Friday, November 4/2011

Marie had to get a pic of the bunny before we left Billings

Headed out

Montana scenery

Beautiful Wyoming

Entering Wind River Canyon

Boysen State Park

Time to park for the night

The sun is shining again this morning.  Everyday that I wake up and don't see snow on the ground, I feel like we have dodged another bullet.  We are still too far north for my liking so hopefully today we get a few more miles behind us and stay in the warmer weather.  There is stormy weather all around us so I hope we can avoid most of it.  John keeps reminding me that we have three mountain ranges to get across before I see the sands of the Sonoran Desert so I hope we are as lucky as we were last year and have dry pavement all the way down.  I will keep my fingers crossed and call upon God, Allah, Buddha and the Gitchi Manitou if I need to!! (They ride in the bus with me at all times!!)
On our travels today, we went though the city of Cody, Wyoming.  This city was named after William Frederick Cody - primarily known as Buffalo Bill.  Buffalo Bill first came to this area in the 1870's guiding Professor O.C. March (a distinguished geologist) who was making a study of the natural resources of the West. He returned to this beautiful area in the 1890's with the avowed purpose of land development and the building of a community.  The site was named Cody in 1895 at the insistence of Buffalo Bills fellow developers.  In 1902, the town was incorporated and Buffalo Bill opened his infamous "Hotel in the Rockies" - the Irma - named after his youngest daughter.  Bill induced the Burlington Railroad to build a spur into the town and promoted a road to the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park (the first national park in North America).  He persuaded his friend, President Theodore Rooselvelt to establish the Bureau of Reclamation and to build the Shoshone Dam and Reservoir.  Buffalo Bill, also with the help of Teddy Rooselvelt,  established the first great National Forest - The Shoshone and the first ranger station.  He was a very busy man.
Once we got past Cody, we found our selves at yet another historic site.  This was the Half Way Stage Stop.  At this spot in 1903, a rock dugout facing south, near a spring in the hillside was established as a stage "noon stop" where horses were changed and meals served.  The primitive accommodation was half way between Corbett Crossing and the Stinking Water River and the bustling Frontier town of Meeteetse (which we had passed through earlier).  In 1904, Halfway Stop had a newfangled phone complete with a large public telephone sign!!  The station was abandoned in 1908 after automobiles began to use the route but the spring remained in use for many years,  a favorite watering place in this arid country.  The marker commemorates early station keepers and travelers who passed this way.
There obviously is a lot of history in this state and it would be great to spend some time in this area on our return home to explore some of the back trails and go where the outlaws once used to go!!
We drove through the small city of Lander which lies at the base of the Wind River Mountains.  It is here that Rodeo as a spectator sport was born.  Over 109 years ago, the first paid rodeo was staged in Lander and continues today.  Lander itself, was created to provide protection for the newly established Wind River Reservation and was a small military post - Camp Augur and was renamed Lander after Colonel F.W. Lander who headed a survey of an Oregon Trail cutoff in 1857-58.
It was starting to get late and time for us to start looking for a place to stop for the night.  We ended up stopping at a place called Sweetwater Station, so named because it was a stage and pony express stop along the Sweetwater River.  And that folks, end the history lesson for today!!!