The Weston County Chapter of the Wyoming State Historical Society hosted the 2005 Wyoming State Historical Society Trek.  The trek focused on the era of settlement and ranching south of Upton, Wyoming.  Don Gose, long time resident of Weston County, planned and led the trek that began June 24th with a presentation of the 1876 Indian Trail through northeast Wyoming.  Don Gose and Lee Martens, another long time resident of Weston County and Upton, researched the trail and its historical significance.  Native Americans occupied the Powder River Basin, the Black Hills, and the wider area of the plains for many years before Wyoming became a territory and state.  One of the marks in northeast Wyoming was a trail of migration by the Native Americans.  Gose and Martens located the trail using physical signs on the plains and interviewing people that remember the trail in the early 1900’s.

            On June 25th, the trek visited the railroad area of Upton, Wyoming, originally known as Merino.  It was first established in 1889 as a siding along the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad.  In 1902 because of confusion with another railroad town by the same name in Colorado, Merino changed its name to Upton. Upton’s history centers around its people and places.  One of those people was Walter K. “Jarbo” Paulson, the person responsible for the Red Onion Saloon and Red Onion Ranch.  Another of those people was Frank Eugene Burdick, Sr., a homesteader, businessman, and writer.  Another was Dub Meek, bull whacker, gold prospector, cattle rancher, Wyoming legislator, and family man.  One place that was visited was the Clareton Hall, also known as the Progressive Anns Hall

            Part of the trek focused on the life and death of Tom Wagoner, an early settler in Weston County.  His death in the spring of 1891 has been called by some historians as the first shot fired in the Johnson County War.
            There were other fights and murders in Weston County in the early 1900’s, too.  The stories mirrored other crimes in Wyoming at that time.  Upton’s history was tainted with the killing of Charlie Minter in 1907 and George Brock in 1910.  Minter was shot by George Brock on September 30, 1905, after the two exchanged gunfire near the livery stable in Upton.  George Brock was shot by Mr. McCommis on August 22, 1910, after the two argued at McCommis’ ranch on Beaver Creek southwest of Upton, Wyoming.  Copies of parts of the Coroner’s Inquests of Brock and Minters deaths shed light on the often tragic lives of early Wyoming people.

            Northeast Wyoming was home to many sheep ranches in the early 1900’s.  Rails and trails dotted Weston County where sheep ranching was prominent.  The trek visited the area of the shearing pens at Merino, the original site of the Gose Butte shearing pens, and the Grunky homestead, where a hand dug water well still exists.
           

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