the united states that brought him there, and he said how happy he had felt to go to the united states and he felt he had been uplifted by that. he said he was really proud of that, that the united states would make that effort. i'm gladd him, i said, to hear that. but the question i asked, was what more could we have done so ou wouldn't have had to flea your country. his words were so he will consequent. he said, the united states is a great country, and a great country can do both. sol my question is, are we that great country? comes back to the point that we made tonight, the will to do that. you. >> you're watching american weekend everyl

weekend on c-span 3. conversation, like .s on facebook casper, wyoming on american history tv. situated in the central part of state, casper is known for its ties to the oil industry but got its start as a cattle town. everything in the economy at that time. been made off of anywhere elsethan in the united states. teapot dome scandal was the most significant scandal in the american history in the 20th until watergate

anyway. >> wyoming's second largest city celebrates its pivotal past. we the next 90 minute, explore casper's history, starting with the four pioneer passed through the area. here at the national historical trails. center addresses the morgan trail and the pony express trail. it did not matter why you were not matter it did which trail you were on, you had through casper, wyoming. the south pass is the only pass wagon.lows a all the trails come through wyoming. the early explorers, you see the of the state.

this square shows south pass theher you're going to salt lake, whether you're gold.for this represents the early explorers. the best exemployerer was jim bridger. a great amount of his diaries. in theelieve he discoverecovered great salt lake. when you compare him to another very famous explorer, when you with somes travels other explorers, you can see how very well traveled and some stuck to certain areas. important to the story of the trails west and why the diarieswest and that will be followed,

basically, become the road maps for all of the trails down the way. trail, you will platte river.t rivere just crossed the here at casper. getill be traveling on to to independence rock by the nameh of july, hence the independence rock. oregon trail starts at 1840 with and byfew travelers 100,000 travelers had been on the oregon trail. if you only imagine your father coming home saying we're going

west to oregon and please go and pack all of your can pack inat you one suitcase. kidsis an exhibit that our use. not everything will fit so they have to make a decision on what they have towhat leave behind. friends tell all your goodbye.ives is 200,000 miles long and we'll be walking the whole distance. we've moved on to the mormon gallery. this tells a story of a mormon illinois and left traveled to the great salt lake. example of a road

.the, whic a smile child would be assigned withlk next to the wheel a. have tohief and they count the wheels make one revolution. small task. made 331 would have 331,460 revolutions. a large portion of the mormon population is living in illinois labeled are, basically, criminals and told to get out of a large,night starting large migration in a short time. of the oregon trail begins in 1846 the 1870's until

salt lake city becomes the great that it is today. they are following the journey and the maps created by jim bridger. the wayl stop along several places thinking they the ideal place. they established a camp and be aht that was going to where they would end up but they not find enough water. a great many of the mormons a wagon and the team. the church encouraged mormons to new promiseeir land, which was the salt lake. handhurch would loan a cart to a family and when the the salt lake, they would pay back the church cart, which would be used to further others coming down the trail. wagon cart had to be pulled

at a particular speed to make 15 miles a day. if you went too slow, you would and perishgroceries grocerythere are no stores along the trail. to had to pick up the pace get into the yellow. at this steady walking pace you beld get where you needed to before the winter storm. if you went too fast, you would die of exhaustion. you areer rations that replenish thenot energy that you are expending and you will die on the trail. moved to the california trails. the california trail tells the tory of the gold rush california. exaggeratedspaper

gold showing pictures such as where you could pick up a pound of gold. those stories existed but they between.and far the miners died broke. storyal success of the was the miners, those were selling them picks and shovels veryupply, which was expensive at the time. there were stories where you california in a hurry using such things as air balloon air ships. thewould show up on appointed time to catch the air ship or the wind wagon and they not exist and you would be holding a worthless ticket. of the travelsse down the trail, a lot of time you werels that

traveling on the trail, the animals would wear out. throwing heavy stows out like anvils and and extra wheels to lighten the the animals the wagon of pulling this loaded down. we have moved on to the pony express trail. there were stage lines operated the pony express lines, wells fargo. the wag than you see is the stagecoach and it is pulled by over the same trail day after day. would roll into the wagon, there were large leather above the windows to keep the dust out. chose to keep the dust out, you would raise the temperature in the coach by 20

degrees. man at the time period stood at 5'6" and weighed 120 pounds. ."e average woman was 5'4" and the last seat folds up in the door. when you pull the door shut, it rolls up giving the ninth passenger his seat. you can only imagine the people with.ll be traveling cigar moking a big, black cigar, children getting sick and up in the coach. of the the other portion pony express trail. this is the main purpose of the pony express trail and that was the delivery of mail from st. louis, missouri, to sacramento, california. wrong impression from movies that the rider road the

which is notce, true. as you see on the map, there's of starts and stops. 25 home stations. was where aion rider would change his tired ande for a fresh horse gallop on to the next swing station. a home station where he would spend the evening he will catch the mail and he would be headed back to his other own home station. one rider would do this loop, the next rider would do this loop until the mail was from st. joseph, days.ri in 10 the pony express lasted over a year due to economic reasons. it was very expensive to operate

