On our recent trip to South Dakota, we went into Wyoming for a day trip. We stopped in Sundance, Wyoming, at the Crook County Courthouse. We didn’t have a lot of time, but we were able to find a deed for some property purchased on Black Tail Creek by one of Michelle’s relatives.

In our previous research, we knew that my great-great grandfather, Charles Todd Durfee had owned some land on Black Tail Creek in Wyoming. I wrote about Charles in this post. Charles, his father Aaron, and his uncle, Green Todd incorporated the Todd and Durfee Land and Cattle company in 1886.

At the county courthouse in Sundance, we found Aaron’s name on a list of land transfers. We were able to pull the deed and make a copy of it. It is dated the 17th of December, 1889. The land was purchased from Dan K Ruland and Lulu B Ruland, his wife. The purchase price was one dollar and the assumption of a $300 mortgage on the land.

The deed has very detailed information about the location of the land. It is 160 acres south of Huelett. Black Tail Creek runs right through the property. We were then able to look up the land on some old plat maps of the area.

Walt’s finger marks the place where the land Aaron Durfee bought.

We were able to use the information to locate roughly the area where the land was on Google earth. Next time we are in the area, we will have to drive out that way.

There were pages of land transfers. Each letter was simply a list of names in the order the transfers took place, so we will have to spend some more time out in the area searching for other information under the names of Durfee and Todd.