From Raging Wildfires to Wyoming's First Female Doctor

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
We'd like to start today's show with the honoring
of America, with the playing ofthe National Anthem, with our
upcoming Memorial Day.
Thank you, good morning andwelcome to let's Talk Wyoming.

(01:22):
I'm Mark Hamilton, your host.
Today.
We'll be taking a look at ourweather, and boy, our weather
has been really hot and dry andfire season here in the state of
Wyoming.
And then we'll talk about sometravel here locally and finally
we'll talk about the first womandoctor here in the state of
Wyoming.
Thanks for joining us and hopeyou enjoyed the pod Taking a

(02:05):
look at Wyoming weather here onthe 19th day of August.
Been a while since we've been onabout our weather, taking a
little bit of a sabbatical,doing some other things, but
needed to get back on Just arough time.

(02:28):
Right now here in Wyoming, upin the Bighorn Basin, we are in
the midst of a major fire thatis burning to the east of us.
It's up over 100,000 acres,200,000 acres.
It's just growing immensely.
The conditions are just perfect.
We've had a lot of warm weather, of course, earlier in the
spring.
I mention always that we getthese early wet springs and boy

(02:51):
everything grows, and the onething that really grows out in
the Badlands out here ischeatgrass, and if you've ever
seen cheatgrass, it looks kindof cool when it's green, but
when it dries up, boy, I'll tellyou what it's a fire starter.
So about a week ago we've hadsome issues around.
We had some fires earlier, amonth previously, when lightning

(03:14):
went through and started somesmall fires that got under
control.
But this fire that started lastWednesday was from a lightning
strike and it was east up ofBuffalo Creek country, to east
of Thermop, about 14 miles outin that country, and that is
just really ranch country outthere.

(03:34):
You get into the Badlands andyou're into some varying type of
terrain.
But the fire started and boy,it blew up and off it went and
at this point they really justhave no answer for it.
Today we're up at about 98degrees and hot.
Not much wind blowing at thepresent time, but we've had just

(03:57):
crazy winds that have beenblowing from every direction but
straight.
We've had these conditions.
The humidity is at about 10percent and they just have been
really working on this fire.
They're just really at this timetrying to, you know, protect
structures.
The main structures would beranchers and the people who live

(04:21):
in that area, their homesteadsand outbuildings and such and
it's really sad it's going tohave a major impact, like these
fires always do in our country.
These people here that ranch, alot of them graze a lot of that
ground in the winter months.
It's all gone and well, I'lltell you, it's a little

(04:44):
disheartening.
We've had smoke.
From where I live, right upBuffalo Creek I can see and that
fire.
It is pretty dormant and thenall of a sudden it lights up and
gets going again with some morewind and boy, the smoke clouds
are just just crazy.
There isn't any type ofcommunity issues, I think, if

(05:07):
this continues on and wants tocontinue moving south and a
little bit east.
The next town that they wouldeven come close to getting into
was over at Lycite, wyoming,lycite, the Los Cabin area.
Now, of course I worked over inthat country for a lot of years
at Lysite.

(05:27):
I know the town.
If you got a fire there itmight be pretty bad.
In the town of Lysite Reallydon't have a lot of water
available for firefighting andthat country.
I know that sheetgrass would bebad and conditions are going to
be not very good.
So I know they're probablypreparing, because you just

(05:49):
never know how quick this isgoing to happen.
Also when you get into thatcountry over there now you're
starting to get into some gasfield, one of the larger gas
fields in the state it used tobe.
Now it's in the tail ends oflife.
But there's also the bighornwells in that country that are
sour wells that go over to theLos Cabin gas plant and are

(06:12):
processed, and most of thosefacilities are set up with a lot
of buffer zones around them forthis type of activity.
So I don't see any big problemsfor this type of activity.
So I don't see any big problems.
Might be a tank or two thatcould be a potential, but unless
something just would, some typeof pipeline rupture would

