>> washington journal mugs are available at c-span's new online store. spanstore.org. check out the washington journal c-spand see all of the products. >> next, an american history tv exclusive. cities tour visit to laramie, wyoming, where we learn more about its unique history life.terary for eight years now we've traveled to u.s. cities bringing the literary scene and historic sights to our viewers. you can watch more of our visits c-span.org/citiestour.

>> we're in the mansion that edward ivanson built in 1892. is now the home of the laramie plains museum. because been restored for about 10 years it was vacant vandalizedbroke in, the building and it's been a very long and fruitful effort to it into this wonderful museum that we have here that ivinsonts not only the family, but historical issues laramie,past in wyoming, as well. so edward ivinson of all the strange places was born on the st. croix. his father moved there from canend to manage a sugar plantation. he wound up in new york city in 1852. was 23, young women, he she was 16. they ran away to jersey city, get married and

eventually, they like a lot of one folks moved west to make their family and fortune and eventually wound up in laramie, wyoming, in 1868. so the family had been living in memphis, tennessee. and he decided to move the family to california. and the way he thought he would get to california is he had a in memphis.store he sold all the stuff. got freight cars and put his structure in these freight cars and as a union pacific was built across the great plains he followed right along and had a rolling dry goods store. the railroad construction in winter of 1867. edward learns through some source that the union pacific was building this part of the transcontinental railroad is going to have a would becomehat laramie, wyoming, because there was nothing here at the time so he came over here before the in february of 1868. built a log building in what is downtown laramie, started selling things to people

awaiting the arrival of the railroad. the railroad arrived in may along with his wife and his adopted daughter. earlier,, as i said, they ran the dry goods store for three years, and then he starts his banking career. and eventually -- well, let me well.is, as ivinson was an astute maturant and through his bank he made a lot of money and early on he was criticized for the way he made his money. really high interest rates out the bank, foreclosed mortgages at the drop of a hat. is the good news for laramie when he turned 80 years old he decided to give all of his money away and almost all of it came here to our town. just the year after his wife ind, which we're now back and, he gave $50,000 cash four city loss to the county which played for the complete construction of our first real hospital. 1919 he gave a bunch of property funded anrch which orphanage.

he built our world war i memorial. he gave away in today's terms $1.5 million in cash to friends, family members and employees. he structured his will that upon his death, the remainder of his into a trustgo fund which would be used to build a fabulous building for elderly ladies, which is still in use today. abouten he died it was $500,000 in his estate so you know, eight to $10 million today. and it built a beautiful facility, 28 suites for single ladies. and because of his trust fund there was no charge for room or thed and because he built hospital, the ladies got free medical care. it's still there, it's still gorgeous. things have changed a little bit, but it's a wonderful facility. so despite being criticized early for his ostentatious allstyle you might say it came back to us here in laramie thewe're still experiencing benefits from edward ivinson's

banker.a merchant and a we're very proud of the fact that he decided at age 80 to do what was right for our community. if it wasn't for the union pacific railroad, laramie here.ly wouldn't be the trans91 mental railway act gave all this land in the west to the union pacific, including areone square mile where we right now so the first thing is we obviously open the front door and we have a little thing that i like to do. have the doorknob to the original front door, which is a brass, beautiful doorknob, and it's really interesting because it came to mail, what in the maybe five years ago with a note from a guy who said i was a student at the university of wyoming and i stole the doorknob from the mansion. good ice a really breaker for the people who come i takee vestibule and them immediately into the foyer and really our first important ivinson'sto jane drawing room where the intention

was that -- where she would do informal entertainment for her lady friends, and then i go into thesmoking room and i craw contrast between the very nice room and the darker more somber smoking room and the dining room is really because in the dining room we have some really nice artifacts that belonged to the ivinsons. example, right now, we have oyster places that they had made on one of the two 5-month-long trips that they made to europe. have this beautiful stem ware made for them. we have a punch bowl that was their son-in-law who ran his bank for a while in san diego. and then we changed from the former rooms of the first floor of the mansion into the mansion, andof the it's easy to draw the contrast. we have all this beautiful in these formal rooms and in there we have pine and we floor.noleum on the and then we go upstairs into the

large.s which are quite not unusual for a house of this 1890s. the and then into the master bathroom where we have this cool 1892 shower that in 1892, so maybe $8,000 today. that'ss really cool so really interesting. it's a walk-in shower. it's -- it's built ouch brass that's nickel plated. showerhead up above. it's got a showerhead on either side, and then it's got all tubes.ittle it looks like kind of like a cage when you look at it, but all the tubes have little, tiny so you don't even have to turn around to take a shower. i had a person come through the other day they said it's like going into a car wash. well, we are in now, what we call the library. we're pretty sure that the book in by theere were put boarding school because the

