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Archives On The Air 10: Antelope Charlie—Charles Belden Papers

Charles Belden became known as the Antelope King. This name came from his clever ways of reducing the number of pronghorn on his Pitchfork Ranch near Meeteetse.

By the 1930s there were so many pronghorn on the Ranch that he began efforts to relocate them.

At times, he used his airplane to fly the antelope to zoos along the East Coast.

Once, he put pronghorn on the famous German dirigible, the Hindenburg. The Hindenburg flew them across the Atlantic and they were transplanted to a German zoo.

Belden was a talented amateur photographer and an expert self-promoter. He photographed and published his photos in widely-read national publications. He made himself and the Pitchfork Ranch world famous.

Many of Charles Belden's original photographs from the Pitchfork Ranch can be seen at UW's American Heritage Center.