2009 Historical Edition

Thursday, June 18, 2009
Lovell Historical Section
Horsemen on the Ground
Cowley resident Gene Nunn
was one of the first to take
on wild horse management
By Brad Devereaux
Things were different in the early days of managing
the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range. When the range
was established in 1968, it was the first of its kind in the
country, the Bureau of Land Management’s first attempt
at managing a public wild horse herd. Management
was made official in 1971 with the passage of the Wild
Horse and Burro Act, which required the protection,
management and control of wild, free-roaming horses and
burros on public land.
In the early days of the PMWHR, there was a lot of
experimentation to see what would work to manage the
population of wild horses.
Gene Nunn, 72, of Cowley was among the first group
of men to attempt wild horse management. A rancher
throughout his life, Nunn answered a newspaper ad and
took a job for the BLM in the early 1970s as the head of
gathering operations and on-the-ground management
for the Pryor herd. His job also entailed observing and
collecting data about the herd, making recommendations
for the herd management plan, assembling crews for
horse gathers and organizing adoptions of Pryor horses in
states throughout the West.
When the BLM called for a gather to bring the herd
count within the appropriate management level, which
was 75 to 125 horses at the time, Nunn assembled a crew
of local riders. Less than a dozen men on horseback drove
groups of horses from various parts of the horse range into
permanent trap locations, which consisted of gated pens
built with metal panels or trees lashed to posts with jute.
Nunn said most horses were taken from locations
high on the mountain to pens at lower elevations. Men on
horseback rode ahead and were stationed along the route
to direct the wild horses as they made their way down the
rough canyon terrain of the range. Airplanes were used
to spot herd movements before and during gathers, using
radios to communicate to horsemen on the ground, Nunn
said.
The crew traveled with small groups of horses of three
to six head and traveled 20 to 30 miles per day, Nunn
said. He estimated the crews could gather more than
70 horses in two weeks. Horses that met the criteria for
removal were adopted locally and shipped off to adoption
sales in Nevada and California.
During gather operations, many branded horses were
discovered living on the range, Nunn said. If claimed,
the branded horses went back to their rightful owners. If
they weren’t claimed, branded horses were turned over to
the Tilletts, who had an agreement with the BLM. Other
“stray horses” found on the range were given to the state,
later to be sold, Nunn said.
Nunn credits Wild Horse Annie and others for
bringing the idea of management of horse herds into the
public light. He said Rev. Floyd Schwieger “really pushed
the BLM” for management of the PMWHR.
“He could see that the Pryor Mountain horse was
a special horse,” he said, “and still is today through
management.”
Aside from keeping the herd stocked only with Pryor
Mountain horses and not strays from outside the range,
another important function of management and removal
of horses is the effect on rangeland health, Nunn said. If
the herd was allowed to grow unchecked, the well-adapted
wild horses would strip the land bare, rendering it unable
to support the many different animals that currently
share the range.
Nunn was joined by a talented horseman a few years
into his time with the Pryor herd. Lynne Taylor, who
died in March of 2008 at the age of 73, was one of Nunn’s
regular range technicians and the two of them worked
well together. In 1976, Taylor took over Nunn’s position in
charge of gather operations.
Nunn moved to California to work at an adoption
Gene Nunn rides along with a Pryor mustang at Big Coulee trap in the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range
in the 1970s. Horse gathers were carried out on horseback until the BLM began using helicopters in the
area sometime after 2000.
facility. He remained with the BLM for several more
years, working mostly in California and at regional
adoptions until his retirement.
“A lot of experience gained here was spread
throughout the bureau,” he said, pointing out other
employees who brought their knowledge to branches in
Utah and Nevada.
Throughout his involvement with the BLM, Nunn
said there were many people who didn’t want the
horses managed in a particular way or were against
any interference with the wild horse herd. He said he
wouldn’t miss the politics of the position, but added that
his supervisor, Rex Cleary, took the brunt of political
pressure targeted at herd management. Many times,
he said, gathers were put on hold or plans had to be redrafted because of a court order filed by protesters.
“Mixing the survival of live animals with politics just
doesn’t work,” Nunn said.
In 1977, the BLM approved the use of helicopters to
herd horses but they weren’t used on the Pryor range
until about 2000. Nunn said the use of helicopters has
made horse gathers faster, but at the cost of more trauma
for the horses. The rough terrain of the PMWHR is not
ideal for helicopter use, which is more beneficial in large
plains, he said.
When asked about current management, Nunn said
it is going well on the Pryor range but isn’t perfect. The
AML, which has fluctuated over the years, is set at 90120 horses, which isn’t bad, he said. Nunn agrees with
the concept of expanding the range into Custer National
Forest areas that the horses have used in the past and
present. He is for expansion not to accommodate more
horses, but to give more space to the horses already living
on the range, he said.
Nunn said he thinks the wild horse program in the
U.S. as a whole is “in shambles,” and said the bureau
Courtesy photos
Gene Nunn, front left, leads a wild horse down the trail out of Big Coulee trap. Two other BLM employees
ride ahead of Nunn on the trail, leading wild horses of their own.
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Contact us at: 548-2217
needs to come up with a better system for handling excess
animals. Currently, thousands of once-wild horses are
in long-term holding pens in places like Nebraska. The
practice, which can keep horses in the facilities for their
entire life of 40 years or more, is not good, Nunn said.
When asked about memories of his time on the Pryor
range, Nunn said he enjoyed the animals, but not the
politics. He has many stories about having a good time
while working in beautiful country doing what he loved
the most with good friends.
“There was real good camaraderie,” Nunn said.
“There were so many little things that happened. It was
enjoyable.”
A missing link
Recently, a link to Nunn and Taylor’s time as range
technicians has surfaced. During remodeling of the
Billings Field Office this winter, BLM employees found a
shoebox containing detailed information about the horses
on the range written by Taylor, according to PMWMC
director Matt Dillon. The scientific notes are accompanied
by photographs and include birth year, parents and a
description of virtually every horse on the range from
1976 to 1990.
Taylor’s notes represent a missing link to what the
center had access to prior to receiving them, Dillon said,
and fill in a time period before Rev. Schwieger’s family
lineage notes, which extend from 1990 to ‘96. The BLM
began their own records in 1996.
Since he began borrowing Taylor’s notes from the
BLM, Dillon said he has been spending more time
digitizing than studying them. The notes fill a void
of information and will help Dillon create a more
historically complete kinship map – or mustang family
tree.
He said the center’s relationship with the BLM
has become more and more cooperative and said the
assembled data would be considered by the BLM for
future management decisions.
The BLM had estimated the ages of horses on the
range, Dillon said, but now he is sure of each animal’s
exact age. Taylor’s data confirmed that Beauty, born in
1987, is the oldest mare on the range, he said.
Currently, Dillon and others are keeping tabs on
the herd, naming each horse and recording data about
changes in family structures. He spends much of his time
traveling over the range, finding foals, confirming which
horses are dead or alive, and which stallions are running
with different mares.
He said that things were definitely different in the
early days of managing the range and credits Nunn,
Taylor and others for their brave exploration and help in
making horse management and the range what it is today.
“It shows the work these guys did is still working for
us,” Dillon said.
Nunn took notes of his own, he said, though they
weren’t as detailed as Taylor’s and were more “day-to-day
writings.” Nunn and Dillon have plans to examine the
notes together to see what additional information can be
extracted from the 30-plus-year-old account.
Dillon said he had heard about Taylor’s notes from
people around town before they were discovered this
winter.
“Lynne always carried around little notebooks, you
should find those,” he said people would tell him.
