Let's Talk Wyoming
A podcast about Wyoming and everything we talk about including the weather, politics, energy & agriculture, sports & everything else effecting our state.
Let's Talk Wyoming
Wyoming Fall, Sports, and History
A sharp wind, a packed bleacher, and a story that won’t sit quietly—that’s the arc we ride this week across Wyoming. We open on a cold, gray morning and the kind of 65 mph gusts that flip trailers and test patience from Chugwater to Casper, pivot into homecoming pride where the Bobcats edge Lyman 14–7 and the FFA plates out ribs, sweet corn, and pie, and then barrel into Laramie for a 35–28 Cowboys win that swings on a tipped-ball touchdown and a jailbreak run to the end zone. It’s the electric stuff that keeps towns humming when days get shorter and the harvest stalls in wet fields.
Then we lean into the deeper ledger of the place. Territorial food reads like survival poetry—jackrabbit and trout on sticks for Jim Bridger, antelope steaks in survey camps, summer vegetables hawked by Evanston’s Chinese gardeners, and the rare luxury of oysters on ice from faraway coasts. Medicine was slim; the railroad was dangerous; communities did what they could with what they had. And finally, we sit with the “Trouble at Lightning Creek”—a five-minute gunfight on October 31, 1903, between a sheriff’s posse and Oglala families traveling with passes to gather herbs. Eyewitness accounts conflict, jurisdiction was shaky, and the legal backdrop of the Racehorse decision complicated hunting rights. Seven people died, including a boy and the sheriff; charges didn’t stick; newspapers inflamed and backpedaled. The stain remains, asking us to learn, not look away.
Across weather, sports, food, and history, we hold two truths at once: the joy of local wins and the responsibility to remember hard chapters. That balance feels like Wyoming—tough, grateful, unsentimental, and proud. Ride along with us, then tell a friend, hit follow, and leave a review to help more neighbors find the show. What part stayed with you the longest?
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 changing fall weather. We'll be also looking at those Wyoming cowboys, and we'll take a look at Food of Territorial Wyoming and Trouble at Lightning Crick. Thanks for joining us today, and we hope you enjoy the pod. Happy Columbus Day, Indigenous People Day, whatever else fits your mood here in Hot Springs County. It's a chilly one today. 39 after lunch, and still overcast, has not had any type of moisture. Don't see anything really forecast for the rest of the week, but just strange weather altogether. Looking at that forecast right now, it looks like a normal winter. Everything I've saw. I did see video yesterday from southwestern Wyoming down near Evanston. They were getting snow. Up in Montana, Helena, and different places got snow, quite a bit of snow. So it's around the in the area, and just a matter of time before it hits us here in the state of Wyoming. Made a trip down to southern Wyoming to Cheyenne on Saturday. Coming back yesterday, the winds from about for Chugwater, through Chugwater, and around to Glendow, all the way to Casper, were really going at it. It was 65 mile an hour plus. It varied from 55, 65 plus across there. No low profile vehicles. I did see a remnants of a trailer that was in the middle of the interstate that the wind had got it and just destroyed it. And all the contents were in a big pile in the middle of the interstate. Not a good day to be out on the highway. I know it uh played havoc on actual travel as far as fuel mileage and such, but I did get a good tailwind coming from Casper to Shoshone and made good time and got back. And it was a beautiful day to travel. Other than the wind, it was just gorgeous out. We are looking now, talking about different things going on in the state. We are at that point of the year where in our agricultural, they got shut down last week with all the rain here in the area in the Bighorn Basin, uh in the Riverton area for sugar beet harvest. Just a little bit wet, too much rain. We did get 2.4 almost two and a half inches of rain a week ago. And what a nice relief. But right now, days are getting shorter. We're getting closer and closer and closer to the end of October. So right now, everything looks pretty good here in Wyoming as we're enjoying a chilly fall day. And looks like that may be what the forecast is in front of us. I did see maybe some fifties, but um this is what we're gonna face from here on out. In other news, an exciting week here in the Hot Springs County at Homecoming at the high school on Friday night, the Bobcats took on Lyman came out. Victoria's 14 to 7. It was a really good game, really good high school football game. Really good high school crowd. Homecoming, uh royalty was there, just fun with homecoming. Now, one thing we do, and I probably a lot of schools do, but our FFA has a fundraiser that they have at Homecoming. And I remember years ago when