girls would use this as kind of a study hall, even though they didn't take classes here, they went to public school. point out like to that we have just one piece of furniture in the house that belonged to edward ivinson and board room table out of one of the banks that he owned in town. ofre are several examples what we learned from visitors when they come through the mansion because we get some people that come through that talk about the elegant woodwork in the house. there's all this different type of hardwood in the mansion that here, the installed really amazing pocket doors in mansion. i had a guy come through three uprs ago who had just closed his custom woodworking business in montana after 30 years. could build one of those pocket doors for you, for about $7,000. of thingsre the kind that are fun to learn when you give doors as a docent. whole life is a fascinating story. ons born on a plantation

st. croix. he didn't have money in new york, we recently received a letter from his father that said we know you're without a inition, and he winds up laramie, little old laramie, wyoming, at the time, 800 people in 1870. and he amasses this fortune, beautiful building, a major builder downtown. i think it's fair to say he was evolution part of the 1868 all the way through 1928 when he finally passed away. edward, what ind want people to walk away from after they see this house that cost an awful lot of money to the money wasybe at least early on made from the of laramie in not the best way that when they leave they understand what they did for our community whether it was jane's early actions with the

and suc d the church hisrage act and especially philanthropy that resulted in all these great things for our community so that's what i would like them to walk away from. because you can see in a lot of this onency homes, and is an elegant fancy home. thatt's really important people understand that making his money from or off of the community, that money came back to us. so that's what i really hope away with. >> our look at laramie continues ofwe visit the university wyoming american heritage center to hear about the political career and personal story of former united states senator alan simpson. >> you'll miss your colleagues. those on both sides of the aisle. miss legislating.

i've been legislating for 31 years. wanting to behere vice president or president. i came here to legislate and i've done a thorough job of that. i've been involved in serious immigrationissues, and the clean air act and social security security reform, medicare, veterans issues. >> we are at the american center at the university of wyoming. on campus. one of the major things that we of our are the papers politicians. collectionsajor that we have are the papers of simpson. intime.n attorney he went on to the wyoming house of representatives and then u.s.ly after that became a

senator and spent almost his life serving wyoming in the political arena. still doing so on a national level at the age of 88. when our archive collects the materials of a person's life, it's not just about one issue. not just about what they did in one part of life. life.heir whole and so this is very much al's papers. they're very much indicative of because we have materials boy tom as a young materials last year. boxes of materials so pack rats and al is a pack rat and we're really happy about that because it means that we get some really things.s al wrote letter that to santa claus.

he was nine years old. so this hard boiled politician is writing to allows wanting a sled and an electric train with the coaches. think that's a charming piece and al did, too, still a believer at 9 in toys. and this is just -- obviously, of thisery proud because this was done when he was in high school and what he did is it's birds that he spotted, and he put them -- highlighted them, he talked about when he saw them and something about them. allhim to have kept this these years means there must be a sense of pride about this little piece. so al graduated high school in cody.n

and he went off -- he spent a year in massachusetts going to a postsecondary school, and then he went to the university of wyoming, just like his father, footsteps.n his and so al who is 6'7" as you basketball becomes a player at the university of wyoming. and here is al on the -- this is from 1953. here right there, al on the wyoming cowboys team.ball not only did he play basketball, the team.football for i don't know how they managed to spell his name wrong. sure he wasn't too thrilled about that. number 75, the tackle on the football team and the other did is he joined

the student senate. these are his i.d. cards. was a reason why he joined wassenate and her name anne. anne, beautiful woman. found her very attractive and she was a senator, too. so he made her acquaintance and they started to date. and anne later reflected she of al.was a little wary he was a wild young man. a drinker and i didn't want any part of that and said, but man, he seemed salvageable. thus, she said. in '53, heed graduated in '54 and they got in '54. after his time in the army, he came back to the university of

wyoming, and he earned his law degree. and he began practicing law with in cody.r to enter, al was ready politics himself. he ran for the wyoming house of representatives, and he won. in 1965.ving nice littleis a photo, showing anne, his wife, straightening the neck tie of husband.epresentative and then, of course, this is wyoming so you've got to play and al has such a great sense of humor that it was okay basketball cody style, that was expected in wyoming. real down-to-earth state. housewas in the wyoming 1977, and he's

