Download Original 11.05 MB

TRADING POSTS, PORTS AND BRIDGES OF THE CASPER AREA. UNMVELING THE TANGLE ON THE UPPER PLATE By Robert A. Murray ........... .............................................................. 5 P. J. QUEALY: WYOMING'S COAL MAN AND TOWN BUILDER By Glen Barrett 3 1 HUGH KIRKENDALL'S WAGON TRAIN ON THE BOZEMAN TRAIL, 1866: LETTERS OF C. M. S. MILLARD Edited by Lonnie J. White ...................................... ..... ........................ 45 FRIDAY: ROVING ARAPAHO By Evadene Burris Swanson ....... ............................... ........................ 59 J. B. OKIE, LOST CABIN PIONEER (Conclusion) By Karen L. Love .......................- ............. - .................................. 69 WYOMING STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Minutes of the Twenty-first Annual Meeting ... 101 BOOK REVIEWS Hoig, Tks Wesfern Odyssey of John Simpson Smith: Frontiersman, Trades and Interpreter ............................................ Rosa, They Called Him Wild Bill. The Life and Adventures of James Butler Hickok, 2nd Edition, Revised and Enlarged ............ SuIIivan, Martin Murphy, Jr. California Pioneer 1844-1884 ............ Bartieit, Naiure's Yellowstone; Haines, Yellowstone Nalional Park: Its Expbration and Esra blishmeni ...................................... Ehernberger-Gschwind, Sherman Hill ................................................ Kane, Twelve Mormon Homes. Visited in Succession on A Journey Through Utah to Arizona ................................................ Moore, Shoot Me A Biscuit; Hughes, Chuck Wagon Cookirr' .......... Pedersen-Wald, ShaII the People Auk? A Hisiory of the Democraiic Party in Nebraska Polifics. 1854-1972 .................... Bourne, Ranch Schoolteacher CONTRIBUTORS ......................- ................ ...... ................................... 128 INDEX ..................................... ... ........................................................... 129 ILLUSTRATIONS W. H. Jackson Sketch of fort Caspar ....................... - ........-.--......Cover (Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department) Map, Fort Caspar Area ...................................................................... 4 Early Day Street Scene, Kernrnerer ................... .. .... ,. ....... ,....,..-. 34 W. S. Post Store, Rernmerer ...............-.......................................... 34 Chief Friday in the 1860s .................................... ......................... 62 1849 MORMON Fm POST A? PLkTfE law-1059 PCAMp P I mlh- tke ra~gleOH the Upper Phtte AUTHOR'S NOTE This paper is an effort to bring into more general public howl- edge the resdts of research done by the writer in 1971 in the course of projects for the Wyoming Recreation Cornmission, The Parks Department of the City of Casper, and the Casper Chamber of Commerce. It is but one example of the kind of by-product that can resuIt from effective correlation of the interests and re- sources of state and IocaI governments and individuals on historical projects. Particular thanks are due to several persons. Mr. Thomas Nicholas of Casper is one of the region's most serious and skilled research historians. He, more than anyone else, kept alive the local knowledge of the relationship of the earlier military posts and Richard's Bridge, in the face of the kind of controversy that some- times develops among local historians. Re, along with the late Dick Eklund, Bill Morgan, Robert Carpenter, Grover Phelan and Charles "Chuck" Morrison and others of Casper, led the archaeo- logical work in 1963 which confirmed the locations of Richard's Bridge and its related structures. Mr. 0.W. "Bill"' Judge of Fort Caspar Park and Museum spent appreciable amounts of time discussing the Guinard Bridge and its associated sites wiUE us over a period of several years. The members of the Fort Caspar Com- mission, the staff of the Wyoming Recreation Commission and others were very helpful. The Western History Collections of The University of Wyoming as well as the Historical Research Division of the Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department were most helpful. And far from least, John D. "Jack" McDermott shared with us the contents of his fine file on the Richard family. Written history of the Casper, Wyoming5 vicinity begins with the account of Robert Stuart and his party of returning Astorians in 6 ANNALS OF WYOMING 18 12.1 Stuart and his men pioneered the easy-gradient Platte Valley, Sweetwater, South Pass route through the Rockies which contributed so largely to the settlement and development of the Pacific coast as a part of the United States. Fur traders used the route as a major means of access to the central Rockies for over 30 years after Stuart's time. Thus well known, the trails along the Platte quickly became the main channel for emigration to Cali- fornia