expense. they wanted skinny, wiry fellows, not over 18. wages of $25rred, per week, which is a large sum money but risking desk day -- death daily. comes across the prairie. out acrossere spread the sagebrush because there were few trees. with the telegraph layed out across the prairie, animals would run through it and the americans would soon more whiteit meant

americans coming down the prairie. out using itip it weapons. the story of the trails end with transcontinental railroad mass populations very rapidly to the western united states. begins a new chapter with modern highways that we have today. visitors take away from appreciationre an of the people who settled the american west. not large people, they they seth people and out with a strong determination strong determination you can accomplish almost anything. >> all weekend, american history tv is featuring the history of casper, wyoming nicknamed the

oil city in the 1880's. became a center of oil processing due to the proximity the oil field, which is one of the largest oil fields in the world. c-span cities tour staff recently visited my sites history. the city's learn more about casper all this tv.end on american history caspere located at fort museum, which is on the west ine of the city of casper wyoming. 1860's reconstructed cavery fort. we're standing on the california express,e pony transcontinental telegraph came through here. located one things this site, plus the u.s. armimy the 1860's.

there was a lot of activity that happened here before the army showed up. the first occupation of this people sat down more than just passing through the day was 1847. brigum party was coming through. june 12, get here on you have got a big river that with.ve to contend june, you have the snow melt the mountains. so we're looking at river that almost 1,000 feet across. so what they had done was built operation. prior to, that you found a and hoped the river

was shallow enough to get across. ferry operations were a safer way to get across. there were a lot of immigrants on the trail and a smallelp others for fee. they set up a ferry operation the summer. that location was here. the ferry lasts for six years and the bridge is built down river from us. ferries oututs the of business. a bridgeite, we had built in 1859. toll bridges.ere purely commercial operation. 1860, this is a pony express station.y they had home stations and relay stations. wheres a relay station they would change horses. that lasted 19 months. pony express goes out of

business. this is now a telegraph station. fort is located here because of the transcontinental telegraph. in 1862, early in the civil war, so wellh is not doing but keeping the communication open to the west coast to california, keeping that transcontinental telegraph going was important enough that the u.s. government sent u.s. maintainout here to the telegraph. what they did was not send have many of them. here was theated ohio cavary. in 1865tarted to change winds down back east. you see more military units come out here. were reinforced by the

kansas calvary. depeppedzing on the year, there the sometimes issues with native tribes and sometimes they were more friendly, sometimes more hostile. this particular area was not settled. pass through but it still created tension with some tribes. 1865 was a bad year for that. in 1864, youwinner had the massacre at sand creek. a colorado militia that road out of denver that attacked a village that was nonhostile, village.friendly they massacred people. as a result of that, the summer 1865, you had a lot of

skirmishes and fights with the native tribes a direct result of the sand creek massacre. one of the location where is problems occurred was here. we had the battle of platte bridge. the goal of the tribes were to bridge.of the the bridge was a visual symbol, that could be attacked that represented all of the migration and the people moving out here. their goal was to get rid of this. so early in the morning we had the battle of platte bridge. from is a young lieutenant casperohio calvary named collins. he is passing through the fort on the day of the battle. the 11th lead

cavary.ant kses they get across the bridge and away and theye are ambushed by the cheyenne and arapaho that are gathered together. they wheel around and race back to the fort. casper collins and four other soldiers are killed. other guys made it back. the supplylater, wagon shows up. this is called the battle of red butte. they fire a warning shot with sees themn, the tribe as well and they attack that wagon supply train. one it is led by amos custard. were 2 25 guys with that group. five in an advanced

guard. they get rid of the horses an three of them made it back to the forth. the supply wagons were killed. that, because of the battles and because we have called caspernant theins who was a son of colonel, they change the name of the fort. called platte bridge station. it is in 1865 that they change the name of the fort to fort casper. becomes fort casper in the fall of 1865 really only two more years. they add a lot of buildings. is a massive construction 1867.m in 1866 and this fort becomes as large as lairmy.

what happens is in 1867, the army determined they built it in the wrong place. of 1867 theyl issue orders that they take all salvageable materials and they haul it 45 miles east of here use that to put up fort fetterman. casper when they closed here.re was nothing left even the early pioneers knew there used to be a fort here, is how we end up with the named after fort casper. >> all weekend long, we're wyoming. casper, it is named after fort casper, a

military post built on the river. together with our charter cable c-span cities tour staff visited to explore the history. learn about casper all weekend tv. on american history wyoming producer jeffrey is documentary about the life and career of former vice dick cheney who grew up in casper, wyoming. formerdown with colleagues and journalists who covered his career. >> we were living in lincoln. eisenhower got elected. agriculture the department and the conservation

