On the last leg of our road trip, Michaela and I stopped in Medicine Bow at the museum. Small museums tend to be fairly informal and have a lot of objects, like this collection of cameras, that tell the story of the community.

We ended up at the museum because what we were looking for in the small town wasn’t where it was supposed to be. We were on the hunt for one of the Delimitations project obelisks along the 1821 border of Mexico and the U.S. It ran up through Colorado (where I grew up was part of Mexico in 1821), across Wyoming and all the way to the Pacific coast through Oregon.

We drove up and down Maple Street, where the obelisk was supposed to be located in a front yard, but couldn’t find it. We drove around a few blocks (which means most of Medicine Bow), but never saw it. So we thought perhaps the obelisk had been relocated to the museum and headed there.

The obelisk wasn’t outside, where we thought it might be, so we went in. The attendant was quite friendly and we asked her if she knew about it. When we described it to her and where it was supposed to be, her face lit up with recognition. She knew the woman who owned the rental house, so the attendant called her friend. By only hearing one side of the conversation, we could tell her friend was a bit agitated. Her daughter had given the obelisk to a woman in town who had a reputation for hoarding (she was also currently married to the attendant’s ex-husband, but a good stepmother to the children) and the property owner was none too happy about it!

The hunt for an object meant to silently communicate about history led us to hear an unforgettable story of small-town drama – perfect for the final chapter of the Grand Wyoming Tour.