Let's Talk Wyoming - Weather and Movie's to watch, tribute to "Mother Feather Legs" & Legendary Echoes of Platte Bridge Station

What happens when unpredictable weather, historical tributes, and local lore combine in one compelling episode? On this episode of "Let's Talk Wyoming," we kick off with a current weather update, spotlighting a warming trend and recent road closures from surprise snowstorms. We also address a tragic incident in Yellowstone Park, where an 83-year-old woman was gored by wildlife, underscoring the ever-present dangers of nature. For our movie buffs, don't miss our rave review of "Arthur the King," featuring Mark Wahlberg in a heartwarming true story that's perfect for the whole family. Plus, we commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, honoring the courage and sacrifice of those who fought bravely.

Our historical deep dive takes you to the rugged past of Lusk, Wyoming, where we explore the life of "Mother Featherlegs," a fascinating figure whose monument tells a tale of a colorful existence. Then, journey with us back to the tumultuous Battle at Platte Bridge Station. Discover the strategic decisions and dramatic events involving the Southern Cheyenne bands, the 11th Ohio and 11th Kansas regiments, and the pivotal clash on July 26th, 1865. Experience the tension, alliances, and key moments, including Lieutenant Casper Collins' ill-fated rescue mission against a formidable force of Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota warriors. You won't want to miss this episode packed with weather insights, heartfelt stories, and gripping historical accounts.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:20

Good morning and welcome to let's Talk Wyoming. I'm Mark Hamilton, your host Today. We'll be taking a look at some weather. We'll take a look at some other news here in the state. We'll have a movie review. Also, we'll talk about a story on a headstone for a lady of the evening in Lusk, wyoming. And finally we'll talk about Indian Wars here in the state of Wyoming. Thanks for joining us and we hope you enjoy the show you look at.

Speaker 1: 1:01

Wyoming weather Our weather has been cool. Of course. We've gotten some rain and, as I've said previously, it's really green out across the state of Wyoming. But guess what? The temperatures are warming up. I think we're going to get close to 90 today and the days ahead, with a little bit of wind. That heat is just going to kill us all here. We're just so used to this cool weather. It's just going to be that adjustment, but looks like ahead for Wyoming looks like we're going to have some summer weather in store.

Speaker 1: 1:31

On that same note, beartooth Highway. A lot of people are familiar with it. I've talked here on the podcast about it. It's the highway up above Bread Lodge, montana, outside of Cook City, off that Chief Joseph Highway. Just a beautiful trip to take. They have to open it every late spring. It takes quite a bit of snow work, removal to get the road open. Well, people were driving it in the last weekend and guess what? It got closed. People got stranded up there with a winter storm hit. So it's still out there but probably going to be less likely to happen now. I can even remember a time on it was later in July I was in Colorado of all places, maybe the one time I go to Colorado. I usually don't go to Colorado very often, but up on Mount Evans I think that's at 14,000 plus and it was snowing up there and of course this was about the third week of July. So I guess anywhere you're in the west up in the mountains it can snow on you Also. Just to kind of give you an update on Yellowstone Park, the animals are up 3-0. This year A 83-year-old lady got gored in the park. I don't know why People. Every year it's the same thing, with all the cases of these accidents happening. You think that slowly people would figure this out, but it's not happening. And again, if you're a betting person, I wouldn't bet on the humans. I think the animals are going to take this one all the way On my movie reviews.

Speaker 1: 3:08

I always like to talk about a movie if it's good, that I would like to share and people to watch. I definitely want to give a five-star top rating for the movie Arthur the King. Mark Wahlberg's in the movie. It's based on a true story and it has a dog in it and it's just at first. It's a little bit slow at the very start of the movie but as they get involved with the dog it's involved with the character that Mark Wahlberg's portraying. It's just, it's a great watch. It has a little bit of everything and it ends well. It's got a good story to it and, again, as I say, it's a true story. So for animal lovers out there, there's people like movies that make you feel good to watch it. This is the type of movie you want to take in.

Speaker 1: 3:58

Arthur the King highly recommend it. Have the kids along. I watched it on the video. I know it's been in the theaters. I don't know if it's still been in the theaters, but I watched it the other night and take somebody with you. Bite the family, get the family around and watch it. These are the type of movies. There's not a lot of other things in this movie. There's no other sex or other problems. It's just a great movie. And if it has a dog in it it has to be good, so highly recommend Arthur the King.

