SMOKEY ROW: A COMMUNITY The outlaws built a cabin at Smoky Row and put up a stone hut that they used as a bathhouse. They had to go to Fort Brown, present day Fort Washakie, for their provisions which was 75 miles to the south, over Mexican Pass. They kept their horses in Virgil Rice’s pasture on Owl Creek, 10 miles to the north from their cabin site. There were few visitors at the springs then, according to Totty, but little things like distance and isolation were taken as part of the day’s work by the men who blazed the trail into the country.
The once vibrant community of Smokey Row has disappeared into the murky past. Now part of the Bison Pasture in Hot Springs State Park, it was located just east of the Star Plunge Pool. The bubbling hot springs filled the air with a distinct rotten egg smell. The early pioneers drank this water for their medicinal health. Tents and private baths dotted the landscape. Dugouts were built into the hillside with dirt floors, sod roofs and stone walls. The smoke from the camp fires settled into the gulch instead of being funneled up and away from the camp. As a result of this thick cloud, the popular shanty town became known as Smoky Row. Since the mid-1800’s, trappers and entire families of early pioneers would vacation at the hot springs, making their temporary home in the red gulch. An early visitor had commemorated his visit by etching a stone with a star and the date 1846. Over twenty years before the land was given to the Shoshone tribe as part of the Bridger Treaty of 1868.
their six-shooters. It was eerily quiet, without any shouting or cursing from the thieves. No words were exchanged as they gestured for the card players to turn their faces around and put their hands on the stone wall of the dugout. The outlaws quietly helped themselves to the money in sight and hastily departed. They were robed in bathing costumes and unrecognizable to their victims. With their money gone and lives spared, the card players drifted back to their own dug outs. The Big Horn Pilot reported on the incident, noting that no one was saying exactly how much money was lost. Another infamous outlaw, Butch Cassidy, is known to have holed up in Smoky Row in-between robberies and working on local ranches. Members of the Hole-in-the-Wall gang, Nate Champion, Mike Brown, Jack Donahue and Jack Totty, spent the winter of 1887 at the springs while it was still part of the Wind River Indian Reservation.
Not all was always serene in Smoky Row. During a midnight card game, two masked thieves came rushing into a dirt-floor dugout where they knew that money was exchanging hands. It was August 1887 and a Friday night when the outlaws barged in, brandishing
HotSpringsWyoming.com
Smokey Row Cemetery
4
When settlement of the area was allowed in 1897, the outlaws were replaced by the law abiding citizens. One such pioneering family, the Gaylors, came to Thermopolis with their two small daughters. They spent the first winter in Smoky Row gulch in a dugout covered with a canvas tent to keep out the cold and snow.
First Bath House at the Hot Springs
Smoky Row continued to be an active community. Located behind the Star Plunge pool in the Reserve, it was a series of cabins and simple dugouts. After the families moved on to their new homes, Smoky Row became known as a place full of late night laughter and talk. One early pioneer said, “Every man carried a gun of some kind but they were seldom called into use and there was little quarreling and fighting. The crowds that were camped at the springs were jolly and willing to gamble that their dollar was luckier than the other fellows.” Such robberies were taken almost lightly in those early days, according to an editor of the Thermopolis Record in the 1930’s who reminisced about the by-gone days. Jack Hollywood, an early pioneer and businessman, ran one of the first saloons
Visit Wyoming’s Favorite Hot Springs