And now that the data has become public record, it
will help for years to come as people study the genetic
make up of the herd. As new techniques are used in
management such as genetic sampling, having a complete
picture of the past will be invaluable for those making
management decisions and wild horse enthusiasts alike.
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Historical 2 | The Lovell Chronicle | June 18, 2009
www.LovellChronicle.com
Wambekes honored as 2009 Mustang Days Senior VIPs
BY BRAD DEVEREAUX
Deaver seniors who like good food and
good company are likely to already know
the 2009 Mustang Days Senior Center
VIPs, who spend their time heading up the
Deaver Lunch Bunch, a monthly luncheon
held at the Deaver Community Center for
seniors.
Jim and Judy Wambeke and Jim’s
mother, Marie, are being honored this year
by the North Big Horn Senior Center.
Judy, 67, said they took over the job
from Loretta Schwehr about four years ago.
They set up tables every week, clean up and
call to remind patrons about the scheduled
lunch. With a group of 40 or more seniors
at each lunch, the job can be daunting.
“I don’t give up on them,” she said,
adding that many have to be called several
times to confirm. The group seems to grow
every week, she said, with strangers and
regulars meeting and having a good time.
“It’s about getting together,” Judy said.
“Some don’t come to eat, they come to visit.
Some come so they don’t have to cook.”
The Deaver Diners enjoy food delivered
from the senior center while chatting, usually with the men and the women divided
on opposing sides of the room.
“The men get awfully loud,” Marie, 91,
laughed.
Marie bakes a birthday cake from
scratch each month for lunch bunch goers. She owned the Deaver Café from about
1955 to ’76 and still loves to bake.
She was born in Nebraska and moved
to Deaver when she was 1 year old, she
said.
Her son Jim, 70, was born and raised in
Deaver. He began working on drilling rigs
and eventually moved to Casper where he
met his wife, Judy. The couple returned to
Deaver in 2002.
The Wambekes said many people volunteer to share the workload of the luncheons, which they appreciate. They mentioned Jess Wyatt, who has taken the
responsibility of setting up tables and making coffee, the cooks and staff at the center,
delivery drivers and center director Denise
Andersen.
Luncheons in Deaver occur on the first
and third Tuesday of the month. In Frannie, the meals occur the second and fourth
Tuesday. The Frannie Lunch Bunch was being organized by Barb Phillips in the past;
now several volunteers have joined her and
they take turns putting on the lunch.
Center director Denise Andersen said
she appreciates the Wambekes’ and others’ efforts to organize the Deaver-Frannie
groups.
“It’s a volunteer effort on the part of
the seniors, which makes it even more special,” Andersen said. “If there’s a need, the
seniors take action and generally it’s a success. It’s the absolute personification of
what the Older Americans Act is about.”
The Older Americans Act, which was
passed by Congress in 1965, is where the
center receives much of its funding, Andersen said, and encourages local participation.
Anyone 60 and older in the DeaverFrannie area is encouraged to sign up to
be a part of the lunch bunch in either town.
Seniors can invite a guest of any age to accompany them. To sign up, contact the Senior Center at 548-6556. Meals are $2.50
for seniors and $4.75 for non-seniors.
Be sure to wave to the Senior Center
VIPs as they ride down Main Street in a
convertible in this year’s Mustang Days
Parade.
Jim, Judy and Marie Wambeke
Freudenthals are the 2009 parade marshals
BY BRAD DEVEREAUX
The 2009 Mustang Days Parade Marshals are Gov. Dave Freudenthal and his
wife, Nancy.
Elaine Harvey said she invited Gov.
Freudenthal to participate while he was in
town to present awards to three Big Horn
County schools in May. After checking his
schedule, Gov. Freudenthal took the invitation and the first couple of Wyoming will
be seen riding down Main Street during
the parade, Saturday, June 27.
Harvey said she is excited to have the
governor and first lady attend and appreciates that Gov. Freudenthal recognizes the
Big Horn Basin and treats it like the rest
of the state.
Growing up in Thermopolis, Harvey
said Gov. Freudenthal pays attention to
the needs of the Big Horn Basin. From his
spot on the State Loan and Investment
Board, the governor has supported recent
Big Horn County projects including construction at North Big Horn Hospital, the
Lovell Fire Hall addition, Lovell’s water
and sewer project and the hangar at the
airport in Greybull.
She said the governor provided funding
resources in 2005 for document searches
and the development of science to support
management of Big Horn Lake to benefit interests in Big Horn County. When the Globe Canal was at risk to collapse and flood
the streets of Lovell in August of 2007, the
SLIB board set aside $300,000 in case of an
emergency. The funds weren’t needed, but
it was nice to know they were available,
Harvey said.
State officials joining the Freudenthals
at the parade will be Secretary of State Max
Maxfield and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jim McBride, Harvey said.
Right, Gov. Freudenthal (center)
poses with his Big Horn Basin
accessories with Rep. Elaine Harvey
of Lovell (left) and Sen. Ray Peterson
of Cowley at an awards ceremony last
month in Lovell. Freudenthal and his
wife, Nancy, will be the 2009 Mustang
Days Parade Marshals.
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LOVELL DRUG
June 18, 2009 | The Lovell Chronicle | Historical 3
www.LovellChronicle.com New Horizons Care Center honors four centenarians
Four remarkable ladies
were honored by the staff at
the New Horizons Care Center recently. All four are centenarians – 100 years old or
more.
The four posed for a photograph and are, from left
to right, Ethel Miller, Lucy
Cox, Marie Scheeler and
Madge Leibel.
Ethel Miller was born
March 9, 1909. She worked
all of her life from her teenage years to retirement.
When she and her husband,
Sam, retired, they spent
their winters in Lutz, Fla.,
sulky racing with their ponies. Upon arriving back in
Maryland, they attended
sulky races during the summer months, as well.
Ethel had one son, John
(Jack), who died Aug. 21,
2006. She has four grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and nine greatgreat grandchildren.
She loves chocolate –
lots of it.
Lucy Cox, as a teenager, leaving her family behind in Burlington, came to
Lovell to graduate from high
school. She married Reed
Asay in 1927 and they had
eight children. After Reed’s
death in 1951, she married
Burl Cox and they brought
another daughter into the
family.
Lucy taught school,
mostly fourth grade, for
many years. Many of her
students remember putting
on a Lovell’s Day program
and knowing that “they had
the most important part.”
Nothing pleased Lucy
more than teaching, wheth-
Ethel Miller, Lucy Cox, Marie Scheeler and Madge Leibel
er at home, at school or in
church, and seeing the light
of understanding come into
the eyes of those she taught.
Marie Scheeler was born
to John Balthasar and Elizabeth Fruekling Schneider
on April 23, 1909, in Lincoln, Neb. Her parents were
immigrants from Biedeck,
Russia. Her father worked
for the railroad and the family moved to Lincoln, where
daughters Leda and Marie
were born. In 1911, when
Marie was 2, the family was
transferred to Kane, east of
Lovell.
Marie’s parents wanted to farm and soon found
ground in the Iona area
across the Shoshone River.
Brothers Harry and John
were born, and the children
attended school in Kane
and at the German School
in Lovell. Kane offered two
years of high school, and after attending her freshman
year at Kane, Marie finished
school in Lovell.
During that time, she
met George Scheeler. He
and his family were Germans from the Crimean area
of Russia who had emigrated
to Dickinson, N.D. and came
to Cowley and then Lovell
with the Great Western Sugar Co.
Marie and George eloped
to Red Lodge in 1927, lived
in Lovell where son George
Robert (Bob) was born and
then began farming at Iona.
Marie and George gradually built their farm into
the largest working farm in
the area, and Marie worked
in the fields alongside her
husband. Two more sons,
Charles and Herbert, were
born. Marie supplemented
their farm income by driving
the school bus and George
worked sugar campaigns in
Lovell and Billings.