wasn for his -- although he a republican, he's known for his stance on abortion rights and lgbt rights. he is for a woman's right to abortion and he is -- lgbtq people.or and that's not a new thing with al. i've got some correspondence and 71 where he's responding to a woman in casper, right to life committee who is challenging his position on abortion and he's responding alwaysand saying i ever firmly believe that the decision to obtain an abortion is a deeply anguishing personal decision of the female human being involved. saying really it's up to her. choice what she wants

to do and i just found that really indicative that this has followedhis issue had ha him throughout his political career. hisone thing about al is humor. and i see it whenever i'm around him. he immediately puts you at ease with his humor. he'll make some self-deprecating mark. he jokes. you at easell put and have you laughing am. al said his humor was his sword and his shield. him to kindllowed of grease the wheel for negotiations when he was in the house, and then later in the senate. allowed him to easier make friends with people and make bipartisan fashion. and just i don't know how well see it, it might

reflect, but here's a photograph just, 1965, he just gets into the wyoming legislature and joking around. from 1969. i don't know what's going on here. was in anow why al mask like that, but he just had humor that really was engaging, is engaging, and grease the wheel negotiations in the wyoming house. in paris onare are vacation. a wire from his dad, cliff hansenon, who's a senator, one of senators is going to retire. hint, hint. aboutyou should think

this and al looks at anne and said okay.at al and now's the time. and so he decides he's going to run for the senate. he succeeds.nd he's elected. and ala picture of anne on the capitol steps. arrives in washington, 1979, and he already has kind of a leg cliff hansennator retired early so that al could place of stature senate. so that was kind of good and bad for al. within six, but senate, being in the three-mile island incident 1979.s in march,

yet al had been on the job about six weeks. and he had been appointed to the nuclear regulatory subcommittee. that subcommittee was chaired by gary hart. phone and him on the says hey, we need to go check out what happened on this island, this reactor. and al's like oh, man okay and get this helicopter and al had been in a helicopter in had thisbut this one floor that he could see through and they took the helicopter and reald things and it was a mess and al said something interesting to gary hart. to gary and remembe he said are you going to make political hay out of this? and gary hart brillianced like what? well, i know you're a greenie,

al said. hearary said where did you that? well, my staff told me. watch me, gary said. was already pushing the boundaries with the people of the senate. he really was fearless in this way. so he and al and gary hart worked together. any established investigatory committee to investigate what happened at together. island on theeated a report incident that had some harsh words for how things were handled at three mile island and some steps that should be taken to nucleares regulation. and this was really -- this al -- i was really mean, he really cut his teeth 13

buts in the wyoming house on the national level, this was where he really cut his teeth showed he could work on both sides of the aisle. he's reallye that super -- became super wasledgeable about immigration. immigrationrest in was partly because of being immigration -- subcommittee on immigration but also, he was personally it.rested in his heart mountain relocation located very near to him. americansn japanese interned and that was disturbing. and he had also, as a young hispanics,n people, for sugarple come up beets, to harvest sugar beets

were taken advantage of he felt in his town of cody and he said he would represent them to make it easier for them. that. he saw and so he felt some of their pain. on this issue of immigration from the time that and itted in the senate was quite a battle. >> i was working on the bill to illegal immigration and we passed it here in the united states senate. the first time we had dealt with it in 30 years. strong bipartisan vote. it went to the house, and it just laid there. and people came up to me and but unless new here, you go to work over there you're bill going to get see that again. and i said well i've been in the legislature, in the state and just assumed counterparts on the

other side would pick it up and move it especially since we've had some joint hearings and, of counterpartinest was a democrat. until 1986 that mizoli act, simpson immigration and reform control law.as signed into face-off was a program done in the early 90s. a radio program. it was between al simpson and ted kennedy. again, bipartisan. take one issue. in just a couple of minutes, do a little back-and-forth on it. healthcare.ple, >> the democrats have a reform even you can support, al since you have nothing of your own. it imposes strict controls on costs and requires all employers ensure their workers or else pay into a public fund for

coverage. think hard, al. there was president bush. nations have sensible healthcare plans to protect their citizens. why not the usa? other six countries are going broke paying for it. you and your family might have payingng left over after 70% of your income in taxes just for socialized medicine, but most folks would just be plain broke. >> 91 was not a good year for al simpson. thi was clarences of thomas, the hearings for him to a judge for the u.s. supreme court. and thomas was accused by anita hill, a law professor of sexual both workedhen they together in the early '80s at eeoc. against thomas were in al's mind and he's a

senator, he's involved in these hearings and deciding whether clarence thomas should be on the supreme court. anita hill brings up these accusations of sexual innuendos to her.mas was saying and al is saying well did he you?touch no. and then after she left eeoc in to, she still would talk clarence thomas once in a while. man said tosay this god's named, why in when he left his position of status or authority inr you and you left it 1983, why in god's name would speak to a man like that the rest of your life?

