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 Cody Enterprise
SPECIAL PUBLICATION
May 21, 2017
Mary Jester Ernest Larry
Allen Goppert Larom EDITOR: Amber Peabody

NEWS STAFF: Lew Freedman, Buzzy Hassrick,

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On the Cover: Mary Jester Allen in an undated photo. 3101 Big Horn Ave., Cody, WY (307) 587-2231
Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming, USA. William F. Cody Collection. codyenterprise.com
Legends death sets off race to honor him
By CHRISTINE HOUZE
Former Curatorial Assistant, Buffalo Bill Museum
It was December 1916 and Buffalo Bill wasnt feeling well.
Also, financial problems still plagued him after he lost his
Wild West show in 1913. Cody went to visit his sister, May,
in Denver and while there he developed a serious cold. His
symptoms were so grave that his wife, Louisa, and daughter,
Irma, were summoned.
By the time they arrived, he was feeling better. So on Jan.
5 he went to Glenwood Springs, Colorado to take the wa-
ters. Two days later he collapsed.
On his death bed William F. Cody was baptized into the
Roman Catholic Church. Buffalo Bill died of uremic poisoning
at his sisters home on Jan. 10, 1917.
Ironically, Harry H. Tammen (co-owner of the Denver Post),
who had brought on the financial collapse of the Wild West
show, took over the planning of the elaborate funeral. Buf-
falo Bill had wanted to be buried on Cedar Mountain above
his namesake town, but Louisa claimed he had changed
his mind. Allegedly Tammen had given her $10,000. This
probably did not happen, but Mrs. Cody did choose Lookout
Mountain (in what is now Golden, Colo.). Denver claimed the
Wests most famous man.
Condolences arrived from around the world. Buffalo Bill
lay in state in the Colorado Capitol as thousands of people
paid their respects. After a funeral ceremony, Codys body was
taken to a mortuary until warm weather permitted interment.
A tomb was hewn into the granite of Lookout Mountain. On
June 3, 1917, thousands again filed past Codys casket be-
fore his body was finally laid to rest under 10 feet of concrete.
This security was intended to deter a Wyoming raid to recover
the body.
Rumors about reclaiming Buffalo Bill persisted for years. In
1948 the Cheyenne American Legion Post supposedly devised
a secret strategy to bring Buffalo Bills body back to Wyoming.
The state of Wyoming has long rankled under the humilia-
tion of Buffalo Bills enforced absence from his chosen burial
spot on Cedar Mountain near Cody. (Cody Enterprise, Aug. 4,
1948)
In 1968 an exchange of smoke signals between Lookout One of the last photographs of William F. Buffalo Bill Cody with
Mountain and Cedar Mountain transported the spirit of Pa- Dr. William W. Crook, January 1917, at Glenwood Springs, Colo.
haska to his chosen site. However, a friendly rivalry persisted
6 LEGENDS Summer 2017
William F. Buffalo Bill Cody lying in state at the Colorado Capitol Building, Jan. 14, 1917.

PAHASKA
ISHTEMI WASHTA
(The Long-haired Man
May Sleep Well)
Sioux wish for Buffalo Bill

between the Buffalo Bill Memorial Mu-

seum and the Buffalo Bill [Center of the
West].
At the Lookout Mountain 80th an-
niversary of Buffalo Bills burial, Steve
Friesen, Buffalo Bill Museum Director
and Paul Fees, then the Centers Senior
Curator, literally buried a hatchet to end
any conflict.
Cody, Wyoming, doesnt have Buffalo
Bills body but it continues to celebrate
his life.

(This article was originally published William F. Buffalo Bill Codys coffin on a horse-drawn caisson, Jan. 14, 1917. Buffalo Bill
in Points West in spring 1998) Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming, USA. William F. Cody Collection.
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 7
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 Dan Millers
COWBOY MUSIC REVUE
presented by The Buffalo Bill Center of the West

Dinner & Show

Dinner and Show: $40 june 1 - september 30

Dinner buffet 5:30 p.m., Show 6:30 p.m.
Best Value/Combo Ticket: $56
Tour the Center stay for the dinner show
Six nights a week, Monday - Saturday
Dining Pavilion inside the Center of the West
(use main entrance)

Show Only: $16 tickets: tickets.centerofthewest.org or

(Limited Seating) 720 Sheridan Ave, Cody, WY
Summer 2016 LEGENDS 9
Mary Jester Allen with Frank Butlers (Annie Oakleys husband) rifle, ca. 1950. F.J. Hiscock photo. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody,
Wyoming, USA. Buffalo Bill Museum Photographs Collection.
Codys niece spearheads museum
By LEW FREEDMAN
Staff writer
Mary Jester Allen always referred to Buffalo Bill Cody as Uncle
Will. The daughter of Helen Cody Wetmore, Buffalo Bills sister, she
was mesmerized by the man who did more than any other to inform,
teach and propagandize about the Old West and the American frontier.
If not for Allen, it is speculative just how well William F. Cody would
be appreciated and memorialized in the town that bears his name. The
little girl who once sat on the Old Scouts knee, is owed a debt from
members of the extended family, western historians and residents of
modern-day Cody.
Allen was the primary catalyst for the construction of and develop-
ment of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the expansion of its stature
in the museum world, and the acquisition and erection of the famed
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney sculpture of Buffalo Bill standing adjacent
to the building.
Circumstances and timing often define lives and that was the case
for Allen. In the 1950s, nearing the end of her life, Allen apparently
began writing a memoir. If so, the project was never completed, but the
10 LEGENDS Summer 2017
handful of typed impressions she recorded under the consistent head-
ing of What I Know, were filed with a batch of her correspondence in
the McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
In one of those missives, Allen wrote, Uncle Will was the first
real remembrance of a man to me. He stood for all that was strong,
capable, decisive, generous, deciding. Head of the family in no uncer-
tain manner. Protector. Provider. Final court of appeals in big and little
things.
As I look back, I wonder that no one thought to save a busy man
that he shouldnt have had everybodys troubles Willie, so the
sisters called him, was the mainspring in all Cody life. From the time I
could first remember, around 3 years old, up to his death in 1917, and
then on down all my years, Uncle Will stood for all manhood.
Thus was the spell cast upon a fatherless niece by a man who
was viewed as bigger than life by almost all Americans. It was no
wonder that Allens main life works revolved around preserving such
an image.
In her 20s, Allen performed the duties of press agent for Codys
Wild West exhibitions and also the Barnum and Bailey Circus. This
was a job open to few women at the time. Allen also
worked as Buffalo Bills personal secretary.

Early years
Born Jan. 11, 1875, in West Chester, Pa., to mother
Helen and father Alexander C. Jester, who was a British
mining engineer who died in an accident when Mary
was 3, Allen put together a diverse career, part of it in
the service of Buffalo Bill, part of it a little bit vague
(much like Uncle Wills own rollicking exploits).
By most accounts, Allen attended Drury College
in Springfield, Mo., and Smith College and studied in
Munich, Germany, and became the society page editor
for the Duluth (Minn.) News-Tribune where her husband
Robert also worked. They had one daughter, Helen, and
divorced in 1918. Allen lived in Minnesota, Pennsylva-
nia, Leavenworth, Kan., and Pasadena, Calif., among
other places.
She was definitely well-traveled, but her first impres-
sion of Cody, the community she called home for the last
decades of her life and which she helped shape, was a
negative one. She first visited early in the 20th century
by train when her mother took ill.
Such a desolate country, Allen wrote of Wyoming
in one of her What I Know documents in 1955. Why
Uncle Will ever selected it, I just couldnt understand.
Every mile made me wonder more and more. And pull-
ing into the Cody station was worst of all.
Allen got used to it though and thrived in Cody
from 1926, when she took up official residence, until
her death from a heart attack on Aug. 26, 1960. She
worked as publicity chair of the Cody Club for several
years, organized the Play Readers of Cody and backed
other civic causes.
But Allens greatest contribution to Cody and her
uncle centered around the Buffalo Bill Museum honor-
ing his memory.
Her own memories, dating to her youth, idealized
Buffalo Bill. Those experiences, combined with her work
experience in proximity to him at the Wild West, notably
influenced her motives.
First, one could talk to him any time about anything,
Allen wrote, remembering childhood. In that connection,
Mary Jester Allen, Buffalo Bills niece, William F. Cody and Laura Ella Helen
one never had to break the ground, spend hours warm- Cody Jester Wetmore, Buffalo Bills sister, undated. Buffalo Bill Center of the West,
ing him up to the subject in hand, or be fearful of scorn. Cody, Wyoming, USA. William F. Cody Collection.
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 11
You felt your affairs important. He was friend, confidant, advisor, helper
and right now. Then the matter of letters. He loved them. We, all the
children, could always write him and get an answer.
The fact that he never failed to enclose a $5 bill and in those
days five dollars were fortunes didnt have a thing to do with my let-
ters. I just wanted to paper talk with him for the fun and comfort. But
mostly, too, to have mail of my very own. Letters werent as ordinary
then as now. A letter was an event in my life.
One thing both mother Helen and Uncle Will instilled in Allen was
what she called a code of life, the philosophy of doing the right thing.
Uncle Will had character with a great high C, Allen wrote. It
was the framework on which his life hung. You did certain things. You
didnt do certain things. That was all there was to it.
That code guided Allen. It never varied. It governed their every
action and every move. And one could depend on it always. As a child
it was a rock to me. In my girlhood, it stayed a solid wall and now that
the sands run out, I can still rely upon its foundation and chart for all
courses.

Building a lasting legacy

The emergence of Allen as a significant force in Cody post-dates
William F. Codys death on Jan. 10, 1917, in Denver, Colo.
In the waning years of his life, the great showman had gone bank-
rupt. He toured the world spreading a gospel of the West for 30 years,
yet was seeking to raise funds for another go-around when he passed
away.
Once perhaps the most famous man in the world, competing com-
munities with which he had shared pieces of his life sought to bury his
body and build mausoleums and museums to toast him. Buffalo Bill
was presumably buried on the outskirts of Denver at Lookout Moun-
tain, although Cody and North Platte, Neb., where he maintained a
home for a quarter century, wanted his company for eternity.
Ambitious plans and fundraising campaigns were announced to
construct special memorials. Soon after, however, the United States
was drawn into World War I and attention, manpower and money were
diverted to this pressing cause.
Projects stalled, but at least the Buffalo Bill Memorial Association
was established 100 years ago, the organization that is at the root of
the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Many members of the Cody family
wanted to support a special project, but nothing much happened.
Codys widow, Louisa, and Codys foster son, Johnny Baker, who
spent decades working alongside him in the Wild West, were Lookout
Mountain advocates. Louisa died in 1921 and was buried at that site. Mary Jester Allen and Charles Dawes, Vice President under Calvin
In 1902, Buffalo Bill built the famous downtown Cody Irma Hotel Coolidge, July 4, 1927.
and named it after Irma Louise Garlow, his youngest daughter. Fol-
lowing his death she might have become an influential player in the
Memorial Association, but she died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. my earliest childhood he had the care of my mother and myself, Allen
During the earliest days of the Memorial Association, Allen was busy wrote. I promised.
elsewhere, heavily involved in Republican politics, campaigning for Allen then maintained her home in New York, but she was involved
Warren Harding for president and heading the partys speaking arm. in preserving Codys legacy. Allen, Caroline Lockhart, the feisty writer
However, her powerful belief in what Cody himself envisioned as a who took over ownership of the Cody Enterprise, the newspaper Buf-
memorial was imbedded in her mind. falo Bill founded in 1899, William Robertson Coe and other prominent
In 1915, Allen was visited by Uncle Will in Seattle and she and residents were trustees of the association. They became enamored of
longtime Buffalo Bill friends met for a breakfast in Codys private train the idea of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney carving the Buffalo Bill statue,
car used for touring the country with the Wild West. Allen recounted although they could offer just a pittance in payment.
this meeting in a January 1942 article written for Annals of Wyo- Trustees, Lockhart at the forefront, bombarded Allen with letters
ming. and telegrams urging her to be the go-between and persuade Whitney,
She was concerned Buffalo Bill appeared aged and not well. Allen who resided in New York, to create the statue.
wrote the Colonel had long ago informed her that after his death Allen was very nervous about the assignment and how she would be
he would like to be honored by a facility viewed as a great western received by the famous artist. Ultimately, Whitney responded to Allen. It
American Pioneer Center set upon a ranch. Perhaps it could even be turned out Whitney considered Cody a hero and was delighted to depict
built at his T.E. Ranch outside of Cody, or at Pahaska Teepee, his hunt- him. By 1922 an agreement was in place and the statue was dedicated
ing grounds near the entrance to Yellowstone National Park. She was on July 4, 1924, in front of a crowd estimated at 5,000 or more.
pleased to hear him bring others into this loop and spell out details and
plans.
...Uncle Will himself lay a solemn pledge upon me to carry out his Becoming a guiding force
wishes, for I was his kinswoman and almost his daughter, since from This was a huge step for Cody residents, for the Buffalo Bill Memo-
12 LEGENDS Summer 2017
Vern Spencer (from left), Harold McCracken, Ned Frost and Mary Jester Allen in the Buffalo Bill Museum, Oct. 10, 1955. Buffalo Bill Center
of the West, Cody, Wyoming, USA. Jack Richard Photograph Collection.
rial Association, in memorializing Buffalo Bill and in changing Allens
life. Soon enough she was living in Cody and became the guiding force
transforming an idea on paper into a building.
I give her credit for rejuvenating the Buffalo Memorial Associa-
tion, said Jeremy Johnston, curator of the centers Buffalo Bill
Museum and Western American History. It had fallen by the wayside
after World War I. She wasnt doing it all by herself, but she was the
glue.
In 1927, the small log cabin forerunner of the five museums
under one roof, seven-acre Buffalo Bill Center of the West of today,
opened its doors.
Allen was the grind-it-out advocate for Cody as the museums site.
Denver revealed grandiose plans that fizzled. Omaha wanted to be the
one. In the end, Allen persuaded members of the International Cody
Family Association to choose much smaller Cody as the repository of
family relics.
It was not an easy sell. Allen once said, It took me a solid year to
convince my own family board that Cody was all right.
Johnston said Allens background in newspapers, as a publicity
agent and her closeness to Buffalo Bill made her uniquely suited to
become the director of the museum, a position she held for decades.
Allen later showed the traits of a formidable woman who retained the
same emotions about her long-gone uncle, but knew how to get things
done.
She was once described as a gray-haired, steely-eyed lady of
considerable dignity (with) an imposing air of authority and dogged
determination.
More than once this year already, Johnston has lectured about the
important roles Allen and Whitney played in establishing and growing
the Center of the West.
In her 1942 article, Allen recounted how Cody came together to
make the museum a reality, sometimes volunteers getting their hands
dirty shaping logs for the initial building, landscaping, and planting
trees and flowers.
In 1961, the year after Allen died at 85, the Wyoming State His-
torical Society bestowed its Historical Award on her, summing up her
decades of service simply with the phrase founding and serving as
curator of the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody. It took more hustle, sweat
and persuasion than that to shape an empty patch of ground into a
landmark destination.
Allen may never have reached the point of including enough Buf-
falo Bill Center detail in her What I Know observations. But it turned
out one thing the lady from the East did know was how to start a
museum from scratch.
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 13
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Gertrude Vanderbilt
Whitney stands before
her monumental Buffalo
Bill The Scout, ca.
1923.