service was affected. to had a choice, we could go casper. ifsed to tell that story, that never happened i would have met lynn and his response the viceuld have been president of the united states. >> he has a dry sense of humor and i think you hear this from everybody. humorlessho seems went on camera in interviews is, has a good wit to him. that in interviews. you just see he has a private that has made him loyal friends, particularly here in but, i think elsewhere as well. thes easy to slip into

cliche description of rural abouta when you talk casper as it was during chaney's there.hen he lived went to high school and met his wife who was a baton twirls. played football just like any was very important in casper. he wasn't the best player on the but he was a determined player. wasn't political but that is not what you did in casper, as a teenager. >> i think people were surprised ran to be president of the class it. it justa tough campaign seemed like a good idea at the time. it.joyed i had a good time in high school. friends andof great

we played football and baseball fished and enjoyed growing up. it as a smallk of town. always thought of ourselves as the first or second largest so we did notg have the small-town attitude but had all of the benefits of growing up in the 1950's. knew dickple who cheney in those days say i see a future vice president or national figure here. most were aware of his nature.ed any number of the personality traits that you see later. this quality of holding back in being the guy that talks all the time, not trying but really

career wased his true then. man from backl manning and he got into yale. two stoppick one or students from casper and facilitate them and apply them go to yale. yale was a disaster. yale.n't do well at if he had been a good student at a good he was not studental yale. had goodpular and friends but he was warned repeatedly of being kicked out of poor grades. the administration said come back when you are ready. tried coming back and it did

not work again. he worked as a lineman as power companies in wyoming. that is a rough life with rough people. he spent time in bars and got trouble, kin colluding d inclu a guy with a limited future at that point. to casper with the encouragement of lynn, his future spouse. he changed his ways. he went back to school. at casper college and pulled himself together. he and lynn who were now married of wisconsinrsity for graduate work, in his case political science. an internship with a

congressman who took him to washington, d.c. opportunities presented himself, one was a chance to for donald rumsfeld who was and coming congressman. he became working at the white house with donald rumsfeld. he held a number of jobs in the nixon administration generally rumsfeld as donald an assistant to him. rumsfeld left to become an he left the white house. gerald ford became president, he brought in donald rumsfeld and he brought in dick

staff.to be chief of when rumsfeld move to department chaney was a bright light. for that jobman who was getting a lot of notice had this quality of working with people. a could sit quitely in meeting and make the right his boss who did not show boat but got things done. the ford administration left the white house, dick cheney went on a road trip. he left washington, d.c. and to wyoming and thought seriously about getting where she wasn the guy getting elected, not working for people. through a tough campaign with ford trying to win the white house. lost. he came back to wyoming as a

boy.haired he was a young boy in his 30's, now.known nationally he knew coming back to wyoming should doast thing he is walk in as a politician and greate himself as a success from washington, d.c. working for wyoming. he did what politicians do. you go door-to-door and it is still true. it is certainly true when chaney campaigned to go to congress. you can knock on almost every door. campaign,dle of the he had his first heart attack. a was 37 years old and he had heart attack. there was a moment there where one might consider should i drop

out. he didn't. wright about it, he is i'm going to run and i will campaign trail. him more human to the voters and he did just fine. got over 60% of the vote. i think the piece of legislation that dick cheney would be most ofembered for in the house representatives is the wyoming wilderness bill. a period when a lot of states around the country are set aside wilderness generallyit is popular, controversial depending on what side you are on. is not a state that lands putting aside public and disallowing oil and gas exportation but that is what the bill did.

it segregated big acres for protection from development and it was one of the big accomplishments for dick cheney in congress is getting that bill passed. was clearly destined for a top leadership position. minorityght behind the leader and would. speak -- would be the speaker of the house. >> i was junior in the house, i had been in washington for some time. weondly, it was a time where changed a lot of positions on the republican side. retired so there was a contest for minority leader, there was a contest for chairman of congress. the opportunity existed for

someone like me and become a candidate. as, obviously,en a man who would be leading his congress if he chose to stay there. though, an area that one does not know much about because it is kept secret is his activity on the intelligence committee. >> i would argue there is a general understanding by the republicans on the importance of an adequate military capability is the cornerstone of our security. we use that capability, our purpose is to promote the values that we believe in, democracy, freedom, human rights. aat means a major commitment, steady commitment in terms of our natural resources that we the capabilities.

iran you remember the controversy during the reagan administration, this was when chaney was in congress. thatote a minority report depended the practices of the reagan white house during that which involved funneling in nicaraguarebels that some felt were to arm sells to iran. of the great that he playedroles while serving on the house intelligence committee and it form a lot that he would bring to bear as secretary of defense and as vice president. theonsidered a run for presidency after he served in h. bushge

administration, the 41st president of the united states of defense and had successfully led the effort in storm as secretary of defense. the public looked favorably on happened and favorably on powell.ell as colin he looked at running for president and decided for a of reasons it was not going to happen. he did not relish the fundraising that he knew he would have to do. he did a road trip going around speaking for republican candidates in office and it was his way of taking the of the country and finding out what kind of response he got. pollswere some that the did not show that he got a great a personal level. his reasoning is he did not want to raise money. he was concerned that his health he had a couple of

