
Company,  recalled  that  business  at  the  Wylie  camps  was 
very  slow  in  1904,  but: 

The  hotels,  however,  did  a  good  business  that 
year.. ..The  railroads,  too,  made  discriminating  rates 
against  the  Camping  Company.  If  1  recall  correctly,  a 
round-trip  ticket  could  be  purchased  to  Gardiner  includ- 
ing stage  and  hotel  accommodations  at  a  good  saving  as 
against  buying  a  rail  ticket  to  Gardiner  only  and  then  buy- 
ing locally  the  ticket  for  the  Camps  tour  of  the  Park.  It 
was  this  problem  that  led  W.  W.  Wylie  to  go  to  Washing- 
ton, D.C.,  in  the  spring  of  1905  to  appear  before  the  In- 
terstate Commerce  Commission,  in  the  hope  to  have  this 
discrimination  discontinued.^ 


'  Yellowlone  Vacations  Camp  Roosevelt.  (Chicago:  Poole  Broth- 
ers, 1923). 

-  Mark  Barringer.  "When  Harry  Got  Taken:  The  Early  Days  of  the 
Yellowstone  Camps."  Annals  of  Wyoming  69  (Fall,  1997).  4. 

'  E.  H.  Moorman.  Manuscript.  Hays  Collection  #3151,  Box  6, 
Moorman  Manuscript  folder.  American  Heritage  Center.  University 
of  Wyoming 


Summer  i.'00'2 


17 


The  discrimination  did  end,  but  following  this  victory 
over  the  Northern  Pacific.  Wylie  sold  the  camping  com- 
pany to  H.  W.  Child  and  A.  W.  Miles.  Under  their  man- 
agement, the  Wylie  Permanent  Camping  Company  be- 
came even  more  successful. 

Miles  expanded  the  business  in  1906  by  adding  two 
new  camps;  Camp  Roosevelt  near  Tower  Falls  and  a 
camp  at  swan  Lake  Flat,  south  of  Mammoth  Hot  Springs. 
With  the  completion  of  the  Union  Pacific/Oregon  Short 
Line  branch  to  West  Yellowstone  in  1908,  an  additional 
camp  was  established  at  Riverside.  A  record  number  of 
visitors,  5,024,  toured  the  Park  via  Wylie  Camps  in  1909.^ 

Several  others  were  interested  in  providing  camping 
tours  through  Yellowstone  during  this  period.  One  com- 
pany, Shaw  and  Powell,  obtained  a  lease  for  permanent 
camps. 

The  National  Park  Service  was  established  in  1 9 1 6  as 
a  new  agency  under  the  Department  of  the  Interior.  The 
first  director,  Stephen  A.  Mather,  and  his  assistant, 
Horace  Albright,  had  charge  of  all  business  endeavors 
in  the  national  parks.  They  sought  to  consolidate  the 
various  Yellowstone  concessions.  "They  believed  that 
the  competition  among  franchisees  was  detrimental  to 
the  traveling  public  and  that  monopolies  for  each  major 
facet  of  the  operation — hotels,  transportation,  and  camp- 
ing— would  simplify  administration  and  increase 
visitiation."^ 

As  a  result  of  the  restructuring.  Child  maintained  own- 
ership of  both  the  hotel  and  transportation  companies 


while  F.  J.  Haynes  continued  operating  the  photographic 
franchise.  A.  W.  Miles  and  J.  D.  Powell,  owners  of  the 
two  major  camping  companies,  joined  together  to  form 
the  Yellowstone  Park  Camping  Company." 
Ed  Moorman  recalled  this  episode  in  Park  history: 

Many  of  the  former  operators  were  not  pleased  with 
the  new  set-up,  but  in  reality  it  was  very  good  for  the 
tourists  as  they  were  free  from  the  annoyance  of  being 
solicited  by  many  outfits  if  they  had  not  heretofore  pur- 
chased their  Park  tickets  elsewhere.' 

With  the  onset  of  World  War  I,  railroads  were  no 
longer  allowed  to  transport  excursion  trains.  This  lim- 
ited visitation  to  Yellowstone.  All  hotels  were  closed 
and,  while  the  camps  remained  open,  they  lost  money. 
After  undergoing  these  hardships.  Miles  and  Powell  sold 
the  Yellowstone  Park  Camping  Company  to  Howard 
Hays  in  1919. 

Hayes  rebuilt  the  cainp  operation  by  constructing  more 
substantial  facilities  and  promoting  the  "camps  way"  in 
Yellowstone.  He  started  by  changing  the  name  of  the 
company  to  the  Yellowstone  Park  Camps  Company.  In 
the  fall  of  1919.  his  firm  began  construction  of  a  rustic 
lodge  at  Camp  Roosevelt. 

'  Barringer. 

'  Barringer.  7. 

''  For  additional  details,  see  Barringer  and  Moomian. 

'  Moomian.  16. 


Row  of  collages  al  Camp  Roosevelt. 


^'ellowstone  Park  Company  series.  H  H  Hays  collection.  American  Heritage  Center 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


The  site  was  established  as  a  camp  in  1906  to  com- 
memorate the  1903  Yellowstone  visit  by  President 
Theodore  Roosevelt.  The  1907  Wylie  Permanent  Camp- 
ing Company  announced:  "The  New  Roosevelt  Camp 
Trio": 

Camp  Roosevelt  is  the  most  perfectly  ideal  location 
for  a  camp  in  the  Park... A  beautiful  little  meadow  with 
majestic  fir  trees  encircling  it  on  three  sides  and  a  grove 
of  quaking-aspen  screening  it  from  the  road  on  the  fourth, 
a  crystal,  ice-cold  mountain  stream  coming  from  the 
forest  and  skirting  one  side  of  the  meadow:. ..and  a  most 
superb  view  of  the  serried  and  crags  of  the  Absarokas 
on  the  East  and  Northeast:  surely  Nature  has  done  ev- 
erything possible  to  make  this  a  perfect  spot  to  enjoy 
outdoor  life.""* 

Frederick  Dumont  Smith,  in  his  Book  of  a  Hundred 
Bears,  wrote:  "We  reached  Camp  Roosevelt  in  time  for 
a  late  lunch.  The  camp  is  set  in  a  charming  grove,  with 
tent  houses  and  tents  for  cooking  and  dining.""" 

Camp  Roosevelt  was  chosen  as  the  site  for  the  first 
lodge  building  in  a  new  system  of  accommodations  de- 
signed to  meet  the  needs  of  automobile  tourists.  Albright, 
then  superintendent  of  Yellowstone,  was  pleased  with 
the  idea  of  a  new  lodge  system,  believing  that  the  rustic 
log  construction  would  provide  a  "dude  ranch  appear- 
ance.'"'" 

Construction  of  the  lodge  began  in  the  fall  of  1919, 
but  it  was  not  completed  until  the  following  spring.  The 
dimensions  of  the  one-story  log  building  were  about  90 
feet  by  50  feet  with  the  "L""  extension  of  29  feet  by  59 


feet.  The  exterior  log  walls  were  unpeeled  and  saddle- 
notched.  The  front  porch,  constructed  of  matched  and 
dressed  pine  flooring  atop  log  joints,  originally  wrapped 
around  the  southeast  comer  of  the  building.  (This  is  ap- 
parent from  a  Haynes  postcard)."  The  extension  was 
removed  about  1947. 

The  lodge  interior  was  designed  to  provide  a  lounge 
and  dining  area  for  campers.  Features  of  the  room  in- 
cluded two  stone  fireplaces  with  concrete  hearths  and 
loge  mantels  and  a  log  rail,  25  feet  long,  separating  the 
lounge  from  the  dining  area.  The  furnishings  were  of  a 
rustic  design  and  included  "a  eleven-inch  diameter  enam- 
eled-iron  drinking  fountain,  a  Bradford  upright  Grand 
piano,  pine  tables,  a  "rustic""  hat  rack,  log  settees  with 
loose  cushions,  1  10  maple  folding  chairs,  and  assorted 
bookcases."'- 

The  dining  room  was  furnished  with  14  pine  tables  of 
various  sizes,  pine  serving  stands,  93  black  and  yellow 
dining  chairs  with  bar  backs  and  cone  seats.  Both  areas 


*  Wyle  Permanent  Camping  Compan\ .  Yellowstone  Sational  Park 
(Chicago:  Poole  Brothers.  1907).  21. 

"  Frederick  Dumont  Smith.  Book  of  a  Hundred  Bears  (Chicago: 
Rand  N4cNally  and  Co..  1909).  197. 

'"  James  Mote  and  Berle  Clemensen,  Historic  Structures  Report, 
Historical  Data  Sections.  Lake  Hotel.  Lake  Lodge.  Roosevelt  Lodge. 
Old  Faithful  Lodge.  Yellowstone  National  Park.  Wyoming.  (Den- 
ver: Denver  Service  Center.  Historic  Preservation  Branch.  National 
Park  Service,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  interior.  1981 ).  77. 

"  For  instance,  see  Haynes  postcard  #27468. 

'-  James  R.  McDonald  Architects.  Roosevelt  Lodge  Yellowstone 
National  Park.  Historic  Structures  Report.  (Missoula:  1993).  15. 


Summer  2002 


19 


had  striped  linen  curtains  hung  on  wrought-iron  rods  and 
hangars.  A  framed  print  portrait  of  Theodore  Rooseveh 
hung  over  the  mantel  of  the  lounge." 

From  1 92 1  - 1 923,  Camp  Roosevelt  served  as  the  head- 
quarters for  the  Yellowstone  Park  Forest  and  Trail  Camp. 
Serving  as  director  was  Prof  Alvin  G.  Whitney  from 
the  Roosevelt  Wild  Life  Forest  Experiment  Station.  New 
York  State  College  of  Forestry  at  Syracuse.  The  camp's 
purpose  was  stated  in  a  1921  publication: 

The  Forest  and  Trail  Camp  is  a  summer  nature  school 
designed  for  boys  between  twelve  and  eighteen  years.  Its 
basic  principle  is  that  of  character-building  through  the 
hardy  pastimes  of  woods  and  trail,  through  self-discipline, 
and  through  helpfulness  in  a  cultured  camp  community.... 

The  celebrated  wonders  of  the  Yellowstone,  with  its 
geysers  and  hot  springs,  its  vast  forests  and  mighty  can- 
yons, as  well  as  those  other  varied  recreational  interests — 
the  herds  of  big  "game,"  the  marvelous  trout  fishing,  the 
scenic  trail  trips  afoot  or  on  horseback,  and  for  the  more 
adventurous  the  climbing  and  exploring  among  remote 
lakes  and  mountain  gardens — appeal  alike  to  all  who  visit 
the  great  Park;  but  it  is  to  the  growing  boy  that  they  are 
most  fascinating.'^ 

The  Camp  headquarters  or  council  building  was  built 
one  quarter  mile  from  Roosevelt  Lodge.  Meals  were 
provided  at  the  Lodge.  Ed  Moorman  recalled  building  a 
small  swimming  pool  for  the  Camp  along  with  an  "as- 
sembly house"  in  1920.'-  Whitney  charged  $500  for  the 
nearly  six-week  long  camp,  but  Moorman  mentions  that 
Whitney  brought  out  a  number  of  boys,  but  not  enough 
to  pay  the  Company  for  the  operating  expenses.  He  esti- 
mated that  the  company  lost  $4,000  on  the  venture. 

Howard  Hays,  president  of  the  Yellowstone  Park 
Camps  Company,  continued  to  promote  Camp 
Roosevelt.  In  1923  a  brochure  titled  "Yellowstone  Va- 
cations, Camp  Roosevelt,"  was  published.  Many  of  the 
tours  offered  by  the  Yellowstone  Park  Transportation 
Company  passed  by  the  Roosevelt  area,  but  the  over- 
night stay  there  was  not  included  in  the  cost  of  the  tour: 

In  General 

A  stop  at  Camp  Roosevelt  is  not  included  in  the 
standard  four  and  one-half  days'  sightseeing  tour  of 
Yellowstone  Park. ...Many  travelers  who  are  using  the 
regular  service  of  the  Yellowstone  permanent  summer 
camps,  or  the  Yellowstone  hotels,  go  to  Camp  Roosevelt 
for  an  extra  day  or  an  extra  week  in  the  Park.  Almost  all 
regular  tours  pass  the  camp,  thereby  eliminating  any  ex- 
tra transportation  charges;  on  the  three  regular  tours  which 
do  not  pass  the  camp,  the  side-trip  to  Camp  Roosevelt  is 
made  for  an  extra  transportation  charge  of  five  dollars."" 


In  1924  Child,  the  owner  of  the  boat,  hotel  and  trans- 
portation companies,  acquired  the  camps.  Again,  the 
name  was  changed,  this  time  to  Yellowstone  Park  Lodge 
and  Camps  Company.  Cabins  were  added  to  the 
Roosevelt  Lodge  area  under  the  oversight  of  Vernon 
Goodwin.  Use  of  the  camps  and  lodges  increased  and 
more  Americans  drove  their  automobiles  to  and  through 
the  park. 

Because  of  the  Great  Depression,  no  services  were 
provided  at  Camp  Roosevelt  in  1 932-33.  The  camp  was 
closed  again  from  1943-46  because  of  the  labor  short- 
age brought  about  by  World  War  II.  After  inspection  by 
the  U.  S.  Public  Health  Service  in  1947,  it  was  deter- 
mined that  Roosevelt  Lodge  needed  a  new  kitchen.  The 
camp  remained  closed. 

W.  M.  Nichols,  the  president  of  the  Yellowstone  Park 
Company,"  proposed  abandoning  the  Roosevelt  area  and 
relocating  all  assets  to  Fishing  Bridge.  Camp  Roosevelt 
never  had  been  profitable  and  the  Fishing  Bridge  area 
needed  additional  accommodations.  After  consideration, 
however,  the  kitchen  was  upgraded  and  the  lodge  re- 
modeled.'^ Few  modifications  were  made  to  the  Lodge 
although  cabins  continued  to  be  relocated  there  from 
other  parts  of  the  park. 

From  1 6  permanent  camps  operated  by  the  Wylie  Per- 
manent Camping  Company  and  the  Shaw  and  Powell 
Camping  Company  in  1913,  three  "rustic"  lodges  oper- 
ate there  today.  Roosevelt  Lodge  remains  the  most  ca- 
sual and  rustic  lodge  in  the  Park  and  it  still  offers  the 
scenic  vistas  and  western  e.xperience  valued  by  the  trav- 
eler in  an  earlier,  less  harried  era. 


"  Haynes  postcard  #22740. 

'■*  Yellowstone  Park  Forest  and  Trail  Camp  for  Boys  and  Young 
Men.  (New  York:  Merrill  Press.  1921).  191. 

"  Moorman.  18. 

'"  Yellowstone  Parks  Camps  Company.  Yellowstone  I'acations. 
Camp  Roosevelt  {Chicago:  Poole  Bros..  1923). 

"All  of  Child's  properties,  the  Yellowstone  Park  Hotel  Company, 
the  Yellowstone  Park  Transportation  Company,  the  Yellowstone  Park 
Boat  Company,  and  the  Yellowstone  Park  Lodges  and  Camps  Com- 
pany, were  merged  in  1936  into  the  Yellowstone  Park  Company. 

"McDonald.  31. 


Tamsen  Emerson  Hert  is  the  Wyoming  bibliogra- 
pher at  the  University  of  Wyoming  Libraries.  She 
holds  masters  degrees  in  library  science  and 
American  history  from  Emporia  State  University 
in  Kansas.  A  regular  contributor  to  Annals,  her 
latest  article  was  "To  Preserve  the  View:  A  Tour 
in  Text  and  Pictures  of  Historic  Sites  Relating  to 
the  Establishment  of  Grand  Teton  National  Park,  " 
published  in  Annals,  summer,  1999. 


T.  A.  Larson,  Wyoming  Historian 

A  1998  Interview  by  Eric  Nye 


Dr.  Larson  was  a  founding  member  and  early  officer  of  the  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society.  He  is  shown 
here,  second  from  right,  along  with  the  other  society  officers  in  1955:  Dr.  Dewitt  Dominick,  Maurine 
Carley',  Frank  Bowron,  W.  L.  Marion,  Larson,  and  Lola  M.  Homsher. 


University  of  Wyoming  English  professor  Dr.  Eric 
Nye  interviewed  noted  Wyoming  historian  T.  A. 
Larson  in  the  summer  of  1998  while  Nye  was  pre- 
paring materials  for  the  statewide  "book"  project. 
Following  Dr.  Larson 's  death  in  January,  2001,  Dr. 
Nye  submitted  this  interview  to  Annals. 


Nye:  What  sort  of  role  does  the  historian  have  in  the 
world  of  literature?  Why  should  the  writing  of  history 
be  considered  one  of  the  branches  of  literature? 
Larson:  Well,  I  should  think  anything  written  down  has 
claim  to  belonging  to  literature,  but  it  all  depends  on 
what  it  amounts  to,  whether  it's  gibberish  and  junk  or 
quality  fine  stuff.  The  fact  that  it's  historical  in  an  at- 
tempt to  put  down  thinks  that  actually  happened  doesn't 
give  it  any  claim  to  being  literature.  It  all  hinges  on  the 
quality  of  the  product. 

Nye:  Who  are  the  greatest  writers  of  history,  the  ones 

who  most  influenced  you? 

Larson:  I  never  had  a  good  teacher,  and  therefore  I'm 


not  nearly  as  good  a  writer  as  I  would  have  been  if  I'd 
had  someone  like  what's  his  name  on  the  log  pointing 
out  things  to  me.  In  fact,  when  my  smaller  book  on 
Wyoming  history  appeared,  the  general  editor  of  that 
came  around  and  visited  with  me,  and  he  pointed  out 
some  things  that  someone  should  have  pointed  out  to 
me  when  I  was  beginning  to  write.  No  one  ever  told  me 
about  the  lead  sentence  and  last  sentence  being  so  all- 
important,  for  example,  or  having  a  paragraph  dealing 
with  one  subject,  and  things  like  that.  I  was  never  told 
things  like  that  that  are  obvious  after  they're  pointed  out 
to  you.  So,  as  often  happens,  some  things  in  that  book 
are  not  mine  because  he  claimed  the  right  to  rewrite  this 
or  that.  Also,  as  I  explain  in  one  of  my  articles,  how  well 
you  write  depends  partly  on  the  sources  you're  using. 
In  writing  my  Wyoming  history  many  of  the  sources— I 
wasn't  reading  things  that  had  claims  to  being  literary, 
so  that  my  writing  deteriorated.  I  wrote  more  formally 
at  any  rate  with  a  better  vocabulary  in  my  doctoral  dis- 
sertation than  I  did  in  subsequent  years.  You  just  can't 
avoid  becoming  colloquial  and  using  terms  that  every- 
body else  is  using.  I've  always  felt  that  I  don't  have  the 


Summer  2002 


21 


literary  ability  that  I  should  have.  I  had  a  pretty  good 
English  teacher  as  a  freshman  at  the  University  of  Colo- 
rado. She  had  a  large  class  and  didn't  deal  particularly 
with  individuals.  I  didn't  get  enough  practice  in  writing. 
What  essays  1  wrote  for  her — and  I  think  it  probably 
happens  up  here  at  UW,  too — were  not  torn  apart.  Not 
to  correct  spelling — I  was  a  terrific  speller,  so  that  she 
never  corrected  any  spelling.  When  1  was  in  the  sixth 
grade  back  in  Wakefield  [Nebraska]  1  was  the  best  speller 
in  four  states.  1  spelled  down  the  seventh  and  eighth  grad- 
ers at  a  contest  in  Siou.x  City,  Iowa.  That  was  partly  be- 
cause 1  had  a  good  short  term  memory.  They  started  out 
at  least  with  a  speller,  and  my  teacher  was  one  who  just 
drilled  the  hell  out  of  us.  So  that  if  you  mentioned  a 
word  for  me  to  spell.  1  could  tell  you  what  the  next  ten 
words  were.  Later  in  the  state  contest  1  think  I  came  out 
second  or  something  when  they  weren't  using  the  speller. 
But  anything  in  the  speller,  why  1  could  mow  them  down. 

A^'^;  That  same  aptitude  is  a  real  advantage  for  the  histo- 
rian who  is  trying  to  organize  his  sources,  I  suppose. 
Larson:  But  it  was  the  same  way  in  writing  exams.  My 
first  year  at  Boulder,  1  had  the  highest  grade  average  in 
the  freshman  class.  I  could  read  the  assignments,  you 
know,  and  a  few  weeks  later  have  them  very  well  in 
mind.  Ask  me  a  year  or  two  later,  why,  1  wouldn't  do 
nearly  as  well.  Well,  at  any  rate,  that  caused  me  to  think 
that  1  had  to  excel.  1  was  driven  to  doing  my  assign- 
ments and  was  able  to  get  a  tuition  scholarship  to  Boul- 
der. Well  at  any  rate,  1  just  wasn't  bom  with  that  ability 
and  1  wasn't  trained  very  well  to  be  a  good  writer.  Deal- 
ing with  the  sources  I  used,  why,  1  got  into  using  collo- 
quialisms and  so  on.  Even  such  a  thing  as  the  length  of 
sentences.  .  .  obvious. 

Nye:  So.  would  you  say  it  s  true  that  most  historians  are 
shaped  by  the  material  they  study. ^ 
Larson:  True.  1  was  going  to  be  a  medievalist,  but  there 
were  no  jobs.  So  I  moved  into  this  by  necessity.  I  fin- 
ished in  four  years. 


Velma  Linford  was  a  teacher  at  Laramie  High.  She  fin- 
ished a  masters  with  me  in  1946  and  helped  decide  that 
there  should  be  a  course  in  that  subject  at  the  university. 
1  got  tenure  before  1  went  off  to  the  navy  in  1943.  Stu- 
dents were  disappearing.  In  January  there  were  only 
about  400  students  left  in  the  university'.  Nussbaum  and 
White  were  here.  A  friend  of  mine  in  Boulder  recruited 
me  to  go  to  an  air  navigation  school  down  in  Florida.  I 
signed  up  and  took  a  commission  in  the  navy  and  thought 
I'd  become  an  air  navigator.  Well,  it  turned  out  I  did 
well  in  the  navigation  school  and  they  put  me  to  work 
teaching  navigation  at  the  Delmonte  preflight  school  out 
in  California.  Then  when  that  closed  down  they  put  me 
to  work  in  other  navy  facilities.  I  was  out  on  a  shake- 
down cruise  because  they  felt  that  people  working  in  the 
service  schools  command  at  the  Great  Lakes  Naval  Train- 
ing Center  ought  to  know  something  about  the  sea.  So  I 
was  sent  aboard  a  destroyer  escort.  As  it  turned  out  I  got 
a  ribbon  for  having  served  in  the  Atlantic  theater.  People 
on  shakedown  cruises  ordinarily  served  only  for  29  days, 
but  as  we  were  leaving  New  York  harbor,  the  engine 
broke  down  and  we  sat  there  for  a  couple  of  days,  so 
when  the  cruise  ended  I  had  3 1  days  aboard  ship  in  the 
Atlantic. 

Nye:  Did  you  have  any  temptation  to  stay  in  the  military 
after  the  war  or  did  you  hunv  you  wanted  to  come  hack 
to  Wyoming'.^ 

Larson:  1  decided  1  wouldn't  even  stay  in  the  reserve. 
Things  were  changing  so  fast  that  even  in  the  field  of 
navigation  where  1  had  some  expertise,  there  were  auto- 
mations, so  I  couldn't  do  much  good  as  a  navigator.  I 
used  what  they  called  an  octant  then,  like  a  sextant,  to 
measure  the  altitude  of  the  stars  from  the  horizon,  but 
that  became  obsolete  by  the  end  of  the  war.  When  I  went 
off  to  the  navy  Laura  White  told  me  that  1  should  be 
thinking  during  my  duty  about  writing  a  history  of 
Wyoming's  war  years  when  I  got  back.  So  I  practically 
had  instruction  from  her  to  plan  on  doing  that.  That's 
my  first  book  afterwards. 


A^^;  You  arrived  at  the  Universit}'  of  Wyoming  in  1936 
and  were  transformed  into  a  western  historian,  some- 
thing you  had  some  pressure  on  you  to  do.  Grace 
Raymond  Hebard  set  a  course  requirement  in  Wyoming 
history,  and  the  course  as  yet  had  no  one  to  teach  it.  Yet 
it  was  a  need,  whether  or  not  it  was  required  of  the  stu- 
dents. Wyoming  needed  its  historians.  How  did  your 
commitment  to  Wyoming  history  develop  from  that  point 
on? 

Larson:  I  committed  myself  to  developing  a  course  in 
Wyoming  history  to  pick  up  where  Hebard  had  left  off 


Nye:  What  is  the  role  of  historians  in  the  culture  of  writ- 
ers and  literary  figures?  What  are  some  hints  for  the 
writing  of  history? 

Larson:  The  most  important  thing,  in  contrast  to  Hebard, 
is  not  to  start  out  with  set  ideas  that  you  want  to  supple- 
ment. She  knew  what  she  wanted  to  prove,  and  she  \\  ould 
ignore  anything  else.  Get  the  facts,  get  the  best  sources, 
and  then  putthem  together  to  tell  the  story.  Make  it  read- 
able. Tell  an  entertaining  stor\  and  have  it  accurate. 
There's  a  new  book  on  Hitler  that  revises  things.  You 
think  of  all  the  people  who  have  written  about  WWII 


'22 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


and  about  Hitler,  and  then  you  find  that  many  of  them 
have  been  mistaken  when  they  interviewed  Hitler  and 
didn't  pursue  certain  aspects  of  it.  Here's  a  revisionist 
who  shows  what  happened.  You  write  a  story  and  then 
others  come  along  who  find  fault  with  what  you  did, 
disprove  what  you  did.  You've  got  to  be  very  accurate 
and  try  to  exhaust  the  sources.  That  takes  a  lot  of  time, 
and  that's  one  difficulty  that  I  had  here  in  writing.  Teach- 
ing sometimes  nine  or  twelve  hours  I  had  to  spend  week- 
ends and  neglect  my  family  in  order  to  get  writing  done. 
I  scarcely  ever  read  fiction  during  that  period  for  enjoy- 
ment. I  like  to  read  fiction,  but  I  felt  that  I  was  neglect- 
ing my  responsibilities  to  my  profession  in  reading  things 
for  fun. 

Nye:  But  you  must  have  been  a  voracious  reader  as  a 
younger  boy  in  school  and  college.  What  were  some  of 
the  books  that  you  enjoyed  most  as  a  boy? 
Larson:  One  book  when  I  was  in  high  school  was  the 
Royal  Road  to  Romance  [by  Richard  Halliburton].  I  was 
editor  of  the  high  school  newspaper,  and  that  suggested 
to  me  that  I  ought  to  try  to  be  a  journalist.  When  I  went 
to  Boulder  they  were  supposed  to  have  a  pretty  good 
journalism  school,  but  they  didn't  have  any  work  at  the 
freshman  level.  I  never  met  an  advisor  in  the  journalism 
department.  1  had  a  freshman  history  course,  however, 
under  a  great  salesman.  I  was  his  best  student,  and  he 
was  recruiting  people  for  his  department.  He  told  me, 
"What  you  ought  to  do  is  learn  something  and  then  get 
out  and  write."  Ifthejoumalists  had  gotten  me,  I'd  prob- 
ably have  become  an  editor  in  a  small-town  newspaper 
since  that's  what  they  were  teaching  people  to  become. 
Some  of  them  would  get  jobs  as  a  stringer  in  Denver  or 
somewhere  if  they  were  pretty  good. 

Nye:  But  you  've  become  the  dean  of  Wyoming  histori- 
ans. That  seems  a  much  better  road  to  have  gone  down, 
doesn  't  it. 

Larson:  Well  it  turned  out  to  be  a  better  profession  than 
journalism  for  me. 

Nye:  Tell  us  about  the  field  work  you  did  for  your  re- 
search on  Wyoming.  So  often  people  consider  profes- 
sors as  having  horizons  limited  to  Laramie,  yet  clearly 
you  're  involved  with  the  whole  state. 
Larson:  That's  right.  I  had  to  interview  some  of  the  older 
people,  retired  governors  and  people  like  that.  But  I  did 
something  that  some  people  would  probably  sniff  at.  In 
order  to  find  out  what  really  bothered  people  in  Wyo- 
ming, since  there  weren't  accurate  accounts,  I  got  the 
Board  of  Trustees  to  provide  money  for  assistantships. 
So  I  got  half  a  dozen  students  to  run  through  a  bunch  of 


newspapers  all  over  the  state  for  particular  years  on  par- 
ticular subjects.  And  that  way  I  got  some  idea  what  con- 
cerned the  people  of  Casper,  for  example,  in  the  1 870s. 
There's  no  other  way  to  get  that  since  I  couldn't  read  all 
the  newspapers  myself.  Newspapers  are  not  considered 
first-rate  sources,  but  they  do  give  you  a  feel  for  what 
people  were  thinking  and  what  they  were  arguing  about. 
So  I  was  able  to  develop  certain  themes  that  you  couldn't 
have  arrived  at  any  other  way.  These  students  took  notes 
on  different  subjects  and  I  read  their  notes  which  were 
copied  from  newspaper  editorials  and  so  on. 

Nye:  Did  you  talk  to  any  of  the  oldtimers  or  homestead- 
ers? 

Larson:  Yes,  I  went  to  the  records  office  in  Denver  for 
filings  on  land  to  find  out  about  homesteaders. 

TVv^;  Did  you  feel  like  you  had  a  circle  of  colleagues  at 
other  universities?  Who  was  your  audience? 
Larson:  In  some  cases  I  would  read  papers  at  meetings 
like  the  Western  History  Association.  They  get  together 
every  year.  I  read  other  state  histories  to  see  what  sub- 
jects they  covered.  I  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the 
Wyoming  State  Historical  Society.  There  was  a  woman, 
Lola  Homsher,  who  was  working  in  the  state  historical 
department  in  Cheyenne.  She  was  really  the  instigator 
of  the  state  organization  around  1951  when  we  had  a 
meeting  up  in  Casper  to  organize  it.  Some  counties  had 
historical  societies  already.  We  organized  one  here  in 
Albany  County  in  the  1930s.  The  women's  club  here 
had  started  a  small  museum.  They  got  the  idea  of  buy- 
ing the  Ivinson  Mansion.  Alice  Stevens  was  a  fast 
writer — a  pretty  good  journalist — who  wrote  historical 
articles  in  the  local  papers.  She  was  determined  to  find  a 
place  for  the  historical  artifacts  that  the  women's  club 
had  collected  and  kept  in  the  basement  of  city  hall.  Then 
they  were  in  the  basement  of  the  court  house.  She  raised 
money  to  buy  the  Ivinson  Mansion.  I  was  her  secretary, 
so  I  had  to  do  a  lot  of  legwork. 

Nye:  It 's  always  amazing  to  me  that  a  state  as  young  as 
Wyoming  has  such  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  its  own 
history.  The  people  who  live  here  and  came  here  very 
recently  are  still  concerned  to  want  to  go  to  these  lengths 
to  preserve  it.  In  some  ways  we  are  even  more  commit- 
ted to  our  history  in  a  state  like  this  than  in  older  and 
larger  states. 

Larson:  That's  absolutely  true.  Nebraska  doesn't  pay 
nearly  as  much  attention  to  its  history  as  Wyoming.  In 
fact  I  don't  think  any  state  pays  as  much  attention  to  its 
history  as  Wyoming.  We're  closer  to  it.  It  doesn't  go 
back  as  far.  It's  not  so  complex.  There  are  certain  spe- 


Summer  !200!2 


■■23 


cific  themes.  State  history  doesn't  usually  have  such 
credibility  or  passionate  approval. 

Nye:  Of  course  there  are  lots  of  popular  representations 
of  the  myth  of  Wyoming  that  as  an  historian  I  suppose 
vou  felt  you  were  conspiring  both  with  anJ  against. 
Larson:  1  tried  to  do  it  the  way  national  historians  did  in 
other  states,  to  fit  the  Wyoming  part  into  the  national 
picture.  But  1  had  to  spend  too  much  time  destroying 
myths.  We  got  the  idea  very  early  thanks  to  Hebard  that 
Esther  Morris  instead  of  Susan  B.  Anthony  founded  the 
women's  rights  movement.  And  so  Wyoming,  in  spite 
of  my  best  efforts,  managed  to  put  her  in  Washington  as 
Wyoming's  outstanding  citizen.  The  other  was 
Sacajawea.  Children  now  learn  at  their  mothers"  knee 
that  this  Indian  woman  from  the  Lewis  &  Clark  expedi- 
tion died  up  on  the  Wind  River  Reservation,  but  in  fact 
when  you  run  it  down  you  fmd  she  died  in  1811  back  in 
South  Dakota.  And  just  the  other  day  our  U.  S.  Senator 
had  an  article  up  in  the  Gillette  paper  saying  he  wanted 
to  put  the  Indian  woman  who  died  in  South  Dakota  on 
our  state  quarter.  There's  a  national  commission  of  his- 
toric sites,  and  for  ten  years  I  was  chairman  of  the  com- 
mission in  Cheyenne.  We  put  people  to  work  writing 
the  history  of  various  historic  sites  and  we  would  cor- 
rect them  as  best  we  could  and  send  them  into  Washing- 
ton to  get  approval  prior  to  listing  with  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior.  And  South  Dakota  managed  to  get  it  estab- 
lished that  her  grave  is  there  and  not  up  here  on  the  res- 
ervation. I've  spent  too  much  damn  time  fighting  those 
battles  about  Esther  Morris  and  Sacajawea  because  I 
don't  want  people  in  other  parts  of  the  country  laughing 
at  us. 

Nye:  Do  you  hcr\'e  any  reflections  about  Wyoming 's  lit- 
erary heritage? 

Larson:  So  many  authors  settled  out  here,  lived  in  the 
Jackson  Hole  area  or  other  attractive  places.  So  in  vari- 
ous Wyoming  cities  good  writers  establish  themselves 
and  make  a  living  from  their  writing.  And  there  were 
good  writers  who  grew  up  here  and  left  and  made  their 
reputations  elsewhere,  too.  Dee  Linford,  for  example, 
who  wrote  Man  without  a  Star.  And  Ted  Olson  who 
wrote  Ranch  on  the  Laramie.  In  the  last  part  of  my  His- 
tory of  Wyoming  I  review  some  of  these.  Owen  Wister 
is  certainly  one  of  the  leading  figures.  Good  books  come 
out  of  the  university,  too,  poets  and  the  like. 

A^^;  If  you  imagine  the  state  as  a  road  map.  do  you  feel 
like  you  're  identified  with  the  whole  state  of  Wyoming 
or  with  the  part  of  it  here  in  Laramie?  Do  you  feel  that 
anywhere  you  travel  in  the  state,  you  11  have  friends  you 


can  look  up,  that  you  can  always  go  down  to  the  next 
ranch  down  the  road  and  find  somebody? 
Larson:  Yes.  The  legislature  gave  me  more  connec- 
tions, 1  suppose,  with  the  whole  state,  because  all  parts 
of  the  state  were  well  represented.  I  spent  eight  years  in 
the  legislature,  and  that  introduced  me  to  various  Wyo- 
ming problems,  too,  and  solutions  for  them.  But  many 
of  those  people  are  dead  now. 

Nye:  Where  is  Wyoming  going  to  get  its  next  generation 
of  historians? 

Larson:  Well,  they're  just  going  to  have  to  do  what  they 
do  in  the  other  humanities  here.  They're  just  not  going 
to  have  full  staffing.  Right  now  the  university's  shrink- 
ing some.  What  they're  doing,  as  you  know,  is  not  fill- 
ing the  places  vacated  by  retirement.  This  guy  Phil  Rob- 
erts, he's  well-prepared  to  teach  Wyoming  history,  and 
he's  published  some  of  it.  I  thought  when  he  came,  here's 
a  guy  who  knows  a  lot  about  it  and  will  be  happy  here. 
Otherwise  when  you  hire  somebody  for  Wyoming  his- 
tory, why,  you  get  someone  who  has  another  specialty. 

A^V^.'  Like  you  were  when  you  came!  Is  it  conceivable 
that  many  of  the  functions  of  the  professional  historian 
now  haw  been  distributed  to  various  other  agencies  like 
the  museums,  libraries,  and  other  places? 
Larson:  That's  right.  It  has  its  advantages.  You  get  pretty 
well-trained  people  into  jobs  that  probably  would  be 
filled  by  people  not  so  well  equipped.  In  the  library  for 
example,  historians  can  be  of  considerable  help  advis- 
ing students  who  go  to  them. 

Nye:  Can  you  comment  on  the  difference  betM'een  Wvo- 
ming  and  other  states  in  the  west? 
Larson:  There  are  great  differences.  Economics  deter- 
mines all  these  things.  Other  states  are  beginning  to  suf- 
fer what  Charlie  Stebner  coined  a  word  to  describe  as 
"popullution,"  cultural  differences  that  come  from  hav- 
ing large  bodies  of  people  in  one  place — the  crime,  com- 
mercialism. Youdon't  feel  safe  on  the  streets  even.  Here 
you  don't  have  to  lock  your  doors  and  things  like  that.  I 
haven't  had  to  until  recently.  Now  they're  getting  some 
crime  in  Casper,  Cheyenne,  and  even  in  Laramie. 
Women  get  attacked  on  campus  even.  Even  though  the 
state  is  not  flourishing,  some  of  these  things  seep  in. 
Wyoming  is  the  least  industrialized  state  in  the  Union. 
And  they  try  to  build  on  tourism:  that's  where  their  big 
business  is.  But  what  kind  of  business  is  that?  People 
who  work  in  the  tourist  business,  who  work  in  hot  food 
places  and  so  on  get  six.  seven  dollars,  minimum  wage. 
Those  are  not  good  jobs.  Talk  about  not  being  able  to 
keep  people  in  Wyoming.  There  just  aren't  the  jobs  here. 


24 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Unless  they  go  into  their  parents'  business  or  something. 
And  the  state  just  appointed  a  new  commission  to  at- 
tract people  to  Wyoming.  Half  the  people  in  the  state 
say.  To  hell  with  that!  Go  up  to  someone  like  the  barber 
in  Lander  or  somewhere  and  ask  him  about  people  com- 
ing in,  and  heMl  say,  "There  are  too  dang  many  people 
now!"  There's  that  attitude. 

Nye:  What  kind  of  best  scenario  can  you  dream  up  for 
Wyoming 's  future? 

Larson:  We've  got  to  provide  an  entertainment  place 
partly  and  try  to  improve  the  quality  of  entertainment 
that  we  can  provide.  Tourist  business  has  to  be  a  princi- 
pal one.  Now  they're  wrecking  Yellowstone  because 
there  are  too  many  people  up  there.  It'll  cost  you  $  1 30  a 
night  to  stay  at  Jackson  Lake  Lodge.  And  you  have  to 
pay  cash  on  the  barrelhead  six  weeks  before  you  get  there, 
that  is  around  the  middle  of  the  season.  Star  Valley,  that's 
an  overflow  area.  For  a  while  they  were  having  to  haul 
people  to  work  in  tourist  business  in  Jackson  and  down 
to  Star  Valley  just  for  a  place  they  can  live.  People  liv- 
ing in  tents  around  Jackson.  We  went  there  on  the  Fourth 
of  July  to  Jackson,  and  it  was  so  damn  packed.  You'd 
just  get  stuck  for  long  periods  of  time  in  the  streets,  cars 
every  which  way,  every  parking  place  taken,  can't  get 
in  to  any  restaurants. 

Nye:  And  yet  there  are  places  in  Europe — think  of  Swit- 
zerland that  has  the  same  kind  of  beauty,  the  same  kind 
of  pressures  but  they  don  V  seem  to  handle  it  as  badly. 
When  you  visit  Switzerland  or  somewhere,  you  don  tfeel 
like  you  're  in  a  parking  lot.  So  tourism,  but  with  a  cer- 
tain sense  of  quality  about  it. 

Larson:  And  there's  falseness,  too,  trying  to  make  a  tour- 
ist place  out  of  an  old  prison.  My  God — the  only  advan- 
tage of  that,  from  my  point  of  view,  is  that  it  enables  the 
University  to  get  off  the  hook  and  divide  this  other  prop- 
erty down  there.  They  hadn't  been  able  to  unload  that 
on  the  community  and  get  a  special  penny.  They're  never 
gonna  pay  for  the  damn  thing.  They'd  rather  have  people 
volunteering  to  tell  a  false  story,  really,  about  what  went 
on  there. 

Nye:  Now  could  that  kind  of  thing  be  managed  better, 
or  is  it  a  hopeless  pursuit  from  the  beginning?  Do  you 
think  it 's  the  wrong  kind  of  development? 
Larson:  I  think  if  you  want  to  try  to  depict  what  life  was 
like  in  a  nineteenth  century  penitentiary,  you'd  do  bet- 
ter in  Rawlins.  In  fact,  they  made  a  movie  up  there  and 
built  an  entrance  to  it  and  the  hole  where  they  put  people, 
and  the  cells.  They've  got  a  lot  of  old  cells.  They've 
only  got  a  couple  of  cells  here,  fake  cells.  Don't  try  to 


present  a  penitentiary  like  that.  But  the  entertainment 
they  provide!  People  love  it.  They  stay  in  hotels  in 
Laramie,  and  they  don't  spend  as  much  time  in  Wyo- 
ming. They  just  head  for  Jackson  and  Yellowstone. 
They're  overpopulating  that  place.  The  wealthy  people 
buy  up  the  riverbanks  and  build  their  fine  homes  in  places 
like  Lander  and  Dubois.  Dubois  is  a  better  example.  The 
value  of  land  goes  out  of  sight.  It's  getting  to  be  that 
way  in  Star  Valley.  They  want  to  have  a  piece  of  the 
wilderness.  Building  up  along  the  mountainsides  there. 

Nye:  You  know  I  thought  of  that  a  couple  years  ago  at 
Thanksgiving  when  we  came  down  from  the  Snowies. 
We  'd  been  out  cutting  our  Christmas  tree.  We  were  pull- 
ing up  at  the  Old  Corral  in  Centennial,  and  some  hot 
shot  city  dude  got  into  a  bright  yellow  helicopter  and 
took  off  on  his  way  back  to  Denver  at  the  end  of  the 
weekend  to  catch  his  plane  back  to  Houston  or  Manhat- 
tan or  somewhere  like  that.  Amazing  that  somebody 
would  spend  all  that  money  to  come  out  here.  There  has 
to  be  some  way  to  manage  that,  to  see  that  Wyoming 
changes  it  and  not  let  it  change  Wyoming. 
Larson:  They're  wrecking  Jackson  Hole  that  way. 
Around  Jenny  Lake  you  have  to  walk  about  three  blocks 
to  get  to  the  bridge  over  the  stream. 

Nye:  What  is  missing  here?  Is  it  a  sense  of  reverence 
for  the  natural?  Is  it  acquisitiveness  or  possessiveness 
that 's  causing  these  problems? 
Larson:  Well,  I  worked  in  Yellowstone  four  summers. 
It  gave  me  a  false  impression  of  Wyoming.  That  was  the 
Wyoming  I  knew.  It  was  a  wonderful  place  in  those  days 
when  there  were  275,000  people  a  year.  Now  there  are 
over  probably  3  million.  The  people  who  get  there  for 
the  first  time,  you  can't  blame  them,  they'll  stop  in  the 
middle  of  the  road  if  they  see  a  bear  or  an  elk  or  a  moose. 
Bison  are  very  dangerous.  These  people  go  out  to  try  to 
have  a  picture  taken  alongside  a  bison,  and  they  get  gored. 
They've  talked  about  a  monorail  running  around  and 
making  people  park  their  cars  at  the  entrance. 

A^^;  Can  any  good  come  of  all  this  influx  of  people  for 
the  state? 

Larson:  You  just  have  to  try  to  keep  the  minimum  popu- 
lation here  and  not  insist  on  getting  poorly  paid  busi- 
nesses. 


CROSSING  THE 
NORTH  PLATTE  RIVER: 

A  BRIEF  HISTORY  OF    "RESHAW'S" 
BRIDGE  -  1852-1866 


By  Jefferson  Glass 

The  North  Platte  River  was  one  of  the  most  dangerous  ob- 
stacles facing  the  pioneers  of  the  westward  migration  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  Prior  to  the  age  of  modem  dams  and  tlood 
control  the  river  became  a  raging  torrent  during  the  spring  and 
summer  months  as  millions  of  acre-feet  of  water  rapidly  accu- 
mulated from  its  many  tributaries  as  the  great  depths  of  snow 
of  the  northern  Rocky  Mountains  began  their  annual  melt.  It 
was  not  uncommon  for  this  gradually  descending  river  to  gain 
ten  feet  in  depth  and  miles  in  width  during  this  annual  runoff. 