18 LEGENDS Summer 2017

Codys fairy godmother and her sculpture
By CHRISTINE C. BRINDZA
Former Curator, Whitney Western Art Museum
Controversy is difficult to avoid in most large undertakings,
and the creation of a Buffalo Bill memorial was no exception.
When Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney accepted the commis-
sion to create a monumental tribute to Buffalo Bill, she prepared
herself to take on the complicated task of memorializing one of
the most famous American figures in history. She used both her
artistic abilities and social status to produce and fund this work
of art that would define a town, inspire a museum and hold a
place in American art and history. Her sculpture exceeded her
wildest expectations.

A suitable memorial
Upon the death of Colonel William F. Buffalo Bill Cody
in 1917, interest swept the nation to construct a memorial to
the legendary western pioneer and Wild West showman. The
location for the memorial site was logically within the town he
founded: Cody, Wyoming. The spearhead organization, the Buf-
falo Bill Memorial Association, was formed to produce a fitting
tribute to their founder and hero.
The Wyoming legislature appropriated $5,000, but the
United States entered World War I in 1917, and the association
refocused its efforts until the war ended. In 1921, the funds
were re-appropriated: $4,000 for six and a half acres of land,
two of which were to be set aside as a park where the memorial
would stand.
Eventually, the idea of a memorial took the form of a sculp-
ture, and the Memorial Association began the task of finding a
suitable artist. Buffalo Bills niece Mary Jester Allen was first to
personally approach Whitney for the commission. Allen, who
lived in New York City at the time, received numerous letters
from association trustees, coaxing her to contact the artist.
Another Cody area ranch owner, William Robertson Coe, a
New York businessman and lover of western Americana, was Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, ca. 1916. Published in Vogue maga-
also asked to contact Whitney, with whom hed become ac- zine, Jan. 15, 1917. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
quainted in Long Island. He wrote to her, forwarding a letter Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. LC-USZC2-6127
from association member and author Caroline Lockhart, who
explained the proposition.
Lockhart, who soon became the owner of the Cody Enter- is now agitating our peaceful village and I am writing to you to
prise, wrote, The subject of a suitable memorial for Col. Cody know if you would be interested in seeing if we could not get a
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 19

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, ca. 1924, in her New York studio.
Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming, USA. William F. Cody
Collection.
spirited and really good statue of Buffalo Bill on horseback done
by somebody like Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney?
When Allen visited Whitney and made the proposal, the artist
agreed to the commission. Reflecting back on her visit, Allen
recalled how Whitney reacted to the idea. She had the entire
thing right there. She never wanted to do anything as much
as this statue of her Wild West hero of her youth. She really
wanted to do it, was already absorbed in her dream.
Whitney may have felt a small personal connection with Buf-
falo Bill. She saw his Wild West show in 1908, and the press
referred to her as the only woman sculptor with whom the
Colonel was acquainted. Still, she likely did not take the com-
mission for personal reasons, but wanted to display her abilities
in sculpture.
She immersed herself in the subject by reading Buffalo Bills
autobiography and other stories of the West. She studied eques-
trian sculpture, photographs of Buffalo Bill and cowboys and
planned to import a horse and rider as models.
Critics abound
Having a memorial in a small town of 1,500 people to
one of the nations most well-known heroes, was simply remark-
able, but to have such a well-connected sculptor undertake
the project seemed even more so. If the Memorial Association
wanted to bring attention and prestige to Cody, Wyo., Whitney
could make it happen. The attention that resulted, however, was
not as expected.
When Whitney announced that she finalized a model of the
memorial sculpture, every detail of the work found scrutiny.
Newspapers from Cody, Wyoming, to New York City recorded her
20 LEGENDS Summer 2017
progress by publishing articles about a purported controversy.
Her concept for the memorial was to portray Buffalo Bill as a
scout for the army, during an early part of his career.
Whitney wanted to capture this hero pioneering the western
frontier rather than the older and more mature Wild West show-
man. She envisioned the bronze sculpture on a granite plinth
with a stream flowing nearby to symbolize Buffalo Bills contribu-
tions as an engineer and involvement in irrigation projects.
Whitney presented the Memorial Association with her propos-
al in January 1923. The model depicted Col. Cody as a scout on
horseback, holding his 73 Winchester in the air to signal troops
to follow while peering down at a trail. By February, criticism of
the model was a national sensation.
As recorded in an area newspaper at the time, when Whitney
presented the Memorial Association with the small model of the
sculpture, they were not completely satisfied. They agreed to
accept the sculpture model if the animal, including its tail, is
slenderized, its right hind foot brought down to earth instead of
being permitted to coquet in the air and a dent put in Col. Codys
hat. The horse was considered too eastern to be one that Buf-
falo Bill would have ridden. General Nelson A. Miles, for whom
Buffalo Bill did his famous scouting, was also disappointed in
the sculpture and thought the horse looked like it had been
wounded in the neck its position all wrong.
On May 20, 1923, The Philadelphia Inquirer published an
article regarding the Associations reaction in Did Mrs. Whitney
Go Wrong on Buffalo Bills Horse? The author wrote how the
Memorial Association could not conceal their disappointment
in Mrs. Whitneys conception of a western heros horse. They
declared it was not a faithful representation of the type of mount
Buffalo Bill always rode.
The article also mentioned other experts who were just as
positive that Buffalo Bills horse might have been exactly like the
one in Whitneys model. Nevertheless, the Association wanted a
realistic and, to them, a historically accurate portrait of Buffalo
Bill and his horse ideas that later they would say were only
suggestions.
In pursuit of historical
accuracy
Some say that Allen, in efforts to assist Whitney in
obtaininghistorical accuracy, provided personal items of her
uncle to the sculptor. Even the clothes worn by the model were
those worn by Buffalo Bill in his scouting days. A proper west-
ern horse from Buffalo Bills TE Ranch outside of Cody was
shipped out by train to New York City, along with two genuine
cowboys sent along as proposed models. Smokey the horse
was ridden back and forth through the citys Central Park for
Whitneys observation.
Several accounts claimed that Lloyd and George Coleman, the
cowboys who accompanied the horse to New York, were models
for the Buffalo Bill figure. But an unidentified press release stated
that they only took care of and rode Smokey when photographed
for movement. Whitney used her own model for the actual sculp-
ture. The models true identity remains a mystery.
Whitney may have felt that her artistic abilities were hindered
if she made all of the requested adjustments, but she abided by
her patrons wishes and made some changes.
Even though satisfied with the final outcome of the work,
Whitney seemed somewhat unsettled. She wrote in her journal
after the debut of Buffalo Bill The Scout in New Yorks Central
Park,I happen to like my conceptions; I couldnt do them if I
didnt. The fact that they always fall short of my ideals is pain-
ful I suffer because I know they could be so much finer, but I
enjoy because the child has been born and is my own.

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, 1920. Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.
The home stretch
On July 9, 1922, Whitney had taken a train to Cody, Wyo-
ming, to inspect the site for the sculpture, a location that she
disliked. Instead she bought 40 acres nearby in view of the
Shoshone Canyon and the nearby red buttes, as well as Rattle-
snake, Cedar and Carter mountains. She also hired an architect,
Albert R. Ross from New York, to design and construct the base
of The Scout, to be built from natural materials found within the
region. The architect contracted a local company, Kimball and
Kimball Engineering, to build a miniature Cedar Mountain for
the sculpture.
The stones used for the plinth were taken from the Shoshone
Canyon located 25 miles away and weighed several tons each.
Ross secured a dragline from Casper, Wyoming, a days trip at
the time and cement came from Billings, Montana, another days
trip. In May 1924, Mrs. Juliana Force, Whitneys trusted secre-
tary, came to inspect the site and approved the base construc-
tion.
Cast at Roman Bronze Works in Brooklyn, New York, Buffalo
Bill The Scout was well received upon its debut. For one week
in June 1924, it stood on display in New York Citys Central Park,
placed near other portrait sculptures that included Beethoven and
Shakespeare.
The following week, the bronze sculpture standing over 12
feet high arrived by train in Cody. The town was quite excited
when The Scout finally appeared on a flatbed railroad car. The
work, first considered incorrect, was now hailed as a master-
piece.
It is an achievement upon which no one can look without a
genuine glow of enthusiasm for it and its creator, reported the
Cody Enterprise. All criticism had died away.
The Buffalo Bill memorials unveiling took place on July 4,
1924, with an estimated 6,000-10,000 people attending. A
time capsule was inserted in the base, where it remains to this
day, and Jane Cody Garlow, Buffalo Bills granddaughter and
theprettiest girl in Cody, pulled the cord to reveal the sculpture.
Interestingly, Whitney did not attend the unveiling, but traveled to
France instead as her focus moved to other commissions.
Not only did the townspeople of Cody consider the sculpture
a masterpiece, it found international acclaim as well. Whitneys
model of The Scout, exhibited at the Paris Salon, received the
award of honor by the French Government. Perhaps the sug-
gestions given by the Memorial Association aided in Whitneys
success with the sculpture.
Whitney wrote to Allen, I want to thank you for all you have
done for me, your keen interest in my work, your backing under
all circumstances, and your loyalty to me has helped more than I
can say
Within the next few years, a plan emerged for a museum to be
placed within the vicinity of the Buffalo Bill memorial. In 1927,
Mary Jester Allen opened the Buffalo Bill Museum adjacent to the
sculpture. She continued correspondence with Whitney, and in
the mid-1930s, traveled to New York to ask Whitney if she would
consider one more donation: the property surrounding Buffalo Bill
The Scout to be used for future projects of the association.
Whitney obliged and came like a Fairy Godmother and lay
at our feet the things we most want and need, wrote Mary Frost,
president of the Wyoming Federation of Business and Profes-
sional Womens Clubs, on April 9, 1935.
Standing watch for 80 years
Juliana Force was contacted in 1936 regarding yet another
proposal from Cody. This time, because of the gracious donations
Whitney made to their town, the citizens planned to name an
art colony after her. Force responded promptly, saying, Although
Mrs. Whitney was very sympathetic with any efforts of this kind,
she very much disliked and objected to the idea of her name
being used. Whitney founded the Whitney Museum of American
Art, an arts center in New York that was still in its infancy at
the time and wanted it to be kept an unassociated and distinct
institution.
In the 1950s, when the Memorial Association wanted to
use the land donated by Whitney, her son, Cornelius Vanderbilt
Whitney, became a large contributor to what would become the
Buffalo Bill Historical Center, now the Buffalo Bill Center of the
West.
He donated over $250,000 in his mothers memory to estab-
lish the Whitney Gallery of Western Art, dedicated in 1959, and
Buffalo Bill The Scout stood as the cornerstone of the collec-
tion. It is unknown if Whitney knew about his mothers wishes re-
garding the use of her name, or, if so many years later, she would
have minded at all.
The Scout has stood watch over his town for over 80 years
an idea that emerged as an iconographic image of the West and
of the town of Cody, symbolizing both the memory of Buffalo Bill
and the western ideals he represents. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whit-
ney left her own mark on the nation, not only as one of the first
women to successfully take on a monumental sculpture of this
magnitude, but because of her other contributions in philanthropy
and the arts.
Without Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, there would be no Buf-
falo Bill The Scout or Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Through
the vision of an artist and the drive of townspeople, a great
dream became reality.
(This article was originally published in Points West in winter
2009)
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 21
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Summer 2017 LEGENDS 23

Lawyer dedicates life to philanthropy
By AMBER PEABODY
Editor
From helping create the Cody Stampede and laying the path
for what is now the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, to feuding with
Caroline Lockhart, Ernest Goppert Sr. was a key figure in Cody for
more than 65 years.
A successful lawyer who committed a great deal of his time to
philanthropy, Goppert made several contributions to the town he
loved.