Speaker 1: 4:34

And finally, today here, on the sixth day of June, this is the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Hats off to all those valiant men that's involved with D-Day Boy. It was bloody. If you've watched Saving Private Ryan and some of these other movies and they always have a ceremony over in France it just remembers about our country how we were at one time. And hats off and salute to the brave men that were involved with the D-Day that started the invasion of Europe in 1944, june 6.

Speaker 1: 5:11

And a story getting a little bit off the beaten path the Monument to a Prostitute in Lusk, wyoming. On the windswept plains of eastern Wyoming stands the only monument to a prostitute known to exist in the United States. Though Featherlegs, as she was known, was seemingly well-liked by area residents, it is doubtful that the area's citizens would have built a monument to her during her heyday. However, she was seemingly perceived to be an important part of history along the Cheyenne-Deadwood Stage Road when the monument was erected in 1964. Back in 1876, on the Silver Spring Road near Musgrat Canyon, charlotte.

Speaker 1: 5:49

Mother Featherlegs Shepard established a saloon and a house of ill repute. Though it was more of a dugout than a house, it didn't stop many men from stopping by for a female companionship. She was called Featherlegs because her lace-trimmed red pantylets made her limbs look like chicken legs, and she was often known to gallop across the prairie riding a strider horse with her lacy ruffles flowing in the wind. When one of her customers commented that she looked like a feather-legged chicken, the nickname stuck A middle-aged, auburn-haired woman. She ran the establishment along with an outlaw who was called dangerous dick davis. In no time the saloon and brothel became a favorite gathering place for dangerous dick's cohorts. Mother feather legs was also often entrusted with large sums of money and jewelry that she would hide for the outlaws until they could safely dispose of them.

Speaker 1: 6:41

But for feather legs the prosperity was not to last. In 1879, when a woman named Mrs OJ Demmon, the wife of a Silver Springs rancher, took a ride along the trail, she found the madame's murdered body next to the spring. Having laid there for several days, moccasin tracks like those worn by Dangerous Dick were found around her body. Featherlegs was buried where she died. Meanwhile Dangerous Dick had skipped the her body, featherlegs, was buried where she died. Meanwhile, dangerous Dick had skipped the country, along with a cache of money and jewels. With the booty in hand, dangerous Dick returned to the swamps of Louisiana, which had long been his preferred choice for his outlaw activities. However, a couple years later he was found there and charged with robbery and murder. Before he was hanged, he confessed to having killed Mother Featherlegs and told the world that her real name was Charlotte Shepard. However, many contended that Charlotte wasn't her real name either, and Bob Darrell, the founder of Mother Featherlegscom, tells us that the name Charlotte came from a poem Robert Thorpe recited at the monument dedication.

Speaker 1: 7:43

The 3,500-pound pink granite monument was erected in 1964 in conjunction with the reenactment of the Cheyenne Deadwood stage run. The inscription reads here lies Mother Featherlegs, so-called as her ruffled pantalettes. She looked like a feather-legged chicken in a high wind. She was the roadhouse ma'am, an outlaw confederate, and she was murdered by dangerous dick davis. The ter got them back. Unfortunately, for the fear of further theft, they no longer graced the monument site. They are now on display at the Stagecoach Museum in Lusk, wyoming.

Speaker 1: 8:38

The monument is located 10 miles south of Lusk on the Old Cheyenne Trail. Be prepared. This unpaved road can often be pitted with muddy ruts. I'd like to thank Kathy Alexander and the Legends of America for this story. Today in our history section we're going to go into an article by Ellis Hine.

Speaker 1: 9:00

The Battle of the Platte Bridge Station and Red Buttes, a pair of fights on July 26, 1865, in now what is central Wyoming, were two of the most significant battles of Indian Wars of the Great Northern Plains. They resulted in the loss of Lieutenant Caspar Collins and 27 other soldiers, along with lighter losses among the Cheyenne, lakota, sioux and Arapaho warriors who attacked them. The battles were a direct result of the famed Sand Creek Massacre, hundreds of miles away in southeastern Colorado Territory the previous November, when Colonel John Chivington and 700 troops attacked a peaceful southern Cheyenne village led by Chief Black Kettle. Black Kettle's band had been awaiting peace negotiations with soldiers and the government officials at nearby Fort Lyon, but the Colorado troops got there first and killed about 135 people in the village, more than 100 of them children and women. In the following months, the entire Central Plains exploded into war, wrote historian Richard White. Wrote historian Richard White.

