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Table of Contents Author’s Note .............................................................. Page 3
Chapter One: What Was It Like Here Before Sheridan Was Built? .............................................. Page 4
Chapter Two: Did the Indians Fight to Keep Their Land? ........................................................... Page 8
Chapter Three: Who Was Frank Grouard? ............... Page 13
Chapter Four: What Towns Were Built In Absaroka? ....................................................... Page 19
Chapter Five: What Was the First Building in Sheridan? ......................................................... Page 23
Chapter Six: Who Was John D. Loucks? .................. Page 28
Chapter Seven: Who Were Other Early Settlers in Sheridan? ......................................................... Page 34
Chapter Eight: When Did Sheridan Officially Become a Town? ................................................. Page 49
Chapter Nine: What Were the Early Schools Like in Sheridan? ......................................................... Page 52
Chapter Ten: When Did Cattle Come to the Sheridan Area? .................................................... Page 60
Chapter Eleven: Who Was John B. Kendrick? ......... Page 67
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Chapter Twelve: Who Was Colonel William F. Cody? .................................................................. Page 74
Chapter Thirteen: Why Was the Sheridan Inn Important to Sheridan? ........................................ Page 89
Chapter Fourteen: How Did the Railroad Help Sheridan? ........................................................... Page 102
Chapter Fifteen: Why Was Coal Mining Important to Sheridan? ...................................... Page 113
Chapter Sixteen: Why Did Sheridan Need an Electric Trolley Car? .................................... Page 121
Chapter Seventeen: What Is the History of Eatons’ Dude Ranch? ..................................................... Page 126
Chapter Eighteen: Why Is Fort Mackenzie Important to Sheridan? ...................................... Page 133
Chapter Nineteen: What Are the Names of Some of the Others Towns In Sheridan County? ........ Page 136
Chapter Twenty: What Are Some Interesting Facts About the Sheridan Area? ........................ Page 139
Afterward ................................................................. Page 152
Glossary ................................................................... Page 155
Index ........................................................................ Page 161
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Author’s Note It has been a pleasure to research and
update the History of Sheridan, Wyoming text
for Sheridan’s third graders. I want to
especially thank
the first authors of this book who did the original research in 1997 – Joan Tompkins and Sandy Pilch,
Patti Atkins for researching and writing Chapters Three, Twelve and Thirteen,
Charlie Popovich for allowing me to liberally borrow from his writings,
Victoria Bales for the pen and ink sketches,
Dana Prater at the Sheridan County Museum for supplying most of the photographs,
Proofreaders Charlie Popovich, Helen Graham, Linda Prill, Andy Wenburg, Pam O’Connell, Lee Anne Dixon, Laura Kintzi, and Amy Willson, and
Michella Compton at macjiggy graphic designs for the final layout of the book.
I hope you enjoy reading this book and learning about
Sheridan.
Judy Musgrave January 2007
4
Chapter One
What Was It Like Here
Before Sheridan Was Built?
The mountain range that the Indians called the Shining
Mountains was here. The white man named it the Bighorn
Mountains for the bighorn sheep that lived in great
numbers in the mountains a long time ago.
Blacktooth in the Bighorn Mountain Range of the Rocky Mountain Chain.
5
There was a beautiful valley here full of game to hunt.
There were many fine rivers, streams, and creeks of good
water. All the land
from the Bighorn
Mountains to the
Black Hills of
South Dakota and
from the Powder
River to Canada
was the land of the
Crow Indians. It
was known as Absaroka, which means The Land of the
Crows.
The Crow Indians called themselves Children of the
Large Beaked Bird. The white man’s translation of that
came out to be Crow.
The town of Sheridan, Wyoming, was built in the
Goose Creek valley the Crow Indians loved so much. It is
where the Big Goose and Little Goose Creeks come
together after they flow out of the Bighorn Mountains.
Bighorn sheep
6
There are several ideas about how the Goose Creeks
were named. One is that there were many wild geese in the
area while another is that they were named for the image of
The Crow country is a good country.
The Great Spirit has put it exactly in the right place.
It is good for horses, and what is a country without horses?
On the Columbia, the people are poor and dirty -
they paddle about in canoes and eat fish.
On the Missouri, the water is muddy and bad.
To the north of the Crow country, it is too cold.
To the south, it is too hot.
The Crow country is just right.
The water is clear and sweet.
There are plenty of buffalo, elk, deer,
antelope and mountain sheep.
It is the best wintering place in the world
and has plenty of game.
Is it any wonder that the Crows fought long and hard
to defend this country we love so much? Spoken by Chief Arapooish of the Crow Nation
7
a goose in flight that can be seen from a distance on the
side of the mountains in the winter. The large west facing
windows at the Information Center provide a good view of
the goose image if there is the right amount of snow. Still
another possibility is that there is a cliff on the mountain
above Big Goose that looks like a standing goose.
Another important waterway in Sheridan County is
the Tongue River. It was named because its drainage off
the mountains looks like a buffalo tongue from a distance.
8
Chapter Two
Did the Indians Fight to Keep Their Land? There were many battles in this area between the
Indians and white soldiers and between several Indian
tribes themselves. These battles took place before Sheridan
was built.
When gold was discovered in the Black Hills of South
Dakota, the Sioux Indians were driven out of their homes
by the white man. The Sioux came into the land of the
Crows, and the Crows fought to keep their land. Because
they were a much smaller tribe, the Crows eventually had
to take sides with the white soldiers against the Sioux,
Cheyenne, and Arapahoe. They often served as scouts for
the army.
In 1865, General Patrick Connor arrived in this area
with his soldiers. They traveled here from Fort Laramie in
9
southern Wyoming. The first battle here between the white
man and the Indians was on August 29, 1865, and resulted
in 63 Indians and several white men being killed. The
Cheyenne and Arapahoe were camped near the Tongue
River where the town of Ranchester is today. These
Indians were a
peaceful village of
old men, women,
and children.
General Connor
and his soldiers
attacked the village
destroying 250
lodges.
In 1866, the Government built three forts where
soldiers were stationed to protect travelers on the Bozeman
Trail who were going to the gold fields near Virginia City,
Montana.
Fort Reno was built where the Bozeman Trail crosses
the Powder River near Kaycee.
In an Indian village, the tipi openings always faced toward the east to welcome the morning sun.
10
Fort Phil Kearny was built where the Bozeman Trail
crosses Piney
Creek near Story.
▪ Fort C. F.
Smith was built
in southern
Montana where
the Bozeman
Trail crosses the
Bighorn River.
There were too many small fights between the Indians
and soldiers to list, but some well-known large battles in
our area were:
The Fetterman Fight near Fort Phil Kearny on
December 21, 1866, between soldiers from Fort Phil
Kearny and Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapahoe warriors
led by Sioux chief, Red Cloud. There were no white
survivors.
Ruins of Fort C. F. Smith in 1910.
11
The Wagon Box Fight five miles from Fort Phil
Kearny on August 2, 1867, involving the same Indians
as were in the Fetterman Fight. The Army won this
fight with only three casualties. No one knows how
many Indians were killed.
The Battle of the
Rosebud on June 17,
1876, in southern
Montana on Rosebud
Creek between General
George Crook’s
soldiers and a force of
Sioux and Cheyenne
warriors led by Crazy
Horse and Two Moon.
This conflict lasted
over six hours, and there were few men killed on
either side.
The Battle of the Little Big Horn in southern Montana
on Greasy Grass Creek on June 25, 1876, between
An Indian warrior on horseback.
12
General George Custer’s 7th Cavalry and the same
Indians that were at the Rosebud Battle. The Army
was defeated in this battle. All of the men with Custer
were killed, but about 2/3 of his command with
Captain Reno and Captain Benteen survived.
The Dull Knife Battle near Kaycee on November 15,
1876. This fight was between the Army and the
Cheyenne Indians led by Dull Knife. The Army won
this battle. It was the last big battle of the Indian Wars
in this area.
By the time Sheridan and the other settlements in this
area were started, most of the Indians had been forced onto
the reservations and the Goose Creek valley was peaceful.
13
Chapter Three
Who Was Frank Grouard?
When the army marched
through what is now Sheridan
County in 1876, General George
Crook was in command. He was
accompanied by 34 scouts who guided him and about 1,500
soldiers during their military campaign.
Among the scouts was a man named Frank Grouard,
who was the head scout for the United States Army on the
northern plains. His skill at finding trails and locating
camps was so good that General Crook said, “I would
rather lose a third of my command than Frank Grouard.”
Frank Grouard was born on September 20, 1850. His
early life includes different stories about who his parents
were and who he lived with, but we do know that at a
young age he began breaking horses for a stagecoach
14
station. He also worked as a teamster on wagons traveling
between California and Montana.
He lived some of his early years with the Sioux
Indians. When he left them, he went to Fort Robinson,
Nebraska, where he said he first met General Crook. The
General was so impressed with Grouard that he was given
leadership over all of the other scouts.
Grouard was under the command of General Crook at
the Battle of the Rosebud on June 17, 1876. After the
battle, the soldiers were camped on Little Goose Creek.
General Crook wanted
to know where the
Indians were, so he
ordered Lt. Frederick
Sibley to form a search
party to look for them.
There were twenty-
five troopers, a news
reporter from the
Soldiers usually rode in columns of two. The flag they carried is called a guidon.
15
Chicago Times named John Finnerty, and Frank Grouard,
along with his friend, “Big Bat” Pourier, who was also a
scout. They left camp and rode toward the Bighorn
Mountains.
An Indian who thought they were going to attack the
tribe spotted them. He went back to his camp to report to
the soldiers, and the Indians went out to set up an ambush
for the search party. Soon the party was fired at by two
hundred warriors.
The soldiers did not think they were going to get back
to camp alive when suddenly Frank Grouard fired one shot
that killed two warriors at once. This gave the search party,
who did not want to fight, a chance to escape.
The soldiers left their horses and got away by crawling
on their hands and feet. The Indian warriors didn’t even
know they were gone, so no one else was harmed.
Frank Grouard guided the men back to General
Crook’s camp. It was a very exciting adventure, and Frank
16
Grouard was given great credit by the Army for getting all
of the soldiers back without anyone getting hurt.
After the end of the Indian Wars, but while still
employed by the military at Fort Laramie, he worked as a
lawman and arrested two men who were going to rob the
Black Hills Stage.
Later, while stationed at Fort McKinney, near where
Buffalo, Wyoming, is now,
he captured one horse thief.
The thief confessed
everything his gang was
planning to do. This led to
the arrest of twenty-eight
more thieves and put an
end to the horses being
stolen from their owners.
His ability to capture
outlaws led to his
Frank Grouard
17
appointment as a United States Marshal in 1892. He
helped in settling the disputes of the Johnson County War.
In 1893, the people of Sheridan County wanted to
establish a mail route over the Bighorn Mountains to
Hyattville. It was in March that Grouard received orders to
cross the mountain range in search of a mail route that
could be traveled all seasons of the year. A man named
Shorty went along. They left their horses at Big Horn, put
on snowshoes, and started up Little Goose Creek Canyon
into the mountains. They each only took a rifle, a blanket,
and five days worth of food.
They were up in the mountains for eight days in huge
snow drifts without fire or food. Frank Grouard’s eyes
closed from snow blindness, and his face was swollen from
frostbite. He was able to make the report and lay out a mail
route, but the damage to his eyesight was permanent.
Due to the damage to his eyes, Frank Grouard decided
to leave Wyoming. He went to St. Joseph, Missouri, to get
help from doctors, but there was nothing they could do for
18
him. He lived the last twelve years of his life in St. Joseph
and died there in September 1905 of pneumonia.
For many years, Frank Grouard was a well-known
man in the Sheridan area where he visited with friends at
the Sheridan Inn and played polo in Big Horn. When
Colonel Cody learned of his death, he was very sad and
said that Frank Grouard was one of the best scouts that he
had ever known.
19
Chapter Four
What Towns Were Built
In Absaroka?
Sheridan was not the first white settlement near the
Bighorn Mountains. A long time ago, Spanish explorers
came here to hunt and trap animals for furs. These people
did not stay here permanently.
In 1792, some Jesuit monks who belonged to the
Catholic Church came to this place. They made maps of
the Bighorn Mountains and the Black Hills. In 1830,
Antonio Mateo built a trading post on the Powder River in
the middle of Indian Territory. The town of Kaycee in
Johnson County stands there now.
Another town in Johnson County was started in 1878
by a trader named Trabing who built his trading post near
the main street. The town needed a name so suggestions
were put into a hat and a drawing was held. The name
20
The O. P. Hanna Family
“Buffalo” was put in the hat by a man who came from
Buffalo, New York. That was the one drawn from the hat
and became the name of this new town. The town of
Buffalo was not named after the plains animals that lived in
the West.
There was an army post named Fort McKinney, also
established in 1878, near where Buffalo is now. It is
currently used as a veteran’s retirement home and is called
the Veteran’s Home of
Wyoming.
Big Horn, Wyoming,
was started by Mr. O. P.
Hanna in 1878. He built the
first log cabin there. He was
a buffalo hunter and guide in
Montana. Mr. Hanna paid for
his homestead by selling
5,000 pounds of wild meat a
week to the soldiers at Fort
McKinney.
21
That first winter his nearest neighbors were Frank
James and Big Nosed George Parrot of the famous James
brothers’ outlaw gang. The James brothers had a hideout
near Big Horn, but there is no evidence that Jesse James
ever came there.
