Living Our Dream

Wyoming Territorial Prison

The Wyoming Territorial Prison is located in Laramie, WY, which is about an hour back toward the west from where we were staying in Cheyenne. Because we were unable to find a campground we liked in the Laramie area, we opted to make it a day trip from Cheyenne.

The Wyoming Territorial Prison was built in 1872. It became the Wyoming State Penitentiary when Wyoming became a state in 1890, and it operated until the summer of 1903 when inmates were transferred to a new facility in Rawlins, WY. Throughout its 30 years, the facility held over 1,000 men and at least 12 women prisoners.

After the prison closed, the University of Wyoming took over the land and operated it as an experimental stock farm until 1987. In 1989, a group of citizens began restoration of the old prison. It was opened as a historic site in 1991, and is operated under Wyoming State Parks.

The self-guided tour starts with the restored warden's house, which was built in 1875 using prison labor and stone quarried in the surrounding area.

The warden originally shared his house with the prison guards, who lived in the section of the house to the right. Notice the separate door on the right. In 1889, the prison was expanded, and the guards were moved to new quarters inside the prison building. The warden's house is restored and furnished to reflect the period of 1890 after the guards moved out.

 

The original prison is the section to the far right in the photo below. The center section with the gable roof and the section to the left were added in 1889.

Outside the main entrance, Paul couldn't resist trying out the prison wagon.

Inside the main entrance are the warden's office and the processing room where the new prisoners had their heads shaved, their pictures taken, and they received their prison uniforms.

The next photo shows the new prison kitchen in the center section of the building. Trustees did all the cooking for their fellow inmates and for the guards. The food was transported to the dining hall on the second floor by a dumbwaiter.

 

Each wing of the prison has 42 cells on three levels. The photo below shows the north (old) cell block from one of the third floor watchtowers. There was a watchtower on each side, and from the watchtowers the guards could keep their eye on the entire cell block.

The cells are 6' x 6' x 8' and were sparsely furnished. A bathroom cell with a toilet, washbasin and bathtub was located on each level.

The cells in the south (new) cell block were only 5' x 5' x 8'. They were smaller to make room in this wing for the prison laundry on the first floor and the infirmary on the second floor.

The main "claim to fame" of the Wyoming Territorial Prison is Butch Cassidy was once incarcerated there. Butch Cassidy was born Robert Leroy Parker to a Mormon family in Utah. As a teenager, he fell in with a cattle rustler by the name of Mike Cassidy. Parker eventually changed his name to George Cassidy to avoid bringing shame to his family. He earned the nickname "Butch" while working in a butcher shop in Lander, WY. Butch Cassidy is shown in the photo below.

 

Butch was an inmate at the Wyoming Territorial Prison for 18 months from 1894 to 1896. Although he lived a life of crime as a cattle rustler, bank robber and train robber, it was the only time he spent in jail.

Butch Cassidy's story was romanticized by the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid starring Paul Newman as Butch and Robert Redford as his partner Harry Longabaugh (the Sundance Kid). Butch and Sundance's gang was the Wild Bunch. Some of the gang members are shown in the 1901 photo below. Shown are (seated) Harry Longabaugh (The Sundance Kid), Ben Kilpatrick (The Tall Texan), Robert Leroy Parker (Butch Cassidy), (standing) Will Carver and Harry Logan (Kid Curry).

Prisoners were employed in various tasks as part of their rehabilitation. Among other things, they did leather work, baking, candle making, shoe repair and taxidermy. In 1892, inmates began construction of the broom factory behind the prison building. Today, volunteers continue to demonstrate how the equipment was used to make brooms. The brooms are sold in the gift shop.

Behind the broom factory are several historic buildings that have been relocated from other places in Wyoming including a church, a school house and a cabin. The next photo shows Margery in front of the cabin.

There is also a reconstructed frontier town that is staffed by volunteers. The buildings were all closed when we were there, and they are probably only open on weekends and for special school field trips.

