Nora Thomas was the daughter of the veteran surveyor.

In 1887, J.' S. Clarkson offered a prize of one hundred dollars for the best five acres of corn grown in Cheyenne county without irrigation. John S. Wright of Pumpkin Creek won the prize; he raised fifty bushels per acre. The variety grown was squaw corn which gave rise to some argument, but there was nothing in the specifications that would bar any variety of corn.

In 1887 the roundup passed my father's homestead on Pumpkin creek terraces. It was the firsti time that our people had seen thousands of cattle trailing by for hours and it was a marvelous sight. In the passing across the country they went over the fields of the grangers, and naturally there was not much crop left. A settlers protective association was formed in the log school house just built in section 33 or west Big Horn. It never got very far, for the settlers decided that Washington was too far away to get effective action. After that "slow elk" frequently hung on the ridgepoles of the settlers. The old and infirm were cared for by the stronger and more youthful people of the neighborhood. The settlers also began to look for "mavericks" or unbranded stock among the range cattle. The more daring began to take unbranded calves from their range cow mothers.

One morning Harry Fitzsimmons rode over to the house and said someone had stolen a

heifer from his corral. The neighborhood turned out, and the trail was struck. It was easily followed to Wildcat mountain. In the black root sod on this eminence it was lost. Going down Helves canyon, Mrs. Helves declared that they had passed that way early in the dawn. She was mistaken.