Medicine Bow–Routt National Forest
Wyoming
The name Medicine Bow comes from tribes who came here for a wood that made excellent bows, and for rituals meant to cure disease.
The name comes from two things happening in the same place. Tribes gathered in these mountains in search of mountain mahogany, a wood that made excellent bows. They also came to perform rituals hoped to cure diseases. Good bows and good healing together made what was called good medicine, and the name stuck to the whole range. The Medicine Bow National Forest was set aside as a forest reserve in nineteen oh two, and covers a bit over a million acres of southeastern Wyoming. Its high point is Medicine Bow Peak in the Snowy Range, just over twelve thousand feet. You can see it from Snowy Range Pass on Wyoming highway one thirty, itself close to eleven thousand feet up. Four wilderness areas sit inside the Wyoming portion: the Encampment River, Huston Park, Savage Run and the Platte River.
This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.
It was named after the Native American powwows in which numerous tribes would congregate here in search of mountain mahogany, which was an excellent wood for the manufacturing of bows, and to perform rituals hoped to cure diseases and thus make "good medicine".
Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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