Mr. Hanna traveled to Cheyenne to buy a plow and
seeds. The trip took him six weeks, leaving in mid-
February and returning the first of April.
Soon other families joined Hanna, and the town of Big
Horn began to grow. It had a sawmill, a hotel with 6 rooms
and a restaurant to serve stagecoach passengers, three
saloons, a school with 8-10 students, a general store, a
blacksmith and a preacher.
Jack Dow came to Big Horn in 1880 to find a place to
settle. He spent the winter searching for land and, in 1881,
his wife Helen moved to Big Horn.
22
After arriving in Big Horn, the Dows lived in a tent.
Soon their home was built on the homestead northwest of
town. Mr. Dow was a surveyor who planned the towns,
streets, and roads of Big Horn and Sheridan.
George Beck wanted to start a town close to the
foothills of the Bighorns. He built a flourmill there. The
only people who lived there at that time were the men who
worked in the mill. The town was called Beckton.
The book, Women of Wyoming by Beach, describes Mrs. Dow as a Pathfinder and pioneer of two states, Colorado and Wyoming… (in 1881) Auntie Dow drove three horses abreast, hitched to a wagon containing their household goods. The trip over vast roadless stretches and unbridged streams can best be imagined.
Sheridan’s Main Street at the corner of Burkitt and Main, 1880s.
23
Chapter Five
What Was the First Building in
Sheridan? The first building in Sheridan was a log cabin without
a roof that was built near the fork where Little Goose
Creek meets Big Goose Creek. It was built in 1878 by two
early trappers, Peter Van Dover who was nicknamed Dutch
Henry, and his friend whose name we do not know. These
two men lived there with their Indian women for several
years. They built a roof on the cabin in the fall before cold
weather came.
Dutch Henry and his wife had a baby who was
probably the first baby born here that was not a full-
blooded Indian. The baby died when it was three months
old and was buried in a draw west of the cabin. Dutch
Henry’s wife went back to her tribe, and the two trappers
left the cabin and moved on.
24
In about 1879, the Patrick brothers built a small, log
stable on Big Goose Creek close to the log cabin Dutch
Henry and his friend had built.
In 1881, George Mandel came from Laramie and
claimed the land that included these log buildings and the
two streams. Using logs from the first cabin, he built a log,
one-room house close to the stage ford on Big Goose
Creek. Here he opened a post office and named it the
Mandel Post Office after himself.
After Mandel returned to Laramie, John Rhodes and
his family lived in
this cabin. When
Rhodes left this area,
John D. Loucks, the
founder of Sheridan,
bought the Mandel
Cabin for $50 in
1882.
Possibly the first cabin in Sheridan.
25
Loucks kept the mail in a tin cracker box and everyone
helped himself. Another part of the cabin housed the first
store. Sugar sold for 25 cents a pound, nails for 5 cents a
pound and Schooner Beer for $12 a case. A wagon tarp
separated the store from the living quarters. Thirty-two
voters expressed their views in another corner when the
first election was held in the fall of 1882. At a later
election, seven women were included in the about 100
voters because Wyoming was the first state to allow
women to vote.
First National Bank of Sheridan owned by E.A. Whitney in 1885. He bought the building from John Loucks who used it as a store and residence after moving it from the junction of Little and Big Goose
Creeks. It was Sheridan’s Post Office after Loucks purchased it in 1882 from Mr. Mandel who owned it as the Mandel Post Office. The bank was located on the corner of Main and Loucks, and then moved
across the alley west when the new brick National Bank building was built.
26
Restored first cabin now located in Whitney Commons.
In 1883, Mr. Loucks moved the cabin to the northwest
corner of Main and Loucks Streets, building a second floor
for family use and using the main floor for his store. Tom
Cotton, Sheridan’s first lawyer, opened his office in a
corner of the store where he hoped he might interest store
customers in becoming clients.
Proof that business was brisk and Sheridan was
growing came in 1885 when Loucks sold the entire
building to be used as the area’s first bank. This building
was then moved to the back of the lot when a brick bank
building was constructed. The outside was covered with
clapboard siding and the interior was plastered. This
treatment, incidentally, saved the logs for the future.
Through the years, the cabin
was a home, a real estate
office and even a ballet
studio.
In 1976, the National
Society for the Colonial
27
Monument on the site of the first cabin.
Dames of America in the State of Wyoming celebrated the
Nation’s Bicentennial by restoring Sheridan’s oldest
structure. In this reconstruction, the cabin was scaled
down to what is believed to be the
original size.
There is a stone marker on the
corner of Brooks and Smith Street to
show where the Mandel Cabin stood.
The restored cabin was moved to the
Whitney Commons where it can be
visited today. It is owned and
maintained by the Wyoming Colonial Dames.
Early downtown Sheridan.
28
Chapter Six
Who Was John D. Loucks?
John D. Loucks was the founder of the town of
Sheridan. It was his dream to build a city nestled in the
foothills of the Bighorn Mountains. He was the first
postmaster, the first school director, the first mayor, and
owned the first newspaper in the town of Sheridan.
Mr. Loucks was born in
Steubenville, New York, in 1845.
He served for two years during the
Civil War in the Union Army
under the command of General
Philip H. Sheridan. After the war,
he went to Iowa, married, and had
a son they named Homer.
In Iowa, he met Jim Works who had passed through
the Goose Creek Valley on his way back to Iowa from
John D. Loucks
29
Oregon. He told John Loucks about this wonderful place
and said he wanted to come back here to settle.
Mr. Loucks kept thinking about what Jim Works had
told him. He wanted to see this place for himself. He
bought a covered wagon and traveled with four other men
along the Bozeman Trail through the Goose Creek Valley
and on to the end of the trail in Bozeman, Montana. His
friends stayed there, but John Loucks moved to Miles City,
Montana, built a house there, and brought his wife and son
to their new home.
John Loucks kept remembering
the Goose Creek Valley and decided
to return and find his old friend, Jim
Works, who had started ranching
there. He came and found Jim Works,
who invited him to stay on his ranch
on Big Goose Creek, so he could look
over the land. It did not take him long
to decide that this was the place to begin his town.
John D. and Annie C. Loucks
30
He pulled his horse to a stop on what is now Court
House Hill so he could have a better view of the valley
below him. He stood on the hill and looked across the
valley to where Big and Little Goose Creeks come together.
He wanted to start a town, and this seemed to him a
very good place, even though O.P. Hanna and others from
Big Horn tried to get him to settle in Big Horn.
That night Mr. Loucks stayed in the cabin that Mandel
had built by the fork of the Goose Creeks. Before he
prepared his supper, he drew on a piece of brown wrapping
paper a map of the town he was going to build. It would be
forty acres, which was a small square of land only 1320
feet on each side.
Mr. Loucks later explained, It was a beautiful spring evening and the sun was just going over the Bighorn Mountains. The grass was just beginning to show green and over across Little Goose was a herd of buffalo coming down into the valley. Up Big Goose, a small herd of deer was browsing, and it all appealed to me as an ideal site for our city.
31
Main Street was to be eighty feet wide and all the
other streets would be sixty-six feet wide. On his grid of
parallel lines, he named the streets going east and west
Burkitt, Works, Loucks, Brundage, and Grinnell and the
streets going north and south Brooks, Main, Gould, and
Scott. All of those streets were named after early pioneers
except Main Street.
Jack Dow surveyed the ground
and staked the land on May 10, 1882.
Corner lots sold for $5.00 and other
lots were $2.50. Loucks named the
town after General Philip Henry
Sheridan, his commanding officer in
the Civil War. He changed
the name of the Post Office
from Mandel to Sheridan.
Then Mr. Loucks sent for his
wife - and family to settle in
Sheridan.
Jack Dow’s grandson with the surveying tool used to survey the town of Sheridan.
Jack Dow
32
Loucks obtained a government title to his forty-acre
town site and Sheridan was on the way to becoming a town.
In 1882, Sheridan had about 70 hardy pioneer residents. In
2000, it had grown to 15,804 people on 5440 acres.
From its beginning,
Sheridan was a major
trade center to serve the
people of the area
whether they were
involved in ranching,
farming, lumbering,
mining, railroading,
manufacturing, building
or any other thing that
fit the times.
Within the city
there had to be services for people such as education,
government, transportation, utilities, law enforcement,
health care, recreation, and merchants of all kinds including
A statue of John D. Loucks was dedicated in 2005. It is located in front of City Hall on Grinnell Plaza.
33
food and beverages. All of that and much more is here
today.
An early Sheridan Post Office.
34
Chapter Seven
Who Were Other Early Settlers in
Sheridan? Many of the streets in Sheridan carry the names of the
early settlers here. Loucks, Works, Grinnell, Burkitt, Scott,
Heald, Gould, Dow, Brooks, Thurmond, and Brundage
were among the first streets in Sheridan.
Loucks St. – named for John D. Loucks, the founder
of Sheridan.
Works St. – named for John Loucks’ old friend, Jim
Works, who convinced John to come to this area.
Grinnell St. – named for Cornelius H. Grinnell who
had a stone quarry north of town and was one of the
men who started the first coal mine in Sheridan
County. He was also a mayor of Sheridan and on the
Board of Directors for the First National Bank when it
35
began in 1890. Mr. Grinnell was one of the original
three investors in the Sheridan Inn.
Burkitt St. – named for Kenneth M. Burkitt whose
homestead was at the north end of Coffeen Street.
Scott St. – named after one of the cowboys who had
come into Sheridan from a roundup. He always
carried two six-guns strapped to his saddle. One day,
after the town was founded, Mr. Scott turned up
missing.
Heald St. – named for Abel S. Heald who
homesteaded here in 1888.
Gould St. – named after Alexander Gould. He came
to Sheridan in 1882 and lived on one of Henry Held’s
ranches on Big Goose.
Dow St. – named for Jack Dow of Big Horn who
surveyed and marked lots for our new town.
36
Sheridan had several ice companies before electric refrigeration came to town.
Brooks St. – named for Lyman H. Brooks who
homesteaded in 1893 and was involved in the
Monarch Mine.
Brundage St. – named after George Brundage. He
grew up in Ohio and was a friend of John Thurmond.
He opened the first livery barn here. He built a
homestead on Little Goose Creek and was a member
of the Wyoming State Legislature in 1893.
Thurmond St. – named after John D. Thurmond, who
was born and raised in Virginia. He fought in the
Civil War and came to the Sheridan area in a covered
wagon in 1882. He built the first frame house in
Sheridan. He was a member of the Wyoming State
Legislature in 1884.
37
38
Dick Reed
Other people you should know about who were
pioneers in our new town of Sheridan:
Dick Reed – He came to
Sheridan in 1882 and was
appointed the first marshal in
Sheridan in 1888. He was in
charge of the first jail, which
stood on what is now Court
House Hill.
Cal Vanderpool – Cal was a
cowboy who came to this area in 1881. He was
working for the Triangle H outfit when his horse
stepped in a prairie dog hole and threw him. He broke
his neck. Vanderpool was the first white person
buried in this area.
William Davis – He was known to his friends as Bear
Davis because he hunted and killed so many bears.
He came to this area in 1879 and started the first
sawmill in the Little Goose valley. Bear Davis used
39
to pull people’s teeth with a bullet mold. Lead was
melted and poured into a bullet mold to make bullets.
Pete Jones – Pete came up from Texas with a herd of
cattle in 1880 and ran the Cowboy Saloon, which was
the first saloon in Sheridan.
Dick Buckel – He ran the first funeral parlor.
Rube Cornwell – Rube moved here in 1882 and
carried the mail between Birney, Montana, and
Sheridan when the town was founded. He opened the
first butcher shop. His wife opened the first restaurant
and hotel at the corner of Grinnell and Main Street.
The Cowboy Saloon
40
As more people moved to our area, many different
businesses were being opened, and houses were being built
along the creeks. Here are some more early settlers:
Tom Cotton – He was the first lawyer in Sheridan. He
also started the first newspaper in town on May 19,
1887. It was called The Sheridan Post.
Vernon Griffith – Mr. Griffith bought 10 acres from
Henry Held. When he died at the age of 94, Mr.
Griffith gave his fortune to our community. Some of
the new additions to Sheridan Memorial Hospital were
built with money from his estate. A lot of his money
has been donated to Sheridan College.
B. F. Perkins – Mr. Perkins was very sick when he
moved to this area. He worked for Mr. Loucks for
$30 per month and his board. He regained his health
and was elected Justice of the Peace. He and his wife
Rose lived here for over half a century. He died a
millionaire and left his money as the Perkins
41
Foundation. It is used today to send girls and boys to
college.
Nettie Held Henry Held
Henry Held – He was on his way to the Yellowstone
area when he stopped in this area. He was persuaded
to settle here and became a blacksmith. He used
Dutch Henry’s old cabin for his blacksmith shop. He
had a homestead on 160 acres of land that touched the
town.
Thomas Tynan and Fay Sommers – They published
another newspaper, the Sheridan Enterprise. Not
much is known about Mr. Sommers, but we do know a
42
story about Mr. Tynan. He came here in 1881 from
Canada. He traveled by train and stagecoach to the
PK Ranch. Sometime later, he started to Buffalo in a
homemade sleigh even though he was feeling sick.
The driver was reckless, and the horses were wild. He
was dumped out in the snowdrifts many times.
