A series where we take a #lookback at the stories and history of our community, brought to you by Mick Pryor, Financial Advisor with Edward Jones.
Intrepid is an adjective that was used to describe Jack Gaylor in a contemporary newspaper article. He was a fearless and adventurous soul who lived in Fremont County for a few years, but his life’s story began in Tennessee in January of 1850.Throughout his life he never stayed put for long. He married his first wife, Sarah Elizabeth Pendleton when he was just 17 in Texas. The couple soon moved to Arkansas but migrated to Placerville, California where Jack worked in the gold fields until 1876. The family now with two daughters in tow moved to Cheyenne where Jack found work driving a stagecoach from Cheyenne to Deadwood hitched up with a team of six horses. Calamity Jane is said to have worked that same route. It was a dangerous route during the years of the Indians Wars with many stories of highwaymen and attacks from hostile Sioux and Cheyenne during the two years he drove the stage. Jack met the Durbin brothers, who owned a spread of land around Cheyenne, probably while he was driving the stage. Jack worked as a cowboy with their outfit until 1880 when he was hired by the War Department to haul freight to the calvary posts in Wyoming and South Dakota.
While working for the War Department Jack spent some time at Fort Washakie and became familiar with the Lander Valley. Jack also had some mining interests at South Pass and spent some time in New Mexico prospecting for gold. By 1885 Sarah and Jack wanted to settle down on a place of their own and homesteaded at the scenic mouth of Sinks Canyon. They built a cabin and planted an orchard. A son was born to the couple in 1881, but unfortunately, Sarah passed away December 26, 1886. She was buried in the Borner Garden cemetery up Sinks Canyon. Jack’s daughters were young teenagers and his son was only 5 when the children lost their mother. Jack remarried in 1890. He was frequently away from home, and his new wife could not get along with her stepdaughters. Jack filed for divorce based on desertion and the couple went their separate ways. Jack sold his homestead in 1895 and evidently moved to Rongis, a stage station on the Sweetwater River. Jack was known to be an excellent hunter and trapper. In January of 1880 it was reported in the local paper he had killed three elk and five mountain sheep in one week. He also trapped wolves and coyotes for their pelts.
According to a Clipper article published in 1898 Jack was making plans to search for gold in the Klondike, but as Jack was approaching his 50th birthday tension broke out when the battleship Maine exploded in Havana Harbor and Spain and the United States went to war. Jack found different opportunities for adventure and abandoned his plan to search for gold in the Klondike, so he enlisted with the Torrey Rough Riders as a freighter and left to fight in the Spanish American War. He would never return to Wyoming. That group of Wyoming calvary met with disaster on the train trip south when their train derailed and killed and injured several men in the Torrey Rough Riders. Later, Jack went to Cuba as part of the occupation force.
Jack married for a third time while in Georgia. His wife, Elizabeth, was 16 years younger than Jack. She stayed in Georgia while he was sent to the Philippines. After his tour in the Philippines he was sent to the Presidio in San Francisco where he ran pack trains into Yosemite. Because of his abilities with horses and his skills in the outdoors he was offered a job as one of the first park rangers in Yosemite in 1907. The job paid $900 per year. His duties included fighting forest fires, enforcing the law, protecting the wildlife from poachers, handyman and rescuer when necessary. Jack died in April of 1921 while sitting around a campfire. Today, Gaylor Peak, Gaylor Basin and Gaylor Lakes in Yosemite Park are named after this former first ranger and former Wyoming resident who just couldn’t resist adventure.
Next up for the Fremont County Museum
December 14, 6-8pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Old Fashioned Christmas” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
December 21, 6-8pm at the Riverton Museum, “Ghosts of Christmas Past: Alma Law” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
December 17, 7pm at the Pioneer Museum, “PREZ ervation: the Art of Al Hubbard” Opening reception for an exhibition focused on the Art of Al Hubbard
Call the Dubois Museum 1-307-455-2284, the Pioneer Museum 1-307-332-3339 or the Riverton Museum 1-307-856-2665 for detail regarding their programs.
The Dubois Museum, the Pioneer Museum in Lander and the Riverton Museum need your financial support. In the current economic environment, the museums are more reliant than ever on donations from the private sector to continue to provide the quality programs, collections management, exhibits and services that have become their hallmark over the last four years. Please make your tax deductible contribution to be used specifically for the benefit of the museum of your choosing by sending a check to Fremont County Museums 450 N 2nd Rm 320 or taking it directly to the museum you choose to support.