Distillery and Golden Spike Tower - September 27th & 29th

 Friday, 9/27 we stayed overnight at a harvest host call Pine Bluffs Distillery.  They make Whiskey, Gin and Vodka.  We were able to get a tour of the distillery.  

Here are some interesting facts:

* All of their grains are grown within a 15 mile radius of the distillery.

* They have volunteers that do the bottling and labeling of the products.  Their pay is a bottle of the product.  Talk about small town.

* It is 4 years minimum for whiskey to be ready to bottle.  This business started in 2017, so they have several choices now.  

* In Wyoming alcohol is distributed by the state.  So the distillery sells to the state and the state sells to the retailers.  They can sell alcohol at their distillery/bar, but they can not sell it online or anywhere other than their facility.  The owner was telling us that when they first started, they would have to drive their product to the state facility, have them process it and then “buy it back” to sell in the store and drive it back to the store.  Now they just tell them what they are keeping and send the rest to the state.  

* They have clients who will come and buy barrels of whiskey to then have bottled and provide to employees and clients as gifts.  They said one such customer bought 10 barrels at $8,500 a barrel.  

* They make 25 barrels a month.   They had one they experimented with and was a great hit.  Unfortunately they have to wait 4 years for the next batch to be ready. 

We enjoyed our beverages as we chatted with the owner and a local that was in the distillery for about an hour.  It was a small town on a Friday night with school football or volleyball going on, so we were the only ones in the place the majority of the time we were there.  The owner said if there are school activities going on everyone is at them, so they are slow.  They are also very season driven.  With the cold and dark of winter, they do not have alot of business at the bar itself.  People will come in and buy bottles.  So depending on the season depends on what their hours are for the bar part.  The producing part is all year. 

A couple unrelated to distillery things we learned that were interesting, especially growing up in the east -

kids can get their licenses at 14 years old so they can drive to school.  

Kids can take pocket knives to school because it is part of the areas “uniform”.  Everyone has a pocket knife. 

It is windy here most of the time.  I asked if they get used to the wind and without hesitation they said NO.   Sounds like when people say they get used to the heat in Florida and I say NO.

September 29th we went to the Golden Spike Tower, an 8 story viewing point that overlooks the Union Pacific Bailey Yard, the largest railroad classification yard in the world. 

What is a classification yard?  Trains come in and the cars are sorted by destination and then hooked up and taken to their next destination.  

We got to watch the yard for a little while and see how the operation works.  Here is my attempt at explaining.  

Step 1 - a train comes in the yard to be sorted.  It has the last car at the hump.  The hump is an incline down to the various tracks where the cars are sorted.

Step 2 - they release 1-3 cars at a time manually to go down the hump on to the track for their destination.  There is someone up top that lets the person manually releasing the cars know whether they release 1, 2 or 3.  

Step 3 - the cars work their way down the track at 2-4 miles an hour until they bump into the next car and couple with it.  

That’s the sorting part, then there is putting the train together for its destination.  The engine hooks to the destination cars in the order they will be released.  So it hooks to the first group, then pulls out until they can back in to the second track.  It continues that process until all the cars are loaded for the train, generally 150 cars at a weight of 10-14 tons.  A train that size generally uses 3 engines, two in the front one in the back. 

This is a 24 hour a day/ 7 day a week operation.  The engineers work a territory, generally a 300 mile radius.  So they will drive the train 12 hours, stay in that location for 12 hours, and then bring a different train back.  The original train will be taken by another territory to the next engineer trade off.   

A manifest train is a train with different types of cars.  A unitrain is a train with only one type of car.  

I was curious how this is all coordinated as far as what trains use what tracks once they are ready to move out of the yard and to their next destination.  There are dispatchers in various states that work similar to an air traffic controller.   The biggest issue with the dispatchers is they only see lines and don’t know where crossings are.  This is why you could have a train sitting on a track blocking traffic and not moving.  It is waiting for another train at a different location to get into a position so the one blocking traffic can move on.  

The railroad is the heart of the supply chain.  The volunteer we were talking to said people do not realize that and that things take time.  