They eventually moved
to Lovell and were semiretired, although both con-
tinued to work at the sugar
factory, Marie in the tare
house. She also produced a
huge garden.
George died in 1988,
and Marie kept up her garden and maintained her independence for several years
and even was able to stay
home for a few years after
her eyesight and health began to fail, thanks to neighbors, Meals on Wheels and
family. She entered the
New Horizons Care Center
in 2003 and celebrated her
100th birthday in April.
Madge Leibel was born
in 1909 in Lamar City, Ala.
She had two sisters and two
brothers, Minnie, Maggie,
Judd and John. She moved
to Lovell with her family at
age 8 and graduated from
Lovell High School. She is
a member of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.
Madge married her first
husband at the age of 26 and
he died some years later. She
married her second husband
and had one son, Terry Leibel, who lives in Boise, Idaho. Her second husband died
in 1970.
Madge worked as a
lunchroom lady for several years and was a wonderful homemaker. She enjoyed
needlework, cooking and
playing the piano. She collected drinking glasses and
always had a beautiful garden. She played piano at her
church and dedicated her
life to her religion.
She moved to the New
Horizons Care Center in
1997 and still attends Relief
Society and Sacrament.
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Historical 4 | The Lovell Chronicle | June 18, 2009
www.LovellChronicle.com
Big Horn Canyon was a formidable place for explorers
By David Peck
The history of the American West is full of accounts of
explorers and travelers – trekkers, if you will – who were
looking for the easiest and quickest routes from point A to
point B, very often not an easy task in the rugged mountain and canyon lands of the Rocky Mountains.
From the earliest days, travelers looked for routes
through the mountains offering relative ease of travel,
routes able to be traversed on foot and, later, on horseback, routes with water and game.
There was a network of trails throughout the northern Rockies, and one of the most prominent was the Bad
Pass Trail, which ran along the western edge of the Big
Horn Canyon and was used for thousands of years, first
by Paleo-Indians, later by Plains Indian tribes and finally
by mountain men looking to move beaver pelts from the
wilds of what would later become Wyoming to St. Louis.
Native people used the Bad Pass for more than
11,000 years, said Chris Finley, an archaeologist and historian at the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.
The trail was part of a larger network of interconnecting trails in the region but was certainly one of the more
prominent trails because it was well marked with rock
cairns.
Some of those ancient cairns can still be seen in the
national recreation area to this day.
“We’re finding cultural remains of groups identified
as being over 11,000 years old,” Finley said. “The oldest
intact or insitu (in place) evidence is from the early Archaic Period (5,000 to 8,000 years before present).
“We’re finding a lot of stuff 11,000 years old. I’m assuming the area was utilized and that people were using
that trail as a corridor and possibly for winter campsites.
They were staying here for extended periods during the
winter and we’ve found evidence of big game procurement
strategies like animal traps, buffalo jumps and drive
lines.”
Early in the 18th century, fur trappers began using the Bad Pass Trail and many other trails and water
routes as they developed the fur trade of the American
West, but it is difficult to ascertain who used the trail and
when because most of the mountain men didn’t keep journals and many of them couldn’t write.
According to information available at the Bighorn
Canyon NRA Cal S. Taggart Visitor Center near Lovell,
the first documented description of the mouth of Big Horn
Canyon was written on Aug. 31, 1805, by Francois Antoine Larocque, who was working for the Northwest Company at the time.
In his journal, Larocque wrote: “The river is broad,
deep and clear water, strong courrant (sic), bed stone and
gravel.” About a half mile above his camp, Larocque wrote
that the Big Horn River passed between two huge rocks
and lost “2/3 of its breadth but gains proportionally in
depth. Larocque climbed the east wall of the canyon and
wrote later that, “it is aweful (sic) to behold and makes
one giddy to look down upon the river. From his vantage
point, he wrote, the river appeared to be “quite narrow”
and flowed with “great rapidity immediately under our
feet, so that I did not dare to look down (until) I could find
a stone behind which I could keep and, looking over it, see
the foaming water without danger of falling in.”
Larocque apparently did not venture into the canyon
because of the sheer rock walls. Also, perhaps relevant to
legends that have persisted to modern times, the Crow
Indians told Larocque, according to National Park Service
historian Edwin C. Bearss’ history of Big Horn Canyon,
that about 30 to 40 miles upstream in Big Horn Canyon
there could be found a waterfall where a Manitou (spirit)
lived. This Manitou took the form of a werewolf, Larocque
reported, “dwelling in the falls and raising out of it to devour any man or beast that approached,” Bearss wrote.
“As the werewolf was invulnerable to bullets, it could not
be slain.”
Then in 1807, two members of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition – the Corps of Discovery – joined up with the
Manuel Lisa expedition to establish trade with the tribes
along the Yellowstone River. Departing from Fort Raymond, also called Manuel’s Fort, at the mouth of the Big
Horn River, John Colter and George Drouillard were sent
by Lisa in the fall of 1807 to make contact with tribes in
the region. Colter made his well-known journey through
the Big Horn Basin and into the Teton and Yellowstone
country in 1807-08, while Drouillard also explored the Big
Horn Basin during that time, making two trips into the
Basin.
On Drouillard’s first trip in 1807, according to the history written by Bearss, Drouillard visited a Crow village
at the confluence of the Shoshone River and the Big Horn
and another village opposite the mouth of Sage Creek just
north of Lovell. Drouillard estimated the population of the
two villages at 280 lodges, or around 2,240 individuals –
about the population of present day Lovell.
Some documented accounts of the Lisa expedition note
Photo courtesy of the National Park Service
The decaying remains of Dr. G.W. Barry’s motor launches that carried guests from the Cedarvale Guest
Ranch up and down the Big Horn River rested on the bank of the Big Horn River until being salvaged by
some Greybull residents. One boat, the Hillmont, now rests at the Barry’s Landing boat ramp.
that Drouillard may have used the Bad Pass. But Finley believes that Colter, also, may well have used the Bad
Pass Trail – the most direct and well-established trail into
the Big Horn Basin – rather than going through Pryor
Gap, as many accounts have stated.
Many other mountain men used the Bad Pass Trail
over the years, among them Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith,
Andrew Henry, Thomas Fitzpatrick and Bill Sublette, according to the Park Service.
Into the canyon
Today, power boats zoom up and down the Big Horn
Lake pulling water skiers and seeing sights in Big Horn
Canyon and many side canyons that few people had seen
as recently as 50 years ago. Indeed, the Big Horn Canyon
was truly one of the last frontiers of the lower 48 states,
rarely penetrated until well into the 20th century.
Finley has become interested in the first trips through
the Big Horn Canyon itself, not just the many journeys
on the Bad Pass Trail above, and he and the Park Service
staff have provided many articles about the various expeditions.
Although some written histories of the canyon state
that some tribes feared and avoided the canyon, believing
it to be possessed by evil spirits such as the Manitou told
to Larocque, Finley said the Native Americans certainly
ventured down into the canyon, and he said there is evidence of habitation in the canyon.
The first mountain man documented to have actually
run the length of Big Horn Canyon, Finley said, was Jim
Bridger, who in 1825 was with William Ashley’s party as
they moved beaver pelts to St. Louis. After the 1825 Rendezvous on Henry’s Fork of the Green River in what would
become southwest Wyoming, more than 2,000 pelts had to
be transported to St. Louis. William Ashley transported
the pelts to the Yellowstone River and the Missouri via
the Bad Pass Trail, but Bridger, a member of the Ashley
party, decided to navigate Big Horn Canyon on the water.
