~ wander.essence ~

denver to grand island, nebraska: front street, fort cody trading post, & a pony express station

wanderessence1025 December 8, 2020

I left Denver this morning at 8:40 a.m. while Mike stayed another day to meet up with an old friend. I drove on I-76E for 175 miles. The landscape east of Denver was flat as a pizza stone, and it was covered in red-gold grasses. A few clouds hovered on the fringes of the horizon.

I love having highways all to myself. I was the solitary driver for long stretches at a time. It was big-sky flat every which-way. The pungent smell of manure drifted into my car. An orange locomotive sat on railroad tracks with a line of coal-filled cars behind it. Big silos punctuated the land. Wind swept across grasses in vast stretches of nothing but grassland. Grey streaked the sky near Jackson Lake State Park. Near New Raymer was a belching industrial factory that stunk to high heavens. After another huge factory were browning and dried-out cornfields with golden tassels drooping on the stalks.

It was a gray and dreary day, a chilly 54°F. I passed a lumbering white school bus, empty of everyone but a driver. A storm chaser vehicle sped past. Giant piles of tires formed small mountains near feed lots of black and white cows. Near Merino was a big lake or reservoir to the north. Sagebrush dotted the land and cows wandered here and there.

A big sign warned: CORRECTIONAL FACILITY: DO NOT STOP FOR HITCHHIKERS. I wouldn’t have stopped anyway, but I appreciated the warning to be on the lookout for escaping inmates.

Clouds hovered over the land like a woolly blanket. Burros with long floppy ears stood in a sagebrush plain. Little windmills looked lonely and vulnerable on the vast flat land. Miranda Lambert sang of a “Highway Vagabond,” which I was. By 11:50, I crossed the state line into “Nebraska… the good life. Home of Arbor Day.”

Giant cattle yards stunk up the air. A sign said: “Go Jump in the Lake. Lake McConaughy.” Soon I was in Ogallala, heading for Front Street.

Front Street – Ogallala looks like an old West street from the 1800s. A free cowboy museum is inside. Ogallala is on the terminus of the Texas-Ogallala Trail. From 1875-1885, gunshots were common in the wild town. Cowboys finished their cattle drives and went looking for diversions. They got paid, took a bath, had a few drinks (or more), and often got taken by gamblers and prostitutes.

Front Street – Ogallala

Beer sign at Front Street

another beer sign

Front Street – Ogallala

Books of the time included Little Lord Fauntleroy, a children’s novel by the English-American writer Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was published as a serial in St. Nicholas Magazine from November 1885 to October 1886, then as a book by Scribner’s (the publisher of St. Nicholas) in 1886.

Little Lord Fauntleroy

Red Ryder and the Rimrock Killer

featurettes

In early Ogallala, many physicians worked mainly on wealthy families so the practice of surgical work and dentistry fell to the local barber.

The most notable of the minor surgical work done by barbers was bloodletting. This practice involved allowing blood to drain out of a person to help them recover to health after draining impurities out of the bloodstream. The barber pole evolved from this practice. Apparently the barber placed the bloodied bandages onto the pole outside the shop to dry. The wind blowing through the red and white cloth evolved into the barbershop pole we see today. The concept of the blue line was said to represent the blue veins that patients needed to expose to allow for bloodletting. Other stories suggest that the blue was drawn in as an act of patriotism.

Most barbers also provided typical haircuts and shaves for men in the early 1900s. Many men did not even bother with shaving from home as getting hot water was difficult.

Barbershop

Early drugstores in the frontier settlements of Nebraska concentrated on dispensing medicine, both prescription and patent. The drugstore owner was usually an apothecary able to prepare the pills and nostrums prescribed by the local doctor. The druggist often had a number of home remedies, favorite formulas designed to cure the more common ills, which he offered to those who came to him for advice. Various patent medicines were popular, mainly because of their high alcoholic content. The museum had a display of a typical Frontier Apothecary.

Apothecary

The Oregon Trail, Mormon Trail, Bozeman Trail, Western Trail, Old Texas Trail and Pony Express all played a big part in the settlement of Nebraska, as did the coming of the railroad. All crossed here.

Interstate Highways of the 1800s

the Oregon Trail and others

A display on “Soiled Doves” told about “Prostitution in Ogallala during the Texas Cattle Drive Days.” As hundreds of cowboys swept in from cattle drives, they were anxious for the affections of a woman. The Crystal Palace Saloon and Cowboy’s Rest saloons began offering saloon girls whose sole purpose was to tempt the cowboys to liquor up. The girls often drank tea placed in shot glasses to appear as if they were drinking along with the cowboys.

Women also followed the trail herds. Many madams traveled up to Cheyenne, the Black hills, and finally into Ogallala. These madams were in charge of the prostitutes that frequented the streets in Ogallala during the wild days of the west. Saloon women also made a cash flow through prostitution. Although this was illegal even in the old west, many of the Victorian and reputable men and women of Ogallala turned a blind eye toward it.

Like today, most of these women were involved as saloon girls and prostitutes through circumstances that drove them to a way of life when they seemingly had no other options. Many of these women in Ogallala were alcoholics and desperately needed cash. Some were fleeing husbands or drowning in poverty.

Young orphan girls were especially vulnerable. Some began working at the age of 14. Some women arrived with tuberculosis. Many of these girls infected gamblers and men with their illnesses.

It seemed many of these women and girls were caught in slavery no different than today. Most were from their early teens to early thirties, remained nameless, and were quite plain looking. This was not a problem as cowboys, gamblers, railroad workers and others were merely craving the company of a woman in a place where men outnumbered them.

Prostitution

Undertaking was big business in the Old West. The undertaker’s duties included assisting in the undertaking of a dead family member. These duties included placing the body in a casket, taking it to the cemetery, digging the hole, and placing a marker on the grave. After death, the undertaker used formaldehyde to preserve the bodies.

A horse and buggy was usually common in the 1900s to carry bodies to the gravesite. Often black horses were hitched to the buggy. The hair of dead relatives was often kept and weaved into wreaths to hold their memory.

Undertaker

By the 1870s, Ogallala began to run amuck with unruly cowboys coming up the Texas Trail. In 1875, Louis Aufdengarten built a stone jail along Front Street. The door was made of boilerplate and was considered the most substantial jail west of Omaha.

Even with the substantial jail, jailbreaks were a common occurrence. The sheriff did not feel the need to chase after prisoners as they left Ogallala.

Jail

The Cheyenne, Araphoe and Sioux were the principal Indian tribes of Western Nebraska in this region. While the Pawnee of Central Nebraska were farmers to an extent, the Sioux were proud, buffalo-hunting nomadic Indians who were great warriors.

Native Americans

A sensational news story told of how a Chief Volunteered as Hostage to Save His Tribe.

Chief Volunteered as Hostage to Save His Tribe

The museum had some accouterments of prairie life in the late 1800s.

Prairie life

unisex toilet

Prairie life

I bid adieu to Front Street.

Front Street

After leaving Ogallala, I continued east and the land started turning greener. Soon, I was in North Platte at the “Fort Cody Trading Post: Since 1963.” North Platte was home to William “Buffalo Bill” Cody. He was born February 26, 1846 near Le Claire, Iowa. He was a trailhand at the age of 9, a trapper, a Pony Express rider (he was 14 when he responded to ads seeking riders who were young, wiry, and preferably orphaned), and a buffalo hunter (he supplied meat for crews who were building the Kansas Pacific Railroad). He was called Buffalo Bill after shooting 4,280 buffalo in 8 months in 1867. He was Chief of Scouts for the 5th Cavalry during the Plains Indian Wars in 1890.

In 1882, the town fathers of North Platte asked him to plan a 4th of July celebration. He created the first organized rodeo in the nation, leading to the inception of the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and Congress of Rough Riders of the World.

Buffalo Bill

Bill Cody on the Pony Express

Death Claims Buffalo Bill’s wife

The front facade of the Fort Cody Trading Post looked like a stockaded fort with mannequins dressed and posed as Cavalry soldiers and Indians.

Fort Cody Trading Post

Sioux Trading Post model at Fort Cody Trading Post

Fort Cody Trading Post

At Fort Cody Trading Post were eclectic gifts from tacky trinkets to exquisite jewelry, pottery, Western clothing, antiques, Western literature, and leather goods. I bought a beautiful bracelet for myself (for Christmas) made of mammoth tooth and silver. Also some stickers for my journal and two pairs of earrings. 🙂

Posters for the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show were on display.

Posters for the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show

There was a miniature hand-carved mechanized Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, handcrafted by Ernie Palmquist. It had 20,000 hand-carved pieces and it took 12 years to complete.

Miniature Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show

I went to the Cody Park Railroad Museum, where I saw the Union Pacific Challenger 3977 locomotive built in 1943 for freight and passenger service at speeds of up to 70 mph. It was retired in 1961. I was able to climb into the locomotive and then walk through a series of old rail cars, including a rail car and a caboose filled with railroad memorabilia.

I also saw the 6922 diesel locomotive; the 6900 series were the largest ever made. These two locomotives made a combined horsepower of over 12,000. On site is the old Hershey, NE rail depot with historic railroad artifacts inside.

Union Pacific Challenger 3977

6922 diesel locomotive

Union Pacific Challenger 3977

mail car: Union Pacific Challenger 3977

Union Pacific Challenger 3977

Hershey, NE rail depot

I found a mural in North Platte on my way out of town.

mural in North Platte

I passed the Maranatha Bible Camp at 4:00 and temps had warmed to 62°F. Hay bales sat in green fields fenced in by trees. Flocks of birds swam through the clouds.

