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HIGH PLAINS ARBORETUM�Past, Present, and Future

Presented by Jessica Friis

Cheyenne Botanic Gardens Horticulturist

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A new book about an old place…

Profits and royalties go to the arboretum fund
$25

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Why is it so hard to grow trees in Cheyenne?

April 24, 1929
Life on the High Plains

Low precipitation
Altitude
Lack of winter snow cover
Wind!
Short growing season
Unpredictable fall and spring frosts
Hail!

Jessica: Winter in Cheyenne… it doesn’t always look like this. For most of the winter, the ground is bare and the wind is blowing. This desiccates plants. We don’t get much snow to begin with and when we do, it is most likely to fall in March or April. Notice the snow in this picture is already melting. The lack of snow cover means not much moisture is stored, the soil doesn’t have protection from rapid temperature fluctuations, and we get unpredictable, sudden frosts in the fall and spring when plants are entering/exiting dormancy and most vulnerable to frost. On top of all that, it hails more here than any other city in the U.S. So even if we get plants to survive the winter, their short growing season might get cut even shorter by hail damage.

Superintendent Hildreth said himself, “Considering cold, drought, wind, hail, and shortness of growing season, this location represents about the most difficult conditions for horticultural plants on the Wyoming plains.”

Although many settlers tried to homestead on the High Plains, few ended up staying. They discovered quickly that it is not easy to grow things here. Many of them gave up and left.

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Hunting for plants that could grow on the High Plains.

Dr. Niels Hansen

Born in Denmark
Educated in Iowa
Taught and researched in South Dakota
First USDA plant explorer
Changed the landscape of the High Plains

Jessica: This is Dr. Niels Hansen. He was born in Denmark, and came to America with his family when he was seven. They made their way to Des Moines, IA, where he graduated high school. He was fluent in Danish, English, and German and was a proficient writer. He studied horticulture at the Iowa State Agricultural College at Ames. At times he had to drop out of school to earn money to continue his education. After graduating, he worked for nursery businesses in Iowa and wrote pamphlets on fruit-raising in Scandinavian and German for new immigrants settling the Great Plains. While earning his masters degree at Iowa Agriculture College, he worked with James Wilson at the Experiment Station, who would eventually become US Secretary of Agriculture. Hansen eventually became professor of Horticulture and Forestry at Dakota Agricultural College in South Dakota and led the experiment station there in Brookings. When James Wilson became Secretary of AG, he appointed Hansen to be the first USDA Plant Explorer. Hansen traveled across Eastern Europe through Ukraine, Russia, Siberia and into Asia 8 times around the turn of the century, looking for plants that were cold, heat, and drought tolerant. He figured if it could grow in Siberia, it might survive in South Dakota. He referred to the Great Plains as, “My American Siberia”.

He collected great volumes of plant material and sent them back to the USDA. Secretary Wilson said, “I have 12,000 men under me, but none who knows how to work like Hansen. There is only one Hansen.” Hansen tested his own introductions at the Experimental station in Brookings, and crossbred them to produce plants that could be used on the Great Plains. He introduced or developed many plants of agricultural and horticultural value that are still grown today. His most significant introduction was yellow-flowered alfalfa from Turkestan that was very cold hardy. Many of the plants out at the arboretum were introduced or developed by him. He visited the station at least once to speak at a meeting of the Great Plains Horticultural Society in August, 1937.

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The Cheyenne Station started with George Brimmer …

Francis Warren
Pork-barreling
Archer Station

George Brimmer, a local attorney and stark advocate of community beautification, was the one who came up with the idea for a horticultural research station in Cheyenne. His close friend and business associate, Francis Warren, was a master of the political technique known as pork-barreling. This was the practice of securing general government funds to benefit a certain area through political favoritism. The idea met opposition from the dryland agriculture research station at Archer, which had already been doing research for almost 20 years, and feared that a new station would jeopardize their funding. Warren, Brimmer, and local officials proposed an intended site of approximately 2,000 acres owned by the city of Cheyenne and held for park expansion located northwest of the city. Warren’s bill, signed by President Coolidge on March 19, 1928 authorized an appropriation of $100,000 to establish the Cheyenne station to provide exclusively for horticultural experiment, thus preserving research at Archer on dryland agriculture. The city leased over 2,000 acres to the USDA for 199 years at the rate of one dollar per year, renewable not beyond June 30, 2126 and granting 450 acre-feet per year of wastewater from the municipal filtration plant on nearby Roundtop at no cost to the station. Brimmer continued to micromanage the project during the first two years of construction. His influence ended under Hildreth, the second superintendent.