good question.y and i'm sure that i cannot that to your satisfaction. that is one of the things that i do today. to i have suggested that i was retaliation, i was afraid of damage to my and i believeife, that you have to understand that that's one ofand the things that i have come to understand about harassment, that this response, this kind of response is not atypical, and i can't explain. in psychologypert to explain how tha that can hap, but it can happen. >> he didn't really seem to complexities of sexual gotssment and he really this in the press and

national politics. a low period in his career. he laterid -- reflected, whenever i think back tightens.riod, my gut place.n a really bad so i think he feels some remorse happened but at highime that's how understood sexual harassment and i don't think he was alone and this case made it to where women out more about sexual harassment because they themselves when anita hill talked about it are like that's happening to me. oh, that's what that is. so it actually, her case really but al did not help. so lastly, an issue that was nire and dear to al simpson's

is commemorating what happened to japanese americans heart mountain relocation center. heart mountain relocation center the places where during world war ii after pearl harbor was bombed, it was scene and japanese in the u.s. japanese americans, especially on the west coast, would be communicating with japan and were seen as potential spies. so the japanese americans centerst to relocation they were called throughout the heartnd one of those was mountain center between cody and powell. when he was a little po boy in was a boy scout. the boy scout leader, his boy scout leader found out that troop of boyscouts at heart mountain and so the

cody boyscouts went to heart mountain because heart mountain leave to just have a little gathering, have a fun.e and to do a little work, too. day, al was assigned to japaneseent with a american boy. and they were supposed to be digging -- making waterways, making it to where water would the farmers wanted to go and this little boy was named norman. >> i met alan simpson here as a 1943.out in and i was thinking alan, we're under a tent again. >> ours was smaller. lot smaller. and i can always say that i alan when he had hair.

[laughter] was roly-poly. and since then he's lost his hair and he's lost his roly-poliness. anything that you can talk about, about man love, mane's nothing wrong with love. this is a man i really love. >> and al always had a place in his heart for those japanese know, 1989,d, you he's working on restitution for wereese americans who interned during world war ii. in '92, he's working on funds mountain relocation center interpretative center

there. and finally, it came to pass, 2011. mountain interpretiveturning center was . not all due to al simpson put al strong definitely had a advocacy on this issue and still does. does. still al simpson, would you maybe call him an anomaly? partisane're in a very time. and wyoming is a very conservative state but people al simpson. and i say that because i see it. whenever i've seen al are, people come up to him it's like they are attracted to him like a moth. they want to talk to him, they want to touch him much he is seen as someone who transcends

partisanship. and even partisan people realize that. so i just think here's an example of nationally and here the state of what you can be like as a politician when you're true to yourself. wyoming traiteal that people love. other i won't miss every weekend being 37,000 feet headed intoenver, and then up wyoming. i won't miss death off the plane met withght and being thick,y with a file this read this book before wednesday, you've got four speeches to give on the issue of the clean air act and allowance trading which work and whye to did you work hard? reason, i didn't want myself.an ass out of

>> the tour visited various historic sites. we'll tour the wyoming territorial prison which became law and order during the turmoil of the wild west. >> this site is about the convicts. it's about this amazing building, how their lives were changed and how the judicial the prison incarceration system has really not changed that much. this prison had a very diverse history. it was first a united states penitentiary from 1872 until 1890. 1890, wyoming becomes a state and it becomes wyoming's first penitentiary. so you're standing in a building

prisoners, theal territorial era and also state incarcerated prisoners, as well. so when visitors come to this interestingof the things they're going to notice as they walk up to the front massive.t's it has this huge dominance it.ing to now, it's not a gothic type of prison like you would expect turret.ig it is in wyoming. but it is a very large stone structure. and so the architects of this built thisliberately prison this way. it was to intimidate. prison was built pretty much on the auburn prison style and thatem meant that the prison was built puthere the convicts were in solitary confinement at night. a smalle kept singly in cell, and then they would get up

