WYOMING STATE LIBRARY, ARCHIVES AND HISTORICAL BOARD

Judicial District
1	Mrs. June Casey	Cheyenne
2	Mrs. Wilmot C. McFadden	Rock Springs
3	Mrs. Mary Emerson	Evanston
4	Mrs. Suzanne Knepper	Buffalo
5	Jerry Rillahan	Worland
6	Mrs. Mae Urbanek	Lusk
7	William T. Nighiingale, Chairman	Lander
Member at Large	Frank Bowron	Casper
Ex-Officio	Attorney General V. Frank Mendicino	Cheyenne

WYOMING STATE ARCHIVES AND HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT

STAFF

William H. Williams Director

Buck Dawson Director, State Museums

Mrs. Katherine A. Halvehson Director, Historical Research

and Publications Division Mrs. Julia Yelvington Director, Archives and Records Division

ANNALS OF WYOMING

The Annals of Wyoming is published biannually in the spring and fall and is received by all members of the Wyoming State Historical Society. Copies of previous and current issues also are available for sale to the public and a price list may be obtained by writing to the Editor.

Communications should be addressed to the Editor. The Editor does not assume responsibility for statements of fact or opinion made by the contributors.

Annals of Wyoming articles are abstracted in Historical Abstracts. America: History of Life

Copyright 1977, by the Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department

A^^als of Wyommg

Volume 49 Spring, 1977 Number 1

Katherine a. Halverson Editor

John C. Paige

William H. Barton

Ellen E. Glover

Editorial Assistants

Published biannually by the

WYOMING STATE ARCHIVES AND HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT

Official Publication of the Wyoming State Historical Society

WYOMING STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

OFFICERS 1976-1977

President, Ray Pendergraft Worland

First Vice President, Mrs. Mabel Brown Newcastle

Second Vice President, David J. Wasden Cody

Secretary-Treasurer, Mrs. Ellen Mueller Cheyenne

Executive Secretary, William H. Williams Cheyenne

Past Presidents

Frank L. Bowron, Casper 1953-1955

William L. Marion, Lander 1955-1956

Dr. DeWitt Dominick, Cody 1956-1957

Dr. T. a. Larson, Laramie 1957-1958

A. H. MacDougall, Rawlins 1958-1959

Mrs. Thelma G. Condit, Buffalo 1959-1960

E. A. Littleton, Gillette 1960-1961

Edness Kimball Wilkins, Casper 1961-1962

Charles Ritter, Cheyenne 1962-1963

Neal E. Miller. Rawlins 1963-1965

Mrs. Charles Hord, Casper 1965-1966

Glenn Sweem, Sheridan 1966-1967

Adrian Reynolds, Green River 1967-1968

CuRTiss Root, Torrington 1968-1969

Mrs. Hattie Burnstad, Worland 1969-1970

J. Reuel Armstrong, Rawlins 1970-1971

William R. Dubois, Cheyenne 1971-1972

Henry F. Chadey, Rock Springs 1972-1973

Richard S. Dumbrill, Newcastle 1973-1974

Henry Jensen. Casper 1974-1975

Jay Brazelton, Jackson 1975-1976

The Wyoming State Historical Society was organized in October, 1953, Membership is open to anyone interested in history. County Historical Society Chapters have been organized in Albany. Big Horn, Campbell, Carbon, Crook, Fremont, Goshen, Hot Springs, Johnson, Laramie, Lincoln, Natrona, Niobrara, Park, Platte, Sheridan, Sweetwater, Teton, Uinta, Washakie and Weston Counties.

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Send State Membership Dues To: Wyoming State Historical Society Executive Headquarters Barrett Building Cheyenne, Wyoming 82002

Zabte of Contents

F

THE LIGHTNING CREEK FIGHT

By Barton R. Voigt 5

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS

By John S. Gray 23

ASA S. MERCER AND THE BANDITTI OF THE PLAINS: A REAPPRAISAL

By Charles Hall 53

BLACK HILLS SOONERS: THE DAVY EXPEDITION OF 1868

By Grant K. Anderson 65

FORT PLATTE, WYOMING, 1841-1845: RIVAL OF FORT LARAMIE

By David W. Lupton 83

WILLIAM WALLACE COOK: DIME NOVELIST

By Mabel R. Skjelver 109

WYOMING STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Minutes of the Twenty-third Annual Meeting 131

BOOK REVIEWS

Steffen, William Clark: Jeffersonian Man on the Frontier 140

Hammond, The Adventures of Alexander Barclay, Mountain

Man: A Narrative of His Career, 1810 to 1855: His

Memorandum Diary, 1845 to 1850 142

Bragg, Wyoming's Wealth: A History of Wyoming 143

Malone and Roeder, Montana. A History of Two Centuries 146

Roripaugh, Learn to Love the Haze and Maynard, Bannack

and Other Poems 147

Williams, The Czar's Germans 150

Gray, Centennial Campaign: The Sioux War of 1876 151

Scamehorn, Pioneer Steelmaker in the West: The Colorado

Fuel and Iron Company, 1872-1903 152

Savage, Blacks in the West 154

Hutchins, Boots and Saddles at the Little Big Horn 155

Allen and Leonard, The Story of the Latter-day Saints 157

Bean, Charles Boettcher: A Study in Pioneer Western Enterprise .. 158 Thane, A Governor's Wife on the Mining Frontier. The

Letters of Mary Edgerton from Montana, 1 863-1 865 160

Rickey, $10 Horse, $40 Saddle. Cowboy Clothing, Arms.

Tools and Horse Gear of the 1880's 161

Carley, The Sioux Uprising of 1862 162

CONTRIBUTORS 144

INDEX

ILLUSTRATIONS

Elk Mountain Cover

Sheriff William H. Miller 8

Sioux Indians held in Douglas, Wyoming, jail for murder of

Sheriff Miller of Weston County 10

William Wallace Cook about 1925 Ill

Cover of Billionaire Pro Tem, published in 1907 124

LIBRARY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING

LARAMIE 82071

COVER NOTES

The cover photograph of Elk Mountain was taken by Joseph E. Stimson in the early 1900s. Stimson was offi- cial photographer for the Union Pacific Railroad from 1903 to 1935. For the following ten years he conducted his own business in Cheyenne as artist -photographer. Stimson died in 1952. His superb collection of scenic views in Wyoming, on glass plate negatives, is now among the holdings of the Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department.

Elk Mountain has always been a landmark in south- central Wyoming and dominates the valley from which it rises to an elevation of 1 1,000 feet. Fort Halleck was built near the foot of the mountain to protect wagon trains on the Overland, or Cherokee Trail, and was an active military post from July 20, 1862, until July 4, 1866. A good part of the building materials from the fort, and all its supplies, were moved to a site just south of present-day Laramie for the construction of Fort Buford, later re-named Fort Sanders, a protective post for Union Pacific construction workers. The site of Fort Halleck is on the Norman Palm ranch, where today the ruins of the blacksmith shop are the only trace of the original fort buildings.

A legend handed down over the years is about a white stallion that wintered his large band of wild horses on Elk Mountain. One winter his band was snowed under and all the animals starved to death. The image of this stallion has ever since been visible in the snows on the mountain. In 1918, reportedly, his whole form was traced in the snow, and he could be seen running across the face of the mountain with his mane and tail flying in the wind.

Zke Cightning Creek Tight

By Barton R. Voigt

The era of America's Sioux wars had long since passed by the turn of the twentieth century. Sitting Bull had been dead for nearly a decade. Red Cloud was a feeble old man, living out his years on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation. Towns and ranches had replaced the isolated miUtary posts that once stood guard over the Sioux. Indians and whites, however, had not yet learned to live with one another. The Indians held on to remnants of their old life-style, while the whites continued to despise them as bar- barians. Indian hunting rights were a major source of irritation. Treaty provisions and new state game laws often conflicted, which resulted in Indians being fined or jailed for hunting as they had always hunted.

The state of Wyoming felt itself particularly plagued by out-of- state Indians ignoring game laws. Bannocks from Idaho often hunted in the Jackson Hole country, and the eastern part of the state attracted Sioux from South Dakota reservations. The issue was eventually brought before the Supreme Court of the United States, which held in the Race Horse case, that the Indians' hunt- ing privileges had been repealed by Wyoming's admission to state- hood.^ This ruling gave Wyoming authority to enforce its game laws against the Indians.

