Bondurant

Jackson has a long reach around the region. This iconic 1930's image* is still part of Jackson lore.

Bondurant is the next Road Trip highlight after leaving Hoback Canyon.  In fact, Bondurant is still smack dab in Hoback Country.  The whole area around Bondurant is known as Hoback Basin. I hate to admit I didn't expect much out of Bondurant.  In fact, I've always had a suspicion Bondurant was named for a race car driver.  I figured he had enough money to buy his own town.  HAHAHA!.  Bondurant has nothing to do with the racing guy.  It's a high, cold area with almost no growing season so it was a Johnny-come-lately in the days of Pie Near Settlement.  Finally some guy named B.F. Bondurant decided to throw down and set up shop there and, voila, Bondurant was born.  It's Post Office dates to the 1890's.  In typical Wyoming style, Bondurant has always been all about the symbiotic relationship between cowboys and cows. Even if you can't grow crops in super cold country, you can still grow cows.

Well, pard, it sure didn't take long to realize there's a lot more to Bondurant than I ever suspected.  And it sure didn't take long for me to quickly decide I needed the above book.  I ordered is August 27 and can hardly wait for it to arrive.  Bondurant appears to be yet another chapter in the thick saga of the trials and tribulations of early Pie Nears and hard ridin' cowboys.  We "discovered" this book when we "discovered" Bondurant's historical group.  My, my, the group has made a HUGE effort to record oral histories of Sons of the Pie Nears AND produce transcripts of the interviews.  
One of the community's signature annual events is a rootin' tootin' BBQ with two whole cows buried deep in hot coals.  Local ladies provide all the fixin's and folks come runnin' from hither and yon.  Well, it turns out that BBQ celebrated it's 81st year in 2023 and it's all because of goin' to church.  Seriously.
A bunch of local cowpokes hefted long handled axes and helped raise a church back in 1941.  They were so proud of themselves they staged a hoop-dee-doo BBQ in '41 and the rest is history, as they say.
By the time we get to Bondurant this October, what with our book learnin' and all, we're gonna be mighty fixed up on the back stories of that tiny little fly speck place in the Upper Hoback River Watershed.


So how did I get started off on such a long Bondurant tangent?  Well, of course, it had to do with a postcard.  Old Postcards are kinda like a gateway drug.  Once you start messing them you can't stop.  Anyway, I idly asked eBay if there were any Bondurant postcards and the classic Jackson card from the '30's showed up.  I quickly noticed it has a July 1941 postmark and then I became curious is Bondurant still had a Post Office.  Much to my surprise it did indeed have a mighty nice, right and proper Post Office.  So I figgered there might be more to Bondurant than I suspected and that's when I started doing the deep dive into yet another rabbit hole.

* This stereotypical cowboy image still graces large roadside signs around the periphery of the Jackson Hole area.  Note that the anatomical arrangement of the cowboy is impossible.  His shoulders are turned 90-degrees.  That doesn't matter.  It's the ICON that matters!  Cowboy UP in Wyoming!




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