heart attacks and it would make run.fficult for him to in the early 1990's, he decided not to run for national office again. he decided it was time to try that was goingnd to be a career in the private sector. work in texas and he was out of politic. emphasize the oriburton years as pivotal key in forming the kind of vice president he became. what it did do was put him in governor bush came to him for help in finding someone be vice president when he ran for president. will say, former andident george w. bush dick cheney thatrectio

at him for vice president and he said he was not interested. looked a number of candidates and it came back to where these meetings president bush looks at him and you.it ought to be at some point after talking to his family, he said ok. and laura, bush thank you so much for asking us effort.you in this thank you forgiving me the husband, introduce my wyoming's only dick cheney as president of the united states. reasons why this is so important and why i was sign on is because saw him accomplish in

texas. >> in the first term, the vice had unprecedented access to the president. weekly meetings, daily conversations. time.ere in touch all the dick cheney operated the way he had through his career in politics. he would be in a meeting, he was presence. when he said something that was pretty important but he did not lot. he was able to talk to a president privately that vice historically rarely do. very, i would call it rip.timate administrative therelationship. friends such as hunting together like chaney did friends. later, particularly in the

second term of the bush chaney term, other advisers like played a morece important role and the access cheney enjoyed for so long was reduced in the second term. people who number of work closely be dick cheney in first bushd the ininistration and later george w. bush's administration feel -- that he became different person. dick cheney would argue with him in our interviews but he did not change, the world changed. mattersge that happenedsly was what on 9/11 but he could say that goes back to his days on the committee in the

house where he saw the underside of the world and what was going on out there. the world as it is requires the feels thatponse he the bush chaney administration made. dick cheney thinks it is out and speakpeak the truth. there are a number of times in that he decided he is office.ing for a higher i'm not going to run for president, therefore, i don't calculating in a political sense. i can speak the truth. sees himself as a straightraighttoward, and people see him that way. eye, he has a darker cast but in his mind he a truth teller.

thingsople that say the that other people are too uncomfortable to say. right now, he feels it is important to speak out about has been talking about the obama administration where bush remains silent about these things. it is important to speak the truth. want and i assume viewers want understanding who dick cheney is. enormous role in history and we need to thought process personality?he what is the motivations? judgment on where he took the country and the role he played.

we'll look at that from his viewpoints and the viewpoint con frompeople pro and the people inside his camp. long, we'rend featuring casper, wyoming. throughy laid trackings casper in the 1880's, the city became a major shipping poipth -- shipping point for cattle and wool. learn more about casper, wyoming, all weekend here on tv.ican history senior year of 1959, when were classmates and lynn, we were all in the same class together. the first one we'll look at is a picture of dick and lynn coming down the stairways at the

junior-senior prom when we were all juniors. picture ofge is a dick when he was a junior also. there. that is dick and that is the group of individuals from our class that were picked to go to summer thatce every they have at the wyoming state fairgrounds. was picked among the better students. whichad girl state of lynn and this picture over here on the next page happens to be a lynn when she was getting ready to go down to girl state, too. moved here starting of the eighth grade and i think that is when they were both moving in at the same time. all met at the first of the

school year and knew each other for the next five years. go to the same parties and same dances and everything. dated until they were seniors. everybody just kind of with everybody else. it is not like it is today. very popular, of course. a baton twirler in band.of the marching everyone knew them. the school is not that big. council andstudent dick was right there men was the president. was quite anho interesting figure in the u.s. military. made a military career and this is paula berry. next thing we can take a look at here is when we're our senior year.

this was our class officer's at time. he is back here as class officer this young lady. these go are new class officers, and this one and these are the two class sponsors. youing back on things now, can see where he was geared to where he did go. i didn't know as i rani ra -- as much as around that he was interested in politics. class leader and one of the alternative team football.n we rotated that position. one of theys leaders. this is dick cheney's senior class picture. that he wass probably 17 years old, i would guess. maybe 18. happens to be

of our the seniors football team and not all some seniors. in this picture it happens to be myself. i was lucky enough to get in with those guys. here.s dick cheney over was one of fake who and's real good friends they went to yale together and they both moved to wyoming together. this is joe myers who was the state and he and long-time political friends. after high school, dick and lynn to college. they went to their separate ways. to yale. east they kept in touch. like him being back

there and her here but he transferred back here and finished his college career and the is when he went into political circles. we stayed in touch with each other at class reunions and once fishingle we would go or something. in two ironic that weeks, we have our 55th reunion and as of right now, be there.ynn will historyeekend american tv is featuring the history of wyoming. city due toe oil the oil fields. charter cable

partners, our c-span team sites exploring the city's history. about casper all c-span's history tv. >> in the early 20th century, the rapidtion led to growth of casper, wyoming. teapot dome north of the city brought the city into the spotlight. >> the teapot dome scandal was probably the most significant scandal in american history in the 20th century, until watergate, anyway because it is implicated members cabinet. it could have implicated lived.nt harding had he notorious event as