Despite the Supreme Court decision, however, Wyoming coun- ties along the South Dakota border continued to be the scene of lengthy fall excursions by Indian parties from Pine Ridge Reser- vation. As whites in the area became increasingly bitter about the situation, serious trouble was inevitable. Finally, in October, 1903, a posse's attempt to arrest a band of Sioux on Converse County's Lightning Creek brought on a fatal battle.

The events leading up to the fight on Lightning Creek began on September 30, 1903, when United States Indian Agent John R. Brennan authorized a party of Oglala Sioux Indian families to leave the Pine Ridge Reservation. Led by William Brown, the Indians journeyed south of the Black Hills into Wyoming. A second party of Sioux, under Charlie Smith, left Pine Ridge on October 20 with a pass similar to the one granted Brown's party.

ipor a brief account of the Race Horse case, see T. A. Larson, History of Wyoming (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1965), p. 305.

6 ANNALS OF WYOMING

About a week later, the two bands came together on Little Thun- der Creek, in Weston County, Wyoming. Traveling together, they headed slowly back toward the reservation.

Meanwhile, reports were brought to Newcastle, county seat of Weston County, of Indians killing pronghorn antelope and live- stock. A posse was organized by Sheriff William H. Miller, and on October 23 it left Newcastle in search of the Indians. Seven days later, the posse unsuccessfully tried to arrest the combined Brown and Smith parties. The following day another arrest at- tempt resulted in a pitched battle. In the brief exchange of gun- fire, Sheriff Miller, a deputy and two Indians were killed outright. Three other Indians later died of wounds received in the fight. -

Nine men from the William Brown party were arrested after the fight and taken to Douglas for a preliminary hearing on the charge of murder. On Saturday, November 14, 1903, they were brought before Justice of the Peace H. R. Daniels.'^ Acting as prosecuting attorney for Converse County was W. F. Mecum. The Indians were defended by the United States Attorney for the District of Wyoming, Timothy F. Burke. Agent Brennan and an interpreter from Pine Ridge were also present.

Because of an accident. Attorney Burke did not arrive in Doug- las until the morning of the hearing. Failing to find a suitable place where he could in secrecy take the Indians' statements, and not wishing to have the statements made public, he decided not to call any of the Indians to the stand in their own defense. Instead, he placed their hopes for acquittal on the weakness of the prosecutor's case.

County Attorney Mecum produced ten witnesses for the state — eight members of the posse and two sheepherders who had been in the vicinity of the fight. He methodically recreated the incident from the arrival in Newcastle of reports of Indians killing game to the posse's examination of abandoned Indian wagons after the battle. According to their testimony, the posse members had been deputized to go out and arrest Indians for killing antelope.^ They left Newcastle on October 23, heading southwest toward Little Thunder Basin, where the Indians had been seen. The first day out they arrested nine Soux near the Cheyenne River and sent

^Details of both the Indian and white accounts of the fight, and the events leading up to it, can be found in U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Indian Affairs, Encounter Between Sioux Indians of the Pine Ridge Agency, S. Dak., and a Sheriff's Posse of Wyoming, 58th Cong., 2d sess., 1903, S. Doc. 128 (hereinafter referred to as S. Doc. 128).

•^The defendants were He Crow, Fool Heart, Jesse Little War Bonnet, Charging Wolf, David Broken Nose, James WThite Elk, Red Paint, Jack High Dog and Iron Shield.

^The posse's testimony can be found in S. Doc. 128, pp. 56-95.

THE LIGHTNING CREEK FIGHT 7

them with B. F. Hilton to Newcastle."' The remainder of the posse continued its search. Along Porcupine Creek they came upon the trail of what later proved to be the Smith and Brown parties.

The posse followed the Indians for several days, eventually crossing into Converse County. On the morning of October 30, they met a local cowboy, Frank Zerbes, who reported that the Indians had camped on the Dry Fork of the Cheyenne River the previous night. Zerbes offered to guide the posse to the Indians, and Miller agreed. At about 10:30 a.m. they rode into the Indian camp. They saw what they later estimated to be twenty to twenty- five male Indians, with their families. Few of the Indians could speak English, but Sheriff Miller succeeded in explaining that he had a warrant for their arrest. The Indians could not decide what to do, since both of their leaders, Charlie Smith and William Brown, were out of camp. Sheriff Miller offered to wait, and the posse was fed by Mrs. Brown.

Charlie Smith returned to camp early in the afternoon, with an antelope over his saddle.*^ Smith, who was a Carlisle Indian School graduate, understood Enghsh very well. When Sheriff Miller read him the warrant, he indicated that he did not intend to go to Newcastle, but that he would wait until he could get Brown's opinion when he came back. The sheriff then advised the Indians not to do anything rash, and once again agreed to wait.

Late in the afternoon, Brown rode into the camp. Miller read the warrant again, this time to both of the Indian leaders. Brown showed a willingness to accompany the posse, but Smith now adamantly refused to go. Members of the posse quoted Smith as saying, "I am no damn fool, and know more of the law than you do. I do not live in Newcastle, and I will not go there."'

The Indians then broke camp and proceeded down the Dry Fork. The posse was not certain whether or not the Indians intended to go to Newcastle. When the procession came to a fork in the road, one route leading to Newcastle and the other toward the reservation, the sheriff rode ahead and tried to turn the Indians in the direction of Newcastle. But Smith instructed them to turn toward Pine Ridge. In what seemed to the posse to be a threaten- ing move, many of the Indian men then rode up and took a defiant

•"'On November 3, nearly two weeks later. Agent Brennan found these Indians still being held in jail, without having been charged with a crime. In later testimony, he contended that they "were not part of the Smith or Brown parties, nor connected with them in any way. They were on their return from a visit with some of their friends at the Crow Agency. Five of the party were between the ages of 65 and 80 years." Ibid., p. 31.

•'In later statements, the Indians denied that Smith had an antelope on his horse.

^Posse members D. O. Johnston, James C. Davis and Ralph Hackney, for instance, said he used words to that effect. S. Doc. 128. pp. 57. 73, 77.

ANNALS OF WYOMING

Sheriff William H. Miller

-Courtesy of author

Stance near the whites. James C. Davis testified that Jesse Little War Bonnet, one of the defendants, brazenly "kept riding with us, all the time bucking his horse into us, trying to get a fight out of us if he could. "^

Seeing the futility of further attempts to arrest the Indians with so small a posse. Miller retreated to seek reinforcements from area ranches. The posse first rode to the Fiddleback ranch, about twenty miles distant, where they spent the night. There they enlisted the aid of two cowboys, Stephen Franklin and Charles Harvey. Franklin and Harvey advised the sheriff that the Indians would probably travel down the Lightning Creek road. At 7:30 in the morning Miller sent Frank Zerbes and Jack Moore south

»Ibid., p. 74.

THE LIGHTNING CREEK FIGHT 9

from the Fiddleback with instructions to find the direction the Indians had gone, and to meet the possee at Jake Mills' cow camp on Lightning Creek.

En route to Lightning Creek, Miller's forces were strengthened by the addition of four more men. John Owens, a veteran lawman and Indian fighter, reluctantly joined the posse when Sheriff Miller assured him that there was going to be trouble." Wolf hunter Louis Falkenberg was picked up at the Oleson ranch. And two strangers from Wessington, South Dakota, Henry Coon and George Fountain, joined later in the day. Including Zerbes and Moore, who were trailing the Indians, the posse now numbered thirteen men.

Sheriff Miller's party reached the Mills cow camp in midafter- noon. Half of the men had eaten dinner, and the others had just begun when Zerbes and Moore came racing in to report that the Indians were little more than a mile away. The horses were immediately brought up, and Sheriff Miller once more took his men out to confront the Indians.

