All right . Learn more about the history of u. S. Automobiles sunday at 6 00 p. M. And then a copy of eastern and 10 00 p. M. Eastern. You are the cspan cities tour is exploring the american story. Our spectrumof cable partners, we travel to sheridan, wyoming. Coming up in the next hour we will hear from local historians and experts. Range andits open cowboy culture, in a moment the history of rodeo in sheridan. Fort minutes we will visit kearny. Sheridanwill visit the county museum to hear about the impact coal mining had on the area. We begin with the history of rodeo. [indiscernible] no other place to be the second week in weekend of july than here in wyoming. We invite you all. Oh, say, can you see, by the dawns early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming . I tell you, this week is the biggest week in sheridan economically. Ago sheridan was dead as a doornail. There was nothing going on. Citizens decided we needed to provide someto Economic Opportunity and entertainment. That was the charter, and still is. 89 years later we are still doing the same thing. And 29 1929, we welcomed a financier who bought the historic pk ranch. For two years they had a rodeo out in the field. I think there were cars from 23 states. The people of sheridan said, if they cant do it, why cant we do it here. A group of citizens gather to form a committee. They didnt start out on a small scale, they wanted to have a big professional rodeo. They put it all together in 1931. Here we are today. Livestock roping its kind of the old cowboy skills. They had a contest of some bucking horses. Thats determined by the amount of prize money you have for your event. Our rodeo competitors come from all over the United States. We had people from louisiana michigan with compton. A lot of the rodeo contestants are from texas, oklahoma. Wyoming has a lot of rodeo contestants. Peoplear, we had registered for our rodeo to watch our rodeo from 49 of the 50 states in america. We had people from all over the United States, 49 or 50. Theyh stock we have contract some of the other stock too. Some of the best in the business. Livestockide all the for rodeos across the country. We have 64 horses of ours we brought. We have 100 head of animals. For the team roping we have 100 of each of those animals as well. Rodeo,animals in the thats what they are born to do. Trained to doals that. Life innt most of their a pasture eating hay, and they actually work eight seconds a 20 times a year. Andut Animal Welfare first or most. These guys are bred to be athletes. Totally different, they are bred to be an athlete, no different than horses that are bred to be athletes. I tell people, if you are born you won the bovine lottery. You get the best, care the best. Whatever they need to, we will give them. They are going to do their career. At the end of it they retire, they breed some clap breed some cows and they will die of old age on the pasture. We like to keep a smalltime feel to it. We dont want this to be some big economic thing. Want to get too big for our britches. Another thing that makes us unique is our World Championship relay race, which started in 1997 and has become a premier event in the rodeo. You will be able to see how exciting it is. They come to see the indian relay race. Weve had indian relationships. 1931 they wanted to have the indians. The indians would walk down from the cheyenne reservation and the Crow Reservation to be part of this show. They would have huge night shows, rings like cowboy days and indian nights. They didnt have lights necessarily then. They didnt have lights necessarily then. They always have been an integral part of it. The last 20 years we have brought it back. Its become a thing of beauty. Corks Everyone Wants to get into those seats early. Seen indiannever relay racing it is spectacular. Shortly after the first rodeo , they became financially challenged. They can carry on to next year. Been a continuous problem throughout the years. In 1944 they started up again in a modest manner. It got to the point in 1951 when the rodeo said to the community, do you guys want to have a rodeo or not . They said yes we want to have a rodeo, so we will we are alive again and have more community support. Since the 1990s it flowed. Around 22,000 over our fourday event. Wednesday and thursday are down a little. We are opening up between 20 and 20,000 here between the course of the week. Attending the rodeo, not to mention all the other events that go on in town and how may people will attend those as well. Motels, hotels. The Economic Impact is really good. They get turned over several times. True to the tradition of the west. It has become an integral part of the community. One can imagine Sheridan Wyoming without the rodeo. In 150 years we will be saying the same thing. We are at the historic sheridan inn in downtown sheridan, wyoming. A lot of people know that buffalo bill auditioned for his wild west show out here on the porch. State its deeply connected to the history and culture. Buffalo bill is deeply connected to wyoming. People involved in his wild west show tour not only america he would set up shop and look for authentic per armors to be a part of his show. They could be doing everything from shooting guns on the lawn to using ropes to any of the other crazy stuff that would happen in the wild west show. Cowgirls,ve