By 4:20, I had arrived in Gothenburg to see the original Pony Express Station. In 1854, it was erected on the Oregon Trail, four miles east of Fort McPherson, Lincoln County, Nebraska. At that time it was used as a Fur Trading Post and Ranch House. From 1860-1861, it was used as a Pony Express Station. In 1931, it was donated by Mrs. C.A. Williams to the city of Gothenburg. It was moved to Ehmen Park from its original location 15 miles southwest of Gothenburg.

The rock in the foreground, upon which the two Official Pony Express Centennial plaques are mounted, is a 3,300 pound piece of Ogallala formation stone, native to Nebraska.

Pony Express Station

The Pony Express operated for only 18 months from April 1860. At that time, it was called the Greatest Enterprise of Modern Times. The 2,000 mile express route from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California took 10 days to traverse.

Pony Express Station

The sign advertising for Pony Express riders read:

WANTED. YOUNG, SKINNY, WIRY FELLOWS NOT OVER 18. MUST BE EXPERT RIDERS, WILLING TO RISK DEATH DAILY. ORPHANS PREFERRED. WAGES $25 PER WEEK.

Pony Express Advertisement

Pony Express Rider taking a break

Before being accepted as a pony rider, each was required to sign the following pledge: “I DO HEREBY swear before the great and living God that during my engagement with Russell, Majors, and Waddell, I will under no circumstances use profane language; that I will drink no intoxicating liquors; that I will not quarrel or fight with other employees of the firm; and that I will conduct myself honestly, be faithful in my duties, and so direct all my acts as to win the confidence of my employers. So help me God.” After signing the pledge, the Pony Rider was presented with a small leather-bound Bible. (From Souvenir Edition… Pony Express Times).

Below are some photos of Pony Express Riders and Buffalo Bill.

Pony Express Riders

Buffalo Bill Cody

I bought a mug and got some stamps for my National Park Passport, although it wasn’t a National site.

Pony Express stamps

Leaving, I continued east to Kearney, passing the Robert Henri Museum and Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles. A sign invited me to go 16 miles south to the Nebraska Prairie Museum, but I was a mission to get to Kearney in time to see the Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA). Sadly, by the time I got there, it was 6:00 and the museum had closed at 5:00.

MONA in Kearney

Kearney was a cute town, and I drove through and took some pictures, including some of the museum I missed.

movie theater turned dentist office in Kearney

mural in Kearney

Kearney

mural in Kearney

On the way out of town, I passed the Buggy Bath (to wash bugs off of cars) Car Wash. The Mirror Image was another car wash. I passed Boogaarts Market and wondered why there were so many vowels in the name. I passed the bike shed, Stagecoach Gifts and Souvenirs, and Barista’s Daily Grind.

Near Wood River was a chartreuse field and a sign saying: “JESUS: Your Only Way to God.” Another sign said: “Smell That? You’re in Corndog Country.”

I passed the Mormon Island State Recreation Area and finally arrived in “Grand Island: Population 48,520” by 7:00. The town was “Home of the Nebraska State Fair.” I stopped for the night at the Rodeway Inn. I would need a solid rest for another drive of 460 miles the next day.

*Steps: 4,142, or 1.76 miles. Drove: 426.3 miles.

*Saturday, September 28, 2019*

fort mchenry & returning home from baltimore before the pandemic

wanderessence1025 December 7, 2020

My last morning in Baltimore, I headed straightaway to Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine. A British naval attack against this fort was repulsed on September 13, 1814, preventing the capture of Baltimore. The battle inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star Spangled Banner,” which is now the National Anthem of the United States of America.

Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine

From 1793-1815, England and France were involved in a series of wars called the “French Revolutionary Wars” and the “Napoleonic Wars.” Maritime trade was vital to both nations, turning a European war into a global struggle across the seas. Both countries confiscated American merchant ships and cargoes to prevent supplies from reaching enemy ports. Americans thought this violated their rights as neutrals. The British forcibly drafted (“impressed”) American seamen, and President Madison and the “War Hawks,” a group of southern and western Congressmen, demanded the U.S. annex British Canada and Spanish Florida. The War Hawks pressed for a declaration of war against England on June 18, 1812, to preserve “Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights.”

American sea trade gained in importance

Known as the “War of 1812,” the conflict lasted almost three years between 1812 and 1815. Sometimes called a “forgotten war” of American history, neither side could claim outright victory. For the young United States, however, it strengthened a sense of national identity and enhanced the country’s status on the world stage.

In mid-August, after Napoleon’s defeat in April 1814, a British force of some 5,000 army and navy veterans sailed up the Chesapeake Bay, intent on giving the Americans “a complete drubbing.” They did that at the Battle of Bladensburg and went on to burn Washington.

At the time of the battle, George Armistead was 34 years old, a husband of four years, father of a two-year-old daughter, and a combat-tested veteran. Born to a wealthy Virginia family, Armistead’s military career began at age 19 when he joined the U.S. Army as an officer in the 7th U.S. Infantry Regiment. He then served eight unexciting years at various frontier posts, transferred to the U.S. Artillery and earned the rank of Captain. The War of 1812 offered him an opportunity to prove himself. His role the following year in capturing Fort George in British Columbia earned him a promotion to Major and a reassignment to Fort McHenry.

In a small room at Fort McHenry, George Armistead worked for long hours under extreme stress for over 18 months. Meeting with engineers, city leaders, and the War Department, he planned the fort’s defenses. By 1814, the fort boasted over 60 cannons and 1,000 defenders.

Baltimore was better prepared for the invaders than Washington had been. Defenses were erected, arms and equipment laid in, and troops trained. Fifteen thousand men, mostly Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia militia but also a few regular army units and several hundred sailors were called to duty. Fort McHenry, the key to the harbor, was defended by 1,000 men. Its guns and those of two batteries along the river’s edge dominated the channels leading to the city. A line of gunboats and sunken hulks across the mouth of Northwest Branch also obstructed entry.

Baltimore’s defenses were designed to ward off attacks from both land and sea. Local citizens dug a mile-long entrenchment to protect the eastern side of the city from land attack and a number of smaller forts protected various points along the Patapsco River on the city’s southwest side.

Gunpowder for the fort was kept in the Magazine. Perhaps the most important building at Fort McHenry, over 30,000 pounds of explosive black powder could be stored in this small room – the rough equivalent of over ten tons of TNT.

Junior Officers’ Quarters

George Armistead plans the fort’s defenses

Magazine

soldier’s uniform

Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine

On September 12, British troops landed at North Point and marched toward Baltimore. Americans were compelled to withdraw. The next morning, the British waited two miles from the city for the results of a naval attack before assaulting the Baltimore defenses.

The British attacked Fort McHenry at dawn on the 13th. The assault lasted some 25 hours. An estimated 1,500-1,800 shells and rockets were fired at the fort. Protecting Baltimore was a mix of regular soldiers and sailors plus militia. Troops came from Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia, as well as from Maryland. African-Americans were among Baltimore’s 15,000 defenders. Citizen-soldiers from the city itself were defending not only American soil, but also their businesses, homes and families.

Bombships continued their bombardment until 7:00 a.m. on September 14, then withdrew down the river. As the British sailed away, the American soldiers fired the morning gun and hoisted the large flag that would later become known as the “Star Spangled Banner,” while the musicians played “Yankee Doodle.”

The British sailed off to invade New Orleans. There on January 8, 1815, an American frontier army under General Andrew Jackson defeated the British. This was the last important battle of the War of 1812; it took place as a treaty negotiated in Ghent, Belgium was making its way across the Atlantic.

Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine

Above all, the War of 1812 saw the rise of a new sense of American national destiny. The U.S. never again attempted to conquer Canada, but obstacles to American westward expansion were removed, as the British abandoned their treaties with American Indians in the northwest. The participation of a number of Indian nations as allies of the British provided a ready-made excuse for the U.S. government to speed up the forced removal of eastern tribes to lands beyond the Mississippi River once the conflict ended.

Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine

The war proved the need for better communications, spurring road and canal building. Military spending increased to build up the army, navy and coastline defenses. Foreign policy became bolder.

Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine

Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine

Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine

Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine

Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine

Fort McHenry never again came under enemy fire but continued as an active military post for the next 100 years. During the Civil War, it was used as a temporary prison for captured Confederate soldiers, southern sympathizers, and political prisoners.

A display at the fort discusses this turbulent time in “Abraham Lincoln: Hero or Dictator? The Price of Security.” In 1861 Abraham Lincoln became the only American president to face the crisis of a civil war. Southern states formed the Confederacy in February of that year. Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, and a week later, a riot in Baltimore erupted with an attack on the 6th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment and resulted in the killing of federal soldiers and Baltimore civilians. The cutting of telegraph lines and burning of railroad bridges between Baltimore and Washington further isolated the capital from the rest of the country.

On April 22, President Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus and placed Baltimore under Federal control. Over the next six months, Federal authorities shut down newspapers, replaced police officers with Union soldiers, and aimed cannons at the city and arrested hundreds of citizens and elected officials (including 23 members of the state legislature). Many of those arrested were initially brought to the fort’s guardhouse.

The Maryland Legislature condemned Lincoln’s actions as “the overthrow of public freedom.. with color of lawful process or right.”

Many prisoners of state detained at Fort McHenry during the Civil War saw the American flag waving over the ramparts as a symbol of tyranny more than a representation of liberty. During the first year alone, Federal authorities imprisoned over 250 people here for alleged Southern sympathies. Some of those imprisoned were transferred to more secure forts farther north while others were released after only a period of days or weeks in confinement.

