Neat, well-marked photo albums full of black and white memories -
Evelyn Scott Cherry of Victor has seen much in her 88 years.
The stories flow out as she turns the pages. First day of school - a little girl in
pig-tailed braids and high-topped boots carrying a lunch pail; a sleigh covered with
canvas called a gandy wagon; men - “That’s my dad there - “ hauling a giant metal
gas tank down Teton Pass; the log cabin where snow had to be dug away from the
windows after nearly every storm.
The Scott place at the top of Teton Pass included a big house and old shed, and a
barn for both heavy freight horses and the faster gandy horses, she remembers.
“My dad ran freight an mail. Mother had the bus line from Victor to Jackson to
Moran. They kept a hotel in Wilson, but lived at the top of the pass in the winter.”
Cherry’s father, Harry Scott, always wore a ten-gallon hat, and he insisted his teams
be matched sets. His antics provided the inspiration for the song, “Harry Had a
Pontiac,” written by Victor musician Ben Winship.
“We used horses in the snow, trucks and mother's outfit - a seven-passenger open
Hudson with two jump seats - when the weather was good,” she said. “In the winter,
mother would cook.”
Once a movie was filmed up there, and the set designers covered the building with
unbleached muslin and then recreated the structures with new paint for the camera.
“We left Jackson early in the morning, because the train left Victor at 2 p.m., then
we made the round trip. We changed horses at the top of the hill.”