Terry A. Del Bene

Terry A. Del Bene is a retired anthropologist who worked with several federal agencies during his long career, including many years of service in Wyoming. He co-edited Settlement of the West. He is the author of A Phone Where the Buffalo Roamed: Connecting Neighbors in America's Outback (a history of Wyoming’s Union Telephone Company) and The Donner Party Cookbook: A Guide to Survival on the Hastings Cutoff. He also co-wrote Images of America: Grand Encampment with Candy Moulton and Images of America: Green River with Ruth Lauritzen and other authors. He now makes his home in Florida and the Virgin Islands.

Latest from Terry A. Del Bene

The American West: When Luke Halloran Was "Rescued" by America’s Most Famous Cannibals

Feverish and too weak to travel, Luke Halloran was abandoned on the trail and left alone to die. But his luck seemed to have changed as he was rescued by some strangers. Their names: George and Tamsen Donner.

Terry A. Del BeneNovember 30, 2024

The American West: Confrontation on Bitter Creek

During an attack on the LaClede Station on the Overland Trail in 1867, it was lucky for the occupants of the station that the Sioux warriors did not know how the station was effectively defenseless.

Terry A. Del BeneNovember 10, 2024

The American West: The Strange Case of Nat Rasper’s Skull

Browns Park was a lawless place where outlaws came and went as they pleased. Raids by the law rarely reduced the supply of rustlers, murderers, and robbers in that harsh environment. Only after a telephone line connected the area with Rock Springs did the outlaw period come to an end.

Terry A. Del BeneOctober 28, 2024

The American West: Simpson’s Hollow, What Could Possibly Have Happened Here?

If you find yourself traveling Highway 28, this route places you among several National Historic Trails and expansion era roads. Roughly twelve miles west of Farson is a turnout at a stone monument and interpretive signs commemorating and educating visitors about one of the opening events of the “Utah War” of 1857.

Terry A. Del BeneSeptember 22, 2024

Geologist Clarence King, left, leader of the survey of the 40th Parallel, in camp near Salt Lake City in 1868. In October 1872, King led some of his crew to the secret diamond fields to find out what was what.

The American West: The Great Wyoming Diamond Swindle Of 1871

During the Gilded Age, the Rocky Mountain West had its share of speculation in get-rich-quick schemes. One such design happened in Wyoming. It was an elaborate con about the discovery of a mother lode of diamonds in Carbon County.

Terry A. Del BeneAugust 03, 2024

The American West: Fort Laramie Attacked

Though one of the most important military forts in the West, Fort Laramie lacked fortifications. It was an open assemblage of buildings that one might usually expect to find within protective walls of any U.S. Army fort in the Nineteenth Century.

Terry A. Del BeneJuly 14, 2024

Graves of the victims of the 1864 attack on the Kelly-Larimer wagon train. William Larimer, the Rev. Andrew Sharp, Noah Taylor and Franklin Sullivan are buried in a single grave on the left; Little Mary Kelly, as she was known in contemporary accounts, is buried in the right-hand grave.

The American West: The 1864 Attack On The Kelly-Larimer Wagon Train

All that’s left today of the July 12, 1864, attack on the Kelly-Larimer Wagon Train in what would later become Wyoming Territory are the harrowing accounts of women taken captive and a small graveyard.

Terry A. Del BeneJune 29, 2024

When Rudyard Kipling visited Yellowstone National Park, he wasn't impressed, writing that, "Today I am in the Yellowstone Park, and I wish I were dead."

The American West: That Time Rudyard Kipling Came To Yellowstone And Wasn’t Impressed

Rudyard Kipling was in a foul and despicable mood when his editor sent him to visit America. He was not impressed with the American West. "Today I am in the Yellowstone Park, and I wish I were dead," he wrote.

Terry A. Del BeneJune 22, 2024