Early life
He was born May 11, 1893, near Stockton, Kan., and grew up
on a farm near Belleville, Kan. His father was a farmer and he had
five brothers and sisters.
He graduated from Belleville High School in 1912 as valedicto-
rian, finishing a four-year course in three years. He then enrolled in
the University of Kansas, where he attended two years of under-
graduate and three years of law school.
My father thought I was wasting my time in law school, he
said in an interview with the Enterprise in 1983. He said farmers
were making money then and Id never make it as a lawyer.
During college he joined the National Guard and was called into
service because of raids by Pancho Vila on towns in New Mexico.
We had instructions to shoot anyone who crossed the center
of the Rio Grande River, he said. I was on duty one night when I
heard a disturbance that I reported to my sergeant. We waited but
it was an old cow. I didnt have to shoot her.
Following graduation he took a job selling road maps and asked
for the Wyoming territory, paying his way and visiting Yellowstone
National Park.
I set out in a second-hand Ford Model T car, he said in 1984.
I represented the National Map Company of Indianapolis, Ind.,
which I used to pay my living expenses, and looked over the entire
state of Wyoming for a location to practice law.
He opened a law office in Worland in 1917. His first wife Eva
was badly burned in an oil stove fire at their home and died on
Feb. 14, 1918. After her death he volunteered to serve in the
Army in World War I. Two weeks after receiving his commission as
second Lieutenant, the Armistice was signed.
He moved his practice to Cody in 1919, following his discharge Ernest Goppert Sr. came to Cody in 1919 and practiced law in town for
from the Army, and became an associate of W.L. Walls.
more than 50 years. (Park County Archives photo)
24 LEGENDS Summer 2017
Ernie and Lois Goppert, July 12, 1974. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming, USA. Jack Richard Photograph Collection.
On Jan. 3, 1919, I was placed in charge
of the W.L. Walls law office, which was then
located in the Walls building just north of the
Irma Hotel, he said. Judge Williams L. Walls
had been appointed as Attorney General of
the State of Wyoming by Gov. Carey, who later
became a U.S. Senator.
Life as a lawyer
Never one to mince words in a courtroom,
he once gave advice to a judge who was about
to sequester a hung jury for a night and order
food for it. Goppert could see there was only
one juror standing in the way of the verdict he
wanted and told the judge, Ill tell you what
you do your honor. Why dont you order up 11
sandwiches and a bale of hay.
Goppert, or Gop as many called him, married to each other, he added. Those were
served as Park County Attorney, 1923-24,
when he was appointed to serve out the term
for the previous attorney. He tried nine criminal
cases during that time.
I worked like the devil on those cases, he
said. I had eight convictions and one acquit-
tal.
Serving during the time of Prohibition, he
said he prosecuted many cases for manufac-
turing or selling intoxicating liquors, which was
then mostly made by moonshiners.
I can remember at least five prosecutions
of two people in each case who were then
living together openly without having been first
the two common crimes which were being
violated while I was the county attorney.
His bid for reelection failed narrowly, but his
long legal career continued. He tried cases in
every county and won several that went to the
State Supreme Court, he said in an interview.
I didnt have to apologize too many times
for losing cases, he said. If it was a settle-
ment, Id say this is what well settle for and
Id usually get what Id asked.
Later in his career he served as Glenn Niel-
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 25
Ernest J. Goppert Sr. (left) shakes hands with Dick Frost on July 4, 1968, while laying the cornerstone of the Buffalo Bill Museum. Buffalo
Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming, USA. Jack Richard Photograph Collection.
sons legal adviser when Nielson started Husky
Oil Company.
Fellow Cody lawyer Jerry House described
Goppert as the most honest lawyer I ever
knew.
Bad blood
During his early years in Cody, Goppert
and Caroline Lockhart, who helped found the
Cody Stampede and was editor of the Cody
Enterprise, would enter a heated feud.
I met her right after I came here, he
recalled in an interview. I was quite a friend of
hers rather I tried to be friendly.
The friendship was reciprocated at first.
In one of her diary entries Lockhart wrote she
furnished a ride home for Goppert, whom I
like as I know him better.
He began to earn her displeasure when he
revealed himself a Dry [believed Prohibition
was good for America] by helping found the
Law and Order League. Lockhart herself was
an outspoken Wet [believed that the prohibi-
tion led to an increase of illegal activity and did
not stop what it was created to prevent].
26 LEGENDS Summer 2017
The relationship continued to deteriorate
throughout 1922, with disagreements both
in politics and in the formation of the Cody
Stampede, of which Lockhart was president.
Goppert also served on the board and did
most of the legal work in incorporating the
Stampede.
He would recall of the animosity more than
60 years later.
Caroline hunted for things all the time to
hold me up for ridicule before the public, he
said. She used to plan things so there would
be something wrong.
During Prohibition the Cody area was a
favorite spot for bootleggers to change drivers
or shift cargo from one vehicle to another on
a route from Canada to Denver. Eventually
this led to a fatal clash between the law and
bootleggers.
Deadly raid
There was dispute on who initiated the ar-
rest of bootleggers A.E. Carey and George Scot-
ty Sherrin, Goppert, who was the prosecuting
attorney at the time, or Sheriff William Loomis.
Goppert and Loomis said the sheriff planned
the raid but Lockhart believed Goppert engi-
neered it. The distinction is crucial considering
the aftermath of the raid, which left one man
dead, another badly wounded and a $30,000
libel suit filed by Goppert against Lockhart.
Testimony showed the sheriff and Goppert
jointly discovered a cache of 40 gallons of
moonshine on Cottonwood Creek. While Gop-
pert stayed behind, Loomis drove back to town
in Gopperts car and deputized the courthouse
janitor J.T. McGonagle and Harry Tipton, who
had been working as an undercover liquor
agent for the sheriffs office. Loomis armed the
men with rifles and sent them back in Gop-
perts car.
When the deputies met up with Goppert
he told them to take no unwarranted chances
with the men as they were reported as danger-
ous characters and considered hard men to
handle. He then returned to town.
The bootleggers eventually arrived and the
deputies waited until they were leaving before
making a move.
McGonagle and Tipton told them put them
up and then immediately began firing at the
car. Sherrin would be shot through the heart
and Carey in the hip. Carey escaped but was
eventually arrested by Loomis.
Lockharts initial story laid the blame for
the killing solely on Goppert. The story on
June 27, 1923, read, It looks to the people
of this locality as if human life was getting
pretty cheap when any person with a nickel
star pinned on him can go out and shoot and
kill in the name of the law and order without a
warrant, for an offense which, at most, is only
a misdemeanor.
When the paper hit the streets Goppert
asked for a retraction. His letter was cavalierly
reported in the Enterprise on July 4.
Mr. Goppert cannot intimidate this paper
but it is willing to be fair to the prosecut-
ing attorneys office as to any other office or
individual. This is our busy week, however, the
Cody Stampede was taking place and we have
not time to investigate Mr. Gopperts state-
ments as to the errors contained in the story
to which he objects. Next week when we have
the time and leisure we will give Mr. Gopperts
protest our attention.
Libel lawsuit
Five days later Goppert filed the libel
lawsuit, alleging Lockhart refused to correct
the false impressions and understandings of
the true facts and instead attempted to create
the impression that Goppert had attempted to
intimidate the defendant.
Lockharts response to the lawsuit was with
defiance. She ended a story about the allega-
tions, To all of which Caroline Lockhart and
the Cody Enterprise replies, Go do your best,
Mr. Goppert.
The case was moved to Worland on Jan.
26, 1924, by District Judge Percy Metz and
required Lockhart pay $500 to cover the cost
of the venue change. Trial was initially set for
spring 1925 but would be postponed another
year due to various circumstances and was set
for April 1926.
The trial brought out a large crowd and
the court was crowded to capacity. The local
paper in Worland called the trial a fancy piece
of soiled linen brought over to this county to
iron out and noted it became in a way a fight
between wet and dry forces in Park County.
The trial lasted almost three days. In
closing arguments Gopperts attorney argued
that he had not engineered the incident and
should be compensated for the damage to his
reputation.
Lockharts attorneys argued in favor of
freedom of the press.
A verdict was reached April 29, 1926.
Gopperts claim was denied and he was
ordered to pay Lockhart $305 for her legal
costs.
We took Gop to a cleaning and such a
cleaning, she wrote in her diary. [Attorney
E.E.] Enterline took the hide off him and left
him raw and quivering at least as much as a
brass monkey could quiver.
Civic duty
He may have lost his battle with Lockhart,
but Goppert did much good for the Cody com-
munity throughout his life, serving in several
different capacities.
He was a State Representative, 1928-33,
and was the first Minority Floor Leader in the
Wyoming House of Representatives in 1933.
He sponsored a bill in the 1930s that reduced
auto license fees by 50 percent for Wyoming
residents.
One of the founding members of the Cody
Stampede Board, he served as secretary-trea-
surer for six years.
Goppert served as a trustee of the Cody
Memorial Hospital Association, 1935-44, and
was president of the board during the construc-
tion period of the hospital.
During World War II, Goppert was co-
chairman of the USO and National War Fund
drive in Park County, 1938-41, and was the
chairman of the Draft Board.
He also was a charter member of more then
one service club. He was Worshipful Master of
the Shoshone Lodge No. 21 AF & AM, a mem-
ber of the Big Horn Lodge No. 36 IOOF and a
member of FOE Aerie 818 of Cody. He helped
organize the American Legion Post No. 20 and
served in several capacities including Post Com-
mander. Goppert joined the Cody Lions Club in
1924 and would later serve as president. He
also served as president of Cody Club.
Tireless dedication
Goppert served on the Buffalo Bill Memorial
Association Board beginning in 1928, being
president 1945-74. He also was a trustee of
the Buffalo Bill Memorial Association and Buf-
falo Bill Historical Center until his retirement.
His dedication to the Buffalo Bill Memorial
Association during the 1930s, 40s and 50
kept the institution on an even keel. He never
allowed it to become overwhelmed in debt,
even paying its bills out of his own pocket and
furnishing his lawyers expertise gratis. Dur-
ing his presidency the budget grew from four
figures to six. His smart investing helped the
museum eventually grow to become the Buf-
falo Bill Historical Center.
Called the backbone of the Buffalo Bill
Historical Center during its early days, Dick
Frost said of Goppert during a presentation in
1984, You wouldnt have the museum here.
You probably wouldnt have the old log building
occupied by low-price living people if it werent
for Gop. My hats off to him because I dont
know of anybody whos any better.
Retrieving the museum
During World War II, traffic at the museum
was in extreme decline so on Oct. 4, 1943,
the trustees of the Buffalo Bill Memorial As-
sociation submitted to Cody Club a resolution
requesting the town of Cody take over the
museum due to war conditions and declining
revenues, according to the book From Cody to
the World by Richard A. Bartlett. The request
received unanimous approval.
The trustees gave the city a warranty deed
and bill of sale of all museum properties and
the town assumed complete control of the Buf-
falo Bill Museum.
When the war ended visitation to the mu-
seum increased and the question then became
who owned it?
Now that the museum was self-supporting,
Goppert saw no reason why the city should
retain ownership, Bartlett wrote. In 1946 he
and the trustees asked the community fathers
to return the quitclaim deed, which dated
back to 1938, and the warranty deed and bill
of sale of 1943. He said it had been a verbal
understanding and the Buffalo Bill Memo-
rial Association was now prepared to resume
management.
The trustees insisted its revision after the
war had been implicit in the deal and they
were merely asking the city to carry out its part
of the understanding.
However when the board asked for its prop-
erty back, the mayor and town council mem-
bership had changed. Mayor Paul Stock said
he knew nothing about any verbal agreement,
while the towns attorney William J. Garlow
(Buffalo Bills grandson) felt that the museum
would have a better future under town owner-
ship, and expressed no knowledge of a verbal
agreement either.
When things could not be settled amicably,
the City of Cody sued to settle the dispute.
The case was referred to District Judge C.D.
Murane in Casper. Goppert and Jerry Housel
represented the Association. Housel said From
the first it was clear that Judge Murane was on
the side of the town. And the Association did
lose, Bartlett wrote.
However, led by Goppert the Association
fought back, taking the case to the Wyoming
Supreme Court to request the reversal of the
decision. The Supreme Court would rule in
favor of the Association and it once again took
complete control of its property.
Long life
After his first wifes tragic passing, Goppert
would remarry on Jan. 30, 1921, to Estelle
Butcher. They had two children, Marion and
Ernest Jr. Estelle would die tragically in a car
accident in 1953.
He then married Alma Pinketon, a college
friend of his and his first wife. She died in
1970 and he later married Lois Ruckman.
In 1972 he suffered a light stroke which
would necessitate walking with the aid of a
cane. He retired from practicing law in 1978
after 59 years in Cody.
I have seen Sheridan Avenue get paved,
the Texas Refinery come and go, the Husky
Refinery develop from a small concern under
the management of Glenn E. Nielson, he once
said of his long life in Cody.
Goppert lived into his 90s and died in 1987.
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 27
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Wyoming girl wins praise of art world
By BUZZY HASSRICK
Special to the Enterprise
From her isolated perch at the foot of the Jim Mountain cliffs on the
North Fork, Olive Fell fashioned her artistic renderings of the American
West that were sold in Cody, Yellowstone National Park and the region,
and also displayed across the country.
Just off her own hand press and selling like hot-cakes are
13,200 prints, created and printed by Olive Fells own hand,
according to an undated newspaper story in the Park County
Archives. They represent Artist Olives first departure from
etching and painting into the upper strata of somewhat com-
mercialized art.
As impressive as that production number was, equally
impressive were her academic credentials. Her educational
pursuits had taken her far from her birth place in 1902
on Big Timber Creek at the foot of the Crazy Mountains in
Montana. Soon thereafter, her family moved to Cody where
her mother ran a flower shop on main street and kept a
greenhouse by the river. Her father ran a freight business
serving mining camps and isolated trading posts, some-
times with his family in tow.
Because childrens picture books were not included as
part of necessary camping equipment, [Fell] recalls how
her mother took charcoal from the camp fires and drew
pictures on the flour sacks fastened to the dirt walls of
gulches near the camps, said an undated Enterprise story
in the Park County Archives. It was in this deep wilderness
that she grew to understand and appreciate all of nature.
Some of her most beautiful etchings are recorded
memories of her early impressions of this primitive area. In
them she expresses an appreciation of all natural beauty and
grandeur, and more than any other western artist, has been
able to reproduce all the grace and living appeal of our magnifi-
cent wildlife.
Cody country provided the landscape for her youth. Fell gradu-
ated from high school, a classmate of Milward Simpson (1897-
1993, Wyoming governor and U.S. senator).
She spent much of her childhood wandering over the plains and
mountains in her fathers lumbering freight wagon, according to a July
13, 1938, Enterprise story. Well does she remember the time when, in the
midst of a scorching drought after they had faltered on to a spring, the home-
steader asked a dollar a bucket for his water.
30 LEGENDS Summer 2017
Lone Rider by Olive Fell, undated. Print-etching. Gift in Memory of Elmer (Forest Ranger at Wapiti, 1838-1946) and Ruth Miller.
Artist Olive, then a small child, watched her father draw his
gun, lower[ing] the price of the water.
After graduating from CHS, Fell attended the Chicago Art
Institute, University of Wyoming and Art Students League in New
York City.
Possibly during her schooling in Chicago and New York,
Fell met two renowned artists, John Steuart Curry and Georgia
OKeeffe. She kept letters from them, author Mark Spragg wrote
in his Where Rivers Change Direction, and told him, I thought
once I might like to marry Mr. Curry.
Art in the wild
Yet the West dominated her artistic focus throughout her life.
From Chicago and New York, she returned to Cody and bought
the Four Bear Ranch on Jim Mountain with her husband, S.S.
Kentzel [aka Kensel or Kuentzel]. When their brief marriage
ended, Fell, who had retained her birth name, also retained the
ranch. She provided a home for dozens of wild horses, which
doubled as guardians of the ranch.
In Wapiti, Fell encountered the wild from her studio-cabin
at the ranch, recalling some experiences in a 1973 letter to her
brother, Bill.
I had all kinds of animal friends. The grouse would come up
with their little chicks and spend the night under the old leather
couch and at daylight the mothers would call the chicks and with
caution lead them away but would come back at night.
I made my best etchings over there.
After moving from the cabin to her new house, Fell told Bill
that she found the driving winds and frigid air kept her animal
friends away. They stick to the creek and timber and I could,
while I lived over there, go up to the falls and stop for lunch and
immediately Id have birds all over me sharing my lunch Chick-
adees, little brown Creepers, Nuthatches and little red-breasted
Nuthatches, Grosbeaks, Wrens, Clarks Crows, Camp Robbers,
and many more.
Of course, they were my friends Id been feeding and they fol-
lowed me up. Sometimes they would ride my shoulders and arms
and hat as I rode along.
Images of her animal friends appeared in pieces she created
and sold in her downtown store, Pine Needle Bear Gift and Art
Shop, during the 1920s. The stores name came from a bear
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 31