bill, thising to prison ran on a bell system so 5:00 in the morning that bell went off. all did to the bells. idea of a-- the cowboy who got caught rustling cattle and his whole life grew walksa log cabin and he up to this massive structure, it intimidating. they knew at that moment their lives were going to change. as the visitor steps through that front iron door, they're prisono see how this actually would have looked during that time. a falling apart type prison. you come in, you're going to view the processing room. the convicts all were greeted and all their information taken, their photos were given ahey number. the men's hair would be shaved, ony would put black-and-white striped uniforms. assimilation. you were taking away that thatn's identity, and then

person no longer had their own thoughts. assimilated into the group. it's also a easier way to handle a lot of men when you only have few guards. so this prison wasn't a real cool place to be. was a true tough prison to be, punishments were, you know, cells.k there were wearing the ball and chain. they were shackled to their cell in solitary confinement. bread and water. hose.was water they would turn a water hose on them. there was the whipping post. them toad about getting conform to the rules. so as you move through the you'reacross the hall going to see the warden's office. now, the warden in the early u.s.when it was the penitentiary, this prison was run by the u.s. marshalls. and the u.s. marshalls actually were in there along with the warden. what would happen next is that warden would come in and talk to the new convicts, one on one. find out what their skill sets

were. what did they do for a living? so if they were a furniture maker, which we did have in here, then the warden begins to we make money and support this prison? because that was his job. the state whenm it was a state institution, but not much. the leasee'ss and job was to figure out how do we make this prison run? prisoners?eed these and this were fed very well by the way because they wanted them to work. so they made furniture here. they found out that they had taxidermist so all of a sudden, they were in the taxidermy business. sending them their deer to be mounted or, you know, antever, you know, liking owl or an eagle or whatever and they would do that work. they had some garment makers in here. so there we go. cigars.making

variety, but the biggest production of prison industry was brooms. sweeping brooms. opened up the broom shop, the broom factory, and in 1890s. in produced 700 brooms a day this building that visitors will get to see. in fact, some of the original there.nt is still and our volunteers today make did onxactly like they the equipment like that. and so the broom making was very profitable. and then you're going to see to the north cell block, which is the older part of the prison. has individual cells that have to be individually locked. it's made out of brick and you'reand one thing going to find out is the cells are in the middle of the room. they're not on the outside of the hall with a hallway down the middle. the cells are back to back and walkway goes around the cells and it's an easier way to everything.

and they will all go -- they will also get to see guards quarters. as they go across they will see women's quarters, and the south completely different in architecture and materials, while the north cellblock built in 1872 was all of brick and mortar. the south cellblock built in 1888, is all steel, the cell doors are steel, but the one thing that is completely different is that it introduced the z bar locking system. with one pull of the handle, the entire tier, the entire roast cells, could be opened at once. you did not have to stand there with your key unlock and do it one by one, hoping they didn't jump out and overpower you. going to see that technology, and it truly was technology. is other thing you will see the warden's house, built in 1875 by convicts.

this building wasn't built by convicts, but that building was, in 1875. a familyding had been residence from 1875 until 1986. so this building has seen a lot of activity. over 1000n used for prisoners held here. men and women were held here together. there was a women's quarters in this building, along with regular, male convicts. women were kept in their cells for the much 24 hours a day. they were let out to bathe and visit with the chaplain, but were kept pretty much solitary in their cellblock. the men, however, were sentenced

to hard labor here. one reason why visitors like coming to wyoming territorial prison is the criminal element, what gets them put in here, what did they do to get put into this place? it is all about outlaws and law men, and the outlaw trail ended here. will surpriset you, because we have had everything in here for murder, rape, cattle rustling, assault, but we also had a gentleman that stole bicycles. another three convicts were here for perjury in a court case, so we have a lot of infamous people here come cattle rustlers and things, but the one convict i think the majority of people parker,robert leroy actually george cassidy or butch cassidy. incarcerated was

year for stealing a horse, and it is not what you would have thought, because butch had already robbed two banks and did a little cattle rustling at this time, but he was in here for buying a horse off his good buddy, billy. his good buddy was a horse thief, and in wyoming if you are caught with stolen goods, you can be tried for stealing those goods. so he was caught with a stolen horse. it was brought into this very room we are in now and he was processed. the interesting thing about the processing of these convicts was , this was a time before fingerprints, before social security numbers, and most of the time these people had no birth certificates. they didn't know where they were really born or what day of the month. if mom wrote it down in the family bible, they might know, so the information given in processing, they gave different

