Let's Talk Wyoming- Memorial Day, Weather & Summer Travel.

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.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Thank you.

(01:04):
The President's Read symbolizesthe memorial tribute of a
nation at the Tomb of theUnknown Soldier.
Later in the amphitheater,overlooking 44,000 graves of
soldier dead, Mr Roosevelt is tobe listener rather than
spokesman, the orator'sprivilege being given to the AEF
commander, General Pershing.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
It does seem amazing that civilized nations should
continue to adhere to war as anelement of national policy.
A people who complacentlysubmit to unreasonable demands
of a clamorous minority willcertainly become the prey of a
dictator.
This nation, as one of thegreat powers, can do no less in

(01:49):
the fulfillment of its manifestduty to humanity than to make
the most earnest and devotedeffort for the preservation of
Wyoming and across the US.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
And it's a time that I guess, as you get older and
you really start to think of thesacrifices that were made, that
how important it is that weremember the observance of
Memorial Day, those people thathave made the ultimate sacrifice
, and I want to read some partsof a story that came from Travis

(02:49):
Detay.
Travis is the state of Wyoming,chairman of the Wyoming
Veterans Commission, and thiswas written back in 2020, may
23rd of 2020.
And so I'm going to skipthrough parts of it, because it
relates to COVID, and go reallyto the heart of the message that

(03:11):
he wrote.
Regardless, we will still payhomage to those who laid down
their lives in our great country.
Throughout the course ofhistory, from our war of
independence to the Civil Warand World War I, from World War
II to Vietnam, from Korea toIraq and Afghanistan, time and
again, americans have foundthemselves standing against the

(03:33):
evil forces of oppression andtyranny, and time and again,
they have risen to the challengebecause the freedom we have and
hold so dear is worth fightingfor and worth dying for.
On the lawns of the WyomingState Museum, in the shadow of
the Wyoming State Capitol inCheyenne, stands the Wyoming

(03:53):
Fallen Warrior Memorial.
The inscription reads Wyomingremembers, dedicated to the many
soldiers, sailors, marines,airmen and coastardsmen, and
their families, from Wyoming,who made the ultimate sacrifice
while in the service of ourstate and nation.
Flags will be flying onresidential streets, classes
will be raised and some chairswill be shed.

(04:15):
We must always remember thatour freedom is not free.
Freedom carries a very highprice and it is worth paying, as
Rudyard Kipling wrote soeloquently.
All we have of freedom, all weuse or know this our fathers
brought us long and long ago.
There is no doubt we have ourtrouble today, but I for one

(04:39):
feel blessed to live in thiswonderful country and am
thankful for the gloriousfreedoms and rights that every
American is guaranteed life,liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.
And I'm thankful to thecountless men and women who have
given so much, many, that lastfull measure of devotion to pay
for the freedom we all enjoy.
In the book of John, jesus saidfor us and something greater

(05:03):
than themselves.
Wyoming indeed remembers and itwas well said, and we all know

(05:28):
someone in our past that hasbeen affected by service and has
paid the ultimate price, andalways remember that we do have
a Veterans Day where we saluteall those that have served, and
today is that day for MemorialDay that we recognize those
people that made the ultimatesacrifice and the families that

(05:49):
have lived through that.
And you think back, there's alot of people that have given
their life for our country andso I think here we are in 2023.
It definitely is a troubledtime in our country right now.
We have a lot of things goingon, a lot of issues that divide
us.
It really breaks my heartsometimes to think about the

(06:11):
people that fought for ourcountry.
What is taking place in ourcountry?
I think we've lost this respectfor our country a lot of people
.
With what is taking place, Istill get back to that point.
We have to remember about whatMemorial Day means and honor
those people that made thatultimate sacrifice, knowing that

(06:32):
this country was worth givingtheir life for and that we have
a lot to do and we continue toremember and work on improving
our country so that these peoplethat made this sacrifice didn't
do it in vain.
Again, make sure that youremember May 29th, memorial Day

(06:54):
here in the United States.
God bless all those people thatgave their life.

(07:16):
Good morning and welcome tolet's Talk Wyoming.
I'm Mark Hamilton, your host,and we hope you enjoyed our
salute to Memorial Day.
In the rest of our show todaywe'll be taking a look at
Wyoming weather.
Also, we'll talk about ourWyoming celebrity 399.
And finally we'll look at theBlack and Yellow Trail in the

(07:38):
start of our tourist season herein the state of Wyoming.
Thanks for joining us today andwe hope you enjoy the show.

