Road Trip Yellowstone

by Dina Mishev

  Included in the McCracken’s vaults is one of the few complete sets of Edward Curtis’s The North American Indian. “This is one of the treasures of Americana and ours is in great condition,” Mary says. And, if you make an appointment, you can see it.

  Curtis published The North American Indian between 1907 and 1930. In total, the collection includes twenty folios, containing over 700 photographs, and twenty text volumes that contain over 1,500 smaller photographs. (Curtis took more than 40,000 images of Native Americans in eighty different tribes.) Curtis also recorded tribes’ oral histories and took notes on traditional foods, clothing, and ceremonies. In 2012, a complete North American Indian sold at auction for $1.44 million.

  While Curtis’s magnum opus is one of the library’s stars, Mary says she enjoys the journals and letters of regular people the library has. “They are just wonderful and fascinating,” she says. “Some of my favorites you can even go online and read, they are transcribed and are letters from Victor Arland in French to a compatriot.” The letters cover Arland’s attempt to set up an establishment in the Cody area, trading with Indians, and fights between drunken cowboys. “It is a wonderful window into living on the frontier,” Mary says. “People don’t usually come here for the library, but sometimes it’s why they stay.” 720 Sheridan Ave., (307) 587-4771, centerofthewest.org/research/mccracken-research-library

  Heart Mountain

  During the time Heart Mountain Relocation Center operated outside of Cody—from August 1942 to November 1945—its population of about 10,700 Japanese-American internees was nearly five times that of Cody itself. Casper and Cheyenne were the only cities in Wyoming that had bigger populations than Heart Mountain.

  HEART MOUNTAIN MOVEMENT

  Heart Mountain is easy to spot, sitting by itself north of Cody. It wasn’t always that way though. Some 50 million years ago, it was part of the Absaroka Range, the foothills of which are nearly two dozen miles away. How it got to its present location is a matter of earnest debate. Some scientists surmise that a series of seriously strange geologic events—volcanic eruptions, lava trapped underground, water filling underground dikes—lifted the mountain and moved it 62 miles east.

  The hike to the 8,123-foot summit of Heart Mountain is about 8 miles round-trip. Start it at the Heart Mountain Ranch, which belongs to The Nature Conservancy. At the trailhead, find a cabin originally built in 1884 and recently restored. Operated in conjunction with the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the cabin has information about the geology, cultural significance, and ecology of the mountain and the surrounding land. 1357 Rd. 22, (307) 754-8446, www.nature.org

  Of course the Heart Mountain camp wasn’t truly the state’s third-largest city. Nine guard towers joined by a barbed wire fence kept watch over the 467 barrack-style buildings. The Japanese-American doctors who worked in the camp’s 150-bed hospital made $19 per month, while the Caucasian nurses who worked there made $150 a month. Internees were given a loyalty questionnaire and were prohibited from voting. The last Heart Mountain incarcerees left in November 1945; they were given $25 and a train ticket to anywhere in the United States.

  While most of the camp’s buildings are long gone, a few remain: a hospital boiler house and its attached red brick chimney; two hospital buildings; an administrative building; the high school’s concrete vault; a root cellar; and a huge hole that served as the camp’s swimming pool. If you drive along WY 14A, you can see former barracks repurposed as storage sheds and barns.

  After many years of fund-raising, the Heart Mountain Foundation opened Heart Mountain Interpretive Center in 2011. This museum uses interactive exhibits, artifacts, photographs, and oral histories to show what life was like for the 14,000 people imprisoned there, most brought to the camp from the West Coast, over its 3-year existence.

