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23
On the porch of the Irma Hotel, (from left) Jakie Schwoob, MJA, Senator Kendricks, Pearl Newell, Kid Nichols, Bob Rumsey, Art Pearson,
Dick Rousseau, Red Powell.” MS 006 William F. Cody Collection, McCracken Research Library. P.69.1758
6 28 50
Henry Bill Rimrock
Dahlem Loewer Ranch
14 38 56
Siggins Harry Edward
Family Jackson Grigware
Cody Enterprise LAYOUT/DESIGN: Cassie Capellen On the Cover: Pitchfork
Ranch cowboys (from left)
SPECIAL PUBLICATION PRODUCTION: Stephanie Tarbett
Harry Jackson, Cal Todd,
May 23, 2019 ADVERTISING: Megan Barton, Jana Cardew, Bill Hendricks and Ken
Brittani Keene, Shannon Severude Ellison came into town for
PUBLISHER: John Malmberg PHOTOGRAPHY: Lauren Modler some fun during the Cody
Stampede on July 4, 1939.
EDITOR: Amber Peabody
3101 Big Horn Ave., Cody, WY • (307) 587-2231
NEWS STAFF: Buzzy Hassrick, Rhonda Schulte, codyenterprise.com
Zac Taylor, Leo Wolfson
Park County Sheriff Henry Dahlem works in his office alongside an unidentified man during his first four years as sheriff, as the first sheriff
in Park County. He was elected in 1910 and served two two-year terms. (Park County Archives photos)
A trailblazing Park County sheriff

By ZAC TAYLOR ber of the Temperance League and sang for a dugout near Clatonia, Neb., to John and
News Editor decades in the Methodist Church choir. Helma Wendt Dahlem, according to his 1952
Beyond that, Dahlem was deemed a obituary.
There’s a story Henry Dahlem’s daughter- well-liked, capable sheriff following his four He moved with his family to Oklahoma City
in-law told to her son about a time she was years as the first sheriff of Park County from in 1891 and took part in the run on Cherokee
taking a man into town from the Shoshone 1910-1914. Strip, but was too young to claim land. Back
Lodge. When they needed him once more, the in the city he attended business school before
The man said he’d been arrested by her county commissioners called Dahlem one heading west.
father back when Dahlem was sheriff in 1925- afternoon in ’25 and asked him to come back. He first stopped in Cripple Creek, Colo., in
26 and had been jailed for running a moon- Gov. Nellie Tayloe Ross had removed sheriff 1895 during the gold rush, then continued to
shine operation. William Loomis due to discrepancies with his Montana, passing through a ranch near Cody
He said he wasn’t upset for being jailed, law enforcement in regards to prohibition, along the way.
only that the owner of the stills never came to wrote Dahlem’s daughter Mary Helen Dahlem After stopping in Billings, he started a
visit him there. Daly. homestead in Red Lodge, the first of many
Dahlem didn’t make everyone so happy Dahlem was sworn in the next day and homesteads he would have throughout his life.
when he dispensed justice, but his reputa- stayed busy. Grandson Keith heard that during Dahlem’s
tion of being just and honest made him the “When my term of office was completed time in Montana, he rounded up 600 horses
natural choice of county officials. In 1925 the I was very glad,” he said in his unpublished with his brother George and sold them to a
sheriff had been removed by the governor for autobiography. “Most every violation of the law U.S. Army fort for remounts.
improprieties, and the commissioners needed could be traced to liquor.” Dahlem’s own recollections included deal-
someone they knew to step in and enforce His days as sheriff followed a series of ing with rustlers and going through Indian
unpopular prohibition. events straight out of an Old West story, from country.
In an 18-month stint Dahlem busted seven dealing with cattle rustlers and herding wild But Dahlem wanted more, and in 1903 he
stills, one of which contained 4,800 pounds of horses to trips across the plains on horseback. returned to Cody.
sugar and 2,200 pounds of mash.
“We weren’t much into drinking,” said
grandson Henry Keith Dahlem. Early years Moving to Cody
Henry Dahlem’s wife, Bertha, was a mem- Dahlem was born Sept. 18, 1872, in He had first passed through Cody in 1901

Henry
Dahlem
while he was working in Red Lodge and then in part. “Henry is an old timer in this section;
returned in 1903 to get into the livery busi- knows every nook and corner in this part of
ness. He started working with Tex Holm the country; and is known by everybody as
and Fred Welch in the Holm Transporta- square as they make ’em.”
tion Company. In the autobiography he typed up
He helped deliver workers to the later in life, he gave his reasons
site of the construction project on about why he threw his name in
the Shoshone River that would the hat.
eventually be known as the “Park County, Wyoming,
Buffalo Bill Dam. He as- was just organized and
sisted two of the legendary some of my friends thought
outfitters of the time, Jack I would make a good
Richard and Ned Frost, in sheriff,” he wrote. “I had
taking guests up into the always stood for law and
park, recounting trips order and fair play and
up to a month long by knew the surrounding
horseback. country. I had some
A 1910 article in very good friends
the Park County Enter- among the delegates.
prise included a Frost They were good work-
and Richard camp ers and insisted that I
song that mentioned get the nomination.”
Dahlem. He received the
“Ask for Henry if you nomination and, as he
want a jolly ride with recounted in his auto-
a story, Cody – go by biography, went to work
Cody, Henry is the man canvassing door-to-door.
to drive from Cody.” “I would introduce my-
“He must have been self and talk about ranching
a really colorful character,” or stock or whatever they
said Keith, who was 2 years seemed to be most interested
old when his grandfather died. in,” he said. “Just before I left, I
“He loved to tell jokes.” would tell them I would appreci-
And he was a successful en- ate their vote, if they thought I was
trepreneur. By the time Park County deserving of the office. The more
was established in 1909 he had a people I visited with, the more encour-
thriving livery business by the name of aged I was.”
Cannon Ball Hack Line. He said initially many people worried
Another 1910 edition includes an adver- he couldn’t beat the Democrat, but he was
tisement from Dahlem. elected by a large majority and took office
“The Cannon Ball Hack is always on the Jan. 1, 1911.
job and meets all trains. Call phone No. 112 County Enterprise, Dahlem declared himself a
black or 26 black if you want to ride with us.”
Dahlem also spent his first years in Cody
candidate on the Republican ticket for sheriff
of Park County, which had only just been First two terms
expanding his holdings in the area, eventually carved out of Big Horn County. With Dahlem on duty, Park County had a
acquiring a ranch on Breteche Creek and a The paper also ran a blurb expressing sup- sheriff but no jail.
farm on Sage Creek. port for Dahlem. “So (we) used the Cody city cooler and
“Nomination, in the case of Henry Dahlem, the prisoners would break out faster than you
Running for sheriff would be tantamount to election, for we doubt
if there is a more popular individual within the
could put them in,” Dahlem wrote.
The Park County Enterprise recounted
In an Aug. 20, 1910, notice in the Park confines of our new county,” the story reads many escapes during those early years before

Henry Dahlem started as a partner and later became sole owner of the Red Star Lodge, later known as the Shoshone Lodge. (Park County
Archives photo)
the jail, “Hotel De Dahlem” was finished in March of 1912. ing Hughes to drop his gun, the 22-year-old suspect spurred his horse
In August 1911 the paper recorded that Charles Anderson, jailed for and took off.
bogus checks, had sawed his way out of the lockup. “Sheriff Dahlem fired five shots at the retreating man and then had
Anderson only enjoyed four days of freedom before being caught, to desist on account of the presence of other persons on the hill, whom
but by Sept. 2 inmate Tex Rieves was “the third prisoner to skidoo,” ac- he was afraid of hitting” the story reads. “He did not know then that he
cording to an Enterprise headline. had winged him, other than that he shot his hat off.”
Dahlem was good at getting his man. A Northern Wyoming Herald But the wounded Hughes eventually surrendered to sheepherder
story from Sept. 1, 1911, recounted the tale of the sheriff’s apprehend- Joe Cozzens near Heart Mountain.
ing escapee Jim Brannon, who took the opportunity to get loose when
Dahlem had to use the long-distance telephone.
Brannon got as far as Turbitt Lake in Yellowstone National Park ‘Hotel de Dahlem’
before Dahlem caught him. A March 2, 1912, story in the Enterprise announced the “Hotel de
“(Dahlem) took an automobile about 2 p.m. on Tuesday and late Dahlem” is about ready.
that night he came upon Brannon asleep in camp near the lake,” the Workers from the Stewart Iron Works in Cincinnati were finish-
story reads. “When sheriff Dahlem awakened Brannon, the latter was ing work on a new jail and had completed new accommodations for
thoroughly frightened and thought at first that the sheriff was a bear.” Dahlem.
Soon after that experience Dahlem was off in the other direction “The sheriff’s quarters are now ready for occupancy, a big kitchen
for a very different reason: his marriage to Bertha Simpers. She had range having been installed this week,” the story reads.
lived in the area for years to successfully fend off tuberculosis in the dry Daughter Mary Helen Dahlem (later Daly) was born there the follow-
climate. The two were married in her parents’ home in Rockport, Ind. ing year and later would say she was “born in jail.”
Bertha was younger than her husband, having been born in 1884, The room she was born in was at the top of the stairs in the fam-
and outlived him by many years. Keith remembered staying with her ily side of the sheriff’s residence with only a wall separating Bertha
for a stretch of time while he went to school in town and his mother Dahlem and her new daughter from the jail, as she related when being
stayed up the North Fork to run Shoshone Lodge. named 1987 Ranchwoman of the Year.
It was a match well regarded in town, according to the Sept. 16 The young family didn’t have much time to enjoy the new residence,
edition of the Enterprise. as at the end of 1914 Dahlem left for the homestead at Sage Creek
“Henry, our own Henry, has journeyed into the land of the Hoosiers and soon after one at Breteche Creek.
nevermore to return in the single state,” a story reads. “Next Wednes- “When I had completed four years of service as sheriff, I decided
day, so the information goeth, he will lead to the altar Miss Bertha that was long enough for one man and wanted to get back into private
Simpers, a most charming and attractive girl, who everybody in Cody life,” Dahlem wrote.
knows and esteems.”
She had been working at the Cody Trading Company as a book-
keeper, but resigned following the marriage. Busy entrepreneur
But Dahlem didn’t have much time to settle into his new life – duty He stayed busy with both ranches, feeding cattle at Sage Creek in
called. the winter and at Breteche the rest of the year.
In November he was reported to have busted a gambling operation The couple had two boys during the time – Keith’s father Henry was
and made four arrests. born in Billings, because Bertha wanted a hospital birth. Keith said his
The next summer, the June 19, 1912, Enterprise included a story father always hated that his birth certificate listed Montana.
of Dahlem’s shooting and winging H.M. Hughes after the man resisted In 1919 Dahlem took a job as foreman of the Trout Creek Ranch
arrest. Hughes was suspected of stealing a horse and, when tipped and spent the next years working for a New York owner before deciding
off that the sheriff was looking for him, mounted a horse to make his to return to his own land.
escape. Dahlem confronted him before he escaped but, after convinc- Soon after the family moved into town to allow the children a better

chance to attend school regularly and avoid the harsh winters.
In 1924 Dahlem began the enterprise that would become one of his
enduring legacies.
“One day I was down visiting with a friend of mine (John Vogel) and
he told me that he had just secured a permit from the forest service for
a sawmill, store and tourist camp,” Dahlem wrote later. “Said he was
looking for a partner, as he didn’t have time to run it himself, and would
like to sell me half interest.
“It was up in the mountains and thought it would be a good place
for the family.”
The work would eventually turn into the Red Star Sawmill and
Pack horses, skis,
Lodge, later the Shoshone Lodge, but Dahlem didn’t get much time
before being called back to town.
“I went to town and called at the Court House, saw the Commis-
Clarks Fork murder
sioners and in 15 minutes I was appointed County Sheriff,” he wrote.
At the end of a long, difficult journey, packing out
Prohibition a corpse and bringing in the alleged murderer, Park