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Building an oasis on the plains

William Dubois, architect

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1929

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1933

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1939

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1949

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2021

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1931

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CCC camps at the station

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CCC Camps at the Station

Veterans Camp NA2W
Summer 1935 – July 1942
Assisted with daily labor

Planted trees
Built roads
Lath house and root cellar
General repairs
Weeding, planting, cultivating, spreading manure, unloading coal

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CCC Camps at the Station

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CCC Camps at the Station

Camp SP4
Junior Camp
August 1935 – September 1937

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Roundtop State Park

Jessica:

The SP in SP4 stood for “State Park”. The purpose of this camp was to build Roundtop State Park. The plans were designed by Andy Larson, a landscape architect from Denver, who worked closely with the station. In his initial report, camp superintendent M.E. Edwards described Roundtop Park as "nothing more than a typical plot of Wyoming prairie with an unsightly hill in its center. One drives up a narrow, steep, and rutted road to the top of the hill. Looking down over the boulder stream and erosion scarred sides of the hill to the park below, one sees a strip of sagebrush covered land, which can be identified from the surrounding prairie only by the barbed-wire fence which marks its boundary. To the north of the park is the orderly array of flowers, shrubs, and trees of the U.S.D.A. Horticulture Field Station. Within the park area and to the east of Round-top Hill is a small lake with muddy shores and surrounded by a fringe of weeds. Upon completion of the park, according to the architect’s conception, one will drive to the top of the hill over a graded, surfaced driveway bordered by trees. Reaching the top he will circle the reservoir and stop at the parking to view one of Wyoming’s most beautiful parks, scintillated against the prairies beyond. The ragged sides of the hill will be terraced, sodded and dotted with trees. Among the trees will be winding drives and foot trails leading from one to another of the many campgrounds and picnic areas equipped with tables, benches, and fireplaces. The lake will be transformed from a murky, weed fringed pool of stagnant water to a shimmering lake with sloped and sanded beach, diving boards, and bath houses.”

More information about Roundtop Reservoir and the CCC are in the book.

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A visit from the Roosevelts

President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Cheyenne on Sunday, October 11, 1936. It was Eleanor Roosevelt’s birthday, and she was quoted by the Wyoming Eagle as saying, “I’ve always been impressed with Cheyenne and am glad to come back to your city…I don’t know of a place I’d rather spend my birthday than in Cheyenne.” Mrs. Roosevelt was gifted a basket of large chrysanthemums and a bouquet of pink roses.

Right picture: Governor of Wyoming Leslie Miller (white haired man on the left), was an avid gardener and bred his own dahlias. The bouquet Eleanor Roosevelt is holding was probably from his garden. The dark haired man directly left of Mrs. Roosevelt was Joseph O’Mahoney, a democratic US Senator from Wyoming for four terms. When plans were announced that the Veterans CCC camp, located at the station, would be moved to Green River, O’Mahoney worked to keep the camp in Cheyenne.

Left picture: Pres. Roosevelt is greeted by Reverend C.A. Bennett (left) of the Episcopal Church where he attended services with his daughter-in-law, Betsey (center), and wife, Eleanor (right).

After attending services at the Episcopal church, they toured Cheyenne, stopping at the horticultural station and the CCC camp. According to the station log, at about 2:30 pm, fort authorities phoned that the President was on his way to the station. Preceded by police officers on motorcycle, city and county officers, and a secret service car, the President’s party, Franklin D., Eleanor Roosevelt, Governor Leslie Miller, Brigadier General Humphreys, and Presidential Secretary Marvin McIntyre, drove up in an open car followed by numerous other cars that drove Senator Joseph O’Mahoney, Mayor Archie Allison, and Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace. The President greeted Dr. A.C. Hildreth at the curb in front of the office where the staff, employees, and ladies of the station had gathered. They signed the station register, chatted briefly, and continued back to the fort where the President made a short address to a crowd of 20,000 people at Fort Warren. The population of Cheyenne at the time was 16,000.

