Eugene Gagliano - C Is for Cowboy: A Wyoming Alphabet

Catch a glimpse of all the wonders, history, and landscapes Wyoming has to offer in C is for Cowboy: A Wyoming Alphabet. This alphabet journey begins A is for Altitude of mountains that soar, the Grand Tetons rise straight from the floor. Written in a twotier format with rhyming text for younger readers and detailed expository text for older readers, C is for Cowboy showcases the many natural wonders of the expansive Equality State. From Devils Tower and grizzly bears to Father Kelly and Yellowstone National Park, Susan Guys dramatic, true-to-life artwork provides a stunning backdrop to the printed words.

A Wyoming Alphabet

Written by Eugene Gagliano and Illustrated by Susan Guy

For my children, Gina, Jared, Darin, Nathan
and my soninlaw, Ron
EUGENE

I would like to thank my husband, Wesley,
for always believing in me.
SUSAN

Wyomings People

Wyoming
A peoples passion
Heartfelt aspirations
Praying, dreaming, seeking more.
People creasing the prairie carpet,
Crossing carousel streams of cottonwood.
People challenging the searing heat of summer
And the brittle cold of winter.
People taming the land with
Dust devil determination
And barbed wire.

Eugene M. Gagliano

The faultblock formationmountains of the Tetons, running north and south on the western edge of Wyoming, dramatically rise 7,000 feet above the valley floor of Jackson Hole to a total height of 13,766 feet above sea level, and are considered by many to be the most majestic peaks in the continental United States. It is the most photographed mountain range in the world.

Twelve of the Teton peaks reach above 12,000 feet. The Tetons continue to grow at a rate of about one inch every 100 years.

Above 9,000 feet is the alpine tundra, where the growing season may be only two months long.

A is for Altitude of mountains that soar; the Grand Tetons rise straight up from the floor.

Called by many the Swiss Alps of our land, under starscattered skies, these treasures stand.

Robert Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy, and Harry Longbaugh, alias the Sundance Kid, were notorious outlaws who robbed trains and stage coaches. Cassidys gang, the Wild Bunch, often escaped in the Bighorn Mountains to the HoleintheWall valley near Kaycee, Wyoming.

Butch Cassidy was known as the gentleman outlaw because he boasted never to have taken a life in any of his holdups.

Howard Eaton established Eatons Guest Ranch, the first fully developed dude ranch in the Bighorn Mountains at the mouth of Wolf Canyon west of Sheridan, Wyoming. Today other well known guest ranches include the HF Bar and Paradise near Buffalo, and SpearOWigwam up the Red Grade Road near Big Horn, Wyoming.

The Bighorn Mountains begin with a B, like the famous outlaw, Butch Cassidy, who hid in a place called HoleintheWall, listening to howls of the wild coyotes call.

The annual 10day Cheyenne Frontier Days celebration, which begins the last weekend in July, is known as the Grand Daddy of Them All and began as an annual Old West Show in 1897. People come from all over the United States and foreign countries to compete in bronc riding, calf roping, barrel racing, and bull riding events.

Chris LeDoux, former rodeo cowboy from Kaycee, Wyoming, won the world title in bareback riding in 1976. He was nominated for a Grammy for the hit single duet with Garth Brooks, Whatcha Gonna Do with a Cowboy? as best country vocal collaboration.

Many rodeo bronc and bull riding careers begin as young children ride sheep in rodeo events called mutton busting.

C is for Cattle, Cowgirl, and Cowboy; at Cheyenne Frontier Days you will enjoy the largest rodeo in all of the Westwatching rodeos best of the best.

Devils Tower, which rises 1,280 feet, was declared to be the first national monument on September 24, 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt.

The Kiowa Indians call it Tsoaa, which means, tree rock. Legend says that seven Indian girls being chased by a bear jumped on a low rock. As they prayed for help, the rock rose into the sky while the bear continued to claw at its base. The girls are still in the sky in the form of a group of seven small stars known as Pleiades.

The Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow, and Sioux also have legends explaining the existence of Devils Tower.

The movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind was filmed at Devils Tower in 1977.

We know Devils Tower starts with a D; this giant rock youll want to see.

The center of a volcano eroded away, this national monument is here to stay.

The blackfooted ferret was placed on the endangered species list in 1964. In August 1986 the last 15 known surviving blackfooted ferrets were captured, when canine distemper was discovered in the only known wild ferret population. They were brought to a captive breeding facility, the Sybille Wildlife Research Unit near Wheatland, Wyoming. The program resulted in an increase of over 500 ferrets by 1991.

The successful reintroduction of juvenile ferrets began in 1991 in southeast Wyoming and in 1993 in Montana and South Dakota.

Not all protected animals remain on the endangered species list. Due to protective legislation, better land management, bans, and restricted use of pesticides the bald eagle, for example, has been removed from the list.

Endangered species begins with E, like the blackfooted ferrets of Meeteetse.

Before they all died, and it was too late, they were saved from extinction in our state.

In 1924 Mrs. Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected governor after her husband, the former governor, died. Also, she was appointed the first woman director of the U.S. Mint in Washington, D.C., in April of 1933 and she lived to be 101 years old.

On December 10, 1869 the Equality State passed a law that gave women the right to vote. At the time no other state or territory gave women this right. The men who voted for this law thought it would encourage more women to move to Wyoming, which had a ratio of six men for each woman.

In 1870 Esther Hobart Morris became the first woman in the world to serve as justice of the peace, in South Pass City, Wyoming.

Wyoming has earned the name Equality State because of its historical support in the womens rights movement.