Discovering Wyoming: Hot Summers, Famous Bears, and the Jim Baker Story
Aug 28, 2023
Mark Hamilton
Prepare for a trip into the heart of Wyoming, as we tackle the state's sizzling weather, local sports, and the adorable celebrity bear number 399. And that's just for starters. We've also got new tunes from Oliver Anthony to keep your toes tapping. But what's a tour of Wyoming without a dash of Wild West? We're taking you back in time with the gripping tale of frontiersman Jim Baker, whose Colorado roots crafted him into a legendary figure of the Wyoming Territory.
Second stop on our journey unveils the daring life of Jim Baker. A man who braved the wild to perform a daring rescue, served as a pivotal scout during the bloodless Mormon War and pioneered the frontier with his entrepreneurial spirit. You'll be taken for a thrilling ride as we recount his scouting days for the railroad survey party to Salt Lake City, and his triumphant return to Wyoming Territory. The episode closes with his heroic role during the Meeker Massacre and the enduring legacy he left in his wake. So buckle up, folks, for an adventure into the untamed wilderness of Wyoming's past.
Prepare for a trip into the heart of Wyoming, as we tackle the state's sizzling weather, local sports, and the adorable celebrity bear number 399. And that's just for starters. We've also got new tunes from Oliver Anthony to keep your toes tapping. But what's a tour of Wyoming without a dash of Wild West? We're taking you back in time with the gripping tale of frontiersman Jim Baker, whose Colorado roots crafted him into a legendary figure of the Wyoming Territory.
Second stop on our journey unveils the daring life of Jim Baker. A man who braved the wild to perform a daring rescue, served as a pivotal scout during the bloodless Mormon War and pioneered the frontier with his entrepreneurial spirit. You'll be taken for a thrilling ride as we recount his scouting days for the railroad survey party to Salt Lake City, and his triumphant return to Wyoming Territory. The episode closes with his heroic role during the Meeker Massacre and the enduring legacy he left in his wake. So buckle up, folks, for an adventure into the untamed wilderness of Wyoming's past.
Speaker 1:
Good morning and welcome to let's Talk Wyoming. I'm Mark Hamilton, your host, and today we'll be taking a look at our Wyoming weather. We'll be talking about Wyoming sports. We'll be taking a look at bearer number 399. Yes, she's back in the news. We'll also have Oliver Anthony update and finally we'll be taking a look at Jim Baker, a Wyoming mountain man with some Colorado backgrounds. Thanks for joining us today and we hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker 1:
Taking a look at Wyoming weather here on the 24th day of August. Boy Labor Day is just right around the corner. Hot is continuing on here in the state of Wyoming. We did have a little bit of a reprieve on Sunday. It was in the temperatures in the high 60s, low 70s majority of the day, which was a relief. But it is getting a little dry. I made my monthly trip over to Sheridan actually two times back to back. It is getting a little bit dry in spots on the mountain, but everywhere else still looks good. There's been enough rain. It's still green. So Santa Waming looks like we are going to continue hot. A little bit of a drop in temperature over the weekend a little bit. I saw some forecast for potential rain, but then I saw temperatures back in the 90s for next week and we're at that time. You're waiting to see how September is going to be. September has a really big effect on our falls and what happens there, especially our growing season with weather in September we can have some continual warm temperatures, but again I've seen some pretty good frosts in the month of September. Right now it's hot, hot everywhere, some winds. It looks like it's going to be a good weekend, good weekend to get out and enjoy it, since you're getting at the end of the summer is right upon us, and then Labor Day and after that it's just full forward, and before we know it we'll be talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas. But again here in Wyoming it's hot, windy and it looks like it'll be some more of the same, with potential thunderstorms in between.
Speaker 1:
Taking a look at Wyoming Sports High School Athletics We'll get started here in the state this weekend. I know here in Thermopolis we have a volleyball game tonight. The Lady Bobcats opened their season against Rocky Mountain High School. The Bobcats are a 3A school, rocky Mountain is a 2A school, but they always excel at volleyball. They'll match up tonight here at Hot Springs County High School Gymnasium.