When Mr. Tynan got to Buffalo, he felt so sick that he
drank some sagebrush tea and went to bed. The next
morning he was covered with spots. He had the
measles. In 1923, the Sheridan Post and the Sheridan
Enterprise combined into one paper: The Sheridan
Post-Enterprise. In 1930, the name was changed to
The Sheridan Press.
Early Sheridan band in front of the Windsor Hotel.
43
George Paul, Arnold Tschirgi and Peter Demple –
These men came to Sheridan in 1888 and started the
Sheridan Brewery.
William Timm – He came to Sheridan County in 1882
and settled on the Big Goose Creek about seven miles
from Sheridan. He lived in a dugout while he built
his first log house out of cottonwood trees.
George Carroll – Mr. Carroll came from Texas in
1882 and made a homestead close to Sheridan. He
worked for J. H. Conrad, and then started a business in
Sheridan.
J. Frank Heald – Mr. Heald
opened a sawmill and later a
jewelry store. Mr. Heald had
a big mustache and rode a
bicycle to work.
44
Frank H. Kilbourne – Mr. Kilbourne homesteaded 160
acres. His land is now the land that stretches south
and east of our Sheridan Court House.
Here are some other famous names you may
recognize:
J. H. Conrad – He came from Buffalo and started a
general store on Main Street. He sold groceries,
clothing, boots, shoes, hats, caps, carpets, furniture,
hardware, stoves, tinware, household goods, doors,
windows, building materials, farming supplies,
wagons, buggies, wine, liquors, and cigars. The
J. F. Heald Jewelry Store next to the Pioneer Restaurant.
45
building still stands on Main Street. It still has the
false front, which most stores had at that time. A
famous Sheridan artist, Bernard P. Thomas, painted a
mural on the false front in 1959 that shows what the
J. H. Conrad Trading Post looked like in 1883.
E. A. Whitney – Mr.
Whitney came to
Sheridan from Miles
City, Montana, in
1885. Mr. Whitney
lived in Sheridan for 32
years but was away
traveling about half of
that time. He opened
Bernard Thomas Mural of the J.H. Conrad & Co. Mercantile – now The Hospital Pharmacy.
E. A. Whitney
46
the Bank of Sheridan and served as Sheridan’s second
mayor. Mr. Whitney was one of the original three
investors in the Sheridan Inn. Mr. Whitney left a large
fortune to help with the education of young people and
to benefit the community. Whitney Benefits is a
group that uses Mr. Whitney’s money to grant interest
free loans to college students even today. His money
has also provided Sheridan with many improvements
including Whitney Commons and the Whitney
Community Ice Rink.
Whitney Commons is located across the street from the Fulmer Public Library.
47
Henry Asa Coffeen
Coffeen’s Mercantile
Dr. W. F. Green – He built the first drug store in 1885.
He was also the first doctor in the town.
Henry Asa Coffeen – He
moved his family from Illinois
to Big Horn, Wyoming, in
1884 where he had a general
store for three years. He
planned Big Horn’s cemetery,
started a saw mill, brought
Morgan horses to Wyoming
from Kentucky, and built the
first fairgrounds in
Wyoming. Mr.
Coffeen moved to
Sheridan in 1887
and had a
mercantile business
where the WYO
Theater is now. He
was elected Mayor
48
of Sheridan in 1888. Mr. Coffeen attended the
Wyoming Constitutional Convention to help
Wyoming become a state in 1890 and worked hard to
give women the right to vote in Wyoming. Our state’s
nickname is The Equality State because we were the
first state to give women the right to vote. He
influenced Andrew Carnegie to give Sheridan the
money to build Sheridan’s first library building in
1905. He helped to persuade the U.S. Government to
put Fort Mackenzie in Sheridan. Mr. Coffeen was an
important man in the history of Sheridan. Coffeen
Avenue and Coffeen School are named after him.
These are just some of the first residents of our town.
Look at a map of Sheridan. You will see the names of
many of these early Sheridan settlers on streets. Notice,
too, that many streets are named for Army officers and
Indian tribes.
49
Chapter Eight
When Did Sheridan Officially Become a Town?
When a community has enough people living in it and
becomes incorporated, it is considered a real town.
Buffalo was already incorporated, but Big Horn and
Sheridan were not because neither had enough people
living in the communities to do it. An incorporated town
grows much faster than one that is not incorporated.
Early Sheridan
50
In the fall of 1883, there were cowboys camped on the
hill where the Wyoming Girl’s School is now located.
They were on a fall roundup. Some men from Sheridan
went to the camp and offered each cowboy a free lot in
Sheridan on which to build a house if they would become
new residents of Sheridan. Every one of the roundup crew
accepted the offer except the cook and the day-herder.
Because of this little trick, Sheridan had enough people to
become incorporated. One of the cowboys who accepted a
lot was George Lord who later became Sheridan’s sheriff.
Sheridan incorporated and became a real town on
March 5, 1884, by an act of the Wyoming Territorial
Legislature. At that time, Sheridan was a part of Johnson
County. John D. Loucks was elected the first mayor.
Some of the businesses in Big Horn moved to
Sheridan, and Sheridan continued to grow. Other
incorporated towns in Sheridan County today are Dayton,
Ranchester, and Clearmont.
51
Sheridan’s Main Street after the September 1923 flood. Notice the wooden blocks that were used to pave the street at that time.
An early car in downtown Sheridan.
52
Chapter Nine
What Were the Schools Like
in Sheridan? Henry Held built a building for his blacksmith shop on
Main Street just as soon as he could. When the log cabin
that John Loucks had allowed him to use was empty again,
John Loucks moved it next to his new post office and store.
He set it up against the back of the building and connected
it with a covered breezeway to use as a kitchen.
In October of 1882, it was in this little room that the
first school in Sheridan was held. The room was about
fifteen feet long and twelve feet wide. It was heated by a
large, box-shaped stove that took up about one-fourth of the
space in the room.
The desks were made by nailing wide boards to two of
the walls. The seats were rough planks that had short, pole-
like legs. At recess, the children used these benches to
53
coast down the hill close to the schoolhouse. It was fun,
and it made the boards smooth and more comfortable to sit
on.
There were no blackboards. The pupils used old-
fashioned slates and slate pencils. They held them on their
laps or set them on their desks. The books that they used
were books brought to Sheridan by their parents. The
teacher read to them from the Bible.
The teacher was Miss Clara Works, daughter of Jim
Works. She was paid $75 per month. That was a lot of
The inside of the first school in Sheridan.
54
money back then. Her desk was a large box, and she sat on
a straight-backed kitchen chair.
The next school was a frame building located close to
where the Elk’s Club is today. In 1884, a real schoolhouse
was built in
Sheridan. It
was a two-
room frame
building that
cost $1,000.
It was built
where our
Post Office
now stands.
In 1891, a two-story brick building was built next to
the frame schoolhouse. John Loucks gave $200 for a bell
for the school. At first, the bell rope swung outside the
building. Later, the bell rope was moved inside because
cowboys, walking down the street having a good time, rang
the bell just for fun. When the school building was
Frame School built close to where the Post Office is today.
55
finished, the people of Sheridan held a dance and supper to
celebrate. The bell rang many times that night.
The high school was started in 1892 in the top floor of
the brick building. It was Sheridan’s first high school.
There were three graduates in its first graduating class on
May 17, 1894.
In 1898, another building called the East Frame
Building was added to the same site. Now Sheridan had
three buildings to educate its children from grades one
through twelve.
Nielsen Heights School built in 1896 on a block donated by A. J. Nielsen. It was first used as a grade school, but the high school later used the building, and it was known as Sheridan High School.
56
Hill School is shown to the east of the Nielson Heights School It was built in two parts in 1906 and 1908 and had ten rooms. It cost something over $50,000. It was demolished in 1976 to make way for
the J. J. Early Building where the Ft. Mackenzie High School and The Wright Place are now.
Custer School was a two room brick school built in 1907 on the corner of Custer and First Streets. It was used until 1957. It has been torn down, and there is a park on the site now.
57
John S. Taylor School was also built in 1910 at the cost of $50,000. It was used as an elementary school until 1987 and then sold for business purposes. You can
still see the saying over the front door, Enter Here to Learn, Go Out to Serve.
Coffeen School was built in 1910 on Coffeen Avenue at a cost of $50,000. It was replaced by the new Coffeen School in 1967 and torn down in 1970.
58
Linden School was built in 1917 for $81,134. There was a frame building on that site which was replaced by the two and one half story brick Linden School. It was used as an elementary school
until 1987 and was torn down in 1990. The Child Development Center is now on that site.
Holy Name Catholic School was built in 1914 and an addition to the south added in 1951. The school is still in operation and offers grades Kindergarten through eighth.
59
Sheridan High School was built in 1926 and used as a high school until the new one on Long Drive was opened in 1987. Then it became a junior high school. It was torn down in 2004 to make way for the new junior high school on the same site.
Central School was built in 1920. There were three major additions over the years. It was purchased by Whitney Benefits in 2005 and torn down.
60
Chapter Ten
When Did Cattle Come To The
Sheridan Area? In the winter of 1865, a man named E. S. Newman
was hauling freight near Camp Douglas and was snowed in
on the Laramie Plains in the southern part of Wyoming. He
made camp and turned his oxen out thinking that they
would die during the winter.
A Texas longhorn trail drive.
61
However, in the spring, he found them alive and in
better shape than they were in the fall before. He realized
that cattle could survive the winter on the short grass
Wyoming plains.
Men began bringing cattle
up from Texas on cattle drives
in 1866. These first cattle were
Texas longhorns.
In about 1880, families
began to move onto the
Wyoming plains and take up homesteading. To begin a
homestead, the homesteader moved onto a piece of land,
built a small home, and staked a claim for between 160 and
640 acres.
He had to live on that land and make improvements
for five years to prove up. Then the land was his to farm
or ranch. Sometimes women were allowed to homestead if
they were single or the head of a household. Land could
also be bought for $1.25 an acre.
A chuckwagon was a traveling kitchen on the cattle drives north.
62
During the open range days there were no fences, so
the cattle were scattered over the land and often strayed in
the terrible blizzards that hit the plains. Sometimes
ranchers would lose most of their cattle in one big storm.
Ranchers identified their cattle by branding them with
hot irons. Each ranch would have a different brand, so the
Cowboys branding calves.
63
cattle could be easily identified during the spring and fall
roundups. The cowboys would mother-up the calves in
the spring, so they would know which brand to put on each
calf.
When the railroad arrived in Sheridan, the ranchers
could ship their cattle to the east or west to be sold. This
was much easier on the cattle than trailing them to market,
and the ranchers made more money.
In the early 1900’s, other breeds of cattle such as
Herefords began to arrive on the Wyoming plains, along
with sheep. When the sheep appeared in this country,
Some local brands are Lazy YW, Quarter Circle U, Diamond Cross, HF Bar, Lazy KX, and N Lazy A.
64
many cattle ranchers fought with sheep ranchers over the
land.
The cattle ranchers thought that it was very hard to
raise sheep and cows together, because the sheep eat the
grass too close to the
ground. This leaves
nothing for the cows to
eat. There were many
bitter fights between the
cattle ranchers and sheep
ranchers in the early days.
Most ranchers had a few chickens, pigs, and several
milk cows to help feed their families. They would travel by
horseback or wagons pulled by horses to get into Sheridan
for supplies. When the weather was good, they might come
to town once a month. In the winter months, they might
not come to town for several months.
Before fences were built, cowboys would often ride
the range and keep the rancher’s cattle on his land for him.
Domestic sheep are raised for both meat and wool.
65
In the early 1900’s when barbed
wire was invented, they built fences
around each ranch. Then the
cowboys had to ride along the fence
lines and repair the fence where it
was broken. Cattle would break
through fences, and sometimes deer and antelope would
break a wire in the fence.
Cowboys loved
to relax and play too,
and so the rodeo came
about. In the early
days, rodeos were held
out on the plains.
The cowboys
would gather to ride
bucking horses, have races of all kinds, and show off their
roping skills. The ranchers and town folks would come to
watch this wild event.
A rodeo parade in early Sheridan.
66
Many people moved to this area from back East or
Europe and began to buy large quantities of land and take
up ranching. Cattle ranching has remained strong in the
Sheridan area. There is not as much farming, although
ranchers along water sources raise a lot of good quality
hay. Some wheat and barley is grown to the north and east
of Sheridan.
There are several big feedlots in the area also, where
the calves are fed until they are a certain size. Then the
calves are sold to larger feedlots in the Midwest. These
cattle are then butchered to provide beef products for the
people in our country.
Team roping is still popular at rodeos today.
67
Chapter Eleven
Who Was John B. Kendrick?
John B. Kendrick was an orphaned Texas cowboy
who came north with a trail herd of Texas longhorns in
1879. He was a handsome cowboy and well liked by
almost everyone. He
was pretty sharp too
because he kept
working for his boss
and in time acquired
a small herd of cattle
of his own. He and
the boss’s daughter,
Eula Wulfjen, fell in
love just like in
some western romances. They were married in 1891.
By then Kendrick had a sizable herd and a ranch of his
own. It was on the OW ranch in southern Montana, about
John B. Kendrick in 1896.
68
50 miles from Sheridan, where the Kendricks lived and
started raising their family. Their daughter, Rosa-Maye,
was born in 1897 and their son, Manville, in 1900.
All the while,
the Kendrick cattle
empire kept
growing. Skillful
management kept
the money rolling
in. About 1908,
the Kendricks
decided to build a
large home in
Sheridan on the
hill near where the
Junior High School is now. They called it Trail End
because that is where they intended to retire.