cowboys, all sorts of folk from the Crow Reservation. You had an lactic group of western character errors. Centered on the sheridan in. The historic sheridan looks much today like it did back when it was first constructed in 1892. This beautiful white clapboard building. Inside it has been renovated over several ownership groups. Named for a specific character in Buffalo Bills life. What still is heres the original 1893 buffalo bill barr. People in this country who feel this place has significant cultural cachet. Its a glimpse of history as it was in the late 19th century. There are not buildings like this in the west. Tough. Is pretty we get calls from people who want to tour, even if they are not staying here. It is a building that touches people deeply, especially those interested in old west history. Coming up, our look at sheridan continues as we go just outside the city. The fort played an Important Role in the conflict between the u. S. And local native americans between 1866 and 1868. Here at fort phil carney, its important to have the contour lines shape the narrative. We have a lot of people who come here who know nothing about the wars or no and little something. When we talk about the landmarks around here, you see them start thebsorb how crucial artifact that we preserve in wyoming, which is our landscape, how that has shaped westward expansion. Narratives american that we have grown up with, but maybe havent truly understood until we get out here and realize whats at the core of located inct traditional native american lands, the fort played a central role in red clouds war, a conflict between native americans and the u. S. From 1866 to 1868. One of three u. S. Army situations that army station situated on the Bozeman Trail army stations situated on the Bozeman Trail. Was hired tol who he how theort, forts location stance of moving it up the sheridan. We have military strategist that said this natural bench and thus landscape is actually a strategically smart location to place the fort. Carrington had drawn up the shape and plans for the fort before he came west and he decided this was going to be the best place for it. He gets here in july of 1866. The messages delivered to him that he is going to have to fight every day the military is here. Its at that point carrington really realizes how deep he is, how in over his head he is. And children have come out with him. 562 tribes in north america. A first throughout north america. The cheyenne, arapaho and dakota people, he makes a very strong showing against fort phil kearney. We think there was an attempt in where there were disappointed warriors. Leadership didnt go over. Cant defend any battles that may happen. Its going to be difficult to get the house built out there. Carrington says its the last day they are going to gather wood. Considered the decoy party, there were six warriors. Two from each of the one of thosetribes men is a young warrior. Infantry goes out. Thats another amazing thing , theyfort phil kearney are largely marching everywhere they are going and they are completely worn out from starvation or the effects of scurvy. Now they are trying to walk to these engagements. They move up just north of here. The cavalry goes out. We dont know the conversation that happened. For whatever reason they decided to go over the bridge. You know they were completely surrounded by teen hundred warriors and high and wiped out in half an hour. Carrington realizes red flag has been very successful in putting toether a writing wars totally overwhelm them if they wanted to. To take theiry lives into their own hands. They gathered around the powder magazine. We are going to light it and we are all going down with the ship its a story of incredible despair. Its an incredible victory. They have successfully gathered in the winter, Work Together among the tribes and completely wiped out a huge part the ablebodied section of what is left of the fort by the middle of that first winter. They end up being able to survive through the winter. You get through 1867, theyve gotten a garden in , updated weaponry. Bit morea little prepared. They hear a shot, about four miles west of the fort from where we are at today. They put together a small wagon box corral and laid them on the ground and absolutely jammed it full of ammunition for these updated spring filled rifles. Theyve got the updated weaponry. It looks like exactly the same gun. When the warriors gathered that box started to attack the camp and all the wood cutters and soldiers book it the wagon box, this massive shootout for four hours. Thousands of rounds of ammo. 26 soldiers and civilians live through that. It lasted four hours. The post commander is able to get the howitzer out to the corral. What a shootout out for four hours. Ts largely uneventful you see the signing of the fort laramie treaty. The forts are abandoned. They were very glad to see them go. Away, i hopealk they learned how to absorb distance and the expansive wide open landscape that they have gotten to travel through and how valuable it is. Learning what has shaped our western history. Next on our visit to Sheridan Wyoming, we take you to the brenton museum. The britton museum is a brinex the brenton museum we lie on 600 acres of you to full ranchland here. We interpret the ranchland, interpret the history, the native American