Last Day of Caching In Sundance, WY 7/13/2010

Our last day here in Sundance so off we went to finish up the rest of the caches in the area. Our first cache was hidden at the Sundance rest area of I-90 under a tree. Then we were off to a regular cache and a Earthcache at the Vore Buffalo Jump a very important archeological site of the Plain Indians.

The Vore Buffalo Jump is an archeological site in Crook County, Wyoming. A sinkhole, formed where gypsum soil was eroded, leaving a steep-sided pit about 40 feet deep and 200 feet in diameter. Native American hunters could stampede bison in the direction of the pit, which was deep enough to kill or disable the animals that were driven into it. The location is one of a number of buffalo jump sites in the north central United States and southern Canada. The Vore site was used as a kill site and butchering site from about 1300 AD to about 1700 AD. Archeological investigations in the 1970's uncovered bones and projectile points to a depth of 15 feet. About ten tons of bones were removed from the site. About five percent of the site has been excavated, and the pit is estimated to contain the remains of 20,000 buffalo.
Lithic evidence suggests that the Kiowa and Apache used the site as they migrated southwards to their modern home in the Texas-New Mexico region. Later peoples using the Vore site included the Shoshone, Hidatsa, Crow and Cheyenne.
The site was discovered during the construction of Interstate 90 in the early 1970s. Located on the Vore family ranch, the site was to be crossed by the Interstate. Exploratory drilling in the sinkhole yielded quantities of bison bones. The University of Wyoming was notified of the potential archeological site and the road was moved to the south. The site was investigated in 1971 and 1972 by Dr, George Frison of the University of Wyoming. In 1982 the site was transferred to the University by the Vore family with the stipulation that it be developed as a public education center within twelve years. Funding limitations prevented development, so the site was again transferred to the Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation, which has built a small interpretive center and provides interpretive services. The Vore site is located in a narrow strip of land between I-90 and US 14. The site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.


Then we drove about 11 miles to Aladdin, WY a town with a population of 15. The first site we visited was the Aladdin Tipple Mine which is a old coal mine 1.2 miles east of Aladdin where coal was mined until 1942 in the first underground mine in the area. The coal provided fuel for smelters in Lead and Deadwood, South Dakota. The tipple, hoist house and mine opening have now been restored and are part of an historical interpretive park. A coal tipple is a structure used for loading coal into railroad cars. We walked up and found the cache and the read all the plaques on the trail.

Then we were off to the General Store/Post Office/Bar back in the center of town.....HA HA HA. The Mercantile Building, built in 1896 and on the Historic Register, is still in business as a general store, not much changed except for the presence of an ice machine on the front porch. As you can see by the pictures it was 3 stores all wrapped into one. The Aladdin General Store is the largest of about 15 structures that make up the town of Aladdin, located in the northeast corner of Wyoming. The structure was originally built as the Wyoming Mercantile by Amos Robinson in 1896. In addition to being a store, it has served as a Post Office, barber shop, bar, telephone office, and gasoline station. Particularly interesting is that it also served as depot and freight station for the Wyoming and Missouri Valley Railroad, an 18-mile shortline that hauled coal and mining supplies. As it happens, the railroad was owned by the Wyoming Mercantile and operated until 1927. The structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and remains the center of activity for the small community and is one of only five 19th-century mercantiles still standing in Wyoming. Of those still in existence in the state, the Aladdin store is by far the most well-preserved. Take a look at the pictures and you can see the building itself is much the same as it was when it was first built: roll-top storage bins behind the counter, a pot-bellied stove in the center of the store, original wallpaper in the attic and most of the original fixtures and decorations still adorn the walls.

