MS 201 - Oral History Collection, 1998-2012 | McCracken Research Library

By Nathan Bender, 2005.  Updated by Samantha L. Harper, 2018.

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Collection Overview

Abstract

Biographical Note

Administrative Information

Box and Folder Listing

Box 1

Folder 1: Interview #1 - H. Peter Kriendler, June 23, 1998

Folder 2: Interview #2 - Harold "Pryor Mountain Bill" Newton, April 27, 2000

TOPIC: Personal and family history of Harold Newton, his life up the North Fork of the Shoshone River near Wapiti where he ran the Rivers Rest guest ranch, and discussion of his work with muzzle-loading firearms and sports cars.

Folder 3: Interview #3 - Maxwell H. Frost, April 20, 2000

TOPIC: Personal and family history of Mack Frost, growing up in Cody in the 1960s and learning photography, North Fork of the Shoshone River, and Yellowstone National Park.

Folder 4: Interview #4 - Oscar Thompson, December 11, 2000

TOPIC: Personal and family history of Oscar and Jane Thompson of Clark, Wyoming.  Two Dot Ranch, growing up on ranches and cowboying for a living, father in Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show, horses, dude ranching, hunting and guiding hunts, trapping, cattle and sheep, early schools in Crandall and Sunlight Basin, dogs, coyotes, Switch Back Ranch, Red Lodge, Montana, World War II and the Heart Mountain Internment Camp, Clark, Wyoming, and the wind and windstorms.

Folder 5: Interview #5 - Ernest J. Goppert, Jr., December 15, 2000

TOPIC: Personal and family history of Ernest J. Goppert, Jr., history of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Buffalo Bill Museum, Whitney Gallery of Western Art, Cody Firearms Museum, Plains Indian Museum, Harold McCracken, bolo ties, World War II, Masons, growing up in Cody, and the Anson Eddy legal case.

Folder 6: Interview #6 - Margot & Calvin Todd, January 3, 2001; December 8, 2003

TOPIC: Pitchfork Ranch, Otto Frank, Louis G. Phelps, trip to Russia in 1909, early schooling, Julia Child, cowboying in Meeteetse, Z-T, electrification, Morgan horses, wild horses, controlling hunting on the ranch, protection of antelope.

Folder 7: Interview #7 - Ada Greever, February 1989

TOPIC:  Early city of Cody history from 1899 on, wedding of her sister to A. Walter Schwoob, Buffalo Bill Cody, a two week trip to Yellowstone National Park in 1910, moved to Cody in 1919, early Buffalo Bill Museum history, Beck family, attempt at an artist colony with Frank Tenney Johnson, Hans Rice, Sara Cook, Stan Kershaw, Ed Grebler, and others, Wolfville, Adolph Spohr, Cody schools, a Cody Women’s Club, poker game used to start first chuch in Cody, Director’s Club/Green Front Club, Gov. Beck.

Folder 8: Interview #8 - Frances Purvis, April 22, 1992

Park County Historical Society tape.

Box 2

Folder 9: Interview #9 - Restricted Interview

Contents Closed until 2026.

Box 3

Folder 10: Interview #10 - Joseph Medicine Crow, July 26, 1996

TOPIC:  Joseph Henry Sharp cabin, White Man Runs Him, White Swan art controversy, Big Medicine, Plenty Coup, Crow and Shoshone sun dances, Julia Sun Goes Slow, 1996 Olympic games visit, Dewey Beers.

Folder 11: Interview #11 - Thomas Medicine Horse, Sr., August 1996

TOPIC: Crow Fair, Joseph Henry Sharp cabin, White Swan, Strikes His Enemy Pretty,  Big Medicine, Two Leggings, Henry Small, canvas tipis, Sun Goes Slow.

Folder 12: Interview #12 - Bill DeMaris, September 13, 1983

Park County Historical Society tape.

Folder 13: Interview #13 - Juanita Willcutt, November 9, 1988

TOPIC: Working Cattle

Folder 14: Interview #14 - Don Snyder

Park County Historical Society tape.

Folder 15: Interview #15 - Ivan Rosequist/ Joe Sunhawk, March 2, 1980

TOPIC: Taos, New Mexico.    J.H. Sharp book.

