Ranch wife tails Gunfights and cattle rustlers
As many of you now know, one of my favorite hobbies is reading books. I recently read a short story by one of my favorite authors, C.J. Box, and it got me to thinking about all of the interesting history in our area.
Box is a Wyoming author and his most popular series is about a Wyoming Game Warden. The stories are fictional, but Box uses a lot of factual information to base them on. The short story I read, “Pronghorns of the Third Reich,” is about an estate settlement gone wrong. I won’t spoil the book, but it’s based on a real story of a Wyoming pilot that captured baby pronghorn antelope on the prairie, loaded them in his small airplane and delivered them to the German battle cruiser, the Hindenburg. At the time, antelope were an oddity to anyone outside of Wyoming and were being sold to zoos all over the world.
Anyone who’s ever been around antelope might have a hard time believing this story because pronghorns are the fastest mammal in North America and would be incredibly difficult to capture, let alone stuff inside of a plane and fly all the way to the coast! However, a picture of the pilot with the antelope in his plane proves that it’s true.
This is just one little tidbit of history that is fascinating and hard to imagine. There are equally crazy stories from all over the country, including right here in Custer County. My husband’s family tells the story of their ancestors who were shot in the crossfire of a gunfight at the post office!
One of the most infamous stories from the Callaway area is the lynching of Mitchell and Ketchum by Print Olive and his men. A classic battle between settlers and cattlemen ended when Print Olive took the law into his own hands. Although it’s a bit gruesome, it’s a really interesting story that happened in our backyard. Every time we ride through a canyon, my sister-in-law likes to point out the trees that might have been used to hang the men!
Not every piece of history is as exciting as capturing wild animals or gunfights and hangings, but it’s still fun to learn about. We have a lot of great places in Custer County to explore the history of the area. As the weather gets nicer, it’s a great time to visit the local museums and historical sites. And stay tuned for a special publication of the that gives a history of each community in the county..