For decades, the hero of Greybull, Wyoming, every Christmas was George Scott, who was the town’s Santa Claus, bringing holiday cheer to local kids. He volunteered countless hours as Santa and his loud laugh was an important part of Christmas.
While Santa remains a hero to kids around Wyoming and the world, Scott was a true hero 10 years before he started playing the Jolly Old Elf. That’s when he grabbed a bundle of dynamite and saved Greybull from certain destruction.
In March 1929, a single-engine plane roared over the Bighorn River in a desperate attempt to save keep flash flooding from wiping Greybull off the map. As the pilot made his sweep over the ice jam causing the flooding, his lone passenger lit the first bundle of dynamite and tossed it out the window. It exploded and he quickly prepared the next bomb.
The man throwing the dynamite was Scott, a 32-year-old husband and father. He had married Steva Johnston, a native of Trapper Creek and a graduate of Greybull High School, and the two were well-known in the small town.
“George’s life in Greybull has been one of community service,” Margaret Stevens wrote for the Casper Star Tribune 40 years later. “You have only to look at the laugh lines on the faces of George and Steva to know they are “happy people” and have a love of mankind.”
The Flood
It was this dedication to his community that sent Scott on a dangerous mission to save Greybull when an ice jam in a shallow section of the Bighorn River through town caused the dangerous flood.
On March 9, 1929, an 8-mile ice gorge formed south of Greybull in Sheep Canyon, near the junction of the Greybull and Bighorn rivers. Late that night, the water ran down only the north and south streets, as it had done in 1923. When those streets could no longer contain the rising current, a tremendous flood quickly engulfed the entire town of Greybull.
The 1,500 residents of Greybull abandoned their homes and fled to the two storied buildings in town as the flood escaped its banks.
Many went to Basin, the nearest town, 8 miles away, where they received accommodations in homes and hotels. More than 200 were cared for in the Mid-West oil refinery and hundreds of others spent the night in automobiles on the mountains overlooking the city.
One of the few to remain in Greybull, besides the telephone operators, was Elizabeth Wiley, known as the “fighting woman mayor.” She refused to leave the city even when conditions were dire.
Bombs Bursting In Air
With the entire town under water, it became evident there was no possibility of immediate relief. Desperate measures had to be taken.
A telephone call was sent to Cody from bootlegger and businessman Joe Carey, asking for a plane. Pilot Floyd “Buck” Buchanan in his single-engine plane answered the call for help even though he only had eight hours of experience flying solo. While he flew, the plan was to have someone drop explosives on the ice jam.
Author J. Tom Davis wrote in “Glimpses of Greybull’s Past” that Buchanan’s flying experience was limited to “a little barnstorming,” and occasional parcel post mail flights from Cody to Sunlight Basin, a distance of about 50 miles. Despite his inexperience, he was willing to fly the bombing run.
It was decided that the person to drop the bombs should be from Greybull. Since Scott had some experience in flying, he was chosen to man the front seat.
In 1977, Standard editor Jack Branscom interviewed the two men who described the harrowing bombing runs they had made 48 years earlier.
“I had known George for about two years,” Buchanan said. “So I knew he was pretty level-headed, and that suited me all right.”
Exactly one dozen bombs had been assembled with a total of 700 sticks of dynamite. The dynamite was tied in bundles ranging from 25 to 70 sticks with a single fuse attached to each bundle.
“The fuses,” Scott said, “weren’t more than 16 inches long.”
Buchanan flew at an elevation of about 500 feet and when Scott, who was carrying the dynamite in his lap, would light his fuse, Buchanan would dive down to about 30 feet above the ice and Scott would drop the bombs.
The dynamite had to be lit near the plane’s 50-gallon gas tank. A cigar Buchanan was smoking was used to light the first bomb, but when it burned out, Scott had to use wooden kitchen matches to light the remaining bombs.
For about three hours that day, the two men played an air version of Russian roulette. The temperatures were in the 30s that day and the snow-covered ground was soft and mushy, so each of the three takeoffs was shaky at best.
“It was a damn miracle that I didn’t turn it upside down,” Buchanan said. They were also fortunate that there was very little wind.