Trail End is a fabulous mansion. Nothing was spared
to make it like John and Eula, wanted. About $165,000
was spent before it was completed and furnished. That was
Eula with Manville and Rosa-Maye at the OW in 1906.
69
a lot of money back in 1908. It took awhile, but in July of
1913, the Kendrick family moved in.
Trail End
was a center of
elegance and
entertainment
for many
years. The
third floor
ballroom has a musicians’ loft so the musicians won’t be
in the way of the
dancers. The
mansion has over
thirty rooms with
twelve bathrooms
and eight
fireplaces. The
furniture and
everything was
the best that
The ballroom at Trail End. You can see the musicians’ loft in the upper right corner.
Trail End in 1914. The carriage house can be seen on the right.
70
money could buy. There is a carriage house on the
spacious grounds, which is now used as a community
theater for local actors.
Montana granite was used, but the Flemish Revival
architecture required some special things. Kansas brick,
Indiana limestone, and Missouri roofing tiles were among
them. Others were Italian and Vermont marble, machine-
tooled mahogany and oak woodwork (a couple of dozen
boxcars full) from Michigan, window screens from Maine,
and a New York interior designer.
The architect was from Billings, Montana. His name
was Glen McAlister, and he was the same architect who
designed the Sheridan County Courthouse.
Kendrick believed in supporting his own community.
He used local labor and bought from local companies as
much as possible.
In fact, the Kendricks were great benefactors to
Sheridan. The land for Kendrick Park was donated by
Senator Kendrick and originally named Pioneer Park. The
71
name was changed in 1920 to honor the Senator. The land
for Washington Park and the Kendrick Golf Course are two
other things they gave
to this community.
About 1910, John
B. Kendrick added
another career to his
ranching. He became
a politician. He
served as a Wyoming
State Senator from Sheridan County beginning in 1910.
Next, from 1914 through 1916, he was the Governor of
Wyoming.
In 1916, he was elected
U. S. Senator from Wyoming and
served in Washington D.C. until
his death in 1933. He was never
able to retire and live full time at
Trail End.
John B. Kendrick in 1916.
The dedication of the monument to John B. Kendrick in Kendrick Park.
72
After Senator Kendrick's death, Mrs. Kendrick
continued to make Trail End her home. Manville and his
family lived with her until 1961 when she died. Except for
caretakers, it was not used for a home again.
By this time, Trail End had gained the importance of
being one of the community's great historical buildings.
The Sheridan County Historical Society was very interested
in obtaining it as a museum. The Kendricks also wanted to
see it preserved in some way and were willing to sell it to
them, but the money wasn't available.
Finally, something had to be done. The Kendricks had
a public auction in 1968 and sold what furnishings and
contents they didn’t care to keep for themselves. They
decided the buildings would have to be demolished and the
land cleared for building lots.
Thankfully, that didn't happen. The Sheridan County
Historical Society was able to raise thirty thousand dollars
to buy the 3.8 acres of land. The Kendrick family then
gave them the mansion and the carriage house, another
73
wonderful contribution to the community by the Kendrick
family. No dollar value was placed on Trail End at that
time, but it could have been worth several hundred
thousand dollars. However, the historical value is
immeasurable; for if it were demolished, it would have
been gone forever.
The Historical Society ran it as a museum for a
number of years even through difficult times. The
historical value was recognized by Sheridan County, the
State of Wyoming, and the Federal Government. It took
some doing, but on May 24, 1982, the State of Wyoming
took it over. Since then, it has been run as an historic
house museum called the Trail End State Historic Site.
74
Chapter Twelve
Who Was Colonel William F. Cody?
One of the most famous men of the 19th century,
known as Buffalo Bill, was born on February 26, 1846, in
Le Clair, Iowa. His parents, Isaac and Mary Cody, named
their son William Frederick, but he was called Willie by his
family. He, his brother, and several sisters enjoyed a happy
childhood. They all learned how to ride horses at a very
early age.
When Willie was 8 years old, the family traveled to
the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, area. Instead of camping,
they stayed in hotels, which may have influenced his later
life. Fort Leavenworth was where Willie first met Indians
who taught him how to ride their ponies.
When Willie was 11, his father died, and since his
brother had also died a few years earlier in a riding
accident, he was now the man of the family. It was
75
necessary to find work and make money to help his mother
and sisters. Soon, he got a job as an “office boy on
horseback” running errands for a company named Russell,
Majors, and Waddell.
Later, Willie rode for the Pony Express, which was a
very dangerous job. One night he agreed to make an extra
trip because the young rider who was to follow him had
been killed the night before. This ride, a distance of 384
miles, became one of the longest on record. His job with
the Pony Express didn’t last long because the Pony Express
was replaced by a faster way to communicate, the
telegraph.
At the telegraph stations, the workers could read the
series of dots and dashes called Morse Code that came over
the telegraph lines. They would write out the message and
deliver it.
Willie found another job taking supplies to Fort
Laramie, Wyoming, where he learned some Indian sign
language and made many friends. By the spring of 1862,
76
he was a guide and scout for the Ninth Kansas Volunteers
Army.
The next summer, Willie traveled to Denver to take
supplies to merchants. When he arrived there, he received
a letter from his sister telling him that their mother was
very sick. He hurried home, but she died a few weeks later.
When Willie was 18 years old, he enlisted in the
Seventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry during the Civil War.
He served for 20 months. When his enlistment was over,
he married Louisa Frederici. During their life together,
they had four children but only two lived to be adults.
Soon after their marriage, they worked as the
managers of a hotel, but a life of adventure was in the
future for Buffalo Bill, as he came to be known. He earned
his nickname when the Kansas Pacific Railroad hired him
to provide meat for the men who were constructing the
railroad line. It is said that he killed 4,280 buffalo in
eighteen months by moving the herd of buffalo in a circle,
making the hunting more successful.
77
The Army was Buffalo
Bill’s next employer. It was
General Philip H. Sheridan
who made him Chief of Scouts
for the Fifth Cavalry at Fort
Hays, Kansas. His life held
many adventures as a scout.
By 1876, Buffalo Bill was named as Chief Scout with the
Yellowstone Expedition commanded by General George
Crook in the area that now is part of Sheridan County.
He would return 18 years later as an internationally
known showman. Before his return to Sheridan in 1894,
Buffalo Bill acted on stage playing himself as a
frontiersman, and later created outdoor reenactments of
frontier life. He was so successful that his shows
performed in Europe.
Buffalo calves are born in the spring.
78
When he was invited to bring his show to England to
perform for Queen Victoria, the Governor of Nebraska,
where Buffalo Bill and his wife lived, gave Buffalo Bill the
rank of Colonel. Since people in England have special
titles added to their names, it
was important for Buffalo
Bill to have a special title
too. From then on, William
F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody
would always be known as
Colonel Cody.
When the Sheridan Inn
opened on June 18, 1893,
Colonel Cody was in
Chicago performing with his
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show right next to the World’s
Columbian Exposition. The Exposition was a huge world’s
fair that celebrated the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s
discovery of America.
Sioux Medicine Man Sitting Bull appeared in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
79
Many people mistook the entrance to Buffalo Bill’s
Wild West Show for the entrance to the Exposition itself.
The program for the show included Annie Oakley - the
sharpshooter known as Little Miss Sure Shot, Pony
Express riders, cowboys lassoing wild horses, reenactments
of buffalo hunts and the Custer Battle. The performances
also included wild animals and stagecoaches along with
Indians who performed war dances.
Colonel Cody’s first visit to the Sheridan Inn was on
January 8, 1894. He was so impressed with the “bustling
A poster advertising Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
80
little city”, as he called it, that he returned later with his
family.
On April 9, 1894, Colonel and Mrs. Cody, their
daughter Arta and her husband Horton Boal, their children,
and Irma, the Cody’s 11 year old daughter arrived at the
Sheridan Inn. The community of Sheridan was very
excited to meet the family.
On the night of April 11,
there was a huge party held in
their honor. Irma recited a
poem for the crowd titled, A
Welcome to Papa, written by
a friend of the Colonel,
another scout named Captain
Jack Crawford.
Colonel Cody’s wife, Louisa Frederici Cody.
81
A Welcome to Papa Written by Captain Jack Crawford
Memorized and recited by eleven year old Irma Cody for her father on April 11, 1894
In our hearts the birds are singing Songs of gladness and of love,
And the joy-bells sweet arc ringing Music born of heaven above.
Gone is every trace of sadness, Gone is separation’s pain,
All is happiness and gladness— Papa, dear, is home again.
Far across the restless ocean, O’er the storm-king’s watery track,
O’er the tumbling waves’ commotion, God has brought him safely back.
Brought him back to love’s embraces, And we sing the glad refrain
With light hearts and love-lit faces— Papa, dear, is home again.
Darling papa, how we missed you, While you trod a distant shore,
How in dreams we oft have kissed you, Waking with our hearts still sore—
Sore because the separation Filled our souls with ceaseless pain—
Now we shout with exultation, Papa, dear, is home again.
Other hearts may lean toward you, Other lips have sung your praise, Idle flatterers have adored you, But how weak and dim the rays
Of the love they showered o’er you, When compared to love like ours— Love that lights the trail before you With affection’s radiant showers.
On home’s sacred altar ever Glows this love with ceaseless light,
And our every fond endeavor Strives to keeps its halo bright,
And, though ardent the affection Others have for you professed,
When comes trouble or affliction You will find home love the best.
Welcome, papa, from your travels, Welcome, welcome home again,
And as life its web unravels, In your pleasures or your pain,
In your toils and in your dangers, You will find sustaining you, Not the flattery of strangers,
But the home love, pure and true.
From that night on, the Sheridan Inn became Colonel
Cody’s favorite place to relax after months of work with his
Wild West Show’s performances. Colonel Cody was a
man who looked toward the future, and he could see that
82
the Sheridan Inn would be a good place to invest money
and bring his guests.
By June 1, 1894, he had invested in one third of the
value of the Inn’s inventory and established the W.F. Cody
Transportation Company, which was a livery stable located
behind the Inn.
Although the Inn’s stationery had the W. F. Cody
Hotel printed on it for a few years, Colonel Cody never
owned the hotel, nor was he ever the manager.
The Sheridan Inn Stable behind the Sheridan Inn.
83
Colonel Cody made many visits back to the Sheridan
community over the years, and he always stayed at the
Sheridan Inn. He invited many important men to hunt with
him and also persuaded the rai1road president to continue
the railroad line toward the town named for him, Cody,
Wyoming, and Yellowstone Park.
Sometimes he came to visit his daughter Arta, and her
husband, Horton, who had purchased a ranch in southern
Montana where they made their home. Sometimes he came
to visit his friends.
Colonel Cody and friends on the porch of the Inn. Can you find Buffalo Bill?
84
On March 1, 1904, Colonel Cody arrived with several
friends, his sister, and a businessman from London. There
was a party that evening that included a stunt by each guest
to entertain the others, card games, music, and dancing.
Years later, one lady said that Colonel Cody and Miss Kate
began the first dance together. (You can read about Miss
Kate starting on page 96.)
One event that everyone could count on when Colonel
Cody was in town was the arrival of local cowboys to try
out for his Wild West Show. These were called Sheridan’s
Colonel Cody dancing with Miss Kate at the Inn.
85
first rodeos.
Colonel Cody
would sit on
the porch of
the Sheridan
Inn and choose
the best stunt
riders for his
shows.
Colonel Cody auditioning riders from the porch of the Inn for his Wild West Show.
Colonel Cody also chose Indians for his Wild West Show at the Inn.
86
Colonel Cody’s Favorite Song
87
Colonel Cody’s appearances at the Sheridan Inn
became less frequent because of problems with money,
health and the stress from years of responsibility. His last
visit in Sheridan was in 1914 with his wife. They
entertained old friends and were entertained in return.
There is a photograph of him riding in a horse drawn
wagon because he didn’t ride his horse anymore. He was
waving and
smiling to
his many
admirers.
Before they
left town,
Colonel and
Mrs. Cody
were driven
out to visit Eatons’ ranch at Wolf, Wyoming.
Colonel Cody became very sick. He decided to go to
his sister’s house in Denver to recover, but on January 10,
Buffalo Bill in front of the Sheridan National Bank.
88
1917, just 2 ½ years after his last visit to Sheridan, he
died peacefully.
On the day that he died, his picture was on the front
page of the Sheridan Enterprise, as
it was on most of the newspapers
around the world. Wyoming
Governor John B. Kendrick from
Sheridan, who was a personal
friend for many years, was among
those who led the funeral
procession in Denver. More than
25,000 people attended the
Colonel’s funeral.
In Sheridan, the Colonel’s place on the porch of the
Sheridan Inn holds countless treasured memories of his
early visits.
Colonel Cody’s grave in Colorado.
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Chapter Thirteen
Why Was the Sheridan Inn Important to Sheridan?
About ten years after John D. Loucks founded
Sheridan, train travel became fashionable. Officials from
the railroad in Omaha, Nebraska, planned to bring the train
to Sheridan and build a large hotel. There were hotels
downtown, but a new hotel close to the depot would give
travelers a nice place to stay as soon as they got off the
train. An architect had to be hired to design the new hotel.
Thomas Rogers Kimball of Omaha was chosen.
