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.
-Written by Seth McFarland
Many travelers pass by the impressive limestone monument west of Dubois every day. The monument sits on top of a small hill overlooking the Triangle C Ranch and the Wind River on one side, and Highway 26 on the other. The Triangle C Ranch is the site of the original tie hack camp on the Wind River. A few paths lead to the top of the mound and the monument. The monument was created in 1946 as a tribute from the Wyoming Tie and Timber Company to the generations of resilient men who served as tie hacks in the forests surrounding the memorial. These woodsmen and rivermen cut, shaped and delivered the wooden railroad ties for the railroads that opened the American West. The monument was placed next to the grave of the logging teamster Bob Phillips who was killed in 1915. He was one of only two killed in the history of the Wyoming Tie and Timber Company.
The twelve-foot memorial features a tie hack in bas relief with a broadaxe and saw in the foreground, and in the background is a skidder team pulling a log, and a river man with a pike pole on a tie drive. At the base of the sculpture is a plaque which reads “Erected to perpetuate the memory of the hardy woods and river men who made and delivered the cross ties for the building and maintenance of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway in the western country – Wyoming Tie and Timber Company.” The monument is a three-and-a-half-ton block of Bedford limestone from Indiana which was also the preferred stone for the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, and the National Cathedral, and popular for monuments of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Boris Gilbertson was the sculptor contracted to carve the monument which was erect and dedicated in 1948. The dedication service that year brought hundreds of people including members of the Forest Service and the railroad. At the time, Gilbertson was 37 and married to the daughter of Ricker Van Metre who was the president of the Wyoming Tie and Timber Company. The monument was improved and rededicated in 1974 through the cooperation of the U.S. Forest Service, the Wyoming Recreation Commission, the Wyoming Highway Department, the Federal Highway Administration and the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation.
Boris Gibertson was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1907. He studied art at the School of Art Institute of Chicago, and his preferred mediums were in stone and metal, although he created a number of Sumi brush paintings as well. After college, Gilbertson “bummed around a lot.” These were his words from a 1964 interview by the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art. He worked for various railroads and used his knowledge of working with stone to cut train tunnels. After that, Gilbertson began sculpting reliefs for the Federal Art Project through the New Deal for public buildings, including post offices, courthouses, and other government buildings. Many of his public works can be found at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the National Gallery of Art. One of his most popular pieces can be found at the Department of the Interior’s Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C. Other works can be found in Chicago, Wisconsin and New Mexico. He moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1960, and died in 1982.
Franklin Roosevelt’s administration New Deal agencies created opportunities for artists and is credited with creating a body of work and creating a national aesthetic. Although Gilbertson was a New Deal artist, the only sculptures listed under the New Deal in Wyoming are the two young grizzly bears at the Yellowstone Main Post Office in Mammoth created by Colorado sculptor Gladys Fisher.
Next up for the Fremont County Museum
Thru December, 9-5 at the Riverton Museum, “History Day Exhibits” Shoshone Schools
January 24, 3-5pm at the Pioneer Museum “Sweetwater Ranch Life, The Paintings of Jack Corbett” Exhibition Opening
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 through the Wind River Cultural Centers Foundation www.windriverccf.com or by sending a check to Fremont County Museums 450 N 2nd Rm 320 or taking it directly to the museum you choose to support.