(*habeas corpus: a Writ of habeas corpus directs a person, government, or official to produce the prisoner and justify the prisoner’s deterntion. In Latin, the term means “You have the body.”)

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When the last active artillery unit left in 1912, the fort’s future seemed in doubt. Baltimore safeguarded the fort as a city park, until the army reclaimed it for use as a hospital during World War I. One of the largest military hospitals in the country, it housed 3,000 wounded soldiers from the battlefields of France. Over 1,000 staff worked in this facility.

From 1917 until 1923, U.S. Army General Hospital No. 2 served World War I veterans as a surgical center. Medical staff made great advances in neurosurgery and reconstructive surgery. It was one of the country’s first schools to reintegrate disabled soldiers into civilian life by offering special classes in typing, metal work, automobile repair and other trades.

colorful boat near Fort McHenry

cancellation stamp for Fort McHenry

In 1925, Congress made Ft. McHenry a national park; 14 years later, it was redesignated a national monument and historic shrine, the only park in the country to have this double distinction.

“The Star-Spangled Banner”

Francis Scott Key effectively dramatized the bombardment during the Battle of Baltimore, the flag, and much of the feeling of the day in verse.

“The Star-Spangled Banner”

A week before the battle, Key, an influential young Washington lawyer, set out with Colonel John S. Skinner, U.S. Commissioner General of Prisoners, on a mission to the British fleet. They sought the release of a friend, Dr. William Beanes. Sailing from Baltimore on September 5, they reached the British fleet in the Chesapeake Bay on September 7 and in a few days of negotiations had arranged for Beanes to go free. But because they’d learned about the British plan to attack Baltimore, they were detained until after the assault for fear they would alert the city’s defenders.

Key, Skinner and Beanes witnessed the bombardment from the deck of a U.S. truce ship on September 13th.

Key later described how he felt when he saw Fort McHenry’s flag waving on the morning of the 14th. Key jotted down notes and finished the poem upon his return to Baltimore the evening of the 16th. He showed it to his wife’s brother-in-law, Joseph Nicholson, who immediately delivered it to the offices of the Baltimore American and Commercial Daily Advertiser. The first printing under the title “Defence of Fort McHenry” was a broadside sheet, handed out in the streets. It stated the song should be sung to the tune of “To Anacreon in Heaven,” a song written around 1770 by two Englishmen for a gentleman’s social club in London. It was common at that time to put new words to existing tunes. Key almost certainly had the tune of “To Anacreon in Heaven” in mind when he wrote the lyrics. He had already written an earlier song to this melody, as had 80 other authors by 1814.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” is a potent symbol that has long provoked intense debate. Although widely regarded as a national song after 1814, it took 117 years to become the official National Anthem. Opposition was just as passionate in favor of other contenders, including “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” “America the Beautiful,” and “Hail Columbia.” (“America the Beautiful” is my favorite). After World War I, pacifists argued that Key’s lyrics were too warlike. Opponents alleged that its music was inappropriate, claiming it was an English drinking song. It was, in the words of opponent August E.. Stetson, “born of intense hatred of Great Britain and wedded to a bar-room ballad composed by a foreigner.”

However, the song was already the official choice for military ceremonies, and the weight of its popular appeal proved overwhelming. On March 3, 1931, President Hoover signed a bill making “The Star-Spangled Banner” America’s official National Anthem. Nevertheless, many people continue to question the song’s meanings and ask how and for whom America is the “land of the free.”

The flag still flies after the British bombardment

Major George Armistead, commander at Fort McHenry commissioned a flag a year before the British attack. Aware of Fort McHenry’s vital strategic and symbolic importance, he asked for a flag so large “that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance.”

The flag measured 42 x 30 feet and was made by local seamstress Mary Young Pickersgill. The flag was so large it had to be assembled on the floor of a brewery near Mary’s workshop. Her total fee of $574.44 was a very large sum of money at the time and included the production of a smaller flag, which may have been the “storm flag” flown during the night of the British bombardment in 1814. The large flag, carefully kept dry throughout the stormy night, was hoisted the morning after the bombardment as a special act of defiance and symbol of perseverance.

The flag is now displayed in the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History in D.C.

In 1848, the U.S. Army began carrying the flag into battle, and during the Civil War, the Stars and Stripes was a highly visible symbol of the hope for a reunified nation.

In the 1890s, new patriotic organizations promoted flags for schools, the introduction of the Pledge of Allegiance and regulations against “misuse” of the flag. In their eyes the flag was a bulwark against threats to American identity from mass immigration and organized labor.

By the 1960s, the American flag was seen by some to reflect a narrow and exclusive vision of American identity. In protest, they burned or defaced flags, prompting Congress to criminalize such behavior in 1968. This legislation was repealed after the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that flag burning was an expression of freedom of speech. These struggles over the flag’s meaning are testaments to its enduring power as a national symbol.

(Information about Fort McHenry comes from signs and brochures by the National Park Service).

*Steps: 6,841; 2.9 miles*

*Sunday, February 23, 2020*

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I wrote about my trip to Baltimore in a number of posts:

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When I got home from my trip at 1:30 Sunday afternoon, I found our youngest son asleep and the sink piled with dirty dishes. I was irritated because I felt that when we weren’t home to “babysit,” he seemed to go off the rails. (Mike was in Ohio with his high school friends over the weekend.) Our son had quit his yoga practice and had started eating erratically during a dog-sitting gig earlier in the week, signs that things were unraveling.

On Monday morning, I went to Ortho Virginia and got a tall Genesis walking boot to wear for two weeks. Luckily I hadn’t broken any bones when I fell at the Walters Art Gallery, but an x-ray showed a bone spur on my left heel and some arthritis in my left ankle. It seemed I had sprained several ligaments around my ankle.

me in my walking boot

lying down in my walking boot

On March 1, my sister-in-law came over for a belated birthday dinner for Mike’s 66th birthday. My youngest son also celebrated with us. On March 5, I didn’t feel good, like I had a chest cold coming on. I had trouble breathing and was feeling depressed and hopeless about our son who was isolating himself and barely speaking to us. Several days later, our son told us all signs were pointing to an apocalypse; he wanted to join like-minded people. He said his Vipassana retreat might be cancelled because of the Coronavirus. Several days later, we got into a huge fight.

By Wednesday, March 11, COVID-19 was shutting down the economy and the stockmarket was crashing. People were in panic and toilet paper was vanishing off grocery store shelves. Several days later, our son informed us he was going to Costa Rica to join a community. He wanted to get out of the U.S. because he thought all signs were in place for the apocalypse. He informed us he would be taking a flight out of BWI on Sunday night because of possible flight and travel bans. I told him he needed to get all his mess cleaned and sorted and disposed of from our basement because he could not come back here to live. That was the last time we saw him in person and he is now living in Nicaragua.

Since then, we’ve been reduced to stay-at-home orders, masking and social distancing. I was happy I had this last excursion before the virus descended and wiped out our ambling lives.

I enjoyed my trip to Baltimore and discovered lots of interesting places to visit. Since the city is only a little over an hour from my home, I would like to make more efforts to visit in the coming years.

denver: flatirons vista & larimer square

wanderessence1025 December 6, 2020

In the breakfast area of Hyatt House Denver, two older folks were studiously reading their Bibles. Mike took Alex to drop off his car for repairs; when they returned we stopped by Whole Foods to pick up stuff for a picnic lunch: turkey pesto wraps and an avocado shrimp tempura roll for me.

As we got underway, the blue sky was filled with dramatic clouds with charcoal underbellies. It was a cool 62°F. We passed a neighborhood where every house had a solar panel on the roof. Colorado folks are such forward thinkers.

We headed to the Flatirons Vista Trail. Alex and I had tried to do this in 2018 when I came to Denver to begin my Four Corners Road Trip, but at that time the trail was closed due to muddy conditions. Today, we were finally able to do it.

Alex at Flatirons Vista Trail

Flatirons Vista Trail

me on the Flatirons Vista Trail

Flatirons Vista Trail

The trail had gorgeous views of the Flatirons Plateau and the surrounding grasslands.

Flatirons Vista Trail

Flatirons Vista Trail

Flatirons Vista Trail

trail riders on the Flatirons Vista Trail

Flatirons Vista Trail

We hiked for about 2 1/2 hours. What perfect conditions and views we had on this hike!

Flatirons Vista Trail

Flatirons Vista Trail

me on the Flatirons Vista Trail

Flatirons Vista Trail

In the afternoon, we stopped at the shop for Alex to pick up his car.

In the evening, we went into downtown Denver to Larimer Square where we had a lovely dinner at Rioja. The restaurant’s menu is inspired by Mediterranean ingredients and influenced by local and seasonal products. I don’t remember all that we had, but one dish was a ricotta gnocchi: sauteed chanterelle mushrooms, Olathe corn, pine nut butter, corn sabayon, picklet shallot and dill. It was all delicious. We had a seat at a bar beside the pizza oven and managed to have a nice chat with the cook behind the counter.

Alex and me at Rioja

Mike and Alex at Rioja

Yummy dish

ricotta gnocchi

deliciousness

the friendly cook

We took a stroll down the festive light-festooned Larimer Square after dinner.

Larimer Square

The next day, Mike planned to stay in Denver and meet up with an old friend, while I would begin my long drive back home, with several stops along the way.

*Steps: 14,467; 6.13 miles*

*Friday, September 27, 2019*

around & about fort collins, colorado

wanderessence1025 December 3, 2020

We got a slow start this morning, stopping in Fort Collins at the Little Bird Bakeshop for a quiche (for me). Mike had eaten waffles and Alex had eaten leftovers at our Solarium Airbnb.