The 1910 horse barn that was built for the University of Wyoming experimental stock farm that occupied the grounds after the prison was closed has been remodeled and is used for various rotating exhibits. They were featuring a printing exhibit. They were also playing a CD of the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

As we left the prison, the motorcycle with the cool little trailer we saw in the parking when we arrived was still there. The trunk of the car opens so it can be used as a utility trailer.

On our way back to the motor home, we stopped at Tree Rock. It is located in the median of I-80, and there are pull-offs from both directions where you can stop. The tree, which is a limber pine, is growing out of a crack in the pink granite. Although the age of the tree is unknown, we know it was there when the transcontinental railroad was built because track crews diverted the track slightly to pass by the tree. Early trains used to stop so crews could give the tree  drink from their water buckets.

In 1901, the railroad was relocated to the south, and the abandoned roadbed became a wagon road. Later, Lincoln Highway was built along the wagon road, and I-80 was built in the 1960s. Just think, the Lincoln Highway (Route 30) that we often traveled when we lived in Pittsburgh extends all the way out here.

We enjoyed our week in Cheyenne; but with with Cheyenne Frontier Days approaching, we knew it was time for us to be on our way. The campground was booked up so we couldn't have extended our stay even if we had wanted to. From Cheyenne, we headed northeast.

Cheyenne, WY, Part III: Botanic Gardens, Frontier Days Museum and Wyoming State Museum

For our next sightseeing outing we headed to the northern part of the city to Lion Park and Frontier Park that we saw the day before on our trolley tour. We went to the botanic gardens first while it was morning and still somewhat cool.

Cheyenne Botanic Gardens isn't a huge garden, but it's free, and it's nicely done. In addition to numerous landscape garden areas, it also has a solar greenhouse, two community gardens and a children's garden.

The photo below shows Margery by a bridge just inside the entrance to the garden.

 

The next photo shows Paul in the cottage garden on the other side of the bridge.

We both like delphiniums, and they were blooming beautifully when we were there.

We enjoyed exploring the different areas of the garden and the many flowers in bloom.

We spent about an hour strolling around, and we exited through the rose garden.

Across the road from the Cheyenne Botanic Garden is Frontier Park where the rodeo and many of the other activities for Cheyenne Frontier Days are held. Frontier Park is also the location of the Frontier Days Old West Museum. In fact, you can easily walk there from the garden.

The Old West Museum, which was included in our combo ticket for the trolley tour, has a lot of pioneer history. A sculpture outside depicts a pioneer woman looking over her shoulder. the title of the work is "No Turning Back."

The next photo shows just a few of the 150 horse-drawn vehicles at the museum. It is one of the largest collections in the world. Many of them are used in various parades in and around Cheyenne, including Cheyenne Frontier Days.

The museum also has a lot of history about Cheyenne Frontier Days and about the rodeo. Of course, what would a rodeo be without championship buckles.

The next photo shows Paul posing by part of the bull-riding display.

Margery enjoyed reading about Miss Frontier for this year's event.

The museum has an excellent movie about some of the past rodeo champions. One young champion by the name of Lane Frost was killed by a bull in 1989. Outside the museum is a sculpture created in his honor.

We'll have a little more about Cheyenne Frontier Days and the rodeo in our next post.

Also outside was one of the "Cheyenne Big Boots." These 8-foot tall boots are decorated by local artists and are located all over the city to promote Cheyenne's western heritage.

From the Frontier Days Old West Museum we headed back downtown to the Wyoming State Museum Wyoming State Museum since it was only early afternoon. Unfortunately, the museum doesn't allow any photography at all inside, so all we can show you is the outside.

The free museum is quite well done with excellent, well-marked exhibits detailing the history of Wyoming. There are displays of pre-historic times with a couple of dinosaurs as well as natural history displays of present-day wildlife. There are displays showing the history of Native Americans, the railroad, and pioneers. The museum follows Wyoming history all the way to present day.

Although we were not planning to stay for Cheyenne Frontier Days, we have a little preview of the event in our next post.

Cheyenne, WY, Part II: Depot Museum, State Capitol and Governor's Mansion

At the end of our trolley tour of Cheyenne, we were right outside the Cheyenne Depot Museum which was included in our combo pass, so we went inside to have a look around.

