The following is part of the papers in the Oscar Hoback collection as collected by Edna Greet.
The Hole-in-the-Wall
No two names in Wyoming are so well known to the outside world as the Hole-in-the-Wall and Powder river. To many they epitomize all that might be written of our lawlessness, our feuds and our state’s wild youth with its trappings of guns and holsters, spurs and lariats. Many a boy in the detective story stage of his literary studies is thrilled by the magic spell of these names pregnant with tales of rustlers and banditti. It is singular that these two most widely known names should be so closely linked geographically. The Hole-in-the-Wall is in the Powder River country. The water flowing through the “Hole” empties into Powder river, and its ensanguined waters, red with the blood of 10,000 mythical bandits, finally mingle with the more peaceful but muddy tide of the Missouri.
Our soldiers in the great world war carried the slogan of “Powder river” to every part of Central Europe. Boys from Salt Creek shouted it as they helped turn the tide of the whole war at Chateau Thierry. It echoed through the forest of the Argonne and cheered the lads who bravely rushed the bridges of the Meuse. Where less serious work was in hand and Sammy knew a little relaxation this yell of “Powder River” was a vent for his spirits. Parisians who knew no other English word could say “Poudre Rive,” and fan the air with a hat. It is something of which we might boast that a state with a population equal only to the city of Denver and a congressional delegation of three gave the entire Union its battle cry in the biggest war ever waged by man. Such phrases as “Powder river, let ‘er buck,” “Powder river, a mile wide and an inch deep,” can be heard in the logging camps of Maine and the salmon canneries of Oregon. The ancient war cries of “St. Denis” and “St. George, “the helmet of Navarre waving its white plume over Ivry’s bloody field, must make room for a noisy and barbaric successor from the pinnacled summits of a new continent.
No one can say just when or just where the shout of “Powder River” had its noisy birth. But it certainly was a lusty and well-lunged child from the beginning. It first grew into popularity at either Casper or Buffalo. These two towns were the chief resorts of the “boys” from the Powder River country. Even a drunken man will shout for the home ball team and bet on a home horse. Men from Powder river, with a few drinks under their belts, had to yell. So did men from Meadow creek and Sweetwater. You were expected to proclaim that the locality you hailed from was about the toughest on earth and try to prove it. “Powder River” is more easily shouted than such names as Sweetwater, Stinking Water or the Platte. Its vowels gave it a pre-eminence. It grew to be almost universally used when you felt the need of intensive yelling. There are moments when nothing but yelling will do. There are times to laugh and times to sing, but there are other times when we simply want to get out and yell. As to date, it can be said that throughout Natrona, Johnson and Converse counties its general use on festive occasions dates from the period between 1895 and 1900. There can be no registry of birth for a thing of such slow growth.
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Learned something new. Very interesting…
Very interesting. Do you know who wrote this?