Riverton’s First Dance: December, 1906
“Every woman should have one experience in pioneering. It is good for her to learn how many things she can do without and still exist and be fairly happy.”
So wrote Mrs. Edward H. Ryan, author of “The First Winter in Riverton,” article that appeared in The Riverton Chronicle’s Friday, February 12, 1926 magazine edition. In it, Ryan describes the first winter of 1906-07 spent by the settlers at the new town of Riverton. The town was formed on August 15, 1906 following the sale of nearly half of the Shoshone Reservation lands north of the Big Wind River to the US government for white settlement.
With the town being only a few months old when winter arrived in the Riverton Valley that year, most of its early residents were still living in one-room shacks or walled tents. These houses could not be considered modern, even by the standards of the time. There were no bathrooms and water was scarce. The majority of it had to be hauled from the river in tanks where it was then sold to the residents at about thirty-five cents per barrel. “She who would bathe must do so in a teacup,” wrote Ryan about the water scarcity.
Even so, women of the new community came together that November to organize the first Women’s Club in town, calling themselves the Riverton Relief Society. The Women’s Club movement had begun in the late nineteenth century. Initially focused on self-improvement, it quickly expanded to include community activism. The movement in the U.S. lasted until the 1960s when women began to work and socialize more outside the home.
Organized initially by Mrs. William Haines and Mrs. James Fox, the mission of the Riverton Women’s Club was to help those in need, especially those who were ill. The club met at the homes of the members and the hostess served refreshments that were not supposed to cost her over $1.00 to provide to the dozen or so members. Apparently, this task was a bit difficult at the time given the scarcity of resources in the remote area.
To raise funds, the society held dances. Mrs. Ryan became the chairman of the first social committee and its first affair was to put on a dance in the middle of December. However, finding a location in the” tent city” to hold such an event was no easy thing. Saloons were usually the ideal place as they often donated the use of the piano and, sometimes, the musicians also. Luckily, a saloon building had just been erected and was owned by Col. Frank Forney. He was willing to donate the use of the hall located above the saloon for the occasion. It was the only place in town that was large enough for it.
Being two stories high, the building was tall and slim, described Ryan. “A veritable skyscraper among the sagebrush,” she said. About three days before the dance was to be held, however, she heard a rumor that the building was unsafe. As a result, she laid awake for several nights worrying about it. However, the first large dance ever held in Riverton went off without any major mishap. The only incident that occurred is one of the musicians did not show up, but someone rose Jack Chenery out of bed and he was willing to fill in.
Ryan reported the only easy part about putting on the dance was getting the crowd. Nearly everyone in town was there and, “being typically a frontier town crowd they were warm-hearted and generous.” Quite a substantial sum of money was raised, according to Ryan. However, she added, it turned out that first winter in Riverton’s history was quite mild and there was little sickness or poverty.
“I do not think people suffered much actual hardship that winter,” she wrote. “If they did it was offset by the courage and hopefulness that must always characterize the people who go to a primitive country and, besides, we had reached the promised land which would soon be flowing with milk and honey.”
The same building in which that first Riverton dance was held later became the Riverton Hotel, owned by Mrs. William Cook. Located on the corner of what is now Broadway and Fremont, it was destroyed by a fire in the early 1920s.
Pictured is the Riverton Hotel in 1911 when it was owned by Mrs. William Cook (pictured at left with her foster daughter, Cora Murphy, and then-school superintendent, Everett Hassel). The building, initially used as a saloon, was the host of the first large dance held in Riverton in December 1906. The dance served as a fundraiser for Riverton’s first Women’s Club: The Riverton Relief Society.
By April Perigoy: Riverton Museum
