Eastern Wyoming Photo Extravaganza

December 27, 2021

Christmas is in the books. Now it is onward toward the New Year, and we all wish and hope for a good one. 

The Narrows at Guernsey State Park

A few years ago, while waiting for a concert to start in Branson, Missouri, we explained we were from east-central Wyoming to a couple from New York. He said, "Oh, not the pretty part." He then explained they had been in Wyoming twice before and loved it. Each time they flew into Jackson, they spent some time and flew out. I wish I would have had the time to explain that Wyoming is quite stunning everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I like Jackson, we spend some time there once in a while, but it is not all of Wyoming.

A Mink along the North Platte River in Guernsey

The following photos – all taken in the last month or so, were all shot within a half-hour of where we live in Guernsey, Wyoming. We think this area of the state is pretty special.

Along the Laramie River

With the New Year come some new thoughts – such as

I was born in 1948, which means if I make it to the 2030s, I will have lived in part of 10 decades – a century's worth of decades.

A few miles south of town

After 42 years in the classroom, I retired in 2012. 2022 makes it ten years. Wow, that went fast.

Along my morning walk

I am currently writing my 17^th book. I hope to have a few more in me.

 

Fort Laramie river bridge

I count the miles on my morning walks and hikes in the park – settled for about 800 this year. Onward to one thousand in 2022.

25 miles west of town - nice view

Happy New Year – 2022

Not Much Has Changed in 70 Years

Velma Linford’s textbook, Wyoming Frontier State published in 1947 ends with words that seem as appropriate today as they were when written more than 70 years ago. Linford ends here textbook with these sentiments.

Legislative interim committees are busy studying the revision of educational laws, the revision of election laws, and new sources of income for the state. Members on the committees are men who are aware of the needs of the state as well as of the state’s potentialities. They expect to have definite recommendations for the 1949 legislature.

Faced by problems which will determine Wyoming Tomorrow, the state must necessarily emerge from its frontier status or face a future as the playground of the nation.

Maybe that is where we are still heading, 70 years later, a playground, tourist destination, for the nation. Everything from our spectacular views, to wildlife, and even our low population, seem to attract visitors. With that in mind, possibly we should be spending more, not less, on advertising our state. It also might be a time to promote, expand, and update tourist attractions and activities in the eastern and central parts of the state. By doing this, we might be able to slow visitors as they dash across the state to visit Yellowstone, The Black Hills, Glacier National Park, or Rocky Mountain National Park, depending on which direction they travel.

I love our state parks, and now might be the time to take a long look at what else we can do with our State Parks and Historical Sites and some of our state land to attract more tourism. We might start by looking at the family entertainment venues in places like the Black Hills to see what keeps people there for more than a quick drive through. As much as some hate to look at what others are doing, we might also look at the multitude of programs available for kids and families in the Nebraska State Parks system.

Just my thoughts!

All Photos are from the Castle at Guernsey State Park

It Has Been a While

After more than ten years and over 300 posts, I have gone missing in action on this site since September. I’m not sure if I became bored with it, or just ran out of things to say, I am going with the latter.  At times I had posts with more than one hundred reads. Lately, I was lucky to get half that many. There are a lot of good Wyoming sites that tell the great stories of our state, and I hope they are getting read. No, I’m not giving up and will continue to post when I find something of interest, just not sure how often. I first started this site to post many of the stories I used in class, teaching history for 42 years. I even wrote a short history of Wyoming, to give people a quick look at our state. But it has remained unpublished and buried somewhere in my laptop.

The North Bluff at Guernsey State Park

Meanwhile, I will continue to post four or more times a month on my writing site. That site gives me a chance to talk about my most recent writing projects and Wyoming too.

Civilian Conservation Corps - Powder House, circa 1935

Photo Posts - I will also continue to post photos and our hiking fun from the park on my Guernsey State Park site. 

Wyoming 

My Books - Thanks, once again to everyone who has purchased my books on Amazon. I am now taking in enough money on sales to make part of a pickup payment once-in-a-while.

More Pronghorn in Wyoming than in all of the rest of North America

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2018 - If you are a long time follower of my history blog, take a look at my other sites and thanks for reading.

