Wendy Corr:

Well, hey there, folks, and welcome to The Roundup. We’re a podcast featuring voices, opinions, perspectives and stories from interesting people in the Cowboy State. I’m your host, Wendy Corr – and we have such an interesting person for our podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking with Candy Moulton. Now, her name might not be familiar, but when I start telling you about all of her accomplishments and all the things she’s done, you’ve probably read some of her work or seen one of her documentary films. 

Candy has been writing in Wyoming – she grew up in Wyoming – she’s been writing here since she was 16 years old and has made an amazing name for herself in the documentary film world, as well as on the pages of newspapers, magazines, and in books for years now. And Candy, I just wanted to say hello, and welcome. And we’re so glad to have you on The Roundup today! 

Candy Moulton:

Well, thank you very much for inviting me. I’m glad to be here. 

Wendy Corr:

We’ve got so much to talk about, and so I don’t want to delay too long because, your accomplishments, your body of work is just tremendous. And I’m going to start out by asking you – what I always ask people on The Roundup is, you’re Wyoming, you are Wyoming through and through. Candy, tell me about growing up in Wyoming. 

Candy Moulton:

I grew up in Encampment on a ranch that my grandparents homesteaded, and worked the ranch with my parents as a kid. I always say my first job, I was six years old and I went to the hay field and started working, and worked on the ranch until I was old enough to get a real job – which, because the ranch didn’t really pay, right? You know, you just do the work. 

And my first real job, where I made a quarter an hour, I was a soda jerk at the Sugar Bowl in Encampment. And then I started writing for the Saratoga newspaper, and that set me on a trajectory that I never expected and never anticipated. And it’s been a great ride. 

Wendy Corr:

Well, you’re still on that trajectory. How many people find their life’s work when they’re 16 years old? But you did.

Candy Moulton:

I did, yeah. You know, it actually, it kind of started even a little earlier than that when I think about it, because I was in 4-H – you know, when you’re on a ranch you’re in 4-H, because you have steers and you have sheep and things like that. And I got involved in photography in 4-H, and my 4-H leader was a really accomplished photographer, Grace Healey. And she taught me how to take pictures. And that’s really how I got into writing, is through the photography. I started taking pictures for 4-H and then for the Saratoga Sun newspaper, and for the school yearbook. I wasn’t in sports, I was the photographer, so I got to go to everything, but I didn’t have to practice or anything. And then I started working for the newspaper, and one thing led to another. She became not only my 4-H teacher, but she was my high school English teacher. So you know, diagramming sentences? Yes, we did that. 

Wendy Corr:

You know it all. 

Candy Moulton:

Well, I don’t know at all, but I certainly learned it. (laughing) And there are moments, even today, I think, “Mrs. Healey would tell me to put that comma in.” 

Wendy Corr:

Mrs. Healey still lives in your head. I like that. 

Candy Moulton:

Yeah. Yeah, she’s there. 

Wendy Corr:

I love that. And you’re still writing for newspapers. I mean, you write for Cowboy State daily? 

Candy Moulton:

I do, yeah. Jimmy twisted my arm, to be real honest. He twisted my arm. 

Wendy Corr:

He’s very good at that. (laughing) And he’s got you’re writing about things that you know, though, which is the Cowboy Hall of Fame, the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame. Tell us about your involvement with that – we’re kind of diverging from the linear career here, but I’m really interested in your work with the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame. 

Candy Moulton:

So, I have been a volunteer with the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame since it started. When I first heard about it, I heard Scotty Ratliff was going to start a Cowboy Hall of Fame. And my first book was about cowboys, and I grew up on a ranch, so I’ve always had an affinity for those guys. And so I called Scotty and said, “What can I do to help?” And he said, “Well, you’ve got lots of skills, and you can help us.”  So I’ve always done things like, their annual program about their cowboys, I did their poster for them every year, blah, blah, blah, did all that stuff. 

