Sun Ranch was
formed in 1872 Tom Sun. Of French-Canadian descent, he was born on February 28, 1844, in
Vermont as Thomas DeBeau Soleil. His mother died when
he was very young. Due to a terrible relationship with his stepmother, he ran
away from home at the age of eleven to seek an uncle in Montana. At some point,
because Soleil means sun in French, he anglicized his surname to Sun.
Upon arriving in St Louis he met and became friends with a
trapper employed by the American Fur Company named
Dakota, who became his mentor. Dakota taught him survival on the plains and how
to deal with Indians as they trapped along the rivers of Colorado and Wyoming.
Too young for combat during the Civil War, he worked with an army construction
crew in Oklahoma. After the war, he returned to the mountains of Colorado and
Wyoming and resumed trapping.
In 1874, Tom Sun was asked to join well-known Boney Earnest to scout
for the troops at Ft Fred Steele. While scouting in the Yellowstone country the
two scouts discovered a hunting party had been attacked, the men all killed and
the women taken as captives. Approaching the Indian encampment Sun and Earnest
stampeded the Indian horses as a diversion and rescued the women.
The two scouts later worked with a young frontiersman,
William Cody, and taught him life in the West. Years later, Buffalo Bill Cody,
presented Tom Sun with a rifle from his Wild West Show.
In 1872, Tom Sun built a log cabin along the Sweetwater
River near Devil’s Gate. Sir
John Reid, a visiting British baron impressed with his scouting ability,
provided the funds for stock and the ranch. A trapper turned frontier rancher, he
made
two trips to Oregon and brought back 4,000 head of cattle. He built his ranch
into an empire covering more than three million acres and the largest operation
in Wyoming.
Known for his
integrity as well as for his ability to use a gun, Tom Sun was
highly respected in Wyoming.
During the 1870s and 1880s, the ranch was typical of many
medium-sized ranching operations in cattle country. Located along the Overland Trail, which
included the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails, the site of the ranch is
both historic as well as scenic.
In 1882, The Cheyenne Daily Leader remarked that
"the eastern person of inquiring turn of mind who writes to his friends
out west to ask what a ranch is like would find his answer in a description of
Tom Sun's."
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Tom Sun 1880
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In 1883, Tom Sun
married Mary Agnes Hellihan, born in 1856 in Cork County, Ireland. They had four
children, the oldest and only boy being Thomas Edwin Sun, also known as Tom Sun
II, born in 1884. He operated the ranch after the death of his father. The
three daughters were Anastasia (1887-1889), Adelaide Mary Sun Smith (1890-1983), and Eva Catherine Sun (1893-1909).
In July of 1889,
Tom Sun, along with five other ranchers from the region, was involved with the
lynching of James Averill and Ella Watson, also known as Cattle Kate, whom they
accused of rustling cattle. When apprehended at his ranch, Sun admitted his
involvement and named the other five. All six men were arrested and released on
bond. In spite of the Cheyenne Weekly Sun's article full of lurid half-truths and outright lies, which were picked up and sensationalized worldwide, later, more careful investigation showed the issue had more to do with a dispute over land use, not cattle rustling. Three months later, the grand jury hearing the case adjourned without
indicting the men because none of the four eyewitnesses to the incident could
be found to testify.
In 1900, Tom Sun
obtained a lease on 160 acres of land from the state land board.
Tom Sun, Sr., was
a member of the Masonic, Knight Templar, and Shriner lodges. He died at St.
Joseph hospital in Denver on Saturday, June 5, 1909. He was buried in Rawlins,
Carbon County, Wyoming. His wife, Mary, died April 25, 1936 in Alcova, Natrona
County, Wyoming and was buried in Rawlins.
The
ranch contains the largest uninterrupted stretch of the Oregon Trail.
The ranch site was declared a National Historic Landmark on
December 19, 1960. At the time of its nomination as a landmark it was one of
the best preserved ranches from the cattle ranging period and was 4,160 acres
(16.8 km2) in size.
The ranch remained in the Sun family for four generations
until 1977 when it was sold to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
because of the historical importance of Martin’s Cove, which was located on the
ranch’s property.
In 1997, some of the ranch buildings were transformed into a
visitor’s center.
A portion of the ranch buildings have been turned into a
museum featuring the early members of the Sun family.
Featured in the displays are several artifacts contributed by
the Sun family and neighbors. These three
items, above, were used by the early members of the Sun family.
The
above pelt belonged to a white wolf killed by Tom Sun II in 1906 at Sweetwater
Rocks (Bear Trap Pocket, two miles west of Sun Ranch) after he and his mate had
killed thirty calves in one month prior to being shot.
This is the fourth of four posts on the early history of
white activity around Devil’s Gate. The following are the first three:
“Devil’s Gate
and the Emigrant Trails” – Please CLICK HERE
“Devil’s Gate and Fort Seminoe” –
Please CLICK HERE
“Devil’s
Gate and the Mormon Winter Guard” – Please CLICKHERE
I find myself
drawn to Wyoming for much of my writing. My most recent book set in this state
and general time frame is Lauren from the Rescue Me
(Mail-order Brides) series. Although it is set to the south and slightly east
of the Sun Ranch, some scenes reflect many of the attitudes regarding “frontier
justice” that turned up in my research on Tom Sun. To find the book description
and purchase options for ebook, paperback, and audio, please CLICK HERE
Sources:
https://wyoshpo.wyo.gov/index.php/programs/national-register/wyoming-listings/view-full-list/713-tom-sun-ranch-national-historic-landmark
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Sun_Ranch
https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/exhibit/historic-sites/wyoming/sun-ranch?lang=eng
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6802809/thomas-debeau-sun
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20103841/mary-agnes-sun
Cheyenne
Weekly Sun, Volume 13, August 1, 1889, page 3
https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/covering-cattle-kate-newspapers-and-watson-averell-lynching
https://web.archive.org/web/20120728031221/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=563&ResourceType=Building
Natrona
County Tribune, Volume 19, Number 08, July 7, 1909
