The Wheels on the Bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. : Saratoga, Wyoming

At the corner of state Highway 130 and Bridge Street in Saratoga stands a world-famous landmark long frequented by locals. The Hotel Wolf opened on New Year’s Eve, 1893, with a gala masquerade ball and sumptuous dinner. The two-and-a-half story Victorian-style structure was built with bricks made in Saratoga for $6,000 by German immigrant Frederick G. Wolf. It served as a stage stop from the time it opened, and its reputation that the accommodations were considered quite elegant soon spread. Soon nicknamed “The Grand Old Gal” of the North Platte Valley, the hotel is still going strong after more than 125 years. In fact, The historic Wolf Hotel and Restaurant is the place where people gather in Saratoga. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, the Hotel Wolf has seen several incarnations in her years of existence.

Birthday dinner at the Historic Hotel Wolf Restaurant

Happy Birthday to me

Kennaday Ranch

Her lips are blue just like when we eat candy

Lunch time

South Twin Lake

North Twin Lake

Dipper Lake

Encampment, Wyoming

The Grand Encampment Museum is located in Encampment. It highlights the copper mining, ranching, logging history in the area. It includes over 15 historic buildings and thousands of interesting objects.

Carbon County was a copper mining area back in the day but, before the railroad came this far west, trams were used to transport ore from the mines in the mountains to the smelter in Encampment over 16 miles away. Part of this tram is on display at the Encampment Museum.

Two Story Outhouse

The ground floor of this two-story outhouse is easily accessible in the summer, but adding on the second story was a necessity because of the deep snow drifts in the winter.

The Saratoga & Encampment Railroad (S & E RR also known to locals as the Slow and Easy RR) was eventually constructed, but its completion in 1908 came a little late for the copper boom.

Visitors can climb a Forest Service fire lookout tower and view other United States Forest Service memorabilia.

Hotel Wolf served as a stage-stop on the C.M. Scribner Walcott to Encampment Stage Line.

Hearse

Dump wagon

Another old-time cash register with a small narrow marble top located just below the keys and above the cash drawer. Today we learned the reason for this attractive addition. The small marble slab is actually a gold nugget tester. By tapping the gold nugget on the marble they could tell by the sound it made if the gold was real or not.

Mosely Folding Bathtub purchased in 1895.

Originally called Camp le Grande, then Grand Encampment. When the post office opened the post master thought that all of that was too long so he named it Encampment.

We find this kind of name change by the post master in lots of towns we visit.

Battle Mountain Townsite

Smelter Site was the site of a copper smelter that processed ores from the nearby Mining District in the early 20th century. The smelter was constructed along the river in 1902 by Grand Encampment promoter Willis George Emerson, connected to the Mine location by a 16-mile aerial tram over the Continental Divide. The smelter initially produced matte, an intermediate product in copper refining. In 1903 it was upgraded to produce blister copper. Power for the blowers needed for the blister refining process came from a water turbine at the end of a 4-foot diameter wood-stave pipe from the South Fork of the Encampment River, 4 miles away. The smelter could process 300 to 400 tons of ore a day.

We see lots of things made with hay bales in our travels. I thought this one was the most creative.

Indian Bathtubs

Archeologists have found campsites, rock flakes and tools of prehistoric people in the vicinity of this area.

These interesting depressions have been carved out of the top of these granite rocks by centuries of wind, rain, snow and blowing sand. Legend has it that when the Great Spirit decided to give rain, the Indians bathed and played in these tubs.

The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail

Designated by Congress in 1978, this 3,100 mile trail will take you from Mexico to Canada on an adventure of a lifetime. On your journey you will travel 5 states, 25 National Forest, 3 National Parks, and cross over 475 watersheds.

A sixteen-mile tramway was built to carry copper ore from the mountains into the town for smelting. This steam powered tramway was, at the time, the longest in the world. The tram could carry almost a thousand tons of ore a day!

Remains from the Tramway

The Tramway was suspended on 370 towers which ranged in height from 15 to 70 feet above the ground. Each of the 840 ore buckets carried 700 pounds of copper ore and took over 4 hours to travel from the Rudefeha Mine over the Continental Divide to the Smelter in town.

A rich copper strike was found in the Sierra Madres Mountains in 1897. By 1908, the company which had produced two million dollars in copper ore, was indicted for over-capitalization and fraudulent stock sales. The mines closed, and Rudefeha, Dillon, Copperton, Rambler, Battle and Elwood became ghost towns. Encampment and Riverside survived.