In Tiny Point Of Rocks, Wyoming, There's A Museum Inside The Conoco Station

The Conoco Station at Point of Rocks, Wyoming, is proof that grand things can come in small packages.

The station, which draws attention to itself thanks to a nearby 9-foot-tall cowboy on a dozer, has hidden inside it a tiny museum devoted to the history of Point of Rocks, once a stopping point for the Overland Stage Route.

Along with that, there’s a café and a bar in the back of this Conoco station, as well as a post office, making this a vibrant community center for Point of Rocks, which often has locals and tourists gathering to talk and socialize.

The museum, as well as the 9-foot-tall cowboy, was put together by Ed Varley, who grew up in Bittercreek and moved to Point of Rocks in the 1960s.

Varley has been a long-time explorer of places like Adobe Town, the Great Basin Sand Dunes, Hay Stacks Mountain, Fort Laclede, Antelope Springs, Kinney Rim, and many others in the Point of Rocks area. And his museum is full of the things people have found in the area and given to him to display, or that he’s found himself during his own explorations.

His latest find is a pretty exciting one. It’s an old leather saddle — likely more than 114 years old — that he and his granddaughter Angie Swanson found in a cave near Adobe Town.

“We went to those teepee rings, and within about 50 feet from that, there’s a cave in the clay underneath the rocks,” he said. “My granddaughter went into that cave, and she was crawling around there and this (saddle) and that Dutch Oven was on top of the saddle.”

The saddle was buried in clay mud at the time, covered in gobs and gobs of the grey stuff. But a piece of wood on the saddle was sticking out, and, when she bumped against it, that drew her attention. After digging it out, Swanson and Varley spent hours carefully removing the clay so they could see the saddle itself, and then put it all back together again. They also made a few subsequent trips to make sure they hadn’t left anything from the saddle behind.

Eventually, when the leather was clear of all the mud, the craftsmanship started to shine through. They also discovered the business brand, “Collins and Morrison Omaha Neb” on the saddle.

“This whole right side of the saddle is beaten up pretty bad, and I think maybe they had trouble, whether (he) fell down or the horse fell down,” Barley said. “Maybe the horse was trying to get the saddle off by rubbing on something. Just what (happened) we don’t know.

A Collins And Morrison Saddle

Varley’s granddaughter has done some research on the Collins and Morrison saddle maker, which she’s put into her story of the saddle’s discovery, which is printed on sheets of paper next to the exhibit.

According to the story, John Collins started out building saddles in Nebraska with a brother Gilbert, in 1864. Their saddles were popular, and they soon expanded to Miles City, Cheyenne, and Fort Laramie.

Among the famous citizens who had Collins and Morrison saddles were Buffalo Bill Cody and Theodore Roosevelt.

After Gilbert died in 1880, John Collins went into business with John Morrison, renaming their business to Collins and Morrison.

John Collins died in 1910, after which a man named Alfred Cornish bought the store. He continued making saddles under the old name for some time after 1910.

Swanson has not discovered the date when that business ended, and she’s not sure how old the saddle might be. She has been visiting museums, looking at other saddles, trying to get a better idea how old her saddle might be.

Once the saddle was cleaned up, repairs were visible in at least four places on the saddle, along with some deep cuts into its seat.

The Dutch Oven found with the saddle included an old bone, which Varley said seemed to suggest whoever left these items may have been in a big rush.

“Maybe that bone had some meat on it at one time,” Varley said. “We don’t know.”

Also found in the same cave was an old mason canning jar, now empty, with a rusted lid. A piece of rawhide, that appeared to have once been wrapped around the lid was also found nearby.

“I don’t know if it was maybe liquor in the jar, or what was in there,” Varley said.

Was it an old trappers’ cave, or was it an outlaw hideout? The mysteries are fun to consider, though they may never be solved.

Slot Machines And Juke Boxes

One of the most popular and fun artifacts in the little museum are a set of old-time slot machines, still full of nickels and dimes, from a time when gambling was legal.

Varley said modern-day officials forced him to tie down the handles, to ensure no one can put a nickel in and play the games. That spoils the fun a bit, but they are still amusing to look at.

“Those were here when I came here in 1960,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “So, they were here before that, and they were legal for a while at one time.”

There’s a pretty cool candy bar machine in the museum, too, from way back when customers could buy a piece of candy for a nickel each. It probably still works — although what can you buy for a nickel these days?

There’s a juke box, too, that plays old-time 45s for a quarter a round. Varley has thought about fixing that up so that people can play a tune when they come in.

Various props for Varley’s 9-foot-tall cowboy are also held in the museum. There’s a huge pistol, a huge rifle, a huge deck of cards, and a pair of yellow sunglasses and a bandana, all of them items Varley made himself.

“Lots of people love stopping to take selfies with the cowboy,” he said. “It’s been very popular, and it draws people in.

People bring Varley stuff for the museum all the time.

“They want to display it, and if they don’t want to give it up, I put their name in a book,” he said.

That way, there’s a record so they can get the item back someday, if they still want to.

Some of the museum artifacts date back to when Varley’s wife’s family came to Point of Rocks in 1945.

“A lot of this stuff was just left here when they bought the place, and they’re so old now, they’re relics,” Varley said.

The fun for Varley is not just in collecting and displaying these old relics. It’s seeing others enjoy them too. But what he really loves even more than that is telling stories about the items he’s found and the places he’s explored in Wyoming.

“I know stories about each and every one of these artifacts,” Varley told Cowboy State Daily. “I can talk about (the museum) all day.”

Those who don’t happen to bump into Varley while he’s at the Conoco — itself a wonderful little oasis in the midst of a remote and isolated area with no other services for miles — are not completely out of luck.

Varley sells a book of his stories at the gas station for a mere $18. It’s a priceless treasure trove of history, collected over a 75-year period from a “backyard” stomping ground of somewhere around 7,000 square miles.

There are still more treasures to be found in that backyard, Varley said, and, even at 88 years old, he goes out often, looking for more treasures to put in the little museum that’s not just about history but about love.

Love for Wyoming and all the wild places where people have tried to live and love — and sometimes succeeded.

Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.