Hat Creek Stagecoach Station

Ruts heading to the old stagecoach station

The Hat Creek Stage Station lies below a ridge of pine clad hills (or brakes) that separates the high plain called the Divide and the land at the foot of the hills known as the Hat Creek Valley. The station is on the old stage road which later became Highway 85.

In 1875 troops of soldiers were sent from Fort Laramie to establish an outpost on Hat Creek in western Nebraska. Confused, they set up a post on Sage Creek, Wyoming and named it Hat Creek. The troops were supposed to keep gold seekers and settlers out of the Black Hills Indian Territory.  This was the Indian's hunting grounds and game was plentiful. They resented anyone moving in and made raids on emigrants, stagecoaches, freight wagons and ranches.

The 1868 Indian treaty was ratified in 1876 - so now the hills were open to settlement and gold seekers.  Freight and stage roads were established from Cheyenne, Wyo. to Deadwood, S. D. Another route branched NE from Hat Creek to the Harding ranch on Indian Creek to Cheyenne River Ranch, Custer and Deadwood.

In 1876 a telegraph line followed the stage route from Fort Laramie to Deadwood, S. D. Telegraph stations were set up at stage stations. Hat Creek's office opened in Sept. 1876. It was later in the month before messages could be sent because Indians had torn down some of the line near Hat Creek.

Freighters first broke the trail from Cheyenne to Deadwood in 1875 and 76. In 1876 the Cheyenne-Deadwood stagecoach carried mail and passengers. Holdups were very commonplace and the breaks south of Hat Creek Station was a perfect place for bandits and outlaws to waylay the coach. Many famous people as well as outlaws came thru via stagecoach.

Hat Creek Ranch and Stage Stop on Sage Creek was built in the fall of 1876 by John Bowman and Joe Walters. The first building put up by J. W. Dear was burned by the Indians. The new building was built of logs and a tunnel ran from it to the creek. The station was open for business in 1877. Besides hotel accommodations, it had a post office, telegraph office, stock and hay, bakery, grocery, brewery and blacksmith shop. In 1879, Charles Hecht bought the station.

There was no military fort at Hat Creek. Only Calvary troops from 1875 to 1877 - according to records at Washington, D. C.

These look like old bunkhouses and/or where horses were stabled.

Outside Lusk, Wyoming

On our way to find an old stagecoach station way out in the country, we discovered this old abandoned school.

This old hitching post and water pump located in the back yard of the school.

Lusk - Part 2

Passing through the town of Lusk, near the Nebraska border, we stopped by a couple of places we'd missed in the past.

The redwood water tank was built to furnish water for the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad steam engines. This line, which was part of the northwestern line, and later became the Chicago Northwestern Railroad,  came to Lusk on July 13, 1886.  The original site was several hundred feet to the west of the present location. Water was furnished from a well by a windmill. Later, it came from a hand-dug well by hand and steam power.  The tank is one of six left standing in the U.S.

The above description is what is written on this old wooden sign in front of the tank.

Depicted on the above monument are many of the famous brands of the outfits that trailed cattle from Texas to Montana. For identification and explanation of brands. The trail ran from Texas to Montana. For twenty years cattle were herded on the trail to replace the buffalo.

Lusk and Mother Featherlegs

Before entering Lusk, we stopped at the local rest area and discovered the grave of  George Lathrop.

IN MEMORY OF
GEORGE LATHROP
PIONEER OF THE WEST, INDIAN FIGHTER, VETERAN STAGE DRIVER
BORN AT POTTSVILLE, PA., DECEMBER 24, 1820
DIED AT WILLOW, WYO., DEC. 24, 1915
BURIED HERE
"A GOOD MAN WHOSE LIFE WAS FILLED WITH STIRRING EVENTS"
MARKING THE CHEYENNE AND BLACK HILL TRAIL.

THIS MARKER IS ERECTED ON THE OLD CHEYENNE AND BLACK HILLS STATE ROAD
IN MEMORY OF THE OPERATORS OF THE LINE AND THE PIONEERS WHO TRAVELED IT.
OPERATORS OF THE STAGE LINE: LUKE VOORHEES, RUSSELL THORP, SR.

All that remains of the local drive-in.

