Volume 28, Number 1-Spring 2019

Volume 28, Number 1-Spring 2019 Wind River Wyoming Bailey Tire/ Visitors Council Community Pit Stop Bank Adventure Trek Discovery Children’s Schedule Speakers Exploration Schedule Schedule

The schedule for Wind River Visitors The schedule for Wyoming Community The schedule for Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Council Adventure Treks Series pro- Bank Discovery Speakers Series pro- Children’s Exploration Speakers Series grams will be out in early January for grams will be out in early January for programs will be out in early January the upcoming year. the upcoming year. for the upcoming year.

Lander: Apr 13, 10am Lander: Apr 11, 7pm Riverton: Apr 13, 2pm “Noble Hotel Walking Tour” “Lander in 1919” “Paint a Bird House” Lander: May 18, 10am Lander: May 16, 7pm Lander: May TBA, 1pm “Lander Downtown Walking “Teen-Adult Bead Cleaning “Historic Plant Day” Tour” Workshop” Riverton: May 11, 2pm Riverton: Jun 1, 9am Lander: Jun 1, 7pm “Spool Knitting” “Tie Treating Plant Trek” “Rawlins/Ft. Washakie, Dubois: Jun 5, 9am Lander: Jun 15, 10am Ferris Mountains Stage Line” “Kids Corner” “Atlantic City Cemetery Trek” Lander: June 13, 7pm Lander: Jun 8, 1pm Dubois: Jun 18, 10am Carol Deering Poetry “Gold Panning Day” “Ramshorn Guestranch Trek” Riverton: Jun 13, 6:30pm Dubois: Jun 12, 9am Dubois: Jun 28, 8:30am “Kettles & Crakers: Oil “Kids Corner” “Wildflower Trek with Frances Refineries in Wyoming” Dubois: Jun 19, 9am Clark” Dubois: Jun 27, 7pm “Kids Corner” Riverton: Jun 29, 9am “Meadow Wildflowers with Dubois: Jun 26, 9am “Shoshoni Cemetery Trek” Frances Clark” “Kids Corner” Dubois: Jul 9, 9am Dubois: Jul 11, 7pm Riverton: Aug 10, 2pm “Warm Springs Tie Hack Trek” “POW Camp Talk 75th “Super Hero Cuffs” Dubois: Jul 12, 9am Anniversary with Cheryl Dubois: Aug 21, 10am “POW Camp Trek” O’Brien” “Forming Our Horizon” Lander: Jul 13, 10am Riverton: Jul 18, 6:30pm Lander: Aug 24, 1pm “McKinney Ranch Trek” “The Eagle & the Rabbit: “Children’s Ledger Art” Riverton: Jul 27, 9am Preditor & Prey in the Sage Riverton: Sep 14, 2pm “Castle Gardens Trek” brush Sea” “Tin Candle Lanterns” Dubois: Aug 13, 7pm Lander: July 18, 7pm Lander: Sep 14, 1pm “Historic Dubois Walking “Uranium Mining in Fremont “Apple City Festival” Tour” County” Dubois: Oct 19, 1pm Lander: Aug 17, 1pm Dubois: July 20, 1pm “Halloween Pumpkin Carving” “Historic Ed Young Apple “Draper Raptor Experience” Lander: Oct 25, 6pm Orchard Trek” Lander: Aug 15, 7pm “Halloween Night at the Dubois: Aug 20, 9am “Tribal Warrior Art” Museum” “Mystery Sheep Trap Trek” Lander: Sep 7, 7pm Lander: Oct 26, 6pm Riverton: Aug 24, 9am “Historic Wagons with Al “Halloween Night at the “Historic Riverton Downtown Sammons” Museum” Walking Tour” Riverton: Sep 19, 6:30pm Lander: Dec 7, 5pm Riverton: Sep 28, 9am “Uranium Mining in Fremont “Old Fashioned Christmas “J.B. Okie Manor Trek” County” Open House” Lander: Sep 28, 10am Riverton: Oct 17, 6:30pm Riverton: Dec 14, 2pm “CWC Apple Orchard Trek” “Haunted Tails of Fremont “Old Fashioned Christmas Riverton: Oct 19, 5:30pm County” Decorations” “Haunted Riverton Trek” Riverton: Nov 16, 6:30pm “What’s The Deal with J.B. Okie” Please check the calendar at Please check the calendar at Please check the calendar at www.fremontcountymuseums.com www.fremontcountymuseums.com www.fremontcountymuseums.com Wind River Table of Contents Mountaineer Cover Photo: Lander to Rawlins Stage on Beaver Rim p. 1 Series Schedules Volume 28 p. 2 Table of Contents Number 1 p. 2 Board of Directors, Staff November 2019 p. 4 “Jimmy Weisner’s Carousel” Randy Wise: Pioneer Museum

p. 8 “Birth of the Oil & Gas Industry in Wind River Country” Published by Fremont County Museum Zachary Larsen: Riverton Museum p. 12 “In The Spirit of Women’s History Month” Kirsten Belisle: Dubois Museum p. 20 Annual Giving Fremont County Museum Board of Directors

Dave Fehringer Lander

The Wind River Mountaineer is published by the Fremont County Museums. Carla Crofts Sweetwater Ariticles about topics related to Fremont County history can be submitted for review and possible inclusion to Fremont County Museum, 450 N 2nd Rm 320, Lander, WY 82520. Kaye Stoll Crowheart Neither Fremont County or the editor is responisible for statements of fact or opinion contained herein. The editor reserves the right to edit content to fit Sue Peters space requirements. Riverton

Fremont County Museum System Staff Scott Goetz: Central Director Dubois Museum: Wind River Riverton Museum Historical Center Fremont County Pioneer Museum: Lander Zachary Larsen: Site Manager Johanna Thompson: Site Manager Randy Wise: Site Manager : Collections Kirsten Belisle: Collections Manager Manager Robin Allison: Collections Manager 4 Volume 28 No. 1