(08:02):
Taking a look at Wyoming weatherhere on the 26th day of May we
have sunshine.
That is a rarity here.
Over the last few days We'vehad storms and such blow through
.
We've continued on with thiscrazy pattern of cool weather
showers, cool weather, a lot ofwind, cool weather had a little

(08:27):
bit of hail during the week offand on and I know there were
spots that had hail.
But I'm seeing the forecastgetting to the end of the month.
We're looking at 80s next weekat the or I should say at the
end of this week and through theweekend.
And then I see the followingweek.
I see getting back to 65 andsome cooler temperatures.
So it is a little strange butit is green, green, green.

(08:49):
I'm getting so tired of cuttinggrass and I've cut my lawn three
times this week to try to keepin front of it.
In the pasture and other places.
Everything's growing.
So it's been definitely a busytime.
It's been so cold that Ihaven't really done any
gardening type because it reallyhasn't been warm enough to even
plan anything.
But heading into summer, we allknow what's going to happen

(09:11):
it's going to quit getting cooland rains are going to quit and
the heat's going to come.
So just about what it did lastyear and with all this green
grass, we know what that'll do.
But here in the state ofWyoming, getting into that
tourist season time of the year,beautiful time to come to the
state.
Yellowstone Park is open, soget the kids packed up, get the

(09:32):
car going, come to Wyoming.
A lot of great things to dohere in the state and especially
this time of year, beautifultime to get out with all the
green.
We don't have it green likethis very often, but again,
wyoming weather, we'll enjoy it.
While we Today in sports, weare going to go a different

(09:54):
angle.
I wanted to play a recordingthat I had from back a couple
years ago, dedicated to ourfavorite celebrity, grizzly Bear
, number 399.
And we all know that she passedaway this last year, got hit by
a car and we all know that shepassed away this last year, got

(10:17):
hit by a car, so we definitelywant to dedicate this to 399,
and you surely are amiss.
We wanted to bring up an updateon one of our famous residents
here in the state of Wyoming.
Grizzly 399 has emerged with acub and she is unbelievable.

(10:38):
She's one of the oldest knowngrizzlies to have a cub in the
Yellowstone ecosystem.
She is definitely our famouslady here in the state of
Wyoming.
She has people following herall the time and has definitely
has, I think, probably morefollowers than most people here
that are listening to the showon social media.

(10:58):
She did have that single cub,which is amazing.
They did not know whether she'dbe able to have a cub at her
age, but she has the cub out andabout and all reports that
she's definitely looking goodand a healthy lady and so it'll
be interesting to see how hersummer goes.
There's always been a problemof where they end up and such,

(11:20):
but with the amount of attentionthat she gets, she's pretty
well a protected lady and it'llbe interesting to see how the
summer goes and to follow herjourneys as she wanders about
the area that she's in in thatGreen River drainage area and up
near the park and Grand TetonPark area.

(11:42):
So if you get to Wyoming, Iguess if you see a lot of people
, stop someplace and looking.
It may be 399 is in thevicinity.
399 is in the vicinity.
With the travel season upon us,I'm going to go to a story from
wildhistoryorg.
I talked about one of myfavorite my wife and I's

(12:03):
favorite trips is across theBighorn Mountains here in the
northern part of Wyoming, goingacross from Worland to Tensleep
to Buffalo, and that opens up somany other ways you can go.
You can go north into Sheridan,back across on 14, or, when
you're in Buffalo, you cancontinue on to the Black Hills

(12:24):
and just some beautiful countryto travel.
And in this article that I'mreferring to, I'm going to go
back to just a segment of it,but the story was, let Us Ramble
, exploring the Black and YellowTrail in Wyoming and this is by
Robert G and Elizabeth LRosenberg and they talk about

(12:44):
the travel back in the early1900s and I'm not going to read
the full article, but I want togo back to a point is when they
start to talk about the routethat coming from the Black Hills
across Wyoming, the northernpart of Wyoming and coming from
the route from where they werecrossing the Bighorn Mountains.

(13:06):
And from this story, the mostchallenging segment was crossing
of the Bighorn Mountainsbetween Buffalo and Tensley.
In 1915, before the era offederal aid projects, august
Hettinger of the BuffaloDistrict of the Bighorn National
Forest met with local officialsto offer an allocation of
$15,000 to construct a portionof the road within the forest

(13:31):
boundaries.
Work began that summer on atwo-mile stretch of an existing
county road in Moser Gulch, westof Buffalo, and was completed
by October.
Given the difficult nature ofthe route, engineers speculated
that it might be possible toconstruct 20 miles of road.
The following year, in 1917, a$10,000 survey was completed for