(06:34):
happen about the same time thatthe fire was going through or
such.
I think that you could have amajor issue there.
Now when you get into same withLost Cabin.
The old Oakey Mansion is thereand if it gets into Lost Cabin
it wouldn't take much to takeLost Cabin down either, a few

(06:55):
days away before it gets there.
But these next few days arejust going to be brutal.
We're supposed to hit 100tomorrow.
Then I see a little bit of acool down later in the weekend,
but this may be the year that abig snowfall may be the way to
get these things out, similar tothe fires years ago in
Yellowstone that burned andburned and burned and burned

(07:18):
Actually I did a pod on that thesnow finally put the fires out
similar to what happened acrossthe mountain over in that
Sheridan country.
Up above there.
The fires they had last yearwas something similar to that
with the issues they had andpeople were always keeping an
eye on that that didn't wantthat fire to get into Ranchester

(07:41):
or into Sheridan.
For sure it doesn't take muchto get into ranchester or into
sheridan.
For sure it doesn't take muchto get into these communities
and get houses going.
So it's, it's just been one ofthose years and I don't know if
fall can't get here early enoughand some rain and some
conditions to change.
And I know the fire teams havebeen working.

(08:03):
They have slurry planes out andthey've also been dropping
water.
They make the trip around overto Boyson Reservoir and get
water and are not putting it on.
But it's some really roughterrain out there and boy, there
is a lot of country out therethat it could just burn and burn
.
So as long as the directionsdon't change much.

(08:28):
The biggest people that areimpacted right now are the local
ranchers and people living inthat area, which are mainly the
ranches, and of course they allhave animals.
So we hope that they're able toget these animals moved and in
a safe location.
I'm sure there's sheep outthere with Hendry's and I know

(08:50):
neighbors over here have sheepand I'm sure they're up in that
country Copper Mountain and suchso there's a few sheep bands
over there, a lot of cattle.
Keep our thoughts and prayersout for those people.
Also, for all the peoplefighting the fires.

(09:13):
All the comments have been justhow quickly these fires will
take off.
They'll put up a fire line totry to stop it and the wind will
come up and that will rollright across there, across that
bare ground and over to the nextcheatgrass or dry grass or
whatever else is out therefueling it, and away it goes.

(09:33):
So it is scary out there andyou've got to be really careful.
Luckily nobody's been hurt atthis point, but again, we have
people from around the countryand I know they've declared it a
disaster.
The governor was here inThermopolis and talked about the
issues that we're facing and soat the same time there's a fire

(09:56):
burning up just outside ofMatizzi, wyoming.
Similar type of situation and Isaw reports this morning of a
couple fires up in the Duboiscountry getting started off and
these storms come blowingthrough and they're not a, I
think.
Yesterday it rained about adrop in about three spots and

(10:18):
then it was gone.
A lot of wind, a lot oflightning Every time a lightning
strike comes to the ground.
Wind, a lot of lightning.
Every time a lightning strikecomes to the ground, brand
doesn't set another fire.
Tough time.
Right now Everybody is reallyOn pins and needles.
Last week when this started,emergency response kind of sent

(10:38):
out an incorrect warning.
It came out that needed toevacuate Thermopolis, the town,
and it just had started thenight before.
And boy it got people going.
It started a real panic andpeople were on Facebook and

(10:59):
asking questions.
It wasn't even close to cominginto Thermopolis or having a
problem.
They just got the wording wrongon it.
The area was in an area out tothe east of Thermopolis, about
14 miles in that country, out onKirby Creek and in those areas
Black Mountain Road and upBuffalo Creek.
But everybody was ready to turnoff the lights and leave town.

(11:23):
So it's hard to get a fewthousand people out of town,
especially when it's for noreason.
But it's always important whenyou have these emergencies that
you have really goodcommunication.
In my years in the oil and gasbusiness we always knock on wood
, didn't have to go to have anytype of issues or major

(11:44):
emergency response issues.
We have some small ones, a wellissue and a couple fires and
stuff localized fires at welllocations, but nothing like this
.
And you learn.
Number one is the communicationand you always want to keep
people safe.
That is the big thing.