Speaker 1: 10:11

Many Southern Cheyenne bands began moving north across the plains of Colorado, gathering allies as they won among the Lakota and the Arapaho. They attacked the army posts and major state stations at Julesburg on the South Platte and Mud Springs on the North Platte. By winter they had reached the Powder and Tongue River basins in what is now northeastern Wyoming prime buffalo country. There they linked up with the Ogallala, lakota and the northern Cheyenne bands. By May there was a huge camp of 10,000 or more people on the Tongue River.

Speaker 1: 10:41

Out of that energy and power, combined with the continued rage and grief over the loss at Sand Creek, the tribes decided it was time to attack the soldiers at Platt Bridge Station, an Army post near present-day Casper, wyoming, guarding the westernmost Oregon Trail crossing of the North Platt River. Platt Bridge Station was built in 1862 at the site of a trading post to house storage batteries that powered the Pacific Telegraph line and to warehouse supplies to repair the lines. Also, the duties of the soldier station there included protecting and repairing the Telegraph line. At that time the station housed three officers and 60 men from the 6th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. In the spring of 1865, it was charged. In the spring of 1865, it was changed from an occasional troop station to a permanent fort. By that time the post was manned by units of the 11th Ohio and 11th Kansas Cavalry Regiments.

Speaker 1: 11:39

Colonel Thomas Moonlight of the 11th Kansas, stationed at Fort Laramie, commanded Platt Bridge and other posts along the Oregon Trail Bridge and other posts along the Oregon Trail. Because of his actions and attitudes, bitterness and animosity grew between the 11th Ohio and the 11th Kansas regiments. On July 8th, captain Henry Bretney of Ohio and James Greer from Kansas argued over who was going to be in command at Platt Bridge. On the 9th, orders arrived putting Greer in command of the post and placing Major Martin Anderson of the 11th Kansas in command of a district running 300 miles or more from Fort Laramie to South Pass. Anderson's headquarters would be Platte Bridge, about in the middle of the district. The argument and his outcome deepened the hostility between the two regiments.

Speaker 1: 12:29

Anderson arrived at Platte Bridge on July 16. He immediately ordered Bretney and all the Ohio regiment, except four men who knew how to operate the cannon, the Sweetwater Station near Independence Rock, 55 miles to the west. The Ohio group left on the 21st, accompanied by the commissionary, sergeant Amos Custard, and wagons carrying rations and gear for the troops. On the 21st, accompanied by the Commissionary, sergeant Amos Custard, and wagons carrying rations and gear for the troops on the Sweetwater After Bretney and the Ohio troops were transferred to Sweetwater Station. Platte Bridge Station had men from companies of the 11th Kansas 3rd US Infantry and a handful from the 11th Ohio by the 26th, with the arrival of small groups of troops on their way east and west. The total number at Platte Bridge Station was 119 men and officers.

Speaker 1: 13:15

At 2 am on July 26th Captain A Smythe Liby of the 3rd Infantry Bettany and 10 men of the Ohio Regiment arrived at Platte Bridge Station. They were on their way to Fort Laramie from Sweetwater Station to draw pay for their men Station. They were on their way to Fort Laramie from Sweetwater Station to draw pay for their men. Breton immediately informed Anderson that Sergeant Custard and his small train of freight wagons returning to Platt Bridge were camped at Willow Springs 25 miles west of Platt Bridge Station where they had stopped for the night Because hostile Indians were known to be in the area. Breton urged Anderson to send orders for Cust custard to come in or to send reinforcements. Anderson did neither.

Speaker 1: 13:55

Lieutenant Casper Collins of the 11th Ohio had arrived at Platt Bridge from Fort Laramie the previous day with a corporal and ten men of the 11th Kansas. Collins was on his way to join his men at Sweetwater Station. Collins and Brittany had breakfast with Anderson early on the 26th. During the meal Bretney volunteered to take 75 to 100 men and the howitzer and escort Custard to the station. Anderson said no. However, he did agree to send 20 men of the 11th Kansas Regiment.

