Bishop Home Museum - Cadoma Foundation

10/10/2026

Bishop Home Museum - Cadoma Foundation
Thank you, Johnson, for a fun enjoyable delicious brunch. The music is wonderful and a great addition to the community. We are also grateful that Johnson has offered to support the Foundation owner of the Bishop Home. For the first 12 patrons who use code BISHOPJAZZ2026, CitiWerks Cafe & Bistro will donate 20% of the ticket price to the Cadoma Foundation and support 's . Plan to have a fun Sunday morning enjoying great music, good food, and support the preservation of the Historic Bishop Home. For more information and tickets go to Cafe & Bistro.

10/10/2026

Last Tuesday, our teddy bear guests officially left for their new missions with the officers of the Casper Police Department.

These special guests were donated by our friends at our yearly Teddy Bear Tea and have been getting into trouble...
..oops. We mean having a sleepover....
..with the home’s bears.

After showing off their parachuting skills for the officers, they’re ready to ride along and provide some comfort to the children of Casper.

Thank you so much to the Casper Police Department for partnering with us on this special project—and for helping catch our newest airborne recruits!

A note from the house: My own bears insist they had nothing to do with teaching our guests these tricks. Those of you who read my journal entry on Facebook may have your doubts.

10/01/2026

From the Bishop Home Journal
October 1, 2026

Dear Journal,

The cooler days of September and the sight of Casper’s children returning to school always feel like a new beginning to me. F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that life starts all over again when the air turns crisp in the fall, and I imagine my very own Miss Bishop would have agreed that autumn is a season when new stories begin to take shape.

Perhaps that’s why September slipped past me so quickly! While the children were settling into their classrooms, my caretakers and I were busy gathering and preparing new stories to share as the weather changed.

Some of that work carried Erin and Sydney beyond my walls. At the Preserve Wyoming Conference here in Casper, they joined a walking tour through historic downtown. I especially like picturing them walking streets once familiar to Miss Marguerite and Mr. Roy. Miss Marguerite owned Blakey & Company, while Mr. Roy conducted his livestock business from an office in the lobby of the Henning Hotel. Casper may have changed, but I like knowing that my caretakers still walk some of the same paths my family once did.

The conference also brought visitors from across Wyoming into my rooms, including Mike Jording of Newcastle, who returned to see me after more than twenty years! Mike had visited me with the Wyoming State Historical Society during the years when my caretakers were working toward my place on the National Register of Historic Places. Susan remembers his help as instrumental to their successful application.

As Sydney showed him through my rooms, familiar objects stirred memories of that earlier chapter. Mike even offered to search through his old records and photographs for more pieces of my story.

There are few gifts an old house appreciates more than someone who remembers.

September’s preparations carried another Bishop much farther from home. Susan and John recently returned from England and Scotland, where they spent part of their travels researching Eleazor Bishop, the first of this Bishop line to come to America.

My family’s story has long held that Eleazor arrived as a child from the Channel Islands in 1690. Susan and John found records confirming that his family was indeed living there, along with records for his brother. Those discoveries have given them new leads for tracing the Bishop family even farther into the past.

More than three centuries later, Eleazor’s story is still unfolding.

Back inside my walls, my caretakers have turned their attention to dressing me for fall. I do enjoy a seasonal wardrobe.

Before I change clothes, however, I should remind you that there is still time to see the historic quilts and the displays currently filling my rooms. They will remain on view through October 8th, so come visit before everything begins changing for the season.

September, it seems, was for gathering the threads—retracing familiar paths, welcoming old friends, and following a family line across the ocean. October and November will be for weaving those threads into stories and sharing them with you.

So come back soon. An old house with this many stories rarely stays quiet for long.

—The Bishop Home

09/08/2026

08/27/2026

From the Bishop Home Journal
August 27, 2026

Dear Journal,

In my last entry, I mentioned that the teddy bears had gone suspiciously quiet.

I was right to be suspicious.

The bears donated during the Teddy Bear Tea have been staying with my own teddy bears until they leave for their important work with local law-enforcement officers. Apparently, my bears decided to show their guests all sorts of fun—if occasionally questionable—things they like to do.

Erin has caught them sliding down my banister, trying to get their paws on a sword they most certainly did not have permission to touch, and settling down to watch Elvis videos on YouTube. “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear” is their favorite, if the endless repeats are any indication.

Each morning, when Erin arrives and finds something new, she creeps through my rooms with her phone, peeking around corners as she investigates. And there they are—caught in the act! She quickly pulls back before they notice and has now assembled the evidence into the video included with this entry.

I think Marie would have loved cell phones. You know she worked for the telephone company for years, right?

The bears claim the video is a misleading collection of innocent misunderstandings.

