In the early 1900s, Carbon Timber Company established winter camps in the Sierra Madre Mountains along the Wyoming/ Colorado border where tie hacks used their broad axes to produce hand-cut railroad ties for the nation’s expanding railway system. Through historic photographs and evidence from archaeological investigations, Dave McKee will review the life and times of the historic tie hacks in the Sierra Madre Mountains.

Dave McKee is currently president of the Fort Phil Kearny/ Bozeman Trail Association. He recently completed a 34-year career with the U.S. Forest Service as an archaeologist, tribal liaison, and recreation program manager, working on the Medicine Bow, Black Hills, and Bighorn National Forests. He received a master’s degree in anthropology with an emphasis in plains archaeology from the University of Wyoming.  Dave and his wife Susan live in Sheridan.

This Explore History program offers open conversation for community members to share their memories or historical information about these sites. The Explore History program is generously funded by the Next50 Initiative.

Photographs Courtesy of the Grand Encampment Museum, Encampment, Wyoming.