Wyoming's Geysers, and Cowboys

After we crossed the South Dakota border, we were in Wyoming.

Buffalo Bill statue in Cody WY

"Buffalo Bill -- the Scout," a bronze sculpture of William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody as a western scout at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming. The statue was created in 1924 to commemorate the town's most famous resident and de facto founder, Buffalo Bill Cody

We got to Yellowstone NP on the 4th of July. In Yellowstone, because of the bears they would not let us camp without a tent, so we stayed in a cabin. The only fireworks we could have were sparklers.

A bear

Bear holding up traffic - Yellowstone

Back then the bears still came to the dump by the Old Faithful Inn (people staying there would go out on the veranda at night to watch-it was a central part of the Yellowstone experience (both advertised and felt) for decades.) and they came right up to the cars begging for food. It was not until 1970, when Yellowstone banned visitors from feeding bears and set up bear-proof garbage containers around the Park, that bear feeding came to a full stop.

Mostly the animals that we saw were bears, but we did see a moose. I took a photo of it with my little Brownie camera - when the film was developed and the print came back, disappointingly, the moose was only the size of my little fingernail.

Old Faithful

Old Faithful

My sister, my mother and me at Biscuit Basin

Boardwalk around thermal pools

Biscuit Basin

Morning Glory Pool

Morning Glory pool was still a beautiful blue. The vents hadn't yet been clogged by people throwing things in it. (It was said that if you threw in a linen handkerchief, it would come back laundered)

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

There are two falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone but because the river bends between them, you can't see both of the falls from the same point.

Lower Falls Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

When we went to the park in 1948, we were given some kind of schedule with the locations of the geysers and their normal schedule. We tracked some of them down and then waited for them to erupt. My sister remembers the smell of sulphur.

Steam

Geyser

Waiting for an eruption

Grotto Geyser

When we left Yellowstone we went by the Grand Tetons and we camped in the car late one evening - it was dark so we couldn't see our surroundings. We woke up next to a snowbank.

My first visit to Wyoming (that I remember) was back about 1943 to visit my Great Uncle Leonard and Great Aunt Bertha That's where we went next. Uncle Leonard was the brother of my grandmother (my father's mother). He was born in Germany and came to the US in 1893 with his family when he was 11. He worked at various jobs including as a cowboy, but he met his wife Bertha Meyers when he was in engine service with the Union Pacific Railroad. They married in 1914, and in 1917 they built their home at 1310 Garfield in Laramie Wyoming

They lived there until he died in 1965. She outlived him by 20 years.

Great Uncle Leonard and Great Aunt Bertha in front of their house

Me and my mother and sister sitting on the steps with Uncle Leonard and Aunt Bertha

Great Uncle Leonard - a fault in the film makes it look like his gun has fired from the holster

Uncle Leonard brought out his cowboy gear for us to try - hats and chaps.

Me dressed in chaps

There was a photo of Daddy in cowboy gear too, but I can't find it.

Then he took us to the Union Pacific rail-yards.

Union Pacific railyard

Uncle Leonard with us

My sister and me - railroad engineers

My sister and me

My sister waving from the train engine

Next he took us to Cheyenne. Daddy could take a photo of the capital,

Capital of Wyoming

and we visited Baker Cabin in Frontier Park. The Jim Baker Cabin was built in 1873 by frontiersman Jim Baker as a fortified house on the Little Snake River at Savery Creek near present-day Savery, Wyoming.

Baker Cabin, Frontier Park, Cheyenne, WY

The two-story log building measures 31 feet by 16 feet with two rooms on the lower level and a single smaller room on the upper level. The outer walls are made of logs 12 inches to 15 inches thick. Jim Baker was a trapper with Jim Bridger and served as an interpreter and scout with Kit Carson. In 1917 interest in preserving the cabin resulted in its purchase by the state of Wyoming, in part to prevent its removal to Denver for display. It was dismantled and moved to Frontier Park in Cheyenne. (In 1973 it was moved back to Savery).

Baker Cabin, Frontier Park, Cheyenne, WY

And most exciting of all - we went to the Cheyenne Frontier Days.

Cheyenne Frontier Days July 27-31 - sign on top of a hotel

First a parade (where Uncle Leonard got us a place on the corner so we had a good view)

Buffalo Bill's Wild West float

Union Pacific float

Stagecoach float

Stagecoach

Another stagecoach

Appaloosas pulling a red cross carriage

Cowboy

and then we saw our first ever Rodeo.

Arena

Indian encampment on the far end

In 1897, Frederick W. Angier, Traveling Passenger Agent of the Union Pacific Railroad, suggested to the editor of the Cheyenne Daily Sun-Leader, that Cheyenne have festival. It was then that plans were made for the first “Frontier Day”. Events included pony races, bronco busting, and steer roping - events that were seen as a test of a cowboy’s skill. The inaugural event was so successful that the next year it was expanded to two days and a parade was added.

Hitching up a mule

Next we visit relatives in Colorado