Thursday, May 13, 2010

William F. Cody was born to Issac and Mary on February 26, 1846 in Scott County, Iowa into a family with 2 older sister and 1 older brother. Eventually, he had 3 younger sisters and 1 younger brother. When he was 5 years old he teased a dozen older boys by pretending to drop a 5 franc silver piece into the river. All of the older boys were digging all around to find it. When his mother heard about it, she came to the river with a switch to beat him because that was her silver piece and it was a lot of money then. He said,"Aw Ma. It ain't lost. Here it is. I was just learnin' 'em how to dig for gold in California." When he was 9 years old his Dad died and he left school for work. He worked as a bullwhacker, mounted messenger for Russell, Majors and Waddell. At 12 he made his first trip on a wagon train to Ft. Laramie, Wyoming. The California Gold Rush was in 1859; but by the time he was old enough to go, it was too late. So he started trapping beaver and small fur animals. In 1865 he courted Loiusa Frederici in St Louis and they married in March, 1866, moved to his boyhood Kansas home. Then he joined the Army.
By 1868 he had become a skilled hunter and was paid $500 a month to supply the Kansas Pacific Railroad with meat. He became a scout for the Army from 1868- 1872 and then again 1874- 1876. Cody was credited with the victory of the Summit Springs War of 1869 and in 1872 received the Congressional Medal of Honor. On 7/17/1876, less than a month before Custer was killed at Little Bighorn, Cody killed "Yellowhair", the Indian chief, and took his scalp for Custer at Warbonnet Creek.
An author, Ned Buntline wrote stories about Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack and published them under the Beadle Dime Novels, called Buffalo Bill, King of the Bordermen. They kept the frontier safe for people. He also printed them as a series in the newspapers; therefore everybody was able to read them. Then he decided to put them all in a show in Chicago, which was a huge success. Buffalo Bill (W. F. Cody), Texas Jack (JB Omohundro) and Wild Bill Hickok (James Butler Hickok) were all Army Scouts together. These guys were considered the ultimate cowboys. Therefore, the Buffalo Bill and the Wild, Wild West Show was started. They traveled all over the world presenting this show.
Louisa and Cody had a daughter, Arta on 12/16/1866; only son, Kit Carson, in 1870- but he dies 4/20/1876; a daughter, Orra in 1872; daughter Irma Louise on 2/9/1883. That same year they lost Orra on 10/24/1883. In 1904 Arta dies. Buffalo Bill Cody died on 1/10/1917 in Denver and is buried on Look Out Mountain. Louisa Cody died in Cody in 1921. Irma and her husband die of the flu in 1918.
The first horses and cattle were brought to Mexico by the Spanish 350 years before the 1860s. Therefore, the cowboy gear is of Mexican origin. The cattle raising began in the US in the 1860s in Texas and California. By 1870 it had spread to Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Due to the mining and the end of the Indian wars the open range was ended for cattle. The cowboys were men who couldn't get any other jobs. They were usually blacks, ex-Confederate soldiers or youngsters. The job was a lonely, low paying and dangerous occupation.
In the Bighorn Mountains the rocks are in all upset layers, unlike most other mountain ranges. It encompasses several eras: Pennsylvanian, Cambian, Triassimic Permian, Mississippian. You can also see where a tornado hit here on the south rim of the canyon in June, 1959. They lsot most of the Douglas fir trees and it reshaped the mountain. The rest of the trees died between 2002- 2006 due to the fir beetle. In the Dolomite era is the Shell Creek. The town of Shell has a population of 50 people.In this alpine area there is granite ( igneous rock), gneiss and schist which are metamorphic rocks. Also the glaciers left scratches on the light gray pavement rocks- now called glacial pavement rocks. The Indians would collect obsidian here for projectiles.
This area is called an Alpine Cirque- an ampitheatre shaped basin with a glacially carved valley at its head. It is the perfect hideaway for the mountain goats and Rocky Mountian Bighorn Sheep. They have horns which are permanent on both males and females, made of keratin like our fingernails and hair,use the horns as weapons and the horns have a bone structure ubder it. Horns are not branched and are slow to grow. Antlers, which are seen on elk, moose and deer, are shed annually, are only present on the males, grow quickly,, are made of bone and calcium deposits. Antlers are covered in a velvetlike tissue with blood vessels in it while it's growing. They are branched and used to display dominance during breeding season. The mountain goats eat grasses and sedges, have humans, golden eagles, cougars as predators. They are not original to Yellowstone, but were introduced to provide hunters a sport. Their hooves have elastic pads on the bottom to help them grasp the sides of the mountain.
The Bighorn Sheep are very similar; they have a flexible cup shaped hooves. The adult Bighorn Sheep weigh 300 pounds. They fight with each other by butting heads during mating season. Their heads are broad and flat and have air filled chambers that absorb the blows Any other animal would be killed if they tried this.