Folder 16: Interview #16 - Harry Webb/ John Downing, March 26, 1996

Folder 17: Interview #17 - Jack Richard, November 10, 1962

TOPIC: Yellowstone National Park and elk.

Box 4

Folder 18: Interview #18 - Lucille Nichols Patrick, July 24, 2001

TOPIC:  Family stories and Southfork/Cody local history, including information on her father James Calvin Nichols “The Candy Kid,” and some discussion of her writings and artwork.

Folder 19: Interview #19 - Ruby Davies, August 16, 2001

TOPIC: Southfork/Cody local history.

Folder 20: Interview #20 - Catherine Buckingham, August 17, 2001

TOPIC:  Family history and husband’s friendship with William F. Cody, sugar beet farming, Hart Mountain Hotel, dating and social functions, the Cody Enterprise newspaper fire, and other Cody local history.

Folder 21: Interview #21 - Charles Kepler, September 25, 2001

TOPIC:  Early life with a focus on his education at University of Wyoming, teaching, Husky Oil, and experiences with Glenn Neilson, Milward and Alan Simpson, his law partners.  History of the BBHC and the Coe and Weiss families. Insight into the investment and commitment to Cody from these early residents.

Folder 22: Interview #22 - Lloyd Taggart, September 26, 2001

TOPIC:  Family life and history, Taggart construction work in Cody and in the greater west.  Reminiscences about Molesworth, Eggenhoffer, Davich, and other Cody artists and authors.  Emphasis on his book and art collecting experiences, McCracken Research Library history, and stories about Paul “Rocky” Stock.

Folder 23: Interview #23 - Patterson "Pat" Keller, September 26, 2001

TOPIC: Retired Rector of Christ Episcopal Church, and son of Charlie Russell’s priest in Great Falls, Montana.  Experiences as a Rector and church members, and stories of Charlie Russell.

Folder 24: Interview #24 - David Smith, September 27, 2001

TOPIC:  Retired Cody schoolteacher and Southfork rancher.  Cody history from 1929, including memories of semi-pro baseball team.  Stories of school life and ranch life.

Folder 25: Interview #25 - Beulah Wagner, September 27, 2001

TOPIC:  Retired Cody schoolteacher.  Cody history back to 1952, her husband Stu was an engineer at Husky Oil, and remembers Glenn Nielson.  Recalls school life and church life (Episcopal) where she ran Sunday School classes.  Milward Simpson and Hat McGee were friends.

Box 5

Folder 26: Interview #26 - Montana Lowry, September 30, 2001

TOPIC:  Family history, and life in Lovell, Wyoming in the 1920s-1930s, in the Panama Canal Zone, and in Cody from c. 1970 to the present.

Folder 27: Interview #27 - Anne Williams, September 30, 2001

TOPIC: Widow of Ernest Williams, Rector at Christ Church in the 1950s-1960s.  Memories of life in Cody and talks about social issues, including the John Birch Society and its impact.  Family history.  Beulah Wagner also participates in the discussion.

Folder 28: Interview #28 - Eva Pfrangle, October 1, 2001

TOPIC: Retired nurse, born in Cody.  Tells of growing up in Cody and Park County during World War I, the 1920s and the Great Depression.  Ranch life on the Southfork, where she met Buffalo Bill Cody, for whom her parents worked.  Family history.

Folder 29: Interview #29 - Mary Duggleby, October 2, 2001

TOPIC:  Early family life on a homestead on the Wood River near the Pitchfork Ranch in 1917.  Lived in Powell in the 1920s to the mid-1930s.  Worked for the Indian Claim Service.  Cody life from the 1950s on, when her husband was an airplane pilot for Husky Oil.

Folder 30: Interview #30 - Faye Snyder, October 4, 2001

TOPIC:  Fay Snyder lived and worked on the  Sunlight Ranch, a guest and cattle  ranch on the Chief Joseph Highway.  Her husband’s family operated the Snyder Ranch (now the Mesa Ranch) on the Southfork Road.  Most stories from 1930-1960s.

Folder 31: Interview #31 - Kay Siggins, October 10, 2001

TOPIC:  Schoolteacher.  Stayed at the Siggins Guest Ranch on the upper Southfork in the mid-1930s and married Ray Siggins.  Still living on this ranch.