The Smith and Brown parties were traveling north along the road parallel to Lightning Creek. As the posse rounded a sharp bend in the road, the Indians suddenly came into view. The head of the Indian procession had just passed through a gate in a wire fence. Several of the posse members estimated in their testimony that two or three wagons were through the gate, and that eight men were riding in the lead.^" When the Indians saw the posse, they retreated back through the gate. Many of them dismounted and moved toward the creek. John Owens, who had practically taken over the leadership of the posse, warned Sheriff Miller to turn his men out of the road because the Indians intended to fight. The posse quickly rode down into the creek bed. They left their horses at the fence and ran upstream behind the protection of the bank. Miller and Owens, who were in the lead, ran nearly one hundred yards up the creek. The others spread out behind them.

While the posse remained behind the bank. Miller and Owens climbed to the top and walked toward the Indians. As they approached, they took turns shouting for the Indians to surrender. Owens testified that after they had gone about fifteen yards from the creek, an Indian fired at them from up near the corrals. At the sound of the shot, the rest of the posse jumped up on the bank, and a general firing ensued.

Spread out among the trees as they were, each white man could see only part of the field of battle. Owens and Miller directed their attention to their left, leaving the rest of the posse to deal

^Lusk Herald, December 30, 1948.

lojohn Owens' testimony was most precise on this part of the incident. S. Doc. 128, p. 89; Tbid.

4 u

THE LIGHTNING CREEK FIGHT 11

with the Indians to their right. Ail of the posse except Zerbes, who was armed only with a pistol, fired upon the Indians. After a few volleys, the Indians broke and fled.

The battle was brief — it lasted no more than three or four minutes — but the results were disastrous. Louis Falkenberg was dead, shot through the neck. Sheriff Miller lay bleeding to death from a severed femoral artery in his left thigh. Two Indians were dead upon the field. Charlie Smith, his wife, and another Indian man were mortally wounded. One elderly Indian man, shot in the back, fled to the reservation, where he survived.

Sheriff Miller died in the Mills cabin thirty minutes after the battle. Fearing that the Indians might return, the posse kept guard in the cabin throughout the night. Early in the morning, James Davis and Ralph Hackney left for Newcastle with the bodies of Miller and Falkenberg. The rest of the posse went out to the scene of the fight to search the Indian wagons that had been left behind. Much to their surprise, they found several Indian women on the field, huddled around a fire they had built for Charlie Smith, who was still alive. The whites took Smith into the ranch house, and sent the Indian women to Lusk with Stephen Franklin for a doctor. Smith died that night.

When word of the fight reached Newcastle, a new posse was quickly formed to arrest the fleeing Indians. Crook County Dep- uty Sheriff Lee Mather organized the posse, reportedly from hun- dreds of area miners who volunteered for the duty.^^ The posse took the train to Edgemont, South Dakota, where they picked up horses and supplies. Near the Lampkins ranch on Hat Creek, they confronted a large group of Indian families. The Indians offered no resistance, and after being fed at the Lampkins ranch, they were taken to Edgemont. On November 5, Converse County Sheriff John McDermott released the women and children to the custody of Agent Brennan and transferred the nine men to a Douglas, Wyoming, jail.

The posse's testimony at the prehminary hearing clearly placed the blame for the Lightning Creek fight on the Indians, particularly Charlie Smith because of his attitude the day before the battle. The testimony, however, was useless to the prosecutor. Posse members identified six of the nine defendants as having been pres- ent during the confrontation on October 30, but they failed to identify any of them as having shot Sheriff Miller or Deputy Falkenberg the next day. The only defendant recognized as being at the scene of the fight was Jesse Little War Bonnet. Six of the posse members swore that they saw him that day, but only two.

i^Lee Mather interview, n.d., W.P.A. Statewide Historical Project, Wyo- ming State Archives and Historical Department, Cheyenne.

12 ANNALS OF WYOMING

Charles Harvey and Ralph Hackney, claimed that he fired any shots. And both men admitted that he fired only as he was fleeing up the creek, after Miller and Falkenberg were hit.

After listening to County Attorney Mecum present his case, defense attorney Burke entered a demurrer to the evidence and asked that the defendants be discharged. Burke's main argument was that, despite the posse's allegations, no proof existed that any of the defendants had committed the crime with which they were charged. Without comment. Justice Daniels sustained the demur- rer and released the prisoners.

The preliminary hearing had resulted in the acquittal of the defendants, but it had not brought out the Indians' version of the incident. Consequently, U. S. Attorney Burke was instructed by the Justice Department to go to Pine Ridge and reconstruct the affair from the Indians' viewpoint. From November 28 to Decem- ber 1, Burke took sworn statements from Agent Brennan and fourteen Indians who had been present during the fight. Accord- ing to the Indian testimony, the William Brown party, consisting of twenty adults and their children, left the reservation on October 6}~ Skirting the Black Hills, they traveled through the foothills, hunting and gathering berries, roots and herbs. Several of the men shot deer along Sage and Horse creeks in South Dakota, but they denied killing deer or antelope in Wyoming.

The Smith party, made up of about sixteen adults and their children, left Pine Ridge on October 20. About one week's jour- ney found them in Weston County's Little Thunder Basin, where they accidentally met the Brown party. The two groups agreed to travel together. Combined, there were fifteen wagons and nearly fifty people. With horses, teepees, camp equipage, and other sup- plies, the assemblage formed a ponderous, slow-moving procession.

In no hurry to return home, the Indians traveled only a few miles a day, making several camps and taking time out to hunt rabbits and prairie chickens. They purchased venison, mutton and hides from sheepmen, who gladly traded for beadwork and mocca- sins.^-^ On the evening of October 29, they camped near the Dry Fork of the Cheyenne River. The next morning several of the men went out to hunt. Late in the morning, seven white men rode into camp and asked to speak to a chief. Since both Charlie Smith and William Brown were absent, the whites were invited to eat with Mrs. Brown while they waited.

i^The Indians' statements can be found in S. Doc. 128, pp. 32-54 and 112-34.

i^At least one sheepherder later acknowledged just such a transaction with these Indians. Isaac Robbins interview, August, 1904, Eli S. Ricker Collection, Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln.

THE LIGHTNING CREEK FIGHT 13

When the two Indian leaders returned to camp, they talked at length with Sheriff Miller. Brown at first agreed to let the sheriff arrest them because he assumed the permit from Agent Brennan would justify their absence from the reservation. But when Smith refused to go with the whites, Brown sided with Smith. ^^

All of the Indians who testified, with the exception of Brown, claimed that neither Smith nor Brown fully explained what the posse wanted on October 30. They further stated that because they did not understand the sheriff's purpose, they took no hostile actions when he tried to turn them toward Newcastle. Jesse Little War Bonnet asserted that he rode up among the whites only to find out what was happening, not to start a fight. ^"^

Following Smith's orders, the Indians ignored the posse and proceeded down the road toward the reservation. They went about twenty -five miles before camping for the evening. Anxious to get out of Wyoming because of the confrontation with the white men, they set out early the following morning. By 4:00 p.m. they had pushed their cumbersome caravan nearly fifty miles. As they approached the Jake Mills cow camp on Lightning Creek, their column was spread out for almost a mile along the road. They did not know that the posse was still after them, and had taken no precautions to defend themselves. Most of the men were riding in the wagons with their families. Their weapons were packed away.

Hope Clear, an eighteen-year-old girl, was at the head of the procession and was first to see the posse as it rounded a bend in the road. She recognized the men as the ones who had come to their camp the day before. As she told Burke,

I was ahead of the wagons and there were two little boys with me and we were driving some loose ponies. I got off my horse to open the gate and then I saw the white men aiming their guns at me, so I started back to the wagons as fast as I could go.i^

The Indians testified that the white men fired at them without warning. Hope Clear said that the first shot knocked the horse out from under the eleven-year-old boy, Peter White Elk, who was with her, just as they fled back through the gate. The second shot hit him in the back of the head, kilUng him instantly. Hope Clear's horse was then shot out from under her, and several more shots passed through her clothing. By that time, the Indians had begun to react to the sudden attack. The three lead wagons fled west up the fence line. The twelve rear wagons turned and raced back

i^Brown was a central figure that day, as he was one of the few Indians who could speak English. His statements can be found in S. Doc. 128, pp. 20-21, 45-48 and 126-28.