The  earliest  of  western  adventurers  often  constructed  and  Fort  Caspar  [1865-1867]  in  present  day  Casper), 

bullboats  to  navigate  the  unpredictable  river  during  high  The  following  day  the  second  battalion  arrived  at  the  point 

water.'  As  the  fur  and  buffalo  robe  industry  grew,  larger  on  the  Platte  where  the  first  battalion  was  ferrying  a 

boats  were  needed  to  transport  the  huge  packs  of  hides  party  of  emigrants  across  the  river  with  the  Revenue 

to  market.  It  then  became  a  common  practice  among  the  Cutter.  Here  the  Mormons  were  exercising  their  own 
traders  to  tackle  the  much  larger  task  of  constructing 

Mackinaws  in  the  vicinity  of  their  trading  posts  and  float-  ,      ,    ,,,                    ,,.,,.„ 

I        J-         i-i-i  ^  bullboat  was  a  makeshift  skitf  constructed  b\  stretchinc  raw 

mg  their  goods  downstream  to  market  durmg  this  high-  ,,„Taio  hides  over  a  frame  ofbent  branches  The  seams  of  the^hides 

water  season. =  Since  neither  of  these  forms  of  naviga-  would  then  be  sealed  with  glue  made  from  boilmg  down  the  bones 

tion  were  practical  to  the  immigrants  and  the  North  Platte  of  the  same  buffalo  that  had  supplied  the  hides.  By  1824  this  was  a 

River  was  not  often  fordable.  finding  another  method  of  common  practice.  John  Myers  Myers.  The  Saga  of  Hugh  Glass  - 

,        .         ,                                 ■  Pirate.  Pawnee,  and  Mountain  ManAL\m:o\n  ?mALonAon:  Vn'wer- 

crossing  the  river  became  a  necessity.  ..     ,-,,  ,      ,    „        ,,,,,,  nn  ion 

'^                                                     ■'  sity  ot  Nebraska  Press.  l'^63).  179-180. 

When  the  Latter  Day  Saints  left  Winter  Quarters  to  2  Mackinaws  were  tlat-botiomed  boats  that  could  be  built  on  site  to 

begin  their  westward  journey  in  1847  they  brought  with  carry  cargo  down  river  during  high  water.  A  large  Mackinaw  boat 

them  a  leather  boat,  the  Revenue  Cutter,  to  aid  in  their  "^uld  carry  up  to  three  hundred  packs  of  buffalo  robes,  ten  robes  to 

crossing  of  the  river.  When  leaving  Fort  Laram  ie,  Brigham  '^^  ^""'^^  i""^^'  f  S.  Ri^cker.  Intervww  ofMaghn-e  .Ale.,s  Mosseau. 

■  ■•  ir-  Buzzard  Basin.  Pine  Ridge  Indian  Reservation.  South  Dakota.  Octo- 
Young  split  the  battalion  into  two  segments.  The  first  ^^,  ^^  ^^^^  (Unpublished  Notebooks.  Nebraska  state  Historical 
smaller  group  traveled  ahead  with  the  boat  to  establish  a  Society  Library.  Lincoln.  Nebraska),  tablet  28.  p.  6-8. 
crossing  of  the  North  Platte.'  The  ferry  site  that  they  '  Dale  L.  Morgan.  "The  Mormon  Fero  on  the  North  Platte;  the  Jour- 
chose  was  directly  across  the  river  from  the  mouth  of  "^'  ''^'  ^''"'^'"  ^  Empey",  .Annals  of  Wyoming.  (May  7-August  4, 
„  ^  1  ,^  ^  1  •  11  J  ^  1847).  vol.  21.  no.2.  p.  130-132.Tom  Empev.  the  areat-grandson  of 
Cannon  Creek.  (Cannon  Creek  is  now  called  Casper  ,.,..,.       ...  ^    ,    ,-/-  ^  ,-■'  ,, 

^  William  A.  Lmpev.  is  a  resident  01  Casper.  A  tew  vears  ago.  he 

Creek  and  this  location  is  about  one  mile  downstream     constructed  a  replica  ferry,  built  to  specifications,  that  is  on  display 
from  the  later  location  of  Guinard's  Bridge  [  1 860- 1 867]     at  Fort  Caspar  Museum. 


26 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


ingenuity  in  supplementing  the  church  coffer,  while  wait- 
ing for  their  own  company's  arrival/ 

Seeing  the  potential  income  for  his  church  and  the 
convenience  of  the  ferry  for  future  emigration  of  his  own 
flock,  Brigham  Young  decided  to  establish  a  genuine  ferry 
at  this  location.  He  ordered  that  two  ferry  boats,  or  rafts, 
be  constructed  from  the  timber  of  the  Black  Hills  to  the 
south,  now  known  as  Casper  Mountain.  Several  dugout 
canoes  were  built  and  then  lashed  together  with  timbers 
to  form  something  like  a  deck.  Many  ferries  over  the 
years  were  constructed  by  this  method  and  used  through- 
out the  west  at  various  river  crossings.' 

Shortly  after  the  Mornion  Ferry  began  operation,  the 
Hill  Ferry,  a  private  company,  began  operating  down 
stream.  Feeling  the  loss  of  business,  the  Mormons  asked 
Hill  if  he  was  interested  in  a  partnership.  Hill  flatly  re- 
fused. Not  wishing  to  lose  any  more  business,  the  Mor- 
mons packed  up  their  equipment  and  floated  down  river 
to  a  new  location  below  Hill's  operation.  A  few  days 
later  the  Mormon's  witnessed  the  remains  of  Hill's  ferry 
floating  down  the  river.  He  had  given  up  the  contest,  but 
destroyed  his  ferry  to  keep  anyone  else  from  profiting 
from  his  labors.  After  several  weeks  at  their  new  loca- 
tion, the  waters  of  the  Platte  subsided  and  business  slowed 
drastically  as  the  river  became  fordable.  The  men  moved 
back  to  their  first  location  and  waited  for  the  last  Mor- 
mon wagon  train,  which  they  would  accompany  to  their 
final  destination." 

The  California  gold  rush,  two  years  later,  brought  the 
greatest  volume  of  traffic  in  westward  migration  to  date. 
One  of  the  most  popular  crossings  of  the  North  Platte 
that  year  was  just  below  the  second  site  of  the  Mormon 
Ferry.  This  ford  that  had  been  used  by  many  earlier  trav- 
elers including  John  C.  Fremont  and  had  been  commonly 
called  "The  Old  Indian  Ford."  Following  its  extensive 
use  in  1 849  it  became  known  as  "The  California  Cross- 
ing."^ That  summer  A.  C.  Metcalf  returned  to  the  North 
Platte  River  with  Kit  Carson  and  Calvin  Jones  from  Taos 
and  Pueblo.  The  three  went  to  the  mouth  of  Deer  Creek 
near  present-day  Glenrock  and  erected  the  first  bridge 
to  span  the  North  Platte  River.  This  bridge,  which  is 
sometimes  referred  to  as  The  Trapper 's  Bridge,  was 
poorly  constructed  and  failed  in  the  high  waters  of  the 
following  spring.  Carson  and  Jones  returned  to  Taos. 
Metcalf  reportedly  died  of  cholera  somewhere  in  the  vi- 
cinity of  Fort  Laramie  shortly  before  their  departure.* 

During  the  "low  water  season"  in  the  fall  of  1 850,  and 
learning  from  Metcalf  s  mistakes,  John  Baptiste  Rich- 
ard began  construction  of  the  second  bridge  to  cross  the 
North  Platte  River.  He  chose  a  site  a  few  miles  west  of 
The  Trapper 's  Bridge  at  a  place  near  Muddy  Creek 
that  would  later  be  known  as  Parkerton.  Richard  risked 


everything  he  owned  on  the  emigrant  trade  of  the  year  to 
come.  Aware  of  the  dangers  involved  in  crossing  the 
Platte  at  high  water,  he  knew  his  old  partner,  Metcalf, 
was  right  about  a  toll  bridge  across  the  Platte.  Emigrants 
would  pay  nearly  any  price  to  cross  the  river  quickly  and 
safely.' 

''  Although  the  Mormons  accepted  cash  for  their  ferrying  fee.  they 
preferred  to  trade  for  nonperishabie  staples,  such  as  sugar  or  flour. 
They  knew  these  items  could  be  used  in  the  winter,  regardless  of 
where  the  trail  might  take  them.  Further,  this  trade  was  based  on 
eastern  prices  for  these  goods,  instead  of  the  inflated  prices  of  the 
trading  posts  along  the  trail.  The  end  result  was  considerably  more 
food  for  their  money.  Cannon  Creek  was  supposedly  so  named  be- 
cause an  earlier  group  of  explorers  had  cached  a  cannon  there  before 
continuing  westward.  Documentation  to  substantiate  this  lore  has 
not  been  found.  What  was  then  called  Cannon  Creek  is  now  called 
Casper  Creek.  The  spelling  would  indicate  that  the  name  change  oc- 
curred after  the  railroad  misspelled  Caspar,  Casper^  The  result  of 
this  minor  error  will  forever  confiise  visitors  of  Fort  Caspar  Museum 
in  Casper.  Morgan.  132.  146. 

■  Morgan.  133-135;  Jefferson  Glass.  Discussions  with  Tom  Empey, 
1996-1998.  (Unpublished  Notes.  Jefferson  Glass"  personal  collec- 
tion); Ben  Kern  is  a  modem  day  wagon  master  who  has  led  numer- 
ous wagon-train  reenactments  across  the  Oregon.  California,  Mor- 
mon, and  Bozeman  trails  in  recent  years.  He  has  used  a  replica  ferry 
of  similar  construction  during  his  travels  and  says  that  they  are  a 
quite  stable  and  suitable  craft.  Candy  Moulton  and  Ben  Kern.  Wagon 
Wheels.  (Glendo;  High  Plains  Press.  1996).  153. 
'  The  Hill  Ferry  was  located  near  the  area  presently  known  as  North 
Casper.  It  was  about  half  a  mile  west  of  today's  Bryan  Stock  Trail. 
The  Mormon  Ferry's  second  location  was  in  today's  Reshaw  Park  in 
Evansville.  Wyoming.  Its  exact  location  was  about  100  yards  west 
of  the  present  bridge  to  the  Oregon  Trail  \  'eteran  's  Cemetery.  The 
various  locations  of  the  Mormon  Ferry,  around  modem  day  Casper, 
are  very  confusing.  The  ferry  was  moved  many  times  over  the  years. 
Morgan,  135-139,  154-155;  Glass;  Thomas  Nicholas,  editor.  Fron- 
tier Times  and  New  Oregon  Trail  Reader.  (Town  of  Evansville.  Wyo- 
ming, Summer  1 966),  vol.  1 ,  no.  1 . 

'  John  D.  McDermott,  Frontier  Crossroads.  (Casper:  City  of  Casper, 
1997).  88-89. 

'  Archibald  Charles  Metcalf  was  bom  in  New  York  in  1815,  the  son 
of  Thomas  and  Mary  Metcalf  He  first  appeared  in  the  west  as  a 
partner  of  John  Baptiste  Richard  (John  Reshaw)  on  a  fur  trading 
expedition  in  1840  where  he  operated  the  trading  post  known  as 
Reshaw's  Houses  on  the  Old  Woman  Fork  of  the  Cheyenne  River. 
Thispartnership  was  dissolved  in  1841  and  Metcalf  moved  to  Fi/e/-fe 
el  Pueblo,  now  Pueblo,  Colorado.  Over  the  next  several  years  Metcalf 
was  engaged  in  various  aspects  of  the  fur  trade  from  Taos,  now  New 
Mexico,  to  Fort  Laramie.  For  Metcalfs  life  and  career,  see  two  en- 
tries in  LeRoy  Hafen,  ed..  Mountain  Men  and  the  Fur  Trade  of  the 
Far  West.  (Glendale:  Arthur  H.  Clark  Company),  the  first  by  John  D. 
McDermott,  John  Baptiste  Richard,  in  volume  II.  290.  and  the  second 
by  Janet  Lecompte.  Archibald  Charles  Metcalf.  in  volume  4.  217, 
llJi-llA:  three  interviews  in  F.  W.  Cragin's  unpublished  notebooks, 
(hereafter  cited  as  Cragin  Notebooks)  held  in  the  Cragin  Papers.  Colo- 
rado Springs  Pioneers  Museum,  Interview  ofJosiah  F.  Smith  on  July 
18,  1903,  at  Pueblo,  Colorado,  in  Notebook  XVII,  p.  6;  Interview  of 
Lu:  Trujillo  Metcalf  Ledowc.  in  Notebook  VII.  p.  2/8;  and  Interview  of 
Jesse  Nelson,  in  Notebook  VIII.  p.  14/73;  Louise  Barry  The  Begin- 
ning of  the  PVest,  (Kansas  State  Historical  Society,  Topeka,  Kansas, 
1972),  415. 


Summer  •-200'-2 


'27 


Richard  was  so  enthusiastic  with  the  plan  that  he  talked 
four  men.  Miller,  Langdon,  Steele,  and  Randall,  into  in- 
vesting in  the  scheme.  His  new  partners  thought  that  if 
one  bridge  would  succeed,  two  would  be  even  better. 
They  obtained  permission  from  the  United  States  Army 
to  also  construct  a  bridge  across  the  Laramie  River,  within 
the  Fort  Laramie  military  reservation.  Due  to  its  proxim- 
ity, the  military  would  regulate  the  toll  charges,  but  it  would 
still  be  a  lucrative  venture.  To  ensure  that  potential  cus- 
tomers knew  of  the  bridge's  existence  before  attempting 
to  ford  the  river  at  some  lower  crossing,  Richard  adver- 
tised in  the  St.  Joseph  Gazette  on  February  26,  1851. 
The  ad  said  he  would  have  1 50-200  ponies  for  sale  at  his 
Ash  Point  trading  post,  adding  that  he  had  "very  nearly 
completed  a  bridge  across  the  North  Platte."'" 

A  short  time  later  the  Missouri  Republican  reported 
that  Richard  had  completed  his  project,  "a  fine  and  sub- 
stantial bridge  has  been  built  over  the  Platte  100  miles 
above  [Fort]  Laramie."  The  Frontier  Guardian  in 
Kanesville,  Iowa  reported  on  May  16,  1851,  "William 
and  T.  Randell  (en  route  to  [Richard's]  new  North  Platte 
River  bridge)  with  groceries  and  provisions  for  emi- 
grants; J.  B.  Nichols  (for  Fort  Laramie);  "Richard's  & 
Co."  (trader  John  Richard's  outfit)  with  Provisions,  &c." 
In  May  John  Richard  was  so  optimistic  about  the  coming 
success  of  the  Parkerton  Bridge  that  he  moved  his 
brother  Peter,  who  had  been  running  the  post  at  Ash 
Point,  to  the  bridge  and  sold  the  Ash  Point  Trading  Post 
to  Ward  and  Guerrier  from  Pueblo." 

John  Richard's  optimism  for  the  success  of  the  bridge 
was  unwarranted.  Traffic  on  the  Oregon  Trail  was  un- 
usually slow  that  year  and  the  waters  of  the  North  Platte 
River  remained  low.  The  emigrant  trains  passed  by 
Richard's  Parkerton  Bridge,  with  few  even  noting  its 
existence  in  their  diaries.  They  forded  the  river  at  any  of 
the  many  convenient  locations  along  the  route. '- 

Early  in  1852,  the  high  spring  waters  were  rising  in 
the  Platte  and  John  Richard  was  hoping  for  a  profitable 
season.  Unfortunately,  when  the  high  waters  he  had 
wished  for  all  winter  finally  came,  they  washed  the  bridge 
out  on  July  16.  The  Fort  Laramie  bridge,  a  project  with 
which  Richard  had  little  direct  involvement,  was  suc- 
cessful for  two  years.  Richard  relinquished  his  share  of 
the  bridge  to  the  other  partners  in  exchange  for  forgiv- 
ing the  debt  incurred  by  the  loss  of  the  Parkerton  bridge. '  ^ 

After  the  Parkerton  Bridge  was  destroyed,  John  Rich- 
ard teamed  back  up  with  his  longtime  friend  and  busi- 
ness associate,  Joseph  Bissonette.'^  They  went  to  St. 
Louis  in  late  summer,  returning  west  by  early  Septem- 
ber. On  September  12, 1 852,  Maj.  Winslow  F.  Sanderson, 
with  two  companies  of  mounted  riflemen,  met  Bissonette's 
wagon  train,  loaded  with  goods,  at  Cottonwood  Point.  At 


the  junction  of  the  road  to  Independence  and  St.  Joseph, 
he  then  met  John  Richard  who  was  herding  a  flock  of 
3,000  sheep  to  the  Mormon  settlements  in  Utah.'' 
Sanderson  likely  did  not  know  the  two  men's  purpose. 
The  wagon  train  that  Bissonette  led  west  ahead  of  Rich- 
ard and  his  sheep  was  carrying  tools,  hardware,  and  other 
materials  for  the  construction  of  a  new  bridge  across  the 
North  Platte  River.  The  sale  of  Richard's  sheep  would 
help  finance  the  venture. 

*'  John  Baptiste  Richard  was  bom  on  December  14.  1810.  in  St. 
Charles,  Missouri.  The  son  of  Jean  Francois  Xavier  Richard  and 
Rosalie  Cote.  John  Richard's  family  tree  reads  like  a  Who 's  ll'ho  of 
the  earliest  of  French  mountain  men  and  fur  traders.  He  came  west 
with  his  father  in  the  1 830s.  Ihrough  his  career  he  became  known  as 
one  of  the  most  notorious  whiske\  smugglers  of  the  fur  trade  era  and 
in  1 842  bragged  that  no  Indian  Agent  alive  would  ever  catch  him;  he 
lived  to  prove  this  boast  true.  John  Richard  was  commonly  known  as 
John  Reshaw.  this  being  derived  from  many  western  travelers  misun- 
derstanding the  French  pronunciation  of  the  name  Richard.  Through- 
out this  article  this  bridge  near  Muddy  Creek  will  be  referred  to  as  the 
Parkerton  Bridge.  The  community  known  as  Parkerton  did  not  exist 
until  many  years  after  this  bridge  was  gone,  but  for  the  sake  of 
dilTerentiatingthis  bridge  from  later  bridges  on  the  North  Platte  River, 
this  name  will  be  used.  For  Richard's  life  and  career,  see  Stewart 
Monroe,  genealogist  of  the  Richard  family,  to  the  author.  1999-2002; 
Joan  Leaneagh.  genealogist  of  the  Cote  family,  to  the  author.  1999; 
James  L.  Richards  and  Warren  K.  Gordon,  genealogists  of  the  Richard 
family,  to  the  author.  1999;  McDermott.  John  Baptiste  Richard.  11. 
289-290.  295-296;  Flila  Gilbert.  -Big  Bat  '  Poiirwr  -  Guide  &  Inter- 
preter. Fort  Laramie  18^0-1880  {,S,\\a\Aa.n.  Wyoming:  Mills  Com- 
pany. 1968),  4;  Gregory  M.  Franzwa.  Maps  of  the  Oregon  Trail. 
(Gerald.  Missouri:  Patrice  Press.  1982).  117. 
'"  McDermott.  John  Baptiste  Richard.  II.  296;  Barry.  988. 
"  Pierre  (Peter)  Richard,  ten  years  younger  than  his  brother  John, 
was  bom  September  4.  1820.  in  St.  Charles.  Missouri.  See  Monroe; 
McDermott,  Jo/;«  Baptiste  Richard.  11.  297;  Barry.  987;  Brian  Jones, 
Those  Wild  Reshaw  Boys  (Frances  B.  Taunton,  editor.  Sidelights  of 
the  Sioivi  liars.  London:  English  Westerners  Society  Special  Publi- 
cation No.  2.  1967).  9. 
'•  Jones.  1 1. 

"  Jones,  p.  1 2.  42;  F.  W.  Cragin,  Interview  of  William  T  Eubank  on 
August  18.  1908.  at  Denver.  Colorado.  Cragin  Notebooks  1.  p.  5/25 
&  6/26;  Rev.  J.  McAllister:  Paul  Henderson,  ed..  "Rev.  J.  McAllister 
Diary."  .4nnals  of  Wyoming  32  (October  1960),  225. 
'''  Bissonette  first  allied  with  Richard  in  the  Sibille  and  Adams  Trad- 
ing Company  in  1842.  He  was  next  partners  with  Richard  and  sev- 
eral other  Richard  family  members  at  Fort  Bernard  m  1845.  Charles 
E.  Hanson  Jr..  ed..  The  David  .Adams  Journals.  (Chadron:  Museum 
of  the  Fur  Trade.  1994),  48.  Joseph  Bissonette  (1818-1894)  was  the 
son  of  Louis  Bissonette  (1774-1836).  He  should  not  be  confused 
with  his  uncle.  Joseph  Bissonette.  who  became  known  as  Jose 
Bissonette.  after  obtaining  Mexican  citizenship  in  the  early  1800's 
in  Taos.  John  D.  McDermott,  Joseph  Bissonette.  in  Leroy  Hafen. 
ed..  .Mountain  .Men  and  the  Fur  Trade  of  the  Far  West,  (Glendale: 
Arthur  H.  Clark  Company),  IV.  49-60.  Joseph  Bissonette  was  also 
the  nephew  of  Paul  Primeau.  who  was  appointed  the  administrator 
of  his  father's  estate  January  2,  1837.  His  uncle,  Joseph  "Jose" 
Bissonette.  was  still  living  in  Taos  at  the  time.  John  C  Luttig.  Jour- 
nal of  a  Fur  Trading  Expedition  on  the  Upper  Missouri  181 2-181 3. 
(New  York:  Argosy-Antiquarian  Ltd..  1964).  148-149. 
'^  Barry.  1127. 


!28 


Annals  of  Wyoming;  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Richard  was  joined  again  with  his  former  partners,  Jo- 
seph Bissonette  and  Charles  Bordeaux,  along  with  a  group 
offive  new  partners.'"  This  bridge  would  be  constructed 
only  200  feet  above  the  second  location  of  the  1 847 
Mormon  Ferry,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  above  the  popular 
ford  known  as  the  California  Crossing."  Two  of  the  five 
new  partners  were  Louis  Guinard  and  William 
Kenceleur.'* 

Bissonette  was  heavily  involved  in  the  partnership  of 
the  bridge  from  its  onset.  In  January  1853,  he  wrote  to 
Thomas  Pim  in  St.  Louis.  He  asked  Pirn  to  keep  books 
for  their  company  that  was  building  a  new  bridge  across 
the  North  Platte  River." 

In  a  "Notice  to  Califomians,"  Bissonette,  Kenceleur 
&  Co.  stated  in  the  5"/.  Joseph  Gazette  on  February  23, 
1 853.  that  a  "substantial"  bridge  across  the  North  Platte 
River  would  be  finished  "in  time  for  the  earliest  trains". 
The  advertisement  continued: 

There  will  be  at  the  Bridge  two  Blacksmith  and  Wagon 
maker's  shops,  for  the  accommodation  of  emigrants.  The 
company  will  have  a  good  Grocery  Store  and  eating  house, 
and  all  kinds  of  Indian  handled  peltries,  also  oxen,  cows, 
horses,  and  mules  at  low  prices  . . .  Bissonette,  Kenceleur, 
&  Co.'s.  St.  Joseph  agent,  R.  L.  McGhee. 

Richard  built  a  log  cabin,  blacksmith  shop  and  other 
buildings  at  the  bridge  on  the  south  side  of  the  river,  in 
time  for  the  first  wagon  train's  arrival.  Perhaps  good  for- 
tune was  finally  smiling  on  him  as  the  Fort  Laramie  Bridge 
washed  out  that  spring.  He  had  liquidated  that  partner- 
ship before  incurring  further  losses.-" 

Richard  had  learned  his  lessons  in  bridge  building.  He 
employed  Joseph  McKnight  at  the  bridge  for  several 
years  who  described  the  bridge.  The  new  bridge  was  built 
on  several  wooden  piers,  made  of  heavy  timbers  in  a 
diamond  shape  to  divert  the  water  around  them;  they 
were  then  filled  with  rock  for  stability.  The  north  abut- 
ment was  a  sandstone  cliff  that  rose  several  feet  above 
the  high  water  line.  The  south  end  of  the  bridge  was 
slightly  lower  as  it  extended  some  distance  to  meet  the 
sloping  prairie.  To  further  strengthen  the  piers  they  were 
cross-timbered  internally  before  the  rock  was  added. 
These  piers  were  30-40  feet  apart  and  spanned  by  logs 
hauled  from  the  mountain,  seven  miles  to  the  south.  Af- 
ter all  had  been  braced,  stayed,  and  fastened  together 
with  iron  bolts,  the  deck  was  laid.  Made  from  four-inch 
thick  hand-sawn  planks,  each  was  hand  fit  tightly  together 
and  spiked  to  the  span  logs.  Afterward  a  heavy  railing 
was  installed  to  prevent  livestock  from  drifting  over  the 
side.  This  railing  carried  extra  bracing  at  each  of  the 
piers  to  further  strengthen  the  structure.  The  completed 
bridge  overall  was  about  1,000  feet  long  and  15-18  feet 


"  In  1845-1846  John  Richard  was  the  proprietor  of  Fort  Bernard,  a 
trading  post  established  below  Fort  Laramie  near  present  Lingle.  Fort 
Bernard  was  base  for  the  trading  business  of  "Richard  and  Com- 
pany." This  partnership  included  John  Richard's  brother  Peter,  Jo- 
seph Bissonette,  and  his  brothers-in-law,  Charles  Bordeaux  and  Charles 
B.  Branham.  Bordeaux  married  Rosalie  Richard  in  St.  Charles,  Mo.,  in 
1839.  Many  references  to  the  Bordeaux  of  the  Richard  &  Company 
partnership  state  that  this  was  James  Bordeaux  of  the  American  Fur 
Company,  but  a  few  years  ago  this  author  proved  that  he  was  not  the 
Bordeaux  in  this  partnership.  Studies  suggest  that  John  Richard's 
brother-in-law,  Charles  Bordeaux,  was  the  partner.  Branham  married 
Mary  Elizabeth  Richard  (his  second  wife)  August  2,  1843,  in  St. 
Charles,  Mo.  He  was  bom  in  Kentucky  in  1811.  He  died  in  Boone 
County,  Mo.,  in  1 893.  Monroe;  McDermott,  John  Baptiste  Richard, 
II,  294;  F.  W.  Cragin,  Interview  ofl'incente  Trujillo  on  November  9, 
1907,  atAvondale.  Colorado,  Cragin  Notebooks  X,  p.  6/29-6/30. 
"  The  new  bridge  was  known  as  The  Bridge  or  Platte  Bridge  until 
1 860,  when  Louis  Guinard  built  another  bridge  a  few  miles  upstream. 
It  then  became  known  as  Reshaw's  (Richard's)  Bridge  or  Lower  Platte 
Bridge  while  the  other  was  called  Guinard's  Bridge  or  Upper  Platte 
Bridge.  Thomas  Nicholas,  then  Evansvllle  town  attorney,  found  the 
exact  location  of  Reshaw's  Bridge  in  the  1960s.  The  town  erected  a 
replica  of  the  southern  portion  of  the  bridge  in  1979.  The  bridge  Is 
located  In  Reshaw  Park,  about  1 00  yards  west  of  the  current  bridge  to 
the  Oregon  Trail  Veteran's  Cemetery.  "Timbers  From  Old  Reshaw 
Bridge  Found,"  Casper  Star  Tribune,  October  9,  1966,  4. 
"  Guinard,  a  partner  in  Richard's  Bridge,  his  own  bridge  eight  years 
later,  seven  miles  upstream  from  Richard's  Bridge.  William  Eubank 
said  that  John  Richard  and  Louis  Bernard  [Guinard]  had  been  part- 
ners in  Richard's  Bridge.  Around  1855  they  "got  at  outs,  and  the 
latter  went  and  built  a  bridge  about  75  miles  further  up  the  Platte 
[Sweetwater  Bridge]."  They  became  enemies.  Since  Eubank  had  been 
a  freighter  along  the  Platte  and  had  associated  with  both  men  at  this 
time,  he  likely  had  first  hand  knowledge  of  this  partnership  and  the 
break-up.  Cragin,  William  T.  Eubank,  notebook  I.  p.  5/25  &  6/26. 
'*  McDermott,  Joseph  Bissonette.  IV,  54. 

"  Robert  A.  Murray,  "Trading  Posts.  Forts  and  Bridges  of  the  Casper 
Area."  in  Bison  Hunters  to  Black  Gold.  (Casper:  Wyoming  Histori- 
cal Press,  1986),  10. 

^"  William  Kenceleur  was  bom  in  1804  In  eastern  Canada.  A  carpen- 
ter, he  lived  In  Missouri  for  many  years  and  moved  with  his  family  to 
Rulo.  Neb.,  in  1855,  where,  along  with  Ell  Plant,  he  was  one  of  the 
early  pioneers.  By  1860  several  of  John  Richard's  sisters  had  also 
moved  to  Rulo  and  lived  two  houses  away  from  Kenceleur's  family. 
Bissonette  and  Kenceleur  probably  were  partners  in  the  bridge  from 
the  beginning,  but  the  wording  of  the  ad  suggests  that  they  also  had  a 
separate  partnership  In  another  trading  post.  Census  of  Rulo, 
Richardson  County,  Nebraska.  1860;  Lewis  C.  Edwards,  Who's  Who 
in  Nebraska,  1940  (NEGenWeb  Project -Richardson  County);  Barry, 
1 140:  McDermott,  John  Baptiste  Richard.  II,  298;  Jones,  1 1 . 
-'  This  sum  was  an  exaggeration,  as  Richard  quoted  to  others  lower 
figures.  Joseph  McKnight,  born  in  Canada  in  1829,  is  often  called  Joe 
or  Joseph  Knight.  Some  have  apparently  dropped  the  "Mc"  in  an 
Americanization  of  the  name.  His  family  moved  to  the  U.S.  three  or 
four  years  later.  In  1848hemoved  to  Minnesota,  then  the  next  year  to 
Fort  Benton.  After  two  years  he  moved  to  St.  Louis.  In  the  fall  of 
1852,  he  was  headed  for  Fort  Laramie.  He  may  have  joined  either 
John  Richard's  sheep  expedition  or  Bissonette's  wagon  train.  He  may 
have  been  Involved  in  building  Richard's  Bridge  and  may  have  even 
designed  it.  C.  G.  Coutant,  (Unpublished  Notebooks,  Coutant  Col- 
lection. Wyoming  State  Archives.  Cheyenne.  Wyoming),  box  4.  folder 
53,  book  36:  Joseph  McKnight.  Indian  Depredation  Claim  #8081, 
RG  123.  cited  by  McDermott,  Frontier  Crossroads.  7-8.  1 14. 


Summer  !2002 


29 


wide.  McKnight  also  reported  that  the  bridge  cost  some 
$40,000  to  build.-' 

John  Murray  reported  a  very  similar  description  of  the 
bridge  in  his  journal,  when  he  saw  it  in  1 853: 

The  bridge  is  a  substantial  structure-  It  has  8  wood 
framed  piers  filled  &  sunk  with  rock  &  the  reaches  are 
supported  by  heavy  braces-  The  sides  are  railed  up  & 
bottom  planked  &c  .  .  ..  Some  of  the  timbers  look  to  be 
sawed  perhaps  by  hand-  Where  they  got  the  timber  I  cant 
see." 

On  June  1 1 ,  the  wagon  train  that  Sarah  Sutton  was  on 
crossed  Richard's  Bridge.  Sutton  believed  the  $500  that 
Richard  charged  for  the  crossing  of  their  train  was  little 
short  of  highway  robbery.  Nathaniel  Myer.  who  also  dealt 
with  Richard  that  day  from  another  train,  was  forced  to 
sell  him  one  of  his  oxen.  "Campment  all  around  us. 
Passed  two  trading  places. ..Sold  one  of  our  oxen  at  $  1 8; 
he  got  lame."  If  the  first  season  for  the  new  bridge  was 
any  indication,  Richard's  ill-fated  luck  of  the  past  few 
years  was  soon  to  change.-' 

Richard  evidently  used  the  cost  of  the  bridge  to  ex- 
plain to  his  potential  customers  why  his  toll  fee  was  as 
high  as  it  was.  Richard  reported  as  many  various  costs 
of  construction  as  he  charged  wagon  trains  varying  prices, 
depending  on  the  conditions  of  fording  the  river.  When  J. 
R.  Bradway  crossed  the  bridge  at  the  end  of  June,  Rich- 
ard charged  eight  dollars  per  wagon.  He  also  told 
Bradway  that  the  bridge  cost  $15,000  to  build,  his  own 
way  of  reasoning  the  higher  toll.  As  the  water  in  the 
North  Platte  River  rose,  so  did  the  toll,  and  so  did  Richard's 
reported  cost  to  build  the  bridge.-^ 

When  John  Murray  arrived  at  the  bridge  a  few  days 
later,  he  patronized  Richard's  blacksmith  shop  and  trad- 
ing posts.  He  reported  trading  posts  on  both  sides  of  the 
river,  in  order  to  take  advantage  of  all  possible  custom- 
ers. William  Brown  substantiated  the  fact:  "...passed  a 
fine  bridge  made  of  pine. ..last  crossing  place  on  Platte 
River.  At  the  bridge  there  was  2  trading  posts,  black- 
smith shop&  several  Indian  Wigwams."  The  water  was 
beginning  to  recede,  lowering  the  toll  rate  by  that  day 
back  to  six  dollars  per  wagon.-' 

On  July  1 ,  1 853,  Dr.  John  Smith  arrived  at  the  bridge 
and  his  wagon  train  camped  there  that  night.  He  was 
told  that  the  bridge  cost  $16,000  to  build  and  Richard 
was  still  charging  his  six-dollar  per  wagon  rate.  Richard 
told  Smith  that  3,000  wagons  had  crossed  the  bridge  that 
year.  The  following  day  Smith  passed  the  old  site  of  the 
Mormon  Ferry,  noting  that  it  was  abandoned  due  to  the 
competition  from  the  new  bridge.-" 

Count  Leonetto  Cipriani  crossed  Richard's  Bridge  at 
the  end  of  July.  With  the  rapidly  dropping  level  of  the 


Platte  River,  Richard  had  dropped  the  toll  by  more  than 
half  Cipriani  described  his  visit  at  the  bridge: 

At  noon  we  were  at  the  bridge,  property  of  four  Cana- 
dian brothers.  Alone  except  for  the  help  from  the  Indi- 
ans, they  had  been  able  to  erect  a  bridge  of  twelve  arches, 
entirely  of  cedar,  with  piers  formed  of  huge  n-ee  trunks  and 
filled  with  gravel.  Though  the  toll  could  be  considered 
moderate,  three  dollars  per  wagon  And  four  for  every  hun- 
dred head,  the  bridge  assured  them  a  good  income.-' 

In  1853  "Captain  Stewart"  recruited  William  K.  Sloan, 
a  fellow  Scotsman,  to  accompany  him  with  a  train  of 
freight-wagons  to  his  farm  near  Salt  Lake  City.  When 

"  Murray's  wagon  train  was  travelling  the  north  side  of  the  river,  or 
Chiles"  Route  as  it  is  often  referred  to.  The  nearest  timber  was  on 
what  was  then  known  as  the  Black  Hills,  now  called  Casper  Moun- 
tain, a  distance  of  several  miles,  and  was  probably  not  visible  on  the 
cloudy  day  he  reported  in  his  journal.  John  Murray,  Journal.  (Un- 
published Manuscript,  Special  Collections.  Washington  State  His- 
torical Society),  T-177,  box  I.  folder  12,  p,  66-67. 
'■''  The  migration  season  of  1853  was  enormous.  When  Myer  stated. 
"Campment  all  around  us,"  he  did  not  exaggerate.  Thousands  of  set- 
tlers crossed  the  trail  that  year.  Sarah  Sutton  diary,  cited  in  McDermott 
John  Baptiste  Richard.  11,  299;  Nathaniel  Myer;  Edward  B.  Ham, 
editor.  Journey  Into  Southern  Oregon:  Diary  of  a  Pennsylvania  Dutch- 
man -  Oregon  Historical  Society  Magazine ^ 
"  Diary  of  J.  R.  Bradway,  p.  43.  Library  of  the  State  Historical 
Society  of  Wisconsin.  Bradway  left  a  letter  and  a  portion  of  his 
journal  with  Richard  to  be  sent  back  home  with  the  first  eastbound 
traveler  that  happened  by.  Bradway  reported  a  coal  mine  in  the  north 
bank  of  the  river  that  Richard  used  to  fuel  the  fires  in  his  blacksmith's 
shops,  and  to  heat  his  home  and  other  business  enterprises. 
'^  At  the  trading  post  Murray  purchased  flour  at  ten  dollars  per 
hundred  weight.  After  having  his  team  shod,  he  bought  extra  shoes  at 
adollar  per  pair  and  nails  at  seventy-five  cents  per  dozen.  Ibid  :  John 
Murray,  66-68;  William  Richard  Brown,  IVdliam  Richard  Brown  - 
D/arv,  (Mokelumne  Hill,  California;  privately  printed,  1985).  44. 
-''  Diary  of  Dr.  John  Smith,  1853,  Huntington  Library.  Portions  of 
the  diary  were  copied  by  Susan  Badger  Doyle  for  the  author  in  1 996. 
-'  Cipriani  was  likely  amused  by  the  vast  number  of  Indian  lodges 
surrounding  the  bridge  and  assumed  that  they  had  assisted  in  its 
construction.  More  likely  they  were  some  of  Richard's  many  Indian 
friends  and  family  partaking  of  his  well-known  generosity.  Count 
LeonetXo  C\\>nw\\.  Califonua  and 0\<erland Diaries.  (Champoeg  Press, 
1962),  89;  McDermott,  Frontier  Crossroads.  1 .  The  four  Canadian 
brothers  were  most  likely  John  and  Peter  Richard,  Joseph  Bissonette 
and  Charles  Bordeaux.  Joseph  Richard,  bom  in  St.  Charles,  Mo.,  in 
1 823.  the  youngest  Richard  brother,  was  living  in  Pueblo.  Monroe;  in 
the  early  1 840s  Joseph  was  working  for  his  brother  John  Richard  and 
Sibille  &  Adams.  Hanson,  94.  By  1 846  Joseph  was  operating  a  trad- 
ing post  at  Pueblo  and  remained  there  until  the  late  1850s.  Vincente 
Trujillo  traveled  from  Taos  to  Pueblo  with  A.  C.  Metcalfin  1846.  He 
listed  "Jo  Rashaw"  among  the  residents  in  the  trading  and  trapping 
industry.  F.  W.  Cragin,  Interview  ofi'incente  Trujillo  on  November  9, 
I9(r.  at  .Avondale.  Colorado.  Cragin  Notebooks,  X.  p.  6/29-6/30. 
Tom  Autobees  stated  that  Joe  Richard  had  a  store  at  Pueblo  and 
although  John  and  Peter  visited  there,  Joe  was  the  only  one  of  the 
brothers  who  actually  resided  there.  F.  W.  Cragin,  Interview  of  Tom 
Autobees  on  July  28.  1908.  at  Avondale.  Colorado.  Cragin  Note- 
books, I.  p.  2/9-2/10. 


30 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


they  arrived  at  Richard's  Bridge  the  train  was  in  poor 
condition.  Sloan  wrote: 

...  a  hundred  and  twenty  miles  west  from  [Fort]  Laramie 
we  again  crossed  the  north  fork  of  the  Platte  but  on  a 
bridge  the  only  one  we  had  seen  since  starting,  this  bridge 
was  built  by  a  Canadian  Frenchman  named  John  Richard 
the  winter  and  spring  preceding,  and  certainly  was  a  good 
investment,  the  bridge  cost  not  over  $5,000.00  dollars 
and  his  receipts  that  season  were  over  $40,000.00  from 
the  bridge  alone.-* 

Richard  bartered  for  the  toll  across  his  bridge,  espe- 
cially if  the  traveler  had  something  he  wanted.  It  has 
been  said  that  his  modest  log  cabin  at  the  bridge  was  the 
most  elaborately  furnished  home  between  St.  Louis  and 
San  Francisco. 

When  William  Sloan  arrived  at  the  bridge,  he  soon 
learned  the  practice  of  bartering: 

There  were  quite  a  number  of  mountaineers  located 
about  the  place  and  all  very  thirsty,  from  some  of  the 
men  they  ascertained  that  we  had  a  five  gallon  keg  of 
whiskey  aboard  the  train,  they  must  have  it,  price  was  no 
object.  Stewart  finally  agreed  to  let  them  have  it,  in  con- 
sideration of  our  crossing  the  bridge  free,  which  was 
equivalent  to  $  1 25.00  for  the  whiskey. 

John  Richard,  well  experienced  in  the  price  of  whis- 
key, was  controlling  a  seething  rage  at  Stewart's  price, 
but  it  was  a  seller's  market/  While  bartering  for  the  whis- 
key he  was  eyeing  Stewart's  obviously  dilapidated  live- 
stock. Richard  merely  had  to  wait  for  the  next  stage  of 
the  barter  to  reclaim  his  loss,  which  he  did  as  Sloan  soon 
reported.  "...  we  had  several  head  of  oxen  too  lame  to 
travel  farther,  and  it  was  necessary  for  us  either  to  leave 
them  on  the  road  or  sell  them  which  we  did  to  Richard  at 
$2.50  per  head,  paying  him  $  1 00  per  head  for  fresh  and 
fat  ones  to  take  their  place."  Sloan  seemed  not  to  realize, 
that  these  one-hundred  dollar  oxen  had  been  in  the  same 
condition  as  his  two  and  a  half  dollar  oxen  now  were.-' 

John  Richard  learned  the  value  of  healthy  animals  to 
the  emigrants  while  trading  near  Fort  Laramie.  He 
brought  to  the  bridge  all  the  livestock  he  could  acquire 
prior  to  the  emigrant  season  and  had  seen  a  substantial 
income  from  trading  them  throughout  the  year.  He  turned 
the  animals  out  on  the  rich  grassy  range  and  mountain 
spring  v/ater  of  Reshaw  Creek,  now  known  as  Elk  Horn 
Creek  where  they  would  soon  recover  from  the  strenu- 
ous work,  poor  feed  and  alkali  water  along  the  trail.  The 
grazing  along  Reshaw  Creek  was  convenient  to  his  loca- 
tion at  the  bridge.^" 

The  bridge,  with  the  cooperatively  aggressive  spring 
waters  of  the  North  Platte  River,  was  off  to  a  booming 
start.  On  November  2,  1 853,  J.  Soule  Bowman  reported 


to  the  Missouri  Republican  that  at  a  point  150  miles 
above  Fort  Laramie:  "Here  a  substantial  bridge  has  been 
erected  over  the  river  at  which  emigrants  can  cross  their 
stock  in  safety,  and  at  a  fair  price."  Although  his  dis- 
tance may  have  been  off  by  a  few  miles,  and  the  price 
may  have  varied  with  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  river.  Bow- 
man passed  on  to  the  public  the  first  published  statement 
by  any  unbiased  party  who  had  actually  seen  the  bridge. 
Other  bridges  had  been  advertised  as  "substantial"  and 
were  washed  away  before  the  emigrants  could  get  there 
to  use  them.  Here  was  a  bridge  that  had  withstood  the 
spring  floods  of  1 853  and  would  be  there  for  those  who 
would  make  the  trip  across  the  trail  next  year.^' 

During  the  spring  of  1 854,  Peter  Gamier  was  working 
at  Richa'd's  Bridge.  His  Indian  wife  gave  birth  to  a  son; 
the  first  known  child  to  be  bom  in  the  settlement  that 
was  forming  on  the  south  bank  of  the  river.  This  new 
arrival  was  named  Baptiste,  but  everyone  called  the  boy 
Bat.  Richard  was  very  fond  of  the  boy.  Baptiste  Gamier, 
nearly  from  infancy,  was  less  than  enthused  with  his  older 
sisters.  Instead  he  attached  himself  to  John  Richard's 
sons.  The  admiration  was  seemingly  mutual  and  Bat  grew 
up  virtually  as  a  brother  to  the  Richard  boys." 