they would cook steaks. Actually, yes, they did cook steaks, and it was pretty reasonably priced, a steak meal. And this year they had ribs, and I wasn't able to get over there before the game started, but at halftime I got a chance to go over, and they had ribs, pork ribs, and they were oh, they were so good. I they were just melted in your mouth. They had uh fresh corn from here in Thermopolis, from Health and Taller's corn, and just you gotta love that. And a big old baked potato and salad and a dessert. So for twenty dollars you couldn't go wrong, the best meal in Hot Springs County on Friday night. It's always good to get out and support those local activities like that, and also you get a heck of a good meal while you're at it. And then on Saturday, down in Cheyenne, and went for a little later lunch but to the Texas Roadhouse. And I have not been to a Texas Roadhouse in it's been 20 years. The last Texas Roadhouse I was at was up in Billings, and it was pretty popular when that first opened and just never this had kind of uh a little bad stretch with some meals and just never went back. But I would recommend the one in Cheyenne. They have a really good bunch of people working there. They get people in, they are very good, they have really great customer service, get you in and get you fed at a nice small sirloin steak with a sweet potato. So hats off to the people at the Texas Roadhouse in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Job well done. The one place I've never been to, and I've ate a old soda, reminding me that we did get it to go once, a hamburger and such from Culver's. Now Culver's has two uh locations in Cheyenne, so need to go to a the Culver's again and give it a try. I've been multiple places in Cheyenne, even got to go that afternoon over to the L Triple C, the Laramie Community College, for a volleyball game as they took on Casper College Thunderbirds. And unfortunately for L C C they came out on the short end of that. Casper had just a little better volleyball team, and also there's a lot of activity, a lot of rodeo stuff taking place, and they were having a college rodeo was taking place, and didn't get a chance to go that night, eight o'clock uh that night, but a nice crowd there for that. So a little bit of everything when you're out and about, and also that same night, it just kind of slipped my mind with some other stuff going on and didn't think to get over there, but the Wyoming Cowboys were in action that night, and for the people that were there, and I'll tell you what, you got a real treat for the Wyoming game. Wyoming has been having a tough season. They came in at 2-3, and they were down in that game. It was 28-14, and from that point on, the Cowboys just clawed their way back into it. They were it had to have been the most raucous plays. I can imagine I've sat through some of those that have been like that. The year that they beat Missouri in Laramie was just really unbelievable. And about a few years ago, but they were down, they got it to 28-21, then scored a touchdown to tie it up. Uh San Jose got the ball, couldn't do much, punted. Cowboys moved it down, and they were really getting in position to run a field goal. And the Wyoming running back got a handoff and was in a pile of players and arms wrapped around him, and suddenly out he pops and off he goes, and he gets into the end zone, and the Cowboys win. So they were victorious 35-28. So another great night. It looked like it was a nice night in Laramie. I don't know if it was a capacity crowd, but they did have a good crowd for the game. So a lot of people were talking about that game, and we'll continue to talk about that game. Cowboys come out victorious, and that's what happens with the Cowboys. There was a play that they got a touchdown to get it to 28-21, where the quarterback from San Jose threw a ball and ricocheted off one of his linemen's uh helmets, bounced around a couple times and went everywhere all over, and suddenly it landed in one of our defensive linemen's arms, and he just took off. And of course, as they were down at their end of the field, so it was a short distance to the end zone, but he rolled right into that end zone with a touchdown, and then San Jose should know that that Wyoming magic was starting to kick in, and boy, it did. Crazy things can happen there at the war. Just a great night, and congratulations to the Cowboys. I was also talking about high school football, kind of jumping around a little bit, but that Wyoming kicked into mine. As I said, the Thermoplist Bobcats came out victorious. They get to go down to Bridger Valley and take on Mountain View. Both teams are undefeated, and boy, it's been a long time since the Bobcats have been this good. Back in the late 2009 10 group and 10 and 11, they won back-to-back state titles and pretty much have not had much in the way of those type of teams for quite some time. And this team came into the year and didn't have a I