County Sheriff Henry Dahlem offered to go out with the
He returned to law enforcement in 1925 to fill the final months of suspect for dinner.
the sheriff term. “I said to Tony, ‘Let’s go and get dinner,’” Dahlem
His wife and three children moved back into the old residence next recalled in a 1939 story in the Cody Enterprise. “When
to the jail, but this wasn’t like old times – he was tasked with enforcing we got to the jail the corridor was open. I walked in, he
a law many in the area disagreed with. after me. Then I turned, went out and locked the door.
“It was an uphill job on account of prohibition,” Dahlem wrote. “I “He had some look on his face.”
was knocked if I enforced the law and knocked if I didn’t. I was sure In his first two terms of office as Park County’s first
glad when I was out of the office.” sheriff, Dahlem had many experiences with chasing
While he closed seven stills during his tenure, he said it hardly made suspects and responding to issues far outside of town.
a dent as bootleggers from Red Lodge and Canada “kept the road hot.” In the ’39 story he recalled one of the most incred-
“I caught a few of them but not many,” he wrote. “They traveled by ible tales for readers.
night and got rich.” “It was on April 1, 1912, that a long distance call
While it wasn’t easy, Dahlem was able to rid the county of some of came from Cooke City, ‘This is Martin Ranmael talking.
its alcohol. I want to tell you, Henry, there was a murder commit-
An Enterprise story from the period writes of 3,000 bottles of beer ted up on the Clarks Fork at the Henry Otchen ranch.
being dumped in the Shoshone River. Tony Rodershack shot Jim Smith,’” Dahlem wrote.
“The greatest destruction of illicit liquor ever made in Park County He left on horseback the next morning and reached
was witnessed Tuesday afternoon when county attorney McElvain and the Crandall Creek ranger station after two full days of
Sheriff Dahlem, under court orders, destroyed the 3,000 bottles of riding.
beer which were taken about a year ago from the old Yaeger building,” The next morning he switched to skis for the last 11
the story reads. “As the bottles were thrown onto the rock, and break, miles. He reached the location at 4 p.m. and entered a
an odor far from appetizing arose from the mass of broken glass, and it room with three men. After identifying Rodershack, he
would be hard to imagine a person drinking the stuff which had been took the suspect out and asked him about the shooting.
stored for more than a year in the bottles.” Rodershack claimed self-defense.
It may not have been a pleasant job, but Dahlem had stepped in to Dahlem said he investigated the scene, finding four
do it. 30-40 shell casings. Smith had been shot in both arms
and died of blood loss. A coyote had taken one of the
Later years arms.
Dahlem spent the next day at another ranch gather-
During his 18 months of duty, he also made sure to set his family ing evidence and then packed the body on a toboggan
up for the future, building on a Shoshone National Forest permit what for the return trip.
would be called Red Star Camp and later Shoshone Lodge, just miles “There were four (including Rodershack) of us to
from the East Gate of Yellowstone National Park. pull, all on skis,” he wrote. “It sure was some hard trip
“During the year and a half we were in town, we built several build- to the ranger station. We couldn’t always keep the trail.”
ings on the permit and in the spring of 1927, we moved up and went They had one big mishap when, while going down a
to work,” Dahlem wrote, adding that he had problems getting qualified snowbank, Dahlem found himself off-center. When he
people to help him at his sawmill. tried to right himself he hit a pine tree in the snow.
“In 1928 I bought out my partner and with the help of my family, “It turned us over and we rolled down the mountain
have put in many hard licks and made improvements as the years have until we struck another pine tree,” he recalled. “No
gone by,” he wrote to conclude his autobiography. “Always having faith damage was done, only my face was badly scratched
that the future will have as many good days as the past.” and the corpse’s nose was broken.”
He had many more good days. Dahlem died Nov. 16, 1952, at his When they reached the ranger station, Dahlem told
home with his family by his side, having divided his later years between the others of his plan to get Rodershack to town. The
the North Fork and his Sage Creek ranch. two were actually sleeping on the same bunk, with
Keith was only 2 when his grandfather died, but said he still Dahlem keeping his six-shooter under his pillow.
remembers sitting on his lap. In later years as he learned about his life After Dahlem convinced Rodershack to help him
story, he grew even more in awe of his grandfather. the rest of the way, the two reached Jim Hogan’s after
Henry Dahlem could claim to have made history in the county he dark.
called home and to have started a legacy on the North Fork, one that The next day they reached Cody, and Dahlem invited
carries on today. Rodershack in for dinner.

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Siggins
Family
The Siggins family is pictured in 1913 (front, from left) Harold Siggins, Donald Siggins, Jeannette Siggins, (middle) Clyde Siggins, Raymond
Siggins Jr., Mildred Siggins, Natalie Siggins, R.B. Siggins Sr., (back) Nancy “Maudell” Siggins and Elizabeth Siggins.

Business owners become ranchers
By RHONDA SCHULTE
Reporter
Mention the Siggins family and many

Cody people would surely place them as
longtime ranchers on the South Fork.
Yet before Raymond Benson Siggins
Sr. homesteaded on the upper South
Fork of the Shoshone River in 1914,
he and his older brother Clyde J. were
among the early-day enterprising and in-
dustrious merchants who took a chance
moving West to build a town in Cody.
R.B. and C.J. arrived in 1906 to
open the New York Store in the current
Open Range Images building at 12th and
Sheridan kitty corner from The Irma.
When in 1938 R.B. died suddenly at
age 61, his obituary lamented the loss of
another pioneer resident of Cody Coun-
try.
“His passing marks the onward tramp
of the old timers, another of those who
came during the early part of the (20th)
century and took a leading part in the
development of this section of the state,”
the obituary said.
When R.B. and his family left the
The Siggins (from left) Harold, Raymond, Donald and Raymond Jr. at the Triangle X Ranch.
amenities of early-day Cody to home- (Siggins Photos)
stead in the Valley, he and his family
epitomized the “make do” pioneer spirit. trade greatly increased. Here was a land Clyde’s wife Maudell Siggins came
By necessity, R.B.’s three sons became of opportunity. to Cody Country with her husband and
well-trained in mountaineering and self- Siggins’ family memoirs and newspa- their two children.
preservation. If they didn’t have it, they per stories explain how the family came The Siggins family lived at the Irma
built it. to Park County. for a short time until they moved into a
“They grew up with nothing and knew Born in 1877 in Warren, Pa., R.B. small cottage in town.
how to make everything,” said Jill Shock- was raised on a small farm. He married
ley Siggins, married to R.B.’s grandson
Ken.
Elizabeth Cogswell, also of Warren, in
October 1902. Dry goods stocked
As adults R.B.’s boys expanded their They soon moved to Louisiana to In 1906, Cody was booming thanks
ranchlands, eventually making a living by work for R.B.’s uncle, who cut white to the influx of construction workers on
raising purebred cattle, guest ranching pine logs in the Great Lakes region and the dam and irrigation project.
and outfitting. At each man’s side was shipped them down the Mississippi It was in this environment the Sig-
a woman just as salty and determined River. R.B. was put in charge of com- gins’ New York Store, one of Cody’s first
to transform a plot of barren land into a pany stores that dotted the length of the large mercantile establishments, was
home. river. opened.
On a buying trip to Chicago, R.B. met On Aug. 2, 1906, the Enterprise
Siggins arrive Henry Stevens, who ran a “vast empire”
of department stores throughout the
reported, “The new Bradbury building
at second (now 12th) and Sheridan,
Town founders laid out the Cody West. Stevens hoped to open a chain of soon to be occupied by R.B. Siggins
townsite in May 1896. By 1900, the stores around the Big Horn Basin. and (Henry) Stevens, with a fine stock
population had grown to slightly more R.B. and C.J. hired an emigrant rail- of dry goods, is nearing completion. It is
than 300, according to wyohistory.org. road car to take their families to Cody a fine stone structure, two stories and a
The town was incorporated in 1901 in 1906. Elizabeth Siggins’ brother Bert basement.”
and the first train arrived that No- Cogswell arrived with them. That year the Enterprise reported
vember. With arrival of the railroad to R.B. and Elizabeth’s first child Ray- the Siggins brothers purchased the J.W.
enhance local trade, and with federal mond Jr., born in Louisiana in 1905, Neff and Son Grocery store.
money pouring in for construction of was a 1-year-old when his parents ar- R.B. wasted no time building a house
the Shoshone dam needed to irrigate rived. Harold (1907) and Donald (1909) across the street from the Red Brick
thousands of acres of Wyoming desert, were born in Cody, and a daughter, Schoolhouse. Now painted blue-gray,
Cody began to grow and prosper. Elizabeth “Betty,” was born in 1918, the two-story home at 1002 Alger sits
When the East Entrance to Yel- after the couple homesteaded on the across the street from Cody High School
lowstone Park opened in 1904, tourist South Fork. and auditorium. When built, the house

on Alger was the farthest home west on
Cody’s outskirts.
At that location the Siggins boys
could watch the large cattle drives come
from the Meeteetse area. As many as
1,000 head would be rounded up in the
field where the Buffalo Bill Center of the
West now stands, awaiting shipment
from Cody to Omaha, according to a
1978 Enterprise story.
R.B. and Elizabeth operated Cody’s
first clothing store for eight years.
In a 2004 oral history interview,
Don’s wife Rosamond described her
mother-in-law.
“She was a little, short woman who
was very pretty,” she said. “And she
loved pretty things. She had a lot of
pretty dishes and things. She was not
the ranch-style lady you might picture.
She was so dainty, but she was a good
cook and worked hard.”
The New York Store on Aug. 9, 1906,
announced the grand opening of a dry
goods stores saying, “Our stock is new
and up-to-date.”
Newspaper ads in 1906-07 listed
inventory such as rust-proof corsets, fall
cloaks, men’s work shirts, fancy collars
and belts, blankets and long silk gloves.
Ladies’ outing flannel gowns cost 85
cents-$1.35, changeable and black silk
drop skirts, $4.95-$12, an assortment
of furs, $4.50-$12, ladies oxfords $3,
black sateen petticoats 93 cents-$5,
infant, children and misses shoes 39
cents-$2 and Hood’s royal oak rubber
boots for irrigating, $3.90.
Addressing the area’s rugged terrain,
one ad featuring footwear said, “For
everybody at anybody’s prices. Not made
to walk on stars, but made expressly to
stand the wear and tear of the rocks in
and around Cody.”
Catching hoppers
In those days the three Siggins boys
were commonly sighted on Sheridan
with their old gray pony Big Enough.
“The boys were too small to properly Margaret Owens (left), Raymond B. Siggins Sr. and Marge Edwards inside the New York
bridle the horse so they would lead him
over to main street where they could
Store in 1908. (Siggins Photos)
usually find a cowboy to help,” Ray Jr.’s
daughter-in-law Deanna Siggins wrote in the box to count the hoppers. In late 1907 about 300 men were
a biography published in the Enterprise “Soon things were hopping at the working on the dam for pay of $3 for a
in 1978. Irma Bar,” Rosamond said. “Moore 10-hour workday.
The youngsters also gained a repu- hastily paid the boys a dollar, saying he
tation for catching grasshoppers for
fishing bait used by some of Buffalo
was sure there were enough (grasshop-
pers for the pay) and to close the box Ranch partnership
Bill Cody’s VIP guests. They would fill and leave.” R.B. did not strictly rely on retail. At
a Post Toasties cereal box with hop- One dollar was significant pay. Meals some point he expanded his business
pers collected from vacant lots that now for dam workers at the government interests to agriculture.
serve as the CHS football field and took camp in the canyon cost 25 cents each On April 1, 1911, the Enterprise
them to Billy Moore at the Irma. and officials worried about the high cost headline reported spring operations
Moore usually paid a penny apiece of food. Carpenters were paid 47 cents had started up on the new 1,633-acre
for the lively insects. That deal came to per hour and blacksmiths, $3.50 per Lakeview ranch and about 1,000 acres
an end, though, when the boys opened day. would be put to crops. All the necessary