The  toll  business  at  Richard's  Bridge  was  not  as  lucra- 
tive in  1 854  as  it  had  been  the  previous  year.  The  nor- 

'*  "'Autobiography  of  William  K.  Sloan."  Annals  of  Wyoming.  4  (July 
1926).  245-246. 
■'  [bid 

-™  Stewart  had  profited  by  about  twenty-five  times  his  purchase 
price  on  the  whisicey  trade,  which  is  certainly  a  nice  margin,  but 
Richard  gained  forty  times  his  investment  on  the  oxen,  which  sub- 
stantially compensated  for  his  loss  on  the  whiskey.  John  Richard 
may  have  had  ver>  little  education,  but  he  fully  understood  the  value 
of  the  goods  and  services  that  he  dealt  in,  and  most  assuredly  was  an 
extremely  shrewd  businessman  at  the  bargaining  table.  John  Richard 
was  well  known  for  having  good  livestock  to  sell  to  the  emigrants.  He 
advertised  it  in  eastern  newspapers.  He  was  one  of  the  pioneers  in 
this  method  of  refreshing  the  animals,  but  the  practice  was  not  un- 
common. His  range  was  along  Reshaw  Creek  and  that  this  is  why  the 
creek  acquired  that  name.  Sgt.  Isaac  Pennock  mentioned  the  creek  in 
two  separate  areas  of  his  diary.  Although  his  distances  varied  in 
accuracy,  his  descriptions  of  this  and  other  nearby  drainages  indi- 
cate it  to  have  been  what  is  now  called  Elk  Horn  Creek:  '"This  fight 
along  Reshaw  Creek,  four  miles  from  Lower  [B]ridge."  "...  three 
miles  from  [lower]  Bridge,  passed  Reshaw  Creek  7  miles  from  up- 
per bridge."  Sgt.  Isaac  "Jake"  Pennock,  "Diary  of  Jake  Pennock, 
1 865,"  Annals  of  Wyoming,  23  (July.  1 95 1 ),  1 2.  22.  Magloire  Mosseau 
also  confirmed  the  location  of  Reshaw  Creek.  He  stated  the  order  of 
available  water  in  the  vicinity  on  the  south  side  of  the  river  as;  "Deer 
Creek.  Cottonwood  Springs,  Muddy  Creek,  Richard  (Reshaw)  Creek, 
Willow  Creek,  Fort  Caspar."  Ricker,  Magloire  Mosseau,  tablet  28,  p. 
47-48. 

^'  J.  Soule  Bowman,  Missouri  Republican,  November  2, 1853,  cited 
in  Jones,  1 1. 

"  Nothing  seems  to  be  known  about  Peter  Gamier  or  where  he  came 
from.  Jones,  1 5. 42.  J.  W,  Vaughn,  The  Reynolds  Campaign  on  Pow- 
der River  (Norman:  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  1961),  142. 


Summer  '-200'2 


31 


mally  high  waters  of  the  spring  never  came.  Almost  a 
year  to  the  day  after  Richard  had  charged  Sarah  Sutton's 
wagon  train  $500  to  cross,  he  charged  Thomas  Reber's 
entire  wagon  train  only  $38.  He  lowered  his  tolls  hoping 
to  attract  the  emigrants  to  his  blacksmith  shop  and  trad- 
ing post.  The  previous  year's  boom  never  came.  Possi- 
bly due  to  the  dryness  of  the  season,  the  Siou,\  were 
antagonistic  to  the  settlers  along  the  trail.  Traffic  was 
only  moderate  in  comparison  to  previous  years.'' 

The  first  significant  conflict  between  Indians  and  whites 
occurred  in  August,  1 854,  along  the  North  Platte  River. 
Shortly  before  arriving  at  Fort  Laramie,  a  Mormon  wagon 
train  had  a  withering  ox  that,  too  lame  to  pull  a  heavy 
wagon,  lagged  along  behind  the  train  on  the  trail.  A 
Miniconjou  warrior,  High-Forehead,  saw  the  straggler. 
He  shot  the  ox  and  took  it  to  a  nearby  Brule  village,  where 
he  had  been  staying.  The  highest-ranking  chief  of  the 
Brule  Sioux,  Conquering-Bear,  headed  the  village.  The 
owner  of  the  ox  complained  to  Fort  Laramie  authorities. 

On  August  19,  1854,  young  Lt.  John  L.  Grattan,  was 
sent  with  some  30  soldiers  and  two  cannons  to  confront 
Conquering-Bear.  When  the  old  chief  could  not  produce 
the  missing  ox,  Grattan  apparently  shot  and  wounded 
Conquering-Bear.  The  Brule  warriors  returned  fire  on 
Grattan  and  his  troops,  killing  all  of  the  soldiers  except 
one,  who  escaped  to  the  fort  before  succumbing  to  his 
wounds.  Following  what  would  soon  be  known  as  the 
Grattan  Massacre,  the  seriously  wounded  Conquering- 
Bear  was  taken  the  short  distance  to  James  Bordeaux's 
trading  post  where  he  died.  Bordeaux  had  evidently  been 
given  the  responsibility  of  dispensing  a  portion  of  the 
Indian's  annuity  goods,  which  he  stored  at  the  trading 
post.  Following  the  death  of  their  chief  the  Brule  band 
then  ransacked  Bordeaux's  post  and  in  addition  to  the 
annuities,  took  nearly  everything  that  Bordeaux  owned. 
Jefferson  Davis,  then  Secretary  of  War,  considered  the 
Grattan  Massacre  "the  result  of  a  deliberately  formed 
plan"  by  the  Sioux  to  rob  the  annuity  goods  from 
Bordeaux's  Trading  Post." 

On  November  29,  1 854,  Major  William  Hoffman  was 
in  command  of  Fort  Laramie  and  reported  1,000  lodges 
of  Sioux  were  camped  on  the  headwaters  of  the  Run- 
ning Water  (Niobrara  River)  and  were  planning  a  war 
against  the  whites  throughout  the  winter.  Although  In- 
dian Agent  A.  D.  Vaughn  at  Fort  Pierre  filed  a  similar 
report,  it  was  not  the  season  that  the  Sioux  would  nor- 
mally go  to  war,  and  they  did  not  stage  any  attacks  until 
the  following  spring." 

In  the  fall  of  1854  John  Richard  contracted  Joseph 
McKnight  to  make  some  significant  repairs  on  the  bridge 
during  the  off-season.  Richard  then  assembled  his  en- 
tourage and  went  to  the  Green  River  to  trade  for  horses 


through  the  winter.  Richard  and  his  men  spent  the  entire 
winter  collecting  a  sizeable  herd  of  mixed  horses  and 
mustangs.  Many  of  these  animals  were  tamed,  but  the 
crew  spent  any  available  time  breaking  them  to  harness. 
After  a  long  and  hard  winter's  work  the  men  finally  re- 
turned to  the  Platte  in  the  spring  of  1855  with  a  large 
herd  of  replacement  stock  for  the  emigrant  season.'* 

Joseph  Merivale  was  on  this  horse-trading  and  hunt- 
ing expedition.  He  described  their  return  to  the  bridge: 

We  burned  off  the  old  grass  to  let  the  new  grass  grow, 
one  night  five  Crow  Indians  came  in  and  told  us  that  they 
saw  a  party  of  Blackfeet,  that  night  the  ponies  were  all 
stolen;  I  followed  them  the  next  morning  with  two  Oglalas, 
Torn-Belly  and  Black-Hills  ...  on  the  best  of  a  few  tired- 
out  mounts  that  the  Indians  had  left,  we  followed  them 
about  25  miles  to  the  north  but  did  not  overtake  them. 

All  that  they  had  worked  months  for  had  been  lost 
overnight." 

In  the  spring  of  1 852,  Magloire  Mosseau  had  gone  to 
work  as  a  clerk  at  the  Devil's  Gate  Trading  Post,  erected 
by  the  partnership  of  Charles  Lajeunesse,  Hubert  Papin, 
and  Moses  and  Charley  Perat.  All  of  these  men  had  ear- 
lier been  either  partners  or  employees  of  the  American 
Fur  Company.  In  1855,  Louis  Guinard  joined  the  part- 
nership. With  this  new  addition,  the  partners  erected  a 
toll  bridge  spanning  the  Sweetwater  River  seven  miles 
below  the  trading  post,  just  downstream  from  Indepen- 
dence Rock.'* 

John  Richard  had  hoped  to  recuperate  from  his  losses 
from  the  spring  with  business  at  the  bridge,  but  he  suf- 
fered there  too.  The  emigrant  traffic  came  grinding  to  a 
near  halt  due  to  the  various  marauding  bands  of  Sioux 
along  the  trail.  It  was  not  long  before  the  Army  put  a 
stop  to  all  trade  with  the  Indians  in  the  vicinity.  This  was 
virtually  Richard's  last  remaining  source  of  income  and 
now  it  too  was  gone  for  the  year.  Major  Hoffman  at  Fort 
Laramie  realized  the  importance  of  Richard's  Bridge  to 
the  emigrants  as  well  as  mail  and  freighting  operations. 

"  Thomas  Reber:  Albert  M.  Tewsbury,  editor.  The  Journal  of  Tho- 
mas Reber.  (MA  Thesis.  Claremont  College). 
'■*  Robert  M.  Utiey  and  Wilcomb  E.  Washburn.  American  Heritage 
History  of  the  Indian  Wars  (New  York:  American  Heritage/Bonanza 
Books.  1982),  205;  Stephen  E.  Ambrose.  Crazy  Horse  and  Custer: 
The  Parallel  Lives  of  Two  American  Warriors.  (Garden  City.  N.Y.: 
Doubleday  &  Co.,  1975),  55-60;  McDermott.  James  Bordeaitx.  V. 
73-74;  McDermott,  Frontier  Crossroads.  9;  Jones,  13.  42. 
''  Hyde.  51. 
"■Murray.  10. 

"  Joseph  Merivale.  deposition.  November  2.  1886,  file  8081-123. 
Indian  Claims  Files.  National  Archives.  Cited  by  Murray,  10-11. 
John  Richard  lost  75  horses  to  the  raiding  party.  Hyde,  51. 
"  Ricker,  Magloire  Mosseau.  tablet  28,  p.  15-20. 


32 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


He  requested  a  detachment  of  troops  be  sent  to  protect 
it  from  potential  Indian  depredations.  His  request  was 
approved.  On  October  28,  Lt.  James  Deshler,  with  21 
enlisted  men  and  two  non-commissioned  officers  were 
sent  "to  the  Bridge  1 25  miles  above  this  Post  and  estab- 
lish himself  there  with  a  view  to  prevent  depredations  of 
Indians,  and  to  give  protection  to  the  mails  and  persons 
traveling  on  the  road." 

John  Richard  and  his  family  were  ordered  to  Fort 
Laramie  for  their  own  protection  and,  though  disgruntled, 
they  obeyed.  The  partners  at  Sweetwater  Bridge  and 
Devil's  Gate  were  given  their  choice  of  going  to  Fort 
Laramie  or  Green  River.  Magloire  Mosseau  chose  Fort 
Laramie.  All  of  the  others,  who  had  Shoshone  wives, 
opted  for  Green  River.  Lt.  Deshler.  following  his  orders, 
set  up  camp  on  a  low  hill  southwest  of  the  bridge.  This 
location  had  a  commanding  view  of  both  sides  of  the 
river.  The  site,  however,  was  open  and  the  high-ground 
posture  subjected  his  men,  camped  in  Sibley  tents,  to  the 
severe  winds  for  which  the  area  is  famous.  Conditions 
only  worsened  as  winter  approached.^'* 

Following  the  Grattan  Massacre,  Jefferson  Davis  ap- 
pointed Gen.  William  S.  Harney  to  campaign  against  the 
Sioux.  Little-Thunder,  the  successor  of  Conquering-Bear. 
was  camped  on  Blue  Water  Creek  with  his  village  of  250 
Brules,  mostly  women  and  children,  on  Sept.  3,  1855. 
Harney,  "The-Butcher,"  as  the  Sioux  called  him,  sur- 
rounded the  Brules  and  laid  siege  to  their  camp.  When 
the  smoke  lifted  85  "warriors'"  were  dead,  and  75  women 
and  children  were  captured.^" 

Lt.  John  Mendenhall  was  ordered  from  Fort  Laramie 
to  relieve  Lt.  Deshler  at  the  bridge  in  December.  Major 
Hoffman  offered  John  Richard  a  chance  to  return,  but 
with  the  stipulation  that  he  not  do  business  with  any  Indi- 
ans. Richard  argued  that  the  Indians  were  his  only  po- 
tential customers  at  his  trading  post  during  this  season. 
His  plea  was  ignored  and,  thus,  he  refused  the  offer  to 
return.  The  next  month  Lt.  Robert  Clinton  Hill  took  com- 
mand of  the  detachment  at  Richard's  Bridge.^' 

In  March  1856,  Capt.  Henry  Heth  was  sent  to  take 
charge  of  the  operations  at  the  bridge.  This  time,  John 
Richard  and  his  family  returned  with  him,  but  without 
restrictions.  By  this  time  the  detachment  had  grown  to  a 
full  company,  complete  with  three  officers  and  a  bugler. 
A  mountain  howitzer  was  added  to  increase  their  strength. 
In  February  the  encampment  had  acquired  the  name  of 
"Camp  Davis,"  in  honor  of  Jefferson  Davis,  which  it  re- 
mained until  disbanded.  Richard  was  once  again  in  his 
glory.  The  water  was  high,  emigrant  trade  was  good,  and 
he  was  enjoying  a  fair  amount  of  trade  from  the  soldiers 
of  the  10"'  Infantry  at  Camp  Davis,  only  a  few  hundred 
yards  from  his  trading  post.^- 


Soon  after  Heth's  arrival  at  the  bridge,  the  first  con- 
frontation arose  between  the  Army  and  the  Northern 
Cheyenne.  When  a  band  of  this  tribe  were  camped  near 
the  bridge,  a  young  warrior,  Little  Wolf,  found  a  group  of 
stray  horses  belonging  to  Charles  Antoine,  one  of 
Richard's  employees.  Trying  to  regain  his  missing  horses, 
Antoine  offered  a  reward  for  them.  The  warrior  offered 
to  return  all  but  the  best  horse.  Antoine  then  reported  the 
matter  to  Captain  Heth  who  sent  for  the  chief  of  the 
Cheyenne  band.  The  chief  then  returned  to  his  camp  and 
sent  the  warrior  with  his  cavvy  to  Camp  Davis.  Antoine 
identified  his  four  horses  and  Heth  told  the  young  Indian 
that  he  would  receive  five  dollars  each  for  them  as  a 
reward  for  finding  them.  The  warrior  said  that  it  would 
be  too  difficult  to  separate  them  then  and  that  he  would 
bring  the  horses  in  question  back  the  following  morning. 
This  seemed  acceptable  to  all  parties  and  each  went  their 
separate  ways. 

Later  that  evening,  however,  Heth  learned  that  the 
warrior  still  intended  to  keep  Antoine's  best  horse  and 
would  shoot  anyone  who  tried  to  take  him.  Heth  then 
sent  Lt.  Nathan  Dudley  and  his  men  to  capture  the  In- 
dian, the  horses,  and  the  reward  and  return  them  to  camp. 
When  this  was  done.  Heth  ordered  the  young  warrior 
sent  to  Richard's  blacksmith  shop  and  put  in  irons.  While 
this  was  being  attempted  the  warrior  escaped,  being 
wounded  in  the  process.  Dudley  was  then  sent  back  to 
the  village  to  capture  two  hostages. 

The  following  day  one  of  the  hostages  was  released, 
with  instructions  to  return  with  the  warrior,  or  his  fa- 
ther, if  the  warrior  had  died  from  his  wounds.  Mean- 
while, in  retaliation  for  Heth's  action,  the  warrior  and 
his  father  killed  Peter  Gamier,  who  had  been  returning 
from  Richard's  pastures  on  Reshaw  Creek.  Gamier  had 
been  scalped  and  his  body  mutilated.  Heth's  remaining 

"  Thomas  A.  Nicholas.  '"Platte  Bridge  and  the  Oregon  Trail  in  the 
Civil  War  Period  -  1855-1870."  Casper  Star  Tribune.  February'  19. 
1961,  14,  16-17;  Thomas  A.  Nicholas.  "A  New  Look  at  Richard's 
Upper  Platte  Bridge  and  Trading  Post  at  Evansville.  Wyoming."" 
Casper  Star  Tribune,  n.d..  1963.  12-13,  16;  McDermott.  Frontier 
Crossroads.  1 0;  Ricker.  Magloire  Mosseau.  tablet  28,  p.  1 6-20.  The 
area  occupied  by  this  military  encampment  is  within  the  boundaries 
of  Reshaw  Park  in  the  Town  of  Evansville.  Wyoming.  A  protective 
fence  has  been  erected  pending  further  archaeological  exploration. 
■"'  This  massacre  at  Blue  Water  Creek  was  near  Ash  Hollow.  Since  the 
soldiers  were  the  victors,  it  was  dubbed  a  battle.  Due  to  the  recorder 
of  the  incident's  ignorance  of  the  local  geography,  it  is  usually  referred 
to  as  the  Battle  of  Ash  Hollow.  Utley  and  Washburn.  205-206. 
^'  Nicholas,  ""Platte  Bridge  and  the  Oregon  Trail."  14;  McDermott, 
Frontier  Crossroads.  10-11.  Lt.  Hill's  post  retum  for  that  month  is 
the  only  known  reference  to  the  post  being  called  ""Fort  Clay,"'  pre- 
sumably in  honor  of  former  Secretary  of  State  Henry  Clay. 
"  Among  the  civilians  employed  by  Camp  Davis  was  Nick  Janis, 
as  interpreter.  McDermott.  Frontier  Crossroads,  p.  12;  Robert  A. 
Murray,  p.  13. 


Summer  !200:2 


33 


prisoner,  Wolf-Fire  or  Fire- Wolf  (depending  on  differing 
records),  was  then  sent  to  Fort  Laramie  in  irons.  The 
prisoner  was  successfully  transported  to  the  fort,  but  died 
there  while  incarcerated/' 

By  this  time  Magloire  Mosseau  had  also  moved  to  the 
vicinity  of  Richard's  Bridge.  Mosseau  stated  that  quite 
a  number  of  people  had  collected  at  the  bridge  fonning 
a  small  community.  Richard  employed  many  of  these 
people,  but  not  all;  some  lived  there  for  the  convenience 
and  safety  from  Indians.  Mosseau  established  a  ranch 
some  five  or  six  miles  above  the  bridge  on  the  north  bank 
of  the  river.  At  times  he  had  up  to  200  cattle  and  120 
horses  and  mules.  Some  diaries  of  this  period  mention  a 
trading  post,  mostly  dealing  in  livestock,  near  the  top  of 
the  hill  about  five  miles  beyond  the  bridge.  This  was  pre- 
sumably Mosseau's  operation.  The  date  of  his  departure 
from  this  area  is  not  certain,  but  apparently  around  1 864. 
he  moved  on  to  the  South  Pass  area.^ 

Following  Peter  Gamier's  death,  his  Indian  wife  pre- 
pared to  move  her  son  and  three  daughters  to  Fort 
Laramie.  John  Richard  did  not  wish  to  see  young  Bat 
leave.  Consequently,  Bat  stayed  on  at  the  bridge  as  an 
extended  member  of  the  Richard  family  where  he  stayed 
for  the  next  several  years. ^^ 

On  July  4. 1 856,  the  trading  company  of  Todd  &  Gor- 
don arrived  at  the  bridge  with  a  train  of  freight  wagons 
headed  for  points  west.  Todd  &  Gordon  broke  out  their 
whiskey  and  Capt.  Heth  furloughed  his  men  to  celebrate 
Independence  Day.  J.  Robert  Brown,  employed  by  a  simi- 
lar company  that  arrived  the  following  day,  remained  there 
a  few  days  for  repairs.  The  following  entries  from  his 
journal  describe  the  frontier  military  camp  and  life  at 
Richard's  Bridge: 

Saturday:  July  5.  1856- 

We  soon  came  in  sight  of  the  bridge  across  the  Platte  . 
. .  Just  before  we  got  to  the  buildings,  a  soldier  came  out 
to  meet  us  with  his  gun  and  an  order  from  Capt.  Heath 
[Heth]  to  Yates  &  Maunder  [Brown's  employers]  not  to 
sell  any  liquor  to  any  one.  There  are  several  very  good 
log  buildings  here;  these  are  used  as  a  store,  dwelling 
houses  for  the  traders,  blacksmith  shop,  etc.  There  are 
about  thirty  lodges  belonging  to  the  Crows  and  Sioux,  the 
soldiers  live  in  lodges  also;  there  are  only  fifty-eight  of 
them  here  now;  many  are  deserting  at  every  opportunity.''* 
Todd  &  Gordon  arrived  here  yesterday  morning,  and  the 
Capt.  giving  his  men  the  holiday,  they  had  a  real  drunken 
spree  off  Todd  &  Gordon's  whisky,  of  which  they  sold  a 
large  quantity. 

The  brothers  Richards  (pro.  Reshaw)  own  the  post  and 
the  bridge  here,  and  are  coining  money  from  it;  they  have 
made  over  $200,000  apiece...  They  appear  to  be  very 
clever  men  ...  We  were  to  stop  here  and  get  our  tire  reset 
on  two  wagons.  There  are  a  number  of  men  here  returning 


from  California.  They  speak  in  the  highest  terms  of  the 
country.  They  are  amusing  themselves  by  betting  with 
the  soldiers  ...  There  is  the  most  bustle  and  stir  here  for 
the  small  number  of  men  that  I  have  seen  since  I  left  home. 
This  is  quite  a  busy  place.  Wood  is  very  scarce  here,  and 
we  could  hardly  get  enough  to  bake  our  bread.  Capt.  Heath 
[Heth]  sent  down  a  guard  to  watch  Yates  and  his  wagons, 
to  keep  him  from  selling  whisky  to  the  soldiers.  Yates  is 
ver>'  much  vexed  and  put  out  about  this,  and  calls  it  "tak- 
ing away  the  liberties  of  an  American  citizen  on  his  own 
soil!"  Good.  I  say  .  .  . 

Sunday.  July  6.  1856- 

Moming  cool  and  balmy  ...  After  breakfast,  I  agreed  to 
help  the  blacksmith  work  on  the  wagon.  Whistling  Bill 
and  Theodore  were  sent  up  the  river  about  three  miles  to 
guard  the  cattle.  The  Indians  are  coming  in  from  all  di- 
rections; there  are  three  tribes  represented  among  these. 
Crows,  Sioux.  Shoshones  or  Snakes;  some  are  dressed 
very  gaudily;  there  were  four  or  five  young  chiefs  whom 
I  admired  very  much,  they  were  so  well  dressed  in  their 
wild  romantic  Indian  costume — beads,  feathers,  brass 
rings  and  steel,  buckskin  and  buffalo  robes,  were  all  dis- 
played to  advantage.  They  had  some  very  fine  horses,  of 
which  they  seemed  ver\  proud  .  .  .  Naked  little  Indians, 
male  and  female,  running  all  around  here:  some  of  these 
little  fellows  are  models  of  form.  Other  little  Indians  are 
dressed  as  white  children,  and  exhibit  some  taste. 

Yates  has  been  trading  with  the  Indians  this  morning, 
giving  them  lead,  coffee,  sugar,  etc..  for  their  buckskins.  A 
train  of  California  emigrants  passed  over  the  bridge.  Capt. 
Heath  [Heth]  sent  his  Lieutenant  and  six  men  and  a  little 
w  agon  to  our  camp,  rolled  out  Yates"  whisky  and  put  it  in 
this  little  wagon,  and  rolled  it  off  up  to  camp  Davis,  to  put 
the  disorderly  article  in  limbo.  Todd  &  Gordon  had  to  take 
their  whisky  wagon  up  there,  too  .  .  .  The  whole  of  this 
whisky  matter  has  been  a  source  of  sport  for  me.  I  got  my 
pistol  repaired  to-day  for  one  dollar . . .  Yates  and  Maun- 
der have  sold  $  1 500  worth  of  goods  to  the  Richards  at  a 
fair  profit.  This  has  been  an  active,  exciting  day  to  me;  I 
have  been  busy,  and  had  some  fun. 

'*'  McDemiott.  Frontier  Crossroads.  12-13;  W'illiam  Y,  Chalfant. 
Cheyennes  and  Horse  Soldiers.  (Norman:  University  of  Oklahoma 
Press.  1989).  34-36.  Susan  Bordeaux  Bertelyoun  related  a  stor>'  of 
Trapper  Gamier  being  killed  and  scalped  by  Cheyennes  in  1 857.  This 
could  be  Peter  Gamier,  but  if  so.  Bertelyoun  had  mistaken  the  _\ear. 
This  story  was  hearsa> .  given  that  she  was  bom  that  year.  Bertelyoun. 
69.  J.  W.  Vaughn  related  another  story  of  Gamier's  death,  stating  that 
he  was  mistakenly  killed  one  Saturday  when  he  was  bringing  home  a 
deer  on  his  back  that  he  had  shot.  Vaughn.  1 42. 
"  Ricker.  Magloire  Mosseau.  tablet  28.  p.  21-24.  51. 
'■  Bat  grew  to  learn  both  sides  of  his  mixed  heritage  and  become  one 
of  the  most  outstanding  scouts  and  hunters  the  United  States  military 
ever  employed. Brian  Jones.  42:  Vaughn.  142;  Julie  Dean.  "Transition 
Years.  1880-1890  -  Chapter  Three  -  Fort  Robinson  Illustrated." 
Sebraskaland  Magazine  64  (Nebraska  Game  and  Parks  Commis- 
sion. Januan. -February .  1986).  42-44. 

■"'  The  deserters  were  P'  Sgt.  Edward  Lovejoy  and  Sgt.  Fred  Meredith. 
Both  departed  shortly  after  the  murder  of  Peter  Gamier.  McDermott, 
Frontier  Crossroads.  13. 


S4 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Monday.  July  7,  1856- 

After  breakfast  I  again  helped  the  blacksmith  finish  the 
wagons  ...  Yates  and  Billy  replaced  the  goods  in  three 
wagons,  having  sold  one  to  the  Richards ...  Todd  and  Gor- 
don again  hitched  up  and  left  us,  saying  they  were  going 
to  beat  us  into  Salt  Lake,  or  kill  all  their  oxen.  Yates  says 
they  "sha'nt"  ...  There  are  not  so  many  Indians  about  to- 
day as  there  were  yesterday.  After  the  Crows  left  yester- 
day, the  Sioux  went  out  and  drove  in  all  their  horses  and 
stood  guard  over  them  all  night ... 

"1  went  up  to  the  Captain's  camp  to  get  some  beans.  I 
had  to  wait  until  they  were  done  drilling  the  Company, 
when  the  Captain  invited  me  into  his  lodge.  I  conversed 
with  him  and  his  Lieutenant  for  some  time,  and  found 
them  very  sociable  and  agreeable.  Captain  asked  $10  per 
bushel  for  beans;  this  was  more  than  Yates  said  to  give, 
so  I  returned  without  them.  As  soon  as  1  got  back,  we 
started;  crossed  the  bridge,  which  is  an  excellent  one, 
built  entirely  of  wood.  At  the  north  end  of  this  bridge  is  an 
excellent  coal  mine.  We  traveled  over  a  very  hilly  and 
sandy  road,  and  camped  near  the  river ..." 

Depredations  by  the  Indians  had  been  minimal  along 
the  Platte  for  several  months  and  the  trading  post  had 
grown  into  a  sizeable  civilian  community.  By  the  fall  of 
that  year  the  Army  decided  to  abandon  Camp  Davis. 
Given  earlier  problems  with  the  enlisted  men  at  the  post, 
officials  may  have  feared  that  all  the  men  would  desert  if 
condemned  to  spend  another  winter  at  the  camp.  In  No- 
vember 1 856,  Capt.  Charles  S.  Lovell,  then  in  command 
of  the  camp,  was  ordered  to  pack  up  his  10"'  Infantry 
Company  and  return  to  Fort  Laramie."* 

As  tensions  grew  between  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment and  the  Latter  Day  Saints  in  1 857,  military  troops 
were  sent  to  Utah  in  the  so-called  Mormon  War.  Among 
the  many  officers  ordered  to  Utah  was  Capt.  John  Wolcott 
Phelps.  On  Sept.  13,  1857,  Capt.  Phelps  and  his  com- 
pany of  2"''  Dragoons  arrived  at  "The  Bridge,"  as  he 
reported  was  the  only  name  used  for  Richard's  Bridge  at 
that  time.  He  remarked  on  Richard's  ingenuity  for  creat- 
ing the  structure,  although  low  water  that  fall  allowed  he 
and  his  troops  to  ford  the  river  just  above  "The  Bridge." 
He  also  noted  the  presence  of  the  small  coal  mine  on  the 
north  bank  of  the  river  there.  Richard  had  gone  to  St. 
Louis  and  had  yet  to  return,  but  the  trading  post  did  a 
booming  business  from  Phelps'  troops.  The  company 
camped  a  few  miles  beyond  the  bridge  on  the  north  bank 
of  the  Platte  and  spent  the  following  day  at  rest,  which 
Phelps  explained  was  not  at  all  like  it  sounded.  Rest,  he 
stated,  meant  not  moving.  In  fact  it  is  a  grueling  day  of 
labor,  greasing  wagon  wheels,  shoeing  livestock,  and 
making  all  of  the  numerous  repairs  necessary  to  proceed 
the  following  day.  Phelps  did  manage  to  catch  up  with 
his  correspondence  that  day  and  read  a  copy  of  the 


Mormon's  Deseret  News  that  had  been  picked  up  at 
Richard's  Trading  Post."' 

On  November  30,  1 857,  F.  W.  Lander  presented  a  pre- 
liminary engineering  report  on  the  western  wagon  road 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  Lander's  report  was  not 
presented  to  Congress  until  early  in  1859.  Had  this  re- 
port been  acted  upon  soon  after  its  writing,  America's 
westward  migration  may  have  developed  in  a  consider- 
ably different  manner.  The  following  paragraphs  are  ex- 
cerpts from  that  report  regarding  Richard's  Bridge: 

I  was  guided  by  the  following  conclusion,  viz:  A  large 
sum  of  money  had  been  appropriated  to  build  a  practi- 
cable wagon  road  over  a  route  where  a  practicable  wagon 
road  had  existed  for  the  last  ten  years.  Want  of  grass, 
danger  of  loss  of  stock  by  deleterious  and  poisonous  wa- 
ters, extreme  tolls  levied  by  traders'  bridges,  and  the  cir- 
cuitous route  pursued,  were  difficulties  to  be  overcome 
or  obliviated  .  . . 

A  preliminary  reconnaissance,  made  by  [t]he  chief  en- 
gineer, has  established  the  fact  that  several  days'  travel 
can  be  saved  upon  the  rear  division  between  Fort  Kearney 
and  the  South  Pass.  The  emigration  can  also  be  divided 
on  this  division,  much  sandy  road  avoided,  and  many  of 
the  traders"  bridges  rendered  fi-ee  by  the  expenditure  of 
the  sum  of  $40,000. . . 

In  the  last  instance,  it  is  proposed  that  the  work  is  to  be 
done  during  the  summer  of  1859,  and  after  the  division 
from  the  South  Pass  to  City  of  Rocks  is  completed  the 
bridges  of  the  rear  division  to  be  rendered  free  by  the 
proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  stock  of  the  expedition  when 
the  work  is  over.  This  proposal  to  postpone  the  purchase 
of  the  traders'  bridges  until  1 859  must  be  qualified  by  the 
presumption  of  the  fact  that  the  present  tolls  will  be  an 
exorbitant  tax  on  government  transportation  during  1 858, 
if  large  military  operations  are  carried  on  in  Utah  Terri- 
tory. 

The  arrival  of  Assistant  Engineer  Mullowny  will  bring 
intelligence  of  a  new  route,  by  which  it  is  proposed  to 
avoid  the  bridge  over  the  north  fork  of  the  Platte.  The 
price  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars  ($15,000)  is  asked  for 
the  bridge  by  the  owner,  and  the  passage  of  it  yearly  costs 
the  emigration  from  four  to  ten  thousand  dollars.  The 
bridge  is  offered  for  sale  in  apprehension  of  the  building 
of  a  free  bridge  by  the  wagon  road  expedition.  The  owner, 
Mr.  John  Richard,  is  a  reliable  mountain  trader.  He  pro- 
poses either  to  give  bonds  to  keep  the  bridge  in  good 

^'  The  journal  entries  are  quoted  directly  from  J.  Robert  Brown 's 
Journal.  Yale  University  has  given  their  permission  to  print  them. 
Journal,  J.  Robert  Brown,  Western  Americana  Collection,  Beinecke 
Rare  Book  and  Manuscript  Library,  Yale  University  Library,  New 
Haven,  Connecticut,  51-54. 
■"  Robert  A.  Murray,  14. 

•*'  Capt.  John  Wolcott  Phelps,  Diary  of  August  16,  1857  to  September 
29,  1857.  Rare  Books  and  Manuscripts,  New  York  Public  Library, 
New  York. 


Summer  2002 


35 


repair  for  six  years,  and  to  renew  it  if  destroyed  within  that 
time,  or  to  receive  only  one  sixth  part  of  the  purchase 
money  yearly.  The  same  arrangement  could  undoubtedly 
be  made  in  relation  to  the  bridge  at  [Fort]  Laramie.  In  view 
of  the  large  military  operations  now  going  on  in  the  coun- 
try, the  War  Department  might  properly  join  their  funds 
with  those  of  the  wagon  road  in  the  purchase  of  the  Rich- 
ard bridge...  ■" 

By  early  June  1 858,  the  U.S.  Government  decided  to 
re-establish  a  post  at  Richard's  Bridge  to  protect  and 
assist  the  numerous  trains  of  supplies  that  were  traveling 
west  to  support  the  troops  in  Utah.  Capt.  Joseph  Roberts 
commanded  two  companies  of  artillery  that  arrived  there 
in  July.  More  than  100  men  were  stationed  at  the  new 
■'Post  at  Platte  Bridge,"  including  some  two  dozen  civil- 
ian teamsters.  The  new  post  was  set  up  just  south  of  the 
former  Camp  Davis.  Officially  it  was  the  "Post  at  Platte 
Bridge,"  but  unofficially  it  was  referred  to  as  "Camp 
Payne"  in  honor  of  Lt.  Col.  M.  M.  Payne  of  the  4"^  Ar- 
tillery. The  soldiers  stationed  there  satirically  revamped 
this  popular  name  into  "Camp  Pain  "  shortly  after  Pri- 
vate John  Morgan  died  in  the  post  hospital  that  August. 
One  of  the  junior  officers  at  Camp  Payne  was  1"  Lt. 
Joseph  Claypoole  Clark  Jr.,  a  talented  artist  who  drew  "a 
well  and  neatly  executed  topographical  sketch  of  the  post 
and  its  vicinity. "'' 

Rumors  of  gold  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  had  been  cir- 
culating for  years,  but  most  seekers  of  the  precious  metal 
had  concentrated  their  efforts  in  the  Sierra  Nevadas  of 
California.  Early  in  1 858,  however,  new  information,  pre- 
sumably contributed  by  Indians,  prompted  two  expedi- 
tions into  the  Pike's  Peak  region  of  Colorado.  In  May, 
one  group  left  Lawrence,  Kansas,  in  search  of  the  allur- 
ing yellow  metal.  Shortly  after  their  arrival ,  members  of 
the  Lawrence  Company  were  panning  gold  from  Cherry 
Creek  at  present-day  Denver,  Colorado.  Within  days,  John 
Richard  received  word  of  the  strike  through  his  network. 
He  traveled  to  Fort  Laramie  where  he  and  some  cronies 
set  off  for  the  South  Platte  to  confirm  the  story. 

By  the  end  of  August  word  of  the  gold  strike  had 
reached  St.  Louis  and  John  Richard  was  one  of  the  first 
men  to  have  reported  it.  He  had  arrived  in  Kansas  City 
August  28,  with  reports  that  a  very  rich  gold  find  had 
been  made  and  that  even  with  limited  prospecting  amaz- 
ing results  were  obtained.  He  claimed  two  men  with  poor 
equipment  had  washed  out  $600  in  gold  in  less  than  a 
week.  On  Sept.  1,  1858,  the  Missouri  Republican  re- 
ported that  John  Richard,  Charles  Martin,"  and  William 
Rencleleur  [Kenceleur]  had  recently  arrived  at  Rulo, 
Nebraska  Territory,  with  news  that  gold  had  been  dis- 
covered on  Cherry  Creek.  By  the  time  John  Richard, 
Elmore  King  and  C.  C.  Carpenter  arrived  in  St.  Louis 


the  rush  had  already  begun.  The  excitement  that  these 
reports  had  created  in  St.  Louis  had  kicked  off  the  fa- 
mous Pike's  Peak  Gold  Rush." 

Before  year's  end  John  Richard  had  met  his  brother 
Joseph  at  Cherry  Creek  where  they  opened  the  first  store 
there  and  supplied  the  miners  with  numerous  necessi- 
ties. Joseph  Richard  also  started  a  ranch  on  Clear  Creek, 
some  five  miles  outside  of  the  town  that  would  become 
Denver,  Colo.  Peter  Richard  opened  a  trading  post  at 
Cheyenne  Pass  that  he  ran  in  conjunction  w  ith  his  brother's 
operations  at  Cherry  Creek  and  Richard's  Bridge.  John 
Richard  did  not  give  up  his  bridge  operation  to  work  in 
the  gold  fields;  instead  he  used  both  to  his  advantage. 

The  miners  when  arriving  at  Cherry  Creek  were  often 
too  busy  or  too  broke  to  care  for  the  livestock  that  brought 
them  there.  Consequently,  most  of  these  animals  were 
turned  loose  on  the  prairie  to  fend  for  themselves.  For 
those  who  could  afford  it,  care  and  grazing  were  offered 
(for  a  nominal  fee  of  course)  at  Joseph's  nearby  ranch. 
For  the  rest  Richard  would  offer  to  purchase  their  live- 
stock at  a  minimal  price.  All  sources  of  wild  game  were 
soon  driven  from  the  area  by  the  influx  of  miners.  In  a 
short  time  there  was  a  shortage  of  available  meat  to  feed 
the  growing  population.  John  Richard  was  the  man  to 
take  advantage  of  this  situation.  He  had  established  large 
herds  of  both  oxen  and  beef  cattle  in  the  north.  The  horses 
and  mules  he  acquired  at  the  "diggings"  were  herded  to 
Richard's  Bridge,  where  he  received  top  dollar  for  them 
from  the  emigrants.  Once  there,  his  drovers  gathered  a 
herd  of  cattle  to  take  back  to  Joseph's  Clear  Creek  ranch. 

■"  F.  W.  Lander.  Preliminary  report  ofF.  W.  Lander.  Report  of  the 
Secretary  oj  the  interior.  Ji""  Congress.  Feb.  23.  1859.  (National 
Archives). 

■ '  This  ""sketch"  unfortunately  has  eluded  the  historian's  searches.  If 
ever  discovered  it  will  provide  valuable  information  to  the  archeolo- 
gists  who  have  worked  at  the  site.  McDermott.  Frontier  Crossroads. 
16-17;  Murray,  15. 

"  Charles  Martin  was  bom  in  Canada  in  1818.  He  was  listed  as  one 
of  the  foundersof  Rulo,  Nebraska,  along  with  William  Kenceleur  and 
Eli  Plant  in  the  summer  of  1855.  He  also  appeared  on  the  1860  census 
there.  His  early  exploits  in  Colorado  must  have  been  very  lucrative. 
His  occupation  was  listed  as  Gentleman  and  his  personal  and  real 
estate  value  at  $  1 1 .000.  Edwards;  Census  of  Rulo.  Richardson  County. 
Nebraska  Territory,  I860. 

■ '  Articles  from  htissouri  Republican,  August  31,  1858.  and  Septem- 
ber I.  1858,  cited  by  Brian  Jones.  \5-\6. 42:  McDennott.  John  Baptiste 
Richard.  II,  300;  McDermott.  Frontier  Crossroads.  16;  Barry.  1 140. 
Carpenter  was  a  member  of  the  Lawrence  Company.  Brian  Jones.  15. 
William  ""Rencleleur"  was  undoubtedly  William  Kenceleur.  who  had 
been  a  partner  in  Richard's  Bridge  and  Joseph  Bissonette's  Trading 
Posts.  According  to  the  1 860  census.  Kenceleur  was  bom  in  Canada 
in  1 804.  He  had  three  children  by  a  previous  marriage  ranging  fi-om  1 1 
to  1 7  years  old  and  a  19-year-old  wife,  Zella,  who  was  the  mother  of 
their  six-month-old  daughter,  Melissa.  William's  occupation  was  listed 
as  Carpenter  and  the  value  of  the  family  estate  at  $5,120.  Census  of 
Rulo.  Richardson  County,  Nebraska  Territory,  1860. 


36 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Richard  made  money  at  both  ends  of  the  trail.  During 
this  time  he  employed  more  than  20  Indian  women  at  the 
bridge  making  buckskin  clothing,  moccasins  and  other 
Indian  items  that  could  be  sold  to  the  miners  in  Colorado. 
This  enterprise  was  the  first  operation  that  could  be  clas- 
sified as  an  industry  in  what  is  now  Wyoming.^^ 

The  wagon  train  of  F.  M.  Baker  arrived  at  Richard's 
Bridge  in  the  spring  of  1859.  Baker  recorded  the  day: 

Started  on  again,  soaking  with  rain,  and  reached  a  ranch 
at  Platte  Bridge,  an  eight-span  wooden  structure.  Crossed 
over  and  paid  two  dollars  per  team  of  four  horses.  Rain 
slackened,  and  after  awhile  stopped  for  dinner.  At  the 
ranch  two  companies  of  troops  were  stationed.  Quite  a 
number  of  Indians  hung  around.  A  young-looking  squaw 
came  along  with  her  ponies  and  papooses.  She  had  on  a 
clean  calico  dress,  mostly  of  a  pink  color.  Her  children 
looked  clean  .  . .  She  tied  a  long  strap  around  the  second 
pony's  neck,  then  started  her  own  pony  with  agility,  and 
throwing  over  her  shoulders  her  clean  white  blanket,  she 
was  off  in  a  moment,  her  nest  of  papooses  next,  her  little 
boy  following,  then  a  mare  and  colt." 

On  April  26,  1859,  shortly  after  Baker's  visit  to  the 
bridge,  an  Indian  fatally  stabbed  a  Frenchman  named 
LaBeau  in  the  chest.  The  Officer  of  the  Day  searched 
the  village  and  examined  several  Indians  in  an  effort  to 
discover  the  assailant.  He  eventually  arrested  three  men, 
but  later  released  them  for  lack  of  evidence.  Perhaps  this 
was  not  the  true  reason  that  the  investigation  was  so 
quickly  dropped.  "Camp  Payne"  was  busy  packing  up 
and  preparing  to  abandon  the  "Post  at  Platte  Bridge," 
which  they  did  a  few  days  later.  President  James 
Buchanan,  through  Thomas  L.  Kane  and  peace  com- 
missioners Ben  McCulloch  and  Lazarus  W.  Powell,  ne- 
gotiated an  agreement  with  the  Mormons.  Brigham  Young 
had  been  pardoned  nearly  a  year  before.  The  Mormon 
War  was  over  and,  once  again,  the  military  no  longer  felt 
the  need  to  protect  the  bridge.'* 

In  June  1859,  Richard  was  back  in  command  at  the 
bridge  on  the  Platte.  Several  diarists  mentioned  the  bridge 
and  trading  post  that  year.  Hammet  Hubbard  Case 
crossed  Richard's  Bridge  on  June  1 2  and  called  it  a  stout 
timber  bridge.  He  also  referred  to  the  15-20  "comfort- 
able" log  homes  that  stood  nearby.  J.  A.  Wilkinson  also 
crossed  the  bridge  the  same  day.  He  surmised  that  the 
construction  of  such  a  structure  over  such  a  swift  river 
as  the  Platte  must  have  been  quite  a  costly  project.  He 
also  ventured  into  the  trading  post.  There,  he  was  amused 
by  the  efficiency  of  Richard's  clerks,  bartering  with  the 
Indians  through  sign  language." 