don't know if other people had a lot of high expectations, but they have managed to win games and a resilient bunch of kids, and they came out and so they get to play an afternoon game Friday, and the winner of that will be the number one seed, most likely, unless there's something strange happens, the number one seed in the west, the two-way west. You really don't want to finish number two in the in the west because you're most likely going to take on Bighorn, the perennial powerhouse across the mountain, who will be end up number one over in the east. So it's an exciting time. Looks like that the Bobcats will be hosting a playoff game here in Hot Springs County. And again, it's been fifteen years since there's been any type of a playoff game hosted here in Hot Springs County. So great things are happening, always exciting, but that's what I was just talking about. The excitement of all those events. It kind of takes you away from all the other uh stuff that's going on in our world, but great things happening here in the state of Wyoming. Taking a look at Wyoming history, reading from the history of Wyoming from T.A. Larson, and I found this rather interesting, and it's in the section on territorial life. They're talking about the food of the time. And most of the pioneers in Wyoming ate simple food. In 1862, Lieutenant Caspar Collins was amused to see Jim Bridger cooking his supper. Old Gabe placed a whole jackrabbit and an 18-inch trout on two sticks before the fire. When they were done, he devoured them both without benefit of salt or other seasoning, washing them down with a quart of strong coffee. Bridgers fare may be representative for the mountain men, but a decade or two later there was a greater variety. Debia O. Owens recalls a typical meal of the eighteen seventies boiled potatoes, broiled, pickled pork, hot baking powder biscuits, cross and blackwell's chow chow, molasses and coffee. While surveying, he enjoyed hot biscuits and syrup, frying pans full of antelope steaks, canned corn and tomatoes, stewed peaches with Gail Borden's Eagle Brand condensed milk and pie. Roast beef and brown potatoes were popular. People ate much wild game, elk, deer, and especially antelope. The pioneer cattleman A. S. Bud Gillespie has recalled that his father went out every Sunday to kill an antelope, which he cleaned, covered with cloth, and pulled up to the top of the meat pole in the ranch yard for regular reference during the following week. The Colorado State Historical Society has published Pioneer Potluck, which gives 115 pioneer recipes as valid for Wyoming as for Colorado. Included are recipes for beaver tail, son of a gun stew, and Rocky Mountain oysters. For the few who could afford such luxuries, markets in winter offered such fresh items as salmon from California, codfish from Boston, oysters from Baltimore, lake trout from Chicago, turkeys and chickens from Nebraska, and vegetables and fruits from California. In summer, they had homegrown vegetables. Mrs. E. A. Stone remembered that Chinese trotted through the streets of Evanston, offering lettuce, cabbage, and lattice, as well as peas and root vegetables. Exceptions to the general rule of plain food can be found on a few special occasions. At the grand opening of the Inter Ocean Hotel in Cheyenne in September of eighteen seventy five, not a few poorly spelled French words had crept into the long menu. Local foods were not neglected, or several Wyoming game items were included, and other items appeared to have been old standbys by disguise. In relation to medicine in the territories, the territories had thirty physicians and surgeons and four dentists in eighteen eighty. After a survey, a Cheyenne physician reported in January of eighteen eighty four that there were about fifty healers in the territory, thirty of the regular school, fifteen homeopaths, and five eccentrics. His questionnaire sent to Rawhide Buttes elicited the following response. No bomb in Rawhide, no physician here, and occasional suicide seems to be the only exit hints. From Sherman, he got the reply Jesus Christ is all the physicians in this camp, old school. Many small children died of scarlet fever and diphtheria. Counties provided care for indigent transients, and many of whom were described as suffering from the intempted use of alcohol. Year in and out in the territory of Wyoming, a major destroyer of human life was the Union Pacific Railroad. Locomotive boilers exploded. Low roofed snow sheds known as man traps cracked the skulls or broke the neck of many brakemen. Trains often collided head on, less than often, and were rear end collisions. Paying passengers as well as tramps, bumming rides, fell between the cars. And just for everyone's reference, we're talking about medical. In episode thirty three of our show, we had we talked about, I should say, the Wyoming's first female doctor, Lillian Heath, and she, as we said, she carried a thirty-two caliber pistol to protect