  Though Heart Mountain was a prison camp, you might be surprised to learn that it had thirteen Boy Scout troops and one Girl Scout troop. Or that its high school football team, the Heart Mountain Eagles, lost only one game in its 2 years of competing against area schools. The Heart Mountain Sentinel published its first edition in October 1942 and was published every Saturday thereafter until the camp closed. There were knitting and flower-arranging groups for adults and dances for teens. 1539 Rd. 19, Powell, (307) 754-8000, heartmountain.org

  ROAD TRIP 4 HOT SPRINGS AND MEETEETSE

  When Wyoming families are looking for a vacation close to home, Thermopolis, the seat of Hot Springs County, is often their destination. Size-wise, Hot Springs County is the smallest county in Wyoming (with fewer than 5,000 residents, it’s the second least populous) and came into being only when neighboring counties decided they really didn’t want this land. So Hot Springs County was born. While ranching and farming around here is indeed difficult, the one-stoplight town of Thermopolis is locally famous for its mineral hot springs. There is also a dinosaur center. Between Cody and “Thermop” (go ahead and use the local lingo) in Meeteetse, you’ll be surprised to find what might be the best chocolate truffles you’ve ever had.

  The Hot Spring State Park Bison Herd

  In 2016, the Hot Springs State Park bison herd, which is the central herd for the Wyoming State Park system, celebrated its one hundredth anniversary. In 1916, a bull was captured in Yellowstone National Park and brought to the state park. Several heifers were purchased from a ranch in Kansas and brought to Thermopolis. Since these founding members of the herd were established here, no additional outside bison have been brought in. “We’ve never strayed from the genetics,” says Hot Springs State Park superintendent Kevin Skates. “Since this herd is quite isolated, we don’t have problems with diseases or things like that.”

  The size of the herd depends on the condition of the park’s pasture. The herd usually numbers between one and two dozen animals. When the herd gets bigger than the park’s pasture can support, it sells calves and yearlings off. In early 2017, the park auctioned off nine calves and yearlings. Interested in owning a bison? The sale has happened annually for at least 50 years. Bidding usually opens in late December and closes in early to mid-January. All bidding is done silently, whether online or via mail. The minimum bid for a yearling bull is $2,000 and $1,800 for a calf. The highest bidder wins. “People like to buy our animals,” Skates says. “I’d say 90 percent of bids come from ranchers looking to buy them to add to their herd.” But there are no requirements for bidders. Occasionally the park has auctioned off a 2- or 3-year-old bison. “Someone might buy one of these to butcher,” Skates says.

  LOCAL LOWDOWN KEVIN SKATES, Superintendent, Hot Springs State Park

  Kevin Skates moved to Thermopolis to work as Hot Springs State Park’s (HSSP) superintendent in 2005. Before that, he was in Rawlins, in the south-central part of the state. Today, in addition to being responsible for HSSP, where there are hot springs, a herd of bison, several miles of hiking trails, and what are arguably the state park system’s best flower gardens, Skates is also in charge of the Legend Rock Petroglyph Site, where rock art dates back more than 11,000 years.

  Q: What’s a typical day look like for you?

  KEVIN SKATES: We’re the busiest of all the state parks—48 percent of visitation to state parks is through us.

  Q: It sounds like maybe you should take some time to soak more often.

  KS: You’re right! Since we’re located right in town, it’s almost like we’re a city park. All of the people in Thermopolis think it’s the town park. We have nineteen leases in the park—from the hospital to the high school, the fairgrounds, the county library, the senior center—sometimes it seems like everything is located in the state park. I think it’s kind of the economic engine that drives the community. The park defines the town and there’s a lot of ownership in the park from the local community.

  Q: Are most soakers locals or visitors?

  KS: In the summer, I’d say it’s 90 percent visitors soaking. In the winter, it’s probably only 50 percent visitors.

  Q: Is there any truth to the claim, written
out in giant white letters on the side of Monument Hill, that these are the “world’s largest mineral hot springs”?

  KS: As far as I can tell, that claim started in the 1940s as a way to advertise the place. Are we the world’s largest? Probably not. But we are still unique. The mineral content in the water here is so high. It was always called “the healing waters” and for decades people came here for medicinal reasons. That’s why the hospital is right here. There used to be several sanitariums; people would come for weeks or months.

  Q: Do you have to do anything to the water to make it safe for soaking?

  KS: No. We don’t filter it or put any chemicals in it. It naturally has a lot of chloride in it.

  While the bison are often visible throughout the day, you can guarantee seeing them if you come when they’re being fed their daily supplemental “cake” with vitamins and minerals they might not get from the park’s natural forage. This happens between 8 and 9 a.m.

