Wyoming poet Neal Gallatin (Casper, Casper Mountain: homes, live, cabin)

[CptnRn]

While reading about a women who homesteaded in Wyoming with her two daughters in 1930's I came across this poem. I think it reflects how many people in Wyoming feel about their land.

Fortified
I can never be unhappy again!
Life may cause me to suffer once more,
But it cannot make me unhappy.
For I have given my happiness
Into the keeping
Of a bit of sky,
A bare hillside,
And clouds that pass all day.
I look at them and know I am fortified.
- Neal Gallatin

The poem is written by Neal Gallatin, apparantly an early Wyoming poet. I have not been able to find much else out about this author except this reference indicating that Neal Gallatin was a Wyoming poet.

http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/rbk/faids/hasteg.pdf (broken link)

- Poems by others. Scripts of poems by Neal Gallatin (of Wyo.),
Dick Roberts (of Mont, and unidentified person ( "A.C.S.").
(1 folder )

I found another reference indicating the author (he? she?) had written 3 letters to Braithwaite, William Stanley, at Harvard around 1921.

Braithwaite, William Stanley, 1878-1962. Papers: Guide.

[DianeLoy]

We just visited Crimson Dawn Park & Museum on Casper Mountain near Casper, WY. The Crimson Dawn Museum is the log cabin where Neal Gallatin lived & she is buried along with her husband & 1 of her daughters on a little knoll not far from the cabin. It's a wonderful little museum & is full of everything Neal had while she lived there. She was born Elizabeth Paxton but thot Elizabeth was too long & hard to spell & changed her name to Neal. She married Jim Forsling but her poems are published under Neal Gallatin. According to the lady at the museum both those names come from her mother's & father's families somehow. She made up delightful stories of the 7 Witches of Casper Mountain for her daughters when they were small & started celebrating Midsummers Eve on June 21st & that continues to today even tho Neal died in 1977. It's a big production there every year. We thoroughly enjoyed our vist there.