Wind River Adventures: My Life in Frontier Wyoming

Wind River Adventures: My Life in Frontier Wyoming

By Edward J. Farlow

Ed Farlow seems to have been present at every important historic event in the West. If he wasn’t, he knew someone who was.

In this historic memoir Ed Farlow recalls a life like no other—starting with his arrival as a teenager in Wyoming in the 1870s. It begins with Farlow and a friend hopping a freight train for Laramie, Wyoming, and continues until 1931 when he was adopted into the Arapaho Nation by the Indians who had become his friends.

His remarkable rapport with the Indians who were his neighbors on the Wind River Reservation led to his acting as a theatrical agent for the tribes for their appearances in “exhibitions” and early motion pictures. He traveled with them to far away places including Paris, London, and Hollywood.

He recounts versions of famous events—the Custer Battle, a buffalo hunt with Indians, the Wilcox train robbery, the Battle of Crowheart Butte, a wolf roundup. And he recalls famous people—Sacajawea, the Hole-in-the Wall gang, Colonel Tim McCoy, Joan Crawford, Chief Washakie, Cattle Kate, and more.

Wind River Adventures is the first publication of the memoirs of Edward J. Farlow. He wrote these accounts in the late 1930s and early 1940s when he was between seventy-five and eighty-five years old. He lived to be ninety and was active and vigorous until near the end of his life. And what a life it was! It has been said that Ed Farlow was there when the West was born.

• 0-931271-45-2 • trade paper • 256 pp • photos • $17.95 ORDER NOW

Edward J. Farlow

The West and Ed Farlow grew up together. Farlow came to Wyoming when he was just sixteen years old in 1876.

By 1880 he had convinced two of his brothers to join him in a cattle venture near Lander, Wyoming. He ranched in the Wind River country for the next sixty years.

When Farlow was twenty-two he married Elizabeth (Lizzie) Lamoreaux, and they raised two sons and many grandchildren.

Lizzie was of Sioux-Anglo heritage and that, plus Farlow’s genuine admiration of Indians, led to long-lasting relationships with the Shoshone and Arapaho.

When Farlow sat down to write his memoirs in the 1930s, he didn’t know where to start. He’d run cows in the Wind River country before Wyoming was a state. He’d organized the first paid admission rodeo in the world. He’d traveled with the Indians from the Wind River Reservation to “exhibitions” and to appear in silent movies, including the archetype for all westerns The Covered Wagon.

The motion pictures led to trips with Indians to perform in “prologues,” live performances held before the showing of a movie. Farlow accompanied Indian groups to London, Paris, Hollywood and the East Coast, stopping off in huge department stores, meeting dignitaries and celebrities, and traveling overseas by ocean liner. For a cowhand and a group of Indians these were truly undreamed of adventures with many unexpected turns.

The day which brought Ed Farlow the most joy was June 21, 1931, when he was adopted into the Arapaho tribe by his friends.

Adventurer, rancher, businessman, politician, Indian advocate, motion picture advisor—Farlow led a life unlike any other.