Queen Elizabeth's happy Wyoming holiday

Forty years ago this month, the Queen found joy in the American West during a four-day private visit

A note to my subscribers: I am currently on a tour giving lectures—the 2024 Evelyn Wrench Speaker Series—about George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy sponsored by the English-Speaking Union of the United States, and I won’t be able to publish a Royals Extra for two more weeks. I’ve just returned from Kansas City and Denver, and if any of you are interested in attending, I’ll be speaking in Roanoke, New Orleans, Portland, and Seattle. Information is available through the respective ESU branches.

Also, ICUMI, in memory of the magnificent Dame Maggie Smith, who died on September 27 at age 89, here’s what I wrote on September 7th about King Charles’s love of Shakespeare that includes a description of a CD audiobook and companion hardcover called The Prince’s Choice. It was a collection of his favorite passages from Shakespeare. Among the performers were Maggie Smith and her former husband, Robert Stephens:

The King and the Bard

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When the late Queen Elizabeth II sought respite during her seventy-year reign, she routinely retreated to her estates at Sandringham in Norfolk and Balmoral in Scotland. But a notable exception came in October 1984 when she enjoyed a relaxing holiday in the majestic Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. She visited her close friends Henry Porchester (known as “Porchey) and his wife Jean—the future Lord and Lady Carnarvon—at Canyon Ranch, their 4,000-acre spread that had belonged to Jean’s family since the late 19^th century.

Queen Elizabeth II in Wyoming with the Big Horn Mountains in the distance, October 1984

The Queen had visited the American West in February 1983 when she and Prince Philip spent two days in Yosemite National Park at the end of their royal tour of California. They were both exhausted after making twenty public appearances, and while traveling to the park, one of the cars in their Secret Service detail was hit head-on by a speeding local policeman, killing three agents. According to the Queen’s press secretary, Michael Shea, she was “extremely saddened by the news” of the accident.

The Queen at Inspiration Point in Yosemite National Park, March 5, 1983

“People had no idea who she was”

They made the best of their brief time in the luxurious 121-room Ahwahnee Hotel, which the royal party had all to themselves. They set out in the valley to Inspiration Point, where they saw the sheer cliff of 7,500-foot El Capitan, and the Queen went for a walk with Pete Metzger, military attaché to President Ronald Reagan. “She was in her mac and head scarf, and people had no idea who she was,” recalled Metzger. “She said hello to them.”

The following year, the Queen took the first of her five private holidays in the United States, all of them primarily devoted to her favorite hobby, thoroughbred horse-breeding, in the Kentucky bluegrass country. I wrote on Royals Extra last December 22^nd about these trips organized by Porchey:  In its final season, The Crown returns to the Queen’s friendship with “Porchey,” her racing manager for thirty years. I set the record straight about her relationship with Porchey—The Crown falsely asserted a romantic connection--and included never-before-seen photographs of her visits to Kentucky.

Jeanie and Henry, the 7th Earl of Carnarvon

Porchey and Jeanie (as she was known to her friends) had been talking to the Queen about the beauty of Wyoming, and how open and vast it was.  Jeanie had always thought Balmoral resembled Wyoming, where she had grown up. Her paternal grandfather, a British émigré to America, had married the daughter of a Kentucky judge and subsequently inherited the title of 8^th Earl of Portsmouth. Jeanie’s brother, Malcolm Wallop, co-owner of Canyon Ranch, was a United States Senator. Prince Philip had been to Canyon Ranch in 1969 for a fishing and shooting vacation, which made the Queen even more eager for a visit.

The Queen arriving at the airport in Sheridan, Wyoming, October 12, 1984

After five days in Kentucky, the Queen flew to Wyoming on Friday October 12^th, 1984. While she was en route, a bomb detonated by the Irish Republican Army at the Conservative Party conference in Brighton killed four people and injured thirty-four. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had been the principal target, and she had narrowly escaped injury.

“She would let us complain and moan about politics”

On arriving at Canyon Ranch, the Queen spoke to the Prime Minister by telephone to express her concern and sympathy. “Margaret Thatcher said, ‘Are you having a lovely time?’” Jeanie Carnarvon told me. Elizabeth II otherwise kept the conversation to herself. “The Queen never talked about her prime ministers—any of them, no matter how close you were to her,” added Jeanie. “She would let us complain and moan about politics, but she would never say anything, just listen.”

The Queen also spoke to President Ronald Reagan for fifteen minutes…