Douglas Photographer Captures Historic Black Rancher’s Homestead Below Milky Way

Douglas photographer Mark Panasuk enjoys remodeling a darkish scene into one thing stunning.

He’s at all times looking out for an additional attention-grabbing setting, and when he discovered an deserted stone ranch home north of Lost Springs, Wyoming, he knew he had one thing particular.

Unlike the well-known line from poet Dylan Thomas, he portrayed the property as going “gentle into that good night.”

Digging into its historical past, Panasuk grew to become much more enamored with capturing the stone partitions and grounds with the Milky Way above it as a result of it as soon as was dwelling to one of the vital profitable Back ranchers within the West — Jim Edwards.

“It was kind of a unique house in that it was big house, two story, out in the prairie here in eastern Wyoming,” Panasuk stated. “It had several buildings … and he was really inventive because he put in that water tower.”

The tower was constructed with a gap that appeared to permit an area for a hearth that may hold the water from freezing within the winter. 

The home had a toilet with bathroom, bathe, and the property additionally featured a stone storage.

There is proof of a number of different outbuildings that after have been round it. Several accounts of the property state that Edwards was the primary within the space to have indoor lavatory services.

Panasuk acquired permission from the present landowner to {photograph} the home and grounds, and the outcome exhibits the Milky Way like an arch above it framing the property.

He stated he put a lightweight inside the home, which has misplaced its home windows, as a result of he thought it made a greater piece of artwork. 

Creating the ultimate picture required a mixture of 35 images and three-minute exposures to completely reveal the Milky Way.

He used a pc program to sew the digital photos collectively to make it one.

Panasuk stated he spoke with a few of the ranchers across the property and discovered {that a} father or grandfather knew Edwards, who made a reputation for himself effectively past Wyoming.

Turns out that Edwards is a featured title on the Homestead National Historic Park in Beatrice, Nebraska, and Ebony Magazine as soon as profiled him in its March 1949 difficulty that had Billy Eckstein on the duvet. 

Magazine Profile

The profile was titled “The Last Days of Jim Edwards” and characterised him as a “legend” in Wyoming and a reputation that may remembered effectively past his demise.

A historical past of Edwards written for the Black Past web site says he was “one of the most successful African American homesteaders in the state of Wyoming.”

And “Pages From Converse County’s Past” compiled within the Nineteen Eighties revealed that he was generally referred to as “(N-word) Jim.”

But that phrase didn’t cease Edwards from turning into a profitable rancher and enterprise man. His coming and goings had pretty frequent mentions within the social columns of the native rural newspapers.

The Black Past account of Edwards’ life says that he was born on Feb. 14, 1874, and arrived in Wyoming in 1900 together with his father and a gaggle of Italian miners responding to newspaper adverts about work in a Lusk coal mine.

The miners drove Edwards out, and he walked to Lusk and located work on the Wilson Brother’s Running Water Ranch. 

Over the following 14 years, he rose to the rank of foreman and was sheepman, cowboy and horse coach.

In his ultimate years on the ranch, a dispute with the Wilson brothers led to a lawsuit that Edwards gained in 1923, giving him $3,000 in again wages plus curiosity. The Wyoming Supreme Court elevated it to $4,000.

The Lusk Free Lance on Nov. 1, 1923, reported that the dispute had been over an accounting of his share of sheep in addition to his wages.

1913 Homestead

Meanwhile in 1913, the Wilsons helped him homestead acreage on Harney Creek. 

Edwards recruited different blacks to homestead on land round him, and he finally purchased their properties.

“Converse County’s Past” states that Edwards married Lethel Dawson in 1914 in Denver, and that her mother and father cooked on a river boat on the Mississippi River

When her father contracted tuberculosis, they moved to Denver for his well being.

A narrative trying again on Lost Springs within the Casper Star-Tribune on April 6, 1974, stories that Lethel’s father was a full-blooded Indian and her mom black. 

After her marriage to Edwards, she traveled to Denver sometimes to sing on radio stations.

The Lusk Standard newspaper on Sept. 12, 1919, reported that “Mrs. Jim Edwards” had simply develop into the “happy” proprietor of a brand new piano.

“Now, we’ll have some jazz,” the editor wrote.

In the Ebony Magazine story a number of years after his spouse’s demise, Edwards was nonetheless in command of his 14,000-acre Sixteen-Bar-One Ranch. 

He had named it the Sixteen-Bar-One as a result of it represented the ratio of white ranchers to black ones.

Edwards informed the reporter that when he first arrived in Wyoming after which later arrange his homestead, gunplay with neighboring ranchers and would-be outlaws was not unusual. He was examined.

“No man will ever run Jim Edwards off of his land,” Edwards informed the journal. “Let ’em know right away that you’re going to fight for what you own. Just because a man’s colored is no reason for people to think he’s a coward.”

That philosophy seemingly was a part of the rationale for a narrative within the Niobrara County News on Dec. 3, 1914, when Edwards nonetheless served as herder for the Wilson Brothers and had a “mix-up” with a herder from one other ranch over their bands of sheep.

Edwards had the person arrested, however later “dismissed the case and paid all the costs.”

Sheep ‘Straying’

Another point out of Edwards within the Lusk Herald a 12 months earlier had him complaining that he had plenty of hassle with sheep “straying away.”

The Ebony account stated that at one time, Edwards had 20,000 acres of land with oil rights, and through his regular operations had greater than 1,000 head of cattle, 9,000 sheep, 200 horses, 5,000 chickens and 500 hogs.

He informed the reporter that what he thought-about most vital in his success was a “clean mind and a few years ago a pistol.”

“I didn’t have to use my pistol much, but then you don’t have to when you make your decision to stand at the outset,” he added.

Edwards constructed the stone home himself, helped pay for the development of the Congregational Church in Lusk — the place his spouse sang within the choir — and informed the reporter that Lethel had been “the guiding influence in my life.”

And it turned out that ranching was not his solely curiosity and enterprise success. 

A function story within the Casper Tribune-Herald on July 16, 1945, profiled a restaurant co-owned by Mary Simms, a black girl, and Edwards that specialised in Southern fried hen.

“In spite of rationing which has made it difficult to obtain the steaks to fill demand, the restaurant has kept abreast of the demands for the excellent fried chicken which has been its specialty,” the newspaper reported. “With the generous helping of chicken, French fries, a vegetable, dessert and the special golden brown succulent biscuits are served.”

Edwards’ love Lethel died of leukemia in 1945, based on the Converse County historical past, and he offered his ranch that contained 18 sections to 4 consumers in 1950.

The Scottsbluff Star-Herald on Jan. 7, 1951, recounted Edwards’ demise at age 76.

“A Scottsbluff man died from suffocation Saturday night after water boiled away in a pot in which chicken was being cooked filling a basement room with smoke,” the newspaper reported. “The dead man was James E. Edwards, age unknown, who rented a room at 801 East Eighth Street.”

He is buried in Scottsbluff.

Panasuk stated he was glad to get a photograph of the as soon as affluent ranch whereas it nonetheless stands.

“The sad part about it is that probably about in 10 years it’s all going to be gone,” he stated.

Dale Killingbeck may be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.