Others  were  not  so  well  entertained  by  John  Richard 
and  his  employees.  About  this  time  another  enterprising 


individual  offered  the  first  competition  to  Richard's  Bridge 
in  several  years.  At  a  point  a  few  miles  upstream  from 
the  bridge  a  true  ferry  was  put  into  operation.  Details  of 
the  ownership  of  this  ferry  are  sketchy.  Previous  ferries 
were  steered  across  the  river  and  landed  at  some  point 
downstream  to  be  towed  back  with  oxen.  This  ferry  had 
guide  ropes  that  spanned  the  river  to  which  the  ferry 
was  attached  by  pulleys  and  hauled  back  and  forth  across 
the  river.  Richard  was  furious  about  this  challenge  to 
his  monopoly  and  reportedly  bought  out  this  new  entre- 
preneur for  $300.  Following  this  buy-out,  Richard  towed 
the  ferry  to  the  north  bank  of  the  Platte  and  tied  it  off 
there. 

A  short  time  later,  a  large  wagon  train  bound  for  Cali- 
fornia arrived  at  Richard's  Bridge  and  the  captain  of  the 
train  began  negotiating  with  Richard  for  the  toll.  When 
Richard  would  go  no  lower  than  two-and-a-half-dollars 
per  wagon,  the  captain  told  him  that  they  would  continue 
on  to  the  ferry.  To  this,  Richard  responded  that  the  ferry 
no  longer  existed  and  after  a  heated  argument,  Richard 
informed  the  captain  that  the  price  would  be  five  dollars 
per  wagon  when  they  returned.  The  captain  refused  to 
believe  him  and  led  his  train  on  toward  the  ferry  cross- 
ing. When  they  arrived  there,  they  found  the  ferry  as 
Richard  had  left  it  and  put  it  into  operation. 

When  the  train  failed  to  return  in  an  ample  amount  of 
time,  Richard  ascertained  what  had  happened  and  gath- 
ered together  a  group  of  well-armed  men.  They  then 
crossed  the  bridge  and  proceeded  to  a  vantage  point  on 
the  north  bank  at  the  ferry  crossing.  When  they  arrived 
at  the  top  of  a  steep  hill  overlooking  the  ferry,  Richard 
could  see  that  all  but  a  few  of  the  wagons  had  already 
been  crossed.  Leaving  the  majority  of  his  small  army 
prepared  for  battle  at  the  top  of  the  hill,  Richard  and 
three  of  his  best  men  descended  the  hill  and  confronted 
George  Morris,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  operation  on 
the  north  side  of  the  river.  Attacking  Morris  with  a  fusil- 
lade of  profanities,  Richard  proclaimed  that  he  would  enlist 
his  Indian  friends  to  ambush  the  wagon  train  and  most 
assuredly  there  would  be  no  survivors.  Morris  soon  grew 
tired  of  Richard's  verbal  abuse  and  Richard,  in  his  blinded 

"  Brian  Jones.  16;  McDermott,  Frontier  Crossroads.  16;  Hafen, 
Leroy.  Reports  From  Colorado,  XIll,  206;  Gilbert.  14-15. 
"■^  The  diary  gives  a  description  of  the  Indian  girl.  Notice  that  Baker 
uses  the  word  "clean"  three  times  in  this  description.  The  Plains 
Indians  were  an  extremely  clean  people,  bathing  and  washing  their 
clothing  far  more  often  than  most  whites  in  that  era.  Portrayals  of 
these  people  as  dirty,  mispresents  the  historical  facts.  F.  M.  Baker, 
Hozial  H.  Baker,  ed..  Overland  Journey  to  Carson  ( 'alley  &  Califor- 
nia. (Book  Club  of  California,  1973),  34-35. 
"■  McDermott.  Frontier  Crossroads,  20;  MacKinnon. 
"  Brian  Jones.  42-44;  The  diaries  of  Hammet  Hubbard  Case  and  J. 
A.  Wilkinson  are  cited  by  McDermott,  Frontier  Crossroads,  20. 


Summer  200'2 


37 


fury,  had  not  noticed  Morris'  movement  to  draw  his  pis- 
tol. With  John  Richard  at  gunpoint,  Morris  told  him  that 
he  had  heard  enough  and  if  he  had  anything  more  to  say 
to  tell  it  to  the  captain  who  was  still  on  the  south  bank. 

Richard,  with  his  three  men  then  boarded  the  ferry  and 
crossed  to  the  south  side  of  the  river,  where  he  took  up 
with  the  captain  where  he  had  left  off  with  Morris.  With 
a  barrage  of  indignations  and  profanities,  Richard  laid 
into  the  captain.  Suddenly,  he  heard  the  ominous  click  of 
a  rifle  being  cocked  behind  him.  The  silence  was  deaf- 
ening as  Richard  measured  the  circumstances  in  his  mind. 
His  men  atop  the  hill  on  the  far  side  of  the  river  were  out 
of  range,  if  he  died,  those  men  could  annihilate  a  large 
portion  of  this  wagon  train,  but  none  of  his  men  were  in  a 
position  to  cover  the  man  who  held  the  rifle  at  his  back 
presently.  Richard  ordered  his  men  back  to  the  bridge 
and  the  foursome  proceeded  along  the  south  bank.  When 
the  men  had  passed  what  Richard  must  have  considered 
a  safe  distance,  he  turned  and  hollered  back  to  the  cap- 
tain that  500  Sioux  would  be  on  them  by  sundown.  The 
wagon  train  continued  to  California  and  arrived  there  w  ith- 
out  further  malice  or  molestation. ■** 

Another  diarist  stated  that  John  Richard,  in  a  drunken 
state,  drove  his  carriage  through  an  emigrant  train,  caus- 
ing a  stampede  in  which  two  men  were  killed.  Richard 
was  not  above  partaking  of  his  own  whiskey  nor  was  he 
above  going  wild  at  times.  During  the  same  year  Rich- 
ard also  opened  a  "Sub-Post"  to  his  bridge  operation, 
near  the  Red  Buttes  crossing  about  ten  miles  west  of 
Richard's  Bridge.^" 

Peter  Richard  was  enjoying  his  own  success  at  Chey- 
enne Pass.  He  purchased  18,000  pounds  of  bacon  in  St. 
Louis  to  sell  to  the  miners  from  his  trading  post.  At  his 
inflated  "boomtown"  prices  he  brought  in  $9,000  from 
sales  of  the  bacon  alone.  William  H.  H.  Larimer,  a  no- 
table pioneer  in  Denver,  commented  on  the  spectacle  of 
John  and  Joe  Richard's  families  taking  a  vacation.  "They 
had  a  large  band  of  paint  ponies  which  they  would  drive 
in  and  saddle  for  the  whole  family  to  go  visiting  someone 
for  a  week  or  two.""'' 

While  business  was  booming  for  his  brothers  in  Colo- 
rado, John  Richard  was  spending  the  fall  of  1 859  at  the 
bridge.  On  October  1  1,  Capt.  William  F.  Raynolds  left 
camp  in  advance  of  his  topographical  expedition  with  Dr. 
Ferdinand  V.  Hayden  and  Mr.  Wilson  for  the  Platte 
Bridge.  Prior  to  his  departure,  he  asked  his  guide,  Jim 
Bridger,  if  there  was  any  danger  of  missing  the  Platte 
road  when  they  crossed  it.  Bridger  only  laughed.  When 
he  saw  the  famous  thoroughfare  he  realized  for  the  first 
time,  the  significance  of  the  migration,  and  the  humor 
Jim  Bridger  had  seen  that  morning  in  his  own  ignorance. 
Raynolds  found  the  volume  of  traffic  on  the  road  aston- 


ishing, even  this  late  in  the  season.  He  was  amazed  when 
he  realized  that  there  was  about  the  same  amount  of 
traffic  eastbound  as  west.  He  was  seldom  out  of  sight 
from  some  vehicle  traveling  one  direction  or  the  other 
"upon  this  great  highway."  There  was  even  a  group  of 
ladies  traveling  in  an  ambulance  "bound  for  ihe  Slates." 

The  Raynolds  Expedition  had  traveled  from  Fort  Pierre 
to  the  Black  Hills  and  then  southwesterly.  The  captain 
had  intersected  the  Oregon  Trail  near  Red  Buttes.  After 
arriving  there,  he  and  his  immediate  companions  went 
east  on  the  road  and  at  a  rapid  pace  soon  covered  the  1 8 
miles  to  Richard's  Bridge  and  Trading  Post.  When  he 
arrived  at  the  Trading  Post.  John  Richard  informed  him 
that  Lt.  H.  E.  Maynadier's  party  was  not  far  behind  his 
own.  When  asked  how  Richard  could  possibly  have  such 
knowledge,  he  was  told  that  an  Indian  informant,  just 
recently  arrived,  had  seen  them  on  Powder  River.  Rich- 
ard also  gave  Raynolds  a  four-month-old  letter  and  told 
him  that  there  were  more  waiting  for  him  at  the  post 
office,  Bissonette's  Trading  Post,  at  Deer  Creek. 

At  Capt.  Raynolds'  request,  Richard  sent  a  man  to 
Deer  Creek  for  his  mail  and  Raynolds  sent  a  message  to 
Fort  Laramie  to  have  their  supplies  there  brought  up. 
While  Raynolds  was  enjoying  the  best  of  Richard's  west- 
ern hospitality  and  the  luxury  of  eating  dinner  from  a 
table  while  sitting  down,  the  majority  of  Raynolds'  mili- 
tary contingent  arrived  there  and  began  partaking  of  the 
wares  at  Richard's  two  saloons.  Before  returning  to  their 
camp  at  Red  Buttes.  Raynolds'  escort  had  drunk  enough 
alcohol  that  they  "had  turned  the  camp  into  bedlam." 

■^  The  author  has  found  the  location  of"  this  t"eiT\\  It  is  just  south  of 
the  present-day  Casper  Event" s  Center  and  the  National  Historic 
Trails  Center.  The  owner  of  this  fern,  may  have  been  Magloire 
Mosseau.  Although  he  did  not  mention  embarking  in  such  an  enter- 
prise, the  location  was  in  the  vicinity  of  the  ranch  he  operated  there  at 
the  time.  Ricker.  Magloire  Mosseau,  tablet  28.  p.  2 1-24.  5 1 ;  William 
H.  Carmichael  traveled  to  California  on  this  wagon  train  in  1859.  In 
the  1 890s  he  resided  in  Wheatland,  and  related  this  story  to  Coutant 
in  an  interview.  C.  G.  Coutant.  The  History  of  Wyoming  from  the 
Earliest  Known  Discoveries.  (Laramie:  C.  G.  Coutant.  publisher. 
Chaplin.  Spat"t"ord  &  Mathison.  1899).  365-367. 
-''  Did  this  event  occurred  as  an  aftermath  to  the  previous  one?  There 
are  no  other  accounts  to  substantiate  this  event.  The  author  of  the 
diary  did  not  claim  to  have  witnessed  the  occurrence  and  this  story ,  as 
he  had  heard  it.  may  have  been  exaggerated  as  was  ot"ten  the  case  in  the 
Wild  I'ronlicr.  McDermott.  Frontier  Crossroads.  21. 
'"  It  is  obvious  t"rom  the  1860  Denver  census  that  though  Joseph  and 
Peter  were  the  primary  operators  of  the  Colorado  businesses.  John 
still  owned  the  controlling  interests  in  them.  Census  records  reported 
the  estimated  '"\alue  of  personal  estate.""  The>  showed  Jno.  [John] 
Richard  age  50.  at  $25,000;  Peter  Richard  age  40.  at  $1,400;  and 
Joseph  Richard  age  35  [37].  at  $10,000.  All  three  of  these  men  would 
have  been  considered  wealthy  for  that  period,  at  a  time  when  a  skilled 
laborer  only  earned  around  $20-30  per  month  in  the  eastern  United 
States,  llafen.  Repons  From  Colorado.  Xlll.  206.  The  I860  Denver 
census  records  are  cited  bv  Brian  Jones.  40;  Gilbert,  14. 


38 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


The  commander  of  the  escort  considered  Raynolds'  title 
of  "Captain"  simply  honorary  as  an  engineer  and,  conse- 
quently, that  Raynolds  had  no  authority  over  them.  The 
expedition  suffered  a  mutiny  by  the  escort. 

Without  military  support  Raynolds,  accompanied  by 
Bridger,  then  performed  a  reconnaissance  of  Carson's 
Creek  in  search  of  a  location  to  spend  the  winter.  When 
Raynolds  and  Bridger  returned  to  camp  they  found  that 
the  escort  abandoned  them.  To  their  surprise,  however, 
Lt.  Maynadier  had  arrived  in  advance  of  his  own  party, 
who  also  soon  joined  them.  That  day  a  man  arrived  from 
Richard's  Bridge  with  the  mail  for  both  parties  from  Deer 
Creek.  The  arrival  of  the  mail  and  Maynadier  uplifted 
Raynolds'  spirits.  Carson's  Creek  had  proven  to  be  an 
unsuitable  location  for  their  winter  quarters,  and  the  next 
several  days  were  spent  exploring  other  alternatives.*' 

When  nearly  all  options  to  Raynolds  had  been  ex- 
hausted. Major  Thomas  Twiss,  the  Indian  Agent  for  the 
Upper  Platte  Agency  at  Deer  Creek,  offered  a  possible 
solution.  When  the  Mormons  abandoned  their  Y.  X.  re- 
lay station  at  Deer  Creek  a  few  years  earlier,  they  left 
several  unfinished  dwellings  at  the  site.  With  limited 
manpower  and  winter  drawing  near,  these  cabins  seemed 
to  offer  the  quickest  available  shelter.  Capt.  Raynolds 
took  Twiss  up  on  his  suggestion  and  soon  his  expedition 
was  afforded  some  protection  from  the  elements.  The 
completion  of  these  houses  could  not  have  been  more 
timely.  By  mid-November,  with  several  of  the  men  still 
living  in  tents,  the  thermometer  had  already  dipped  to 
sub-zero  temperatures  on  more  than  one  occasion. 
Raynolds  and  his  party  spent  most  of  the  winter  tran- 
scribing pages  of  survey  notes  of  the  previous  summer's 
work  into  maps  and  documentation." 

Louis  Guinard,  whose  bridge  across  the  Sweetwater 
River  had  washed  out  the  previous  spring,  contracted 
Joseph  McKnight  to  build  a  new  bridge  across  the  Platte 
a  few  miles  above  Richard's.  John  Richard  would  be 
unable  to  control  the  monopoly  that  he  had  held  for  eight 
years  with  his  bridge  on  the  Upper  Platte.  The  animosity 
Guinard  was  creating  with  the  construction  of  his  new 
bridge  was  caused  by  a  much  older  enmity  between  the 
two  men.  To  further  aggravate  Richard's  hostility, 
McKnight  was  married  to  John  Richard's  stepdaughter 
and  had  long  been  in  his  employ.  Perhaps  his  recently 
attained  affluence  in  the  Colorado  gold  fields  was  an  omen 
that  it  was  time  for  a  change;  life  at  John  Richard's  Bridge 
and  Trading  Post  would  never  again  be  the  same.  His 
interests  in  Colorado  had  required  his  frequent  absence 
from  the  North  Platte  operations,  but  not  his  involvement. 
These  absences  however  may  have  cost  him  consider- 
able influence  in  the  development  of  some  new  ventures 
that  were  pending  along  the  Platte." 


The  well  known  freight  company  of  Russell,  Majors 
and  Waddeil  were  the  instigators  of  an  organization  that 
was  not  only  one  of  the  most  famous,  but  shortest  lived 
ventures  in  history— the  Pony  Express.  These  freighters 
invested  thousands  of  dollars  establishing  nearly  200  re- 
lay stations  along  the  proposed  route  in  1 859  and  1 860. 
Joseph  Bissonette's  Deer  Creek  operation  was  one  of 
the  selected  sites.  John  Richard's  Red  Buttes  Trading 
Post  was  also  on  the  list,  but  Louis  Guinard's  new  bridge 
was  chosen  over  Richard's  Bridge  for  the  crossing  of 
the  Platte  and,  consequently,  the  relay  station.*^ 

William  Russell  spent  several  months  lobbying  that  the 
Platte  River  Route  for  mail  service  to  California  was  far 
superior  to  the  much  longer  southern  route  of  the  Over- 
land Mail  Company.  In  April  1 860,  the  inaugural  run  of 
the  Pony  Express  was  set  into  motion.  The  delays  the 
riders  suffered  along  some  portions  of  the  journey  were 
made  up  for  by  other  riders  along  the  route.  By  July 
Russell's  political  efforts  and  demonstration  had  paid  off 
and  the  Pony  Express  received  federal  approval.  Much 
to  his  dismay,  the  route  was  approved,  but  the  contract 
was  awarded  to  the  Overland  Mail  Company.  The  Over- 
land was  not  prepared  to  undertake  the  necessary  change 
in  their  own  operation  and  sub-contracted  Russell  and 
his  partners  to  fulfill  the  obligation."- 

Several  contract  mail  carriers  were  companies  doing 
business  as  stage  lines,  including  Russell,  Majors  and 
Waddeil.  In  1 859  they  had  acquired  the  former  Salt  Lake 
Stage  and  Mail  Line  which  had  become  the  Leavenworth 
and  Pikes  Peak  Express.  Under  the  new  owners,  it  was 
again  renamed  becoming  the  Central  Overland,  Califor- 

'■'  Raynolds.  Captain  William  F.,  Report  on  the  Kxploration  of  the 
Yellowstone  River.  (United  States  Army  Corps  of  Engineers.  1868). 
p.  70-72;  The  Carson's  Creek  in  Raynolds"  description  is  what  is 
now  known  as  Bates  Creek.  John  C.  Fremont  named  it  Carson 's 
Creek  on  one  of  his  early  expeditions  for  his  guide,  mountain  man  Kit 
Carson.  The  origin  of  the  name  of  Bates  Creek  varies  depending  on 
the  source.  One  source  states  that  it  was  named  for  a  trapper  named 
Bates.  This  trapper,  according  to  popular  lore,  stumbled  off  the  Laramie 
Plains  into  what  is  now  Bates  Hole.  After  becoming  entangled  in  a 
mass  of  brush,  he  was  forced  to  halt  until  daylight.  When  he  awoke  he 
looked  around  him  and  said.  "Well,  Bates  has  sure  got  hisself  into  a 
hell  of  a  hole  this  time."  A  less  colorful,  but  more  likely  origin  is  that 
it  was  named  for  Capt.  Alfred  Bates  following  a  skirmish  he  and  his 
troops  had  there  with  Indians  in  1874.  Settlers  by  the  early  1880s 
knew  the  creek  as  Bates  Creek.  George  C.  Scott,  These  God  Forsaken 
Dobie  Hills:  Land  Law  and  the  Settlement  of  Bates  Hole,  Wyoming 
1880-1940.  unpublished  MA  thesis.  University  of  Wyoming,  1978, 
1-2;  Mae  Urbanek.  Wyoming  Place  Names.  (Boulder:  Johnson  Pub- 
lishingCo.,  1967),  17. 
"^  Raynolds,  72-73. 

"■'  Cragin.  William  T.  Eubank,  notebook  I.  p.  5/25  &  6/26. 
'■^  Bryans.  118-121;  McDermott,  Frontier  Crossroads.  25. 
"  McDermott.  Frontier  Crossroads,  25;  David  Nevin,  The  Express- 
men -  The  Old  West.  (New  York;  Time-Life  Books.  1974).  88-98. 


Summer  '200:2 


39 


nia,  and  Pikes  Peak  Express  or  COC  &  PP.  The  freight- 
ers quickly  learned  that  a  stage  line  was  more  difficult  to 
operate  profitably  than  their  freight  operations  had  been. 
They  jokingly  said  the  initials  actually  stood  for  "Clean 
Out  of  Cash  and  Poor  Pa}'.''  Their  endeavor  to  obtain 
the  mail  contract  through  the  Pony  Express  had  been  in 
the  effort  to  bring  their  newly  acquired  stage  line  out  of 
the  red.  Sub-contracting  the  mail  for  Ben  Hoi laday's  Over- 
land Mail  Company  was  nearly  as  unprofitable  for  the 
stage  line  as  it  had  been  without  it."" 

The  COC  &  PP  continued  to  operate  at  a  loss  through 
1 860.  In  August  of  that  year  they  carried  a  famous  pas- 
senger, the  world  traveler.  Sir  Richard  F.  Burton  who 
was  observing  the  west,  with  a  planned  stay  at  Salt  Lake 
before  continuing  on  to  California.  On  August  i  6,  at  Deer 
Creek  Station  he  met  Joseph  Bissonette  and  thought  that 
though  other  travelers  may  have  found  his  well-stocked 
trading  post's  prices  high,  they  were  competitive  with 
others  he  had  seen  along  the  way.  Little  Muddy  Creek 
Station  he  found  was  poorly  stocked,  " — whiskey  form- 
ing the  only  positive  item.""^ 

Burton's  observations  shed  considerable  light  on  John 
Richard,  his  bridge  and  the  community  that  surrounded 
it.  Burton's  experience  as  a  scholar  of  diversified  cul- 
tures and  human  behavior  prompted  him  to  see  life  from 
a  different  prospective  than  most  of  the  diarists  of  the 
era.  Even  in  late  August  he  noted  the  necessity  of  the 
bridges  crossing  the  Platte's  raging  currents.  Enjoying  a 
glass  of  whiskey  in  Richard's  "'indispensable  store,  — the 
tete-de-poiit,"  he  was  surprised  to  have  it  served  "on 
ice,"  the  first  he  had  seen  in  weeks.  The  sign  bearing  the 
name  of  Richard's  saloon,  the  Tete-de-ponl,  must  have 
been  prominent  for  Burton  to  mention  it.  It  is  surprising 
that  Burton,  who  had  spent  a  considerable  time  in  France 
and  had  some  command  of  that  language,  should  also 
misspell  Richard,  as  Regshaw."^ 

He  also  must  have  carried  on  a  detailed  conversation 
with  the  proprietor  to  ascertain  that  he  had  "gained  and 
lost  more  fortunes  than  a  Wall  Street  professional  "lame- 
duck'."  The  coal  vein  on  the  north  bank  of  the  river 
showed  signs  of  development  when  Burton  was  there 
and  he  concluded  that  due  to  the  lack  of  other  sources  of 
fuel  in  the  area,  that  this  could  prove  to  be  one  of 
Richard's  most  valuable  assets.""  The  settlement  adjoin- 
ing Richard's  Bridge  had  also  grown  over  the  years,  to 
the  point  that  Burton  referred  to  it  as  a  '"town."  Nearby, 
the  then  vacant  "Post  at  Platte  Bridge"  had  deteriorated 
to  "a  few  stumps  of  crumbling  wall,  broken  floorings, 
and  depressions  in  the  ground." 

After  enjoying  John  Richard's  amenities,  Burton's 
coach  continued  on  the  short  distance  to  Guinard's  Bridge 
where  he  spent  the  night  at  the  COC  &  PP  station.  Louis 


Guinard  and  his  Shoshone  wife  who  operated  the  station 
met  him  there.  He  was  unimpressed  by  the  accommoda- 
tions and  disgusted  by  the  meal  that  was  served.  Wishing 
he  had  eaten  at  Richard's,  Burton  commented:  ""It  was 
impossible  to  touch  the  squaw's  supper;  the  tin  cans  that 
contained  the  coffee  were  slippery  with  grease,  and  the 
bacon  looked  as  if  it  had  been  dressed  side  by  side  with 
"boyaux'.  1  lighted  my  pipe,  and  air-cane  in  hand,  sallied 
forth  to  look  at  the  country."™ 

"The  town"  Burton  had  referred  to  at  Richard's  Bridge 
consisted  of  at  least  the  following  buildings:  two  saloons, 
two  trading  posts,  two  blacksmith  shops,  one  large  ware- 
house, one  ice-house,  one  lodging  house,  one  eatery,  one 
livery,  and  1 5-20  homes.  The  population  fluctuated  from 
about  60  to  1 00  civilian  residents,  in  addition  to  the  vari- 
ous military  and  Indian  encampments.  Richard  also  main- 
tained a  grazing  camp  near  the  foot  of  what  is  now  Casper 
Mountain.  He  employed  carpenters  and  an  accountant 
in  addition  to  his  clerks,  traders,  hunters,  teamsters,  herd- 
ers, laborers  and  various  other  positions." 

As  the  Pony  Express  riders  rushed  past  Richard's  settle- 
ment to  his  competitor's  door,  it  must  have  seemed  to 
him  that  lime  itself  was  passing  him  by.  Richard  was 
now  in  his  early  fifties  and  would  have  been  considered 
an  old  man  by  the  standards  of  the  day. 

Joseph  Mcknight  left  the  North  Platte  for  the  gold  fields 
ofColorado  after  completing  the  construction  of  Guinard's 
Bridge.  Evidently  with  the  money  he  earned  from 
Guinard,  he  accumulated  the  necessary  capital  to  ven- 
ture into  business  for  himself  He  established  his  own 
successful  trading  post  at  Thompson  or  Thompson's 


""Bryans.  127-128. 

"'  Sir  Richard  F.  Burton.  Fawn  M.  Brodie.  ed..  The  Cin-  of  the  Sainis 
and  Across  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  California.  (New  York:  Alfred  A. 
Knopf.  1963).  154-155;  Br>ans.  61. 

'"  The  dictionary'  definition  of  Tete-de-pont.  [French],  is  "work 
thrown  up  to  defend  the  entrance  of  a  bridge."  Webster 's  New  School 
c«0/j7ceD;cr/o/wn'.  (Cleveland:  World  Publishing  Co..  1943).  755: 
Burton.  155-156. 

'■''  Burton's  observations  of  Richard's  coal  mine  and  the  possibility 
future  development  of  the  coal  industr>  in  \V\oming  in  1860  were 
accurate. 
"'Burton.  156. 

"  The  exact  location  of  Richard's  grazing  camp  is  unknown.  A  likely 
candidate  for  the  site  is  in  the  NE  '4.  of  the  SE  '  4.  Sec.  35.  T33N. 
R79W.  6'"  Principal  Meridian.  Surveyors.  Downey  &  Grant  in  1880 
and  William  Owen  in  1881/1882  recorded  that  there  was  a  cabin  at 
that  location.  This  site  is  near  the  headwaters  of  a  branch  of  Elkhom 
Creek,  which  is  believed  to  have  then  been  the  creek  called  Reshaw 
Creek.  Since  there  was  no  homestead  patent  applied  for  at  this  loca- 
tion until  many  years  later,  the  cabin  presumably  was  not  regularly 
occupied  at  that  time.  Tract  map  T33N.  R79W.  1883;  Survey  notes 
used  to  compile  that  map.  1880-1882.  USGS  survey  records.  Bureau 
of  Land  Management.  Cheyenne. 


40 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Creek,  near  what  would  later  become  Fort  Collins,  Colo- 
rado. He  remained  there  selling  supplies  to  the  miners 
and  trading  with  the  Indians  for  the  next  four  years/- 

News  came  to  the  Platte  that  construction  had  begun 
on  the  transcontinental  telegraph.  In  1861  Thomas  Twiss 
left  the  office  of  Indian  Agent  for  the  Upper  Platte  Agency 
and  the  agency  was  moved  back  to  Fort  Laramie.  Twiss 
and  his  Indian  family  remained  at  Deer  Creek.  Red  Cloud 
was  waging  war  upon  the  Crow  to  the  north.  As  John 
Richard's  half-Indian  sons  grew  to  manhood,  he  delegated 
more  responsibility  to  them,  but  they  were  not  as  adept  in 
business  as  their  father  had  been. 

The  last  boom  to  the  community  came  in  1864  when 
Richard's  Bridge  became  the  "jump-off  point"  for  the 
Bozeman  Trail.  By  the  following  year  shortcuts  had  been 
established  to  this  route  from  Deer  Creek  and  later  Fort 
Fetterman.  Long  before  the  Battle  of  Platte  Bridge 
(Guinard's  Bridge)  in  1865,  John  Richard  had  left  the 
area  and  moved  to  Rock  River  on  the  Overland  Trail.  He 
and  his  family  still  owned  the  bridge  and  trading  post  on 
the  Platte,  but  it  was  only  occupied  seasonally  by  traders 
in  Richard's  employ.  During  the  severe  winter  of  1 865- 
1866.  soldiers  at  the  new  Fort  Casper  adjacent  to 
Guinard's  Bridge  dismantled  the  bridge  and  many  of  the 
nearby  buildings  for  firewood  and  building  materials." 

In  June  of  1866,  John  Richard  Sr.  was  attempting  to 
breathe  life  back  into  his  operations  on  the  North  Platte 
River.  It  seems  that  Louis  Richard  may  have  been  in 
charge  of  the  affairs  at  the  old  trading  post  when  an 
advertisement  appeared  in  an  unidentified  Denver  news- 
paper: 

To  Freighters  and  Emigrants 

RICHARD  &  CO.  Fort  Casper,  Dakota  Territory 

Known  as  the  Old  North  Platte  Bridge,  or  California 
Crossing,  120  miles  west  of  Fort  Laramie. 

Good  accommodations  for  travelers.  This  is  the  best 
and  nearest  road  for  Emigrants  and  Freighters  to  Salt  Lake. 
Virginia  City  Montana,  and  Califomia." 


This  final  effort  to  revive  the  once  profitable  enter- 
prise also  failed.  Within  a  year  Fort  Casper  was  dis- 
mantled and  moved  to  expand  the  growing  Fort  Fetterman 
50  miles  downstream.  After  the  abandonment  of  Fort 
Caspar  and  Richard's  Bridge,  there  is  no  record  of  habi- 
tation in  the  area  for  several  years.  When  James  H.  Bury 
first  passed  the  site  of  the  old  fort  in  the  early  1870's, 
there  was  nothing  there  but  the  charred  remains  of  the 
old  adobe  trading  post  at  Fort  Caspar.  An  era  of  prosper- 
ity on  the  Upper  North  Platte  River  had  come  to  an  end 
as  the  last  evidence  of  commerce  washed  down  the  river 
during  spring  floods  gradually  disappeared  beneath  the 
drifting  Wyoming  sands." 


"  Coutant,  C.  G..  Coutant  Collection,  box  4.  folder  53.  book  36. 
"  Susan  Badger  Doyle,  ""The  Bozeman  Trail.  1 863-1 868.""  Annals  of 
Wyoming.  70  (Spring.  1998);  Murray.  23-24. 
'■"  Cited  by  McDermott.  Frontier  Crossroads,   89. 
"  Robert  David.  Interview  of  James  H.  Bury  -  ca.  1920.  Unpub- 
lished Notes.  The  Bob  David  Collection.  Goodstein  Library.  Special 
Collections.  Casper  College.  Casper. 


Jefferson  Glass  wrote  the  biography  of  Jean 
Baptiste  Richard  (John  Reshaw).  in  commemo- 
ration of  the  75th  anniversary  of  the  Town  of 
Evansville  (May  15,  1998).  Research  for  this 
article  is  based  on  that  work.  A  chairman  of 
the  Evansville  Historical  Commission,  he  is  a 
frequent  writer  on  Casper  area  sites.  He  wrote 
"The  Founder  of  Evansville:  Casper  Builder  W. 
T.  Evans.  "  that  appeared  in  Annals  of  Wyoming. 
Autumn.  1998. 


Wyoming  Picture 


"Liisk  High  School.  "  c.  1911.  The  building  pictured  in  this  postcard  scene  still  stands.  .After  a  new  high  ,s\  hnul 
building  was  constructed,  the  structure  was  used  as  a  grade  school  until  1 953.  Since  then,  the  building  is  the  home  of 
the  B.  P.  O.  E.  Elks.  (Private  collection) 


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WYOMING 


The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Autumn  2002 


Vol.  74,  No.  4 


1 

i 


The  Cover 


''Tallin  the  Saddle" 

a  painting  in  the  Centennial  Collection,  owned  by  the  Wyoming  State  Historical 
Society  and  held  in  the  Wyoming  State  Museum 
by  Dave  Paulley 

Artist  Dave  Paulley  executed  this  painting  as  one  in  a  series  commissioned  hy  the  Wyoming  State 
Historical  Society  in  the  1980s  to  commemorate  the  Wyoming  Centennial  in  1990.  The  painting 
features  former  Gov.  Nels  Smith  who  served  as  governor  of  Wyoming  from  1939-43.  Smith  came  to 
Wyoming  in  1907  in  a  horse-drawn  huggy  with  his  father.  Peter  Smith.  They  located  on  the  prairie 
north  of  Newcastle  where  they  established  a  reputation  for  breeding  prize  Hereford  ccitde.  Percheron 
draft  horses  and  saddle  horses.  According  to  Bethel  Smith,  the  setting  for  this  painting  is  on  upper 
Cold  Creek  along  the  Cheyenne-Deadwood  trail  in  the  Black  Hills  of  Wyoming.  "This  is  part  of 
the  Smith  ranch  that  five  generations  of  the  Stnith  family  have  called  home.  "  Bethel  Smith  wrote. 
"Many  days  are  spent  trailing  and  working  the  cattle  in  this  beautiful  setting.  " 


The  editor  of  .■innal.s  of  H'yoming  welcomes  manuscripts  and  pliotographs  on  every  aspect  of  the  history  of  Wyoming  and  tlic  West. 
Appropriate  for  submission  are  unpublished,  research-based  articles  which  provide  new  information  or  w  hich  offer  iicu  interpretations 
of  historical  events  First-person  accounts  based  on  personal  experience  or  recollections  of  events  will  be  considered  for  use  in  the 
"Wyoming  Memories"  section.  Historic  photoessays  for  possible  publication  in  "Wyoming  Memories"  also  are  welcome.  Articles  are 
reviewed  and  rcferced  hy  members  of  the  journal's  fditorial  Advisory  Hoard  and  others.  Decisions  regarding  publication  are  made  by 
the  editor.  Manuscripts  (along  with  suggestions  for  illustrations  or  photographs)  should  be  submitted  on  computer  diskettes  in  a  format 
created  by  one  of  the  widely -used  word  processing  programs  along  with  two  printed  copies.  Submissions  and  queries  should  be  ad- 
dressed to  Editor.  .Annals  ofllyonung.  P.  O.  Box  4256.  University  Station.  Laramie  WY  8207 1 .  or  to  the  editor  by  e-mail  at  the  following 
address:  philrfS'uwyo.edu 


n       1      r 

Editor 

Phil  Rohert.s 

Assistant  Editors 

Sarah  liohl 
Annie  PioiiK 

Book  Review  Editor 

Call  Hallherg 

ftmnals  of 

WYOMING 

The  Wyoming  History  Journal 

Editorial  Advisory  Board 

Barbara  Bogart,  E\  anston 

Mabel  Brown.  Newcastle/Chevenne 

Katherine  Curtiss,  Sheridan 

DncJIey  Ciardner.  Rock  Springs 

Sally  F-  (Jritfith.  Lusk/Ha\ertown,  Pa. 

Don  Hodgson.  To?-?-ingt(^n 

Loien  .lost.  Riverton 

.lames  R.  Laird.  Wapiti 

Mark  Miller.  Laramie 

Mark  Nel.son.  (ireen  Ri\'er 

Sherry  L.  Smith.  Moose/Dallas.  Tex. 

Thomas  F.  Stroock.  Casper 

Lawrence  M-  Woods.  Worland 

Autumn  '2002  Vol.  T+,  No.  4 

Reflections  on  Owen  Wister  and  The  Virginian 

By  John  W.  Stokes o 

Stokes,  the  grandson  ofauthor  Owen  Wister.  recounts  his  memories  of  his  grandfather 
in  this  transcription  of  a  talk  Stokes  delivered  at  the  Wister  svmposium.  held  in  the  lall 
of  2002  at  the  American  Heritage  Center.  University  of  Wyoming 

The  Virginian  Meets  Matt  Shepherd 

By  D.  Claudia  Thompson  6 

Thompson,  an  archivist  in  the  American  Heritage  Center.  Universitv  of  Wyoming, 
argues  that  the  tragic  death  of  University  of  Wvoming  student  Matthew  Shepherd  in 

Wyoming  State  Historical  Society 
Publications  Committee 

Rick  F\\  ig.  Laramie 

Da\  id  Kathka,  Rock  Spi  ings 

Sherry  L.  Smith.  Moose 

Amy  Lawrence.  Laramie 

Nancy  Curti.s.  CHendo 

Dick  Wilder,  Cody  (e\-otlicio) 

Loren  .lost.  Ri\'erton  (e\-ofbcio) 

Phil  Roiierts.  Laramie  (ex-ot!icio) 

1998  stems  from  the  myth  of  the  cowboy.  The  lirginiuii.  published  a  century  ago, 
populari/'cd  the  cowboy  as  a  mythical  figure   In  her  essay.  Thompson  points  to  how 
the  hook  and  the  late  20th  centur\  Incident  can  be  linked 

Fort  Laramie  After  the  Army:  Part  III,  Preservation 

By  Douglas  C.  McChristian 14 

McClirisIian  completes  his  three-part  storv  on  the  famous  fort  in  the  aftermath  of  army 
departure  in  1890.  The  first  two  installments  examined  the  government-held  auction 
of  the  properties  and  the  second  described  how  a  community  evolved  around  the  site. 
In  this  fmal  segment.  McChristian  writes  about  the  successful  efforts  to  preserve  the 
old  fort  as  a  historic  site 

Book  Reviews .7. 32 

Szasz.  Religion  in  the  American  Wesi.  reviewed  by  Amanda  Porterfield 
Barringer.  Selling  Yellowstone   Capitalism  and  Construction  of  Sature.  rev  ie\\ed  by 
Shannon  Bowen 

Babcock.  Shot  Down'  Capital  Crimes  of  Casper,  reviewed  by  Kim  W  inters 
Walck.  Dreamers  and  Schemers   Profiles  from  Carbon  Connn:  ll'voming  s  Past,  re- 
viewed by  C  Fred  Williams 

Hall.  High  and  Dry    The  Texas-New  Mexico  Struggle  for  the  Pecos  River,  reviewed 
by  Leslie  Shores 

New  Books  in  the  Hebard  Collection S6 

Wyoming  Picture Inside  back  cover 

Wyoming  State  Historical  Society 
Executive  Committee 

Dick  Wilder.  President.  Park  tonnty 
Amy  Lawrence.  1st  Vice   Pres..  Albany  Co, 
Patty  Myers,  'Jnd  Vice  Pres..  Platte  Co. 
Linda  Fabian,  Secretary,  Platte  County 
.lames  Van  .Scoyk..  Treasvu'er.  Star  Valley 
Clara  Varner.  Weston  County 
Cindy  Brow  n.  Laranue  County 
.lohn  Waggener.  .Mliany  County 
.Uidy  West.  Membership  Coordinator 

Governor  of  Wyoming 

.lim  Cleringer 

Wyoming  Dept.  of  State  Parks  and 
Cultural  Resoiu-ces 

.lohn  Heck.  Diieaor 
Cultural  Resources  Division 

Wendy  BredehoO.  .Administrator 

Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal  is  published  quarterly  by  the  Wyoming  State  Historical 
Society  in  association  with  the  Wyoming  Department  of  State  Parks  and  Cultural  Resources,  the  .Ameri- 
can Heritage  Center,  and  the  Department  of  Histon..  L'niversitv  of  Wvoming  The  Journal  was  previously 
published  as  the  Quarterly  Bulletin  (1923-1925).  Annals  of  Wyoming  (1925-194.1).  Wyoming  Annals 
(1993-1995)  and  Wyoming  Histor}' .lournaU\9>)^-\996)  The  Annals  has  been  the  official  publication  of 
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University  of  \\'yoniing 

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Copyright  2002,  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society                                  ISSN:  1086-7368 

Reflections  on  Owen  Wister  and 

The   VlVQlltlUft  By  John  W.  Stokes,  Grandson  of  Owen  Wister 


This  reminis- 
cence was  origi- 
nally presented 
at  tlie  Owen 
Wister  Sympo- 
sium held  at  the 
University  of 
Wyoming, 
American  Heri- 
tage Center  on 
September  18- 
20,  2002. 


Thank  you  to  Rick  Ewig  for 
inviting  me  to  this  sympo- 
sium. It  is  exciting  to  play  a  role  in 
discussing  the  Wister  legacy.  It  is  a 
pleasure  and  a  little  daunting  to  be 
speaking  to  so  many  Wister  devo- 
tees and  scholars.  I  can  only  assume 
that  each  of  you  know  more  than  I 
do  about  my  grandfather,  which  is  a 
bit  humbling. 

Let  me  say  at  the  outset,  1  agree 
with  the  comments  on  the  last  pic- 
ture in  your  wonderful  Owen  Wister 
photographic  exhibit  on  display  in 
your  museum  downstairs:  "Regard- 
less of  one's  opinion  about  the  book. 
The  Virginian  has  stood  the  test  of 
time  as  the  prototype  western 
novel." 


Before  1  discuss  Wister"s  work 
and  the  100*  Anniversary  of  The 
Virginian  from  my  perspective,  I 
would  like  to  offer  a  few  reflections 
on  his  personal  life  away  from  the 
West  and  one  of  his  other  books. 

First,  a  few  facts  to  put  his  life  in 
perspective.  I  did  not  know  my 
grandfather  well.  My  role  was  to 
deliver  the  mail  to  him  each  morn- 
ing at  his  summer  home,  Crowfield 
in  Saunderstown,  Rhode  Island.  He 
died  when  I  was  six  years  old  in  July 
1938.  To  me,  he  was  a  large  and 
friendly  man.  (However,  when  you 
are  six  grown-ups  tend  to  look  big.) 
He  loved  Saunderstown  and  spent 
40  summers  there  with  his  family. 

Wister  was  born  in  1860  outside 


Ch^en  Wister, 
portrait  made  while 
practicing  law  in 
Philadelphia,  n.d. 

of  Philadelphia.  He  attended  Saint 
Paul's  School  in  Concord,  New 
Hampshire  graduating  in  1878  and 
then  went  on  to  Harvard  College. 
He  graduated  from  Harvard  in  1 882 
-  sum  ma  cum  laude  in  music. 
There,  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Porcellian  Club  where  he  became  a 
great  friend  of  fellow  member 
Theodore  Roosevelt. 

Wister  planned  a  career  in  music 
following  his  graduation.  His  grand- 
mother, the  famous  Shakespearean 
actress  and  abolitionist,  Fanny 
Kemble,  arranged  for  him  to  play 
one  of  his  compositions  for  Franz 
Liszt  who  told  her  Wister  had  pro- 
nounced talent. 

Wister's  father  persuaded  him  not 


Autumn  'iOO'i 


to  pursue  a  career  in  music  but  in- 
stead go  to  Harvard  Law  School.  He 
entered  in  1885  and  graduated  in 
1888.  accepting  a  law  position  in 
Philadelphia. 

In  the  mid- 1 880s  due  to  ill  health. 
Wister's  doctor  advised  him  to  go 

West.  He  made  ten  trips     

t>om  1885-1895.  keeping 
detailed  diaries  of  everything 
he  saw  and  all  the  people  he 
met.  These  diaries  formed 
the  basis  for  his  western  sto- 
ries and  The  Virginian.  The 
diaries  were  given  to  the 
University  of  Wyoming  by 
my  mother,  Fanny  Kemble 
Wister  Stokes. 

(To  digress  for  a  moment, 
some  of  you  may  know  it 
was  a  fonner  librarian  of  this 
University.  N.  Orwin  Rush, 
who.  in  1951.  prompted  my 
mother  to  t1nd  her  father's 
western  journals.  In  prepa- 
ration for  the  50'''  anniver- 
sary of  Tlic  lirginiciii.  Mr. 
Rush  had  written  to  her  ask- 
ing for  the  diaries.  She  re- 
plied that  none  of  the  family 
had  heard  anything  about 
them.  Mr.  Rush  then  wrote 
again  to  my  mother  quoting  a  refer- 
ence from  Owen  Wister's  book 
about  Theodore  Roosevelt:  "Upon 
every  Western  expedition  I  had  kept 
a  full,  faithful,  realistic  diary;  details 
about  pack  horses,  camps  in  the 
mountains,  camps  in  sage  brush, 
nights  in  town,  cards  with  cavalry 
officers..." 

The  diaries,  untouched  for  65 
years,  were  readily  found  in  Wister's 
desk  on  the  second  floor  of  his  Bryn 
Mawr.  Pa.,  House.  Though  the  Li- 
brary of  Congress  wanted  them,  my 
mother  gave  them  with  pleasure  to 
the  University  of  Wyoming.  They 
also  served  as  the  basis  for  her  best 
selling  book,  Owen  Wisler  Out 
West). 