According to the book “Jim Bridger” by J. Cecil Alter,
Bridger built a raft of driftwood and “ventured a pilot voyage” through Big Horn Canyon in late July or early August. “He succeeded, unwittingly performing a feat never
equaled in western travel annals except by General Ashley’s descent of the Green,” Alter wrote.
An account by Capt. W.F. Raynolds in 1859 described
what Bridger saw during his trip of 34 years earlier, according to Alter: “His descriptions of the grandeur of the
scenery along its banks are glowing and remarkable. He
portrays a series of rugged canyons, the river foaming
among jagged rocks, between lofty overhanging precipices, whose threatening arches shut out all sunlight; interspersed with narrow valleys, teeming with luxuriant verdure, through whose pleasant banks the stream flows as
placidly as in its broad valley below.”
Photo courtesy of the National Park Service
Twenty-seven local men made one final trip down the Big Horn Canyon in 1965 before the water was
backed up by Yellowtail Dam to form Big Horn Lake. Pictured at Black Canyon at the end of the trip are
(front with sign) David Thompson and Jim O’Shae with the National Park Service, (front row, l-r) Grant
Salisbury, Dick Hovland, Wes Meeker, Wayne Darnall, Ward G. Myers, Ross G. Stapp, Graig Whitney, Stuart
Connor, Vern Waples, (second row) Cal Taggart, Bud Webster, Bill Evans, Elmer Gahley, Otto Weaver, W.E.
Sutton, John Petenther, Charles Borberg, Max Stone, Willard Fraser, (third row) Fletch Newby, Ted Baker,
Edison Real Bird, Wallace Iron, Bob Borberg and Clifford Thompson.
Bridger warned others in the Ashley party to not attempt the canyon voyage he had just accomplished, such
was the harrowing nature of the journey.
Although the Bad Pass Trail continued to be used by
fur traders over the next 15 years, a decline in the fur
industry led to a steep decline in traffic on the Bad Pass,
which faded in importance. Accordingly, no other brave
souls are known to have attempted to float the Big Horn
through the canyon until more than 65 years later.
The Gillette Expedition
It may seem hard to believe, since Big Horn Canyon
had been known for decades to be practically impassable,
but in the late 19th century the canyon was considered
for a railroad route by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
Railroad, and a party of surveyors was sent into the canyon in March of 1891 to ascertain the feasibility of such a
venture.
A man associated with that surveying crew, Edward
Gillette, took the opportunity of the surveying expedition
to conduct his own exploration of the canyon, traveling
the length of the canyon north from the Crooked Creek
area on foot since much of the river was frozen during
that part of the winter.
Gillette well knew the reputation of the rugged canyon. In his own detailed written account of the trip, Gillette wrote (always spelling “canyon” as “canon”): “This
canon was probably the last one in the United States to
be explored throughout its entire length, the main reason for this being that the walls at the head and foot of
the canon were practically impassable, and that the walls
on either side of the river formed a true box canon for the
greater part of its distance.”
As he made his way through the Crow Indian Reservation, Gillette obtained from the Crows as much information as he could about the canyon, and the report was
as follows, he later wrote: “That it was a box canon with
numerous falls and rapids; that no one had ever been
through it; and that the few who had ventured to make
the trip had perished in the attempt.”
Gillette camped on Crooked Creek and met legendary character Frank Sykes, who had recently moved to
the area. He also met N.S. Sharpe, a prospector he had
known in the Black Hills. Both offered to make the trip
with Gillette, but he chose Sharpe, since he knew him,
but he asked Sykes to “look us up if we did not return in
about 10 days.”
The men fashioned a sled of cottonwood poles bearing
blankets for bedding, provisions for six or seven days, rifles and surveying instruments. Although it was still the
late winter, Gillette and Sharpe found open water from
time to time, and Gillette worried about suddenly warmer
weather causing snow to melt and flood the canyon.
“As we journeyed down the canon, keeping a sharp
lookout for air holes in the ice and glancing at the vertical
walls of limestone on either side, we began to realize that
we were in the box canyon of the Big Horn River, the terrors of which had been so often repeated us to the measure that ‘no one had ever gone through the canon alive.’
“The talus being washed away at the entrance, as
well as at the mouth of the canon, ‘no admittance’ stares
the pedestrian in the face, no matter from which end he
may approach the gorge; and should he succeed in passing these gateways it would only be to come to grief at
some vertical wall extending to the bottom of the river,
while the stream is making good time down a rapid. This
probably is the reason that the canon has not been explored up to this time.”
Having passed under some overhanging cliffs, Gillette wrote: “We seemed to be in an immense shed with
the roof extending over us and hundreds of feet above.”
At the state line, Gillette and Sharpe came upon the
survey party “engaged in running a preliminary line in
the canon, to determine its practicability for a railroad.”
As the men struggled to perform their survey work, Gillette noted their predicament, noting, “The men were apparently but a short distance above the river; however,
when we had climbed up to them and looked down, we
realized that a tumble might result disastrously.
“The transit was set up on the side of the cliff, with
one leg of the tripod nearly parallel to the plumb line,
while the transit man was barely able to maintain his position on the narrow shelving rocks; a misstep of an inch
would have precipitated him to the hard boulders, seventy feet below. The chainmen made their way around almost vertical cliffs, hanging on with fingers and toes, and
as we gazed at them we thought, there is no room here for
the fellow who usually ‘coons’ a dangerous place.”
The canyon walls were about 600 feet high at that
point, rising to 1,000 feet at the mouth of Devil’s Canyon,
Gillette wrote. Devil’s Canyon, he wrote, “carries quite a
stream of water from the gold camp at Bald Mountain,
and this stream, as if competing with the main canon,
has formed a grand canon of its own.”
Gillette wrote about the Sentinel, a tall pillar of lime-
www.LovellChronicle.com June 18, 2009 | The Lovell Chronicle | Historical 5
bold enough to brave the watery depths
stone, as well as many side streams “forming formidable
canons of their own,” “innumerable” waterfalls 500 feet or
more in height, a food ford and game trail out of the canyon at what would later be called Barry’s Landing, gold
“in paying quantities” at the mouths of streams from both
the east and west, a point of rocks he named the Towers,
“knife edge” side canyons, portages around rapids, Dry
Head Canyon, Bull Elk Creek, towers and pinnacles “on
a grander scale than Yellowstone Canon forming a castellated structure of surpassing grandeur and beauty,”
a band of bighorn sheep and Black Canyon, just below
which Gillette and Sharpe found the steepest rapids of
the river.
“Where Black Canon empties its stream into the river
a whirlpool was formed and large cakes of ice were being
drawn into the vortex and disappeared from view,” Gillette wrote.
After finally making their way out of the canyon on
the north end, Gillette and Sharpe returned to the south
by way of the Bad Pass and met Sykes along the way. He
had been looking for them on horseback.
Gillette was thrilled by his expedition and rendered
as grand a description of Big Horn Canyon as any tourist
publication could offer up:
“The Grand Canon of the Colorado is an immense
chasm, so broad as to remind one of a wide valley. The
Royal Gorge of the Arkansas River is magnificent for a
short distance only, and the stream is small, while the
Yellowstone Canon is awe-inspiring and gorgeously colored for a comparatively brief space.
“Big Horn Canon, however, combines all these features with that of a true box canon and such features as
the overhanging cliffs are not to be found elsewhere, to
my knowledge. As a canon it is the most satisfactory of
any I have visited in this country or Alaska.”
The Sheridan Four
Once the word got out that there were no waterfalls
on the Big Horn River itself in the canyon, other parties
made their way through the canyon by boat. Writing his
article a few years later, Gillette noted T.E. Calvert and
M.W. Ensign of “the Burlington (railroad)” and a little
later W.G. Griffen, James P. and Thomas Robinson and
J.W. Newell of Sheridan in 1893, followed by Garret and
Alexander Forbes of Boston in 1903.