(12:05):
You know, we can replace ahouse or a barn or all these
other pieces of equipment, butyou can't replace family members
.
Tough time here, with theweather Wyoming and it's across
the state.
Colorado is facing the samething.
They're getting a lot of fires.
Just one of those years that wehad all that rain and moisture

(12:27):
and then it quits.
And of course, this isn't thefirst time this has happened.
So people are like, oh, this issomething new.
No, this has happened.
This has happened quite a bit.
Keep our thoughts and prayersand we can get this fire put out
.
We'll just pray for a nice,nice rainstorm or let's have a

(12:48):
maybe an early snowfall.
Nice wet snow would be fine,but I think the first
opportunity we could have forany type of snow that would do
anything would be October Oneyear.
I think the first opportunitywe could have for any type of
snow that would do anythingwould be October One year.
I think it was the first weekof October we got really a major
wet snowstorm, got 8 to 10inches of snow here in Hot

(13:08):
Springs County, and so that'swhat we need this year.
So pray for Hot Springs County,pray for the people of Washakie
and Fremont County where thatfire is going.
Let's pray for the people ofwashki and fremont county where
that fire is going, and pray forall the people across this
state of wyoming, across thewest and all these areas that
are facing all these hardshipsisn't just fire, it's been some

(13:33):
floods and hurricanes andeverything else.
So it's been a tough year for alot of people, but we know the
good Lord will provide for usalways.
The other chance I wanted toshare, trying to get up and
around in the state of Wyoming,made our first trip over to
Kerwin.
Kerwin is the old gold ghosttown outside of Matizzi, wyoming

(13:59):
.
It's up at 9,200 foot elevationand in that area about a mile
from Kirwan is where AmeliaEarhart had started on her cabin
.
Of course it was nevercompleted.
Took the trip up to the localmuseum in Matizzi.
It had an outing in Matizziziand everybody trekked up there.

(14:20):
Everybody trekked up in theirfour-wheel drive trucks.
It's pretty rocky the last 10miles there You've got to go
pretty slow and have someclearance and you do a couple.
You do go across the Wood Riverand I tell you in the spring
you wouldn't want to try to goacross there.
You may not find the other side, but with the water down this

(14:41):
time of year you can make itthrough there.
So it is a really cool trip.
The ghost town has beenabandoned for many, many years.
Back in the early late 1800sthat they had started mining up
there for the gold they saidthere were about 200 people that

(15:03):
lived there and at its heightand they did didn't turn out too
well.
They never did really hit whatyou call the mother load and it
finally just closed up.
The company came back in in the50s, early 60s I think it was,
and tried to open it again, butno luck.
So had a beautiful day up there.

(15:25):
The weather was nice and a goodcompany and everyone enjoyed
the trip Also got a chance to goup to South Pass City.
If you're going through, go upto South Pass City.
Now, if you're going throughWyoming, up on South Pass, you
take the road from Lander,wyoming.
If you're heading south acrossto Farson, I think that's US-28.

(15:51):
Right up on top of South Passyou'll see a sign for the old
historic site.
It's a mile or two off the roadand I've driven by there.
Being a born and raised Wyoming,I don't know how many times
I've driven by there, but I'malways in a hurry, I'm going
somewhere, coming home fromsomething, not with time to go

(16:13):
be a tourist.
But my wife and I had went toLander, had lunch on a Saturday
and then I said let's go up andwe'll take a look and see what's
up there.
It was well worth the trip.
The state of Wyoming has putmoney into the South Pass City
to keep the old city maintainedand functional and you have a

(16:38):
nice walk through there andthey've done a really good job
with it.
I think it's really importantfor us to keep our history and
those type of things up forpeople to view, and so I went
and that was a pretty goodlittle walk through that area
About an hour hour and a halfgetting through there, and then

(16:58):
we made a trip back down toAtlantic City and out of there
and back over to Hot SpringsCounty.
But South Pass City if you get achance it's well worth it to
run over there.
But most tourists are prettymuch in a hurry.
They're headed to Yellowstoneor Jackson or somewhere in
between, but never a time.