During their first bombing attempt, they missed the entire river. Then, a bomb landed on the left wing and remained there for a few very long seconds until Buchanan “fishtailed” the airplane and the bomb dropped off.
Out of 12 dropped, Buchanan said that Scott made 10 perfect hits.
The last shot dropped was a bundle of 70 sticks, and the effect of that explosion was felt plainly by the people in town.
“That bomb went right down in the middle of the ice and exploded,” Buchanan said. “Then away she (ice jam) went.”
The ice jam broke and the water began to recede like “water from a bathtub when the plug is pulled,” he said.
Within an hour after this shot, water began to recede in Greybull and within two hours people were able to wade about the streets uptown.
The ice jam on March 10, 1929, flooded the town of Greybull and left behind ice chunks and four feet of standing water. (Wyoming State Archives) 
$150,000 worth of damage was caused by the flood, which would have been much worse if George Scott had not ‘bombed’ the ice jam in the Bighorn River. (Wyoming State Archives) 
In March 1929, an ice jam in a shallow section of the Eight Mile Gorge downstream from the Greybull caused a flood. Water flooded the town to a depth of four feet and caused over $150,000 (in 1929 dollars) damage. (Photo by W.M. Lockhart, March 10, 1929) 
The Associated Press picked up the story about the 1929 flood and the flood that caused Greybull residents to flee. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
The New York Times reported on the flood. “Forced by rampaging flood waters from the Big Horn River to abandon their homes in the dead of night, hundreds of citizens of this little oil town today returned to take toll of their property damage after spending the night in the refuge of the nearby mountains.” (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
The Resilient Spirit Of Wyoming
The 1929 flood was so devastating that even The New York Times reported on the incident and noted the resilient spirit of the oil town residents.
Most of the houses in the northern part of the city were carried from their foundations by the flood waters. Every dwelling in both the residential and business districts was flooded. Railroad tracks north of Greybull were washed out. The receding water left several inches of slimy, ill-smelling muck and debris all over the town.
To add to the chaos, while the Greybull fire department was flood-bound in its building, several fires had broken out and several homes had burned to the ground. One of these homes belonged to the town’s hero, Scott.
He and his wife lost nearly all their belongings.
An appeal was made for Red Cross assistance. When it arrived on scene, the relief workers reported that the destruction was worse than they had anticipated.
The damage to the houses was so much greater because of the huge floating blocks of ice, according to Kathyrn Monroe, the Red Cross representative at Greybull. She also said that because of these cakes of ice, “several of the families are unable to return to their homes to learn the extent of damage or to clean up and return there to live.”
Weeks later, huge cakes of ice were still scattered around town, chilly monuments to the disaster.
The city of Casper and others in the Cowboy State rallied around Greybull and raised more than $1,000 to help with the recovery efforts. Everyone agreed that if they hadn’t bombed the ice and risked their lives, the damage would have been even worse.
The Hero Of Greybull
Scott was not one to bask in the glow of praise or lament the loss of his home. He rolled up his sleeves and helped clean up Greybull.
His community service continued beyond blowing up ice jams. For years he was Greybull’s most popular school bus driver. He was available to take a school busload of students, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts or any other youth group to out-of-town events.
The story was told of how he always kept a bottle of Pepto-Bismol in the glove compartment of his bus for those who began to “look green” with motion sickness.
“Misbehave in George’s bus?” his young passengers were said to deny such a thing. “Never. We loved him too much!”
This mutual love for his community caused Scott to buy that red velvet suit and white whiskers and offer his services to the community as the jolly old elf for decades.
As a result of taking up that role, Scott was the most popular man of the Christmas season in Greybull, even beyond the day he blew up the ice jam. He ushered in the holiday season with his loud laugh and dressed in his familiar Santa suit. He would be found at parties, churches, school and anywhere there were kids to be thrilled during that magic season.
Scott not only made personal appearances at countless Christmas kids parties but for decades, he gave up his Christmas Eve to make house calls to homes in Greybull.
When his red velvet suit began to look worn, the Greybull Elks purchased him a complete new Santa costume in appreciation of his community service.
This sentiment was echoed by many who Scott had served in the town of Greybull as Santa, hero and someone quick to give a helping hand to any in need. He embodied the Christmas spirit all year long.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