That Sheridan expedition of Griffen, Newell and the
Robinsons was made in August of 1893 and was described
in intricate detail in a series of four articles written by
J.W. Newell, in collaboration with W.G. (Wellen George)
Griffen, and printed in the Sheridan Post on Dec. 17, 24
and 31, 1922, and Jan. 7, 1923.
That series of four articles, as well as other writings
about the trip by Newell, can be found on Ancestry.com at
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wyoming/ar-bhcanyon1.htm.
The series starts with the headline “Sheridan men
win gamble with death in canyon trip” along with the
sub-head “Four pioneers in small boat accomplish feat
equaled but once since in a 30-year period; W.G. Griffen,
James P. and Thomas Robinson and J.W. Newell braved
hazards of man-trap, where many had died in vain effort;
story of adventure reads like fiction; trip filled with thrilling experiences and narrow escapes.”
At the time of the trip, tales of unsuccessful attempts
at traveling through the canyon were legendary, according to Newell, who wrote sensationally: “There had been
many stories told and printed to the effect that such a
feat was impossible, that several parties of adventurers had started
down the river
with the avowed
purpose of going through or
perishing in the
attempt, and
that not one of
them had ever
been heard of;
that others had
been wrecked
and stranded
on an island
where they had
remained many
weeks, subsisting on such
game and fish as
they could shoot
and catch.
“Still othPhoto courtesy of Kent Steinke
ers, according
Making the daring journey down to the stories
the Big Horn Canyon in 1893 we heard, had
were four brave gentlemen from become discourSheridan: (not necessarily in aged by inorder) James P. Robinson, Thomas surmountable
Robinson, Wellen George Griffen obstacles which
and J.W. Newell.
they had encountered, and
returned on foot
along the banks and over the tops of the mountains which
extended to the water’s edge and terminate in perpendicular stone walls.
“There were even accounts of great falls in the walled
portions of the canyon which it was impossible for even
a wild animal to pass; of giant whirlpools where every
floating object was sucked down, never again coming to
the surface. The theory was advanced that there was a
sub-aqueous outlet through which everything that came
downstream was drawn into the bowels of the earth and
deposited in some vast subterranean cavity, the water
finding its way out and eventually back into the river
through seepage and springs. It was with all these reports in mind, and a determination to ascertain their
truth or falsity, that the Sheridan men outfitted and
started on what they supposed was a perilous undertaking.”
Using similar, spectacular language, Newell chronicled the trip in four parts. Part I included an account of
a bull elk stomping a mountain lion to death in defense
of a cow elk before the boat even hit the water, and Part
II described the party’s investigation of a sulfur cave just
before they reached the canyon.
In Part III, Newell described how the foursome shot
the rapids prior to reaching Devil’s Canyon, paralyzed by
fear to inaction at first before “a realization of imminent
danger brought about a violent reaction.”
“Every man arose to his feet and prepared to make
the best fight he could for his life,” Newell wrote. “Then
the bow of the boat tipped downward, we could see ahead,
and appeared to be entering a dark tunnel at the end of
a turbulent rapid. The boat bobbed, jumped, bucked and
‘sunfished’ like an unbroken cow pony. Seizing the long
poles, each one exerted his whole strength in guiding the
boat and avoiding the many boulders and jagged rocks
whose ugly heads appeared above the surface. By almost
superhuman efforts we succeeded in avoiding the most
dangerous places in the
rapid, and the boat soon
shot over the last shoal into
smooth water.
“The suspense was
over, but perspiration
streamed down every
man’s face. Figuratively
speaking, we had ‘sweat
blood’ during the past few
moments.”
In Part IV, Newell
describes a violent storm
howling and screaming
through the canyon, and
he recalled how Alexander
Forbes of Boston, writing after his trip down the
canyon in July of 1903, described a strange noise in
the canyon.
“As I was walking
down one of the sandy
beaches on the river’s edge,
Photo courtesy of the National Park Service
I heard a howl, beginning
Intrepid adventurers load the boats in preparation for the 1949 expedition
at a high pitch and sweepdown Big Horn Canyon that included a color film of the trip. Members of the
ing down into a bass clef.
expedition were William Roberts and Don Weaver of Frannie and Ward King
I stopped short and looked
Jr., Thornton Cougill and Bill Greene of Greybull.
around; I could hear nothing but the roar of the river. I took a step backwards
Meeteetse and Alton Wickwire, who had apparently sucand the howl reversed itself, starting low and rising to
cessfully “dared” the canyon in 1912.
a high pitch. I then moved back and forth over the same
An article in the April 1985 edition of the Western
ground and found the noise to be no more than the roar of
Boatman describes the trip in detail, again making note
the river, rising and falling like a siren. It seems the rocks of those who had died attempting to float the canyon and
around me formed a sort of sounding board, treating the
the belief that Native American tribes avoided the area
sound as a prism treats sunlight, placing the tones ac“because they believed evil spirits inhabited the place.”
cording to their pitch, the high in one place and the low in
“Eerie noises sometimes issued from the place,” the
another.”
article stated.
By the turn of the century, plans were already under
The article mentions Bridger’s trip in 1825 and Gilway to dam the Big Horn River, changing Big Horn Canlette’s walk in 1891. The article also states that Colter
yon forever, but not before other
used the Bad Pass during his trip of 1907-08, backing up
intrepid souls made the trip down
Finley’s belief.
the river.
“Here was a place of mystery, unknown and largely
The Sept. 30, 1916 edition
unexplored – the land, they said, that time forgot,” the arof the Railway Review tells of
ticle stated, adding that Belden, a well-known photograa project to build a dam at the
pher, was eager to capture the canyon on film.
north end of Big Horn Canyon
The four men launched The Spirit of the Pitchfork on
to produce hydroelectric power.
Aug. 8 at Basin, stopped at Kane on the second day and
The article describes the various
then continued into the canyon. The article goes on to defacets of the idea, engineering for
scribe the 10-day trip.
the project and the beauty of the
Judge Metz would scout ahead of the larger boat in
canyon.
a rubber boat he called The Helldiver, shoot the rapids,
In discussing the difficulty
make his way to the shore and signal directions to the
of surveying the canyon, a projnavigators on the Spirit.
ect that had been under way for
“There were close calls, but the keelboat was a stouttwo years at that time, the article
hearted craft and met each battle with aplomb,” the arnotes the inaccessible nature
ticle stated.
of the canyon, explaining: “Not
The party was greeted by Native Americans when
many years ago it was regarded
they camped at Black Canyon, and the Indians were apas next to impossible for one to
parently alarmed when told the men planned to shoot the
pass through this canyon alive.
most dangerous rapids of the river below Black Canyon.
No one had been known to accomThey declared that “no one had ever done that and lived”
Wellen George
plish the feat, and several had
and even tried to hang onto the Spirit to keep it from enGriffen
been drowned in the attempt.
tering the stream.
“At a number of points the
With Helldiver going first, followed by the Spirit, both
water in swift, rocky rapids is so
boats survived the plunge down the rapids, where they
rough that only the greatest skill
were greeted by “cheers and a great clamor from the Inor luck in steering can save a boat from being filled with
dians,” the article stated, adding, “Those white men had
water or smashed on the rocks. In some instances where
dared the evil spirits of the canyon and the perils of the
logs were observed to pass through certain of these rapids
wild river and had won.”
they were carried along in a tumbling motion, end over
Filmed in color
end.”