In 1906 brothers Raymond Sr. and Clyde opened a dry goods store called the New York Store on the northeast corner of 12th and Sheridan.
buildings were completed and the tract Other events included music, athletics erty of Col. W.F. Cody, predicting “within
fenced. and children’s field sports, bronco bust- a few years Cody will be surrounded by
The story said the Lakeview Ranch ing, baseball, a balloon ascension and ranches on all these mountain slopes
was owned by a company composed parachute descent and fireworks were all that will be the pride not only of the city,
of four New York investors plus Cody planned for entertainment with $800 for but of all Park County.”
people Nova Brown, M.C. Brown, Caro- expenses. R.B. continued to run the New York
line Lockhart, F.A. Waples, R.B. Siggins “It now looks as though Cody will Store and life went on despite economic
and one other person. have one of the biggest celebrations of worries. But he would soon be among
“This is probably the largest corp recent years,” the story said. the adventurers to settle those mountain
acreage in the county under single pro- slopes.
prietorship and it will be irrigated from
Business slump
the Lake View Ditch,” it said.
Nova Brown of Cody was manager. Yellowstone Park travel was up and Social life
He had just received from the Brundage in Cody a cigar factory opened as did The Feb. 18, 1911, Enterprise
Hardware Co. a “handsome outlay” of a new shoe factory. The Eagles Club, informed readers, “Mr. and Mrs. R.B.
farm supplies consisting of 15 sets of Masonic Temple and Episcopal Church Siggins chaperoned a jolly crowd last
harness, 15 horse collars and two gang building rectory were among new proj- Monday evening to the home of Mr. and
plows, the story said. ects. Mrs. Clyde Siggins who live on the Hard-
But with completion of the dam in graves ranch north of the city.
Community men January 1910, the economy suffered and
the Siggins family business slumped.
“When the party arrived, peace and
quiet was reining at the ranch, but it
The Siggins brothers were involved in “You wouldn’t believe all the out- took only a short time to arouse the
the community. standing bills Dad had,” Don recalled. sleepers and proclaim their hunger. Mrs.
C.J. was listed among the Cody “J.C. ‘Kid’ Nichols was the only one who Siggins prepared a delicious lunch and
Volunteer Fire Department’s members in ever paid up.” a fine time was enjoyed by the merry-
1913, and plans for Cody’s July Fourth A Northern Wyoming Herold news makers”
celebration in 1911 published in the En- column in December 1910 announced News of the surprise party was fol-
terprise named R.B. as committee head Mr. Coe of New York City had taken over lowed by notice of two dances scheduled
of racing events. the famous Carter Ranch, former prop- for Washington’s birthday.
Raymond Jr. (from left), Raymond “R.B.” Sr., Elizabeth holding Betty, Harold and Donald pose for a Siggins family photo wearing their
Easter best. (Park County Archives photo)
Explosion on Alger out and fragments of the stove had been

driven through the ceiling while plaster
Christmas novelties which are on attrac-
tive display on his store counters. Burnt
A kitchen range explosion made the from the ceiling was stripped. wood pieces, hangers of all descriptions
news on Nov. 15, 1911. With buckets of water, R.B. and in numerous designs, beautifully dressed
“The home of R.B. Siggins, the well- another man soon had the rest of the dolls, Christmas placards containing
known Cody merchant, was the scene fire put out. The loss was estimated at words of Christmas cheer and good
of a terrific explosion Sunday morning at $200, which “almost was covered by wishes are among the novelties at this
9 a.m., which completely wrecked the insurance,” the story said. popular store.”
kitchen,” the report said.
The explosion was apparently heard
all over the neighborhood and quickly Shopping mecca South Fork bound
drew a large crowd. “Christmas was fast approaching and During his eight years in Cody, R.B.
The family escaped injury. When the Cody merchants began advertising had spent a lot of time hunting and fish-
the explosion happened Elizabeth was their wares before Thanksgiving, making in the ranges of the Rocky Mountains.
fortunately in the sitting room dressing ing several readers shake their heads “Dad had fallen particularly in love
the children. and mention that they thought this was with the valley of the South Fork of the
R.B. had awoken at about 8 a.m. to rushing the season a bit,” the newspaper Shoshone River, and had dreamed of
find the kitchen pipes frozen. He started reported. homesteading there and founding a ranch
a fire in the new kitchen range and then The Dec. 13, 1911, Enterprise includ- on which to bring up his boys,” Don
turned his attention to the pipes. The ed the New York Store among 11 listed wrote in a history of the Siggins’ Triangle
fire had been burning about half an hour under the headline, “Cody the mecca of X Ranch published in 1958 by The Dude
when he went to a neighbor’s for some Christmas shoppers.” Rancher.
pipe fittings. Mail-order was big business in isolated He filed for a 160-acre homestead
Suddenly he heard a terrific sound western towns in early 20th century and on the upper South Fork country and
come from the direction of his home. mail-order buying of goods was affecting recorded his brand. After paying his
Upon his return, the kitchen was a scene trade in Cody, prompting the Stockgrower creditors and selling the store, he had
of desolution. news to preach the virtue of buying local. $300 in the bank and still owned the
“The big range had exploded and was To remind Cody people of gift options Cody house, a team of horses and wagon
reduced to a mass of smoking junk,” the readily available, the Enterprise listed and household furniture. Elizabeth loved
story said. “Embers of the fire had been goods available in each store. the home they had built in Cody and so
thrown in all directions and were spring- Referencing R.B., the story said, “The they kept it to rent out.
ing into flames.” window of the New York Store makes In 1914, the couple and their three
Every window was completely blown only a slight showing of the varied line of sons, all under age 10, moved to the
homestead about 40 miles from Cody. Raymond Sig-
“We left Cody on Sept. 1 of that year gins Sr. stands
in a lumber wagon loaded with all our
possessions, consisting of two stoves,
by a tent on the
two tents, enough supplies to last several Mesa behind
months and one dozen assorted chick- the Triangle X
ens,” Don recalled. Ranch. (Sig-
Ray Jr., riding Big Enough behind gins Photo)
the wagon, drove a Guernsey cow. They
arrived at the future Triangle X Ranch by
sundown the next day.
Elizabeth’s brother Earl Cogswell was
homesteading next to R.B. and so the
Siggins crew pitched their tents on his
land and lived there that first winter while
R.B. built the first ranch house.
“Dad … cut cottonwood trees, skidded
them with his team, and lifted them into
place single-handed, to build the first
ranch house,” Don said.
A self-made carpenter, R.B. built a log
house strong enough to withstand Wyo-
ming winters and then Elizabeth provided
her gentle, feminine touch to create a
comfortable home.
“It had been a great sacrifice for
Mother to leave her pleasant house and
many friends in Cody,” Don wrote. “But
… she met the frontier like the true pio-
neer woman she was.”
To her credit, Elizabeth kept a sense of
humor.
“She always said she thought she was
going on a picnic when we all headed up
the South Fork,” Don wrote. “You just
couldn’t picture her as a pioneer woman.
Everything had to be just so.”
That meant maintaining the custom
of everyone cleaning up and changing for
dinner and a tablecloth on the table, even
in a tent.
At first R.B. worked as a carpenter
and cook for other South Fork outfitters,
Brother owned variety of

and took on every odd job he could.
Many homesteaders weren’t hardy
enough to last the three years required to
businesses in Cody area

own the property. People predicted the
Siggins would “starve out.”
“But they didn’t know Dad,” Don
wrote. “The first spring he cleared the
sage brush off the land, sloughed with Clyde J. Siggins lived in the Cody He also had an interest in Siggins
a team of horses and a walking-plough, area 1906-1944. Service Station opposite the Elks Club.
made irrigation ditches with a sharpened He was connected with civic life in A Texaco Dealers ad in the Sept.
forked-tree, and hired help to get the hay the community for 38 years, his obitu- 21, 1938, Enterprise includes the
mowed with scythes. ary said. line: “Central Garage – C.J. Siggins
“We had a garden and managed to After Raymond Sr. took up ranching Service Station” and below that line
raise sweet corn in spite of the 6,500 in 1914, C.J. continued his association “Ray Kepford – Texaco Service Station,
foot altitude.” with various lines of business. Siddle Bros.
One business C.J. operated was the C.J. and his wife Maudell moved
Furs for lumber Banner Store on west Sheridan.
“Our steaks and roast are the best
to Washington in 1941 to live close to
their children.
When in 1929 R.B. decided to build a – butchered from home fed beef,” said He died in 1948 at age 79 in
bigger and better ranch house on higher a Banner Store and Market advertise- Marysville, Wash. He had purchased
ground, the boys spent the next five ment in the June 19, 1929, Enterprise. an interest in the Mountain View
winters in the mountain wilderness trap- An ad printed July 3, 1929, touted Service Station there and was an active
ping martin, fox and coyotes to help earn a full line of groceries, fresh fruits, veg- partner until his last sickness. Maudell
money for lumber. etables, fresh meats and four deliveries returned to Cody only one time before
“We all helped build the new ranch daily. her death.
Donald Siggins trapping in the head of the Wood River Country around 1928. (Siggins Photo)
house,” Don wrote. “In this country you would come from all parts of the country. Around 1960, Don took on the guest
learn to be your own architect, builder, When people began to ask if they ranching business at the Triangle X while
stone mason, carpenter, plumber and would accept summer guests, the Tri- Ray Jr. stuck with cattle on the Hardpan
electrician – or go without.” angle X became a guest ranch. The four Ranch. Harold moved to Cody where
Even though each boy trapped, the Siggins men, working around the clock, he worked 17 years as deputy county
three trapped together only once. built the first cabin with a private bath on assessor.
In an 1978 story, Harold recalled the 10 days’ notice. They would enter quite Elizabeth lived on the ranch with Don
winter of 1928-29 near the Wood River. extensively into the dude business. and Rosamond until she died at age 90
“We got hit by a snowstorm in the high When R.B. died of a heart attack, – always a dainty lady with a twinkle in
country that dumped 4 feet of snow, and he was on the upper South Fork and her eyes and smile despite the rigors of
the wind blew like a hurricane,” he said. had not been feeling well for several pioneering. She and R.B. are buried in
“We lost everything we had on our traps.” months. His sons continued what he’d the Valley Cemetery.
started, adding land – including the last By 1970, the third generation was
New phase homestead in the area and adding other
ranches – building the Triangle X Ranch
ready to carry on the Siggins legacy.
According to the Enterprise in 1978,
In 1930, ranch life entered a new into a registered polled-Hereford opera- “No other family can claim longer per-
phase when the Siggins’ guided a hunter. tion in addition to a thriving dude ranch manent residence along the South Fork
He would become the first of many who and hunting business. waters.”

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P earl
Newell
Pearl C. Newell, ca. 1928. F.J. Hiscock

photograph. MS 006 William F. Cody
Collection, McCracken Research
Library. P.69.0307

Pearl C. Newell at The Irma, ca. 1940. MS 006 William F. Cody Collection, McCracken Research Library. P.69.1599
Face of The Irma for many years

By AMBER PEABODY
Editor
Considered a founding daughter of

Cody, Pearl “Mama” Newell gave “71
years of a colorful life” to the area.
Carrie Pearl Houx was born May 11,
1876, in Higginsville, Mo., the first child of
Frank and Sarah Houx. She would always
go by her middle name, according to “The
Beauteous Pearl” by Lucille Patrick.
When she was young it was advised
that a move West might improve the
health of her mother, who had a lung
condition. The family traveled to Montana
Territory to a ranch owned by her uncle.
They later moved to Junction City, a
small settlement on the bank of the Yel-
lowstone River at the mouth of the Big
Horn that was a freighting station for the
Crow Indian Reservation. The Irma hotel, with additions, no date. MS 006 William F. Cody Collection, McCracken
The family ran a trading post which Research Library. P.69.1598
consisted of a store, hotel, dance hall,
saloon and livery barn at Junction City. It prise going. Pearl helped her mother cook with the customers and when she later
was “all hands and the cook,” Pearl said, and tended the store and saloon. recalled those days, she herself was sur-
to do the work required to keep the enter- Newell early learned to “trade banter” prised at how many famous and infamous
people she met including Yellowstone
Kelly, Buffalo Bill Cody, photographer L.A.
Huffman, Frederic Remington, Gen. Nel-
son Miles and Theodore Roosevelt, Patrick
wrote.
Not yet 15, Newell was called by Gen.
Miles “the prettiest girl in all Montana
Territory.”
She also remembered the jerk-line bull
teams that freighted between the dock and
Fort Custer, which was not far away during
that time. She recalled “the boats tying
up, the noise and confusion, the smell of
smoke and the Indians standing stoically
along the landing, watching the working of
the white men.”
When she was 15, she met H.T. “Kid”
Newell. Kid was a drover from Texas and
had been hired by Paul McCormick as
cow foreman, according to a 1960 Billings
Gazette story.
The Kid was soon visiting the saloon
run by the Houx family. He was noted to
be clever with a deck of cards and also a
fancy roper, with forefooting (roping an ani-
mal by the front feet) being his specialty.
When Pearl and Kid began talking
marriage, her father decided to send her
back east to boarding school. However just
before her 16th birthday she and Kid were
married.
In the middle 1890s the Houx-Newell
clan moved to Wyoming. After a short
stay at Eagles Nest Stage Station, about
eight miles from the Stinking Water River
crossing, the family soon settled at Corbett
Crossing. The site included a saloon,
dance hall, store and hotel with livery
that had already been established years
before by John Corbett and his partner Vic
Arland.
With the development of Cody, Corbett
Mary Jester Allen (left) and Pearl C. Newell at The Irma hotel, celebrating Allen’s birth-
Crossing was the only way to get to the
site when traveling from the north. It was day in 1955. MS 089 Jack Richard Photograph Collection, McCracken Research Library.
a lively place. PN.89.9.1557.B.1
When Cody was incorporated as a
town, her father built a home in town and us in the annex, which at one time was manage the books and register guests. She
was elected its first mayor. used by Buffalo Bill as a stable. There always dressed to “the nines” and treated
In 1913 the Newells left home in Cody were no assets in the rooms save the old- the guests with the same lively banter
and moved to the Pitchfork Ranch outside fashioned water bowl and pitcher, a slop she had learned earlier in life at Junction
Meeteetse, where Kid became foreman. bucket and some decrepit furniture. Posted City. She lived in the lower rooms off the
Later the couple moved to the Pallette in conspicuous places were signs warning entrance and ate her meals in the dining
Ranch, owned by A.A. Anderson. the guests not to use the slop buckets for room.
It was around this time son Joe was any other purpose than waste water under Patrick wrote, “To those she loved she
adopted into the family. It was rumored penalty of having $2 added to the bill was generous. To those she didn’t she
Joe was the son of either one of her half- of each occupant.’ We are strong for the could be spiteful ... She was known for
sisters or a sister of Kid. He came to live new management, hot and cold water and trying to keep an eagle eye on her son. He
with the family when he was 6 weeks old, bathrooms.” died of alcoholism after several attempts
Patrick wrote. Kid and Pearl gradually expanded the at sobriety.”
In 1924 Pearl and Kid became the hotel, building an annex around 1930 on Joe passed away in 1960 and four
owners of The Irma hotel. the west side to accommodate visitors years later Pearl died Aug. 5, 1964, at
An April 1, 1925, story in the Enter- with automobiles. W.R. Coe Memorial Hospital, following an
prise said, “We are glad to learn that the Her husband was always seen with a extended illness.
hotel is to be remodeled with hot and cold cigar in his mouth or clutched between She left the hotel’s extensive collection
running water in each room and installa- his fingers. When he died in 1939, she of Buffalo Bill memorabilia to the Buffalo
tion of baths. A party headed by the astute continued to operate the hotel. Bill Historical Center, and stipulated that
editor of the Inland Oil Index stopped at Pearl, later known as “Mother” New- proceeds from the estate be used as an
the Irma two years ago and said ‘They put ell, was able to operate the switchboard, endowment for the museum.
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Bill
Loewer
Toggery owner later became mayor
By AMBER PEABODY
Editor
For the “Best Dry Cleaning Job Out

