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Wold Oil Properties, Inc. 139 W. 2nd Street Suite 200 Casper, WY 82601 (307) 265-7252 |
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Historical Facts Buffalo Jump The buffalo jump is thought to have been used by Indians for as much as a thousand years until the early 1700's. At that time, horses which migrated from Central America arrived in Wyoming. The horses were descendants of those left by Spanish Conquistadors. Indians much preferred hunting buffalo on horseback rather than going through the tedious process of disabling or killing buffalo by driving them over a cliff. The flagged stone cairns are guidelines pointing to the spot on the cliff where the Indians hoped to panic charging buffalo into jumping off to their death. Down below, other Indians and squaws armed with clubs, finished off disabled animals. Along Spring Creek at the base of the cliff are charcoal remnants of fire sites used for processing the meat. Indians had to wait patiently for herds of buffalo to drift from the north along the foot of the hills to the west of this spot. They then had to carefully "spook" them into this narrow ridge on which we stand. When the buffalo moved between the two flagged drive lines, Indians made a big noise to drive as many of the buffalo as possible over the cliff. In our Wyoming climate, bones lying on the surface of the ground last only 40-50 years. Freezing and thawing, plus nibbling by rodents, destroy the bones on the surface. Thus preservation of bones for hundreds of years required burial. At the foot of the cliff, buffalo bones are covered with about a foot of soil. Their burial is being reserved for a University of Wyoming archeological study. The jump wasn't recognized by the 'White man' until 1995. John Albanese, a well known Wyoming archeologist, spotted in on a study for the Hole-in-the-Wall Ranch. Nate Champions Cabin Just before daylight on the morning of November 1st, 1891, four men entered this cabin where Nathan D. Champion and Ross Gilbertson were living. As the door swung open, it stood against the foot of the bunk occupied by Champion. With pistols pointed, one of the party said, "Give up, we've got you this time", and immediately fired at the body of Champion. He seized his own revolvers from under his pillow and commenced shooting, whereupon the would-be murderers escaped from the house. The blood at the door, the gun, clothing and horses left near the cabin gave evidence of effective shooting on the part of Champion. It also gave identification of the assaulters. Joe Elliott was arrested with attempt to murder. Because the witness was either killed or left the country, the case was finally dismissed. (From Banditti of the Plains, 1894 A. S. Mercer) This incident in the struggle for the use of the open range between big cattlemen and homesteaders led to a confrontation six months later ending in the demise of Nate Champion in April of 1892. He had been a cowboy on the Bar C Ranch (what is now known as the Hole-in-the-Wall Ranch), and was characterized by some people as the bravest man in Johnson County. After coming from Texas to Wyoming with a cattle drive, Champion hired on at the Bar C. The photographs on the wall of the cabin were taken in 1864 - 1886 by Geoffrey Millais, a part owner of the Bar C and the son of the eminent British painter Sir John Millais. The pictures show Nate Champion, a "quiet, slight cowboy of iron nerve, firm arm, and a deadly shot". After leaving the Bar C, Nate built his own cattle herd. He was alleged by the "Cattle Barons" to be a "rustler, one of many homesteaders who illegally branded "maverick calves" on the open range. If a calf was unbranded and lost from its mother, it was a "maverick" and legally available for capture. Big cattle herds suffered heavy losses. A band of twenty five cattlemen decided to take the law into their own hands. They hired Texas gunman and invaded Johnson county in April of 1892 to get rid of the rustlers. Homesteaders from Buffalo, Wyoming and the U.S. Calvary besieged the raiders, all of whom were arrested, but escaped unpunished. The Hole-in-the-Wall Ranch has a unique Wyoming history. It is the site of a pictograph, many teepee rings and one of seven confirmed buffalo jumps in the state. The buffalo jump and the teepee rings are thought to be as much as 1000 years old. The ranch was a center for huge Powder River Basin cattle operations from 1870 to 1890. Englishman Morton Frewen, Winston Churchill's uncle, grazed 75,000 cows over much of these ranch holdings. Sir Horace Plunkett, the renowned agriculturist and Irish loyalist, operated the NH and EK ranches and parts of the Bar C in the 1880's and 90's. Charles King, the grandfather of President Gerry Ford, owned this ranch in the early 1900's. From 1881 to date, the Bar C has had many different owners, the latest of whom renamed the ranch west of the Barnum road as the Hole-in-the-Wall Ranch. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid also held forth on these properties at the turn of the 20th Century. Many exaggerated stores have grown up about them in interested books covering the wealth of Hole-in-the-Wall History. A wild fire in August of 2006 claimed Nate Champion's cabin. It is unknown at this time whether the cabin will be rebuilt.
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