Jimmy Weisner’s Carousel

By Randy Wise

The steam engine puffs a Jimmie Weisner’s Merry-Go-Round device neither had ever seen before huge billow of black smoke into the was a staple of kid’s lives for a few - a Merry-Go-Round. His daugh- air. The hand carved carousel rum- weeks around the 4th of July from ter insisted on the 5 cent ride, and bles as it slowly begins to move. The 1927 to 1949.* soon Parker had spent .85 cents on wood creaks and the machinery How the carousel came the ride, and returned home with whirs as it gains speed. The brightly to Lander is quite a story, but you no groceries.3 But the seed had been colored horses rock back and forth, must go back to before 1900 to get planted, and Parker cobbled togeth- their red nostrils flaring. The hap- the whole story. er enough money to buy his first py shrieks of children echo through Charles W. Parker was born carousel. the air as the carousel spins. Happy in 1864 and grew up on a farm in He toured with the carou- music plays from the nickelode- Kansas. After the farm failed, young sel and his shooting gallery around on. After a few minutes, it slows Charles worked a wide variety of Kansas and Missouri, tinkering and stops, the steam engine quietly professions, describing himself as with the carousel design as he went, chugging in the background. The a “professor of odd jobs.”1 He even- convinced he could improve it. See- horses rest, and the passengers dis- tually ended up in Abilene Kansas ing that it was a profitable business, mount heading for the small stand with a young family to support. he decided to begin to produce his nearby to buy a soda pop, an ice In 1882 Parker invested in own carousels for sale. cream cone or a hamburger. A new a portable shooting gallery - one of Parker enlarged his shop, line of kids, their dime in hand, wait the few amusement devices on the hired five workmen and began pro- to swing into the saddles. market at the time. He would travel ducing shooting galleries, carousels For over twenty years this to nearby towns, set up the shooting and other carnival rides. All of the was the scene on a vacant lot on the gallery, then move on to the next parts were hand made from wood corner of Third and Lincoln Streets. town. He carved the targets from and had elaborate craftsmanship. wood by hand, and began to tinker By 1897 there were four with making new galleries in a small buildings in the factory in which shop behind his house.2 Parker made merry-go-rounds, One Saturday in 1891 while shooting galleries, Ferris wheels, buying groceries with his last dollar, cylinder pianos, barrel organs and he and his little daughter heard the tents to hold it all.4 Eventually Park- Jimmy Weisner Carousel Ticket wheezy whine of an organ and saw a er manufactured band wagons, con- Volume 28 No. 1 5 cessions, show fronts, banners, and er ever devised for amusement pur- steam engines.5 poses,” a Parker advertisement read, To produce his carousels “A home buyer and a mortgage Parker had a large group of skilled lifter.”7 “Careful inspection of my carvers and artists. Many of them machine will prove that it is prop- were Germans who carved with erly made, more durable and more chisels. The horses and the fronts substantial, and more elaborate in of the carousels were hand carved, every way than any other merry- usually out of poplar. The horses go-round ever put on the market,” had to be sturdy enough to hold up another advertisement read.8 under hundreds of riders as well as Parker’s early carousels dif- endure being taken down, loaded fered from what people expect to- on a wagon and hauled to another day where the horses are on poles Jimmy Weisner with his steam engine that town to be set up again. Each horse and rise up and down as the carousel ran the carousel. was elaborately carved with a long spins. His carousel’s revolving frame Weisner was active in the body, long leg muscles, long head, was supported by 16 wheels which Lander community. He was on the flaring nostrils, flowing mane and traveled on a steel track. There were City Council, and active in the fire arching tail (the mane and tails were 24 horses and four chariots that department. He was known around also carved of wood). Parker copy- could hold 4 people each. The hors- town for his green Ford Model A, 6 righted his horses’ design. es were mounted on flexible metal which he drove for thirty years.9 While Parker made almost frames, or rocking mechanisms, on Weisner bought the Parker everything a circus could need, his the platform, so each team had an carousel in 1927. The family says claim to fame were his carousels. independent rocking mechanism. A that a travelling showman had come They were “the greatest money-mak- cable ran on a grooved rim on the to Lander with the carousel, they outside of the wheels to a steam en- were, after all, designed to travel gine which powered the machine. It from town to town. The showman was this type of early carousel that had difficulty in getting anyone to Jimmy Weisner bought and operat- let him set it up and was planning ed in Lander. ** on leaving town. Weisner, who Jimmy Weisner was born in loved children, loved mechanical 1880 in Greenland County, Colora- things, and saw a business opportu- do. He came to Wyoming in 1894 nity, made him an offer. and worked on ranches in Fremont Whether he was tired of and Sweetwater Counties and as hauling the machine from town to a government trapper. In 1921 he town, or just in need of some ready moved to Lander and married Jen- cash, the showman accepted the of- nie Stowe. He operated a garage for fer, and the Parker carousel found a many years, then later a saw filing new home in Lander, Wyoming. business. Jimmy Weisner as a young man. His daughters and wife 6 Volume 28 No. 1

I named mine Scout, after Tonto’s horse from the Lone Ranger show. We were heartbroken when the carousel left.” After delighting children in Lander for 24 years, the Merry- Go-Round at last left town - but not very far. In 1949 Weisner, in failing health, sold the concession to Tom Knight of Riverton, who had just opened the Knight Drive-In The- ater. Knight operated the Merry- Weisner Carousel located at 3rd and Lincoln in Lander for 20 years. Go-Round in the summer as part of the Drive-In. He had agreed to let helped run the carousel when it was were there on a slow afternoon or Weisner haul it back to Lander for operating - Jennie selling tickets evening, your ride might last lon- Pioneer Days celebration over the and concessions and his daughters ger than half an hour,” recalled long 4th of July, and for a few years the collecting tickets. “Daddy kept the time Lander resident Butch Hud- operation re-appeared in Lander.13 steam engine in tip-top condition son. “During those less busy times When Tom Knight died, and the horses rocked back and Mr. Weisner patrolled the mech- Mrs. Knight looked for a home forth giving the youngsters a thrill anism with a grease gun or long for the vintage Merry-Go-Round. and no doubt dreams of gallop- spouted oil can. He would lubricate Parker horses had become very col- ing off into the hills,” recalled his every hinge and grease fitting on the lectable and she knew it had histor- daughter Carolyn Werner. “Music carousel, and never got one spot of ic value. Over 6000 carousels were was furnished by a nickelodeon. oil on his bibs.”11 built in the United States between Tickets were .10 cents each, but no The 24 horses were brightly 1890 and 1925, but less than 250 one was turned away if they didn’t painted, with white, black, blue, red, have the money. *** Mother ran the yellow, buckskin and other colors. ticket booth, my sister and I both The wooden chariots featured hand took tickets, going round and round painted carvings. One was of sun- to gather them - our heads still go- flowers winding around a horn-of- ing round and round when we went plenty and the other of two cranes to bed at night!”10 eating. The carousel was covered Some Lander residents by a 50 foot wide canvas round top still remember the fun they had at tent.12 the carousel and Weisner. “In his Virginia Isabell, who grew ever present bibbed overalls and up in Lander, remembers the car- billed cap, he gauged the length of ousel well. “We all had our favor- the ride by the length of the line of ite horses, which we named,” she Carolyn & Leanna Weisner: Ticket takers kids waiting an empty horse. If you said. “We’d rush to get ‘our’ horse. on the carousel. Volume 28 No. 1 7 intact hand carved ones remained nication, 2019 because the parts were so valuable. 11. Butch Hudson, Lander Journal, July 4, 2007, page B2 Only two other intact Parker carou- 12. Carolyn Werner, personal commu- “Discovery” sels with the rocking motion horses nication, 2019 13. Wyoming State Journal, July 12, were known to exist. 1949, page 1 The Official She contacted the Smithso- 14. Abilene’s Carousel, Cecilia Harris, The Dickinson County Historical Society, nian Institute in Washington D.C., 1986, page 34 but they already had a carousel eNewsletter from that era, so they suggested she * Across from the three story Fed- contact the Dickenson County His- eral Building, which held the post of torical Society in Abilene, Kansas. office, weather bureau and federal The Kansas group held bake sales, courthouse - for many years it was garage sales and solicited donations the Pacific Power and Light build- Fremont County to raise the $8,000.00 to bring the ing, today the building owned by 14 carousel back home. In 1982 the the Wyoming Catholic College. money was raised and the carou- Museums sel was returned to Kansas. Other ** Later Parker made carousels with fund-raising got money to restore the poles that lifted the horses up it and build a building to keep it and down. To be in. The wooden tails were replaced with actual horse hair, and the hors- *** Weisner actually charge .8 cents included on the es were stripped of many layers of for a ride, the other .2 cents were paint and repainted. The carou- sales tax email list of sel was named a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Ser- those vice in 1987, and is still on display at the Dickinson County Historical who receive, Society Museum in Abilene. For $4.00 you can still take a spin. “Discovery”