History. Basically our hope is to give people a view of why this area is important and why it deserves being preserved and seen by people from all over the world. Britain comes to the mountains in 1910 when he comes hunting. Thats when he decided he would own a ranch here, which he makes good on in 1923. The purchase of the ranch serves as the impetus for his collection. The ranch becomes his repository. The five works that you see of by the time he is through collecting he dies rather prematurely. He has 156 works of art here. The britton museum owns important pieces of western art. Of two only versions. Mostin blackandwhite as of his illustrations are. He could collect some great paintings in the blackandwhite realm because they were illustrations. Bradford is very well educated, hes a graduate of the school of engineering. She never marries. He needs the ranch to helen with the idea that upon her death she is supposed to open it to the public. He understood he was living the way most americans thought he would. We are here to honor the planes the brittonch is exhibition of native american plane material. Its really a testament to the importance of the gallatins family. Patron ofins are the the people. Over the course of 30 years it is adopted in the tribe and eventually made an honorary promedicine woman. The family benefits by receiving reallyss pieces of important proart. These elaborate headdresses are. Ery important and spiritual those are not things that would be given to anybody, though it shows the reverence the tribe. Eld it heightens that period of art within the tribe. You can see the owner has decorated it with important war deeds. This shirt made in the 18 roadies, early 1830s is collected in 1865 by a British Army Officer and finds its way back to america. We were fortunate enough to be able to acquire it at that point. Our focus is to be able to come here and see different aspects of various plains tribes. All being very important to that whole cultural part of the history, the 1860s back to the 1760s. Thats the story we are telling in this exhibition. Also they are integral in introducing bradford to bill. Probably the most important cowboy artist in that area because he actually was a cowboy. He worked on ranches throughout california and mexico, participated in massive cattle drives. He becomes good friends with britton. We are now in the brinton house. This was the main thing to see here. The house dates back to 1892, William Moncrief and his brother malcolm built the house. William lives here with his wife until 1910 when he sells part of the ranch to the gallatin family. In 1923 brinton buys the house. When heem remodeled it in 1927, it is just a i a very ideal home for a country gentleman. This was the repository. This is where he came to relax and have a good time. Sheridan in those days was the heart of the dude ranch industry. There were lots of dude ranches and bradford had very good relations with those people. The history of this area is what gives rise to that marvelous museum. What we would like visitors to walk away from his a better picture of what the west was. It was more refined than anybody thought it ever was. Thats a part of history most people have no idea ever existed. The cspan cities tour is exploring the american story. Join us the first and third weekend of each month as we take book tv and American History tv on the road to watch videos from any of the places we have been, go to cspan. Org cities tour. Follow us on twitter. Up next, we continue our look at Sheridan Wyoming as we visit a horseshoe maker. As you drive around you can see the culture is western based. We dont have many people. We have more horses than people in wyoming. I farrier is going to play anywhere he horses. They keep these sources motivated and moving forward. Without a qualified farrier problems,ng to have you are knocking to be able to compete. I had about 16 head of horses we were training here. We spent a lot of money with local farriers. Until about this college program. Go all the way a year and a half. Mine was a 15 week course out of sheridan. Heavy andode around started getting my own client sources and slowly over the years have created a clientele times e i am full fulltime supporting my place here. I think a lot of people are trying to reinvent the wheel. I have books that show you from 1900s,0s to the early the only thing weve changed is we have a process to make nicer tools. We are still using the same method. That anvil is 200 years old. Nothing has changed. You can reinvent wheel but you have to go back to the basics. When you are hand making the shoes, you shoot for two hours. Five inyou are about the fire. Go to the foot, one time to in,k, second time to burn third time for a final burn. Farriers, we of are losing that horsemanship. Learning to get along with them is a good living term. Learning to not get in a fight with them. If you get in a fight with a horse, it weighs 900 pounds for the new, and may be a long day and you may not get up well in huge at day he had part of the culture. A farrier plays it can travel right. Our look at sheridan continues as we visit the historic site, home of john b who served from 1917 through 1933. John kendrick really embodies that. He started out with very little education and a lot of intelligence, trail and was the home of the