Joe Meek, The Mountain Man

The most famous cowboy prank in Wyoming... may never have happened. Or did it? In his novel, The Virginian, Owen Wister tells of a baby swapping prank that happened at a rural dance. It was common practice in those days to pile the babies under chairs and tables to sleep while the parents danced the night away.   According to Wister, two cowboys took advantage of this situation to pull a legendary stunt! 

After his novel was published, residents of Thermopolis and other western towns claimed that the incident was real. According to homesteaders of Owl Creek, Bridger Creek, Lost Cabin and Thermopolis - that person was a young French cowboy named David Picard. 

Follow along on this adventure that made its way even to Hollywood and determine for yourself.... Is it a tall tale or did a mischievous cowboy really pull the ultimate joke on unsuspecting parents? 

The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association.  

 This program has been made possible through a grant from Wyoming Humanities.

 David Picard, Cowboy Prankster was a production of Legend Rock Media with your host, Jackie Dorothy.

Be sure to subscribe to “Pioneers of Outlaw Country” so you don’t miss a single episode of this historic series. The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association. Join us on Facebook!

Your hosts are Jackie Dorothy and Dean King and you can find us at (20+) Pioneers of Outlaw Country | Facebook

This is a production of Legend Rock Media Productions.

When Owen Wister brought his family to Wyoming in 1912, they brought along a special friend: Peeshee, the waltzing mouse. The inclusion of this tiny tourist in their family gives us insight into the Wister family dynamics and their love of nature in all forms.
The Waltzing Mouse, once as common as goldfish as pets for children, was a puzzle to the scientists who studied them. These tiny creatures would whirl in circles rather than walk in straight lines and were more docile than their cousins. 
Peeshee spent the summer waltzing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming to the delight of the four Wister children.
The next year, tragedy struck when their mother died in childbirth and, unknown to them, this was the last summer they would spend in their beloved Wyoming. 
Peeshee the Waltzing Mouse was a delight to all and a fun memory of their time in Wyoming,

Be sure to subscribe to “Pioneers of Outlaw Country” so you don’t miss a single episode of this historic series. The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association. Join us on Facebook!

Your hosts are Jackie Dorothy and Dean King and you can find us at (20+) Pioneers of Outlaw Country | Facebook

This is a production of Legend Rock Media Productions.

"Young man, go west!"
Among the cowboys and frontiersmen, miners and homesteaders were a group of young adventurers - the rich young tenderfoot. These tourists were not seeking their fortunes but were tourists, looking to get away from the confines of civilization even briefly. 
One of these young men took his journals and turned them into fiction, becoming one of the best-selling authors in America. Even today, his novel, The Virginian, is one of the top 50 fictions in the last century. 
Owen Wister was proud of his status as Tenderfoot. And even prouder when he was able to shed the title and call himself a pioneer of Wyoming! 

Be sure to subscribe to “Pioneers of Outlaw Country” so you don’t miss a single episode of this historic series. The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association. Join us on Facebook!

Your hosts are Jackie Dorothy and Dean King and you can find us at (20+) Pioneers of Outlaw Country | Facebook

This is a production of Legend Rock Media Productions.

In 1902, the most popular book in America was The Virginian by Owen Wister.  This book changed America's perspective on the cowboy and turned the once maligned cowhand into a romantic hero.

Told at times through the eyes of the Tenderfoot, this is a story of a courageous but mysterious cowboy known only as “the Virginian”. He works as foreman of a cattle ranch in the Wyoming territory during the1880s and is admired by his friends and enemies alike. The gunplay and violence of his frontier code threaten his romance with Molly, the pretty schoolteacher from the East. The novel’s climactic gun duel is the first “showdown” in fiction. It also introduced the now-classic phrase that the Virginian utters when confronting Trampas, the villian of the story: “When you call me that, smile!”

Be sure to subscribe to “Pioneers of Outlaw Country” so you don’t miss a single episode of this historic series. The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association. Join us on Facebook!

Your hosts are Jackie Dorothy and Dean King and you can find us at (20+) Pioneers of Outlaw Country | Facebook

This is a production of Legend Rock Media Productions.

In 1903, Tom O'Day was villainized in the newspapers as a notorious horse thief but his friends and acquaintances defended him as a cheerful Irishman who may embellish a brand once in awhile. That February he was unarmed when, suddenly, he was in the fight of his life. 

Join us on this exciting escapade of one of Wyoming's most beloved outlaws, Tom O'Day! 

 Thank you for listening to Hot Springs County Pioneers. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of this historic series. The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association.  

 This program has been made possible through a grant from Wyoming Humanities.

