Traveling Back Country Highways

I write fifty, or so, posts each year on this blog and they are all about Wyoming. Now we are leaving for a couple of weeks.

What? You two are leaving? Again?

So here we go again – off on our annual fall trip. This trip will make four of the past five years that we have taken a break and got out of Dodge in late October. It is not because of the weather, which has been unbelievable, just time to do what us old people do – travel a bit. And speaking of Dodge, this will be our second day stop, the old town in Dodge City for the third time. Many think it is over the top touristy, but it is still, fun, interesting, educational and helps with writing inspiration.

My Reto Photo Attempt - I Like It

We will be spending time in Oklahoma, on Route 66 in Texas and then a week in Lousiana. We will also make a trip over to Vicksburg, Mississippi to tour, for the second time, the Civil War Battle Site. Then two or three days to take in some of the shows in Branson, Missouri, followed by a day with family in Nebraska and we will head back home to Wyoming.  Looks like we will be gone two weeks, maybe a few days more. Depending on how much fun we are having and how much money we have left.

I am not sure if I will post anything while we are on the trip, other than a few photos here or on Twitter, but I will get some writing done. We have a few days of rest scheduled where I will sit in the sun, or shade and write, edit, format and all the other things I am behind on.

Maybe I Will Find a Spot Like This

 We schedule our trips well in advance and always have a few things we wish we could be home for. My son coaching his football team in the playoffs, and what looks to be a good Wyoming game this weekend, but I will follow the updates and enjoy the south. Speaking of enjoying, I can hardly wait to get into southern Oklahoma or Northern Texas where many eating places feature fried pies. Not the best thing for my diet, but it only happens once each year.

Meanwhile enjoy the terrific fall weather, winter is not far away.

Last night I had a wonderful time speaking about the Civilian Conservation Corps and the building of Guernsey State Park with the Platte County Historical Society. A truly great evening. 

Wyoming the Railroad and What If

The transcontinental railroad was a brainchild of Eastern businessmen and politicians in the 1830s. It took a while, about two decades before any real planning took place and another decade before work was started. It took President Lincoln to finally push through legislation to build it. The Central Pacific started building in 1863 and the Union Pacific in 1865. Promontory Summit was reached and the railroads joined in 1869.

Wyoming was a big part and a big challenge for the railroad. The original route was to follow the Oregon Trail, but the Pony Express proved there was a better route through southern Wyoming to South Pass, the only feasible way to cross the mountains. This route saved a couple of hundred miles and was no harder to build.  Although original plans called for a route that was nearly the same as the finished railroad, there was a controversy about the route. Texas wanted a southern route, using better weather as their public reason. Privately they wanted the railroad for the huge economic benefit they knew it would bring. When the Civil War started, Texas was out and the tracks through Wyoming were not far away.

Trains are a bit faster today

Not everyone was happy with this, Denver had lobbied for the railroad, but no route including Denver was ever considered. But the early people of Denver, knowing that they could connect to the railroad and reap most of the benefits of its northern neighbors. Thus was born the Denver Pacific, a bit over 100 miles of track connecting Denver to Cheyenne completed one year after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

It was another 20 years before Wyoming became a state in 1890.  Most of the early population lived along the railroad, it brought jobs and with jobs came the people. It is always interesting to speculate as to what could have happened, what if.  How long would it have taken for Wyoming to become a state without the railroad? As the least populated state today, would it be even smaller if it would have taken another 20 or 30 years to have adequate rail service? Would the cattle drive era been a time when cowboys drove cattle south from Wyoming to the railroad in Texas?

I may have had too much time to think about offbeat subjects today. Hey, what if . . . . . .

Women's Right's and a Great Career

How about this man’s career? John A. Campbell joined the union army in 1861 and by 1864 was brevetted as a Brigadier General. In April of 1869, President Grant named him Wyoming’s first territorial governor where he served until March of 1875.

 During his term, he signed into law America’s first women’s suffrage bill, making Wyoming the first state to grant women the right to vote. Not everyone around the state, nation or world was happy with this turn of events.

One example was this little ditty –

“Baby, baby, don’t get in a fury,

Your mama’s gone to sit on a jury.”

Two years later a bill passed both houses of the Wyoming legislature to withdraw women’s suffrage. Campbell vetoed it and Wyoming remained as the first to grant women the right to vote.

 His resignation followed his appointment as an assistant Secretary of State. He resigned his Secretary position when he was appointed American Consul to Switzerland in 1877. He died in 1880 and was interned in Arlington National Cemetery. Quite a career, and quite a life for a man who died at the age of 44.

Nothing beats a great Wyoming view - took this a mile and a half from home

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150 Years Ago - Texas not Wyoming

150 years ago today the Civil War ended. Yes, I know, General Lee signed the papers of surrender at Appomattox Court House a month earlier. But the war, in isolated pockets, carried on until May 13, 150 years ago. The two-day Battle of Palmito Ranch, with the final casualty of the war, took place east of Brownsville, Texas ended the fighting of that terrible war. There were a few other tiny battles after this date but no more casualties, thus leaving the Battle of Palmito Ranch listed by historians as the official last battle of the war.


To end today, we need a bit of Wyoming stuff here. How about a couple of Wyoming photos I took today.

Ride Proud Rebel & Rebel Spurs

I consider myself to be a prolific reader (100+ books a year) and once in a while I run across something accidentally that is really terrific. The two novels in the title kept me very interested and eager to turn pages, I wish this was a trilogy, I need to know more. The first is set in the Civil War with the protagonist a scout for the Confederacy. The second is set in early Arizona immediately after the war.

Andre Norton (1912-2005) wrote the two novels but she (Born Mary Alice Norton) only dabbled in historical fiction, most of her writing efforts, and she published over 100 books, were science fiction and fantasy for young adult and children readers. And she was really good at it as evidenced by the dozens of awards she won in her more than 70 year writing career. Her novel, The Beast Master, became a classic to sci-fi readers and movie goers.

Ms. Norton, who published more than 30 books after the age of 80, also wrote under name of Andrew North and Allen Weston. Wish she would have published a few more westerns.

NOTE-I came across the first novel in a two dollar Kindle download of a 25  western megapack and found the second for free download. Both are worth the reading and each is only around 200 pages, (estimate).