they prepared to sell off the teapot reserve. soon after the turn of the wasury, when the u.s. navy starting to shift from the clunky coal-burning battleships the fleet to oil-burning occurred to various officials in the government that we might run out of oil. to happen if suddenly we're in a middle of a war that w a fleet that is being powered petroleum fired ships and we don't have oil? decision was made by the department of the navy to go out public land some that werereserves still on public land, set them ande from exploration

development. in essence, save them in case of future need that the navy isht have in the event there a war and we run short on oil. field ist dome oil essentially in, e wyoming.al of here is the salt creek field. it was an active field at the time of the teapot dome affair. teapot dome navy reserve. little teapot creek flows this way. here is the spot where andot rock is located teapot rock, of course, is how got its name. that particular --

particularat location because nearby through was an oil field. the salt creek oil field was one largest producing oil fields in the world at the early the 20th century. when this reserve was set aside, belief thate area that wass named for this rock that looked teapot at one time. chimney it looks like a rock. at one time, it had a handle, it had a spout. the years, i think it was the 1920's that the spout got a lightningy strike. eventually, the handle erosion.ed, too, from

up by teapot is rock, people say how does it look like a teapot? doesn't anymore but it once was. location wasthat fenced off and left in the public doe main and sort of watched over by officials from the department of the navy with expectation that the developers would steer clear because this is federal land that we're talking about. wasr to 1921, albert fall new mexico's first u.s. senator. career in the southwest developer, as a miner, mineralsess a land

prospector. when warren g. harding was ofcted president in november 1920, he announced that albert fall, one of his poker playing u.s. senate the would be secretary of interior. about theteresting story is that albert fall did not have authority over the -- me trel naval me trel yum because that was the nave.ty of the u.s. it wanave -- navy. so the secretary of navy was playing buddy of coaxed or convinces transfer the authority over

naval petroleum reserves where albert fall had a plan. was later convicted of accepting bribes from a couple of oil men for allowing them to these navals petroleum reserves. revealedial, it was substantialived amounts of cash for allowing them the exclusive right to drill in the area that was set aside for drilling. on.as not to be drilled he was, in essence doing what the interior department was wased from doing and that leasing out the oil fields to

anybody. ben worse, if they were to leased out, they should have a competitivet on basis. there was a man named leslie who was down in cheyenne. rumorsting hearing the from his friends from up around sinclair oil trucks were seen going into the teapot dome naval me trel yum reserve and it appears they were going to do drilling and oil exploration. he was curious about this because he thought, well, there is a lot of us in the business ant would love to have opportunity to drill in teapot dome. visiting with was sheridan.iend up in kendrick was a democrat who represented wyoming in the in those years.

he mentioned to kendrick, can you look into this and see what is going on. something is happening at teapot dome. would question albert occurred fallis was foggy about how this on.vity had gone in essence, president harding obtuse about how this all occurred. as time passed and the senate started investigating the of albert fall and the activity uses respect of dome, they discovered aat albert fall did not issue teapot dome.r tea bo suddenly, there was a contract signed between these two oil men oil on these

reserves. there is legal aftermath of the conviction of albert fall for accepting bribes from these two oil guys. what happened was the sinclair -- sinclair's company that he organized calling it the company.il the mammoth oil company continued to develop the oil at teapot dome and claimed ithad every right to do it was toause the contract issued him by the interior department legal contract. they would have none of it contract was .btained through fraud kennedy had a contrary yan view how that contract was arrived

at apparently because in his memoirs t. blake kennedy claims casewhen that contract came up before his court, he took the position that a contract.s a it unless there is overwhelming evidence that suggests the contract was obtained through fraud or bribes, it should be enforced. what we have here are copies of an unpublished manuscript written by t. blake kennedy. it is an autobiography he wrote late in his career. the paragraph sums it up. this chapterlose with a suggestion of curiosity, which has been continuously

operating in my mind involving the query as to whether or not when petroleum reserve number three is eventually opened up any substantial amount of oil will be found there. speculation,argely i'm of the opinion that a substantial amount of oil in the formation, especially in the found tods, will be have been drained off by the intense operation of the adjoining salt creek field." the circuit court of appeals overturned kennedy's decision because they clearly found that there was bribery involved in obtaining that particular contract. sinclair and the mammoth oil company to the supreme court of the united states, the supreme court affirmed the judgment of the circuit court of appeals and allowed for the government to rescind the teapot dome oil drilling contract with mammoth oil.

there has always been a question as to how much president harding knew about the teapot dome affair. that pretty clear president harding's authority was necessary in order to shift jurisdiction from the department of the navy to the department of the interior. harding must have known that there was something untoward about that kind of request and making that kind of a switch. it,as good luck would have in the case of warren harding, he traveled west the summer after this scandal started and questions started being asked about the scandal. he came to wyoming, went up to alaska, became the first president to visit alaska, came down to san francisco, and then promptly and suddenly died in san francisco.