Life span of a train car - locomotives, depending on the maker, last 40-80 years.  Freight cars last 40-60.

Here are some statistics for the Bailey Yard:

* The yard covers 2,850 acres, 8 miles long, 324 miles of track, 776 turnouts

* There are 17 receiving tracks and 16 departure tracks.  These handle 14,000 rail cars every 24 hours.

* 3,000 cars are sorted daily. 

* There are 114 “bowl tracks” where they sort the cars.

* The fueling and service center on site process more than 9,000 locomotives a month.  Each engine is inspected every 92 days. 

* The repair facility replaces 10,000 pairs of wheels a year. 

* 20 million gallons of diesel fuel is used monthly.  The interesting thing is the trains are electric, but the fuel is used to run the generator that creates the electric.

Once again a unique place along Route 80 as we work our way to Amana, IA. 

September catch up - Wyoming Frontier Prison

 It’s been a couple days since my last post because we have had a couple travel days and the one place we went, Wyoming Frontier Prison, was very interesting, but it was alot of facts and I was trying to figure out the best way to write it.  So I think I am just going to do a list rather than a narrative and in no particular order.

The prison was started in 1888 but due to difficulties with weather and funding it was not complete until 1901 and was open for 80 years.  That sounded like an impressive amount of time to me for something that opened in 1901.  

9 men were executed in this prison, 4 by hanging, 5 by gas chamber.  There was a man named Gallows who created a “contraption” for people to be executed by hanging.  He did it so that no one had to be the executor, the people executed themselves (kind of like a domino effect but with water). They did have to calculate the mans weight and whether it would break his neck. If not, they would add weights to the mans body to make sure that when the floor went out from under him there was enough weight to break his neck.   It would take 1-1 1/2 minutes for death to occur.  In the museum they had short pieces of rope from each of the men that were executed.

This is the model of the Gallows hanging apparatus.  The inmate would stand on the floor, water would drip from the side bucket up top to the one down the bottom and cause a lever to move the floor out from under the inmate.  I thought it was kind of creepy that you would be listening to the drips, not knowing which one was going to take the floor out from under you.

This is a picture of a portion of the actual Gallows apparatus.

The gas chamber was built in 1933 as a more humane way to execute prisoners.  The prisoner would pass out in 15-30 seconds and pass away in 2-5 minutes.  Present for these executions were the warden, a chemist and 2 physicians.  There was a little hole behind the chair in the gas chamber where a stethoscope line was put through so the two physicians could listen and pronounce the inmate dead.  

Gas chamber

Right behind the chair off to the right of the seam of the wall notice the hole for the stethoscope tube.

There were 11 women in the prison in the early 1900s.  They found it was too expensive to keep them separate, so the women were shipped to another prison in 1909.

One prisoner was in the prison 4 different times under four different names so he was not treated as a repeat offender.  They didn’t figure this out until many years later when looking at the history.

New inmates started out in the typical black and white uniform.  They earned gray uniforms and certain privileges with good behavior.

Inmates would be handcuffed to a pole and whipped with a rubber hose as punishment.  Why a rubber hose?  It left no marks.

The cells on the first block built were 5x7.  When they were overcrowded, there would be two prisoners in a cell with bunk beds.  

In 1914 toilets were added.  Before that they only had buckets.  

There was no heat in the building initially so it would get quite cold.  Even once they had heat, the warmest it was in the winter was 50 degrees inside.

When they added on the second cell block, the cells were 10x12 and they had 3 inmates in each cell.  This only lasted a short time because they found that the two biggest would pick on the 3rd, so they went to 2 men per cell.

There was no hot water in the facility until 1978.  Yes, 77 years of no hot water.  There were 30 guys at a time in the 10 showers.  Obviously they only showered when they really had to.  If they found a prisoner smelled, they would take them outside with a high powered hose.  So as an inmate it was a delicate balance of when to shower.  

The prison found various design flaws as time went on.  One was having the lightbulbs in the cell.  In one block the cells were deep enough that the inmate would unscrew the bulb and you couldn’t see what he was doing in the back of his cell.  They made sure the best behaved inmates were in these cells. 