Speaker 1: 14:28

The Kansas Regiment was due to be entirely mustered out of the Army in a little more than a week and no officer would volunteer to lead the rescue party. The general feeling was that the mission was suicidal. Collins volunteered to lead the party, however, if given more than 20 men. The North Platte River curved along the west and north sides of the fort. At 7 am Anderson ordered Collins to take 20 men, cross the bridge to the north side of the river, turn west and go to assist Custard. Even though sentries had spotted increasing numbers of warriors on the hills to the north, Collins was ordered to take his men on a route along the tops of those hills, bypassing the road to the river bottom. They would rejoin the road to the west where it reached higher ground. Thus Collins and his men would remain in the view of the station.

Speaker 1: 15:27

After Collins left, mounted on a borrowed, hard-to-manage horse, the troops of the fort saw more Indians west of the river, anderson sent Bettany and Liby with 20 men to guard the rear of Collins' party and to prevent Indians from cutting off the retreat to the bridge. When they reached the top of the hills, collins spied two Indians cutting the telegraph lines and ordered his men to attack as soon as they began. Following these Indians, 400 Cheyenne warriors came rushing out of the ravines near the river. Collins wheeled his men to meet the approaching Cheyenne. Because of the, collins could not see the main body of the Cheyenne, arapaho and Lakota also approaching from other directions. His group was soon surrounded. The soldiers tried to fight their way to the bridge. When one soldier's horse was shot out from under him, he called out for help. Collins returned to help the men. According to historian John McDermott, lakota warriors had recognized Collins as a friend and let him pass, but the Cheyenne did not know him and shot him with arrows. His horse bolted and ran. Collins finally fell from the saddle at the top of the bluff.

Speaker 1: 16:28

George Bent, a son of longtime trader William Bent of Bent's Fort on the Arkansas River, and Al Woman, a southern Cheyenne, was living with the Cheyenne relatives during this time. In a series of letters he wrote 40 years later to historian George Hyde. Bent recounted events from before Sand Creek to the fight at Platte Bridge and beyond. Bent was an eyewitness to the battle from the Indian side. According to his account, at 9 am Calvary crossed Platte Bridge and turned west. A small group of Indians was waiting to ambush and once the fight started the main party of Indians came over the hill, some 2,000 strong, and attacked the soldiers from the flanks. As we went into the troops, bent wrote, I saw Collins on a big bay horse rush past me through the dense cloud of dust and smoke. His horse was running away with him and broke right through the Indians Lieutenant had an arrow sticking in his forehead and his face was steaming with blood. He estimated only four or five soldiers escaped alive, and so the road was littered with the bodies of dead soldiers and horses. Besides Collins, four other soldiers of the 11th Kansas were killed in the fight. A fifth was killed after the battle when he attempted to repair the telegraph line.

Speaker 1: 17:43

According to McDermott, meanwhile Custard and his wagons had left Willow Creek early on the 26th, heading for the Platte Bridge station. At 11 am, when the party came over a hill five miles from the station, they were sighted by men there as well as by the Indians. The Indians attacked the wagons. During the first skirmish, five men were separated from the rest of the party Corporal James Schrader and Private Henry Smith, brian Swan, edward Summers and James Ballou. Schrader ordered these men to head for the river down the hill to their right. Ballou made it across but was shot when he reached the opposite side of the river. His body was never recovered. Summers was chased south towards Casper Mountain and killed. His body was later recovered.

Speaker 1: 18:28

A party of 20 men from the station finally rescued Schrader, smith and Swan Custards men corralled the wagons and piled cargo underneath them to form a press work of sort. They held off the Indians until about 4 pm, at which time the men in the station saw smoke rising from the burning wagons. The soldiers were already fighting a large body of warriors. Some men were in their rifle pits, others behind barricades under the wagons, and a few sharpshooters were in the wagons, firing through holes cut in the canvas tops. According to Bent, the Indians' usual custom was to take no prisoners. He counted 22 dead soldiers. Eight warriors were killed and many more wounded.