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What’s in a name?

1928 - Central Great Plains Research Station
1930 – Cheyenne Horticultural Field Station
1974 – High Plains Grasslands Research Station
2008 – High Plains Arboretum

The station was part of a nationwide system of agricultural experiment stations under the direction of land-grant universities, forestry divisions, and eventually the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as authorized by the Hatch Act. The station was originally named the Central Great Plains Field Station in Cheyenne. designed to complement the other two Great Plains research stations at the time: the Northern Great Plains Field Station in Mandan, North Dakota, and the Southern Plains Field Station in Woodward, Oklahoma.

In 1930, the name of the station was changed to the Cheyenne Horticultural Field Station and moved under the department of the Bureau of Plant Industry, further emphasizing the focus on horticultural research rather than agricultural.

In 1974, the purpose of the research was changed to grasslands management, land reclamation and water conservation and the horticultural research ended. With the change in focus, the station was renamed the High Plains Grasslands Research Station and continues to function under this name and purpose today under the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA.

With the end of the horticultural research program, most of the horticultural plots, including almost all of the orchards, were plowed under and replanted with native grasses. The trees and shrubs in the arboretum were left standing. Although some station staff continued to water and till the arboretum, almost half of the trees and shrubs inventoried in 1974 had died by the turn of the century.

In 2000, a group of concerned citizens formed in an attempt to save the trees remaining in the arboretum portion of the station and preserve the historic nature of the space. After several years of negotiations between CBG and USDA, the lease was amended to return 62 acres of land encompassing the arboretum to the City of Cheyenne. The space was named the High Plains Arboretum and opened to the public in 2008. Since that time, the Cheyenne Urban Forestry Division and Cheyenne Botanic Gardens have worked together with limited funding to preserve the remaining trees and plants.

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Contributions

Because early-twentieth-century residents of the High Plains had to grow much of their own food, the Station’s work was critical to the survival and quality of life of the area’s communities. The station staff collected seed and plants from all over the region and the world to test at the station. The Station fulfilled its mission by planting and testing thousands of varieties of fruits, vegetables, ornamental plants, trees and shrubs. Several publications were released over the years recommending varieties suitable for the high plains, and many new varieties of plants were developed and released by the station. Some of those plants will be available at our plant sale in February, more on that later…

Plants developed by the station:

Tomatoes: Alpine, Colorado Red, Highlander

Pumpkin: Early Cheyenne

Strawberries: Fort Laramie, Ogallala

Raspberries: Trailblazer, Pathfinder, Plainsman

Over 50 varieties of Cheyenne Mums

Hildreth Plum

Several different ornamental trees and shrubs were developed from plants tested in the arboretum

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Lima Beans and Rose Daniels

Rose Daniels, (her Indian name is unknown) was born a member of the Navajo tribe, but she was kidnapped by Whiteriver Ute men when she was 5 or 6 years old and kept as a slave. She was traded to the Timpanogos tribe, then eventually sold to a Mormon family. It was common at the time for Mormons to buy (or sometimes steal) slave children from the Indians and raise them as their own.

The man who bought her was Aaron Daniels. His first wife refused to leave Utah when he decided to search for gold in California, so he married a second wife. It was Aaron and his second wife who bought Rose. After Aaron took up drinking, his second wife left him, and Rose was sent with the other children to live with Aaron’s first wife in Utah, who also eventually divorced him.

Rose learned all the skills necessary to make a pioneer home comfortable and was educated in the public schools. When Rose was an adult, Aaron Daniels married her, and Rose was able to apply for land on the Uinta reservation. She and Aaron farmed her 160 acres and had four children.

Rose learned gardening and food preservation from her pioneer family, combined with the skills she had learned growing up in the Navaho and Timpanogos tribes. She invented her own methods of irrigation and shared her knowledge with her neighbors. Aaron died when their children were still young, so she continued caring for her farm, garden, and children alone. She was well known in the area for helping travelers, caring for the sick with her own combination of Indian and pioneer remedies, and serving as an interpreter since she spoke three languages. She had many skills including horsemanship and beadwork. Everyone called her Grandma Daniels.