kendricks. Feet almost 14,000 square and has 10 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, Running Water, electricity, and a central vacuuming system. Wasprice to build it 164,000. In 1911 you could buy a three bedroom house with Running Water for 3000. John kendrick came to wyoming as the penniless cowboy on a cattle drive. Through a rags to riches stories he became a cattle baron and three term United States senator. In 1857 andin texas was orphaned at an early age. His first real job was 15. By the time he was 22 he signed on for a cattle drive. He was supposed to help 3000 the gulfattles from of mexico of the texas trail. He made the cattle drive again. He eventually stayed in wyoming. He was performing for ranching outfits. At this time he started purchasing his own head of. Attle he turned out to be really successful in both managing the herd and the finances. Superintendent. These holdings ended up becoming the basis for his own kendrick cattle company. He went on to own 10 ranches. The main ranch was located in montana, but sheridan was still the closest town. He ended up building his dream home in sheridan. Walls are paneled with golden oak. The bookcases are all enclosed with glass doors. He declined at that time, instead preferring to focus on his ranching. He was elected from Sheridan County to be a wyoming state senator for a two year term. Second, to become governor in wyoming. He was known for working with the Republican Legislature and getting along with his opponents. Legislationto sign providing workmens compensation, other pension acts. He was wellliked. He was elected as the United States senator even though he didnt run area by 1916 under visual states were allowed to elect their United States senator by popular vote. Mr. Kendrick and his eventual opponent were both asked to run for u. S. Senator and they both declined. People didnt care because they nominated both of them in a write in campaign. He won the election by 3000 votes against senator clark, who had been a 22 year veteran of the United States senate. His very first duty was to sign the declaration of war against germany in 1917. This was a heavy personal decision for him. If the war continued long enough, which ultimately it did not, he had a teenage son who was old enough to register for the draft. He did sign the declaration and went on a Factfinding Mission with several politicians to the front lines of europe. Talkeports they sent back about funding and staffing needs. This becomes very evident with his involvement in a scandal. President harding transferred supervision from the u. S. Naval oil reserve to the department of the interior. And the secretary of the interior decided to grant grant exclusive drilling rights to companies. Sinclair with the Sinclair Oil Company was granted that exclusive price. Trucksslie miller saw with the sinclair oil logo in became suspicious. Intoor kendrick introduced an open investigation on this. Senator kendricks primary areas of interest as a senator were landuse, irrigation and conservation of natural resources. In 1928 the mountains and lakes north of jackson, wyoming were being threatened by commercialization and overuse. In 1929 president Calvin Coolidge signed an executive order. He also was instrumental in the creation of several dams. Project because having in a windy area access to stored water. The irrigation brought to farmers and ranchers, allow them to not only produce clop produce crops, but also raise feed for their livestock. Refer to it as the kendrick project. Kendrick was elected to the senate in 1916 we had he served until he passed away in 1933. He served for almost three full terms. Helping with these dams that in effect ranchers even today, it lasts it leaves a lasting legacy. The cspans cities tour of sheridan, wyoming continues. We visit the Sheridan County museum to hear about the impact home i had on the area. The history of coal has its start in the path of wyoming and sheridan as a whole. Times most people might not realize this, wyoming either tropical to subtropical regions. At one time we were actually an ocean. Into theat factored deposits of fossil fuels within the state, whether they be natural gas, oil, coal. For history sets the stage modernday sheridan. Some of the first croppings of coal are discovered here on private lands. The land owners have really , thevered things were seams were open on surface levels. They cannot only mine the coal for personal usage, they also began the business of taking that coal and they would offered for delivery to sheridan. Residents in mine as much as they can carry back with them to town. That went on for quite a while until the Burlington Northern arrived. It was at that point sheridan experiences and economic boom. Coal was one of the dominating factors of that boom because burlington wanted the coal not only for their trains, they wanted to be able to ship it to their eastern markets. The next year in 1893 is when we camp, see the first coal which would transition to a town. Was the community founded by several businesses of the sheridan community. Its important to realize that mining was one of the most dangerous jobs in the american west. Wyoming miming mining would see several catastrophes. Of theth the dangers acrosswe had immigrants europe and even japan moved to Sheridan County to participate. Formation