Joe and Tom

We stopped by Trina and Brian's house for a few minutes. While having conversation, we realized that Tom had showed up. Tom is her turkey that is very social and enjoys being around people. It's almost like he's eavesdropping on your conversations as wherever you move, he moves.

Trina was telling me that one evening her neighbors across the way had built a bonfire to burn some trash. They were standing around drinking some beer and visiting. She happened to step outside, look across to the neighbors and there was Tom standing around with the neighbors like he was joining in the conversation. Tom is apparently very, very sociable. Maybe he's just trying to get some neighborhood gossip and take it back to the chickens?

Johnson County Wars

Most of our "Making Memories" day took place in Johnson County, the sight of the Johnson County War. It was a war between the big cattle owners and the little cattle owners. One the way home, off a beaten path, we saw over 200 antelope and 75 deer within a one mile stretch.
Note the deer lying down in the grass with only their ears perked up looking at us. The second picture shows where they decided to stand up just in case we made a move towards them. This was our second dead cow we saw. Steaks, anyone? Aged steaks?

Picnic Time

What a great place for a picnic, huh?

Mayoworth to Buffalo

Once we drove through Mayoworth we decided to take a backroad to Buffalo. It was a "nice" gravel road that went up into and over the mountains with LoTS of switchbacks. These pictures show the road that we had already driven on. These are some caves that would be great as hideouts for outlaws and animals.

Here's a nice little fixer-upper with no neighbors anywhere close by...

Look how blue this water is...

Now this is a nice weekend cabin...

How's this for a strange sight?

A couple of sheepherder's wagons. They cook, eat, sleep and just live in these things.

Another oldie...

Mayoworth

Barnum and Mayoworth are such small towns, we couldn't even find actual town structures; only a trailer or two. We did drive through the main gravel road through Mayoworth and say a sign that said it was the site of the old stagecoach station and the old post office. That was all that was left.
The town was established in 1890 at the home of Griffith Jones, an old Union soldier locally known as “Corporal Jones.” His daughter, May, married William Worthington. The name was a combination of May and Worthington.

Mayoworth Post Office was established in July, 1889 and discontinued in October, 1944. The mail was then handled by Kaycee Post Office.

Barnum - Hole-In-The-Wall Area

The first place we headed to yesterday was "The Hole-In-The-Wall". You can read about it below. This is located in a spectacular area that makes you feel like you are in the bottom a very grassy Grand Canyon. However, we faced bitter, yes I said bitter, disappointment about being at the actual spot when we hit a road that was only suitable for a 4-wheel drive vehicle. Alas, we could go no further. Bummer!!!

After being here, I can see why these gangs were able to evade the law.

These are some of the former tenants - The Hole-In-The-Wall Gang...

Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, was the name given to a gang in the American West, which took its name from the Hole-in-the-Wall Pass in Johnson County, Wyoming, where several outlaw gangs had their hideouts.

The Gang was actually made up of several separate gangs, operating out of the Hole-in-the-Wall Pass, using it as their base. The gangs formed a coalition, each planning and carrying out its own robberies with very little interaction with the other gangs. At times, members of one gang would ride along with other gangs, but usually the gangs would operate separately, meeting up only when they were all at the hideout at the same time.The hideout had the advantages needed for a gang attempting to evade the authorities. It was easily defended and impossible for lawmen to access without detection by the outlaws hiding there. It contained an infrastructure, with each gang supplying its own food and livestock supply, as well as its own horses. A corral, stable, and numerous cabins were constructed, one or two for each gang. Anyone operating out of there had certain rules of the camp, including a certain way in handling disputes with other gang members, and never stealing from another gang's supplies.

Additionally, there was no leader. Each gang had its own chain of command. The hideout was also used for shelter and a place for the outlaws to lay up during the harsh winters.Members included such infamous outlaws as Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, Curry Brothers (Kid and Lonny), "Laughing" Sam Carey, Black Jack Ketchum, Elzy Lay, and George "Flat Nose" Curry, along with several lesser known outlaw gangs of the Old West.

Several posses trailed outlaws to the location and there were several shootouts as posses attempted to enter the camp. The posses were repulsed, and forced to withdraw. No lawmen ever successfully entered it to capture outlaws during its more than fifty years of active existence, nor were any lawmen attempting to infiltrate it by use of undercover techniques successful. The encampment operated with a steady stream of gangs rotating in and out from the late 1860s to the early 20th century.

However by 1910, very few outlaws used the hideout, and it eventually faded into history. One of the cabins used by Butch Cassidy still exists today, and was relocated to Cody, Wyoming, where it is on display to the public.

335 Miles - 8/29/09

You know you sometimes travel in the "wilderness" when Rand-McNally can't even map your day trip on their map. Case in point, after #3 we went through some very mountainous area once again in the middle of nowhere and the map couldn't even find us. Thank goodness we were relying on a county map.

We actually took a "day trip" on Saturday and were home before dark!!! We stayed "local" this time even though we put a lot of miles in on one day.

Our aim was to go to Barnum to see the Hole-In-The Wall where Butch Cassidy and his gang hid out from the law, pass through Mayoworth and over the mountains back through the Bighorns and then into Buffalo. Depending upon what time that was would determine our next destination. We ran out of time, so we've got more to look forward to another weekend.

