It Has Been Too Long

I let this site become inactive, or mostly so, almost a year ago. After a year of mothballs, I have decided to make a post, at least this will keep the site alive for a bit. If one post per year counts. 

To me and many others, there is nothing more enjoyable than reading about the past. When I started this blog, I was still an active Wyoming History teacher - now retired seven years; it seems I do not have as much to say. I have continued writing and am currently working on book 13, but my books fall into multiple genres.  

Did You Know? Speaking of being retired. Wyoming is still rated, according to something called Bankrate, as the number one state to retire. That might not be good news for young families, but for old codgers like us, it is an excellent fit. Many would think the weather and altitude of Wyoming would make it less than ideal for retiring people. What makes Wyoming the top state is our low, lowest in the country, tax rate.

Football - Tomorrow Jan and I will travel to, as we often do, Laramie, to watch the Cowboy Football Team beat up on Idaho. Sounds like it will be a perfect day for the game.

Photos - Today's photos are a few shots I have taken this September.

This year my goal will be to post more than once - that should be attainable.

For those who want to take a look at my books click this sentence to go to my Amazon page.  

My 12 Books

A Busy Summer

This has been a very busy summer – not sure why. I have spent precious little time researching the two nonfiction books I am working on, and too few hours out with my cameras.  Now with school back in session, and the summer winding down. it is time to get back in the groove.

This week I thought I might post a few Wyoming wildlife photos I have managed the past few weeks.

I spent some time at an event in Sunrise, Wyoming last weekend and will be heading back there this Saturday for another event. It is terrific to see this old place being brought back to life. It also gives me a chance to sell a few books and talk with many interesting people. 

Meanwhile, two of my Wyoming historical mysteries are selling at a record (for me) pace. If you have a chance take a look here at my Amazon author page and take a look at, Commitment, and The Ghost Dance, and read a free sample of Wyoming fiction.

And at the end of the day a wonderful sunset - this one from last evening in beautiful Guernsey State Park.

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

What About That Wyoming Wind

Not sure about you, but I am getting tired of all the wind. Where we live in the North Platte River Valley, we don’t get as much wind as most of the state, except, it seems, this time of year. So many days with gusts around the state at 60 or more mph, seems unusual even for Wyoming at this part of the year.

Where the Wind Really Blows - I did a bit of research to see how Wyoming compared to other states and, as expected, this is a windy state. Wyoming trails only South Dakota and Montana in average wind speed. I found it both funny and appropriate that the list has the District of Columbia at the top with a wind speed more than ten mph above than South Dakota. Imagine that, D.C. with all the politicians is the windiest place in the United States. (I do hope the people that compiled this list I used do know that The District of Columbia, is not a state).

That’s a Lot of Wind - Last year Casper had a wind gust that reached 103 mph in February, as much as a class 2 hurricane. So what is the windiest town in Wyoming? Good question, either Medicine Bow or Rawlins, depending on the source, and if you dig deep enough, other towns and cities will probably pop-up.

But all of Wyoming is not considered windy, Worland, Lander, Guernsey, and I am sure a few others will pop up as members of the least windy cities in the United States. How do these places qualify? With average wind speeds of around eight mph or less for the year. With the speeds at that level, cities are in the bottom 20% for the wind in the country.

Is it Spring Yet? - It has been warm enough to play golf if not for the snow and wind. Now the snow, because of the wind, has melted and I may head out to the golf course the next time the wind is not so bad. I know what you are thinking – “Well, good luck with that.”

That’s it, one very windy post, but I still do not want to live anywhere else.

Today’s photos from our drive west of town this morning – enjoy!

The Diet of a Mountain Man

We read and watch daily opinions about our overweight society, “Americans are too fat,” we are continually told. Maybe so, today anyway, but not always. I smile each time I remember the story of Jim Bridger making his own supper. He skinned and gutted a jack rabbit and a nice sized trout, skewered them and propped both over the fire for roasting. Once they were cooked to his taste, likely not long, he ate both quietly and drank an entire pot of boiled coffee to wash down the meat. No seasoning of any kind, maybe smoke flavor from the fire, but that’s it. This was not uncommon for early hunters/trappers in the American West. Meat and coffee. Surprising to some, that many of these men also drank a lot of tea, it was as popular as coffee for many of the early explorers.

Cooking in a Mountain Man Camp

It took several years before the diet in the west changed much. Changed, but it still remained monotonous, with western Americas often eating the same few things for days or weeks at a time.  Wild game, fruits, and wild onions, in season, and washed down with copious amounts of coffee and tea with little else. Meat could be preserved by smoking and drying and often was.

Wild fruits and berries were always a treat

Not until the Oregon Trail got busy and the railroad ran through the state did the variety of foods available start to change. With places like Fort Laramie, and a quarter of a century later railroad stops, getting regular shipments of foodstuffs it helped. Flour and cornmeal were generally available along with dried fruits (usually apples), sugar, rice, dried beans and peas. Not much but much better than it was.

Early food, including meats, were often boiled, unlike today’s diet, heavy with fried foods. There was not a lot of fried meats until bacon became a staple along the trail west, soup, and roasted meats were much more an everyday part of the diet than today.  

So there you have it roasted meats and a few boiled dried vegetables, day after day after day, guaranteed to keep one’s weight under control. But, be careful with the gravy, cornbread, and biscuits, all favorites when flour and cornmeal were readily available in the west.

Buffalo - Staple of the diet in the west for many years

Photos From Around Here

Thought I might post a few of my favorite photos from the last three month's. Actually to lazy and too hot to attempt to write anything. All photos are from my Eastern Wyoming neck of the woods.

Remains of ancient man

Lots of Pelicans

Cow Moose

The Horns are bigger and no velvet by now

A Goose out for a walk?

Osprey's are pretty cool looking

Monarch of the plains for more than a 1,000 years

Nice view

Hello

Think I will walk the other direction

Part of Rocky Mountain National Park horse and mule herd at Fort Laramie

These guys are fast - really fast

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.

More Pronghorn

Recently I have been doing research and reading personal accounts of early homesteading and town building in eastern Nebraska where I grew up. I ran across a story of antelope (pronghorn) hunting in that area in the 1860s. I had never heard of Pronghorn in that area and I decided to do some digging.

When Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery explored the west in the early 1800s there were an estimated 35 million pronghorn antelope in North America. One hundred years later the population was estimated at 13,000 with extinction coming within the next decade. Today there are nearly a million pronghorn in Wyoming several hundred thousand thrive on the hard grass, yucca, cacti and sagebrush in the high grass prairies of this state.

It took full protection in every state to increase the heard, full protection for fifty years, but it worked. Much of the west has enough pronghorn for an annual hunting season as game managers watch and manage the herds carefully across the west.

Today pronghorn are a tourist attraction in the west, most of the year they are easy to spot and a joy to watch, especially running, up to 55 MPH.

.