 

The Cheyenne Depot was built in 1886-1887 by the Union Pacific Railroad. Although the depot wasn't designed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson, it is built in Richardsonian Romanesque style. Richardson was a prominent architect of the 1800s who designed (among other things) the Allegheny County Courthouse and jail in our old hometown of Pittsburgh. Sandstone quarried near Fort Collins, CO, was hauled in by rail for the construction of the depot. The building and the plaza outside were renovated in 2001-2002. In addition to the museum, the building houses several businesses and a restaurant.

As expected, the museum follows the history of Cheyenne as related to the railroad. There are a few railroad artifacts, but the history is primarily told through old photographs. In the photo below, Paul is pointing to the future location of the depot on a bird's eye view of Cheyenne from 1870.

As we learned on our trolley tour earlier, the town was laid out in 1867 as the trans-continental railroad approached from the east. We learned about the transcontinental railroad several days ago when we visited Promontory Summit north of Salt Lake City, the legislation to authorize the transcontinental railroad was passed in 1862. We thought it was a little odd such a large endeavor would be undertaken during the Civil War. Here in Cheyenne, we found out the reason. The southern states objected to building the railroad because they felt the northern states would receive the major benefit, especially if a northern route were used. After the southern states seceded from the Union, the northern states were in control of Congress, and it was easy to get the railroad approved.

The next photo shows a view of Cheyenne similar to the one above, except this one is from 1900. By that time, the city had grown significantly. Old wooden buildings, which had been destroyed by fire, were replaced with buildings of brick and stone.

From the Depot Museum, we drove a short distance up Capitol Avenue to the Wyoming State Capitol. The building is open for self-guided tours on weekdays. Guided tours are available by appointment.

Out front there is a statue of Esther Hobart Morris who was the first female Justice of the Peace, and who was active in the women's suffrage movement.

 

Wyoming was admitted to statehood in 1890. The capitol building was started in 1886 and completed in 1887 while Wyoming was still a territory. The building is constructed of sandstone, the first two courses of which were quarried near Fort Collins, CO. The remainder of the sandstone came from Rawlins, WY.

Inside, we were struck by how much warmer the building appeared compared the the Utah State Capitol. The Utah Capitol was much larger and the inside was lined with polished, gray marble whereas the Wyoming Capitol is painted warm colors and the interior makes extensive use of wood for stairs, doors and trim. The photo below of the inside of the dome shows some of the warm lighting and colors of the Wyoming Capitol.

Even the large, bronze bust of Abraham Lincoln had a warm, personal feel to it.

On our self-guided tour, we also saw the chamber for the House of Representatives...

...the senate...

...and the Legislative Conference Room with its 1,000 pound Tiffany chandelier.

The Wyoming Supreme Court meets in a separate building a few blocks away form the capitol.

Since we were on a state government theme and since the Historic Governor's Mansion was located only a short distance from the capitol, we decided to also take a look at that while we were downtown. A new Governor's Mansion was completed in 1976 several blocks to the northwest of the Historic Governor's Mansion. The Historic Governor's Mansion is now a free museum operated by the Wyoming State Park system.

The brick and sandstone mansion was built in 1904 in the colonial revival style. It was considered to be very modern back in the day with central plumbing, hot water heat and combined gas and electric lighting. The mansion underwent extensive restoration from 2004 to 2005. Rooms are decorated and furnished in various periods from 1905 through the 1960s.

Nineteen governors and their families called the mansion their home over its 71-year history. While each governor did a certain amount of decorating to suit his own family's tastes and needs, the mansion underwent extensive remodeling in 1937. Several of the rooms, including the kitchen shown in the photo below, reflect that 1937 vintage today.

The next photo shows the den, which was redecorated in the 1950s. Doesn't it look like a typical "man cave?"

After our visit to the Governor's Mansion we called it a day and headed back to the motor home. There are still lots of things to do in and around Cheyenne, and we'll tell you about some of them in our next post.

From Gillette, we drove about 6 hours west to Cody, WY. It was a little farther distance than we usually like to drive, but we there were some things we wanted to see in Cody. On the way,we drove over the Bighorn Mountains. This was our first glimpse of them.