And then a couple years ago, they had an opening as the executive director, and I thought, I was retiring, so I thought this would be a great retirement job, right? So I applied for the job and got it. And I work with a really incredible team at the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame, all the board members, all the volunteers across the state who make the selections of our wonderful cowboys who go into the Hall of Fame. So it’s really bringing me back to my roots. Like, you know, I’m a ranch girl, that’s really what I am. I’ve got to travel a lot, but through and through, I’m most comfortable in my jeans. 

Wendy Corr:

Well, the fun part is, you get to write about the things that you live, and the things that you love. Tell me about how you got started writing books – because you’ve got 17 Western history books to your credit, and that’s a lot of writing, Candy! Tell me about how you got started writing books.

Candy Moulton:

It was accidental, and it’s all my mother in law’s fault. That’s true. 

So back in 1990, Pete Fillerup up in Cody was developing a sculpture for the University of Wyoming called Fanny Twister. It stands outside the Arena Auditorium over at UW in Laramie. And so Pete was working on this, he is a friend of the Moulton family, and my mother in law, Flossie, was living up on the South Fork at Cody. And he was patterning this horse off of Steamboat, that great Wyoming bucking horse that is on our license plate. And so he called, he knew that Flossie had personal connections to the cowboys, because her grandfather was one of the cowboys that rode Steamboat, and he was the cowboy that was used for the University of Wyoming cowboy logo. So his name is Guy Holt, and Pete knew that because he was a family friend of the Moultons. 

And he called Flossie and said, “You know I’m gonna do this sculpture, I think we should have a little book to go along with that tells some of the history of this, the story of this horse, would you write it?” And she said, “Well, I’ll maybe work on it, but I think we should get Candy involved.” So that’s how I started doing my first book. 

And Nancy Curtis, the great Wyoming publisher – you should interview her on this show sometime, Wendy – she started High Plains Press, and she’s just made a career of bringing to life these Wyoming history stories. And so we were very fortunate that she agreed to publish the book on Steamboat.

And I thought writing a book was just a longer article, right? It’s just more words. Well, it’s a little different than that. Nancy taught me how to write a book. I owe her a lot, an awful lot. 

And so Steamboat came out, and it’s a story that kind of ties right into the Cowboy Hall of Fame, because it’s a story about our Wyoming bucking horse, Steamboat, and the cowboys who rode him. Most of them got bucked off, but a lot of men tried to ride him, a few actually did ride him, and it started with Guy Holt and Peter Fillerup. So that’s how I started writing books. 

Wendy Corr:

And you’ve got 16 more after that! What’s your most recent book? 

Candy Moulton:

My newest book is “Sacajawea – Mystery, Myth and Legend” that was published by the South Dakota Historical Society Press. It is a biography of a very important Native American woman who has a life that is really hard to find, and really hard to follow. I say, I wrote a book about a woman that I don’t know how to say her name correctly, because it’s said different ways by different people in different areas of the country. I don’t know how to spell it, because it’s spelled multiple ways. I don’t know exactly when she was born, nor exactly where she was born. I don’t know exactly when she died nor where she died. And I don’t have one word, not one word that she is documented to have said or written. So there you go, I wrote a book. 

Wendy Corr:

Wow. And I mean, you saying all that makes me very intrigued, and I want to read the book. Because if there’s that little known about her, I’m really curious – the impact that she had, and I bet when you’re writing your books, you learn so much, and it whets your appetite for even more knowledge and more learning. 

Candy Moulton:

Almost every book leads to another idea for another book, you know, whether it’s on a related topic or a side tangent topic for almost everything I need to do. Research, especially – the part I like about writing the books, honestly, I love the research. I love going in the archives, and going through old newspaper clippings. And that’s how I got started. 

I mean, really, I got started when I was working at the Saratoga Sun. And I was just there at lunchtime because I didn’t have anywhere to go, and so I would get the old newspapers down. And there were a couple of ladies in Saratoga that came every week, and they started researching. And they were real historians, local historians, and they just inspired me to start reading those newspapers. I thought, “If they’re so interested in this old stuff, what’s in there?” And I started reading and making notes. 

