#24. Dear Diary. 52 Ancestors in a Year: Yellowstone Park Diary

#24 Dear Diary.  Yellowstone Park trip in a diary

Several years ago I decided the best way to share family information would be to blog.  I knew “nothing” about a blog or how to start one.  But that morning in August of 2015, I jumped in, because a diary began on August 13, 1913, to tell the story of a trip to Yellowstone Park.  The keeper of the diary was my grandmother, Della Kurtz.  I even had the original pictures to add to the blog.

My grandmother and some family members from Pennsylvania and Montana took a tour from Dillon, Montana through Yellowstone park via horse and buggy.  The trip began August 13 and they returned home on September 3rd.   My grandmother’s beau, John Shaffner, accompanied the group.  Della and John were married after they returned from the trip on September 12, 1913 in Dillon, Montana.  

I have recaptured the first day of the diary.   The rest of the diary is on my blog.

August 13, 1913-Wednesday:  Everybody up at 5:30 AM.  Breakfast--hot cakes, bacon, eggs and coffee.  Broke campe at 7 AM.  Stopped at Leach's Sheep camp at 8:10.  Took some picutres of the outfit.  Stopped for lunch at Blacktail Deer Lake at 12 o'clock noon.  arrived at P & O Cow camp at 3:30 PM.  Cooked our supper in a cabin that had been built in 1876.  This is in the Centennial Valley.  Sandy, the foreman of this outfit, joined our party with his two saddle horses--Pacer and H8.  We took pictures of the cowboys and Ethel, also pictures of the cabin and riders.  (from Della Kurtz's diary)

From Recollections of Norman, Lester and Jim Kurtz in 1980:

The Kurtz boys, Ollie, Norman and Lester wore high top boots.  The boys slept in a tent with their parents, Bertha and Oliver.  They were the only children on the trip, Lester was then called "Babe" as Aunt Dell writes in her diary.  There were two other tents, one for the men and one for the girls and Grandma Kurtz.  Ollie and Norman fought to ride the grub wagon (chuck wagon) driven by Jack Clay.  Uncle Jim drove the grub wagon after Jack Clay got mad and left.  The surrey was drawn by two mules borrowed from Charlie Humes.  Jack Shaffner drove them.  Probably they all traded around in driving the different rigs.  

This must be the building referred to where they cooked supper.

The young girls on the trip were:  Lulu Kurtz, Della Kurtz Mabel Philips and Ethel O'Leary

Notice the pistols!