Speaker 1: 19:09

One unnamed newspaper version of this battle reported that unarmed soldiers were massacred by the Indians, who tied some of the men to wagon wheels and burned them alive. Bent called the report nonsense. He wrote the Plains Indians never tortured alive. Bent called the report nonsense, he wrote the Plains Indians never tortured prisoners. They never took men prisoners but shot them at once during the fighting. As to the soldiers being without arms, they were very well armed and put up a hard fight. They stood off a thousand warriors for at least half an hour. Lieutenant Collins and his men, on the other hand, were killed in a few minutes with practically no losses to the Indians. Mcdermott stated 21 soldiers were buried on the wagon train battlefield seven in one grave, 13 in another and one in a solitary grave by the river.

Speaker 1: 19:56

Already before the fights at Platt Bridge, plans were underway for a three-pronged punitive expedition of 2,500 troops into the Powder River country to the north. General Patrick Connor and 1,400 troops managed to destroy an Arapahoe village on the Tung River in late August, but the other two columns met with disaster and near starvation After a hard winter. Some of the tribes were nevertheless ready to make peace. The following spring, lakota, arapaho and Cheyenne representatives came to Fort Lamoury to negotiate, but while they were there, colonel Henry B Carrington arrived on a mission to build forts on the Bozeman Trail which led to the North Platte through Indian territories of Montana along the east side of the Bighorn Mountains. The Indians left in disgust. Carrington's troops built the forts and white travelers on the trail came under steady attack in what came to be called Red Clouds War. For the Ogallala-Lakota war leader, the army eventually abandoned the forts and something like peace held sway for a few years until Gould was discovered in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territories.

Speaker 1: 21:05

Tensions rose again. Lieutenant Colonel George Custer's command was rubbed out at the Little Bighorn on the Montana Territory in 1876, and finally the tribes came to reservations in the spring of 1877. Reservations in the spring of 1877. Major hostilities flared up one last time on Wounded Knee Creek in Dakota Territory in December of 1890, when troops of the 7th Cavalry killed hundreds of Lakota men, women and children in the last battle of the Indian Wars.

Speaker 1: 21:35

Throughout these decades of warfare with the Cheyenne, arapaho and Lakota Sioux, it is the stories of these small outposts such as Platt Bridge Station that are key to understanding what McDermott calls the persuasiveness and terror of racial conflict, lessons that are still important today. And Midwest Oil General Manager Robert Ellison bought two Kansas survivors of the 1865 fight to Casper to help pinpoint the burial sites of soldiers. People had been looking intermittently for the graves of Sergeant Custard and his command Along that time. The fight at the Custard wagon train came to be called, misleadingly, the Battle of Red Buttes, named for the famous Oregon Trail landmark about 10 miles west of the fort and out of sight of the fort and the battle site. In recent years efforts have been led by Fort Casper Museum Director Rick Young, chairman of the Natrona County Historical Preservation Commission, with the help of local volunteers and archaeologists from the Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist. They have searched with metal detectors, agonometers and cadaver dogs. Their results so far are inconclusive. Various sources differ in location of the battle, ranging from three and a half to five miles west of present-day Fort Casper. This is a large area to cover on foot, looking for three unmarked graves. Mcdermott mentions the sites are on private land west of Casper. With development beginning to push into the area, young hopes to locate the site and be able to preserve it.

Speaker 1: 23:16

Fort Casper that was brought up here is located. For people that are in the area is located off Wyoming Boulevard on the west side of the city of Casper From Interstate 25, take exit 188B and you'll follow the signs. The Fort Casper Museum is open daily in the summer, from October through April. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturdays. The Fort Casper Museum is open daily in the summer, from October through April. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturdays. The Fort Cass Museum is open daily in the summer, from October through April. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturdays. For information on fees and your hours, contact the museum office at 307-235-8642.

Speaker 1: 23:54

Parkgrounds include a replica of Mormon Ferry as well as a history walk with interpretive signs. Most events at the fort take place during the summer, but winter visitors enjoy a free holiday candlelight tour in December. In addition to the museum and gift shop with an excellent selection of books on the regional history, the park grounds offer picnic shelter, grills, playgrounds and restrooms. This site is handicap accessible, kind of a place that I've never been to Fort Casper, and I think that's a place I'll have to make a stop the next time I'm in the Casper area. Exit off of Interstate 25 at 188B and we'll follow the signs. I would also like to thank wildhistoryorg for this outstanding story. 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. We'll be right back. 3, 2, 1. 3, 2, 1. Go, go, go Go. © BF-WATCH TV 2021.