And you know, my first real documented history that I wrote was when I was in college at Northwest, up in Powell. I had John Hinckley for my history teacher, and I did a piece about Jedediah Smith, the great mountain man. And so it just, one thing led to another. I also did a story at that time in that history class, that actually became the core of my book that I wrote about Grand Encampment, and the encampment mining boom. So you know, things just lead one to another. And sometimes it’s like, 40 years before you actually use it. 

Wendy Corr:

But it’s there, it’s there in your head, and you kind of let it germinate, let that seed grow. I do want to speak real quickly, going back to your Sacajawea book, you’ve recently won a really wonderful award from Western Writers of America. Tell me about the Spur Award. 

Candy Moulton:

So the Spur Awards are given every year by Western Writers of America. They’ve been given since 1953, when the organization started, and they are for the best in Western literature, from all the writers throughout the country, and we have international members and international people who enter the Spur Awards, you don’t have to be a member to enter. There are 17 different categories, and this year “Sacajawea” is the winner in the Best Western biography category. So I’m thrilled about that. 

Wendy Corr:

That’s wonderful. And you had, of course, really great other Wyoming authors who were also honored this year, and so you’re in some fantastic company. Because Craig Johnson won, and Michael Gear, and CJ box has won in the past. And so as Kathleen Gear, I mean, you’ve got a wonderful community of Western writers that are your peers here. 

Candy Moulton:

Wyoming has a really, really rich literary tradition, not only historically, but today. There are absolutely some of the best writers in the country who live in Wyoming and work in Wyoming, and they all draw their inspiration from this state, and the land, and the people. But the land, the land is such a character in everything they write, whether it’s Mike and Kathy, or Chuck Box. I know (CJ) as Chuck, I’ve known him since before he was you know, like, hardly anything. You know, he was barely out of college.  

Wendy Corr:

Well, heck, you both worked at the Saratoga Sun! 

Candy Moulton:

Yeah, I was his first editor. Yeah, I met Nate Romanowski long before he was in a book, let’s just put it that way. He was in Chuck’s stories. Chuck was writing stories, and he didn’t have anywhere to go at lunch when we were working at the Saratoga Sun, either. So we used to share these hot pastrami sandwiches – because we really couldn’t afford to buy two, because Dick Perue never paid us very much. So we’d just buy one and we’d split the sandwich, and he’d give me his stories and I’d read them. And I don’t know what I gave him to read, probably something. And so, yeah, we kind of grew up together. And Dick Perue, he really was the guy that gave both of us a really good start in journalism, and led to other good things for both of us. 

Wendy Corr:

That’s phenomenal. I love that – again, Wyoming. It just goes back to being just a small town. We’re a big small town, is what we are. 

Candy Moulton:

Yeah, absolutely. 

Wendy Corr:

Now your work in writing, in newspapers, you’ve written for magazines, you’ve got your books. But you have made a foray into a completely – I guess it’s a completely different genre. You are a producer of documentary films. And Candy, tell me how you got started working with documentary films, because you’ve done a lot of them. 

Candy Moulton:

I always say that I was out of the frying pan and into the fire of filmmaking, because I got started through Western Writers of America. I had met Paul Hutton, who was really well known back in the 80s and 90s, particularly, he’s a Western historian. He teaches at the University of New Mexico, and had been on a lot of documentaries. The National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper was going to be built, and they were working on getting it ready to go. And they were ready to hire some company to do the exhibits and all the media in the center.

And this company, Boston Productions, called Paul and asked him if he would work with them to do research and historical research, and potentially for him, as well, to be on camera. And of course, it’s all about overland trails, which is something I know a little bit about. And so he gave my name, and they called me – and what,  25 years later, I’m still working for them, doing films.

And the first film that I did was “The Footsteps To the West,” which is the main feature film theater in the trail center in Casper, and it’s a five screen theater. It’s 17 minutes long. It’s this beautiful, rich tapestry of the stories of the overland trails, from the American Indians all the way through to the Pony Express, and it talks about all the trails. 