In this Alpine Environment also lives the Yellow-bellied Marmot or rock chucks. They eat grass and have to fear the golden eagle, red hawk, red fox and Americam martin. They live in rock dens and hibernate. They are known to carry the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever tick. They need to eat copious amounts during the very short summer to hibernate for 7 months. The Pika eats grass; but they don't hibernate. They harvest stems and leaves by laying them out to dry among the rocks. They buiuld "haystacks" of these as food for the winter. Their predators are golden eagles, red hawk, red fox, and ermine. They are called rock rabbits.
The wolverines are the largest of the weasel family and can be very ferocious. They live in the Alpine and arctic tundra and northern forests. The Moose that live here are the Shiras, the smallest of the Moose in the world. They eat willow twigs and buds. They have a long snout with prehensile lips and a long tongue that can grasp the most nutritious and tasty parts.
The lichens that grow here are really 2 organisms in 1 body- a fungus and an alga. The fungus provides structure and protection from the elements for the algas that use sunlight to make sugar for food. These lichens are yellow or orange and are on the rocks in a haphazard pattern. The strong winds here dry out the soil on the mountain tops; therefore the soil is poor, dry and thin and trees will not grow. "Krummholz" a German word meaning crooked wood describes the timber line here. Global warming could reduce the area of alpine environment and the animals that survive only here.
The Mountain Forest Environment is the next one. It is between 6000 and 10,000 feet. The Green River begins at the slopes of the Gannett Peak at 13,804" goes thru the Wind River Range of Wyoming and meanders thru southwest Wyoming to the Colorado River south of Moab, Utah (Canyonlands National Park) which is 730 miles long. It drains 45,000 square miles of the Colorado River watershed and ends up in the Sea of Cortez. It is called the Green River because the green soapstone rocks along its banks makes it look green. The wolves live here in dens on a hillside at the edge of the forests. They mate in February, make a den in April and the pups are born in May. They stay close to the den till they are 1 year old. Wolves prey on all hooved animals; especially those that are sick, hurt, old, weak and young because they are the easiest. It takes a pack to raise a pup. The whole den helps out with their rearing.
The Yellowstone River is the last and largest pristine river which is undammed in the lower 48 states. It is used for irrigation and is a premier trout habitat. It starts in the Absaroke Mountains flows to the Yellowstone Lake, thru the Hayden Valley, over the Upper and Lower Falls, into the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone then 671 miles to the Missouri River.
The Mountain Meadow and Aquatic Environment is above 6000'. They are treeless between the foothills and the alpines. The soils are too wet, too dry or too shallow for trees. Moose are found here. They can run 35 mph and are good swimmers. If they go into the river the wolves chasing them usually give up the chase. The Moose was introduced into Yellowstone in the late 1800s. Beavers live here also. In 1 night a beaver can fell a 3"-4" diameter tree, cut it into logs and carry it away to the water. Grizzly bears can be spotted here. There were 50,000 grizzlies here 200 years ago. In 1975 there were less than 1000 with only 200 in Yellowstone.
Human settlements, uncontrolled hunting and trapping have almost made them extinct.
The Snake River is part of the Plains and Basins Environment. It is the 4th largest river in the US. It begins on 2 Ocean Plateau, south of Yellowstone, and flows 1000 miles downstream to the Columbia River which flows to the Pacific Ocean. The Plains are between the Central Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains, east of the Absaroke Mountains and the Wind River Range Mountains. The plants must have deep tap roots to reach the underground water to survive. The animals that live here also use little water. The people that live in these lowlands have farms and ranches with irrigation or dig for coal and oil. This area receives less than 10" of precipitation a year. The plants are small above the ground with tiny leaves to reduce heat absorption and water loss. Sagebrush, greasewood and saltbrush are examples of this. The sage grouse bird lives here and eats the sagebrush. They build their nests under them and use them to hide from predators and bad weather. But this sagebrush steppe is slowly disappearing because of humans, farming,alien weeds, oil and gas production, livestock. There is a delicate balance here. If the wildfires are too often, the sagebrush can't become established. If the cheatgrass (an alien weed) grows and takes over, it becomes dry and encourages fires. If the wildfires are suppressed too long, the sagebrush becomes too dense and that isn't good for the animals.
The mule deer have ears that are 25% larger than the white-tailed deer. The white-tailed deer live in forests. The mule deer live in the wide open plains. Their ears funnel and gather the sounds in the wide open spaces so they can hear a predator approaching. Salt cedar is an alien plant that is growing in these plains because people brought them here in the late 1800s to look pretty. They are crowding out the native plants and they hog all of the water. Their roots go deep and dry up the creeks and underground water. They have started a program to get rid of these non-native plants.