The blueprints are titled Hotel Building for the
Sheridan Land Co., Sheridan, Wyoming which tells us that
the Sheridan Inn was not named until later. Mr. Kimball
was a well known architect in Omaha, and his father was a
member of the Sheridan Land Company.
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The stone for the foundation of the Inn was shipped
from the quarry of the C. H. Grinnell Stone Company.
The Sheridan Post reported on December 22, 1892, stone is
now being shipped from the quarries five miles north of
town. A number of cars (railroad carloads) will be used on
the foundation of the new depot hotel. There were no
power tools then, but it only took six months to finish the
building.
At 9:00 P.M. on May 27, 1893, electricity powered by
a generator was turned on. Hundreds of people gathered on
today’s Broadway Street to witness the Inn’s 156 lights
glow for the first time.
The first official day of business was June 18th, but
the formal grand opening event was held on June 23, 1893.
When the music and dancing began, Buffalo Bill led the
grand march, but this was not Buffalo Bill Cody. He was
in Chicago managing his Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show at
the World’s Columbian Exhibition. The Buffalo Bill who
led the grand march was a local man named William
Enochs who was known in town as Buffalo Bill. On the
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night of the grand formal opening of the Inn, many children
thought it was the real Buffalo Bill.
Arriving in
Sheridan by
train was quite
an adventure.
Everyone who
entered the Inn
through the front
door walked up to the desk to sign the register book. Some
were staying for a meal and others were signing in to stay
overnight or longer. The lobby of a hotel at that time was
called the office, and its front desk was where reservations
were made and meals paid for.
There was a barber shop right behind the registration
desk with a bathtub in it. This was said to be the first
bathtub in Sheridan County with running water. The Inn
was also one of the first buildings in town with a telephone.
An old postcard showing The Sheridan Inn.
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The dining room, located down the hall from the
office, was the largest room in the state without a center
support. It was where everyone ate, talked, danced, and
sang. It had hardwood floors and tables that each seated
sixteen guests. Meal tickets were sold for $7.50 for 21
meals. In the wintertime, many people who had arrived by
train liked to sit at a table near the fireplace since the trains
had no heat.
Next to the
dining room was the
ladies parlor, where
women would go to
write letters, sew,
and visit while the
men enjoyed the
saloon, played billiards, smoked cigars, played cards, and
made business deals. Behind the saloon was the kitchen, a
two room design with one room for cooking and one room
for baking. Asbestos was used to cover the floors and tin
The ladies parlor at the Sheridan Inn is now used as a dining room for small parties.
93
on the ceiling to prevent fire. Asbestos is a health hazard,
so it’s not used anymore, but that was not known in 1893.
There were 66 guest rooms upstairs decorated with
carpets, oak furniture, and horsehair mattresses on the beds.
The employees were called servants, and their rooms were
on the third floor. They used the back stairway of the Inn
so that they could perform their work without being seen by
the guests.
There was a laundry building designed in exactly the
same architectural style as the Inn, and it was located
directly behind it. African American porters slept there
because they were not permitted to sleep in the Inn.
A group of Indians gathered on the lawn of the Sheridan Inn.
The laundry building can be seen on the left.
94
The Sheridan Inn’s first manager was Mr. George
Canfield, who knew the railroad officials because he had
managed the Canfield House in Omaha with his wife, Mrs.
Lucy Canfield. They paid $1600 a year to lease the Inn.
On the fourth of July that first year, 1893, there were
celebrations that included polo matches where Frank
Grouard was one of the umpires, a tug-of-war between the
blacksmiths and carpenters, and a ball at the Inn. Many
people gathered on the porch to see the fireworks. The Inn
continued to be the social center of the community, and
even the mention of a dance drew large crowds.
Mr. and
Mrs. George
Canfield
managed the
Sheridan Inn
and the Inn’s
livery stable
until his death in September 1899. Mrs. Canfield and her
son, Sherman, as well as her daughter, Lizzie, and her
Note the trolley and the overhead street lights in this early photo of the Sheridan Inn.
95
husband, D. O. Warner, operated the Inn until 1902 when
the Warners purchased it from the Burlington and Missouri
Railroad officials. The Warners owned the Inn until 1938
and saw many social and economic changes during those
years.
A series of different owners followed, mostly people
from Omaha. It was not until 1959 when local men, the
Jurosek brothers, and their friend, Mike Zowada, purchased
it. They closed the Inn in 1965. The building was almost
razed, and a shopping center built in its place. A local
woman, Neltje, who moved here from New York rescued
the Inn, restored it, and managed it for 18 years.
The building is more than the peeling clapboard walls. Its importance is more than the fact that Buffalo Bill or any other man slept there.
It is our heritage, a symbol of the people who believed in America, believed enough to move
West, to create a life in the wilderness. They, their spirit, built the Inn and made it a meeting
place that became the center of the community. -Neltje
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No history of the Sheridan Inn would be complete
without the story of Miss Kate Arnold. She arrived alone
and unknown, yet she became one of Sheridan’s most
memorable citizens. Many early hotels in the west boast
the importance of a particular person, but not many of those
people gained the affection of an entire community for
almost six decades.
Miss Kathryn B. Arnold
was born on May 29, 1879, in
King George, Virginia. Her
father was Thomas Arnold
and her mother was Kathryn
Brokenbough Arnold. She
had one brother, Jack Arnold,
who had moved west and
made his home near Birney,
Montana.
When Kate traveled west, which she said was because
of her health, the trip took three days and two nights. The
train brought her to Sheridan in the middle of July in 1901.
Miss Kate Arnold
97
According to a little book she wrote about her life, she said
that many guests of the Inn were enjoying the cool breezes
from the mountains as they sat on the porch of the Inn.
One of the first people Kate met when she entered the
Inn was Mrs. Arta Cody Boal, the oldest daughter of
Colonel and Mrs. Cody. We do not know exactly how long
it was before Kate actually lived at the Inn. According to
city records, we do know that for a time she lived on Main
Street.
Kate’s occupation was a seamstress, and there are
records which show that she received payment for sewing
that she did at the Inn. We also know that she ate most of
her meals at the Inn which were purchased with meal
tickets sold by the week or by the month.
Eventually, Kate moved in as a permanent resident
and employee. Part of her salary was her room and board,
which was a custom at that time.
In the early years of the Inn, there was a flower garden
on the south side of the dining room. This became Kate’s
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flower garden where she grew flowers that were used as
table decorations. She was also known to decorate the
building with a variety of potted plants, including large
ferns.
Four months after Kate’s arrival, a train bringing
Colonel Cody pulled into Sheridan on November 11, 1901.
A newspaper story says that the Colonel and many friends
had arrived for an overnight stay. This arrival of Colonel
Cody would have been Kate’s first meeting with him. The
following day, the Colonel and his guests left to enjoy a
two week hunt. Kate would not see Colonel Cody again
until March 1904.
Since Kate
arrived so early in
the history of the
Sheridan Inn, she
was well known
by most of the
early residents, as well as those who arrived in later years.
She was always described as a gracious, charming lady.
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Kate also had the reputation of being a very kind lady and a
loyal employee to Mr. and Mrs. Warner, who owned the
Inn when she started working there.
Even though there was not a special agreement, each
new owner of the Inn, over all of the 58 years that she lived
there, kept her as an employee. This is how she became a
very special part of the history of the Sheridan Inn and
earned her the name everyone knew…Miss Kate. She was
the seamstress, desk clerk, hostess, and when necessary,
she peeled potatoes.
After the Sheridan Inn closed on May 1, 1965, Miss
Kate, along with a friend, traveled back to Virginia to visit
her family’s old farm. She was met by many nieces and
nephews. She said that she was happy that she had gone to
visit, but she was anxious to return to Sheridan.
Miss Kate lived until March 1, 1968. Her wish was to
be cremated and her ashes returned to the Inn. Her wish
was granted and her ashes were placed behind a wall in the
room that she once occupied.
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When you take a tour of the Sheridan Inn, you may be
shown her room on the third floor where she liked to sew
near the west window and the place where she has returned.
Today the Inn is part of the Sheridan Heritage Center
and all efforts are being made to restore the building’s
structure so that generations who follow will always have
the connection to Wyoming’s Wild West beginnings.
The Sheridan Inn was nicknamed The House of 69 Gables and has been featured on Ripley’s Believe It or Not list.
101
Some famous guests at the Sheridan Inn have been: Colonel William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, January 8, 1894 Ben Spotted Horse, 1894 Plenty Hawks, 1894 Big Steer, 1894 U. S. Presidential Candidate William Jennings Bryan, August 21, 1897 Chief Medicine Crow, 1902 General Henry B. Carrington, former commander of Ft. Phil Kearny,
July 3-4, 1908 U. S. President William Howard Taft, October 20, 1911 U. S. Presidential Military Aide Archibald F. Butt, October 20, 1911
(lost on the Titanic) Author Ernest Hemingway, August 3-8, 1927 U. S. President Herbert Hoover, August 23, 1927 American Humorist Will Rogers, 1927 U. S. Senator John Benjamin Kendrick, 1893-1930’s Historian Dr. Will Durant, January 30, 1944 U. S. Presidential Candidate Wendell Wilkie, February 17, 1944 U. S. Presidential Candidate Thomas Dewey, September, 1944 Donald Deer Nose, 1947 Russian Prima Donna Irma Braanova May, 1949 New York Yankees Baseball Star Joe DiMaggio, 1950’s Actress Yvonne Decarlo, 1950’s Actor Andy Devine, 1950’s—1960’s Actor Raymond Burr, 1961 Wyoming Governor Clifford Hansen, April, 1967 John Stands in Timber, 1967 Edison Real Bird, 1967 Wyoming Governor Stan Hathaway, October 6, 1969
102
Chapter Fourteen
How Did The Railroad Help
Sheridan? By the middle of the 1800’s, many pioneers had
traveled to Oregon and California by wagon train. The
Pacific Coast was becoming settled. The people who lived
in the eastern part of our country and the people living in
the western part of our country were separated by 3,000
miles.
After crossing the Missouri River, the only ways to
travel were by stagecoach or covered wagon, and letters
took months to reach their destinations. The people of our
country began to dream about and plan for a railroad that
would cross the whole country and connect the east and
west with long bands of iron rails.
There was much arguing about the best route for the
railroad to take. In 1862, the Government of the United
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States decided to build the railroad through the central part
of our country.
The Union Pacific Railroad began laying track in 1865
near Omaha, Nebraska. The track went westward through
Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah.
The Central Pacific Railroad began laying track
eastward from Sacramento, California. Their track went
through California, Nevada, and Utah. Many Chinese
immigrants worked for the Central Pacific Railroad. The
workers endured many
hardships as they lived in
tents along the tracks in
weather that was below
zero. Food and comfort
were scarce. They were
paid two dollars a day.
The two tracks met at a place called Promontory Point
north of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The meeting
happened on May 10, 1869. To celebrate this great event,
An early train pulled by a steam engine.
104
the workers drove a golden railroad spike into the rails
where they joined. Now people and goods could travel
between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in a matter of days.
Building the railroad was very difficult. The tracks
went over mountains and rivers and across deserts.
Tunnels were dynamited through mountainsides. Bridges
and high trestles were built to cross rivers and canyons.
The Indians did not want the track built across their lands
and sometimes attacked the workers.
The first railroad in Wyoming was the Union Pacific,
which went through the southern part of the state near
Cheyenne, Laramie, Rawlins, and Rock Springs. Every
little town in Wyoming wanted to be connected to the main
line. When a town was lucky enough to get the railroad, it
was sure to grow and prosper because people could travel
to the town more easily. Goods grown or made by the
people could be sent all over the country to be sold.
Once the transcontinental railroad was completed,
other railroad lines were built across our country. The
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Southern Pacific Railroad followed a southern route. The
Northern Pacific Railroad built its tracks across a northern
route. Many thousands of miles of railroad track were
needed to connect towns not on the main lines.
In 1888, the Burlington and Missouri Railroad decided
to build a railroad line from Nebraska into South Dakota,
then north of the Bighorn Mountains, and on into Montana
where the tracks would join the Northern Pacific main line.
The Burlington and Missouri Railroad was later called the
C.B. and Q. (Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy) and is now
known as the Burlington Northern / Santa Fe.
Edward Gillette, a civil engineer who lived in
Sheridan, surveyed the line into Sheridan in 1890. The
town of Gillette is named after him. During the summer of
1892, workers laid a mile of track a day. It was necessary
to change the channel of Little Goose Creek in order to
bring the line into Sheridan.
Just about the whole population of the town was there
waiting on November 18, 1892, as the first passenger train
106
of the Burlington
and Missouri
railroad steamed
into the little red
wooden depot in
Sheridan,
Wyoming. The
crowd of 300 shouted and cheered the little train, as it
rounded the curve and screeched to a stop.
Before the
railroad was
built, supplies
for Sheridan had
to be brought a
distance of 100
miles on Wells
Fargo freight wagons from Huntley, Montana, where the
Northern Pacific went through. Now, supplies came
directly to the new little town. Cattle raised near Sheridan
could now be shipped on the train to market.
An old C.B. & Q. steam engine.
107
First Train Chugged Into Sheridan Just 66 Years Ago
By Walt Harris (Taken from The Sheridan Press, November 18, 1958)
There are few persons still residing in this community who were on hand at the local depot to watch the first passenger train pull into Sheridan.
It was just 66 years ago today that Sheridan, then as now the “big town” of northern Wyoming was put on the railroad map.
