Shortly after I started at the McCracken Research Library, our Director, Mary Robinson, came into my office one day. “Do you want to go to lunch?’ “Huh?” I usually just bring my lunch. “There’s a lunch today, at Willis McDonald’s house. It’s his birthday.” I knew the name Willis McDonald. Willis had gifted the McCracken […]
Max Wilde first drifted through the Cody area in 1913. An Indiana farm boy, he was fascinated by stories of hunting and trapping in the West and far North. “When I saw all the game and the fishing Wyoming had to offer,” he said, “I knew I was hooked.” Wilde drove tourist wagons up the […]
When Bill Hayes was thirteen years old, he spent several days at a mine in the Bighorn Mountains. Some cousins had invited Bill, his Dad, and his brother up. They were hoping to strike it rich with uranium. The road was barely passable. They got up there to find a cabin with a man living […]
Charles G. Clarke (1899 – 1983) may not have been present for the settling of the American West, but he sure was present for the building of its mythology. In the course of his life he went from living on the street to being a celebrated cinematographer, as well as an esteemed Lewis and Clark […]
I have been hearing about Mel Stonehouse since I arrived here, and he’s become a legend in my mind. Many of the colorful Cody characters passed away long enough ago that finding people that knew them is hard, but lots of people remember Mel Stonehouse. Orphaned at the age of two when his parents froze […]