15/iW., p. 45.

mbid., p. 49.

14 ANNALS OF WYOMING

down the Lightning Creek road. Black Kettle, who had been in the second wagon, ran toward the creek. Gray Bear, father of Hope Clear, and Charlie Smith rode up the line toward their families.

According to both Hope Clear and her mother, only two Indians fired any shots. Hope Clear stated that just as she got to her wagon, she saw Black Kettle and her father getting down ready to fire. All the other Indians, with the exception of Charlie Smith, had fled. She saw Smith coming up from behind when he was shot. He did not appear to have his gun with him. Mrs. Gray Bear (Takes the Rope) described the action in much the same way:

Those who were on horses [Gray Bear and Charlie Smith] all rushed up and got killed. My husband and another fellow [Black Kettle] did some shooting and they both got killed .... I saw Charlie Smith coming up with his gun in his scabbard on his saddle, so I don't think Charlie did any shooting. i"

Hope Clear, Mrs. Gray Bear and Mrs. Charlie Smith were in the wagons that fled west along the fence. Hope Clear's statement to Attorney Burke gave the harrowing details of their flight:

We started to go up the side of a hill, and just as we were going over the top of the hill, Mrs. Smith was shot. When she was shot, the blood began to flow pretty freely, and we started for a bank .... When we got Mrs. Smith down under this bank, I started back up the fence again and I met my father coming back on his horse. I let him off to the creek. They were still shooting at him .... We kept on going up this creek until it must have been along in the middle of the night, then my father got out and went and sat with his back up against the bank, and he sat there till he died.i^

Last Bear, a sixty-five-year-old man, was in the fifth wagon from the front when the shooting began. His son was ahead driv- ing horses with Hope Clear and Peter White Elk. Upon hearing the first shot. Last Bear took his son's horse and told the boy to get into the wagon with his mother. Just as he mounted the horse, Last Bear was shot through the back, the bullet coming out in front. He then turned and fled west along the fence. In his testimony, Last Bear swore that the Indians had not started the fight:

I hold up my hand to the Great Father and say that I did not see any Indian shoot. Our guns were packed away in the wagons. I did not have anything to shoot with.!!*

The surviving Indians testified that, thoroughly terrorized, they

^-!Ibid., p. 51.

^^Ibid., p. 50. Mrs. Smith, who was shot in the back, died a few days later.

^^Ibid., p. 17. Last Bear recovered fully from his wound.

THE LIGHTNING CREEK FIGHT 15

all scattered and fled immediately upon hearing the first few shots. In their panic, they abandoned most of their heavy wagons on the divide between Lightning and Twenty Mile creeks. Some of the fleeing Indians were fired upon near Hat Creek, in South Dakota, but others were treated well by the whites they encountered.-" Most of them managed to straggle into the reservation. The one large group apprehended near Edgemont, too hungry and exhaust- ed to resist, surrendered with no desire to fight. Hope Clear, Mrs. Gray Bear and Mrs. Smith buried Gray Bear where he had died, and returned to the scene of the fight in the morning. There they found Charhe Smith still alive, but badly wounded and covered with frost. They stayed with him until the white men came and took him to the ranch house where he died.

The fight at Lightning Creek caused a bitter public controversy. The Indian and white versions of the affair differed in so many important details as to suggest outright lying by one side or the other. Weston County residents vehemently defended their sheriff. The Newcastle Times published an "official" posse account of the fight, portraying Sheriff Miller as a martyred hero. Nebraska and South Dakota editors, however, as well as many Wyoming citizens, condemned the actions of the posse. -^ At the preliminary hearing in Douglas, one observer even reported that "public sentiment largely favored the Indians and there was quite a demonstration when the justice announced that the prisoners were released.'"-

The preliminary hearing was the only legal proceeding brought against the Indians, but it was not the last to be heard about the fight. Three important Wyoming men were extremely dissatisfied with the results of the hearing. Acting Governor Fenimore Chat- terton. Senator Francis E. Warren and Congressman Frank W. Mondell combined their efforts to support the posse. Chatterton and Mondell had long opposed the practice of allowing the Sioux to travel freely across state lines. Mondell, who was from New- castle, also had a particular animosity toward Agent Brennan, and singled out bad management at Pine Ridge as the root cause of the kilHngs.'^

2"JChief Eagle and William Brown both testified to being shot at near Hat Creek, S. Doc. 128, pp. 43 and 48; others were allowed to camp at the ZumBrunnen ranch near Kirtley, Jacob J. ZumBrunnen interview, n.d., W.P.A. Project, Cheyenne.

2iNumerous newspaper articles concerning the fight were reprinted in S. Doc. 128, pp. 10-30. Also, the John R. Brennan Papers, at the South Dakota State Historical Resource Center, in Pierre, contain a scrapbook of news clippings about the incident.

22S. Doc. 128, p. 15.

-^Frank W. Mondell to E. A. Hitchcock. Secretary of the Interior. No- vember 17, 1903, copy in Fenimore Chatterton Papers, Wyoming State

16 ANNALS OF WYOMING

Chatterton first stated his position on November 5 in reply to Agent Brennan's request that the Indians being held in Edgemont be released. The acting governor cited the Race Horse case as specifically giving Wyoming the right to prosecute the Indians.-^ In a letter of the same date to Senator Warren, Chatterton further set out his views:

It is quite necessary now, for the protection of the residents of eastern and northern Wyoming that these Indians should not be allowed to leave their reservations, especially that they should not be allowed for the purpose of hunting, to come into this State unless they comply with the game law. I beheve, too, that this is necessary for the pro- tection of the Indians, as after their recent action there might be serious trouble between the settlers and Indians should the Indians again come into Wyoming for any purpose whatsoever. For fear of such trouble and the consequent discredit which might come upon the State, especially with eastern Indian sympathizers, I trust that you will urge upon the Department [Indian Affairs] that the Indians not be allowed to further trespass upon our territory.-"'

Congressman Mondell feared that the failure to prosecute the nine Sioux would not only lead to continued "harrassment" by out-of-state Indians, but would be cited as proof that the Indians had not even violated game laws. Like Chatterton, Mondell was worried about Wyoming's image, and realized that the release of the Indians left the state's case "in an unfortunate position before [the federal authorities] and the country at large. "-"^

Hoping that more pubhcity would emphasize Wyoming's rights, Mondell and Warren used their influence in Washington to push for a thorough investigation of the Lightning Creek fight. They need not have worried that the incident would go unnoticed by the federal government. U. S. Attorney Burke was already question- ing the Indians for the Justice Department. The Office of Indian Affairs, to protect its own image as well as for the Indians' benefit, sent Special Agent Charles S. McNichols out to make an inquiry into the situation. Major B. H. Cheever of the Sixth U. S. Cavalry traveled to Douglas for the preliminary hearing on behalf of the War Department. And on November 5, presidential secretary William Loeb, Jr. requested Attorney General P. C. Knox to report on the conflict at the next cabinet meeting.^^

Archives and Historical Department, Cheyenne; John R. Brennan to Eben W. Martin, November 21, 1903, S. Doc. 128, p. 24.

-^Telegram from Fenimore Chatterton to John R. Brennan, November 5, 1903. Brennan Papers.

-'•"'Fenimore Chatterton to F. E. Warren, November 5, 1903. Chatterton Papers.

-•^Frank W. Mondell to Fenimore Chatterton, November 24, 1903. Chat- terton Papers.

27William Loeb, Jr. to P. C. Knox, U.S. Attorney General, November 5, 1903, Record Group 60 "Records of the Attorney General," letter file 16790 (1903), National Archives, Washington, D.C.