There was an area for solitary confinement as punishment.  This was another lesson learned.  They found that the inmates tried to get in trouble to go to solitary because it was in a cell block that was warmer and you got peace and quiet.  So they turned these cells into laundry and storage. 

Cell Block B was the luxurious block because it had heat and water.  Punishment was to go to Cell Block A where the cells were smaller, there was no heat or water.  

The first kitchen was added in 1916.  This was the best job an inmate could have because it was warm.

The first kitchen had metal trays and also wood benches and tables.  They learned that metal trays were good weapons.  They also had an incident where the inmates moved all the benches and tables to a corner of the dining hall and set them on fire.  They then had metal benches and tables installed and they were bolted to the floor.

All prisoners had work assignments.  They had a factory on site that first made brooms, then shirts, then license plates.  There was one person who only had one hand.  They found out he could paint, so he did murals for the dining hall and other areas of the prison.  His murals had messages.  There was one of sheep and no matter where you walked in the room, the eyes seemed to look at you.  The message: In prison, someone is always watching.  There was another picture that had a railroad track.  No matter where you stood in the room you were always on the right side of the track.  The message: When you get out, stay on the right side of the tracks.

One story was about a lady who lived across from the prison.  Her grandson was in the prison so she would bring cookies for everyone.  When one inmate got out, he went to her house because she was the only person he knew.  He killed her for some reason.  He was then put back in the jail and the inmates provided the justice.  No one was blamed for the murder.  Moral of the story, don’t mess with my cookies.

There was one inmate who was able to “saw” through his cell bar with toothpaste on a rope.  He would get out, break into the commissary, steal items and then sell them to the inmates for a discount.  He made money and no one would rat him out cause they were getting things for less.  

The walls of the prison go 3 feet into the ground.  They were going to tear the prison down when it closed.  They tore down the factory, but then decided it was too expensive to do the rest and just abandoned the property.

The exercise yard had a full size baseball field.  They would have games with teams from around the state.  However, all of their games were home games.

Death row had 6 cells.  The most that were on death row at a time were one or two inmates.  The longest was on death row for 7 years, the shortest was 3 months.  Once you went on death row, you never went out of that death row area.  

In 1959 there were no inmates on death row, so they put the worst inmates up there.  The inmates broke out through the floor “hole” that was used for hangings back in the day.  They dug a tunnel and put the dirt in the ceiling to hide it.  At the end of the tunnel they kept hitting something hard.   One night they took a match to see what they were running into.  It was the gas line.  They were badly burned but did not die.  The inmates were put back in the regular cell blocks.  

One funny thing the tour guide said is not matter how many people they have on the tour, no one walks on the steel plate screwed in the floor that was the floor that went out from under for the hangings.

C Block was built in 1966 and this housed the worst people.  They had their own exercise yard with no bats and only one at a time could go out there.  There was a basketball net for them to use, but that’s it. 

C block you were in your cell 23 hours a day.  The bed was a solid concrete slab.  You got your mattress, pillow and blanket each night.  If you were bad, you did not get them and had to sleep just on the slab. 

In 1965 they added classrooms which taught K-12.  The classrooms replaced the “holes”.  One was a 5/7 sleeping cell.  You were completely in the dark and had nothing but a blanket and a hole in the floor to the open sewer to do your business.  The other hole was a 4x4x8 standing cell.  There was one inmate who was in the standing cell for two, one week stints in a row and ended up in the mental institution.  That’s when they figured the standing cell was too harsh. 

I found this very interesting learning about a life I could not even imagine.

Dave wanted this picture taken to say that he has finally gotten on my nerves sharing our camper space and so he was sent to prison.

If you are ever passing by Rawlins, WY on Route 80, I highly recommend this hour or so detour.

Fort Bridger, WY - September 24th

 Today we visited Fort Bridger Historic Site.  This location had five different eras: Mountainmen, Mormon, Military, Milk Barn and Museum.  There was a film that told about the different eras.  If you google Fort Bridger Historic Site, the whole history is there.  I am going to give you things I thought were interesting, as I could not get all the facts down through the film.