Folder 32: Interview #32 - Ros Siggins, December 3, 2001

TOPIC:  Memories of guest ranching on the Siggins Guest Ranch on the upper Southfork.  Her husband Don Siggins is brother to Ray Siggins.  Don and Ros ran the guest ranch until 1984, when their children took over the business.

Folder 33: Interview #33 - James Nielson, December 3, 2001

TOPIC:  Memories of Cody from 1938.  Was a classmate of Alan Simpson in Cody and later also in college.  Family and community history.

Folder 34: Interview #34 - Robert V. Witter and Dan Witter, September 15, 2001

TOPIC:  A professional paleontologist, Witter talks of paleontology and archaeology in the Big Horn Basin and elsewhere in the West, assisted by his son Dan Witter.

Folder 35: Interview #35 - Irene Stonehouse, April 26, 2002

TOPIC:  Life of Mel Stonehouse, husband of Irene and grandfather of Taylor.  Mel was orphaned as a young boy, grew up to be one of the best rodeo cowboys in the nation.

Folder 36: Interview #36 - Boy Scout Troop 333: Heart Mountain Relocation Center, August 26, 2002

TOPIC: Seven persons from the WWII Boy Scout Troop 333, Heart Mountain Relocation Center talk about their life as boys in the internment camp and about Boy Scouting.

Box 6

Folder 37: Interview #37 - Russell Waterman Crane, Jr. and Loch Crane, September 14, 2002

TOPIC:  Brothers interviewed about their childhood in Meeteetsee.  Their father homesteaded on land adjacent to the Phelps Ranch (Pitchfork Ranch?).  Family moved to Cody, and descriptions of their home near Beck Lake are given, and of going to public school in Cody.  A big moment in Russell’s life was being one of two children to open the curtain on the Robert Lindneux painting of “ Buffalo Bill’s Duel with Hay-O-Wei in July, 1876.”  Loch Crane also talks about sailing at San Diego, and building sail boats for paralyzed persons after his retirement as an architect.  He studied architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright.

Folder 38: Interview #38 - Ursula Kepler, October 22, 2002

TOPIC:  The life of Ursula Kepler.  Active in riflery in Jr. High and High School.  Talks about horses, dancing, her nursing career, work as a teacher for children as a Red Cross instructor, providing music, art, swimming classes, work with the Girl Scouts, her family life (info on her artist brother, Manewal), her travels around the world, and her poetry.

Folder 39: Interview #39 - Irma McGuire, April 8, 2003

TOPIC:  Growing up in rural Fremont County; farming on the Wind River Indian Reservation; ranching and outfitting.

Folder 40: Interview #40 - Gary Brown, April 15, 2003

TOPIC:  Career ranger who worked in the field and in administration in YNP.  Elk-trapping, tranquilizing and re-locating bears, fire management, Fires of ’88.

Folder 41: Interview #41 - Terry Danforth, April 16, 2003

TOPIC:  Career Yellowstone ranger who worked in many parts of the park.  Topics of discussion include fire management, horn-hunting and poaching on the north boundary and the introduction of snowmobiles to YNP.

Folder 42: Interview #42 - Larry Newell, September 16, 2003

TOPIC:  Lewis Lake Ranger with more than 30 years’ experience in Yellowstone National Park.  Topics include water rescues and drownings on Lewis and Shoshone Lakes, and the fires of ’88.

Folder 43: Interview #43 - Bill Rose, July 24, 2003

TOPIC: Personal account of relations with Crow nation.

Folder 44: Interview #44 - Robert Frisby, November 15-16, 2003

TOPIC: Wyoming state representative and senator for Park County.

Folder 45: Interview #45 - Dick Jones, December 17, 2003

TOPIC:  A son of Swedish immigrants, Dick Jones became involved in the trucking business during the Depression.  He eventually owned his own freight line operating out of Powell and had a political career as mayor of the city as well as state legislator.  He ran for governor but lost the election in 1974.  Dick Jones Trucking is still a family business.

Folder 46: Interview #46 - Gerald Ryder, January 24, 2004

TOPIC:  Retired Yellowstone National Park ranger.  Topics include growing up in Fromberg, Montana;  Prior Mountains; early years on Blister Rust Crews.

Folder 47: Interview #47 - Mary Rankin, August 13, 2004

TOPIC:  From 1937 to 1966, Mary Rankin was a personal secretary to Adele Von Ohl Parker.  Mrs. Parker had been a performer in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West before she settled in Ohio and opened the Parker Ranch, a riding school and day camp for children.  Mary Rankin emphasizes the larger-than-life personality of Adele and how the ranch revolved around her.

