Trout, Teslas, and Royal Tales: A Wyoming Monday Roundup

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Good morning and welcome to let's Talk Wyoming.
I'm Mark Hamilton, your host,and today we'll be taking a look
at our late April winterweather.
We'll be talking about somehappenings in the state of
Wyoming.
We'll talk about happeningshere in Hot Springs County at
our state park.
We'll talk about a little bitof early travel, summer tourist

(00:41):
travel and also we'll talk aboutTeslas summer tourist travel
and also we'll talk about Teslas.
And finally we'll talk aboutBuffalo.
Bill Cody, thanks for joiningus and hope you enjoy the show.
Taking a look at Wyoming weatherhere on the 21st day of April,

(01:05):
hope everyone had a joyousEaster weekend.
He has risen.
He has risen.
Indeed, here on a Monday, a lotof places are just getting back
going from that Easter weekend.
Our weather here in the stateof Wyoming has definitely been
cool.
We had some warmer weather, Ishould say, earlier in April,

(01:28):
but boy, it's gotten cool.
We had a snowstorm lastThursday into Thursday night
here in Hot Springs County Ithink we got close to a foot of
snow.
It definitely was moisture thatwe needed.
It's been bone dry.
Most of it, or all of it's gone.
Now it's melted into the ground.
That's the nice thing aboutsnow it definitely goes into the

(01:49):
ground slowly.
You don't get that runoff typeof effect.
So it's greened up the area andwe're having cool weather here
at the start of the week.
It's in the 50s right now.
It was cool this morning outtaking the dogs for their
morning exercise session and youhad to have a jacket on with
some gloves.

(02:10):
You know, it looks like theweek is going to stay that way,
with maybe a little moremoisture coming towards the end
of the week, so end of April weare having some cool type of
weather.
But I'll tell you what.
It's something that we reallyneed here in our state of
Wyoming.
Also, take a look at other itemsaround.
I always like to talk about ourtown of Thermopolis, wyoming,

(02:31):
here in Hot Springs County, hometo the largest hot springs.
We've had kind of a controversygoing on since the first year
and actually it reared its headlast year State deciding to
reorganize and do things alittle different at our Hot
Springs State Park here and ifyou've been to Hot Springs

(02:52):
County you know where the parkis down, where the pools and hot
springs are and the state hasdecided that they were going to
take over and going to putdifferent facilities here.
One of the facilities they weregoing to shut over and going to
put different facilities here.
One of the facilities they weregoing to shut down was the Star
Plunge and I thought that wasgoing to be closed down later

(03:13):
but they have closed it down atthe first of the year.
So it's been closed for thewhole time and it's had an
impact.
We do have the other pool, theteepee pool, but most people
went to the Star Plunge and soit's cut down on our visitors
into Hot Springs County and thestate's been pretty well, had a

(03:34):
lot of meetings and such, butnothing's really changing on it.
So we're going to wait.
They supposedly are looking atalso shutting down the teepee
and then the hotels and puttingup new facilities, so more or
less making it some type of atheme park or such.

(03:54):
Nobody really has a fullunderstanding of what's going to
happen, but it's had an impacton our community.
Another thing that's had animpact on our community we've
suddenly became the fly shopcapital of Wyoming Secret has
been out for a long time of ourfishing here in the Big Horn
River.
That comes from BoysenReservoir through the Wind River

(04:17):
Canyon, through Thermopolis.
It's a blue ribbon troutfishing spot, hot spot.
It's a blue ribbon troutfishing spot hot spot and the
fly fishermen have been here fora long time, but it's just
really starting to expand.
For some reason this year we'vehad a couple of people here or
businesses here that tailored tothe fly fishermen, but boy,

(04:41):
we've had a sudden onslaught.
Looks like that we are now.
Our new business growth is infly shops At last count.
If I correct, there are two newones that came in that are here
and bought locations.
One of the companies that alsodid the whitewater rafting and