 This was a production of Legend Rock Media.

Be sure to subscribe to “Pioneers of Outlaw Country” so you don’t miss a single episode of this historic series. The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association. Join us on Facebook!

Your hosts are Jackie Dorothy and Dean King and you can find us at (20+) Pioneers of Outlaw Country | Facebook

This is a production of Legend Rock Media Productions.

Happy New Year! What better way to celebrate than to travel back in time to 1884 in the Wyoming Territory. 

Warning... Sprinkled in with the 1884 New Years predictions are superstitions and even an old-fashioned romance. We are celebrating the 1884 New Year just as residents did that same year and reading through the Cheyenne Daily Sun after staying up to bring in the New Year!

1883 had been a time of prosperity for many in Wyoming and the fledging city of Cheyenne. The cattle were thriving, and the railroad was bringing in opportunities to the young territory. The Wyoming and cowboys of the 1880's would soon be immortalized by author Owen Wister in his famous book, The Virginian, but today, as 1884 dawned, the territorial citizens were still living in the world Wister would depict less than 20 years into the future.   

As the citizens welcomed in 1884, little did they know that the future, for some, was going to be dire. For, in just two years, a severe winter would kill thousands of cattle.  It would became known as “The Great Die-Up" and help bring on the war between the wealthy cattlemen association and the small-time homesteaders they saw as a threat to their vast empire.

In 1884, the thoughts were on New Years celebrations and superstitious from the old world. The modern world of electric lights made it easier to enjoy love stories from their homes back east and to look forward to a bright future.

Hello 1884!
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The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association and was a production of Legend Rock Media Production. Your hosts are Jackie Dorothy & Dean King.

Season two will be exploring the Wyoming of Owen Wister, the author of The Virginian

This program has been made possible through a grant from Wyoming Humanities.
Home - thinkWY

Be sure to subscribe to “Pioneers of Outlaw Country” so you don’t miss a single episode of this historic series. The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association. Join us on Facebook!

Your hosts are Jackie Dorothy and Dean King and you can find us at (20+) Pioneers of Outlaw Country | Facebook

This is a production of Legend Rock Media Productions.

They were daring adventurers, forgers of a new life, homesteaders …. and forgotten to history. These vanished people were true pioneers of Hot Springs County, Wyoming. 

The Pioneers of Outlaw Country. 

Cowboys, Lawmen and Outlaws… to the businessmen and women who all helped shape Thermopolis and Hot Springs County, Wyoming. 

Here are their stories. 

 The Lost Owl Creek Colony

           Many, many years ago, strangers came from the south and began to build homes in the solitudes of Wyoming. To the tribes who roamed this area, it was a prized hunting ground known for mild winters. They had fought bloody wars for their right to hunt the plentiful game and were jealous of any who also tried to claim the valley beneath the Owl Creek Mountains. 

The Indians say in their own language: “Beautifully the Great Spirit looks at the other countries in the summer, but he lives here all the year.”

These newcomers were seen as a threat by the tribes. The strange people worked among the rocks in the mountains, the country yielding them rich treasures, not only furs, but gold and other precious metals taken from the ground. 

According to their oral traditions, the Indians attacked and destroyed the outsiders in their new homes. They took as their prize the strange animals belonging to these interlopers. This was how the tribes in the Big Horn Basin first came to own horses.

Some dismiss this story as mere legend… a tale told to General George Sliney in the late 1800’s that he wrote down in his memoirs. But was it really only a myth? 

Be sure to subscribe to “Pioneers of Outlaw Country” so you don’t miss a single episode of this historic series. The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association. Join us on Facebook!

Your hosts are Jackie Dorothy and Dean King and you can find us at (20+) Pioneers of Outlaw Country | Facebook

This is a production of Legend Rock Media Productions.

He was the founder of Thermopolis, well-respected businessman and cattleman, a dashing bachelor, expert horseman and a murderer. 

 This cattleman and businessman was a true pioneer of Hot Springs County, Wyoming. 

 The Pioneers of Outlaw Country. 

Cowboys, Lawmen and Outlaws… to the businessmen and women who all helped shape Thermopolis and Hot Springs County, Wyoming. 

Here are their stories. 

 Ben Hanson, The Murder of Tom Bird

 A rumor of an unfaithful wife and friend, three gunshots, in rapid succession, a man on the run…. This is the story of Ben Hanson and Tom Bird. 

Ben Hanson, a young cattleman and expert horseman, homesteaded land bordering on the Wind River Indian Reservation in the early 1890’s. He had spent years in the saddle as a cowboy for other men and was now ready to make his own fortune.

