Towns of Johnson County WY

Barnum

 

How Barnum Got Its Name:
Guy Percy Barnum, after serving in the Civil War, came west as a scout with the U.S. Army. He eventually came to what is now the Barnum area west of Kaycee and was smitten. He returned with his wife, Frances (Fannie), her piano, and his half-brother, Tom Freeguard. They homesteaded and received a government contract to operate a post office in their home in 1897. It became known as the Barnum Post Office, and the community that grew up in that area was called Barnum. There are no Barnums there today, but the name endures.

 

Buffalo

HOW BUFFALO'S MAIN STREET GOT ITS CURVE
(Sources: Various Buffalo Bulletin articles; submitted by Kari)

There are several legends about the curve to Buffalo's main street. One is that the street follows an old Buffalo trail. Here is another. This story is taken from an article written in the Buffalo Bulletin-Heritage Edition-1999.
In 1879, Ft McKinney was just established on Clear Creek about 3 miles west of Buffalo and J. H. Conrad had opened a general merchandise store in what was soon to become the thriving little town of Buffalo. Conrad naturally wanted a road or trail past his store as an extra convenience for his customers. That same year, George Washbaugh was employed by a Mr. Powell, who operated a string of bull teams, freighting between Ft Laramie, WY and Ft McKinney, along the Bozeman Trail. Washbaugh was foreman of the freighting outfit.
On one of George's trips to Ft McKinney, he received word from J. H. Conrad that if he would bring down one of his bull strings and make a road past his place of business, he (Conrad) would give him a suit of clothes. Washbaugh came down with a string of ten oxen and three heavy freight wagons and made the trail desired by Conrad, collecting the new suit in payment. It is logical and evident that the oxen, following the natural grade of the hills, leading into and out of Clear Creek, made a very crooked trail. So it would seem that it was no particular fault of man, but just a string of oxen that were trying to keep things on the level that made Buffalo's Main Street so crooked.
The town site was located shortly thereafter and everyone apparently settled down along the trail made by Washbaugh and his oxen and it appears no effort was ever made to straighten out the street. Buildings began to spring up and as they did, they followed the contour of the old trail.

Roy McDougal drove the stagecoach to Clearmont and back. Notice that we already had streetlights. That first building is Margo's Pottery looking north from Clear Creek.

About 1920

  About 1930

 

      

 

   

 

 

 

 

Jim Gatchell Museum                                                                              Jim Gatchell Museum Schoolhouse Display

Buffalo Wyoming late 1890's looking over the town towards the west from the hill above town. Courthouse is on the left, the old flour mill is on the far right.

Here is the building that currently holds the tea shop, etc. This is a very old building for Buffalo. Soldiers leaving for service in the Spanish American War 1898 Company "C" Buffalo, WY are in front of the building. From a site survey in our archives, we find the building was built by Charles Burritt for his law office in the 1880s. Burritt is probably in the photo as he was a soldier who left to serve in the Philippines during the Spanish American War.
The Sanborn map states it was a dwelling in 1912. Other businesses located in the building have been, Germania, a German restaurant run by the Fischer family who had a brewery, an electric supply company, a tent and awning company, a title office, power company office, Hubbards, Buffalo Federal Savings & Loan (1940s), upstairs apartments, etc.

 

MEMOIRS OF BUFFALO, WY
Buffalo Ancient Cow Town A Wyoming Saga by Burton S. Hill
-available for checkout at the library...
Buffalo began to appear along Clear Creek during the late spring of 1879 in the nature of a civilian adjunct to the uncompleted Fort McKinney on the mesa three miles westward in Wyoming Territory. On July 18, 1878, Captain Edwin Pollock of the 9th U.S. Infantry had laid out and started construction on the new fort designed to protect emigrants on the nearby Bozeman Trail. Contracts had been let to a number of civilians to provide forage from the adjoining valleys for the post livestock, and these contractors established their camps along Clear Creek where Buffalo now stands. Soon this brought tradesmen and merchants to serve these workers, as well as beer halls and saloons where liquor could be bought and enjoyed on the premises. The new town was just off the military reservation which made for a greater license than would be allowed near the post. This situation was quickly taken advantage of.
While the new town soon gained considerable prominence along the trail, the spot where it stood, and the environs, were well known long before. Just east of the mouth of Clear Creek Canyon with the tall and shining Big Horns rising to the immediate west, the locality had long been a favorite one. First the Indian tribes and later the early day white explorers and trappers found their way there to rest and enjoy the clear cold water of the creek, the shade trees, and the wide valley abounding with game of all kinds.
Prior to the time white men made their appearance, the Sioux called Clear Creek Tu Shu Wakpala, meaning Lodge Pole Creek, and it went by the latter name until some of the first explorers commenced calling it Clear Fork, and pronounced it the largest tributary of Powder River, which it still is. One of the first of these explorers was Wilson Price Hunt, who, on August 31, 1811, made his camp on the flat just west of where Buffalo now stands.

