Just before the long, harsh winter of 1887 set in, the last mail delivery to the residents of the northern Wyoming Territory settlements of Bonanza and Paint Rock contained alarming news: A volcanic explosion had sunk the island of Cuba into the ocean.
They were horrified by the news, which would be the last from the outside world they would receive for nearly six months.
At the time, there were only four homesteads on the Paint Rock, according to H.S. Ridgley in the Northern Wyoming Herald of September 1911.
On these remote ranches, only three women and a girl lived in this wilderness: Mrs. “Tude” Nelson, Mrs. Wood, Mrs. Long, and her daughter Mamie.
These families were isolated from the rest of the world and clung to any news that came their way, especially since that winter was a particularly hard and lonely one, according to Ridgley.
“The story of Cuba was a dainty morsel of discussion throughout the long winter,” Willis J. Booth, one of the residents, told Ridgely.
They fed on this fragment of news, often discussing how Cuba was gone — sunk out of sight in the ocean. They must have counted themselves fortunate in their remote home, far away from the dangers of volcanoes.
The people living on Paint Rock received no mail from November until the next spring. That was when they learned that the story had been a fabrication and that they had spent the long winter months discussing a fable.
The joke was on them, but as Booth pointed out, it kept them entertained during that first winter in Wyoming’s remote territory of the Bighorn Basin.
In the early days of Paint Rock, Bonanza and Hyattville in the Big Horn Basin, Wyoming, pioneers had to find their own source of entertainment. At times it was shooting matches for horses (pictured) while one ‘clever’ rancher was said to have tied rattlesnakes together for an animal trap. (Hyatteville.org) 
Bonanza, now a ghost town, was a remote town in the Big Horn Basin. In this lonely outpost, rumor and fanciful tales were readily believed by the isolated pioneers of the 1880s. (Bonanza Post Office, Old Trail Town in Cody, Wyoming) 
In the winter of 1887, only four homesteads had been staked out in Medicine Lodge, Bonanza and Paint Rock. Residents in this lonely outpost spent the winter believing that Cuba had been devoured by a volcano. After six months of talking about this amazing occurrence, they finally were told that it was a made-up story. (Wyoming State Archives)) 
In 1888, a newspaper blurb said that ranchers in the isolated Big Horn region had created a clever animal trap with a bunch of rattlesnakes and thorns. (Wyoming Newspaper Project)
Battling The Isolation
Those who homesteaded Paint Rock, Medicine Lodge and Bonanza in 1887 were isolated and lived lonely lives. As a result, most were extremely hospitable to travelers in exchange for news from the outside world.
One of these families well-known for hospitality was the McDermotts. A reporter known simply as J.C.W. wrote in the Big Horn Sentinel of August 1888 that he had enjoyed his stay at the home of James McDermott about 4 miles north of Bonanza.
“We fully appreciated the fresh milk, butter and quantities of vegetables of which we had been deprived,” the reporter said. “Mr. M. has as fine a garden as can be found even in the old-settled portions of the eastern states.”
Unknown at the time, McDermott was also a thief and would often take advantage of his guests, laughing at them the entire time.
While they enjoyed his hospitality, his wife later told the courts that he would steal from them as well.
The well-regarded rancher was really the head of a gang of outlaws, according to Ridgley in his remembrances two decades later.
McDermott dealt the home builders of Bonanza and Paint Rock all kinds of misery and grief, Ridgely said.
“McDermott was a wily chieftain,” Ridgley said. “His criminal craft and cunning was laid bare to the community in which he was at one time held with the greatest respect.”
His crimes, which greatly amused him, were only known from confessions of his wife after he and his followers were captured by the law for horse and cattle stealing.
She stated that one crime occurred when they played host to a mail carrier who had stopped at their place for the night.
While the courier slept, McDermott filed the ends of the staple that held the lock and opened the sack without harming the lock.
He took from the registered mail several hundred dollars, slipped the staple back into place, riveted it shut, and submerged it in a strong solution of salt water.
This gave it an old and rusty appearance. The carrier went on his way the next morning without detecting anything, little dreaming that he had been the victim of a skillful robbery.
His wife also confessed that her husband and his followers robbed one of the storekeepers at Bonanza of a lot of clothing, groceries and canned goods, then prepared a great feast and invited the victim to dine with them.
At the dinner, they wore no clothing except the stolen property of their guest and placed nothing upon the table to eat except that which they had stolen from him.
At the dinner that night, they laughed and giggled with ghoulish glee at the joke they were perpetrating.
McDermott was never charged with these crimes since his wife’s statements could not be used in a court of law against him.
Rattlesnake Trap
At other times, news from Bonanza was carried by their guests back to civilization who marveled at the ingenuity of these remote ranchers who apparently had extra time on their hands to be creative.
In 1888, Bill Barlow’s Budget of Fremont County, Wyoming, told a story from Paint Rock.
Dr. Amos Barber had just been on a six-week vacation in the Bighorn Basin and shared a method of killing game that he said the sporting world would be interested in that he had learned from the rancher.
“He secures a dozen or more rattlesnakes, and then a pool of water is enclosed by a strong thorn fence, so arranged that the game coming to drink must pass through a narrow lane,” he told the paper.
Barber then said the snakes, which are fastened by a hole bored through the tail and placed near this opening, bite the animals as they attempt to pass.
In this way, the innovative rancher has a supply of game that is always obtainable without the trouble of hunting.
A group of cowboys in the 1920s blow off some steam by tossing each other in a blanket. (Classic Stock via Alamy) 
Hyattville, officially founded in 1889, was a remote outpost with residents hungry for word from the outside world. They fed on rumors during the long, lonely winters and believed many tall tales. Despite their remote location, they were known for their stores that did not inflate prices according to one reporter from the Big Horn Basin Sentinel. (Wyoming State Archives)
Prayers Needed
Just to reach the remote area in the Bighorn Basin, travelers had to rely on their wits and plenty of prayer, according to reporter J.W.C. of the Big Horn Sentinel in 1888.
The road from Buffalo to Paint Rock was well-known to nearly all residents, he said. Although most of the wagon road was easy enough to maneuver, he claimed that one needed a colorful vocabulary to make it over one particular long hill.
“For this haul, one needs to be fully prepared,” the reporter said. “Take the drive early in the morning — Monday morning preferred — and then only after due preparation of fasting and prayer on the Sabbath.”
He went on to say that this was where he had his celebrated fight with the road. This fight was well-known in the town of Buffalo.
“We were modern Pilgrims on a veritable ‘Hill of Difficulty,’ and our fight was a joint one with a wagon,” J.W.C. told his Buffalo, Wyoming, readers. “The wagon coming off victorious, and the new slang dictionary, not yet published, with our stock of prayer books, guidebooks, etc., were unfortunately left behind.”
Thanks to his new curses, made up on the spot, he said he and his fellow travelers were able to make the trip to Paint Rock and visit the remote ranches along the way.
The people were hungry for news of the outside world and the reporter was happy to oblige. Although his stories were more likely to be of the local gossip rather than of faraway islands sinking into the ocean.
Regardless of the stories he shared, the isolated pioneers, eking out a living in the Bighorn Basin, would have been grateful for any entertainment to break the monotony of daily life.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