We do get out of town on occasion
Here we are, a long way from Wyoming, on a recent historical trip
Vicksburg, Mississippi

The Wyoming Eclipse

The big solar eclipse is only a few days away. I am doing a book signing at an event in Sunrise Wyoming on Sunday, the day before the eclipse, and then expect to stay home on the big day and watch the sun disappear as I sit on our back deck.

Wyoming is expecting as many as 600,000 people to see the sun disappear for a few minutes. The last big eclipse was more than 40 years ago and the last total one was in 1919.  That, nearly a century ago eclipse, lasted for nearly seven minutes, long enough for scientists to measure the bending of light from the stars as they passed near the sun. Those measurements proved true Einstein’s theory of general relativity, the theory which describes gravity as a warping of space-time.

Guernsey State Park is expecting a couple of thousand extra visitors this week-end
But at the end of the day, I expect the sun will set over the lake as normal

The above is likely the only science lesson that will ever be found on this site. Thanks for reading and wherever you are, enjoy the eclipse. 

By Wednesday Traffic will be back to normal

Maybe a few small Bison stoppages 

Things To Do On A Wyoming Mothers Day

Seems to me that a good Wyoming Sunday afternoon drive cures most of my ailments.

Sometimes it is all about the view - this one from 25 miles west of town

It is always fun for Jan and me to see what wildlife are up and around, enjoying the day. 

Looks like a family outing

Wild Iris

This time of the year it is fun to what new wildflowers are blooming.

Indian Paintbrush - Wyoming State Flower

Today we took a drive to the west of town, not a long drive, only a total of about 75 miles and a couple of hours.

Prairie Dog calling out

 I thought that today I would post a few photos of our drive – it’s kind of what Wyoming is all about. 

Hope all of you enjoyed the day as much as we did.

Antelope Charlie Belden - Wyoming Photographer

A Look Back in Black & White

Recently I have spent some time reading about early photography in the west, and when I could find it, Wyoming.  One man that comes to the forefront of early Wyoming photographers is Charles Josiah Belden.

Beldon was so well known, that Stetson made a hat called the Belden - Here he is wearing it

Most of his Wyoming work was in and around Meeteetse. Belden was born in San Francisco in 1887. He graduated from MIT in 1910, then toured Russia, with an MIT friend, Eugene Phelps, who would later become his brother in law, taking photos with his first camera.  After coming back to America, Belden stayed on the west coast for a few months but eventually found his way to Wyoming and his good friend’s ranch. By 1912 he was working as a ranch hand and in 1913 married his friend’s sister. She was Francis Phelps, the sister of his good friend Eugene Phelps. When he married Miss Phelps, it was into the family that owned the world famous, quarter of a million acre, Pitchfork Ranch. For the next twenty years, Belden photographed and published photos in widely read national publications. Most of the photos were from in and around the stunning mountain area of the ranch.

Charles Belden raised and sold Pronghorn to zoos all over the country.
For the rest, of his time in Wyoming, he was called Antelope Charlie.
He even sold a few, air transported to Germany by the Hindenburg.

With the economy strained the ranch was turned partially into a dude ranch before 1920, and by the 1930s was in financial trouble. Things turned from bad to worse and the Belden’s divorced in 1940. Soon after, Charles Belden moved to Florida with his new wife. Belden would become a world class photographer and journalist working for National Geography, Life Magazine, and the Saturday Evening Post, and many others, taking on assignments around the world. Mr. Belden lived on until 1966 in St Petersburg, where, suffering from health problems, he took his own life.

Bald Eagle

It is interesting that although he was one of the world’s best known and most hired photographers, his best work was in Wyoming.

Raven

The American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming holds a large collection of photographs and negatives taken by Belden. If you would like to know more Wyoming PBS has a wonderful half hour documentary that can be viewed online here. 

Remains of the old Fort Laramie Hospital

Don’t be continually wishing you had a better camera. Learn to know your machine.

If a picture does not tell a story, it’s not worth taking.

Charles J. Belden

All of today's photos are in black and white in honor of Mr. Belden's work. 

Cloud Shrouded Laramie Peak over Guernsey Lake

Wyoming Day and Books For Sale

Looks to me like I missed the only specific Wyoming Holiday – Wyoming Day, which is celebrated each year on December 10.  On that date in 1869 Territorial Governor John Campbell signed the bill that granted women the right to vote. The new law made Wyoming the first to allow the vote and the ability to legally hold elected office to women.

