Elsa Byron

DOCUMENTING THE WEST Elsa Spear Byron chronicled Wyoming life in photographs

ROBIN BEAVER

For the Star-Tribune

Just north of the Wyoming border in Montana, a craggy ridge juts out from the high reaches of Wolf Mountain.

On it, a cowboy observes the abyss below, his toes barely touching the lip of the rim. His spurs point toward a lone horse about 10 feet behind.

This scene is depicted in a photograph of Jack Dalhart entitled “The Lookout,” and taken by Wyoming historian-photographer Elsa Spear Byron in 1924.

“People wonder what she was doing practically hanging by her boots, taking pictures,” her daughter, Marilyn Bilyeu, said interview. “She loved taking pictures of people out on the edge.”

It sums up the way Elsa lived her life.

Heading West

Elsa is known for chronicling Wyoming’s life events in the early 20th century. But history has always been important to the entire family, going back generations, Bilyeu remarked.

And thus the seeds of documenting a way of life were sown early for Elsa, who was born into one of Wyoming’s first ranching families in 1896.

Her parents inched their way to Wyoming on wagon trains, plodding along with passengers, horses and cattle. They settled in Big Horn, near Sheridan.

Grandpa Benton, Elsa’s grandfather, was a doctor, dentist and minister on the wagons. It wasn’t unusual for him to pull a tooth and then preach a sermon while his wife played the organ and the children sang songs.

Elsa’s mother kept a diary detailing, for instance, how the family received meals enroute in exchange for Benton’s “services,” Bilyeu said.

“Everything was sad, but they had to keep on going,” she said. “They couldn’t stop and mourn a lot of things that would happen.”

By the time Elsa was born, the family was established and had a decent income from cattle earnings.

Elsa heard, read and lived stories of pioneer life.

All she needed was a galloping horse and a camera.

Wyoming in images

Elsa received her first Brownie camera as a gift at age 12. Her mother taught her the ropes of photography, printing pictures by sunlight or by kerosene lamp.

Elsa was hooked.

By the time she was 15, she was photographing the Crow Tribe, whom she came to know well because of their close proximity to her parents’ ranch.

Elsa also became a guide, taking dudes into the Big Horn Mountains on pack trips. But her life changed abruptly during the summer of 1923 when a sudden blizzard hit a group of women she had taken into the mountains.

“It was very cold, and she put gunny sacks around their feet. She guided them to safety — they would have frozen to death if they had not kept going,” Bilyeu explained.

Nevertheless, Elsa managed to take pictures as they were coming off the mountain. That Christmas, she sent the photos to the women, who then not only wanted copies — they also wanted enlargements.

Fotokraft of the Big Horns was founded, and Elsa worked tirelessly each night in her kitchen — which became her darkroom. She had business cards and placed ads in magazines and newspapers.

“That was before women worked,” said Bilyeu.

For the next 40 years, Elsa sold custom-made place cards, lamp shades and letter baskets made of photographs.

And she wrote about history.

“She wanted to give a piece to everybody and never failed to share what she knew,” Bilyeu added. “Yet she didn’t think she was anything special — she was so humble about that...”

Elsa rode horseback into her 80s and lived to be 95.

Historian Jerry Keenan writes: “She was the last living link to those early days that have drawn us all together to share a common interest.”

Editor’s note: As part of our ongoing Breaking Through series, we’ll be occasionally sharing past profiles of women who made important contributions to Wyoming’s history. This story originally published in 2007.