And then later we will visit the Sheridan Library to see their missed Indian American collection. We begin with the history of the rodeo. [cheers and applause] all right. One, two, three, let them out. Theres no place better be the second week in july than sheridan, wyoming. We put on the worlds best event and we just want to invite you all to shared in. This week is the biggest week in sheridan, economically and entertainment wise. Was with some good about that because 89 years ago sheridan was that as adorno. There was nothing going on. So some citizens decided we needed to have a rodeo to provide some Economic Opportunity and entertainment, and that was their charter and still is so here we are 89 years later, still doing the same thing and we hope the Founding Fathers would be proud of that. 192029, j. P. Morgan family bought the historic ranch west of town, and for two years they had a big rodeo out in the fields theres such a big deal. I think there were cars from 23 states. This was in 1928, came to it. People in sheridan said if they can do, why cant we do it here . Saw a group of concerned citizens got together and formed the committee and they decided that were going to have a rodeo. They didnt just start out on a small skillet. They want to have a big professional rodeo from the getgo. They put altogether and a 1931 that the first professional rodeo in sheridan, wyoming, and here we are today. I rodeo is a defense, difference documents from bucking horses, livestock roping, steer wrestling, kind of the old cowboy skills brought to the modern the area but it all started out. Some rights summer they had a contest with some bucking horse horses. We are one of the top 30 rodeos in america. Thats determined by the amount of rice money you have for your event. Our rodeo competitors come from all over the United States. It was interesting come with people from louisiana, michigan, wisconsin entered a lot of, a lot of from texas, wyoming, wyoming has a lot of rodeo contestants. Last you though in terms of our radio, we had people registered for our rodeo. We have people from all over the United States here, 49 to 50. I rodeo stock, the rostock we have come from joliet montana and they subcontract some of the other stock out to but theyve been a long time i think theyve been with our rodeo for about 23 years, some of the very best in the business. And our job is we provide all livestock for voters across the country. That includes from the bucking horses to the bolstered with 64 horses of hours that we brought. Release 15 horses out of canada. For the tied in with 100 head of animals. For the steer wrestling and team roping we have 100 100 head ofh of those animals as well. The animals involved in a rodeo particularly the animals in the rough document thats what theyre born to do and airborne, these are not animals that are trained to do that. Its what they were born to do. If we think about it, they spend most of their life in a past year eating hay and actually work eight seconds a day 20 times a year and thats their job. Very truthfully, that brca and doesnt particularly we put Animal Welfare first and foremost. We really believe in the welfare of the animals and we take the very best care of them that we can. These kinds of bread to be animal athletes. Its not like a be animal. They of bread totally different. They are bred to be an athlete can no different than the horses. They are bred to be athletes. Its a totally different deal other nutritious totally different. Their care is totally different. I always tell people getting on a really good bucking bull its like winning the lottery. Whatever it is a day need, we will give them and their nutrition wise lies is specific for the bred to do. They will do their career and like i said not want for anything. At the end of it they retire, they get turned out and they will die of old age underneath the tree out in the past year. One thing different about the sheridan wyo rodeo is would like to keep smalltown feel to it. We dont want it to become some big economic thing. We wanted to be a Community Event of a want it to be come we dont want to get too big for our britches, if you know what i mean. As they make their way out here another thing that makes us unique is our world chairmanship indian relay races which were start here in 1997. Its become a premier event of the rodeo. This is purely a sheridan, wyoming, rodeo event. You can see just how exciting it is. It brings a lot of people are that may not be that interested in the rest of the rodeo events but they come to see the indian relay race. We have Good Partnership with the indian relay team. They decided in 1931 that they wanted to have the indians, unit, they just did. And in those days the indians would walk down from the cheyenne reservation and the Crow Reservation to be part of this show. In those days that was before television, before anything else. They would have huge night shows, things like cowboy days than indian nights. They would stage these big pageants campfires and bonfires because the lights necessarily been. They have always been an integral part of it. That is and and flowed through the years. In the last 20 years we have really brought it back and its all been there but the indian relay races, its become a thing of beauty. Its the first event i would want to get in her seat early, find a great spot to watch because if it doesnt indian relay racing up its pretty spectacular. I think thats really the