Sheridan, Wyoming

August 16-17, 2019:

I had driven from the Crow Fair pow wow to Sheridan in the dark just keeping it between the white lines.  It had been a tiring day, I just parking on a side street for the night.
In the morning, it’s an overcast day as I explore the downtown area.  Sheridan has a an attractive downtown with an extra dose of cowboy and western.  Lots of big pickup trucks with grille brush guards especially Dodge Big Horns named after the nearby town of Big Horn and the Big Horn mountain range.  It’s a good mix of antique shops, western wear and outdoors gear, fly fishing and hunting supplies, cowboy themed saloons, restaurants and book stores.  The streets are lined with sculptures especially cowboys, cowgirls and Indians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheridan,_Wyoming

Everything in the downtown kinda looks like this

The WYO Theater, not sure how to pronounce that

Your typical Indian flute player

The sinister looking  Bank of Commerce

Another Indian sculpture

Nice historic themed mural

The women doing all the work

Fr. Smet teaching the Indians

John D. Looks who founded the town of Sheridan
named for civil war General Sheridan

The Rainbow Bar with a welcome stranger sign in the window

Hotel Rex looked a little wild to me

The Best Out West is the premier western store in town

Best mural goes to Hospital Pharmacy

The Fly Shop was top shelf, but pricey

Drink the coffee and "Be the Bison"

Covering all the popular bases

Sheridan Court House

As usual I also spend some time at the local library which has a special Wyoming room with shelves full of Wyoming history, reference and genealogy. They also have some Indian and military relics in display cases.  I wish I had the time to rummage through some of this stuff.

I take a drive to the nearby town of Manchester which I had driven past in the dark and missing the Indian battle site.  This was the Battle of Tongue Creek where General Patrick Connor attacked chief Black Bear's Arapaho camp who were disturbing travel on the nearby Bozeman Trail.

         

I then return to the downtown Main Street area, look in an antique shop, the Best out West western shop and a book store.  Of course, I had to also visit the famous Mint Bar.  It was built in 1903, has a great neon sign outside and is beautifully redone inside with walls lined with rodeo photos and trophy animal heads.  It's very special, beautiful but a little too much over the top, too much tourist centric for my taste. I prefer a bar with some things broken and dirty (looking more authentic) like they have really been used for a hundred years.I  I read a review by elitist professional travel writer who called it a dive bar, what a joke !

Love the rodeo sign

Interior view

I’m now continuing east along route 90 at a faster pace as I need to visit my old pal Gordon Tindall in Lanesboro, Minnesota in about a week.  That means I have to drive through South Dakota and Minnesota like a long haul trucker.

Next stop will be somewhere in South Dakota