The bill originated because legislators believed the idea of women suffrage would be good publicity for the territory and might bring more single women to the state.

By Wyoming Statute, Wyoming Day, is supposed to be observed in schools and by other groups around the state each year. I am afraid that practice has long since fallen by the wayside. Too bad, this was a most significant step in American rights.

So How Cold Was It? - Seems like this time of year I normally post something about the weather and how tough the cold was on early settlers. I suppose that will be coming soon, but for now, I will only say, “I cannot imagine how early trappers could survive the cold like we had last week with temperatures plunging to double digits below zero.” BURR!

Thank You, Readers - Many thanks to all of the readers that have pushed my latest Wyoming novel, Ghost of the Fawn, up to number 30 in its category in softcover and number 91 in its eBook category.

If you have not given it a look yet, you can read a free sample here. The book was originally written for teenage readers, but it has found a terrific audience with adults. Thanks!

Meanwhile stay warm and keep reading and watching Christmas movies, we watch one nearly every evening. Christmas movies may be mostly sappy, but we need them, we need the feel good and warmth of the stories. I hope they keep them coming for many years to come.

A Nice Christmas Gift – Speaking of Christmas stories, here is the link to my book, from last year, of Christmas stories, you can read the entire first story for free, enjoy. UnderWestern Skies – 14 Tales of Christmas.

*All photos were taken on our Sunday trip to Laramie, Laramie City, in the old days, 100 miles away.

School Is Back In Session

It’s that time of year again. School starting all over Wyoming. With that in mind, I thought it might be interesting to take a look back at early schools in the state.

Remember these? Black boards and Elementary School Rules

The first Wyoming school opened at Fort Laramie and was soon followed by several private schools as the population warranted. Robert Baker opened a school in South Pass with families paying one dollar each week per child. By 1870 the census listed five private and four public schools in the state. That same year the only public school buildings were in Cheyenne.

In 1871 Dr. J. H. Hayford, the auditor for the territory of Wyoming listed schools in Albany and Laramie counties as good, Carbon and Uinta had schools he listed as fair. Students furnished their own school materials and textbooks were, a haphazard, whatever could be found that was suitable for the job.

Pretty Nice Place to Live

In 1873 a compulsory education law took effect, ordering every child between ages 6-18 to attend school for three months each year. As the state grew so did the number and efficiency of the schools. Territorial Governor Hoyt said in 1878, “I have never known a community, whether in this country or in Europe, more zealously devoted to the cause of popular education than the people of this new Territory.”

In the last decade before statehood, in 1890, Wyoming’s population tripled and the school population doubled. The number of buildings now used as, or built for schools, grew from 39 to 138.

Wagon Trains, trappers, traders and hunters passed through the state for many years, but when the railroad came, people followed and with people came schools. And with schools came that great sound of kids playing on the playground and if you are inside, learning the old three Rs and a few other things.

Just Passing Through

After 42 years of teaching, I still sub in the local schools a few days each month. That leaves me many days to sit and write at home. I just published Ghost of the Fawn, my sixth book.

It is set, of course in Wyoming, and originally I targeted it as a young adult book. My first readers, who help me refine and edit, seem to think it is a great adult read as well. If you have time give it a look, not sure when it will be available but certainly should be by the end of the weekend.

Oh, and you can find my other five books here. The new book will be added soon.

Wyoming Timeline and Mark Twain Too

Archeological evidence suggests that humans were living in Wyoming for thousands of years before it became famous for trappers and traders. The first trappers had pioneered, by the 1830s, what would become the Oregon Trail.

Deep Ruts of the Oregon Trail 

Meanwhile back east wheat crops failed in1836, and in 1837 panic spread as banks failed and depression stretched across America and Europe. It was hard times, a time when people started to question their lives and what they were doing with them. Time to move west. Horace Greeley would not utter his famous, “Go West Young Man, go West and grow up with the country,” for another two and a half decades, but Americas were moving and they were moving west.

The great fort at the confluence of the North Platte and Laramie rivers, destined to become the most famous stopping off point on the Oregon Trail, Fort William (1834) and then Fort John (1841), and finally Fort Laramie, (1847), was a welcome relief for westward travelers. The fort was well supplied and attempted to cater to the needs of all types of travelers.