Buffalo Bill, ca. 1935. Print-etching. Donated by Claude Rauch and
Paul Krogman in memory of William Garlow Cody.
made of pine needles, formed and copyrighted by Fell. A writer
who attended the shops opening wrote a review in an April 22,
1925, newspaper.
It was suddenly realized that Miss Olive Fell, who decorated
the shop and made every object and article in it, is not only
clever, and an artist, but has a touch of something very like
genius along her particular line. That her blonde head is full of
original ideas is obvious from the many practical and beautiful
novelties...
From her gift shop in Cody, Fell ascended to national fame
thanks to the manager of the dude operation on her ranch.
Although productive for years, shed stowed away her work, too
shy and timid to enter it into exhibitions or show it to anyone
but her closest friends, according to an undated clipping in the
archives.
Art exhibits
That changed in 1933 when manager Pat Patterson noticed
a story about an exhibition of the Society of American Etchers
in an art gallery in New York City, which was published in the
Christian Science Monitor. He started reading it aloud to Fell,
who listened, wistfully entranced.
Reading along, he started a paragraph strongly complimen-
tary about the works of one Olive Fell. In disbelief at first, the
artist finally accepted the storys veracity.
Fell continued to exhibit in the Societys show, and her 1934
entry For Minds to Know, earned honorable mention, an other-
worldly departure from her western themes.
32 LEGENDS Summer 2017
Olive Fell at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1920s. (Park County
Archives photo)
This work of the local artist has attracted much attention,
and is considered one of her greatest etchings, according to the
New York Times of Nov. 27, 1934.
Along with that show, Fell participated in exhibitions in New
York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle.
She has lectured on her work also, she adds, frequently
been lectured to by other people, according to a Dec. 5, 1934,
Enterprise story.
That same story related that Fell, at age 8, had drawn a
sketch of Buffalo Bill, which was used by the frontiersman on all
his postal cards for publicity purposes. It also cited a comment
in the Desert News of Salt Lake City about Fells award-winning,
mystical For Minds to Know.
An etching displaying a striking degree of imagination and a
high order of craftsmanship. Whether in her prints of animals,
Indians or cowboy life, the young artist achieves stirring effects.
Equal praise came from the Salt Lake Tribune, also cited in
the 1934 Enterprise story: These etchings, so new and inter-
esting in subject matter, show an excellence of execution that
demonstrates the artists understanding of her medium, and the
western themes a veracity of statement that marks her a keen
observer of the life about her. She seems to know how to place
her lights and darks effectively.
Fell earned a banner headline in a Jan. 15, 1939, Billings Ga-
zette story: Wyoming Girl Wins Praise Of Art World With Etch-
ings That Deal Largely With Western Subjects. The response
came to her Fenced Sagebrush, which to reporter Flavia Dafoe
epitomized the westward movement.
A nations progress in this small etching; wildness coming
under mans subjection. Idea and execution both projected out of
that intimate knowledge of the fundamentals of technique which
gives to an artists work the effortless simplicity of genius.
During the interview, Dafoe indicated a presumption that Fell
left her mountain ranch in the winter. Not so, Fell replied, say-
ing, It is my favorite season. I ski all over the hills tracking and
watching deer and moose and bear.
I sketch dozens of legs and paws and ears and heads, and
I am often marooned for hours on the limb of a tree or hang-
ing over the edge of nothing, trying to catch just the pose and
expression I want.
Dafoe continued with an observation that Fells work appealed
to all levels of art-appreciators.
People respond to her pictures. They come alive to the
beholder and win from him expressions of praise. Take her bears
for example. Saucy, naughty, mischievous, exhausted, playful,
temperamental, she portrays them with an infectious humor that
causes smiles and chuckles and outloud laughs.
Going Places by Olive Fell, ca. 1934. Print-etching. Gift of Paul Krogman and Claude Rauch in memory of Bill Cody.

Making money
The bears and other images with broad appeal appeared on
the pieces that she sold in gift shops, a business decision by her
to create some works whose price would fall in reach of medium-
plump purses, according to an undated clipping. Not the image
but the reproduction challenged her.
Getting a new idea isnt anything at all for me. Its repeating a
job, over and over again, to make money out of it that slays me.
Laboriously, Fell used clay-coated, handmade paper with tools
that she fashioned out of mowing machine bolts aided by a dental
drill with a foot treadle. Even with copper plates, shed rework and
finish the images by hand with etching tools to satisfy her demand-
ing standards. When the matting paper was so white it deadened
the image, shed dampen each sheet to achieve the desired effect.
Her output earned space in the original, log-built Buffalo Bill
Museum, which featured a room dedicated to Fell in the 1940s,
until director Mary Jester Allen and she had a falling out. Still, with
all her recognition, she struggled financially.
Times were never easy for her, Katie Brown told reporter
Retha Miller in a Feb. 3, 1986, Enterprise story. She supported
Olive Fell. A Hasty Message Postcard. Gift in Memory of Elmer (For-
herself by publishing a little pamphlet, called Sheriffs Posse, and
sold advertising to businesses in western Wyoming for distribution est Ranger at Wapiti, 1838-1946) and Ruth Miller.
to tourists.
Fell finally found financial security in 1970 when she sold the Had she lived longer, she would have continued to work, one
ranch, but retained life tenancy, and invested in a motor home to friend said, Miller wrote. Without financial concerns, she might
visit the Southwest. She died in 1980 at age 77. have been able to paint more for artistic expression than need.
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 33
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Larry Larom stands at the gate of the Valley Ranch. The Lazy JD brand is incorporated into the gate. (Park County Archives photos)

