They advertised it as “The Biggest Event in the History of the American West,” but it fell a little short of the hype. On August 13, 1917, the largest predator roundup to ever take place in Wyoming began in the pre-dawn hours southeast of Riverton.
The Farlow Wolf Roundup as it was called was the dreamchild of Ed Farlow and John Astor Delfelder. Both were well known sheep ranchers, and Delfelder was the Wyoming Sheep Commissioner.
The plan was to create a giant circle of riders on horseback and in automobiles and gradually close the circle, forcing predators and game animals alike into a 10-acre enclosure. The plan almost worked, but as the adage goes, the “Devil is in the details.”
The American sheep industry was at its height in the 1890s, and Wyoming, especially Fremont and Sweetwater Counties, were major producers. With a statewide sheep population estimated at 4.5 million head in 1900, Wyoming was the third leading state behind Texas and California.
The opening of the Wind River Reservation to homesteading north of the Wind River in 1906 began to reduce the number of sheep as potato, barley, and oat farming began along the rivers and creeks with water supplied by early ditches, but wool and lamb production remained the largest industry in Fremont County.
America’s entry into the “Great War,” as World War I was called, on April 4, 1917, gave the sheep industry a huge boost. It boosted agricultural, oil and mineral production as well, all key components of Fremont County’s early economy.
In 1917, there were an estimated 4,000,000 sheep in Wyoming, with predation losses estimated at three percent. Three percent doesn’t sound like much, but that equates to 120,000 ewes and lambs eaten by predators, primarily coyotes, each year.
In that uniquely American way of wrapping yourself around the flag while promoting your business, Delfelder supported the wolf roundup as a way to get publicity for his plan to get funding for a national predator act from the U.S. House of Representatives. He had strong support from personal friend Representative Frank Mondell of Newcastle, also a sheepman.
Mondell was the driving force behind setting aside 1.5 million acres of the Wind River Reservation for homesteading in the McLaughlin agreement in 1906 and was a huge supporter of irrigation projects across the west, particularly in Fremont County.
He served as chairman of House Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands for two terms and was a member of the Public Lands Committee. Mondell eventually rose to House Majority Leader in his final two terms in office. He was a powerful ally.
In June of 1917, Farlow Wolf Roundup Corporation was created in a meeting at Delfelder’s office in Riverton. Farlow was elected president, and Delfelder vice-president. Board members were John Carmody, Marshall Graham, and William Pyne. Harry J. Hall served as secretary.
The plans laid out over the next few weeks were ambitious for the day. The corporation opened with $5,000 in front money donated by the board members. It offered public stock at $5 per share for a total offering of $25,000.
Rounding up predators and generating publicity were the only designs of the corporation. Publicity came easily with area newspapers, but Farlow had connections to Hollywood and motion pictures that would create a more sensational advertisement than small local newspapers could ever hope to achieve.
The committee created a motion picture committee with J.P. Buckley, Farlow, and Stub Farlow as members.
Rather than risk any more of their money on hiring riders they offered stock in the corporation to anyone who signed on for the roundup.
Riders were paid $10 in stock, team and car drivers $20, and captains $50. Eight captains were selected, and each one was responsible for 75 riders working in a designated 45-degree section of the mile-diameter circle.
One of the more creative ideas in this proposed slaughter of coyotes, wolves, bobcats, badgers and cougars was the circling of an airplane above a 10-acre corral at the center point of the roundup circle.
The war was on, and an aircraft couldn’t be located, instead, a tethered balloon several hundred feet in the air would serve as a marker. That wasn’t easy to achieve either. A July 27, 1917, story in the Wyoming State Journal explained the situation:
Balloons Causing Trouble
“The committee has had quite a lot of trouble in locating a balloon to mark the corral for the riders. The Biological Survey was expected to loan an aircraft, but the war has taken all It had. Several supply houses have submitted prices and there will be a balloon on the ground.
“However, just how they will git It filled has not been decided There was quite an argument at the directors meeting about how to get the gas out to the corral where the balloon Is to be anchored. Some thoughts were suggested that they bring the balloon to Riverton and let it fill Itself. The Riverton delegation did not take kindly to this scheme and the gas will probably be shipped in drums
“1917, the wolves and coyotes in Fremont County were killing sheep and cows of the stockmen in the area. The stockmen held a meeting and Edward Farlow was selected as the president of a wolf roundup. After doing some research, Edward decided he could rally about 600 riders to participate in the wolf roundup. The stockmen decided on a 30-mile-wide piece of land east of Lander and south of Riverton to hold the wolf roundup. The 600 riders were divided into 8 companies of 75 people. The companies created a circle around the 30-mile-wide piece of land and began herding the wildlife into the center. A large corral was set up in the center for the wildlife to be driven into by the riders.“
The publicity committee contracted with the Selznick Motion Picture Company of Los Angeles to film the roundup and take still photographs of the event. The Selznick company moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles the year before and was hungry for contracts.