He knew this land well. It was untamed and lawless – and full of promise. Both cowboys from the Embar Ranch and outlaws from the Hole-in-the-Wall country, flush with spending money, were roaming the area. They were visiting the hog ranch at Andersonville and the campground at Rocky Row, which was then an illegal settlement on the hot springs belonging to the Shoshoni and Arapaho Indians. 

However... his life was to take a dark turn... 

Be sure to subscribe to “Pioneers of Outlaw Country” so you don’t miss a single episode of this historic series. The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association. Join us on Facebook!

Your hosts are Jackie Dorothy and Dean King and you can find us at (20+) Pioneers of Outlaw Country | Facebook

This is a production of Legend Rock Media Productions.

She was the daughter of an oil man, grew up in the Grass Creek oil field – playing among the pumpjacks and dancing at the one-room school house in the early part of the 1900’s. 

 This student of the land was truly a pioneer of Hot Springs County, Wyoming.

 The Pioneers of Outlaw Country. 

Cowboys, Lawmen and Outlaws… to the businessmen and women who all helped shape Thermopolis and Hot Springs County, Wyoming. 

Here are their stories. 

 Elizabeth McCrady Nuhn, Daughter of Oil

 Armed with rifles, and wearing masks, three men, self-proclaimed vigilantes, “compelled” a large number of claim jumpers to evacuate the camps they had established illegally. 

It was 1917 and a new era of outlaws had taken over the Wild West. 

Oil had been discovered and men flocked to the remote outposts of Wyoming in search of the black gold. Businessmen, such as Martin McGrath, a founding father of Thermopolis, and former outlaws like Elzy Lay of the Hole-in-the-Wall gang, joined in the hunt for the liquid treasure. 

Be sure to subscribe to “Pioneers of Outlaw Country” so you don’t miss a single episode of this historic series. The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association. Join us on Facebook!

Your hosts are Jackie Dorothy and Dean King and you can find us at (20+) Pioneers of Outlaw Country | Facebook

This is a production of Legend Rock Media Productions.

Major George “Sandy” Forsyth: His Forgotten Diary 

 He was a Civil War veteran, Cavalry Officer, Indian Fighter, General Sheridan’s aide de camp, avid fisherman, author, husband and Brigadier General.

 This courageous soldier was a true explorer of Hot Springs County, Wyoming. 

The Pioneers of Outlaw Country. 

Cowboys, Lawmen and Outlaws… to the businessmen and women who all helped shape Thermopolis and Hot Springs County, Wyoming. 

Here are their stories. 

Major George “Sandy” Forsyth: The Forgotten Diary 

In the Hot Springs County Museum in Thermopolis, Wyoming, a nondescript brown journal was displayed without acknowledgement of its historical importance. This journal was on display in the military exhibit with a small photo of its author, Major George “Sandy” Forsyth. 

Someone had stamped the cover with the old address of the County Museum before that museum was burned and moved to its present location on 700 Broadway in Thermopolis, Wyoming. Somehow, the journal survived the devasting fire although its outer edges are tinged with old soot. 

This journal was on its way to the Smithsonian when instead, the owner chose, through a series of twists and turns, to send the journal to Thermopolis. That is because this journal was written in 1877 about a journey through the future Hot Springs County.

Major George “Sandy” Forsyth was General Sheridan’s aide de camp and, along with many notable officers of the time, was on a journey through the Big Horn Mountains to Camp Custer. It had been one year since General Custer had been killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The company of soldiers, who had all known him and his regiment, were on their way to the new posts being built along the Rose Bud and Tongue River. The Indian Wars were coming to an end and the company was accompanied by Sioux Scouts. 

They had left Chicago on the train and arrived in Cheyenne within one day. From there, they took the train and stagecoach to Camp Brown, a fort near the future town of Lander. This trip was unlike any from the previous years when danger lurked on the countryside from hostile Indians. The Indian Wars were over and now the soldiers hunted and fished their way across the beautiful landscape.

Sandy Forsyth was a skilled writer and his words describe a world as beautiful as any park. He describes the bright blue of the larkspur and forget-me-nots, the string of trout they caught and the mosquitoes that plagued them. In 1877, buffalo still roamed Hot Springs County in large herds and the area was still being mapped.  

Be sure to subscribe to “Pioneers of Outlaw Country” so you don’t miss a single episode of this historic series. The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association. Join us on Facebook!

Your hosts are Jackie Dorothy and Dean King and you can find us at (20+) Pioneers of Outlaw Country | Facebook

This is a production of Legend Rock Media Productions.