THE LIGHTNING CREEK FIGHT 17

The various investigators were faced with one major problem — the Indian and white versions of the incident could not both be true. Furthermore, both sides had pictured themselves as totally blameless, thus leaving them both open to suspicion of having amended the facts. And there was the possibility, indeed the probability, that there was truth and fabrication in both accounts. Attorney Burke and Special Agent McNichols, who conducted the most thorough investigations, recognized two questions as basic to the conflict — who fired the first shot on October 31, and who was ultimately responsible for causing such a deadly situation to develop in the first place. The posse members all testified that the first shot was fired by an Indian to the left of Sheriff Miller. They further alleged that this shot came after the posse had run up the creek bed and after Miller and Owens had shouted for the Indians to surrender. The Indians, on the other hand, testified that the whites fired the first shot at eleven-year-old Peter White Elk, who was herding horses at the head of the Indian column. All but one Indian claimed that the posse fired without warning.-'^

With no incontrovertible evidence about the first shot available, Burke and McNichols were forced to rely upon the conflicting testimonies, and their own common sense. Although they analyzed the battle testimony independently, the two investigators reached similar conclusions. On November 16, McNichols reported from Crawford, Nebraska, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs:

Certainly, from the position of the Indians — scattered along the high- way— they were not expecting a battle and only a small part of their band were yet in the immediate scene of the conflict when it began .... It would seem very unlikely that one of their number would precipitate it, when their party was so scattered .... All reason and common sense is against the theory that the Indians began the firing.2'J

Burke, in his report of December 17 to the U. S. Attorney General, would not definitely state that the posse had fired first, but he left little doubt as to whom he suspected:

At the time of the shooting, on the second day, the Indians' . . . attitude . . . was not threatening or menacing. The approach of the Sheriff and his posse, after they left the road and took up a dry gulch under the creek bank, was threatening and menacing . . . .'^*^

This contention that the posse was responsible for precipitating the battle had support from a highly unlikely source. W. F. Mecum, who prosecuted the case for Converse County, prepared

2**Last Bear told Burke that he thought the whites had cursed the Indians before they opened fire. S. Doc. 128, p. 53.

-^Ibid., p. 14.

^^Timothy F. Burke to The Attorney General, December 17, 1903, Rec- ord Group 60 "Records of the Attorney General," letter file 16694 (1903).

18 ANNALS OF WYOMING

for the preliminary hearing by studying the posse members' ac- counts of the fight. With the Indians' version unavailable to him, and relying solely on the whites' statements, Mecum sent the following information to Acting Governor Chatterton on November 9:

The Posse got ahead, at a point on lance creek isic^, 6 mi below the Bever [5/c] dams, 50 mi from Douglas, secreted their horses, and hid behind the bank of the creek, until the Indians should come along, thus ambushing the Indians .... The way the posse were situated and ready, it does not seem possible that an Indian could have shot first, though he might have tried to. Thirteen men with 30-30's and 30-40's ready for action, at a second's notice, it is a wonder that any Indians within 100 yds got away.'^i

McNichols, Burke and Mecum all felt certain that the posse had fired the first shot, or at least had forced it by their threatening advance upon the Indians. Beyond the argument over the first shot, however, was the question of ultimate responsibility for the incident. Indians had been reported illegally hunting game and killing cattle, and it was Sheriff Miller's duty to see that the laws were upheld. If the fight resulted from resistance to a legal arrest attempt, the Indians were at fault. But if Sheriff Miller and the posse went beyond the law in pursuing the Smith and Brown par- ties, the Indians had the right to defend themselves.

Attorney Burke's analysis of the posse's actions convinced him that Sheriff Miller had broken several pertinent points of law in the confrontation with the Indians. Miller was sheriff of Weston County, and the warrant had been issued in Weston County, yet Miller tried to serve it in Converse County. The warrant named only two persons, John Doe and Richard Doe, but after arresting nine Indians with it, Miller attempted to arrest nearly fifty more. And at neither arrest attempt were the Indians engaged at the time in the violation of any law of the state of Wyoming.^^ Burke concluded that the evidence clearly indicated that the Indians were legally justified in resisting arrest.

Special Agent McNichols emphasized in his report that the posse did not have a particular band of Indians in mind when it sent out from Newcastle. Miller had no proof that the Indians he tried to arrest on October 30-3 1 had been killing game in Weston County. To the contrary,

the important fact that Smith and his party did not leave the agency in South Dakota until October 20 should be kept in mind. The posse had left Newcastle on the morning of October 23; being organized on information reaching Newcastle about October 20 that Indians were unlawfully killing game in Weston County. At the time that this

-iW. F. Mecum to Fenimore Chatterton, November 9, 1903. Chatterton Papers. Emphasis added.

■^-Burke to The Attorney General, December 17, 1903.

THE LIGHTNING CREEK FIGHT 19

party was organized the Smith party could not have yet reached any part of the State of Wyoming. •^•'

The warrant carried by Miller, dated October 22, specified that Indians had killed ten antelope on or about October 19."*^ At that time the Smith party was still on the reservation. In other words, the band that suffered all five of the Indian deaths could not possibly have been the Indians covered by the sheriff's warrant.

In assessing responsibility for the Lightning Creek fight, Mc- Nichols was not satisfied with a recital of technical illegalities on the part of the posse. His report contained a damning accusation that condemned not only the white men's actions, but their motivation :

I can not escape the conviction that this band of 13 whites, urged on by a local sentiment of race hatred, has stained a page in Wyoming's history that no amount of bluster will ever efface.-^"'

What McNichols insinuated was that the white expedition was an act of racial aggression rather than of law enforcement. According to the posse account published in the Newcastle Times, "several Newcastle men, feeling very incensed over the actions of the Indians, decided to put a stop to it."^*" This intense reaction, however, was not a common response to the killing of game ani- mals by whites. Converse County Attorney Mecum reported to Acting Governor Chatterton on November 9 that antelope had

not been protected by the white men, or the law as to the killing of antelope inforced [5/c] against white men, who kill them at all seasons of the year.^'^

The accusation that the Indians had been killing cattle as well as game animals was never substantiated. Weston County Clerk Arthur L. Putnam reported that "although no complaints had been filed by the stockmen, Sheriff Miller thought it his duty to look after the matter. "^^ Isaac Robbins, a sheepherder in the Cheyenne River area, met the Smith and Brown parties and paid one young Indian to work for him. Robbins, who knew the stockmen in the area, did not hear any of them complain about the Indians killing livestock.^^ And County Attorney Mecum stated that he had "not heard of a case where the Indians stole, or killed cattle, or done any other unlawful act in this Co. since I am Prosecuting atty."^"

33S. Doc. 128, p. 13. ^"^Ibid., pp. 96-97. ^^Ibid., p. 12. Emphasis added. mbid., p. 17.

37Mecum to Chatterton, November 9, 1903.

^^Arthur L. Putnam to Fenimore Chatterton, November 10, 1903. Chat- terton Papers. Emphasis added. 3f*Robbins interview, August 1904. •iOMecum to Chatterton, November 9, 1903.

20 ANNALS OF WYOMING

Although the evidence clearly suggested that Sheriff Miller and his posse went to extraordinary lengths to arrest the Indians, Attor- ney Burke did not feel that they were motivated by any particular malice:

I think a mistaken action on the part of the Sheriff of Weston county should not be attributed to any wrongful motive or purpose on his part, for Mr. Miller was known to me to be a good officer, a brave man. and one who intended to be right in all his actions. What I say of Sheriff Miller of Weston county I can also say of several of his posse . . . .^^

Special Agent McNichols agreed with Burke's exoneration of Miller, concluding that the sheriff had probably accompanied the posse against his better judgment and only to protect his reputation as a brave man. But McNichols did not share Burke's benevolent attitude toward the posse:

The sheriffs posse was no Sunday-school class. Cowboys and bar- tenders predominated in the makeup of the white party. Several of them were entire strangers to the original party. Sheriff Miller did not know whether they were men of coolness, judgment, and steady character. Their recommendation was that they had guns and were willing to join the party.-*^

Historians have generally propagated this theory of Sheriff Mil- ler's comparative innocence in the Lightning Creek fight. ^-^ His past suggests, however, that Burke and McNichols failed to assign the dead lawman his full share of the blame for the events leading up to the fight. Although Miller was well known as a brave and honest sheriff, his conviction to do his duty seemed to increase whenever Indians were involved. For several years he had gone out of his way to arrest South Dakota Sioux for various legal infractions. In 1901 he even received a letter of congratulations from Wyoming's Governor DeForest Richards for performing this task so thoroughly. ^^ Had Miller, who was responsible for the posse, not been so enthusiastic about arresting Indians, he could have returned to Newcastle after capturing the nine Sioux on October 23. But disregarding the limits of his jurisdiction, and exceeding the powers granted in his warrant, he continued to scour the country, looking for more Indians.