Bibliography 1. Abilene’s Carousel, Cecilia Harris, send an The Dickinson County Historical Society, 1986, page 4 2. Ibid, page 7 email request to 3. Ibid, page 4 4. Ibid, page 8 5. Ibid, page 8 scott.goetz@fre- 6. Ibid, page 26 7. Ibid, page 23 8. Ibid, page 23 montcountywy.gov 9. Weisner Obituary, Wyoming State Journal, April 4, 1959, page 6 10. Carolyn Werner, personal commu- 8 Volume 28 No. 1

“Birth of the Oil & Gas Industry in Wind River Country” By Zach Larsen

In this first part of a se- on candles or on lamps powered by and his company, under the direc- ries on Fremont County’s oil and whale oil. Though whale oil was ex- tion of Edwin Drake (who called gas industry, we are looking at the pensive, it provided nicer light than himself ‘Colonel,’ to impress locals) birth of that industry in the Unit- wax candles. This oil became ob- drilled the first successful oil well ed States, in the American West, solete starting in the 1850s, when, in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859. and in Fremont County, Wyoming. scientists and entrepreneurs in Eu- A rush to Titusville ensued, and Knowledge of the existence of rock rope discovered a method to refine oil scarcity turned to a glut as pric- oil – the name given to distinguish petroleum into a fuel they named es collapsed. Demand eventually it from animal or plant derived oils Kerosene. This fuel was cheaper to caught up, and the price recovered. – in Wyoming significantly predates produce and provided better light Pennsylvania oil soon found itself the arrival of Europeans. Like many even than whale oil. To provide the exported to Europe, which helped Native American groups, early fur product for this new industry, peas- the United States economy stay trappers believed that oil from these ants in Galacia and Rumania hand afloat during the Civil War, as the Tar Springs had healing properties. dug shafts and recovered oil, still by secession of the Confederate States On the word of these mountain hand.2 Though promising, the ma- deprived the North of revenue from men, Captain Benjamin Bonne- jor problem with this fuel was the cotton exports. ville located such a spring southeast scarcity of its source materials. Rock Drilling for oil was more of present-day Lander in 1832. 1 oil was not strictly necessary. syn- profitable and less labor intensive Apart from medicinal uses, thetic oil could already be derived than mining, but it was still a pro- early petroleum (literally ‘rock oil’ from coal, but this process was ex- foundly unpleasant task requiring in Greek) found use mostly as a lu- pensive. When available, oil was far hours and hours of backbreaking la- bricant for animal and coal powered less expensive. Despite early supply bor. Never known as pleasant places, machinery. Production was prim- scarcity, enough recoverable oil was one visitor to an early Pennsylvania itive. Hand-dug pits near oil seep available that by 1859, a refinery in oilfield remarked that “the whole would fill with a mixture of oil and New York City was producing 5,000 place smells like a corps of soldiers ground water. Workers skimmed oil gallons daily, and it had become a when they have the diarrhoea.”3 off the water using blankets or rags, $5,000,000 per year industry. The oil industry’s early rung them out into containers and Inspired by an advertise- growth was raucous. From it’s ear- repeated the process. This method ment in a shop in New York City, liest discoveries, oil has been sub- of oil production was used in south- George Bissell, cofounder of the jected to booms and busts. Though ern Wyoming’s oil seeps and sold to Pennsylvania Rock Oil Compa- kerosene became a wildly in-de- Union Pacific. ny thought that oil might be more mand product, the growth of oil Through the mid-1800s, easily recovered if drilled instead supply frequently outpaced refining those fortunate enough to have illu- of mined. Though mocked for this capacity and even demand for the mination in their homes relied either idea, it was ultimately successful, fuel. On the other hand, scarcity of Volume 28 No. 1 9 crude would sometimes push prices help someone called Dr. Graff, used was not the guarantee of riches that to extraordinary highs. One Penn- the springpole method to drill Wy- finding the same substance in Penn- sylvania farm near an oil rush saw oming’s very first flowing oil well sylvania was two decades previous- its value increase from virtually on the very same piece of land that ly. In order to be useful for anything nothing to $2 million in 1865. Oil Captain Bonneville had written more than lubrication, oil must be production suddenly dried up and about some 50 years earlier. Using refined, and Wyoming had no oil re- that same farm sold at auction for a long wooden pole, secured to the fineries. Furthermore, there existed less than $5 in 1878. These booms ground at one end and propped no efficient way to move machinery and busts pushed the development up on a fulcrum, a driller attaches into or oil out of the area and to the of oil further and further west. a stirrup and suspends a heavy bit market. The Wyoming State Journal The rocky ups and downs from a piece of sturdy rope on the recalled in 1918, “The drilling of an of the oil industry also spawned other end. The driller then bounc- oil well in the [eighteen] eighties several schemes to stabilize prices. es on the stirrup causing the bit to was no small undertaking, as all ma- The story of John D. Rockefeller’s repeatedly strike the ground in the chinery, tools, casing, etc., had to be Standard Oil, founded in 1870, and same location, loosening the soil freighted by mule or oxteams from the near total monopoly that com- and rock. Water is poured in the the Union Pacific railroad, 150 miles pany achieved in the industry re- hole which turns the drill debris or more.”4 Likewise, any oil that quires and deserves a much more into a slurry. Then the drill operator left did so by ox or mule powered comprehensive treatment than falls lowers a pipe with a one-way valve tanker. Evidence of the field’s early within the scope of this article. Suf- in the bottom end to the bottom of struggle for profit are evidenced by fice it to say, he managed to bring the well. The slurry gets trapped in the ownership of the field, which some semblance of stability to the the pipe, and it is pulled out of the changed hands several times in its new industry. Standard’s hallmark well. The process is repeated until first 20 years. blue kerosene tins were guaranteed oil (or in other cases, water or brine) Early wells had no ability to to contain only the highest quality is encountered. be completely shut off when there kerosene, without additional oil by- At Dallas Dome – the name was nowhere to store excess produc- products, added water, or other fill- given to the Murphy’s field, they en- tion, so in Dallas Dome, they built ers. countered oil at 300 feet. However, big pondlike pits to contain surplus Fast forward to the end of finding oil in Wyoming in the 1880s production. In 1906, the railroad fi- the 1800s. Kerosene still rules the illumination market, but it is beginning to face stiff competition, es- pecially in urban areas, by Thomas Edison’s recently-patented electric lightbulb. In 1882, his bulb first lit a portion Lower Manhattan from a flip switched by Edison from the office of J.P. Morgan. Edison’s in- vention was to the kerosene industry what the digital camera was for the photographic film industry, and as soon as electric plants could be built, customers left kerosene behind in favor of electric light. In this transition period, Mike and Frank Murphy with the An drilling rig in the earlies Fremont County oil field. 10 Volume 28 No. 1 nally came to Lander, and a crude invited to be present, July 5th 1909”5 mal-powered transportation. Cars oil depot had been established ad- Residents who were able to could go faster, so smoother oiled jacent to the rails near the newer travel, went to the oilfield to watch. roads soon began to replace dirt or oilfields at Wyopo. Finally, in 1909 a Those who couldn’t make it still graveled roads. new pipeline connected Dallas’ pro- could see the plume of smoke reach- Since 1909, Dallas Dome has duction to broader markets. ing high into the air from Lander. gone through periods of expansion The pipeline’s anticipated It’s difficult to imagine today, nearly and contraction, modernization completion coincided with Lander’s 110 years after this event, that any- and stagnation, with sometimes 1909 Independence Day Celebra- thing about setting fire to a lake of wild ebb and flow of the petroleum tion. Edward H. Power – the then crude oil, or even the existence of a industry. Some years, the field only current owner of the field – had a lake of crude oil would be a cause of produced a tiny trickle. Other years, special celebration planned and celebration.6 it fared much better. Even though took out a full page advertisement Though the pipeline’s con- its overall production are not even in the Wyoming State Journal: struction progressed, it’s ultimate a drop in the bucket of total world- “Thousands of barrels of opening date was delayed. Digging wide oil production, this remarkable the splendid fuel oils produced by ten miles of trench three feet deep little oilfield is not only home to the our flowing wells have been burned by hand was an impressive feat for first flowing well in Wyoming, but it in the past to get it out of the way. the more than one hundred men has been in constant production for We propose to utilize this valu- employed to perform the task. In the roughly 135 years since. able product of nature and the last addition, the hilly terrain required big lake of accumulated oil will be some 500 bends for the length of the Bibliography burned on July 5th to commem- pipe. Oil flowed from Dallas to the 1. “First Wyoming Oil Wells, “ American orate the nation’s birthday and to railroad via the new pipeline for the Oil & GAs Historical Society, March 1, mark the beginning of a new era for first time in October of 1909. 2019, accessed April 4, 2019, https://aoghs. Wyoming. Fifty thousand barrels of The few decades following org/petroleum-pioneers/first-wyoming-oil- burning oil will make a gorgeous Dallas’ first well were revolution- well/. and spectacular bonfire, the like of ary, even in rural America. Electric 2. Daniel Yergin, “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power, Free Press trade which has never been seen before. lights replaced kerosene lamps. For- pbk.ed. (New Yourk: Free Press, 2008), 8-9. It is an event marking the tunately for the petroleum industry, beginning of a greater prosperity for at roughly the same time, gasoline 3. Ibid., 15. our great state and you are specially powered motor cars replaced ani- 4. R.H. Hall, “Fremont Country’s Early Oil History,” Wyoming State Journal (Lander, March 29, 1918), sec. I. 5. “Edward H. Power - Pipe Lines and Oils, “ Wyoming State Journal (Lander, WY, July 2, 1909). 6. Myra Connell, “Dallas Oil Field Started It All,” Lander Journal (Lander, WY, July 2, 1984).