West,” people in Cody had to look no fur-
ther than William “Bill” Loewer’s Toggery.
Loewer came to Cody from the Mid-
west in 1902, a tailor and dry cleaner
who also ran the Cody Opera House for a
time, and later served on the city council
and as mayor.
“It was March 24th (1902) when
an awkward-looking train rolled in the
amateurish station burdened by the name
of Cody,” a story in the March 18, 1931,
Enterprise read. “When the train came
to a stop, two comparatively young men
alighted, one was William Loewer ...”
Loewer, then 32, had not been in Cody
long before he had established himself
in the clothing and tailoring business first
located in the original First National Bank
building. The business moved to various
buildings on Sheridan Avenue, with its
final stop being 1355 Sheridan.
“In no part of the West is there found
more fashionable attired men than this
community can produce,” read an Enter-
prise story from Dec. 22, 1904. “Some of
the highest priced garments of the finest
texture, for men cut made and finished in
the latest fashionable manner have been
sent from Mr. Loewer’s establishment.”
The story claimed Loewer embraced
“nobby styles and swell effects in neck-
wear, underwear, shirts, collars, cuffs and
other men’s dependibles.”
There was even a women’s department
run by his wife Kathleen, where “orders
for ladies suits of all kinds are taken for
one of the largest Chicago establish-
ments.”
The Toggery also had a cleaning
department, with a story proclaiming,
“When they do work for you in this line, Former Cody mayor William “Bill” Loewer, ca. 1940. MS 006 William F. Cody Collection,
you can depend upon it to be done in a McCracken Research Library. P.69.0709
thorough manner.”
Bill Loewer ran the Toggery for many years before selling it when he retired. It was still in business several years later and is pictured in
this photo from 1981.
Bringing culture
to Cody
Loewer later expanded his business
pursuits. At one time he owned a half
interest in a laundry, and later owned and
operated Cody’s first theater. Called the
Cody Opera House, it connected people in
the community to culture.
An Oct. 11, 1911, Enterprise story pro-
moted the coming of the Roach-Wagner-
Shank Opera Company for a production of
Verdi’s great masterpiece “Il Trovatore.”
“This will probably be the most expen-
sive single entertainment of the winter and
already a number of Cody’s best citizens
have notified the management of their
intention of attending,” the story read.
The following month, Prof. Caruthers
Hypnotic Comedy Co. came to town.
“The contests will be fine, including
the wonderful rock breaking contest, the
hat pin and the blood tests,” the Nov. 22,
1911, story read.
As a special treat Miss Alles, a mem-
ber of the company, was to be hypnotized
at 3 p.m. in the window of the Toggery
“and will sleep before the eyes of the
public until 8 p.m. She will then be car-
ried to the opera house and awakened in
full view of the audience. This will be one
of the best hypnotic tests ever made in
Wyoming and a large crowd will no doubt Bill Loewer is seated on a
throng the window Thanksgiving Day.” wicker settee with his dog.
Loewer later sold his additional busi-
nesses and returned his focus solely (Park County Archives photos)
to the Toggery. He always credited his

William Loewer’s car with ads promoting Cody is parked in front of his home at 1321 Rumsey Ave. Loewer (left) stands with others who are
not identified. (Park County Archives photo)
customers for his longtime success. the present incumbent of the mayor’s into his store about noon on Sunday last,
“The town does not owe me anything, chair on the council,” a May 11, 1932, he found himself looking down the grisly
but I owe much debt to the town. What- story read. barrel of a six-gun, with the admonition
ever success I have made I owe to my Loewer helped build a new city hall to ‘stick ‘em up,’’ the story read. “The
patrons,” he said in 1931. during his tenure, and worked to make mayor, a little reticent to take orders from
sure Cody made it through the Depres- one without due authority, started an
Engaging in the sion.
On March 29, 1933, a notice in the
argument, with the result that at the first
opportunity the young man with the gun
community Enterprise urged people to plant garden
plots during the summer to prepare for
disappeared. The kid had been inter-
rupted in an attempt to pilfer the Toggery
From the beginning, Loewer became the winter months. safe, but in getting away, only the gun,
an active and engaged part of the com- The notice from Loewer read, “There which belonged to Loewer, and which
munity. are people in Cody who have received the boy had discovered in the desk was
At one time he was the oldest member relief this winter who would not or did not taken.”
of the Cody Volunteer Fire Department, raise a garden last year. If some people Loewer would be reelected mayor in
having been connected with the organiza- show no effort to help themselves this 1934, 1936 and 1938.
tion for 29 years. He served as chief of summer, they shall be dealt with different- “Cody voters yesterday demonstrated
the department for several terms during ly than heretofore. They shall not receive in an easy-going and fightless election
that span. He also was a 53-year member the consideration that is shown to those that Mayor Bill Loewer, despite his six
of the Odd Fellows Lodge. who have tried to help themselves. This is years and Cody’s Kingfish, is still the
Loewer was one of the organizers of not a threat, it is a notice.” town’s most popular citizen, a May 11,
the now famous Cody Stampede as well Mayor Loewer also addressed drifters 1938, story read. “In the 845 ballots cast
and managed Cody’s baseball team at in the notice. in the municipal election, Mayor Loewer
one time. “Any transients who seek your back beat his adversary George Edwards to the
He served as a city council member door for meals this summer should be post by 352 votes.”
for 27 years before he was first elected referred to the city hall where they will After he stepped away from politics,
mayor in 1932. be taken care of in a satisfactory manner. Loewer continued to run the Toggery until
“In a spirted municipal election held Discourage the handouts at all times.” old age forced his retirement. He then
here on Tuesday of this week, when a to- It was a desperate time for many, and sold the business, and it continued for
tal of 804 votes were cast, William ‘Billy’ in June 1935, Loewer was nearly robbed several more years.
Loewer nosed out the majority of 42 at the Toggery. Loewer died at age 78 in August
votes over his opponent Paul R. Greever, “When Mayor William Loewer stepped 1948.

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Elisha P. Green, James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, John B. “Texas Jack” Omohundro and Eugene
Overton, 1872. R.H. Furman photograph. MS 006 William F. Cody Collection, McCracken Research Library. P.6.0908
Buffalo Bill knew popular characters

By THADD TURNER hundro, the former Confederate Army saved him from a serious beating by
Points West Magazine scout and Texas cattle drover. an irate teamster while they were all
According to the legendary Hickok working for a freighting company. Cody
Over the years, Buffalo Bill Cody cre- biographer, Joseph G. Rosa, a young Will had recently been hired as an “extra,”
ated many long-lasting friendships and Cody probably first met the future law- the term generally used at that time for
relationships with the well-known and man and gunfighter sometime in the late a young boy too small to drive the teams
popular characters of his times. summer of 1856 in Leavenworth, Kan. or load freight, but who was able to
Frontiersmen, military leaders, politi- Hickok had recently relocated there from perform various camp duties for the crew
cians and even the kings and queens Illinois, accompanied by his older brother as an extra hand.
of major European countries could be Lorenzo. When the teamster chose to pick on
counted as personal acquaintances on Wild Bill worked various jobs around Cody, Hickok intervened. It’s not certain
the Christmas list of the legendary show- the area and at some point was befriend- if this event actually happened, but the
man and plainsman. There were none ed by Isaac and Mary Cody, parents of two men did form a colorful long-term
more popular during the country’s rapid the then 10-year-old Cody. Isaac died friendship that by Cody’s own account
expansion than two of America’s then soon after in 1857, possibly from linger- included a stint with the Pony Express
best-known frontier scouts and dime ing wounds sustained from a stabbing at in 1860, Cody offering his talents as an
novel heroes – James Butler “Wild Bill” a Free State rally. express rider, and Wild Bill working as a
Hickok, the famous lawman and pisto- Buffalo Bill later wrote in his memoirs teamster and stagecoach driver for the
leer, and John B. “Texas Jack” Omo- that he first met Wild Bill when Hickok company.

Famous
Friends
Both Cody and Hickok joined the Soon after meeting Wild Bill, Texas
Union Army in the Civil War. Hickok Jack made his way to Cotton Springs,
served as a scout and spy along the Mis- Neb., a tiny station and trading post on
souri and Kansas borders for almost four the very busy Union Pacific railroad that
years with General John Sanborn and followed the mighty Platte River west.
elements of the “buckskin” scouts. Nine Nearby, Fort McPherson sat alongside
years younger, Cody enlisted later in the the convergence of the Oregon and Over-
war and by 1864 was an infantry soldier land Express Trails.
for a volunteer regiment. Upriver, the growing community of
Despite stories to the contrary, it is North Platte stood poised to become
doubtful that they saw one another until a vital center of trade and commerce
after the war’s end in April of 1865. that even later would become the
When the terrible fighting finally stopped birthplace of Buffalo Bill’s outdoor
between American brothers and cousins, Wild West show. Arriving at Cotton
both men returned to the open plains Springs, Texas Jack soon met Cody
and sought employment as civilian at the fort. By now, Cody had earned
scouts for the U.S. military. the catchy moniker that would stick
Hickok served briefly under Lieuten- with him the rest of his life by hunt-
ant Colonel George A. Custer in Kansas, ing buffalo for the Kansas Pacific
while Cody would eventually be assigned Railroad.
to the Fifth Cavalry at Fort McPherson, Both Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack
Neb. Cody was later designated chief were born in 1846, and that was
of scouts for the same troop in June of the least of what they had in com-
1876, just prior to Custer’s defeat at the mon. Like Cody, Jack left home as
Little Big Horn in Montana. a teenager, but he went to work
A new character soon entered the the cattle ranches of Texas prior
picture. In the late summer of 1869, to the outbreak of the Civil War
Virginian and former Confederate scout hostilities. He joined his Southern
John B. Omohundro arrived at Fort Hays, countrymen in 1864 in the battle
Kan. He had only recently earned the against the Northern invaders
sobriquet “Texas Jack” while driving wild before the war’s end, despite his
Texas longhorn cattle to the explosive tender age.
railhead towns in Kansas. Some historians hold that it might
There, Texas Jack was introduced have been Texas Jack who put the
to Wild Bill Hickok by another popular last dispatches in the hand of the
Custer scout, Moses E. “California Joe” popular Confederate cavalry officer,
Milner. By that time, Hickok was serving Major General J.E.B. Stuart, at the
as the acting Sheriff of Ellis County in battle of Yellow Tavern, Virginia,
nearby Hays City. Texas Jack was well on May 11, 1864, only mo-
over 6-feet tall and, like the other two ments before Stuart was mortally
scouts, cut a striking figure. wounded.
Little is known of the nature of the
two men’s friendship during this period, James B. “Wild Bill” Hickok.
but historians assume that both men may MS 71 Vincent Mercaldo Col-
have crossed paths on a number of dif-
ferent occasions over the next four years
lection, McCracken Research
while they were employed on the frontier. Library. P.71.491