(05:05):
such was out in the old RitaPump building.
They're building a new officeor facility here or into town,
and so we are.
People have found out and thesecret is no longer a secret and
people are coming here justfrom everywhere.
So you see a lot of fishingguides coming in from Montana

(05:28):
and other parts of Wyoming,colorado.
They come here to fish withtheir clients and they're making
some good money.
That's definitely not a cheaptrip to go through and go
fishing with a guided drift boatand somebody taking you out.
You're going to spend anywherefrom, I guess, $500 to $1,000,

(05:49):
depending.
And then if you're going tofish in the Wind River Canyon,
which is part of the Wind RiverIndian Reservation, you have to
have a special permit and soit's pretty limited there.
It gets expensive fishing inthe Wind River Canyon.
But that's our new businessright now fly fishing and fly

(06:09):
fishing shops.
So we'll see how it does.
The state.
Of course they keep the fishstock and of course most fly
fishermen are.
I would say probably 99% ofthem, if not 100%, are catching
release.
So I had a person tell me oncethat those trout have been
caught so many times that theycontinue to like those flies and

(06:33):
so we'll see what happens.
But right now that's a big boomhere in our town the fly shops.
So the other thing is summertravels is right here.
Good time to travel right now.
If I was a tourist going tocome to Wyoming, now would be
the time I'd be getting headedthis way.
With the cooler temperaturesthere's not a lot of people yet

(06:55):
on the roads.
Good time to go to a lot ofthese locations.
Of course, here.
Always stop by here inThermopolis and take in the Hot
Springs State Park.
Always stop by here inThermopolis and take in the Hot
Springs State Park, and thenyour next stop will be up at
Cody and into Yellowstone.
I think Yellowstone hasn'topened yet the last I heard
because of these storms and suchthe snow that we've had but

(07:15):
it'll be opening really quickand then that traffic will pick
up.
So State of Wyoming is justready to invite people to come
on and take a look at what wehave.
Again, I always tell, if youlisten to previous episodes of
the pod, talk about all we havearound here in the north part of

(07:37):
the state of Wyoming with ourBighorn Mountains and with
Yellowstone Park, and then, ofcourse, you have Jackson with
the Tetons.
East of us, going across theBig Orange, you go to the Black
Hills.
There's so many things.
It's just always something youcould do around here and a lot
of nice trips to take.
So check Wyoming out Greatplace to come and visit and see

(08:00):
what we have going on here inour state of Wyoming Talking
about non-Wyoming stuff, but Iguess you could say it's Wyoming
Talking about Tesla.
I just really I chuckled aboutthe people that have been
unhinged and attacking anddestroying and sabotaging Tesla
vehicles.

(08:20):
I think it's starting to wearoff a little bit because these
people aren't very intelligentanyway.
They never realize and I guessthey don't realize that with the
security that's on those thatthey're all getting their
picture taken and and I see theFBI has started arresting people
, charge them as domesticterrorists and they could go to

(08:44):
prison for quite a long time forbeing a knucklehead.
I started looking.
I was never a true believer inan electric vehicle, being in
the oil business for 40 plusyears and I started looking at
Teslas Just because the Teslawas under attack.
I just felt like maybe I shouldjust get a Tesla.
You look at the electricvehicles and most of them have

(09:07):
been pretty much a sham,depending on your situation.
They try to push that upon usand it really hasn't worked out.
But I've looked at the Teslasand you can get a used Tesla for
a really good price and ifthey're under $25,000, you can
get the $4,000 tax credit.
I see how the Tesla would workfor people in the right

(09:29):
situation.
Now, if I was traveling a lot no, I would never get a Tesla if I
had to do a lot of road trips.
There's too much time spentworrying about where your next
charging spot's going to be,waiting for your vehicle to get
charged Just too long.
It stops everywhere, I guess,if you're not in a hurry and you

(09:49):
just like sitting somewhere andhave your car plugged in, it's
okay.
But to me I just don't see it'sfunctional that way.
Looking at, like the Teslas,you're able to plug them in at
your house and drive themlocally.
I think it works that way, butyou want to use your local power
.
If you start looking at thecost of these superchargers, you