Oil well in the Dallas Dome OIl Field Volume 28 No. 1 11

“Trailblazer”

The Fremont County Museums in Dubois, Lander and Riverton are excited to announce our newest program. The “Trailblazer” program is specifically designed to allow business to provide a unique benefit to their employees and support three valuable organizations that en- hance the County’s economy through cultural heritage tourism.

You receive: Annual Family Pass for you and an Annual Individual Pass for each of your employees (valid for general admission at all three museums for 1 year)

Special recognition for your business as a “Trailblazer” in our monthly newsletter “Discov- ery” and our website www.fremontcountymuseums.com

15% Discount in Museum Gift Stores for you and your employees

Contact Scott Goetz

at 307-332-1075 to find out how you can become a

“Trailblazer”

Current Members

First Interstate Bank

Home Source Realty

The Print Shop

Overhead door Company 12 Volume 28 No. 1

“In The Spirit of Women’s History Month”

By Kirsten Belisle

In the spirit of Women’s it proves hard to envision the smoke History Month, officially dedicated and grit of 1911 New York City and in 1987, and the overarching “Year the women who worked hard to im- of Wyoming Women” celebrations plement changes to the work place, taking place, this article explores the the government, and other facets of lives of various women who lived in the public sphere. The disastrous in- the Upper Wind River Valley. Mary spiration to celebrate female contri- Back, one of these women, perfectly butions to the world directly affects captured the complexity of human Wyoming, woven into its existence existence when she wrote, “life is just like a tapestry that reaches from rich, and it takes both the light and coast to coast and encompasses the dark threads to weave a tapestry.”1 tallest mountain and lowest valley. Loss is the price of love, pleasure It is the multifaceted aspects of hu- cannot be understood without pain, man experiences within the larger Girls with Guns: Men, Women & Children and men cannot exist without wom- world that create a reality worth cel- all worked to put food on the table in the American West. en. Therefore, history is incomplete ebrating and histories worth explor- region. One of the peoples to occupy when only one side is told. ing. this region were the Mountain Sho- During March, many indi- Women in the Mountains shone, also called the Sheep Eaters viduals and institutions celebrate Like many parts of Wyo- due to the prominence of bighorn Women’s History Month, with ming, the Upper Wind River Valley sheep in their diets. Some of the International Women’s Day cele- depended on the tenacity, the brav- oldest artifacts in the Dubois Mu- brated on March 8. The tradition ery, and the diligent care of female seum: Wind River Historical Center of celebrating International Wom- figures. Unfortunately, history is are soapstone objects carved by the en’s Day began in 1911 as part of complicated because historians can Mountain Shoshone, namely, sturdy a labor movement among female only tell the stories that are remem- bowls with which they cooked. Men workers who sought to work with- bered, let alone recorded. Put sim- gathered the stone from natural out discrimination and to eliminate ply, historians do not know what quarries in the region, but women dangerous working condition. The they do not know, and the Upper carved the pots since cooking was a leaders of this movement chose the Wind River Valley was home to an woman’s task in Mountain Shosho- date of March 8, 1911 as the first In- impressive amount of unnamable ne society. Considered an heirloom ternational Women’s Day because it women whose lives varied from object, mothers passed cooking ves- marked the third anniversary of a being mere footnotes in history to sels down to daughters over several fire that swept through a New York front and center events. generations. Many of these original textile factory, killing 129 workers, Thousands of years before bowls are on display at the Dubois predominantly women. the first white man stepped foot in Museum, helping illustrate the fe- Now, 108 years later and sit- the Upper Wind River Valley, indig- male experience in ancient times. It ting in Fremont County Wyoming, enous people left their mark on this Volume 28 No.1 13 took great skill not only to construct remain in the home changed signifi- these bowls, but to cook effectively cantly in recent years, many wom- with them as well. en who lived in the Upper Wind Sacagawea (1788-1812 or 1884) River Valley possessed the primary One Shoshone woman of roles of mothers and homemakers. note was Sacagawea, of the Lemhi Raising children, making meals, Shoshone. A hostile tribe kidnapped and keeping a clean house were, and the young woman and brought her still are, respectable tasks in which to present-day North Dakota, a long women took pride. Women like Ma- ways away from her home in pres- hala Burlingham and Esther Mock- ent-day Idaho. It was there that she ler are just two of the creative, dili- married, whether by choice or by gent women whose main jobs took force, the French fur-trader named place in the home. Toussain Charbonneau. She accom- Mahala Burlingham (1849-1928) panied the Lewis and Clark Corps of Mahala was the matriarch of Discovery as a translator and guide the first white family unit to settle in through the Rocky Mountains. Her the Upper Wind River Valley. They Mahala Burlingham in a rocking chair at skills and knowledge proved indis- came to the area in the fall of 1888, her ranch in 1918. pensable to the success of this jour- having wound their way west from bers many things about her mother. ney. Iowa. She gave birth to one son in Frankie once said, “Mother cooked According to several Native the back of a stagecoach, raised eight meals on that [camp] stove for American oral histories and an in- children, and helped build the first many years. My mother was usually vestigation by the Bureau of Indian road through Stoney Point (a pre- cheerful, welcomed everyone, and Affairs in the 1920s, Sacagawea end- viously impassable area west of Du- was a favorite with all the bache- ed up living and dying in Wyoming bois).3 Her first home was a small, lors and cowboys who enjoyed the on the Wind River Indian Reserva- one room cabin on the Dunoir. fresh-baked bread that she always tion.2 Though