Homesteader Museum to Show Rare Belden Films
Powell- Two silent films produced by the late photographer Charles Belden will be shown at the Homesteader Museum Annual Meeting Program, Saturday March 29. The viewing starts at 3 pm, following the annual meeting. Lili Turnell, Charles Belden’s granddaughter, will narrate the silent films. She will speak about the activities taking place on screen, as well as identify many of the people appearing in the films.
In these two important productions, Charles Belden documented various aspects of life in the Big Horn Basin during the 1920s and 1930s, and recorded the everyday activities of the men and women who lived and worked at the Pitchfork Ranch. In 1912, Belden married Frances Phelps whose family owned the ranch where he would live until the early 1940s. Beginning in 1922, he co-managed the ranch and took thousands of critically acclaimed photographs to promote the Pitchfork. Many of these images were published in magazines, including National Geographic, and in major newspapers. Hundreds of his photographs are permanently exhibited at the Belden Museum, a part of Meeteetse Museums.
The first film, titled “Life on the Pitchfork Ranch in the 1930s,” begins with the Big Horn Canyon River Expedition of 1929, which features Carl Dunrud and others rafting the very wild Big Horn River. Also featured is the Big Horn River flood in Greybull, Wyoming. In addition, Belden’s film captures sheep shearing activities on the Pitchfork, depicting bagging fleece and hauling the bagged wool by truck to the railroad, and sheep herding. Belden also depicts young antelope being captured as part of a program to repopulate areas throughout the western United States with antelope from
the Pitchfork. “Life on the Pitchfork Ranch” lasts approximately 18 minutes and is in black and white.
The second film from the 1930s features more activities from the Pitchfork including cattle branding, breaking horses, and more sheep herding and shearing. Viewers will also see the “Big House”, the original Pitchfork ranch house, and scenes from 1926, including Meeteetse, the Cody Stampede, the Train Station and Inn at Cody, the Pitchfork Post Office, the mining town of Kirwin, and the Timber Creek Dude Ranch. This film is in color and lasts approximately 45 minutes.
This event coincides with the Homesteader Museum’s Annual membership meeting and a reception will follow. Nonmembers are invited to join the day of the program. For more information contact Homesteader Museum, 307.754.9481. For more information about Charles Belden, visit meeteetsemuseums.org.