Speaker 1:
Our football teams in action tomorrow as they take on our neighbor here just to the north of Washke County. They were the warriors in a zero-week game. I think they're actually referring to that as a zero-week game. I'm waiting to find out how that's going to be played. Last year it was just a scrimmage, but we'll see what happens. But high school sports are starting here all across the state of Wyoming, especially with the football season, and volleyball across country are swimming, you name it. It's happening right now.
Speaker 1:
College football is another week out when the Wyoming Cowboys will open up next weekend on Labor Day weekend in Laramie, wyoming, as they take on Texas Tech. It looks like a pretty good team this year in the Big 12. They had a good finish their season last year and I expect good things from them, so that'll be a tough game for the Cowboys. We're getting into that time of year where the sports are just taking off and chance for everyone to get out and enjoy the athletic events in your community had a chance last weekend to take in some collegiate volleyball. Cody High School hosted a scrimmage between the Wyoming Cowgirls volleyball team and the Montana State. Bobcats from up at Bozeman Came and had a really exciting five-setter. Let's say Cody Gymnasium was a little bit warm that day but it didn't deter the fans. A great crowd that Jim was packed and nice to see that support. So again, always an opportunity when you get a chance to watch those girls play at that level in volleyball. I really enjoy volleyball. I probably have said that before in a podcast, but great night in Cody Wyoming.
Speaker 1:
Just an update on other things in the state, bearer number 399, our famous celebrity here in the state, has reappeared after a month hiatus. Her and her cub everything looks good. They comment that I've seen as the cub has just really grown. So she is making people happy again. I'm sure a lot of people smiling knowing that she's out and about because she does have a fan club that follows her every move and she's probably gonna feel like she's number two in the fan clubs across the United States.
Speaker 1:
Right now we talked about Oliver Anthony, the rich man north of Richmond. I hope everybody's had a chance to take that in and the impact it's had. He's come out with multiple other songs that have shot up the charts and the one that I heard yesterday was take me home, kind of a Religious song about taking me back home to Jesus, and I thought it was good. Again, I've seen some additional videos of his and I will note that every one of his videos that he is reading from the Bible before he starts playing, far as the impact that he's having. You know, god works in a lot of mysterious ways and empowers a lot of people. This is maybe happening for a reason. I think that we're living in a new world right now and With an old soul and definitely I am an old soul, a lot of us we probably agree to that, being an old soul, that these new ways just ain't working out for us and we definitely Look for those times when things were just a little simpler. For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world but he loses his own soul?
Speaker 1:
Look at a story from Wild history org from Laurie van Pelt. Like Laurie's writings, jim Baker, the frontier scout on the frontier, beckoned young Jim Baker saw his fortunes in the West and found a life that primed with adventure, danger and romance, both while men in Colorado claim him as their own because he is thought to have been the first settler in Colorado territory and he built what is often called the first permanent cabin in Wyoming territory and know. He was a white man and despite many hostile encounters with American Indians, he befriended some of them and married Indian women, which led to his being called the redheaded Shoshone. Baker story began in Bellevue, illinois, where he was born on December 19th of 1818. Some sources indicate that his fascination with the West began in his youth when he was exposed to the thrills of buckskin clad Indian fighters. In the word of one who survived to tell his tale in a local Tavern, baker eventually headed to st Louis, missouri, where he accepted an offer from frontiersman Jim Bridger to work for the American fur company in the waning years of the Rocky Mountain fur trade. The group left st Louis on May 15th 1838 and journeyed by steamer. The 18 month contract allowed young Baker to travel and enjoy the outdoors. Baker learned quickly from Bridger and hunted with another famed frontiersman, kit Carson, in the Uinta Mountains what are now Wyoming in Utah. When his contract with the American fur company expired, he returned to Illinois, but the excitement of the West had gotten into Baker's blood. In May of 1841 he headed West once again. This time he traveled with the Bartleson bidwell party. The first wagon train is settlers to journey overland on the Oregon Trail and reach California. Some sources indicate Baker also traveled alone Part of the way.
