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Cora, Wyoming: A Brief History of a Rural Western Community

“Wyoming’s Upper Green River Valley was settled by homesteading cattle and sheep ranchers. Distances between the homesteads were significant, and travel was challenging on the unimproved wagon roads. Small communities offering a post office, store, and school were vital to the land-locked ranchers. In the Valley’s 140-year history, approximately thirty-seven small communities existed throughout this vast area. Cora was one of these communities.

Cora has survived to the present and stands as the oldest remaining unincorporated community in Sublette County. It has survived through a move, literally, buildings and all, the Great Depression, the transition to motorized travel, two world wars, economic competition from other towns, and two attempts to close the post office by the United States Postal Service. It has survived because there has always been a dedicated property caretaker – and because there has always been a community.

In 2017, the Cora Townsite was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This was made possible by the Sublette County Historic Preservation Board who asked local historian, Ann Chambers Noble, to write the nomination. Much of that history is presented in this publication. This is about Cora, and more. It’s a great story of a typical small, rural, Wyoming community that has survived for 130 years.”
– Clint Gilchrist

President, Sublette County Historic Preservation Board “Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in April, 2017 the Cora Townsite was the center for economic and civic activity for the surrounding area. More importantly it was the center for people to come together and share stories and hardships, to talk about news and current events, and to help look after one another. The story of the Cora Townsite is seen in numerous communities across the rural West.”
-Brian Beadles
Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer
Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office

Ann Chambers Noble lives in Cora with her husband, a great grandson of James M. Noble. They raised their four daughters on parts of the original family homesteads. Ann received a B.A. in history from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and an M.A. in history from the University of Utah. She is the author of several books about Wyoming history. Ann is on the Wyoming State Review Board for the National Register of Historic Places.

Crow Killer

Crow Killer The Saga of Liver Eating Johnson

Paperback, 192 pages, 8 x 5 inches

Indiana University Press, 1983

ISBN – 978-0-253-02083-3

Much of the world now knows mountain man John Johnson as Robert Redford in the movie Jeremiah Johnson. The real Johnson was a far cry from the Redford version. Standing 6’2″ in his stocking feet and weighing nearly 250 pounds, he was a mountain man among mountain men, one of the toughest customers on the western frontier. One morning in 1847 he returned to his Rocky Mountain trapper’s cabin to find the remains of his murdered Indian wife and her unborn child, who has been killed by Crow Indians. He vowed vengeance against an entire Indian tribe.

Dear Deer

Clever Aunt Ant has just moved to the zoo. In a letter to her DEAR friend, DEER, she describes the quirky animal behavior she sees. There’s the MOOSE who loves MOUSSE and ATE EIGHT bowls, and the WHALE who is ALLOWED to WAIL ALOUD. And that’s just for starters!

ISBN – 978-0-312-62899-4

40 Pages

Square Fish – Henry Holt and Company, 2007

 

Distressed Leather Journal

A journal that is in close comparison to what the Mountain Men would have used.

It has a distressed look with stitching on the spine of the book. It comes with an attached small leather strap that can be wrapped around the journal to secure it closed.

The journal measures 6″ x 4 3/4″

Doe Sia

Bannock Girl and the Handcart Pioneers

Doe Sia, a ten-year-old Bannock girl, became known for her bravery when she and her heroic pet, Otterdog, saved a little boy from drowning. On the other side of the world in Denmark, Emma has also earned a reputation for courage by rescuing an elderly man from a burning barn.

When Emma immigrates to America and joins the “Handcart Pioneers” she and Doe Sia meet and form an immediate bond. This bond is tested during a fierce mountain blizzard, in which Emma is sure she will die. But Doe Sia knows how to build a shelter from branches, get meat from a dead buffalo, and, most important, find her way back to her people. Together the girls face one of nature’s greatest threats. Together  they must struggle to survive.

ISBN – 978-1-880114-20-9

203 Pages

Grandview Publishing Company, 1999

Dutch Oven Cooking

Dutch Oven Cooking is a handy little guide that’s bound to be a hit on any camping trip. It shows you how to practice the delicious “art” of Dutch oven cooking, and it’s packed with lots of simple recipes for simply great eatin’.

ISBN – 978-1-58979-352-1

98 Pages

National Book Network, 2006

Ernest, The Moose Who Doesn’t Fit

Ernest is a large moose with a big problem…..He can’t fit into this book! Luckily, Ernest is also a very determined fellow, and he has a helpful little friend.

ISBN – 978-0-374-32217-5

22 Pages

Farrar Straus Giroux

Macmillan Children’s Books, 2009

Etienne Provost, Man of the Mountains By Jack Tykal

The events of (Provost’s) life represent a looking glass into the total history of the Rocky Mountain fur trade. It would have been very difficult to find a person closely associated with the beaver trade in the American west who did not know Etienne, but considered him one of the outstanding individuals of that era. From Santa Fe and Taos to remote valleys of the Rocky Mountains and executive offices of the giant fur companies in St. Louis, his name was known and recognized as one who knew and understood every facet of the business, whether it be trading with Ute Indians in the Great Basin, escaping the treachery of an ambush planned by Shoshone on a remote River which bore his name on early maps, attending the first rendezvous with William Ashley in 1825, guiding a fur trade caravan to or from the annual rendezvous, carrying messages, or accompanying new recruits for the American Fur Company up the River to a remote trading post, his services were recognized as invaluable. Etienne Provost; Man of the Mountains, reveals the life and adventures of this giant among fur trade personalities and is welcome addition to the understanding of this remarkable are of the American West.

