Tuesday, August 4, 2020, would be a day in search of my family history. My mother's father was born Marietta, Ohio. At some point his parents left Ohio and moved to Wyoming to homestead in Deer Creek Park. This is outside of Glenrock, Wyoming and more against the mountain. I knew that I had family buried in Casper, Wyoming and in Glenrock, Wyoming. We were going to find each of these cemeteries and take pictures of headstones. I had lists of each person and their death date for each cemetery.
We left Cody on Hwy. 16 and drove to Greybull. At Greybull we turned south on Hwy 20 which follows close to the Big Horn River through Thermopolis where Hot Springs Park is located and south through Boysen State Park and past Boysen Reservoir. At Shoshoni we turned east on Hwy. 26 into Casper.
These are pictures of our drive from Cody, Wyoming to Casper Wyoming.
This is a feature of living in the west where there is lots of snow that we don't see a lot in Kentucky. There is a red and white bar that can be lowered over the highway. It functions just like they do at a railroad stop. The black and white sign in front of it explains the importance of the red and white bar. When it snows and that snow blows and covers the highway so it is not safe to drive, the lights over the black and white sign flash and the red and white bar lowers. Then you are NOT to get up on that highway because it is too dangerous to try and drive on that snow.
This is Boysen Reservoir. I was fascinated with the ridges of rock on top of the little hills around the lake. To me they looked like the backs of a stegosaurus.
If you look closely you will see the antelope playing over the land in Wyoming.
The next two pictures are snow fences. Wyoming must have miles and miles of snow fences. These are truly a sign of how much snow they get and how they prepare ahead of time to mitigate the difficulty that snow on the road can bring. We saw the farmers out mending these fences in preparation for this winter.
We arrived at Casper and found the Highland Park Cemetery quite easily.
We went in and talked to the nice lady that runs their office. She was able to use the list of family members I knew were buried there and find the location in the cemetery where I would find their headstones. She made notes on my list and marked the cemetery map and Claude and I thanked her kindly and were off to locate my ancestors.
We took it as a good sign when, after entering the cemetery, we encountered these antelope. They were not at all concerned with our driving in. They didn't move or run away. They just offered a peaceful entry to the cemetery.
These are headstones of my ancestors. My mother's father is Clarence Clifford Fisch. Herman Fisch is his brother. Herman Fisch never married. He stayed on the family homestead all his life. I was told by another relative when we got to Glenrock that the home that Herman Fisch built had closets built in the floor plan for the bedrooms. In the day and time when he built the house, people did not have closets in their bedrooms, they had chifferobes or some type of free standing closet. He also found and put slate rocks all around the outside to create a patio effect around the outside of the house. She also let me know that Uncle Herman ran hard liquor during prohibition. I have a picture of him with his mother on a trip to Louisiana to see Clarence & Laura Fisch. Uncle Herman built a trailer for them to travel in so they had a place to eat and sleep as they traveled. I would have really enjoyed meeting and getting to know that character.
Lucy Arletta (Aunt Lettie) and Edward J. (Uncle Ed) Stephens I remember meeting as a child. I know at least one time in our western travels that we visited them. Aunt Lettie is the sister to my grampa, Clarence Clifford Fisch and Herman W. Fisch.
Melvin Edward and Wilbert Wesley Stephens are children of Lucy Arletta and Edward J. Stephens.
Harriet Bennett and William F. Fisch are the parents of my grandfather, Clarence Clifford Fisch.
After getting these pictures and these ancestors, we had plenty of time to get to Glenrock about 20 minutes away. These two pictures are the drive from Casper to Glenrock.
When we arrived in Glenrock we set out to find the cemetery. We drove almost every street until we found the cemetery. Fortunately, it is not a large town.
When we found the Glenrock Cemetery, I again went into their office and spoke with a man there. I gave him my list of relatives buried there with their death dates. He was able to give me a map of the cemetery and the locations of the graves I was wanting to find.
We found the tombstones and I took these pictures.
William C. Stephens is the son of Lucy Arletta and Edward Stephens. Wyoma is his wife and Judith is their daughter.
Chester Joel (Chet) Stephens is also the son of Lucy Arletta and Edward Joel Stephens. Laura Mae is Chet's wife.
Now, as much fun as it was to find and take pictures of all these ancestors, it was just as much fun to have the truck that was parked behind us at the Glenrock Cemetery pull up beside our vehicle and ask me if I was a relative of these people. It turns out her name is Patty Stephens. She is married to Bill Stephens who the son of William C. Stephens in the headstone above. She saw me taking the pictures and carefully resetting the flowers that had blown over. She figured I must be a relative. She was waiting for a call from her doctors office and wanted a quiet place to be so she came to the cemetery for visit these graves. She still lives in the area of the old home place and we was a real fount of information. It would have been great to visit longer but time did not permit for either of us. I wrote down all my contact information and she said she would give it to her daughter who loves studying family history and has lots of pictures. I hope to hear more from them.
Patty also confirmed where this Deer Creek Park area was that was the old homestead. Claude and I drove down there after leaving the cemetery. We took pictures of the area. Patty said the road back to the home Herman built was exceptionally bad and did not advise us to go back that far. I really just wanted pictures of the lay of the land in that area. These are sort of a panorama of the area.
We drove back into Glenrock once more. We wanted to get pictures of two historic markers in the town of Glenrock. The first about Deer Creek Station.
The second was about the Rock in the Glen.
We made hotel reservations in Casper before heading to Glen Rock. Back to Casper we drove and settled in for a good night's rest. Good day searching out my family.
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