Now  let  me  return  to  Wister's 
l,te. 
Wister  married  his  second  cousin. 
Mary  Channing  Wister  from  Boston 
in  1898.  In  the  summer  of  1899 
Wister.  newly  married,  came  to 
Saunderstown  for  the  first  time  and 


()\ven  Wisier  pliologniphed  in 
Yelhnvstone.  «.(/ 


moved  with  his  wife  into  a  house  at 
25  Waterway  in  the  village. 

The  Wisters  were  very  happy  in 
Saunderstown.  They  came  for  the 
quiet  life,  the  wonderful  salt  air. 
swimming,  croquet  and  horseback 
riding.  Importantly,  many  Philadel- 
phia friends  were  nearby— such  as 
the  Biddies.  Bories  and  Whartons. 

My  mother  was  born  in  the  Wa- 
terway house  in  1901  with  her  twin 
brother.  Owen.  The  Wisters  lived 
there  with  an  ever-growing  menag- 
erie of  animals,  including  a  mocking 
bird  named  Gabriel,  and  a  team  of 
harnessed  goats  to  pull  wagons  for 
the  children. 

In  the  summer  of  1907  Theodore 
Roosevelt  with  his  entourage  came 


to  visit  the  Wisters.  My  Uncle  Karl, 
then  four  years  old,  answered  the 
door.  T.R.  said,  "Tell  your  father  the 
President  is  here."  Uncle  Karl  re- 
sponded, "The  President  of  what?" 
(It's  wonderful  how  we  grown-ups 
can  learn  humility  from  a  child.) 

That  year  the  Wisters 
and  great  family  friend. 
Mrs.  Walter  Cope,  who 
had  children  about  the 
same  age  as  the  Wister 
children,  purchased  more 
than   100  acres  together 
overlooking  Nan'a-gansett 
Bay.  The  property  was 
=  named  Crowtleld  so  the 
5,  Seaview  Railroad  (in  fact 
_  a  trolley)  running  from 
Oi  Wickford  to  Wakefield. 
3  could  stop  at  the  foot  of 
=  the  hill  to  pick  up  passen- 
.  I  -  gers  from  the  Cope  and 
Wister  households. 
Grant  LaFarge.  the  son 
VP'^-^si^^^.  of  the  famous  stained 
.^  glass  artist,  John  LaFarge. 
was  the  architect  of  his 
house,  which  was  com- 
pleted in  1910.  He.  too.  had 
been  West  and  shared 
Wister's  love  for  it. 
Shortly  after  Wister's  new  house 
was  built.  Henry  .lames,  a  great 
friend  of  the  family,  wrote  to  him  to 
say  how  sorrv  he  was  he  could  not 
be  in  Saunderstown  with  the  Wisters 
and  "their  graceful  ring  of  friends." 
Sometime  later,  another  family 
friend  and  intellectual  wag.  Leonard 
Bacon,  wrote  his  perception  of  the 
scene  in  Saunderstown: 


"Hey.  diddle  diddle 

The  Cope  and  the  Biddie 

To  Saunderstown  we  go! 

With  the  Whartons  and  Bories 

All  in  their  glories 

And  Wisters  all  in  a  row... 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


"Nothing  is  soldier 

Than  the  Cadwalader 

Nothing  is  brainier 

Than  Pennsylvanier 

God  reign  on  Rittenhouse  Square!" 

Life  at  Crowfield  was  full  for  the 
Wister  and  Cope  children-cows  to 
milk,  chickens  and  horses  to  care  for, 
music,  French  and  German  lessons 
and  swimming  on  their  own  beach. 
We  have  a  picture  of  the  Crowfield 
Orchestra  with  the  young  Wister  and 
Cope  children  and  their  music 
teacher.  Every  summer  this  little  or- 
chestra performed  at  the  firehouse 
in  Saunderstown  for  25  cents  per 
person  to  raise  money  for  the  fire- 
men. 

The  Wister  House  was  always  full 
of  music  and  Owen  Wister  gener- 
ally played  the  piano  every  evening. 
My  mother  told  me  her  favorite  song 
of  his,  as  a  child,  was: 

"Here  I  come  dum  de  dum 
I'm  a  plum,  dum  de  dum 
My  appearance  puts  others  on  the 
bum." 

As  a  major  literary  figure, 
Wister's  life  in  the  early  1900s  was 
intertwined  with  many  well-known 
literary  and  artistic  personalities. 
Henry  James,  as  I  mentioned,  was  a 
close  friend.  Others  included  Ernest 
Hemingway,  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes,  William  Dean  Howells, 
Rudyard  Kipling,  Henry  Wadsworth 
Longfellow,  Frederic  Remington, 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  Mark 
Twain,  and  Edith  Wharton. 

Of  particular  interest  to  me  was 
Hemingway.  Wister  met  Ernest 
Hemingway  in  Shell,  Wyoming,  in 
1 928.  They  went  fishing  and  shoot- 
ing together  and  became  close 
friends  as  they  respected  each 
other's  work.  Hemingway  saw  him- 
self as  an  apprentice  to  the  elder 
statesmen,  Wister.  They  discussed 
A  Farewell  to  Arms,  which  Heming- 


way was  working  on  at  that  time. 
Some  weeks  later,  recognizing  that 
Hemingway  was  short  on  cash, 
Wistersent  him  an  unsolicited  $500 
check.  Soon  afterward,  Hemingway 
returned  the  check,  which  he  had  not 
cashed,  because  his  advance  for  A 
Farewell  to  Arms  had  arrived. 

Wister  participated  actively  in  the 
world  around  him  and  voiced  his 
views  on  many  national  issues.  He 
had  a  number  of  prestigious  appoint- 
ments and  honors.  Among  them  he 
was  an  Overseer  of  Harvard  College 
for  many  years,  President  of  the  Tav- 
ern Club  in  Boston  for  which  he 
wrote  several  operas,  and  President 
of  the  Philadelphia  Club. 

Owen  Wister  had  one  other  best 
selling  novel,  though  less  success- 
ful than  The  Virginian,  it  was  a  Vic- 
torian romance  set  in  Charleston, 
S.C,  and  published  in  1906  called, 
Lady  Baltimore.  Today,  it  is  best  re- 
membered for  the  famous  Lady  Bal- 
timore cake,  which  is  a  centerpiece 
of  the  plot.  The  New  York  Times 
heralded  the  cake  in  a  two-page 
spread  this  past  April  titled,  "Rich 
and  Famous." 

Lady  Baltimore  is  very  important 
to  me  as  my  grandfather  used  the 
proceeds  from  the  book  to  build  his 
summer  home,  which  we  have 
named  Wister  House. 

In  the  book  the  cake  is  the  center 
of  a  love  triangle  with  Eliza  La  Hue, 
a  sweet,  pure  young  woman,  who 
makes  the  cake  for  a  tea  shoppe  and 
John  Myrant,  a  handsome  and  prin- 
cipled young  man  of  promise,  who 
ordered  the  cake  from  Eliza  for  his 
wedding  to  Hortense  Rieppi.  She  is 
a  young  woman  who  smokes,  kisses 
boys  and  goes  to  fast  parties  in  New 
York  and  Newport. 

When  all  the  crumbs  have  settled, 
Hortense  gets  a  wheeler-dealer  from 
New  York  with  a  yacht;  John  gets 
Eliza,  the  cake  and  happiness  for- 
ever. 


N 


ow  let  me  turn  to  The  Vir 
ginian.  Owen  Wister 
started  writing  his  short  western  sto- 
ries to  save  the  sagebrush  in  litera- 
ture before  it  disappeared  with  the 
rapid  expansion  westward  at  the 
turn  of  the  century. 

His  own  description  of  how  it  hap- 
pened is  in  his  book,  Roosevelt,  A 
Story  of  a  Friendship: 

And  so  one  autumn  evening  of 
1891,  fresh  from  Wyoming  and  its 
wild  glories,  I  sat  in  the  Club  (Phila- 
delphia)  dining  with  a  man  as 
enamoured  of  the  West  as  I  was. 
This  was  Walter  Fumess...From 
oysters  to  coffee  we  compared  ex- 
periences. Why  wasn't  some 
Kipling  saving  the  sagebrush  for 
American  literature  before  the  sage- 
brush and  all  that  it  signifies  went 
the  way  of  the  Califomia  forty  niner, 
went  the  way  of  the  Mississippi 
steam-boat,  went  the  way  of  every- 
thing?  Roosevelt  had  seen  the 
sagebrush  true,  had  felt  its  poetry; 
and  also  Remington  who  illustrated 
his  articles  so  well.  But  what  was 
fiction  doing,  fiction  the  only  thing 
that  always  outlived  fact? 

"Walter,  1  am  going  to  try  it  my- 
self," Wister  exclaimed  to  Walter 
Fumess. 

After  that  Wister  went  upstairs  at 
the  Philadelphia  Club  to  a  small 
study  and  started  writing  his  first 
short  story,  "Hank's  Woman."  It  was 
published  in  Harper's  magazine  in 
1892. 

Earlier  this  year  1  reread  The  Vir- 
ginian with  much  pleasure.  The  fact 
the  story  held  up  so  well  and  was 
not  dated  came  as  a  surprise  to  me. 
1  loved  the  dialogue  and  vivid  de- 
scriptive passages.  Having  sold  well 
over  two  million  copies,  been  re- 
printed more  than  50  times  and 
made  into  a  movie  five  times,  The 
Virginian  clearly  was  a  literate 
blockbuster. 


Autumn  '200'J 


Today,  at  its  100"' Anniver- 
sar\  The  Virginian  has  done 
much  more  than  save  the  memon 
of  the  sagebrush.  To  discuss  this  let 
me  turn  to  the  New  York  Times  book 
review.  June  21,1 902.  The  reviewer 
recognized  The  Virginia?!  would  live 
on  as  a  brill iant  narrative: 

Owen  Wister's  Stirring  Novel 
of  Western  Life 

Owen  Wister  has  come  pretty 
nearto  writing  the  American  novel. 
He  has  come  as  near  to  it  as  any 
man  can  well  come,  and  at  the  same 
time  has  beautifulK  demonstrated 
the  futility  of  the  expectation  that 
the  typical  novel  of  American  life 
will  ever  be  written.  Mr.  Wister  has 
set  forth  a  phase  of  life  which  is  to 
be  found  only  in  the  United  States, 
and  has  pictured  it  w  ith  graphic  de- 
lineative  force,  with  picturesque- 
ness  and  with  brilliant  narrative 
power.  The  Virginian  ought  to  live 
as  an  artistic  embodiment  of  a  man 
fast  passing  into  a 
remembrance. .  ."The  Virginian"  in  a 
broad  sense  is  a  historical  novel.  It 


is  a  study  of  men  and  times.  It  rings 
true,  and  we  believe  it  to  be  a  faith- 
ful study. 

The  key  insights  in  m\  view  are: 
"a  phase  of  life  which  is  to  be  found 
only  in  the  I'nited  States"  and  The 
Virginia)!  ought  to  live  as  "an  em- 
bodiment of  a  species  of  man  fast 
passing  into  remembrance." 

It  is  generally  acknowledged  that 
The  Virginian  was  the  first  nation- 
ally popular  cowboy  novel  and  the 
gold  standard  of  western  literature. 
It  broke  new  ground  b\  turning  the 
cowboy  from  a  villain  and  ruftlan 
of  the  West  into  a  hero.  It  portra\ed. 
in  realistic  tones,  the  bold  individual 
spirit,  reminiscent  of  colonial  times 
and  carried  underlying  themes  of 
democracy  and  equality  throughout. 
Given  these  ingredients  and  a  bril- 
liant narrator,  it  is  no  wonder  the 
book  was  such  a  tremendous  hit. 

Owen  Wister  contributed  to  oiu" 
country  much  more  than  a  popular 
romantic  novel  about  the  West.  As 
we  look  around  today,  we  see  that 
the  lore  of  the  West  is  pari  of  tnir 


everyday  lives,  not  only  in  literature, 
but  in  clothing,  food  and  music.  Im- 
portantly, the  western  culture  is  only 
one  of  three  in  our  country,  which 
are  truly  indigenous.  The  other  two 
are  jazz  and  the  American  musical. 
These  also  started  in  the  early  20"" 
century .  All  other  cultures  we  share 
together  come  from  other  lands  and 
were  brought  here  from  abroad  as 
our  country  grew  and  prospered. 

Men  such  as  Buffalo  Bill  Cody  and 
the  dime  novelist.  Ned  Butline.  popu- 
larized the  West  for  their  generation, 
but  in  my  view  The  Virginian  set 
the  stage  and  guidelines  for  the  de- 
\elopment  of  our  western  cidture 
and  what  one  might  call  the  code  of 
the  West.  Would  our  romantic  per- 
ceptions of  the  W  est  be  the  same 
without  The  Virginian''!  Most  likely 
not. 

Our  love  of  the  West  gives  us  all 
a  common  bond  to  share.  W  ister"s 
cowboy  has  left  us  his  unfettered 
entrepreneurial  spirit  and  his  true 
sense  of  self-reliance  and  personal 
honor.  These  live  on  with  us  today. 
It  is  a  ureat  leijacy. 


Owen  Wister  on  a  sliip.  193' 


"■"-   ,^*"^<'  ■*>*- 


^^erran'titan 


The  Uirginian 

Meets 
Matt  Shepard 


By  D.  Claudia  Thompson 


In  1 95 1 ,  in  preparation  for 
the  celebration  of  the  50"'  an- 
niversary of  the  publication 
of  The  Virginian,  Prof.  N. 
Orwin  Rush  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Wyoming  wrote  to 
Fanny  Kemble  Stokes, 
Owen  Wister's  daughter,  to 
enquire  into  the  whereabouts 
of  the  journals  that  Wister 
had  kept  during  his  trips  to 
the  west  in  which  he  had 
gathered  material  for  his 
writings.  Wister's  children 
were  unaware  that  such  jour- 
nals existed,  but,  after  a  brief 
search,  they  discovered  the 
notebooks  in  a  desk  that  had 
been  in  Wister's  study. 


Autumn  i200i2 


The  journals  were  donated  to  the 
University  of  Wyoming,  and  they 
now  form  the  core  of  the  Owen 
Wister  Papers  at  the  American  Heri- 
tage Center.  Mrs.  Stokes  edited  and 
published  some  of  them  as  Owen 
Wister  Out  West  in  1958.  In  the  in- 
troduction, reflecting  on  The  Virgin- 
ian siie  wrote; 


Its  hero  was  the  first  cowboy  to 
capture  the  pubhc's  imagination... 
Before  this,  cowboys  had  been  de- 
picted as  murderous  thugs.  The  Vir- 
ginian was  utterly  different...  Be- 
cause of  him,  little  boys  wear  ten- 
gallon  hats  and  carry  toy 
pistols. ..We  still  have  Western  sto- 
ries. Western  movies,  and  Western 
radio  and  television  drama  in  which 
the  cowboy  hero  defends  justice 
and  his  girl's  honor  and  shoots  it 
outwith  the  villain.  Tlic 
I'Irginian  stands 
among  the  ten  best-sell- 
ing novels  of  the  past 
fifty  years.  It  was  writ- 
ten as  fiction  but  has 
become  history.' 


In  the  1950s,  when 
this  was  written,  the 
popularity  of  the  West- 
em  was  just  about  at  its 
peak.  There  were,  in 
fact,  no  less  than 
twenty-nine  Western 
series  on  television  in 
1958.-  Mrs.  Stokes,  in 
my  opinion,  overstates 
Wister's  role  in  creat- 
ing the  cowboy  as  hero; 
but  no  one  who  has  ever 
watched  Matt  Dillon 
gun  down  his  opponent 
at  high  noon  on  the 
main  street  of  Dodge 
City  in  the  opening  se- 
quence ofGiinsnioke  is 
likely  to  deny  that 
Wister  had  an  impact. 
Mrs.  Stokes's  second 
and  even  more  grandi- 


ose statement  that  Wister's  "fiction 
has  become  history,"  however,  it  is 
partly  the  aim  of  this  paper  to  af- 
firm. 

Modem  scholarship  has  begun  to 
explore  the  inter-relations  between 
history  and  myth;  and  what  we  have 
discovered  is  that  myth  affects  his- 
tory as  much  as  history  affects 
myth.  The  myths  that  people  believe 
in  influence  and  shape  their  actions; 
and  the  myth  of  the  heroic  cowboy 
has  had  an  impact  on  our  view  of 
ourselves  as  Americans  for  as  long 
as  that  myth  has  existed. 

Mrs.  Stokes  is  correct  in  pointing 
out  that  the  original  heroes  of  Euro- 
pean civilization  in  America  were  not 
cowboys.  The  figure  of  the  heroic 
cowboy  is  actually  superimposed  on 
an  older  Euro- American  myth;  the 


War  and  Pestilence! 

HORRXBLZ:  JBJiTD  UKP  AHA  T.F.T.T.TiP 

MASSACRE !      ,. 


Wild  West.  The  Wild  West  was  bom 
when  the  first  European  ships  set  out 
across  the  Atlantic.  West  was  the 
direction  of  the  unknown,  the  un- 
known is  always  dangerous,  and.  to 
Europeans,  dangerous  was  equated 
with  wild.  The  settlers  came  armed 
and  prepared  for  danger  and  vio- 
lence, and  they  found  what  they 
were  looking  for. 

And  here  1  would  like  to  point  out 
that,  although  m\  th  is  a  word  that  is 
often  used  to  denote  something  that 
is  untrue,  that  is  not  strictly  the  sense 
in  which  I  am  using  it.  By  myth.  I 
mean  a  belief  or  assumption  ac- 
cepted without  proof,  which  may 
turn  out  to  be  either  true  or  false 
when  acted  on.  Any  myth  that  is 
found  to  be  consistently  false  is  apt 
to  be  discarded. 

At  any  rate,  the  Eu- 
ropean settlers  came 
prepared  for  conflict 
with  the  people  already 
inhabiting  the  land,  con- 
flict occurred,  and  so 
the  nivlh.  having  prc^ved 
true  on  application,  sur- 
vived and  was  strength- 
ened. Indian-white  con- 
flicts became  a  staple 
not  only  of  each  new 
westward  expansion 
but  also  of  popular  lit- 
erature. Captivity  nar- 
ratives, stories  of  Indian 
attacks  and  of  the  es- 
cape of  heroic  white 
survivors,  began  to  be 


Women  and  Children 

FALLWG  VICTIJIS  TO  THE 

XNDIABTS  TOMAHAWK. 

Wliilt  many  ofrair  most  populous  ci'irs  liavc  luoil  visiieil  Ijv  lliat  (Iread- 
lul  disease,  llic  Clioiera.  and  to  wijicli  thousands  have  fallen  victims,  the 
merciless  Savages  have  been  as  fatally  engaged  in  the  work  cl  death  on  the 
Irontiere;  where  great  numbers  (including  women  and  children)  havf 
fallen  victjmsto  the  bloody  tomahawk. 


Tanin  Kciiihic  W  ister 
(od).  Oiitv;  ll'istciOiil  llesi 
His  LetWrs  and  Journals 
(Chicago:  University  of 
Cliicago  Press.  1958).  2.  24- 
26. 

-Mike  Flanagan.  Days  of 
the  West  (Frederick.  Colo- 
rado: Renaissance  House. 
1987).  191-193- 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


published  in  the  1 600s  and  new  sto- 
ries continued  to  be  added  to  the  lexi- 
con until  at  least  the  1870s.'  The 
appeal  of  these  stories  was  always 
that  they  were  true;  and  under  the 
influence  of  such  stories,  travelers 
on  the  Oregon  and  California  Trails 
in  the  mid-!800s  always  set  out 
heavily  anned  and  determined  not 
to  let  themselves  or  their  loved  ones 
fall  prey  to  the  terrific  tortures  that 
the  narratives  assured  them  that  In- 
dians practiced. 

Statistics  regarding  mortality  along 
the  emigrant  trails  are  uncertain  and 
controversial,  and  they  are  neces- 
sarily heavily  based  on  the  anecdotal 
evidence  found  in  surviving  journals 
and  letters.  But  one  source  estimates 
that  careless  mishandling  of  firearms 
was  the  leading  cause  of  accidental 
death  on  the  trail.  Another  source 
places  drownings  first  and  shootings 
second.  A  third  writer  concludes 
from  these  estimates.  "The  evidence 
shows  that  the  abundant  emigrant 
weaponry  actually  increased  the 
risks  involved  in  an  overland  jour- 
ney.""* On  the  other  hand,  authenti- 
cated Indian  attacks  did  occur,  and 
some  travelers  were  captured  or 
killed  by  Indians,  so  the  belief  in  dan- 
ger from  Indians  survived  as  a  lively 
part  of  the  western  myth. 


Curiously,  because  it  survived,  it 
tended  to  survive  whole.  When  1 
was  a  child.  1  remember  picking  up 
a  western  novel  set  on  the  Oregon 
Trail  on  the  cover  of  which  was  a 
hapless  blonde  girl  tied  to  a  stake  in 
the  middle  of  the  plains.  The  writer, 
or  at  any  rate  the  illustrator,  appar- 
ently was  not  aware  that  the  west- 
em  Indians,  unlike  the  eastern  wood- 
land peoples,  did  not  practice  ritual 
captive  torture.  Nevertheless,  it 
should  have  occurred  to  somebody 
that  burning  at  the  stake  is  an  un- 
likely pastime  for  any  culture  accus- 
tomed to  living  on  a  tree-challenged 
prairie. 

Absurdities  of  this  sort,  however, 
are  unimportant  when  they  occur  in 
stories  that  everybody  accepts  as 
fiction.  The  tendency  of  the  emi- 
grants to  shoot  themselves  and  each 
other,  in  mistake  for  marauding  In- 
dians, is  more  problematic.  But  oc- 
casionally the  myth  became  dys- 
functional enough  to  be  truly  dan- 
gerous. In  August  1854,  near  Fort 
Laramie,  a  cow  strayed  away  from 
an  emigrant  train  and  was  shot  and 
butchered  by  a  small  group  of 
Miniconjou  Sioux  who  were  camped 
with  a  larger  group  of  Brule  Sioux. 
The  owner  of  the  cow  complained 
of  his  loss  to  the  commander  of  the 


post  when  the  train  reached  the  fort. 
The  commander  sent  a  young  sec- 
ond lieutenant,  John  L.  Grattan, 
new l\ -graduated  from  West  Point 
and  inexperienced  in  the  West,  with 
a  detail  of  twenty-nine  men  and  two 
howitzers  to  arrest  the  accused  In- 
dians. The  leading  man  of  the  Brule 
village.  Brave  Bear,  tried  to  negoti- 
ate between  Grattan  and  the  Sioux; 
but  the  Indians  did  not  understand 
the  concept  of  arrest  followed  by 
inquiry  and  trial,  and  Grattan  knew 
little  about  Indians  other  than  the 
myths  of  hostility  and  cowardice  that 
were  current  in  the  popular  litera- 
ture of  his  day.  He  ordered  his  men 
to  fire,  probably  intending  at  first 
only  to  intimidate  the  Indians  into 


'Josephine  Meeker's  1879  captivity 
among  the  White  River  Utes  may  have  been 
the  last  classic  Indian  captivity  narrative. 
For  a  good  selection  of  captivity  narratives 
see  Frederick  Drimmer  (ed.).  Captured  by 
the  Indians:  1 5  Firsthand  Accounts.  I'^SO- 
/«"« (New  York:  Dover  Publications.  1985). 

■•James  E.  Potter.  "Firearms  on  the  Over- 
land Trails."  Ch'erland  Journal.  9  ( 1991 ).  2, 
9.  The  two  sources  Potter  cites  are:  Merrill 
J.  Mattes.  The  Great  Platte  River  Road(Lm- 
coln:  Nebraska  State  Historical  Society. 
1 969).  90.  and  John  D.  Unruh.  Jr.,  The  Plains 
Across:  The  Overland  Emigrants  and  the 
Trans-Mississippi  West,  1 840- 1 860 (Urbana: 
University  of  Illinois  Press,  1979),  347. 


Autumn  ^2002 


cooperation.  The  Indians  returned 
fire;  the  howitzers  were  discharged 
but  did  httle  damage  since  they  were 
aimed  into  the  air;  Brave  Bear  was 
mortally  wounded;  Gratttan  and  the 
28  men  with  him  were  killed  before 
they  could  retreat  to  the  fort;  and 
relations  between  the  Sioux  and  the 
military  were  permanently  dam- 
aged.' 

The  interpreters  of  history  or,  ifl 
may  use  the  word  in  this  context,  the 
myth-makers  have  not  been  kind  to 
Lt.  Grattan.  who  is  generally  given 
the  blame  for  misunderstanding  and 
mishandling  the  situation;  but  to  un- 
derstand the  whole  truth  of  what 
happened  and  why  it  happened,  it 
would  really  be  necessary  to  exam- 
ine the  myths  which  existed  in  the 
minds  of  the  Indians  involved  as 
well.  The  point  of  the  anecdote,  as  I 
am  using  it,  however,  is  to  demon- 
strate that  history  evolves  into  myth, 
that  myth  tends  to  simplify  and  pet- 
rify the  original  facts,  and  that  these 
simplifications  can.  in  turn,  affect 
history. 

At  this  point.  I  need  to  return  to 
the  myth  of  the  cowboy.  As  I  men- 
tioned previously,  Owen  Wister  did 
not  create  the  first  cowboy  hero.  The 
heroic  cowboy  was  a  literary  con- 
trivance built  on  the  figure  of  the 
heroic  frontiersman.  It  was  a  natu- 
ral extension,  since  Anglo-Ameri- 
cans first  encountered  the  cowboy 
in  Texas,  as  an  exotic  figure  of 
Mexican  origin;  and  Texas  was 
where  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  he- 
roic frontiersmen,  Davy  Crockett, 
ended  his  career.  The  association  of 
frontiersman  and  cowboy  continued 
in  the  public  mind  with  the  partner- 
ship of  Buffalo  Bill  Cody  and  Texas 
Jack  Omohundro  in  the  1 870s.  Both 
Cody  and  Omohundro  were  engaged 
in  recasting  the  reality  of  their  lives 
into  mythic  form,  and,  again,  their 
appeal  to  the  public  lay  in  the  belief 


that  there  was  truth,  or  at  least  some 
truth,  in  the  romances  they  created 
to  entertain  their  audiences.  In  1877 
Texas  Jack  published  his  life  story 
in  a  national  periodical  called  Spirit 
of  the  Times: 

"As  the  general  trade  on  the  range 
has  often  been  written  of,"  he  as- 
serts there,  "I'll  simply  refer  to  a  few 
incidents  of  a  trip  over  the  plains." 
He  then  offers  this  description  of  a 
stampede;  "If  them  quadrupeds  don't 
go  insane,  turn  tail  to  the  storm,  and 
strikeout  for  civil  and  religious  lib- 
erty, then  I  don't  know  what  strike 
out  means. ..this  is  the  cowboy's  ride 
with  Texas  five  hundred  miles  away, 
and  them  steers  steering  straight  for 
him;  night  time,  darker  than  the  word 
means,  hog  wallows,  prairie  dog. 
wolf  and  badger  holes,  ravines  and 
precipices  ahead,  and  if  you  do  your 
duty  three  thousand  stampeding 
steers  behind.  If  your  horse  don't 
swap  ends,  and  you  hang  on  them 
till  daylight,  you  can  bless  your  lucky 
stars."'' 

Omohundro  died  in  Leadville, 
Colorado,  in  1 880,  but  Texas  Jack 
had  adventures  for  the  next  twenty 
years  in  dime  novels  written  by  Ned 
Buntline  and  Prentiss  Ingraham,  al- 
though these  later  stories  drew  little 
or  nothing  from  the  hero's  actual 
life.' 

The  cowboy,  like  the  frontiersman, 
was  very  much  an  American  hero: 
a  hero  of  the  common  man.  In  the 
popular  fiction  which  he  inhabited, 
he  generally  spoke  a  slangy,  if  not 
absolutely  ungrammatical,  English, 
and  he  presented  an  absurd  and 
comical  figure  if  he  was  ever  intro- 
duced to  an  eastern  city.  Still,  by  the 
later  decades  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, the  cowboy  had  become  a  fig- 
ure of  virility,  self-assurance,  and 
romance  whose  courage,  if  not  his 
manners,  were  admired  by  Ameri- 
can youth  concerned  that  civilization 


and  a  lack  of  Indian  threats  were 
making  them  soft,  diffident,  and  un- 
manly. 

The  most  famous  of  the  effete 
young  men  who  sought  redemption 
by  migrating  to  a  cattle  ranch  was 
New  Yorker  Theodore  Roosevelt, 
who  lived  and  ranched  for  a  time  in 
North  Dakota,  and  who  published  in 
1888  an  account  of  cowboy  life  in 
the  West  called  Ranch  Life  and  the 
Hunting-Trail,  copiously  illustrated 
by  his  friend  and  fellow  New  Yorker, 
Frederic  Remington.  Roosevelt's 
stirring  account  of  his  life  in  the  west 
emphasized  encounters  with  outlaws 
and  wild  game,  and  he  was  full  of 
praise  for  the  cowboy,  whose  char- 
acter and  antecedents  he  sketched. 
Roosevelt  claimed  that,  although 
cowboys  were  drawn  from  all  over 
the  country,  most  of  them  and  the 
best  of  them  were  southerners. 

"For  cowboy  work  there  is  need 
of  special  traits,"  he  wrote,  "...and 
young  Easterners  should  be  sure  of 
themselves  before  trying  it:  the 
struggle  for  existence  is  ver\  keen 
in  the  far  West,  and  it  is  no  place  for 
men  who  lack  the  ruder,  coarser  vir- 
tues and  physical  qualities,  no  mat- 
ter how  intellectual  or  how  refined 
and  delicate  their  sensibilities."*' 

One  of  the  young  easterners  who 
sought  health  and  manhood  in  the 
west  during  this  decade  was  Owen 
Wister,  who  came  to  Wyoming  from 
Philadelphia  in  1885.  Like  Roosevelt, 

'George  E.  Hyde,  Spotted  Tail 's  Folk  A 
History  of  the  Brule  '  Sioitx  (Norman;  Uni- 
versity of  Otclahoma  Press,  y  Printing. 
1979).  58-70. 

''Herschel  C.  Logan.  Buckskin  and  Satin: 
The  Life  of  Texas  Jack  (Harrisburg.  Penn- 
sylvania: Staekpole  Conipan\.  1954).  28- 
30. 

Ihid..  156-170.  186. 

"Theodore  Roosevelt.  Ranch  Life  and  the 
Hunlmg-Trail  (Time  L.ife  Books  1981  re- 
print of  New  York:  The  Century  Company. 
1888).  10. 


10 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyonning  History  Journal 


-      r 

3^f 

-^ 

'> 

v^ 

K^ 

-     r    <• 

^V 

1 

>^> 


Yri4m(;l^f(W(fcjfijfi;_-..  '' 


(7' 


he  lived  on  a  cattle  ranch,  in  fact, 
he  stayed  at  Frank  Wolcott"s  ranch 
near  Glenrock:  but  Roosevelt's  in- 
fluence on  his  work  is  frankly  ac- 
knowledged by  himself,  in 
Roosevelt,  the  Story  of  a  Friend- 
ship. Wister  related  how  he  was 
partly  inspired  by  Roosevelt's  pub- 
lished writings  to  undertake  the  west- 
em-themed  fiction  which  he  even- 
tually turned  into  The  Virginian!' 
Although  Wister  marketed  his  sto- 
ries as  fiction,  he  drew  much  of  the 
background  and  some  incidents  from 
his  own  observations,  and  it  is  this 


aura  of  reality  that  has  helped  the 
book  to  retain  its  importance  through 
the  years. 

Wister  was  a  much  better  writer 
than  Ned  Buntline  or  Prentiss 
ingraham,  who  had  imagined  absurd 
adventures  for  Buffalo  Bill  and 
Texas  Jack  in  the  dime  novel  litera- 
ture of  Wister's  youth,  and  I  will  not 
assert  that  he  drew  much  directly 
from  those  sources.  Wister  repeated, 
however,  some  of  elements  of  that 
less  reputable  fiction,  particularly  the 
brave  cowboy  comfortably  at  home 
in  a  world  of  conflict  and  violence. 


In  Wister's  story,  the  western  hero 
is  not  a  comic  figure  out  of  his  own 
element,  however;  and  the  violence, 
instead  of  being  constant  and  en- 
demic, is  carefully  constructed  to 
erupt  in  an  ultimate  inevitable  climax. 
Wister,  in  fact,  invented  the  show- 
down. 

In  the  figure  of  Molly  Wood, 
Wister  embodied  the  east  and  east- 
ern culture  and  equated  pacifism 


'Cited  in  Wister.  Owen  Wister  Out  West. 
1-12. 


Autumn  '^00:2 


11 


with  the  feminine.  In  the  figure  of 
his  hero,  he  explored  what  it  takes 
to  be  a  man.  To  be  a  man,  in  Wister's 
world,  it  was  necessary,  as 
Roosevelt  had  asserted,  to  be  sure 
of  oneself  It  was  necessary  to  rec- 
ognize what  was  right  and  what 
should  be  done,  and  to  do  it  even  in 
the  face  of  overwhelming  social 
pressure.  It  was  necessary  to  resort 
to  violence  even  though  civilization 
condemned  violence.  To  avoid  vio- 
lence was  womanly.  None  of  this 
was  Wister's  sole  creation,  but  be- 
cause he  wrote  well,  and  because 
he  wrote  for  an  elite  audience  of  lit- 
erate intellectuals,  his  special  spin  on 
the  cowboy  myth  had  enormous  in- 
fluence in  the  development  of  sub- 
sequent literature.  Wister  did  not 
really  create  the  western  genre,  but 
he  infused  new  life  into  it.  made  it 
respectable,  and  sent  it  into  the  twen- 
tieth century  vigorous  and  proud. 

In  order  for  a  myth  to  have  influ- 
ence, it  has  to  feel  true,  morally  true 
if  not  literally  true,  to  a  large  num- 
ber of  people.  The  F/>g/>//a// had  that 
appeal,  it  has  remained  constantly 
in  print.  It  was  filmed  several  times 
and  was  recently  resurrected  as  a 
TV  movie  on  TNT.  Elements  of  the 
book  appeared  over  and  over  again 
thinl\  disguised  in  other  people's 
works:  the  cowboy  and  the 
schoolmami,  the  lynched  rustler,  the 
tenderfoot  from  the  East,  nearly  ev- 
ery character  Wister  created  had 
adventures  under  other  names  in 
other  films  and  books;  but  it  was  the 
final  showdown  between  good  man 
and  bad  man  that  became  the  lead- 
ing cliche  of  western  literature.  It  is 
the  figure  of  the  man  standing  for 
his  beliefs  alone  against  strong  pres- 
sure that  is  Wister's  most  enduring 
legacy  to  the  myth. 

It  happens,  however,  that  it  was 
this  element  that  drew  least  from 
Wister's  experience  and  most  from 
his  imagination.  In  the  West  of  real- 


ity there  were  no  formal  duels  be- 
tween good  and  evil,  chaos  and  or- 
der, or  "quality"  and  "equality."  as 
Wister  described  his  two  antago- 
nists,'" supporting  a  class  system 
which  rapidly  disappeared  and  which 
had  little  influence  on  later  westerns. 
Wister's  heirs,  writers  like Zane Grey. 
Max  Brand,  and  Louis  L' Amour,  dis- 
carded the  parts  of  his  fable  that  felt 
untrue  or  unnecessary  to  them.  As 
with  the  captivity  narratives  and  early 
stories  of  cowboy  life,  when  new 
writers  stepped  in  to  continue  the 
tradition,  they  were  quick  to  aban- 
don mere  facts  or  anything  that  felt 
discordant  to  popular  views.  Myth 
searches  for  underlying  truths,  its 
purpose  is  not  to  record  histor\ . 

That,  at  least,  was  the  belief  of 
Max  Brand,  who  was  particularl\ 
influential  in  this  trend.  Although 
bom  in  Seattle  and  educated  in  Cali- 
fornia. Frederick  Schiller  Faust,  who 
used  the  pen  name  Max  Brand, 
wrote  much  of  his  voluminous  west- 
em  fiction  in  Florence.  Italy;  and  he 
made  no  secret  of  the  fact  that  he 
drew  his  inspiration  from  Greek  and 
Roman  myth  rather  than  from 
American  history."  Other  writers 
followed  suit.  Most  of  them,  like  their 
predecessors  Ned  Buntline  and 
Prentiss  Ingraham.  made  a  living 
churning  out  popular  fiction  at  so 
much  a  word,  and  they  had  no  time 
for  research.  Readers  didn't  quite 
see  it  the  same  way.  They  still  tended 
to  equate  truth  with  realit\ ;  but  since 
most  of  them  were  neither 
westemers  nor  historians,  and  since 
the  new  stories  were  still  being  set 
in  an  increasingly  remote  past,  they 
largely  failed  to  notice  as  the  west- 
em  became  more  and  more  discon- 
nected from  the  1880s  West  that 
Wister  had  known. 

Westerns  grew  in  popularity 
through  most  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury and  peaked  during  World  War 
il  and  the  Cold  War.  Bv  the  lQ50s 


the  world  of  the  western  was  as 
richly  imagined,  and  as  far  from  re- 
ality, as  the  court  of  Camelot.  The 
western  began  to  decline  in  popu- 
larit\  late  in  the  1960s,  at  the  same 
time  that  the  Vietnam  conflict  be- 
gan to  discredit  war  as  a  solution  to 
world  problems;  but  although  west- 
ems  have  ceased  to  be  the  domi- 
nant form  of  popular  culture,  they 
have  not  disappeared,  and  the  the- 
sis at  the  center  of  Roosevelt's  and 
Wister's  philosophies:  that  manliness 
requires  a  willingness  to  resort  to  vio- 
lence, has  survived  intact  and  has 
largely  transcended  the  western 
genre. 

On  the  night  of  October  6.  1 998.  a 
young  gay  student  at  the  University 
of  Wyoming  named  Matthew 
Shepard  left  a  local  bar  with  two 
other  \oung  Laramie  residents. 
Russell  Henderson  and  Aaron 
McKinney.  Shepard  was  found  tied 
to  a  fence  and  badly  beaten  the  next 
day.  He  died  of  his  injuries  five  days 
later.  Henderson  and  McKinney 
were  arrested  for  the  murder.  So 
were  their  girlfriends,  who  had 
helped  them  dispose  of  evidence 
linking  them  to  the  crime. '- 

I  was  living  in  Laramie  at  the  time, 
and.  like  man\  of  the  townsfolk.  I 
was  shocked  and  saddened,  when  I 
tlrst  read  the  news,  by  the  destruc- 
tion wrought  in  five  young  lives,  all 
of  them  destroyed  or  forever  altered 
by  an  apparently  pointless  act;  but 
Laramie  had  been  shocked  and  sad- 
dened b\  traiied\  before  and  would 


'"Owen  Wister.  Tlie  \  /;-tr'/;/(/';(Ncw  ^ork: 
Orosset  &  Diinlap.  1444).  147-202. 

"Robert  Easton.  \Ul\  Brand  The  Big 
/(f,s7i';v;t'r  (University  of  Oklahoma  Press: 
Norman.  1970).  vii.  66-67.  113-128. 

'•  Laranne  Daily  Bnoinerang.  October 
9-13.  1998.  in  Matthew  Shepard  Collection. 
Accession  Number  3000 14.  Box  5.  F'olders 
1-2.  American  Heritage  Center.  Llni\ersity 
olAWomins 


12 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Autumn  i200'i 


13 


be  again.  Yet  other  crimes  commit- 
ted here  had  brought  no  hordes  of 
national  reporters  into  our  town,  and 
no  international  wire  services  had 
advertised  us  to  the  world  as  a  place 
that  could  not  keep  its  citizens  safe. 

So  I  naturallv  wondered:  what  was 
it  about  this  crime  that  attracted  na- 
tional attention?  Why  did  this  storv. 
particularly,  evolve  into  multiple  mov- 
ies of  the  week,  some  of  which  had 
as  little  connection  to  reality  as  Buf- 
falo Bill's  or  Texas  Jack's  narratives 
of  their  Indian-fighting  days?  Why 
is  it  that  the  Shepard  murder  seems 
poised  to  become  one  of  those  his- 
torical events  that  morphs  into  myth? 

One  of  the  few  really  insightful 
pieces  of  journalism  to  come  out  of 
the  media  attention  was  written  by 
JoAnn  Wypijewski  and  published  in 
Harper's  Magazine  in  September. 
1999.  Wypijewski  focused  her  piece 
on  the  psychology  of  Matt's  killers. 
She  suggested  that  they  shared  a 
particular  trait  in  common  w  ith  the 
Columbine  killers  and  with  many 
other  young  villains  of  recent  crimes. 
They  were  not  the  school  bullies, 
they  were  the  kids  that  the  school 
bullies  bullied.  In  fact  she  concluded, 
■"[i]t's'/4possible  that  Matthew 
Shepard  didn't  die  because  he  was 
gav ;  he  died  because  Aaron 
McKinney  and  Russell  Henderson 
are  straight.""  Her  implication  is 
that  the  killers  felt  they  were  prov- 
ing their  manhood  b>  beating  a  gay 
man  so  severely  as  to  cause  death. 

Wypijewski  was  also  struck  by  the 
extent  to  which  Laramie  identified 
itself  with  the  cowbo>  myth,  and, 
certainly,  if  you  take  a  walk  down- 
town, you  will  encounter  many  proud 
displays  of  westemness  there  from 
the  Cowboy  Bar  to  the  oversize 
horseshoes  recently  painted  on  the 
sidewalks;  and  since  Laramie  is  not 
quite  a  tourist  mecca.  it  is  presum- 
ably the  locals  who  are  supposed  to 
be  enticed  bv  this  adv  ertisinii. 


Wypijewski  also  brought  into  the  mix 
the  kind  of  religion,  and  it  certainly 
exists  here  in  Laramie,  which 
teaches  that  homosexual itv  is  a  bib- 
lically-condemned sin.'*  So  long  as 
we  teach  our  children  to  soke  prob- 
lems with  violence,  she  implies,  and 
so  long  as  we  teach  our  children  that 
homosexualitv  is  a  problem,  some  of 
our  children  will  seek  to  solve  ho- 
mosexualitv with  \  iolence.  and  we 
must  embrace  the  Shepard  murder 
as  the  logical  result  of  such  teach- 
ings. 

And  this  is  where  the  Virginian 
meets  Matt  Shepard.  Clearlv.  it 
would  be  ridiculous,  however  tvpi- 
cal  of  myth-making,  to  reduce  this 
argument  to  an  insistence  that  little 
boys  who  wear  ten-gallon  hats  and 
carry  toy  pistols  v\ill  grow  up  to  be 
murderers,  it  is  not  the  little  boys 
who  grow  up.  no  matter  what  thev 
ha\ e  worn  or  what  they  have  read 
or  what  they  have  watched  on  tele- 
vision, who  commit  the  crimes  that 
shock  the  nation.  It  is  the  little  boys 
who  can't  grow  up.  It  is  the  ones 
who  somehow  lose  their  wav  on  the 
road  through  adolescence  to  emo- 
tional maturity.  These  are  the  ones 
who  draw  their  role  models  from  fic- 
tion and  myth  and  who  seem  unable 
to  check  these  models  against  real- 
itv. 

But  if  the  Shepard  case  is.  in  a 
sense,  a  new  chapter  in  the  cowboy 
mvth.  it  mav  also  have  some  com- 
mon ground  with  the  story  of  Lt. 
Grattan.  Grattan  entered  myth  from 
historv  as  the  stereotv  pical  example 
of  how  a  fixed  and  unquestioned  idea 
of  Indian  hostility  can  create  disas- 
ter. The  Shepard  case  may  stand  to 
the  future  as  an  example  of  how  a 
fixed  and  unquestioned  belief  that 
violence  is  to  be  equated  w  ith  mas- 
culinity can  pass  from  a  mvlh  to  a 
real-life  tragedy. 