this information is Andy Manseau, one of the had to offer them. Mother made highly debated, a grave and memo- first white men to take up permanent all our clothes by hand. Underwear rial dedicated to Sacagawea are lo- residence in the Valley, recounts the was made of flour sacks that she cated in Fort Washakie, WY. moment the Burlinghams first ar- bleached before she made the un- The women of the Moun- rived: derwear…”5 tain Shoshone, Eastern Shosho- “I had been riding in the hills Two of her sons served in ne, Arapahoe, and other tribes all all day. I saw some wagons coming World War I. A picture of Mahala contributed to their communities up the road a way off…I wondered sitting in front of her house where and cultures, but accessible records who they could be. As they came a flag with two stars, which was the on specific individuals’ lives prove closer, I counted seven children, a symbol of two children in military scarce. Still, they merit celebrations man, and a woman with a baby in service, hung in the window be- as part of the detailed tapestry of her arms… I felt sorry for the poor came a popular postcard and pub- women’s history. woman, who would be the only one licity image during the war years. Women in the Home h e re .” 4 Her daughter Frankie would use the Both ancient and modern Despite living a pioneer life lessons in homemaking, caretak- women were protectors, business with few comforts and having a hus- ing, and common sense she learned owners, healers, and leaders. Sa- band who left her on her own for from Mahala to also aid countless cagawea received international ac- months on end to go play the violin, families in the Valley. claim as a guide and translator, but Mahala successfully kept her family Mahala died on April 21, she was also a mother. While tra- fed and clothed. Frances “Frankie” 1928, having spent 40 years in the ditional expectations for women to Moriarty (née Burlingham) remem- Upper Wind River Valley. 14 Volume 28 No. 1

Esther Mockler (1906-2007) us the importance of constant vig- 80 miles from the nearest doctor, While Mahala raised her ilance and regular maintenance.”6 and the heartache of losing friends children and made her home in the Though Frank did most of and family members all shaped Es- late 1800s, early 1900s, Esther did the outdoor work on the ranch, Es- ther into an impressive woman who not come to the Upper Wind Riv- ther was his constant advisor and refused to let the pain of living over- er Valley until 1931. They were two listening ear, often giving guidance. shadow its joys. women from very different times, Esther was in charge of all indoor Women in the School but they both took great pride in matters. Many of her funny anec- Elsie Stahlnaker (1891-1965) their roles as wife, mother, and dotes involve thwarting the mis- Elsie Stahlnaker was the homemaker. Esther was a prolific chief her children got into or her first teacher within the actual town writer who recorded her life in the challenges with cooking at high alti- of Dubois, teaching at its first grade book Eighty Miles from a Doctor, tudes. She hired the ranch help and school, which was located across which tells her story of a young wife supervised them. from where the Welty’s store cur- and mother learning to live, and Esther impressed people rently sits. According to a letter then thrive, in the wild American with her hunting skills on multiple from Mary Back in 1955: West. occasions.7 Living during the Great “Elsie Stahlnaker is a fight- Esther met her husband on Depression also meant that Esther er from way back…Elsie is ready a blind date when attending school needed to be creative when it came to charge into battle at any time… at the University of Nebraska in to feeding her family. Her ingenious she taught only one year, she taught 1928. Frank C. Mockler spent ten use of food leftovers developed into only in the little mountain village of summers on a family ranch just “Icebox Soup,” where she used all Dubois, but her impact on the life of outside of Atlantic City, WY and food leftovers to create a myriad of our times is directly in the field of that connection is what brought the meals. She took in itinerants during education. She has served 13 years Mocklers to Wyoming. Toting her the depression, making meals and on the board of School district #35, newborn baby in a basket, Esther sharing resources in exchange for and has watched and had a powerful and her sister took a train to Bonne- their work on the ranch. place in the transition of the Dubois ville, WY where they met Frank in a When the US entered World school from a shabby two-room car. He brought them the rest of the War II, Esther and Frank were one shack with no water, toilet, or oth- way to Dubois, and the old Green of only a few young couples still left er conveniences, into a school plant Ranch. The year was 1931. Esther in town. She had since started the in fine condition with a teacher for 8 writes, “I realize how fortunate we community’s first public library and each grade.” were to have purchased a neglected volunteered to oversee the Little Elsie came to Dubois in 1911 ranch. Cleaning up the place and Theater in town, but with a lack of at the age of twenty. A train and three repairing ditches and fields taught available ranch hands, she took on buckboard wagons brought her to more tasks with the herds, including Dubois where she boarded with giving vaccinations to unruly calves the Welty family. She held school in during branding time. She support- the dance hall, opposite of Welty’s ed her husband when he joined the store, that abutted the bottom of the State Legislature in 1940 and when cliff in town. They only had tables, he went to law school, but she did benches, and nine pupils. Two ru- not sacrifice her own ambitions. She ral schools also existed, one west of earned a position on the National town on the Green Ranch and one Library Board, had her own radio east of town at Jakey’s Fork. segment, and raised her children When Elsie got married to Floyd Stahlnaker in 1912 she could Elsie Stahlnaker taught her first class of into successful adults. Her struggles students in the town’s dance hall, the log of making a home out of ramshack- no longer teach due to laws in place building located at the bottom of the cliffs. le cabins, the challenges faced living at the time. Still, Elsie stayed in Volume 28 No. 1 15