the investigation was just heating up at that point, and there were a lot of people who questioned whether or not warren harding had more direct this scandalbout than he had let on previously. albert hall was so close to him personally, and so was edward denby, the naval secretary, so a lot of historians will always remain curious, i guess, as to how much the president knew, and when did he know it. hall became the first cabinet officer to be convicted of a felony while serving in the u.s. cabinet. i don't mean a pond, but his fall from grace was pretty hard and pretty dramatic.

he went to federal prison. he eventually got out of federal prison. in the early years of world war ii, some 20 years after the teapot dome affair, he died in obscurity and essentially poverty in el paso, texas. dome wasened at teapot that the mammoth oil company, sinclair, was told to remove all s, their materials and truck suspended drilling, and that is the way the teapot dome field set for the next 80 years until the federal government started using it for various experimental drilling and various other energy-related projects, i believe, in the 1980's, significantly later than what one would have expected with an oilfield of that scope and located where it was located, so close to very, very

good producing oilfields. >> all weekend long, american history tv is featuring casper, my own name. casper is the state's second-largest city. it was the childhood home of former vice president dick cheney. our charter cable partners worked with-- c-span when we recently traveled there to explore the area's rich history. learn about casper all we can here on american history tv -- all weekend here on american history tv. >> we are in the middle of the salt creek oilfield at the place where it was probably first discovered. right behind me is salt creek. it runs through the field. the springs were on both sides of the creek. there was actually a spring of

oil. oil was coming to surface. in 1889, a fellow by the name of shannon came out here. he was with the pennsylvania oil company. he saw what was going on and drilled the well about three miles north of here. that was the first oil in this area. they produce between 5-10 barrels of oil a day. the speculation in this area really went rampant. there were a lot of claims made and leases and that type of thing. that was the beginning of the great salt creek oilfield. when casper first started, it was a cattle town, cattle and sheep ranching was real big. to gohe oilfield started into stuff like that is when it really started to grow. there was such an influx of people coming to get the instant wealth of the oilfields, whereas before that, it was a half a dozen ranchers who had come to .own to the general store

once the oilfield started, casper started to boom. casper is where the first refinery was built. casper was the end of the rail line. that is where the oil went, to casper to get on the rail line to go up to the larger refineries. where we are at now is towards the northern end of the salt creek field. the salt creek field was five miles wide and nine miles long. it's an actual oil dome. pressure from underneath push the rock's all up, and the top part eroded off, and that is where we are standing right now, where the top portion of the earth was eroded away. this land was all federal land unclaimed by anybody. there was free grazing going on out here. the speculators would come in here, and they would dig a six foot square hole 10 feet deep. if they found oil, they had an oil claim. acres.laims were 40

if they found oil in a whole, they got the 40 acres around that as their oil claim. many of them would dig a series wouldes, and then that tie separate claims together. some of these guys who had these andms would either go ahead drilled him themselves or they would try to sell these claims. they had to do so much work. i had to do $100 worth of improvements to these claims every year to keep the claims. by these improvements, drilling a well was an improvement, building a road was an improvement, building a deck across a draw to capture water to using steam engines was an improvement. some of them didn't do that. they couldn't get that much work done in a year. they would lose their claim, and somebody else would jump it and take the claim. the big oil companies realize from the start that this was something big. they came in right about at the

beginning of things. the oneh company was that drilled the first two wells out here. the texas company, which became texaco, was out here. that was one of the things that the small operators, the guys who only had one 40-acre lease out here, were battling. the big oil companies. there was claim jumping going on out here. in fact, there were security riders. these guys would ride on horseback and ride the promoter of the lease to make sure that somebody wasn't coming in and jumping. company hadoil security riders, but they weren't armed. some of the smaller and more unscrupulous people, their claim riders were armed. they would come in and push out and take a guys claim, take a lease. prior to 1920, there were a lot of legal battles going on out here. two people claiming the same piece of property or something like that.

there was a horrendous amount of legal battles. pretty shut -- pretty much shut down all operations out here until this could get settled. through this all went the courts. everything got settled. then the drilling really got started. most of the wells were drilled in the 1920's, 1920-1928. there were 56 different operators out your drilling wells at that time. you are standing in the richest 80 acres in the united states. more money has been made off this 80 acres than anyplace else in the united states. sy ivo was the first one to make the claim here. that, speculation really went rampant around here. everybody started wanting to get 80ims around this iba because it was so rich. behind me is a well, drilled in

1928 to a depth of 1900 feet. when the slow the second wall creek, it came in at 3000 barrels of oil a day. this well was such a great well, it is called the iobba 6. as it was flowing, the pressure would drop off. aboutt would get down to 100 quartsa day, and of nitro, and it would go back to 3000 barrels a day. this went on for years. the well about three years ago was converted to an injection well. the well was still making 100 barrels of oil a day. basicallydepression shut the oilfield down. there wasn't any money. there was no money to drill, no money to maintain the releases. depression, there was

virtually no activity out here. when the depression was over, activity started getting that. they started drilling wells in the 1930's again. then came along the second world war. it stopped all activity again. all money was being sent overseas to fight a war. if an oil company wanted to plug a will to abandon well out here, they had to get clearance from the war department to plug the well because the war department wanted all of the oil they could get. they wanted to make darned sure they weren't losing any production by plotting these wells. today, we are under a co2 flood where we are injecting co2 in the ground pressurized the formation again and force the oil out. with this system of production, we aren't pumping the wells. they are flowing like they did back in the 1920's. this is a very efficient means of production.

