SCLT Program Features Bighorn National Forest

On Tuesday, April 11, the Sheridan Community Land Trust Explore History Program at the Hub featured Sylvia Bruner, Director of the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum in Buffalo, and Craig Cope, Retired Bighorn National Forest Wilderness Manager who presented a program on The Bighorn National Forest Historical Collection.

This collection, which the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum received in 2020, includes historical documents and photographs which provide an insight into how The Bighorn National Forest has been used and managed over the decades. Included were photos and information on timber sales, wildfires, recreation, road development, wilderness preservation, grazing management and more related to the Bighorn National Forest.

Bruner also talked about two books that are for sale at the Gatchell Museum, one that is about the Museum, and one that is titled “Look to the Mountains, Revisiting Historical Photographs of the Bighorn Mountains.”

Bruner added that the museum received 40 boxes of material on the Bighorn National Forest, including photos, diaries and letters.

Craig Cope presented a slide of a document that confirmed the spelling of the Bighorn National Forest

He added that the Bighorn Mountains is also one word.

Bruner said that the museum is dedicated to making these documents available to the public, however,

She talked about some ways people can preserve their old photos, and she presented a slide showing some negatives that were held together with a rubber band, which is a not a recommended way to preserve them as the rubber band can damage the negative. Anyone with questions about preservation can call the museum staff.

There were several old photos showing the tie flume and the flume workers on the mountain, and the old ranger stations that were built on the mountains. Cope mentioned that at the Hunter Ranger station above Buffalo they had a house, a two story barn and other buildings “They grew corn there. 7500 feet and they grew corn,” he said.

Cope said that during the 20s and 30s the rangers kept diaries, describing the daily life of a ranger and recording historic events that happened on the forest.

Cope mentioned the Dutch Creek fire as well, when 70 troops from Casper were sent up to fight the fire. He added that at the time fire fighters were often recruited from the local tavern.

At one time recreational summer homes were built on the forest, which is not an option today.

Included were old photos of Meadowlark Lake, including a fish ladder that was built near the water outlet on the lake. Bruner added this about the Lake.

The program will be repeated on April 18 at 10:30 at the Tongue River Valley Community Center in Dayton.