I never forgot what I heard around the campfire.  In 1894 the Carey Irrigation Act was passed by Congress.  A million acres of land was given to each of the arid States.  I was the first man to receive a concession of two hundred thousand acres from the Wyoming State Land Board.

I could not get away to the Basin till late in the autumn of 1894, so I formed a partnership with George T. Beck, who proceeded to Wyoming, where he was found by Professor Elwood Mead, then in the service of the State.  There a site was located and the line of an irrigation canal was surveyed.

A town was laid out along the canal, and my friends insisted upon naming it Cody.  At this time there was no railroad in the Big Horn Basin; but shortly afterward the Burlington sent a spur out from its main line, with Cody as its terminus.  In 1896 I went out on a scout to locate the route of a wagon road from Cody into the Yellowstone Park.  This was during Mr. McKinley’s first administration.

I went to Washington, saw the President, and explained to him the possibilities of a road of eighty miles, the only one entering the National Park from the East.  It would be, I told him, the most wonderful scenic road in the West.  Mr. Roosevelt ordered the building of this road, which has now become the favorite automobile route into the Park.  Today the Big Horn Basin is one of the richest of American oil lands, and the Pennsylvania of the West for coal production.  Every one of the prophecies that Professor Marsh made to us around that campfire has come true.

In December, 1870, I was sent as a witness to Fort D.A.  Russell, near the city of Cheyenne, where a court-martial was to be held.  Before leaving home my wife had given me a list of articles she needed for the furnishing of our house.  These I promised to purchase in Cheyenne.

On arriving at Fort Russell I found many officers, also witnesses at the court-martial, and put in most of my time with them.  A postponement of a week gave us an opportunity to “do” Cheyenne.  That town furnished abundant opportunities for entertainment, as there was every kind of game in operation, from roulette to horse-racing.  I sent for my horse, Tall Bull, and a big race was arranged between him and a Cheyenne favorite called Green’s Colt.  But before Tall Bull could arrive the court-martial was over and the race was off.  I sold the animal to Lieutenant Mason.  I met many old friends in Cheyenne, among them R.S.  Van Tassell, Tim Dier, Major Talbot, Luke Morrin, Posey Wilson, and many others.  They constituted a pretty wild bunch, and kept me so busy that I had no time to think about Mrs. Cody’s furniture.

On my return, when she asked us for it, I told her I couldn’t bring it with me on the train, and that moreover there were no stores in Cheyenne where I could get furniture that would be good enough for her, so I had sent to Dewey & Stone at Omaha for what she needed.