names. and that is what butch cassidy did. he said his name was george cassidy, not robert leroy parker. he said he was an orphan born in new york city, and reality he was born in utah, the oldest of 13 kids. he said his parents were dead, of course they were very much alias makese whole it really interesting, getting to know these convicts. because who are they really? we really don't know. interesting thing is they would come up in one of our prison wagons, they would offload into this processing room, and we had a husband and and many up, peter schneider, that were in an altercation over land. they were a small ranch of that

had land that bordered a very large rancher's land, and a dispute over water rights and land, and he wanted their land, and there was constant friction. gunfire erected and one of the large rancher's hands was killed. they didn't know if many actually fired the shot, because she was shooting, and her husband was shooting as well, and they didn't know which one did it so they tried them both equally for the same crime, which you can't do today, but that is what they did. she was putting the women's quarters and was there for several years. and peter was put in the north cellblock. theyeir entire time here, were never allowed to see each other, never allowed to speak to each other or send notes to each other. thing,a really difficult to be that close to your loved one and never know how they are doing.

released is finally after serving her complete time, she petitions the governor to get her husband released. that didn't work, but later he was released and they basically went to south dakota to start over. it is an interesting story about how the judicial system worked than. because today, one would be an accomplice, they will -- they both wouldn't get tried for the same crime. one of the missions we have here at the wyoming territorial prison state historical society is, our job is to preserve, these historical structures, but not only the buildings. because when the visitors see us, we talk about the people that were here, so it does a time to reflect. here it is, the old, wild west, and the outlaws were in this prison. beingday they are incarcerated for the same

crimes, white-collar crimes, check-cashing, forgery, all of that. why is it important for us to save these structures and stories? back,k without looking you cannot look forward. the important thing is to embrace that history, to understand it, to learn from it, and then, how do we take that information and use it for something better in the future? how do you not repeat those mistakes? that is what this prison is all about , we talk about the outlaws, everybody likes cowboys, butch cassidy and the wild bunch and all those bad boys, but guess what? there were thugs, they were murderers, they were thieves. so we try to save those stories and keep reminding people not to

romanticize a west that was truly never romantic at all. it was hard work, it was dangerous, very few people succeeded, so trying to tell stories and trying to give an a h-ha moment for our visitors is what we are all about. tour is-span cities exploring the american story. join us the first and third weekends of each month as we take book tv and american history tv on the road, and to watch videos from all the cities we have visited go to c-span.org/citiestour and follow us on twitter on c-span cities. we continue our feature on laramie, as we take it to the museum, and a special exhibit on wyoming women's suffrage. hallwaye in the women's

of the plains museum and the iverson mansion. we begin to tell the story about why wyoming was unique, granting women the right to vote, holds property and elected office. 1860 nine, our wyoming territorial legislature dictated this. it was signed by governor women, and itting is remarkable we have this copy that is so extraordinary, and you can see the fanciful writing that said what was happening in the west. because of this act, december 10, 1869, we have the first woman voter in the world, luisa gardner swain, the first woman theiff, martha atkinson, first women on a jury.

we had all of wyoming's women able to be in the legislature, this is mary bellamy. esther hobart morris was the first woman justice of the peace. nellie taylor roth, first woman governor in the world. all of these were the cavalcade fallout from the beautiful 10,rage active december 1869. here we have a few more mentions of women who were important. have thyra thor colson, her friends were worried she was out west caught in this suffrage act idiocy, and she writes about it and says, some of my friends are eastern girls who judge women's suffrage by english suffragette reports and think any woman who votes must be dreadful, while a women who hold office must be beyond help. i told about a friend of mine

who had recently been elected to a county office and assured them she was as nice and modest as any of them, and probably much shyer. they had to take my word for it, but assured me you would undoubtedly become bold and mannish and a short time. we are going to go into the , whichnd into the salon has been set up as a defense of suffrage. we are going into the drawing room, or the withdrawing room in the victorian age, where they withdrew for special events. we are showcasing a defense of the suffrage act. up and the exhibit set james andhe ivinsons, his wife and their adopted daughter, maggie. it was their place of residence

after 24 years when they first came to rit -- came to laramie in 1868. there was nothing here, they made their fortune and built this house 24 years later. and weaged this house tell laramie history like the suffrage act. so december 10, 1860 nine, the wyoming legislature passing this law, and that disgruntled a lot of people. why is that happening in the west? why am wyoming territory? becometime we had just wyoming territory from dakota , andtory, so we were here the legislature, one reason they did it, we believe, is to attract women into the west. this was a place of cowboys and railroad workers, hammering out a railroad, the central pacific coming from california, the union pacific, and it was fast and furious. we had crazy living conditions.

