Sheridan (3,737 alt., 15,804 pop.), largest town in northern Wyoming, is a shaded community of cottonwoods and hedges at the confluence of Goose and Little Goose Creeks, in saucerlike Sheridan Valley. Fifteen miles west are the black, wooded humps of the Big Horn Mountains; to the east, the valley ends in the rolling Powder River pampas and waste lands.
Low altitudes and plenty of water give the area an exuberant flora. Gardens and parks are masses of bloom in summer; citizens compete for honors at the Sheridan Flower Show, sponsored each September by the Sheridan Garden Club, and seasonal blooms are shown informally.
Meandering Goose Creek traces an irregular dark-green line across the town, breaking the streets into short oblique avenues. Jutting smokestacks mark industrial plants among the trees; cows low in the distance at milking time. There is rarely any wind; the average velocity is the second lowest in the United States.
A division point on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and connected by regular plane service to a transcontinental airline, Sheridan serves a wide trade area. Vast veins of sub-bituminous coal within a few miles of the city have been important in developing its manufacturing establishments: flour, livestock-feed, and cereal mills; a sugarbeet refinery, a brewery, an artificial-ice plant, an iron foundry, a brick and tile kiln, and several creameries. Two newspapers are published: the Sheridan Press (daily except Saturday) and the Sheridan News (bi-weekly).
The business houses, in good cow-town fashion, are clustered along Main Street. Saloons still function as employment bureaus for the surrounding range. The rancher or farmer who needs a rider or hay hand writes a notice in chalk on the blackboard behind the bar; transients and others wishing work first consult these ‘call boards.’
Conventional summer styles here vary from wide, studded leather belts and high-heeled boots to soft-tanned leather outfits. On Big Hat Day, which opens the rodeo season in July, residents appear in highcrowned felt hats. These are worn the rest of the season.
Crow and Cheyenne Indians, who come to Sheridan from near-by reservations to trade, add to the ‘Old West’ atmosphere. Like the cowboy, the Indians have been brought up to date; instead of skins and hand-tanned robes, they wear bright blankets of modern design and bits of calico and rayon milled in New England. The headgear of the men is the somber Indian hat–always black–with wide brim and tapering crown. White canvas tents, successors to the skin tepees, are pitched on Goose Creek near the city limits during these trips, and children watch the innumerable dogs and horses while adults visit in town.
Many Polish families, who immigrated to the Sheridan Valley in the 1890’s and early 1900’s to develop the coal mines, have moved to Sheridan in recent years. They have entered enthusiastically into the life of the community and are leaders in civic musical organizations. Their native folk customs are preserved in periodic dances privately sponsored, patterned after Old-World festivals.
Many of the dances originally had religious or nationalistic significance, but in Sheridan their main purpose is to provide diversion and recreation. The costumes worn on these occasions are modeled after native Polish dress. Men wear leather moccasins, leggings, bright-colored knee breeches, and shirts with long full sleeves. Women are charming in their white veils, numerous petticoats, blouses, flare skirts, and checkered aprons. The beer is free. The music is joyous and brassy.
Sheridan Valley was part of the last unreserved Indian land in the United States, set aside for the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho in 1868. Here Dull Knife, Old David, Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses, Red Cloud, and his son-in-law, Crazy Horse, fought it out with the bluecoat volunteers and regulars before accepting confinement on reservations.
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