Day Six: Club-Foot George
John, our host at the Stonehouse Inn, entertained us with some fantastic stories about Virginia City, but the best was the tale of how George Lane’s club foot ended up on a shelf at the local museum. Lane was among the “road agents” who terrorized Virginia City in the winter months of 1863 and 1864, and who were consequently hanged by a group of vigilantes with ties to the local Masonic Lodge. In the 1930s, as John said the story goes, some fellas down at the local bar got in an argument over where in fact Lane was buried. The original grave markers had been made of wood and over the years they had deteriorated and fallen over, making it difficult to determine who was buried where. As the drink-infused discussion continued down at the saloon, some of the men decided they were going to find out once in for all which grave belonged to Club Foot George. They headed up to Boot Hill and started digging until they found a skeleton that resembled him. They took the foot back to the bar “to show the rest of ‘em,” and that’s where it stayed until it was finally moved to the museum. John said they are planning to make a plaster cast of the foot for their exhibit and rebury the actual appendage under George Lane’s marker.
Day Six: Wyoming and Montana
Today was mostly a driving day, but we did stop briefly at the Little Bighorn Battlefield, where we wandered around a bit, and Jim busted out an old-timey picture-taking contraption that he claimed was a camcorder.
We spent the rest of the day making our way to the Stonehouse Inn in Virginia City, where we met up with Henry Larrabee’s great-granddaughter, Joetta, and her husband, Bob. Although it’s a tiny town, we somehow managed to get lost when we turned up one of the many dirt streets and failed to realize it actually went to the left and not up the hill. There was no way we really could have known this since it wasn’t marked, but who am I to say it should have had a sign? I, too, am from a town with dirt streets, and only one of them is marked with its name spelled correctly.
Our host, a former heavy equipment mechanic, sheep shearer, and cowboy named John, helped us get settled in our rooms upstairs. I got a pink room with a balcony and a giant stuffed bunny on the bed (hooray for me!). Jim had first option on it, but for some reason he passed. Since this is still the slow season for John and his wife, Linda, they let us spread out all our stuff in the dining room, and while Jim, Joetta, and Bob dove into the research, I filmed everything with my new camera. John and Linda were a tremendous help since they’re both knowledgeable about the area and involved with the local museum in town. After an hour or so of work, we all drove to a restaurant a few miles away. The community kids were putting on a fundraiser dinner for their FCCLA group. We were happy to support them, but I have to admit I felt a little despondent over the idea of consuming yet another steak. I’ve probably eaten the equivalent of the back half of a small steer since we left California last week.
Day Five: South Fork Crazy Woman
Jim doubled back on the freeway just so I could get this photo. That’s the kind of guy he is!
Day Four: Colorado and Wyoming
I feel road weary tonight. We’ve been traveling for five days and have already visited seven states. We drove from Castle Rock, Colorado, to Sheridan, Wyoming, with one short trip to Fort Laramie. We talked to the ranger there--who just happened to be from Red Bluff--about routes Henry Larrabee might have taken home from Virginia City, Montana, where we are headed tomorrow. He was very knowledgeable about the region’s history, and also provided me with some useful facts that I fully intend to test when I get home: Buffalo chips burn hot like coal and buffalo tongue tastes a lot like prime rib.
I also made some new firefighter friends at Fort Laramie named Kyle and Luke. They said they are stationed nearby and came out to the fort to learn more about the area. They were also pretty excited about the plant identification books they intended to purchase, bless their hearts.
Day Four: Dodge City, Kansas
I just wanted to post a few photos from our visit to Dodge City. When we got into town, we checked into our motel and then headed to Casey’s Cowtown Steakhouse. A day that begins with rattlesnakes and The Wizard of Oz requires a bourbon and t-bone finish. Everybody knows that. The next morning we allotted a couple hours for walking around the Boot Hill Museum. We enjoyed it, although many of the exhibits were closed. Jim had trouble containing his glee when we discovered the photo booth wouldn’t open until summer. Alas, no Miss Kitty.
Day Three: More on Oz
We got the hell out of Dodge around noon yesterday (sorry, I couldn’t resist). I’ll tell you about our time there, but first I want to fill in some details about our visit to Liberal and our drive north on Wednesday…
After the Larrabees dropped us off at our motel and we said goodbye to our new friends, we drove over to a laundromat so Jim could dry the clothes he washed the night before. He had attempted to do this in the microwave in his room, but it hadn’t worked out too well for him. Once his clothes were dry, we drove over to the newly restored Rock Island Line Depot for lunch. Then it was off to the Coronado Museum, which is in a house that was built by Henry Larrabee’s son, Lee, in 1918. The big draw at the museum complex is Dorothy’s House, which wasn’t in the Wizard of Oz movie, but the folks in Liberal have furnished it to resemble a typical farmhouse from that era. The pantry featured a an old pressure cooker that looked like a cartoon bomb.
After Dorothy’s House, our tour guide, Gary, led us to a building that houses five thousand square feet of animated Oz magic. According to him, the exhibit was donated to the museum by an elderly couple who had enjoyed recreating scenes from Frank Baum’s stories in diorama. He also said that normally the museum has high school girls who dress up like Dorothy to lead the tour, but he was filling in since they were in school at the time (we did get to see one of these girls a little later). After the tour, we went back to the main museum. Gary, who is a local historian and former eighth grade teacher, didn’t know a lot about Henry either, so Jim shared some of the information he’s gathered.
We headed north to Dodge City in the afternoon and stopped at a couple roadside attractions along the way. The best one was a hideout used by the Dalton Gang. The guy who ran the place was not only knowledgeable about the Daltons, but western history in general.
OK, it looks like I’m not going to have time to write about Dodge City this morning, but I will tonight. We have to cover a lot of ground today and should land somewhere in Wyoming tonight.
My Projects
My Short Films
- What's a Nice Girl like You...
- Story Machines
- Boot Camp
- Moving Horses from Montana to Washington in 1903 (audio)
My Tweets
My Photos
The Blocksburg Book
My Favorites at the Moment
- Luke's remix of his Peter and the Wolf remix
- These hand-tooled shoes and purses
- Gossip Girl
- Red Rock Rondo