Visiting Kaycee

We visited the "Hoofprints of the Past" museum which was filled with lots of interesting items.

Corey checking out the memorial for Chris LeDoux that the town of Kaycee is building. Chris LeDoux was a county music singer-songwriter and rodeo champion who lived in Kaycee. During his career LeDoux recorded thirty-six albums (many self-released) which have sold more than six million units in the United States as of January 2007. He was nominated for a Grammy and the Academy of Country Music Music Pioneer Award. In 2000, he suffered an illness that required him to receive a liver transplant. Garth Brooks volunteered to donate part of his liver, but it was found to be incompatible. An alternative donor was located, and LeDoux did receive a transplant. After his recovery he released two additional albums. LeDoux died in 2005 of complications from liver cancer.

The entire main street of Kaycee was torn up - no pavement of any kind. Because of all the recent rain there were lots of mud and puddles. Corey was driving and for some reason, the car wound up being totally covered with mud. Hmmmm, wonder how that happened? The picture shows some of the mud on the windshield.

The small town of Kaycee, Wyoming boasts a remarkably fine museum of local ranching history and the outlaw past. Located close to the Hole-in-the-Wall country, Kaycee was well known to the likes of Butch Cassidy, "Flat Nose" George Curry, the Sundance Kid and other members of the famous Wild Bunch. It is also the place where a small army of 50 big cattlemen and hired gunslingers from Texas killed Nate Champion, "the bravest man in Johnson County," during the infamous Johnson County Cattle War in 1892. All of this, and more, is documented and commemorated in the museum collection.

The town emerged during some of the wildest of Wyoming's history and even today, boasts itself as a true wild west town, complete with characters that seem right out of the 1800's.

The first homesteader was John Nolan who put up his ranch along the Powder River. The brand he used was KC. During the Cattleman's Invasion of 1892, the Nolan Ranch was the scene of one of the most cowardly and brutal murders in the history of the west.

On April 10, 1892, the "Cattlemen" burned Nolan's ranch house and murdered Nate Champion and Nick Ray, who were leasing the ranch from Nolan at the time. This was part of a plot to scare the smaller ranchers into leaving Wyoming to the sole use of the large outfits so they could let their herds of cattle have the miles and miles of unfenced grazing land. To this day, this lawlessness has gone by without due punishment.

In 1896, Jim and Jesse Potts decided to build a blacksmith shop at the crossroads where the road from Buffalo to Midwest crossed the Powder River. It was only a short distance east of the burned Nolan building. This point was ideal for a business location. Besides being on the main road, they would also have the trade from up and down the river. It was right on the road to the Hole-in-the-Wall country. Logs were brought down from the pine ridge, but before they could commence work on the blacksmith shop, George Peterson talked them into selling the logs to him. He then (in 1897) built the first building, a saloon, in what was to be the city of Kaycee. He located it on the spot where the post office later stood - the building south of the Grange Hall. In approximately 1928, this building burned down. The blacksmith shop was eventually built on the river bank in back of the Grange Hall. The Potts brothers sold it and it is possible it changed hands twice before O.A. Parker became owner of it. He moved his business down where the hotel and cafe now stand, on the east side of Main Street.

From all records, the City hall (present Library) is the oldest building in town. Although it was erected on what is a part of the present townsite, it was built about a quarter of a mile west of town and moved to its present location. The walls are made of hand-hewn logs, almost two feet thick. An unusual bit of fact about this building is that it has an escape hatch and tunnel leading out into an adjacent draw. It is a grim reminder of the lawlessness of the west and evidence of the need for a quick exit in case of undesirable company at the front door.

The oldest residence built in town was the Gordon Ellis house. It is a little log cabin located out back of the Red Horse Station. For several years it has been known as the "Goat House" since Chet Hall once housed goats in it. Since then, this house has been renovated, and is now used as living quarters.

About this time, the first store was established. According to J. Elmer Brock, "On September 7, 1897, the Powder River Commercial Company was incorporated. It had a capitalization of $20,000 and was under the management of five trustees. They were R.E. Hasbrouck and Fred Hasbrouck of Buffalo, Wy; James Rinker and A.L. Brock of Mayoworth, Wy and George Kaltenbach of Griggs, Wy." That building is now the Grange Hall. After the store became an established business, the need for a post office became evident. Previously, all the mail was routed through Buffalo to Mayoworth, down Kaltenbaugh draw to the Griggs post office., which was located west of Kaycee on what is now the Art Haines ranch. Everyone wanted the name of the post office to be "KC", the brand of the Nolan ranch but the government required them to spell it out, resulting in "Kaycee". The first postmaster was Andy Kennedy.

The town of Kaycee was incorporated in 1906. The first church was organized in February 1918, under the jurisdiction of the Methodist Church. Prior to that, the only religious messengers the community had were circuit riders and cowboy preachers.