While we toured the museum a couple things stood out to me in quirky ways.

1)   They had a “possibles bag” displayed with the definition it was a bag that holds anything you might need.

2) In 1802 an act was passed giving legal recognition to laundresses, the only women recognized by army regulations.  This allowed them one daily ration consisting of meat, bread and whiskey.  All other goods and food had to be obtained from other sources. There was one laundress on average for every 19 1/2 soldiers.  One of the laundresses who worked at Fort Bridger was Calamity Jane.  (I am glad they allowed the whiskey as part of the rations, probably the main way to get through doing 19 1/2 peoples laundry)

After touring the museum, we headed out to see the buildings on the site.  

During the Mormon Era they had erected a wall around the fort as shown below. 

When the military regained the fort, they used part of the wall as the back of the commissary.  The wall was a weak point and started deteriorating, so they had to build a new commissary and the old one, with the deteriorated wall became a practice shooting range.  This picture shows how deep the building was using the mormon wall as the back.

This was not the only building they went for quantity, not quality.  They built a jail so bad the prisoners could practically walk out.  The jail was right next to the commissary which also allowed them to get the supplies they needed when they escaped to move on.  They did build a better prison in short order.  One funny thing from that was the bed in the guard area was very slanted and there was a little note that said the bed is slanted to insure that the guards would not fall asleep while on duty.  I couldn’t get a picture of the bed due to the barrier reflection, but I would have just laid with my head at the higher part. Seemed such an odd thing to me.  If you want them to be awake, don’t provide a bed at all.

Jim Bridger built a trading post at this location.  This little trading center changed the economy of the area in ways never before seen, giving better access for trade and barter between tribal peoples and the explorers and pioneers.  Soon almost all trails going west included Fort Bridger as a major stop.  

One thing they had on display was a rope making machine.  Today we don’t even think about how things are made, just take it for granted.  Imagine having to figure out a way to make stronger rope.  3 hooks and a crank.

This building was the barracks during the military era.  During the Milk Barn era it was where the cows were housed and milked.  Waste not, want not.  This building was built in 1887 and abandoned by the military in 1890, so lots more cows lived there than soldiers.

This is the Commanding Officers Quarters.  After the military abandoned the location the house was moved closer to the road and made into a hotel.  In the 1950s it was disassembled and stored. Then it was rebuilt on the original site in 1980.  Interesting that the house was dismantled and stored for 30 years.   

One other interesting fact about this house is the back kitchen and servants quarters were designed to be able to collapse away from the rest of the home if a fire started in the kitchen.  

This home was one type of officers quarters.  There were also six other officers quarters at the time where each officer had a bedroom and sitting room with a hall between the other officer.  There was a shared kitchen and dining.  These were one story log buildings.

The Commanding officers quarters and the officers quarters were on the opposite sides of the creek from the soldiers quarters.  In the jail it said that soldiers could be jailed for crossing over the bridge to the officers side without permission.  Thought they were all on the same team?

William Carter who came with the army was a storekeeper and eventually became wealthy due to many businesses he started in the area.  Due to his wealth he built several buildings that were not common in the west at the time. 

 1) a school house - so his kids could be educated.  He hired a very good teacher and his kids were accepted to colleges in the east.  

2) a milk house - a processing and storage facility for luxury dairy products.  They did not state what luxury dairy products of the time were.

3) Wash house - this served two purposes, allowed the family to bathe in relative comfort and also housed the new fangled washing machine for the servants to use.

The other thing that was on the site is from when the Lincoln Highway was new and the major way west.  These cabins were built to accommodate all the new travelers.  The significant thing about the cabins is they each had a garage to store your automobile. 

Tomorrow is a travel day.

Til next time…

Catch up - September 20-23

 September 20th was a travel day from Montrose, CO to Salt Lake City, UT.  We visited friends from Grad school on the 20th.  We got to meet their chickens this time and catch up even more.  We hadn’t seen them in about 15 years and on this trip have seen them twice in a little over a month.  Thanks for the visit Hal, Carol and Mary Claire.  

