Malcolm's Global Trip: Day 7

Day 7 would see us travelling down the state of Wyoming to the state capitol Cheyenne. Along the way we had 3 stops lined up: The Anna Miller Museum, Fort Laramie and the Chugwater Soda Fountain.

The Anna Miller museum is another opportunity to hop back in the time of the old west. It's been around since the 1930s and is located in the town of Newcastle. Anna Miller was the daughter of a pioneer family and the wife of the town Sheriff. He was killed in the last Indian battle in this area. The museum consists of a huge building that takes you back in time and makes me wonder at which point a hoarder becomes an archivist? I guess when they display it nicely and open the doors, which is exactly what they've done here. Whilst the group dove into the museum I thought I'd explore the grounds first before hitting the museum.

After a decent drive we arrived at Fort Laramie, which begun as a private fur trading post in 1834 but then became the largest and most famous military post on the northern plains. The site contains period buildings, like the museum furnished to the period. I was expecting a fort with a wooden fencing like on the telly but was surprised to find it much more open. It was a nice brief stop.

The final planned stop was to the Chugwater Soda Fountain proides itself on being Wyoming's oldest and still operating soda fountain. They make sodas, shakes and malts in the same way they were done at the turn of the century (the last century that is). It has been here since around 1916 so has passed it's century which is incredible. Intended as a stop to see a bit of Americana history we couldn't resist the opportunity to buy one of their drinks. I got a marshmallow malted shake which was lovely!

When we arrived in Cheyenne our hotel was a little distance away from downtown where all the eateries are so our driver kindly dropped us off and that gave me an opportunity to visit another state capitol building, something that I seem to be doing on every US trip of late.

Goodbye Cheyenne hotel. (morning photo as it was too dark when we arrived)

Arriving at the Anna Miller Museum

A number of period buildings sit opposite the museum. You couldn't fully enter them but you could take photos. I liked the log cabin but also that the class size seemed to be more than manageable, unlike today.

Not part of the museum but the family have built a beautiful plantation-style building overlooking it. Speaking to the owners it had recently been completed.

Another caboose, these are in museums as these aren't in operation any more but were abundant in the past. The raised window offered guards the ability to see along the length of the train in case any outlaws were jumping on.

I spotted a graveyard close to the museum and a quick chat with the staff revealed that Anna was buried in it. So I thought it would be worthwhile trying to find the grave. Fortunately one of the ladies there (and family member) agreed to walk me to it. What's interesting is that Anna and Billy, her husband share the same gravestone with their engravings on either side. There's a child buried on the same plot and it's always sad when you see the death year being the same as the birth.

There's only one mausoleum in the grave belonging to a couple of Macedonians.

I liked that they recognised some of the characters of the town and not just the most famous.

Within the musuem they've got an incredible collection of historical items. In places like this I always wonder how much value there is in places like this? As I type this I've got American Pickers on in the background and they're paying hundreds for things going back 50 years, I can only imagine there would be extra zeroes for this stuff. The cooker is pretty cool...

...as was this early technics ;)

There's a palaeontology collection dedicated to a young lad called Caleb who was passionate about dinosaurs and who died recently. I thought this was a great thing to do, to immortalise someone who went too soon for as long as the museum exists.

I was impressed with the museum, primarily for the effort that went into it the collection but the staff were super friendly.

For lunch we stopped off at a wonderful little restaurant that had I passed on my own trip we'd have not given it the time of day. It's on the way to Fort Laramie and is called the Fort Laramie American Grill. We had an exclusive residency here as there was only room for our group. Clearly the restaurant had seen better days but I think the owners who have been here for a long long time had finally decided to sell up. The male owner was much like the lady who run the hotel from a few days ago; super friendly and personal.

Inside the interior was a celebration of Americana, we even had Elvis playing on the TV. The food was pretty decent too.

After lunch it was a short hop to Fort Laramie.

This appeared to be nothing more than a selection of buildings on an expanse of open land.

There's a tourist centre which has a number of films and a small museum that helped set the scene and give an overview of the fort. I loved the Lucifer Pipe.

Some of the buildings are furnished with period pieces, most are roped off so you can't get too close.

Some are ruins like this hospital that overlooked a lot of the other buildings.

My biggest disappointment of this site, not knowing anything about it until I arrived was that there was no fort wall like I thought all forts had. What I thought I'd get and what I'd actually get were actually different. Fortunately there was a sign explaining why there wasn't one (too expensive to cut the trees, which weren't in the area anyway). Instead this place relied on a trench defence system.

The buildings were beautifully reconstructed and looked great but there wasn't much to do other than walk from one to the other...but I know that's what an outdoor museum is. Perhaps I've been spoiled by theme parks where live actors are used to make the experience more immersive.

Maybe I deserve to be locked up for not taking the place seriously.

Next stop was Chugwater, along the way we passed one of these very long trains which are commonplace around middle America.

The fountain is in the middle of nowhere and again a stop that could easily be overlooked by those driving around here. If you are doing this route, drop by!

The interior looked like the building used to be a pharmacy before becoming what it is now and whilst pokey the staff were very welcoming...a common theme that we were seeing as we visited more and more of the Americana places on this tour. I was appreciating that if you look beyond the corporate America that I don't like, this is the America that I do like...I still like their National Parks more.

The marshmallow malted shake was great!

I had a little explore behind the fountain and found another caboose and an unusual windmill. Having visited the windmill museum on a previous trip I'm more aware of these things now, but being very careful not to geek about it. The Chugwater Soda Fountain was a great little stop.

After check-in we made our way to downtown Cheyenne and I had planned to eat and visit the Capitol building but seeing murals like this I knew I had to do some exploring too.

This was the only other mural that I found, but what a find! An incredible piece on a huge wall.

I liked the old style cinema.

For dinner I had a quick stop in 2 Doors Down, a burger joint that had been highly rated. I loved the old Dr Pepper bottle and the food wasn't bad. They offer unlimited fries but I was stuffed after one serving so didn't capitalise on that at all. I think I confused the staff with my accent, I was getting a few looks on getting back to my table; all good :)

A nice painted phone exchange box.

Some nice statues around the downtown as I made my way up to the capitol building.

The building was impressive but like a lot of big buildings in the US, buried behind scaffolding. This was a shame but c'est la vie!

Whilst trying to find more murals and failing, and with the light level getting too low to photograph them anyway I thought I'd explore the more livelier part of downtown and found an amazing pinball hall. So a good chunk of the time before pick up was spent in here. I think this is becoming mandatory on all holidays now :D

There were a number of painted cowboy boots around the city, having gone into full "gotta get them all" with London's Elephant Parade in 2010 I am pleased that I no longer feel the need to do that with other collections like this.