(13:53):
the forest road from Buffalo toTansleep.
The portion was located in theforest qualified under the
Section 8 Fund of the FederalAid Act, which provided federal
funding for forest roads.
In 1918, $20,000 was spent onbuilding five miles of this
75-mile roadway.
Construction was divided intotwo sections the 22-mile Buffalo

(14:18):
to Sourdough section, which wasthe approach up Clear Creek
from Buffalo, and the 53-mileSourdough Tentsleep section.
In May of 1910, a cooperativeagreement between the state of
Wyoming and the Secretary ofAgriculture enabled the Buffalo
sourdough section to be built bythe Forest Service at an

(14:39):
estimated cost of $105,000.
The Forest Service is part ofthe Department of Agriculture.
Wyoming's share was $25,000.
The next section, west sourdTensley, would be built by the
Forest Service at an estimatedcost of $210,000, of which the
state would pay $85,000.

(14:59):
Wyoming divided its costs amongthree counties involved Johnson
, bighorn and Washakie.
By 1920, 90% of the Black andYellow Trail had been completed
in Johnson County portion, butonly 35% had been completed in
Bighorn County.
The county line runs along themountain crest.

(15:21):
It appears, then, that the roadwas generally built east to
west.
The entire Buffalo to TensleepRoad was finally completed by
september of nineteen twenty two, a graded gravel road without
an oiled surface, constructedwith a combination of
horse-drawn equipment,caterpillar trucks, graders and

(15:42):
dump trucks.
Auto was conceived about thesame time as the trail.
A Good Roads Club conventionwas held in Douglas to promote a
north-south route toYellowstone National Park from

(16:03):
Denver, colorado, and thedelegates from Buffalo were sent
to encourage a link-up of thetwo highways.
The Yellowstone Highway,today's US Route 20, yellowstone
Highway, today's US Route 20,passed through Douglas, wyoming,
casper, shoshone, the WindRiver Canyon after 1924,

(16:26):
thermopolis and Worland, whereit joined the Black and Yellow
Trail, then north through BasinGrable and Cody and on to
Yellowstone.
The two routes therefore werethe same, from Worland to the
east entrance of YellowstoneNational Park.
Yellowstone was subject to earlylegislation prohibiting steam
vehicles within the parkboundaries.
This was meant to ban steamtrains but later interpreted to

(16:48):
include all powered vehicles,including cars.
Some Yellowstone personnel feltthat autos would ruin the park.
However, the numerous GoodRoads clubs were determined that
auto tourists have access toYellowstone and they had a
strong influence on the parkpolicy.
Also, the officials realizedthat allowing access to cars
would generally increasevisitation.

(17:09):
Auto tourism in Yellowstone wasinevitable and the park
welcomed the first cars at theeast entrance in 1915.
This policy led to improvedroads both within Yellowstone
and leading to the park, such asthe Black and Yellow Trail and
the Yellowstone Highway.
But this devil's agreement wouldhaunt some Yellowstone

(17:30):
officials far into the future.
Almost two decades after thefirst cars passed through the
east entrance, sanford Hill,landscape architect for the New
Deals Emergency ConservationWork, lamented in his 1934
report In the early days of thepark, the stagecoach and the
pack outfits were the mean oftransportation.

(17:52):
The stories told by these earlyadventurers are indeed very
interesting and it seems thatthe pleasures and thrills they
enjoyed were lasting memories oftheir lives.
They were fortunate, however,in seeing the park in its
natural state.
The progress of man has changedthis picture.
Until now, people rushedthrough the park seeing only a

(18:12):
few of the many wonders.
High-speed highways andautomobiles have no place in the
picture painted by MotherNature.
The writer strongly recommendsthe return of the stagecoach and
pack outfits.
Today, with yearly visitationexceeding three million, can
foresee a future where the parkcould prohibit private auto
traveling.

(18:32):
Granting Sanford Hills' wish,the Black Hills and Yellowstone
Highway Association set May 16,1921 as a day for the Boy Scouts
and the Good Road Club andother civic groups to erect
signs along the Black and YellowTrail.
In July, a group of 200 BoyScouts from Clinton, ohio,

(18:54):
traveled the route in 60automobiles, passing through
Buffalo and over the Big HornRange en route to Yellowstone
National Park.
In 1925, the federal governmentrecognized the need for a
national system of highwaymarking.
The new system designatedeast-west routes with even
numbers and north-south routeswith odd numbers.

(19:14):
The standard US route markersbecame a shield bearing the
number of the route, the letterUS and the name of the state in
black on the white background.
The black and yellow trail wasdesignated US Route 16.
During the mid-1920s, theWyoming Highway Department made
a concerted effort to oil themajor roadways with gravel and

(19:38):
crushed rock surfaces.
Early efforts provedunsatisfactory as the surface
disintegrated within a fewmonths, creating a very rough
roadway.
Starting in 1927, a new oilformula proved more durable,
known as the asphaltic oiltreatment, or more commonly as
bucktop.
It was soon in use on roadwaysacross the state.