At 10 o’clock in the morning of Nov. 18, 1892, the first passenger train of the B and M railroad drew into the little red station here, or where the present depot now stands.
Frank Leslie was the engineer on the first passenger run and the mail clerks were H. H. Alden and Frank Moore.
In the early 90’s the B and M built into the town of Gillette and that town was for some time afterward the railroad terminus for all of the Sheridan country.
In the spring of 1892 work was started on the grade from Gillette to Sheridan and by mid-summer it was completed to Clearmont. By fall the work of grading to Sheridan was completed, making it possible for the first train to arrive on schedule Nov. 1
108
The huge, puffing steam engines needed coal to burn
in their boilers. The boilers heated the water that made the
steam power needed
to move the engine’s
wheels. There were
rich veins of coal
around Sheridan,
and soon many coal
mines were started.
Wooden ties were
Sheridan in 1902.
Tie flume workers - notice the long poles with metal hooks on the ends that were used
to keep the logs from jamming up in the flume.
109
needed to hold the steel rails together, so lumberjacks
went to the mountains to cut down trees, and sent them
down to the valley using flumes. The flumes were built in
a V shape that was four feet wide at the top and two feet
deep in the center to hold the flowing water that carried the
ties downstream. Along the side was an eight-inch wide
catwalk for the men working the flume to stand or walk.
The total length of the
flume system in the
Bighorn Mountains was
around 35 miles. It was
completed in 1893 and
was used for about 20
years. Once in awhile,
the lumberjacks would ride the logs down the flume to
Dayton in a flume boat. The remains of these flumes can
be seen in our mountains and a model can be seen at the
Sheridan County Museum.
Once the trees reached the valley, tie hacks used
broad axes to trim them into ties. Some of the trees were
A section of the tie flume showing
the catwalk along the side.
110
sent to saw mills to be made into lumber for buildings or
coal mine tunnel supports.
The building of the
railroad changed Sheridan
greatly. The Sheridan Inn
was built across from the
depot for the comfort of the
passengers passing through
Sheridan. The railroad
brought people, moved cattle
to market, encouraged the
Inside the tie flume.
The tie flume in the Bighorn Mountains.
111
lumber and coal industries, and allowed dudes to visit and
enjoy the beauty of the Goose Creek Valley.
A new brick depot was built in 1912, and the little red
depot was moved north on Broadway and used as a freight
house.
When the railroads switched from the wonderful old
steam engines to
diesel engines, they
allowed towns to
display the great Iron
Horses. Sheridan has
Engine #5631. It is
standing beside the
tracks between the old
depot and the new
depot across the street from the Sheridan Inn.
Passenger trains no longer come through Sheridan.
They stopped running in 1969. Now people travel by car,
bus, or airplane. However, coal trains from the mines,
Engine #5631
112
usually made up of about 110 cars each, currently travel
through Sheridan daily on their way to the Midwest. Each
car holds a hundred tons of coal. Freight trains made of
boxcars still carry goods in and out of Sheridan.
The red depot now houses offices, and the brick depot
is being used as the home for a business. When you hear
the whistle of a train, remember how important the railroad
was and is to our town.
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Chapter Fifteen
Why Was Coal Mining Important
To Sheridan? Underneath the whole Sheridan area, tons and tons of
coal are buried. This coal was formed over two hundred
and fifty million years ago, when Wyoming was a hot and
steamy place covered with trees and ferns. The plants died,
and formed layers of decaying materials on the surface of
the land.
After awhile, parts of the earth sank and rivers and
oceans carrying mud covered the dead plants. The pressure
of the water and mud squeezed down on the plants turning
them into peat. After millions of years, the peat turned to
coal.
Veins of coal around the Sheridan area can be from
ten up to 200 feet thick. It is thought that the coal deposits
in the Powder River Basin around Sheridan may be the
114
largest in the world. Wyoming is the largest coal
producing state in the United States.
Many of Sheridan’s early homesteaders found coal on
their land. Even though they had plenty of wood to burn
for heat, they liked to use coal because it burned hotter and
more slowly.
In 1893, C. H. Grinnell, J.R. Phelan, George Beck,
and Anson Higby began the first coal mine about four miles
north of Sheridan. They called their business the Sheridan
Fuel Company.
When people in the East heard about the presence of
coal here, many came to work in the mine. A coal camp
was built near the mine, which was called Higby. Later a
man from the East named C. M. Dietz joined the company,
and the name of the mine changed to Dietz.
By now, the railroads needed lots of coal to burn in
their engines for steam power. In the next few years, Dietz
#2, Dietz #3, Dietz #4, Dietz #5, Dietz #6, Dietz #7, and
Dietz # 8 were opened. The Dietz camp where the miners
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lived had become a busy little town with two churches, a
company store, two saloons, two schools, a pool hall, a
union hall, and a hotel.
About two miles north of the Dietz mines (five miles
north of Sheridan), Archie Craig opened the Acme mine
and camp. Acme was a very modern camp. It had trees
and shrubbery along with a company store, post office,
mine office, union hall, theater, school, and hotel.
Other mines that produced coal near Sheridan were the
Hotchkiss Mine, Model Mine, Carneyville (which was later
renamed Kleenburn), the Monarch Mine, Kooi (pronounced
Carneyville, Wyoming
116
Coy) and many others. These early mines were all tunnels
dug into the ground. The tunnels were supported by
wooden frames.
If you take a drive out of Sheridan on the Decker road
for about five miles, look to your right and you will see
many places where the underground coal mine tunnels have
caved in.
Underground coal miners at the entrance to a tunnel mine.
117
Mules or horses were used to pull the cars filled by
hand with coal out of tunnels. When these mines were in
operation, over 5,000 miners and their families lived in the
mining towns in the Sheridan area.
These towns are no longer there, but in 2006, the
Sheridan County Museum received a large diorama of the
mining town of Monarch. This diorama not only shows
Monarch as it once looked, but also has a detailed model of
the Monarch Mine where you can see how an underground
coal mine looked.
Coal tipple at Monarch, Wyoming.
118
119
By the late 1940s,
the underground coal
mines had all closed.
Then the Big Horn
Coal Company began
the largest strip mine in
Wyoming. A strip
mine gets coal from the
ground by removing the top layers of soil with huge, heavy
equipment until the vein of coal is exposed. The coal is
then easily removed.
When the seam of coal is gone, the land is all put back
and replanted. The land is returned to its original
appearance and use. This is called reclamation. Big Horn
Coal is closed now and has been reclaimed.
Just across the Montana border, there are two other
strip coal mines, Rio Tinto (Spring Creek Coal) and Decker
Coal. The Decker Coal Mine is one of the largest coal
mines in the world.
Underground coal miners inside a tunnel.
120
Many members of Sheridan families work for these
mines. Just as Sheridan’s early settlers worked to provide
coal for the new frontier, today’s Sheridan miners work to
provide coal for the whole country.
Dragline working at Decker Coal in Montana. The cylinder shaped building is called a silo.
That is where the coal is stored until it is loaded on the train's coal cars.
121
Chapter Sixteen
Why Did Sheridan Need
an Electric Trolley Car? The miners and their families enjoyed coming into
Sheridan from the mining towns for shopping and
entertainment. They wanted a way for their children to get
to school at Sheridan High School. There was a need for
transportation from the
mines to Sheridan and
back.
The people in
Sheridan also needed a
way to get around
town. In 1910, the City of Sheridan hired a company from
Ohio to build an electric trolley that would offer both
services. Trolleys are also called streetcars. A track with
Sheridan’s trolley with a conductor. A conductor rode along in the trolley and collected the fares.
122
an electric wire
overhead was built
along Sheridan’s
Main Street with
spur lines along
many of the streets in
Sheridan. The
Sheridan Railway Company line continued out of Sheridan
to the coal camp at Dietz, on to Model, Kleenburn, and
finally ending at Monarch.
On August 11, 1911, the first trolley car left the car
maintenance barn on the corner of Dow and Alger Streets
at 8:30 in the morning. All that day the people of Sheridan
had fun riding on the new trolley.
The speed limit of the new trolley was 20 miles per
hour except in the business district where is was 15 miles
per hour. The fare was five cents one way between any
two points in the city, and policemen in uniform could ride
free.
The trolley on Sheridan’s Main Street.
123
For the next several years, the Sheridan Railway
Company with its trolley cars, provided transportation
within the town and out to the mines. The cars that went
more than five miles out of town were larger than the ones
in town and could carry 72 passengers. They were called
interurban cars. Freight and supplies were also carried on
the interurban out to the miners. When the roads were
impassable, sugar beets were carried on the trolley to the
sugar beet factory in town.
Sheridan Railway Company interurban car.
124
The fares increased in 1920 to seven cents in the city,
twenty cents to Dietz, thirty cents to Acme, and thirty-five
cents to Monarch. School children paid only forty cents for
a round trip from Monarch to Sheridan.
When the railroads stopped burning coal and switched
to diesel fuel, the coal mines began to close. Also, more
and more people began to use automobiles. In 1924, the
city streetcar service ended, and in April of 1926, the
interurban trolley made its last trip.
One trolley car, #115, ended up in a pasture in a
terrible state of ruin. In 1976, caring people in our
Different types of transportation on Sheridan's Main Street.
125
community brought
the trolley back to
town and restored it.
The restored trolley is
located next to the
Sheridan County
Museum in a little garden area. It looks just as it did when
it began carrying passengers in and around Sheridan.
Sheridan now has two motorized trolleys that run on
gasoline. During the summer months, you can see the
green trolleys taking people on tours of Sheridan. The
tours last about one hour, and the driver tells interesting
stories about Sheridan as the passengers ride along.
The restored Sheridan Railway Company car at the Sheridan County Museum.
126
Chapter Seventeen
What Is the History of
Eatons’ Dude Ranch?
Three brothers, Howard, Alden, and Willis Eaton left
Pittsburgh to come west. Their father had a dry goods
store in Pittsburgh, but these brothers wanted to venture to
the West. Howard came in 1868 and settled in the badlands
of North Dakota. Later his two brothers joined him.
They built a ranch house and, in 1882, began to accept
money from friends who would come from back East to
visit. Howard gave the name dude to a paying eastern
visitor. Sometimes female dudes were called dudines or
dudettes. The Eaton brothers called their ranch the Custer
Trail Ranch because General Custer had once camped
nearby.
127
Deciding to move closer to Yellowstone Park, they
came to the Sheridan area in 1904 and settled on Wolf
Creek, where Eatons’ Ranch is today. The big stone house
was already there, but the ranch was not yet suitable for
dudes to visit.
The dudes insisted on coming anyway, so that first
summer, seventy of them came and slept in tents until the
new cabins were built. The first cabins were a series of
single rooms in a row costing $100 apiece to build. Today
the ranch has 51 cabins and 1,300 to 1,400 guests each
summer.
The three Eaton Brothers, Howard, Willis and Alden.
128
When the Eaton brothers first moved to Wolf Creek,
they grew a garden, had fruit trees, did all their own
butchering, raised their own chickens, and kept a dairy.
They took their own wheat to the mill and had it ground
into flour. They raised many of their own horses.
They also put up all of their ice from the ponds close
to the ranch. The ice had to be kept clean, cut into big
blocks, and loaded into the icehouse where it was packed in
sawdust to keep it from melting. In the icehouse, ice
blocks would last through the summer. This was all done
by hand and was hard, cold work. They used this method
until they bought ice-freezing machines in 1969.
During the early years, Howard would guide trips to
Yellowstone and Glacier Parks. They would send wagons
ahead to set up tents and prepare for the dudes to arrive.
Alden’s son, Bill, was a teenager about this time. He
found himself completely comfortable making his life’s
work at Eatons’ Ranch, and had a special way with the
129
dudes. He was also comfortable around cowboys and the
western way of life. He managed the horses personally,
and knew every horse well. Bill Eaton grew to be a very
large man and was always known to the people around
Sheridan as Big Bill Eaton.
Bill married Patty Alderson, who had grown up on a
ranch in Montana. Both she and Bill attended high school
in Sheridan, riding their horses to and from school.
Trail ride from Eatons’ Ranch to the Bighorn Mountains.
130
When they were married in 1914, they took their
honeymoon by riding the train to Gardiner, Montana, and
then rode two new horses back to Eatons’. They stayed at
hotels in towns along the way and carried their belongings
in flour sacks tied on the backs of the horses.
In 1925, the Eatons bought 25,000 acres of land on
Wild Horse Creek, about 100 miles from Eatons’ Ranch
and east of Sheridan. The wranglers continue to drive the
horse herd there every fall and return them to Eatons’
Ranch in the spring. Watching the horses being driven
through Sheridan has become a tradition for many
residents.
Eatons’ Ranch is well known for keeping its
traditions. They like to keep the surroundings and the
atmosphere as much like the olden days as they can. Of
course, the guest cabins and main buildings are all kept in
wonderful condition. Many of the dudes and their families
have been coming back to Eatons’ Ranch for generations.
131
A stagecoach used to bring guests to the ranch, and a
lumber wagon was also used in the olden days. When the
automobile arrived, guests were picked up at the railroad in
style. Today, many of the guests are met at the airport and
taken to the ranch by car.
The dudes have done all sorts of wild and crazy things
for entertainment at the ranch. Once they had a party in the
recreation hall for all of the dogs. They served raw
hamburger pie with sugar frosting and caramels for dessert.
Through the years, there have been costume parties, waltz
contests, spelling bees for
adults, and fancy dress
balls of various kinds.