When Rose was about 90 years old, A.C. Hildreth had heard of her gardening skills and visited her. Hildreth went on many trips to visit Indian tribes and settlers throughout the High Plains and collect seeds for plants to test at the station. She showed him her garden and store of seeds that she had saved. From among her seeds, he found three beans that he asked if he could take. With her consent, he took them back to the Cheyenne Station and developed the only lima bean which can be grown in the short dry seasons of the High Plains.

Rose Daniels lived to be 103 years old, the matriarch of a large family, and well-loved by her community.

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Cheyenne Early Pumpkin

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Chrysanthemums

Started in 1930 with Hildreth and over 2,000 varieties.
First varieties released in 1947
Gene Howard cross-pollinated with showier flowers.
Over 50 varieties developed.

Rows of the Cheyenne Hardy Chrysanthemum series are pictured at the Kroh Brothers nursery in Loveland, Colorado. The station log mentions Mr. Kroh visiting with Hildreth frequently at the station, and they often exchanged plant material. The Cheyenne mums took decades to develop. Starting in 1932, Hildreth collected and tested 2,000 different varieties from all over the world. He allowed natural selection to determine which plants continued in the breeding program. Each season, the plants that survived the winter and flowered early enough to produce seeds were kept and allowed to cross pollinate. He released the first varieties that were suited to Cheyenne’s climate in 1947. Gene Howard then supervised the next step, improving the blossoms. The plants were crossed with varieties with showier flowers by hand-pollination to speed the breeding process. In the 1960s, thousands of people would turn out each year during the open house to see over two acres of mums in full bloom. After more years of breeding, over 50 varieties of the Cheyenne mum series were released to the public. These mums were featured at the Denver Botanic Gardens after Hildreth became the director. Both Howard and Hildreth took great personal pride in the Cheyenne mums.

Not everyone appreciated them though. In 1935, Hastings brought in a bunch of chrysanthemum cuttings to sort in the office and Howell complained about the unattractive aroma filling the building in the station log.

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Cheyenne Mock Orange

Native
Philadelphus lewissii
Named after Meriwether Lewis
Only one of over 200 mock oranges to survive over the years.
Plant Select

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Hung Hai Tung Crabapple

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Grasslands Research 1974-present

Grazing experiments

Cow-calf pairs (since 1975)
Yearlings (since 1982)

Most complete set of vegetation, soil, and livestock data from a grazing project in the US

Mining reclamation
Prairie Heating and Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (PHACE) experiment
Targeted grazing for control of weeds
Collaboration with UW, local ranchers, 4-H and FFA students

Cow-Calf pairs grazing research since 1975

Cow size, weight, and age influences on calf weight gains
Ability of cows to buffer calf weight gains under different environmental conditions.

Yearlings since 1982

Vegetation change with grazing treatments is slow and continuous, but reversible
Soil carbon responses are influenced by interactions of grazing and weather/climate
Spring precipitation determines forage production
Livestock weight gains display the sustainable nature of these rangelands and their inherent resilience

PHACE

Key findings on nutritive quality of forages, plant invasion potential, and soil water dynamics

New research

Sheep for control of noxious weed plains larkspur
Cattle for control of invasive cheatgrass.

Utilizing virtual fence to optimize location of livestock for precision animal management
GreenFeed systems to determine greenhouse gas emissions of individual livestock

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Present

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Present

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Present

City of Cheyenne cares for the trees and provides education about the arboretum
Pursuing a partnership with WY State Parks to create a state historic site
Bills in 2024 and 2025 sessions failed by narrow margins
$3.5 million was added to the State Parks budget in the 2024 budget bill

Plant Sale first Saturday in June

All plants were grown in the arboretum at some point.
All proceeds benefit the arboretum.