So that’s how I got started. I didn’t know a thing about filmmaking. I understood photography, and I understood the story and I knew the content. That’s how I managed to do it, and have gotten to do a lots of other films since then. 

Wendy Corr:

Your most recent one is about Red Buttes. Tell us about your most recent documentary film. 

Candy Moulton:

Yeah, so “The Battle of Red Buttes” is also at the trail center in Casper. So 23 years apart, I worked on these two big films for them. And “The Battle of Red Buttes” was done for the Bureau of Land Management, and it plays in a full exhibit that, I actually researched and wrote the entire exhibit there. And it is the story of the 1865 battle that was really the first encounter in Wyoming, between the Native Americans, particularly the Northern Cheyenne, a few Arapahoes, and the Lakota. 

It was in direct retribution for what happened at Sand Creek in November of 1864. The tribes came together up in the Powder River Basin, kind of really near Ten Sleep, west of Ten Sleep, and they planned what they were going to do in retribution. Right after the attacks at Sand Creek, which was in November of ‘64, in January of ‘65, there were some retaliatory raids that took place along the South Platte River. They burned Julesburg three times; they raided all up and down the South Platte, but then this battle that took place at Red Buttes was really the first one in Wyoming. And it really was the first one that was a major encounter against the military. 

And in that fight, that was where Caspar Collins was killed in the morning of that fight, at what is called the Battle of Platte Bridge. And at about noon that day, this small wagon train of about 20 soldiers – three supply wagons, and about 20 soldiers who were coming back to Fort Casper from being out farther west out by Independence Rock, they were coming back into Casper, and they basically rode into this massive of Indians who were pretty irritated. And so they attacked, and most of those soldiers were killed. 

There were three or four of them that managed to escape and get back to Fort Casper – well, Platte Bridge is what it was at that time, it became Fort Casper. And so we tell the story about that. From Sand Creek, we set it up, and then we tell the story of this battle. And it led then to further fighting along the Bozeman trail. And it was the tribes trying to protect their territories, and it was really this confluence of cultures. It was two different types of people, the military, the travelers who were on the overland trails were going through and across tribal lands, and the tribal members were trying to protect their way of life and their landscapes. So that’s what it was. 

What I love most about this film is, we worked with some really great tribal elders who helped tell this story. We worked with some great Wyoming historians as well, but we worked with these tribal people, and they were directly connected to the people who are involved. So Ben Ridgley, who’s Arapaho, Northern Arapaho. He had ancestors who were at Sand Creek. And we talked with Donovan Sprague, who is Lakota and Cheyenne, directly related to Crazy Horse. And then we worked also with Linwood Tabo, who’s Northern Cheyenne, and he’s directly related to Little Wolf – and Little Wolf was the key leader at that battle. He’s Northern Cheyenne. So they told the story, I just got to help them put it together. 

It’s a great film, and I really hope everybody first goes to the Trail Center to see it, see the whole exhibit, but if they can’t make it to Casper, you can Google “The Battle of Red Buttes” and you’ll find the full film is on YouTube, the BLM put it out on YouTube. So I’m really proud of it. 

Wendy Corr:

That’s fantastic. You know, you talked about how you know ‘just a little bit’ about overland trails. You know a LOT about trails, because you travel those trails, but you travel these trails in such a unique way. You actually travel by wagon train. 

Candy Moulton:

Yeah, I did. I’m lucky. 

Wendy Corr:

This is so cool, Candy! Tell us about this. 

Candy Moulton:

So Wendy, being a journalist is the greatest job in the world, because you get to do things that other people don’t get to do, right? You get to meet people that other people don’t get to meet, and you just get experiences. So, back in 1990, Wyoming is having this little thing called the Centennial. And there was the Wyoming Centennial wagon train, it followed the Bridger Trail from Casper, up to – technically the Bridger Trail goes out of Wyoming over at Ralston. But ya kinda gotta do what ya gotta do when you’re having a big event, so they went to Powell, and then they ended up in Cody, because you have a big event, right? I wanted to go really bad, but I had two little kids, and there’s no way, and I didn’t know anybody, I didn’t have a wagon. I didn’t have any of the things you needed to go do it. 