His son, David O. Selznick went on to Hollywood fame as producer of the blockbuster epic, “Gone With the Wind.”
Legend has it that Isabelle Jewell, daughter of Dr. Emery Lee Jewell of Shoshoni was a spectator at the gathering corral that day. She was just 10 years old at the time but would meet Selznick’s son David on the set of Gone With the Wind, where she played the role of Emmy Slattery.
Since the event was billed as “The Biggest Event in the History of the American West,” the role of Native Americans in the success of the roundup was vital. That’s where Ed Farlow came into the picture.
Sometime in the early 1890s, Ed met Arapaho elder Goes In Lodge. Ed was married to Lizzie Lamoreaux, the niece of the Sioux war chief Gall, one of the planners and leaders of the victory over Custer. Lizzie was born on Christmas Eve, 1864, at Fort Laramie. Her father, Jules, was a Frenchman, and her mother, Woman Dress, was Gall’s younger sister.
Farlow and Goes In Lodge became lifelong friends. The Hollywood connection grew strong with Ed when in 1909, future Hollywood cowboy star Tim McCoy rode into the Wind River Country for the first time. Born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1891, McCoy was a freshman studying Latin with a presumed path to Catholic priesthood when the urge to go west struck him. Without telling his parents, he bought a train ticket west and ended up in Lander.
Fascinated by the West portrayed in dime novels, McCoy sought work as a cowboy and was hired a few days after arriving in Lander.
McCoy was quick to notice how many ranchers and their hired men looked down on the Arapaho. “They treated them disparagingly and often with haughty attitudes,” McCoy said. He didn’t share that sentiment and didn’t care for it at all.
He treated the Natives he encountered with respect, as equals, and was fascinated by their culture but couldn’t communicate with them.
Farlow learned sign language many years before and was able to communicate in this universal language of the plains with members of the Sioux, Arapaho, Shoshone, Cheyenne, and Crow tribes.
Ed arranged with his Arapahoe friends, and Shoshone acquaintances to present a wolf dance and had many Native men riding horses on the roundup.
A special delegation of Arapahoe bear hunters was assigned to Delfelder’s team in the probable event that the roundup flushed a black bear out of hiding.
The corral was built on Delfelder’s Buck Camp near the modern-day Poston Ranch southeast of Riverton. Delfelder had many established buildings on his ranch, including a large warehouse.
The corral in place was made of wood rails and not large enough to use as a capture area. Workers built a 10-acre corral with a circumference of a half mile. Multiple gates and catchment chutes were placed around the large circle to guide driven animals inside the enclosure. A total of 130 fence posts, and a half mile of five-foot high woven wire fencing was used to build the corral at a cost of $100 for the fence and $75 for the post and staples. That equates to nearly $4,500 in today’s dollars.
Delfelder’s contribution to the project was ample.
Everything was in place by August. Countdowns in local newspapers spurred interest in the event.
Beginning on August 8 many people began to arrive at the train stations in Shoshoni, Riverton, Hudson and Lander. Hotels in all four towns were full and business boomed.
The original eight companies swelled to 17 as more prominent ranchers from Moneta to Dubois joined the roundup.
On the morning of the 13th, the day opened with crowds beyond all expectations. An estimated 700 cars showed up with an attendance of 3500 people in automobiles alone. A couple more thousand showed up in carriages, farm wagons and on horseback to witness the spectacle. 
Not everything went as predicted. Automobiles broke down in the sandy soil, riders didn’t maintain their distances and hundreds, perhaps thousands of coyotes escaped through the gaps. The Riverton Review report the results in a story the following Friday, August 17
“The companies were all more than filled and the day started off as scheduled, the line advancing in splendid order with much game ahead of It until nearing the end when they broke the formation and allowed many of the coyotes to escape. Nevertheless, over one hundred were destroyed, numbers of companies killing several and bringing in only the bounty markings.
