30 THE CA.UtID UB ON OB Ui DE Tain 
Ranch and worked as hard as we could all summer. And now we have 
our long-hoped-for, long-talked-of ranch of our own. It’s up in the 
world, at an altitude of 7700 feet. It’s on a slope of the Wind River. 
Range, very close to the point where that range wedges into the Ab- 
sorakas. In fact, from our very cabin one can see in one direction the 
gentle, heavily timbered slopes of the Wind River Mts.; and as close 
in the other direction the high, violet, Matterhorn-like crags charac- 
teristic of the Absorakas. Our land lies open to the south and pro- 
tected in all other directions by high slopes. It’s a fairly level tract 
of bottomland and terrace, right at the upper limit of sagebrush, 
where it gives way to timber. The cabins are on a small sage flat, 
with trees around and above them. The colors are lovely this fall. 
The near hillside is a tapestry, with russet willows and crimson 
birches in the bottoms, alternating with yellow hay land; then gray 
and violet sage a little higher up; then a wide band of somber lodge- 
pole brilliantly accented with yellow and orange aspen; and finally the 
crags at the top. 
We have lots of water. Upper Wind River winds from north to 
south through the bottomlands. From the west Lava Creek roars 
down off Lava Mountain, right past the cabins. As soon as we can 
get around to laying pipe, we will have lots of running water. The 
snows of winter are said to be heavy here. We are three miles above 
the winter “end of road”’ for cars. 
There are five good-sized beaver ponds on the place, with two 
large, inhabited houses. We have occasionally seen the beaver at 
work, though we don’t know how many there are. The ponds and 
connecting streams naturally support a typical marsh life. In the 
evening you can hear the ducks “talking” from the cabin. In the last 
few days I have seen Hooded Mergansers, Mallards, and Barrow’s 
Goldeneyes there. I hope next year to begin a systematic study of the 
wild life of those ponds. If you look up Lava Creek you can see, not 
four miles away, the high slide rock at the Continental Divide, where 
the conies live. We hear also rumors of mountain sheep. In between 
the divide and here is a wide stretch of rather heavy forest, where 
deer, elk, moose, and bear are found. This particular stretch is game 
preserve, and not officially hunted. Moose are said to winter in consid- 
erable numbers (three or four together at the same time being appar- 
ently a “considerable number’’) in the willow thickets of our bottom- 
land. 
This is quite a ways off the beaten track, at least in winter. A 
main highway to Yellowstone Park, U. S. 287, runs along the eastern 
edge of the place; but it’s not kept open in winter. We’re 104 miles 
from Riverton, on the Northwestern Railroad. <A daily stage runs be- 
tween Riverton and Dubois, carrying the mail. We’re 22 miles above 
Dubois. The usual way of getting up is to drive to the Wind River 
Ranch, three miles down the highway, and make the rest of it on 
snowshoes, or with a team and sled. We are isolated but it is a world 
of fun and we have the leisure to study and paint, as we have long de- 
sired. 