36 LEGENDS Summer 2017

Larry Larom (left) and another man are pictured on horses in front of the Valley Ranch.
Bringing dude ranches to the forefront
By CASSANDRA STUROS
Staff writer
A New Yorker who fell in love with the mountains around Cody,
dude rancher Larry Larom helped the East Coast elite experience
the West.
Irving Hastings Larom first arrived in the West as a 21-year-old
hungry for adventure. Traveling from New York City in June 1910,
he began to make his way West, the journey eventually taking him
to Cody population 1,242 at the time.
Arriving at the Irma Hotel, Larom was set to meet Jim
McLaughlin, the owner of Valley Ranch. It wasnt unusual in those
days to find Buffalo Bill Cody at the bar of the Irma welcoming
visitors to have a drink with him.
If you did, everyone in the room was invited to step up, to use
a common expression in those days, Belly up to the bar boys,
Larom said in an article from Annes Archives. Of course, the
rub was that when you accepted anybodys hospitality, it was the
expected thing to return it.
Larom accompanied McLaughlin back to Valley Ranch as a
guest. The ranch was located on the South Fork, 45 miles from
Cody.
This was about as far away from any place as you could get,
Larom said in an interview with the Park County Historical Society
in 1966.
To get to the South Fork, Larom traveled by stagecoach to the
Ishawooa Post, 22 miles out. The trip was a full two-day affair.
You got up there late in the afternoon, Larom said in the
interview. You had a rather greasy supper and then you were di-
rected to where your room or sleeping quarters were for the night.
Larom had come to hunt, fish and experience the West firsthand.
His accommodations were in a one-room cabin with a dirt floor.
In 1910 I spent three months here and lived in a little 8-by-
10 log cabin at Valley with horseshoe equipment and a forge in
one corner and an old tin stove in the other and a battered up iron
bed in the back of it, Larom said.
This was a far cry from the life Larom was brought up in
amongst the East Coast affluent. His parents resided on Park
Avenue and Larom had attended prep schools and Princeton. But
once Larom, (who later abandoned the name Irving to become
Larry), discovered the grandeur of the West, he was hooked.
Purchasing a dude ranch
Larom first fell in love with the outdoors hiking and camp-
ing in the Catskills and Adirondacks of the northeast. Later he
saw Buffalo Bill perform his Wild West show at Madison Square
Garden in New York City and it further piqued his curiosity.
Larom spent four summers at Valley Ranch and decided to
purchase it from McLaughlin. He persuaded friend Winthrop Page
Brooks whose family owned the mens clothier Brooks Brothers
of New York to go in on it with him.
By 1915 the duo were in the dude ranching business. At this
time there were already seven operating on the South Fork.
Their blue-blood upbringings would prove advantageous and
Larom (as Brooks later took over the family business in New York)
cemented himself as a prolific dude rancher.
To entice people to come out West, Brooks allowed Larom to
keep an office at Brooks Brothers in New York City, which helped
him create a demand for the dude ranch vacation.
I went out and sold the idea of a vacation on a dude ranch in
the Rocky Mountains, as the place for families to go get away from
the formalities and the typical eastern summer vacation, Larom
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 37
said in an interview in 1972. I stressed the fact that it provided a lege entrance exams while inhabiting a western ranch.
very healthy and interesting vacation for these children and for the When the school started in October 1922, there were eight
families, many of whom had homes on Long Island and they were students. By June there were 11.
all the social register set. And being a member of it myself, why I At the start of the Great Depression in 1929 enrollment initially
had an entry there. stayed steady, but by the following year itd begun to drop. In
To get the social cocktail-party set out West, Larom promoted 1931, Larom asked the instructors at the school to take a pay cut
simplicity of living. to account for a drop in enrollment from 37 to 21.
We didnt think anything of shaving in 34 degree water and The next year enrollment dropped to 11 students and then to
washing in it, Larom said. Of course, when it came time to take five by 1933. Laroms prep school ended in 1934, though tutoring
the weekly bath, that was another problem. continued until 1941.
In the fall of 1920, Larom married Irma Dew of Cody, who was Though the school at Valley suffered the ill effects of the De-
the local librarian at the time. A wedding notice from Oct. 20, pression, dude ranching remained popular, though Larom had to
1920, indicated the Laroms enjoyed a brief honeymoon, as they loosen some of his restrictions on guest merit and offer reduced
were eager to return to the ranch. rates.
He also was one of the integral figures in forming the Dude
Ranchers Association in 1926 and was elected its first president.
Visiting Valley Ranch Larom served as president for 19 years.
Larom helped pave the way for not only the success and popu-
Valley boasted guiding and pack trips into Wyomings wilder-
ness, horseback riding, entertainment and a pool for its guests. larity of dude ranches in the West, but the organizing and promo-
Linn Howard, whose family grew up visiting the Deer Creek tion of dude ranches through the Dude Ranchers Association.
Ranch nearby and eventually purchased the ranch, recalls visits to In addition, he was involved in many other aspects of life in
Valley Ranch as a young girl. the West. He was part owner of the Park County Enterprise and
It really was the fanciest dude ranch, she said. helped establish the Cody Stampede.
Howard, now 84, resides in New York City and spends her Though Larom sold Valley Ranch in the spring of 1969, he
summers in Wyoming. She said Larom was a lovely man. was permitted to live out the rest of his life in the home on the
She remembers going over to Valley for the mail, as they had a property. At 84 years old, he died Dec. 23, 1973.
post office, Larom offering carrots to her from the garden and rid- From the beginning of his career as a dude rancher Larom was
ing over bareback to attend dances. committed to survival and success, Kensel wrote. He achieved
After the dances concluded Larom would walk around, looking both through 54 years that included economic depression, war
for people in the bushes with a flashlight to make sure guests were and difficult adjustments in the postwar years.
back in their cabins.
It was hysterical, Howard said.
The guest list for Valley Ranch over the course of its 54 year
history read like a whos who of Eastern elite: political leaders,
painters, actors and actresses were among those who visited.
Its a very nice place as ranches go some thousands of acres
up and down a broad valley surrounded by mountains that sweep
up to the sky, reads an excerpt from a Valley Ranch brochure
signed by Larom. The South Fork of the Shoshone River flows
through the valley, furnishing water for our grass, hay and grain.
Streams of white water cascade down from the glaciers up there,
race in and out among the foothills, and flow placidly enough
across our valley to join the Shoshone on its way down hill 40
miles to Cody.
In addition to promoting the simplicity of living and being a
congenial host to multiple families who returned over the years,
Larom had a strict screening process for guests of his ranch.
References were required and only the best Christian families
(No Jews were allowed) are desired and a discriminating standard
of admittance is maintained, read a Valley Ranch brochure.
In 1938, Larom sent advertising folders for Valley Ranch to
the manager of the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone Park. In an
attached letter to the manager, Larom wrote, Should any one call
us, as a result of one of these folders being placed in their hands,
we will have to assume that they are of a desirable type and are
Gentiles, as you know our clientele are quite restricted.

Other pursuits
In other entrepreneurial efforts Larom decided to capitalize on
the off-season of dude ranching by utilizing Valley Ranch as a prep
school for boys.
Larom and Brookss creation of a college prep school was as
much an extension of their backgrounds as was their establish-
ment of a ranch for the rich and prominent, author W. Hudson
Kensel wrote in Dude Ranching in Yellowstone Country. A cowboy looks over the Boulder Basin trail to Upper Horse Range
It was an opportunity for Christian boys to prepare for their col- at Valley Ranch in the 1940s.
38 LEGENDS Summer 2017
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Lady Doc no shrinking violet in life, career
By BUZZY HASSRICK
Special to the Enterprise
An edition of the Meeteetse newspaper in December 1918
reported the death of a premature baby prematurely, as the
story unfolded.
An unidentified attending doctor had pronounced the child
stillborn and shared that news with the paper.
Dr. Frances Lane intervened and ended up helping save
the life of the baby girl. The baby thrived and had a daughter,
Holly Goodman, who shared the story.
Goodmans grandparents Nellie and George Sanderson
were early sheep ranchers at the Palette Ranch far up the
Greybull River outside Meeteetse. In 1918, Nellie was preg-
nant with her fifth child, with a February due date. When her
labor started Dec. 1, a doctor and midwife attended the birth.
After the doctor left and the midwife was cleaning up, she dis-
covered that the baby wasnt dead.
The midwife contacted Dr. Lane, who checked the baby
and found everything okay. Doris Sanderson joined the world,
warmed inside and out.
My mom was incubated in a shoe box on the stove door,
Goodman said. Along with that warmth, Doris was given
a cone of sugar that had been dunked in liquor to suck, to
stimulate blood circulation.
Goodman and Lane share another connection, the Cody
library. Goodman works there, and Lane helped found the first
Cody library and its successor. Conveniently, she had an of-
fice on the northeast corner of 11th and Sheridan, across the
street from the original library site.

Arriving in Cody
Lane set up her first office when she arrived here in 1902
in the Irma Hotel. A Wyoming connection came through her
father, architect Philander E. Lane, who designed the state
capitol. He also designed Colorados capitol.
Her family lived in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, where she was born
in 1873. Lane attended the Cook County Normal and Pre-
paratory School in Illinois and the University of Chicago. She
graduated from Herring Medical College in 1900 and arrived
in Cody two years later.
Her clientele included the towns namesake, William F. Dr. Frances Lane came to Cody in 1902 and set up her office in the
Buffalo Bill Cody, who reportedly used her as his personal Irma Hotel. (Park County Archives photo)
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 41
Dr. Frances Lane office sign, ca. 1905. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming, USA. Gift of Margery Gibson Ross.
physician for many years. She visited her patients mostly by
horseback and, to that end, kept a string of six saddle horses.
Lane landed contracts with the U.S. Reclamation Service from
1905-1910 to care for the employees working on the Shoshone
(Buffalo Bill Dam) Project the first for medical services ever
issued to a woman by the federal government. Workers paid $1
per month out of each paycheck to assure medical care. She
partnered with another doctor to establish the Lane-Bradbury
Hospital at the northwest corner of 12th and Bleistein.
Drs. Lane and Bradbury had their critics, wrote Jeannie Cook
in a June 23, 1999, Enterprise column. Dr. Lanes credentials
and her care of the Shoshone Dam workers later became the tar-
get of criticism in the novel The Lady Doc by Caroline Lockhart,
novelist, journalist and eventual Enterprise owner. It was pub-
lished in 1912, eight years after the author had moved to Cody.
Lockhart tried, unsuccessfully, to have her investigative report
about Lane published in a Denver paper. In 1909, Lane and
Bradbury won a medical damage suit brought against them.
What caused the rift between Lockhart and Lane remains a
mystery, but the Lady Doc stood her ground and contributed to
the community.
42 LEGENDS Summer 2017
She was no shrinking violet. That observation came from
longtime resident and former Buffalo Bill Museum curator Dick
Frost, as Cook wrote. She wore low-heeled walking shoes,
brown stockings, long tweed skirt, brown jacket, porkpie hat and
swung a cane as she went about her business.
Community activism
A community activist, Lane participated as an officer of the
Womans Club of Cody, which was organized in about 1904 for
the purpose of study and social intercourse. At their Thursday af-
ternoon meetings in the Irma, the members would discuss topics
theyd selected the year before, such as Germany, Wyoming and
English. They also discovered a missing local resource.
The need of a library in Cody became apparent, so a fund
was started that winter toward the building of a library, an
unidentified newspaper article said. The result was a small,
sandstone structure.
In July 1906, the club was donated a lot on Sheridan Avenue
by the Lincoln Land Co., with the understanding that it build
a library to cost at least $1,000 thereupon, and we this 17th
Satchel belonging to Dr. Frances Lane, ca. 1900. Buffalo Bill Center
of the West, Cody, Wyoming, USA. Gift of Dr. Frances Lane.
day of August, 1906, 3 p.m. lay the cornerstone and dedicate
the building for this purpose, according to a March 17, 1915,
Enterprise story.
Filling the shelves required another campaign.
There was no money for books after the library was built, so
everybody was solicited to send in all the books they could spare
from their own libraries, according to a Feb. 22, 1939, Enter-
prise story. That made quite a collection, but it was far from
suitable or adequate.
The library was kept open by members of the Womens club
in turns and the ladies found it quite an undertaking, but they
never gave up.
After a hiatus, the club reorganized as The Womens Public
Service League with Lane as president. The new group, deter-
mining a larger library was needed, launched a campaign in
1913 to solicit support from the Carnegie Foundation. The cor-
nerstone was laid two years later. The original building was razed
and replaced with a 50x51-foot building of gray-pressed brick
and stone at a cost of $15,000.
Lane participated in a broader cause too. An advocate of
citizenship for American women, she became the Wyoming
chairman for the National Womens party for two years, 1916
and 1917, when the group launched its nationwide campaign for
the 19th amendment. With its passage in 1920, women secured
voting rights.
Valiant spirit
In 1918 Lane spent about a year away from Cody at her
ranch in Anaheim, Calif., returning with her friend and eventual
heir, Margery Ross. Lane was a member of the Sheridan Chapter
of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the American
Medical Association, and an active member of the Cody Club,
Cody Golf Club, Business and Professional Womens Club and
school board.
Her contributions to Cody ended abruptly in 1938 when
influenza-pneumonia struck Lane. She died in less than a week.
She was interested in such sports as hunting, tennis and golf,
and was always a great lover of nature, her obituary reads. She
was a founder of the Episcopalian community, memorialized in
a stained-glass window in the Poker Church. A bronze plaque
honoring Lane and installed in the Carnegie Library now adorns a
wall by the fireplace in the Park County Public Library in Cody.
The unfailing service of which she has given so unstintingly
Dr. Frances Lane (left) is pictured with Miss Margery Ross in the
drugstore. (Park County Archives photo)
has endeared her to all, her obituary reads, and the valiant
spirit which carried her through the vicissitudes of pioneer days
still lives on, an inspiration to those who come after.
Eulogy: Dr. Lanes task on
earth was no easy one
When death stilled the courageous and kindly heart of
Dr. Lane, Cody, Wyoming, sustained a staggering and grievous
blow.
That sentence began the lengthy eulogy delivered by Mil-
ward Simpson, future Wyoming governor and U.S. senator, fa-
ther of Pete and Al Simpson. When the working tools dropped
from the lifeless and formerly tireless hands of Dr. Lane, he
continued, humanity received an irreparable loss.
Dr. Lanes task on earth was no easy one. ...Visualize this
slip of a girl a young, vivacious and beautiful girl daring
this then wild and wooly western country, braving any and all
dangers, coming to visit, staying to administer because the
need was urgent and great.
Picture Frances Lane ... with horse and buggy, alone
threading her tortuous way through Shoshone gorge, along pre-
cipitous canyon walls, to relieve the pain and suffering of some
accident victim at the construction camp at the dam.
Simpson proceeded to enumerate Lanes qualities that he
admired: Her faith in God, her culture and refinement, her love
of humanity, her gentility, her regard and interest in animals,
plants, flowers and the planets, and her never-ending interest
in Cody and community.
He closed by saying, Dr. Frances Lane, we are grateful for
this privilege to pay homage to a woman of your calibre ...Well
done, my good and faithful servant.
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 43
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Brothers, sister make journey West
By CASSANDRA STUROS
Staff writer
The Newton name in Cody is as easy to spot as western
paraphernalia. You dont have to travel far to stumble upon it.
The Newtons, whose influence in Cody started before Cody
was even a town proper, is reflective in names like Newton
Lake, Newton Avenue and Newton Creek.
Sylvester (S.S.) and Eliza Newton had nine children, seven
boys and two girls. In 1883 among the first to venture from
the Midwest to the wide open West were two of the Newton
brothers: A.C., and J.W. All seven of the Newton brothers
went by their initials.