There used to be a
Frontier Days rodeo at
Eatons’ for the dudes.
There were special acts,
roping exhibitions, pick-
up races, wild horse races, relay races, bucking horses,
potato races, and all sorts of events.
132
Many famous and important people have stayed
at Eatons’. There have been actors, writers, artists,
government officials, and executives from large companies.
The fourth and fifth generations of the Eaton family
still manage the ranch today, keeping all of the traditions
alive. Dudes come to visit Eatons’ Ranch each summer
and enjoy the western atmosphere to its fullest.
133
Chapter Eighteen
Why Is Fort Mackenzie
Important to Sheridan?
Fort Mackenzie got its start in 1898 when Henry A.
Coffeen petitioned Wyoming Senator F. E. Warren to
introduce a bill in Congress to establish a military post in
Sheridan to protect the settlers from Indian attacks. Even
though the threat of Indian attacks was gone, many citizens
and businessmen
thought that having a
fort in the area would be
a good idea. The bill
was approved and the
money to build the Fort
appropriated. It was
established by order of
President McKinley.
Entrance to Fort Mackenzie.
134
The Fort was named after General Ranald Mackenzie,
a soldier in the Civil War and in the Indian Wars. The first
cavalry arrived on June 18, 1899. There wasn’t much to
the fort in the beginning, only a few temporary wooden
buildings.
As time went on more buildings were built. President
Taft came to Sheridan in 1911 to review the troops and
inspect the Fort. The Fort served first as a cavalry post
and then an infantry garrison until the outbreak of World
War I. At that time, the troops were sent to the Mexican
border and the Fort was closed with only a few soldiers left
there to take care of it.
One of the original brick buildings on the grounds of Fort Mackenzie.
135
In 1922, the Fort was transferred from the Department
of the Army to the Veteran’s Administration and became a
Veteran’s Hospital. It
is now referred to as
the VA.
The VA
encompasses almost
342 acres and has
seventy-five buildings and 500 employees. It has its own
departments for water, sanitation, fire, and police. It is one
of the largest employers in Sheridan.
Veteran’s Hospital
136
Chapter Nineteen
What Are the Names of Some Other Towns In
Sheridan County? Arvada – originally known as Suggs when it was on
the south side of the Powder River in 1891, the town
moved to the north side of the river and was renamed
Arvada by railroad officials in 1892.
Banner – seems to have been named after the Banner
Ranch, which had a flag as its cattle brand. Their post
office was established in 1894.
Big Horn – named for the nearby Bighorn Mountains.
Clearmont – named for Clear Creek that runs nearby.
Dayton – named in 1882 by drawing names from a
hat. Joe D. Thorn put his middle name, Dayton, into
the hat.
137
Leiter – named after Levi Z. Leiter, one of the earliest
settlers who owned much of the Clear Creek valley.
Parkman – named after Frances T. Parkman by
railroad officials. Parkman was a famous explorer and
writer who once traveled through the area.
Ranchester – named by Englishman, Samuel Hardin.
In England “chester” refers to a town, so he combined
Ranch with “chester” to come up with Ranchester.
Story – named after early Sheridan mayor, Charles P.
Story who homesteaded in the area in 1892.
Wolf – named for Wolf Creek where wolves once
roamed.
Wyarno – originally called Arno after the Arno River
in Italy. The name was changed in 1924.
There have been over sixty towns in Sheridan County
over the years. Most of these have become ghost towns
where there is nothing left to see. Besides the coal mining
camps mentioned in this book, some other long forgotten
138
towns are Slave, Kendrick, Ulm, Verona, Slack, Burks,
Walsh, Bingham, Bald Mountain, Rockwood, Woodrock,
Park, Carroll, Dewey, Bear Lodge, Springwillow, and
Passaic.
Map of early Sheridan County towns from
Sheridan County Schools by Charles W. Popovich.
139
Chapter Twenty
What Are Some Other Interesting Facts About the Sheridan Area?
Sheridan’s namesake, General Philip Henry Sheridan,
graduated from West Point
in 1853. He was a
successful Civil War
General and later in charge
of the Army fighting the
Indian wars. There is a
statue of him on his
favorite horse, Rienzi, in
Washington, DC.
Other towns in the United States named after General
Sheridan can be found in Arkansas, California, Colorado,
Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Kentucky,
General Philip H. Sheridan
140
Illinois, New York, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Nebraska,
and Texas. Of all those
towns, Sheridan,
Wyoming, is the largest.
John D. Loucks
opened Sheridan’s
first library in 1883 in
an upstairs room of a
Main Street building.
About 1903, Henry
A. Coffeen offered to
donate his collection of 4,000 books to the library.
They needed more space so a few groups of citizens
purchased land on the corner of Loucks and Brooks
where The Bank of the West drive through is now
located.
Andrew Carnegie was a very wealthy man from the
east who made his fortune in the steel industry. He
financed libraries throughout the United States. Carnegie
Statue of General Sheridan on the grounds of Fort Mackenzie.
141
gave $12,500 to
build the Sheridan
Carnegie Library,
which opened in
1905. The Library
remained there until
1974 when the
Fulmer Public Library opened where it is today. Harry S.
Fulmer donated $300,000 for the Fulmer Library in
memory of his wife, Margaret.
Polo, the sport of kings, came to this area in the
1890’s. Malcolm
Moncreiffe is
considered the
founder of polo
here when he
started playing the
game at his
brother’s ranch in
Big Horn. The second oldest polo field in the nation
Polo player photo courtesy of Sheridan Travel and Tourism.
Sheridan’s Carnegie Library
142
was in Big Horn. Now, polo is played at the Events
Center near Big Horn and is quite popular with both
spectators and players.
Sheridan’s Volunteer Fire Department was formed in
1891. In 1904, the first team of horses was purchased
for the fire department. Before that, they used man-
powered two-wheeled hose carts.
143
The large bell that is on permanent display in front of
City Hall once served as the city’s fire alarm bell in a
bell tower atop City Hall. The 850-pound bell was
rung by a battery system by a switch in the fire station
below. To signal a fire, the bell was rung ten times,
paused, and rung ten more times. The police
department in the basement of City Hall could also
ring the bell.
One ring would call in the policemen from the street
and two rings would call in the chief.
The Cady House, where Sanford’s Restaurant is now,
once had an opera house on the third floor. In 1906,
there was a fire that burned the third floor which was
never rebuilt. The play that was being performed the
Sheridan Police Officers
Sheridan’s early fire bell
144
night of the fire was The Runaway Match. The Cady
House is now a two-story building.
Building the Cady House.
The Cady House before the 1906 fire.
145
Sheridan’s first swimming pool was opened on June 5,
1909. It was called the Mammoth Plunge and was an
indoor pool. It was located at the corner of Dow and
Alger Streets. There is a parking lot at that site now.
It cost about $25,000, and the pool was 100 feet by 50
feet. The shallow end was only two and a half feet
deep with the deep end being nine feet. The building
was steam heated and could be used all year round. It
only lasted until late 1910 when the building was sold
to the Sheridan Railway Company as a streetcar barn.
The Cady House after the fire.
146
Mayor Susan Wissler
On May 9, 1911, Susan Wissler was elected mayor of
Dayton. She served two terms of two years each. She
was the first woman mayor
in Wyoming and possibly
the first woman mayor in
the United States. She was
also a teacher, and a nurse.
In addition, she owned and
operated a millinery and
dry goods store in Dayton.
What warped railroad
tracks in 1915? A fire that
destroyed the original
Sheridan
Commercial
building. It
was thought
that nest-
building mice
might have
The Sheridan Commercial building fire in 1915.
147
accidentally lit a match. The Sheridan Commercial
was rebuilt on the same site.
The lion dogs at the
entrance to Kendrick
Park were donated to the
city by Peter Neiter in
1919. They are actually
a pair of Komainus that
were at the Panama-
Pacific International
Exposition in San
Francisco, California, in
1915 to celebrate the
completion of the Panama Canal.
They were owned by the government of China who
decided to sell them at the end of the Exposition. Each lion
dog is 56 inches high and is said to weight between 600 and
800 pounds.
One of the Kendrick Park lion dogs.
148
Thorne-Rider Park and Thorne-Rider Youth Camp in
Story were named after
Count Frederic and
Countess Harriet Thorne-
Rider. They were not
really pioneers because
they lived in Sheridan off
and on in the 1940s and
1950s. They made
generous contributions to
many projects in the
Sheridan area, and the
Thorne-Rider Foundation
continues to carry out their
wishes today.
The All American Indian
Days and Miss Indian
America Pageant came
about after a Crow Indian
girl, Lucy Yellow Mule, was chosen Sheridan Wyo
Arlene Wesley, Miss Indian America 1953-1954
Lucy Yellow Mule
149
Miss Indian America Contestants
Rodeo queen in 1952.
All American Indian
Days was promoted to
improve Indian and
white relations in
Sheridan and was held
from 1953 until 1984.
During July of 1953, the Can-a-Pop
Beverage Company, a division of
Sheridan Brewing Company, became
the first company in the
United States to introduce
flat top soft drink canned
beverages.
Sheridan has had many
important visitors throughout
the years. In 1984, the queen
of England, Queen Elizabeth
II, was a guest of a family in
Big Horn and visited several local sites.
England’s Queen Elizabeth II at Bradford Brinton Memorial in Big Horn.
150
As you enjoy the many statues on the streets of
downtown Sheridan, look at the bases. If the statue is
on a concrete base, the statue belongs to the city. If it
is on a black base, the statue is probably on loan from
the artist.
The Boss on loan from the artist,
Dellores B. Shelledy.
Team Ropin’ on loan from the artist, Mike Flanagan.
Bozeman Scout by Barry Eisenach,a gift to Sheridan from Sheridan
Media inn 2000.
151
Sheridan has had many awards and honors over the
years including being one of the earliest towns to be
designated as an All America City in 1958. In 2006,
the True West Magazine
named Sheridan the
Number 1 Western Town
in America from among
500 Western towns
competing for the honor.
152
Afterward
This book has given you a broad
picture of how Sheridan looked to its
citizens as it grew from a thought in
Mr. Loucks’s head to the active town
it is today.
You have thought about how Sheridan was before the
white man came to live here. You took a look at why the
Indians were frustrated and unhappy with the white man as
the white man began to settle the land. You will learn
much more about Wyoming history and probably visit
some of the well-known battle sites next year in Fourth
grade.
This book allowed you to read about some of the
famous people who helped to make Sheridan the town it is
today. These famous names appear on our streets and
buildings. Be a great detective and look for these names
and old buildings as you travel around Sheridan.
153
As you visit historic building and sites in the Sheridan
area such as the Sheridan Inn, Trail End, and the Sheridan
County Museum remember all of the historical facts you
read about in this book.
Most important of all is for you to be very proud to be
a citizen of the Sheridan community and help to keep it a
wonderful place to live!
Ladies in early Sheridan enjoying a treat at the soda fountain.
154
155
Glossary A
abreast side by side
appropriate set aside
architect person who draws up building plans
asbestos a fireproof mineral
B
ball fancy dance
ballroom place where balls are held
barbed wire wire with sharp points
benefactor people who give generously for the good of others
bill draft of a proposed law
billiards game similar to pool
blacksmith person who makes things out of metal like horseshoes
blueprint plans an architect draws up on blue paper
board meals
brand mark burned into an animal’s hide to show ownership
breezeway connecting hallway
brewery place where beer is made
broad ax ax that has a large head used to shape wooden products by hand
C
caretaker person who takes care of a house
carriage house building where horse-drawn carriages are kept
casualty person wounded or killed in a battle
catwalk narrow board walkway; illustration p. 109
cavalry horse soldiers
cavalry post place where horse soldiers are stationed
channel bed of a creek or river
civil engineer person who designs roads and bridges
claim to say you own
clapboard boards overlapped on siding the outside of a building
conflict disagreement or fight
Constitutional meeting where a Convention constitution is written
country in this case meaning an area such as northern Wyoming and southern Montana combined
custom long time habit
156
D
day-herder someone who keeps cattle from wandering during the day
decade ten year period
demolished torn down, destroyed
depot building where train tickets are sold and people can wait for the train
diorama miniature scene usually in a box
dispute argument
drainage area that drains into a creek or river when it rains
draw steep area between two hills
dry goods store store that sells fabric items rather than groceries or hardware
dude paying guest from the East
dugout hole in the ground or a hill used as a shelter
E
elegance very fancy
empire land and wealth
encompass surround
enlist join
estate property owned by a person at the time of their death
F
false front wooden front put on a building to make it look larger; illustration p. 45
fare amount charged to ride
feedlot fenced area where livestock are fattened
flourmill place where grain is ground into flour
flume v-shaped wooden structure used to transport water; illustration p. 109
foothills lower slopes of mountains
fork place where two creeks split
fort place where soldiers are stationed; built to protect people in the surrounding area
frame built out of sawed lumber
freight goods transported by wagon or railroad
frontiersman man who was a pioneer on the edge of civilization
G
general store store that sells almost anything
day-herder – general store
157
generation members of a family born about the same time
ghost town town where no one lives anymore
goods products
H
Herefords breed of cattle that are reddish brown with white faces, some have short horns
homestead the act of claiming land for your own; a house, its land, and buildings
I
image picture
immeasurable cannot be measured
immigrant person who comes to the United States from another country
impassable cannot go through
incorporate to form an official body
infantry walking soldiers
infantry place where walking garrison soldiers are stationed
international throughout the world
L
livery barn place where horses are kept and fed for visitors
living quarters where a person lives such as a cabin, dugout, house, etc.
