South Pass Stories

  The Miner's Exchange Saloon is home to a Novelty Carom Billiards table that came to SPC in the 1875. It was purchased by John Morris, former husband of Esther Hobart Morris, the first female judge in the United States, and was originally housed in his saloon,  I worked in the archives this morning, tracking down newspaper articles on Dr. Walter Lovejoy, a doctor and teacher in SPC during the 1880s and 1890s.  At noon, I opened the Miner's Exchange Saloon to allow visits to come in and look around and to sell Sarsaparilla. The first group to come by was, five people, was from Texas. We had a pretty long conversation about old west saloons and contemporary Texas saloons. Not much happened until later in the afternoon. There was a large group panning gold for an hour or more, and eventually two or three would wander up to the saloon, take a quick look, and move on. Altogether, about 16 people came by and sold i sold eight bottles of Sarsaparilla in the four hours I ...

  This morning, we drove back up to the English Tunnel and the Carissa. Tours of these two features usually have two person crews. One, the leader, delivers the tour content, and the second person, the drag, performs a variety of tasks, most of which are done behind the scenes, and helps keep an eye on stragglers. Today, Joe went over the responsibilities of the drags for both tours. The flow of the Carissa tour has changed since I was here last, so I followed that discussion closely. Tomorrow, Joe will go over the tour content, but I will not make that session (I'm familiar enough with both tours from my previous experience here.) We drove back into town for lunch. After lunch. Joe took some of the new staff and volunteers to Willow Creek and demonstrated gold panning. They worked at it for about an hour. Later, Connie showed me her bounty- three small flakes of gold. A pretty good take, actually!  Before going up to the tunnel and the Carissa, Gator and I had grabbed an ice ...

   We had a short staff meeting this morning, mostly routine stuff: scheduling, upcoming events, review of a few site policies, etc. We also learned that one of the full-time staff had been ill following a tick bite- Rocky Mountain spotted fever.  After the meeting, we busied ourselves with various activities until a little after 9:30 when students from a summer school class from Riverton arrived to tour the English Tunnel (entrance shown above) and the Carissa.These tours are two of the big attractions at SPC. Before leaving for the tour, there was a lot of bug spraying going on! Joe led the two tours, The hike to the tunnel is about a mile long and climbs 100 ft or so.  Once we got to the tunnel, Joe discussed its history and we entered. The tunnel goes back about 150 ft and then branches to the left and right, with both leads (drifts) going about 75 ft. Its a neat place, but I have to stoop really low to avoid hitting my head- have done that and don't recommend it...

  Evening skyline. looking north, in hopes of seeing the Northern Lights. Today was a basic go into town, shop, return, and prepare for the (weekend) work week. We drove into Lander, stopped at the Wyoming Game and Fish office to have our Sea Eagle inflatable kayak inspected (for aquatic vegetation), and the did our weekly shopping. We saw seven pronghorn antelope on the way out, but no others. We returned to SPC, put our groceries away and did a bit of food prep, including baking two frittatas for breakfasts over the next few days. A light afternoon and evening followed. At 10 PM we drove up the hill to the Carissa in hopes of seeing the Northern Lights, which reported to be a possibility. Alas, no joy.   

  Connie with the first fish of the season. Wednesday, we had a leisurely breakfast and headed off to Louis Lake, We passed seven pronghorn antelope on the way out of SPC.Then a short drive to the road leading to the lake, We passed one mule deer, our first of the season, along the way. When we got to the lake, we found "our" fishing spot was taken. We fished a site we had fished in the past. Two hours, 2 strikes, and once catch. However, it was a  beautiful day- sunny, warm, and a cool breeze to keep it nice. There was a husband and wife trolling the lake. I chatted with them a bit after they left the water. They were using spinners and spoons and caught their fish off the bottom. They had caught six kokanee, two splake, one rainbow, and a lake trout. Pretty nice. A little after noon, our spot opened up, so we moved. Game on. The family that occupied the site caught a couple of fish, but there is a spot or two you can cast to that really deliver up. We left the lake about 2:...

  Our Clamshell shelter on the bank of Willow Creek It started off cool today, the morning low was 32, but it warmed up nicely. I did a little computer work this morning and then we took advantage of the nice weather to drag the last of our stuff out of the truck and finish setting up "camp." First, I set up our propane (Coleman Roadtrip) grill. Next, Connie and I set up our Quickset Clamshell shelter for use as a workout area. I secured the shelter with ground anchors. We'll see how it stands up to Wyoming winds. Finally, we set up a folding table that we place near our outdoor shower. We use this table and the shower spigot to wash dishes, prepare food, and clean fish. After spending $250 on fishing licenses, I hope there is a fair bit of fish cleaning this summer. We have access to a nearby garage that is owned by SPC, so we stowed a few items there, including our dumbbells. Once we get a tote to store the dumbbells in, we'll move them to the Clamshell, which is wh...

  Louis Lake We drove up to Louis Lake this morning. I am told the lake is officially, Louis Lake (as in Lewis), but locally it is pronounced Lou-ee Lake. The lake is only thirteen miles away, but most of this is on dirt/gravel road that hasn't been graded in some time, so travel time is about 40-45 minutes. Sometimes this goes relatively quickly and other occasions it seems to take forever. The lake has a surface area of about 1200 acres, mean depth of  15-20 feet, and a maximum depth  of  about 40 feet. It looks to be a couple of feet lower than the last time we were here (2024). I wanted to look at the lake before buying fishing licenses. While we were ther e, we encountered a couple of fellows fishing. They had just started but had hooked one trout, about 1-ft long we were told, but lost it bringing it out of the water. Looks like the fishing is still good! We swapped Louis Lake moose sighting stories with one of the anglers, wished them luck, and headed back ...