Manuscript

Name/Title

Manuscript

Entry/Object ID

2012.180.5.83

Scope and Content

Rans Baker talk at "The Power of the Place"; Historian Gathering, March 28, 2008. An advertising Brochure of speakers is included. Representative stories of his lectures over 12 years at Carbon County Museum and Higher Ed. Stories are in the time period of 1890 to 1908. 1890: Jim Baker's legal system fiasco over stolen cattle. 1891: Harry Chapman; Cowboy Polo Club. AKA Western Polo. Chapman's Ferris or Sand Creek Boy's won $75. at State Rair Competition. Carbon County's First State Championship in Cowboy Polo. 1893: James Murray; George Morris and Bertha Murray/Morris. A divorce, remarriage deceit and squabble. Nations currency failed; effects in Wy of Mining and Agriculture development ceased. UPRR would go into receivership; violent crimes increased. Including this short mystery from the North Platte Valley; William A. Brown homesteader and novice sheepman disappeared, thought to have been murdered by his neighbor and former employer, Gideon Matthewson. In 1939 some remains were found under the Matthewson ranch house as it was being razed by a new owner. 1895: S. L. Willis was developing a private race track near the present day fair grounds and his wife Lydi Willis opened a Bordello. The citizens of Rawlins garnered a 395 signature petition to close brothels; she moved her operation to Encampment just in time to profit from the Copper Mines. Her "red" light house became the Cottage House. 1899: S. J. Ferris, woman operator of a freight line between Saratoga and Battle. "Big Bill" Daley shoots a foreman (Hildebrandt) at sheep camp for taking infected sheep across his leased land. 1900: Economic conditions improve; various kinds of developement abound: Hanna becomes the coal mining center; Sierra Madre and Little Snake River Valley have copper mining; Ferris and Seminoe Mountains explore Gold and Silver Mining; North of Rawlins and Nothwest of Hanna try Iron Mines.. Union Pacific begins a series of alterations and improvements that will continue for the next 10 years. One as a result of the O'Neal train wreck on May 8, 1900 that took the lives of 6 people. Series of events are described and names mentioned are John Ohland; section foreman, Bill Percy; Engineer, Ruby Rivera on a shearing crew, Lewis Seaverson; foreman of a sheep camp. Railroad line was rerouted to eliminate that section. Solon to Wamsutter became the first rebuilt as double track. Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone installed lines that ran East to Ft. Steele and Walcott. In the spring lines ran between Saratoga and Encampment and later in the year west to Battle, Rambler, Copperton, Rudefeha and in 1901 to Slater, CO and Dixon to Baggs. Robert Taylor didn't appreciate the new fangled convenience so he shot up the camp tent. 1901-1902: Winter brought bad blizzards. H. W. Moody; sheepherder froze to death but his sheep dogs stayed with his body and the dogs survived. And were treated as heroes. Kleber Hadsell, his neighbor brought in the frozen body. 1902: Dr. John Osborne and D. C. Kinnaman drove a "Gas Buggy" from Rawlins to Saratoga. A survey line in error placed of wedge of southern WY in CO. " Doc" Chivington and "Boys" rewarded with a dinner at "The New Ferris Hotel" for a successful horse drive. Too classy for cowboys. "The Beanery" opened and provided stiff competition. James Arthur MacFarlan versus Jack and William Booth, brothers of Nellie Booth. Rough courtship and eventual marriageof Nellie and Arthur. 1908: Politics in an election of a new Sheriff. Election contested and through a series of events, it took from November until March to settle the conflict. Names of players: Eugene Horton, D. B. Campbell, Walter Hiland, Jonathan Veich, N. R. Greenfield and Charles Tramell.

Collection

Archives and Library