Another well-publicized trip down the canyon took
The canyon’s reputation was fully intact in 1916.
place in August of 1949, when five men departed from
The railroad article states that the first person to traGreybull in two boats on an expedition to run the rapids
verse the canyon was said to be a soldier from Fort C.F.
and film the trip with a color motion picture camera.
Smith in 1868 or before who, to escape pursuing Indians,
On the trip were Don Weaver and William Roberts of
made the passage on a log. The first to pass through the
Frannie and Ward King Jr., Thornton Cougill and phocanyon by boat, the article stated, were T.E. Calvert and
tographer Bill Greene, all of Greybull. Cougill and Greene
William M. Ensign of the Burlington and Missouri River
had previous experience on the river and had successfully
Railroad, who went down the canyon in a small boat in
navigated the canyon in 1938, when they reportedly saw
July of 1891, making portage around some of the worst
a three-foot lizard in the canyon.
rapids, on an exploration trip to determine the practicabilPre-trip publicity once again proclaimed the treachity of extending the railroad through the canyon, much as
erous nature of the “practically inaccessible” canyon that
Edward Gillette had done five months earlier, as noted in
was known as “Wyoming’s Lost Country.”
“But for all its beauty, it has remained a land of mysthe article.
tery to all but a handful of explorers who have dared to
The 1916 article goes on to describe the possible fupenetrate its depths,” proclaimed the Northern Wyoming
ture dam, reservoir, power plant, a possible electrified
railroad in the region, a plant to extract nitrogen from the Daily News.
In post-trip reports, Greene wrote about the “exatmosphere, irrigation potential and a railroad line from
the dam north to Hardin and on to a point near Custer on tremely arduous” trip and how the boats were hung up in
huge rocks that line the river bottom.
the Northern Pacific Railroad.
“At Suicide Rapids,” Greene wrote, “the larger boat
Dr. Barry’s boats
was forced into the canyon wall, causing severe damage,
Around the turn of the century, Dr. G.W. Barry came
and one motor was damaged beyond repair. In the Bull
to the Dry Head Country to try his hand at gold prosElk rapids, both boats broke oars and tragedy was narpecting, homesteading near Trail Creek adjacent to the
rowly averted. One oarsman suffered an arm injury and
canyon at what would become known as Barry’s Landfirst aid was required.”
ing. He eventually established a dredging operation, and
The expedition photographed Chain Canyon, with
although he did recover gold from the operation, it wasn’t
enough to keep it running and Barry eventually turned to links of the chain still hanging, and at one point, while
exploring a side canyon, the men found the remains of a
dude ranching.
Barry established the Cedarvale Dude Ranch at Hills- badly disintegrated human skeleton, along with the skeleton of a grizzly, “where they had died in their last mortal
boro, Mont., and in an effort to promote the new venture,
combat,” according to the Hardin Herald. At the scene,
which included boat rides on the Big Horn River, Barthey found a flintlock rifle, dated 1825, according to the
ry, Claude St. John and Delbert Smith took a trip down
Herald article.
Big Horn Canyon on the 18-foot powerboat The Edith,
A detailed account of the trip was written by Margalaunching from Horseshoe Bend on May 28, 1913.
ret Simpson of Greybull and printed in February of 1950.
According to Bearss’ history of the Bighorn Canyon
The famous color film was shown in Hardin in DeNRA, citing an article from the Red Lodge Picket newscember of 1949, in Worland at the Wyoming Press Associpaper on March 10, 1916, the Edith made it through the
ation annual meeting in February of 1950, at the Deaver
canyon, the article noting that the boat survived Bull Elk
High School Gym on Jan. 28, 1950, at the Big Horn TheRapids even though the boat “reeled in her path like a
atre in Greybull on Feb. 7, 1950, and at the Wigwam Thedrunken sailor” and made it past Allen’s Rock, named for
atre in Basin two days later on Feb. 9.
Dr. Will Allen, who led an expedition through the canyon
Posters about the film entitled “Montana and Wyoaround the turn of the century that saw the party’s boat
ming’s Lost Country” filmed “by men you know” urged
shattered, requiring them to finish the journey on foot.
people to attend and see “The Big Horn Canyon in all it’s
The Picket article also noted that the Edith successfully passed by the Homburg Whirlpool near the mouth of glory and view “death-defying rapids, overhanging walls,
tragedies of the past, snakes, flowers, wild fruit of every
Black Canyon, named for two German boys who had lost
description, the canyon of faces, fossils of another age and
their lives trying to pass by the dangerous stretch. The
breathtaking thrills and spills,” among various descripEdith eventually made it all the way to New Orleans six
tions.
weeks later, and over the years Barry took many guests
In 1966, Yellowtail Dam was completed, and with
up and down the river in his motor launches.
the formation of Big Horn Lake, the once mysterious and
Writing in 1916, according to Bearss, Barry stated,
formidable depths of Big Horn Canyon were opened to all
“The opinion of all who have made these canyon trips is
who could run a boat. Now visitors can explore the canthat it is as fine a trip as one can take anywhere; that asyon and view the wonders previously only seen by hardy
cending the river is sublime and coming down positively
explorers brave enough to take a boat down the treacherthrilling.”
ous rapids.
Other treks
From the first people to walk the Bad Pass Trail to
One well-known expedition down the canyon took
mountain man Jim Bridger to the modern boat driver or
place in August of 1928 in a wooden keelboat featuring
hiker, Big Horn Canyon has been and shall always be a
Judge Percy W. Metz of Basin, photographer Charles
special place to explore.
Belden and Carl Dunrud of the Pitchfork Ranch near
Historical 6 | The Lovell Chronicle | June 18, 2009
www.LovellChronicle.com
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Remembering sheep ranching in the Big Horn Basin
BY JOYCE K.
GOODRICH
Mary had a little lamb.
And so did Patty, Gary,
Peter and most other kids
who grew up in the Lovell
area during 1920 –1955.
Its fleece was white
as snow. Not exactly true.
Our lamb’s fleece fit the
description of old snow
mixed with a bit of grime.
My father termed it “snirt”
(snow mixed with dirt).
Lambs may look soft
and fluffy in photographs
but in reality their fleece
feels a bit greasy from all
the lanolin and it is tightly
curled. But young lambs
were fun to cuddle and
pet as you fed them from
discarded glass bottles with
black rubber nipples. As
the lambs grew, their diet
changed, and I remember
carrying buckets of warm
mash to feed my twin
lambs. It was heavy work
for a young child but it did
teach responsibility.
4-H members and FFA
boys took special care in
grooming and caring for
their animals that they
hoped would win the blue
ribbon at the county fair.
Other
children
raised
“bum” lambs as a money
raiser but most of us simply
thought of them as a family
pet.
Everywhere that Mary
went the lamb was sure to
go: Eldona Goodrich (18991988) wrote in her memoirs,
“and I mean pet, for where
we went, these lambs went
also. A common sport was to
challenge a friend to a lamb
race; about as exciting to
us as horse racing to derby
fans. We even used Main
Street for our race track,
and if passers-by objected
they never bothered to tell
us so.”
Maybe that was the
beginning of kids sheep
races that are held in small
town rodeos today.
One
local
history
records that as early as
1887
agriculture
and
sheep began sharing the
land in Wyoming. The
cattlemen in the Big Horn
Basin didn’t take kindly to
those “smelly critters that
gnawed the grass too close
to the ground.”
The cowboys vowed
that the sheep destroyed
free roaming cattle feed,
and thus the sheep and
cattle “war” began. The
battle finally came to a
head in 1909 in Ten Sleep.
During
my
day,
however, sheep raising
and sheep shearing were
a big source of income for
families living here. Some
of the prominent sheep
men of that era were Jesse
W. Crosby of Cowley and
the Snyder brothers. The
Snyders had sheep pens
near the Shoshone River
close to where the old glass
factory stood.