event that most of the people talk about at our rodeo. There have been many challenges, you know, like shortly after the first rodeo in 1931, later they became financially challenged, make it a go, make it a profit so we can carry on next year. Thats been a continuous problem throughout the years. They didnt have the rodeo for two years during the war, taking 4243. Then in 1944 they started up again but in in a modest manner because it wasnt professional like it was before. So the 50s were kind of the daltons for the sheridan, wyoming, rodeo and it got to the point in 1951 when the rodeo said and the community okay, you folks what have rodeo or not . They took a poll and said yes, we want to have rodeo. So we were alive again and it got more community support. Its one of the things, over the decades to me or do support from, quite frankly some of the public has and and flowed but in the last, since the 1990s its flowed. Typically we end up around 22,000 over or for the event. Our facility seats about 6000 it will be sold out for sure on friday and saturday, wednesday and thursday are down a little, but were hoping to have between 2022,000 here during the course of the week. Thats actually attending the rodeo come not to mention all the other events that go on in town, how many people attend those as well. Were pretty sure sheridan wyo rodeo brings over five going to end its lead in one way or another. Motels, hotels, restaurants, bars, businesses. The Economic Impact has been really pretty good and, of course, those dollars get turned over several times. The biggest economic event in sheridan, wyoming, thats for sure. Started by citizens pick is been carried by citizens. Have a lot of trout and tribulations that are kind of held true to the tradition of the west and are western culture. Its become an integral part of the community. Nobody can imagine sheridan, wyoming, without sheridan wyo rodeo. Unpredictable. In one in 50 years they will be saying the same thing. Right now we are at the historic sheraton in downtown sheridan, wyoming. Started construction in 1892, was finished and open in 1893. Its tethered to a legend of buffalo bill cody, a lot of people know that buffalo bill audition is wild west show right at here on the porch and on the front line. And its really connected deeply to the history and culture of sheridan, and wyoming as albert buffalo bill is deeply connected to whaling. He spent a lot of time in different sections of wyoming auditioning cowboys, cowgirls and other people were involved in his wild west show that toured to her that only america but all over europe. So he would come to sheridan, set up shop and look for authentic performers to be a part of his touring show that the folks who would come to addition could be doing everything from shooting guns to using ropes, to any of the other things that would happen the wild west show. You would have horses, cowboys, cowgirls, barrel racers, all sorts of folk from the Crow Reservation of the crow tribe and the northern cheyenne which is up in montana would come down as well. You had a very eclectic of western characters all collected here in sheridan centered on the sheridan in auditioning for the show. The historic sheridan and looks much like it did back when his first constructed in 1892. The extra specifically, the beautiful white clapboard building, this gorgeous gabled roof and windows inside it is written over the last several ownership groups. It was completely renovated. Each one name for for a specifc character of Buffalo Bills life. But what is taught her from the individual 1893 buffalo bill bar. Its one of the most historic and spectacular bars, notches in the state but probably still in america. A lot of people in the country feel this place a significant cultural cachet, has historical significance for all america. Its a glimpse of history as a once in the late 19th century. There are not many buildings like this in the west that exist for a number of factors. One, were in wyoming. The weather is pretty tough. Use wreaks havoc on ice is like this. So to have the piece like this in the heart of our downtown is really significant. We get calls every single day at the Visitor Center for people want to come and learn more, just want a tour even if theyre not staying here. Its really a building that touches people deeply, especially those are interested in old west history. Coming up, our look at sheridan continues as we hear from local author sam western about wyomings economic history and the challenges the state is facing today. No state in union has five and 87,000 people, as a single driver become, as no ocean and no major city. We are utterly singular when it comes to statement. The part dependent on a pastoral grazing economy or ranching is the margins both ensco on a really good, good year the cattle operation will make 2 profit margin. Whos going to pay for the roads . Whos going to pay for the schools . Whos going to pay for our infrastructure . You just cant do it. We just cant do it on the back of the grazing economy. Wyoming acyclic historically was one of the poor states in the nation. It wasnt like delta poor like mississippi delta for a we had a lot of subsistent living in wyoming. There was very little cash in the coffee can at the end of the month. It was really a duck tape operation. We just managed to get along for a long time. We had to beg the financial mercy of others to get basic services, like our highways, the federal