Cody was instrumental in getting
Omohundro hired on as a “trail guide
and scout” with the Fifth cavalry at Fort
McPherson. Soon the two became fast
friends and were sharing many frontier
duties and campaign experiences in the
field. Late in 1871, the Fifth Cavalry
was reassigned to Arizona Territory, but
the two scouts stayed on at the fort at
the request of General Sheridan. By this
time, Buffalo Bill had appeared in dime
novel stories about the Civil War and
America’s wild frontier.
The Grand Duke Alexis of Russia
came to America to hunt buffalo in Jan-
uary 1872. Lieutenant Colonel George
Armstrong Custer and the United States
Army hosted this “international” big
game hunt, and they wanted only the
best trail guides available. Buffalo Bill
and Texas Jack were assigned the chief
scouting duties. The hunt was a roaring
success promoted by the national press,
which only made the two scouting pards
more popular with the hero-seeking
public back East.
In December of that remarkable year,
dime novelist Ned Buntline convinced
Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack to come east
for the winter and join him in Chicago
to act in a stage play he was putting
together about their adventures. The
fledgling actors were confused as to
what their new roles might be but on
Dec. 16, only four days after arriving
from the wild frontier, the play “Scouts
of the Prairie” opened to a packed house
with the inexperienced duo as the leads.
The crowd didn’t seem to care that
neither scout could act. They were real
frontiersmen, and that’s what everyone
had come to see.
The scouts’ first dramatic season
was a success and their acting talent
improved. In 1873, the pair went out
on their own to produce “Scouts of the James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, John “Texas Jack” Omohundro and William F. “Buf-
Plains,” and invited Wild Bill to join
them on stage under the troupe’s new
falo Bill” Cody ca. 1874. MS 006 William F. Cody Collection, McCracken Research
banner Cody’s Combination. Now the Library. P.69.2179
American public had three of the most
famous frontiersmen together on one crowds, sometimes accusing the other of the open plains, he announced that
stage. scouts of “play acting” and of degrading he was leaving the show.
The show played to full houses every- themselves for profit. In an effort to show they held no
where along the East Coast. Buffalo Bill Because of his sincere friendship with hard feelings and appreciated his
and Texas Jack had become comfortable Cody and Omohundro, Wild Bill tried genuine support, Cody and Omohundro
on the stage and liked the attention and to stick it out until the end of the first presented their fearless friend with a
good wages. Hickok, on the other hand, season but by March of 1874 he had fine pair of nickel-plated revolvers before
never took well to the bright lights and had enough. Homesick for the simplicity Wild Bill left the troupe.

Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack continued and erecting a new marble monument to concluded, a fitting tribute to an eternal
with the stage show for two more years honor his former companion. friendship of trust and enduring loyalty.
before they decided to go their separate On a sunny day in Leadville’s Ever- (This article was originally published
ways. For his part, Omohundro mar- green Cemetery, the old frontiersman in Points West magazine in the winter of
ried the leading lady, the famous Italian read a small tribute to his scouting pard: 2003. Thadd Turner, author and screen-
ballerina Giuseppina Morlacchi, and “Texas Jack was an old friend of mine, writer, is a member of the Western Writ-
together they developed their own stage and a good one…. I learned to know ers of America and wrote the non-fiction
troupe. him and respect his bravery and ability. book,= “Wild Bill Hickok: Deadwood
After the unexpected death of his be- He was whole souled, brave and a good- City–End of Trail.” A former contributing
loved son Kit Carson Cody, Buffalo Bill hearted man.” editor for True West magazine, he has
left the stage and returned to the frontier A local band played a popular stage been published in Wild West magazine,
as chief of scouts for the newly returned song from the time, and the ceremony Deadwood magazine, and NOLA.)
Fifth Cavalry. Texas Jack also returned to
the West as a newspaper correspondent
for The New York Herald.
Ironically, Wild Bill and a small wag-
on party started for the gold rush in the
Black Hills the same week that Custer
and his 7th Cavalry met their end at the
Little Big Horn. Out on the rolling plains,
just south of the new gold fields that lay
in the Sioux Indian Reservation, a wild
looking vaquero encountered Hickok
and the wagon party. It was Buffalo Bill
dressed in one of his fancy stage outfits,
and he delivered the shocking news of
Custer’s death to Wild Bill, a former
scout for the ill-fated Lieutenant Colonel.
This chance meeting was the last
between the two longtime friends. Less
than five weeks later on Aug. 2, while
gambling and drinking on a warm and
lazy afternoon, Hickok was shot in the
back of the head and killed by Jack Mc-
Call in the No. 10 Saloon in Deadwood,
in the South Dakota Black Hills. After
the tumultuous summer of 1876, Buffalo
Bill returned to the stage for good.
Buffalo Bill outlived both of his long-
time pards but never forgot them. Just
one year after Hickok’s death, it was an-
nounced in the local Deadwood papers
that Buffalo Bill had helped pay for a
new fence to be erected around Wild
Bill’s gravesite to protect the site from
trophy seekers and grave robbers.
In June of 1880, only three weeks
shy of his 34th birthday, Texas Jack con-
tracted pneumonia in Leadville, Colo.,
where he was performing with his wife
and their troupe. Texas Jack’s illness
worsened and he died unexpectedly on
June 28, 1880, and was laid to rest in
the local cemetery with a simple wood
headstone and brief inscription.
Twenty-eight years later on Sept. 5, “Texas Jack” Omohundro, ca. 1875. MS 006 William F. Cody Collection, McCracken
1908, Buffalo Bill paid tribute to Texas Research Library. P.69.1586
Jack by visiting his old friend’s gravesite

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Harry
Jackson
Harry Jackson painting “The Range Burial” and “The Stampede” in his New York studio in 1961. (Photos courtesy of Harry Jackson Studios)
Artist lived life on his own terms

By AMBER PEABODY career as an abstract expressionist painter, Jackson became
Editor a prominent realist artist known for his paintings and bronze
sculptures of cowboys and Native Americans.
“He was a force of nature, full of rage, love, humor and Coming to Cody in the 1930s, he considered Wyoming
madness.” home from then on and returned in the 1970s, building a
Written by Matt Jackson in 2011, these words aptly de- home and studio.
scribe his father, internationally renowned artist and colorful “He was larger than life, absolutely,” said Bruce Eldredge,
character Harry Jackson. retired executive director of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West,
A Marine combat artist who turned his back on a promising in 2011. “He was a real character, in the sense that he was
very profane, very bold and very passionate about what he did
and who he was.”
Dreaming of the West