  Wyoming Dinosaur Center

  “Jimbo,” one of the largest dinosaurs ever mounted, lives at Thermopolis’s Wyoming Dinosaur Center. He lives in the private facility on the edge of town with more than thirty friends, including Stan, a 35-foot T-Rex, a duck-billed Maiasaura, a Triceratops, and a 150-million-year-old Archaeopteryx fossil. The latter is one of only ten such fossils in the world and the only one outside of Europe. Understandably it is kept beneath bulletproof glass.

  While wandering the museum, you can watch paleontologists at work in addition to getting up close and personal with these prehistoric Wyoming residents. Jimbo, who is 106 feet long, was discovered about 3 hours away outside of Douglas, Wyoming.

  Between May and September, you can go out with center paleontologists on a real dinosaur dig. The “Dig For A Day” program is open to all ages; children under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult. The Wyoming Dinosaur Center is one of the few dino museums in the world to have excavation sites within driving distance. There are approximately 130 dig sites—only about twenty are active—on the nearby 7,700-acre Warm Springs Ranch, which the center owns.

  Former Swiss veterinarian Burkhard Pohl vacationed in the area in 1993 and, with friends, found the first dinosaur bones on Warm Springs Ranch. An amateur fossil hunter, Pohl went on to buy the ranch and create the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. Since then, more than 10,000 bones have been discovered and removed from excavation sites on the ranch.

  Most fossils found are from sauropods, a class of dinosaurs that lived roughly 65 to 150 million years ago. Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, Camptosaurus, and Apatosaurus are all sauropods. Defining features of the class are long tails and necks and small heads. Sauropods are the largest animals to have ever lived on land. (307) 864-2997, 110 Carter Ranch Rd., wyodino.org

  State Bath House

  The natural mineral water that flows from the Hot Springs State Park’s spring is funneled to five different pools: at the Best Western, at the Days Inn, the Star Plunge, Tepee Pools, and the pool at the State Bath House. Only one of these five is free to use: the State Bath House. While the State Bath House doesn’t have water slides like the Star Plunge or Tepee and it might be more crowded than the guests-only pools at the Best Western and the Days Inn, it has the most history, going all the way back to the great Shoshone warrior Chief Washakie.

  The land that is today the state park was once part of the Wind River Indian Reservation. In 1897, Chief Washakie sold a 100-square-mile parcel of the reservation to the United States for $60,000 and a promise. The promise the chief exacted? A portion of the hot springs there had to be reserved for free public use. (A pageant celebrating this gift from the Shoshone tribe is held in Thermopolis annually every first weekend in August.) While various state and federal government entities aren’t known for keeping promises made to Native Americans, this promise has been kept in the form of the State Bath House.

  The current State Bath House dates to 1966. There were three State Bath Houses prior to that; the first one opened in 1900. “For over 100 years now, we’ve honored the treaty,” says park superintendent Kevin Skates. “If someone comes to town, they can soak and not pay a fee.” While soaking at the Bath House is free, there’s a nominal fee to rent a towel and/or swimsuit. Water is kept at 104 degrees. 538 N. Park St., Thermopolis, (307) 864-2176, wyoparks.state.wy.us

  Safari Club’s Taxidermy Collection

  Over 300 heads and hides hang on the walls of the Safari Club restaurant inside the Days Inn. The bulk of the animals were shot and killed by former owner Jim Mills. The mounts not killed by Mills were likely killed by his father, who started the collection in the 1950s. Jim Mills went on nearly two dozen African safaris. His first time hunting in Africa was in the 1960s when he was 28. On that trip, he killed the “big five”—elephant, rhinoceros, water buffalo, lion, and leopard. Mills repeated this feat on several subsequent safaris. One rhino on display was not killed by Mills or his father. It was not killed at all. By the time Mills shot this rhino in Namibia, the species was endangered, so this is a replica. Mills switched from hunting with a rifle to hunting with a bow and arrow so he could “catch and release.” He shot this rhino with an arrow armed with a dart and a serum that temporarily put it to sleep. After a model of the rhino was made, antidote to the sleeping serum was administered. The rhino quickly woke up and took off. In addition to the replica rhino, the collection includes marlins, zebra, bears, cheetahs, tigers, lions, alligator, elk, elephant, and mid-Asian ibex. (307) 864-3131, 115 E. Park St., thermopolisdaysinn.com

