The museum opened on May 16th with two new displays. One display focuses on the importance of Rodeo in Kaycee, with items from local rodeo stars, including Chris Ledoux. The other new display takes up an entire fifteen-foot wall in the museum’s Bedroom Display Room and showcases local women and the personal items used by these women in the late 19th and early 20th century. There are five quilts made by local women, which previously were hanging on the wall without protection. These are now in the case and better protected long-term. It is a huge improvement to the space.

As always, John Tinnin constructed these museum cases, and we are very grateful for his hard work resulting in the fine craftsmanship of these cases.

Thank you to all our tour attendees and volunteers for making our annual Hole in the Wall tour a success and an enjoyable day. The weather was absolutely perfect. Thank you everyone!

And for those who wanted our 34 year old recipe for coleslaw that was served at lunch, here it is:

Cole Slaw  for  50-60 people

 5 heads cabbage, grated or sliced fine

5 green peppers

5 onions  (medium)

set aside

5 cups Apple Cider Vinegar

5 cups Oil

2 1/2 cups Sugar

10 TBLSP. honey

10 tsp. salt

5 tsp. celery seed

Bring these ingredients to a boil, boil for a few minutes then pour over the slaw.  DO NOT STIR until cool.

With support from the Wyoming State Historical Records Advisory Board, the museum recently preserved digitally 40 VHS and audio cassette tapes in a digital format. This short example clip shows Bob Winingar speaking about his Dad in WWI, along with museum interviewer Sandy Dixon and Brock Hanson reads a short poem written by Bob’s Dad.

Over the last year, the museum has been working with the Kaycee Community Voice to preserve and share the many historical interviews that ran in the paper over the years. The Voice gathered all the articles together, retyping in some cases, and gave them to the museum to put into a book format. The text had to be formatted for consistency, readability and printing as well as edited for any spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. The articles were ordered by date, and a table of contents and index were added. The book is 303 pages, and just as the original interviews were wonderful to read, so is this book. The reader will know many of the people, places and families, but may not know how amazing some of these people were or are. If you want to know Kaycee history and all the fascinating early history of the area this is a great start. It is for sale, at the museum, for $20 plus tax. Since we are closed until May, we will have it available at the annual talk on February 16^th or call the museum and we will arrange to get it to you on a staff workday at the museum or by mail. All proceeds support the museum.

Hoofprints of the Past Museum is pleased to have  Spencer R. Pelton  present Bison Hunting in Hole-in-the-Wall Country: Results of the Wold Bison Jump

This presentation provides an overview of prehistoric bison hunting on the northern Plains, reconstructs the events that occurred at the Wold Bison Jump, and then contextualizes those events relative to other bison jumps across the Plains.

Driving bison off cliffs during large scale hunts (or “bison jumping”) was a widespread practice among Native Americans living on the northern Plains of Montana, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, but less so among groups living in Wyoming. In fact, the Wold Bison Jump, located on the Hole in the Wall Ranch west of Kaycee, WY, is one of a very few number of bison jumps in Wyoming. The University of Wyoming conducted research at this bison jump in 2013 and 2014, finding evidence for a single, rather catastrophic bison jump event and potentially tying the jump to the ancestral Crow.

Spencer Pelton received his PhD from the University of Wyoming in 2018. He has worked on archaeological sites in Wyoming for the past six years, most recently at the Powars II Paleoindian ocher quarry, the La Prele Clovis site, and the Sisters Hill Paleoindian site. Spencer lives in Douglas, WY with his wife Hallie and their dog Cashew, where he works for Transcon Environmental as a senior archaeologist.

At 1:30 before the presentation the Hoofprints of the Past Museum Board will hold a brief meeting and annual report on the museum’s 2018 activities.  Coffee and cookies will be served.

Hoofprints of the Past Museum working diligently to preserve our buildings. A  project for 2019 we are working to complete is adding soffits to the north side of the building. This will ensure our buildings will last for years to come by protecting our roof from damage.  If you are willing to help with this museum need, your donation would be greatly appreciated.

Click on the link below to Donate now!

Membership & Support

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.

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.

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.