of monarch have clean 1904 we burn come out, which will be named kearney ville. Akron, wyoming is brought into existence as well. The story of mining is important to the history of Sheridan County. One of the ways we aim to tell is through two dioramas. Is a monarch during a period in time when the monarchy is experiencing great growth. The other is a view of the mountainside and shows various operations that went into the. Ining process before things transitioned into stripmining. Today, of all the mining communities here, wyoming and are acme and monarch have the remains of what was that her. What was there. With thewith the dioramas, theye an opportunity to see at one point in time monarch was a thriving community. Things we identify as being a necessity for community survival. Werese these communities companyowned they were at the mercy of company finances. It provides opportunity not only to see monarch thriving, but we do have people come into the museum and they remember growing up in monarch. Several factors went into the decline of coal. Stripminingwas that became more popular, requires less manpower. They started to lose Financial Resources due to a number of factors. In 1910 they suffered a catastrophic fire within the productionhampered for a significant amount of time. A financialso crisis on a state level and on a national level. Coal is needed for the war effort. Mostt the end of the war of the mines closed. Wasnt until september 1 of 1953 that monarch the Sheridan Coal Company that they hadents until that september to essentially get out. We do try to show the cultural aspects of these communities. They were may not only to be temporary institutions. Each community had a band and everyone played the instrument they were comfortable with, but they were able to Work Together. We do try to provide visitors with an opportunity to understand the legacy of coal on a archer scale than what they are used to. Have a greater understanding of the impact and stories within coal from not only the immigration standpoint, but the industrial and economic might it has provided the county. The cspans cities tour concludes his look at sheridan, wyoming as they were presented in the wyoming state legislature talks about the economy and infrastructure of the area. Encompassesdistrict the western half of Sheridan County, all the way to the montana border. We have a little bit of everything. There is a bluecollar neighborhood in my district. A lot of miners live in my district. How would you describe to someone living in a different state some of the things you are concerned about regarding this . The concerns i share are similar to people throughout the county and the state. Have goodensure we quality highpaying jobs for the next generation . One of the things i was reading about was people concerned in the state is the economy. Can you describe for us what it is they are concerned about and what is going away that needs to be replaced . Have beenlarge they good to us for many years. There are some other ones as well. Those of the other ones that bills fory paid the the last 50 years. Right now coals best days are behind us. We are trying to figure out how do we adapt as a county, as a state, as a community and be prepared for the Economic Future that we all want. Just last week 700 minors were laid off. There are a couple of different factors that have come to hurt the coal industry. They were pretty heavyhanded regulation out of the previous administration. The biggest driver is probably natural gas. Ands incredibly plentiful at a cheap price. Its a really cheap and viable alternative. You are trying to produce baseload or peak load. How we adapt as one of the big askingns we are ourselves and our legislature. They go to where the jobs are. I certainly dont blame them. I think one of the things sheridan has going for it is we are a relatively diversified economy. Great outfits here. Weve got these Light Manufacturing companies contributing in a big way to the local economy. Big game migration corridor, describe for audiences why migration is an issue and how does it affect lake infrastructure. We are also concerned about things like the environment and making sure we have this beautiful place for generations to come. A lot of average folks really care about having a healthy environment they can hunt and fish and all other stuff. We have all sorts of different species. Vehicle collisions are a big problem. Thats just from vehicle collisions. A big safety concern. Things effective to that is building these mitigation sites, whether its backderpass or overpass down to the feeding grounds during the winter season, building the structure is a huge impact. Expensive, which is kind of the thing. They are very expensive to build. We want to have a large swath of continuous habitat dear. I know lots of people across the see aities, they want to great outcome as well. Our cities tour staff recently traveled to sheridan, wyoming to learn about its rich history. To watch other stops on our tour, visit cspan. Org cities tour. You are watching American History tv all weekend every weekend on cspan3. Tv, on American History historian Michael Newton talks about his book, new discoveries in the live about alexander hamilton, his family, friends and colleagues from various archives around the world. The museum hosted this event