Well, I was writing for the Star Tribune and had been writing for the Star Tribune, well, since 1982, I started writing for them. And they called me, and they said, “Hey, we haven’t been covering this but we probably should be, and we need to start covering this wagon train.” And by then it was already north of Worland, it was a couple weeks into it – it was a month long wagon train. And they said, “Would you be interested in going and covering it?”And it’s like, “Oh, yeah, take me, take me! I’m the crazy woman that wants to go and sleep in a tent with rattlesnakes, you know.”

So I got to go do that for two weeks, and travel. My in laws got to have their grandchildren for two weeks. 

Wendy Corr:

It was a win-win!

Candy Moulton:

Yeah, exactly! And so I took the kids up, and we met out by Worland, they took my kids in my car, and I just climbed on a wagon, and went to Cody, and it was just a blast. 

And then I was fortunate that in 1993, the Sesquicentennial of the Oregon Trail, and Morris Carter was doing the trail with his four daughters and Ben Kern. They were going from Independence, Missouri to Independence, Oregon, a six month trip – and again the Star Tribune called and said, “Hey, would you want to cover this?” So I traveled off and on – I didn’t go that entire route. 

But I covered that off and on, and got to meet Ben, and we became really good friends. We wrote a book together about that called “Wagon Wheels,” which is – he went all the way, obviously, because he drove one of the wagons. And he kept a journal, just on a little tape recorder, he kept a journal, and then he gave that to me. And I transcribed it, and I used his journal, which was “the now,” and I did the research and did “the then” of the trail. And so it’s kind of a back and forth the THEN and NOW of the trail. And then I was lucky, I did the California, I did the Mormon trail. I did the Bozeman, I did the Overland, I did the Cherokee. Most of them were work with the Star Tribune – the last couple were more fun than work. 

Wendy Corr:

But like you say, the idea that being a journalist, you get to go and have these experiences, and then write about them and share that with other people who don’t get to have those experiences.  

Candy Moulton:

And that’s how I got the job doing the film stuff. It all ties together. So, because I’d already done those wagon trains, and I was actually on the California Trail wagon train the summer that the Trail Center started working on their exhibits. I had all that background, and Paul Hutton knew that, and that’s why he gave my name to the folks in Boston at BPI. And that’s how I got started in films. 

So one thing leads to another, and it is a small world, even the West is a small world, the more you work in it and you get to know people. And it’s all about that network of folks that can help you, give a hand up, give you a hand across. It’s kind of what I always think, sort of that cowboy way. You help the people that help you – you try to help them, and then you try to help someone else coming along behind on the trail. 

Wendy Corr:

Well, you’re doing a wonderful job of making those networking things happen. I want to talk for a moment about, speaking of the cowboy way, and about the Wyoming history. Your last name, Moulton, your husband is Steve, Steve Moulton. You started a project back in 1990, I believe it was to save the Mormon Row in Jackson, the famous Moulton barn, which everybody has taken a picture of in Jackson. If you go to Jackson, you take a picture of the Moulton ranch. That’s your husband’s family. And so, tell me the story about saving the Moulton barn, because that’s a great story. 

Candy Moulton:

It started with a story. So in 1990, it’s the Wyoming Centennial, and I’m in Jackson, and there was a picture of the Moulton barn that was taken by Abi Garaman, a great photographer in Jackson. And he owned Under the Willow gallery and he took a lot of pictures of that barn, the TA – and I should clarify, it’s the TA Moulton barn. Because there were two brothers there – there were three brothers there, actually. And so this picture that Abi did was made into a poster called “Wyoming Legacy,” and it was a Wyoming Centennial poster. 