highways. The federal government paid for a lot of our highways. The university was always in the lowest quintile of funds because it just didnt have an endowment. My favorite story is what happened in 1969. I i heard a story that one day r treasure had gone into the Governors Office and said governor, we have 100 hundred dollars in the general fund. So im going to see if this is true. The governor had long retired and action retired from his law practice. It was a great interview. I said governor, is it true that one day your treasure came in and said, we have 100 in the general fund . He said no, dammit. It was 80. So when the 1959 we had 80 in 80 in our general fund and now we have a Permanent Trust Fund that exceeds 8 billion. Mineral mining was kind of a complex story here in oil and gas. It really didnt start to be a big thing until 1820, when there was a law passed by Congress Called the mineral leasing act of 1920, and it made sure that minerals, that any oil, gas or coal that was produced on federally owned land receipts and back to the state of origin. And in 1972 when the Arab Oil Embargo happened, and suddenly wyoming ship came in. This state was crawling with people from all stripes saying this is the Energy Capital of america, coal, oil, gas, irina. How can we exploit a . The gets to use the interest from the general fund, from the Sovereign Fund which is that about 400 million per year. But it hasnt been enough, and when the boom of the 70s collapsed in 83 and 84, that was a very tough time to be in wyoming. We had a major exit of people. When monocultures are good, man, theyre very good. And when the bet its really bad. Coal is in a world of hurt right now. Without some significant bankruptcies, two in the last two weeks, and theres a lot of problems with this the sites and the fact this is going to be a drastic cut in severance packages in coal. All these guys, all these old miners with their Pension Plans come with her health insurance, minerals pays 45 of the property taxes in the state of wyoming, and theres been trouble, problems with these coal mines like peabody coal coming up with the property taxes they owe. They did it eventually, but thats major. If a coal mine goes bankrupt, i mean, the county isnt really tough shape. Thats why diversity, Economic Diversity is so important to a state like when we. Who doesnt want diversity . But particularly important in wyoming that we have diversity. On the surface its great. Dont we all want a trust fund . Personally id like one. The problem is that you can avoid hard questions. You dont have to deal with deficits because you got all this cash, and you dont haveo do with social changes because theres a lot of people who want to keep things the way they are. Its bad, commodities have to be ab during our time in Sheridan Wyoming, the cspan cities tours visited various literary sites. Next we take you inside the Sheridan FulmerPublic Library to hear about Ernest Hemingway stay in the Big Horn Mountains of wyoming it was there he hopes to finish a farewell to arms. In my book its the Ernest Hemingway 1928 stay in the big horn martins of wyoming. Its about the time the Ernest Hemingway came to wyoming to finish a farewell to arms. And he was here because pauline had just had the baby patrick and he was a very fussy baby. A very hot summer and he couldnt finish the book. So he took her and patrick to pick at arkansas and head out to wyoming. Ernest hemingway is probably fairly early on in his career he wasnt well known but this is a farewell to arms and i feel he needed to get it finished. Thats why he was here to find quiet time to finish the book. The reason that he ended up coming to big horn was that his friend bill horn that they were ambulance drivers in the First World War in italy. Im not sure how bill horn is invited to come here but he was invited to come to fawley ranch which was a big horn and they could stop here on their way to jackson. Because ernest was invited to jackson to try to finish his book there but when they got to big horn and fishing they decided to stay. Bill horn stayed for a couple weeks and there was so much going on up there that ernest decided he needed to work somewhere else and came down to the sheridan inn, we are talking august and sheridan 1928, no air conditioning, lenny room. One bathroom for four. Im sure was very miserable and loud right by the train station. He decided to go to another place and its lower fawley, there is a vegan there that was always called the hemingway room and i believe he probably was there pretty much by himself and was able to write quite a bit. At the very end he mustve been close to finishing he went to spiro wigwam and thats when pauline came to join him. And patrick stayed in arkansas so it was just Ernest Pauline here at spiro and they were the guests for seven days. We just found that he tried to finish the last paragraph of the book and he rewrote it 29 times. Thats the real struggle for him and once he got it finished it was sent off. We know that they heard a typewriter at spiro wigwam his finishing touches was he would do the typing so he must have finished. Every day he would get up and type and then go fishing. We know he did some work at spiro but most of it i think was done at fawley or lower fawley. When i first started working in the wyoming room i discovered this book and there was a lot of big horn history, and from the big horn and the big horn historical society. I do the newsletter. I