I have lived long enough to recognize mischief when I see it.

While the bears were busy with their sometimes-questionable shenanigans, Erin and Sydney carried some of my more respectable stories to Glenrock for the Sheepherder's Rendezvous.

They expected to tell people about my family, and they did. But just as often, people told them stories about my family instead!

They met visitors who had known members of my family, remembered the Bishop name, or had memories connected to them. Erin and Sydney returned home with the kind of history that doesn’t always begin in a book or a folder—the stories carried by families and communities and shared across generations.

Oh, I suppose I should ask: Did you know that my family played an important part in Natrona County’s sheep industry?

Marvin began making plans to enter the sheep business in 1894 and remained a woolgrower for about forty years. By 1905, his pens at Cadoma allowed sheep to be sheared, dipped, and shipped from one place. Their success helped my family build me in 1907—the same year Natrona County counted more sheep for assessment than any other county in Wyoming.

The operation later moved to Bishop, a nearby community named for Marvin, where the pens could shelter 3,000 sheep. The work involved the whole family: some of the Bishop children herded sheep, while others helped serve meals to workers at the boardinghouse. Marvin also served for fifteen years as president of the Natrona County Woolgrowers Association, advocating for the stock trails and rest stations the industry needed.

No wonder the Bishop name stirred memories at the Rendezvous. My family was woven into Natrona County’s sheep story—and that story is built quite literally into my walls.

Anyway, in other news: just beyond my fence, the East Pasture is telling a new kind of story!

The pollinator garden is now in full bloom! There may not be sheep grazing in my pasture, but it is certainly busy. Bees and butterflies travel from flower to flower while the future of this little piece of my original property continues to take root.

This week, my stories traveled by video, made their way to Glenrock, and returned home through the memories of people who knew my family. Outside, the East Pasture bloomed with new life.

For an old house, I never seem to stand still for very long.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, the teddy bears are demanding a retraction.

They insist the video has been taken entirely out of context.

I have declined.

—The Bishop Home

08/19/2026

08/13/2026

From the Bishop Home Journal
August 13, 2026

Dear Journal,

I seem to have acquired a houseful of overnight guests—and every one of them is covered in fur.

Last Saturday was my annual Teddy Bear Tea. It was a very warm afternoon, especially for guests wearing fur coats, but everyone had a wonderful time. My backyard looked especially lovely, filled with visitors enjoying tea, conversation, and one another’s company.

As their voices and laughter drifted through my open doors, I found myself remembering all the other gatherings my backyard has hosted over the years. My family always understood that a home’s happiest memories are often made when people come together—and more than a century later, my backyard is still collecting them.

Many of our guests brought teddy bears to donate. These special bears will soon ride along with local law-enforcement officers, ready to comfort children who need a friend and, eventually, find forever homes of their own.

Until then, they are staying with my teddy bears.

Officially, everyone is calling it a sleepover. Judging by the shenanigans taking place after the shades are pulled each evening, I believe it may be closer to an extended house party.

Every morning, Erin finds bears in new places. Some appear to be holding midnight tea parties, while others have been exploring my rooms and making themselves comfortable wherever they please. My own bears insist they are simply helping their guests feel at home, but I have my suspicions about who is encouraging whom.

My teddy bears weren’t the only visitors to surprise me this week. A lovely Casper family came for their very first tour. I always enjoy welcoming people from far away, but there is something especially delightful about opening my doors to neighbors who are discovering me for the first time.

Their daughter carried a blacklight on her keychain and used it to show Erin some of the uranium glass in my collection. Under the light, pieces that had seemed perfectly ordinary suddenly glowed a brilliant green. She knew so much about uranium glass and gave Erin an unexpected lesson as they explored my rooms together.

Apparently, even I don’t know all my own secrets.

Last night, a little piece of me went out into Casper for Back to School with Miss Bishop. Erin packed up some of Lucille Lois Bishop’s classroom materials and introduced children to the Bishop daughter her students knew as Miss Bishop.

Every child who stopped at the table was eager to tell Erin which school they would be attending. A few students from Verda James Elementary were delighted to discover that their school was named after a real woman named Verda James—and that she had been a friend of the Bishop daughters. Others were equally excited to learn that Miss Bishop had once taught at their own school.

I imagine Lucille would have been pleased. A teacher could hardly ask for more than to still be making connections with Casper students so many years later.

A beautiful backyard gathering, generous guests, teddy bears preparing for an important job, familiar objects revealed in an entirely new light, and Miss Bishop still connecting with Casper’s schoolchildren—it has been quite a week.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, the bears have gone suspiciously quiet.

Every old house knows that is rarely a good sign.

—The Bishop Home