the legislature wanted to attract those women to be part of this adventure, so they gave them full rights. rights,hts, full voting full holding property rights, political office rights. no other state could claim that, no other territory could rights, full claim that. north dakota and utah like to believe they had the first woman voter, but they voted in a restricted election. wyoming women never had to do that. there were on the same terms with men, which is extraordinary. have elizabeth cady stanton coming to the ivan son's salon to listen to the defense of women's suffrage. it was passed in 1869. by 1871, wyoming was getting so much grief that the legislature

was saying maybe we should resend this act. this is anney, exhibit of him speaking about this, possibly in this salon, speaking about defense of the. because in 1871, people were giving wyoming territory such grief about having an act where women had the same rights as men. downey stood there and wrote a very remarkable speech and spoke to the wyoming public about how important this was that we retain this, and it was retained in 1871 by one vote in the legislature. fast forward 17 years, wyoming territory is wanting to become a state. says, no one else in the world or the u.s. is giving women these kinds of rights. you need to resend that act and we will let you become a state.

care.g said, don't we will remain a territory. we will not become a state unless we can hold all these rights our women have had read so when you talk about that wyoming had the first woman voter of the world in 1860 nine, first women on a jury in 1870, , first womanailiff justice of the peace, all of this could happen because wyoming had given women that right. it is a fact nobody ever knows about. and how great is it we can tell this story? this is our 150th anniversary of that gift to women and men by the men of wyoming territory. the c-span cities tour tour concludes its look at laramie with a visit to the deerwood ranch wildhorse eco-sanctuary,

to hear about how their relationship with the bureau of land management helps preserve the wild mustangs. deerwood here at the ranch near centennial, wyoming. feet,cres, elevation 8000 62 frost-free days a year, and mustangs,nd me is the the herd of horses. we have 370 of them we house mustangs, the herd ofhere and take care oe best of our ability, and feed and whether we are taking food out to them or they are grazing, it is part of the program. in 2010 the bureau of land solicitationd a for private land owners to apply

or write a grant, to take wild mustangs off public lands and put them on private lands. us, basically all we do is grow grass and sell ands, so we applied fortunately, we were accepted, out of 20 people. we are unique rate here compared -- we are unique right here compared to the four other sanctuaries around. kind of a8000 feet, limited tourist time, mostly during the summertime. the other sanctuaries are unique in their own way, but here we a natural mountains, habitat with a lot of wild animals. grant and were

accepted for the proposal we being the very first eco-sanctuary. and with that program, our governor specified all the horses would be wyoming horses. so when they started bringing horses,-- bringing every horse brought here was originally from wyoming, not just one, a truckload of 35 or so came from colorado maybe, or we had a couple of truckloads they were all but wyoming horses originally and came back to their place of birth, so to speak. we have 370 horses here. established byer us and the bureau of land management. it is the number we ended up with. and we are just taking baby

steps and trying to understand, can we sustain the sources, and this amount of horses? if we can take more, there is a .rocess to acquire more horses had tofor some reason we take horses away, there is not really any place to take them that wouldn't be crowded already. it is a cooperative agreement where we take care of the horses under their specifications, and they pay us to do that. so like anybody, if you were bringing cattle or anything into the operation, we take care of specifications, and they pay us accordingly. fortunately, the blm is very up on all of that. they helped us set up some food

measure,areas we can so if we are having a terrible , weght year or something can determined by satellite to what extent. there is also a body condition and they each horse require that you be in that .ealm then they come and visit periodically, now more just for monitoring as opposed to when they first came out, nobody really knew what an eco-sanctuary was going to be. and them, with the cooperative agreement we have what theade a model of direction they wanted

to go in. and for our management, it helps. if we don't eat this grass that is available, or harvest it, it is actually detrimental. , theyh them grazing it are helping us take care of the land. they are very efficient, tof-sufficient, i don't have cab them, which makes my life a little easier. these are all gilded horses -- ed horses,rses -- geld meaning they are male horses that can't reproduce. .e have no mayors and no studs all are part of the family, so to speak, that helps them .eproduce

so we are helping them in the sense that we won't reproduce. they will leave the rest of their lives here as natural as possible. we have probably increased their ourspan from true wild to sanctuary, by a minimum of 10 years. so they are having a very good and like i said, when i die, i would like to come back one, because they are very well taken care of. we are in a controlled situation the grazing,ontrol we control their movement, we in adequateey are feed all the time, food, water, protection, they are being watched daily, usually three , versus in the wild,