Harry Aaron Shapiro Jr. was born to Harry Shapiro and Ellen
Jackson in Chicago on April 18, 1924. His father left shortly
after Jackson was born and only appeared sporadically after
that. When his parents divorced, his mother changed his name
to Harry Andrew Jackson.
His mother ran a lunchroom in the Union Stock Yards,
which is where Jackson first becomes acquainted with cow-
boys. He liked the cowboys he met there and developed an
interest in the American frontier and western genre starting at
a young age. When he was 5, his father took him for his first
horseback ride, and they often went together to watch polo
practices near the 124th Artillery Armory, according to the
book “Harry Jackson” by Larry Pointer and Donald Goddard.
As a child, Jackson sometimes skipped classes and wan-
dered the streets of Chicago. While he had little interest in
school, art drew his attention from a young age. He drew
illustrations and created reproductions, admiring the work of
Frederic Remington and Charlie Russell, Matt Jackson said. He
began taking Saturday classes at the Art Institute of Chicago
when he was just a boy after securing a scholarship.
Aside from pursuing his art, Jackson amassed more than
3,000 toy soldiers. When he was about 10 years old he and
a friend took a train to New York City, where he went directly
to the British Library of Information in Rockefeller Center and
consulted Major General Sewell, retired. When he left he was
prepared to detail his British Indian Army soldiers in uniforms
that were exact replicas.
“Harry created his own toy soldiers using lead molds and
then painted them,” son Matt said. “(Sewell and Jackson)
talked about uniforms until a truant officer caught him and sent
him back to Chicago.”
His interest in school continued to fade, but his love of art
and fascination with cowboys and horses never wavered. Harry Jackson plays on the shore of Lake Michigan outside of
Chicago in the late 1920s.
Becoming a cowboy
Jackson saw a photo spread by Charles Belden taken at the Still, his goal of working at the Pitchfork Ranch persisted,
Pitchfork Ranch in the February 1937 issue of Life magazine and the Burkes helped him achieve that as well.
about Wyoming’s cowboy lifestyle called “Winter Comes to “They knew Helen and Eugene Phelps and got him a job
a Wyoming Ranch.” The images remained vivid in his mind on the Pitchfork Ranch,” she said.
and in 1938 when he was 14, Jackson ran away from home, With little experience in ranching, he soon became the
intent on becoming a cowboy and working at the Pitchfork. He butt of several pranks.
hitchhiked his way to Cody, where he was taken in by Clayton “We pulled as many jokes on him as we could, but he was
and Trude Burke. The couple would remain longtime friends of a really good dude, you know what I mean,” said Cal Todd, a
Jackson’s. ranchhand at the time who later became general manager of
“My grandma (Trude) was known for helping during the the Pitchfork, in the Jackson book. “He took them fine. If he
Depression when people came through and needed a place to didn’t know how to do something, he’d watch to see how it
stay,” said Karen Decker Lovejoy of Cody. “Someone told her was done … He was willing to learn anything. He absorbed
there was a kid sitting on the curb on Sheridan Avenue who was everything that was going on.”
only 14 and was determined to be a cowboy so she took him in.” Jackson and Todd would become lifelong friends, with
The Burkes gave Jackson a job at the Diamond Mill Lumber Todd’s posing for the bronze bust “The Foreman” in 1981.
Company, which they ran with Decker Lovejoy’s father Sam “He and Cal used to do crazy things together,” Decker
Decker. Lovejoy said. “Once they egged each other on to see who
“He was penniless and only 14, but Harry always had this could eat the most cow chips, just crazy things. They were
determined spirit, and what he wanted he really went after,” rascals.”
she said. “They helped him get on his feet and once they got to Jackson eventually proved himself as a ranchhand and
know him, they opened doors for him.” continued to work on the Pitchfork for the next four years,
He became a chore boy for Earl Martin at the Bradford returning to Chicago in the winters to study art. In Wyoming
Ranch, wrangling horses, building fence and even haying for he spent some time studying with painter Ed Grigware, who
Ned Frost across the valley. also divided his time between Cody and Chicago.
“Grandma and grandpa were dear friends of Earl and “He first met Ed Grigware in Chicago,” Matt said.
Mildred Martin and got Harry a job at the Bradford Ranch,” Jackson would always refer to the Pitchfork Ranch as his
Decker Lovejoy said. “spiritual birthplace.”
Joining the Marines
In 1942, when he was 18 years old, Jackson enlisted in the
Marines during World War II. Eventually he was flown to the Pa-
cific to join the Second Marine Division for its attack on Tarawa.
On Nov. 20, 1943, Jackson was among the 5,600 Marines who
stormed Betio Island, Tarawa. When his landing barge reached
land the men were under deadly fire from mortars and machine
guns, according to the Jackson book. Jackson received a trau-
matic brain injury when mortar fragments hit him in the back of
the head, at the base of his skull and in the right cheek.
“At Tarawa he was in reconnaissance unit and when they
landed he had a friend (Whitey Kroenung) a little behind him,”
Matt said. “A mortar shell landed and he got injured, but it basi-
cally took his friend’s face off.” His painting “Crucifixion At Betio”
from 2002 recounts the moment.
Jackson himself said of that day, “That water was red. It was
absolutely red. All around the pier and clear to the beach the
water was red from all the blood.”
Said to be one of the bloodiest of World War II, the battle
resulted in 991 deaths and 2,311 wounded.
Jackson was wounded again in June 1944, when American Harry Jackson (right) is pictured with Norman Rockwell in the mid-
troops stormed the beaches of Saipan. He took two bullets 1940s. (Photos courtesy of Harry Jackson Studios)
through his left leg. His time in combat over, he returned to the
U.S. and became the youngest combat artist in Marine history.
Stationed in Los Angeles, he drew and painted “(his) bloodiest “He went through intense frontline combat in World War II,”
close-combat experiences.” Jackson was honorably discharged in Matt said. “People who knew him before and after he came
October 1945. home said he was a changed man.”
For his injuries he earned two Purple Hearts but would suffer Following his discharge he returned to the Pitchfork Ranch
from epileptic seizures, mood disorders and posttraumatic stress and the Cody area for a time. A story in the Nov. 15, 1944,
disorder for the rest of his life. Enterprise reads, “Harry Jackson arrived in Cody to spend sev-
eral days with the Burke family. While here he spent some time
in hunting a different type of game than he was stalking in the
South Pacific, after having recovered from wounds received in
the battles of Tarawa and Saipan.”
Decker Lovejoy remembers Jackson showing up at the home
with no advance notice throughout her childhood years.
“He kept coming back into our lives,” she said. “He’d walk in
unannounced to our house any day at any time and throw down
a bed roll. We were his in-town home.”
Attracted to abstract
During his time in Los Angeles, Jackson’s artistic style was
strongly influenced by Jackson Pollock’s painting “The Moon-
Woman Cuts the Circle,” which he said “shot the first crack of
daylight into my blocked-off brain. That single artwork caused
me to relive Tarawa’s bloody butchery; I knew that I had to meet
Pollock face to face ASAP.”
He relocated to New York City in 1946 and began painting
in the abstract expressionist style. He studied art with Rufino
Tamayo and Hans Hofmann while living on the Lower East Side.
“War really overwhelmed him and he didn’t know what to do
with that,” Matt said. “That’s what drove him to abstraction.”
He became friends with Willem de Kooning, David Smith and
Friedel Dzubas, among others, but didn’t meet Pollock until three
years later.
“He went and knocked on his door and his introduction was,
‘You were born in Cody and I’m from Cody,’” Matt said. “They
were friends until (Pollock) died.”
Jackson began showing his abstract work frequently in 1950,
with his first one-man show at Tibor de Nagy in 1952. The show
was described as “the best ‘first show’ since Jackson Pollock’s.”
Another art critic wrote, “The potency of the paintings rests on
the buoyant, generous and intricate arabesque of shapes and on
the freshness and pungency of color. He is an artist of energetic
Harry Jackson was in Marine Corps during World War II. gestures, refusing to be limited by one style or another,” accord-
ing to the Jackson book.
Gradually Jackson became interested in realism and felt
drawn toward the Renaissance style of art, which he had known
since his childhood.
Return to realism
Jackson spent several months in Europe in 1954, copying
masterworks, sketching and keeping journals in the museums
of Italy, Germany, Austria, France and Spain. Back in New York
City he began painting portraits in the grand manner in 1955.
Jackson also continued to travel back to Wyoming.
“He drove in a Jeep on all the back roads all the way from
New York,” Decker Lovejoy said.
Thirteen years younger than Jackson, Decker Lovejoy also
recalled staying at his New York loft after graduating from high
school in 1955.
“I was going to France and on my way I stopped in New York
City and stayed with Harry and Joan in their Broome Street
loft. I had to go to the American Embassy and when I got there
Harry had called ahead to make sure I arrived.”
In 1956 he completed “Italian Bar,” based on extensive stud-
ies of patrons and friends in the bar below his studio on Broome
Street.
The work has been called by some “one of the most impor-
tant portrait paintings in the American 20th century.” During
that same year, Life magazine published a nine-page article
about Jackson called “Painter Striving to Find Himself,” about
moving from abstract to realistic art. In the profile of Jackson,
the artist remarked on his shift from abstract expressionism to
realism: “I wanted to paint everything from satin to saddles … I
began to realize there was more to art than just letting yourself
go with paint.”
Jackson traveled to Europe for the second time in 1957 on
Fulbright and Italian government grants and settled in Florence,
Italy. Harry Jackson met John Wayne for the first time in 1969. The two are
After staying with some friends in France, Decker Lovejoy pictured with his sculpture “The Marshal.”
drove to Florence to stay with Jackson.
“He used to tell me which museums to go see,” she said
“He monitored my Italian boyfriends and he’d say, ‘Now Karen, “He really enjoyed the traditional craftsmen he could work
you’re getting too close. I’m going to tell your parents.’” with there,” Matt said of the foundry. “They were fine artisans
that helped on his larger projects.”
Beginning to sculpt It was about this time Jackson began painting versions of his
sculptures in realistic colors.
Jackson would spend the year in museums in Italy, France Spending about half the year in Italy and the other half in the
and England sketching and studying the work of other artists. U.S., Jackson established a second studio and home at Lost
During one such visit he was accompanied by the Honorable Cabin, Wyo., in 1970. He also bought land on upper Sage Creek
Robert D. Coe, then the U.S. ambassador to Denmark and a near Cody in 1972, where he and ranch manager Mel Stone-
trustee of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. It was following that house raised registered longhorns. He left Lost Cabin and made
trip that Jackson proposed two monumental paintings that were Cody his Wyoming base in 1979.
financed by Coe – one depicting a cowboy burial on the open In 1987, Jackson said he traveled between Cody and
range and the other a cattle stampede in which the cowboy Camaiore,“anywhere from 5 to 10 times a year. I believe you
was killed. He began sculpting during this period, with his first should always be ready to move on, and to take it all with you
bronzes studies for “The Range Burial” and “The Stampede.” if you have to. That’s something I learned in the Marine Corps.
“The paintings were much larger than any he’d done and You might say I still am ‘shaping up and moving out’ as the
that’s where sculpture came in,” Matt said. “He did little di- Marines would, or that ‘I’m still burning daylight.’ That’s an old
orama models of what he wanted to do in the paintings. He did cowboy’s way of saying the same thing.”
studies for his work, sketches and preliminary paintings. He had
incredibly good technique and wanted to do things the best way
possible.
Storytelling through art
“About an hour way from Florence, they had a long tradi- After discovering how well painting and sculpture comple-
tion of casting bronzes,” Matt added. “He loved the place and mented each other he began delving more into the latter me-
bought some land in 1960.” dium and created “Pony Express” in 1967.
On his land in Camaiore, Jackson built a studio and house in “I’ve always been a painter, I was born one,” Jackson said in
1961. a 1987 interview. “Sculpture for me is a way to paint better.”
In order to respond to the growing demand for his work and In 1969 he was commissioned by Time magazine to sculpt
also to take charge of his own production, Jackson set up his own John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn from the film “True Grit” for
foundry there in 1964. Eventually this allowed him to produce a the Aug. 8 cover. The sculpture, which depicts Wayne riding a
limited number of versions of his original sculptures in various sizes. horse and carrying a rifle, is called “The Marshal.”
Harry Jackson sculpts Mel Stonehouse posing on horseback in his Cody studio as Gary Shoop and Mark Larsen look on.
“John really liked it and invited him to come down to Duran- His various sculptures were also in the collections of well-
go, N.M., because he really wanted to meet him,” Matt said. known people around the world including U.S. Presidents
The two would become friends. Wayne later narrated a docu- Ronald Reagan and Lyndon Johnson.
mentary on Jackson and was godfather to his son Jesse. A special casting of his sculpture “Two Champs” – which
Following Wayne’s death in 1979, Jackson was commis- captures a moment in the careers of two colorful competitors
sioned by Great Western Savings & Loan in California to create in rodeo history, Clayton Danks and the horse Steamboat – was
a sculpture of Wayne, who had appeared in a series of com- presented as the Official Gift of State to Queen Elizabeth II by
mercials for the company during his last two years. The 21-foot- President Gerald Ford in Washington, D.C., on July 7, 1976, just
tall piece stands in front of the Great Western Savings & Loan a few days after the American Bicentennial.
building (now Flynt Building) on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly “He was very honored in 1976 that they gave ‘Two Champs’
Hills. as a gift to England,” Matt said. “He got to go to Washington to
It was the largest sculpture Jackson had ever made and was the state dinner and loved that his work was able to be enjoyed
dedicated in mid-July 1984, just before the Olympic games. by people of high power.”
In addition to the portrayal of Wayne astride a horse, the Another casting of “Two Champs” was presented to King
monument’s base features smaller reliefs that depict a cattle Khaled of Saudi Arabia by his father-in-law Bill Lear.
stampede and a series of cowboys on horseback fighting to win “My work is essentially American genre, a storytelling art
the West. about a way of life,” Jackson said in an interview in 1974. “I
An Enterprise story about the sculpture from 1983 had a tell in my art of the things I know about the cowboys, about the
comment from Wayne’s son Michael. values I learned from them when I first worked and earned my
“It’s a wonderful tribute to my father,” he said. “He would wages from them. I can’t think of anything more damned valid
have been proud to be the subject of this great Harry Jackson in the world.”
sculpture.”
In 1980, Jackson’s sculpture “Sacajawea,” based on the
famed Shoshone woman who safely led Lewis and Clark across Coming full circle
the Rocky Mountain wilderness during their trek to the Pacific From the late 1990s to 2006, Jackson returned to painting.
Ocean from 1804-06, was unveiled at the Buffalo Bill Histori- His work harkened back to his abstract expressionist experi-
cal Center. Jackson said he created this piece as a tribute to ments and military experiences, and also include “more peace-
courage, hoping it would be “as straight and simple as falling ful, even transcendental registers of feeling” in the “Quartet”
rock, and an everlasting honor to the souls of Sacajawea, the paintings, said Gordon McConnell in a story on Jackson.
Shoshone and all High Plains Indians.” “Later in life he went to some reunions of the Marines and
Harry Jackson works on Sacajawea in 1980 at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. (Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. Cashman Harry Jackson Trust 2006)
he returned back to abstract paintings,” Matt said. “Oftentimes
his work comes from a lot of introspection and reflection, but he
didn’t like the idea of art as therapy because he felt some of his
issues added to his creativity.”
When asked in a 1983 documentary about his switch to dif-
ferent artistic styles, Jackson likened it to a sphere.
“Turn the sphere of art and the next facet shows up, but it’s
all one sphere,” he said.
While his artistic medium changed throughout his career, one
thing that never did was the fact he didn’t take kindly to others
telling him what to do while working on his pieces.
“I never think about what John Q. Public would like me
to do,” he said in an interview in 1981. “It’s none of his god
damn business. It might not even be any of mine, I’m a me-
dium. I don’t care if Peg Coe or Senator Alan Simpson and all
those other folk came in to my studio, got down on their hands
and knees and said, ‘Harry you’ve got to change it.’ I wouldn’t
change a damn thing.”
Complicated family relationships

As a result of his war injuries, Jackson struggled throughout
life with epileptic seizures and severe mood disorders.
“He also had posttraumatic stress disorder and had a difficult
time,” Matt told the Los Angeles Times in 2011. “He lived like
he was on the battlefield. Whether he was happy or angry, it
was a life-or-death intensity.”
This made for complicated family relationships. Jackson
would marry four times and have five children.
In 1949, he married painter Grace Hartigan, but they di-
vorced the following year.
Jackson later began a relationship with Joan Hunt, and art-
ists’ model and modern dancer. The couple married on Feb. 6,
1954.
“I remember Joan as being beautiful and voluptuous,” Decker
Lovejoy said. “She had definite ideas and a thick New York ac-
cent.” Harry Jackson would always identify as a Wyoming artist after he
After being separated for five years, Jackson and Joan di-
vorced in 1962. He met Sarah Mason in the spring of that year
discovered Cody and Meeteetse in the 1930s.
and they married in September.
“Sarah was the sweetest woman,” Decker Lovejoy said. memory the poem by Kipling, ‘Gunga Din.’”
Jackson and Sarah had son Matthew in 1966 and daughter From the time he discovered Cody and Meeteetse, he would
Molly in 1969. always identify himself as a Wyoming artist.
“He was a challenging parent,” Matt said. “He spent lot of “The West is where I really come more deeply and regularly
time on his art working on things. I spent quite a bit of time alive,” he told Good Morning America in 1984.
helping at the foundry and on his sculpting projects. That’s how Friend Al Simpson told the Enterprise in 2011, “He was a
we connected was through his art.” cowboy. A real old cowboy. He had a lot of power, strength,
After divorcing Sarah in 1972, two years later he married perseverance. He was ornery, you name it. He was a real friend
Valentina Lear, daughter of Lear Jet inventor Bill Lear. Son Jesse to his friends. Curiosity, my God, the curiosity he had. He was a
was born in 1977, Luke in 1979 and Chloe in 1980. Harry and brilliant man. As far as I know, he never wandered into a school
Tina divorced in 1994. room after about age 14, but he educated himself. He had an
Describing his dad in 2011, son Jesse said, “Dad was just incredible vocabulary. He could visit with paupers or kings, and
larger than life. He could work a room. He was just always like be equally comfortable.”
that. No matter what. He always had to be doing things. He had Jackson began a private journal, which eventually grew to
to be productive. He was a technically proficient guy, observant more than 100 volumes. He also had a large library.
and studious. And he used that, it shows up in his work. He had “He was quite an avid reader and scholar,” Matt said. “He
a respect for traditions, but always an equal irreverence toward collected quite a large library of fine art, philosophy and religion.
certain traditions, in art as well as life.” He took a scholarly approach to art work and what he was do-
ing.”
Living in the spotlight Jackson died at the Veterans Health Administration’s medical
center in Sheridan on April 25, 2011, at the age of 87, following
Jackson has been described as “fiercely loyal to his friends,” several health issues during his final year.
and was never one to shy away from the spotlight. “He was able to create his own destiny,” Decker Lovejoy
“He could keep you entertained and was a tremendous sto- said. “At an early age he knew what he wanted to do and did
ryteller,” Matt said. “Before the war he was a little bit shy. Once it. He wasn’t perfect, but to me he was like a superstar, with as
when they were sitting around the campfire at the Pitchfork and many faults as he had virtues. He was a guy I looked up to and
he wanted to get their attention he stepped up and recited by admired so much.”

