Have you visited the museum recently? If not, you may want to stop by soon and see the new collections and displays added at the museum. One of the more significant items is the Al Smith pistol, shot from his hand in the Hole in the Wall Fight in 1897. The museum will also be premiering a new rotating annual display on a local person or family in June. This year’s featured individual is Sandy Dixon and the museum has been working with Sandy’s friends and family to create a display that highlights the amazing person and life of Sandy with various items and artifacts from her collection.

There are 45 total spots available on the Johnson County War Tour scheduled for Saturday, August 18^th. However, the bus is filling up quickly, so if you are interested in attending, please contact the museum at 307-738-2381 soon. You may also register here.

The Johnson County War tour takes attendees by bus the approximate route of the “Invaders” in their fateful attack on the “Rustlers” in April 1892, learning about the war and stopping at various sites of historical significance along the way.

Stops include the KC Cabin Fight site, where Nate Champion made a heroic stand against overwhelming odds, Plunkett’s Horse Ranch where the Invaders changed horses, the Smith homestead site where a near ambush of the Invaders almost occurred, the historic 28 Ranch where Invaders rested their horses, and the TA Ranch where the final battle occurred. The tour will also stop at the assassination sites of John. A. Tisdale and Ranger Jones, whose murders occurred in the months leading up to the war, foreshadowing the events of 1892.

The historical guides narrating the journey are John W. Davis and Brock Hanson. Davis is a lawyer and author of “Wyoming Range War” which relates the Johnson County War from a legal vantage using a large number of public documents from the period. Brock Hanson is a 4^th generation local historian whose family lived through the war and documented the historic events with interviews of the various people involved in the war.

The tour will be held on Saturday, August 18th, beginning in Kaycee at 9:00 AM (with an AM check-in time of 8:30 AM) and ends at approximately 3:00 PM. A nice lunch at the Ta is included the ticket price of $85, which must be purchased in advance due to limited space on the bus. The tour is an important fundraiser for the museum, so thank you to all of our supporters- from volunteer drivers to landowners and speakers.

The museum will officially re-open for the 2018 season on May 15th this year. Our hours will be Monday-Saturday from 9-5 and Sundays from 1-5. We will have new displays and collection items, so we hope you will stop by and visit.

Thank you to everyone who has signed up for our annual Hole in the Wall Tour. We appreciate the

support. We filled up unusually early this year, so our regrets to those who were hoping to still register. If you would like to be on a notification list for any cancellations this year and/or a notification list for next year’s tour date, please contact the museum.

Also, we do still have room on the Johnson County War tour on August 18th. Thank you!

On February 11 at 2:00 at the Harold Jarrard Park in Kaycee, historian and gun collector Joe Hickey will be speaking on historical guns of the Old West. Hickey will tell the story of various western weapons by weaving together the related famous Western individuals and events of the period. Joe has guns used by Butch Cassidy, Tom Horn, and many others. He is a fascinating speaker and makes it fun even for people who do not know very much about guns.

The museum is selling raffle tickets again, and we would like to thank everyone who is helping. Thank you to our sponsors, the Kaycee General Store and the Kaycee Sinclair as well as the Sports Lure. Thank you to all of the local vendors and individuals who are selling tickets for us: The Invasion Bar and Restaurant, The Cassidy Inn, KC RV Park, The Kaycee General Store, and the Kaycee Sinclair. This is an important fundraiser for the museum so thank you for the support!

On August 19^th the museum held its annual Johnson County War Tour beginning in Kaycee at the museum. The tour was completely full, with 45 attendees traveling by bus the approximate route of the Invaders in April of 1892 and stopping at the Tisdale and Jones Assassination sites. John W. Davis, author of Wyoming Range War, and Brock Hanson were tour historical guides and speakers with John presenting additional background information at the conclusion of the tour at the museum.  

The Hoofprints of the Past Museum is co-hosting an event put on by the Alliance for Historic Wyoming and local Alliance member, Trish Ullery. The event will begin at 10:00 am at the Ullery Ranch (26095 Old Highway 87) where participants will tour several recently restored homestead structures. Restored buildings include Clara Ullery’s Cottage, a chicken house, and a horse barn.  There will also be on on-site window restoration demonstration by a window restoration expert.

After the tour at Ullery’s, participants will have lunch in Kaycee before heading to the museum. There, Mary Humstone formerly of the University of Wyoming and the National Trust for Historic Preservation will present “Barn Again,” a program on preserving old barns. Laurel Foster will give a brief overview of the museum and its collections. Members of the Alliance for Historic Wyoming will have a table set up with information on the organization.

If you are interested in the event, or have questions, please contact Laurel at the museum 738-2381.

In 2009 the museum released its perpetual calendar with a variety of true short stories and accounts from many local individuals. Sandy Dixon and Ginger Curuchet had gathered many of these stories to help create the calendar. John Hanson was interested in putting all these stories into a short book for sale at the museum, and worked with Sandy Dixon to do so this spring. John paid the cost of printing the book as a donation to the museum, and the book is now for sale at the museum. It is a great little book with interesting tidbits from our history and all sales will help support the museum.

Thank you John and Sandy for your hard work on this project!