Hat Creek Dateline: 1880/12/03

New ranches established near stage station recently
by Ed Cook, Contributing Writer

Several more cattle ranches have been established north of here this summer. The ULA is the nearest one. It is located about 40 miles north of the north bank of Lance Creek about 12 miles from the confluence with the Cheyenne River. The ranch is owned by Charles Wulfjen and was named in honor of his daughter, Eula.

John B. Kendrick, foreman of the ranch is a young man from Cherkee County, Texas. He was here from the ULA for the mail today. He and Dick Tisdale have been cutting logs near the mouth of Alum Creek to be used for building a house on the ranch. They have been working all the month of November cutting and hewing 120 large pine logs for the house. They were camped there and have been working every day to try and get logs cut before winter overtakes them.

Kendrick said that on the last day of November he felled the trees and scored eight of the largest logs that they took out of the timber. He had begun at daylight, and in his anxiety to finish the job, hardly stopped to catch his breath all day long.

After the final tree was down they had a bite of food, such as they had in camp, and mounted their cow ponies and rode to the ULA where they quickly took their first bath in the last month.

They plan to build a four-room house, three rooms in a row with a kitchen and grub room added behind. In addition to the house, they will build a log stable, sheds and a blacksmith shop.

John Kendrick is an interesting and enterprising young man about 23 years old. He was born and raised in Texas and came to Wyoming Territory as a drover on the Texas to Montana trail. On the trail here he was an employee of Charles Wulfjen and has since been foreman of the ULA.

His early education, as far as school was concerned, was very limited. However he spends much of his time reading while most of the cowboys are playing poker in the evenings.

(Note: Kendrick became manager of the Converse Cattle Company, bought the OW Ranch and became Governor of Wyoming in 1914. He then became a U.S. Senator from Wyoming and served in this capacity until his death in 1933.)

Other ranches that are in the process of building headquarters in the area include the 999 at the junction of Lance Creek and the Cheyenne River; the AU7 at the mouth of Snyder Creek, about 20 miles from the 999, (it is owned by the Suffolk Cattle Company running about 25,000 head) and the 4W on the Cheyenne River, about 12 miles form the AU7, owned by Hammond Cattle Company. It ranges about 10,000 head on the Cheyenne
River and its tributaries.

Information source: "Pioneering on the Cheyenne River," by the Robber's Roost Historical Society.)