and Oregon as well as to intermediate points in the years after 1841. From 1841 to 1842, the old trails along the Platte near Casper were in a very real way the "main street of the continent," During the peak years of that emigrant traffic and through a period of Indian warfare that followed, the locale achieved a tactical importance in both commercial and military activity of the region. Despite this real importance, the attention given to this locale by historians has been fragmentary, and all too much fo- cused on a handful of particularly dramatic and emotion-charged events. It is perhaps time to pull these historical loose ends together into a coherent framework of history for the region. Much new research data has come to light within the past two decades that is useful for this purpose. THE RIVER CROSSING PROBLEM Emigrant trails into Wyoming generally paralleled the North Platte River on both its north and south bank. A few groups would change sides at some point east of Deer Creek, but this was optional, and depended upon their evaluation of trail conditions. In order to turn off up the Sweetwater valley, it was essential, however, to attain the north (left) bank of the river no further upstream than Bessemer Bend, for not far above chat point Jackson Canyon offers an obstacle then impassable to wagons. Parties corning dong the south bank could cross in dry weather in the late summer and autumn at many points along the river. In the days before the development of major irrigation facilities involving management of the Platte River flow, the river's level was much more sharply seasonal than it is at present. Spring and early summer saw a prolonged season of high water that coincided for various reasons with the arrival of the largest numbers of emigrant caravans on the upper Platte. In such high water, a river crossing by wagons was risky at its best. The risk was sufficient to offer some opportunity for comrnercia1 ferrying of the river, and ferrying operations form the beginning of seasonal commercial activity in the area. I. Spaulding, Kenneth, On the Oregon Trail, Robert Siuari's Jonrney of Discovery, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1953). TRADING POSTS, FORTS AND BRIDGES 7 Historian Dale Morgan presented the detailed story of ferrying of the North Platte at this area in an earlier issue of Annals of Wyoming.' There is no need to duplicate his effort here, but outlining it and suppIementing it with other data will help to put later developments into context. Brigham Young left nine men in this vicinity to establish ferry service in the summer of 1847. At first they used a sole-leather skiff they called "The Revenue Cutter," to ferry the contents of wagons across the stream. They moved at least once during that first season, and after several experiments built rafts on which to float wagons across the river."ach season a new party of men came out from the Mormon settlements to put their ferry back in operations. In some years they evidently buried the boats for protection through the inter.^ In 1849 these Mormon ferrymen built a substantial stockade at their ferry point. They also evidently engaged in blacksmithing to add to the income of their venture. At this time they used decks of planking floated on dugout canoes as ferry boats.Vaptain Howard Stansbury of the Corps of Topographical Engineers visited this stockaded Mormon ferry of 1849. Careful analysis of his journaIs and maps make it evident that their structure and ferry operated from the south bank of the river in an area that is prob- ably within the present North Casper Park.o In 1850 they used a conventional cable-drawn ferry of plank flatboats, such as were common on the eastern rivers.' All told, the Mormon ferrymen occupied perhaps half a dozen locations, including the major fortified position, in the six seasons from 1847 through 1852 that they worked hexs The demand for ferrying service generated competition. Most of the emigrants came from regions where the rivers were much more formidable obstacles to travel than the North Platte, and ferrying was a widespread craft in the old frontier region from which they came. Stansbury crossed the river at Deer Creek on a privately owned ferry in 1849,"everal travelers of 1850 men- tioned a "Missouri Ferry" somewhere near the Mormon Feny.lo 2. Morgan, Dale L. 'The Mormon Ferry on the North Platte", Annafs of Wyoming, July-October 1948, pp. 11 1-167. 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid. 6. Stansbury, Howard. An Expedition to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, reprint from the 1852 London edition, (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Uni- versity Microfilms, 1966), pp. 59-60; Stansbury maps, copies in the Western Interpretive Services collections, originals in the National Archives. 7. Morgan, op. cit.

Load more