“Inexperienced riders and failure to comply with instructions is given as the reason for the drive not being a complete success. Another roundup in held in two about two months which will cover a smaller area, only experienced men allowed to participate and a somewhat different program pursued.“
The final tally was 104 coyotes killed, one wolf destroyed, one elk captured, a dozen antelope, one black bear, 500 cattle and 2,000 feral horses trapped in the corral.
The coyotes were almost all females with pups. The older male coyotes and wolves were still in the higher summer range.
The wolf was surrounded and killed by Delfelder’s hounds before arriving at the corral. The exhausted black bear was roped and released repeatedly by cowboys before it was finally allowed to escape from the capture facility. The elk was roped and released as well and the antelope remained on display for the crowd for a few hours before a gate was opened and they returned to their range.
Delfelder’s hounds were busy that day. The Selznick crew filmed a lengthy battle between one of the dogs and a large rattlesnake before the hound finally prevailed.
The cattle and horses were identified and taken by their owners or claimed by area ranchers.
Riverton’s 11th anniversary was celebrated beginning the next day with a baseball game between the locals and team of miners from Gebo.
Riverton won Tuesday’s game and Gebo took the Wednesday contest in 10 innings. Riverton paid the travel, lodging and food expenses for the Gebo team.
The Hoyt brothers did some fancy exhibition shooting at the Riverton fairgrounds and Stub Farlow entertained the crowd with trick roping that he was famous for across the west. The Selznick film crew recorded many of the activities and produced a panoramic image of the large crowds in attendance.
Many varied contests were held and the winners of each were announced, with Stub winning many of them.
Hat Race – Stub Farlow first, Glen Jones, second
Pony Race – 14 ½ hands high – Ned Austin, first, Tishura Amboh, second
Stake Race – Stub Farlow, first, Cliff Syrie, second
Mule Race – Howard Moon, first, Cliff Syrie, second
Bucking Contest – C. W. Beckle horse rode by Charles Summers, first, Ernest Whitman horse rode by Lonnie McAdams, second
Shetland Pony Race – ¼ mile – L.W. Burch, first, Jack Fowler, second
Cow Pony Race – Ned Austin, first, Willie Allen, second
Chicken Race – Joe Deshaw
Shap Race – Willie Allen, first, Glen Jones, second
The Riverton Town Band performed at the corner of Third and Main throughout the day and Native dancers, in full regalia, danced along Main Street. Proceeds from the day’s events went toward the purchase of a street sprinkler used to keep down the dust on the dirt streets of Riverton.
Despite all the driving, riding, shooting, roping and cowboying antics, there wasn’t a single injury reported all week.
The Selznick film was released in November, with showings at the Dixie Theater in Lander and the Acme in Riverton. It was also shown at the Rialto Theater in Casper.
The film was a bit harsh for today’s tastes, with close-up images of Delfelder’s hounds ripping the wolf apart, and images of cornered coyotes clubbed, or shot at close range.
The shows themselves were indicative of the racism of the age with different showtimes for Native Americans and whites.
The Native Americans were entertained with two afternoon matinees at the Acme Theater with the first beginning at 3 pm, while white audiences had the chance to see the film at 7:30 pm, with a following showing once the theater was cleared. The local reviews were ecstatic.
Riverton Chronicle November 22, 1917
CAPACITY CROWDS SEE WOLF DRIVE PICTURES AND ARE DELIGHTED
“The Acme Theater–was crowded to capacity at both performances on Monday and Tuesday nights when the pictures of the Farlow Wolf Drive of last summer was shown for the first time to the public in Riverton. They proved interesting from start to finish and will be a great advertisement for Fremont County.
“Aside from the lesson they teach with regard to the destruction of stock by predatory wild animals, they show to advantage the scenic beauty of the county. One of the features of this picture was the killing of rattlesnakes by the Delfelder hounds, giving a battle royal between the reptile and the hound; another was when J.A. Delfelder, who has a grievance of many years standing against the coyotes, got busy in a comer of the corral with a club and rapped the coyotes on the head with a club with sufficient force to lay them out with a single stroke.”
There were other smaller roundups, but none compared with the excess, excitement and pageantry of this first one.
Mundell was able to get funding in Washington, D.C. for predator control and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service still funds government hunting in limiting predators that prey on livestock.
Hollywood returned with Ed Farlow and Arapahoe elder Goes in Lodge working with western silent film actor Tim McCoy a few years later, but there was never again something like the Farlow Wolf Roundup in Fremont County.