 

On the way, we pulled off at this overlook to enjoy the view.

In Cody, we stayed at Absaroka Bay RV Park. The sites are a little narrow and most of the back-in sites are very short. The pull-throughs are also a kind of short, but they have provided a little extra gravel along sides of the roads so we were able to park our toad sideways. The campground has paved interior roads, gravel sites, and grass between sites.

Cody, WY was named for William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody and lies in the Bighorn Basin among the Bighorn Mountains to the east, the Absakora Range to the west, and the Beartooth Mountains to the north. William Cody first entered the Bighorn Basin in the 1870s. Its beautiful scenery, rich soil, and abundance of fish and game prompted his return in the 1890s with several friends for the purpose of land development.

The original site of the town was at the east end of the Shoshone Canyon, but was later moved a little farther to the east to its present site. Cody's fellow developers insisted the town be named Cody. The town was incorporated in 1902.

William Cody was instrumental in getting the Burlington Railroad to build a spur to the new town. He talked his friend, President Teddy Roosevelt, to establish the Bureau of Reclamation and build the Shoshone Dam and Reservoir (later renamed the Buffalo Bill Dam and Reservoir) west of town. These developments greatly added to the success of the town.

Cody also used his own money to build a hotel in town he named after his youngest daughter, Irma. Every evening in the summer, there is a gunfight re-enactment on the street outside the hotel. Chairs are rented for $1 and posters are sold with proceeds going to charity. The dialogue was a little corny, but the characters were interesting. The characters circulate among the crowd before the show signing autographs and posing for photos. In this bar scene during the show, Buffalo Bill is wearing the buckskin jacket and Wild Bill Hickok is seated in front of the dance hall girl in blue. Although a little shorter (Buffalo Bill was a little over 6' tall), the character looks amazingly like Buffalo Bill.

Museum of the Old West at Old Trail Town lies on the original town site. Old Trail Town is a collection of buildings, wagons, and other artifacts from the late 1800s. The buildings were collected from various locations in Wyoming and Montana, moved to Old Trail Town, and reconstructed.

The buildings include a saloon and two cabins used by Butch Cassidy.

The cabin in the photo below was originally located on Buffalo Creek west of Kaycee, WY. It is where Butch and the "Hole in the Wall Gang" planned some of their robberies.

The main attraction of Cody, WY is probably the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. This is not only a comprehensive museum of the history of Buffalo Bill himself, but of the entire area. The museum has five buildings - one for Buffalo Bill, one for the natural history of the area including geology and wild life, one for the history of the Native Americans of the plains, one for western art, and one for American firearms.

The western art museum has paintings and sculpture by Fredric Remington, Charles M. Russell, and other well-known artists who portrayed western history and myth. In addition to numerous sculptures and paintings by the various artists, the museum includes a reproduction of Fredric Remington's studio.

The Plains Indians Museum portrays the history, traditions, and culture of the Native Americans of the plains. The museum contains examples of their art, weapons, homes, and costumes.

Margery was intrigued with the "on-board" travel accommodations for babies. Note the cradle board beside mom's leg.

All the other museums were very informative, bur our main interest was learning about Buffalo Bill himself. We first met up with William Cody in Le Claire, IA, which was his birthplace. The house he lived in as a child has been moved from the Le Claire area to the grounds of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody. Actually, the story we heard back at the Buffalo Bill Museum in Le Claire was that the house stood vacant and for sale for a long time with no interest. The residents of Le Claire were dismayed to learn that the eventual buyer would be moving the house to Wyoming. Sometimes you have to lose something before you know it's value.

Buffalo Bill was a very interesting character. He was a gold prospector, a pony express rider, a Civil War soldier, an Army scout, and a buffalo hunter. He earned his nickname while hunting buffalo for the Kansas Pacific Railroad to supply meat for the railroad workers.

But he is best known as a showman because of "Buffalo Bill's Wild West." Although we usually hear it called "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show," the word "Show" was never part of the title. In 1893, the name was changed to "Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World," which was quite a mouthful.