We drove to Lory State Park, hidden in the foothills twenty minutes west of Fort Collins. Its 2,591 acre landscape includes unique rock outcroppings, sandstone hogbacks, grassy open meadows, shrubby hillsides and ponderosa pine forests. Formerly ranchland, Lory State Park was purchased from the original owners in 1967. It was named after and dedicated to Dr. Charles A. Lory (1872-1969), president of Colorado State University from 1909 to 1940.

At the park, we hiked the Arthur’s Rock Trail. Arthur’s Rock, a jutting granite formation named for an early settler, overlooks the Fort Collins area from an elevation of 6,780 feet. We only hiked to the first scenic overlook. It was supposed to be 1.7 miles each way, but we stopped with 0.6 miles still to the summit. Mike was having his AFib (Atrial fibrillation — an irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia, that can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications) and was worried about pushing it too much. Besides, we were all getting hungry for lunch.

We were graced with a delicate breeze and blue skies. Grasses danced, birds chirped, and we enjoyed fabulous views over the north side of Horsetooth Reservoir. We wound through forested mountainsides and open meadows. We traveled through different ecosystems in the 1,000 foot elevation change.

Arthur’s Rock Trail

Alex and Mike at Arthur’s Rock Trail

Alex and me at Arthur’s Rock Trail

Arthur’s Rock Trail

Ponderosa pine

Arthur’s Rock Trail

me with Mike at Arthur’s Rock Trail

Arthur’s Rock Trail

After our hike, we ate lunch at Lucille’s Creole Cafe in Fort Collins. We ordered the powdered sugar beignets (ben-yay), the state doughnut of Louisiana. Beignets were brought to Louisiana in the 1800s by the French Acadians from Nova Scotia. The traditional New Orleans beignet is a square piece of dough deep fried until puffy, served hot and covered in powdered sugar.

Lucille’s Creole Cafe

We enjoyed quite a feast. I had a popcorn shrimp salad with avocado and cornbread.

popcorn shrimp salad with avocado and cornbread

Mike had Gumbo: “A grand New Orleans stew. Homemade from ingredients selected daily (okra, chicken) and served with rice and cornbread.” Alex had red beans and rice: “Famous Southern ‘Wash Day’ lunch served with homemade andouille sausage.”

After our hike, we went to New Belgium Brewing. It is supposedly one of the best places to work in the country.

New Belgium Brewing

We saw employees drinking beer, a man wearing a wedding dress, a tattooed bartender wearing skin-tight shorts and a wild colorful shirt. There was supposedly a “self-guided tour” but someone was actually explaining things about the brewing process, so we begged off.

New Belgium Brewing

Mike and Alex ordered a flight of beer and I just sipped. I was way too stuffed after our lunch at Lucille’s.

Mike and Alex with their flight

Alex and me 🙂

the flight

fading ad in Fort Collins

Leaving Fort Collins, we drove in heavy traffic south to Denver. We checked in at Hyatt House Denver and Alex and Mike went to Whole Foods nearby for dinner. I ate my leftover popcorn shrimp salad. We got drinks from the Hyatt House Bar – me a Cabernet Sauvignon and Alex a “neat” whiskey. We sat in the hotel room, which was large and comfortable, and the guys watched football while I put up pictures on Instagram and Polarsteps.

*Steps: 10,639, or 4.51 miles*

*Thursday, September 26, 2019*

baltimore: cross street market, federal hill, the inner harbor & fells point

wanderessence1025 December 1, 2020

Following the advice of a girl in the gift shop at the American Visionary Art Museum, I walked 10 minutes to Cross Street Market in Federal Hill. I ended up perched on a high stool at the Taco Love Grill counter, eating three shrimp tacos with a bottle of Lime Jarritos. It was a delicious feast in a lively atmosphere. When I stepped off my stool, I didn’t notice that it was on a ledge and I nearly took another fall. Yikes!

Cross Street Market

Lime Jarritos at Taco Love Grill

three shrimp tacos at Taco Love Grill

I walked up Light Street through Federal Hill, a historic community of south Baltimore, past a cool mural of an African-American boy on a swing and past an old fire station: the 1920 Baltimore Fire Department. I strolled past some gentrified row houses, an elegant neighborhood.

mural in Federal Hill

Baltimore Fire Department

Row houses in Federal Hill

Federal Hill

I walked all along the Inner Harbor past the cruise boats, Spirit of Baltimore and Constellation (the big sailing ship), the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, H&M and many other shops along the waterfront, many of them the big corporate shops and restaurants like Phillips Seafood, Hard Rock Cafe, and Barnes & Noble, which is impressively housed in an old power station. I was happy to see it packed on a Saturday afternoon. People still seemed to be reading despite all evidence to the contrary.

Baltimore Inner Harbor

Spirit of Baltimore

Constellation

paddle boats in Baltimore Inner Harbor

Barnes & Noble in Baltimore Inner Harbor

I made my way over the pedestrian bridges to anthropologie, where there was nothing new, past the National Katyń Memorial. This memorializes the victims of the 1940 Katyń massacre of Polish nationals carried out by Soviet forces. Baltimore’s Polish-American community was instrumental in having the monument built. It was unveiled in 2000 and is the tallest statue in Baltimore.

pedestrian bridges over canal in Baltimore

National Katyń Memorial

I kept walking to Fells Point where years ago I went to a Privateer Festival with a photography group.

Fells Point

walk from Fells Point

I was exhausted by then so I decided to make my way back. I stopped at Bambao to get take-out but decided to save it for breakfast. I ordered Crispy Mushroom Bao served on a steamed bun: silken tofu, miso, scallion, and black garlic teriyaki. I also got the Classic Milk Tea with tapioca; I didn’t care much for it and tossed it into a trash can halfway back.

I stopped into Barnes & Noble to look for Anne Tyler’s newest book, Redhead by the Side of the Road, but it wouldn’t be published until April 7. I didn’t buy anything.

I stopped at CVS Pharmacy for an ice pack, Tylenol, Motrin, Minute Maid Orange Juice, and an Odwalla Strawberry banana-flavored smoothie.

Walking past Pratt Street, I saw a young man, maybe my youngest son’s age, with a sign saying “Homeless. Any amount will help.” I caught his eye and wanted to sit down and ask him how he had gotten himself into this situation (much like my son has in the past), but I didn’t stop or give him anything. I don’t know why.

I relaxed at the hotel for a bit and then went to dinner just down the block to Pratt Street Ale House. By this time I could barely walk on my hurt and swollen ankle. There, I had a Bud Light Lime and a Crab Bruschetta: fresh dough, brushed with house-made garlic butter, topped with mozzarella, lump crab, and bruschetta (tomatoes and basil).

I was ignored for the longest time (they wanted me to sit at the bar but I asked for a table). I get so annoyed by servers who don’t want to bother with solo diners.

Pratt Street Ale House

Crab Bruschetta

In the evening, I put ice on my now-swollen ankle and read Clock Dance by Anne Tyler and finally finished American Nomads by Richard Grant (in the middle of the night).

At 2:00 a.m. I was woken by a continual loud banging on a door down the hall from mine. Looking out the peephole, I saw a girl with a towel wrapped around her. I called security because this went on for some time. Later, another girl wearing only a towel was knocking on the same door. Who knew what was going on down there.

Not relaxing at all!

*Steps: 15,772; 6.68 miles*

*Saturday, February 22, 2020*

the sackler & the freer: the asian arts in d.c.

wanderessence1025 November 30, 2020

One Sunday in February, before the Coronavirus lockdown, we went downtown to visit the The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, now apparently known as the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. Together, the Freer and Sackler have exceptional collections of Asian art, with more than 40,000 objects dating from the Neolithic period to today and originating from the ancient Near East to China, Japan, Korea, South and Southeast Asia, and the Islamic world.

The Freer Gallery of Art also holds a significant group of American works of art largely dating to the late 19th century. It houses the world’s largest collection of diverse works by James McNeill Whistler, including the famed Peacock Room.

Juxtaposing American and Asian art was a legacy of the founder of the Freer Gallery of Art, Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer. He believed in a universal language of beauty that resonated across time, space, and cultural diversity. Freer disdained the avant garde abstraction that transformed American art after World War I. He forbade additions to his American collection after his death in 1919, and it remains a time capsule of Gilded Age aestheticism.

At the time we visited the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the special exhibits included: Age Old Cities: A Virtual Tour from Palmyra to Mosul.

The Middle East has experienced major upheavals in the recent past. Hundreds of thousands of people have died or been displaced. Continuous turmoil has also destroyed culturally and religiously significant sites, erasing substantial portions of the region’s rich historical past in the process. After the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent fall of Saddam Hussein, a series of popular uprisings across the Arab world further unsettled the region. Civil War broke out in Syria and the Islamic State (ISIS) brought Mosul under its control.

Methodically targeting religious and ethnic minorities, ISIS vowed to eradicate cultures that had flourished in the region for centuries and erase its rich multi-ethnic, multi-religious history.

Age Old Cities: A Virtual Tour from Palmyra to Mosul.

The three Middle Eastern cities in this virtual exhibition (organized by the Arab World Institute, Paris, and created in collaboration with UNESCO) include Palmyra and Aleppo in Syria and Mosul in Iraq. The exhibit seeks to virtually restore the rich architectural landscapes of these cities. It reconstructs in 3D the once-spectacular monuments on what is left of them today.

