Year: 2020

South Pass City

South Pass City

by Justin Durand

Another Wyoming video. This is drone footage of South Pass City, one my favorite places.

It’s a ghost town on the old Oregon Trail. I lived here in a past life.

When I was a teenage boy in Grand Junction I had some very vivid dreams about dying here as a teenage boy in the late 1800s. I had no idea where it was, just that it was an Old West town.

Then, as an adult I visited here for the first time. Say, about 1992 or 1993. We were driving around, taking in the sights on impulse. I don’t remember exactly but I’d guess we had been to Farson and were headed to Lander. We lived in Farson when I was little and sometimes went shopping in Lander. It would have been a nostalgia leg of the trip.

As soon as we pulled into town, I knew it, knew it without being told, the buildings, the roads. I walked around in a daze, feeling caught between two worlds. I saw the hill that had the shack where I was staying in that other life, and the hill where I tumbled to my death because I was too feverish to be careful. A stupid accident.

Then, as my 20th century visit wore on, the other world began to fade. We spent the afternoon there. I think I had the experience only because I came upon it unexpectedly. My mind wasn’t ready for it at first, but when it had the chance to experience the physical reality, it adjusted.

I’d like to go back again, even though it wouldn’t be the same.

Eden Bar

Eden Bar

by Justin Durand

Here’s a very short video of the exterior of the Eden Bar in Farson, Wyoming.

I must have driven by it a million times as a kid and a dozen times as an adult. It never stood out for me. I wouldn’t have thought I ever noticed it. I wouldn’t have thought of it without some kind of prompt. I never lived in Farson-Eden as an adult.

But as soon as I saw the video I knew exactly where and what it was.

I’m linking it here purely for nostalgia.

Farson Dig 1940

Farson Dig 1940

by Justin Durand

I don’t think I knew the Eden Point was named after Eden, Wyoming. I wondered, of course. My mom knew, though. Of course she did. She grew up at Farson.

Here’s a video clip from a 1940/41 archaeological dig at Farson. The Pennsylvania Museum (University of Pennsylvania) conducted the dig at a site they named the Finley Site.

The Finley Site is an old paleo-Indian bison kill site, where arrowheads had been found on the surface. The site dates from ~9 thousand years ago. It’s now associated with the Cody Cultural Complex, Archaeologists found a type of point that had been found elsewhere, but never before in situ. They named that style “Eden Point“. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010, long after we all moved away.

There’s also a “related” site, the Farson-Eden Site. It was an American Indian camp site with 12 lodges and large collection of antelope bones. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

Most of the video from the Finley Site is field footage, no sound on any of it. I’m focused on the two little local history pieces. The video shows a road sign at 03:33 and a brief shot of Farson Mercantile at 11:53. That sign was just across Highway 191 from the store.

The shot list for the video shows:

  • Fieldwork, dusting of samples. Linton Satterthwaite and Edgar B. Howard.
  • The arrow points from a buffalo kill site, known as Eden Points.
  • Mrs Charles Bache also assisting
  • Sifting artifacts from dirt
  • Surveying landscape
  • Directional Sign with arrows: Eden Rock Springs, Pinedale, Jackson, Yellowstone. Mrs. Bache pointing to Rock Springs.
  • Seated near the buffalo bones
  • Hammering in a post for a shelter
  • Sun/shade shelter next to buffalo bones find.
  • Survey of the land
  • Sifting materials Gathering materials in a tarp
  • Breaking clods. General field activities.
  • Picking up one of the points, extreme close up
  • A visit to town, likely Farson.

I think I would change that last line to “A visit to the Farson Mercantile.” I wrote to them about. We’ll see what they say.

  • Penn Museum, Digging at Farson, Wyoming, YouTube.com, Dec. 5, 2012, retrieved Aug. 16, 2020. “Partially edited footage of the Finley Expedition; Farson Wyoming, Film made possibly by Charles Bache.” Another copy of the video is hosted at Pennsylvania Museum.
Before Wyoming

Before Wyoming

by Justin Durand

Very interesting article about pre-settler Wyoming. I wonder, briefly, whether the author might be related to the Justin Nickerson who went to school with my mother in Farson, Wyoming.

I found this one because I was searching for information about American Indian place names in Wyoming. Specifically, I was wandering off on a tangent after reading that there has been no progress on the Oglala request to rename Devil’s Tower, Wyoming to Bear Lodge (Mahto Teepee). This site says “The proposal was blocked by Wyoming’s congressional delegation until 2021.” I hadn’t heard that, but it’s easy to believe.

There’s a map here I found very helpful for other reasons. Searches like this are fun because they uncover new and interesting information you wouldn’t think to look for.

Here’s the perennial reminder that my mother’s family is from an area known as the Red Desert (Ay ga Vahsah Soegoep, Red Desert Dirt, in Shoshoni).

And a reminder that my father’s Lakota name, Wind River Eagle, might not capture the Lakota name of that place (Beeyah Ohgway, Big River, in Shoshoni; Huchaashe, Wind River, in Crow; Hote’niicie, Sheep River, in Arapahoe).

Another map on the same page shows a good and detailed overview of the many pioneer trails that criss-crossed Wyoming.

Go. Look. You’ll find something to like here.

Tomten

Tomten

by Justin Durand ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

In the novel American Gods, Neil Gaiman quotes Richard Dorson:

“One question that has always intrigued me is what happens to demonic beings when immigrants move from their homelands. Irish-Americans remember the fairies, Norwegian-Americans the nisser, Greeek-Americans the vrykólakas, but only in relation to events remembered in the Old County: When I once asked why such demons are not seen in America, my informants giggled confusedly and said ‘They’re too scared to pass the ocean, it’s too far,’ pointing out that Christ and the apostles never came to America.” (“A Theory for American Folklore,” American Folklore and the Historian (University of Chicago Press, 1971)

This, of course, is the premise of the novel, that the old gods did in fact come to America, for interesting reasons and with interesting consequences.

Leaving aside, for now, the problem that Mormons believe Christ did come to America, so that doesn’t work well for everyone, I also trip over the idea the fairies and nisser are “demons”. Otherworldly, yes, but surely not demons.

The piece that really stands out for me is the idea our non-human friends didn’t come with us to America. The nisser are the Norwegian equivalent of our Swedish tomten (“house elves”). I don’t know about other families but our tomte came to America in my great grandparents steamer trunk. My mother told me so. Why would he not come? That’s just silly talk.