  Legend Rocks State Petroglyph Site

  One of the largest petroglyph sites in the United States, Legend Rock Petroglyph Site is off WY 120 between Meeteetse and Thermopolis. Archaeologists have counted more than 300 petroglyphs carved into a sheltered, 400-meter-long cliff face. In 1913, the US Geological Survey “discovered” and documented the site. In 1973, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1988, archaeologists used radiocarbon, cation-ratio, and varnish micro-lamination dating techniques to determine the age of the images. Some were found to be more than 11,000 years old.

  LOCAL LOWDOWN TIM KELLOGG, the Meeteetse Chocolatier

  Rosemary caramels; yuzu caramels; rosemary, olive oil, and sea salt truffles—these are the flavors chocolatier Tim Kellogg is excited about now. His grandmother’s recipes were the initial inspiration behind his foray into chocolatiering. Kellogg, a cowboy and competitive bronco rider, only started selling truffles to fund his rodeoing. What would grandma think of Kellogg’s exotic flavor combinations? He says: “She would probably be a little suspect at first, but I think she’d try them and love them. She was adventurous with her cooking from time to time. I think she’d appreciate I was being adventurous, too.”

  It was only around 2010, after a fairly significant rodeo injury, that Kellogg committed to making chocolate. “I realized I couldn’t work full time on a ranch, run a business, and also rodeo,” he says. “One had to go.” He wasn’t about to give up the ranch work. The plan was to recover from his injuries and then decide between chocolate and rodeo. When the time came, the decision was obvious, but not easy. “I knew I was never going to get to the NFR [National Finals Rodeo] or make a living off of it,” he says. “But mentally it was hard on me to stop.”

  While Kellogg gave up rodeo, he worked on the ranch through 2015 and only left because it sold and the new owners brought in their own people. As successful as his shop is now, Kellogg hopes for a new ranch gig. “I need cattle in my life,” he says. But, as committed as he is to cowboying and to chocolate, please don’t call Kellogg the cowboy chocolatier. “I didn’t ever want the cowboy aspect to be a gimmick. I think my skills on the ranch and my skills in the shop speak for themselves. I work very hard.”

  MEETEETSE CHOCOLATIER’S SAGE TRUFFLE

  Eighty-seven species of mammals, ninety-four bird species, and twelve species of grasshoppers depend on the thirteen different species of sagebrush that grow in Wyoming. Thousands of chocolate fans across the country (and around the
world) depend on the sage that chocolatier Tim Kellogg uses in his sage truffles. Even though Wyoming has more sage than almost any other state, Kellogg has to buy culinary sage to use in his chocolates. Kellogg opened Meeteetse Chocolatier, an artisan chocolate store, in downtown Meeteetse in 2003. Then in 2015, he opened a much smaller outpost in Jackson. In addition to sage truffles, Kellogg makes truffles infused with huckleberry, Wyoming Whiskey, and even Coors beer. Right now, he’s doing “a lot with caramel,” he says. He makes every single truffle and caramel himself, by hand. Meeteetse: (307) 868-2567, 1943 State St.; Jackson: (307) 413-8296, 265 W. Broadway; www.meeteetsechocolatier.com

  Despite the importance of this site, until 2011, there were no signs directing visitors to it and visiting it had to be planned well in advance: You had to pick up a key to Legend Rock’s entrance gate from one of several spots in Thermopolis (the State Bath House, the Thermopolis Chamber of Commerce, or the Hot Springs County Museum). In 2011, a visitor center was built. Volunteers staff it daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. between May and September. Between October and April, the site is accessible, but you need to stop at one of the three places mentioned above to get a key for the gate. (307) 864-2176, wyoparks.state.wy.us