Journeying West
A.C. and J.W. first arrived in what is presently Roundup,
Mont. Their view of the West at that time was a, stockmans
paradise with grass belly deep to a horse, according to an
excerpt from the book, Roundup on the Musselshell by Rae
and Audrey Newton.
Through the winter of 1885 the brothers endured bitter
cold, snow and ice that limited their ability to care much for
their animals or themselves. The spring didnt bring much
relief either when a band of Cree Indians stole all their horses
but one.
By 1891, the Newtons began to consider Cody Country.
J.W. traded horses for the Marquette Ranch up the South
Fork.
Later J.W. would eventually make his way back to Mon-
tana, but first another Newton brother headed West. When
M.O. lost his job in the Panic of 1893, which was a seri-
ous economic depression in the United States that began in
1893 and ended in 1897, he too decided to join his brothers
in their Wyoming endeavors. He stayed a few years on the
Marquette Ranch before going back and getting his family to A.C. Newton is pictured on horseback. (Park County Archives photo)
bring West in 1898.
A.C. furthered his ranching by homesteading the Trail except tend bar and smoke a cigarette.
Creek Ranch. In the beginning, A.C. owned 160 acres, but You know, I never hired a man who smoked a cigarette,
he enlarged his holdings until hed acquired 12 miles along wore high-laced boots or wore a straw hat, A.C. said. Once
the creek, where he could run cattle, sheep and horses, ac- a fellow asked me why, and I told him, When I want a man,
cording to a Cody Enterprise article from 1950. I want him right now; and I dont want him to be rolling a
A.C. once told the Enterprise that hed done everything cigarette, lacing his boots or trying to catch up to his hat.

Summer 2017 LEGENDS 45

More family arrives
When some of the Newton brothers went back East to
celebrate their parents anniversary, the men enthusiastically
promoted the West. It would inevitably rub off on more of their
family.
The men persuaded their brother L.L., who was working in
a newspaper office at the time, to come work for Col. Peake on
the new Park County Enterprise in Cody. L.L. did work for the
newspaper for a time before later moving to Lander.
The Newtons sister Sarah Darlene Ingraham and her husband
would be swayed to join the westward movement, as well as the
Newton patriarch and matriarch, initially on a hunting trip.
When Sarah Darlene, or S. Darlene as she was sometimes
referred to, first came to Cody with her parents, she recalled her
husbands immense delight in the country.
The discomfort of sleeping on the ground and being cold and
wet did not daunt him, she said in an Enterprise article. He
kept saying, this is paradise lost and we have found it.
The Ingrahams then pulled up their Midwestern roots for the
wild, untamed West.
Ingraham and his brother-in-law E.E. partnered on purchasing
the Rattlesnake Ranch. The Ingrahams first resided in a one-
room cabin on Rattlesnake Creek. The first night in their new
cabin, S. Darlene heard a scratching sound and pleaded with her
husband to investigate.
I remember what a scolding I gave him, she said. She told
her husband, Here I have given up all of my comforts to come
Group of people fishing including Celia Keig, Brownie Newton, Dorothy Newton, and Frank Bushnell (brother to Eliza Newton). (Park County
Archives photos)
46 LEGENDS Summer 2017
out here to live and you who have promised to protect me fail the
first time a wild animal enters our cabin.
As it happened the wild animal was a skunk. The skunks
lingering aroma would stick around for longer than S. Darlenes
fear.
Though willing to move West and exchange comforts of home
for rugged living, the remoteness of Rattlesnake Ranch would
eventually prove too much for S. Darlene. She and her husband
moved closer to Cody, building the Nearby Ranch on the outskirts
of town. Her parents S.S. and Eliza joined them.
Prolific figures
The Newtons though vital in early homesteading of Cody
Country, werent just ranchers. Some would go on to own news-
papers throughout the state of Wyoming, open a general store
and eventually a car garage that would be replaced by the Cody
Theatre. Even an irrigation business which is still around today
as Pawnee Irrigation.
The Newtons remained prolific figures within the community
throughout their lives. They become friends with and hosted Buf-
falo Bill Cody at their Trail Creek Ranch.
When patriarch of the family, S.S. passed away an article
from 1910 indicated that during the funeral, all of the business
houses in Cody were closed and a hush seemed to settle over the
entire community.
It is doubtful if there has ever been another funeral in Cody
which has caused more genuine sorrow.
Women cooking at an open fire in camp on Trail Creek above A.C. Newtons Trail Creek Ranch near Red Butte.
Children of original Newton homesteaders share their memories
Many of the Newtons children also shared memories of
their lives in the Cody area.
Glen Newton, son of M.O., recalled in an Enterprise article
when the family first arrived in Cody in 1893.
It took three days to get here from Red Lodge, he said.
The first night we stayed at Chance, Mont., and the second
night we stayed at the Eagles Nest Stage Station. Then we
drove on to the Trail Creek Ranch where my uncle Abe was
living at the time.
Glen also recalled seeing a bank robbery in Cody.
In 1904 the bank got robbed, he said. I was standing
on the corner and I heard some shooting and I just thought
somebody was shooting up the town. Then I saw two men
riding by and people were shooting at them from town. I ran
over to the bank and there was Midaugh, the banks cashier,
lying in the street.
I pushed through the crowd and the doctor was workin
on him. He loosened Midaughs tie and the blood trickled
down his chest. First man I ever saw die. The robbers were
never caught, but they didnt get any money either.
Brownie Newton, son of A.C., also shared stories in an
Enterprise article. He spoke of getting bitten multiple times
by rattlesnakes, his uncle making whiskey with spring water,
alcohol, brown sugar and chewing tobacco (called Firewater)
and surviving the terrible winter of 1985.
The cattle would cut cottonwoods down, gnawing on
limbs as big as your leg, he said. Theyd walk around my
fathers cabin all night trying to keep warm. Some froze
right where they were standing. That disgusted my father on
cattle.
Lois Kurtz, who was the daughter of Sarah Darlene,
shared her memories of growing up at the Nearby Ranch.
The Ingrahams had a donkey that accompanied the children
to school, so they could deliver milk to customers along the
way.
Sometimes, we would run back into the house to get our
books or something and the donkey would go off on his own
and stop at the first stop, which was Mrs. Peckham, she
said. We would have to call Mrs. Peckham and ask her to
hold the donkey for us.
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 47
Moonshiner stayed step ahead of law
Jack Spicer came to Wyoming in 1907.
48 LEGENDS Summer 2017
By MAX MILLER
Staff writer
They say he was a tall man a handsome man
but that he had really cold eyes, really steel cold eyes,
Stephanie Stockhill said.
Stockhill was speaking about one of her and her
father Carl Royals ancestors, moonshiner Jack Spicer,
who spent well over a decade dodging the law and
profiteering off of a black market whiskey operation in
the North Fork area before dying in a gunfight less than
a month after Prohibition was repealed in 1933.
By all accounts, Spicer was a fearsome character.
Everybody was afraid of him, and he always car-
ried two pistols and a knife, Stockhill said of the man
known as Snake to some.
Despite his menacing reputation, Spicers story is, at
heart, a complicated family love story.
Arriving in Cody
He came to Wyoming from North Carolina as an
18-year-old in 1907, and by 1913 he had wed the
love of his life, Etta Brown. Even before the advent
of national Prohibition, Jack and Etta were partners
in crime as well as life, with Jack operating secret
distilleries to evade first regulators and later prohibition
agents.
Etta, who a year after Jacks death married Jacks
nephew, Lonnie Royal, gained a renown of her own.
Remembering childhood visits to her Aunt Jake, as
she called Etta, Stockhill said, Etta used snuff she
was a tough old cookie.
Etta was also known to be a quick-witted accom-
plice in the moonshining operation. Once, she used
a stick to smash bottles of moonshine rather than let
them fall into the hands of police and become evi-
dence.
Perhaps such fast-thinking helps explain the pairs
bond. On one occasion, while Sheridan Avenue was be-
ing paved, Jack and Etta were walking down the street
when a construction worker whistled at Etta, Carl said.
The old barn and bunkhouse at Jack Spicers spread on the North Fork.
They just walked on like they didnt hear him, and (Jack)
took her into Cody Trading, Stockhill said. Then he walked
back out, went up to the guy, whipped out his knife and cut him
open.
The entire time, Jack didnt say a word.
Making moonshine
Such a violent, tight-lipped reputation may have served Jack
well in his perilous trade. By the mid-1920s, he had been served
with a slew of search warrants, but law enforcement more often
than not walked away empty-handed, despite searching, as one
warrant put it, beneath floors, behind baseboards and in various
other secret hiding places.
Jack found a hundred clever ways to stay just ahead of three
sequential Park County sheriffs. Often his stills could only be
approached through one narrow canyon and he would employ
a lookout, paid in moonshine, to keep an eye on the entrance.
Sometimes by the time the law got to one of Jacks hideouts, all
theyd find was a note reading Just a little too damn late.
Throughout the 20s Jack didnt have one still going at a time
it was all different places, Royal said.
With the liquor retailing at $20 per gallon, it was an extremely
lucrative venture.
I think they had some cows, but that wasnt their real busi-
ness their business was the moonshining, Stockhill said.
Jack worked in style. He had this really hot car real fancy
that he could haul his moonshine in and drive really fast because
he had to, Stockhill said. The operation was transport intensive,
with Jack and his crew hauling in beet pulp from Lovell and
delivering finished product to Billings, Miles City, Red Lodge, and
Forsythe, Mont., as well as Cody.
Such large amounts of money and the constant risk of jail
made life stressful for moonshiners, and in the early 20s Jack
got suspicious and shot one of his partners in crime, Joe Hill. Hill
lived through the encounter, but Jack and Etta left the area for
a few years, and Royal said he believed they had gone back to
North Carolina.
By the middle of the decade however, Jack was back and
soon business was booming again. He got even more brazen in
his flaunting of the law, walking down streets in broad daylight
making deliveries with a gunnysack of his shine slung over one
shoulder.
Jack was a hard man, but not one without loyalty. When
Howard Royal, his business associate and nephew, got caught
operating a still in 1929, Jack and a posse of outlaws busted
him out from jail and hid in Sunlight Basin while the sheriff
searched in vain for the fugitive and his accomplices.
Eventually, Howard took a train back to North Carolina
where he was arrested on a separate charge, and sent promptly
back to Wyoming. He would only ended up serving 10 days in
jail.
Death by shootout
The end of prohibition must have been something of a shock
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 49
for Jack, a man whose entire adult
life had revolved around such
fraught encounters with authority.
It was a shock he didnt have
much time to process. At the end
of March 1933, less than a month
after Prohibition was repealed, Jack
attended a dance at Wapiti School, a
popular gathering place at the time.
On that fateful night, he got into
a fight with his nephew Artis Royal.
Jack was always picking fights
with Lonnie (Artis older brother),
and since Artis was bigger, hed
always stick up for Lonnie, Carl
Royal said.
This time, that devotion ended
in tragedy. After their disagreement,
Jack told Artis not to come back to
the bunkhouse where he had been
living. When he saw Artis there the
next day, a fatal gunfight broke out.
Artis was shot three times in the
chest, with bullets puncturing both
his lungs. He managed to shoot
Jack twice, however, and one of his
bullets went straight through Jacks
heart, killing him instantly.
Whoever was up there stuffed
silk rags into [Artis] sucking chest
wound, ran him to the hospital
[in Cody] and somehow he lived,
Stockhill said.
A year later in 1934, Lonnie
ended up marrying Jacks widow
Etta. When he visited Etta and
Lonnie as a young man, Carl said,
[Etta] never talked about [the
shooting]. Neither one of them did,
they were really quiet.
Stockhill agreed: [Lonnie] would
talk about the moonshining a little
bit, but he would never really talk
about the shooting.
For his part, Artis later told his
children and others that the bullet
wounds hed received were scars
from a bear fight.
Etta, Lonnie and Jack are buried
next to one another in the Eagles
Club area of a nearby cemetery
but not with Etta in the middle, as
might be expected given her rela-
tions to both men.
Did [Etta] play a role in this?
Because [Artis, Lonnie, Etta and
Jack] were up there all the time,
all together and they drank a lot,
Stockhill questions.
With all three now dead, that
question may never be answered.
One tradition has weathered the
years and turning generations,
however.
When one of my uncles comes
[from North Carolina], I have moon-
shine at home its kind of a family Jack Spicer is pictured with his wife Etta. She was an accomplice in his moonshining operation.
thing, Stockhill said. She once smashed bottles of moonshine rather than let them fall into the hands of police.
50 LEGENDS Summer 2017
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Summer 2017 LEGENDS 51