As  I  pointed  out  earlier,  mvth 
tends  to  simplify  and.  tniallv .  to  pet- 


rify: and  the  more  remote  it  becomes 
from  the  events  that  inspired  it.  the 
more  likely  it  is  to  lapse  into  absur- 
dity.  The  publication  of  The  I'irgiii- 
iaii  and  the  death  of  Matt  Shepard 
bracket  the  twentieth  century.  The 
myth  had  nearlv  a  hundred  years  to 
simplify  and  petrify,  and  it  is  hardly 
Wister's  fault  if  some  of  the  ideals 
that  he  championed  in  1902  seem 
less  admirable  to  us  now.  Cultures 
change  and  myths  need  to  change 
with  them.  It  seems  reasonable  to 
propose  that  in  the  tvsentv -first  cen- 
tury we  will  create  new  myths  by 
drawing  inspiration  from  new  expe- 
riences, and  that  we  will  condemn 
the  absurdities  of  our  past  myths  and 
discard  those  that  no  longer  feel  true. 
Whether  the  heroic  cowbov  finds  his 
way  onto  the  discard  pile  or  is  rein- 
carnated to  a  new  life  in  another 
generation,  probablv  depends  on  the 
talents  of  those  gifted  storv -tellers 
of  the  future  who  are  able,  as  Owen 
Wister  did  one  hundred  vears  ago. 
to  create  tables  which  appeal,  which 
feel  true  on  some  level,  to  the  cul- 
ture at  large. 

"  .lo.Ann  \V_\pi|e\\ski.  "A  Hoy's  Lite: 
For  Matthew  Shepard's  Killers.  What  Does 
It  take  To  Pass  As  A  Man."  Harper's 
Magiuiiie.  September.  1999.  61-74.  in 
Matthew  Shepard  Collection.  Box  6.  Folder 
3. 

"  Ibid. 


D.  Claudia  Thompson  holds  a 
bachelor  's  degree  in  history 
from  Metropolitan  State  Col- 
lege. Denver,  and  a  master 's 
degree  in  librariatishipfrom  the 
Universit}'  of  Denver.  She  has 
been  an  archivist  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wyoming  s  American 
Heritage  Center  since  1984. 
This  article  is  derived  from  a 
paper  she  read  at  the  Wister 
symposium.  .American  Heri- 
tage Center,  in  the  fall  of  2002. 


Fort  Laramie^-Ajfter  the  Army: 

Part  ill.  Preservation 

By  Douglas  C.  McChristiau 


*         >   'k.  \   .  ■ 


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\\\ liming  State  Archives.  Dept   of  State  Parks  and  Cultural  Resources 


Fort  Laramie  in  the  1930s 


This  article  is  the  third  and  final  in- 
stallment of  the  story  of  Fort 
Laramie  in  the  years  after  it  ceased 
service  as  an  army  post  in  1890.  The 
first  segment,  "The  Auction,"  was 
published  in  Annals,  Summer  2001. 
The  second  portion,  "The  Commu- 
nity," appeared  in  the  Autumn  2001 
issue  of  Annals. 


The  twentieth  centurv  dawned  on  a  FortLaramie 
that  was  but  a  mere  skeleton  of  the  once  proud 
military  post.  The  decade  following  abandonment  had 
witnessed  the  wholesale  destruction  of  most  of  the  prin- 
cipal buildings  and  virtually  all  of  the  minor  ones.  Where 
dozens  of  buildings  had  once  stood,  only  foundations  or 
stark  ruins  remained.  Those  few  buildings  still  more  or 
less  intact  at  that  time  would  remain  comparatively  un- 
changed in  subsequent  decades  because  the  owners 
found  practical  uses  for  them. 

Although  later  preservationists  would  lament  the  raz- 
ing of  the  fort  buildings,  no  one  at  the  time,  with  the 
possible  exception  of  John  Hunton,  gave  the  slightest 
thought  to  saving  them  for  posterity.  Frontier  military 
posts  were  by  no  means  unique  in  1 890.  The  people  in 
the  vicinity  were  still  too  close  to  the  reality  of  the  post's 
army  days  to  be  concerned,  much  less  have  any  ro- 


Autumn  'iOO'i 


15 


mantic  notions  about  the  West  Many  of  them,  in  fact, 
had  vvorlved  on  the  post  or  lived  in  the  area  for  some 
time.  It  would  have  been  inconceivable  to  most  that 
anyone  in  the  future  would  t1nd  the  whole  thing  of  any 
interest,  much  the  way  citizens  today  view  abandoned 
military  bases.  Everyone  was  too  preoccupied  with  the 
everyday  struggles  of  life  to  indulge  in  nostalgia.  The 
editor  of  the  Cheyenne  Daily  Leader  probably  came 
as  close  as  anyone  when  he  referred  to  "the  historical 
post  a  veritable  deserted  village."'  The  only  interest 
shown  in  the  buildings  was  what  the>  might  be  able  to 
provide  in  materials  to  construct  new  buildings  on  home- 
steads, ranches,  and  in  towns  throughout  the  region. 

It  may  be  speculated  that  .lohn  Hunton  had  some 
higher  purpose  in  mind  when  he  bought  so  many  of  the 
militan.  buildings.  That  he  intended  to  sell  at  least  some 
of  his  buildings  for  salvage  purposes,  however,  is  re- 
flected in  his  own  statements.-  When  his  business  as 
post  trader  failed  as  a  result  of  the  armv's  departure,  it 
plunged  him  into  personal  financial  loss  that  probably 
even  he  had  not  foreseen  at  the  time  of  the  auction. 
Any  thoughts  he  may  have  entertained  for  "preserving" 
some  of  the  army  structures,  were  dismissed  in  the  face 
of  his  own  financial  crisis.  Accordingly,  he  sold  many 
of  his  buildings  during  the  next  two  years,  with  no  ap- 
parent remorse.  He  needed  cash,  and  needed  it  badly 
when  his  creditors  hounded  him  to  settle  his  accounts. 
Writing  to  a  friend.  Hunton  admitted,  "I  am  dead  broke 
and  have  been  sold  out  by  the  sheriff..."' 

Still,  one  must  question  the  inconsistencies  in  Hnnton's 
treatment  of  the  buildings  he  owned.  Some--like  Old 
Bedlam,  the  Trader's  Store,  and  the  two  otTicers  quar- 
ters standing  between  them— seemed  to  be  inviolable. 
Certainly,  one  of  his  motives  was  that  these  buildings 
stood  on  a  parcel  of  land  that  he  planned  to  homestead, 
and  eventually  did  acquire  by  purchase.  Most  of  the 
others  were  on  tracts  later  filed  on  by  his  neighbors, 
Joe  and  Mary  Wilde  and  Hattie  Sandercock.  As  noted 
in  the  previous  article  (see  "Fort  Laramie  After  the 
Army:  Part  II.  The  Community.  "Annals  of  Wyoming. 
Autumn  2001 }.  B.  A.  Hart  initially  acquired  the  north- 
west quarter  of  Section  28,  where  several  of  Hunton's 
buildings  stood.  The  division  of  these  lands  may  have 
been  a  "gentleman's  agreement,"  though  no  evidence 
has  been  found  to  indicate  that  was  the  case.  What- 
ever the  reason,  Hunton  divested  himself  of  the  build- 
ings through  sale  or  salvage  within  a  short  time  after 
the  post  reservation  was  opened  to  homesteading. 

Hunton  lacked  the  money  to  maintain  the  row  of  build- 
ings on  the  west  side  of  the  parade  ground,  but  he  nev- 
ertheless saw  to  it  that  they  were  spared  from  destruc- 
tion. Bedlam,  in  particular,  seems  to  have  held  a  spe- 


Ciiltural 

Rcourees 

Division. 

Stale  Parks  and 

C'ultLiral  Resources 

Dept 


.l<ilui  Hunlon 


cial.  if  not  sentimental,  place  with  him.  This  largest  of 
frame  buildings  contained  more  lumber  than  perhaps 
an\  other  building  on  the  post.  \et  he  did  not  sell  it.  nor 
did  he  permit  the  use  of  it  by  anyone,  e.xcept  to  rent  a 
room  to  the  school  district  for  several  years.  The  Burt 
House  was  his  personal  residence  for  as  long  as  he 
lived  at  the  fort,  while  the  so-called  Surgeon's  Quarters 
next  door  was  used  for  storage,  with  a  room  or  two 
infrequentl\  being  rented  to  tenants. 

Hunton  might  have  had  a  perfect  opportunity  to  con- 
tinue a  general  merchandise  business  and  even  a  sa- 
loon—the  store  building  contained  two  of  them  in  readv 
condition— had  it  not  been  for  his  indebtedness  and  the 
fear  that  his  creditors  would  seize  the  assets  of  any 
new  enterprise  he  might  start.  While  this  may  not  fully 
explain  his  apparent  lack  of  initiative,  it  is  the  only  rea- 
son that  can  be  attributed  to  his  decision  not  to  revive 
his  business.  Others,  notably  .loe  Wilde,  operated  suc- 
cessful businesses  at  the  old  post  for  many  years  after- 
ward. Thus,  the  cluster  of  Hunton  buildings  stood  ne- 
glected, and  largeK  unused  for  any  commercial  pur- 
poses, yet  he  did  not  sell  them  or  salvage  them  himself 
Hunton's  true  intentions  remain  an  enigma. 

'  "Old  Kort  l^iiramie."  Chevcnne  Daily  l.t^ciJer.  March  25.  1 890. 

-  In  the  two  days  hefore  the  auction.  Hunton  measured  buildings 
and  estimated  how  much  lumber  the\  contained.  Entries  April  7 
and  8,  Hunton  [^iar\.  1890.  typescript  in  Box  3.  Accession  No.  9. 
.lohn  Hunton  Papers.  .American  Heritage  Center.  University  of  Wyo- 
ming. Laramie.  W  yo.  (hereinalter  cited  as.  [lunton  Diary  with  year). 

'  Hunton  to  T,  P.  McCollev.  Fort  Robinson.  Neb.,  December  2. 
1891.  Hunton  Letters,  copies  m  Mattes  Collection.  Archives.  Fort 
Laramie  National  Historic  Site  (hereinatkr  cited  as  Hunton  Letters. 
Mattes  Collection). 


16 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


The  historic  preservation  movement  in  the  United 
States  was  stili  in  its  infancy  at  the  turn  of  the 
century.  There  had  been  isolated  instances  of  concern 
for  saving  historic  buildings  fi-om  destruction  in  the  East 
as  early  as  1816,  with  the  rescue  of  the  Old  State  House 
in  Philadelphia.  Later  efforts  included  the  identification 
of  a  building  in  New  York  fonnerly  used  as  a  headquar- 
ters by  General  George  Washington  and  the  appropria- 
tion of  funds  by  that  state's  legislature  to  preserve  it.  In 
1853  a  group  of  patriotic  women  organized  to  save 
Mount  Vernon.  Later,  in  the  1870s  and  1880s,  there 
was  a  burgeoning  interest  in  the  preservation  of  Colo- 
nial houses.  Most  of  these  early  efforts,  characterized 
by  one  historian  as  "patriotic  fervor."  transcended  from 
the  historical  personages  with  which  the  buildings  were 
associated,  not  as  the  result  of  any  concern  for  their 
intrinsic  values  as  examples  of  architectural  types  or 
their  association  with  national  historical  themes.^ 

Although  interest  in  historic  preservation  was  flour- 
ishing in  the  East  during  the  1890s,  it  was  only  beginning 
to  take  root  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Anglo-American 
occupancy  of  the  region  was  comparatively  recent  and, 
despite  the  Census  Bureau's  pronouncement  that  the 
frontier  line  was  no  longer  discernible  by  1 890,  much  of 
the  western  United  States  was  still  unsettled.  There 
was  little  interest  in  preservation  in  the  West,  with  the 
exception  of  a  developing  concern  by  archeologists  for 
some  prehistoric  Native  American  and  other  archeo- 


logical  sites  in  the  southwestern  territories.  An  example 
was  the  setting  aside  of  the  ruins  at  Casa  Grande,  in 
southern  Arizona,  in  1 889.  However,  most  people  in  the 
West  were  occupied  with  building  the  new  civilization 
and  exploiting  the  abundance  of  natural  resources  it  had 
to  offer.  While  some  of  the  aging  frontiersmen  may 
have  lamented  the  passing  of  the  Old  West,  few  people 
had  any  interest  in  philanthropic  efforts  aimed  at  saving 
buildings  or  sites  purely  for  historical  reasons. 

America  may  have  experienced  a  latent  social  aware- 
ness of  historic  properties,  compared  with  European 
nations,  but  concern  emerged  nevertheless.  The  Civil 
War  produced  widespread  popular  support  for  the  es- 
tablishment and  maintenance  of  national  cemeteries. 
Veterans'  groups,  like  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic, 
proved  to  be  powerful  lobbyists  in  Congress.  Since  many 
of  these  cemeteries  were  located  on  the  battlefields  of 
that  conflict,  the  federal  government  began  reserving 
such  tracts  under  the  administration  of  the  War  De- 
partment Aside  from  the  battlefields  and  their  associ- 
ated cemeteries,  however,  the  preservation  movement 
remained  centered  in  the  private  sector. 

By  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  one  author  con- 
tends, "not  only  were  we  as  a  people  using  historic  shrines 
to  assert  our  legitimacy  in  an  international  community 

■^  William  Murtaugh.  Keeping  Time:  The  Hisloiy  and  Theon-  of 
Presen'ation  in  America  (New  York:  John  Wiley  and  Sons.  1997). 
26-30. 


The  State  of  Wyoming  became  involved  in  placing  Oregon  Trail  markers  in  the  years  before 
World  War  /.  Pictured  is  the  dedication  of  a  marker  near  Douglas  on  Sept.  20,  1913. 


Autumn  aoO'i 


17 


of  venerable  nations,  but  also,  as  individuals  and  groups, 
we  looked  to  associative  history  for  reassurance."  *  In 
1 906  Congress  passed  the  Antiquities  Act.  the  first  com- 
prehensive federal  legislation  for  the  purpose  of  reserving 
as  national  monuments,  'historic  landmarks,  historic  and 
prehistoric  structures,  and  other  objects  of  historic  or 
scientific  interest. ""This  legislation  was  a  reflection  of 
President  Theodore  Roosevelt's  obsession  for  conserv- 
ing what  he  considered  to  be  some  of  America's  great- 
est cultural  treasures.  The  weakness  of  the  law  lay  in 
its  limitation  to  properties  either  already  owned  or  do- 
nated to  the  L'  S.  Government.  It  nevertheless  was  im- 
portant for  demonstrating  federal  interest  in  land  con- 
servation and  preservation  of  cultural  resources.  Of 
equal  importance,  the  Antiquities  Act  laid  the  ground- 
work for  the  extension  of  an  entire  system  of  such  re- 
serves and.  ten  years  later,  the  creation  of  an  agencv  to 
administer  the  sites— the  National  Park  Service. 

That  same  year.  coincidentalK.  Ezra  Meeker,  who  had 
migrated  to  California  on  the  Oregon  Trail  in  1 852.  re- 
crossed  the  trail  in  a  personal  commemoration  of  that 
event.  In  staging  his  tribute  to  the  thousands  of  emi- 
grants who  had  passed  over  the  combined  Oregon-Cali- 
fornia and  Mormon  Trails  in  the  mid-nineteenth  cen- 
tury. Meeker  drove  one  of  his  original  wagons,  drawn 
by  a  team  of  oxen.  During  his  journey  from  Puget  Sound, 
Washington,  to  Independence.  Missouri.  Meekerdrew 
attention  to  a  need  for  marking  the  route  of  the  emi- 
grant trail  before  it  was  entirely  obliterated 

An  example  contlrming  his  worst  fears  was  Fort 
Laramie.  Meeker  was  appalled  by  what  he  found.  "The 
old  place  is  crumbling  away,  slow  ly  disappearing  with 
the  memories  of  the  past."  he  despaired.  The  old  pio- 
neer observed,  correctly,  that  there  was  little  evidence 
of  the  post  he  had  seen  over  a  half-century  earlier,  in 
fact,  he  said,  the  ruins  visible  in  1 906  did  not  represent  a 
fort  at  all.  "but  an  encampment.  "7  Meeker's  impres- 
sion reflected  the  fact  that  most  frontier  army  posts 
had  no  stockades,  therefore,  they  more  closely  resembled 
villages  than  fortifications. 

Meeker's  nostalgic  revisiting  of  the  Oregon  Trail 
spurred  him  to  an  even  greater  effort  the  next  year, 
when  he  traversed  the  nation  in  his  wagon,  all  the  way 
to  Washington,  D.  C.  where  he  urged  Congress  to  of- 
ficially mark  the  route.  Not  surprisingU .  his  efforts  to 
attract  federal  involvement  failed.  The  United  States 
had  a  deeply  rooted  tradition  in  relying  on  "private  ini- 
tiative in  most  areas  of  social  concern.'"*  Although  the 
War  Department  oversaw  national  cemeteries  and 
battlefields,  it  drew  the  line  there.  Virtually  all  of  the 
eastern  historic  house  museums  associated  with  the 


nation's  founders  and  leaders,  were  privately  owned 
and  operated.  Meeker's  campaign  served  the  purpose, 
however,  by  sparking  local  groups  in  the  West  to  heed 
his  message.  Whereas  he  had  discovered  only  22  mark- 
ers along  the  Oregon  Trail  the  first  time  he  retraced  it 
by  1908  there  were  more  than  1  30.' 

Interest  in  memorializing  the  emigrant  route  across 
Nebraska  and  Wyoming  grew  rapidly.  Despite 
Wyoming's  relatively  recent  statehood  and  its  still  sparse 
population,  it  emerged  as  a  leader  in  efforts  to  mark  the 
Oregon  Trail,  as  well  as  in  identifying  and  erecting  monu- 
ments at  numerous  other  historic  sites  within  its  own 
boundaries.  Whether  they  were  conscious  of  it  or  not. 
Meeker  and  his  disciples  were  expressing  a  connection 
of  the  past  with  the  present-associative  history-lest  that 
anchor  be  lost.  As  one  historian  observed.  "Historical 
marking  wasn't  a  science:  it  was  more  an  instinct,  some- 
thing that  some  individuals  bore  inside  themselves.'"" 

Even  John  Hunton  felt  compelled  to  take  action  when 
he  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  War  in  1910  suggesting 
that,  "a  small  monument  should  be  erected  at  the  site  of 
the  immense  immigration  trail  or  road  which  is  very 
rapidly  passing  out  of  recognizable  existence.""  Back 
in  1891.  when  an  army  detail  returned  to  the  fort  to 
retrieve  the  soldiers"  remains  from  the  post  cemetery. 
Hunton  had  called  their  attention  to  the  mass  grave  at 
the  Grattan  Battlefield.  Now,  nearly  20  years  later,  he 
thought  it  was  appropriate  to  place  a  monument  mark- 
ing the  famed  trail,  which  passed  close  by  the  scene  of 
the  1854  skirmish.'- 

The  preservation  movement  nationwide  became  char- 
acterized by  two  elements— patriotism  bordering  on  re- 
ligious zealotry,  and  women  most  often  assuming  the 
leadership  roles.  The  Wyoming  preservation  effort  fol- 
lowed the  national  trend.  The  seeds  that  Ezra  Meeker 
sowed  fell  on  fertile  ground  in  the  state  chapter  of  the 

*  Ihid..  30. 

"  Barn.  Mackintosh.  "The  Historic  Sites  Siirvev'  and  National 
Landmarks  Program:  A  Historv"  (Washington.  D.  C:  National  Park 
Service.  1985).  1.  (hereinafter  cited  as  "Historic  Sites  Survey"). 

'  Meeker,  perhaps  without  knowing,  summed  up  the  structural 
evolution  of  the  post  from  a  walled  trading  post  to  the  scattered 
array  of  buildings  typical  of  most  western  ami\  posts,  Mike  .lording. 
A  Few  Inlerested  Rcsideiils.  ll'yumiiiii  Hislnncal  Markers  <<  Moim- 
meius  (Newcastle:  1442).  .'i.  (hereinafter  cited  as  .(  Few  Interesled 
Residents ). 

*  Mackintosh.  Historic  Sites  Survev.  p.l. 
'^  Jording.  A  Few  Interested  Residents,  p.  1 . 
'"  .lording.  A  Few  Interesled  Residents,  p.  1 . 

"  Hunton  to  Senator  F.  E.  Warren,  .lune  15.  141(1.  Hunton  Let- 
ters. Mattes  Collection, 

'-  Lhis  marker  was  not  placed  until  1416,  Grace  Raymond  Hebard 
to  Hunton.  Jul\  18.  1416.  ihid 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Dr.  Grace  Raymond  Hebard  speaking  al  the 
dedication  o/  a  murker. 

Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution  [DAR].  The 
group  initiated  a  program  to  raise  money  and  erect 
markers  along  the  trail  as  early  as  1908  and  just  five 
years  later  installed  an  imposing  monument  where  the 
emigrant  route  entered  the  state  near  Henry.  Nebraska. 

Also  in  1913.  the  D.  A.  R.  introduced  a  bill  in  the 
state  legislature  petitioning  for  funds  to  further  their  ef- 
forts. The  legislature  not  only  made  an  appropriation  of 
$2,500  for  that  purpose,  but  established  an  Oregon  Trail 
Commission  [OTC]  to  administer  a  landmarks  program 
statewide.  The  first  three-member  committee  was 
headed  by  Mrs.  H.  B.  Patten,  then  state  regent  for  the 
DAR.  When  Patten  and  her  husband  left  the  state  to 
go  to  Washington.  D.C.,  her  successor  to  both  positions 
was  Dr  Grace  Raymond  Hebard.  noted  Wyoming  his- 
torian and  member  of  the  faculty  at  the  University  of 
Wyoming  since  1 909.  Hebard  headed  the  DAR  and  the 
OTC  from  1914-1915  and  continued  to  serve  as  secre- 
tary of  the  latter  until  1921." 

Those  were  busy  years  for  the  members  of  the  Trail 
Commission,  thanks  to  the  strong  support  of  the  Wyo- 


ming Legislature.  Each  year,  it  routinely  appropriated 
$500  for  their  work.  During  the  period  from  1913  to 
1916.  the  OTC  marked  nearly  50  historic  sites  in  the 
state,  only  two  or  three  of  which  were  not  associated 
with  the  Oregon  Trail.  Among  the  important  places  iden- 
tified by  Dr.  Hebard  were  several  frontier  militaiy  posts, 
including  Fort  Laramie.  Such  monuments,  siie  said,  were 
necessary  "to  do  honor  to  those  who  endured  hardships 
and  privations,  encountered  dangers  and  peril,  who  gave 
up  their  lives  to  make  possible  the  civilization  of  the 
great  west."'"* 

Mrs.  Patten  contacted  John  Hunton  in  1913  with  a 
proposal  for  erecting  a  significant  monument  at  the  fort 
as  part  of  their  project  to  memorialize  the  trail.  Enthused 
with  the  idea,  Hunton  responded  that  he  had  spoken 
with  his  old  friend  and  neighbor  Joe  Wilde,  who  agreed 
to  donate  the  cement,  or  $25  toward  the  purchase  of  it. 
Other  old-timers  expressed  their  willingness  to  support 
the  effort,  mainly  with  labor.  Patten  therefore  arranged 
to  have  a  bronze  tablet  cast  bearing  the  inscription, 

FORT  LARAMIE  A  MILITARY  POST  ON  THE 
OREGON  TRAIL,  JUNE  16,1849-  MARCH  2, 
1890.  THIS  MONUMENT  IS  ERECTED  BY 
THE  STATE  OF  WYOMING  AND  A  FEW  IN- 
TERESTED RESIDENTS. 

However,  when  the  plaque  failed  to  arrive  by  Octo- 
ber, Hunton  wrote  to  Mrs.  Patten  suggesting  that  the 
construction  of  the  monument  be  postponed  until  spring 
to  ensure  that  the  con- 
crete    would    cure 
properly.  The  tablet 
was  delivered  later 
and  Hunton  stored  it 
until  warm  weather 
returned. 

About  the  first  of 
June  1914,  Hunton 
assembled  a  crew  of 
volunteer  workmen 
composed  of  Mead 
and  George  Sander- 
cock,  soldier's  son 
John  O'Brian,  and  Jo- 
seph L.  Wolf,  propri- 
etor of  a  dry  goods 


' '  Jording.  .1  Few  Inter- 
ested Residents.  5-7. 


Oregon  Trail  marker  erected 
in  191 3  in  western  Wyoming 


Autumn  !2002 


19 


and  grocery  store  in  New  Fort  Laramie.  A  man  named 
Hisey  was  paid  to  do  the  concrete  work,  although  he, 
too.  donated  an  additional  day  of  his  time  to  complete 
the  project.  Hunton  proudly  announced  that  he  and  his 
"few  interested  residents"  finished  the  monument  on 
June  6.  "We  have  a  very  substantial  structure  6'  x  6' 
square  at  base,  tapering  to  2'  x  2'  at  top  and  12'  high." 
he  reported  to  State  Engineer  and  OTC  member  A.  J. 
Parshall.'^  The  monument  was  strategically  placed  a 
few  feet  northeast  of  the  Post  Trader's  Store,  a  place 
Hunton  knew  had  been  a  ke\  historical  road  intersec- 
tion at  the  fort. 

No  action  was  taken  to  formally  dedicate  the  monu- 
ment until  1915.  That  spring.  Dr.  Hebard  mobilized  her 
sisters  of  the  DAR.  including  Blanche  Hunton.  to  coor- 
dinate special  ceremonies  for  the  unveiling  of  t!ie  Fort 
Laramie  monument  and  two  other  Oregon  Trail  mark- 
ers, one  at  Lingle  and  one  at  Torrington.  Although  the 
planners  experienced  some  unavoidable  delays,  the  day 
was  finally  set  for  June  1  7. 

Late  that  morning.  ex-Govemor  Joseph  M.  Carey. 
Hebard.  and  other  dignitaries  delivered  ferxent  speeches 
reflective  of  the  times  relating  to  the  opening  of  the 
West,  praising  "the  men  who  wrested  these  broad  acres 
from  the  Indians."  and  the  many  sacrifices  made  by  the 
pioneers.  Then,  before  a  large  crowd  and  to  the  strains 
of  the  Torrington  band.  Mrs.  Hunton.  who  arranged  to 
be  home  at  the  time,  drew  the  American  flag  from  the 
Fort  Laramie  monument.  The  Torrington  Telegram 
proudly  proclaimed  that  the  day  would,  "ever  remind 


the  passing  generations  that  people  living  in  1914-15 
were  appreciative  of  the  work  done  along  the  trail  and 
on  into  the  West,  from  1810  on  down  to  the  present 
time. 

Echoingthe  preservation  philosophy  prevalent  in  the 
late  nineteenth  century,  the  speakers  typically  praised 
the  spirit  and  courage  of  those  who  had  "settled  the 
West."  yet  not  one  proposed  that  the  venerable  old  post 
itself  be  preserved  for  those  future  generations.  Cer- 
tainly. John  Hunton  did  not  speak  up.  since  he  had  been 
a  central  figure  in  destroying  much  of  it.  Even  Hebard 
said  only  that.  "The  part  that  Fort  Laramie  has  taken  in 
helping  to  execute  this  trust  makes  us  today,  with  rev- 
erence and  sacred  memory  place  a  monument  on  the 
spot,  that  more  than  any  other  place  in  the  great  West 
contributed  to  a  successful  and  triumphant  march  of 
Western  development  and  expansion.'"^  There  was.  to 
be  sure,  a  sense  of  place  and  its  thematic  association 
with  the  westward  movement  Yet.  typifying  the  times, 
the  monument,  not  the  doomed  structures,  was  perceived 
as  the  permanent  reminder  of  Fort  Laramie. 

In  more  recent  decades,  both  federal  and  state  gov- 
ernments have  become  involved  in  identifying  and  rec- 
ommending the  preser\'ation  of  historic  sites.  Yet.  many 
such  efforts  began  at  the  grass  roots  with  individual 

"  Hunton  to  A.  S.  F^irshall.  Cheyenne.  Wyo..  .Iul\  18.  1914. 
Hunton  Letters.  Mattes  Collection. 

'"  "liig  Outing  Day  Thur."  Torrington  Telegrnm.  .lune  17.  1915. 

'^  "Significance  otTort  Laramie  On  thc(  )regon  Trail."  Torrington 
Telegram,  .lune  24.  1915. 


Members  of  the  Historical  Landmarks  Commission  and  other  officials  pose  in  front  of  a  fort 
structure  in  this  photograph  taken  in  the  1930s. 


'20 


Annals  of  Wyoming;  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


citizens.  In  this  instance,  the  concept  of  saving  the  physi- 
cal remnants  of  Fort  Laramie  began  with  James 
Johnston,  editor  of  the  Torrington  Telegram.  The  cer- 
emonies lighted  a  patriotic  tire  in  Johnston.  "Few  people 
realize  the  importance  of  Fort  Laramie  as  a  historic 
spot  in  Wyoming."  Johnston  wrote,  "and  to  think  that 
the  site  of  the  first  fort  in  the  state  lies  within  the  bor- 
ders of  our  own  county  ought  to  arouse  the  patriotism 
of  the  present  generation  to  restore  the  works  and  make 
it  into  a  beautiful  resort."  Betraying  a  naivete  about  the 
complexities  of  such  an  undertaking,  Johnston  enthusi- 
astically recommended  that,  "There  are  a  dozen  or  more 
of  the  old  buildings  intact,  and  can  be  put  in  shape  for 
use  at  a  very  little  cost."'*'  He  added  that  because  the 
fort  was  convenient  to  Wheatland.  Guernsey,  and 
Torrington,  it  made  a  wonderful  spot  for  picnics  and 
other  social  gatherings. 

Johnston's  plea  failed  to  spark  any  immediate  response 
in  the  local  populace.  Hebard,  apparently  satisfied  that 
the  needs  of  preservation  had  been  met,  did  not  step 
fonvard  on  behalf  of  the  State  of  Wyoming  to  cham- 
pion the  cause  of  saving  the  buildings.  Historian  Merrill 
J.  Mattes  later  interpreted  this  to  mean  that,  "because  it 
was  inconceivable  that  any  agency  would  preserve  an 
old  fort  solely  as  an  historical  park,  all  early  proposals 
revolved  around  various  pragmatic  uses."'"  While  these 
ideas  may  not  have  met  the  modern  criteria  of  preser- 
vation, they  were  nevertheless  aimed  in  that  direction. 
The  event  surrounding  the  erection  of  the  monument 
served  to  awaken  wider  interest  in  "doing  something" 
with  the  fort. 

The  editor  of  the  Nebraska-based  Midwest  Maga- 
zine. Will  M.  Maupin,  advanced  another  concept,  no 
doubt  inspired  by  the  war  in  Europe.  After  having  at- 
tended a  Wilde  dance  there  in  1914,  Maupin  saw  the 
old  fort  as  ideally  suited  for  a  military  school.  The  his- 
toric buildings  could  be  restored,  apparently  to  serve  as 
a  reminder  of  the  nation's  heritage,  while  the  school 
itself  would  consist  of  newly-constructed  buildings  on 
the  grounds.  To  promote  the  idea,  he  proposed  a  grand 
picnic  at  the  fort  on  Independence  Day,  1916.  This  was 
not  intended  to  be  a  July  Fourth  celebration,  as  such, 
but  simply  an  informal  public  get-together  "not  only  to 
give  old-timers  a  chance  to  meet,  but  to  talk  over  the 
possibility  of  getting  the  Government  to  establish  a  mili- 
tary school  at  the  Old  Fort."-" 

The  festive  day  included  picnicking  on  the  grounds, 
wrestling  matches,  baseball,  and  a  speech  by  Judge 
Charles  E.  Winter,  a  champion  of  land  reclamation  in 
Wyoming,  in  which  he  presented  a  strong  argument  for 
government  ownership  of  the  fort.  The  presence  also 


of  the  influential  and  popular  ex-Governor  Carey  at- 
tracted wide  publicity  to  the  event  that  the  concept  alone 
might  not  have.  Of  even  greater  significance,  the  old- 
timers'  picnic  elevated  the  level  of  concern  from  a  local 
one,  expressed  in  Johnston's  suggestion  for  a  tourism 
resort,  to  the  higher  plain  of  federal  involvement  The 
military  school  proposal  was  timely  on  one  hand,  with 
America's  impending  involvement  in  World  War  L  Con- 
versely, when  the  U.S.  actually  declared  war  in  April 
1917,  such  notions  were  lost  amid  more  pressing  con- 
cerns. 

Two  of  the  important  old-timers  at  Fort  Laramie, 
John  Hunton  and  Joe  Wilde,  were  along  in  years 
and  had  made  no  secret  of  their  desires  to  sell  their  Fort 
Laramie  properties.  As  far  back  as  1913,  both  men  had 
advertised  their  lands,  "either  jointly  or  separately."-' 
The  Wilde  property  encompassed  the  Cavalry  Barracks 
and  the  other  buildings  north  of  the  New  Guardhouse, 
as  well  as  the  meadows  below  the  post  on  the  left  side 
of  the  Laramie  River.  Hunton  owned  all  of  the  parade 
ground  area,  except  the  comer  containing  Quarters  "A," 
the  ruins  of  the  Administration  Building,  and  the  Old 
Guardhouse.  That,  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  southeast 
one-quarter  of  the  northeast  one-quarter  of  Section  29 
belonged  to  the  Sandercock  family.  Hattie  Sandercock's 
sons  still  farmed  their  lands  around  the  fort,  but  after  so 
many  years  at  Fort  Laramie.  Hunton  and  Wilde  were 
tired  and  anxious  to  live  elsewhere. 

Joe  Wilde,  in  particular,  had  "been  bothered  consider- 
able in  trying  to  provide  accommodations  to  the  visi- 
tor..." Louis  Carlson,  a  contractor  who  had  built  irriga- 
tion canals  in  the  North  Platte  Valley,  saw  an  opportu- 
nity to  take  advantage  of  the  increasing  flow  of  tourists 
comingupthe  valley  en  route  for  Yellowstone  National 
Park  and  other  points  of  interest.  Improving  Wilde's 
facilities  in  the  barracks,  Carlson  planned  a  general 
merchandise  store  and  hotel  "equipped  to  take  care  of 
the  trade  in  good  shape."  He  also  proposed  an  auto 
route  through  the  fort  grounds,  along  with  a  convenient 


'*  "A  Notable  Pleasure  Resort."  Torrington  Telegram,  .(une  17. 
1915. 

'"Merrill  J.  Mattes.  "Fort  Laramie  Park  History  1834-1977"  (Den- 
ver. 1978).  59  (hereinafter  cited  as  "Park  History"). 

-°  "A  Fourth  of  July  Picnic  at  Old  Fort."  Guernsey  Gazette.  June 
19.  1916.  That  Maupin  had  more  than  a  passing  interest  in  such 
things,  was  demonstrated  b\  his  appointment  as  the  first  custodian 
of  Scotts  Bluff  National  Monument  in  1919.  Mattes.  "Park  His- 
tor>."  61. 

-'  Hunton  to  Cohn  Hunter.  Cheyenne.  Wyo..  April.  1913.  Hunton 
Letters.  Mattes  Collection. 


Autumn  !200'2 


i21 


gas  station.--  Carlson  bought  out  Wilde's  interests 
through  a  series  of  mortgages  executed  during  the  years 
191 7-1 91 9. -'Joe  and  Mary  Wilde,  no  doubt  relieved  to 
be  rid  of  the  burden  of  running  the  dance  hall  and  other 
businesses  at  the  fort,  promptly  moved  to  Lingle,  Wyo- 
ming. 

Hunton  also  negotiated  a  deal  to  sell  all  of  the  640 
acres  he  eventually  acquired  to  Thomas  Waters,  an 
Omaha.  Nebraska  developer  and  former  freight  repre- 
sentative for  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  in  the  fall  of 
1920.  Waters  apparently  was  interested  in  either  rent- 
ing out  his  agricultural  land  to  others,  or  hiring  the  work 
to  be  done.  In  any  event,  he  seemed  to  be  unconcerned 
w  ith  the  historic  structures.,  at  least  initially.  In  exchange 
for  their  giving  up  the  Burt  House,  he  allowed  .lohn  and 
Blanche  Hunton  to  reside  in  the  south  of  the  Surgeon's 
Quarters  until  May  I,  1922.-^  With  the  relinquishment 
of  their  land,  both  Hunton  and  Wilde,  the  last  principal 
living  links  with  Fort  Laramie'sactivemilitary  era,  them- 
selves faded  away.-' 

Indeed,  within  a  period  of  only  30  years  after  Fort 
Laramie's  abandonment,  and  with  active  homesteading 
still  in  progress  in  southeastern  Wyoming,  tourism  was 
already  perceived  as  an  economic  boon  to  the  region. 
Although  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  the  extent  to  which 
tourists  visited  Fort  Laramie  in  the  years  immediately 
following  World  War  I.  the  fact  that  both  Carlson  and 
Waters  seized  upon  the  idea  of  turning  it  into  a  profit- 


able venture  suggests  that  the  numbers  were  large 
enough  to  justify  their  investments. 

The  so-called  "apostle  of  Oregon  Trail  monuments 
and  markers."  Ezra  Meeker,  again  traveled  the  length 
of  the  trail  in  his  wagon  in  1920.  Drumming  up  renewed 
interest  along  the  way.  Meeker  may  have  been  a  cata- 
lyst in  the  organization  of  the  North  Platte  Highway 
Association  two  years  later.  This  organization  stemmed 
from  an  attempt  to  link  a  series  of  public  road  segments 
into  a  state  road,  which  Nebraska  hoped  to  use  as  a 
means  for  securing  federal  highway  funds.  To  further 
bolster  their  justification,  state  highway  department  and 
promoters  along  route  in  both  Nebraska  and  Wyoming 
capitalized  on  its  historical  reputation  as  the  Oregon 
Trail.-'' 

Plans  for  preserving  Fort  Laramie,  incidental  to  prof- 
itable tourist  developments,  were  advanced  in  1923. 
when  a  new  activist  came  to  the  forefront  in  defense  of 
the  old  post.  L.  G.  "Pat"  Flannery.  editor  of  the  Liugle 
Guide-Review  and  later  owner  of  the  short-lived  Fori 


--  "Old  Fort  Laramie  to  Undergo  lnipro\  enicnts."  Cnicrnsey  Ga- 
rtv/e.  .Aiigusl31.  1917, 

-'  Land  Records,  (ioshen  Count\ .  W\  oming;  Mattes.  "Park  Mis- 
tor)."  63. 

-^  Hunton  to  L/ra  Meeker,  New  ^ork.  N^'.  I  ebruan  l-l.  1^26, 
tiunton  Letters,  Mattes  Colleelion 

-  Wilde  died  in  1426;  Hunton  in  1928. 

-"  Mattes.  "Park  Histor\."  64. 


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-2i 


Annals  of  Wyoming  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Laramie  Scout,  took  unusual  interest  in  the  fort,  prob- 
ably because  for  a  time  he  had  lived  at  the  post,  next 
door  to  Hunton.  Flannery,  backed  by  George  Houserof 
the  Guernsey  Gazette,  who  had  beat  the  drum  to  pre- 
serve Fort  Laramie  since  1916,  launched  a  crusade  to 
save  it  from  oblivion.  Fired  with  enthusiasm,  Flannery's 
January  1  !  headline  boldly  challenged  the  local  popu- 
lace to  "see  to  it  that  the  'Old  Fort'  is  preserved  as  a 
historical  spot."-' 

By  that  time,  Louis  Carlson,  who  owned  Wilde's  prop- 
erty, had  sold  out  to  Henry  S.  Clarke, 
an  Omaha  banker.  Clarke  made  a 
habit  of  buying  properties  and  busi- 
nesses through  the  use  of  his  wife 
and  certain  trusted  employees  act- 
ing as  fronts  for  his  financial  activi- 
ties. The  parcels  fonnerly  belonging 
to  Joe  Wilde,  were  conveyed  to  one 
of  Clarke's  cooperatives,  Paul  McDonald,  in  1919. 
McDonald  worked  as  a  clerk  in  a  Torrington  bank. 
Carlson  had  not  proceeded  with  his  plans  to  the  extent 
of  making  significant  changes  in  the  barracks  or  other 
buildings,  and  Clarke  had  no  interest  in  hosting  visitors. 
For  him,  the  Cavalry  Barracks  made  a  suitable  summer 
home  where  he  could  come  to  relax.  He  remodeled  the 
rooms  in  the  north  end  of  the  ground  floor  with  this  in 
mind.  Clarke  hired  Tom  and  Harry  Latta,  farmers  near 
Mitchell,  Nebraska,  to  manage  his  agricultural  interests 
and  sharecrop  the  land.  The  Lattas  were  given  the  south 
end  of  the  barracks,  where  Clarke  had  rearranged  the 
partitions  of  the  Wilde  store  to  form  family  quarters.-^ 

Meantime,  Waters,  new  owner  of  the  Hunton  prop- 
erty, revealed  his  own  plans  to  create  a  dude  ranch  at 
the  fort,  using  the  Post  Trader's  Store  as  a  museum. 
Additionally,  he  intended  to  construct  a  number  of  new 
rental  cottages,  a  hotel,  and  a  cafe.  The  centerpiece  of 
the  resort  would  be  a  golf  course!  That  all  of  this  would 
take  a  considerable  sum  of  money  to  bring  to  fruition. 
Waters  admitted.  But,  he  told  the  Gering  Midwest  "What 
we  should  be  doing  is  turning  the  tide  of  tourist  traffic  to 
the  northwest  from  Ogallala,  over  the  old  Oregon  Trail 
through  Gering,  Scottsbluff  and  Mitchell,  into  old  Fort 
Laramie  with  all  its  associations  and  memories,  and 
thence  on  into  Yellowstone  National  Park...  It  would 
mean  more  to  these  communities  than  almost  any  other 
one  thing  that  could  be  imagined. "-''It  was,  of  course,  in 
Waters'  best  interests  to  promote  U.S.  Highway  26  as 
the  logical  route  to  Yellowstone.  Despite  his  salesman- 
ship, however.  Waters  was  unable  to  attract  enough 
investors  in  his  enterprise  to  fund  his  plans,  thus  interest 
waned. 


Men   from 
around  the   area 
rushed  to   com- 
bat the  blaKe 
beariujl  doum   on 
the    buildings... 


Public  concern  for  Fort  Laramie  took  on  a  life  of  its 
own.  In  1925,  George  Houser  got  wind  ofa  bill  pending 
in  Congress  that  would  designate  a  highway,  dubbed 
the  "Oregon  Trail,"  connecting  Independence,  Missouri, 
and  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  with  the  Pacific  Coast. 
Houser  astutely  connected  this  proposal  w  ith  the  An- 
tiquities Act  of  1 906,  particularly  the  provision  authoring 
the  President  to  create  national  monuments  by  execu- 
tive order 
As  word  spread,  several  Wyoming  towns  mobilized 
to  preserve  both  Fort  Laramie  and 
Fort  Bridgerby  including  them  as  logi- 
cal riders  on  the  bill  relating  to  the 
Oregon  Trail  Highway.  Locally,  the 
Torrington  Lions  Club  and  American 
Legion  PostNo.5  drafted  resolutions 
that  were  forwarded  to  the  Wyoming 
State  Legislature  to  memorialize  the 
U.  S.  Congress  to  set  aside  Fort  Laramie.  The  lan- 
guage of  House  Joint  Memorial  No.4,  as  it  was  labeled, 
reflected  for  the  first  time  not  only  broad  support  for 
Fort  Laramie,  but  specifically  proposed  "restoring,  pre- 
serving, and  perpetuating  to  posterity  this  historic  monu- 
ment of  pioneer  days  and  making  it  accessible  to  visi- 
tors.""' The  intention  to  establish  it  as  a  unit  of  the  Na- 
tional Park  System  was  unmistakable. 

As  often  happens,  legislation  that  appeared  to  be  in- 
offensive to  anyone  and  on  a  fast-track  to  passage,  was 
derailed  because  of  disagreement  over  details.  In  the 
instance  of  Representative  Addison  Smith's  bill,  it  died 
in  committee  when  trail  authorities  and  various  inter- 
ested members  of  Congress  could  not  arrive  at  a  con- 
sensus as  to  which  of  the  various  routes  and  branches 
of  the  trail  should  be  included,  much  less  the  starting 
and  ending  points.  Some  even  questioned  whether  or 
not  Congress  should  properly  or  legally  attempt  to  de- 
bate historical  issues. 

Just  when  the  groundswell  of  public  sentiment  for 
preservation  was  reaching  new  heights,  the  fort  was 
nearly  destroyed.  Late  one  evening  early  in  April  1925, 
a  dragline  operator  working  the  nearby  irrigation  canal 
detected  a  wildfire  sweeping  onto  the  fort  grounds.  He 


-'  "Be  a  Booster  for  Fort  Lararnie,"  Lingle  Review.  Januar>'  1 1. 
1923. 

