Sir St. George Gore

Post by Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

Image (C) Doris McCraw

What was the impact of Sir St. George Gore’s 1850s hunting expedition on the American West and Colorado’s early history?

When you look at a map of Colorado, you will find the Gore Range. It is located in the North Central part of the state. It is approximately 50 miles west of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. It takes its name from Sir St. George Gore, the 8th Baronet of Gore Manor in County Donegal, Ireland.

So, how does an Irishman get his name on a Colorado Mountain Range? Good question, and the answer is somewhere in his presence in the West.

I first became aware of Gore while researching characters for a murder-mystery script set in Vale for the murder-mystery company I worked for. I needed a 'villain' for the piece and came across Gore and his hunting trip throughout the West.

Image from Wikipedia

While there are various online versions, some information remains consistent:

He traversed the West, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas from 1854-1857. The cost was estimated at around $500,000. It was on this trip that Gore himself, an avid hunter, claimed to have killed 2,000 buffalo, 1,600 deer and elk, and 105 bears. (It is also said, he left the carcasses to rot.)

Additionally, he traveled in style. He had a large striped green-and-white linen tent, a brass bedstead, a rug, and a portable table for his personal use. He had twenty-seven vehicles, over one hundred horses, eighteen oxen, and three cows, along with pistols, shotguns, and rifles. Gore even had Jim Bridger to be his chief guide.  

Such a presence led to numerous incidents and left many unhappy. However, as far as I could tell, Gore faced no repercussions.

The name of the range itself appears to have come from William Byers, founder of the Rocky Mountain News. In 1868, Byers referred to it as Gore's Range, and the name stuck, according to an article in the Colorado Life Magazine. 

Some additional links: Wikipedia

Gore. Sir St. George

Colorado Life

Today, October 28, 2025, the ebook "Isabella" is available. It takes place in 1907 in the Rocky Mountain National Park area.

Until Next Time,

Doris

Angela Raines - Amazon

Doris A. McCraw - Amazon

On This Day in the Old West October 10

 On October 10, 1899, inventor Isaac R. Johnson lodged his patent for a folding bicycle. This was the first to have a recognizably modern diamond frame, which is the pattern still used in 21^st Century bikes. This design improved comfort and speed, as the chain drive was transferred to the non-steering rear wheel, allowing for “smooth, relaxed, and injury-free pedaling.” Earlier bicycle designs were difficult to pedal while turning due to “the misalignment of rotational plans of leg and pedal,” or, in other words, you were pedaling one way and trying to steer in another. Trousers and skirts frequently caught in the chains, and accidents were common. The first “safety bicycle” was created in 1865, by John Kemp Starley, though it was never patented.

The pneumatic tire and diamond frame improved rider comfort but are not necessarily a crucial design or safety feature. A hard rubber bicycle tire would be just as rideable, though bone-jarring. Johnson’s design allows for “a lighter weight and more simple construction and maintenance, hence a lower price.” This made the bicycle affordable to the public and created a craze in the 1890s.

Johnson was born in New York in 1812. He wasn’t the first inventor to create a bike frame, just the one to perfect it. He was the first African American to invent and patent the frame, which is most similar to the bikes we use today. What made this design so unique was that it could be easily taken apart or folded. Johnson marketed his bicycle as “convenient for travels and vacation.” He originally filed the patent in April, and that paperwork gives us most of our information about the inventor. At the time, he lived in Manhattan, and he classified his invention as an improved version of a bicycle frame, noting “its ability to be placed in small storage areas or a truck.”

The bicycle came with instructions, notating each of its parts. In the section where the reason for the patent is given, Johnson writes “a steering-head section and a frame having a slot-and-stud connection for detachably uniting,” and when asked what made his invention different, he said it was “a bicycle-frame having a front and rear sheath or tube-section, and a steering-post sleeve and seat-post tube to which the sheaths are removably connected.”

Bicycles were originally designed as velocipedes, pedal-less versions of the modern bicycle. Riders simply sat upon the bike and walked or ran along, using their feet to propel themselves. Inventor Matthew Cherry, creator of the tricycle, made the first improvements to the design. In 1899, Jerry Certain patented “various parcel carriers” that could be attached to a bicycle, followed shortly afterwards by Johnson’s frame design patent.

After the Civil War, bicycles were tested at length. The U.S. Military had the all-Black 25^th Infantry Bicycle Corps ride bikes 1,900 miles from Montana to Missouri. During this trek, the soldiers tested the bicycle’s cross-country suitability, cycling the Rocky Mountains and enduring extreme weather conditions. They often traveled off-road as well, making an average speed of 8 miles per hour and taking 41 days to finish their trip. 

Your characters may well have owned or at least ridden some sort of bicycle if they lived after 1817, when the velocipede was invented. The front-wheel driven bike was created in the 1860s and featured the enlarged front wheel device commonly called the “penny-farthing” or “boneshaker,” which is so often shown in old photos and illustrations.