Kane Historic Trail dedication set for Sept. 25

Members of the Lovell-Kane Museum board and the National Park Service are joining forces for the creation of an interpretive walking path at the Kane town site east of Lovell featuring a series of signs telling the history of the town that ceased to exist in 1965 with the creation of the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.

The Kane Historic Trail will be dedicated Saturday, Sept. 25, during an open house and grand opening at the site from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Museum board member Karen Spragg said the collaborative project has been in the works for a couple of years. She said the museum provided a 1962 map of the town site, which National Park Service archaeologist Richard Olsen and interpretive ranger Amanda Bennion used to begin a survey based on the location of a cistern, which can still be found at the town site and is on the map.

Spragg said the Park Service officials first flagged the site for historic artifacts, then conducted the survey to pinpoint the layout of the buildings. They then “brush-hogged” sagebrush to lay out the gravel walking path.

“It’s very nice,” Spragg said. “Ty Sammons of Sammons Excavation knew what we needed. It’s packed nice. The Park Service put in (railroad) ties to outline the path.”

A small parking lot was created next to the path.

Each major building site will be marked with an interpretive sign, and the sign posts are already in place. The informative, historic signs were designed by museum board members Karlie Hammond and Dustin McClure from archived photos and printed on metal by Wild Edge Screen Printing and Embroidery of Lovell.

Meanwhile, a fundraiser is under way in the form of a raffle for nine items: a Remington 783 bolt action rifle with a 22-inch walnut stock, a knife and sheath carved with Kane, Wyoming on the sheath, a Kane photo quilt, a rock slab picturing the Kane town site painted by Karen Spragg based on a photo from the book “Pioneers of the Big Horn” by Bill Scott, two historic framed photos of Kane homes, a Wyoming history book with “Wyoming” carved into the pages, a gift basket and a 30-by-36-inch print of the Beartooth Mountains.

Tickets are $10 each or six for $50. All proceeds will go to the Lovell-Kane Area Museum.

A ribbon cutting will take place at 11 a.m. during the grand opening, and refreshments – ice cream sandwiches, chips and water -- will be served from 11:15 a.m. to noon.

The pathway project has been paid for, in part, by a $5,000 grant from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Foundation, Spragg said.