Speaker 1:
In early August of 1841 Baker joined Jim Bridger's camp at Henry's fork of the Green River. Bridger expressed concern about a colleague, henry Frap, sometime referred to as Frap. Frap had like engaged and sent inappropriate horse dealings and Bridger thought hostile Indians had captured him. But those men learned that Frap was safe and camped with other trappers near the Little Snake River in what is now South Central Wyoming. On August 21st 1841, baker and another man were hunting across the river from Frob's camp. When they saw the ominous sign of rising cloud of dust in the mountains, they rushed to the camp. They soon began to engage in a fierce fight with the Sioux, cheyenne and Arapaho. Frob was one of the first killed. Baker is credited with taking charge after that. During the two-day fracas, four trappers and most of the trappers' horses were killed. Some estimate claim as many as a hundred Indians were killed, but historian William F Stock states the number is unknown and notes that seems to increase as the story is told over time. According to Stocks, more than a hundred horses from both sides were killed. On August 27th Baker returned to the Bridger camp with other survivors. They now defunct town of Battle in the Sierra Madres west of encampment Wyoming gained its name from the conflict, as did Battle Creek near Battle Pass and the Battle Highway.
Speaker 1:
Later, part of the decade brought romance to Baker who, at camp with his shown near what is now Medisumbo Wyoming. He rescued the daughter of his shown chief when she was kidnapped by a black foot band and returned Marena to her father. Baker married the young woman in October of 1847. The bride presented her buckskin clad groom with a necklace made of bear claws and emblem of bravery. In the fall of 1852, a group of trappers, including Baker and Jim Bridger, met at Kit Carson's headquarters in Rirondo, new Mexico Territory, and made a loop from the Arkansas River to the South Platte, north Platte, sweetwater and Wind River. They wintered on the Green River and in the spring trapped along the Green, a little snake and yampa rivers before returning to Rirondo. It was the last time these trappers assembled together. After the trap, baker learned that his wife Marena had died.
Speaker 1:
Another story is told of a daring rescue that led Baker to romance. This time he saved a Sue woman flying fawn. Her father's name, long Lance, and her cousin flashed a fire from the April Blizzard. The Indians were traveling to the Grand Encampment rendezvous but the storm caught them 20 miles downriver with no provisions. Flash the fire grew, jealous of Baker's love for flying fawn and prepared to shoot him with an arrow when the couple stood before her father to be married. However Long, lance killed his nephew before Baker was harmed. Historian Nolly Mumley states in her book published in 1931 that flying fawn's name doesn't appear in research again, so it is not known if they were married.
Speaker 1:
Baker spent time as a scout for the military in the 1850s, serving as a chief scout under General William Harney at Fort Laramie in 1855. In 1857, during the bloodless Mormon War, baker guided the attachment of Colonel Albert Sidney Johnson's troops to Fort Bridger in what is now southwest from Wyoming. That year, federal troops intended to march from Kansas to Utah to enforce law, but made it only as far as Fort Bridger, where, low on supplies and livestock, they stopped for the winter. Later in the year, captain RB Marcy was sent from Fort Bridger to Fort Union in New Mexico to purchase meals, as so much army stock had been sold in a runoff by the Mormon militia. Baker guided Marcy's detachment from Fort Bridger southeast across what is now Calrattle. Along the way they stopped at Fort Massachusetts in the San Luis Valley for supplies. Marcy, quoted in a Salt Lake Tribune article, felt certain his troops would have died without the help of an expert scout because of deep snow, intense cold and a lack of food for themselves and animals, and because of the region being such a trackless wilderness in winter. On the return trip from Fort Massachusetts in early 1858, marcy's men discovered gold at Cherry Creek near Denver.
Speaker 1:
Baker appears to have left the army service about this time. In 1858, he opened a ferry on the Overland Trail crossing the Green River. In the Denver newspaper interview years later he recalls that he charged $10 per wagon for the service. In 1858, he and Charles Leckinbuy related in his book Trend of the Pioneers that when a competitor moved nearby, the men attempted to settle their differences by each swallowing a shot of whiskey before taking rifle shots of each other. Leckinbuy states that Jim Bridger intervened, but some sources indicate that Captain Marcy did and Baker apologized for the drinking.