For several weeks now, Joe and I have an established routine before leaving Casper:

1. Always have a full tank of gas
2. Have a prepared picnic lunch consisting of sandwiches, water, soft drinks, pudding, spoons, some type of snack cookie/cake, can of Pringles, some kind of fruit like a banana or apple, frozen containers of water, old dishtowels (for napkins) and Joe's medicine for the day. (After almost getting stuck and stranded last weekend, he's now decided that my advice of taking two days worth of meds is probably a good idea).
3. Have some cash money, get "Barking Bob" (our friendly? GPS dude), both of our charged cellphones, the cameras and accessories and an empty bladder.
4. And, lastly before leaving town, we stop by one of our friendly Loaf 'N Jugs (convenience store) and purchase two cheesewursters and polish sausages. plus a very large Diet Pepsi for $6.00 and some change for our breakfast.

And that's the way we started out yesterday.

'Tis A Sad Day

When I woke up this morning and turned on the television I saw where Ted Kennedy had passed away. I immediately went into mourning and even work a black shirt and pants to work, as well as my black clogs. I was so distressed. NOT!

Then when I arrived at work and glanced at the front of the newspaper I'd stuck in my totebag, I discovered the following newspaper article:

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

“Bam Bam” has a new home.

“Bam Bam” the Sinks Canyon State Park Bighorn Sheep ram, who has gained local and internet fame in recent months, was moved to a new home in the Wind River Mountains, far away from roads and, hopefully, people.
The ram had become something of a celebrity because he was so tame. Visitors from around the world saw the animal up close and personal, usually a rarity with Bighorn Sheep. The ram even starred in a “YouTube” video charging a truck.

One of the last surviving animals from the Sinks Canyon herd, the sheep had become habituated to people over the years. People petting and feeding the animal didn’t help and Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Sinks Canyon State Park staff attempts to get him to stay away from roads and other populated areas didn’t work.

“He is still a wild animal and had become more aggressive as the summer went on,” Sinks Canyon State Park Superintendent Darrel Trembly said. “He had started chasing people, cornering them against fences and butting vehicles. It was only a matter of time before someone got hurt or he got hit by a vehicle.”

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department lured him into a trailer early in the morning last week and then transported him to his new home. “It went as smoothly as any transplant could,” said Kent Schmidlin of the Wyoming Game and Fish Lander Region Office. “Now hopefully he can be with other wild sheep and live like he is supposed to.”

Say it ain't so! This is the bighorn sheep that I wrote about in an earlier blog (July 19, 2009 "More Wild Animals"). We saw Bam Bam getting up close and personal with a parked white van and we kept our distance while sitting our car. Now I'm really in mourning! I'm just so glad that Joe and I had the opportunity to meet "Bam Bam" before he was sent away.

The fruits of Joe's labors...our first vegetables out of the garden.

Finally, we made it home. Another long day over!

We hit construction while passing through the mountains and even had to wait for the "little" trucks to move.

While waiting, we were asked by the flagman to drop this walkie-talkie off at the next flagman to have it charged. Glad to oblige!

Another rock slide.

This picture shows where a tornado hit the Bighorn Mountains in 1959. The tornado was two hundred yards wide and stayed on the ground for three miles as it moved north-northeast across Shell Canyon.


This tornado resulted in the only known fatality from a mountain tornado in the western United States, and is one of only two tornadoes known to have caused a fatality in Wyoming. The other occurred in Cheyenne in 1979.

Shell Falls

Wow...what a place. We happened upon Shell Falls while heading out of the mountains.
Over the past 1 million years, Shell Creek has incised a deep chasm through the sedimentary stone and ancient granite. The water of Shell Falls, dropping at a rate of 3,600 gallons per second, follows fractures in the resistant granite. Shell Canyon is named for the shell fossils found in the sedimentary rock walls of the canyon.

Shell

From Shell into the Bighorn Mountains once again.

Copman's Tomb is about 1,000 feet higher than the surrounding area and was formed largely by erosion. The tomb is that part of the area that has not eroded away.

In 1879, a young man named Jack Copman arrived in the Bighorn Basin working for a cattleman. Copman became a trapper on a tributary of Shell Creek, now known as Trapper Creek. Long before the invention of the airplane, visitors to Copman's camp were amazed to see his “flying machine,” a model glider. Copman dreamed of constructing a full-sized glider and knew just where to launch it – the wedge-shaped prow of Copman's Tomb.

Years later, Copman realized that he would never fulfill his quest. He asked that, when a flying machine was finally invented, his ashes be scattered over the butte. At his death in 1907, Copman's family was in Europe. His final wish was never granted. Though he is buried in the Greybull cemetery, his monument remains Copman's Tomb.

The slumping below Copman's Tomb occurred because of the failure of shale and poorly cemented sandstone between the granite and layers of dolomite. As Shell Creek cut its gorge down through these easily eroded beds, the weight of the overlying dolomite layers (strata) caused large slum blocks to form. These will continue to move down slope until they become stable. The final result is a whole series of slump-blocks - each successively lower and holding up the other.