>> all weekend long, american history tv is featuring casper, wyoming. the city is named after fort casper, a u.s. army military post dating back to 1859 built on the north platte river to protect telegraph lines against race from the lakota and cheyenne nations. together with our cable partners, our staff recently visited to explore the city's history. learn more about casper all weekend long on american history tv. >> i would like to welcome you to the salt creek museum. we have rooms full of wonderful history of the salt creek lateeld going back to the

1880's. 1934 miller schultz in save a pen and a quill from her high school desk. she asked her teacher if she could have it, and her teacher said yes. why would you want that pauline? she said, someday, i want to have a museum. she saved things and save things her entire life. her husband walter was a very large man. she was short and kind of feisty. he said, pauline, why are you saving this old stuff? was, because, walter, someday it is going to be important. there is evidence there in the corner of pauline's reward when she went to washington, d.c. and received the national humanities medal for history from president bush, the culmination of a dream. pauline had a great knowledge of

the oil fields, and she realized how important it was to have that information available and have memorabilia here that people could enjoy that's related to the oilfield industry and to the people who work here. we have here the pictures of some of the early camps that existed here in wyoming. this is dutch camp. that is canadian cap. you notice that all of the houses are stereotypes. the size of the family determine whether you got a two-bedroom home or a one-bedroom home. we didn't have to do anything much to maintain the properties. we needed to keep our yard screen in the summer and keep the sidewalks shoveled in the winter. 1960, the company took care of all the maintenance

tower houses. iba was in pennsylvania oil millionaire who came through wyoming in the late 1880's, and he was honestly to the california gold fields to make a few more millions when he saw the oil, which literally seeps up through the shale. he recognized that it was the same high-quality oil that he had made much money on back in pennsylvania. iba camesigh i -- cy back to wyoming and brought philip shannon. that is when they drilled the first well in the salt creek oilfield up in the northern portion of the field. this is a map of the salt creek oilfield. the northern border of here by the electric plant, and then it goes clear down close to the ..s. naval turn off

there were at 1.60 camps all around. point 60 camps all around. here we have an example of the soil. we have been nice oil. this is what happens when it gets wet. this is a seismograph truck that moved onto a new location, try to do so in the mud, and you see that is very very. they sent a tractor out to get the truck, which also stuck. then they sent the mules out to get the tractor, and they are stuck. the moral of the story is, stay out of the mud. this is a nitroglycerin truck. they took the nitroglycerin out where they would pack their tools and drop the explosive down into the ground to produce a gusher.

nitroglycerin is highly flammable, and it is very sensitive. the definition of a nitro truck driver is a man who dies quickly because all it takes is one bad move, and it is nothing but a huge explosion. this is the tool room, and in here we have a wide variety of oilfield tools. of significants people. that is a picture of the three men who well in first pipeline between the midwest and casper, 44 miles, and that is the tool that they've used. the pipeline wasn't able to be because,l 1912 understandably, there were some problems along the way. this tool right here is called a yellow dog.

.t's actually a night lantern they would put wicks in each one stoupoutsuse on this -- on each end of this and would use it to work at night. why is it called a yellow dog? their response was, it looks like the yellow eyes of a dog. this is one of the early centrifuges. this particular tool is still in use, but this is the centrifuge they would use to separate the .il, water, dirt the only difference between this one and the one they used is that the new ones have markings, measurement markings on the beaker's. samples from each of the formations in the salt creek oilfield. what they do with those samples

is they have a reader. this is one of the older readers. they would put that for sample into this compartment. there is a door on the other end. it would put it in there and turn it on, and with the fluorescence, they would be able to see what is contained in the sample. they would use these samples and the readings they got from them to decide whether that was a good location to drill for oil. treasure inng this the small community just proves that the history of a place is an important thing, no matter how many people live here. it is still important. i have people who come here to the museum from all over the world, and they are totally amazed at the collection that pauline amassed and saved for us.