(10:11):
get some pretty high bills.
But if you can plug it in andyou have a decent rate of
electrical power and you havethe 240 plug-in in your house
and you can plug it in andyou're not going to drive 300
miles plus a day, which mostpeople don't it would work out
pretty good.
So I've been looking at theModel 3 and the Y and trying to

(10:35):
decide which one would I get,and so most of them.
If you look at the 20 through22s, with about 30 to 50,000
miles, you can find them foranywhere from 22 to 25,000.
And then if you get the taxrate, you can get them down to
in the low 20s or just under$20,000.

(11:00):
So it wouldn't be too bad adeal.
So I'll keep you posted to seeif I decide I want to buy a
Tesla.
It would work perfectly.
You can go out there and driveit around and come back and plug
in at the house, drive itaround and come back and plug in
at the house.
But if I went on a or needed togo on a trip, I would be a
little skeptical.

(11:22):
To Billings.
You could probably make itthere.
There's not a.
The nearest supercharger for ushere to Billings would be in
Billings.
So you would have to prettymuch have pretty good conditions
to make sure you could get upto Billings, about 180, 190
miles from Thermopolis.
So you could probably do it ifyou had the long range and
that's if you didn't have anyother conditions happen or

(11:43):
whatever problems.
Now, going south from here youcan make it to Casper
superchargers there.
Then there's also superchargersin Wheatland and Cheyenne and
then you get down into Colorado.
You can find them.
So if you're going south you'renot going to be in too bad a
shape.
But a lot of other places, man,it's going to be questions of

(12:03):
where you're going to stop andplug in to get that electric
power, because I guess thatwould be a bad situation to run
out of electric power, to runout of electric power, and I
know they've had stories ondifferent publications about
people here coming throughWyoming with their Teslas, and
they had the one a couple ofwinters ago when we had the

(12:24):
extreme temperatures, where theyran out of power, had problems
on South Pass and they had tohaul the car all the way to Salt
Lake to get to a supercharger.
So you could run into thatproblem.
I just hope that people can findmore productive things to come
up with and doing in their livesand worrying about burning down
Tesla.

(12:45):
I can figure out why people areupset.
They're finding all thiscorruption going on in our
government where all this moneyis being spent.
We're just getting taken againand again and people are out
there upset about that.
There really should be just theexact opposite.
They should be pretty excitedabout it.
But of course, if somebodytells them what to do, they

(13:07):
don't really have much in theway of brain power to think
about what the consequences areor what's going on.
They just go ahead and do whatthey're told.
Tesla's.
It looks like that may beslowing down and maybe I'm going
to buy a Tesla.
We'll keep you posted.
Today in our history section,take a look at an article about

(13:27):
the Royal Hunt of 1913 withPrince Albert and Buffalo Bill,
and always enjoy the stories ofBuffalo Bill Cody.
The story was written by JohnClayton, wildhistoryorg.
In late September 1913, ahunting party made its way up
the north fork of the ShoshoneRiver, north of the hunting

(13:47):
lodge at Pahaskatepe, just eastof the Yellowstone National Park
.
In some ways it must have beenlike any hunting party men awed
by the scale of the wilderness,engaged by the camaraderie of
their companions and eager tobag big game.
Yet because of who these menwere, the hunting party was
unique.
Prince Albert I of Monaco wasthe first reigning European

(14:11):
monarch to visit the UnitedStates.
Colonel William F Buffalo BillCody, a form of Wyoming and
American royalty in his ownright, was an entertainer even
more internationally famous thanAlbert.
Their presence made thisarguably the best known hunt in
Wyoming history.
The trip was organized by AAAnderson, an artist, hunter,

(14:33):
socialite and formersuperintendent of the
Yellowstone Forest Reserve inEurope.
Anderson had met the prince.
He invited Albert to join himon a hunt near his ranch in the
mountains above Matitsi, wyoming.
But when Albert's private trainarrived in the town of Cody on
September 15, 1913, he found agood deal else too.