the specific place they are at, so yout is droughty, can't just move them or control that, as opposed to what we get to do on our own private land. the challenges, like in everyday the weather. we might have a very good grass year this year, and makes dear it could be just the opposite, where you have no grass. if everybody have that had that crystal ball, we would all be happy, but that is the risk that , and you try to minimize those as good as you can. there are some days when you , but if your ability

you just hold on, usually it turns out. is another tool help sustainse to mustang of the icon, or . and it gives the public a chance to actually view them up close as opposed to trying to locate them out in the wild. and it helps to educate the the upside and downside of trying to maintain a wild horse. family, there are four generations that live here, and we all feel like sharing this place just so people can understand the importance of groundopen grown -- open

, or ground people can look at and say, they are very -- working very hard to keep it maintained, and by no means do we ever want to ruin the place. there has been people who have said, you are going to ruin it by bringing horses income or doing this are that, but on the no reason were is would want to do that. because we enjoy living here, we enjoy doing what we are doing. every day is a challenge. today it could be doing an interview with you, and tomorrow i might be a plumber or an electrician, or a veterinarian. i have to help phenomenal -- i have to help an animal with a sickness. if mother nature says this worse is not going to survive, they won't. we don't intervene with the

veterinarian. if one is suffering, we don't allow that, which i think is humane. horse, after he passes for whatever reason, goes back , the birds, the coyotes, all the animals that would come by would clean him up, eat what they could, like they would try to look for food every day. it is just a part of the cycle that we allow to happen. what you will be able to find is that they all have a buddy. we enjoy seeing that. and if you are here long enough, they have their personalities. these were three-strike horses. they had three chances to be adopted to somebody, and maybe

they didn't fit that criteria, whether they were able to be , orned, for whatever reason maybe somebody didn't like the color of the horse. gets thre -- when they get three strikes, they are not put back into adoption, so they will come to a place like this, where they are housed for the rest of their lives. this horse was one of the tema's. he was saddle broke and returned and he is used to people coming up to him. he is no turned back, longer in the program, he is a three happen strike horse. so saddle broke has helped us tame the other wild horses. they are all branded with the federal blm brand, you can see

the u.s. on their, it is kind of a bar system. so to bars or the number zero, for example. numberhe u.s., the first is the year they gathered them, the year they anticipated or felt they were born. there is also a serial number, and we also have a paper on each horse. so when one does die or beget a new one, we receive the paper and we can identify them, and they are accounted for. you can of the mustang, hear all kinds of stories. i have learned a lot. i have been educated through tours, people that come in who

are historians or have dealt a .ot with the mustangs and just the development of our horsend of the west, the was a main part of hunting, andn for just forgetting from one place to another. i think they get jealous of one another, when one gets a little more attention than the others. they just have that personality, and they can tell if someone is having a bad day, or even a good day. the love of a horse is really nationwide, not just specifically held to a farmer or rancher. we have really bought into the program, and our goal is to really help on the communication

part, where we can build a bridge between the blm and the , and let the public know the blm people are the right people to have there, they know how to manage them and we should let them do their job. that is what we feel. hopefully we can continue to do this. that has to be a solution, and we need to get along and agree to that. in the meantime, it is a tool for the blm to have some place , and hopefully more people could jump in and do that , and understand it is another form of agriculture, and help them preserve the icon. our visit to laramie, wyoming

is in american history tv exclusive. we showed it to you today to introduce you to c-span's cities tour. for eight years now we have traveled to cities. c-span.org/citiestour. ♪ journal,'s washington live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up saturday morning as and authorhors week, and columnist discusses her book, "our broken america" that looks at the political divide, and central for american progress's brett cohen talks about the impact of impeachment on the youth vote and campaign 2020. watch c-span's washington journal live at 7:00 eastern saturday morning. join the discussion, and be sure to watch authors week all week

starting at 8:00 a.m. eastern. coming up next on c-span, a look at life along the u.s.-mexico border, with journalists from the new york times, albuquerque morning journal and dallas morning news. that is followed by an emory university professor talking sd.ut her book on voter -- voters. and later in the communicators, stephen baker talks about transportation with his book, hop skip go. >> it is my great pleasure to introduce our moderator. simone romero as a correspondent the new york-- times. he covered brazil and other parts of south america and is written on a broad range of issues