-*  "Old  Fort  Laramie  Will  be  Made  Big  Summer  Resort."  Guern- 
sey Gazelle .  October  23.  1923:  McDermott  and  Sheire.  "1874  Cav- 
alr>  Barracks.  Fort  Laramie  National  Historic  Site:  Historic  Struc- 
tures Report/Historical  Data  Section,"  (Washington.  D.  C:  Na- 
tional Park  Service.  Sept.  1970).  4344, 

-"  MaUes.  "Park  History."  66. 

-'0/6/^.67-68. 


Autumn  '.'OO'i 


is 


immediately  went  to  the  Cavalry  Barracks  to  notify  the 
Latta  brothers.  The  alami  spread  to  the  town  and  nearby 
ranches.  Men  from  around  the  area  rushed  to  combat 
the  blaze  bearing  down  on  tlie  buildings  from  the  north- 
west. Lines  of  water  carriers  stretched  to  the  river  so 
that  walls  and  the  areas  immediately  surrounding  the 
structures  could  be  wet  down.  Hours  later  they  brought 
the  tire  under  control,  but  not  before  it  had  burned  the 
wood  elements  of  the  New  Bakery,  leaving  onl\  the 
concrete  walls." 

The  tire,  more  than  anything  else  could  have,  pointed 
up  just  how  vulnerable  the  old  fort  really  was.  its  de- 
fenders seemed  more  determined  than  ever  to  find  a 
way  to  bring  it  under  government  protection.  Flannery 
and  Houser  rolled  up  their  sleeves  to  revitalize  the  ef- 
fort, .ludge  Charles  E.  Winter,  the  same  man  who  had 
spoken  in  behalf  of  creating  a  military  school  at  Fort 
Laramie  back  in  1916.  again  demonstrated  his  commit- 
ment to  having  it  authorized  as  a  national  monument. 
Now  a  congressional  representative  in  Washington. 
Winter  attempted  to  lay  the  groundwork.  Again,  it  went 
nowhere.  Winter  did,  however,  manage  to  get  a  monu- 
ment funded  in  remembrance  of  Sacajawea  at  Fort 
Washakie,  where  he  had  served  as  judge  for  seven 
years.  That  Fort  Laramie  was  not  included  may  have 
said  more  about  political  realities  than  historical  signifi- 
cance 

Other  events  in  1926  boded  well  for  the  preservation 
movement.  Meeker's  attention-grabbing  treks  up  and 
down  the  trail  and  his  constant  lobbying  for  ever  more 
markers  to  commemorate  it,  eventually  led  to  the  cre- 
ation of  the  Oregon  Trail  Memorial  Association,  head- 
quartered in  New  York.  The  Wvoming  chapter  included 
as  life  members  several  prominent  citizens  having  con- 
nections with  Fort  Laramie,  among  them  Grace  Raymond 
Hebard  and  popular  ex-Congressman  Frank  W.  Mondell. 
This  organization  provided  an  umbrella  under  which  the 
efforts  of  several  groups,  including  the  DAR.,  and  the 
Daughters  of  the  Pioneers,  were  unified  into  a  more 
powerful  lobby.  That  year  Congress  approved  the  mint- 
ing of  six  million  special  half-dollars  to  further  the  work 
of  the  new  organization. '- 

In  July,  a  250-man  battalion  of  the  Fourth  Cavalry 
marched  from  Fort  D.  A.  Russell,  near  Cheyenne,  to 
the  state  fair  at  Douglas.  Wyoming.  Their  route  of  march 
brought  the  cavalry  through  Fort  Laramie,  where  they 
bivouacked  on  the  parade  ground.  While  this  was  not 
first  time  troops  had  been  at  the  fort  since  it  was  aban- 
doned, it  was  certainly  the  most  publicized  occasion.'' 
Pathe  News  Agency  even  sent  a  photographer  to  cap- 
ture the  moment  on  film  to  be  shown  in  movie  theaters 


nationwide.  Both  John  Hunton  and  Joe  Wilde  were  fea- 
tured. 

All  of  the  attention  focused  on  Fort  Laramie  that  year 
caused  the  crusade  to  take  a  different  tack.  1  he  editor 
of  the  Cheyenne  Dciilv  Leader  trumpeted  the  exist- 
ence of  a  large  sum  of  mone\  that  had  been  trusted  to 
the  State  of  Wyoming,  but  no  one  was  quite  certain 
what  to  do  with  it  The  indefatigable  George  Houser 
immediately  held  up  Fort  Laramie  as  a  worthy  cause. 
"We  talk  about  the  federal  government  setting  aside 
this  old  post  as  a  national  monument,  but  the  State  of 
Wyoming  should  not  relinquish  it  and  should  need  no 
further  urging  to  make  a  beautiful  state  park....  Our 
citizens,  for  who  else  can  we  lay  it  to.  should  be  put  to 
shame  for  any  further  neglect  in  preserving  this  fme  old 
Fort."" 

By  the  1 920s,  the  fort  had  become  more  popular 
than  ever  as  a  spot  worth  visiting,  not  onl\  by 
western  history  buffs,  but  cross-country  travelers  and 
area  citizens  alike.  Whereas  in  previous  years  most  lo- 
cal folks  came  only  to  partake  of  the  Wilde  dances  or  a 
July  Fourth  picnic,  time  altered  the  character  of  these 
visits.  The  no-holds-barred  Wilde  dances  themselves 
were  consigned  to  the  past  when  Joe  and  Mary  moved 
away.  The  fort  was  a  serene  place  to  picnic,  to  visit 
with  friends,  and  to  fish  on  a  Sunday  afternoon.  Then 
too,  all  the  attention  paid  to  the  need  for  preserving  the 
place  led  to  genuinely-interested  people  from  other  states 
and  even  foreign  nations  driving  off  the  main  route  to 
see  what  was  left  of  the  famous  old  sentinel  on  the 
plains.  One  resident  recalled  that  these  people  frequently 
knocked  at  her  door  to  request  guided  tours.  Doors,  she 
said,  had  to  be  kept  locked,  "otherwise  people  would 
walk  right  in."" 

The  fort  began  to  assume  an  educational  dimension 
when  local  Boy  Scout  troops  discovered  that  Fort 
Laramie  made  an  ideal  location  for  campouts.  When  a 


"  "Old  Fort  l.araniic  is  riircateiicd  by  Fire."  Guernsey  Gazette. 
April  3,  1925. 

'-  Jording, .)  Few  Interested  Residents.  4. 

"Troop  D.  Ninth  Ca\alr\.  making  a  change-of-station  enroute 
from  Fort  Robinson,  camped  at  Fort  Laramie  in  1 894.  Entr\  June  4. 
Hunton  Diar> .  1 894;  Other  times  \s  hen  troops  may  have  camped  at 
the  fort  during  practice  marches  were  noted  in  Hunton  to  Captam 
A.  C.  Blunt.  Fort  D.  A.  Russell.  VVso..  June  7.  1904;  Hunton  to 
Colonel  J.  A.  Auger.  Fort  Robinson.  Neb..  June  15.  22  1906;  and 
Hunton  to  A.  G.  Lett,  quartermaster.  6th  Cavalr\.  Fort  Robinson. 
.August  ^\.  all  in  ftunton  Letters.  Mattes  Collection. 

"  "Make  Old  Fort  A  State  Park  With  John  Higgins  Trust  Fund." 
Guernsey  Gazette.  July  23.  1926. 

" Meda HaufYHollman  interview. 


^24 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


few  schools  conducted  end-of-term  trips  to  the  fort, 
such  visits  became  popular  adventures  because  the  stu- 
dents were  allowed  "to  prowl  around  through  the  build- 
ings."-"' Some  latter-day  fort  residents  became  con- 
cerned when  visitors  were  seen  carrying  away  parts  of 
the  structures  as  souvenirs,  but  there  was  little  they 
could  do.  Without  government  protection,  "they  were 
just  a  bunch  of  old  buildings  sitting  on  a  piece  of  dry 
land  in  Wyoming."  one  resident  said." 

Although  Pat  Flannery  acknowledged  local  support 
in  the  form  of  several  monetary  pledges  from  area  or- 
ganizations to  supplement  a  state  appropriation,  should 
one  be  made,  he  continued  to  advocate  federal  owner- 
ship. "It  is  in  truth  a  national  monument  whether  we 
have  it  or  whether  we  forget  it,"  he  editorialized.  Taking 
a  shot  at  Thomas  Waters,  Flannery  quipped,  "The  move- 
ment to  honor  Old  Fort  Laramie  will  indeed  be  glad 
tidings  to  those  who  find  repugnance  in  the  destruction 
or  commercialization  of  ancient  and  holy  things.""  In 
August,  the  Associated  Chambers  of  Commerce  in 
southeastern  Wyoming  intensified  the  clamor  for  pres- 
ervation with  a  strong  resolution  endorsing  Fort  Laramie 
as  a  "national  park." 

That  same  month,  the  Annual  Pioneers  Reunion  was 
held  in  Guernsey.  It  was  a  repetition  of  the  event  inau- 
gurated ten  years  earlier.  One  of  the  old  veterans  who 
returned  that  year  was  W.  F.  Haynes,  formerly  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Second  Cavalry,  who  had  last  seen  the  fort  in 
1866.  E.xpressing  his  reactions  to  the  Wyoming  state 
historian.  Haynes  concluded  that,  "The  indifference  to 
the  fate  of  Fort  Laramie  has  been  defended  by  the  want 
of  necessary  funds  to  save  it...  I  feel  like  one  who  is 
making  a  final  effort  in...  defense  of  an  old,  tried,  and 
faithful  friend  who  is  now  in  the  decrepitude  of  his  years 
is  unable  to  defend  himself..  We  of  today  owe  some- 
thing to  posterity,  and  the  keeping,  restoration  and  sav- 
ing of  Fort  Laramie  is  not  the  least."'" 

Also  in  attendance  was  Robert  S.  Ellison,  an  avid 
history  buff  and  preservationist  from  Casper,  Wyoming. 
Ellison's  enthusiasm  and  energy  were  apparent  in  an 
editorial  he  wrote  for  the  Guernsey  Gazette  in  which 
he  claimed  that  Fort  Laramie,  "outranks  in  the  history 
of  the  west  any  other  trading  or  military  post."  Most 
people,  he  acknowledged,  were  busily  occupied  with 
their  everyday  lives,  but  he  nevertheless  appealed  to 
them  "to  secure  and  preserve  as  best  we  can  the  site 
and  ruins  of  old  Fort  Laramie."  Ellison  candidly  admit- 
ted that  he  was  unsure  just  how  that  was  to  be  accom- 
plished, "but  we  must  first  resolve  and  want  it  to  be 
done."'" 

Ellison,  one  of  the  init  al  board  members  of  Oregon 
Trail  Memorial  Association,  wisely  recognized  that  fed- 


eral ownership  was  the  key  element  in  making  the  dream 
a  reality.  Trusts  and  private  donations  for  land  acquisi- 
tion notwithstanding,  the  costs  of  restoration  and  main- 
tenance in  perpetuity  would  be  staggering.  As  a  busi- 
nessman, Ellison  "'as  well  aware  that  dozens  of  Wyo- 
ming state  and  national  banks  had  closed  during  the 
1920s  as  a  result  of  loan  defaults.  While  the  national 
economy  may  have  appeared  strong,  the  local  situation 
was  a  harbinger  of  widespread  financial  disaster  that 
did  not  bode  well  for  grass-roots  preservation  efforts. 
As  an  executive  with  the  Midwest  Refinery,  Ellison 
understood  the  costs  of  big  business  and  appreciated 
that  Wyoming  alone  probably  could  not  underwrite  the 
long-term  care  Fort  Laramie  required.  Nothing  would 
be  worse  than  to  place  the  fort  in  state  hands,  then 
have  no  funds  to  follow-through.  Spreading  those  costs 
out  among  all  of  the  nation's  taxpayers  seemed  a  more 
logical  way  to  accomplish  the  goaf 

Accordingly,  Ellison  consulted  with  Horace  M. 
Albright,  assistant  director  of  the  National  Park  Ser- 
vice [NPS]  to  see  what  might  be  done.  Albright  ad- 
vised that  so  long  as  the  property  remained  in  private 
hands,  there  was  little  the  Service  could  do.  The  NPS 
was  very  reluctant  to  undertake  condemnation  proce- 
dures to  acquire  park  lands,  and  then  only  as  a  last  re- 
sort. However,  were  the  State  of  Wyoming  to  gain  title 
to  such  a  landmark,  and  secure  legislation  authorizing 
the  transfer  of  the  site  to  the  federal  government,  the 
Park  Service  would  stand  ready  to  accept  it.  Albright 
further  recommended  that  the  state  ought  to  form  a 
small  landmarks  committee  to  carry  out  the  plan.  In  this 
way,  the  preservation  efforts  of  other  heritage-minded 
groups,  such  as  the  DAR.,  the  Daughters  of  Pioneers, 
and  the  Boy  Scouts  and  Girl  Scouts,  could  be  united 
into  a  single  force.'- 

Actingon  Albright's  strategy,  Ellison  in  1927  spear- 
headed a  successful  effort  to  create  a  state  committee 
—the  Historic  Landmarks  Commission  of  Wyoming— 


'*  Curtiss  Root  interview. 

^'  Lewis  Coiyer  interview. 

^^  "Was  Once  the  Heart  oftlie  West."  Fori  Laramie  Seoul.  July 
22.  1926. 

"  Haynes  accurate!)  recognized  only  the  "Sutler  Store  and 
PostotTice.  the  Headquarters  [Bedlam],  and  the  Guard-house"  as 
having  been  there  in  1866.  Letter.  W.  F.  Haynes  to  Mrs.  Cyrus 
Beard.  Cheyenne.  Wyo..  September  1926  in  Annals  of  Wyoming^ 
(September  1926),  310-12. 

■*"  "Fort  Laramie  As  A  National  Monument."  Guernsey  Gazelle, 
August  27.  1926. 

■"  T.  A.  Larson.  Hislory  of  Wyoming  (Lincoln:  University  of 
Nebraska  Press,  1978).  413;  Mattes.  "Park  History."  76. 

"*-  Mattes.  "Park  History."  76;  Jording.  A  Few  Inleresled  Resi- 
denls.  4. 


Autumn  i'OO'i 


■■25 


with  Ellison  as  chairman,  along  with  Warren  Richardson  proposing  another  state  legislative  memorial  to  Congress 

of  Cheyenne,  and  Joseph  Weppner  of  Rock  Springs,  to  "purchase,  restore,  and  preserve  old  Fort  Laramie" 

The  Wyoming  Legislature  empowered  the  commission  as  a  national  monument/"  Although  the  state  supported 

to  inspect  and  evaluate  potentialls  significant  sites  the  move,  the  House  of  Representatives  Sub-Commit- 

throughout  the  state  and  to  recommend  for  acquisition  tee  on  Interior  AtTairs  failed  to  act. 

those  it  considered  of  greatest  impoilance.  Disappointingasthis  was.  the  friends  of  Fort  Laramie 

Even  though  the  commission  was  provided  a  small  reftised  to  be  discouraged.  The  failure  of  various  frag- 

annual  appropriation  for  expenses,  there  were  no  funds  mented  efforts  apparently  convinced  them  that  the  best 

available  for  the  purchase  or  maintenance  of  historical  hope  for  success  lay  with  the  Landmarks  Commission. 


properties.  As  Albright  pre- 
dicted, the  legislature  was  reluc- 
tant to  assume  long-term  re- 
sponsibility for  such  sites,  espe- 
cially in  view  of  an  uncertain 
economs .  The  key  element  for 
the  future  of  Fort  Laramie  was 
the  inclusion  of  a  pro\  ision  that 


Tlicir  first  annual  report, 
!vul>niitt4;d  in  1928.  left  no 
<|u«;A>ti4»ii  tliat  Fort  I.«traniie 
wofi  tliv  coniniiA»si4»n*i«  liii>li- 
cst  priority. 


That  organization  had  been  in- 
strumental in  furthering  the  state- 
wide  preservation  effort  by  set- 
ting aside  Forts  Bridger,  Reno, 
and  Bonneville,  along  with  the 
Conner  Battlefield  near 
Ranchester."  Citizens  in  both 
Platte  and  Goshen  Counties  uot 


the  Landmarks  Commission  could  arrange  contracts  with  behind  the  movement  by  setting  up  a  local  ad\  isorv  com- 

the  federal  government  to  preserve  state-owned  sites,  mittee  to  the  commission  for  the  express  purpose  of 

Thecommission  was  justifiably  proud  of  the  "man\  out-  acquiring  Fort  Laramie.  The  committee,  formed  on 

standinghistoric  sites  identified  with  the  upbuildingand  October  18.  1929.  was  composed  of  se\en  residents, 

bringing  of  civilization  intothe  West  as  does  Wyoming."^'  including  L.  G.  Flannery  and  George  Houser. 

Their  first  annual  report,  submitted  in  1928,  leftnoques-  Oneoftheir  first  actions  was  to  appoint  two  indepen- 

tion  that  Fort  Laramie  was  the  commission's  highest  dent  appraisal  teams  to  estimate  the  values  of  the  three 

priority  tracts  comprising  the  site.  Once  prepared,  the  two  ap- 

Ellison  and  his  committee  moved  quicklv  to  solicit  praisals.  only  forthe  lands  on  the  left  sideofthe  Laramie, 

prices  for  the  Fort  Laramie  tracts  owned  b\  Waters,  came  in  at  $10,650  and  $1  5.650.  respectively.  Regard- 

Sandercock.  and  James  W.  Auld,  another  Nebraska  less,  the  amounts  were  more  than  the  committee  had 

banker  who  had  foreclosed  on  Clarke's  property  when  any  hope  of  raising  through  donations,  especially  con- 

his  banks  failed  in  1924."'"' However,  the  owners,  par-  sidering  the  economic  climate.^'' 

ticularly  Waters,  were  reluctant  to  sell.  Thomas  Wa-  The  Oregon  Trail  Memorial  Association  continued  to 

ters.  in  partnership  with  M.  S.  FJartman.  an  executive  be  an  active  force  in  the  preservation  mo\ement  along 

of  the  Fairmont  Creamery  in  Omaha,  had  started  his  the  route  of  the  emigrant  trails.  For  example,  the  group 

"restoration"  of  the  Post  Trader's  Store  late  in  1926.  In  exerted  its  influence  by  convincing  President  Herbert 

conjunction  with  Waters'  plans  to  use  the  fort  as  a  sum-  Hoover  to  proclaim  the  period  from  April  1 0  through 

mer  resort.  Hartman  wanted  to  convert  the  historic  December  29.  1930.  as  the  "Covered  Wagon  Centen- 

sutler's  building  into  a  museum  for  his  collection  of  nial."  marking  the  crossing  of  the  Smith-Jackson-Sublette 

"mounted  animal  wildlife,  old  coins,  etc. "^' The  owners  wagon  train  from  St  Louis  to  the  rendezvous  area  on 

also  trumpeted  their  well-intentioned,  but  technicallv  Wind  River  in  southwestern  Wyoming 

disastrous  restoration  work,  which  included  patching  and  Predictably.  Houser  and  Flannery  seized  the  opportu- 

strengthening  the  adobe  walls  with  concrete,  replacing  nity  to  stage  an  observance  at  Fort  Laramie  on  August 

the  original  floor;  and  bracing  up  the  roof  w  ith  a  series  1 5.  sponsored  by  the  Wyoming  Landmarks  Commis- 
of  concrete  pillars.  Mercifullv .  the  work  stopped  there, 
either  because  of  a  shortage  of  funds,  or  because  Wa- 
ters and  Hartman  reconsidered  the  profitability  of  the 
whole  venture. 

This  afforded  another  opportunity  for  the  fort's  advo- 
cates to  attempt  to  directly  legislate  a  solution  to  its 
fate.  Guernsey  Gazette  editor  George  Houser  prevailed 
on  the  town's  American  Legion  post  to  take  advantage 
of  the  Legion's  1928  state  convention  as  a  platform  for 


"'•'  McDemioti  and  Sctioire.  "1874  Ca\alr>  Barracks."  44, 

""^  "Omaha  Mans  Plans  Museum  at  Old  Fort."  Fori  l.aromie 
Scout.  Septcmhcr  1.  1927. 

""'  Maucs.  "Park  Histor>."  81. 

""  "Progress  Made  in  Presersing  Landmarks."  Casper  Star-Tn- 
/ijf/jt".  November  24.  1929. 

"'*'  IhiJ..  82.  Soon  thereafter.  .1.  \\  Auld  threatened  to  tear  down 
theCa\alr\  Banacks  il'somethinewere  not  done  soon.  Ihui .  82-83. 


26 


Annals  of  Wyoming;  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


sion.  "The  celebration,  by  centering  attention  on  old  Fort 
Laramie  doubtless  will  give  greater  momentum  to  the 
proposal  that  the  site  of  the  frontier  trading  post  be  ac- 
quired by  the  state,"  Houser  reported."*"  A  committee 
appointed  by  Ellison  garnered  support  from  communi- 
ties throughout  the  region.  Individuals  representing  civic 
and  special  interest  groups  from  Torrington.  Lusk.  Dou- 
glas. Glenrock.  Guernsey,  and  Fort  Laramie,  plus  the 
Nebraska  towns  of  Mitchell.  Morrill,  and  Scottsbluff 
pledged  their  support  in  an  organizational  meeting  held 
in  Torrington  earl>  in  June.  Houser  remarked  that,  "it 
was  probably  the  largest  and  most  representative  group 
ever  gathered  forthe  consideration  of  plans  concerning 
the  welfare  of  Old  Fort  Laramie."'" 

Despite  a  two-day  downpour  that  left  the  roads  in 
horrible  condition  and  flooded  New  Fort  Laramie,  thou- 
sands of  people  turned  out  to  watch  bandits  waylay  a 
Cheyenne-Black  Hills  stage  and  later,  Lakota  Indians 
from  Pine  Ridge  Reservation  attack  a  wagon  train  in 
the  best  Hollywood  tradition.''  The  amiy.  appropriately, 
was  represented  b\  a  band  and  a  battalion  of  infantry 
sent  from  Fort  F.  E.  Warren  at  Cheyenne.  The  troops 
performed  a  retreat  parade  and  guard  mounting  for  the 
benefit  of  onlookers,  ceremonies  that  had  not  been  wit- 
nessed at  the  fort  for  40  years.  Even  though  some  of 
the  day's  events  had  to  be  rearranged,  or  canceled  alto- 
gether because  of  the  weather,  Flannery  estimated  that 


Former  Gov.  B.  B  Brooks,  chair  oj  the  Historical 
Landmarks  Commission,  1931 


some  23.000  people  attended,  arriving  in  nearly  5,000 
automobiles.  "The  Old  Fort  lived  again,"  he  reported, 
"when  the  largest  crowd  ever  assembled  [in]  the  North 
Platte  Valley  gathered...  to  show  their  interest  in  the 
movement,  now  rapidly  gaining  headway,  to  preserve 
and  restore  this  birthplace  of  westem  history  as  a  state 
or  national  monument.""  Indeed.  200  people  paid  dues 
to  join  a  new  Fort  Laramie  Historical  Society,  orga- 
nized as  a  fund-raising  entity." 

On  hand  to  speak  were  Wyoming  Gov.  Frank  C 
Emerson  and  Congressman  Simmons  from  Nebraska. 
Famed  artist  and  photographer  William  H.  Jackson,  who 
had  first  traveled  through  Fort  Laramie  in  1 866,  showed 
up.  along  with  frontiersman  Finn  Burnett  and  other  fig- 
ures from  the  fort's  early  days.  Just  as  the  oratory  be- 
gan, the  Pony  Express  put  in  a  dramatic  "surprise"  ap- 
pearance with  the  sudden  arrival  ofa  rider  galloping  up 
to  the  podium.  While  Flanner>'s  estimate  of  the  number 
of  people  may  have  been  inflated,  he  did  not  over-esti- 
mate the  enthusiasm  shown  by  area  citizens.  Even  Fox 
Movietone  News  arrived  on  the  scene  to  film  shorts  for 
theater  news  presentations  across  the  country. 

After  the  excitement  died  down,  the  local  committee 
took  stock  of  its  net  gain.  Although  it  faced  the  same 
problems  it  had  before  the  Covered  Wagon  Centennial- 
-no  money  and  land  owners  who  resented  being  forced 
out  by  the  government— the  political  winds  were  shift- 
ing. The  state  legislature,  no  doubt  at  the  urging  of  the 
governor,  appropriated  $  1 5.000  in  1 93 1  so  that  the  Land- 
marks Commission  could  attempt  to  purchase  the  land 
on  its  own.  based  on  the  appraisals  obtained  previously. 
This  was  exactly  the  approach  that  NPS  Director 
Albright  had  outlined  six  years  earlier.  In  June  1 93 1 ,  the 
commission,  now  headed  by  ex-Govemor  Bryant  B. 
Brooks  of  Casper,  who  had  replaced  Robert  Ellison  as 
chairman,  met  with  Tom  Waters  and  George 
Sandercock.  one  of  Hattie's  sons  who  was  then  man- 
aging the  place.  Over  a  lunch  served  by  George's  wife 
on  the  porch  of  Quarters  "A."  Waters  informed  Brooks 
that  he  would  be  willing  to  sell  all  of  his  acreage,  640 

■*"  "Old  Timers'  Celebration  at  Old  Fort  Laramie."  Guernsey  Ga- 
zette. May  23.  1930. 

-°  "Plans  Started  for  Covered  Wagon  Centennial  Observance  at 
Old  Fort  Laramie  August  12."  Goshen  News-Fort  Laramie  Scout. 
,lune5.  1930. 

''  Some  of  those  named  were:  Chiefs  Big  Hawk.  Strong  Talk. 
Kills  Above.  Little  Dog.  and  Rills  Chief  "Some  Indian  Chiefs  at 
Old  Fort  Laramie."  Goslien  News.  August  7.  1930. 

'-  "23.000  Pay  Tribute  to  Pioneers  at  Old  Fort  Laramie  Friday." 
Goslien  News  and  Fort  Laramie  Scout.  August  21.  1930. 

^^  This  organization  had  no  relationship  to  the  more  recent  park 
cooperating  association 


Autumn  '200^ 


'27 


acres,  for  the  sum  of  $22,500.  Brooks  responded  that 
the  price  not  only  exceeded  the  amount  appropriated. 
but  the  commission  liad  autiiority  to  negotiate  for  only 
tvventv  acres  of  Waters'  property,  being  Just  the  portion 
occupied  b\  fort  buildings.  When  Waters  insisted  that 
he  wished  to  protect  his  investment  by  selling  the  whole 
parcel.  Brooks  rejoined  that  the  state  could  exercise  its 
right  of  eminent  domain.  That  brought  the  meeting  to  a 
peremptory  conclusion.'^ 

The  Landmarks  Commission  interpreted  Waters' 
stance  as  a  statement  that  he  was  not  willing  to  cooper- 
ate for  the  higher  good.  Since  he  owned  the  critical 
piece  of  land  encompassing  the  parade  ground  and  the 
row  of  buildings  along  its  west  side.  Waters  held  the 
trump  card.  The  tracts  belonging  to  Sandercock  and 
Auld  were  useless  without  his.  and  if  the  commission 
were  foolish  enough  to  purchase  them.  Waters  could 
hold  his  for  a  ransom. 

With  its  back  to  a  wall,  the  Landmarks  Commission 
initiated  condemnation  procedures  against  all  three 
owners  through  the  Wyoming  Attorney  General's  Of- 
fice in  1932.  New  appraisals  were  executed  b\  court- 
appointed  tTrms.  with  the  backing  of  the  .American  Le- 
gion and  the  Fort  Laramie  Commercial  Club,  as  well  as 
the  mayor  and  town  council  ofNew  Fort  Laramie.  These 
arrived  at  a  total  value  of  $1  1.600  for  the  55  acres  the 
commission  considered  necessar_\  to  preserve  the  post. 
This  fit  neatl>  within  the  $1 5.000  appropriation  already 
available,  with  money  left  over  for  administrative  costs. 
During  the  year  that  the  hearing  was  delayed,  the  com- 
missioners continued  to  hope  that  the  landowners  would 
settle  out  of  court  for  the  proffered  prices,  since  land 
values  were  declining  as  a  result  of  the  Great  Depres- 
sion. 

The  same  bad  economic  conditions  brought  about 
much  greater  government  involvement  in  all 
aspects  of  American  society.  President  Franklin  D. 
Roosevelt's  "New  Deal"  created  a  plethora  of  new  gov- 
ernment agencies  for  controlling  the  economy,  devel- 
oping public  works  projects,  and  making  the  federal 
government  centrally  responsible  for  numerous  pro- 
grams that  had  been  handled  piece-meal  at  lower  lev- 
els. The  National  Park  Service,  although  established  in 
1916  to  administer  the  fledgling  system  of  parks  and 
monuments  authorized  haphazardly  since  1 872.  had  been 
perceived  as  a  "western"  agency  having  little  interest  in 
cultural  properties.  During  the  1920s  Stephen  T.  Mather, 
the  first  director,  and  his  successor,  Horace  Albright, 
endeavored  to  change  that  image.  They  successfully 
pursued  a  strategy  aimed  at  broadening  both  the  young 


agency's  political  support  and  its  public  constituency, 
especially  in  the  East.  In  1933  their  lobbying  paid  off 
when  the  Park  Service  was  given  authority  over  the 
various  battlefields  administered  by  the  War  Depart- 
ment, as  well  as  the  archeological  resources  managed 
by  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  Additionally,  the  Sys- 
tem was  expanded  to  include  all  of  the  monuments  and 
other  park-type  lands  in  the  nation's  capital. 

These  acquisitions  went  far  toward  geographically 
balancing  the  holdings  of  the  National  Park  System,  yet 
little  effort  had  been  devoted  to  constructing  a  thematic 
framework  by  which  historical  resources  could  be  criti- 
cally weighed.  In  1928.  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
appointed  a  Committee  on  the  Study  of  Educational 
Programs  in  the  National  Parks.  Since  the  National  Park 
Serv  ice  had  no  historians  of  its  own.  the  secretary  called 
upon  a  prominent  anthropologist  at  the  Museum  of  Natu- 
ral History.  Dr.  Clark  Wissler.  to  serve  on  the  commit- 
tee. Wissler  prepared  the  recommendation  relating  to 
historic  sites,  in  which  he  suggested  that  those  places 
and  the  historical  materials  in  them  should,  "serve  as 
indices  of  the  historical  sequence  of  human  life  in 
America."'"  This  marked  the  first  attempt  to  define 
broad  historical  contexts  of  American  histon  that  might 
be  physicalU  represented  b\  designated  sites  assigned 
to  the  National  Park  Service. 

Wissler's  effort  had  no  immediate  effect,  but  the  ap- 
pointment of  Dr.  Verne  B.  Chatelain  as  the  first  chief 
historian  in  1933  did.  Chatelain  was  immediately 
charged  with  developing  policies  for  historic  sites.  In 
his  report,  the  chief  historian  recommended  that  since 
no  criteria  had  been  applied  to  the  properties  acquired 
from  the  War  Department,  a  "system  of  acquiring  his- 
toric sites  should  include  all  types  of  areas  that  are  his- 
torically important  in  our  national  development...."^" 
Chatelain  therefore  prepared  the  first  criteria  for  the 
selection  of  historic  sites,  founded  on  a  "quality  of  unique- 
ness "from  which  the  broad  aspects  of  prehistoric  and 
historic  American  life  can  best  be  presented,  and  from 
which  the  student  of  the  history  of  the  United  States 
can  sketch  the  large  pattern  of  the  American  Story. "-^ 
He  also  emphasized  that  these  special  places,  collec- 
tively, should  represent  the  whole  cloth  of  American 
history. 

Concurrent  with  the  development  of  a  methodology 
for  evaluating  historic  sites,  the  Roosevelt  administra- 

"  Mattes.  "Park  Histon."  87. 

"  Ronald  F.  L,ee.  Family  Tree  of  the  \ational  Park  System  ( Phila- 
delphia: Eastern  National  Park  and  Monument  Assoc.  1972).  46. 
-•^  Mackintosh.  "Historic  Sites  Sur\e>."  8. 
"/6a/.  9 


28 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


tion  put  into  place  more  new  social  programs  to  help 
jump-start  the  national  economy.  Two  of  these,  the  Ci- 
vilian Conservation  Corps  [CCC]  and  the  Historic 
American  Buildings  Survey  [HABS],  directly  benefited 
areas  already  administered  by  the  National  Park  Ser- 
vice, but  only  indirectly  influenced  the  crusade  to  save 
Fort  Laramie.  The  Service  had  oversight  responsibili- 
ties for  portions  of  the  CCC.  a  huge  labor  force  orga- 
nized in  military-style  camps,  used  to  carry  out  preser- 
vation and  development  work  at  both  national  and  state 
sites.  HABS  put  unemployed  architects  to  work  mak- 
ing field  examinations  of  structures  considered  to  have 
historical  significance,  then  making  drawings  for  per- 
manent record.  These  programs,  combined  with  Park 
Service  efforts  to  develop  definitions  and  evaluation 
criteria,  were  important  elements  in  the  formulation  of 
a  comprehensive  federal  preservation  program. 

This  was  expressed  in  legislation  that  resulted  in  the 
Historic  Sites  Act  of  1 935.  Testifying  before  Congress 
in  support  of  the  bill.  Secretary  of  the  Interior  Harold  L. 
Ickes  characterized  it  as  "a  broad  legal  foundation  for  a 
national  program  of  preservation  and  rehabilitation  of 
historic  sites. "-^  Ickes  explained  that  this  authority  would 
pennit  him,  through  professional  staff,  to  conduct  this 
work  in  an  organized,  aggressive  manner,  rather  than 
the  disjointed  effort  that  prevailed  up  to  that  time.  This 
dynamic  approach  would  result  in  the  rapid  expansion 
of  historical  properties  in  the  National  Park  System,  while 
perpetuating  the  active  relationship  with  local  and  state 
governments  engaged  in  similar  work  at  their  respec- 
tive levels. 

Included  in  the  1935  act  was  a  provision  establishing 
an  Advisory  Board  on  National  Parks,  Historic  Sites, 
Buildings,  and  Monuments.  Its  members,  all  recognized 
experts  in  their  respective  fields  of  history,  archeology, 
architecture,  and  human  geography,  were  drawn  from 
the  private  sector.  Among  the  first  eleven-member  panel, 
coincidentally,  was  Clark  Wissler.  who  had  first  devel- 
oped the  thematic  approach  for  historical  areas  of  the 
System.  His  appointment  to  the  Advisory  Board  was 
important  for  the  continuity  of  philosophy  guiding  the 
program.  At  the  group's  second  meeting,  in  May  1936, 
the  members  endorsed  the  concept  of  selecting  sites 
representative  of  the  various  phases  of  American  his- 
tory, including  one  titled,  "Advance  of  the  Frontier." 
However,  they  were  adamant  that  any  sites  considered 
for  inclusion  in  the  System  should  be  thoroughly  evalu- 
ated and  judged  to  be  "outstanding  examples  in  their 
respective  classes."" 

As  commendable  as  this  may  have  been,  academic 
historians  denigrated  the  concept  on  the  basis  that  it 


was  weighted  heavily  toward  the  preservation  of  "old 
things  for  their  own  sake,"  to  the  detriment  of  public 
understanding  of  their  place  in  American  history.  Chief 
Historian  Chatelain  responded  to  this  challenge  by  stat- 
ing that  historic  sites  would  be  used  as  the  basis,  a  means, 
for  communicating  the  broad  historical  themes  in  much 
the  same  fashion  that  academics  utilized  documentary 
evidence.  Nevertheless,  the  academics  were  reluctant 
to  concur,  a  factor  that  probably  colored  the  relation- 
ship between  scholars  and  Park  Service  field  sites  for 
many  decades. 

The  reservations  of  academic  historians  notwithstand- 
ing, the  preservation  of  historic  sites  had  made  signifi- 
cant advancements  in  the  private  sector,  as  well  as  in 
government  circles.  In  fact,  the  decade  starting  in  1 926 
marked  a  renaissance  for  historic  preservation.  That 
period  saw  the  development  of  Colonial  Williamsburg, 
an  extremely  ambitious  project  backed  by  the  fortune 
of  John  D.  Rockefeller.  It  resulted  in  the  restoration  of 
not  just  a  single  building  or  even  a  group  of  buildings, 
rather  it  was  the  renovation  of  a  complete  eighteenth 
century  town  in  all  of  its  details.  A  few  years  later, 
Henry  Ford  inaugurated  Greenfield  village  in  Michigan, 
another  historical  project  the  primary  purpose  of  which 
was  public  education.  Historic  house  museums  abounded 
in  communities  large  and  small  across  the  nation. 

The  National  Park  Service  had  only  nine  historical 
areas  under  its  jurisdiction  at  the  time  the  agency  was 
founded.  Because  there  was  no  clear-cut  authority  re- 
garding historical  properties,  that  number  increased  to 
only  twenty  prior  to  1933.  Significantly,  that  year  marked 
a  real  turning  point  when  President  Franklin  Roosevelt 
signed  an  executive  order  consolidating  all  federally- 
owned  national  military  parks  and  memorials,  including 
eleven  national  cemeteries,  along  with  all  national  parks 
and  monuments  and  the  National  Capital  Parks  into  a 
single  integrated  National  Park  System.  At  the  stroke 
of  a  pen,  the  National  Park  Service  became  the  sole 
federal  agency  responsible  for  all  federally-owned  parks, 
monuments,  and  memorials  in  the  nation,  thus  increas- 
ing its  holdings  to  77  historical  areas.  This  was  a  first 
major  step  that  put  the  Service  in  the  history  business.*" 
Having  charged  the  NPS  with  responsibility  all  of  the 
historic  sites  and  buildings.  Congress  approved  the  His- 
toric Sites  Act  two  years  later,  giving  the  Service  its 
first  historians,  archeologists,  and  historical  architects. 
It  also  laid  the  groundwork  for  historical  interpretation 
in  the  System. 

58/Wrf..4-5. 

'''^  Ibid..  10. 

^°  Ls?:.  Pamily  Tree,2\.3,5. 


Autumn  'iOO!^ 


■29 


These  events  on  the  national  playing  field  por- 
tended the  future  of  Fort  Laramie.  Near  the 
end  of  1933.  Dan  Greenburg,  serving  as  the  publicity 
chairman  for  the  Landmarks  Commission,  suggested 
that  the  National  Park  Service  be  approached  with  a 
proposal  for  acquiring  the  fort  to  "tie  it  in  with  the  regu- 
lar park  service.""'  Whether  or  not  Greenburg  was  aware 
of  what  was  happening  in  Washington  is  not  known,  but 
he  well  could  have  been.  In  any  event.  Gov.  Leslie  Miller 
agreed  to  contact  NPS  Director  Arno  B.  Cammerer, 
who  was  a  personal  friend  of  Miller's. 

At  this  critical  juncture,  Wyoming  Attorney  General 
Ray  Lee  met  with  the  legal  representatives  of  the  three 
fort  land  owners  in  an  attempt  to  reopen  discussions 
about  selling  their  properties.  Although  the  lawyers  for 
Jessica  Auld  and  Molly  Sandercock,  who  had  assumed 
ownership  from  their  husbands,  were  willing  to  accept 
the  state's  offer.  Waters  and  Hartman  remained  intran- 
sigent. Lee  reasoned  with  their  attorneys  that  the  state 
could  not  legally  offer  more  than  the  appraised  value  of 
the  land,  even  if  they  elected  to  go  to  court.  A  jury 
verdict  was  exactly  what  Waters  and  Hartman  desired. 
In  a  lightning-fast  trial  scheduled  the  following  week, 
local  jurors  awarded  them  $500  an  acre.  Of  course, 
their  decision  may  have  been  influenced  by  landowners 
in  the  jury  box  who  had  their  own  reasons  for  seeing 
Depression-era  land  values  increased.  Even  though  the 
latest  legislative  appropriation  had  been  passed  for 
$25,000,  an  amount  that  would  have  come 
close  to  covering  the  mandated  price  for  the 
55  acres,  the  governor  had  unilaterally  de- 
creased the  authorization  to  $  1 5,000  before 
affixing  his  signature.  Waters  and  Hartman 
knew  of  this  action  beforehand,  which  no 
doubt  prompted  them  to  stand  firm  on  their 
price. "- 

The  movement  that  had  taken  various  lev 
els  and  avenues  during  the  years  since  i  9 
once  again  descended  to  the  grass  roots.  S 
Deprived  of  Robert  Ellison's  dynamic  lead-  o 
ership  and  drive  to  save  the  fort,  the  Land-  | 
mark  Commission  lost  heart  in  the  project  s 
and  turned  its  attention  elsewhere.  c 

However,  Flannery,  Houser,  and  others  in  'i 
Wyoming  who  championed  Fort  Laramie  | 
renewed  their  determination  to  see  it  pre- 
served. In  what  seems  to  have  been  an  ob- 
session by  that  time,  the  local  leaders  con- 
vinced Governor  Miller  to  appoint  yet  an- 
other special  committee,  apart  from  the 


Landmarks  Commission,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  pre- 
serving the  fort.  This  "Old  Fort  Laramie  National  Park 
Area  Commission."  as  it  was  called,  included  three 
members  in  addition  to  Houser  and  Flannery.  Putting 
their  shoulders  to  the  wheel  were  Dr.  Grace  Raymond 
Hebard,  Dr.  G.  O.  Hanna  of  Lingle,  and  Charles  O. 
Stafford,  the  manager  of  the  Wyoming  Department  of 
Commerce  and  Industry.^' 

Although  single-minded  in  purpose,  the  committee  re- 
alized it  was  at  a  loss  to  know  where  to  begin  after  all 
of  the  previous  attempts  had  tailed.  At  Fiannery's  sug- 
gestion, the  committee  petitioned  Wyoming  Sen.  Joseph 
C.  O'Mahoney  to  request  guidance  from  Secretary 
Ickesand  Director  Cammerer.  Llnfortunately.  nothing 
happened,  despite  the  promised  support  of  the  Wash- 
ington officials.  This  may  have  been  because  the  NPS 
wanted  to  avoid  an  already  sticky  situation  that  had  stale- 
mated with  a  failed  attempt  at  condemnation. 

The  committee  faced  a  paradox.  It  was  highly  un- 
likely the  Park  Service  would  buy  the  land,  considering 
the  economic  realities  of  the  times.  On  the  other  hand, 
while  the  State  of  Wyoming  might  have  been  able  to 
salvage  the  negotiations  to  buy  the  property,  it  was 
doubtful  the  state  could  afford  to  restore  or  operate  the 


'■ '  Mattes.  "Park  Hlstoi^." 
"- Ibid.  &9-90. 
"•^  Ibid..  '>4-95. 


89. 


15.? 


Gov.  Leslie  Miller  (left)  was  relentless  in  his  efforts  to  preserve  Fort 
Laramie.  He  was  helped  in  Congress  hy  It'yoming  Sen.  Joseph  C. 
O'Mahoney  (right).  The  two  Democrats  worked  with  the  NPS  to 
gain  federal  designation  for  the  site. 


30 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


place,  both  of  which  the  public  demanded.  The  answer, 
as  Flannery  may  have  realized,  lay  in  the  sage  advice 
Horace  Albright  had  imparted  to  Ellison  back  in  1925. 
The  solution  was  to  utilize  the  President's  authority  to 
proclaim  national  monuments  under  the  Antiquities  Act 
of  1 906.  if  the  state  could  manage  to  purchase  the  fort, 
with  the  assurance  the  NPS  would  immediately  take  it 
off  their  hands  through  a  presidential  proclamation. 
Congress  might  be  more  easily  levered  into  appropriat- 
ing funds  for  its  maintenance. 

The  plan  needed  a  catalyst  to  start  the  ball  rolling. 
That  spark  was  provided  by  Merrill  J.  Mattes,  a  young 
historian  posted  at  Scotts  Bluff  National  Monument. 
Mattes  was  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  historical  sig- 
nificance of  Fort  Laramie  and  its  surviving  buildings. 
Early  in  September  1936,  Hillory  A.  Tolson,  assistant 
director  of  the  Park  Service,  visited  Scotts  Bluff  during 
a  trip  to  Yellowstone  and  Grand  Teton  National  Parks. 
Mattes,  already  personally  committed  to  seeing  Fort 
Laramie  preserved,  suggested  to  Tolson  that  since  his 
route  would  take  him  right  by  the  fort,  he  should  stop  to 
see  it.  When  Tolson  expressed  his  interest  in  doing  so. 
Mattes  volunteered  himself  and  avid  Oregon  Trail  his- 
torian Thomas  L.  Green,  a  resident  of  ScottsblufT,  to 
serve  as  guides.  Inexplicably,  during  all  of  the  various 
celebrations  and  Landmark  Commission  maneuvers,  no 
one  had  bothered  to  invite  any  high-ranking  NPS  offi- 
cials to  come  see  the  fort. 