The museum follows Cody's adult life and understandably puts a heavy emphasis on his show. Cody created what was to become Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1883 and the show would continue in one form or another for about 30 years. The photo below shows a buffalo hide coat with beaver trim worn by Cody. Behind the coat is a photo of Cody wearing the actual coat on display and holding the rifle on display.

The show usually began with a parade of the performers wearing their finest attire. During the show, there were staged races, shooting demonstrations, feats of skill, and re-enactments of stagecoach robberies and Indian attacks. The show typically ended with re-enactment of Custer's battle of the Little Bighorn with Cody himself playing General Custer.

Many famous personalities were also part of the show. Sitting Bull, who was a Lakota Sioux who took part in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, appeared in Buffalo Bill's Wild West. The famed sharpshooter Annie Oakley joined the show in 1885. The photo below shows one of the dresses she wore in the show.

In 1887, Cody took the Wild West to England and performed for Queen Victoria as well as other European royalty. In 1889, the show toured Europe. Cody became the most recognizable American in the world.

The museum also contains displays of many of Cody's furnishings and belongings. The photo below shows some of the contents of his ranch.

Buffalo Bill died in Denver in 1917. Contrary to popular belief, he did not die penniless, although his considerable fortune had dwindled significantly.

We learned a lot about Buffalo Bill while in Cody. The Historical Center is a fantastic resource for information on Buffalo Bill and on the history of that area of the west.

The Escapees rally in Gillette officially ended on July 3rd; but as the organization's gift to its members, the Escapees provided free camping for the night of the 4th and all the Escapees were invited to the Gillette/Campbell County 4th of July Celebration billed as the biggest in northeastern Wyoming. The festivities kicked off with a pancake "feed" at the fire hall at 6:00 AM followed by a parade in downtown Gillette at 9:00. We passed on the breakfast since it was a little early and Paul is trying to watch his carbs anyway. However, we wanted to make it to the parade since we worked on the Escapees' float.

There's nothing like the 4th of July in small-town America. Everything seems so much more sincere and heart-felt. We got to the parade about 8:30 in plenty of time to get a shady parking space only a block away from the parade route and to get a front-row spot near the start of the parade. As we sat waiting for the parade to begin, someone was walking down the street handing out flags, and not little 3" X 5" flags on a stick either. The photo below shows Margery holding our new flag.

The parade got started right on time. Although there was only one band and it looked a little rag-tag and not quite in step, they sounded pretty decent.

The Escapees' float was fairly close to the beginning of the parade. The float represents the Escapees' logo, which is a house on a little red wagon. Kay and Joe Peterson, founders of the Escapees, rode on the back of the float and a couple dozen Escapees walked along behind. We found out later, the Escapees' float won second prize.

Surprisingly, there were only a few equestrian groups in the parade. One group included this patriotic horse with red stripes, blue stars, and red and blue hooves.

 

There was also this very special little fellow riding his power chair with a stick horse on the front.

And, of course, there was the inevitable equestrian follow-up crew.

The parade had a number of custom, classic, and antique cars...

...and several motorcycle groups (It seemed the motorcycles outnumbered the horses!) including this guy with the Uncle Sam hat on a Harley.

The parade lasted over two hours. It seemed almost every business, club, and civic group in town took part. We overheard someone say since this year is an election year, the parade was much longer than usual because every politician had a wagon, float, truck, or car in the parade with his or her name on it.

We were impressed that the city didn't waste any time getting started on the cleanup. This street sweeper was close enough to the end of the parade that we almost mistook it for another float, especially with the flags mounted on it.

 

After the parade, there was a picnic at the Campbell County Bicentennial Park and we where amazed they provided free hot dogs, potato chips and soft drinks. The photo below shows the early part of the crowd in line for hot dogs being prepared in the blue and white striped tent. People kept arriving and getting in line, but there were plenty of volunteers preparing and serving and the line moved quickly so the wait was never more than just a few minutes.

Margery is enjoying her hot dog.

After we finished our hot dogs, we wandered over to the mud volleyball pits. There were numerous teams awaiting their turn to play at one of the three nets. It was just good, clean fun. Well, maybe it wasn't so clean after all.