(14:54):
Park County Fair was underway,with rodeo events and the Crow
Indian dances.
Furthermore, the fair was beingfilmed by a company co-owned by
Buffalo Bill.
This was in the early days ofmovies, two years, for example,
before the silent blockbusterBirth of a Nation.
Cody Footage was intended for afilm the Indian Wars which
would set standard for infantryindustry's production values,

(15:16):
narrative troops and attitudestowards Native Americans.
Its climax was intended to besympathetic, a reenactment of
the 1890 Ghost Dance tragedy,followed by the scenes
approvingly showing Nativesassimilating into white culture.
While other company employees,including retired Army General
Nelson A Miles, while othercompany employees, including
retired Army General Nelson AMiles, began arrangements on the

(15:37):
Lakota Sioux Reservation atPine Ridge, south Dakota,
buffalo Bill instructedcameraman Charles Kaufman to
capture plenty of scenes of theprince exchanging gifts with
Chief Plenty Coup of the Crow.
Albert was also invited tooversee their fair activities,
which were covered in newspapersas well by Kaufman.

(15:58):
The prince enjoyed thiscelebrity so much that he
delayed the start of his huntwith Anderson.
At the time.
He needed some good publicitybecause not was all well in
Monaco.
His tiny principality insouthern France was known
primarily for the gambling meccaof Monte Carlo.
Gambling made the royal familyrich and eliminated any need to
tax citizens.
But Albert was an absolutemonarch who had been facing

(16:20):
three years of protest fromsubjects who wanted to establish
a republic.
Citizens were banned from thehigh-toned casinos, yet the
small nation also likedfactories or farmland, and as a
result, unemployment was high.
In 1911, albert had created anautomobile race and established
a constitution, but neither hadmuch immediate impact.

(16:41):
Meanwhile, the prince's reallove was outdoor life,
especially oceanography.
He owned research yachts andmade four cruises to the Arctic.
Many of the cultural andbusiness advances in Monaco
itself, such as establishing anopera, theater and ballet,
resulted from the work of hissecond wife, alice Heine.
At some point during the ParkCounty Fair, or perhaps during

(17:03):
preparations for it, buffaloBill inserted himself into the
hunting plans.
At the time, buffalo Bill wasin bad need of good publicity.
Now, 67, he was struggling tokeep up with the times and
nearly broke.
His famed Wild West show couldnot compete with movies.
Transport of performers andlivestock to each venue was
cripplingly expensive.
The latest version of BuffaloBill's show, a partnership with

(17:26):
Gordon William Pawnee, billLilly, had recently been
foreclosed on and its assetssold at a sheriff's auction.
Furthermore, bill's highlypublicized 1904 divorce suit had
tarnished his family-friendlyimage, though he and his wife
had reconciled in 1910.
Positive publicity could helphis public image and his

(17:47):
cinematic ambitions.
After the fair ended, albertand Anderson spent a week
successfully hunting on theGrable and Wood Rivers in the
mountains above Matizzi.
Then on September 28th theytraveled with Buffalo Bill from
Cody towards Yellowstone Park upthe north fork of the Shoshone
River.
Given the celebrity of PrinceAlbert and Buffalo Bill and the

(18:09):
fact that they would betraveling with film crews,
dozens of others wanted to jointhem.
For example, charles GSpend-a-Million Gates got about
hair to a barbed wire fortunewho once bragged that he spent a
million dollars a year in tipsalone.
He stayed overnight with themat Pahaska Tipi Buffalo Bill's
Lodge near the east entrance toYellowstone National Park,

(18:30):
although Gates had hired guidesthrough Buffalo Bill.
The next morning the Gatesparty and guides left Pahaska in
a different direction from theRoyal Party.
That party was quite large.
Members included Prince Albert,aa Anderson, buffalo Bill, dr
Louette, prince Albert'sphysician, often misspelled
Rochelette, henry Boullée,albert's aide, decamp filmmaker

