French in the History of Wyoming from La Salle to Arland
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French in the History of Wyoming From La Salle to Arland Daniel A. Nichter https://wyo.press To Professor Emeritus Walter G. Langlois ii Preamble Let's address the elephant in the room: this is a book about history. And if that isn't boring enough, it's about Wyoming history, a state few people seem to know anything significant about. And to make it really boring, it's about French influences in the history of Wyoming. Wake up! This book is exciting and entertaining! Don't think of it as a history bookI don't. This is a book of stories, real and extraordinary people and their lives. Reality TV? Survivor series? Top chef? Amateurs, all of them! The people we're about meet will amaze and inspire you because, although their world was different, everything about them as humans is timeless. It doesn't matter that you and I have smart phones with GPS but they didn't even have hand-drawn maps of Wyoming. It doesn't matter that you and I have antibiotics but they just let a fever run its course, sometimes for a month or more. The facts of our worlds are radically different, but our hearts are the same: inspiration, determination, grit and perseverance; the joy of discovery, the loneliness of exploration; love, happiness, celebration; jealousy, anger, hatred; doubt, worry, and courage. This book is the product of years of research, undergirded by historical fact and the rigor of academic truth, but au cœur it is a book of stories as relevant today as one hundred years ago or one hundred years to come, for we are all explorers struggling to discover and settle new lands. iii Preface This book changes history. It rejects the prevailing one- dimensional view of Wyoming history and identity which are both firmly posted in a single concept: the American cowboy. Cowboys entrain other concepts like ranches and, more historically due to its great influence on the West, the railroad. Consequently, Wyoming history has been dominated by a focus on developments from 1867 onward when ranches and railroads took hold of the territory before statehood in 1890, retaining that hold until the present day. Ranches and railroads have changed significantly since, but Wyoming still retains much of the cowboy character. But all throughout the state there exist quiet glimmers of a different past, stories that don't begin and end with an American man astride a horse, warm leather creaking as he shifts his weight in the saddle under the dust and sun of a trail vanishing o'er the horizon. The history of the American cowboy is important and wonderful, a true and unique piece of American culture, but history is an ocean into which many waters flow. Perhaps ranches and railroads are the Mississippi River of Wyoming history, but let me guide you down the Snake River of Wyoming history and we'll see far more than ranches and railroads, for on this particular river the people are more likely to greet us with "Bonjour" than "Howdy". iv v Table of Contents Preamble iii Preface iv 1. You First 3 2. Wyoming History Since Heliocentrism 7 3. Cowboy State Kaleidoscope 18 4. Go West and Die 32 5. Too Many Beavers 68 6. Not Enough Saloons 84 7. Opportunity 114 Bibliography 121 vi French in the History of Wyoming From La Salle to Arland Copyright 2017 Daniel Nichter Published March 29, 2017 https://wyo.press 1. You First On ne peut pas courir les aventures et rester à la maison. Victor Arland1 The ski lift takes you and a friend into its recline, rocking gently under your weight. Its procession is slow and the top is far, so you relax and use the time to prepare mentally. It's your first black diamond run. The bunny slope is full of people. Kids slide down, fall over, and laugh. A small group of people watch an instructor demonstrate how to snow plough. And many people simply pass through on their way to the lodge or lifts, exhibiting different levels of proficiency. You recall when you first learned and wonder why you stuck with it after spending most of the time eating snow and walking back up the hill to retrieve your skis. Thankfully, the lodge made those early days sufferable. Many comforts lose their efficacy after growing up, but not hot chocolate; it comforts kids and adults alike. The green and blue slopes are a good twenty feet below your skis, which begin to feel heavy dangling from the chair. You know these runs, having done most of them. They're fun but 1 Victor Arland Collection, May 16, 1875. 3 easy, except that one time you lost control and slid into a tree, lucky enough to hit it broadside rather than head-on. Despite realizing that skiing can be truly dangerous, you kept on. Is that sensible, you wonder? Why risk serious injury? No good answer is apparent, and none is required at the moment. You recall, however, that the hot chocolate had a little extra something in it that day. As the coldness of the chair begins to penetrate your ski pants, the lift rises above the subalpine into brilliant fields of snow atop the mountain. The head of the run is in sight. It's called "Last Chance". It's comforting to know that it's not literal. You could simply stay on the lift and go back down, or, worse case, walk it down. You have many more chances. This is the first chance, not the last. Regardless, as you and your friend hop off the lift at the landing, you wonder how bad it can be. No one has ever died here; that's bad business. Maybe some have broken bones, but it's safe enough. Plus, you've been skiing for years. The most difficult blue run isn't challenging any morefun, but not challenging. Do you want challenging? Is it worth the risk? Why break a leg just to be able to say you skied a black diamond? It doesn't make a lot of sense, but it gnaws at you, and you find your heart races as much for fear as it does for knowing you must do it anyway. After checking and adjusting all clothes and gear, you and your friend stand ready at the signpost, the beginning, "Last Chance". Your friend turns to you and says, "You first." ∞ What do George Washington, Neil Armstrong, and the State of Wyoming have in common? They are all associated with an important "first": George Washington was the first President 4 of the United States of America, Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon, and Wyoming was the first state to grant women's suffrage and is also home to the first national park and monument, Yellow Stone National Park and Devils Tower. These firsts are widely known, but less widely known are the second president, the second person on the moon, or the second state to grant women's suffrage.2 That fewer people know these "seconds" highlights the social and cultural significance of firsts, leading to the question: why is being first significant? Dr. Peter Diamandis, founder of the Ansari XPRIZE—a ten million dollar competition "to build a reliable, reusable, privately financed, manned spaceship capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometers above the Earth's surface twice within two weeks."3— gave this answer: "Every time someone pulls off a first, people subconsciously realize that means there will be a better world for us." 4 The idea that first events signal a better world seems intuitively correct in many cases, not just space flight. In fact, Joseph Nathan Kane compiles first facts in Famous First Facts: A Record of First Happenings, Discoveries, and Inventions in American History, an encyclopedia with over nine thousand firsts from the first abdominal operation to the first zoom lens. Intuition and evidence, like Kane's encyclopedia, suggest that "firsts"—first people, first events, first inventions—are significant because they change what is known and possible. Viewing modern historical accounts of Wyoming through the lens of first people reveals those who were involved 2 John Adams, Buzz Aldrin, and Colorado 3 Ansari XPRIZE, accessed November 5, 2016, http://ansari.xprize.org/. 4 Rayasam, "Does Being First Matter?" 5 with ranches, railroads, and government. This is not surprising because Wyoming was nearly unpopulated by Europeans before the arrival of these industries in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Therefore, these people were formative and influential in present-day Wyoming and, quite simply, they are still fresh in people's memories. However, the history of Wyoming is much older and richer than modern historical accounts. Viewing the wider history of Wyoming through the lens of first people reveals a different and distinct group of people: Frenchmen. This book tells their story which, as first people, contributed significantly to making the West known and life in it possible, leading ultimately to the founding of Wyoming in 1890. Before telling their story, it's important to understand two things. First is Wyoming's place in a larger historical context. Although the territory (before it was a state) was isolated, its history was not. Therefore, the next chapter provides an overview of the history of Wyoming since the seventeenth century which serves to contextualize the dates, places, and people discussed in subsequent chapters. Second is historical views of Wyoming past and present because, to be blunt, some people laugh at the idea that the French had anything to do with the history of Wyoming.