According to the exhibition: “These cities, among the oldest uninterrupted human settlements in the world, have recently been devastated by war. To preserve these sites for future generations, Age Old Cities offers large-scale projections and digital reconstructions (more than eleven feet tall) of iconic monuments and ancient structures rising from ruins to their former glory.” The images “underscore the critical importance of cultural heritage and architectural preservation as well as the vital role digital reconstruction can play in safeguarding the past.”

The Souks of Aleppo

The Temple of Balshaamin, 1082

Theatre

Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo

Great Mosque of Al-Nuri in Mosul

Our Lady of the Hour Church

We wandered accidentally through the African Art while trying to find our way to the other exhibits we’d read about.

The Fisherman and the River Goddess with His Captured Multi-Colored Fishes and the River Night Guard c. 1960 by Twins Seven-Seven, Nigeria

Fiber mask with costume (minganji) by Pende artist, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Rainbow Serpent (Dan-Ayido-Houedo) by Romuald Hazoumè

We also went through an exhibit on Contemporary Women Artists of Africa titled I AM… The exhibition draws its name from the 1970s song, “I Am Woman,” but highlights the vital contributions to numerous issues including the environment, identity, politics, race, sexuality, social activism, faith and more.

Liberal Women Protest March, 1995 by Nike Davies-Okundaye (Lagos, Nigeria)

Sketch for Church Ede, 1985 by Sokari Douglas Camp (Nigeria)Sokari

Tree Woman, 2016 by Wangechi Mutu

M-Eating, Sufi, 2013 by Maïmouna Guerresi (Pove del Grappa, Italy)

Sai Mado (The Distant Gaze), 2016 by Aida Muluneh (Ethiopia)

Studio Setting, 1986 by Penny Siopis (South Africa)

Sto Sognando? La Città è questa? (Am I dreaming? Is this the city?), 1958 by Bertina Lopes

We wandered outdoors to find our way to the Freer Gallery.

Smithsonian Museum

The next special exhibit we came to see was Hokusai: Mad About Painting.

Hokusai: Mad About Painting

The Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) is widely recognized for a single image—Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa, an icon of global art—yet he produced thousands of works throughout his long life. In commemoration of the centennial of Charles Lang Freer’s death in 1919, and in celebration of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2020, the Freer Gallery presented a yearlong exploration of the prolific career of Katsushika Hokusai.

Hokusai was born and died in Edo (modern Tokyo), where he lived and worked amid the city’s thriving artistic scene. According to the artist, he began sketching at the age of six. He hoped to live to 110 years old, an age when he was sure he would achieve almost divine mastery of his art. However, he only made it to age 90.

Works large and small were on view, from six-panel folding screens and hanging scrolls to paintings and drawings. Also included were rare hanshita-e, drawings for woodblock prints that were adhered to the wood and frequently destroyed in the process of carving the block prior to printing. Among the many featured works were Hokusai’s manga, his often-humorous renderings of everyday life in Japan.

Mount Fuji, the sacred mountain of Japan, and the life of common people throughout the shogun’s empire, were frequent subjects in Hokusai’s paintings. He often presented romanticized views of rural life instead of depicting the reality of daily hardships, reoccurring famines, and heavy tax duties.

Since his early days as an artist, Hokusai provided illustrations for popular printed books. These cheaply produced novels (kibyoshi, or “yellow covers”) were often bestsellers in Japan, and their popularity added to the artist’s reputation. Publishers commissioned him to illustrate their publications throughout his life.

screen by Hokusai

Autumn at Asakusa: Viewing Cherry Blossoms at Ueno Park by Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-1694)

Hokusai screen

Country Scenes and Mount Fuji, Japan, Edo period ca. 1830-32 by Hokusai

Fujiwara no Tadahira, Japan, Edo period, ca. 1834 by Hokusai

Hokusai’s books

Hokusai fan

Hokusai

Boy Viewing Mount Fuji, Japan, Edo period, 1839 by Hokusai

Hokusai

In Dewing’s Poetic World, Thomas Wilmer Dewing’s work was showcased. He is best known for his tonal compositions featuring a solitary female figure lost in thought. He art was influenced by his friendships with Charles Lang Freer, who encouraged him to pursue Japonisme, and with architect Stanford White, who designed the elaborate frames for many of his paintings on view in this intriguing exhibition.

From 1886 to 1905, Thomas Wilmer Dewing and his wife, fellow artist Maria Oakey Dewing, escaped the summer heat of New York City by spending months in the village of Cornish in western New Hampshire. Women were actively involved in the art colony. While living in Cornish, Dewing painted large-scale “decorations” featuring figures in lush summer landscapes.

Portrait in Blue, 1898 by Thomas Wilmer Dewing

The Lute, 1904 by Thomas Wilmer Dewing

The Garland, ca. 1916 by Thomas Wilmer Dewing

A Portait, 1902 by Thomas Wilmer Dewing

After Sunset, 1892 by Thomas Wilmer Dewing

painting, 1893 by Dwight William Tryon (1849-1925)

In The Peacock Room in Blue and White, blue-and-white Chinese porcelains once again fill the shelves, just as they did in the 1870s, when Frederick Leyland, a shipping magnate in London, dined there.

When artist James McNeill Whistler was asked to consult on colors in Leyland’s dining room, the sinuous patterns and brilliant colors of Leyland’s Kangxi ware (porcelains that are part of a 1,500-year-old tradition of making porcelains in Jingdezhen, China) on display served as inspiration.

In 1876 and 1877, Whistler enhanced Frederick Leyland’s dining room with golden peacocks. He painted every inch of the ceiling and walls to create an elegant setting in which Leyland could display his collection of Kangxi porcelain as well as Whistler’s 1864 painting The Princess from the Land of Porcelain over the mantelpiece.

Charles Lang Freer purchased the room in 1904 and installed it in his home in Detroit, Michigan. After Freer’s death in 1919, the Peacock Room was moved to Washington, DC, and put on permanent display in the Freer Gallery of Art.

Peacock Room

The Princess from the Land of Porcelain, 1864, by James McNeill Whistler

Peacock Room

(Information on all the art was taken from the museum exhibitions.)

After our Asian art outing, we went out for dinner at Circa at Clarendon.

me at Circa at Clarendon

Mike at Circa at Clarendon

flatbread at Circa at Clarendon

Circa at Clarendon

*Saturday, February 8, 2020*

rocky mountain national park, colorado

wanderessence1025 November 29, 2020

After leaving Cheyenne, Wyoming we drove directly to “Colorful Colorado.” We passed metal sculptures of bison on a hilltop and had a view of the Rockies. We stopped briefly at the Visitor Center in Fort Collins and then took the scenic route to the Alpine Visitor Center at Rocky Mountain National Park.

Sculpture at the Fort Collins Visitor Center

We passed the Horsetooth Reservoir near the town of Stout, population 47 1/2. At Horsetooth Mountain Park, we picked up trail maps for a hike we planned to do the following day.

Horsetooth Reservoir

We drove past the “Masonville Mercantile: A Want & Wish Store” and the Bobcat Ridge Natural Area, passing a sign that said DR. BOB’S SNAKE OIL CURES ALL.

Masonville Mercantile: A Want & Wish Store

Snake Oil Cures All

On 34W, we were welcomed to… Sylvan Dale Ranch (guest ranch, weddings, horsebackriding), but we continued on.

The Big Pipe was a canyon of rocky cliffs dotted with pine trees. We took a road along the Big Thompson River. The Big Pipe carries water to Horsetooth Reservoir. This is the entrance to the Rocky Mountains by way of the Big Thompson River Canyon.

We passed the Colorado Cherry Company, the Snowy Silver Lodge and Drake. A sign warned of Open Range Livestock on Road. By 11:20, it was 65°F, and yellow cottonwoods gilded the forests. On the north-facing side, the pine trees squatted in dark dense clusters.

There was the Glen Haven General Store, an alpine meadow, and the Lumpy Ridge Trailhead. MacGregor Ranch (1873) boasted of “Grass-Fed Beef.” We sailed past the Black Canyon Inn and before we knew it, we were in Estes Park, gateway town to Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw Dick’s Rock Museum, Coffee on the Rocks, Lazy R Cottages, Sticks & Stones Home Furnishings, and Bird & Jim Colorado Cuisine.

Prohibitions abounded: Hunting Prohibited. Collecting Antlers Prohibited.

Our route today. Map from a pamphlet distributed by the Fort Collins Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Colorado Welcome Center: “Experience the Scenic Gateway to the Rockies.”

Just before noon, we arrived at Rocky Mountain National Park and the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center.

The Rocky Mountains form one of the world’s longest ranges, stretching almost unbroken from Alaska to below the nation’s southern border. Since 2009, Congress protected most of Rocky Mountain National Park as wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act. The designation protects forever the land’s wild character, natural conditions, opportunities for solitude, and scientific, educational and historical values.

Thrust up by earth’s forces 40-70 million years ago, then sculpted by multiple glacial episodes, the Rockies are “new” in geologic terms.

We entered the park through the montane ecosystem (below 9,000 feet). On warmer south-facing slopes, Ponderosa pines grow. Trees here are tall, up to 150 feet, and along with chokecherry, currant and juniper bushes, nourish many animals, insects and birds: beavers, otters, and elk. On cooler north-facing slopes, forests are dense with Douglas fir and lodgepole pine.

We drove up the Trail Ridge Road, past Beaver Ponds, where we got out to walk a short trail. Beaver dams once blocked the stream flows here, creating a pond. Silt and rich organic debris carried down from Hidden Valley accumulated behind the dam. In time, the dams decayed, draining the ponds and leaving fertile soil over 20 feet deep.

Sedges and grasses grow in this newly established soil to form marshes. Lush meadows developed over time as tree seedlings invaded the open space creating a new subalpine forest of pine, spruce and fir trees.