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The Cody Episcopal Church and rectory (above) sits at 1101 Rumsey Ave. The
church was later moved to 8th and Simpson. (Park County Archives photos)
Card game winnings built first church
By RHONDA SCHULTE
Staff writer
A quaint Episcopal chapel in Cody car-
ries historical significance as the towns first
church. Yet the little white church is equally
known for its connection to the towns founder
and a high-stakes poker game.
Built in 1902, the Little Poker Church
served as a place of worship for settlers until
1965, when a larger Christ Episcopal Church
was built on land a few blocks south of the
Buffalo Bill Center of the West on land donated
by Wyoming Gov. and Mrs. Milward Simpson
of Cody. Today the Poker Church sits on the
same lot; its white steeple peeking through
surrounding trees. It remains in use for special
54 LEGENDS Summer 2017
occasions, summer services, baptisms and
weddings.
The story of how the church was financed
by a high-stakes poker game is directly tied to
the towns namesake, Col. William F. Buf-
falo Bill Cody. On break from touring with
his world-famous wild west show, he was
seated at the poker table in Cody; and by most
accounts, Buffalo Bill suggested the win-
nings go toward funding a church. His idea to
fund churches was surely in response to the
outspoken women of the community who were
intent on establishing places of worship in the
isolated, frontier community.
Historical accounts credit Anna Granny
Peake, described as a fine southern lady,
for her persistence in fulfilling the need for
a church. Cody was incorporated as a town
government in 1901. A few years earlier, in
1898, Col. John H. Peake and his wife arrived
from Washington, D.C., to live in the desolate,
fledgling town of Cody; a unchurched place
with a saloon-dominated main street.
The Peakes had known Buffalo Bill for a
number of years. Hed convinced them to leave
the comforts of the East and to move across
the country so Col. Peake could become the
editor of the Cody Enterprise. To persuade the
move, Buffalo Bill promised the sickly Anna
would regain her health. Believing she had
only had six months to live anyway, her doctor
allowed the trip.
 In her book The Poker Church of Cody
author Lucille N. Hicks writes: Mrs. Peake
arrived in hope for a happy if short life, having
been assured by Bill Cody that the salubrious
climate and medicinal properties of the hot
springs down by the river, DeMaris Needlebath
Plunge, was just the ticket for her to regain her
health.
Apparently, the climate and nearby mineral
springs restored her to good health for she died
in Cody in 1959 at age 96. But in Codys early
days, Mrs. Peake was not happy in the frontier
town. She told a friend she could never feel at
home without a Sunday church service.
Cody had at that time only 200 souls and
most of them were male, reads one his-
torical account. There were several places of
debauchery on Main Street (Sheridan Avenue)
but nary a church in town.
An Episcopalian, Mrs. Peake learned clergy-
men came to Cody by horseback or team and
wagon, although infrequently. One was of a
Methodist-Episcopal Church and the other, a
Roman Catholic. Their quick stops left much to
be desired.
At some point Anna spoke of her desire for
a church to Mrs. Oakie Snyder, who wrote to
the Bishop Graves in Laramie, the Episcopal
church seat where she knew a new cathedra
has been built. He sent her letter to Boise,
Idaho, where head of the diocese, Bishop
J.B. Funsten, was headquartered. His area
included southern Idaho and western Wyo-
ming. Surprised to hear of a town named Cody,
the bishop took out his maps and plotted the
1,000 mile journey, going first by railroad
through Butte, Billings and Red Lodge, Mont. It
was October of 1900.
In a Cody Enterprise March 18, 1911,
issue, Funsten recalled events that lead to
establishing a church.
From [Red Lodge] I committed my des-
tinies to a wild Scotchman who was a mail
carrier between this point and Meeteetse, he
said. His outfit was a skeleton wagon and
a pair of broncos. The mail was packed up
on the rear of the wagon and on top of this a
young Scotchman [rode], while I occupied the
seat with the driver.
It was night when they started off on the
long journey over sagebrush-covered country.
The horses were stubborn about starting out.
But our ingenious driver got behind the
wagon while I held the reins, and pushed it
onto the horses while they were kicking up and
as they began to run away, he climbed into his
Episcopal church women dress for their Washington Birthday Bazaar and Tea in 1906. They
include Dr. Frances Lane, Daisy Beck, Maud Brown, Hattie McFall and Granny Peake.
seat and managed to keep them going until
they were a little more obedient, Funsten said.
They traveled throughout the night. Upon
arriving in Cody the next morning, the bishop
got his first view of the ramshackle town.
There were comparatively few shacks and
the outlook seemed to me not the best, he
said.
Funsten found a primitive little hotel in
which to sleep; the only stopping place in Cody
at the time.
Col. Cody was not in town; however, the
bishop managed to call on most everyone else.
That afternoon Funsten looked up another town
founder, George T. Beck, who was the soul of
hospitality and he called on Mr. Peake, who
was one of the noblest men I ever met.
He arranged a service in the lean-to of the
Cody Trading Company store.
That night we had a fine service and I
think nearly everyone in town turned out, Fun-
sten said. At this service I spoke of my desire
to build an Episcopal Church there as soon as
possible.
He started on the long trip back after the
service. Before leaving, the bishop promised to
start a church if the towns ladies would start
collecting enough funds, $2,000, for a build-
ing. The amount would equal $54,876 today.
While is was the women who promoted the
idea, it was the towns leading men who jump-
started the project.
As the story goes, five men sat around a
table in Purcells salon one evening in 1901.
Buffalo Bill, George Beck, Jake Schwoob
(manager of Cody Trading Company) and a few
cattlemen were playing their customary game
of poker when the pot for a single hand had
grown rather sizable.
During a lull in the betting, one of the men
(reputedly Buffalo Bill) jokingly suggested since
the game was for fun, no one man should
win the large sum of money on the table. It as
agreed the winner should donate the jackpot
money toward the founding of a church in the
community.
In a 1939 newspaper article titled Jack-
pot commences fund to construct Codys first
church: choir soon exceeds congregation in
magnitude Beck described the famous poker
game.
We stopped before the call was made
and concluded that, as a good joke, we would
make the man who won it contribute it to the
building of a church, as we had none in Cody
at the time. We all agreed to this. It was my
good luck to win when the pot had reached
$550. I named the Episcopal Church to
receive the donation.
By todays standards, $500 is equal to
about $13,719. Because there wasnt yet an
Episcopal congregation in Cody, Beck and his
wife Daisy formed a guild to hold the jackpot
and take responsibility for raising the remaining
$1,500.
Mrs. William Simpson, mother of Gov. Mil-
ward Simpson, is recorded as saying the men
never let the ladies know where the money
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 55
came from, but that the ladies im-
mediately got busy giving dinners
and bazaars until they had a sum
as large or larger to contribute.
Funsten returned the next year
by train to deliver a Thanksgiving
Day service in a little stone school
house. The following June, he
traveled to Cody from the south,
starting from Rawlins and going by
way of Lander, Thermopolis and
Meeteetse.
It was a long, dusty stage trip
of 300 miles but I had a hearty
reception and held service in a
public hall, he said.
On this occasion, he selected
the church site, canvassed the
townspeople for subscriptions for a
church and wrote letters to a num-
ber of prominent men connected
with the Burlington Railroad, seek-
ing their help. He was determined
the church should be built without
debt.
The Poker Church was built
according to a simple design
supplied by the church; a design
commonly found in small towns
around Wyoming and the U.S.
It seemed almost everyone
pitched in.
Our ladies and people worked
faithfully in the furnishing of the
church, and good friends made
special donations, such as the
chancel window given by Mrs.
Wetmore, wrote the bishop.
(Helen Wetmore was Buffalo Bills
sister.)
The Christ Episcopal Church
was consecrated Sunday morning
on Nov. 23, 1902.
This time Funsten arrived from
Boise with the Rev. S.J. Jennings,
who had overseen the churchs
construction. He preached the
morning sermon using the text
inscribed on the chancel window,
God is Love. Another service
was given that evening.
Apparently the services pro-
duced a great impression on the
community and all of our people
were very happy and certainly
Mr. Jennings and I rejoiced with
them, Funsten said.
On this trip the clergy stayed
at the splendid new hotel called
Buffalo Bills Irma Hotel. Scarcity
of ministers, the places isolation,
and the vastness of the territory
all impeded the bishops attempt
to start a church. The ministerial
job eventually fell on laymens
shoulders. In the 1939 Cody
Enterprise, Beck said when the
church was completed, Harry
56 LEGENDS Summer 2017
Weston was appointed to read the
services.
But very soon he quit and
turned the job over to me, Beck
said. I succeeded in building up
quite a congregation by getting
everybody who thought he could
sing, to go to the choir. The
choir got so enthusiastic that there
were more choir members than
people in the congregation.
The rector finally sent by the
Episcopal hierarchy described as
an irascible soul took over with
a vengeance.
He seemed a man of action, for
within a year he had the church
practically broken up, wrote
David Wasden in From Beaver
to Oil. The new rector fired the
choir leader and excommunicated
Beck, who later remarked, I was
thankful.
Church membership dropped
until only a few diehards re-
mained. The unhappy rector was
replaced by the Rev. Mr. VanWin-
klel and people once more started
filling the church pews. But Van
Winkle was not well and soon his
duties became too much for his
health and he resigned.
Once again the lay people
took over and services went on,
wrote Hicks. Finding interested
lay people, however, was not an
easy matter, many having been
cured of church attendance by
the first rector.
Early summer of 1904, the
Rev. P. Murphy took over. During
his ministry the bell was secured
and installed in the steeple as
was an adjacent lot for a rectory.
A rectory was built alongside the
church several years afterward.
Mr. Murphy also held services
at Basin, Meeteetse and other
towns, but because there were
no railroads to those towns, each
journey cost $25 for the team,
making it hard for him to advance
his ministry as he wished.
In those early years, the church
had frequent pastoral vacancies,
and for a time was used by the
Presbyterians for their services.
Funstens last visit was in 1908.
In his 1911 Enterprise recolle-
tion, the bishop finished by saying,
Altogether, in many visits to the
Big Horn Basin, especially to
Cody, I travelled many thousands
of miles on the stage and many
more on the train.
I always felt a deep interest in
the place and pray Gods blessing
on the people.
Poker Church has seen several
reverends during its lifetime
The Poker Church has a storied
history beyond its origins as a
building project started with poker
winnings.
On June 2, 1911, the Rev. J.
McVicker Haight was called to
Christ Episcopal Church. During
his stay a $3,200 rectory beside the
Poker Church was completed and
behind it, a barn.
In 1913 he was succeeded by
the Rev. Stephen E. McGinley, a
bachelor who lived at the rectory
but ate many of his meals at the
Chamberlin Hotel, a block away. It
was during McGinleys term that
the millionaire Bet a Million Gates
came to Cody to hunt with Frost
and Richard. He is said to have be-
friended many people in Cody and
went around and paid debts of the
churches. Having arrived in Cody by
a private Pullman car and train, he
stayed three nights.
Author Lucille Hicks writes: The
last night of his visit, after imbibing
freely of the spirits of goodwill he
found on the Cody streets, he retired
to his car and there died of apo-
plexy, brought on, the paper said, by
his toasting the good people of Cody
too liberally.
Gates had financed a trip for
McGinley to return East to marry
his sweetheart. When the bride and
groom arrived in Cody, typical of
the Wyoming frontier tradition, the
groom was shanghaied and made
to ride a saddle tossed on the hood
of a touring car as it was driven
over the river and through town
before allowing the rector to join
his bride.
When John Gillespee arrived
in 1919, the parish had grown to
include Meeteese and Powell, and
the job was almost too much for
one man.
During the early 1920s Christ
Church was under the spiri-
tual guidance of the outspoken Mr.
Blake, who made the newspapers
frequently. In those days drugs such
as cocaine could be purchased over
the counter from any druggist, and
the rectors wife complained of his
drug use and temper.
Blakes tenure in Cody was dur-
ing Prohibition. Other churches had
replaced wine with grape juice for
Holy Eucharist, and it was assumed
the Christ Episcopal Church rector
would do likewise. The Enterprises
Feb. 8, 1922, issue proclaimed oth-
erwise, reading: Episcopal church
will continue to use fermented
wine for services, spunky rector
declares. He will not use grape
juice. Will make his own first and go
to jail if necessary.
During the pastorate of the Rev.
A.E. Paula in 1931, a guild hall was
built to serve as a choir vesting
room and a church school class-
room; however, the general fabric
of the church remained unchanged
in its first 35 years. Eventually,
though, the winds that roar out of
the Shoshone Canyon had left their
mark and the church building was
declared unsafe. The general feeling
was a church built of native stone
would better weather the harsh
windstorms.
Just before World War II, the Rev.
Lefty Loftstrom arrived in Cody. The
beloved rector was assisted by the
Rev. John McLaughlin until both left
to become service chaplains. Before
then, while McLaughlin was living
in Cody, his sister-in-law came to
visit Yellowstone. Sadly, she was
killed there by a bear when using
a ladies restroom at a camp area.
It was believed the bear was in the
building, and when she entered, she
surprised it. The bear attacked and
killed her before help arrived.
The Rev. Bennett came for
a short time. But he had many
personal problems and was soon
relieved. He remained in Cody,
living in an apartment over a garage
behind the Lockhart home. One
night, alone and ill, he died in a fire
started from cooking grease.
 After World War II the congregation began to
grow and the little Poker Church with room for
100 was often crowded despite the addition of a
parish house and classrooms. It wasnt until the
1960s that a larger church was built. On Sundays,
the little Poker Church was so crowded that chairs
were placed in the aisles. A drive was made to
build a new church. Consequently, the current
Christ Episcopal Church at Simpson and Eighth
streets opened its doors in 1965.
Codys first church was moved to property
southeast of its replacement. After the Rev. Pat-
terson Keller arrived in Cody in 1971, the small
church was refurbished with stained glass side
windows designed to match the original alter win-
dow. Through efforts of friends and parishioners,
the Poker Church was furnished with the first pipe
organ in Wyoming and a belfry bell.
In 2002, the Cody Enterprise reported a Cali-
fornia visitor donated funds for a bronze plaque at
the Poker Church, which had inspired her during
a lengthy recuperation in Cody.
A memorial garden near the Poker Church was
added in 2005. In keeping with the 1902 period
of the historical chapel, a wrought iron fence
encircles the area. The Christ Episcopal Church
Memorial Garden accommodates ashes contained
in canisters or spread in a common area. Benches
are placed along the paths, and throughout the
garden are native plants, shrubs and trees.
Now often referred to as the Happy Chapel,
Codys first church will always be affectionately
known as the Poker Church.

