Bob Baldwin opens his first veterinary clinic in Sundance, Wyoming in 1951 on the same premises as the drugstore run by his wife Harriet. Certain "delicate" procedures can only be performed at night, so the sounds and smells won’t scare off the soda fountain patrons. No matter, because most of Doc Baldwin’s work comes on "house calls", heading out across the Wyoming and Montana prairie via pickup, two-seat plane, or the horse a rancher leaves to ride a non-navigable road. After treating the likes of horses, cows, pigs, sheep, lambs, bulls, and mules, this vet from yesteryear often retreats to the rancher’s kitchen for a home-cooked lunch – with plenty of gravy.
Of course, pets also need any vet’s attention. Doc Baldwin, whose veterinary practice shifts from Sundance to Gillette, Wyoming, helps a dog that just can’t win his battles with porcupines, a cat that saved a baby from a rattlesnake attack, and a bobcat who insists on sleeping on the living room piano. At a county fair, he is held prisoner by an elephant until his wife’s rescue, and he learns that in Wyoming, gumbo is not something you eat. Through it all, Doc Baldwin maintains his humor and appreciation for the people and animals that live and die on the prairie.
Tails of the Prairie is a treasure of stories that capture the color and details of veterinary practice in a faraway place a long, long time ago. Other vets, animal lovers, the people of Wyoming, and anyone with an appreciation for life amid wide open spaces will delight in the tales, and the tails, found in these pages.
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"Doc, you don’t know me but my name is Russ Banard. I live in the Bearlodge, between Alva and Aladdin, and I’ve got some sick sheep. They’ve been sick ever since they set off that atomic blast in Nevada. Can you come out and look at them? Don’t suppose you can do anything but the banker is getting kind of worried, so I have to do all I can."
"How do I get to your place, Mr. Banard?" I asked.
He responded by telling me where to turn off the hardtop onto the dirt road after leaving Aladdin. His road ended ten miles from the hardtop.
"How’s the road in there?" I asked.
"Well, it isn’t too good. I got out early this morning while the mud was still froze a little on top; otherwise, I might not have made it…..You won’t be able to drive all the way to the place. The mud will be too bad by then. I’ll leave a saddle horse tied to a tree near the road, where there’s a trail through the woods to the house. It’s only about a mile and a half. Just give the horse his head. He knows the way."
If all didn’t go well, I could just imagine the headlines in the local weekly the next week: "Massive Manhunt to Find Vet Missing in Bearlodge for a Week! (Rancher said horse he left for him to ride should have known his way home.)"
TAILS OF THE PRAIRIE was nominated in 2008 by the Campbell County (Wyoming) Historical Society for a Wyoming State Historical Society award in Recognition of Outstanding Efforts in the world of history.
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