Speaker 1:
In 1859, baker settled in the Colorado Territory, then filling up with gold miners and merchants. He later proved up his land under the terms of the Homestead Act in an area that would soon become Denver, and Clear Crick became known as Baker's Crossing. Years later he told the Denver Republican that he hauled into Denver the first load of stone coal that ever was taken out of the ground here. But as more people came, baker decided he craved more solitude. He told the newspaper that the railroad, which could haul freight at 2 cents per pound, had pushed him out of the area because he couldn't transport goods with mules so cheaply. In 1872 he scouted for a railroad survey party to Salt Lake. The next year he returned to the Wyoming Territory. In 1873 he built a two-story cabin near present-day Savory in the little Snake River Valley of Southern Wyoming near the Colorado Lime. The cabin resembled a fort and for many years a railing. Surrounding the second story Baker raised cattle using the JB brand.
Speaker 1:
A shy and daily leader report of January 17th of 1877 describes a nearly 60-year-old Baker as a frontier character who was as gnarled and grizzled as some of the many old pines that have graced the mountain peaks. His rustic appearance was like a result of fights with bears as well as men. American troubles continued and Baker's 30th cabin served as a fort for area settlers during tensions surrounding the 1879 Meeker Massacre in nearby Meeker Colorado. Their Indian agent, nathan Meeker of the White River Agency and Major Thomas Thornburer, among others, were killed during a battle with the Utes. At this time a third story was added to Baker's cabin to provide a lookout post, meeker had guided Ute Indian agent Daniel C Oaks to the place where the White River Agency would be located. On a return trip he led Colonel Wesley Merritt and his 5th US Calvary Rescue Mission there.
Speaker 1:
After Thornburer's death, camp Air Artist Merritt D Hilton took a photograph of Baker in 1879 and published the portrait in his later book Views of Southern Wyoming. In the photograph the old scout holds his sharp buffalo rifle. The leader calls the gun his warmest friend and inseparable companion. The Denver Republican reported on June 8, 1893. They called the 75-year-old Baker the oldest living scout and described him as a tall, broad shoulder, with light colored hair allowed to hang to his shoulders but never a gray streak in it, with a bright face. His walk, however, according to newspaper, suggests a great age. Some sources indicate he participated as many as 100 Indian fights during his life.
Speaker 1:
Baker died on May 15, 1898 in his cabin. He was buried in the family cemetery at the base of the mountain that bears his name. According to author Layton Baker, no relation, jim Baker, father of fourteen, trialed him by three wives Morena for his sons William and Joseph, and a daughter, jane. Baker and his second wife, mary, had daughters Mary Isabelle, madeline, nancy, kate, lisa, elsie and sons Thomas, buck and Jim, mary's sister Elsa and poor Jenny. While Baker is often described as rugged and tough talking, as might be expected from a frontiersman of his day, he also is known as a kind, tender-hearted, trustworthy and loyal. Some refer to him as honest Uncle Jim.
Speaker 1:
After Baker's death, both Carl Rattle and Wyoming wanted to honor him as a pioneer. Carl Rattle historian shows to the moralized Baker where they stained glass window in the dome of the Capitol and they hoped to have his cabin moved to Denver. Wyoming historian Grace Raymond Hubert reported this and the residents of the state let the wishes to keep Baker's cabin being on. In 1917, the Wyoming legislature appropriated $500 to purchase the cabin and $250 to move it to Cheyenne. The laws were taken down and numbered. However, the funds ran out before the items made it to the railroad. The Cheyenne Frontier Days Committee helped rescue the stranded cabin. That year the building was erected and stood in Frontier Park in Cheyenne, but the timbers began to rot and Baker's cabin was taken apart and stored, baker's canoe went to a friend, george Wren, who later gave it to the Wyoming State Museum. Baker used a 16-foot-long canoe made of a hollowed-out cottonwood tree on the Little Snake River near his home.
Speaker 1:
1976, after much persuasion and work by the Little Snake River Valley residents, baker's cabin was returned to the Little Snake River Valley as a bicentennial project. Many of the tags marking the logs were faded and the reassembly of the structure took almost two months. The Baker cabin was named a historical place in 1982. From 1983 to 2001, baker's canoe was displayed at the Little Snake River Museum. That was returned to the Wyoming State Museum in 2002, working with you today, the Baker cabin now stands on the museum grounds about a mile from its original place. Thanks for joining us today and we hope you enjoy our podcast. As per the Code of the West, we ride for the brand and we ride for Wyoming. Three, two, one, three, two, one go.