Laramie River on the grounds of Fort Laramie

From 1841 until the end of the civil war as many as a half million men, women and children traveled the trail west. Some wanted to farm, others a new life, and a few, gold and riches, but they all came through, only a handful stayed. Wyoming was much like a modern-day Interstate highway, people quickly traveled through, in a hurry to get somewhere else.

 Even Mark Twain seemed in a hurry to get through and didn’t seem overly impressed with the Wyoming scenery. “We passed Fort Laramie in the night, and on the seventh morning out we found ourselves in the Black Hills, with Laramie Peak at our elbow (apparently) looming vast and solitary -- a deep, dark, rich indigo blue in hue, so portentously did the old colossus frown under his beetling brows of storm-cloud. He was thirty or forty miles away, in reality, but he only seemed removed a little beyond the low ridge at our right.” This quote is from Twain’s trip through the state and recounted in his novel, Roughing It, (page 55), published in 1871.

Two things have always struck me about the Twain quote. First why would a stage pass on through the most famous stopover in the west, and at night? Second, how did it take a week to write about Laramie Peak being at his elbow? This area, with the peak at his immediate left elbow, would be on the trail between present day Guernsey and Glendo. The trip from Fort Laramie, through Guernsey to Glendo is a bit less than 45 miles. If Twain and his stage coach had only traveled that far in six days, they were creeping at a snail’s pace. Wagon trains traveled twice that speed or better. Maybe his notes or his memory was a bit off on this point, or it is possible he was having one of those, “are we there yet,” times.

Laramie Peak from the trail near Guernsey

  When Wyoming became a recognized territory in 1868, a few came. Later the railroad (1869), brought people and business to the southern part of the state.  Spreading across the state were would-be homesteaders and ranchers who brought in cattle and helped build settlements in the wide open spaces of Wyoming. Enough settled for the territory to become a state by 1890.

Interesting that many history sources mention the first travelers on the trail were going to Oregon and California and later travelers headed to Utah, Colorado, and Montana, not many mention Wyoming.

Not today!

Today Wyoming is no longer a pass through state. It has become a destination for tourists and for business, still small in population, the West lives on in this rugged state.

Mark Twain's view hasn't changed much

Now that’s funny – my grammar and spell checker highlighted three errors in the Mark Twain quote, not sure Mr. Twain would like that. He didn’t like editors messing with his stuff, liked the way it looked after he wrote put it down on paper.

Wyoming's Sheep Industry

By the early 1880s, cattlemen were starting to see more and more sheep being brought into eastern Wyoming. Some accepted them but many, some would say most, fought against the introduction of the sheep. The area from Laramie Peak to Douglas to Lusk became prime sheep range. It would take a few more years and quite a few more battles before sheep men became entrenched in the northern and western parts of Wyoming.

Most of the sheep brought into Wyoming came from the west, Oregon and California. Much different from the Longhorn trail drives from Texas a decade earlier. Some of these sheep trail drives followed the Oregon Trail, only in reverse this time. In the two decades from 1880 to 1900 some two million sheep were brought into the Cowboy State.

Trail Ruts in eastern Wyoming near Guernsey and 14 miles from Fort Laramie, most of the sheep trailed to Wyoming stopped thirty or forty miles west of this location

In 1892, B.B. Brooks, who would later serve as Wyoming's seventh Governor (1905-1910), writing about the sheep movement in Wyoming tried to describe how the average cowboy looked at sheep. “To us old cowboys they were a strange, insignificant, unromantic animal. We didn’t like their size, their appearance, their taste, or their smell. We could not chase them on horseback, for they would not run. We could not chase them on horseback, for they would not run. We could not rope them, for they dodged and would not fight. We could not brand them, on account of the wool.”

Governor Bryant Butler Brooks

Later he adds, “So we just left them alone, mostly, and wished them all kinds of bad luck, We had read of foot-rot and hoped they would get it; but somehow the dry sandy loam of our plains and decomposed granite in our mountains seemed to suit them.  . . . Then we thought, surely the blizzards, with the cold and deep snow in winter, would exterminate them; but they did not.”

In 1840, this was a wilderness Buffalo paradise - by the 1880s sheep grazed the area and the Bison were gone.