(17:20):
But it is a good trip and agood day trip to go up and take
in the sights.
So Kirwan, at Kirwan, you justdon't want to get off the road
and make sure you know whereyou're going.
Go during the day and make sureyou check on weather conditions
and such.
But good time to go up therethis time of year to Kerwin, and

(17:41):
maybe you could hit a littlegold.
And that was the same withSouth Pass City.
It was a mining town and all Ican tell you those miners were
some tough dudes.
They um, they're all allunderground mining and um, now
at South Pass they had some luckwith their mining up there.
But I guess maybe you can makea run at reopening the mine and

(18:08):
hit it rich, getting in the goldmarket right now.
And finally, talking aboutWyoming sports, it's that time
of year, summer's over.
We're getting to that point.
High schools are going to beback in action, schools are
opening up.
High school football,volleyball, all the other fall

(18:30):
sports will be starting here atthe end of the month.
So that's good news for a lotof us sports fans across the
state of Wyoming.
Also, the University of Wyoming, the Wyoming Cowboy Football
Team, will be opening up at theend of the month of August.
So we're back into that sportstime of the year.
A lot of good things happening,a lot of opportunities for a

(18:53):
lot of people to support yourlocal sports teams, also support
the University of Wyoming, andit's just kind of a great time
coming up.
So, wyoming sports we'll keepon top of that as we get into
the heat of the action.
Today we're going to take a lookat Lillian Heath, wyoming's

(19:14):
first female physician, andpacked a pistol by Lori Van Pelt
.
This is from wildhistoryorg.
Her figure was a perfect 36,and she modeled clothes for a
fine department store.
But Lillian Heath, wyoming'sfirst female physician, dressed
like a boy and carried a pistolin the pocket of her jacket to
protect herself when she was outon calls at night.
Heath hung her shingle at herparents' home in Rollins,

(19:35):
wyoming, and began her medicalpractice in 1893.
She was 27 years old.
Her skills ran the gamut fromdelivering babies, treating
bullet wounds and amputatinglimbs to helping perform plastic
surgery before that medicalspecialty was even named.
Heath's abilities were notuniversally accepted, however.
Some people at the time did notbelieve females should be

(19:57):
medical doctors.
As a result, she endured somehaughty treatment herself.
Men folks received me cordially.
Women were just as chatty asthey could be, dr Heath recalled
in a 1961 oral interview tapedby Helen Hubert for the American
Heritage Center at theUniversity of Wyoming.
One woman wanted Heath to treather, but because the doctor was

(20:18):
a female, the patient refusedto pay.
Dr Heath had to tell her tofind another physician.
Even Lillian Heath's own mother, carista Hunter Heath, didn't
think her daughter should attendmedical school.
But her father, william,encouraged Lillian.
He came to Wyoming fromWisconsin as a railroad
locomotive painter In Rollins.
He was always the first tovolunteer to assist Dr McGee,

(20:38):
the Wyoming Union Pacificphysician and surgeon who made
frequent stops in the frontiertown.
William often shared thestories of these medical
adventures with his daughter,fostering her fascination with
the topic.
It was not very long before Iwas head over heels about
medicine, she said.
Dr McGehee trained Lillian forfive years as a nurse and
assistant.
With his recommendation and herfather's help, she attended the

(21:00):
College of Physicians andSurgeons in Iowa.
The academic term ran fromOctober through March during
cool weather, in order to keepfresh the cadavers the students
practice on.
According to Doug Attenberg ofthe Lee County Iowa Historical
Society, after completing therequired three years of study,
lillian earned her medicaldegree.
Although Elizabeth Blackwellwas the first woman accepted to

(21:22):
medical school before in 1849,lillian's graduating class of 22
students in 1893 included justthree women.
Lillian was reportedly the onlywoman to attend the 1895
Convention of the AmericanMedical Association in Denver,
colorado.
As an assistant to Dr McGahee,lillian helped perform plastic
surgery before that medicalpractice was named a specialty.