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Summer 2017 LEGENDS 57
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58 LEGENDS Summer 2017

 Welds so tough
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Summer 2017 LEGENDS 59
John Wayne
On July 4, 1976, John
Wayne (third from left)
served as the grand mar-
shal for the bicentennial
Stampede Parade. He also
As a gateway to Yellowstone, Cody has had its
helped dedicate the Win-
chester Collection when fair share of famous people come through. From
it arrived at the Buffalo
Bill Historical Center. An
Academy Award winner
presidents and authors, to baseball players and
for True Grit in 1969,
Wayne starred in 142
actors, here are just a few who have visited the
films, with more than 80
of those being westerns. town named after Buffalo Bill Cody.
Curt Gowdy
Curt Gowdy (right) was
a trustee at the Buffalo Bill
Historical Center. Gowdy
was an American sports-
caster, well known as the
longtime voice of the
Boston Red Sox and for his
coverage of many nationally
televised sporting events,
primarily for NBC Sports in
the 1960s and 1970s.

Slim Pickens
Slim Pickens was in
attendance for the ded-
ication of the corner-
stone laying in 1968
for the soon-to-be-built
wing of the Buffalo
Bill Museum at the
Buffalo Bill Historical
Center. He worked as a
rodeo clown for several
years before becoming Cornelius Ryan
an actor. His cred- When it was decided to build a
its include Blazing wing at the Buffalo Bill Historical
Saddles, Dr. Strange- Center for the Buffalo Bill Museum,
love, The Cowboys author Cornelius Ryan spoke at the
and Tom Horn. cornerstone laying in 1968. His
works includes The Longest Day:
6 June 1944 D-Day, The Last
Battle and A Bridge Too Far.
60 LEGENDS Summer 2017

Jimmy Doolittle
General Jimmy
Doolittle attended the
Winchester Collection
dedication in 1976. An
American aviation pio-
neer, he was awarded the
Medal of Honor for his
valor and leadership as
commander of the Doo-
little Raid, a bold long-
range retaliatory air raid
on the Japanese main
islands months after the
Attack on Pearl Harbor.
Patrick Wayne
In 1959, the world
premier of the west-
ern The Young Land
was held at the Cody
Theatre. Star Patrick
Wayne, son of John
Wayne, attended. He
also went events that
were part of the opening
of the Whitney Gal-
lery of Western Art. He
made over 40 films,
including several with
his father.
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway visited
Cody in October 1932, and
his signature can be found in
the Chamberlin Inns historic
registry. While in the area he
fished, hunted and drank at
the local taverns. He was also
working, and it was from Cody
that he mailed Death in the
Afternoon. One of the great
20th century novelists, he won
a Pulitzer Prize for the The Old
Man and the Sea. Other works
include A Farewell to Arms
and The Sun Also Rises.
Calvin
Coolidge
President Cal-
vin Coolidge spent
summers in South
Dakota and came to
Wyoming from time
to time for short
sightseeing excur-
sions. In August
1927, he vaca-
tioned in Yellow-
stone, passing back
and forth through
Cody.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Whitney
Cornelius Vanderbilt C.V. Whitney
(right) was the son of sculptor Gertrude
Vanderbilt Whitney, who created Buffalo
Bill The Scout statue in Cody. A busi-
nessman and film producer, his company
C.V. Whitney Pictures produced films
including The Searchers and The Young
Land. He became a major benefactor for
the Buffalo Bill Memorial Association.
James
Michener
When the Plains
Indian Museum was
dedicated in June 1979,
author James Michener
was the keynote speaker.
Micheners novels include
the Pulitzer Prize win-
ning Tales from South
Pacific, as well as The
Drifters, Hawaii and
Space.
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 61
 Mickey
Cochrane
Mickey Cochrane
(center) came to Cody
in 1941 for a hunting
trip. He played Major
League Baseball from
1925 to 1937. He
helped the Philadel-
phia Athletics win the
World Series in 1929
and 1930 and is a
member of the hall of
fame.

Robert Robert Redford

Robert Redford served as a pallbearer when the grave
Woodruff of mountain man Jeremiah Johnston was relocated to Old
Trail Town on June 8, 1974. Johnstons legendary exploits
Robert Woodruff were brought to the big screen in Jeremiah Johnson,
purchased the TE which starred Redford. The actors credits also include
Ranch in the 1940s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and
and owned it un- All the Presidents Men.
til 1972. He had
Thomas Molesworth
redecorate the ranch.
Woodruff was presi-
dent of The Coca-
Cola Company from
Ty Cobb
Hall of fame base-
1923 until 1954. ball player Ty Cobb
(left) attended the
ground breaking for the
Buffalo Bill Museum
in 1926. Having just
returned from a hunt-
ing trip, he was invited
to the event by Mary
Jester Allen. In 1935
he returned for a tour
of Yellowstone and
another hunting trip.
Cobb played Major
League Baseball from
1905-1928 and spent
most of his career with
the Detroit Tigers.

Prince of Monaco
Prince Albert I came to Wyoming to hunt with
Buffalo Bill Cody in 1913, along with outfitter A.A.
Anderson and other local sportsmen. The extended
hunt took place near Yellowstone. He ascended
to the throne in Monaco on Sept. 10, 1889, and
served until his death on June 20, 1922.
Tris Speaker
Hall of fame baseball player Tris Speak-
er (right) attended the ground breaking for
the Buffalo Bill Museum in 1926 with Ty
Cobb, having just returned from a hunt-
ing trip. Speaker debuted with the Boston
Red Sox in 1907 and led them to World
Series championships in 1912 and 1915.
His career ended in 1928.

(Pictures of Curt Gowdy, Calvin Coolidge, Patrick Wayne, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, Mickey Cochrane, Ty Cobb and the Prince of Monaco are from the Buf-
falo Bill Center of the West. The photo of Robert Redford is by Dewey Vanderhoff)

62 LEGENDS Summer 2017

 RV SupplieS
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1808 Sheridan Ave., PO Box 1870
Cody, WY 82414
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Summer 2017 LEGENDS 63

 Famed 20th
century artist
born in Cody
Artist Jackson Pollock revolutionized the world of
modern art with his unique abstract painting tech-
niques.
Paul Jackson Pollock was born Jan. 28, 1912, in
Cody, the youngest of five brothers. His father LeRoy
Pollock was a farmer and a government land survey-
or, and his mother Stella May McClure was described
as a fierce woman with artistic ambitions. The family
left Cody when Pollock was just 10 months old and
lived in Arizona and California.
When Pollock was 8, his father, who was an
abusive alcoholic, left the family and Pollocks older
brother, Charles, became like a father to him. Charles
was an artist and he had a significant influence on Jackson Pollock, circa 1950/unidentified photographer.
his younger brothers future ambitions. Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner papers, circa 1905-
Pollock first studied art in 1925 in Los Angeles. 1984. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
By 1929, he moved to New York to pursue paint-
ing at the Art Students League under Thomas Hart
Benton, who was to remain a supporter throughout
Pollocks life. In the 1930s Pollock blended his Ben-
ton-derived brand of Regionalism with elements of Western artist shared
Surrealism. During the Depression he and his brother
Sanford worked for the Works Progress Administration friendship with Pollock
Federal Art Project, creating representational murals.
In the early 1940s Pollock began to exhibit in Jackson Pollock had a strong influence on the
New York and received a contract from Peggy Gug- early artistic career of longtime Cody artist Harry
genheim, who displayed his work in her gallery Art of Jackson.
This Century. He married artist Lee Krasner in 1945, After seeing the Pollock painting The Moon-
and with the help of a loan from Guggenheim, bought Woman Cuts the Circle, Jackson underwent an
a farmhouse in Springs, East Hampton, N.Y. Living in
artistic conversion. The painting, he said, shot
the country had a major impact on his projects.
Pollock was working in a variety of styles, using the first crack of daylight into my blocked-off
thick impasto as well as a rather mannered linear ap- brain I knew I had to meet Pollock face-to-
proach. In 1947 he adopted the drip painting style. face ASAP.
Working with his canvas on the floor, he flung paint, So he moved to New York, where he became a
sand, ink, tar and other materials onto the surface close friend of Pollocks and began painting in the
from all angles. Pollocks drips, also called action Abstract Expressionist style. In a journal entry he
paintings, revolutionized the potential for contem-
describes meeting Pollock for the first time.
porary art and furthered the development of Abstract
Expressionism. On Monday, Oct. 11, 1948, I finally met Jack-
Pollock struggled with drinking throughout his son Pollock, who became my friend and mentor
life and in the early 1950s, the result of his growing who deeply influenced my entire lifes work to
fame led him to return to drinking heavily. this day, he wrote. A few days after Jack and I
Eventually, Krasner and Pollocks marriage became bonded, my wild White Figure painting volcani-
troubled and he began dating other women. By cally erupted from my sealed-off blacked-out
1956, he had quit painting and his marriage was in
mind. It was far too revealing, so I didnt show it
shambles.
He was killed in an automobile accident less to anyone until my exhaustive Retrospective at the
than a mile from his home on Aug. 11, 1956. The University of Wyoming Art Museum in 1987.
year after his death, Pollock was given a memorial Jackson later rejected Abstract Expressionism
retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern and embraced western art. His 1963 painting The
Art in New York City, and then another in 1967. He Range Burial is dedicated to Pollock.
remains one of the most influential artists of the 20th
century.

64 LEGENDS Summer 2017

 rt in th
ce Pa
o n

rk
C

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Charles Beldens
images of the
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3 MUSEUMS IN 1
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free tours & Events
JUNE 10 LEGEND ROCK PETROGLYPHS
JULY 14 COWBILLY OUTDOOR CONCERT
JULY 16 DOUBLE D RANCH/Amelia Earhart Tour
JULY 29 PITCHFORK RANCH TOUR
AUG 12 GHOST TOWN OF KIRWIN
AUG 26 ALPINE BOTANICAL TOUR
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1947 State Street Meeteetse, WY 307.868.2423
Summer Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00-5:00

Summer 2017 LEGENDS 65

66 LEGENDS Summer 2017
 Jeremiah Johnsons Grave Cassidys Hole in the Wall Cabin
Museum of the Old West Blacksmith & Livery Stable
Visit the Rivers Saloon 27 Historic Buildings
Homesteaders Cabins Visit Curleys Cabin
Native Americana Historic Cemetery
Wagon Barn Gift Store

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OPEN: May 15 - Sept. 30 8 am - 7 pm
1831 DeMaris Dr., Cody, WY 82414
307-587-5302 www.oldtrailtown.org
Summer 2017 LEGENDS 67
 INTO
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348 LEGENDS
68 North Fork Highway
Summer 2017 | Cody, Wyoming