Beckoning Frontiers

The Memoir of a Wyoming Entrepreneur

George W. T. Beck, Lynn Houze, Jeremy M. Johnston

• Publisher: Bison Books
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9780803288461
• eBook ISBN:
  9781496220783
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

2021 Publication Award in Biography from the Wyoming State Historical Society
Westerners International Co-Founders Book Award, second place George W. T. Beck, an influential rancher and entrepreneur in the American West, collaborated with William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody to establish the town of Cody, Wyoming, in the 1890s. He advanced his financial investments in Wyoming through his numerous personal and professional contacts with various eastern investors and politicians in Washington DC. Beck's family—his father a Kentucky senator and his mother a grandniece of George Washington—and his adventures in the American West resulted in personal associates who ranged from western legends Buffalo Bill, Jesse James, and Calamity Jane to wealthy American elites such as George and Phoebe Hearst and Theodore Roosevelt. This definitive edition of Beck's memoir provides a glimpse of early life in Wyoming, offering readers a rare perspective on how community boosters cooperated with political leaders and wealthy financiers. Beck's memoir, introduced and annotated by Lynn J. Houze and Jeremy M. Johnston, offers a unique and sometimes amusing view of financial dealings in eastern boardrooms, as well as stories of Beck's adventures with Buffalo Bill in Wyoming. Beck's memoir demonstrates not only his interest in developing the West but also his humor and his willingness to collaborate with a variety of people.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword: Reflections of Two Young Lads on the Life of George W. T. Beck, a.k.a. “the Governor” by Alan K. Simpson and Peter K. Simpson
• Series Editors’ Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction by Lynn J. Houze and Jeremy M. Johnston
• Beckoning Frontiers: The Memoir of George Washington Thornton Beck
• Preface
• 1. Family and Boyhood in Kentucky and Washington dc, 1856–1865
• 2. Post Civil War, 1865–1874
• 3. A Student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1874–1876
• 4. Prospecting in Colorado, 1877–1879
• 5. Working on the Northern Pacific Railroad, 1879–1880
• 6. Homesteading in Wyoming, 1880s
• 7. Sheepherding and Crow Indians
• 8. Return to the East
• 9. Trips to the South and to Cuba, 1889
• 10. Wyoming Territorial Legislator, 1889–1890
• 11. Another Trip Back East and to California, 1890
• 12. Beckton, Wyoming
• 13. The Johnson County War, 1892
• 14. Wyoming Politics
• 15. The Shoshone Irrigation Company and Cody, Wyoming, 1893–1894
• 16. Developing the Town of Cody and Hunting Trips
• 17. Finishing the Cody Canal, Marriage, and Family Life in Cody
• 18. The Leiter Ball, the Frederic Remington Visit, and a Bank Robbery
• 19. Another Ute Uprising and Famous Guests
• 20. The Shoshone Reclamation Project and the Cody Power Plant
• Afterword by Betty Jane Gerber
• Appendix 1: Select Letters from William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody to George Beck regarding the Cody Canal Project
• Appendix 2: Speech by George Beck at the Laying of the Cornerstone for a New City Hall, Cody, Wyoming
• Appendix 3: Summary of a Talk Delivered by Thornton “Tee” Beck about the Beck Family
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index