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Jackson’s art
The Marshal, 1970 The Foreman, 1981
Evolved from abstract to realism in long career

Known as “an artist who captured the West,”
Harry Jackson went through quite an evolution
during his long career.
He became known for his abstract art, but
later shifted to realism with paintings and bronze
sculptures of cowboys and Native Americans.
In 1980, New York Times art critic Hilton
Kramer said Jackson’s Western-inspired works
were “unlike any other in the recent history of
American art.” He added that the evolution of
Jackson’s style “has turned a well-known and
highly praised but penurious young artist into one
of the wealthiest ‘unknown’ artists in America –
an artist unknown, that is, to the art world where
his first reputation was made 30 years ago.”
Now 5,000 of his works, from his first
drawings as a child to his final paintings late in
life, were gifted in summer 2018 by the Harry
Jackson Trust to the Cody-based Harry Jack-
son Institute, which plans eventually to display
some locally, have traveling works and provide
works for visual arts students to view. The Harry
Jackson Institute is dedicated to the preservation,
interpretation, and sharing of the art and archives
of Jackson to a wide audience through educa-
tional programs, scholarly research, exhibitions
and other outreach activities.
Stop, 1945
White Red,
Figure, Yellow,
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1951
The Range Burial, 1963
The Stampede, 1965

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Rimrock
Ranch
Fales take over in business swap
By BUZZY HASSRICK
Special to the Enterprise
When Glenn and Alice Fales acquired Rimrock Dude Ranch

through an unusual business swap, they basically had to start
from scratch as the North Fork buildings had sat vacant for 10
years and, except for wood stoves, lacked many furnishings.
The couple wasn’t deterred. Running a dude ranch had
always been Glenn’s dream, said his son Gary, who manages
the operation now with his wife Dede. They live on private land
adjacent to the ranch, which is located on the east edge of the
Shoshone National Forest along Canyon Creek.
Before Rimrock became a dude operation, O.L. Freeman
rented the ranch to newlyweds Winnifred Clarke of London and
H.R. Pike, according to a March 19, 1919, story in the Cody
Enterprise. They had just married at the home of Col. and Mrs.
Cody.
“Mr. and Mrs. Pike will at once go to housekeeping on the
Rimrock Ranch on Wapiti …,” the story said.
In 1926, Earl and Mildred Martin, a couple from Montana
who wanted to run a dude ranch, bought Rimrock, Gary said.
The couple had met in 1921 at a dance at Old Faithful, where
Mildred was working, and married in 1923.
Prior to the Rimrock move, the Martins owned Absaroka
Mountain Lodge, 12 miles from the East Entrance, yet evident-
ly wanted to move downstream. While looking for a new place,
they rejected a location on Table Mountain for being too remote
and instead chose Canyon Creek for their new guest operation,
Gary said. Along the creek the Forest Service had built a work
station there in 1923, but it had washed out.
The Martins purchased the ranch with help from Mildred’s
cousin, renowned western artist Frank Tenney Johnson, who
helped finance the deal.
“They built cabins on the Forest Service, which still exist,”
Gary said.
In 1931, John DuBois of Plainfield, N.J., became a half-
owner of the ranch. A Nov. 4, 1931, Enterprise story about the
new partner and his investment said, “This is one of the most
attractive properties on the upper river, and is to be improved
to the point where it can take care of a fine dude business and
outfit hunting parties in season.
“Mr. DuBois has been a ‘dude’ to the Buffalo Bill Country
for a number of years, and has made many friends here…. He
is at present a student at Princeton (University in New Jersey),
spending his summers in Wyoming.”
The next year, one improvement occurred when Johnson Ed McNeely leads a trail ride on the Rimrock.
erected a cabin with a big north-facing window for the light
One of the earliest pictures of the Rimrock Dude Ranch lodge building. (Photos courtesy of the Fales family)
that’s essential for an artist’s studio, Dede said. From then on, supper at the ranch Saturday night,” the story reads. “Japanese
Johnson visited the ranch most summers until his death in lanterns and colored balloons constituted the decorations and
1939, inspired by the ranch workers and surrounding scenery upon his arrival each guest was decorated with a brilliant lei
that appear in many sketches and oil paintings. Known as the and a funny little hat to wear throughout the evening.”
“Artist’s Cabin,” it still exists. The story continues to say that the menu included delicacies
The depression years proved hard on the operation. from Chicago, followed by dancing. “…The 55 guests tripped
“Everything was tough at that point,” Gary said – even Val- the light fantastic until a late hour to the tune of Hank and
ley Ranch on the upper South Fork sold eggs and milk – but Shake’s incomparable music. Some of the dudes had never
Rimrock remained “busy with Frank Tenney Johnson’s friends.” square danced before and they got a terrific wallop out of ala-
A June 8, 1938, newspaper story reported that Mildred mand left and the dosi do.
Martin, “the eminent and incomparable authoress of the Enter- “Everyone agreed that when Ruth gave a party she certainly
prise’s Wapiti Wallops, last week came down with tick fever. gave a party.”
Fortunately she has only the mild, Colorado form, and so will Along with being a columnist, Mildred Martin wrote a book,
not come out in spots. “The Martins of Gunbarrel,” named for the creek that runs by
“Mrs. Martin has associated with ticks all her life, but this is Absaroka Lodge. It appeared in 1959, 15 years after she and
the first time an ungrateful tick has ever taken advantage of her her husband had moved back to Montana.
hospitality. She was brought into the Park hospital last Thurs- Following the Martins’ departure in 1944, “the buildings
day, put on a rigid diet, taken home again Sunday.” just sat there,” vacant for 11 years until Howard Dawson ac-
Rimrock appeared in the Enterprise the following month quired the ranch in 1955, Gary said. Under the policy then, he
as the site of a social event at the ranch, with many details explained, the Forest Service would just give away abandoned
included. properties. Dawson, who worked at a grocery store in Powell,
“Miss Ruth Willner, who comes out every summer for a rented out the cabins.
month’s vacation, was hostess at a delightful dance and buffet It was a deal with Dawson that led to Rimrock’s owner-
Earl Martin stands in the barn and looks out over Jim Mountain in the 1920s. (Photos cour-
tesy of the Fales family)
ship by Glenn and Alice Fales. Born ell, Glenn rode from Garland to deliver properties, with Dawson adding cash
in Deaver, Glenn grew up and went to candy for Valentine’s Day in 1941. to the trade because the Faleses had a
school in Garland, Gary said. He left The story continued, “The two had successful grocery store and the ranch
home young, after his mother died, and been courting for about a year, and wasn’t in operating condition, Gary said.
went to the Pryor Mountains with his Glenn’s romantic gesture sealed the Although a man named McGary had
brother Merle. deal. They were married three days already bought Rimrock, he defaulted
East of Cody, Alice was born on a later.” on a payment, allowing the Faleses to
Sage Creek homestead settled by her The couple worked for the Palette obtain the ranch.
grandfather Schultz. One summer day operations of the Hoodoo Ranch outside “At that point it had been sitting
she fortuitously ventured into Cody. Meeteetse and later moved to Cody for 10 years,” Gary said. Still, they
“I remember I used to always ride my where Glenn had a job at Diamond opened to dudes that summer, and
horse to town for the Fourth of July,” Lumber Co., Gary said. After witnessing Glenn launched an outfitting business.
she told Ruffin Prevost for the Cody Glenn’s ability to calculate numbers in The couple supplemented their income
Characters project. Riders would leave his head, the owner of a small Meetee- with winter jobs, and the guests started
their horses at the livery stable on Beck tse store on a side street, not the Mer- coming.
Avenue, near where the Cody Audito- cantile, gave the business to Glenn. “Dad took really good care of people,
rium is today. “He loved the store but always want- and the word spread,” Gary said. He’d
“Dad met Mom at the Cody Stam- ed to be a dude rancher,” Dede said. even approach visitors in other locations
pede,” Gary said. Enter Dawson, who had always want- and invite them to the ranch. “He did
Later, while Alice was living in Pow- ed a store, so he and Glenn swapped everything he could to get referrals.”
Above, A group in front of the Rimrock main
lodge prepares to go on a trail ride.
Right, Frank Tenney Johnson at a painting,

Rimrock Ranch studio, no date. MS 012
Frank Tenney Johnson Collection, McCrack-
en Research Library. PN.72.545
Today, Gary and Dede follow the

Monday-Saturday schedule set by his
parents, with horseback rides offered
daily. Asked about any memorable
incidents, Gary said they’d rather not
have any, but he did relate a story about
Judge Joe Crib, whom Glenn had wooed
away from a Wapiti dude ranch by prom-
ising a better time. Crib ended up visiting
Rimrock for 35 years, the last time at age
93 or 94.
Despite a gradual loss of vision, Crib kept
coming, Gary said. During his last stay Crib
requested an hour-long loop ride on his favorite
horse, Hugo. Gary and Dede, though concerned
about their frail guest, conceded to his request.
“We didn’t think he’d make it,” recalled Gary, but
their worries were focused on the wrong party. “About
100 yards from the ranch at a creek crossing, the horse
died.”
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Edward
Grigware
Edward Grigware, known as the “Leonardo Da Vinci of the sagebrush,” paints a landscape scene. (Park County Archives photo)

Artist’s lasting legacy seen in murals around Cody
By LEO WOLFSON Eleanor Jewett, art critic for the Chicago Tribune, wrote of
Staff writer Grigware, “There is a bit of eternity in the beauty that graces
such work.”
There are few Cody artists more synonymous with western
art than Edward Grigware, described by the Chicago Tribune
newspaper as the “Leonardo Da Vinci of the sagebrush.” Westward bound
He passed way in 1960, but his paintings and murals still Dr. Harold McCracken, an early Cody leader and eventual
hold a lasting effect in Cody to this day, a testament to the first director of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, invited Grig-
impact he had on the Cody art world as a longtime resident. ware to Cody in 1938. Grigware took the invitation.
“No one was painting this way,” local artist Mike Poulsen With his wife Blanche by his side along with photographer
said. “Grigware was able to simplify things to the point of and friend Stanley Kershaw, Grigware immediately set about
design.” starting his Frontier Art School in that summer of ’38. These
Considered an artist of realism, Grigware first gained rec- community art classes he led later became the Cody Summer
ognition in Chicago for paintings that encapsulated city scenes School of Art.
and the western landscape, after starting his career in advertis- The artist’s lasting legacy also impacted the current Cody
ing and illustration. Country Art League, where Poulsen said his classes served as
It didn’t take long for his art and eye for landscape to be- an impetus.
come well respected within Chicago art circles. Perhaps it was “He was able to work with these people that didn’t have
because he was a man cut from his own cloth, not one to hold some of the art concepts he did,” Poulsen said.
his tongue when it came to expressing disdain for the modern Grigware had a close friendship with fellow western artist
art that was starting to rule many other urban centers in the Thomas Molesworth, a renowned pioneer of western furniture.
early 20th century. Inside Molesworth’s furniture store one could find Grigware’s
“Those would-be artists who were short on talent were the artwork on display and likewise, Grigware owned many Moles-
ones who turned to modern art as an escape from discipline,” worth creations in his house.
he was quoted to have said. Poulsen said Molesworth incorporated many influences from
Rather than paint the imaginary, Grigware opted to portray Grigware’s art in his pieces.
the objects before him as he saw them. “He had many aspects of his furniture influenced by Grig-
Grigware stands next to his mural at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cody during its creation. (Historical Cody Mural and
Museum photo)
ware,” Poulsen said. “They inspired each other.” As he created the mural, he said a “hand greater than his
own” was guiding his brush, blending watercolors and wax for
Duty calls a glowing blue sheen that reverberates throughout the rotunda
room.
Grigware turned his title from Mr. to commander when he The mural was completed after a year and unveiled to the
served in the Navy as captain and chief artist for the 13th Naval public in 1951. Poulsen said the painting was recently appraised
District during World War II, capturing ocean scenes from Alaska at a value of $5.5 million.
and the South Pacific on the carrier Enterprise. Many of his Historic Cody Mural and Museum director Kurt Hopkin said
works were reproduced in Life magazine as its war-time corre- people travel from around the world to visit the church and
spondent. admire Grigware’s work.
After returning home from war, Grigware turned his focus “Just to paint it on a curvature, really two curvatures, is amaz-
to a new challenge with a spiritual twist. The mural he would ing,” Hopkin said. “He must have been very talented.”
paint soon after returning at Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Poulsen, who now performs touch-ups on the painting, said
Saints on Wyoming Avenue would come to be one of his most Grigware painted the mural in pizza-slice-like segments, using
famous and transformative works. attention to detail second to none such as at the bottom of one
Over the course of one year Grigware painted the church mural segment, where a boy is holding a tin can of worms while
rotunda, an 18-foot-tall and 36-foot-diameter dome that he used fishing in the 1840s.
to display the history of the Mormon church. Poulsen said Grigware researched this aspect to make sure
Grigware spent nearly a full year studying church history and the tin can packaging was accurate to its time. One of the
travelling to historic sites to gain a greater understanding of the mural’s benefactors, Olive Nielsen, questioned the historical ac-
history of the Mormon church. curacy of this aspect, but Grigware held firm.
Grigware first selected historic scenes for the mural and then “He finally convinced her it needed to stay in the painting,”
painted them in a circular, timeline fashion, documenting the Poulsen said.
early history of the Mormon church from the life of its founder “It’s unique to the church,” Hopkin said of the mural. “There’s
Joseph Smith to its eighth president George Albert Smith. not another piece of work like this in the church organization.”
Leonard Nichols (from left), Ed Grigware, and Admiral J.B. Miller on a boat on Yellowstone Lake, 1950s. MS 089 Jack Richard Photograph
Collection, McCracken Research Library. PN.89.106.21012.17.1
photo by LEON JENSON
for many years. As the name suggests, the piece shows four
women in chaps with no pants underneath, lounging along a
wood fence.
“It was famous for quite some time,” Nick Beining, a manager
at the hotel, said with a laugh. “People still come in about every
month or two and ask about it.”
But despite his national fame Grigware was described as be-
ing as down-to-earth and authentic as they come, according to
numerous historical accounts, and “never too busy for a visit” as
described in a 1960 Enterprise story covering his funeral.
His cabin, located behind “The Scout” statue outside West
Park Hospital offered him a prime view of the Big Horn Basin
landscape, which served as a backdrop in many of his paintings.
“He got to see the sunrises and sunsets on Heart Mountain
for a lot of years,” Poulsen said.
Grigware was one of the first members of McCracken’s at-
tempt to start an artist colony in Cody. Although the painter did
build two studios, a permanent colony never materialized.
Poulsen said what instead came forth was a bustling art
culture in Cody that Grigware helped shepherd through his work
and with what he gave to the community.
Grigware painted this scene while stationed on the carrier En- His life shows all it takes is one idea, inspiration or effort to
terprise during WWII in the South Pacific. Many believe he is the make a world of difference.
man staring at the viewer at the bottom of the piece. (Courtesy of “It takes people who have a vision, like Bill Cody did,”
Meadowlark Art Gallery) Poulsen said.
Legacy remains
Grigware said his murals left him “filled with a feeling of
forever and ever, without beginning or end,” according to an
Enterprise story.
Grigware was an artist well regarded throughout the nation
and in constant demand.
“He had way more work than he could handle,” Poulsen said.
“He was a very well-traveled man.”
Grigware’s murals and paintings can be found in churches,
museums and buildings across the country, including in a Seat-
tle radio station and a Mormon temple in Los Angeles. A mural
he painted at the University of Wyoming’s College of Education
building, he said, was to show the “sweep of living and learning
in Wyoming.”
Locally, his work may be seen in a variety of locales, includ-
ing the Wynona Thompson Auditorium at Cody High School,
Buffalo Bill Center of the West and even the main lobby of the
Rec Center, where his blue viridian-colored portrait of Paul Stock
greets visitors. Stock’s argyle socks are displayed prominently,
poking out from his loafers.
“It worked, the way he did it,” Poulsen said with a laugh. “It
was a very casual portrait and I think that’s the way he liked to
work.” Lt. Commander Edward Grigware (left), and unidentified, 1952. MS
Although now in the hands of a private buyer, his “Bot-
toms Up” painting was a mainstay in the Cody Holiday Inn bar 089 Jack Richard Photograph Collection, McCracken Research
Library. PN.89.106.21006.19.2
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Ralston
After boom, small town survives
By ZAC TAYLOR
News Editor
Shirley Cox, 93, remembers the rhythm of

