In the summer of 1928, while their mother convalesced in Bar Harbor after giving birth at the age of 39 to John Train in New York City that May, Sumner Sr took the three Gerard boys out West by rail. Jimmy was 14, Jerry 12, and Coster 9.
From their base at the then rustic Elkhorn “dude ranch” in the Gallatin Valley they made a 1X-mile 10-day pack trip on horseback through the mountains into Idaho and Wyoming. Sumner Sr., once a “Rough Rider” with Teddy Roosevelt, was an expert horseman.
They also visited the Hamilton, Montana home of Marcus Daly (founder of Anaconda Copper, whose daughter Molly had married Sumner Sr’s brother).
During the trip, under what seems to have been strict tutelage of their father, the boys wrote many letters to their mother.
[library of letters from 1928 trip]