But perhaps the biggest
sheep rancher around
was Claude Lewis. He
employed many local men
as sheepherders during
the summer months, and
as help when lambing time
came around. He also hired
shearers.
SHEEP SHEARING
The
thick
growth
of wool that helped the
sheep survive the subzero winters in Wyoming
needed to come off in the
early spring and be shipped
to market. It was a good
cash crop. So hardy men
with strong backs and a
poor sense of smell became
sheep shearers. At first the
sheep were sheared with
hand clippers.
Rueben Allphin, my
grandfather, sheared sheep
in his younger years. He
told a funny experience he
had as an LDS missionary
in Buck County, Pa. He
came across a group of
three men who were
shearing a sheep. Two of
them held the legs as the
other man cut the wool.
Grandpa scratched his
head in amusement and
said, “Let me show you how
we do that in Wyoming.”
The crowd guffawed
as the young missionary
took off his suit coat and
approached the sheep. But
the laughter ceased when
Rueben held the sheep’s
legs with one hand and
used the clippers with the
other. He finished the job
in record time. When he
left he looked back to see
the eastern farmers return
to their three-man method.
Guess you can’t teach old
sheepherders new tricks-at least not back east in
1910.
Porter Goodrich, who
is former Lovell High
School Principal Grant
Goodrich’s father, had a
sheep shearing crew that
traveled from Utah, crossed
Wyoming and ended up in
Ringling, Mont., near the
Canadian border. These
crews employed young
men to tag the fleece.
Tags were mainly balls
of manure and wool that
weren’t supposed to go
with the fleece to market.
That bit of information was
not mentioned in Mary’s
nursery rhyme.
The taggers were also
used to “tromp” the fleece.
Vernal Goodrich (class of
1945) recalls that “both
were nasty, dirty jobs but
‘tying’ fleeces, on the other
hand, was quite lucrative
since I was paid by the
fleece rather than by the
day and I soon realized that
I could make more money
tying than tromping. The
going rate was one-half cent
per fleece and I could make
five bucks on a good day.
My record was 3,201.”
It was a big improvement
when hand clippers were
replaced with power shears.
Later, the portable power
plant was invented and
it powered the plant for
sheepshearers in remote
areas where there was no
electricity. Hernias were a
common ailment for even
the hardiest sheep shearer.
But back to the owners
of the sheep: There were
others in our community
Welcome to
!
Mustang Days
who ran their flocks in
“them thar hills.” Vic
Showalter, Tom Adams
and even Hyrum Bischoff,
who is famous for his large
land holdings, ran sheep
as well as cattle at one
time. Vern Asay had a big
herd on his YU Ranch near
Meeteetse and his father,
Al Asay, before him grazed
his flocks on 1,000 acres
near the Nowood River in
Ten Sleep.
M.D. Harris was known
to employ young men new
to the area. One of these
young men was my great
grandfather, Levi Sawyer.
Levi later acquired his
own flocks, and at one time
owned the famous M.L.
Ranch. He ran his sheep
in the mountains above
Ten Sleep. His little wife,
Rhoana, cooked in a sheep
wagon for 24 men during
shearing season.
TICK SHOTS
I remember classmates
such as Elaine Bishoff
and others who spent the
majority of their summer in
the foothills and mountain
ranges of the Big Horns
complaining about getting
their yearly tick shot. The
shots must have been
unpleasant, but they gave
the recipient protection
from ticks whose bite could
lead to Rocky Mountain
Fever, a deadly disease in
the days before penicillin.
In the history, “Legacy
of Love,” written by Noma
Asay Harris and Betty
Asay Stine, I gleaned
further information about
the sheep raising process.
LAMBING
Lambing camps were set
up in the spring when new
lambs were born. Before the
birth sheepherders tagged
the sheep. The herder cut
the wool around the ewe’s
bag, under the tail and
between the rear legs. It
was not a pleasant job but
helped when the ewes gave
birth. Some lambing camps
had small pens or sheds to
shelter the sheep, but in
Wyoming there was a lot of
pasture lambing. In other
words, the lambs were born
out in the hills.
During this period the
sheep were tended around
the clock and some young
ewes were tied during birth
to keep them from running.
If a lamb died during birth
it was not uncommon for
the herder to quickly skin
the dead lamb and place
his hide around a bum (a
newborn who had lost his
mother in the birthing
process) to entice the new
mother to accept the baby
as her own. Other orphan
lambs were adopted as
family pets and raised by
herders and their families.
When the lambs were
small their tails were
docked, or cut short. Often
a small ring or washer was
placed on the tail and as
the lambs grew the ring cut
off the circulation and the
tails fell off.
SHEEP WAGONS
James Candlish, a
blacksmith from Rawlins,
COURTESY PHOTO
A typical sheep herd of the Big Horn Basin.
Left, Reuben
Allphin
demonstrates
his quick way
of shearing
sheep with
hand-held
clippers.
is often credited with the
invention of the sheep wagon
in 1884. Later, the Schulte
Hardware Company of
Casper modified Candlish’s
“home on wheels,” and
sheep
wagons
became
standardized around 1900.
Some sheep ranchers owned
as many as 20 wagons.
According to Nancy
Weidel,
a
Wyoming
historian,
“In
1910
Wyoming boasted 5-1/2
million sheep; one sheep
wagon and herder cared
for as many as 3,000
sheep. Old-timers tell of
seeing a sheep wagon on
every hilltop on the winter
range.”
Today, these worn-out
wagons that have outlived
their usefulness are often
seen in pastures and
ranches throughout the
area, but they, too, seem to
be disappearing.
My husband, Gary,
wanted to purchase an
old sheep wagon and
restore it. He thought
our grandchildren would
enjoy
sleeping
in
it
when they came to visit.
Unfortunately, everyone he
approached about buying
an old wagon refused.
Later he returned to the
same area where he had
found them in abundance,
only to find that the sheep
wagons had disappeared.
He
asked
Loretta
Bischoff what happened to
her wagons and she replied,
“They were stolen.”
“You mean I could steal
one but I can’t buy one?”
Gary responded.
“I guess that’s right,”
Loretta answered.
SHEEP DIPPING
After the sheep were
sheared they were herded
into a big trough. The sheep
had to swim the length of a
trough that was filled with
a mixture of liquid creosote.
This killed any parasites
and sealed nicks and cuts
from the shearing process.
Fences were also soaked in
creosote to prevent rotting.
After dipping, the sheep
were taken to the summer
range.
Children today know
little about this era in
Wyoming history. They
wear their warm parkas
made
from
manmade
fibers and sleep under
electric blankets. They
can’t imagine how children
of my era yearned for a
warm wool coat and a fine
wool blanket for their beds.
If these stores are not
passed on they will soon be
forgotten by the upcoming
generations.
For instance, when
I told my honor student
grandson about the fun
I had playing in the
irrigation ditches that
outlined the streets of
Lovell when I was a child,
he
asked,
“Grandma,
what’s a ditch?”
Who knows, the time
may come when a greatgrandchild might ask,
“Grandma,
what’s
a
sheep?”
Joyce will hold book
signings for her newest book,
“Up, Up The Mountain,”
during Mustang Days at
the Family Fun Night and
the All School Reunion.
She will also sign books at
the Red Apple Thursday
morning at 10 a.m.
“Up, Up the Mountain”
will also be available at
Lovell Drug and other
local stores. It can be
ordered online by e-mailing
goodrichg@comcast.net or
at
www.tellmystorytoo.
com.
Ask your outlets
to open up and
say AAHHHH.