ISBN – 0-943604-23-0

225 Pages

Eagle’s View Publishing, 1989

Every Fixed Star

New trials confront Marie: an abrupt ending to love, separation from friends, the disappearance of one child, a puzzling, painful division from another. Through it all, she struggles to know her purpose and worth. What could this God of the stars care for the survival of a mere woman? Fed by memories of her distant friend, Sacagawea, Marie discovers that inside every challenge is a gift to be treasured.

ISBN – 978-1-57856-500-9

422 Pages

Waterbrook, 2003

Explorers of the American West

With original primary source documents, this anthology brings readers into the vast unknown 19th-century American West—through the eyes of the explorers who saw it for the first time.

This volume brings together book excerpts, maps, and illustrations from 12 explorers from the 19th century, highlighting their lives and contributions. Arranged chronologically, the 10 chapters focus on individual explorers, with biographies and background information about and document excerpts from each person. The chapters offer analyses of each document’s relevance to the historical period, geographic knowledge, and cultural perspective.

This guide shares the important contributions from explorers like Lewis and Clark, Zebulon Pike, Jedediah Smith, James P. Beckwourth, John C. Fremont, Susan Magoffin, and John Wesley Powell. It also nurtures readers’ historical literacy by modeling historians’ methods of analyzing primary sources. Readers will see new and familiar events from different perspectives, including that of a woman traveling along the Santa Fe Trail, one of the most famous African American mountain men, and a Civil War veteran, among many others.

ISBN – 978-1-61069-731-6

321 Pages

ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2016

Exploring the Fur Trade Routes of North America

Europeans in search of furs penetrated the continent from the St. Lawrence to the Columbia, aided by native North Americans who shared the secrets of its bounty. Today’s modern highways trace those ancient trade routes, taking time travelers on a journey of rediscovery.

With full-colored maps, hundreds of photographs and detailed driving directions to every site, this guide unlocks a world of adventure, when spirited men and women shaped one of the continent’s central dramas and determined its destiny.

ISBN – 978-1-896150-69-7

288 Pages

Heartland Associates, Inc., 2023

Feminine Fur Trade Fashions

Various patterns for dresses and coats can be found in this book. The information will allow anyone to be able to make the dress and or accessory that is wanted. Detailed instructions are given for each pattern that is covered within the book.

48 Pages

The Fur Press, 1976

Firearms, Traps, and Tools of the Mountain Men

This classic history of early-nineteenth-century fur trappers and traders showcases the devices that enabled path-breaking frontiersmen to open the unmapped American West, including:

Canoes and flatboats, axes and tomahawks, Native American spears and pikes, beaver and bear traps, rifles and muskets, knives, hand guns, and more…

Many of the illustrations included were created by the author’s own work on the artifacts available: Carl P. Russell examined, measured, sketched, and photographed them himself. In some instances, the rare specimens were loaned from private or public museum collections for inclusion in this history.

Sprinkled with little known facts and lore that will fascinate everyone with an interest in the American West, this book, the result of thirty-five years of painstaking research, is the definitive guide to the tools of the mountain men.

ISBN – 978-1-60239-969-3

458 Pages

Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2011

Fort Union & Fort William: Letter book & Journal, 1833-1835

From 1828 until the late 1860s, the Upper Missouri Outfit of the American Fur Company controlled the fur trade on the upper Missouri River from its headquarters at Fort Union on the western edge of present day North Dakota. In contrast, Fort William, an outpost of the rival Missouri Fur Company located a few miles east at the mouth of the Yellowstone River, struggled and sold out to its competitor less than a year after it opened in 1833.

Published in full for the first time, the 1833-1835 Fort Union Letter Book features dispatches from several prominent fur-trade figures. This rare official record of outgoing correspondence reveals intriguing details about the day-to-day workings of an industry on the cusp of change. Robert Campbell’s journal of his year at Fort William, on the other hand, is a personal account of his attempts to keep Fort Union founder Kenneth McKenzie from taking over the fledgling post he and William Sublette had started.

ISBN – 978-1-941813-27-0

131 Pages

South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2020

Forts, Fights, and Frontier Sites

Here, at last, is a book that explores some of the lesser known historical sites in Wyoming. In her hallmark engaging style, Candy Moulton documents scores of Wyoming way stations, military establishments, battlefields, Pony Express stations, Oregon and Overland Trail sites, military expeditions- even ferries and “hog ranches”. Whether you’re a serious student of Wyoming history or just a casual reader, you must have this book on your shelf. This is history that needs to be preserved and Moulton has faced the task head-on with outstanding results.

ISBN – 978-0-931271-92-2

232 Pages

High Plains Press, 2010