Charcoal Kilns (cont'd) Getting to Piedmont EDMONT TIPS Shoshone. Washakie is also said to have given Charles Guild a pair of beaded moccasins, and his wife a beaded purse, after finding out that a few members of Jiis band barged into their home demanding alcohol. "The purse is still in the family, and we take turns passing it around," Peterson said. Delaying history A golden spike was driven in Utah on May 10, 1869, to commemorate the completion of the country's first transcontinental railroad. It was planned for a few days earlier, but events in Piedmont caused a delay. Union Pacific workers, who'd heard the company was bankrupt, piled ties on the tracks to stop the train carrying Thomas Durant to the ceremony, according to information signs in the town. "They surrounded the car," Peterson said, "and they said they wanted their money." Durant, vice president of Union Pacific, was held hostage in Piedmont until the workers' back pay was delivered, the signs say. Death of Piedmont Piedmont grew with the coming of the railroad, and it died when the railroad left. "The last train was in 1901," Peterson said. "The Standard-Examiner grade up here was so steep, they had to use helper engines, and they had to have two or three to help pull the trains over the top." To cut expenses, the railroad dug a mile-long tunnel through Aspen Mountain, bypassing Piedmont. Without the trains, loggers couldn't ship lumber and Byrne didn't have an economical way to get his charcoal to Utah. The Guild family runs cattle where the town once stood. They moved the old schoolhouse and one pioneer home down the street to their ranch headquarters. A neighbor uses the original Guild homestead as a garage. The rest of the buildings are slowly decaying. Moses and Catherine Byrne are buried in a cemetery on the hill above town. In a small, private cemetery hidden in the hills nearby, Charles and Marie Guild rest near the graves of their family members. An elaborate headstone and fence mark where they buried the youngest of their 11 children, a young woman who died shortly after returning to Piedmont from college. "She was their baby," said Peterson. "They say he (Charles) never got over it." The kilns were sold to the state for preservation, and are open to the public. The smell of smoke still lingers inside, where the stones are blackened by years of fire. The Piedmont kilns, owned by the state of Wyoming, and are open to the public. The Byrne family cemetery is still a registered cemetery, so reverent visitors may pay their respects. But the ghost town of Piedmont is on private land owned by the Guild family. "It's our heritage," said Wendy Peterson, a descendant of Charles and Marie Guild, who were among the town's first settlers. "We realize it's many others' heritage, also, and if they want to see it, we don't want to be stingy." Peterson says visitors are welcome, as long as they respect the land and don't bother the cattle. The family asks that visitors park only oi■ the county road, and walk from there to any si+es. Of course, vandalism of any kind is prohibited — that includes digging for or removing anything, even rocks, from the property. Some visitors have caused the collapse of buildings by removing wood or stone. Taking pictures is fine, but because the buildings are unstable, visitors should be careful and should not go inside them. — Becky Wright 214