Minchow’s
Service &
Food Court
Have a fun & safe
Mustang Days!
“G
GIVE YOUR HOME AN ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Be sure to enjoy the
Cowley Boys
in our parking lot Friday night
from 8:30-11:30 pm
C
CHECK UP.” We have programs, tips and ideas to
help
h you identify the best ways to save energy, plus
cash
incentives to help make the savings happen.
c
Your
home will be in top energy shape in no time.
Y
Fun for the whole family!
Burgers &
Fries!
Open late during Mustang Days!
317 E. Main • Lovell
Station: 548-7211
Food Court: 548-7979
Convenience Store • Cooper Tires • Propane
Interstate Batteries • Complete Service Work
Gas • 24-hr. credit card fueling • Diesel
Bulk Deliveries • Computer Spin Balancing
© 2009 Rocky Mountain Power
JIM MINCHOW, OWNER
You’ll
find all sorts of energy-saving answers at
Y
rockymountainpower.net.
r
June 18, 2009 | The Lovell Chronicle | Historical 7
www.LovellChronicle.com
An application of theoretical nonsense
BY E. DENNEY NEVILLE
Theoretical nonsense is relevant and worth the exercise when it
serves a purpose of higher interest.
For example: If a ball dropped six
feet rebounds one half that distance
each time it bounces, in theory it
should never stop bouncing.
With some creative determination we can adapt this same theory
to the standard, relevant misadventure of fishing. Say we get to fish one
Saturday every other year (follow
me closely). If we divide by half the
time between the two Saturdays, like
the rebound distance of the bouncing
ball, we can shorten the time until
we would be fishing pretty much all
the time. Time would become a series
of wonderful Saturdays dedicated
to fishing. This demonstrates that
applied theoretical nonsense might
be made relevant to legal, in-house
domestic authorities and we could
create an unavoidable piscatory continuum (fishing-continuous) locked in
with no end. The in-house authority
would have to accept it.
There is one thing wrong with
the theory however; its antithesis is
reality, in this case, applied gravity.
Gravity will eventually override the
up-down motion of the ball until it
comes to rest. Not a problem, if the
ball stops on Saturday. The probability is increased if you factor into the
equation a more than nominal bribe.
This kind of nonsense will eventually
override the patience of the in-house
authority and she will accept the
bribe to help solidify the conclusion
we have come to.
Even though this is a brilliant
finding, explaining it to the wife will
be difficult because of its highly selfserving and technical nature. Measures of elaborate cunning and deception garnished with hefty bribes will
have to be continued.
To further enhance the probability of success, buy her a nice, new
pickup, and she will believe you when
you tell her this discovery is highly
classified material entrusted to you
by local shaman, Ernie Fritz Smith.
Tell her he revealed it to you for
only ten bucks, after staring for nine
hours into a dark ice hole last winter,
which enabled you to attain a transcendent state of monk-like meditation and rapture, due to advanced,
euphoric hypothermia—concluding
with the hauling in of a nine pound
bass from the icy waters of Voodoo
Reservoir.
Explain to her this kind of discovery is of deep, mystical significance,
an atypical phenomenon based on
empirical law, and you can’t, even
under threat of legal injunction, ignore an empirical law that requires
$50-an-hour language to describe the
significance thereof.
Now, the dark, down side—diligent maintenance is required if you
want it to work at your convenience
for an extended period of time. Continued bribes and complicated concessions will be necessary.
However, be forewarned that if it
fails, your fishing gear will come up
missing and be replaced with yard
tools. And if your wife comes up missing, it will cost you even more than
replacing just your fishing gear.
Caution is advised, especially if
any kind of fishy nonsense begins to
make fishy sense—yard tools make
for cumbersome fishing gear and a
missing wife may not miss the fishing, either; and you will never get to
drive her new pickup.
Welcome to
!
s
y
a
D
g
n
a
t
s
Mu
We will be closed
during the parade,
and will close for
the day at 2 p.m.
Saturday to enjoy
the festivities.
CK Hardware
Whether you’ve been away for decades or
just a few years, maybe now is the right time
for you to be considering Lovell for your
business, your family, your life.
Call us at 307-548-6707 or drop us a line –
Lovellinc@tctwest.net – to see how we can help you.
Wyoming Ghost Stories features many local landmarks
BY BRAD DEVEREAUX
A scary book from 1989
that stirs up old fears and
tells tales of supernatural
encounters within the cowboy state was re-published
in 2008.
Wyoming Ghost Stories by Debra D. Munn was
published in 2008 by Riverbend publishing of Helena.
It contains first-hand accounts of 26 bone-chilling
tales of ghost sightings and
encounters in Wyoming.
The stories were originally
published in the 1989 book,
Ghosts on the Range by
Munn.
The said to be true stories, whose subjects are
star-crossed lovers, murderers and the murdered, miners and cowboys and Native
Americans, are all carefully researched and authenticated by interviews with
the people who have witnessed the unknown and
unexplained, according to a
Riverbend press release.
The book contains stories about the ghost of
“the candy man” Ted Louie which is said to hang out
at the Shoshone Bar, spirits witnessed by the staff
of Rocky Mountain High
School in Byron and tales
about the helpful ghost in
a red flannel shirt, said to
be the spirit of a young boy
who got lost and died near
Trapper Creek in the Big
Horn Mountains. Other
stories come from Casper,
Cheyenne,
Chugwater,
Cody, Greybull, Laramie,
Meeteetse, Powell, Rawlins and Wheatland, among
others. Of the 26 tales, nine
take place in northwest Wy-
70 E. Main, Lovell
oming.
The book is available for
purchase at the publisher’s
Website, www.riverbendpublishing.com.
8 East Main • Lovell, Wyoming 82431 • 307-548-2703 • www.bighornfederal.com
WELCOME TO
MUSTANG
DAYS!
The Lovell Area Chamber of Commerce invites you to take in some of our
area attractions while you’re visiting
For more information, call the chamber office at 548-7552
or visit our website www.lovellchamber.com
Historical 8 | The Lovell Chronicle | June 18, 2009
Those were the days …
www.LovellChronicle.com
Welcome to Lovell
Your hat belongs
at home
Welcome toys!
Mustang Da
and
Mustang Days!
yable weekend!
Have a safe and enjo
Haskell
Funeral
Home
605 E. Main • 548-7678
COURTESY PHOTO
Lovell once had many service stations in town.
Here, Lynn Beddes poses at Goldie Johnson’s Husky
station in 1964. The station was located at Main and
Nevada where the Downtown Mural Park now lies.
Beddes worked for Johnson for around 30 years, off
and on, according to his wife, Lois.
Have a news tip?
Contact the Lovell Chronicle …
548-2217 or lcnews@tctwest.net
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Lovell Office
284 E. Main Street
www.lovellbank.com
(307) 548-2751
Powell Office
245 E. 1st Street
www.powellbank.com
(307) 754-2201
Cody Office
1507 8th Street
www.codybank.com
(307) 587-3800
A hot and cold deli, featuring
WonderRoast chicken, Chester Fried
chicken, salads, donuts, cakes, cookies and
so much more!
A wonderful selection of
fresh fruits and vegetables
in our produce section,
great for picnics and
B-B-Q’s!
A tradition of progress, service, and
hometown pride, we’ve been part of the
Lovell community for 62 years, giving
our customers personal, quality service.
That’s been the trademark of the Red
Apple Supermarket (and Big Horn
IGA and Big Horn Market before that)
throughout our 62 years in the grocery
business in Lovell.
The drive-through or walk-in C&R Liquor
Store stocked with a pleasing selection!
9 E. Main • Lovell
Where YOU are FIRST!
Take care of all of your
photo needs with our
Fujifilm photo maker.