Rawhide Buttes Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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This is a log only cache. Bring your own writing utensil.
We are hiding this cache to give the interested person some history
of Rawhide Buttes. There is a brand new Wyoming historical marker
here. Placed sometime in the summer of 2007. A very nice sign!
Several different tales explain the origin of the name. One account
holds that this location served as a departure point from which
trappers sent fur pelts or “rawhides” east to S. Louis. Another
story tells of a reckless young man who killed an Indian woman
while journeying to California during the 1849 gold rush.
Attempting to avoid trouble, his fellow travelers surrendered the
man for punishment and then watched in horror as the Indians
skinned him alive at the base of the buttes. Reenactments of this
last legend have been taking place in Lusk for many years. In 1874,
a military expedition led by Lieutenant Col. George A. Custer
discovered gold in the Black Hills of Dakota Territory. Hoping to
capitalize on the ensuing rush of prospectors, the entrepreneurial
team of Gilmer, Salisbury and Patrick organized the Cheyenne and
Black Hills Stage and Express line in 1876. The company soon began
leasing ranch buildings located at Rawhide Buttes for use as a
stage station. When Russell Thorp, Sr. purchased the Rawhide Buttes
Station in November 1882, the bustling stage stop had grown to
include a grocery and dry good store, stage bar, post office and
blacksmith ship. Arrival of the Chicago and North Western Railroad
led to the demise of the stagecoach era. The last Black Hills bound
stage departed from Cheyenne’s Inter=Ocean Hotel on February 19,
1887. With the stage no longer rolling, the buildings clustered at
the base of Rawhide Buttes reverted from stage station to ranch
headquarters. You can see the stage coach that made this last run
in the Niobrara County museum in Lusk.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)