Dubois with her husband and son, prepare future generations of this Edith would end up owning helping manage various proper- ranching community. over 30,000 acres of land for cattle ties around the valley and hosting Women in Ranching herding and farming. When she boarders at their home. Many peo- Many women coming to the passed away, she left her son as ex- ple remember her as “a marvelous Upper Wind River Valley were con- ecutor of an estate worth $139,000 cook and the house sparkled.”9 Elsie nected to the ranching industry in ($2,573,480.88 in today’s money). also drove the mail route in 1919- some way, and some more than oth- Esther Pickett Wells (1913-2017) 1920 after a flood destroyed the ers. Some, like Edith Cross or Es- Having lived in and left ranch and both parents had to work ther Pickett Wells, tried their hand Dubois for college in Laramie, Es- to recover from the loss. at cattle ranching, sheep herding, ther was not surprised to find her- Elsie stayed involved in farming, etc., but some, like Sunny self back in the Upper Wind River town business and joined the school Washburne of the Hotfoot Ranch Valley in 1937. Her father, Henry board in the late 1930s. When she or Marion Moore of the CM Ranch, Clendenning, invited Esther and her joined, the school was still housed found success with a different type husband to go into ranching with in “a shabby, drafty, two-room frame of ranching: dude ranching. him up the DuNoir. This brought building which had been such a Edith Cross (1871-1936) a significant change for the couple. splendid structure back in 1917”10 Though many people think Esther cooked for the ranch hands when it was built. A contract with ranching was purely a man’s busi- on a wood-burning stove, like many the WPA saw logs cut and built into ness, it was not unusual for wom- ranch wives did. She went a few steps a much larger school building, but en to file on land and establish farther than most ranch wives went when Elsie joined the board that big their own ranches. Edith Hornickle when it came to caring for animals. log building was just a “shell, unus- Cross saw the rewarding opportuni- The Picketts had almost a able as it stood with an unfinished ties ranching offered, and she seized thousand acres of good hay land basement, four rooms above it, and the chance. and ran about 1000 head of cattle the shell of a standard gymnasium In 1905, Edith bought 480 and 100 head of horses, which were with a stage.”11 Elsie worked with acres up the DuNoir from D. Keis- a Morgan mixture for saddle stock the Board to install stoves in the ter. In 1906, Edith and her 13-year- and Percheron and Belgian breeds classrooms, a central heating plant, old son, George Cross, personally for workhorses. During World War water, and sewage. Following the drove a herd of cattle from their II, when the most able-bodied men lead and advice of Bernice Wel- home on Lander’s North Fork up to were off fighting or working in war ty, who had started and continued the land in Dubois. Edith made this industries, it was left to Esther to the hot lunch program at the orig- 90-mile trek twice a year until 1908 watch over the herds of animals inal schoolhouse, Elsie worked to when she hired her son to stay with while her husband worked to main- acquire the necessary resources to the herd during the winter. She had tain the ranch hay fields, etc. build a dedicated lunchroom in the taught her son to ride from a young According to personal re- new school to serve the students. age, often putting him on a colt, cords of Dubois residents, Esther, History does indeed give which followed the mare she was “who is slender girlish person… Elsie credits, along with dozens of riding.12 went up to the cow camp in the other women who saw to it that In addition to her ranching mountains and all alone managed the children and adults of the Up- endeavors, Edith was also the post- the herd…” It was the early 1940s per Wind River Valley received an mistress of the post office located and the war had called most capable education. From eight-month stints down the Dunoir Valley. Originally, young men into service while other to multiple year’s commitments, the post office was named Never- men left town to seek out the lucra- women like Laura Pease, Alo Jones sweat, but became the Union Post tive war industry jobs. Esther re- Fossey, Katherine Baker Johnson, Office. As one of the residents in the fused to let her ranch suffer though. and many others dedicated their valley, Edith offered her services as While her husband managed the time and skills to educate past and postmistress from 1909-1911. farming and maintenance of the 16 Volume 28 No. 1 main homestead, she watched over guests’ experiences by refining the around their ranch, heading south the herds. She “had the herd bro- aesthetics of the property. into the Wind River Mountains or ken up into little bunches of about In a 1928 letter to Charlie, Marion North into the Badlands. An avid thirty head, cows and calves with writes: rider, she did not shy away from the one bull each ranging up a separate “About the flowers—many fishing or hunting trips that her hus- draw. She had to ride all the draws sweet peas, the real large daisies band and guests attended. Several to check on each bunch, be sure and small ones too—They would be photos show Marion field dressing they were well fixed for grass, water, nice in front of the dining room and animals she hunted. and salt, and that nothing was amiss round-up don’t you think? I wish When she was not super- with any of them….she knew her Louie would talk to Mrs. Beck—she vising the outdoors activities, Mar- watersheds and the arrangements of has such beautiful flowers, what ion played the old pump organ set her herd!”13 thrives best, etc. More of the white up in ranch’s recreation room. Her Marion Moore (1899-1992) flowers by the dining room, any- bright and entertaining personality Many guest ranches supple- thing bushy and flowery too is nice kept the CM Ranch running just as mented their incomes with herding up against any of the buildings. But much as Charlie’s shrewd business animals or planting hay in irrigat- tell Louie I will write to him a more dealings did. ed fields, but their focus remained detailed list. Be sure and have him Women in the Tie Camps on the eastern dudes who spent plant two pine trees by each cabin While the Upper Wind Riv- their summers in Dubois. The CM on the hill. Did the meat house get er Valley boasts a rich tradition of Ranch, started at its present location built? Is the ice-house? [Do not] ranching and related tourism, one by Charlie Moore in 1920, gained a forget to padlock the jellies, in the cannot overlook the timber indus- woman’s touch after Marion Laid- cellar… I’ll have a million things to try that helped put Dubois on the law married Moore in 1928. She ask about when I see you!”14 map. The rich, dense stands of lodge instructed her husband and their Clearly, Marion had her pole pines beckoned the logging ranch help on how to improve their ideas on how to make the ranch companies of the early 1900s to set a little more palatable to people down roots in the mountains. The outside of the teenage boy demo- remoteness of the mountains and graphic, which was Charlie’s orig- valleys surrounding the Wind River inal target audience. In the same awed and intimidated most people, letter, Marion also mentions build- meaning a life in these areas was not ing a breakfast cabin on the ranch’s for the faint of heart. Without the property for their guests and adds hard work of the various men who that she planned to take courses at cut, oversaw, or advised the compa- Columbia University or New York ny’s actions, Wyoming Tie and Tim- University to learn how to run a ber would not have prospered to the ranch kitchen intelligently. extent that it did. Still, the female Marion truly became a full presence in the tie camps dotting partner in the CM Ranch. People the mountains helped make the ru- often saw her around the ranch ral camps into animated hubs of life. dressed in riding chaps and a wide- brimmed hat, ready to wrangle Lydia Olson (1895-1985) some horses or unruly dudes. She Lydia Olson left her mark was an avid photographer and spent on many generations of Upper hours capturing the adventures and Wind River Valley residents. Born Marion Moor, dressed in leather riding shenanigans her husband and their Lydia Battles, she came to Dubois chaps, observes activity going on in one of guests got up to. Marion also led in 1911. She married Kay Clark in the CM’s corrals. many pack trips into the mountains the early 1900s and lived with him Volume 28 No. 1 17