Tough Trees walk and picnic: Monday, July 7 at 10 am
Fall colors walk and picnic: Friday Oct 6 at 10 am

All tours require tickets and pre-registration at www.botanic.org
Private tours available upon request

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Future: Interpretive walking paths

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Future: Restore and use the Greenhouse

Propagation program with WY State Forestry and local conservation districts

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Lath House:�Nice for plants and people�

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Future

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Future

Restore historic buildings, provide a visitor center

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For More Information…

For more information about the history or the arboretum:
Jessica Friis
307-287-1953
jfriis@cheyennecity.org

For more information about the state historic site project:
Cheyennecity.org/arboretum
Wyoleg.gov

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Aubrey C. Hildreth

Superintendent from 1930-1959
California during the war to study the guayule plant.
Afghanistan from 1955-57
Denver Botanic Gardens from 1959-1966

Dr. Aubrey Clare Hildreth was named superintendent of the station in 1930. Although a native of West Virginia, Hildreth’s prior research in hardiness and cold resistance of apple varieties, dry-land plant production, and improving native species of blueberry made him a perfect fit for the research program at Cheyenne. At first the only Ph.D. at the station, Hildreth encouraged his professional staff to pursue graduate studies and participate in national and international conferences. He believed in hiring good people and allowing them to do good work. His ability to gently instruct in a casual manner laced with wit and dry humor was appreciated by his staff, who often referred to him as “Doc”. He traveled frequently, visiting cooperative sites with his staff, collaborating with other agencies and researchers, and giving talks to anyone who requested it, from Girl Scouts and small garden clubs to international horticultural societies. When present at the station, he worked shoulder to shoulder with staff collecting data and planning research. In spite of a constantly busy schedule, he always had time to answer questions and offer instruction. Even when correcting an employee, he was patient and instructive. He gave visitors tours of the station and was available to answer questions from the public.

In an attempt to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign rubber sources during World War II, he and other members of the staff were temporarily assigned to Salinas, California in 1942 to study the guayule plant as a possible rubber source. When Hildreth returned, he continued to develop the horticultural research program at the Station and wrote the weekly “Hildreth Column” in the Cheyenne Eagle. From 1955-57, the USDA sent him to work with the director of Agriculture in Kabul, to help start agricultural experiment stations and research programs in a climate very similar to Wyoming. Hildreth retired from the USDA in 1959 to become the Director of the Denver Botanic Gardens in its infancy. He oversaw the construction of the York Street gardens and the alpine unit on Mount Goliath, and started the Children’s Gardens programs in 1960, a project near to his heart as he was passionate about involving young people in horticulture. He was involved in the planning and construction of the Boettcher Conservatory and plans for the educational building until 1966 when he retired again. He described himself as a scientist, not a horticulturist, and insisted that research be an integral part of the Denver Botanic Gardens. He passed away in 1975 at the age of 81, having received multiple national awards for his contribution to horticulture. He took great personal pride in the chrysanthemums and the children’s garden program at DBG. In retirement, he continued to serve as a consultant to DBG, garden clubs, universities, etc. and as an advisor for groups visiting Botanical Gardens in Europe. He described his life as “satisfying, I have done everything I wanted to.”

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Gene Howard

Came to Cheyenne with $9 in his pocket and the clothes on his back.
Started as a tech at the station in 1950.
Superintendent from 1964-1976

Gene Howard came to Cheyenne in 1937 with $9 in his pocket and the clothes on his back and began a career at what is now known as the Frontier Refinery. In 1950, he switched careers and joined the team of technicians at the Cheyenne Horticultural Field Station. After working under A.C. Hildreth, Gene Howard became the superintendent in 1964. Under his direction, many varieties of plants were introduced to the public, a culmination of decades of research at the station. Those introductions included mums, strawberries, pumpkins, tomatoes, raspberries, phlox, geraniums, and carnations. During the 1970s, the station was a site to behold. Hundreds of flowers in a beautiful array of color lay in the foreground of some 80 different varieties of shrubs spanning 120’ long. Gene Howard said, “It used to take a staff member three weeks just to prune them all by hand.” (Allen) Gene Howard supervised the transition of the focus of the station from horticulture to range management in 1974. When asked about the reason for the change, Howard said, “Folks didn’t need all the testing anymore. Why … with improved transportation from California, or wherever, you could get all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables right at the grocery store. They didn’t need the home garden anymore except for as a hobby.” (Allen)