The  visit  proved  decisive.  Tolson  was  deeply  im- 
pressed with  what  he  saw  and  with  the  role  the  fort  had 


played  in  western  history.  The  assistant  director  even 
went  so  far  as  to  say  that  if  the  State  of  Wyoming  could 
acquire  the  fort,  the  NPS  would  assume  responsibility 
for  its  administration.  True  to  his  word.  Tolson  telephoned 
Associate  Director  Arthur  B.  Demaray  in  Washington 
soon  after  his  visit  to  convince  him  that  the  time  was 
right  to  take  action  on  Fort  Laramie.  Director  Cammerer, 
now  amied  with  the  1 935  Historic  Sites  Act  and  a  grow- 
ing professional  staff  to  carry  out  its  mandates,  was 
most  receptive  to  expanding  the  agency's  historical  prop- 
erties. 

Only  a  week  after  Tolson's  impromptu  visit,  the  NPS 
announced  publicly  that  it  would  be  willing  to  establish 
the  area  as  a  unit  of  the  Park  System,  were  it  donated 
to  the  government.  Demaray  notified  Donald  B. 
Alexander,  coordinator  of  CCC  activities  at  Omaha,  that 
he  was  to  enter  into  direct  negotiations  with  the  State 
of  Wyoming,  and  at  the  highest  levels.  Gov.  Miller,  elated 
with  the  sudden  NPS  interest  in  Fort  Laramie,  informed 
Alexander  that  he  was  uncertain  just  how  Tom  Waters 
would  react  to  the  news.  But.  NPS  staff  members  in 
Omaha  already  had  checked  into  Waters's  financial  situ- 
ation to  discover  that  he  would  probably  be  willing  to 
reduce  his  price  for  the  land.'^'^ 

"'Ibid.,  105. 

"'  Mattes,  who  was  fairly  close  to  these  events,  assumed  this 
was  worked  out  during  a  meeting  among  NPS  and  W>  oming  state 
oftlcials  and  members  of  the  local  committee.  Mattes.  "Park  His- 
tory." 106-07. 

"•'Ihici..  108. 


Group  standing  in  front  of  Old  Bedlam.  Photograph  by  Joseph  Weppner,  Historical  Landmarks 


Autumn  200'2 


31 


Miller  now  scented  victory  and  pulled  out  all  stops  to 
secure  the  fort.  When  the  members  of  the  Landmarks 
Commission  expressed  their  reservations  about  gaining 
Waters'  cooperation  and  their  unwillingness  to  pay  an 
unreasonable  price.  Miller  simpl>  bypassed  them.  He 
even  drove  to  the  fort  to  personally  discuss  the  situa- 
tion, and  to  sniff  the  political  winds  at  the  confluence. 
Planner}  provided  the  governor  with  the  names  of  sev- 
eral indi\iduais  he  thought  would  be  willing  to  negotiate 
with  Waters  and  the  others.  Miller  also  invited  local 
businessman  and  fort-supporter  Robert  J.  R\  mill  to  chair 
yet  another  comm  ittee  for  that  purpose.  This  time,  how- 
ever, the  committee  was  granted  wider  latitude  to  ac- 
quire more  acreage,  up  to  200  acres  in  fact,  with  a  ceil- 
ing price  of  $25,000.  The  new  proposed  boundaiy  prob- 
ably was  suggested  by  NPS  planners  in  Omaha  lo  pro- 
vide a  wider  protective  buffer  around  the  historic  build- 
ings.*'-~' 

OnJanuarx'  17,  1937,  Rymill  infonnedGovemorMiller 
that  the  negotiators  and  the  land  owners  had  reached 
an  agreement  on  a  purchase  price  of  $24,844.75.  barely 
under  the  limit,  but  nevertheless  within  bounds.  Even 
though  Miller  had  earlier  sidelined  the  Landmarks  Com- 
mission, he  was  again  in  a  position  to  utilize  their  ser- 
vices as  an  instrument  to  handle  the  sale.  At  a  subse- 
quent meeting  a  few  days  later,  Warren  Richardson,  a 
member  of  the  committee,  proposed  that  the  Legisla- 
ture appropriate  a  total  of  $27,500.  This,  he  explained, 
would  cover  state  expenses  in  the  interim  period  re- 
quired to  move  the  fort  into  the  hands  of  the  Park  Ser- 
vice. This  might  have  been  a  stumbling  block  in  prior 
years,  but  not  in  1937.  Miller  enjoyed  near  universal 
popularity  with  the  voters,  and  just  as  important,  ex- 
erted powerful  influence  over  Democratic  legislators. 
Not  only  was  there  an  absence  of  opposition,  factions 
on  both  sides  of  the  body  competed  for  the  honor,  if  not 
the  credit,  of  preserving  Fort  Laramie.  Representatives 
from  no  less  than  eight  Wyoming  counties,  led  by  Goshen 
and  Platte,  joined  in  sponsoring  the  bill,  introduced  to 
the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  early  in  February.  To 
no  one's  surprise,  it  flew  through  the  legislative  process 
and  was  enacted  on  February  20.  1937.''^ 

His  signature  hardly  dry  on  the  bill.  Governor  Miller 
sped  off  to  Washington  to  secure  a  personal  guarantee 
from  Director  Cammerer  that  the  Park  Service  was 
indeed  prepared  to  follow  through  on  its  promise.  The 
director  assured  Miller  that  everything  was  in  place  and 
that  a  presidential  proclamation  accepting  Fort  Laramie 
would  be  forthcoming.  Miller  left  nothing  to  chance, 
however.  Before  leaving  Washington,  he  attended  a 
meeting  of  the  Advisory  Board  to  make  certain  that 


there  would  be  no  hurdle  raised  relative  to  the  fort's 
significance  for  inclusion  in  the  National  Park  System. 
The  Washington  Office  staff  of  the  NPS  had  already 
covered  those  bases  and  the  Council  advised  the  gov- 
ernor that  Fort  Laramie's  historical  importance  had 
never  been  questioned. 

That  done.  Miller  dashed  back  to  Cheyenne,  where 
he  placed  the  final  responsibilitv  in  the  hands  of  the 
Landmarks  Commission.  Lmpowered  to  make  the  pur- 
chase, the  commission  members  presented  the  official 
vouchers,  in  the  sum  of  $25,594.75.  to  the  state  auditor 
for  payment.  The  legislative  resolution  also  authorized 
the  Landmarks  Commission  to  convey  the  land.  214.41 
acres,  to  the  National  Park  Service,  an  act  carried  out 
on  the  last  day  of  March.  Fittingly,  a  grand  celebration 
was  staged  on  the  fort's  parade  ground  on  July  5.  1 937. 

In  I  890  the  army  had  forsaken  the  old  post  as 
being  of  no  further  use.  It  had  indeed  outlived 
its  purpose  as  a  military  post,  just  as  it  had  outlasted  the 
trappers,  emigrants,  gold-seekers,  and  Indians.  Never- 
theless, even  its  decline,  it  served  other  needs  for  cattle- 
men and  homesteaders,  not  all  of  them  good  for  the  fort 
itself  But,  survive  it  did.  While  the  land  remained  much 
the  same  as  it  had  always  been,  the  buildings  suffered. 
As  Historian  Mattes  observed,  "Actually,  we  should  not 
express  disappointment  that  so  much  of  Fort  Laramie 
was  lost,  but  rather  surprise  that  so  much  of  it  has  been 
saved. '"^^  Enough  was  saved  to  serve  as  a  tangible, 
irreplaceable  reminder  of  the  nation's  heritage  and  those 
who  have  gone  before.  The  meanings  and  values  of 
events  at  the  confluence  remain  the  obligation  of  those 
to  follow. 

"'  Mattes.  "Fort  Larainic:  Guardian  ofthe  Oregon  trail."  Annuls 
of  Wyoming.  17(,lanuar>.  1945).  17-18, 


Douglas  C.  McChristian,  an  authorit>  on  the 
frontier  military,  is  a  historian  with  the  Na- 
tional Park  Serv  ice.  He  now  lives  and  works 
in  southern  Arizona,  but  he  once  served  as 
superintendent  of  Fort  Laramie  National  His- 
toric Site.  This  article,  the  third  and  final  in- 
stallment in  a  series  published  in  Annals,  is 
based  on  a  longer  study  on  Fort  Laramie's 
history  from  the  fur  trade  era  to  modern 
times.  The  book  will  be  published  by  the  Na- 
tional Park  Service. 


Book  Reviews 

Significant  Recent  Books  on  Western  and  Wyoming  History 

Edited  by  Carl  Hallberg 


Religion  in  the  Modern  American  West. 

By  Ferenc  Morton  Szasz.  Tucson;  University  of  Arizona 
Press.  2000.  270pp.  Illus..  notes,  bib.,  index.  Cloth,  $35. 

Reviewed  by  Amanda  Porterfield,  University  of  Wyoming 

A  welcome  antidote  to  the  chronic  neglect  of  religion  in 
historical  studies  of  the  American  West,  this  handy  volume 
describes  the  contours  of  American  religion  west  of  the  1 00*' 
meridian,  which  runs  through  the  Dakotas,  Nebraska,  Kan- 
sas, Oklahoma,  and  Texas.  Combining  extensive  research  in 
the  cutting  files  of  regional  public  libraries  and  state  histori- 
cal societies  with  knowledge  of  relevant  scholarly  literature. 
University  of  New  Mexico  History  Professor  Ferenc  Morton 
Szasz  argues  that  religion  has  shaped  the  growth  of  many 
western  communities  and  that,  since  the  1960s,  religious 
trends  in  the  West  have  come  to  dominate  national  trends. 
The  absence  of  a  single  mainstream  religion  in  many  parts  of 
the  West  gave  many  different  religious  groups  room  to  es- 
tablish themselves  and  develop  freely,  Szasz  argues.  The 
open  spaces  and  natural  beauty  of  the  landscape  contrib- 
uted to  religious  individualism,  and  this  contributed  to  a  grow- 
ing national  interest  in  personalized  forms  of  spirituality. 

The  book  is  divided  into  three  parts.  Part  I  surveys  the 
period  fi"om  1 890  to  1 920  and  focuses  on  the  crucial  role  reli- 
gious groups  played  in  establishing  hospitals,  schools,  and 
welfare  that  enabled  communities  to  grow.  In  contrast  to  the 
East  and  Midwest,  Jewish,  Catholic,  and  Protestant  groups 
coexisted  on  more  or  less  equal  footing  in  many  towns  and 
cities  while  Latter  Days  Saints  created  their  own  fantastically 
successful  Zion  in  and  around  Utah.  In  San  Francisco,  Los 
Angeles,  and  Denver,  Jews  often  led  the  way  as  philanthro- 
pists and  community  builders.  Catholics  established  firm 
and  extensive  social  bedrock,  especially  in  California  and  the 
Southwest.  Protestants  also  contributed  to  the  social  infra- 
structure of  western  society  but  were  often  divided  among 
themselves,  no  less  than  Jews  and  Catholics,  into  ethnic 
groups. 

Part  II  surveys  the  period  from  1 920  to  I960,  which  saw  an 
influx  of  conservative  evangelicals  and  the  flourishing  of 
Pentecostal  fervor,  especially  in  the  Southwest.  The  interna- 
tional Pentecostal  celebrity  Aimee  Semple  McPherson  based 
her  headquarters  in  Los  Angeles.  Meanwhile,  local  religious 
leaders  made  life  better  for  many  people.  The  Irish  Catholic 
Brother  Mathias  Barrett  founded  the  order  of  Little  Brother 


of  the  Good  Shepherd  and  established  homeless  shelters 
Los  Angeles  and  Albuquerque,  while  the  Reform  Rabbi 
Isadore  Budick  promoted  understanding  between  Christians 
and  Jews  in  Oklahoma.  Heavy  migration  to  the  West  Coast 
fed  the  growth  of  many  religious  institutions,  although  the 
census  of  1950  showed  Washington  and  Oregon  had  the 
nation's  highest  rate  of  religiously  unaffiliated  people. 

Part  III  covers  the  last  four  decades  of  the  20"'  century  and 
attends  to  the  sharp  rise  of  religious  conflict  in  the  West. 
Respect  for  Native  American  religions  increased,  as  did  con- 
flict between  developers  and  environmentalists.  Bhagwan 
Shree  Rajneesh  and  his  followers  attempted  to  take  over 
Antelope,  Oregon,  but  they  were  run  out  of  town.  In  the 
most  horrible  religious  conflict  to  emerge  form  the  West,  Jim 
Jones  led  more  than  900  followers  from  his  People's  Temple 
in  northern  California  to  death  in  Jonestown,  Guyana. 

If  the  West  generated  more  than  its  share  of  religious  con- 
flict in  the  United  States  during  the  late  20"'  century,  it  also 
led  the  way  in  developing  new  forms  of  religious  creativity. 
Robert  Schuller  pioneered  new  expressions  of  Christian  out- 
reach and  entertainment  at  Crystal  Cathedral  in  conservative 
Orange  County  as  did,  in  a  very  different  style,  the  charis- 
matic Black  activist  Cecil  Williams  at  Glide  Memorial  Church 
in  San  Francisco.  As  this  lively  volume  demonstrates.  West- 
erners did  not  hold  to  convention  as  much  as  their  eastern 
compatriots.  But  their  religious  experiments  and  enthusiasm 
for  spirituality  shaped  the  landscape  of  American  religious 
life. 

Selling  Yellowstone:  Capitalism  and  the  Con- 
struction of  Nature. 

By  Mark  Daniel  Barringer.  Lawrence:  University  Press  of 
Kansas,  2002.  248pp.  Illus.,  maps,  notes,  bib.,  index.  Cloth, 

$29.95. 

Reviewed  by  Shannon  Bowen,  American  Heritage  Center, 
University  of  Wyoming 

There  is  no  question  that  the  national  parks  of  the  United 
States  have  been  contested  spaces  on  a  variety  of  fronts 
since  the  designation  of  Yellowstone  in  1872.  From  the  rights 
of  concessioners  to  the  nature  of  its  use,  the  United  States' 
national  park  system  has  been  marketed  and  re-marketed  to 
accommodate  the  changing  tastes  of  a  now  international  visi- 
tor population.  Mark  Daniel  Barringer  asserts  that  the  United 


Autumn  'iOO'i 


33 


States  Department  of  Interior,  though  its  management  of  the 
national  partes,  has  attempted  to  sell  to  this  population  an 
ever-evolving  set  of  goods.  But  just  what  argument  is 
Barringer  selling  his  readers  in  Selling  Yellowstone! 

Barringer  states  in  his  introduction  that  the  national  parks, 
and  particularly  Yellowstone  as  the  first  of  its  kind,  offered 
Americans  an  image  of  the  "Old  West  [that]  proved  itself 
useful  in  shaping  popular  ideas  about  what  an  American,  as 
well  as  America  as  a  nation,  was."  (p.  I).  As  the  frontier 
proceeded  West  across  the  North  American  continent,  the 
parks  presented  a  nostalgic  reminder  of  what  Americans 
dreamed  their  homeland  once  appeared  to  be.  Barringer's 
introduction  and  his  conclusion  function  as  an  exegesis  of 
national  park  symbolism,  and  he  states  that  his  narrative  "is 
about  the  people  who  constructed  Yellowstone's  many  iden- 
tities and  shaped  popular  perceptions  of  the  park  over  the 
years,  and  their  reasons  for  doing  so."  (p.  7).  However,  this 
work  is  not  concerned  with  how  those  identities  and  percep- 
tions were  "constructed."  a  tenn  Bartinger  is  quite  fond  of 
using,  but  rather  with  the  evolution  of  business  operations 
and  government  policy  regarding  Yellowstone  National.  Park. 

Barringer  offers  an  exhaustive  and  well-researched  history 
of  concessions  in  Yellowstone  from  the  park's  establishment 
until  the  mid-1960s.  He  discusses  the  relationship  between 
government  officials  and  individual  concessioners,  as  well 
as  the  effects  of  World  War  I  and  World  War  II  on  activities 
within  the  park.  Barringer  also  deals  with  how  various 
concessioners  worked  with  park  superintendents,  interior 
secretaries,  and  environmental  pundits  to  create  and  recreate 
Yellowstone's  built  and  natural  landscape  to  suit  tourists' 
changing  tastes.  While  this  line  of  discussion  might  lend 
itself  well  to  an  explanation  of  what  those  tastes  were  and 
how  they  came  to  be  that  way,  Barringer  resists  that  tempta- 
tion, relying  instead  on  offhand  remarks  and  brief  digres- 
sions on  national  park  iconography.  These  offhand  com- 
ments and  brief  digressions  undermine  what  would  other- 
wise be  a  convincing  and  articulate  pitch  about  how  private 
enterprise  influenced  public  land  use  decisions. 

Readers  expecting  Selling  Yellowstone  to  be  an  intellec- 
tual and  cultural  history  will  be  disappointed.  Its  subtitle. 
Capitalism  and  the  Construction  of  Nature,  is  misleading  in 
that  it  emphasizes  the  role  that  nature  would  play  in  Barringer's 
narrative,  in  fact,  nature  is  but  a  minor  actor  in  this  story, 
which  is  part  of  the  author's  point.  While  he  might  have  been 
better  served  by  avoiding  the  parks'  symbolic  implications 
altogether,  his  discussion  of  those  implications  provides  at 
least  a  partial  backdrop  for  his  explication  of  Yellowstone's 
business  and  government  history .  Contextualization  is  a  slip- 
pery slope,  and  Barringer's  navigation  of  it  is  at  times  clumsy. 
Further,  with  the  immense  volume  of  scholarship  on  what 
nature  means  in  national  parks,  there  is  little  he  could  add  to 
the  dialogue.  The  story  he  succeeds  in  selling  about 
Yellowstone  is  one  that,  until  now.  has  been  more  obscure.  It 
is  a  story  that  entwines  political  promises  and  the  proverbial 
bottom  line,  one  to  which  the  public  is  not  ordinarily  privy. 
And  in  exposing  this  story;  Barringer  contributes  a  great  deal 
to  the  continuinc  Yellowstone  debate. 


Shot  Down!  Capital  Crimes  of  Casper. 

By  Charlotte  Babcock.  Glendo:  High  Plains  Press,  2000. 
149 pp  lllus  .  hib..  index.   Paper.  SI 3  95. 

Reviewed hy  Kim  Winters,  American  Heritage  Center, 
University  of  Uyoming 

Charlotte  Babcock's  book  Shot  Down'  Capital  Crimes  of 
Casper  is.  as  the  title  implies,  about  ten  capital  crimes  (each 
chapter  is  about  a  specific  event)  in  Casper  from  1 890  to  1 9 1 4. 
In  her  forward,  Babcock  describes  her  book  as  a  collection  of 
stories  that  "are  told  as  if  by  the  drawing-room  fireplace  of 
someone  who  was  there."  Without  a  doubt.  Babcock's  book 
is  an  enjoyable  read,  written  in  a  relaxed  writing  st\  le.  and  it  is 
easy  for  the  reader  to  become,  as  Babcock  says  she  did, 
caught  in  the  drama  of  the  "murders,  crimes  of  passion,  [the] 
lynching,  barroom  brawls  [that] . . .  exploded  with  the  birth  of 
the  new  town  of  Casper,  Wyoming."  Sometimes  the  text  reads 
more  like  a  historical  novel,  which  perhaps  adds  to  the  ease 
with  which  the  reader  can  become  "caught  up"  with  the  "char- 
acters." The  author's  need  to  tell  the  "real"  story  and  her 
writing  style  may  frustrate  some  readers  with  this  book. 

Babcock  says  she  intends  her  book  to  be  a  factual  account 
about  early  criminal  history  in  Casper.  While  she  seems  over- 
whelmed by  the  need  to  tell  the  "truth."  she  also  comments 
on  the  diftlculties  that  have  stood  in  the  way  of  her  doing  so. 
One  challenge  for  her  is  historical  research.  She  sees  this  as 
"an  intriguing  exercise  in  dogged  detection,  and  in  some 
measure,  interpretation."  But  the  process  was  personally 
frustrating  as  she  found  numerous  inconsistencies  in  local 
sources  and  needed  to  explore  them  enough  to  pick  out  the 
"cortecf  one.  One  wonders  what  she  thought  historical 
research  and  writing  were  all  about. 

Babcock  says  that  as  a  result,  she  had  to  interpret  events. 
While  this  could  have  led  to  interesting  examinations  about 
various  issues  or  situations,  Babcock  stops  just  short  of 
doing  so  and,  instead,  offers  just  the  facts.  She  provides 
little  analysis  about  the  historical  significance  of  these  events 
and  no  explanation  about  the  context  within  which  they  took 
place.  In  theend,  the  reader  comes  awa\' with  a  limited  view 
about  the  subject  matter. 

Babcock  also  relies  heavily  on  secondary  sources.  Her 
primary  sources  are  two  newspapers  -  the  Derrick  and  the 
Tribune  -  and  the  lack  of  other  primary  documents  may  an- 
noy some  readers  who  enjoy  delving  into  old  records.  Simi- 
larly and  perhaps  most  surprising  for  a  historical  text  is  the 
lack  of  citations  or  footnotes.  Only  newspapers  are  cited  in 
the  bod\  of  the  text.  If  Babcock  is  writing  this  book  in  the  feel 
of  someone  sitting  in  front  of  a  fire  telling  a  tale,  then  she 
does  just  that.  It  is  not  often  that  during  a  story  telling  that 
the  teller  pauses  to  reference  citations. 

Although  Babcock's  method  of  historical  writing  will  not 
appeal  to  everyone,  it  should  not  be  dismissed  out  of  hand. 
This  is  an  enjoyable  book  and  a  highK'  accessible  introduc- 
tion to  early  criminal  history  in  Casper.  While  it  may  not  offer 
everything  some  historians  would  like  to  see  or  rather  it  may 
stop  tantalizingly  short  of  this,  it  is  a  fun  look  at  some  of  the 
drama  in  early  Wyoming. 


34 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Dreamers  and  Schemers:  Profiles  From  Carbon 
Count} ,  Wyoming's  Past. 

B>  Lori  Van  Pelt  Walck.  Glendo:  High  Plains  Press,  1 999. 

1 1  Ins..  bib.,  index.  Paper.  SI  4.95. 

Reviewed  by  C.  Fred  UilUams,  University  of  Arkansas  at 
Little  Rock 

Those  interested  in  making  lists  and  identifying  "the  best" 
in  a  given  categon,  as  the  turn  of  the  century  seems  to  have 
inspired,  may  take  a  lesson  from  this  author  and  her  book  on 
Carbon  County.  Wyoming.  Organized  as  one  of  the  Territory's 
original  five  counties.  Carbon  County  has  had  a  storied  past. 
The  author  attempts  to  capture  that  past  with  vignettes  on 
thirty-three  individuals  who  "had  some  stake  in  forming  the 
County"  (p.  X).  These  brief  biographical  entries,  approxi- 
mately 2000  to  35000  words  in  length,  highlight  the  entrant's 
career  and  comment  on  their  connection  with  the  county. 
The  longest  entr>  is  reserved  for  Governor  Fenimore 
Chatterton  who  followed  a  checkered  path  from  New  York 
through  law  school  at  the  University  of  Michigan  on  his  way 
to  being  the  state's  chief  executive  at  the  turn  of  the  century. 
Among  Chatterton's  notable  accomplishments  was  his  re- 
fusal to  commute  the  capital  murder  conviction  of  range  de- 
tective Tom  Horn  to  life  imprisonment. 

Chatterton  narrowly  edged  legendary  mountain  man  Jim 
Bridger  and  notorious  cattle  rustler  Ella  (Cattle  Kate)  Watson 
for  the  most  space  in  the  book.  The  shortest  entries  are 
reserved  for  husband-wife  team  Richard  and  Margaret  Sav- 
age and  land  mining  partners  Ed  Haggart)  and  George  Ferris. 
Each  gets  about  1200  words.  Four  vignettes  are  about  women 
and  one  is  reserved  of  Afi-ican  American  Isom  (Ned)  Dart.  In 
addition  to  Bridger.  other  national  notables  include  outlaw 
Butch  Cassid>  and  transportation  magnet  Ben  Holladay. 

Individuals  less  well  known  but  still  important  to  Wyo- 
ming and  Carbon  Count>;  include  French  army  officer  Philippe 
Regis  de  Torbriand.  Arriving  in  America  to  participate  in  this 
nation's  Civil  War.  Torbriand  distinguished  himself  in  battle 
and  was  brevetted  to  Major  General  before  the  war  was  over. 
He  remained  in  the  U.S.  Army  following  the  war.  and  his  last 
years  as  a  soldier  were  spent  as  commander  of  Fort  Fred 
Steele.  Another  subject.  Thomas  Tipton  Thronburgh.  was 
also  connected  to  Fort  Steele,  serving  as  "one  of  the  young- 
est military  officers  to  earn  the  rank  of  Major"  (p.  47). 

Most  professions  present  in  Carbon  County  are  also  rep- 
resented in  this  book.  Mining,  ranching,  land  speculating, 
and  law  enforcement  dominate  the  occupations  represented. 
However,  most  individuals  were  engaged  in  multiple  activi- 
ties (hence  the  title)  and  seldom  stayed  with  one  job  for  long. 
The  most  common  "cross-over"  career  came  from  outlaws 
who  settled  down  to  become  lawmen. 

Individuals  recounted  in  this  volume  came  or  passed 
through  all  regions  of  Carbon  County.  However,  those  whose 
activities  occurred  at  or  near  one  of  three  places  -  Fort  Fred 
Steele,  Encampment,  and  Saratoga  -  get  mentioned  most  of- 
ten. Fort  Steele,  founded  by  Colonel  Richard  1.  Dodge,  pro- 
vided military  protection  for  the  transcontinental  railroad  and 


extended  its  mission  to  monitor  Indian  activities  after  the 
railroad  was  completed.  The  town  of  Encampment  evolved 
from  a  fur  trapper  rendezvous  site,  and  Saratoga,  known  for 
its  spring  water,  began  as  a  stage  stop  and  was  named  for  an 
earlier  settlement  in  New  York. 

This  book  makes  interesting  reading.  But  it  is  difficult  for 
the  general  reader  to  understand  the  rationale  for  how  the 
characters  were  selected.  The  author,  a  native  of  Nebraska 
and  trained  as  a  journalist,  has  done  a  good  job  in  gleaning 
data  from  personal  memoirs,  popular  histories,  newspapers, 
and  other  miscellaneous  publications.  However,  the  narra- 
tive does  not  focus  on  serious  scholarship  and  is  more  in  the 
category  of  story-telling.  Even  so,  it  is  a  delight  to  read  and 
even  serious  scholars  will  find  tidbits  of  infomiation  to  sat- 
isfy their  intellectual  curiosity. 


High  and  Dry:  The  Texas-New  Mexico 

Struggle  for  the  Pecos  River. 

By  G.  Emlen  Hall.  Albuquerque:  University  of  New  Mexico 
Press.  2002.  2S8 pp.  Illus..  notes,  index.  Cloth.  S39.95; 
paper.  S 2 1.95. 

Reviewed  by  Leslie  Sliores,  American  Heritage  Center, 
University  of  Wyoming 

The  struggle  for  water  in  an  arid  region  is  a  conflict  as  old 
as  time.  The  fight  over  Pecos  River  water  is  a  20'^  century 
version  of  that  battle,  a  contest  played  out  in  the  legal  realm 
more  than  anywhere  else.  Former  water-rights  attorney,  now 
University  ofNew  Mexico  law  professor,  G.  Emlen  Hall  tells 
the  story  about  the  Texas-New  Mexico  combat  for  Pecos 
River  water  as  a  lawyer,  small  farmer,  and  devotee  to  the  river 
itself.  Hall  provides  a  masterful  summary  of  Texas  v.  New 
Mexico.  It  was  a  convoluted,  drawn-out  court  case  that  pit- 
ted Texas  and  New  Mexico  engineers,  lawyers,  politicians, 
and  irrigators  against  each  other  in  their  attempts  to  gain 
control  over  Pecos  River  Water  in  the  arid  Southwest.  The 
author  tells  about  New  Mexico's  stake  in  the  litigation.  Al- 
though Texas  had  a  huge  interest  in  it.  Hall  admits  that  as  a 
New  Mexican,  he  did  not  see  the  downstream  stakes  as  clearly 
or  develop  them  as  deeply. 

The  case  of  Texas  v.  New  Mexico  is  full  of  arcane  details 
only  a  water  engineer  or  water-rights  lawyer  could  appreci- 
ate, but  Hall  is  adept  at  sizing  the  issues  down  to  a  layman's 
level.  His  descriptions  of  the  grand  personalities  involved  in 
the  case  and  the  intricate  maneuvering  they  perfonn  bring 
richness  to  a  story  that  could  easily  be  bogged  down  in  legal 
and  engineering  jargon.  The  book  is  as  much  a  history  of 
how  a  desert  region  uses  its  limited  water  resources  as  it  is  a 
description  of  a  case  played  out  in  the  federal  courts.  But 
there  is  no  happy  ending  here.  Hall  recounts  the  battle  over 
Pecos  River  water  from  its  relative  beginning,  but  as  he  re- 
lates, the  clash  continues  into  the  21"  century  with  as  much 
rancor  and  confusion  as  ever. 

The  Pecos  River  has  its  headwaters  in  eastern  New  Mexico 
and  runs  through  West  Texas.  As  an  upstream  state.  New 
Mexico  has  had  a  somewhat  propriety  view  of  the  Pecos. 


Autumn  '2002 


35 


Hall's  story  begins  in  the  1 890s  when  New  Yorker  Francis  G. 
Tracy  arrived  in  Carlsbad,  New  Mexico  to  engineer  a  reclama- 
tion dream  that  would  deliver  Pecos  water  through  dams, 
diversions,  and  delivery  systems  to  parched  acres  in  south- 
eastern New  Mexico.  By  the  turn  of  the  ZO""  century,  Tracy 
and  his  partners  released  prospectuses  showing  plans  to 
irrigate  more  than  one  million  acres  of  land  between  Roswell, 
New  Mexico  and  the  Pecos  River.  They  were  defeated  in 
their  attempts  by  the  highly  uncontrollable  Pecos  and  by  a 
clack  of  financial  backing. 

Wild  dreams  of  limitless  water  resources  were  also  played 
out  in  Roswell,  a  town  that  has  the  good  fortune  to  lay  upon 
an  artesian  basin.  Drilling  for  irrigation  purposes  was  ram- 
pant in  the  19IOsthrough  the  mid- 1950s  with  little  knowledge 
that  the  wells  were  sucking  away  groundwater  that  normally 
would  have  fed  the  Pecos,  and  the  downstream  Texas  fanns. 
Hall's  interview  with  a  second  generation  Roswell  farmer  pro- 
vides a  valuable  viewpoint  from  a  New  Mexican  who  contin- 
ues to  farm  his  land  through  irrigation  water  from  artesian 
wells.  The  author  does  an  excellent  job  of  showing  the  te- 
nacity of  New  Mexicans  who  depend  on  an  unreliable  river  to 
make  their  living  and  their  fierce  protection  of  their  water 
rights. 

By  the  1 940s,  Texans  got  wind  of  the  groundwater  drilling 
in  Roswell  and  grew  suspicious  that  Texas  was  not  receiving 
its  fair  share  of  Pecos  water.  A  dispute  arose  forcing  all  sides 
to  come  together  for  some  type  of  agreement,  imperfect  though 
it  may  have  been.  The  result  was  the  1 948  Pecos  River  Com- 
pact which  gave  an  empirical  fomiula  for  dividing  the  water 
of  the  Pecos.  Unfortunately,  the  river  did  not  cooperate  with 
the  formula.  Texas's  expectations  that  New  Mexico  should 
follow  the  ainbiguous  fonnula  and  New  Mexico's  attempts  to 
evade  the  requirements  of  the  formula  led  to  the  1 4-year  court 
case  beginning  in  the  mid-1970s. 

Under  the  administration  of  New  Mexico  State  Engineer 
Steve  Reynolds,  there  was  one  key  principle  to  guide  New 
Mexico  water  policy.  That  principle  was  that  there  should  be 


scientific  management  of  limited  water  to  achieve  the  most 
economically  efficient  beneficial  use  of  the  state's  scant  sup- 
plies. The  author  indicates  that  "use"  was  the  operative 
word  in  the  State  Engineer's  office.  Reynolds  believed  that 
water  unused  was  water  wasted.  His  policies  toward  water 
use  were  relatively  simple  to  enact  in  the  early  days  of  his 
career  in  the  mid-1950s,  when  most  engineers  and  farmers 
were  still  unaware  of  how  man's  activities  were  depleting  the 
river  flow.  But  by  the  1970s,  Reynolds's  key  principle  was 
vying  with  new  knowledge  about  river  flow  along  with  a 
whole  new  range  of  competing  key  principles:  water  for  Texas, 
water  for  federally  protected  aquatic  endangered  species, 
water  for  other  uses,  and  water  for  the  Pecos  River  itself. 
Using  his  skills  in  diplomacy,  native  charm,  iron  determina- 
tion, and  slavish  hours.  Reynolds  kept  his  antiquated  policy 
afloat  until  his  death  in  1990.  Steve  Reynolds's  strong  per- 
sonality dominates  Hall's  book.  Hall  worked  as  a  lawyer  for 
Reynolds  in  the  State  Engineer's  office  and  alternated  be- 
tween admiration  and  abhorrence  for  Reynolds's  policies  and 
methods.  In  the  end  the  case  of  Texas  v.  New  Mexico  sur- 
vived Steve  Reynolds  as  well  as  two  U.S.  Supreme  Court- 
appointed  special  masters,  one  who  resigned  in  the  frustra- 
tion and  another  who  died  in  office.  The  case  lasted  from 
1974  to  1988,  although,  as  the  author  relates,  the  problems 
that  spawns  it  have  not  yet  been  resolved. 

Halls'  story  ends  on  his  own  plots  of  New  Mexico  land 
where  he  raises  chile,  basil,  and  pumpkins,  some  for  the  com- 
mercial market  and  some  for  his  own  personal  satisfaction. 
He  remarks  that  he  ponders  the  history  of  irrigation  in  the 
region  as  he  watches  river  water  flow  from  1 8""  centun,  irriga- 
tion systems  through  his  headgates  and  into  his  small  fields. 
The  artificial  condition,  he  comments,  has  been  in  existence 
so  long  it  seems  natural.  This  contemplative  approach  and 
Hall's  special  insight  as  one  who  has  witnessed  the  western 
water  wars  close-hand  are  reflected  in  the  book  and  make  for 
a  well-thought  out,  engaging,  informed  account  about  the 
history  about  water  use  in  the  20"'  century  New  Mexico. 


36 


Annals  of  Wyoming:  The  Wyoming  History  Journal 


Recent  Acquisitions  in  the 
Hebard  Collection,  UW  Libraries 

Compiled  by  Tamsen  L.  Hert 


The  Grace  Raymond  Hebard  Wyo- 
ming Collection  is  a  branch  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wyoming  Libraries  housed  in 
the  Owen  Wister  Western  Writers  Read- 
ing Room  in  the  American  Heritage 
Center.  While  it  is  easy  to  identify^  ma- 
terials about  Wyoming  published  by 
nationally  known  publishers,  it  can  be 
difficult  to  locate  pertinent  publica- 
tions printed  in  Wyoming.  The  Hebard 
Collection  is  the  most  comprehensive 
collection  on  Wyoming  in  the  state. 

If  YOU  have  questions  about  these 
materials  or  the  Hebard  Collection, 
contact  Tamsen  Hert  by  phone  at  307- 
766-6245:  by  email,  thertduwyo.edu 
or  access  the  Hebard  HomePage  at: 
http://www.  uwyo.edu/lib/heb.  htm. 

Bagiey.  Jerry. 

Daniel  Trotter  Potts,  Rocky  Moun- 
tain Explorer,  Chronicler  of  the  Fur 
Trade  and  ...  The  First  Known  Man 
in  Yellowstone  Park.  Rigby,  ID:  Old 
Faithful  Eye-Witness  Publishing,  2000. 
Hebard  &  Coe  F  722.4  .P68  B345 

Potts  was  a  member  of  the  Ashley- 
Henry  expedition  and  provided  reports 
of  the  travels  up  the  Missouri,  Big  Horn 
and  Wind  Rivers.  He  provided  the  ear- 
liest accounts  of  the  area  of  Yellowstone 
but  was  unidentified  for  nearly  a  cen- 
tury. The  author  located  the  original 
letters  and  was  able  to  identify  the  au- 
thor of  these  early  accounts. 

Carter,  Robert  A. 

Buffalo  Bill  Cody:  The  Man  Behind 
the  Legend.  NY:  John  Wiley  &  Sons, 
Inc.,  2000. 

Hebard  &  Coe  F  594  .  B63  D3  7  2000 

The  first  "full-scale  biography"  of 

this  western  icon  in  more  than  30  years. 

Cassidy,  James  G. 

Ferdinand  V.  Hayden:  Entrepreneur 

of  Science.  Lincoln  and  London: 

University  of  Nebraska  Press,  2000. 

Hebard  &  Geology  QE  22  .H3  C37 

2000 


A  history  of  the  development  of  the 
Hayden  Surveys  and  their  relationship 
to  the  practice  of  science. 

Hagan,  Barry  J. 

"Exactly  in  the  Right  Place":  A 
History  of  Fort  C.F.  Smith,  Montana 
Territory,  1866-1868.  El  Segundo, 
CA:  Upton  &  Sons,  Publishers,  1999. 
Hebard  &  Coe  F739.F48H343  1999 

The  third  of  the  military  posts  along 
the  Bozeman  Trail,  Fort  C.F.  Smith  is 
primarily  remembered  for  the  Hayfield 
Fight,  August  1,  1867.  The  author  has 
thoroughly  researched  the  military 
records  to  provide  this  account. 

Huston,  Hayden  H. 

Daniel,  Wyoming:  The  First 

Hundred  Years  1900-2000:  A 

History  of  Daniel  and  Surrounding 

Areas.  2  vols. 

[Salt  Lake  City,  UT]:  Agreka  Books, 

2000. 

Hebard  &  Coe  F  769  .D36  D36  2000 

v.1-2 

"This  book  is  a  remembrance  of  the 
pioneer  settlers  of  the  upper  Green 
River  valley."  Includes  many  photo- 
graphs and  maps. 

Meeks,  Harold  A.  On  the  Road  to 
Yellowstone:  The  Yellowstone  Trail 
and  American  Highways,  1900-1930. 

Missoula,  MT:  Pictorial  Histories 
Publishing  Company,  Inc.,  2000. 


Hebard  &  Coe  HE  356  .  Y4  M445 
2000 

A  history  of  one  of  the  overlooked 
early  highways  in  the  United  States. 

Petzoldt,  Paul  K. 

Teton  Tales  and  Other  Petzoldt 

Anecdotes.  Guilford,  CT:  Globe 

Pequot  Press.  1995. 

Hebard  &  Coe  GV  199.92  .P48 

P489  1995 

A  collection  of  reminiscences  from 
this  Wyoming  climbing  pioneer  who 
died  in  1999. 

Pitcher,  Goldie  Norah. 
McFadden:  The  Town  They  Called 
"Camp. "  [Rawlins,  WY?:  s.n.,  200?]. 
Hebard  &  Coe    F  769  .  M38  P583 
2000: 

A  history  of  a  once-thriving  Wyo- 
ming oil  camp  town.  Pitcher,  a  former 
resident,  now  lives  in  nearby  Arlington. 

Waite,  Thornton. 

The  Yellowstone  Bears  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad.  Columbia,  MO: 
Brueggenjohann/Reese;  Idaho  Falls, 
Idaho  :  Thornton  Waite,  c2000. 
Hebard  &  Coe  HE  1 739  .  W358  2000 
Bears  have  always  been  associated 
with  Yellowstone  National  Park.  In  this 
small  publication,  the  author  reveals  the 
story  of  the  advertising  bears  used  by 
the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  between  1 923 
and  1960. 


Forthcoming  Articles  in  Annals— 

The  Winter,  2003,  issue  will  feature  a  series  of  biographies 
about  Wyomingites—some  famous,  some  infamous,  and 
others  who  were  fascinating  but  not  well  known.  Among 
the  subjects  will  be  Laramie  Plains  rancher  George  Harper, 
Big  Horn  Basin  murderer  Bert  Lampitt,  and  Estelle  Reel, 
the  first  woman  ever  elected  to  a  statewide  office.  Also 
featured  will  be  a  story  by  William  R.  Dubois  based  on  an 
oral  history  interview  of  schoolteacher  Rosemary  Quinn. 


6391 


PAST  PRESIDENTS,  WYOMING  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

The  W'yomin^i  Stale  Hisinneal  Soeiety  was  (iri^anized  in  ()et()her  1953    The  toUuwiny,  are  past  presulenis  of  ihe  Soeiet}-: 


1953-55:  Frank  Bowron.  Casper 
1955-56:  William  L.  Marion.  Lander 
1956-57:  Dr.  DeWitt  Dominick,  Cody 
1957-58:  Dr.  T.  A.  Larson,  Laramie 
1958-59:  A.  H.  MacDougall,  Rawlins 
1959-60:  Thelma  G.  Condit,  Buffalo 
1960-61:  E.  A.  Littleton.  Gillette 
1961-62:  Edness  Kimball  Wilkins.  Casper 
1962-63:  Charles  Ritter.  Che>enne 
1963-65:  Neal  E.  Miller.  Rawlins 
1965-66:  Mrs.  Charles  Hord.  Casper 
1966-67:  Glenn  Sweem.  Sheridan 
1967-68:  Adrian  Re\nolds.  Green  River 
1968-69:  Curtiss  Root.  Torrington 
1969-70:  Hattie  Bumstad.  Worland 
1970-71:  J.  Reuel  Armstrong.  Rawlins 
1971-72:  William  R.  Dubois.  Cheyenne 
1972-73:  Henry  F.  Chadey.  Rock  Springs 
1973-74:  Richard  S.  Dumbrill.  Newcastle 
1974-75:  Henry  Jensen.  Lysite  Casper 
1975-76:  Jay  Brazelton.  Jackson 
1976-77:  Ray  Pendergraft,  Worland 
1977-78:  David  J.  Wasden,  Cody 


1978-79:  Mabel  Brown.  Newcastle 
1979-80:  James  June.  Green  River 
1980-81:  William  F.  Bragg.  Jr..  Casper 
1981-82:  Don  Hodgson.  Torrington 
1982-83:  Clara  Jensen.  Lysite/Casper 
1983-84:  Fern  Cjaensslen.  Green  River 
1984-85:  Dr.  David  Kalhka.  Rock  Springs 
1985-86:  Mar\  Garman.  Sundance 
1986-87:  Ellen  Mueller.  Cheyenne 
1987-88:  Mary  Nielsen.  Cody 
1988-89:  Loren  Jost.  Riverton 
1989-90:  Lucille  Dumbrill.  Newcastle 
1990-91:  Scott  Handles.  Pine  Haven 
1991-92:  Dale  Morris.  Green  River 
1992-93:  Dr.  Walter  Edens.  Laramie 
1993-94:  SalK  Vanderpoel.  Torrington 
1994-95:  Ruth  Lauritzen.  Green  River 
1995-96:  Maggi  Layton.  Riverton 
1996-97:  Dr.  Mike  Cassity.  Laramie 
1997-99:  Patty  Myers,  Buffalo 
1999-2000:  Dr.  Mike  Jording.  Newcastle 
2000-02:  David  Taylor.  Casper 
2002-     :  Dick  Wilder,  Cody 


Wyoming  Picture 


From  Photographic  Collcction.s 
in  Wyoming 


This  scene  of  Gillette  's  Main  Sti-eel  must  have  been  photographed  on  a  holiday,  a  Sunday,  or  a  veiy  quiet  business  day' 
The  picture  prohahlv  dales  from  the  lS90s.  soon  after  the  town  was  founded  and  he  fire  ears  made  their  appearance  on 
Wyoming.  Main  Streets.  .American  Heritage  Center.  L'niversin-  of  Wyoming  photograph. 


DATE  DUE 

iAY  3  3  20 

)? 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U.SA 

UNIVERSITY    OF    WYOMING 


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