herself. But this was in eighteen ninety-three, as far as another tidbit, the history of Wyoming medical practice in a rather interesting one, our first female doctor. Trouble at Lightning Crick, a stained page in Wyoming's history by Lori Van Belt. Just before sunset on october thirty first, nineteen oh three, eighteen year old Hope Claire, Oklaasu from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, dismounted from her horse to open a gate near Lightning Creek on the dry fork of the Cheyenne River, about fifty miles northeast of Douglas, Wyoming. Two little boys were with her, helping her trail some loose ponies. They had ridden ahead of several of the wagons driven by others in the group. The Indians headed back to the reservation after a trip to search for medicinal plants, and they planned to camp near the creek. But the teenager saw the white men aiming their guns at me, so I started back to the wagons as fast as I could. Shots rang out. Claire did not hear any warnings before the gunfire began. One bullet hit the horse that eleven year old Peter White Elk rode. The horse fell. The boys scrambled up and started to run and then got shot. The fighting lasted no more than five minutes. Seven people, including Peter White Elk and Sheriff William Miller, died of wounds incurred during the battle. The white men that Hope Claire saw were members of a posse headed up by Miller, who was the sheriff of Weston County, Wyoming. The confrontation was in Converse County. Miller was in fact out of his jurisdiction. Posse members said later that they shouted warnings to the Indians to stop, but that the Indians fired first, in contrast to Claire's recollection. Miller had tried to arrest the Indians for violating state game laws the day before, but Charles Smith, the Ogala leader of the party that Claire was traveling with, had convinced the Indians that they should return to the reservation rather than go to Newcastle, Wyoming with the sheriff. Smith, known to the Indians as Eaglefeather, had attended the Carlisle Indian School, had told the sheriff that he didn't live in Newcastle and wasn't going there. One posse member recalled that the sheriff told Smith he didn't want trouble and wanted the Indians to come peacefully, but Smith replied, I know the law, and I know your duty as well as you do and what they expect of you. But you can't take me. John Branaghan, the U.S. Indian agent at the Pryan Ridge Reservation, had granted passes to the Indians to leave the reservation for the purpose of gathering herbs, roots, and berries. He gave passes to two parties in the fall of nineteen oh three, to William Brown on september thirtieth and to Charles Smith on october twentieth. This practice was not uncommon for Branhan, but he made it a special point, he noted later, to caution all Indians going through Wyoming and Montana not to hunt while on their trip, and instructed them to get permits from the proper officers if they did want to hunt. Hunting had been an issue for many years. The disagreements about hunting rights occurred in part because the state of Wyoming laws had been interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court in eighteen ninety six in the Ward v. Racehorse case as superior to treaty agreements made previously by the U.S. government with Indians. Concerns also arose prior to racehorse that overkill of Wyoming game would discourage wealthy easterners who came to the state to hunt for sport. A lack of game thus would mean decreased state income. Still another factor contributing to the increasing tensions were when in the early 1900s, rations provided by the US government by the U.S. government for Indian living on the reservations was reduced. In October of nineteen oh three, Sheriff Miller in Newcastle received word that the Indians had been hunting illegally in southern Weston County and on the northern border of Converse County, and they had been killing cattle, according to Weston County Clerk A L. Putman, so explicit and positive were these statements that although no complaints had been filed by the stockmen, Sheriff Miller thought it his duty to look after the matter and put a stop to the law breaking and to protect the property of our citizens, which it was said was being destroyed. Reports had come into the office between october twentieth and october twenty second. The sheriff organized a posse of six that left Newcastle on october twenty third. The sheriff could not leave until the next day and met the posse at the prearranged place. They found some Indians near Lancecrick, disarmed them, and three of the posse members took them to Newcastle. Another man joined the main posse, which continued for several days to Black Thunder Basin, where Indians had been reported, but they had gone before the posse arrived. Posse continued until they found William Brown and Charles Smith parties on the dry fork of the Cheyenne River north of present day Bill, Wyoming. The Brown and Smith parties