Then it was back to Sundance for our final 3 caches of the day and to tell you the truth the final 3 in the town. First was a cache on The Sundance Creek Nature Trail, next a cache in a cemetery high on a hill overlooking Sundance Mountain and the final cache was in town at the statue of the Sundance Kid. The Sundance Kid does have some history in Sundance itself. Harry Longabough, also sometime spelled Harry Longbough or Longenbough, was born in Pennsylvania in 1867. At an early age, he moved with his family to Colorado. By age twenty, he was working as a cowboy for the N Bar N owned by the Neidringhaus Brothers in Culbertson, Montana. For a period of time, he was also reputed to have worked for the Two Bar. In 1887, out of work and drifting, Longbough stole a horse, gun, and saddle from Western Ranches, Ltd., owner of the Three V's, near Sundance, Wyoming. He was ultimately arrested, plead guilty, and was sentenced to 18 months in the Sundance Jail. He was pardoned by Gov. Thomas Moonlight in Feb. 1889. Longbough drifted then to Belle Fourche, S.D. There, as a result of his bravado about the time spent in the Sundance Jail, he earned the appellation of Sundance or "Sundance Kid." From there he moved north of the border and worked for a period of time at the Bar U in Alberta and engaged for a short period of time in the saloon business at Grand Central Hotel in Calgary. He then returned to Montana again signing on with the N Bar N at its Rock Creek unit.
In 1892, Sundance was implicated with Tom McCarty (whom Sundance had known in Colorado), Matt Warner, and George Cassidy (Butch), in the robbery of the Great Northern westbound # 23 near Malta, Montana. The following year, McCarty was involved in the robbery of the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Delta, Colorado. On September 7, 1893, Tom McCarty and his brother Bill McCarty entered the bank. Outside, Bill's 17-year old son held the horses. Outside of town other fresh horses had been stationed by the trio. The cashier, A. T. Batchley, refused to turn over money and was shot and killed by McCarty. The sound of the shot aroused citizenry outside who gave the alarm. Across the street, W. Ray Simpson grabbed a repeating rifle. In the fusilade of bullets, both Bill and his son Fred were killed. Tom made good his escape with apparently $100.00 of the money from the bank.
Tom then disappeared. Three years later Tom sent an account of his adventures to a friend together with a threat to kill Ray Simpson. Simpson's response was to send to a newspaper a small piece of cardboard perforated with ten bullet holes within the space of a fifty-cent piece. The holes had made from a distance of 225 feet. No attempt on Simpson's life was made and McCarty totally disappeared never to be heard from again. [Writer's note: Writer Norman Davis, Jailbirds & Stool Pigeons, Crime Stories of the West, Hancock House Publishers, Blaine, WA, 1999, contends that Tom McCarty changed his name to John McCarty and that his last heist was rolling a drunk in a hotel in Price, Utah. According to Davis, McCarty committed suicide in 1918 by drowning himself in a bathtub in a Denver flophouse.] By 1896, Sundance was reported to be in the Baggs and Dixon, Wyoming area.
On June 28, 1897, Sundance along with George Currie, Kid Curry, Walt Punteney and Tom O'Day participated in the robbery of the Butte County Bank in Belle Fourche, S.D. The bank must have been a tempting target. After the railroad arrived, the town had become prosperous as being a loading point for cattle and later sheep. Indeed, the bank was so prosperous that it was acquired in 1903 by Clay, Robinson and Co., the largest commission agents in the country. A full 1/3rd of its loans were on sheep. John Clay of Clay, Robinson managed the Three Vees from whom Sundance had stolen a horse and saddle beginning his criminal career.
Thus, Fifth Avenue was lined with saloons to quench the thirst of cowboys. Indeed, there were so many saloons that the street was commonly referred to as "Saloon Street." Above the saloons were other establishments to tempt lonely cowboys. The most famous of the other establishments was one commonly called "Diddlin' Dora's" operated by Madame Dora DuFran. Madame DuFran was so successful that she had branches elsewhere including Lead and Deadwood. The robbery of the bank and the follow-up by the law was a comedy of errors. O'Day was described by Will Frackelton as having a "rich brogue" and an air of "genial stupidty." Frackleton, O'day was arrested hiding in a privy behind a local saloon after O'Day's horse decided to leave town without O'Day. [Writer's note: Walt Punteney (1870-1950) is generally credited as being the last surviving member of the Wild Bunch, having died on April 19, 1950, in Pinedale, Wyo.


Well that was it for Sundance as we headed back to the coach for the day. Well until tomorrow from Hermosa, SD we miss and love you all. Mom & Dad Dori & Dick