As fate would have it, the next band that the posse encountered was led by Charlie Smith. Miller and Smith shared bad feelings

4iBurke to The Attorney General, December 17, 1903.

42S. Doc. 128, p. 14.

■^■"'See, for example, Ernest M. Richardson, "Sullen Sioux From Pine Ridge Reservation Brought On the Last Indian-White Blood-Letting in Wyoming," Montana, the Magazine of Western History Vol. 10, No. 3, 42-52; Mabel E. Brown, "Billy Miller — Martyr Sheriff," Bits and Pieces Vol. 3, No. 3, 1-7.

4*Richardson, "Sullen Sioux," p. 46.

THE LIGHTNING CREEK FIGHT 21

toward each other from earlier confrontations.^'' Indians and whites agreed that the Indians probably would have submitted to the posse on October 30 had it not been for Smith. Smith knew, however, that Miller could not legally arrest them. Undoubtedly, he also understood the racist connotations behind an arrest attempt that never would have been made against whites.

The unfortunate deaths of five Indians and two whites at Light- ning Creek did, indeed, "stain a page in Wyoming's history." There may be some doubt that the posse fired the first shot of the fight, but there is no doubt that they fired indiscriminately into the Indian families, killing a small boy, an old man, and a woman fleeing hundreds of yards from the battle. At the preliminary hearing and during the investigations there was much interest in trying to determine which Indians had shot Sheriff Miller and Deputy Falkenberg. But no one asked, at least publicly, which posse members had killed the defenseless Indian victims.

This disregard for Indian life, undoubtedly part of the frontier heritage, was not a trait common only to "bartenders and cow- boys."" Senator Warren penned one of the most callous assess- ments of the fight in a letter to Acting Governor Chatterton on November 19:

I can say with feeling emphasis that I am very, very sorry for the death of the sheriff and one of his deputeis, and I presume I ought to say that I am sorry for the death of the Indians; but if the Indian legend is right, that they go from here to the Happier Hunting Ground, and if Smith was as wicked as described, and we are the gainer in their increased respect of our laws by the severe punishment, then I venture to feel glad of the casualties on their side.^"

The fight at Lightning Creek was an historical anachronism. The Sioux posed absolutely no threat to the people of Wyoming in 1903. Yet a band of Indian families traveling through the state was treated almost as if it had been a war party. Sheriff Miller and his men ignored their own laws in pursuing the Indians, and then shot down men, women and children in the fight that fol- lowed. Evidently the racial hatred engendered during the decades of warfare between the two peoples prevented many whites from viewing the Indian as anything other than a mortal enemy. It is not difficult to conclude, in the context of such sentiments, that the Charlie Smith and William Brown parties were confronted by the posse not because they were hunting, but because they were Indians.

45Smith, well educated and somewhat bellicose, had reportedly been greatly angered by earlier arrests of High Dog and others, and he and Miller liad previously argued. Mecum to Chatterton, November 9, 1903; Richard- son, "Sullen Sioux," p. 46; and Brown, "Billy Miller," pp. 3-5.

4<>Francis E. Warren to Fenimore Chatterton, November 19, 1903. Chat- terton Papers.

22 ANNALS OF WYOMING

A Game Cock Told to me by Abe Abraham

There was a brewery in Buffalo in 1885 that was run by a German by the name of Fisher. This Fisher was always bragging about his beer; declaring it was the finest beer in the world.

He owned a buggy horse and was always bragging about it; claiming it could out trot any horse in the state and that he had a rooster that could lick any rooster that came around. "He was a son-of-gun of a rooster," Fisher declared.

One day Fisher was bragging about his rooster in Joe Sharp's barber shop and Joe said, "Yeah? Well, I've got a banty rooster that I'll bet can lick your 'son-of-a-gun' of a rooster."

"I'll bet you," Fisher said.

"All right; I'll call that bet."

The time and place was agreed upon which was to be at 3:30 the following day at Fisher's home at the end of Main street in Buffalo.

At the appointed time half of Buffalo followed Joe Sharp, carry- ing his banty rooster under his arm. Just before they reached Fisher's home, Joe slipped steel spurs on his banty.

No one knew that Joe's rooster was wearing spurs, neither did many know that Joe's banty was a game cock but they bet on Joe's banty, just the same. They all knew Joe and they were willing to take a chance on the card he had up his sleeve.

When they arrived at Fisher's everything was set and the two roosters were put to fighting. I never saw anything prettier in my life for every time the Dungbill made a pass at the game cock the banty would duck, circle and duck and then fly clear over the Dunghill's head and then duck again.

This kept up for a dozen or more rounds when Fisher said, "See, what did I tell you? Your little runt of a rooster is scared to death of my fighting cock."

Joe did not answer and the roosters kept on sparring, then, suddenly, the banty made a rush at the Dungbill; socked both his spurs into the big rooster's head and Fisher's rooster fell over backward — dead.

Joe had to help his rooster get his spurs out of the Dunghill's head and when Fisher saw the spurs, for the first time, he said, "Look, that scoundrel ties nails on his rooster's feet."

But the banty was declared the winner.

— By Ida McPherren

W.P.A. Manuscripts Collection Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department

J^ lazing the Mdger and Uozeman Z rails

By

John S. Gray

Rumors of rich diggings in the remote Salmon River region on the western slope of the Continental Divide in present Idaho drew eager miners in the spring of 1862 from the played-out placer gulches of Colorado.

Reaching Fort Bridger over well-traveled trails, these gold- seekers headed north into an unfamiliar wilderness, where they lost themselves in snow-clad ranges and spring-flooded valleys. Wan- dering in all directions, the inveterate prospectors soon struck promising leads along the eastern slope of the Divide in present Montana. They found the richest deposits that summer on Grasshopper Creek, where the boom town of Bannack promptly mushroomed.

The following gold rushers from the east traveled the old emi- grant road up the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater Rivers to South Pass. From there one trail looped southwest through Fort Bridger before heading north, while the Lander cut-off led more directly toward the Idaho wilderness. Both trails, however, were not only rugged, but exasperatingly circuitous, twice crossing the Continental Divide. Everyone recognized that the pressing need was a shorter and easier route to the new Eldorado.

Before long, enterprising guides were pioneering two cut-off routes. Bridger's trail left the North Platte at Red Buttes, a few miles above present Casper, and headed for the north-draining Big Horn Basin, lying between the Wind River range on the west and the Big Horn Range on the east; it then circled west up the valley of the Yellowstone and over the low Bridger range into the Gallatin Valley. The Bozeman Trail, leaving the North Platte a few miles lower down, skirted the eastern base of the Big Horns before swinging west to merge with Bridger's trail. Both saved important mileage and made easier traveling, especially Bozeman's. But at the time, Bridger's was safer, for the Big Horns formed a rampart against the Sioux bands jealously defending their favorite hunting grounds on the plains.

The story of the blazing of these cut-off routes to Montana has

24 ANNALS OF WYOMING

been told before^, but new sources support a fuller and more accurate account of these pioneering ventures.

Most unexpected is the finding that a tiny sporting party blazed the Bridger trail in 1862, thereby sparking the development of both cut-offs. This was while the first wave of gold-seekers were losing themselves in the Idaho wilderness, and two years before Jim Bridger conducted the first emigrant train over the route. The sporting Englishman who braved the unknown with a mere handful of retainers was Edward Shelley, the skirt-chasing nephew of the celebrated poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley!

Herbert O. Brayer, who discovered Edward Shelley's diary in England, has sketched the story of this hunting excursion, supply- ing scattered diary excerpts-. Leaving Kansas City on May 26, 1862, Shelley traveled with some British friends to Denver, where a local paper saluted their arrival on July 7-^ Two days later the party started north along the front range, pausing to hunt and fish before rolling in to Fort Laramie on August 3. Other members of the party went no farther, but Shelley would push on to winter at Fort Benton, the American Fur Company post at the head of navigation of the Missouri.