had met accidentally and were on their way back to the reservation. A broken wagon wheel repaired Trevose style with a pole that dragged the ground left a trail that posse members followed. The lawmakers arrived at the place where the Indians were camped at about noon. William Brown's wife prepared a meal, which posse men ate as they waited for Charles Smith to return. Later that afternoon, Smith came back and had upon his horse an antelope. Miller tried to arrest them, but Smith refused to go to Newcastle, although others in the party were willing to. One posse member recalled that the sheriff read their arrest warrant to the Indians twice. The Indians broke camp, and although they were reportedly some confusion about whether the Indians were going to Newcastle, they instead went in the direction of the reservation. The sheriff and the posse decided not to follow at that time, but they warned the Indians they would be back. The lawmen then stayed at the Fiddleback Ranch about twenty miles away. The sheriff's requested men from the local ranches that would join his posse. Further complicating the manner, Charles Smith and Sheriff Miller reportedly disliked each other, having exchanged words in nineteen oh one about illegal hunting. On october thirty first, nineteen oh three, the sheriff's posse caught up with the Indians in the late afternoon at Lightning Creek. The Indians had traveled about fifty miles from the place where Sheriff Miller had first attempted the arrest. Some of the Ogallas were traveling in wagons and some were riding horses. They were in a procession about a quarter to one half mile long. Approach of the sheriff and his posse after they left the road and took up a dry gulch under the creek bed was threatening and menacing. According to a statement issued later by U.S. District Attorney for Wyoming, Timothy Burke, implying that the posse had set up for an ambush. Hope clearer, like many of the Indians that day, fled when the shooting started. Peter White Elf, boy helping her, was shot in the head, killed instantly. Others killed were Sheriff Miller, who bled to death from a severed femoral artery about thirty minutes after the fight. Deputy Lewis Faulkenberg, who was shot in the neck and died instantly. Charles Smith, who died the next day. Black Kettle and Grey Bear, Susan Smith, Charles' wife, who was shot in the shoulder, died a few days later. Last Bear, wounded in the neck, recovered. Miller had been moved to a nearby Mills ranch cabin where he died. Posse members guarded the cabin throughout the night, concerned that an attack might occur. The next morning two posse members, James Davis and Ralph Hackney, took the bodies of Miller and Faulkenberg to Newcastle. Other posse members returned to the scene of the fight to search the Indian wagons and found that several Indian women had built a fire and were attending to the injured Charles Smith there. Smith was taken to the Mills cabin and a posse member Stephen Franklin took the women to Lus, where he sought a doctor. Smith died that night. Another posse formed at Newcastle, this one organized by Crook County Sheriff Lee Mather, to capture the Indians who fled the scene. Some managed to go back to the reservations. Other were arrested in Edgemont, South Dakota, charged with murder, and these men were taken to Douglas, Wyoming. The Converse County Sheriff released the women and children to the custody of Indian agent John R. Branaghan. Branaghan requested the release of the nine men, but Wyoming Acting Governor Fanimore Chatterton refused. A preliminary hearing, the only legal proceeding in the case was held in Douglas, Wyoming, the county seat of Converse County. On november fourteenth, nineteen oh three, two weeks after the confrontation, because of federal obligations to the tribes, U.S. Attorney for Wyoming Timothy Burke represented the Ogallas in the state case. He did not call them to testify that day, but traveled to Pine Ridge later to take their statements, because he could not find a place to appropriate secrecy to take their statements in Douglas, and because he believed that the case of Weston County prosecutor WF Meekham was weak. Acting Governor Chatterton, along with Wyoming Congressman Frank Mondell, who was from Newcastle, and U.S. Senator Francis E. Warren supported the posse members and were dissatisfied with the results of the hearing. Charges against the Ogala's were dropped after the hearing and they were released. No member of the posse was ever charged. Modell and Warren used their influence to ensure a thorough investigation was made. They hoped the publicity can help highlight the state's rights. In addition to the involvement of Burke and Special Indian Agent Charles S. McNichols, Major B. H. Cleaver of the Sixth Cavalry was sent by the War Department to attend the Douglas hearing, and the President's Secretary requested that the U.S. Attorney General report to the Cabinet at its next meeting. After examining