It Started with the Search for Gold

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If you’ve ever had a childhood fascination for the Old West, love watching TV shows and movies about the Old West and/or have an interest about the Old West, I recommend taking one of the historic tours sponsored by the Hoofprints of the Past Museum if you ever find yourself anywhere near Kaycee, Wyoming.

John, our friend Linda and I took such a tour last year in Wyoming and I want to share with you the marvelous Bozeman Trail of Powder River Sussex Area Historic Tour.

The Bozeman Trail is named for John Bozeman who started out West in a search for gold but when that proved not as prosperous as he had hoped, he decided to make his fortune by guiding others to gold mining sites.  In 1863 Bozeman and John M. Jacobs marked out a shortcut from the Oregon Trail to the gold fields in Montana.  The tour we took in September, 2021 allowed us to visit several of the sites on the Bozeman Trail.

Laurel Foster, Director of the Hoofprints of the Past Museum (see my Westward Ho to Wyoming! post) and her staff provided us with a day of fascinating history, a delicious modern “chuck wagon” lunch and a grand tour of several historic sites on the Bozeman Trail.  The tour began at the Hoofprints of the Past Museum with an introduction to some of the history of the area by Laurel and Robert (Bob) C. Wilson. 

After the engaging introduction to the tour, we boarded a school bus and headed out on the trail.  The weather was very windy with beautiful blue skies, some clouds and no one in sight as far as eye could see. 

On the ride from site to site, we enjoyed chatting with some of the other tour participants among them, Keith Riemenschneider, who filled us in on some Old West history.  Keith is a Teamster in both the historical sense as he has experience in driving stagecoaches for tourists at the Old Tucson Movie Studios and also drives Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Class A trucks. 

Another passenger was the delightful Rebecca, pen name Aquila Dhu and author of “In Wrath Remember Mercy.”  Rebecca is a riding (McClellan saddle), shooting (Henry rifle) and driving (F-250) trained historian and author.  John, Linda and I enjoyed her company and of course, purchased her book.

Luckily, Laurel and staff thought to bring along a Porta-Potty, a facility that was my salvation (the non-religious type!) on many a construction site safety investigation during my safety career.

As almost all of the sites we visited on the tour were only the remains of buildings, forts and/or battle sites, we relied on the wonderful story telling skills of Laurel, her father Brock Hanson and Bob Wilson to bring the past alive for us and indeed, they did!

Our first stop on the tour was the site of the 1879 Frewen Castle.  Moreton Frewen, a British gentry heir, moved to the West to make his fortune in cattle ranching.  However, he was more of a playboy than an astute businessman and the local cowboys referred to him as “Mortal Ruin” given his lack of business acumen.  Logs from the Frewen Castle were used to build a replica of a homesteader’s log cabin that is now on site at the Hoofprints of the Past Museum.

Bob Wilson gave a fascinating and informative post lunch presentation on Army uniforms, Army and Native American weapons, Native American artifacts and showed us some historic weapons and artifacts. 

Of the many things we learned from Bob about the weapons of the Old West was that the Native Americans used their longer spears for buffalo and the shorter spears for battles.  They usually had about 20 arrows in a quiver and would hold 5 in their hand so that they could shoot quickly.  One could tell from a distance whether teepees were of friendly or hostile tribes as the friendlier Crow tribe would use four pole teepees with animal and flower imagery on them and the more hostile Arapaho, Cheyenne and Lakota tribes would use geometric imagery and three poles.

At the Cantonment Reno area, an 1870s forward supply base upstream from the Old Fort Reno, we stopped for a modern-day version of a delicious chuck wagon lunch from Rollin’ Rae’s. 

Included in the bus tour were stops at the sites of the 1864 Townsend Wagon Train Fight, the 1836 Portuguese Fort, Lutheran Mission Station and the site of 1865 Fort Reno.  It was a tour chock full of history, interesting facts, historic sites and delightful company. 

We look forward to the Hole in the Wall Gang and Johnson County War tours next summer and thank Laurel, Brock, Bob and the rest of the museum staff for a fabulous day exploring the Old West!

NOTE: If you like what you’ve read of our travels so far and would like assistance in planning a trip for yourself, please contact me on our website’s “Let’s Connect” page or via email at jttripsnpics@gmail.com. I offer travel consultations and would be happy to assist you in planning the trip of your dreams.

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