There were also kids' games, kids' sidewalk chalk drawing, and strong man and woman contests going on. Then after a while, they started the fire hose water fights. We were used to seeing firefighters doing the water fights, trying to force a beer keg suspended from on a cable over to the opponent's end of the cable with their fire hoses. But here, they let the kids man the hoses and the target was a lighter-weight soccer ball. We're guessing they reduced the water pressure a little, but as you can see, the water still has a good bit of force. The kids loved having an excuse to get wet on a hot day, and the mud volleyball players found a good way to get (somewhat) clean.

After we watched the water fights, we headed back to the rig where we thought we might take a nap before the evening fireworks like so many of the other Escapees we talked to. Ten o'clock fireworks seemed to be past many retirees bedtime! :)

Well, there is no napping in Gillette, WY on the 4th of July. It seems consumer fireworks are legal in Gillette and the residents go all out with their own displays. In the housing plan across the road from the camping area, there were quite a few people setting off fireworks all day. They weren't just little bangs and pops either. There were many loud BOOMS. Because of the flat terrain, we could see for quite a distance and as dusk fell, we could see fireworks being set off everywhere we looked. Some of the aerial pieces were almost professional quality and were quite impressive. We found it totally incredible how much money people must have spent on their own fireworks.

We also had ring-side seats for the professional fireworks because they were set off from the Cam-Plex race track right near where we were camped. The fireworks were supposed to be coordinated with music broadcast on the radio, but we never did find the correct station. Even without the music, the display was very impressive and continued for a full 20 to 25 minutes.

Following the Escapade and the July 4th celebrations, we still had two days left before we were scheduled to move on so we took the opportunity to learn a little more about the area. On July 5, we went to the Campbell County Rockpile Museum in Gillette. The Rockpile has been a landmark in Gillette for many years. In fact, the first four settlers in Gillette centered their claims on this site. The Rockpile is a small rise in the earth capped by a mound of exposed rocks. As travelers approached, the Rockpile would let them know they had arrived in Gillette. This was especially true for those who arrived by rail since it was close to the railhead after the Burlington & Missouri railroad arrived in Gillette in 1891.

Ralph A. Kintz, who had purchased the land that included the Rockpile, donated it to the county in 1970. Kintz was instrumental in establishing the museum, which opened in 1974. The museum contains numerous collections, photos, and artifacts relating to the history of the area. In the photo below, Paul is checking out the collection of spurs and bits.

And Margery is looking at the general store display.

The wagon in the photo below is a sheepherder's wagon. Wagons like these were also used during cattle roundups and branding. In the 20th century, ranchers sometimes used the wagons as RVs to vacation in the Black Hills or Bighorn Mountains to enjoy the cooler air.

 

The Rockpile Museum also had two good videos on coal production. We learned that Wyoming produces 38% of our nation's coal, and most of it comes from right around Gillette. Wyoming coal, which is mostly surface mined today, is low sulfur coal and is in high demand. The Powder River Coal Company in Gillette, Wyoming, is the second largest coal producing company in the United States. It and owns and operates four surface mines in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. Together, the four mines control 2.5 billion tons of recoverable coal. The coal seams at the four mines range from 65 feet to over 100 feet thick. Although tours of the coal mines are open to visitors, we were disappointed we didn't have time to take advantage of this opportunity.

We did, however, take a short drive about 4 miles north of Gillette where the Foundation Coal Company has a mine with an overlook where you can see some of the operations. Foundation Coal is the fourth largest coal producer in the U. S. At the overlook, they had one of the huge tires used on the haul trucks. The tire is 13 feet in diameter and weighs 13,000 lb. Cost per tire is $36,000. And we thought motor home tires were expensive!

The trucks dump the coal into a crusher, which is at the far left of the photo below. From the crusher, conveyors take the coal to the top of huge silos. Trains pass through a tunnel under the silo where the coal is loaded into hopper cars.

Gillette has such an interesting history. This is another town we had to add to our list of places to return to someday. But for now, it's time to move on farther west.