(21:44):
Heath administered anestheticsto a sheepherder who had shot
himself in the face andattempted suicide.
She helped with more than 30surgeries required to rebuild
the man's destroyed face.
Mcgahee inserted silver tubesto create nostrils and
transplanted skin from the man'sforehead to create a new nose.
Heath later recalled that thesheepherder's jawbone grew back
by itself.

(22:05):
Miraculously in thesepre-antibiotic days, the man
escaped the infection.
Even so Heath remembered thatafter all he'd been through he
was still resentful of beingalive and he didn't like his new
nose.
Heath learned to be a perfectanesthesiologist.
He explained that other doctorsin the area thought highly of
her ability.
At first, whiskey was used andshe had to estimate the amount

(22:25):
of a dosage.
Eventually, medical advancesmade chloroform and later ether,
the anesthetic of choice.
Ether, she said, was harder touse.
Dr McGehee was cautious aboutusing new medications until he
knew they were safe.
She said medications usedduring these days included every
old-time remedy anyone everheard of.
She said Drugs such as morphine, cocaine and opioids were used

(22:47):
and codeine was just coming intouse.
Alcohol was favored as a skinantiseptic because it was the
only thing found to be effectiveand lasting, he said.
Also it left no bad aftereffects.
In 1881, the notorious outlawBig George Parrott was lynched
in Rollins for the murder of aCarbon County Sheriff's Deputy,
robert Whittlefield, because noone came forward to claim the

(23:08):
body.
Dr John Osborne, anotherRollins physician, who later
served two years as the Wyominggovernor, made a medical bag and
a pair of shoes from the deadman's skin.
The shoes are displayed todayat the Carbon County Museum in
Rollins along with a portion ofParrot's skull.
Mcgahee planned to study thecriminal brain to try to discern
what physical differences mighthave made him go bad.

(23:28):
The doctor saw Parrot'sskullcap in half and gave the
top part to their teenageprotege, lillian.
She kept it and used it as aflowerpot.
Osborne pickled his body inalcohol and used it for
dissection purposes until thefinal burial in the alley back
of his house.
He said in Hubert's tapedinterview I kept the Bennett
skull top here for a long timeas a memento of my training days

(23:52):
.
When Heath began her practicethere were only a couple of
other doctors in the area.
She said that there had neverhad an overplus of doctors until
just now and that when shefirst began it was nip and tuck.
For a while.
Most people who needed helpcame to her house, but when
necessary she took a wagon orsaddled and rode her sorrel
horse 30 or 40 miles to tendthose who were injured or ill.

(24:14):
Dr Heath practiced medicine forabout 15 years, although she
kept her license current formost of her life.
She married Lou J Nelson in 1898and they lived in Rollins for
most of their married life.
Lillian modeled clothes forDenver's Daniel and Fisher
Department Store.
In the late 1890s she joinedthe Rollins Bicycling Club.
She continued to be keenlyinterested in the medical field

(24:35):
even after she retired and shetoured the Denver hospitals when
she was 89.
Lillian Heath Nelson died in1962 at the age of 96.
Although she treated a numberof patients who suffered bullet
wounds during her career, shenever needed to use the .32
caliber revolver she carried inher jacket pocket when she made
calls at night.
Outstanding story again fromwildhistoryorg Lillian Heath

(24:58):
Nelson, one of the pioneers herein the state of Wyoming, our
first female physician.
Thanks for joining us today andwe hope you enjoy our podcast.
As per the Code of the West, weride for the brand and we ride
for Wyoming.
We'll be right back.

(26:05):
We are the champions, thank you.