Photo of Mildred Capron, from her biographical materials, Box 1, Folder 1.

In a press release written to accompany the release of her film, Sky High in Wyoming, the documentary filmmaker Mildred Capron (whose papers reside at the American Heritage Center) states:

An easterner by birth and background, 14 years in China followed by 15 years’ residence in Wyoming, Mildred Capron calls Wyoming home and the adoption has been mutual… great lover of animals she likes the open spaces “where there is room for the spirit.”
 
Miss Capron does not glamorize the west, but shows it as it is, exciting and beautiful, its business and its pleasures, its blizzards and its ruggedness, as only a person with long residence there can do. SKY HIGH reflects the same keen awareness, the sympathetic and entertaining observations and the patience for magnificent wild-life shots that bring a rich experience to her audiences.

Press Release from Mildred Capron about her film, Sky High in Wyoming

In SKY HIGH you will see: A wild horse roundup… Arapaho Sun Dance ceremonial… The Wolf Dance… THE OREGON TRAIL – South Pass City, a ghost of gold-rush days… Split Rock… Fort Laramie… Devil’s Tower… Mysterious Medicine Wheel in the Big Horns… Petroglyphs trying to tell the story of prehistoric man… Dinosaurs… Historic background.

A pack trip into the Wilderness area of the Wind River Mountains… California Golden Trout such as fishermen dream about…  wild flowers: wild columbine, fire­weed, scarlet gilia, flax, mimulus, hairbell, paintbrush… ice, and blazing sun, and beauty that makes you gasp. Ranching: Hereford Cattle, for wyoming is cattleland… sheep-shearing time… Arabian horses. And rodeo-time, the cow-boy sport. Farming: putting the holes in Swiss cheese. MINERALS: Wyoming Jade… 0i1… Iron ore… Coal. University of Wyoming… artists… naturalists. The animal kingdom: Prairie dogs… “picket pins”… bear… coyote…  elk… buffalo… moose… antelope… pine-marten, rarely filmed… beaver, extraordinary closeups of the little engineer responsible for the opening of the West… sage grouse… vireo… ducks… geese… avacet… willet… blue heron… Sandhill cranes… trumpeter swans. Scenery that is breath-taking — the whole welded together into a story entertainingly given.

You can enjoy this film in six parts below. To learn more about Mildred Capron or her collection of films and papers at the AHC, you can view the collection inventory online.

–Ben Goldman, Digital Programs Archivist