A Really Fast Day in the Miner's Exchange Saloon
I went down to the shop this morning for the weekly staff meeting. Gator had already set up chairs and loaded sarsaparilla to take to the saloon. He asked if I wanted to take a short ride (to the saloon). Sure! I joked that I think he is looking for a promotion to General Volunteer. Anyway, we dropped off the sarsaparilla and made it back a few minutes before the meeting started.
The meeting was a little long, laying out in broad strokes what the next two months would look like. There was some mention of a "trek" for September, which I hoped would be to Kirwin ghost town, south of Cody. I asked about this and Joe asked to meet with me for a bit after the meeting.
Turns out I am the "trek," he wants me to talk about what I have learned about Walter Lovejoy, whom I have been researching. I thought about it for a second and agreed. Then Joe told me it only had to be 45 to 60 minutes. What? I thought this would be for staff and volunteers, but he is thinking of a general talk, etc. for the interested public. This is going to take a lot of quick work to pull off given everything else that is going on.
I then went into the archives to continue digitizing invoices to the Smith Sherlock Company Store. I looked at one National Biscuit Company (later Nabisco) invoice and learned that they had once sold soda pop.
I wrapped up the digitizing and opened the Miner's Exchange Saloon at 12:00. There was a family sitting on a bench outside the saloon in the shade and, almost instantly, they came in. I had about 9 or 10 visitors by 12:15. Then things slowed down and I had only 20 people stop by all day- this includes Connie, who stopped by to by a sarsaparilla, and two former SPC seasonal workers who have been visiting old friends at the site and had stopped in to say good bye. No dogs today and I sold only seven sarsaparillas.
The day went by really fast. In fact, the last time I had looked at my watch was around 3:00. I was doing some computer work and heard a ranger pull up- it was past 4:00- and Connie was here to help load up the sarsaparilla to take back to the shop. As we were getting ready, she pointed out a mule deer feeding in the willows near by- evidently she and Jan had disposed of some leftover watermelon there and the deer was having a feast.
A couple of the visitors today were intrigued by the billiards table in the saloon, so I discussed it- it is an Brunswick Novelty Billiards Table, bought in 1875 by John Morris, former husband of Esther Hobart Morris, the first woman Justice of the Peace in the United States. She lived in South Pass City when she became a JP and, couple years later she left SPC and John Morris.
The table (at top) is interesting in that it has no pockets. I sometime tell people they were stolen or that Morris didn't have the extra funds needed to include pockets. This leads to some fun conversations. On school tours, I tell the students (4th graders) that a previous group had stolen the pockets. Its fun to watch them decide this can't be true, but again we get into fun conversations.
There are several different games one can play, but the most popular. Each player has one of the colored balls. On a player's turn, they strike their ball with a cue stick. Their ball must strike one of the other object balls, make three caroms (banks), and then strike the remaining object ball. There are various other ways the game is played. Hit both balls and three caroms and you score a point and shoot again.
While sweeping the floor in the afternoon, I looked up and outside and saw a bluebird, they are common around here in the spring and early summer, but I hadn't seen any lately,
After I closed the saloon and put things away, Connie and I walked back to the trailer, a three-minute commute. We fixed dinner and I read and did some work on the Lovejoy project and Connie went for a walk. I took a break and sat outside for a bit and watched the hummingbirds. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement on the hill on the other side of Willow Creek and saw a hiker walking down toward the Flood and Hindle Trail. As he descended, I saw a mule deep bound up the hillside.
Well, a little later I was back at it on the computer.
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