Michelle: This is our family tree from the homesteaders in Centennial, Wyoming, and they homesteaded in 1888, and they came out from North Dakota, and they bought 150 acres on the Homestead Act for $12. Crazy. And they brought five sons with them. So that's kind of where. So up front, up top, here are the original homesteaders, Charlton and Julia. Surprise. So they came out here in 1888, and they had five boys. And my family is from Frank W. Gregory. And my grandma's name is Francis, named after Frank.

This family tree is from a cousin of mine that her grandma knew the family tree, which I didn't very well. So my other cousin gave me a picture of my dad. So I was going to talk about my dad in front of the original two-story homestead, probably before I was born. And one story I've heard is him. And it would have been his uncle worked on the roof, so the cabin wouldn't cave in because this would have been back in 1888.

Josh: And then your family built that?

Michelle: So Charlton and Julia built the two story cabin. And so what's happened out there is the homestead has not been sold out of the family. We're one of the few in Wyoming that hasn't been sold out, you know, to other people. It's still in the Gregory family. So now it's all us cousins out there. And we're starting to reconnect because just over time, we've lost communication with each other. So my mom died in February of 2019. It was left in her will that I could buy the property, so I had to buy my sisters. My husband and I moved out there four years ago full time. On the one fifth of the division. So where my dad comes in is that the land was just kind of divided up willy nilly all through 1888 to 1970s. So before he died in 1979, he went to a lawyer and made up an agreement with the cousins to divide the property five ways. Each person got 30 acres. So he got that all legally done. So everyone had kind of settled out there, but nothing was legal. Then my dad died in 1979, married to my mom, and then she lived out there for 25 years.

I grew up in Cheyenne. We think what happened…well, I don't know if it's correct or not…but in the depression, in the ‘30s, they were out here to mine copper. And I think they went broke, and everybody moved to Cheyenne. All the families just kind of left and went to Cheyenne and worked for the railroad. So that's how we ended up in Cheyenne, you know, through all the family members.

Josh: But the house was still able to stay within the family?

Michelle: Yes. The property stayed in the family. My dad helped keep everything because he would go out there all the time. So, yeah, I guess, in a way, I did grow up out there in the summers.

One good, really good memory. He would fly fish. We're on the Little Laramie River. It's on the river as you cross the river to get into Centennial. So that's a Little Laramie River. And so we're one of the few properties on the river. And dad would take me as a little girl, and we would fly fish up and down the river. Well, so one of my cousins, who I've just reconnected with, his name is Larry Gregory. He would come out with us, and we would play in the river, up and down the river while dad was fishing. And we were probably only about 14, and I hadn't seen Larry for, like, 50 years. When I was reconnecting with the cousins up at the land, I got to his house, and he walked out the door, and he knew me. I couldn't believe it. And he's like, “do you remember? We were the ones out fishing with your dad.” I was like, yeah, I remember that. So, I have just in the last three years, reconnected with him. Then I met his daughter and granddaughter, and his daughter brought me this photo.

And I guess they have a box of pictures that I haven't seen yet, but she's gonna share them with me. But one of my other cousins shared this picture. This is about the only picture I have of the homestead. So the great great grandma that homesteaded out there, named Julia…You had to improve the land for the homestead act, so she tilled up the ground out there and had a garden. One of the cousins thinks she planted turnips and cabbage because it's really hard to grow stuff out there. I have another cousin that has a picture of her in front of the garden, so I'd like to get that, too.

Josh: And then you said the property, how many acres?

Michelle: So it was originally 150 acres. And then because there were five original brothers, my dad had it divided into 30 acres. But because his sister loved the land, too, so they divided it again into 15 acres. So they're right next to us.

What my dad did in the ‘70s, he moved a old Spartan trailer out on the land, and we started going up there all the time. We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas up there—because we were driving back and forth from Cheyenne—and we did that for several years before he passed away. Before he died, he was building a two car garage, you know, to have a garage and sleeping quarters upstairs. So he got it all framed in, and then he ended up getting very ill and passed away. So he was only 56. My mom was only 51, and she took the two car garage that was just a shell and turned it into a cabin. I call it our tiny home.

Because my mom passed away, we bought the property, and then it was kind of fun…two weeks into when everything closed down for the pandemic, we had done all this settling with my sisters and the lawyer. We got it all finished. That was April. Our first payment was March of 2020. No, maybe it was April of 2020. My husband came home from work because he worked here. And he goes, what are we doing staying in Laramie? We can go out there and stay full time now. So he grabbed the dog, I grabbed the cat, and we moved out four years ago.

Never would have dreamed we'd be out there. It was kind of a dream, but never thought it would really happen, you know? It's beautiful. Let me show you. This is Sheep Mountain, right out our front door. We've made improvements to the property. We planted some maple trees, and they're very pretty. A little creek runs through here in the summer. That photo's looking out to Sheep Mountain. That view is out our kitchen window. Again, Sheep Mountain. Then that's our yard. And then the Little Laramie River runs back here.

I love this time of the year. Just sitting there this morning, I was thinking it's just so beautiful. I get to look at that every day. I'm basically retired now, and I can go sit out there and have my coffee and play with the dog. I go hiking up there with some ladies. We went up Mirror Lake. It's called Lakes Trail, and there’s the trailhead. And there's a photo of our dog, Blue or Bluesy.

Josh: How much snow do you get?

Michelle: Yeah. So out in our driveway, we can get four to five foot drifts. My husband has to plow us out, so right now, I'm prepping for the winter. We got our generators ready, and I bought an indoor-safe propane heater in case the power goes out. And we stock the food.

Josh: That makes it feel like cabin life!

Michelle: It’s totally cabin life. But, yeah, I just feel my dad's the important piece to everything. Because if he hadn't legally divided it, you know, as time goes on, you know…the property is worth a lot of money now…and one family would have owned it. He had the foresight to get it divided. He was a smart man.

Note: The transcript above has been condensed from its original audio recording to improve the flow and readability of the story.