Meeteetse Area Stories
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
MEETEETSE AREA STORIES A type-written work by Elmer Carlson Presented originally to the Park County Historical Society by Elmer Carlson. Later a copy was given to the Meeteetse Museums by the P.C.H.S. [This has been re-typed exactly as it was presented in the typed form from Elmer Carlson’s work in order to be available on computer. All spelling and punctuation is exactly as is in the original work. January 2012 Meeteetse Museums.] THE $ KID [Handwritten across the top of the page.] Presented to P.C.H.S. by Elmer Carlson – Copy given to Meeteetse Museum from P.C.H.S. Written about The Dollar Kid Dollar Kid is living The Butterfield’s brought in some of the first sheep to the Big Horn Basin, they were from Utah arriving on Owl Creek in the Fall of 1890. John Lynn had come in to the area around Lovell in the summer of 1890 from Montana. Lynns brought in two big bands of ewes of about 3000 each. All of these sheep were a coarse wooled sheep, Cotswold and Lincoln. They looked big but sheared a big light weight fleece. They were easy to shear, no wrinkles or wool on the legs or belly. They didn’t settle down to feed like the smaller finer wooled sheep that came in. David Dickie came in here to look over the ranch in 1890, so the next year 1891, he and Pete Brotherson brought in two bands of Merino and Ramboulettes ewes. They summered over on the head of Crow Creek and came to Gooseberry in the Fall of 1891. Dickie had left Scotland and gone to New Zealand where he went into the sheep business for a few years, he had good sheep but, wasn’t satisfied with the climate and types of forage. Sold out and came to Rock Springs, where he started in the sheep business again. The area was what he thought was overrun with sheep, he would go to some new place where he could have room to enlarge his lands and herds of sheep. His ideas were long thought out in advance. This country had been overrun with cattle in the mid 1880’s but the winter of 1887 and ’88 was the longest and coldest that has ever been recorded in Wyoming history. The summer had been hot and dry so consequently there was very short grass crop on growth. No one had ever tried to raise any hay. Winter started in last part of September and snows just fell at will. The sun would come up in the morning but there was no warmth to its rays. By November 1 there was two feet of snow and they didn’t know how cold, but the air would be blue around the horizon. By December 1 nearly all the old cows and young calves had died. Sliney told that the next spring he could walk on cattle bones from the old Padlock Ranch to Thermopolis, said they lost 5000 head of cattle that winter. The summer of ’88 was a good year. The grass grew tall and rich, but now there were no livestock to eat it. That winter killed off most of the buffalo and wild game animals. The coyotes and wolves lived a fat life that winter, didn’t even have to chase their prey, but the next couple of years they lived on old dry hides and bones. Had it not been for this bad winter no doubt some history of Wyoming would have been different. Rothwell bought the remnants of Sliney’s horses and brought in three bands of sheep from the Rawlins country. He was a good business man. Only German sheep or stockman in this area. He put in a system of irrigation ditches and raised a lot of hay. They had all heard how vicious a winter could be in this area. Along any of the creeks years afterward you could see evidence of the 2 tops of cottonwood trees that had been cut off to be used for feed for the few cattle or horses. That was their only feed for those few months of vicious cold. The winter lasted until the last of February. Took the heart out of a man to lose all of his livestock. The stockmen now took to planning for supplement feed to carry his animals through in the event of another vicious winter. But in a few years there was a thick growth of feed in the hills and for some reason they had mild winters for a few years. Billy, Bob Steele and Billy Carmichael came in from Rock Springs with two bands of sheep in the Fall of 1895 and stopped for the winter on Buffalo Creek east of Meeteetse. There was blue stem grass in all of the gulches as high as a horse’s belly, every animal was fat all winter. The Steele’s had leased sheep from Pat Sullivan and Jerry Mahoney of Rawlins and Rock Springs. There were lots of sheep on the Red Desert so when their three-year lease was finished, they headed their sheep North. Went up Big Sandy Creek across the mountain and thru the Fort Washakie Indian Reservation to the Wind River, they made these big Catswold ewes swim the river, Indians were down river to catch any sheep that couldn’t swim, said they only lost about fifty head of ewes. Now they were ready to cross the Owl Creek Mountains and in the Big Horn Basin. George Renner trailed in their sheep (two bands) from the John Day river country in Oregon. Got in to the Cody country in the Fall of 1897 and wintered out on Dry Creek. Ad Renner and their family came overland that same Fall. The Renners introduced a new breed of sheep called Delaine, they were of small body, one of the distinctions of this breed was the fine staple of wool. They were the greasy type, looked almost of a black tinge to their wool. They were a heavy fleeced sheep, fleeces weighing ten pounds. That was unheard of most of the coarse wooled sheep would only shear six pounds. That same Fall the Ted, Adam and Bill Hoggs trailed in to the Meeteetse country with two bands. They were of a better grade of sheep having about a half blood wool variety, they were a big sheep and had the heavier fleece. They were descendants of the Robert Tayor herds of Rock Springs. Tom and Jim Thompson came up from the Sweetwater Country with a band of sheep taking two years to make this move. These sheep men had increased their herds. The only income was from the sale of wool, .07₵ per pound. A ten pound fleece of wool would be priced at 70₵. A herd of good shearing sheep would earn $2100.00 per herd of 3000 head. They had no market for wether lambs as they have today. They were saved and run in big herds of 5000 head. They were paying business and were shipped to Omaha or Chicago markets when they were four or five years old. The Butterfields had increased their number of herds and controlled areas by having this area surrounded by these big wether herds, if someone decided to come into their acquired country, the wether herders were instructed to run their big herd into the challenging herd and mix with them. Now they would have to go to a corralll and run them thru the dodge gate to separate them. If the new herd did not turn back but continue to stay in the area there would be another herd of wethers thrown into the herd. After the new band had been jammed around in the corralls another time they usually went back. The herders in those days would fight for their respective outfits. It has been said there was a herder that worked for Hogg’s, he was nicknamed the “Buttin Dane”, after one encounter with him, he using his head to butt his opponent down, the other herder would use his dogs to round up the herd and hit for other grounds. He had been in many a barroom fight and subdued a few opponents, said the only way you could hurt him was kick his shins. 3 About this time the sheep became infested with Scabies, a parasite fungus causing the wool to fall off in spots and causing raw sores, that in turn would be fly blown, causing maggots and of course the death of that sheep. The magpie and the raven also took their toll literally eating the sheep alive. The sheepmen sent in to get veterinary analysis of the disease and to come up with a solution. A. c. Dent was born in Scotland and a real sheepman and gentleman, he was appointed scab inspector for this area. It was decided that every sheep would have to be dipped in a solution of Blackleaf 40 Nocotine [sic] dip, and quarantined to that particular area, so many dipping vats were built and in the presence of A. C. Dent be put thru the dipper. Bad cases three times that first year. That was an ordeal, the wool was contaminated so had to be put thru a solution before it could be sold. After three dippings the scab was much better but it took several years before it was completely wiped out. Dipping was carried on for many years afterwards just to be sure there were no recurrence and to rid the sheep of ticks.