Box 7

Folder 48: Interview #48 - Irene Rimby, December 15, 2004; January 19, 2005

TOPIC:  Dust bowl days in the Dakotas; farming in Powell;  Pahaska Tepee.

Folder 49: Interview #49 - Jim Oudin, January 18, 2005

TOPIC:  Wyoming Game and Fish activities with game management in Sunlight Basin and Crandall, Wyoming.  Trapping, snowmobiles, elk, bighorn sheep.

Folder 50: Interview #50 - Ruth Moore, January 19, 2005

TOPIC:  Homesteading in Meeteetse; schooling in Powell.

Folder 51: Interview #51 - Gordon Legg, May 17, 2005

TOPIC: Ranching in the Big Horn Basin, northwestern Wyoming.

Folder 52: Interview #52 - Gretchen Bacon Chaddock, June 8, 2005

TOPIC: The life of Irving R. Bacon, western artist.  Gretchen is the daughter of the artist.

Folder 53: Interview #53 - Joe Medicine Crow, April 8, 2003

TOPIC: talking to a class of 4^th grade schoolchildren from Southside Elementary, Powell, Wyoming of Crow Nation stories about Heart Mountain.

Folder 54: Interview #54 - Grant Bulltail, April 8, 2003

TOPIC: talking to a class of 4^th grade schoolchildren from Southside Elementary, Powell, Wyoming of Crow Nation stories about Heart Mountain

Folder 55: Interview #55 - James Bama, July 20-21 & 27, 2005

TOPIC: July 20 and 21 topic is “Cowboy.”  July 27 topic is “Powwow.”

