Wyoming History - Virginia Cole Trenholm

Virginia Cole Trenholm is no longer a household name in Wyoming, too bad, she should be. Trenholm was raised and educated in Missouri and moved to Wyoming when she married in 1932. Her husband Robert was a rancher south of Glendo, and the two spent their married life on that Platte County Ranch.  But it was not as a ranch wife that Virginia Cole Trenholm is best known, it is as a historian and writer.

In the mountains west of Glendo, Platte County Wyoming

She was long recognized as the greatest living authority on the two tribes of the Wind River Reservation, the Northern Arapaho, and the Eastern Shoshoni. Her two books on the subject, Shoshonis: Sentinels of the Rockies, which she wrote with assistance from Cheyenne Teacher Maurine Carley, and The Arapahoes, Our People, are acclaimed works considered, must-reads, for scholars with an interest in the two tribes.

James Michener

Trenholme’s knowledge of the two tribes was so well recognized that when the acclaimed author, James Michener, wrote his famous work of the American West, Centennial, he spent several months spending time with, and corresponding with her about the history, activities, and culture of the two Wyoming tribes.

I often use her book, Wyoming Pageant, also written with Maurine Carley, as my first look resource when I am searching something in Wyoming History. She wrote several other books dealing with Wyoming history and published one fiction title, Omen of the Hawks.

West and South of Glendo Wyoming

Although her books seem to be lost in time, they are as relevant today as they were when she first published them. In, The Arapahoes, Our People, she writes in the preface – I have sought to tell the story of Our People by relating them and their way of life to the world about them. Their single path following the buffalo has branched into many roads leading in many directions; the Bison Path People of yesterday have become, Our People of today. Throughout, they have miraculously retained their identity.

I keep the three books I have mentioned, in the post, on the top shelf of my writing desk, easy to find and always gives me something to write about. 

Many Pronghorn around Glendo