Wyoming Pioneer Sheep-Man J D Woodruff

According to my calendar, Spring-2017 started yesterday, and it felt like it. Today seems like we slipped back into the ending days of winter, but that is March in Wyoming.

The first cabin in the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming was built by, New Yorker who came west, J. D. Woodruff. He would go on to become a Wyoming pioneer in both the sheep and cattle business. Woodruff came early to Wyoming and served as a scout for the Washburn-Langford expedition into the Yellowstone area in 1870.

Not the Woodruff Cabin, his was not near this nice

The first cabin in the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming was built by, New Yorker who came west, J. D. Woodruff. He would go on to become a Wyoming pioneer in both the sheep and cattle business. Woodruff came early to Wyoming and served as a scout for the Washburn-Langford expedition into the Yellowstone area in 1870.

In 1871, John Dwight Woodruff built his cabin on the Owl Creek in what is today Hot Springs County, an area that only a few years before was a sought after and fought over Indian hunting area. Woodruff’s cabin wasn’t much by today’s standard, but it served well enough for his trapping cabin. The structure was 12 feet wide, 20 feet long and seven logs high. The area where he built the cabin, had long been and remained Shoshone area and Woodruff was able to get permission from the famous chief himself, Chief Washakie, to graze sheep. Not sure he told the old chief he intended on grazing 6,000 head, but that is what he brought in from Oregon. It was the first large sheep operation in the state. Woodruff, by the 1880s, was still grazing the area but now with cattle.

Hunting ground became grazing for sheep and cattle

Woodruff later sold his cabin and site for $18,500 to Captain R.A Torrey stationed at Fort Washakie. Torrey later brought in his brother Colonel J.L. Torrey as a partner in the ranch. From the time of the purchase, the two expanded the ranch rapidly, and it soon became the famous Embar Ranch with a reported 40,000 cattle and 6,000 horses. The Cabin site has been noted in the National Register of Historic Places since 1970. The little cabin no longer stands but is marked by a bronze plaque noting its inclusion as a national historic site.

Woodruff seemed to have been lucky in life surviving many close encounters with Indians in the area. Once facing certain death he and three friends were saved when a party of Indians arrived and scared off the tribe Woodruff, and his buddies were fighting for their lives against. Sounds like they were friends with the newly arrived Indians, but according to Woodruff’s account, the second bunch did not know that Woodruff and his friends were there. On another occasion, he hid in the dark underbrush for eleven days as a group of warriors hunted for the trapper along the river. Woodruff survived because he always brought along fishing supplies, and lived on raw fish as he waited for the warriors to leave the area.

Quite an interesting and important man, now mostly lost in history.

Wyoming Forts 1841-1909

The Forts

Much has been written and numerous movies and Television programs made, that include forts in the west. Many of these fictional accounts were set in, or near Wyoming forts. Of course, Fort Laramie and Fort Bridger are the most prominent, but Wyoming was home to many forts. Most were built for one of two reasons, protect the trails or the rails and their builders. Fort Laramie, established as a military fort in 1841, after more than a decade as a trading post, and Fort Bridger, established in 1842, were the earliest of the Wyoming forts. Others, such as Forts Fetterman, Platte, Phil Kearny, Reno, Russell, and Fred Steel were important but shorter lived.

On the grounds of Fort Laramie 

In Honor of the Chief

When the wars on the plains ended, the forts were no longer needed and were closed. Fort Washakie, established from the old Camp Brown,  (1871-1909),  was kept in operation longer than any of the other forts, likely out of respect for the old chief, it was renamed for in 1878. Chief Washakie, who died in 1900, had long been a friend of the U.S. Government and spent much of his later life working toward a sustainable peace and prosperity for his people. Fort Washakie was kept open until 1909, making it the last of the Wyoming forts to close.

68 Years

1841-1909 is not a long period of time, only 68 years, but it was the time of forts in Wyoming. Those 68 years make up less than an average life span, in today's world, and oddly enough, my present age but that is not relevant here, except to me.

Still tellin' stories at 68

A Lot Can Happen

Throughout all of history, much happens in a span of 50-75 years, check out any year and take a look at what happened over the next 68 years,  you might be surprised. In the 68 years that Wyoming had forts a period of movement, settlement and development took place that American had not seen before, an entire culture was wiped out and America fought with others and itself. 

What was wilderness in 1841 was well know by the early 1900s,
but some places, like this one, are still pretty nice and mostly unchanged