Saturday the 21st we went to Night Lights.  We learned about this from Andrew and Krystal, as they went to it in Pennsylvania.  So we had found one in Salt Lake when we were doing our planning back in May and decided to make it part of our adventure.  There was music, cornhole, food trucks of all kinds, some local crafters to keep you busy til dark.  Then the main event is everyone releasing paper lanterns into the night sky.  Here are a couple pics and Dave did a video.  It was a really cool experience. 

It was a very pretty setting to hang out in

As the sun started to set

Sunday, 9/22 was football and chore day.  To our surprise, the Eagles won — go Birds.  

We also walked around the campground and saw something we had never seen before.  People travel with pets, but how about this kitty set up so that the cats can go in and out of the camper for fresh air but not go wandering.  Notice there are two kitties sitting outside. 

Today we are traveling from Salt Lake to Fort Bridger, WY.  Our next “rock” is Amana, IA for two camper related events.  So this week is traveling there and enjoying some sites along the way.

Til next time…

Canyonlands National Park - September 19th

 Today we did two hikes and a short viewpoint walk in Canyonlands National Park.  It is a lesser known park than Arches, but has a beauty all its own.

The first hike we did was the Murphy Trail.  I took some pictures of the flowers on the trail.  The cactus you expect, but the yellow and purple flowers have been in many of the desert settings and thrive and I haven’t given them their moment in the spotlight.

It may be hard to see in the picture but the “needles” on the cactus were quite long.  Wouldn’t want to be poked by it.

The trees and some of the plants sure look like they are growing out of stone. They take advantage of every crevice.

We went part way on the trail and saw some great views.  However, we turned around when we saw other people ahead walking the trail and didn’t like how steep and high drop off it was.  Enjoy what you see along the trail and listen to your brain as to when to stop.  Here are picks from as far as we went.

To give an idea why we stopped the wall straight ahead is where the trail was.

The layers and the indented area are art in themselves

The second hike was the Aztec Butte Trail.  There were two different buttes, one had an Aztec structure and one was for the views.  We started with the view butte.  It was a climb on rock up to the top for the view.  We did a little over 3/4 of the way up and that was our limit.  It was hard to tell where to go from where we stopped and it was even more straight up than the part we already did.  I had already bear climbed some on the way up and was done playing bear.  On the way down I scooted on my butt for a bit as I was not comfortable standing and walking.  Dave said it was a self expansion hike. 

Me walking to the butte that challenged me

Picture from as high up as we went.

This is the view from the height we got to.

If you look in the upper white layer you will see a person on each side of greenery (tree).  That is the tree where we chilled and then turned around.  Not too shabby

After that we climbed up on the butte that had the Aztec structure, but you had to go down and across an area that was quite steep.  At that point between having already done the really steep butte and there being 4 people in the area of the building and not much room to view it, we passed on actually seeing it.  The views were really good from the top of the butte though.  

View from the butte

Information and a picture about the Aztec bldg.  You should be able to click and enlarge if interested,

This was a formation when I went down to try to see the Aztec bldg.  Just thought it was really cool.

We then stopped at Spring overlook on our way out.  This area had views looking down in the canyon.  There was a gentleman looking over the edge and said he only saw 2 bodies.  It was pretty funny, though his wife didn’t think so.  From here you could also see the dirt roads you could take down into the canyon.  There is 100 miles of roads in the bottom of the canyon.  Lots of places in the area rent jeeps or provide jeep tours.  We were watching one jeep go down very slowly.  If I were the driver, I wouldn’t see much.  If I were the passenger, I would be car sick.  We are just not very high adventure people. 

There is a jeep on the road between the two lower rock formations.  Yes, it’s the dot.

We then headed to town to fill up on gas for our travel day to Salt Lake tomorrow and stopped at Moab Brewery for a beer and pretzel.

In Salt Lake we are visiting friends and going to a Lantern Festival, so will most likely hear from me again on Sunday.  

Til next time…