was looking for something different. I found the blog book called the log, fawley ranch dated summer 1928. Its sort of a diary of what original photographs and the Donnelly Family they published disease. They were a publisher from chicago and they would publish these for the guests and here you have the guest role in the front of the book how long they stayed and on the very first page of found Ernest Hemingway. I realize this was an original help photo of hemingway that we did not know who the woman was. It took me a while doing the research and thats how we found out this was later to become bill horns row until mike y. Is the book that started it all. The reason i started this book being a manager of the wyoming room we were having so many researchers come in wanting to constantly look at this photo, opening the book, putting it on the copy machine. It was being used quite extensively, it was breaking down the back of the book. These are 100 years old we didnt want any more damage. We just felt we wanted to archive it and i took the idea to my board, the Library Board and they approved that i put the book together so that anything thats in the wyoming run is available to researchers in the book. This was totally a very interesting maze to find everything we have in the wyoming room. We have one patron that was very interested in hemingway so he would come up with questions like, have you looked in the post Office Records and sure enough we were able to find an original signature Ernest Hemingway in pencil in the big horn register and then i went to other books so it was really exciting that because of the patron showing so much interest i was able to find this all by myself and i was alone at home and i found it at like midnight and there was an Ernest Hemingway original signature. The compiling of the information has really been important because people need to see it for themselves. They need to read the handwriting. They need to see the newspapers and have proof. Sometimes they need two or three different references to prove what their thoughts were. It was so important to her local history. We are at eatons ranch at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains about 30 miles west the Sheridan Wyoming. 7000 acres the most beautiful country on earth. Ranching is some people would say like a cattle ranch its not a cattle ranch where businesses processing brands. Its an agricultural endeavor. The sheridan has always been a ranching community. Its always been a ranching community. It still is. Maybe not to the extent it used to be but today you will find more large ranches done before before a lot of small ranches you still have small ranches but you have a lot of area thats been consolidated under one branch. Its still significant part of the cultural life and the Economic Life of Sheridan Wyoming. Ranching is not going to go away unless, i just heard on the news the other night somebody has invented a really good substitute for hamburger so the idea is that if we get this going and we wont have to kill anymore animals. Good luck with that. I think ranching is here to stay for a while. The cspan cities tours exploring the american story. Join us the first and third weekends of each month as we take booktv and American History tv on the road to watch videos from any of the places we been, go to cspan. Org cities tour and follow us on twitter at cspan cities. We continue our look at Sheridan Wyoming. I came to sheridan through british officers that came to this area, they were horsemen, sportsmen, hunted fish. They got to this area and brought their love of horses with them. In a sport that started in the far east ended up in the plains of america and flourished here. Today we are in big horn wyoming this is the fly and h ranch part of the foreign h polo club. This is probably the premier polo facility in the United States out of about 200 clubs. Its next to the Big Horn Equestrian Center where polo started in the 1893 and sheridan which is in the distance. Currently we have three or four former chairman of the United StatesPolo Association that have ended here. We got at least eight ranchers that have moved in in the last eight years that through polo and susie is. Its promoted the area we been lucky in this area to have people that had the ability to build a facility like this and bring good horses into this area. On any day of the week there might be 600 horses out here in the prime of their life with athleticism, young athletic courses standing here some of the best bloodlines in the world. The fun part about polo is the relationship with horses. The American West is pretty much defined by mans relationship with a horse. Be it a cruel warrior shoshone, arapahoe, cheyenne or calvary men 80 miles north of here 200 calvary men wrote to their death against superior force of native horsemen. Its not a sign of a romance to it. Andy polo is one of the venues that its hard to worry about anything about your life when you are playing polo. The cspan cities tour concluded look at Sheridan Wyoming with a look of the miss Indian American collection held inside the sheridan former Public Library wyoming room. Its here we discover the story of the native american pageant that was started as a way to combat prejudices against native americans. When lucy was entered into the radio stage the crowd erupted. She became the first sheridan while rodeo queen native and she defied expectations. She really rose to the top on a whim. We