If only the walls could talk: The history of the Jenney Stockade

By Bri Brasher 
with Leonard Cash
NLJ Reporter 
 
Preserving historical sites is never an easy task, and the building now known as the Jenney Stockade is no exception. This week’s installment of the History on Main Series with Leonard Cash covers the birth of the Jenney Stockade and its original use in the Black Hills. 
The structure is included in the History on Main Series because the Jenney Stockade was once relocated from its original site at the LAK Ranch to a site behind the Weston County Library before being moved to its current home at the Anna Miller Museum.
Cash’s research includes an article from the News Letter Journal Half Century Anniversary edition, dated Aug. 17, 1939. The article about the Jenney Stockade found in the edition is titled “History of Jenny Stockade In City Goes Back To ’57,” because the article was written when the building was located in downtown Newcastle. First reports on the stockade noted Jenney’s name incorrectly as “Jenny,” but reports use correct spelling in later years. 
The 1939 issue of the News Letter Journal story opened with these words: “In order to get a correct historical data and lay the foundation for the local history of the Jenny Stockade, its birth and its erection we have to go back to the year 1857, September the 12th, when Lieut. G.K. Warren of the U.S. Topographical Engineers, in company with Dr. F.Y. Haden, geologist, explored the west portion of the Black Hills.”
According to the 1939 article, the famous Custer expedition camped on Beaver Creek on Sept. 12, 1857, where the original LAK buildings once stood. The expedition was the first to enter the Black Hills and the site of the Jenney Stockade was the first camp. The men constructed a log corral on the site. 
The next party to occupy the site didn’t arrive until nearly 20 years later – in 1875. The article states that the party included “Professor Walter P. Jenny, acting with the instructions of the Secretary of the Interior, with a party consisting of W.T. Tuttle, astrologer; Valentine T. McGillicuddy, topographer; C.G. Newberry, assistant astrologer; W.G. Patrick, E.M.; with the following corps of miners and laborers ...”
Several interesting stories from Camp Jenney during this time were reported in the Half Century Anniversary Edition of the News Letter Journal. The article included the news that “on May 12, 1875, when the stockade was nearly completed, Mr. Henry Keets, driving a team of ponies, hitched to a two-wheeled cart, made camp on the creek nearby. That night most of the soldiers were drunk. Mr. Keets had supplied the whiskey at fifty cents per cup. He was sent back to Fort Laramie under escort.”
A few days after the incident, it was reported that the party left Cheyenne for Fort Laramie on May 17, where they were met by military aid. 
They then left Fort Laramie on May 25, 1975, with 75 wagons and two ambulances. The group camped on Beaver Creek on June 3, 1875, and they began erecting the stockade the very next day. 
The stockade was built on the same site as the corral built by Lieut. G.K. Warren nearly 18 years prior. It was completed on June 14 and called Camp Jenney. The stockade was used as a supply station where provisions from Fort Laramie were distributed to camps throughout the Black Hills, according to the 1939 article. 
The exploration completed its work and left for Fort Laramie in October of 1875, and Camp Jenney was left in the charge of one man. At this time, the structure was used as a stopping point for gold seekers and then used by the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage Company as a station. Cash explained that the station was vacated when the stage changed its route a few years down the road, and he said it has also been reported that the Jenney Stockade was a stop on the Cheyenne-Deadwood trail. He reiterated that the stages changed routes and trails often over the years. 
In recalling stage routes, Cash referenced records of a speech presented by a Mrs. Douglas about the Jenney Stockade Monument. The speech was recorded by the WPA (Works Progress Administration), and Cash suspects it was presented in the 1940s when the monument for the Jenney Stockade was dedicated. Cash added that Mrs. Douglas and her husband were prominent citizens, ranchers and businesspeople in Newcastle. In fact, Cash suspects that the Douglas family came to the area around the 1890s because they were among the first businesspeople in town. 
Mrs. Douglas spoke of traveling to the Hills the first time: “How I can tell you that the old stages were built for service but not for comfort …,” adding that they were often “sea sick” from the swaying of the coach. 
She went on to speak about the Jenney Stockade specifically: “The accommodations at the Hat Creek station (near Lusk) for travelers were practically nil and after what seemed an eternity, we finally drew up at the Jenny Stockade station. I remember how scared I was of the rough-looking man that lifted me down from the coach and carried me into the log house. It was quite dark in the house, but a bright fire was burning in the big rock fireplace at one end. A man with a dirty flour sack for an apron was mixing and frying flapjacks and all around the wall, cowboys and other men were squatting eating the flap jacks and drinking strong black coffee. At least we got warmed up by the fire and had some black coffee out of tin cups, and in a little while I felt better. We left the Stockade with our horses dancing on their hind legs. The sun was just rising over the hills and I might have noticed the beauty of the surrounding scenery, if I hadn’t have been so frightened and upset. …”
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It seems that Mrs. Douglas had more reason than one to be frightened. Exactly a year after Jenney’s exploration left for Cheyenne, another skirmish occurred. The News Letter stated that “on May 17, 1876, a man by the name of Keise was murdered — shot through the head by his partner, Jackson, about two miles above the Jenny Stockade on the Stonewall City road, afterwards known as Custer City. Jackson made his get-away with saddle horses, pack mules and his partner’s money. Keise is buried up the canyon on the old Stonewall road, one and a half miles above the present site of the LAK ranch house.”
Around this same time, the 1939 article referenced another change of events dealing with the Jenny Stockade: “In the winter of 1877-78, Spencer having secured Flarida’s interest (his former co-owner), organized the LAK Cattle Company (Lake Allerton & Spencer, owners). The name in honor of the professor ‘Camp Jenny’ was from then on known as the Jenny Stockade. The paper described the building in writing,  ‘… The stockade building was a large ‘L’ shaped log structure and served in turn as a stockade, stage station, hostelry, swelling house, and store house …’”
Cash said the LAK ranch people built an addition to the original structure for a place to live, which made the building L-shaped. However, only the original rectangular building has been preserved. 
“For fifty-three years it served thus but when the modern buildings of the LAK ranch were built it became necessary to move the old stockade,” reported the News Letter Journal in 1939.
The Twentieth Century Club (now the Twenty-First Century Club), a Newcastle Women’s Club, salvaged the original building and brought it to Newcastle to be preserved and serve as a memorial. Cash’s WPA records indicate this preservation occurred in 1929. The process was referenced in the local papers in 1928, though the final reconstruction was likely finished in 1929. Cash said the logs and stones were carefully numbered in order to reconstruct the Jenney Stockade exactly as it was when located on the LAK property.
Cash added that the Twenty-First Century club, organized in 1894, was one of the first clubs in Wyoming, and it was originally called The Owls.
The Twentieth Century Club spearheaded the reconstruction, as the building was rebuilt behind the library, and it was opened to the public on special occasions. A history of the building hung on the door, according to the News Letter Journal. The paper reported, “An Oregon Trail memorial stone stands nearby with the inscription, ‘Oregon Trail Tributary.’ Today the stockade, – its historical logs with portholes – are yours to inspect and ponder over, a gift from Newcastle and Weston County.”