Big museum, small town
Savery, Wyo. exhibits a wealth of Little Snake River treasures
With a population of 25 people, Savery, Wyo., might not appear to be a source of cultural heritage, but history can be deceiving, and the Little Snake River Museum holds a number of treasures for the visiting public.
Home to the cabin built by mountain man Jim Baker, the museum also has armloads of information on the man buried nearby in Baker Cemetery.
“He was a friend of Jim Bridger’s and was sent out to what is now known as Battle Mountain in 1841,” museum director Debbie Allen said. “When Captain Frapp was killed in the fight with Indians, Baker was put in charge of the battle and he was only 21 years old.”
Facing 700 Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapahoe warriors hurling arrows, Baker is recognized as saving the lives of the 25 trappers surrounded at the fort in August 1841.
Battle Mountain and Battle Creek are named for the fight, known today as the most memorable clash in the Rocky Mountains between whites and Native Americans.
The fighting ended with the withdrawing of the Native Americans, but it was only the beginning of the adventurous life of Jim Bridger.
Known as a hunter, trapper, guide, scout and Indian fighter, he was at the battle of Rosebud with General George Custer and the Sand Creek Massacre with General Chivington.
He was called to quell Mormon aggression aimed at pioneers crossing into Utah after the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and was part of the Meeker Massacre, led by General Thornburg.
Jim Baker memorabilia fills the cabin he built in 1873 on the Little Snake River near the present location of the museum.
Baker fathered nearly a dozen children by three wives, two of them Native Americans.
The cabin itself was moved to Cheyenne in 1917, returning to the Little Snake River valley in 1974 to be part of the museum.
The museum features nine buildings, including a barn full of antique farming implements, 1880s buildings and an old gold mine water tank, converted to display mining equipment.
The antiques and arrowheads on display may be expected at many western museums, but the Little Snake River Museum is also known for its collection of mounted, two-headed animals on display.
“We have a calf, a sheep and a kitten,” Allen said. “They were all from the Morgan Ranch.”
The museum also features a new gift shop with locally produced items, and the building is available for weddings and events that require a banquet room or a barbeque pit.
It takes about two hours to tour the facility, and special events occur on holidays as with Frontier Days on Memorial Day Weekend, and the Little Snake River Music Fest on Labor Day Weekend.
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