Folder 56: Interview #56 - Paul Phillips, July 11, 2005

Folder 57: Interview #57 - Martha Jensen Kinkade, February 20, 2006

Folder 58: Interview #58 - Peg (Margaret S.) Coe, February 28, 2006

Folder 59: Interview #59 - George Dabich, February 22, 2006

Folder 60: Interview #60 - Eddie Dvarishkis, February 24, 2006

Folder 61: Interview #61 - Joe Gautsch, March 3, 2006

Folder 62: Interview #62 - Glenn Ohrlin, April 7, 2006

Folder 63: Interview #63 - John Ray Shreve, April 7, 2006

Folder 64: Interview #64 - Duane Dickinson

Folder 65: Interview #65 - Joe Medicine Crow, February 27, 2006

Box 8

Folder 66: Interview #66 - Bill Boster, May 19, 2006

Folder 67: Interview #67 - Alan Mebane

Folder 68: Interview #68 - Mary Elizabeth Bever, August 24, 2006

Folder 69: Interview #69 - Paul Rodriguez, October 26, 2006

Folder 70: Interview #70 - Mary Louise Greever, October 27, 2006

Folder 71: Interview #71 - Curley Bear Wagner, January 16-17, 2007

Folder 72: Interview #72 - Kip Calahan, April 14, 2007

Folder 73: Interview #73 - Hal Cannon, April 15, 2007

Folder 74: Interview #74 - Bill Dean Chiles, April 13, 2007

Folder 75: Interview #75 - Connie Dover, April 15, 2007

Folder 76: Interview #76 - Skip Gorman, April 15, 2007

Folder 77: Interview #77 - Glenn (Ike) Hall, April 15, 2007

Folder 78: Interview #78 - Sid Hausman, April 11, 2007

Folder 79: Interview #79 - Stanton S. Howe, April 17, 2007

Folder 80: Interview #80 - Robert D. Lantis, April 13, 2007

Folder 81: Interview #81 - Liz Masterson, April 16, 2007

Folder 82: Interview #82 - Otto Rosfeld, April 11, 2007

Folder 83: Interview #83 - David Schildt, April 14, 2007

Folder 84: Interview #84 - Greg Scott, April 12, 2007

Folder 85: Interview #85 - David Wilkie, April 13, 2007

Cowboy Celtic

Folder 86: Interview #86 - Leslie Keltner, April 18, 2007

Folder 87: Interview #87 - Otto Madsen, May 9, 2006

Folder 88: Interview #88 - Lynne Chadwick, August 23, 2006

Folder 89: Interview #89 - Barbara Egan, March 13, 2008

Folder 90: Interview #90 - Nancy Stafford Shaw, April 4, 2008

Folder 91: Interview #91 - Patty Clayton, April 12, 2008

Folder 92: Interview #92 - Ray Doyle, April 11, 2008

Folder 93: Interview #93 - Rex Rideout, April 11, 2008

Folder 94: Interview #94 - Georgie Sicking, April 12, 2008

Folder 95: Interview #95 - Nancy Thowardson, April 13, 2008

Folder 96: Interview #96 - Laurie "V" Vigyikan, April 14, 2008

Folder 97: Interview #97 - Kelly Wells, April 13, 2008

Folder 98: Interview #98 - Tally Tait Wells, April 13, 2008

Folder 99: Interview #99 - Washtub Jerry, April 12, 2008

Folder 100: Interview #100 - Hub Whitt, April 13, 2008

Folder 101: Interview #101 - Esther Murray, February 12, 2008

Folder 102: Interview #102 - Grant Bulltail, August 21-22, 2002

Box 9

Folder 103: Interview #103 - Dale Harwood, November 2008

Saddlemaker Series

Folder 104: Interview #104 - Keith Seidel, October 23, 2008

Saddlemaker Series

Folder 105: Interview #105 - Steve Mecum, November 26, 2008

Saddlemaker Series

Folder 106: Interview #106 - Bill Gardner, May 24, 2008

Saddlemaker Series

Folder 107: Interview #107 - Bob Douglas, May 24, 2008

Saddlemaker Series

Folder 108: Interview #108 - Wayne Hape, November 12, 2007

Saddlemaker Series

Folder 109: Interview #109 - Chas Weldon, Fall 2007

Saddlemaker Series

Folder 110: Interview #110 - Elizabeth (Betty) Mills, April 29, 2008

Folder 111: Interview #111 - Bert Cosgrove, August 21, 2008

Folder 112: Interview #112 - Don Abarr, October 23, 2008

Folder 113: Interview #113 - Harry Jackson, February 21, 2009

Folder 114: Interview #114 - Robin Rick, February 10, 2009

Folder 115: Interview #115 - Adelyn Fraley, April 16, 2009

Folder 116: Interview #116 - Louis Kousoulos Jr. and Senator Alan K. Simpson, November 5, 2009

Folder 117: Interview #117 - Diane Kousoulos, April 5, 2010

Folder 118: Interview #118 - Ann Simpson, April 4, 2010

Folder 119: Interview #119 - Altamae Markham, January 10 & 31, 2010

Folder 120: Interview #120 - Alice Fales, March 6, 2008

Folder 121: Interview #121 - Marjorie & Ernest Goppert, May 23, 2006

Folder 122: Interview #122 - Alan & Ann Simpson, October 4, 2006

Folder 123: Interview #123 - Katie Brown, October 24, 2008

Folder 124: Interview #124 - Nancy Petry, June 15, 2007

Folder 125: Interview #125 - Forrest Fenn, October 17, 2006

Folder 126: Interview #126 - Margaret S. "Peg" Coe and James B. Minter, October 13, 2006

Folder 127: Interview #127 - Charles & Ursula Kepler, September 28, 2006

Folder 128: Interview # 128 - Saban, Vera, 2003-05-02

Folder 129: Interview # 129 - Bill Self by Debbie Hofstedt, 2008-06-27

Folder 130: Interview # 130 - Forrest Fenn on Joseph Henry Sharp, 2009-09-25

Box 10

Folder 131: Interview # 131 - Elizabeth M. Goodwin, 1995-02-15

2 cassette tapes. For copyright contact Planned Environment Therapy Trust Archive and Study Centre.

Craig Fees interviewing Miss Elizabeth M. Goodwin regarding her father in the 7th Cavalry, and William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody in England visiting her father, fight with Sioux in 1867-1868 where Cody defended a payroll and rescued the contingent, and Chief Washita.

The BBMA files hold information on Corporal James S. Goodwin according to Mary Robinson (2018-12-05).

Folder 132: Interview # 132 - Ann Phillips Bay, 2009-09-12

Digital recording of inter-state telephone conversation between Mary Ann Andrus of the Education Department regarding emotional connection to visitors. Restricted to Center staff until signed release can be located.