Hat Ranch

This is a photo of the dance hall at Dance Hall Flat at the Hat Ranch. Dances and Independence Day celebrations were held at the Hat Ranch for many years when it was owned by Lou Webb from 1890-1927. People came from far away as Chicago for the celebration, and there was a picnic, fishing, ice cream making, and of course, dancing.

Deininger was the daughter of Louis A. and Janet Mercer Webb. Louis A. Webb (1851-1936) came to Wyoming in 1883 from Louisiana and homesteaded the Hat Ranch on the north fork of the Powder River in Johnson County, Wyoming in 1891. Janet Mercer Webb is the daughter of Asa S. Mercer, the author of "The Banditti of the Plains", an account of the Johnson County War of 1892.

 

---