lobby room at the entrance to a hotel
lodge in this case meaning tipi
lot piece of land a certain size in a town
lumberjack person who cuts down trees
M
mansion very large house
mercantile like a general store
military referring to the army
military post another name for a fort
mother-up getting every calf together with its mother
millinery referring to ladies hats
mural a large painting
musician’s loft balcony where the musicians are out of the way of the dancers
N
namesake something with the same name as another
Nation’s celebration two hundred Bicentennial years after the nation
was founded; 1976
nestled snuggled
O
open range without fences
generation – open range
158
P
petition ask in writing
plaster mixture of fine sand and lime used to cover walls
politician person elected to do a job in the government
porter man who carried luggage for the guests
postmaster person in charge of a post office
prosper to do well financially
prove up in this case meaning prove that they lived on the land for five years
put up in this case meaning cut from creeks and ponds
Q
quarry place to cut rock for use in building
R
railroad spike very large nail used to hold the rail to the tie
razed torn down
reenactment performance showing the way something was
reservation in this case meaning an area where Indians were taken to live
restore make like it was
rodeo performance featuring horseback riding and roping events
roundup in this case meaning to gather cattle together
S
saloon bar
sawmill place where logs are sawed into lumber
scaled down made smaller in the same proportions
scout guide
seam layer of coal; vein
seamstress someone who does sewing to make their living
sharpshooter someone who is a good shot with a gun
short-grass grass that does not grow tall but is very nutritious
showman person who performs
site place
slate in this case meaning a hand held blackboard with a wooden frame around it; illustration p. 52
spacious very large
spur line track running from the main track
stable same as a livery barn
stage coach horse drawn passenger coach
stage ford where the stage coach could cross a creek
petition – stage ford
159
stationery paper letters are written on
stray wander away
structure building; way in which something was built
surveyor person who measures the land to make an accurate map
survivor in this case meaning someone who lived through a battle
T
teamster someone who drives a team of oxen, mules or horses pulling a supply wagon
Texas longhorns breed of cattle that have very long horns and are usually more than one color
tie hack someone who shapes railroad ties from logs
ties wooden part of the railroad track
tinware items made out of tin like silverware, dishes, pots and pans
tradition customs and habits passed from generation to generation
transcontinental across the continent
trestle high wooden structure used to support a flume or railroad track; illustration p. 110
tribe group of people who live together
trooper soldier
V
vein layer of coal; seam
venture to be bold enough to do something that might be dangerous
volunteer someone who does a job without being paid
W
wagon tarp canvas used on a covered wagon
wagon train group of covered wagons traveling together
warp twist
waterway river
wrangler someone who saddles horses for dudes and takes dudes on trail rides
stationery – wrangler
160
161
Index A
Absaroka ....................................................... 5, 19 All American City .......................................... 151 All American Indian Days .............................. 148 Arnold, Jack...................................................... 96 Arnold, Kate ............................. 84, 96, 97, 98, 99
B
Battle of the Little Big Horn ....................... 11, 79 Battle of the Rosebud ........................... 11, 12, 14 Beck, George ............................................ 22, 114 Big Horn River ................................................. 10 Bighorn Mountains ...... 4, 5, 6, 15, 17, 19, 28, 30,
105, 109, 136 Black Hills .......................................... 5, 8, 16, 19 Boal, Arta ............................................. 80, 83, 97 Boal, Horton ............................................... 80, 83 Bozeman Trail ........................................ 9, 10, 29 Brooks, Lyman H. ............................................ 36 Brundage, George ............................................. 36 Buckel, Dick ..................................................... 39 Burkitt, Kenneth M. .............................. 31, 34, 35
C
Cady House .................................................... 144 Canfield, George .............................................. 94 Canfield, Lucy .................................................. 94 Canfield, Sherman ............................................ 94 Carnegie, Andrew ..................................... 48, 140 Carroll, George ................................................. 43 City Hall ......................................................... 143 Coal camps / mines
Acme .................................................. 115, 124 Carneyville ................................................. 115 Dietz .................................. 114, 115, 122, 124 Higby ......................................................... 114 Hotchkiss ................................................... 115 Kleenburn .......................................... 115, 122 Kooi ........................................................... 115 Model ................................................. 115, 122 Monarch ....................... 36, 115, 117, 122, 124
Coal mine Big Horn Coal ............................................ 119 Decker Coal ............................................... 119 Rio Tinto .................................................... 119
Cody, Colonel William F. . 18, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84, 87, 90, 98, 101
Cody, Irma .......................................... 80, 81, 101 Cody, Louisa Frederici ............................... 76, 80 Coffeen, Henry Asa .......................... 48, 133, 140 Connor, General Patrick ..................................... 8
Conrad, J. H. ............................................... 43, 44 Cornwell, Rube ................................................ 39 Cotton, Tom ................................................ 26, 40 Craig, Archie ..................................................115 Crawford, Captain Jack .............................. 80, 81 Crazy Horse ..................................................... 11 Crook, General George ............. 11, 13, 14, 15, 77 Custer, General George ................................... 12
D
Davis, William ............................................ 38, 39 Demple, Peter .................................................. 43 Dietz, C. M. ....................................................114 Dow, Jack ............................................. 21, 31, 35 Dudes ...... 111, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132 Dull Knife ........................................................ 12 Dull Knife Battle ............................................. 12 Dutch Henry ......................................... 23, 24, 41
E
Eaton Alden ......................................... 107, 126, 128 Big Bill ......................................................129 Howard ...................................... 101, 126, 128 Patty Alderson ...........................................129 Willis .........................................................126
Enochs, William .............................................. 91 Events Center ..................................................142
F
Fetterman Fight .......................................... 10, 11 Finnerty, John .................................................. 15 Fort C. F. Smith ............................................... 10 Fort Laramie ........................................... 8, 16, 75 Fort Mackenzie ............................... 133, 134, 140 Fort McKinney ..................................... 16, 19, 20 Fort Phil Kearny ......................................... 10, 11 Fort Reno ........................................................... 9 Fulmer Public Library ....................................141 Fulmer, Harry S. .............................................141
G
Gillette, Edward ..............................................105 Goose Creek… .. 6, 14, 17, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 36,
43, 105, 111 Gould, Alexander............................................. 35 Greasy Grass Creek ......................................... 11 Green, Dr. W. F. .............................................. 47 Griffith, Vernon ............................................... 40 Grinnell, Cornelius H. ............ 31, 34, 39, 90, 114 Grouard, Frank ............. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 94
162
H
Hanna, O. P. ......................................... 19, 20, 30 Heald, Abel S. .................................................. 35 Heald, J. Frank .................................................. 43 Held, Henry .................................... 35, 40, 41, 52 Held, Nettie ...................................................... 41 Higby, Anson .................................................. 114
I
Indian Wars ................................................ 12, 16 Indians
Arapahoe .............................................. 8, 9, 10 Cheyenne ................... 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 20, 104 Crow ...................................... 5, 6, 8, 101, 148 Sioux ............................................ 8, 10, 11, 14
J
James, Frank ..................................................... 20 James, Jesse ...................................................... 20 Johnson County .................................... 17, 19, 50 Johnson County War ........................................ 17 Jones, Pete ........................................................ 39 Jurosek .............................................................. 95
K
Kendrick Eula Wulfjen ................................................ 67 Golf Course .................................................. 71 John B. .... 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 88, 101, 138,
147 Manville ................................................. 68, 72 OW ranch ..................................................... 67 Park ...................................................... 70, 147 Rosa-Maye ................................................... 68 Trail End ...................... 68, 69, 71, 72, 73, 153
Kilbourne, Frank H. .......................................... 44 Kimball, Thomas Rogers .................................. 89
L
Lord, George .................................................... 50 Loucks, John D. ..... 24, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 34, 40,
50, 52, 54, 89, 140, 152
M
Mackenzie, General Ranald ............................ 134 Mandel, George .............................. 24, 27, 30, 31 Mateo, Antonio ................................................. 19 McAlister, Glen ................................................ 70 McKinley, President ....................................... 133 Moncreiffe, Malcolm ...................................... 141 Montana
Birney .................................................... 39, 96 Bozeman ...................................................... 29 Huntley ...................................................... 106 Miles City .............................................. 29, 45
Virginia City ................................................. 9
N
National Society of the Colonial Dames .......... 27 Nebraska
Fort Robinson ............................................. 14 Omaha ...................................... 89, 94, 95, 103
Neltje ............................................................... 95 Newman, E. S. ................................................. 60 Newspaper
Sheridan Enterprise ................................ 41, 88 Sheridan Post ................................... 40, 42, 90 Sheridan Post-Enterprise ............................. 42 Sheridan Press ...................................... 42, 107
O
Oakley, Annie .................................................. 79
P
Parrot, Big Nosed George ................................ 20 Paul, George .................................................... 43 Perkins, B. F. ................................................... 40 Phelan, J. R. ....................................................114 Piney Creek ..................................................... 10 PK Ranch ......................................................... 42 Polo ............................................. 18, 94, 141, 142 Pony Express .............................................. 75, 79 Pourier, Big Bat ............................................... 15 Powder River ............................ 5, 9, 19, 113, 136
Q
Queen Elizabeth II ..........................................150
R
Railroad ............................ 76, 102, 103, 105, 107 Burlington and Missouri ...................... 95, 105 Burlington Northern / Santa Fe ..................105 Central Pacific ...........................................103 Chicago, Burlington and Quincy ...............105 Northern Pacific .........................................105 Southern Pacific .........................................105 Union Pacific .............................................103
Red Cloud ........................................................ 10 Reed, Dick ....................................................... 38 Rhodes, John .................................................... 24 Rodeo ............................................ 65, 66, 85, 131
S
Schools ......................................... 50, 52, 68, 124 Central ........................................................ 59 Coffeen .................................................. 48, 57 Custer .......................................................... 56 Ft. Mackenzie High ..................................... 56 Hill .............................................................. 56 Holy Name Catholic ................................... 58 Linden ......................................................... 58
163
Nielsen Heights ............................................ 56 Sheridan High ................................ 55, 59, 121 Sheridan Junior High ............................. 59, 68 Taylor .......................................................... 57 The Wright Place ......................................... 56
Scott ...................................................... 31, 34, 35 Sheridan Brewery ..................................... 43, 149 Sheridan Commercial ..................................... 146 Sheridan County…...7, 13, 17, 34, 43, 50, 70, 71,
72, 73, 77, 91, 109, 117, 125, 136, 137, 153 Sheridan County Historical Society ................. 72 Sheridan County Museum ...... 109, 117, 125, 153 Sheridan Fuel Company ................................. 114 Sheridan Heritage Center ............................... 100 Sheridan Inn .... 18, 35, 46, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83,
85, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 110, 111, 153
Sheridan Land Company .................................. 89 Sheridan Railway Company ................... 122, 123 Sibley, Lt. Frederick ......................................... 14 Sommers, Fay ................................................... 41
T
Thomas, Bernard P. .......................................... 45 Thorn, Joe D. .................................................. 136 Thorne-Rider Park .......................................... 147 Thorne-Rider, Count Frederic and Countess
Harriet ........................................................ 147 Thurmond, John D ...................................... 34, 36 Timm, William ................................................. 43 Tongue River .................................................. 7, 9 Trabing ............................................................. 19 Trolley ...................... 94, 121, 122, 123, 124, 100 True West Magazine....................................... 151 Tschirgi, Arnold ............................................... 43 Two Moon ........................................................ 11 Tynan, Thomas ................................................. 41
U
Utah Promontory Point ....................................... 103
V
Vanderpool, Cal ................................................ 38
W
Wagon Box Fight ............................................. 11 Warner, D. O. ............................................. 95, 99 Warner, Lizzie .................................................. 94
Warren, Senator F. E. .....................................133 Washington Park ............................................. 71 Whitney Benefits ........................................ 46, 59 Whitney, E. A. .......................... 25, 26, 27, 45, 46 Wild Horse Creek ...........................................130 Wild West Show ................. 78, 79, 81, 84, 85, 90 Wissler, Susan ................................................144 Wolf Creek ..................................... 127, 128, 137 Works, Clara .................................................... 53 Works, Jim ...................................... 28, 29, 34, 53 Wyoming
Arvada........................................................136 Banner ........................................................136 Beckton ....................................................... 22 Big Horn… . 10, 17, 18, 20, 21, 30, 35, 47, 49,
50, 119, 136, 141, 150 Buffalo .. 16, 19, 42, 44, 49, 74, 76, 77, 78, 79,
90, 101 Clearmont .................................... 50, 107, 136 Cody ............................................................ 83 Dayton ................................. 50, 109, 136, 144 Hyattville .................................................... 17 Kaycee ............................................... 9, 12, 19 Leiter ..........................................................137 Parkman .....................................................137 Ranchester ........................................ 9, 50, 137 Sheridan…. ... 4, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 22,
23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 60, 63, 64, 66, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 94, 96, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 105, 106, 107, 108, 110, 111, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 127, 129, 130, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 139, 140, 141, 142, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 152, 153
Suggs .........................................................136 Wolf ............................................................ 87 Wyarno ......................................................137
Y
Yellow Mule, Lucy .........................................148 Yellowstone National Park ....................... 83, 127
Z
Zowada, Mike .................................................. 95