Beaver Ponds

At the Hidden Valley picnic area, we had a picnic lunch.

Then we stopped at Rainbow Curve Overlook to admire the landscape. Rainbow Curve is in the Subalpine part of the park (9,000-11,400 feet).

Snow that falls in the alpine zone blows down to the subalpine, creating a wet ecosystem with over 30 inches of precipitation annually. Engelmann spruce and flat-needled fir trees prevail, reaching 100 feet. The understory supports shrubs like blueberry, wax currant, huckleberry, and Wood’s rose. Wildflowers like arnica, fairy slipper, twinflower, and purple elephant’s head are abundant in open meadows.

Rainbow Curve

Mike at Rainbow Curve

Rainbow Curve

We continued the drive up Trail Ridge Road. Forest Canyon lay to the south. Tall snow poles were in place along the road to show the way during big snowfalls. The Big Thompson River flows swiftly down Forest Canyon as it has for thousands of years. Several times during the past two million years, frigid climates caused glaciers to form and move down the canyon. Flowing ever so slowly, these deep “rivers of ice” carved out Forest Canyon along an ancient fault line.

We stopped at the Forest Canyon Overlook. At the higher elevation, the temperature had dropped to 56°F.

The subalpine forest ecosystem of Forest Canyon is abundant with life. Difficult to access through fallen trees and steep terrain, Forest Canyon furnishes protected habitat for hundreds of plants and animal species – from elk herds to microorganisms.

A short trail here crossed the tundra – a Russian word for “land of no trees.” Here above the treeline, winds often exceed 100 mph (160 km per hour) and temperatures remain below freezing for at least five months each year.

Forest Canyon Overlook

We stopped at the Lava Cliffs Overlook.

Lava Cliffs

We crossed the highest point on the road at 12,183 feet (3,713 meters).

We finally reached the Alpine Visitor Center. Alpine Tundra (above 11,400 feet) is a fragile world, characterized by extremely thin soil, drying winds, and bitter cold. Many plants hug the ground in dense mats (avens), preserve moisture with waxen leaf surfaces, or trap warmth against stems and leaves with hairs. Animals must adapt or die.

There in the crowded parking lot, I had an altercation with a guy. The wind was blowing like there was no tomorrow and when I opened my car door, he yelled “Hold on to your door so it doesn’t hit my car!” (I was already holding it, and the door didn’t hit his car). I said, “Rudeness personified. That guy is an asshole,” (talking to Mike but saying it loud enough for him to hear). He said, “Some guy messed up my car with his door.” I replied, “Well, don’t take it out on me!”

I can’t stand bullies.

We walked up along the Alpine Ridge Trail in the midst of a fierce and relentless bitter wind. This trail is affectionately known as “Huffers Hill,” because it takes your breath away. We walked through a delicate yet hardy environment.

The scattered rocks form “patterned ground” that is found only in Arctic and Alpine regions where temperatures remain below freezing at least five months each year. During the last Ice Age, freezing and thawing of this tundra topsoil forced these patterns to the surface.

Some patterned ground has indistinct forms, while others are precise circles or other forms. The degree of slope determines the rock patterns. Rock streams “flow” downhill on Sundance Mountain in the distance, while polygons and circles form on level surfaces.

Alpine Visitor Center

Mike at the Alpine Visitor Center

Alpine Visitor Center

Leaving the Alpine Visitor Center, we retraced our drive up and stopped at the Gore Range Overlook. We could have gone further west and south on Trail Ridge Road, but we needed to return to Fort Collins to meet our son.

The Gore Range was named for Sir St. George Gore, an Irish aristocrat who was led there on a hunting expedition in 1854 by mountain man Jim Bridger. In 1976, Congress set aside 133,000 acres of the Gore Range as Eagles Nest Wilderness Area, which remains nearly as wild today as when Gore and Bridger first entered it.

Gore Range

We stopped again at Forest Canyon Overlook. This time, we walked to the other side of the road.

Forest Canyon Overlook

We made our way slowly to lower elevations, back to the montane ecosystem. The yellow trees on the mountains were glowing in the afternoon sunlight.

Colorful trees at Rocky Mountain National Park

On the way back, we forked off at the Deer Ridge Junction and stopped briefly at Sheep Lakes.

Sheep Lakes

This time, we stopped at the Fall River Visitor Center. Here are my cancellation stamps for Rocky Mountain National Park.

(Information about Rocky Mountain National Park is from National Park Service pamphlets and signs.)

cancellation stamp for Rocky Mountain National Park

On our way to Fort Collins, where we would meet our son Alex and spend the night, we passed God’s Country Cowboy Church. Someone had a bumper sticker that said, “I brake for wildflowers.” I liked that.

In Fort Collins, we stayed in a strange little place called Solarium. As the guy gave us a tour of the place, he showed us the tent and outdoor area where we were allowed to smoke cannabis, but this privilege was wasted on us, as we don’t do that stuff.

Solarium

When Alex arrived in Fort Collins, we went into the town to have dinner at Restaurant 415.

murals in Fort Collins, CO

square in Fort Collins

murals in Fort Collins, CO

We spent the night in Solarium; the next day, we’d head to Denver after hiking the Arthur’s Rock Trail at Lory State Park.

*Steps, 12,735, or 5.4 miles*

*Wednesday, September 25, 2019*

cheyenne: a historic walk, frontier days, & mid mod etc.

wanderessence1025 November 26, 2020

After eating leftovers for lunch in our room at The Plains Hotel, we went on a self-guided Historic Cheyenne Walk.

The Paramount Cafe was originally the Capitol Avenue Theatre built in 1904. It has housed a hotel, two theaters, a millinery (a ladies hat store), and survived two fires. It is now a cocktail lounge.

Paramount Cafe

The Nagle-Warren Mansion has a long history that involves two men, Erasmus Nagle and Francis E. Warren. Erasmus Nagle was known as the “Merchant King of Wyoming;” he sold pots and pans to rural folks and became wealthy enough to afford to build a brick house in 1874. He claimed he had the “biggest and best house in Cheyenne” so was shaken when Francis E. Warren built a sizable house next door. Erasmus decided to build a bigger house at the far east end of the block, using inferior stones that were deemed unfit in the building of the new Capitol Building. After he died, the inferior stones were crumbling and the home was covered in concrete stucco. At that time Senator Warren bought the house, now known as the Nagle-Warren Mansion. It is now a bed and breakfast, listed in the Smithsonian Guide to Historic America and the National Register of Historic Places. Inside we could see the home’s cherry, maple and oak woodwork, original chandeliers and 19th century furniture. Warren’s good friend President Theodore Roosevelt and other famous people spent time here.

Francis E. Warren was one of the most influential men in Wyoming. His sharp business savvy and easy ways made him the richest man in the territory by the early 1880s. In 1890, when Wyoming became a state, he was elected as one of the first two senators and held the office for 37 years.

Nagle-Warren Mansion

interior Nagle-Warren Mansion

First United Methodist Church (also known as First Methodist Church) at 18th and Central was built with local red sandstone in 1890 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The meager congregation of nine, founded in 1867, paid the railroad a dollar for two lots to build their sanctuary. In 1871, the first church was dedicated and nicknamed the “Little White House.”

To make room for the new structure in 1890, the Little White House was dragged into the middle of Central Avenue using horses and ropes. For three years, weddings, funerals and services were held in the little church in the middle of the street. The current building was dedicated in 1894. The Little White House was then dragged to the Union Pacific rail yard where, in its final days, it was used as a hay barn.

First United Methodist Church

The Ithamar C. Whipple Mansion was built by Whipple in 1883. He, Nagle, and banker Henry Hay developed the Union Mercantile into a wealthy enterprise. Whipple was also a sharp financier and cattleman.

Territorial Supreme Court Justice John Lacey also owned this house at one point. He was legal counsel for Thomas Horn, Jr. during his murder trial. For a number of years in the 1930s, it was a Greek gambling house and brothel. Also among its residents were hoards of pigeons that made themselves comfortable in the cupola to such an extreme that the tower had to be removed.

Tom Horn was an American scout, cowboy, soldier, range detective, and Pinkerton agent in the 19th-century and early 20th-century West. Horn was convicted in 1902 of the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell, the son of sheep rancher Kels Nickell, who had been involved in a range feud with neighbor and cattle rancher Jim Miller. On the day before his 43rd birthday, Horn was executed by hanging in Cheyenne.

Ithamar C. Whipple Mansion

We wandered a bit more through the neighborhood and found other historic homes converted into businesses or abandoned.

Cheyenne houses

(Information on the Historic Walk is from the Downtown Cheyenne Historic Walking Tour pamphlet created by the Cheyenne Downtown Development Foundation.)

We found more of the cool painted “talking” boots throughout the town.

“Outlaws of Wyoming” boots by Cheyenne Artists Guild

“Gamblers Boot” by Max Larkin

“Journey of the Soul” boot by Vicki McSchooler

“Licensed to Boot” by Carey Junior High Art Club

“8 Second Steps to the Big Time” by Ross Lampshire

We drove to Holliday Park to see Cheyenne’s Big Boy 4004. Twenty-five Big Boys, the world’s largest steam engines, were built exclusively for Union Pacific by the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, New York between 1941 and 1944. Each locomotive was 132 feet long and weighed 1.2 million pounds.

On October 31, 1958, Cheyenne’s 4004 took its final run, traveling from Cheyenne to Laramie. It was stored for a few years in Laramie before being donated to the City of Cheyenne. Cheyenne’s 4004 is one of eight remaining Big Boys on display throughout the country.