months, when snow buried hous- smallest bit of common sense health es for months at a time, Lydia usu- and healing information could be ally headed the impromptu skiing the difference between life and death parties that took place along the in the Upper Wind River Valley. snowcapped hills. She invited the There are countless stories other women in Headquarters and of women taking the lead and treat- the surrounding camps to meet on ing a variety of ailments, delivering “the hill”—a location mentioned babies, and stitching up wounds. in records, but never named—for a Mothers cared for their neighbors’ morning or evening of skiing and children as much as they cared for then tea at her home, another partic- their own, and wives often cared for ipant’s house, or in the cookhouse.16 the many bachelors who called the After the days of the tie region their home. Esther Mockler’s drives ended, Lydia led the charge book Eighty Miles from a Doctor to preserve the community bonds illustrates some of the medical is- and celebrations through an annual sues women on the 1930s and 40s Agnes Trego, Betty Dolenc & Lydia Olson Swedish Smorgasbord. She taught frontier dealt with, but several other all lived in the tie camp with their families, working to make the isolated settlements many of the women in town how women have their own tales of deal- home. to make the Swedish culinary dish- ing with woes as well. on Sheridan Creek where he worked es popular with the original Scan- Annie McKenzie Williamson (1881-1975) as a ranger. Kay died from influen- dinavian tie hacks. Her time spent Very few men, and even few- za, leaving Lydia with their young cooking for the tie hacks and then er women, lived in the Dubois area daughter, Doris, to care for on the married to Martin expanded her who had basic medical training. An- edges of the forest. Lydia kept going culinary skills to include items like nie McKenzie Williamson was one though and found work as a cook Swedish meatballs and fatiganau. of them. She left her home in Gair- at the Big Warm Springs tie camp, Lydia spent much of her time lock, Rothshire, Scotland at the age when she married again and had in the tie camps cooking up ideas to of 18 to come to the Wild West in her son, Norman. She left her sec- entertain the tie hacks, their fami- the early 1900s where she married ond marriage and returned to the tie lies, and others with the assistance a stranger. Her husband-to-be was camp as a cook, where she became of Betty Dolenc and Agnes Trego. Dave Williamson, a master stone- acquainted with the woods boss, Betty’s husband, Tony, managed the mason who helped build almost ev- Martin Olson. They were married in commissary at Headquarters un- ery stone structure in the Wind Riv- 1928, and they spent over 40 years til they moved to Dubois. In town, er Valley. According to the records, together. Betty ran the Dubois Mercantile for Annie found a hard, but good life in The cookhouse became a almost 20 years. Agnes Trego’s hus- Dubois. center for activities in the fall and band was the bookkeeper for Wy- She received First Aid training as a winter. In fall, Ricker VanMetre, oming Tie and Timber, and their nurse in Scotland, and the American the president of Wyoming Tie and daughter, Joan Trego Pinkerton, West and its residents sorely needed Timber, shopped in the stores sur- wrote the renowned Knights of the her medical knowledge. Neighbors rounding the company’s Chicago Broadax that recounted the “Story often called on Annie to help with headquarters for gifts to give em- of the Wyoming Tie Hack.” injuries and to deliver countless ba- ployees’ children in the tie camps. Women in Medicine bies in the Valley (both human and Once bought, the VanMetres mailed When one lives 80 miles animal ones). Hank Blagg, a ranch the presents to the Olsons and Lyd- from the closest person with profes- hand for the Greens, broke his leg ia would sort through the packages sional medical training, it becomes while working. The Greens called to decide what gifts would fit which necessary to develop some rudi- on Annie, who set the break and child.15 Also during the winter mentary medical skills. Even the monitored the man while it healed, 18 Volume 28 No. 1

