Thank you to everyone who came to our barbecue last night at our new home along Big Goose Creek. For this #TBT, we are highlighting a few details of the rich, layered history of the Bridges property and the surrounding area.
- Prehistoric Native American artifacts and sites are present near this important water source. Early exploration, settlement, and agriculture centered in this area for the same reason.
- Based on coordinates in an appendix from the 1877 Annual Report of the Secretary of War, Camp Cloud Peak – General Crook’s camp during the fateful summer of 1876 – was located nearby for a time.
- The property was the location of a farm called K.N. Garden. The owners of the farm were Japanese immigrants Kasaburo Okazaki [later Kimura], Jiro Kaii[zumi], George [Gengoro] Nishi[zaki] and J. Yamashita. The estimated timeframe for the operation of the K.N. Gardens was from the early 1900s to 1919.
K.N. Garden was known for vegetables and in 1917 at the Wyoming State Fair in Douglas it won first prize for its red onions, table squash, and turnips.
- Archeologists have estimated the age of a stone circle on the hill just south of our office to be around 100 years old. One theory is that it was used as a visual navigation aid in early aviation.
- The barns and loafing shed were built in 1927. The red barn is almost certainly a prefabricated model sold through the Sears & Roebuck catalog. These barns have mostly disappeared around the country, and those that remain have been lovingly preserved and restored. Often, they are renovated for living space or other adaptive uses.