In the not so distant past, Highway 85 was also known as the Cheyenne-Deadwood Stagecoach Line and Lusk is the home to the last stagecoach to run the line. The last coach departed Cheyenne on February 19, 1887 and was driven by George Lathrop. From Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane to regular folks like you and me, the line was an important venue for early travelers. It also housed thousands of dollars in gold bullion and silver and was the brunt of more than one holdup attempt. The stages ran continually night and day, with stops made for meals and a change of horses. The trip between Cheyenne and Deadwood took three days by coach. Stage stations were located every 15 miles along the route.

On the windswept plains of eastern Wyoming stands the only monument to a prostitute known to exist in the United States. Though "Featherlegs,” as she was known, was seemingly well liked by area residents, it is doubtful that the area citizens would have built a monument to her during her heyday. However, she was seemingly perceived to be an "important” part of history along the Cheyenne-Deadwood Stage Road when the monument was erected in 1964.

Back in 1876, on the Silver Springs Road, near Muskrat Canyon, Charlotte "Mother Featherlegs" Shephard established a saloon and "house of ill-repute.” Though it was really more of a dugout than a "house,” it didn’t stop the many men, lonely for female companionship, from frequenting her establishment.

The story Davis told was; “Ma’amShe was called "Featherlegs” because her lace trimmed red pantalettes made her limbs look like chicken legs and she was often known to gallop across the prairie riding astride a horse with her lacy ruffles flowing in the wind. When one of her customers commented that she looked just like a feather-legged chicken, the nickname stuck. A middle-aged auburn-haired woman, she ran the establishment along with an outlaw who was called Dangerous Dick Davis. In no time, the saloon and brothel became a favorite gathering place for Dangerous Dick’s cohorts. Mother Featherlegs was often entrusted with large sums of money and jewelry, that she would hide for the outlaws until they could safely dispose of them.

But for Featherlegs, the prosperity was not to last. In 1879, when a woman named Mrs. O.J. Demmon, the wife of a Silver Springs rancher, took a ride along the trail, she found the madam’s murdered body next to the spring. Having laid their for several days, moccasin tracks like those worn by "Dangerous Dick” were found around her body. Featherlegs was buried where she died. Meanwhile, Dangerous Dick had skipped the country, along with her cache of money and jewelry.

With the booty in hand, Dangerous Dick returned to the swamps of Louisiana, which had long been his preferred choice for his outlaw activities. However, a couple of years later he was found there and charged with robbery and murder. Before he was hanged, he confessed to having killed Mother Featherlegs and told the world that her real name was Charlotte Shephard.

The reason we went to Lusk was mainly to see where Mother Featherleg's monument was.   

316 Miles - 7/9/11

Joe and I decided to go exploring today.  It was a last minute decision and we went off exploring not too far from Casper.  Our destination was to go south to a town named Lusk - 112 miles from the house.  I'll get to the reason later.

The first leg of our trip was on the interstate, but after several miles we exited to a two lane highway.  As we were driving down the road, I spied a bell tower and thought it must be a church, but then realized it was a school the closer we got.  It was an abandoned schoolhouse and it appeared it must be a school bell.  How fantastic was that?!  I can't find anything to explain when the school may have been built and then was no longer used.

Next stop...Lost Springs -

Lost Springs was first inhabited in the 1880s, when it received its name from railroad workers who could not find the springs shown on survey maps of the area. The town was incorporated in 1911, and it originally had 200 residents, most of whom worked at the nearby Rosin coal mine. After the coal mine closed around 1930, the population of Lost Springs steadily declined. By 1960, the population of the town had dropped to five.

This old building was located right next to the railroad tracks.

Another view of the building.  I wonder what it was at one time.

The remains of another old building.

Then we went on down the highway until we saw...

Between Manville and Keeline are the remants of Jireh College. The boys' dorm was on the top floor, girls' dorm and house mother's quarters were on the second floor, and the dining room and kitchen were in the basement. Tuition was $65.00 including room and board. The College was a small school affiliated with the Christian Church, now a part of of the United Church of Christ. It offered four years of high school and a two-year junior college.

The town of Jireh at one time had two banks, a lumber yard, post office, store, express office, three general stores, blacksmith and newspaper. Additionally, a dry farming experimental farm grew sugar beets, wheat, potatoes, and alfalfa. The college was established in 1908 and closed its doors in 1920 after the Church withdrew financial support.

 

Next stop Lusk and surrounding area...