(19:58):
By the end of 1926, the HighwayDepartment had improved the
trail from Wyoming-South Dakotaborder westward to its
connection with YellowstoneHighway in Worland.
However, the highway consistedof segments of varying condition
.
Consisted of segments ofvarying condition ranging from

(20:19):
unapproved to surfaced or pavedhighways.
In 1913, the trail from Buffaloover the Big Horn Mountains to
Tensley was described as anall-weather road that was not
paved or oiled.
In 1931, $128,000 becameavailable to regrade and oil 11
miles of the road from the NorthFork of the Clear Creek to the
crossing of Sourdough Creek.
The 1932 highway map of thestate of Wyoming depicted US

(20:43):
Route 16 as gravel or crushedrock surface from Gillette to
the Sheridan County line.
Federal aid projectsreconstructed the road between
Tensleep and Worland in 1936.
Aid projects reconstructed theroad between Tensleep and
Worland in 1936.
As a result of this upgrade,portions of the original roadway
were relocated and a new trussbridge, still in place today,
was constructed over the NohutRiver just west of Tensleep.

(21:07):
In the 1960s, us Route 16 wasreconstructed between Tensleep
and Worland, generally north ofthe 1930 highway.
The trail became a county road580A and included the Truss
Bridge over the Norwood River.
In the mid-1930s, two highwayprojects began applying asphalt

(21:30):
oil treatment to the trailbetween Buffalo and Tensleep.
Oil treatment to the trailbetween Buffalo and Tensley.
A 2.5-inch oil mat was laidover a 3.5-inch gravel base,
completed by September of 1940.
This work also involved gradingand overall improvement of the
roadway surface.
From 1939 to 1941, the trailfrom Gillette to Arvada was

(21:55):
improved in a similar manner.
Other improvements includegrading, widening, overall
upgrading of the roadway surface, new concrete bridges and some
major realignments of theright-of-way.
The portion of the black andyellow trail over the Bighorns
did not receive any furtherimprovement until after World
War II.
In the early 1940s the road hadsuffered from neglect due to

(22:19):
the war effort.
However, in 1946, the firstfive miles of the roadway up
Moser Galtz was reconstructedwith reduced grades, chandler
curves and wider road surfacesby the end of the summer of 1946
, a heavy asphalt mat was laidon the new road.
Finally, the construction ofInterstate 90 in the 1960s

(22:40):
fundamentally changed trafficpatterns between the
Wyoming-South Dakota line westto Buffalo.
It provided a more direct linkbetween Gillette and Buffalo and
the Black and Yellow Trail.
Us Route 1416 through SpottedHorse, arvada, claremont and New
Cross became a secondary route.
The northward curving sectionof the trail between Sundance,

(23:04):
carlisle and Moorcroft sufferedthe same fate, although a
portion of it is used today toaccess Devil Tower National
Monument.
Today's US Route 14 and 16split at La Crosse.
Us Route 16 generally maintainsthe original route of the Black
and Yellow Trail over theBighorn Mountains.
Us Route 14 continues northwestto Sheridan, wyoming, and then

(23:27):
crosses the Bighorn Range viaDayton and Burgess Junction to
Lovell, to the Bighorn Basin.
Both routes ultimately accessthe east entrance of Yellowstone
National Park.
Due to the wide, open andundeveloped nature of Wyoming's
landscape, the adventurous canstill find and explore remnants
of the historical road.
So go ramble.

(23:48):
And it's an outstanding storywhen you read through this.
The one correction I would putis on this Route 14, which they
talk about, and the story goesfrom Dayton to Burgess Junction
to Lovell.
It also goes to Shell and toGrable.
The 14A route is the one thatgoes into Lovell and the 14 is

(24:11):
the one that goes directly intoShell and Crable.
But it's an outstanding storyand it's amazing when you think
back of what we did in thiscountry with our roads and
across the United States, andwhat it really did to help
develop our state.
And now that you drive acrossthere and it's just a beautiful

(24:32):
route, going across thosedescriptions and hearing about
how they built the roads at thattime, when you come to Wyoming,
you definitely need to go andexplore the black and yellow
trail here in our great state ofWyoming.
Thanks for joining us today andwe hope you enjoy our podcast.

(24:53):
As per the code of the West, weride for the brand and we ride
for Wyoming.
We'll be right back.

(25:24):
One, two, three, four, five,six, go, go, go.

(26:14):
Thank you.