By Kari
JIM GATCHELL MUSEUM

When I was growing up, I spent much time at the museum, going through the different displays. I especially remember the dioramas done in miniature of historical events such as the Fetterman Battle, the Wagon Box Fight and Ft Phil Kearney. They were so lifelike and have left a lasting impression on me. The displays of the Indian items were very vivid, also. There were also huge collections of arrow points, period clothing and head dresses. When I would go arrowhead hunting and find something, I would compare my finds with what was in the museum.
Today, I still go in and view the many new things they have added and make my own donations for others to share.

LIBRARY

I spent much time at the Johnson County Library in Buffalo. The rule in our family was that all us kids had to be at the library by 4:30, so Dad could pick us up and take us up the mountain after school and there were NO excuses. I remember my brother, Steph got yelled at seriously because he was a little late. It turned out Steph had ball practice and Dad forgot! You could tell Dad wanted to say sorry, but that wasn't Dad's way back then!
The library was this wonderful place for me where I could escape into fantasy. I think girls do that a lot! I loved mysteries and Tarzan! And I read every book the library had on those. Nancy Drew-the Hardy Boys-Tarzan. Everything was right with the world if I have one of those to read.
The library was old...to me. It had wide plank pine floors and old shelves-very high-and oak tables and chairs and smelled old. Now that I am old, I appreciate pine planking with a lot of patena and rich dark shelving with a lot of patena. And the building itself...oh, it must have been-and still is-an architectural prize. It is of red brick-very large brick-I wonder if it was made at the fort? And the north side of the building has a turret. I can't describe it well enough. It was one of my favorite buildings, even as a child.
Now, the Museum has annexed it and it has changed tremendously. Gone are the old plank floors and old walls. Even the smell is different. It has been converted to the museum gift shop.

OUTDOOR SWIMMING POOL

Ah...hot summer days and the city pool. What could be better. The pool is fed from Clear Creek, which runs right down through the center of town. When I was a kid, the pool was just this big-and I mean big-concrete lined square and a dirt bottom. On the north side were the dressing rooms, which were rough logs chinked just like all log buildings were chinked and the trim was always painted a bright blue, if memory serves me correct. On the northeast corner of the pool was a huge diving tower. It had two levels to jump from and if you were ‘cool' you always jumped from the top level. Goodness, it was high in the sky when I was a tyke. The first time I jumped off that level I thought I would never get back up above water. That end down there was very deep.
Across from the pool, there is a band shell and it still has great acoustics even today. There is what we called back in the day the baby pool, which was made of the same concrete material and had a fountain in the center of it and all the little ones spent their time there. Swing sets and tennis courts made up to rest of the park area and my brother and I spent all our summer days in that park.
Today, they have changed the pool. It is still the same monster size, but sports a new kind of wall and it is painted bright blue. And it also has a floor, which is also painted blue. And it is still the same kind of magnet for the young and old as it was in my day.

CHRISTMAS IN BUFFALO

There is NO town in America like Buffalo at Christmas time. When I was a kid, oh, my Goodness, Buffalo went all out for the season. It's not called the City of Lights for nothing!!! The full length of main street was lined on both sides with lighted Christmas trees and there were lights strung over the street. The huge pine trees on the courthouse lawn were lighted from top to bottom and you could see them for miles. Those trees had to be 50-70' high. And Buffalo always had snow at Christmas time..
I remember going from store to store singing Christmas carols the last week before Christmas and our church group would go house to house in some neighborhoods singing carols. One of the old ranchers would bring his team of horses and his wagons into town and we would have hay rides down main street. It was truly a winter wonderland.
Dad always took us kids tree hunting in the mountains. We would spend the day looking for just the perfect tree and always came home with it, cold and wet and hungry. Mom would have a fire going in the fireplace, and hot cocoa and popcorn ready for us when we got home.
When I grew up and had a family of my own, I kept those memories alive while I was still in Buffalo, but then, I moved to this big city and Christmas has never been the same. City folk don't celebrate the same way or feel the same way about all the trappings of the season. So now, Christmas in Buffalo is only in my heart.

