I Use Antlers in All of My Decorating -Gaston and Wyoming, Apparently

I’ve had Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (not the MCT version, because that's actually Beauty Lou and the Country Beast) stuck in my head recently because everywhere I look, there seems to be a dead animal on the wall. This could not have been more obvious than when I went to Lander’s Museum of the American West yesterday. Dead animals galore!

According to their website, the museum is about the different groups that utilized central Wyoming and Fremont County – which is the size of Massachusetts. It has both indoor and outdoor exhibits where one can learn about the history of life out here and walk through a reconstructed pioneer village.

Reconstructed pioneer village

Other than learning about what I would consider questionable interior decorating, I found out that apparently, Wyoming is home to some of the most badass women in history. (And considering that I am a badass woman, I know what I’m talking about). Wyoming was the first jurisdiction in the United States to give women the right to vote – they weren’t even a state yet when they granted women the right to vote in 1869! (They became a state in 1890). The 19^th Amendment wasn’t passed until 1920, meaning that they were 51 years ahead of the rest of the country! Female voters led to an unprecedented appointment: Esther Hobart Morris was the first woman Justice of the Peace in the United States. Elected in South Pass City, WY in 1870, she filled the seat of another Justice who had resigned over women’s suffrage (go figure). Historians argue over whether or not she is the mother of modern suffrage, but either way, she made history. Not that this is really relevant, but she was also six feet tall (I’m looking at you, Amanda Belscamper. I have to look up though, because you’re three inches taller than me). Pioneer women were basically just the best at everything, because they had to do everything to survive.

Stough House

In the reconstructed pioneer village, we were able to see a church, schoolhouse, store and the Stough House. The Stough House seems to be the crown jewel here because Charles L. Stough was the Sheriff in Fremont County in 1890 and jailed the notorious Butch Cassidy in 1894. So I’ve now been to places where both Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid have been jailed, but neither of which appear in the Academy Award-winning film that you’ve probably heard of (or maybe they are mentioned/shown? I doubt it but then again, I’ve only ever watched one scene of the movie and not very much is said at all because Paul Newman just kicks some guy in the crotch).

After all that, I became a changed TAD! This is Katrina’s first week doing Aladdin, so I’ve been able to teach her a lot of tricks about the show (as one of our bosses said yesterday when we called in, this is essentially an extra week of training for her) but she’s taught me plenty about being a TAD in general and yesterday might have been the best lesson of all. Wednesday is the first day that the accompanist comes to rehearsal and they join us for the second session after the very youngest members of the cast leave for the day. I’ve always jumped right in to starting a run through, but Katrina mentioned to me that she and her partner always have a music rehearsal during that session where they run through all of the songs with the accompanist and if they have any time left over, they’ll start a run through. I said that I’d love to try it that way! (They can always try jumping into a run through on Wednesday afternoon on their own, but when else would I be able to see this in action with someone who has done it before at the helm?). I made the right choice. It went splendidly and I’ll definitely try it again at some point.

P.S. The stars in Wyoming were on point last night. A++.