Mike and “Big Boy”

We went to the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum. The last weekend in July is Frontier Days and draws nearly 200,000 people annually.

sculpture at Frontier Days Old West Museum

The museum showcases one of the largest Western carriage collections in the U.S. Many different carriage services operated in the early days of the Union Pacific Railroad to support the multitudes arriving by rail.

western carriage

Western Passenger Wagon

western carriage

me in a Canopy Top Surrey

Lil Lous Popcorn & Peanut Wagon

western carriage

U.S. Mail Wyoming

Hose Wagon

western carriage

Escort Wagon

Lakeview Ice Company Ice Wagon

Prairie Schooner

western carriage

Hansom Cab

Plains Dairy

Wooden Water Wagon

W.E. Dinneen Garage and Filling Station Oil Wagon

Top Buggy

Ambulance St. Johns Hospital

Laramie County Library

Spring Wagon

Yellowstone Coach

Three-Seated Canopy Top Surrey

western carriage

Laycock Horse Trailer

Cheyenne Fire engine

The museum also features a new narrative on the Cheyenne Frontier Days experience, which has been going on since 1897 with the world’s largest outdoor rodeo and Western Celebration. It was held from July 19-28, 2019.

Theodore Roosevelt looked out over the events of Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1910. The President’s arrival in Cheyenne was so significant that many special events were scheduled. Even the Barnum and Bailey Circus was added to the roster that year.

Theodore Roosevelt at Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1910

We found that in the Wild Horse Race, a rider has 90 seconds to train and ride a wild horse.

Originally built to feed cowboys out on the range, chuckwagons, or “chucks,” were made to move quick and cook up a tasty meal. The Chuckwagon Race, a fast-paced race of chucks fueled by horsepower, was discontinued in 1994 because of liability issues.

Saddle Bronc is one of the oldest and most difficult rodeo events. In order to score, the cowboy must synchronize himself to the motion of the horse. The cowboy holds on to the horse using a rope attached to a halter, his legs, and only one hand. His feet must stay at the top of the horse’s shoulder for two jumps at the start of the ride, called “marking out,” and continue to spur the shoulders throughout the ride. The cowboy’s free hand cannot touch his body or the horse for a full 8 seconds.

Bull riders must ride the bull for 8 seconds. The bull will try to unseat the rider off by spinning, kicking, bucking and twisting. If the cowboy stays on, he scores.

Steer roping has cowboys competing to rope steers the fastest. In competition, the cowboy ropes the steer around the horns, which are reinforced for protection. After the rider ropes the steer, he ties off rope to saddle and as quick as he can ties three legs together to finish.

Barrel racing is when cowgirl and horse engage a cloverleaf pattern around barrels as far apart as 105 feet. The course is often run in under 20 seconds.

Steer wrestling requires the steer wrestler, or bulldogger, to lean off his horse and onto a sprinting steer. From there the cowboy must catch the steer (often weighing between 450-650 pounds) behind the horns, stop its momentum (it can often run 30 mph), and wrestle it to the ground with all four feet pointing the same direction.

We saw movie posters, Native clothing, a Rodeo Clown uniform, posters for Cheyenne Frontier Days, western paintings, and cowboy and horse sculptures.

Native American clothing

“Two Fisted Law” movie poster

Poster for 73rd Cheyenne Frontier Days

Fall Round Up poster

cowboy sculpture

horse sculpture

Rodeo Clown Uniform

Western painting

In the Eighth Month of Winter by Gary Carter

Flying Hoofs by Lloyd Hartling

Ain’t No Easy Way by Rob Abbet

Information about the events at Cheyenne Frontier Days is from signs at the museum.

After leaving the Frontier Days Museum, we went into the adorable shop Mid Mod Etc. on Pioneer Avenue. It specialized in 50s/60s furniture, accessories, and automobilia. Sadly, it would be closing by year-end because the owner planned to retire.

Mid Mod Etc

We had dinner at the Met Downtown. I had a “Contortionist and Cucumber Collins” – gin, muddled cucumber, lime, a club soda, and orange flower water. I also had the soup du jour: a very thick chicken tortilla soup with a cream base and a Metropolitan Salad: arugula, peaches, goat cheese, candied walnuts and citrus vinaigrette. Mike had a Cowboy State Golden Ale and I’m sure he ate some food, but I don’t remember what.

Metropolitan Downtown

me at Met Downtown

Metropolitan Salad

After dinner, we went back to the Wrangler store, where we both did some damage suiting ourselves up with plaid flannel shirts. 🙂

*Steps: 10,529, or 4.46 miles*

*Tuesday, September 24, 2019*

the cheyenne depot museum & cowgirls of the west

wanderessence1025 November 25, 2020

Our first morning in Cheyenne, we slept in until 7:00. I remember the days when “sleeping in” was closer to 10:00 or later! Breakfast in the classy dining room at the Plains Hotel consisted of eggs, bacon and French toast.

We overheard that someone who goes by the name of Astrid bought the Plains Hotel at auction in 2015.

We walked to the Cheyenne Depot to start our day, passing the boots “made for talking” and the bright red Wrangler store.

“Don’t Feed the Animals” boot by Jill Pope

me with “Downtown Cheyenne” boot by various artists

The Wrangler

Cheyenne Street Trolley

“The Iron Horse” by Lyle Nichols

“Governors of Wyoming” boot by Alice Reed

“A New Beginning” by Veryl Goodnight, Sculptor

“Milestones: Chamber 100th Anniversary” boot by Jill Pope

We spent some time in the Cheyenne Depot Museum. Formerly the Union Pacific Depot, it has been restored to its original glory. The museum is rich with railroad history and exhibits.

The Union Pacific Depot replaced a small 1867 wooden structure that sat on the same spot. Due to the influence of the cattle barons, the railroad built one of the finest depots in America, finished in 1888. Of Richardsonian Romanesque styling, it used polychromatic stones – two colors of sandstone from the same quarry, a rarity.

In 1889, it was decided that the central repair shops for the entire Union Pacific system would be located in Cheyenne. Over 3,000 people would live and work for the railroad in the town.

The Seth Thomas clock in the tower was added in 1890; it still only loses about a minute a month. The lobby was redesigned in 1929 in Art Deco style. Completely restored in 2004, the depot is now a National Historic Landmark.

The Cheyenne Depot

The Union Pacific Railroad would be a prominent player in Wyoming’s Statehood, soon to follow (July 10, 1890), and the future of Cheyenne.

In 1862, the Pacific Railroad Act was approved by Congress and signed into law by then-President Abraham Lincoln, an enthusiastic supporter of railroads. Congress had finally decided on a route following the Platte River Valley and two railroad companies were chartered. The Union Pacific (UP) would lay track westward from Omaha, while the Central Pacific (CP) would lay track eastward from Sacramento and they would meet someplace in between. Nearly 1800 miles separated these two points. A contest quickly developed to see which company could lay the most track the fastest.

Workers did not lay the first rail in Omaha until 1865 due to a shortage of money, materials and men due to the U.S. Civil War. In 1867 a base or “division point” for the railroad was selected, and it was called “Cheyenne” in honor of a fierce Indian tribe of the area. This location was chosen because it was where the gradual slope of the prairie met the steepening grades of the Laramie Mountains (previously known as the Black Hills).

laying the tracks

railroad coming through

Private property

During the winter of 1867-68, the Union Pacific Railroad ended at Cheyenne. Barracks were built for the workers, who set about working on the railroad facilities in Cheyenne and working their way up the daunting grade toward Sherman Pass. With the addition of the railroad workers, the town’s population boomed. Many estimates put the population of the town during this time at 7,000-10,000 people. Even with the building boom, space was at a premium. The image below shows what 16th Street in Cheyenne looked like a couple of months after the railroad had arrived.

Cheyenne after the arrival of the railroad

The two railroads met at Promontory Point, Utah on May 10, 1869. A ceremonial golden spike celebrated the completion of the first transcontinental railroad that crossed America.

It was intended that Cheyenne should be one of the most important railroad cities in North America. It has often been said that if not for the Union Pacific Railroad, the City of Cheyenne would not exist.

Train model in the museum

ticket window

Union Pacific Railroad Platte Valley Route Grand Opening: May 10, 1869

Cheyenne has had a close connection with the Union Pacific’s passenger service from the time the first passenger train arrived in 1867 until Amtrak moved out of the city in 1979. A passenger’s experience varied by what he could afford. First class passengers received the best cars, the best meals, and the best accommodations at the Union Pacific’s depots. Migrants or people without money were often treated little better than human freight with uncomfortable cars and equally uncomfortable accommodations trackside.

Emigrants who were not able to pay higher fares for first class accommodations found themselves in the emigrant cars. These cars got minimal attention from the railroad. They were hot in summer and freezing in winter and generally unpleasant. Passengers on these cars made the best of things by bringing their own food, blankets and anything else that might make their trip more comfortable.

a view of downtown Cheyenne, circa 1920

Illustration of an emigrant train published in Harper’s Weekly, November 13, 1886

dining car menu

Pullman parlor car, circa 1885

suitcase packed for travel

A Union Pacific Railroad travel magazine

Between November 1948 and March 1949, a series of blizzards struck the West. Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming bore the brunt of these storms as winds often reached 80 mph (128 kph) forcing the temperatures down to -51°F. Over 100 citizens perished and livestock losses topped half a million head. With drifts approaching 50 ft., citizens from nine states were completely isolated.

For the railroads, the storms were devastating. The Union Pacific’s lines were at the epicenter of the blizzards. The railroad would call in over 14,000 men, 180 bulldozers, 48 snowplows, and every rotary that could be found and moved to fight the storms. Despite their efforts, 44 trains were frozen to their rails and hundreds of travelers were stranded.