the evidence, Burke issued a detailed report wherein he questioned Sheriff Miller's legal jurisdiction to arrest the Indians. The Sheriff's warrant was issued in Weston County, Wyoming, and the arrest was attempted in Cambridge County. Burke also wrote that the evidence did not show that the Indians were in violation of the law, unless the testimony to be accepted that the Indian Smith, when he returned to his party at the time the sheriff first visited them, an antelope, which fact is denied by a number of the Indians in their evidence. Burke determined that the Indians were legally justified in resisting arrests under the conditions shown, but not to the extent of using deadly weapons, unless the sheriff's posse first used their guns, and as facts in such a hopeless uncertainty, I cannot believe that anything is to be gained by further prosecution, for were proceedings to be had against either party, the proper application of the rule of reasonable doubt would acquit the accused. Indian agent McNichols noted in his report that the trouble at Lightning Crick, resulting in part from a local sentiment of race hatred, has stained a page in Wyoming history. Newspapers gave front page space to the events, especially focusing on the fight and offering referring to the Indians as Bucks, Braves, Squaws, and Redskins. The weekly Newcastle Times on october thirtieth of 1903 carried an item about Miller and his posse, searching for the Indians because reports had been received that several bands of Indians were scattered through the Black Thunder Basin, some seventy miles from Newcastle and were unlawfully killing antelope and cattle. The article also stated one witness alone said he could under oath say that he had passed five carcasses of steers killed by gunshot wounds in the country where the Indians were hunting. The Wyoming Tribune, a daily newspaper, reported on the battle in its november second, nineteen oh three issue. The report stated It is probable that in the event the governor fails to call out troops, a small regiment of men will set out tomorrow morning, all bent on avenging the death of the officers. The newspaper also included information about a second battle wherein a posse formed to catch the Indians who fled Lightning Creek fight and that ten Indians were killed. The next day the newspaper explained they had been a little bit exaggerated in the first report and also noted that the report of a second battle was pure imaginary. The Newcastle Times in its november sixth report stated that, like Custer, Sheriff Miller held his ground. What matters were the odds two to one in the enemy's favor. What mattered were the bullets flying all around. He knew the peril and risk, and was only doing his job as an officer when low, a bullet struck him up high and in the left hip, severing the ephemeral artery and breaking the bone. The Grand Encampment Herald carried a true story, as told by Johnny Owen, the celebrated scout and Indian fighter. A few days later, Cheyenne Wyoming's Tribune carried an item from the Denver News with Buffalo Bill's opinion on the Wyoming incident and the hunting rights. The famed Western showman admitted that he'd only glanced over the newspaper accounts, which are not all alike. However, he believed that the tribes have a right to shoot game not for the sake of slaughter, but for personal use. We must make allowance for the fact that they and their ancestors have lived largely by the chase. So some concessions along that line should be my way of thinking, be granted to them. But Burke, as might be expected for an attorney, gave thoughtful consideration to the evidence and further, he interpreted the language of the treaties and referred to the eighteen ninety six racehorse case. He explained, I do not find from reading of a various treaties made with the Ogala Sioux that they had reserved any right to hunt off their reservation after the buffalo should cease to exist in numbers as to justify the chase, their treaty of eighteen sixty eight being merely that they should have the right to hunt so long as the buffalo may range thereon in such numbers as to justify the chase, being an entirely different provision from the one made by the crow and the Shoshone and other Indians, which are to the effect that they should have the right to hunt upon the unoccupied lands of the United States government so long as the game should exist in sufficient quantities to authorize the chase. The later provision, as it appears in a number of treaties, however, has been construed against the Indians' rights, in violation of state laws subsequently enacting in the case of Ward, Sheriff versus Racehorse. The Lightning Creek battle has been called the last blood spilling fight between whites and American Indians in Wyoming. The conflict was not the last in the West, however. Armed skirmishes, many with bloodshed, continue intermittently until 1924. 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.