the sugar beet harvest.
She remembers spending days as a teen-
ager in her parent’s field outside of Ralston,
pulling out beets and slicing the stalks. Every
4 feet or so there would be a place to dump
them.
“It was a lot of work,” she said.
Later she remembers assisting the com-
munity as a member of the Ralston Women’s
Club – she served eight terms as president.
Her mother and grandmother were also
members.
The club put on dances, helped people
in need such as after a house fire, and its
clubhouse served as a meeting point for other
groups.
The club recently disbanded, but the build-
ing remains, now turned into Ralston’s only
vacation rental.
“I loved to see how it’s kept the original
look on the outside,” she said. People stand outside Ralston’s Libby general store late in the first decade of the 1900s.
From the windows visitors can look out (Park Cody Archives photo)
on fields below, some pasture for horses and
others used for crops. The land where the town later grew was Creek and into the Garland canal.
It’s a look back at the town Cox remem- part of an irrigation system along the Shosho- The Powell Irrigation Office’s Project Histo-
bers. Her history is intertwined with the build- ne River first operated by Buffalo Bill Cody ry 1909 details a planing mill then being built
ing, as is the history of the town itself. and his partner Nate Salsbury. After Salsbury for cutting and grooving planks. A wooden
The building was built in 1914 as the died and Buffalo Bill couldn’t come up with flume was completed in 1908, to be replaced
town’s first standalone school house – prior the money, he relinquished the 90,000 acres in later years with better construction.
to that children had been taught within a in 1904 to the federal government, which These projects ramped up and spurred the
downtown business. Later, when students then began work on the Shoshone Irrigation town’s growth.
were bussed to Powell to learn, it became a Project. The Park County Courthouse and original
clubhouse for community groups including At this point the townsite was already land maps of the townsite show Lincoln
the Ralston Women’s Club. along the Burlington and Missouri River Land Co. surveyed the site and laid out three
The building on Carbon Street remained railroad line that laid track across the site north-south roads and three east-west roads.
a constant as the town changed, responding and soon put up a station, section house and In 1907 the company began selling lots and
to the growth of cities like Powell and Cody boxcar living quarters. by 1913 there was a pool hall, saloon, livery
and the building of the highway that led to a The combination of the railroad and the stable, general store, small hospital clinic, two
change in Ralston’s focal point and down- canal work soon led to a town being born. lumber yards, taxidermy shop, an Apple-
town. Cox reported that early Ralston resident green’s Hardware with a second story for
Garth Smith recalled in 1907 the Bureau dances and social events, and a few homes.
Town beginnings of Reclamation established a camp of
tents and frame buildings near the corner
A 1910 Park County Enterprise story
spoke of Hubert Easton purchasing the stock
Ralston had already gone through a couple of Clark and Carbon streets. They were a of goods formerly owned by J.H. McGuffey to
of ups and downs before 1914, as Cox noted half mile south of the construction site of open a general store.
when she wrote a short history of the town the Alkali Creek flume being built to carry “Settlers north of Ralston, as far as Clarks
in 1979. water from the bench area across Alkali Fork, will find it to their advantage to trade at
Students from one of the first classes at the Ralston School play outside the building. It was built in 1914 and served as the town’s school
until the 1920s when students were bussed to Powell. (Courtesy photo)
the new store, where a very complete general Her father was later one of the first which boasted custom manufacturing of
stock is now being carried,” the story states. sugar beet farmers on the Powell plat, as the western tack, including saddles, bridles and
The first Ralston school was established in extended family would own several farms chaps.
1911 at the Yellowstone Lumber Co. with a throughout the area between Powell and In a 1968 ad in the Cody Enterprise,
teacher and roughly 11 students. Ralston. the company advertised repair services on
After Mills left for married the life, the saddles, horse medications and a whole line
New school building school held on until 1922 when Park 1
School District consolidated schools.
of western wear.
Cox wrote that for brief periods a grocery
Longtime resident Christene Smith In 1930 the Ralston Community Club store was open.
recalled to Cox that cement was poured acquired the building and it began its second The post office had a rocky history, as the
Christmas Day 1913 for the foundation of life as a community center. town’s first mail service faded away around
the Carbon Street schoolhouse. The 40-foot But as Powell, Garland and Cody outgrew 1909 due to lack of interest after many
by 40-foot frame structure was hosting 15 Ralston, the importance of commerce there of the workers left. It was re-established
pupils and teacher Mae Mills. diminished. in 1910 under the direction of postmaster
Cox’s father Harold Williams had to wait Hubert Easton.
on Mills for seven years before he could
marry her, as teachers were not allowed to Big changes A Park County Enterprise story announc-
ing the reopening declaring the re-establish-
marry. When the highway was first built in ment of postal service would lead to greater
“She had met my dad when she was 16,” 1932 it not only changed the orientation of things.
Cox said. “He courted her for seven years.” the downtown area, Cox said it also gave “Ralston will in time become one of the
Cox said both her mother and father’s residents more opportunity to travel to other leading towns in Park County and we extend
parents had homesteaded in the region and towns for their needs. felicitations in view of the promising future
she remembered her mother talking about But a new, albeit small, town slowly grew before our sister city down the line,” the story
her enjoyment of teaching at the school. up around the highway, including a post states.
Before that she had taught at a school on the office, gas station, bar and lounge and the The current post office, built in the
Greybull River. well-known L.H. Brand Saddle Company, 1960s, is the fifth for the service.
The Ralston Clubhouse was renovated four years ago by local residents Deirdre and Dirk Cozzens and is now Ralston’s only vacation rental
property.
A tight-knit community
While the town did not fade and retained postal service, it settled
into small-town status.
“Ralston really stabilized after the highway was built,” she said.
Cafes and restaurants have come and gone, along with small retail
shops. Cox said most of the recent growth has involved a few new
houses in the area as people escape to the small-town life.
Much of Cox’s family still lives in the area – her son farms one of
the family plots, as does her granddaughter and her family.
One of the family farms was originally part of Cox’s uncle’s com-
pensation for working on the irrigation project.
She moved to Powell in 1999 and sold her farm to her grand-
daughter, but she stayed involved in the Ralston Women’s Club.
Then four years ago the club members, aging and dealing with
a building lacking some basic necessities such as indoor plumbing,
In 1968 L.H. Brand donated the building to Northwest College. The college then auctioned
Saddle Co. was a off the building, with all funds raised going to a scholarship sponsored
premier place for by the Ralston Women’s Club.
tack, repair and
saddle making New chapter
lessons. (Park Longtime Ralston resident Deirdre Cozzens and her husband Dirk
County Archives purchased the building from the sale and turned it into the vacation
photo) rental it is now.
Deirdre said they worked to maintain the integrity of the original
structure even as they renovated and added modern elements.
It was a dream come true for her family as they used to come to

An early photo of the Ralston School, which later became the Ralston Clubhouse that served as a center of town social life for many de-
cades. (Courtesy photo)
RV SupplieS
the building with their children for events.
“The women used to put on a Christmas party every year,” she
said. “It was just a step into the past; we loved it.”
So when it went up for sale, Cozzens was determined to save it
from destruction. By
“It’s a huge part of the town’s history, very well built,” she said.
“People love staying in an old schoolhouse. That’s the charm of it.
 RV Cleaners & Conditioners
It’s so rich with history.”
 Electrical  Freshwater
It represents a community history and a personal history. Cox can  RV Hardware
name many of the people in the old black and white pictures on the  Housewares  Sanitation
walls – Cozzens hosts her and other remaining members of the club  Leveling & Stabilization
every month for a meal.  Propane Exchange
“It was pretty amazing what Deirdre did to the clubhouse,” Cox
said. “She maintained the historic look of it.” 2201 17th Street
The building stands as a reminder of the history of a town that Beck Lake Plaza Mon–Sat: 8 am–6 pm
never grew out of its small-town stature, and people like it that way. 307.587.8555 Sun: 9 am–4 pm
live Musical about buffalo bill & his wild west show
at the historic downtown cody Theatre 1171 Sheridan Ave.
Cody Wy
June 26-August 3 | 8:00 pm

Every Wednesday-Saturday
July 3, 2:00 pm only; July 4, no show
Tickets $15.00
*kids 5 and under FREE
AVAILABLE ONLINE OR AT THE DOOR

www.codywildwestshow.com

HISTORIC
CODY M U R A L and
MUSEUM
A Historic Tale of the

Migration and Settlement Belfr
y HW Y
Big Horn Ave.
r.
of the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming
R
Circle D
Wyoming Ave.
19th St.
16th St.
1719 Wyoming Avenue Sheridan Ave.

17th St.
Cody, Wyoming
307.587.3290 ■ www.CodyMural.com
Open May 14 - September 28 • Hours Mon-Sat 9am-7pm, Sun 3pm-7pm
• Jeremiah Johnson’s Grave Cassidy’s Hole in the Wall Cabin •
• Museum of the Old West Blacksmith & Livery Stable •
• Visit the Rivers Saloon 27 Historic Buildings •
• Homesteaders Cabins Visit Curley’s Cabin •
• Native Americana Historic Cemetery •
• Wagon Barn Gift Store •
Next to the Rodeo Grounds, Cody, Wyoming

OPEN: May 12 - Sept. 30 • 8 am - 6 pm
1831 DeMaris Dr., Cody, WY 82414
307-587-5302 • www.oldtrailtown.org

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A trailblazing Park County sheriff

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