Shelly's venture was bold, if not foolhardy, for the Indians had recently shut down the Overland Stage Line along the Sweetwater, prompting its new proprietor, Ben Holladay, to move it a hundred miles south to a shorter and safer trail across southern Wyoming. This was sometimes called the Bridger Trail, but to avoid confu- sion we shall retain its earlier and more common name, the Chero- kee Trail. Heading north from Denver, it entered the mountains at Laporte, Colorado, turned west near present Laramie, Wyo- ming, crossed the North Platte (here flowing north), surmounted the Continental Divide by Bridger's Pass, and coursed across the arid Bitter Creek country to join the old trail shortly before reach- ing Fort Bridger. Moving the stage line confronted Lt. Col. Wil- liam O. Collins, 11th Ohio Cavalry, with the burden of guarding the new as well as the old trail with his few companies.^

Despite the danger, Shelley started up the North Platte on August 11 with apparently three light wagons and four or five hired teamsters and guides. Only one of his men, probably picked up in Denver, can be named, but he is a key one — William Orcutt.

iSee Grace R. Hebard and E. A. Brininstool, The Bozeman Trail, (Glen- dale: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1960); Dorothy M. Johnson, The Bloody Bozeman, (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1971).

^Herbert O. Brayer, "Western Journal of Edward Shelley," Chicago West- erners Brand Book, Jan., 1957. All further information on Shelley's trip, not otherwise documented, is from this source.

'■"'Rocky Mountain News, July 12, 1862. Hereafter cited as RMN.

^Agnes Wright Spring, Casper Collins, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1927).

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS 25

None of the tiny party seemed dismayed to find the stage stations and trading posts largely deserted and some in ashes.

On reaching the Sweetwater, Shelley passed several camps of detachments of Ohio Cavalry guarding the route. Perhaps at one of them he met Col. Collins' guide and scout, old Jim Bridger, / and thus learned of the Big Horn Basin access to Montana. In any case, on August 28, he left the upper Sweetwater and struck north over a fifteen-mile divide to the head of a stream, either the Little Popo Agie or Beaver Creek, and descended it to Wind River, near present Riverton, which he reached on September 3.

The scattered diary excerpts do not define Shelley's route in detail, but somehow he crossed the Owl Creek Mountains, running -^ east and west to form the southern rim of the Big Horn Basin, and through which the Wind River has scoured an impassable canyon to emerge as the Big Horn River. Somewhere he forded this name-changing stream, for he crossed a major western affluent, Greybull River, on September 19. Brayer implies that he then re-crossed the Big Horn and struggled east over the formidable Big Horn range to reach the open plains. This is scarcely credible, for he was already in an open basin that led north to "a south fork of the Yellowstone," probably Clarks Fork, which he reached on October 5 . i

The scouting party soon fell in with a village of Blackfeet Indians, who proved so surprisingly friendly that Shelley wandered with them for the next month. Together they forded the Yellow- stone and roamed north across the Musselshell. On the approach of winter, Shelley's party struck for Fort Benton, arriving there on November 1. There they first learned of the exciting new gold strike at Bannack, some 250 miles to the southwest. Two of the discharged hired hands, including William Orcutt, immediately left for these diggings, going by way of Deer Lodge.

Even the sketchy diary excerpts reveal that Shelley had tra- versed the key segment of the future Bridger Trail — the Big Horn Basin, west of the rampart of the Big Horns. To be sure, the knowledgeable Bridger would later modify the initial segment to make a shorter and easier entry into the basin and the final seg- ment so as to travel more directly to the gold mines.

Word of Shelley's achievement soon reached Colorado. The first hint appeared an an editorial in the Rocky Mountain News of March 26, 1863, which recommended as "a shorter and better route" one that crossed from the Sweetwater to Wind River and on to the Yellowstone. Conclusive proof appeared in the same paper in the form of a letter written by J. B. ("Buzz") Caven at Bannack on February 8, 1863. The relevant part reads:

It is now ascertained to a certainty that the most practicable route to this country lies east of the Wind River range .... Shelley, an English gentleman, came across this summer from Denver by that route and says that he never saw a better mountain road .... Mr.

26 ANNALS OF WYOMING

I Orcutt, who came through with him, says it is not over 400 miles from Fort Laramie to the Three Forks [the junction of the Gallatin, Madison, and Jefferson to form the Missouri], and no elevation higher than between here and Deer Lodge. You must endeavor to make this public, for it is reliable. I am personally acquainted with Orcutt and know him to be a reliable man.^ )

One ellipsis in the above included the significant sentence: "John Jacobs may possibly go through to that point [Denver] for the purpose of guiding the emigration through, though it is not certain." John M. Jacobs, with John M. Bozeman, did indeed return that spring to guide emigrants back to the mines, but we must pause to identify these two pioneers.

Jacobs, later described as "a red-bearded Italian," was a mature veteran of the mountains. One source implies that he came west in 1842, but a better one dates it in 1849'^, the time of the Cali- fornia gold rush. If he reached those mines, he did not long remain, for he had been trading on the emigrant road when in 1850-1851 he settled a debt at Fort Owen, in Montana's Bitter Root Valley, by bringing in emigrant cattle. There are references to his trading on the road in summer and running cattle in Mon- tana in the winter every year from 1857 through 1861". In July 1862 he conducted an emigrant train of forty wagons from Soda Springs through Deer Lodge to Walla Walla'^. By that fall, when the new strike at Bannack was draining miners from the lesser diggings at Deer Lodge, Jacobs joined the hegira.

Bozeman, a native of Georgia, was in his vigorous twenty-sixth year, large of stature and commanding in presence. In 1860 he had left his family in Georgia to join the Colorado gold rush^. Finding no fortune there, he left Denver on April 1, 1862, with the first party drawn to the Idaho mines. Following the Cherokee Trail to the North Platte crossing and then turning north to the lower Sweetwater, the party was so delayed by snow and poor grass that it did not reach Fort Bridger until May 28^*^. Later- starting trains overtook it there and together they headed north to lose themselves in the maze of mountains. Bozeman's splinter

■'RMN, April 9, 1863.

^Denver Commonwealth and Republican, Sept. 17, 1863. Hereafter cited as DC&R.

^George W. Weisel, Men and Trade on the Northwest Frontier, (Mis- soula: Montana State University Press, 1955).

^Granville Stuart, Forty Years on the Frontier, (Glendale: The Arthur H. Clarke Co., 1957). See index.

•'Merrill G. Burlingame, "John M. Bozeman, Montana Trailmaker," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, March, 1941. Hereafter cited as Burlingame, "Bozeman."

if'Letter, Ham's Fork, May 30, 1862, in RMN, June 28, 1862.

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS 27

group rolled into Deer Lodge on June 24^\ where he mined for a while before joining the fall exodus to Bannack.

Idled by winter, Bannacjcites escaped boredom by promoting town sites and short cuts. ( Buzz Caven's letter, quoted above in part, reveals that he and "^ajor" William Graham were among the promoters of hopeful Gallatin City, located at the three forks of the Missouri. According to Joseph A. Emery, who reached Omaha from the mines by mackinaw boat on April 22, 1863, Graham was then exploring a 400-mile (!) cut-off from Gallatin City to Fort Laramie^-. He apparently never carried out this project, but Emery reveals that rumors were circulating of an alternate short cut along the eastern skirts of the Big Horns, a trail familiar only to old fur traders plying between Fort Laramie and the Yellowstone. .

jit is more significant that Jacobs, Bozeman, and Orcutt all spent thd winter in Bannack^^, where the latter was extolUng Shelley's route. The idea of exploring it in reverse and then guiding pil- grims back at so much per wagon appealed more to the veteran Jacobs and fledgling Bozeman than the long-shot, back-breaking labor of mining. Before spring of 1863, they, together with Jacobs' half-breed daughter of seven winters, headed for a take-off base at over-promoted Gallatin City.