(18:52):
Charles Coffin, buffalo Bill'sson-in-law, fred Garlow and
forest ranger Harry Miller,chief guide Fred Richards and
cook David Shaw and several moreguides, wranglers and camp
tenders.
They made camp about 10 milesnorth of Paasca at Torrent Grit
on a massive spruce tree, 5 feetin diameter, at the center of
the camp.
Henry carved out an area thathe painted with a bear paw print

(19:15):
and the words Camp Monaco, 1913.
In one famous photograph theyall pose in the snow around the
tree.
Several other photographsrecorded camp life, as did some
film footage.
Kaufman filmed Buffalo Billdoing chores, including chopping
wood.
The implication was that thecamp's organizer was too busy
and important to participate inthe hunt.

(19:37):
In fact, however, buffalo Billand Kaufman left Camp Monaco
almost immediately afterarriving because their film crew
were overdue to shoot at PineRidge.
The hunt was successful.
Albert had a wonderful time.
He killed a bull, elk and alarge black bear.
The Northern Wyoming Heraldreported that he was well
pleased he had spent an extraseveral days in camp, delaying

(19:57):
the departure of his privatetrain from the Cody station.
Stories and images from CampMonaco permeated the press.
For example, the Denver Postran the Camp Monaco story under
a full-page headline.
The Post's owners happened tobe Buffalo Bill's financier
partners in the film company.
They also sent a reporter toChronicle of Filming at Pine
Ridge.

(20:18):
The Camp Monaco Sojourn turnedout to be the last big hunt of
Buffalo Bill's life.
He died four years later,however, the movie resulting
from his film company's footage,the Indian Wars flopped.
The nitrate film haddisintegrated over time and only
a few scraps remained.
He had not been able to adjustto this new era.
His final years involvedcontinual financial difficulties

(20:40):
.
However, publicity surroundedthe royal visit and the hunt
provided beneficial to the localhunting and dune ranching
industry.
Cody became known as adestination for trophy level
hunting.
Camp Monaco inherited the fameof its inhabitants.
The site, which today featuresthe stump of the old spruce tree
, regularly appears on area mapsand in hunting magazines.

(21:01):
The 200-plus-year-old tree wasone of the most famous victims
of the 1988 Yellowstone Fire.
The fire killed it but notconsumed it.
In 1994, a 5,000-pound portionof the spruce containing the
campsite sign was removed byhelicopter.
It is now in a collection ofthe Buffalo Bill Center of the

(21:22):
West in Cody.
Albert's great-grandson, princeAlbert II of Monaco the
principality is now aconstitutional monarchy has
visited Cody three times and onhis 2015 visit, spent three days
at the old campsite.
As keenly interested inenvironmental affairs as his
ancestor, albert II has endoweda Camp Monaco prize of $100,000,

(21:44):
which is awarded every threeyears by the Buffalo Bill Center
of the West to supportintegrated scientific research
and public education initiatives.
The notion of Buffalo Bill'slast hunt seemed poignant,
especially in the light of theimage of him chopping wood in
the camp and his attempt toevolve the Wild West show into a
movie-making friendly to Indianpeople.
From one point of view, he hasredeemed his old age, having

(22:08):
processed from hunter andscalp-taker to caretaker, with
the progressive attitudestowards indigenous cultures.
Another interpretation, theCamp Monaco experience, where
the triumphant frontiersmandemoted to work basically as a
servant to a moneyed class fromelsewhere, is a metaphor for the
decline of the romance of theWest.
As Sportsman's Magazine OutdoorLife described the view of the

(22:32):
guide Lee Livingston in 2014,camp Monaco represented the
transition of frontier buffalohunter to big game outfitter,
the violent American Westreduced to a vacation
destination for European royalty.
This wilderness went from alandscape to be feared to one to
be protected.
Again, another outstanding storyfrom wildhistoryorg and just

(22:55):
another great story featuringBuffalo Bill.
Cody, thanks for joining ustoday and we 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.
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