Wyoming Winter and Trivia Too

 January 3, 2022

Like all of you, it looks like I have made a successful jump from 2021 to 2022. I’m not much of a New Year’s Resolution person, but I hope to continue with a few things from 2021. First, I intend to stay more active on this site. Second, I will continue my daily walks – they are great exercise and the perfect thinking/contemplating time. Third, and last, we hope to continue our old traveling schedule after being mostly tethered to home the past two-plus years. That means a couple of long trips and several short trips in 2022.

We live in Wyoming’s North Platte River valley; it is relatively mild compared to the rest of the state. Wednesday – two days away – we are supposed to reach an overnight low of -18 degrees. Now that’s cold, but not close to any records. On February 9, 1933, Yellowstone Park reached an all-time Wyoming record of -66 degrees. Now that’s cold.

I have been retired from the classroom now for ten years. I was able to teach Nebraska history, then the history of the Trans-Continental West, and finally Wyoming history (at both the high school and college level) for more than 40 years. I miss teaching all those History classes. One of the things I miss most is the first or last two minutes of class time which I used for Wyoming trivia. To start the new year - here is some good ol’ classroom trivia. Answers at the very end of this post – don’t peak first.

Q1 – What percentage of land in Teton County is privately owned?

Q2 – What are the two historically significant rivers that flow through Platte County.

Q3 – What year did the first vehicle drive through Yellowstone Park?

That’s it – good luck.

 Happy New Year, may it be your best year yet!

“Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.”           Alfred Lord Tennyson

-Answers-

1. Teton and Yellowstone Parks dominate Teton county. Only 3% of the land in Teton County is privately owned. Overall The federal government owns 48.2% of Wyoming, and state lands make up 5.6%.

2. The North Platte and Laramie rivers - Trappers, Travelers, and Tribes make these two most significant in Wyoming history.

3. The first car drove through Yellowstone in1902. Not sure of the make of the vehicle, but it was not a Model T made famous by Henry Ford & Co. the T was not introduced for another six years. 

      All photos were taken yesterday - a beautiful day to be out. 

What, Automobiles in Yellowstone!

Onward – to Yellowstone – In an automobile

The Official Route Book of the Yellowstone Highway Association in Wyoming and Colorado, published in 1916, first invited people to visit the park in their autos.

The association, started in Douglas, Wyoming (1915), with a stated purpose of promoting good roads everywhere, but had a special emphasis on roads leading to and from Yellowstone Park in Wyoming’s Northwest corner.

Care was taken in promoting a route through towns and cities with the best accommodations and also homes one of the commissioners/members, of the Yellowstone Highway Association. It took a bit of time to convince the United States Government that automobiles would be safe in the park, but at long last they reluctantly went along with the idea. They finally allowed with a note that, it looks like maybe automobiles are here to stay.

All cars were to be inspected to make sure they had enough gas to make the trip through the park and that the tires were in very good shape, along with the general condition of the car. No motorcycles or busses, with paying customers, were allowed. Each driver was given a copy of driving regulations when entering the park, these included the time it should take to reach various destinations around the park.

1916 Ford

 

-The following rules were to be followed when driving through the park-

Speed- Limited to 12 miles per hour going uphill and 10 miles per hour going downhill-8 miles per hour on curves

Teams- “When teams, saddle horse, or pack trains approach, automobiles will take the outer edge of the roadway, regardless of the direction in which they may be going.”

Charges- $7.50 for a drive through the park or $10.00 for the year, October 1 to the last day of September

Fines- Times where checked and recorded and fines were given for arriving at the desired destination too fast, how much? Fines were .50 cents for each minute early for the first five minutes then went to a dollar a minute if the driver arrived more than five minutes early. Faster than that, could be fined $25.00 dollars and ejected from the park.

I visited the park last September and am ready to go back.

Not sure who was most excited when we saw this Grizzly, Me or my grandson

Must have been quite an adventure, driving through the park, come to think of it, it is still quite and adventure.