Stop 20: Dubois, WY

We had an interesting trip from Rawlings to Dubois (pronounced like "the boys" in "da Bronx"). right out of Rawlings, we crossed the continental divide twice. The area in between did not drain to the Pacific. It was a basin that did not drain. Looking at the map, that area was completely circled by the continental divide.

Continuing on, we reached an area that paralleled the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, the Mormon Trail, the Badlands Trail (never heard of that one) and the Pony Express route. The reason for that was that this was a really easy route West (compared to the alternatives). I read in a pamphlet about the Oregon Trail that the pioneers reached the continental divide just West of here without realizing that they'd been climbing.

The biggest pioneer related site was about 25 miles East of where we were traveling. We didn't go that way. It's called Independence Rock and they say it looks like Ayres Rock in Austrailia. It was an important landmark along all of the previously mentioned trails and it is carved with pioneers name from ground level up to about 80'.

We did see a couple of historic points along the way.

Split Rock.

I didn't quite get this entire plaque in frame but you can get the gist. Didn't take any pictures of the actual slough because it didn't look like anything unusual.

We also drove by a spot that claimed to be Sacagawea's grave site in Ft. Washakie on the Wind River Indian Reservation (A second spot in Mobridge, SD also makes that claim).

Reaching our campground in Dubois, we're a little concerned about how full the river is (every river that we've seen lately looks like this). We're one row back from the river but, when we sit outside, we can see the surface of the river.

The Wind River at the edge of our campground. Looks kind of full.

Apparently, the campground operators are worried about something. We're guessing that the hose is marking the high water mark.

Someone told us after we'd taken those last pictures that the Wind River's flow was expected to peak at 5am the next morning. We had a pretty heavy storm during the night. I checked at 5am to see if we were sitting in the river. All looked good.

A little later, we went for a walk. That hose from the previous picture was now hung up on a bush downstream.

I took this picture from a bridge the crosses the Wind River just below the campground. Our truck is visible between the 2 trees, in front of the farthest trailer.

I guess I should mention the very large contingent of bikers that have pretty much taken over the campground for the duration of our stay. They are apparently all members of the same military unit and come together in Dubois every Memorial Day weekend to honor their fallen dead. A noble cause that we can't help but respect. But they are loud, party all night and their choppers are reving at every hour of the day. Our visit to Custer, SD at last year's Sturgis bike week wasn't this bad (no bikers in the campground at all).

Later, we visited the Dubois Museum. It's an interesting little museum but we probably learned more from the chatty docent than we did from the museum. She told us that Dubois was originally called Never Sweat (she had a couple of possible explanations for why but they sounded like wild guesses). The U.S. Postmaster General was unwilling to accept the name and renamed the town after Senator Dubois from Idaho. Senator Dubois pronounced his name as one might expect it to be pronounced. The locals were offended but couldn't do much about it other than to mispronounce it as Da Boyz.

The museum includes a row of cabins that illustrated different aspects of early life.

The row of cabins.

The schoolhouse.

The saddle shop.

The foresters shack.

Tie hacks tools. Tie hacks were Scandinavian lumberjacks who created railroad ties.

A Shoshone sheep trap (Shoshone means sheep eater). Bighorns would catch their legs between the branches and he hunters would pounce.

Next, we went for a walk through the town.

This giant elk is at the entrance to our campground.

We saw a lot of these in Jackson, WY last year. Dubois also has at least 2 antler arches.

This is right on the main street. We had to ask a local what it was. This was what they used for cold storage back in the old days. Underground water stayed frozen through most of the summer. Very soon, it's going to reopen as a restaurant. Sounds cool (boo).

Another shot of the entrance to the cold storage / future restaurant.

I'm riding the worlds largest jackalope (inside the local gas station). There's a larger pink fiberglass one outside but it's not real.

As I write this, it's the end of our only full day here. It's downpouring and the bikers are looking pretty bedraggled. I'm sure that the rain will stop in time for us to walk downtown for dinner. I'm equally sure that there's still plenty of party left in those soaking wet bikers.

Tomorrow, we're off to Yellowstone.

-JC-