And I was in an art gallery in Jackson, and some people were buying a copy of the picture. And they asked this young kid who was working there, “Well, tell me about this barn.” And of course, the kid knew this: he knew it was the TA Moulton barn, and he knew it was on Mormon Row. That’s what he knew. And I just stepped up and I said, “Well, I can tell you a little bit about the family,” and just like a five minute capsule of sort of why they’d come there, and what they had done. 

And I went home, I didn’t think anything about it. And about three weeks or a month later, I’m in Laramie in an art gallery (I like art galleries). So I was in an art gallery in Laramie, same, almost identical conversation, except that the person in Laramie at the gallery didn’t really know anything about the story, just, “Well, it’s an important barn. It’s a famous barn. There’s a lot of pictures of it from Jackson Hole.” And I went home that night, and I said to Steve – this was 1990 – I said to Steve, I need to write that book. 

I didn’t have any books out at the time, okay? I hadn’t even written “Steamboat.” And I said, “I need to write that story, because people don’t know and people SHOULD know the importance of what that barn was.” So that was my second book was the history of it. I called it “Legacy of the Tetons,” and it’s the history of Mormon Row, the homesteaders in Grand Teton National Park.

When the book was coming out in 1994, literally, the TA Moulton barn was starting to fall apart. Winter in Jackson usually has really deep snow and that barn was built, started in 1912, through 1932. It was a long – it was a poor ranch family, so it took a while to build the barn. And the north side lean-to, the roof started caving in. And it’s like, we’re gonna lose the barn. 

And this thing had become really, really an icon of Jackson. I mean, everybody takes a picture of it. It’s called the most photographed barn in America, and that was in the 90s. And it’s still being photographed. 

And so I said, “I need to write that story.” And so I started doing research, and talking to the families. And there were people still living there, and definitely connected to all of the families on Mormon Row. There were many families there. And so then when the book came out, the barn is falling apart. I called Sheila Bricker Wade at the State Historic Preservation Office, and I asked her about Mormon Row being on the National Register of Historic Places. And I mean, I could hear her hit the ceiling, because she said, “Well, it’s not.”

And it was in the park by that time, it was in Grand Teton National Park. And there was a lot of – I won’t go into the politics, but there was a lot of back and forth between the state and the Park about whether it should be on there. And at that time, in the Park Service, there was sort of a movement that human history should be erased, recent human history should be erased from the park, and it should be a natural space. It’s just an evolution that the Park Service went through. 

So Sheila and I got together and we decided we’re going to try to do something to save that barn. And we did. And so I got the Moulton family involved, and on Labor Day, in 1994, we went. And there were 100 family members that were there, and we restored that barn. We put the north side lean-to back together, we redid all the roofing. Sheila with her team from State Historic Preservation was there, and did work and they did interior stabilization, they put some cables in there to hold it and tie it together. And the park service was there. Melody Webb was the park superintendent at that time – and actually a friend of mine, because her husband is Robert Utley, and he’s a good Western writer. And so I knew Melody, and I knew Robert, and she was there. And we stood there and she said, “I can’t even believe this is happening.”

And it was all paid for by the family and by donations. And when the word got out in Jackson Hole that we were going to do it, there were contractors up there that would come and they’d drop, you know, shake shingles, a bundle of shingles, or some lumber or whatever. “Well, this is leftover from a job and you can use it.” There was someone who brought a piece to the Chamber of Commerce that had been stolen from the barn – a piece of wood – and brought it to the Chamber of Commerce and said, “I see they’re working on the barn. This came from the barn, this is where it came from, and you should put it back.” And they brought it out, and we reattached that piece. 

And so, it was great. And the best part about that whole project, not only that we preserved that particular barn, but it was a catalyst for the Park Service. And Habitat for Humanity got involved subsequently, and they did restoration at the Chambers homestead, they did other work down at the John Moulton barn. And then the Park Service really embraced it. And now they’ve totally embraced it, and they’ve got a big project that they’re planning up there for restoration of those barns. And now they really interpret that human history, and they embrace it, and it’s a very busy part of the park. It used to be a very quiet part of the park. So we’re really, as a family, we’re very proud that we helped save it. And we’re really proud of it. We always said, if we had even a nickel as a family, a nickel from every picture taken of that barn, there’d be a lot of money, because everybody’s there all the time. 