The Blizzard of ’49

The Burlington track, now referred to as the BNSF Railroad, continues to run north and south through Denver into Texas and north to the Wyoming coal fields and connections into central Wyoming and on into the northwest through Montana. Today, a sophisticated dispatch system is used to control the trains.

desk from the old train depot

control panel for today’s railroad

The upstairs of the museum had a huge model train setup that was captivating.

model train at the Cheyenne Depot Museum

Leaving the Depot, we strolled around the town on the way to our next destination. We encountered more of the “boots made for talking,” some buildings with fading ads, and street murals.

“Memories of the Old West” boot by Cody Hamil

downtown Cheyenne

We found a great mural about the suffragette movement in Wyoming. The passage of Wyoming’s Suffrage Law in December 1869 was over 50 years before the enactment of the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution that was passed on August 26, 1920 giving all women in America the right to vote.

Apparently, one of the main reasons for the passage of Wyoming’s suffrage law was intended as a public relations gesture to attract more settlers into the Wyoming Territory. Although the new law also gave women the right to hold public office, most of the men assumed that the women would have no interest in territorial politics and would choose to stay home. Instead, the newly enfranchised female voters promptly demanded a more active role for women in territorial government. This so upset the all-male legislature, that in 1871 they tried to repeal the 1869 suffrage bill. It failed to pass legislation by only a single vote.

When Wyoming entered the Union in July of 1890, it was the only state to have given women the right to vote. Colorado became the second state to pass a suffrage bill in 1893, and they were followed by Utah and Idaho in 1896.

suffragette movement in Wyoming

suffragette movement in Wyoming

suffragette movement in Wyoming

We arrived at the Cowgirls of the West Museum close to 11:00. We watched a short film about a famous female rodeo rider. There were displays of cowgirl clothes and framed stories about famous women cowgirls.

Cowgirls of the West Museum

Cowgirls of the West Museum, founded in 1995 by a group of trailblazing women, is dedicated to telling the remarkable stories of pioneering women who worked hard, right alongside men, to create the American West.

Women preparing for a move to western ranches and farms were advised to take no fine clothing, only “things suitable for everyday wear,” such as “calico frock dresses, plainly made, with no hoops, and sun bonnets.”

Back in the days when the sidesaddle ruled the female equestrian world, if a woman appeared in trousers because she was riding her horse in the astride style, she could be arrested and jailed for indecent exposure.

When it became socially acceptable that women could ride astride and wear split skirts, the Shipley Saddle Company of Kansas City, Missouri, found new customers. Early women’s astride saddles were compact and nearly 10-12 pounds lighter than the standard’s men’s stock saddle.

Styles for a Rigorous Life

cowgirl fashion

Women’s Astride Saddles and Split Skirts

Chaps

cowgirl fashion

The museum tells stories about Willa Cather, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of over 15 books; Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose prairie life was portrayed in the popular TV series Little House on the Prairie. Evelyn Cameron, Montana’s frontier photographer; Mardy Murie, Wyoming’s Grandmother of Nature and Conservation; Prairie Rose Henderson, Champion Bronc Rider; Mabel Strickland, “The Cowgirl’s Cowgirl;” Dale Evans, who co-starred with Roy Rogers in The Cowboy and the Señorita; the “unsinkable” Margaret Tobin Brown, who survived the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912; Oveta Culp Hobby, who organized and commanded the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) during World War II and who instituted the nation-wide inoculation program of Dr. Jonas Salk’s newly developed polio vaccine; and Mary O’Hara, who wrote My Friend Flicka.

Women cowgirls

There was a display of “Western Ladies of Questionable Moral Character,” “soiled doves who worked at Josephine Hensley’s Hurdy-Gurdy.” These included Pearl Hart, the last stagecoach bandit.

There were magazine covers showing girl champion buffalo and steer riders.

101 Ranch: Girl Champion Buffalo and Steer Riders

Miss Annie Oakley was known as “Little Sure Shot.” She was a performer in Buffalo Bill Cody’s immensely popular Wild West Show.

Miss Annie Oakley, the Peerless Lady Wing-Shot

A Bevy of Wild West Girls

The Sears Roebuck & Company catalog and store were featured, with its 1880s Rocker Style Washing Machine, based on the washing motion of a gold miner’s rocker box. These early washing machines were used well into the 20th century by mating them with an electric motor. Another display told about Wyoming’s first J.C. Penney store in Kemmerer. Others told of the domestic lives of cowgirls.

Cowgirls on the domestic scene

Dorothy Satterfield’s 1936 Mens Trick Saddle

Sears, Roebuck and Co. Catalogue Store

1902 Sears Catalog

Washing machine

The Oregon-California Trail

By the dawn of the 20th century, America’s era of westward expansion was nearly over. Towns, homesteads and ranches flourished. The invention of the telephone in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell would forever alter the lives of people in America. This invention would be responsible for the influx of over 300,000 women into the American labor force as switchboard operators. One phone call could go through four (or more!) switchboards.

switchboard operator in cowgirl garb

After saying our goodbyes to the cowgirls of the west, we returned to the Plains Hotel to eat leftovers from last night in our room.

The Lincoln

The Plains Hotel

lobby of The Plains Hotel

After lunch we went back out to explore more of Cheyenne.

*Tuesday, September 24, 2019*

cheyenne, wyoming: the wyoming state capitol, sanford’s grub, & the wrangler

wanderessence1025 November 23, 2020

After leaving Scotts Bluff, Nebraska on Monday afternoon, we crossed into the flat plains and farmland of Wyoming. Around us were fields of sunflowers, grassland and dried up corn. Rectangular hay bales squatted neatly in stacks and tumbledown places were scattered around and about.

Welcome to Wyoming

We entered La Grange, population 448, with 4,587 in elevation. Silos and small ranches dotted the countryside. The Frontier School of the Bible called out, but we continued on, crossing Horse Creek. Cattle grazed on grassland that lay at the foot of buttes to the north. Later we passed cattle yards.

Wyoming is the least populous state in the U.S., with a population of 577,737 in 2018. We drove through short dry grassland in Laramie County. Cheyenne, the state capital, was still 48 miles away. We had a long wait at some roadwork on 85; we had to wait for a car to lead us through the construction.

We arrived in Cheyenne (population 59,466) close to 4:00 and went straight to the Wyoming State Capitol. It is the seat of two of Wyoming’s three branches of government. Over the past four years, it had the first comprehensive restoration in its 130-year history.

Wyoming State Capitol

The Capitol was built in 1888 and expanded in 1890 and 1917. Over the decades, elevators; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC); plumbing; and other systems were added, but many systems had begun to fail. The last major work done from 1974-1980 concealed the character of the historic rooms and failed to rectify infrastructure issues.

Wyoming State Capitol

In 2014, the Legislature authorized the Capitol Square Project which meant to: add or update life safety systems, replace failing building systems, and increase public access in the Capitol.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the State Capitol now boasts marble floors, fine woodwork, stained glass, historic photographs, and a wildlife display.

Wyoming State Capitol interior

Senate Gallery

Wyoming State Capitol interior

House Gallery

Wyoming State Capitol

On the grounds of the Wyoming State Capitol, we found some true Western sculptures.

Looking out from the Capitol

horse and rider

Elling William “Bill” Gollings, A True Cowboy Artist(1878-1932) Bronze by Jerry Palen

Wyoming State Capitol

We checked in at The Plains Hotel. Finished in 1911 as a truly modern facility, the Plains was the first hotel in America to have a telephone in every room. Many famous people have stayed here: presidents Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan as well as Wallace Berry, Jimmy Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, and many more.

Rooms in the hotel are furnished in an “Old West” style complete with original artwork and photography by the state’s artists.

The Plains Hotel

We wandered a bit around the town. We found a few of the twenty-five hand-painted 8-foot-tall cowboy boots. “These Boots are made for Talking” started as a joint project of the Cheyenne Depot Museum Foundation and the Downtown Development Authority. The nearly $100,000 raised when businesses sponsored the boots went to the Cheyenne Depot Museum Endowment Fund to benefit the museum.

Each boot was painted by one or more of the area’s talented artists. The project theme was “if this boot could talk, what story would it tell?” The two shown below are “Downtown Cheyenne” painted by various artists and bought by the Downtown Development Authority , and “Don’t Feed the Animals” by Jill Pope and bought by Pony X-Press Printing.

Downtown Cheyenne boot

Don’t Feed the Animals boot

The Wrangler

storefront in Cheyenne

Hello Darkness My Old Friend…

Cheyenne mural

The Lincoln Theater

We had dinner at Sanford’s Grub & Pub, which used to be an auto repair garage.

Sanford’s Grub & Pub

An elevator once used to take cars to an underground garage, and now takes customers to an underground bar. The place was jam packed with Americana: signs, gas pumps, the Blues Brothers, hot dogs, and any other kind of junk imaginable.

inside Sanford’s Grub & Pub

I had Jimmy’s Jammin’ Jambalaya and a margarita, and Mike had Cajun Cobb Salad with a Modelo’s.

Mike at Sanford’s

Jimmy’s Jammin’ Jambalaya

After dinner we wandered around the town and stopped into the Wrangler Western Store where I bought a Western motif cream leather bag (for Christmas) and Mike bought a plaid flannel shirt.

Wrangler Western Store

We would have the whole next day to explore more of Cheyenne.

*Steps: 9,014, or 3.82 miles*

*Monday, September 23, 2019*

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“The Star-Spangled Banner”

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