SPRING FLOWERS

The spring flowers in the Big Horn Mountains are some of the most beautiful flowers known to man-of course, there is no bias in that statement! Because I was raised west of Buffalo and spent the majority of my life on the back of a horse exploring all the mountains that surrounded me, I was privy to the early show of purples from the lupine, the yellows of the balsam roots, the hot pinks of the fire weed, the red of the Indian paintbrush and the list goes on. The hills outside my bedroom window were carpeted in purple with splashes of yellow. The aspen groves sang their song in the breeze and the paintbrush peeked through the tall grasses. The air was crisp and fresh and carried some many scents. And all I had to do was look to the west to see the glacier on the top of the peaks...how blue the sky was...how white snow was...how purple the lupine was. How truly blessed I was to live in that wonderous area.

Kaycee

The Kaycee Post Office was established on January 27, 1898 with first postmaster George Kaltenbach. The first application was turned down because it was presented as the letters K. C. and the postal service stated the name needed to be spelled out to be accepted.

 

On Feb 10 in 1918, the Methodist Church was organized in Kaycee. At first, services were held in the building in the first photo, which was also used as a schoolhouse (the 2nd one in Kaycee). However, that building was purchased and moved elsewhere by the Methodists, so services were held on the upper floor of what was known as Bailey Hall. Rent of $10 per month was paid to Mr. Bailey. In 1930, another building was obtained from the Continental Oil Company in Midwest for free, but they had to fill in the hole after moving. The church paid $300 to have it moved to Kaycee, to the site it presently stands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kaycee Wyoming 1902

 

 

 

 

Modern Day Kaycee WY

1914 Picture of Kaycee Mercantile. Bill Stubbs and Alice Ullery Stubbs owned the Kaycee Mercantile in early 1920‘s. Samuel and Clara Ullery resided in the lean-to on the north side of the building for a short time while they filed on their homestead at Nine Mile. This is now the Hoofprints of the past Museum.

This is the Kaycee Livery Barn and corrals in the 1930's. It is south of the Ritter house, which is today the Cassidy Inn, which is operated by the grandson of Judd Ritter, Rome Taylor.

On Dec 13th in 1963, a fire occurred which destroyed the Feedrack Hotel and Cafe (previously known as the Kaycee Hotel), and the Invasion Bar. The fire occurred on a very cold night during a basketball game, and everyone left the basketball game at the school to go fight the fire, but the buildings could not be saved. According to an old time Kaycee local, an arsonist lived in Kaycee and several other buildings along with the Jack Flagg Bridge, were also burned. After he moved away the fires stopped, and he was later arrested in another town for arson.
This building is not the same Feedrack Cafe, located further north on the street, which operated for a decade or so before the flood of 2002. Gary Yeigh states:The fire actually started from a grease fire in the restaurant, it wasn’t arson. Kaycee won the state championship that year. They were playing Tensleep that night and the game was so contentious that Tensleep walked out at halftime.

 

 

 

 

 

Hoofprints Museum Kaycee Wyoming

 

In 1897, George Peterson built one of the first buildings in Kaycee, the KC Saloon, after convincing Jesse Potts to sell him logs intended for Pott’s blacksmith shop. Peterson owned and ran a variety of businesses in Kaycee over the years. He married Eliza Bridger, the great niece of the famous scout Jim Bridger.

 

On Feb 19 in 1921, the Salt Creek Hotel and Boardinghouse opened in Midwest, Wyoming with a dinner and dance. Over 950 people attended.
Kaycee's neighbor sits on some of the richest oil land historically and has been pumping oil for over 100 years, drawing many Kaycee residents to work there even today.

 

This is a string team hauling equipment on a snowy day in Kaycee in the early 1900's. Gilford James, Leo Gosney, John Rosenberg, and Ray Gosney are named on the photo.

 

 

Sussex

Gibbs Family collection is of Sussex, Wyoming, building identified as the Old Sussex Hotel.
The community of Sussex is located in Johnson County east of Kaycee. The Sussex Post Office was located on the old Spectacle Ranch and named by Mrs. Henry Winter Davis for her hometown of Sussex County, Delaware, according to the Wyoming Places Database. It operated in Sussex from 1895 until it was discontinued in 1963

 

 

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