are in the wyoming room in the sheraton county former Public Library. Wyoming room is a local archive of sorts. Typically we take in paper items anything really historic related to Sheridan County or the region itself. The miss Indian American collection is a bunch of items that pertain to the Miss American pageant held in sheridan from 1953 to 1984. The story of miss Indian American was one mans attempt to change Racial Discrimination policies in sheridan. Miss america and allamerican mindy and days was the brainchild of Howard Sinclair. He was a writer for the sheridan process. He grew up here the reservation and when he was a young man he was adopted by a local tribe and eventually developed a lot of native ways. His understanding of native people was tremendous. So he felt that through his experiences with the native people do not receive what they deserved. Equal treatment being the forefront. At this point there were signs downtown saying no indian trade allowed. No indians, no dogs, this was prevalent throughout many towns near reservations in the west. The process started when Howard Sinclair had an opportunity with lucy leone to enter her as a rodeo queen contestant. Lucy entered at a time as a joke it was it taken very seriously because she was crow. A lot of people didnt think she had a chance of winning. What had happened in the process of the rodeo queen selection was in the previous years there have been selected by the committee and in 1951 the process changed and they went to using whats called a closet meter. Sounds kind of cheesy but it was from the Radio Station kwyo so instead of a committee of several people choosing the candidate and eventual queen it was actually chosen by the crowd. So when lucy was entered into the rodeo stage the crowd erupted because of her handling of the horse, she demonstrated she was very skilled as a writer. And the crowd went through three different boats demonstrated they wanted her to be the rodeo queen. She became the first sheridan rodeo queen that was native and it was a huge change in what had happened previously. Here we have the 12 candidates for rodeo queen and most of them youll see very caucasian and then you have lucille lew leone oh and margaret rosenberg. This really was a Pivotal Moment in sheridan because we went from having a very caucasian field of candidates to having a native woman who is very well known locally and she defied expectations. And proud to have had this project to better understanding between the indian races. We all hope the good lord protects and accomplish and that we come together to make american remain strong and great. When lucy won the rodeo queen title she was obligated to a year in that role stop so the Sheridan Press this is from july 1952 this is the rodeo addition. She is in her regalia on her horse. Here we have the Rodeo Program from 1952 lucy is on the front with her horse. These photos are taken at the sheridan in and this is lucy posing with her native regalia. In the other photos are in front of it and with her court. The gentleman on the left is Howard Sinclair. This piece of paper was one of the first invitations for native girls to apply for the contest. They were very specific things they were looking for. This was not a beauty competition. This was not anything like miss america. This was basically to show that native girls were just as modern as their caucasian counterparts. That was the big thing is they wanted to show the native people were just like everyone else there was nothing different about them. When they were doing the competitions, the native girls would show that they still knew their native ways but they were also presented in ways that showed that they were modern women. The next year things were put into motion to develop whats called allamerican indian day from there the process ensured a new realm which was bringing local tribes into sheridan to foster goodwill toward native americans. They basically would show what it meant to be native american. They would awhite and native interaction. In the first year drew 4008 americans to the sheridan and the crowd was somewhere in nine or 10,000 people to attend the event. It was accomplishing what Howard Sinclair want. There was a lot more goodwill toward the neighborhoods dayabt natives. Twice a month cspan cities tours textbook tv and American History tv on the road. To explore the literary life and history of a selected city. Working with our Cable Partners we visit various literary and Historic Sites as we interview local historians, authors, and civic leaders. You can watch any of our past interviews and tours online by going to cspan. Org in selecting cspan cities tour from the series dropped on at the top of the page. Or by visiting cspan. Org cities tour. You can also follow the cspan cities tour on twitter for behindthescenes images and video from our visits. The handle is at cspan cities. Book tv recently went to capitol hill to ask members of congress about their reading lists. Congressman jamie raskin from maryland eighth congressional district, what are you reading . First on reading this multivolume set by Sidney Blumenthal about abraham lincoln, political life of abraham lincoln. I love reading the lincoln books i can get my hands on but whats good about this is that Sidney Blumenthal has been a political journalist and reporter as well as a political actor and speechwriter with the clintons. But he looks at lincoln in enormously sympathetic