South Pass Stories

    Interior of an old building at Sarah Gillespie's 1800s resort at Radium Springs, Fremont County, Wyoming. I slept in a bit this morning, then fixed breakfast. After we cleaned things up, we headed into Lander to shop- groceries and a few other items at other stores. On the way into Lander we saw a young mule deer, but saw no wildlife on the return trip. Well, that's not exactly true. We saw a hawk land on a power line pole. It likely was a red-tailed hawk, but at 70 miles per hour, ... Once back to South Pass City, we put things away and I fired up the smoker so that we could make frittatas for breakfasts this weekend. Connie spent much of the day, on and off, making and then cooking English muffins. I wrote most of the day. We had an early dinner, featuring smoked salmon. Great stuff. I had almost bought another fillet today while grocery shopping. Maybe next week. We finished eating a little after 5:00 and then went down to the office, where we were assembling for a staf...

  I added this advertisement for Walter and Fred Lovejoy's Kemmerer Pharmacy during my revision of the sarsaparilla brochure this morning. The Lovejoy brothers lived n South Pass City in the 1880s and 1890s, then ended up in Kemmerer for several years.  We slept in a bit this morning and then read and worked on out respective reading and writing projects. I reformatted my sarsaparilla brochure- larger font, rearranged figures, etc., which took more time than I expected.  I then went to work on creating maps for the Lovejoy project and for a talk I have been asked to present next month. We had lunch and relaxed a bit. I had planned to take my tenkara rig into town and fish Willow Creek, but the wind picked and fly fishing was not going to happen. Connie went off on a walk and I stayed behind and worked on the maps. I am still trying to locate a couple of sites visited by Lovejoy and locate decent maps showing old stagecoach line routes. I did get a sketch map made, which w...

      Ice cold sarsaparilla at the Miner's Exchange Saloon. This morning was a bit warmer than the past couple of days. Cool, not cold. We had breakfast and sat around with a couple of cups of coffee. Outside, it was overcast most of the day and although not cold, it seemed the perfect day to hunker down inside, relax, and tend to out personal projects. Also, it was dark enough to turn on our decorative LED lights, which made the trailer seem quite festive. (The lights are changeable colors- yellowish green0 and are overlaid by a sunflower garland.) Connie read, worked on the computer, and knitted. I decided to write a brochure on sarsaparilla. It is actually a pretty interesting subject. I worked on this periodically throughout the day and have a really nice draft, although I think I have to now go into and reformat for a larger, more readable font. Around 3:00 Connie and I took a break and a walk, to stretch our legs. She wanted to drop a couple of things off in the off...

      This is a section of a map produced by the BLM that shows much of the portions of Wyoming that I need for my projects. The geography is limited, but it nicely shows a lot of the mid-1800s travel routes including the Oregon Trail, stage routes, and railroads.  We got up today and had the last of the hatch green chili frittatas for breakfast. I then headed off a but early for Lander to buy a few groceries. $147 later... A lot of it was items that last for weeks, but we were due. Also, a bit of a splurge for a salmon fillet. One the way back to South Pass City, I saw three pronghorn antelope, I had not seen any on the earlier trip. Back at the trailer, Connie and I put the groceries away and I started the smoker. I smoked six ears of corn for dinners the next three nights, then I smoked a hamburgers for lunches. While the corn was smoking, I dried brined the salmon (brown sugar and kosher salt) and placed it in the refrigerator to cure overnight. Connie was back a...

       Gator sitting in the shade outside the Miner's Exchange Saloon. As usual, Gator and I met up at 8:00 and took sarsaparilla over to the Miner's Exchange Saloon. I then went into the archives and inventoried files and Gator went off to do his various odd jobs. The file I was working on today was a slog. It has a lot of old time mining deeds, which are always hard to read. Progress was slow.  Luckily, noon came and I was off to the Smith Sherlock Company Store! Today was unexpectedly slow. I had only nine visitors and one dog until 3:30. Then about eight people, in three groups, and one dog came at around 3:20. They all came in at about the same time and left a few minutes apart, so the last half hour was quiet. 17 visitors and two dogs is a low count for the store. I did have the chance to work some on my Lovejoy project and I explored a couple of research topics I have been considering. I took a photo of Gator sitting beside the Miner's Exchange Saloon. Fo...

The first, partial page of Walter Lovejoy’s initial journal bears the inscription: “This book W Lov(XXXX) History Campaign Trapping Summer” This inscription, although incomplete, suggests that Walter Lovejoy had a broader purpose in mind than merely recording daily events. Neither this page nor the two immediately following it is dated. It is possible that dates borne on these pages were lost through damage, or they may just be a general summary of the earlier events that serve as a starting point for subsequent, more detailed entries. The remnant portions of the first two pages appear to describe the departure from camp of Jess, who will return, and two other persons, possibly named George, mentioned on this page, and Hal (September 25, 1886). Lovejoy refers to these latter two as “the boys,” a term of affection and not indicative of young age. A wagon is loaded with fawn skins, luggage, two saddles, “curiosities,” and “weeks” rations. Point of Rocks is mentioned, poss...

      Smith Sherlock Company Store. Up at six, as usual, and a breakfast of Hatch green chili frittatas. Just can't get enough of that. On to the shop to meet up with the Gator and take sarsaparilla to the Miner's Exchange Saloon. Afterwards, I returned to the archive and the business of digitizing invoices. I came across several invoices from Armour meat company. The store regularly ordered 300-400 pounds of ham. I guess you need a nice smoked ham before you light up those 1000 cigars I discussed yesterday. I opened the store at noon and was unsure of how today would play out. A large family union group was coming up from Rock Springs. Sometimes you'll see just a few people, but more often it is constant traffic- first looking about and then, I guess, looking for something to do when things get boring. The day was kind of busy, with a few slow periods, but I ended up having a couple of conversations with visitors about mining, South Pass City history, and various other t...