Larry Larom was the owner of a famous dude ranch southwest of Cody. He had long been supportive of the Cody Stampede Rodeo and was one of its first directors. Mary Robinson, the director of the McCracken Research Library, said he must have recognized that the rodeo was an important element in attracting dudes to […]
John B. Stetson came West as a young man. He was the son of a successful hatter. In the West, he recognized the need for a felt hat with a wide brim to keep off rain and sun. His famous “Boss of the Plains” hat became widely popular and he was forever associated with the […]
The McCracken Research Library director loves artifacts that tell a bigger story. Mary Robinson said one of her favorite examples is a pamphlet that talks about the dude ranches in the Big Horn Mountains. She said the pamphlet packs so much information in 50 pages-even just the front page evokes some history. “The Burlington railroad […]
Originally published in Points West magazineSummer 2017 Alaska Man, Part 2 Click here to read part one… By Mary Robinson In part one of Alaska Man, we learned how Harold McCracken publicizes his northern adventures to establish himself as a public figure. Each of his first two expeditions to Alaska was a “roll of the […]
Originally published in Points West magazineSpring 2017 Alaska Man, Part 1 By Mary Robinson “You’d take him for a schoolmaster, precisely like a schoolmaster, or maybe a scientist. Bald-headed, spectacled, and so skinny you’d think the frost would finish him off the first cold night.” Such was one journalist’s impression of Harold McCracken (Fig. 1), […]
The McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West receives many gifts, donations, and loans from patrons. The staff has to go through all the collections to catalog them and also find out what’s in them. Mary Robinson, the director of the McCracken Research Library, said sometimes the library gets collections that […]