Wendy Corr:

Yes, I’ve even taken a picture of it! Back years and years ago, and I was there at dawn, just to get that right shot. But Candy, this has been such a fascinating conversation, and you’ve got such a wonderful body of work, but we have to wrap up here shortly. I wanted to make sure, though, that people know how to find out more about you. I love your website, because it talks about not only the books and the films and things like that, it also showcases Steve’s work. Steve is a very talented carpenter and furniture maker. I think he does some work in the Molesworth style, is that correct? 

Candy Moulton:

He does, he builds only custom Western furniture, and a lot of it is patterned after Molesworth. He grew up in – he was born in Jackson Hole, on Mormon Row, at the TA Moulton homestead. But when he was just six years old, the Park bought the homestead back, and they moved to Cody. So he grew up on the South Fork in Cody, and so he’s a good furniture builder. His grandfather was a furniture builder, and he really likes that Molesworth style. He kind of patterns after that, it’s not identical. And he just does private commissions, that’s pretty much what he does. He built my bookcases that are behind me. I need more.

Wendy Corr:

Yeah, I’m having a little bit of bookcase envy at the moment. 

Candy Moulton:

But yeah, I need more of them. I’ve got them almost full. 

Wendy Corr:

Oh my gosh. Candy, so, what’s the website? 

Candy Moulton:

It’s candymoulton.com. But our company, we work under the name of Wood Mountain Productions. So I write, he does woodworking, he does some western music. He doesn’t do as much of that anymore as he used to, but he sang at the A Bar A ranch for 25 years, every Friday night, he got to go and sing around the campfire.   

Wendy Corr:

Keeping that Western tradition alive. 

Candy Moulton:

Absolutely. He ran a ranch down in Encampment, he grew up on a ranch in Cody, and then he did a few other things. He worked for a furniture company for a very short time, and learned how to actually do the finishing part, which is the hard part. And then he managed a ranch down in Encampment for 25 years. Now he builds furniture. 

Wendy Corr:

Now he builds furniture and hangs out with you, who gets to do all the exciting stuff, right? (laughing) Candy, what is your next project? Tell us just real quickly, what’s your next project? 

Candy Moulton:

I’m actually working on a project – I do a lot of work for museums and visitor centers, interpretive centers, like the Trail Center in Casper, and I’m working on a project right now in Indiana for Indiana State Museum and Indiana State Parks. And it’s a very old Indian story related to the mound builder culture. So that’s what I’m working on. It’s got multiple films, and I’m writing all the exhibit text

And the next book, I have one in mind, but I don’t talk about them until I get them a little bit further along. It’s Wyoming, though. I can tell you, it’s pure Wyoming. So it’s gonna be great. 

Wendy Corr:

Where do we find out the most recent stuff that you’re working on? Where can we keep up with with your projects? 

Candy Moulton:

Well, my website isn’t up to date, but I’m going to get it up to date. That’s one of my goals – it’s like on the to-do list. That’s one place. And then I’m on Facebook, Candy Moulton. So, you know, I post on there. And that’s kind of how you find me. I mean, I’ve been writing some for Cowboy State Daily, that’s been fun, I hope to do more. I’ve been pretty busy right now, so that’s why I don’t write more. And writing about my cowboys for the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame.   

Wendy Corr:

We look forward to those every time. So thank you, Candy, thank you for your time today. This has been such a fun conversation! And I just feel like I want to chat with you some more, because you’ve got such wonderful experiences. 

Candy Moulton:

Well, thank you so much for bringing me on. I appreciate it. 

Wendy Corr:

Absolutely. And folks, thank you for tuning in today to The Roundup! This has been such a fun conversation, but we’ve got more really great conversations coming up in the coming weeks. So stay tuned to Cowboy State Daily, stay tuned to The Roundup. Thanks for tuning in today. Have a wonderful week!