Hole-in-the-Wall visit

[WyoNewk]

You guys are convincing me that I've never been there. We drove in from Kaycee, opening and closing livestock gates for miles and miles, finally came to a little campground (maybe not an official one) where a road crossed the stream and pitched our tent. From there (the next morning) we walked downstream fishing -- the further we got the higher the canyon walls. After walking back upstream to the campsite we drove downstream along the canyon rims, first on one side and then on the other looking for easier access. Spent some time visiting with a sheepherder on the north rim and got a tour of his house (sheepherders wagon). The next morning we drove down the south rim and climbed down into the canyon for some sunrise fly fishing, then took the loooooong climb back out.

I was about 25 at the time and used to sprinting up and down basketball courts, chasing tennis balls and taking 30-mile hikes into mountain wilderness areas, and even then it was a challenge. No way I'd try it today, nearly 40 years later. But I think we must have missed "Hole in the Wall," because I never saw anything pinpointing it. All I saw was the canyon -- a very beautiful canyon at that. I always thought "Hole in the Wall" was just an area -- the canyon in which we were fishing.

[jody_wy]

The hole in the wall is a trail up thru the wall , last time I was there all the gates had paddle locks. But riding with the ranch owner I got to open and close and relock alot of gates.

[jody_wy]

Last century a young couple with a baby got on a ship in England. They died during the voyage, the Captain of the ship sold the baby to a sheep outfit in Australia. The sheep out fit send sheep shears to the USA years later taking along this now 12 year old boy. After shearing and ready to go back to Australia the guy that bought the boy just left him in California (was kind of a problem owning another white person).
The boy got a job on a sheep ranch and built up a band of ewes. He loaded the ewes on a train and headed east and unloaded in Rawlins Wyoming. Hired a herder to watche his sheep he got a buckboard and looked for a ranch. He came to the red wall, there are place you could take a team and wagon down (now the hole in the wall area was a long 10 mile ride to get around). He found his ranch. In later years he met a gal from Thermopolis and married. He died and his wife had his sister and son comes help her run the ranch (which was put together as homesteaders moved away and sold to the ranch). This son sold the ranch years ago keeping a life estate for the old house. Went to the new owner’s funeral almost 2 years ago.
Hole in the Wall Butch Cassidy Sundance Kid outlaw history (http://www.willowcreekranch.com/hole.html - broken link)