with. During the winter of 1925- who worked from dusk until dawn, 26, when the only water source Annetta “Nettie” Stringer was one of for their homestead cabin was the them. She came to Dubois in 1901 creek, Charley, Sue’s husband, took where she, her mother, and four his wooden shoulder yoke with its brothers joined three other brothers two buckets and went to fill them who already lived there. Single and up at the frozen creek. When he in no way worse for it, Nettie filed did not return, Sue began to worry on her own homestead claims and and went to look for him. She took began her own run as a successful a sled down to the creek and found business owner. Nettie managed a him on the ground, having slipped very busy bed and breakfast out of on the ice and paralyzed his spine. her homestead, which was located Without hesitating, Sue got Charley just west of present-day Dubois.20 up on the sled and pulled him back With seven brothers and an to their cabin. aging mother to care for in addition The road was snowed in and to her own business inclinations, Annie Williamson poses in her nursing uniform at the age of 18. the nearest neighbors lived miles Nettie rarely had a night alone. away. With no other way to get help Most daily work for Nettie includ- which it did without mishap.17 and no modern remedies like heated cooking, cleaning, laundry, iron- Annie also saw her fair share ing pads or painkillers, Sue used ing, and gardening. She also irri- of bullet wounds, some purposeful her common sense to treat her hus- gated the Stringer properties when and others not. When Henry Pease band’s injury. She filled quart jars her brothers were busy with other accidentally shot his wife Vera while with hot water, heated on the wood jobs. Records from the Museum’s cleaning his gun, Annie dressed the range, and put them all around archives say that Nettie oversaw ex- wound and cared for the women for him.18 tensive ditch digging endeavors on three weeks. Annie helped mend Charley once stated that her property in 1907, filing for per- broken bones, cared for gunshot his wife “was a girl of such indom- mits and personally designing ditch wounds, and nursed lightning strike itable courage and thirst for ad- layouts that would effectively divert victims. It is said that, without An- venture that she eagerly welcomed water from Geyser Creek. nie, the Valley would have been an the loneliness and hardships which Nettie also cared for a large emptier place. were the accepted lot of a pioneer’s garden filled with vegetables. Net- Sue Beck (1904-1990s) life.”19 Sue and many other women tie’s diaries, kept from 1908-1911, While Sue Beck is more dealt with the mental and physical describe a wide variety of crops she known for her involvement in the hazards of isolation throughout the grew and harvested for her family to ranching business of Torrey Valley year. Weather destroyed bridges and use as well as to sell to other resi- and the lasting impact she had on dumped piles of snow on the ground dents. Welty’s Store and individu- preserving the natural beauty of the while the level of work required to al people in the area all purchased land, she also handled her fair share manage a ranch meant people could goods from Nettie. There is a note of medical emergencies. Living in not take off days to visit their neigh- in one diary of 1600 pounds of po- Torrey Valley meant Sue had beau- bors. No telephone lines and an 80- tatoes being delivered by wagon tiful vistas and wildlife to enjoy, but mile trip to the hospital in Lander to Welty’s Store.21 Throughout her it also meant she contended with meant the women in Dubois need- diaries Nettie mentions selling the long trips to town on narrow dirt ed to be creative in their remedies, following: alfalfa, barley, potatoes, roads as well as isolation during bad both for boredom and illness. and smaller quantities of vegetables weather. Women in the Hospitality Business including rutabagas, onions, peas, Bad weather was the cause Nettie Stringer (1879-1962) turnips, cabbage, lettuce, radishes, of one medical emergency Sue dealt If ever there was a woman cauliflower, carrots and parsnip. Volume 28 No. 1 19

tional programs and opportunities Eastman, January 26, 1925, American Heri- for “renewal in sacred wilderness.” tage Center, University of Wyoming She was a single mother pur- 3. Esther Mockler, “Recollections of the Up- per Wind River Valley (Dubois, WY: Lucius suing a divinity degree and planning Burch Center for Western Tradition, 2000, & the operations of a guest ranch. This “Eighty Miles from a Doctor” (Longboat Key, meant the hard work did not stop, FL: Wind River Press, 1997), 94-95. even when she dislocated an elbow 4. Mockler, Eighty Miles, 94. and broke a leg. With the help of a 5. Mockler, Eighty Miles, 95. 6. Mockler, Eighty Miles, 39. small board of volunteers, Maggie 7. Mockler Eighty Miles, 22 and 55. distributed marketing for her guest 8. Mary Back, “Elsie Stahlnaker: First Teach- Maggie Kahin leads a string of packhorses ranch, designed cabin layouts, and er in Dubois, WYoming, 1955. on an outfitting tripp in 1938. hired the volunteers. She also put 9. Mary Allison, Dubois, Wyoming Area together the summer schedules and History (Dallas: Curtis Media Corporation, 1991), 278. After Albert and Oscar Stringer invited speakers to present at the 10. Back, Elsie Stahlanker, 1955. finished building their well-known ranch. 11. Back, Elsie Stahlanker, 1955. hotel in 1913, Nettie assisted them Guests started out as youth, 12. Allison, Dubois Area History, 1991. as the establishment’s cook. She and then went on to include adults, 13. Ruth Mary Lamb, “Mary’s Way: A Mem- and finally targeted families. Ac- oir of the Life of Mary Cooper Back (Casper, bought a lot of land from Mr. Nicols WY: Future Prep Corporation, 1999), 163. and personally drew the plans for cording to records, all activities 14. Marion Moore to Charlie Moore, Febru- her two-story home, the first one were optional except helping with ary 1928. built in Dubois. Her pies, made dishes and cleaning one’s cabin at 15. Joan Trego Pinkerton, Knights of the fresh every day, and other meals the end of each session. These as- Broadax: The Story of the Wyoming Tie 22 signments helped people remember Hack (Caldwell, ID: The Caxton Printers, kept guests well fed and satisfied. Ltd. 1981), 34. Nettie’s diaries describe the many that they were participants in this 16. Pinkerton, Kights, 38. colorful characters who came to ranch experience, not just passive 17. Mockler, Recollections, 113. stay at the Stringer Hotel. She enter- observers.23 Maggie “urged people 18. Lois A . Poteet, “A Flower of the Spririt: tained, fed, and laundered clothes to trust their spirit and engage na- The Story of Charley and Sue Beck, (Dubois, ture and one another in ways that WY: Sue Beck, 1070), 5-6. for these guests, earning admiration 19. Poteet, Charley and Sue Beck, 4. 24 from men and women alike. Her fed their souls.” 20. Allison, Dubois Area History, 284-85. first-person writings help modern Finding capable and de- 21. Annetta Stringer Diary 1908-1911, audiences picture what it took to pendable staff each season required Stringer Collection, Dubois Msueum become a self-sufficient woman in creativity, persistence, and con- 22. Stringer, 1909, Stringer Collection, Du- nections. Caring for the ranch’s bois Museum. early 1900s Wy- oming. 23.Carl Kock, “Renewal in Sacred Wilder- Margaret Baker Kahin (1922-1983) horses and maintaining buildings ness: The First 50 Years of Ring Lake Ranch Marga- ret “Maggie” took gumption. Ministering to the (Dubois, WY: Ring Lake Ranch, 2017), 36. Kahin frequented the Dubois area unique individuals who trod into 24. Kock, Renewal, 37. during the summers of her youth. Torrey Valley took understanding She would live a full life—higher and instinct. Maggie Kahin pos- education, marriage, children, di- sessed all of these qualities, and be- vorce—before she put down perma- came one of the many women who nent roots in Torrey Valley. She had left their imprint on the history of a dream and an inheritance at her the Upper Wind River Valley. disposal to make her idea for a west- Bibliography ern retreat a reality. In 1965, Maggie 1. Mary Back to Jack H. Anderson, 1982, purchased the 1,000 acres that be- Jack H. Anderson Memorial Collection, Du- came Ring Lake Ranch. This guest bois Museum 2. Grace Raymond Hebard to Charles A. ranch specialized in offering educa- Fremont County Museums Annual Giving The Fremont County Museums’ mission and goals are simple. All three museums (Dubois, Lander, Riverton) strive to provide quality education and entertainment to each visitor through research, exhibits, interpretation and programs. In order to achieve these goals we depend heavily on private contributions to the individual museums. Private contributions make up the vast majority of resources we need to provide the programs and develop the exhibits that benefit our visitors. We ask you to consider giving annually to the museum or museums you feel most connected to.

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