>> all weekend, american history tv is featuring casper, wyoming. when the fremont, elkhorn, and missouri railroads laid tracks or casper -- through casper, the city became a major shipping point for cattle and wool. our team recently visited many sites showcasing the city's history. learn more about casper, wyoming all weekend here on american history tv. the johnson county war, which is one of the stories of the wyoming foundation, was a timegle over a protracted that really came to a head in 1982 between large cattle interests that have come into the state little earlier in the 1880's and small ranchers like the folks who would have lived in house like this.

the reason the struggle came ranching int all wyoming at that time, at least all ranching in central and northern wyoming, was conducted with a large amount of the federal public domain as the grazing land that was used for it. what it amounted to was a struggle over who controls grazing rights on the federal domain. almost all ranching and wyoming with the exception of some in the southern part of the state came about due to the original homestead act passed during the civil war. the practice began early with a large interest to divide the land that they were grazing on the grazing districts. themately, they formed wyoming stock growers association, which is still in existence. it is a long-running wyoming entity that controls the -- -- that control the

roundup. those large entities, in part because they were first and in part because of the way they see established, came to the grazing land they controlled as really being there is. the fact of the matter was, even though they controlled the federal domain, and over half wyoming is federal domain, they didn't own it. cowboys began to acquire livestock. i would establish smaller homesteads, and that ultimately led to a competition between the two groups for space. cattle ranching in central wyoming provided really the only economic activity of any kind well into the late 1890's.

a town like casper was really a railhead in ranching country. cattle was everything in the economy at that time. cattle rustling is the theft of cattle. in an area like this, the way that was police was largely private. the registration of brands and wyoming came in to the wyoming stock growers association. .ou reported your brand the stock growers association -- detectives. the theft of cattle is simply larceny. theoretically, what happened in cattle theft is that the perpetrators were arrested, taken to the county courthouse and given a speedy trial. as a practical matter, the distances involved often ended in death. if a person was found rustling

cattle and caught, they could expect not to be coming back in. it sounds barbaric, but if you look around this territory and realize how far out you are at any one time, bringing a person and is not an easy thing to do. people often didn't do it. there had been a lot of dissatisfaction among the big interest in central wyoming up to 1892. that began the process of some assassinations in the southern johnson county area where someone was taking the law into their own hands, and there is a lot of talk about who was responsible for that. in the winter of 1891 and 1892, interests from the neighboring county, converse county, began to propose a solution, what they viewed as a final solution to

with the that met support of the larger interests in the stock growers association. much of the planning for the invasion took place in the cheyenne club, which was a club that large cattle interests frequented in cheyenne. they met and decided that what they would do, they would fund and provide a force for an .nvasion about doing that by providing for arms and ammunition that were brought into cheyenne, providing for horses through western union, and then they went on to texas and recruited a party of men to come up and act as the invading army. those men were recruited, of course, for their skills not a negotiation but for other things. they were given a cover.

they were actually told that they were being hired to go in and arrest and deal with russell wrestlers. they actually hired a chartered train, brought the men that from denver into texas and into cheyenne and intertech -- and into casper and disembarked them at night. the news seized to be a secret almost immediately, and the cheyenne newspapers, which were sympathetic to large cattle interests, began to report on it almost immediately. in fact, the men had hardly gotten off the train before the news hit. initialan to form the thought that there an invading force in the county, and they are going to do something. they were right. of invading force had a list

70 men who were to be addressed by the party. 70 men were expected to lose their lives in the operation if it was fully successful. one individual who would have undoubtedly known that he would've been subject of an expedition like this was nate champion who did lose his life in the invasion. ranch thatranch is a is in southern johnson county. it is still there. location that nate champion and some of his fellows were at as this expedition moved up from casper on their trip north. they were attacked in the early morning hours in an event that resulted in a full day's time being lost while the expedition

attempted to get principally champion. they did in the end. the fact that the invaders a couplet the kc did of things. it took him out of expedition that was already desperately behind in schedule and related even further. it took them an entire day to deal with basically two men holed up in a cabin, which was an extraordinary delay. on top of that comic began to so some dissension in the ranks. men that came the up from texas that not everything was completely on the up and up with what they were doing. delays, faced with a problem that they now had a pretty fatigued set of forces and whatnot, they went from there to the ta ranch. when they were at the ta ranch,

they stopped it there in order to get a little rest and read provision -- reprovision. they were met by a large party of individuals who had come down from buffalo, johnsoncally what county had done was form a posse to react to what was going on, and they put them under siege. prior to the invasion, governor barbour who had also been informed of the invasion and basically was in on the plans had issued an order to the county sheriffs that the wyoming state militia could only be called out by the governor. he sent a telegraph himself, but the telegraph was to president benjamin harrison. it just said a state of insurrection existed in johnson county. he didn't explain how the insurrection had come about and who was in on it, but he asked for the army to be deployed from fort mckinney, which is outside of buffalo. he was worried at that point that this was going to become

not only a colossal scandal, and there is almost no hope at that point that it wasn't going to become a colossal scandal, but that what was going to occur was that the law enforcement authorities in johnson county were actually going to override and storm these forces and probably kill them. that really wasn't the expressed individuals in johnson county, but it wasn't an unrealistic fear that a lot of his political are allies, quite a few of them had been signatories to the constitution of the state, which was only a couple of years old, were going to die as a result of .his event she was at that point willing to do whatever was necessary to get some intervention and to keep it from getting it worse than it already was.