The fort was situated on the banks of the Missouri where today Montana and North Dakota meet. This was Audubon's wilderness home from which he made many expeditions. There he wrote of the western meadowlark and named for his friends Bell vireo, Sprague's titlark (the Missouri skylark) and the Harris sparrow.

Loved by everyone, Indians included, the retiring genius was said to be the lost Dauphin of France, son of guillotined Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. Adopted legally by a French sea captain, Jean Audubon, his ancestry is still mysterious. Audubon's birthplace is listed variously as Santo Domingo, W. I., Louisiana and France. He died in poverty in New York in 1851.

In spite of poverty and bankruptcy, he preserved in his nature work, and today his drawings of American birds are museum treasures. In 1888 Audubon societies were formed for the preservation and study of birds.

The Denver Post - 6/3/1951

Young Jesse learned over fourteen dialects and became a great scout. The government depended upon him to guide troops over trails, negotiate the return of lost children from the Indians and to lay out new roads.

He married the daughter of one Edwards who had a trading post in the heart of the Oklahoma wilderness near Ryan. In 1867 Chisholm attended a great meeting of 15,000 Indians and many celebrated whites at Medicine Lodge, Kan.

While operating a trading store in what is now Wichita, Kan., Chisholm blazed south into Oklahoma a trail which connected with an older one from Texas, later to be known as the Chisholm Trail, immortalized in song, story and legend.

The headstone over his weed-covered grave near Greenfield, Okla., reads:
JESSE CHISHOLM
BORN 1805 DIED MARCH 4, 1868 NO ONE LEFT HIS HOME COLD OR HUNGRY

The Denver Post - 1951

After being held captive slaves of the natives, de Vaca, Catillo, Dorantes and his Moorish slave, Estevancio, planned escape. Successful, they started their long trek afoot toward the Pacific coast and its new Spanish settlement.

Subsisting on berries, they passed through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. In his diary, "Relacion," published in Spain, de Vaca reveals his devote nature. He performed seemingly miraculous cures, which greatly impressed the Indians who followed him in great hordes.

They reached the Spanish settlements on the Pacific in 1536. Estevanico was later killed by Zuni Indians while on the Coronado expedition.

Retuning to Spain, de Vaca was appointed governor of Paraguay in 1540.

The Denver Post - 6/6/1951

Lincoln came from pioneers. His grandfather was killed in his Kentucky wilderness home in 1876, and his uncle, then a lad of 14, killed one of the Indians in self-defense.

At 23, Lincoln became a captain of volunteers in the Black Hawk war. The oath was administered by Lieut. Jefferson Davis, a mustering officer of the U. S. Army. The war over, Lincoln walked over 200 miles home and received a bonus of $125 in 1853.

Eighty-six years ago today, Lincoln died. He had a conference, his last, April 14, 1865 with Schuyler Colfax, who Lincoln had arranged, was to start west the next day to Colorado and California with a message to the miners of the Rocky mountains and the coast. The message was reported in the pres of Central City, Colo., June 1, 1865, upon Colfax;s arrival.

The Denver Post - April 14, 1951

Finding its way through mountain camps, over the plains and prairies, "Home on the Range" was sung as lustily in the '70s as it is today. The identity of its author was often a subject of controversy, with many persons claiming the distinction. The matter was not settled until 1934 when, as "An Arizona Home," the song became involved in a $500,000 damage suit for royalties. Several dozen companies, including a broadcasting company, were involved.

The litigation and investigations ended up on the banks of Beaver creek, where it was determined Dr. Brewster Higley had written the words to music composed by his neighbor, Daniel Kelly, a Rhode Island cavalryman. Kelly and his wife were in such demand for playing at early-day Kansas festivities.

Dr, Higley died at the age of 87 in Shawnee, Okla., in 1911 and Kelly died at Waterloo, Ia., in 1905.

"Home on the Range" has had many titles, even "Colorado Home" at one time. Today it is the state song of Kansas and still strikes a responsive chord in the hearts or westerners and others throughout the world.

The Denver Post - 4/18/1951

Answering inquiries, Indians told of a great river to the north. To this place Coronado dispatched Cardenas with a body of horsemen, Aug. 25, 1540. For three weeks they passed through arid country. Indians, respecting their armed might, were friendly.

They found their shining river. It was winding its way through the bottom of one of the most awesome and beautiful natural wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.

For three days efforts to descend from the rim proved futile. Then three men climbed down one-third of the way, only to return. It was left to padre Garces, 1776, to reach the bottom and find a settlement of Havasupai Indians who still live there.

The Grand canyon is hundreds of millions years old. The Colorado river is the second-longest river in the United States. In 1919 the Grand Canyon was created a national park composed of fifty-six square miles.

The Denver Post - 5/15/1951

Bronze doors of the Library of Congress annex bear his alphabet. Redwood trees are named Sequoia for him. There are coniferous evergreen redwoods, who ancestors were numerous until the glaciers of the ice age obliterated all but a few patches.

There are two types. One is Gigantea, 273 feet tall, 3,000 years old and seemingly immune to fire and disease. Growing only in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. From these mountains rises Mount Whitney, highest peak in the United States. Joseph Walker reported seeing these giant redwoods in 1839. Their location was named Sequoia National park, 1890, by the government.

The other kind, Sempervirens, also immense, living 1,300 years, thrives on ocean-blown fogs and extends from Weber Grove, near the Oregon line, 450 miles down to the Santa Lucia mountains.

Thus do earth's oldest living things, do honor to Oklahoma's Cherokee son.

The Denver Post - 5/20/1951