Jacob's departure from Gallatin City and his intention of ex- ploring Shelley's route was recorded in a letter written by L. B. Duke on May 24, 1863 at that city: "... I would advise emigrants to take the route east of the Wind [River] range. Mr. Jacobs, an old and experienced mountaineer, left here on March 20th. He went through on that route to [Fort] Laramie, and may now be guiding emigrants back by this route . . . ."^* ^

Having left unseasonably early on March 2D, the exploring trio plunged into the unknown, not to be heard of again until fifty-two days later, when they were only about 260 miles out and far east of Shelley's route. , Besides weather, such slow progress suggests searching for a pass "over the Bridger range into the Yellowstone Valley and fords across the Yellowstone and its southern affluents. In addition, we speculate that they first explored the Big Horn Basin and became disenchanted with its arid stretches and rugged southern rim. Either this disappointment, or the rumors of the old trader's trail, prompted them to seek a better passage around the northern extremity of the Big Horns and south along its eastern skirts, i

iiStuart, Forty Years, p. 21L

^^Nebraska Republican (Omaha), April 24, 1863.

i3"Persons in Montana During the Winter of 1862-3," Montana Historical Society Contributions, Vol. 1, p. 334. 14/?MN, July 2, 1863.

28 ANNALS OF WYOMING

On the morning of May 1 1 , they were on the east bank of the Big Horn River near the mouth of Rotten Grass Creek, some twelve miles below the mouth of the impassable Big Horn Canyon. There they spotted an Indian war party and fled furiously up Rotten Grass Creek to vanish among its brush-lined breaks. They had actually glimpsed, not Indians, but James Stuart's large pros- pecting party, which had left Gallatin City a month after the exploring trio. Merely hoping to pass the time of day, the dis- gusted prospectors gave up the pursuit of the skittish explorers.^^

Two days later Jacob's party encountered a less imaginary scare, when they found themselves in the near presence of a real war party of braves, apparently Crows. Knowing they would be plun- dered at the very least, Jacobs tossed his rifle and bullet-pouch into a clump of sagebrush. The warriors stripped them of every possession, but then relented sufficiently to turn them loose on three broken-down ponies without grub. Jacobs recovered his rifle, but found only five balls in his bullet pouch. It made little difference, however, for they could find no game on their 250 mile flight southward to the emigrant road on the North Platte.^"

This flight on empty stomachs and crippled ponies undoubtedly took them along the eastern base of the Big Horns, providing the opportunity of recognizing its superiority as an emigrant road. Yet for fear of Indians and starvation, they could scarcely have tarried to locate emigrant campsites with the necessary wood, water, and grass. They limped into safety on the North Platte at the mouth of Deer Creek in a destitute and famished state, prob- ably two weeks later, say about May 27.

At this time Deer Creek, some twenty-five miles below present Casper, boasted a thriving trading post, a squad of Ohio Cavalry, and a telegraph station with Oscar Collister as resident operator. The latter's reminiscences" mention the arrival there in the sum- mer (?) of 1863 of Bozeman and Jacobs from Montana, they having staked out (?) a new cut-off along the east slope of the Rockies. Although the explorers had originally intended to reach Fort Laramie, 105 miles farther down the Platte, they apparently remained at Deer Creek to recuperate.

Jacobs probably knew the proprietor of the trading post, Joseph Bissonette, a forty-five year old Frenchman^^. He served not only

loJames Stuart, "Journal of Yellowstone Expedition of 1863," Montana Historical Society Contributions, Vol. 1, p. 148.

Ibidem.

I'Oscar Collister, "Life of ... as told by Himself to Mrs. Chas. Ellis of Difficulty, Wyo.," Annals of Wyoming, July and October, 1930. Hereafter cited in the text by the name Collister.

i^John D. McDermott, "Joseph Bissonette," in LeRoy R. Hafen, Moun- tain Men and the Fur Trade, (Glendale: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1965), Vol. 1, p. 49. TTie latter hereafter cited as Mountain Men.

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS 29

emigrants, but the nearby Sioux, and sent seasonal trading parties out to the Yellowstone by the old trader's trail. One of his em- ployees was another old Frenchman, John Baptiste Boyer, who had traded for years on the upper Missouri before moving out to the Platte; with him was his twenty-six year old, half-Sioux son, Michel (Michael, or "Mitch") Boyer, destined to win fame as a scout and guide before his Indian relatives snuffed out his life with General George A. Custer on the Little Big Horn.^'' Another of Bissonette's employees was the twenty-nine-year-old Rafael Galle- go§, of New Mexican origins-*^'.

iWhile the spent explorers were recuperating at Deer Creek, the spring migration was already on the road. Samuel Word-\ diarist, and George W. Irvin II--, a reminiscence recorder, having left St. Joseph for the Idaho mines, pulled into Fort Laramie on June 22. Although Irvin recalled that they met Jacobs and Bozeman there, he is contradicted by Sam Word's copious diary. It mentions neither them or any cut-off at this point, but does record on June 30, when they reached Deer Creek, that both guides were there and had been gathering wagons to take their new cut-off for two weeks, i.e., since about June 16. In view of the heavy traffic, the further implication is that Jacobs and Bozeman were capturing few of the passing wagons. Nevertheless, Word and Irvin, deciding to join the venture, tarried for some days while a stronger train gathered.

While waiting. Word struck up a friendship with trader John Boyer (whom he called Bovier, and others called "Old Bouillion") and thereby gathered useful information about the cut-off and gold mining. "He seems to have taken quite a fancy to me, while he talks little with others," he recorded, "and presented me with a cradle and rocker and and shovel and pick worth $15-20 — a hand- some present. I shall ever remember old man Bovier for his kind- ness. He is an honest old backwoodsman and mountaineer."

Among the slowly gathering wagons appeared that of Robert and James Kirkpatrick, who would also leave reminiscences of their experience-'^ Crossing to the north bank of the Platte, the

i9"Ft Pierre Journals . . . ," South Dakota Historical Collections, 1918, index; "Father C. Hoecken's Baptismal Journal," idem, Vol. 23, p. 230; John Boye affidavit, Fort Laramie, June 27, 1866, in Joseph Bissonette Claim. Hse. Ex. Doc. No. 80, 41st Cong., 3rd Sess., Ser. No. 1454. The latter hereafter cited as Bissonette Claim.

20RaphaeI Gallegos Affidavit, Fort Laramie, June 27, 1866, in Bissonette Claim.

-iSam Word, "Diary, 1863," Montana Historical Society Contributions, Vol. 8, p. 37. This and all subsequent trail diaries, etc. will be used to construct the text; each will be referenced on its initial appearance, but further citations will be keyed in the text by using the source's name.

22George W. Irvin 11, "Overland to Montana," Butte Miner, Holiday Edition, Jan. 1, 1888.

-''Michael Gene McLatchy, "From Wisconsin to Montana, the Reminis-

30 ANNALS OF WYOMING

train celebrated July 4 by appointing a committee to draft rules and by electing as captain one of their own number, James Brady from Missouri.

On the morning of July 6, 1863, the assembled train, still num- bering only forty-six wagons and eighty-nine men, with additional women and children, pulled out to become the first to pioneer what would become famous as the Bozeman Trail. Since Jacobs and Bozeman had been unable to lay out the route and campsites over the first half of the coming journey, they took Rafael Gallegos, undoubtedly familiar with the old trader's trail, to guide the train as far as the crossing of the Big Horn River. Train accounts refer to him only as "Rafeil" or "the Mexican."

After winding slowly for some 125 miles over dry, sagebrush country, the train nooned on July 20 to enjoy the sweet mountain water of a branch of Clear Creek, near present Buffalo. The sudden appearance of 150 mounted Sioux and Cheyenne braves prompted hasty defense measures, but instead of attacking, the chiefs merely asked for a parley. Against Bozeman's advice, the emigrant ladies spread a feast for the visitors, during which sundry loose articles vanished and one belligerent brave threatened Gal- legos. At the ensuing council, the chiefs bluntly forbade any tres- pass of their cherished hunting grounds, and threatened reprisals unless the train turned back to the Platte road. The emigrants asked for time to consider the matter.

That evening the train held a meeting which initiated a debate that would bring endless repercussions. Word recorded that "many of our men are timid and cowardly and immediately deter- mined to go back .... Some are in favor of going on anyway, others are not." Within days he acknowledged his own preference for retreat. Robert Kirkpatrick recalled that all the train voted to return except five families, while his brother James remembered that all but four wagons favored this course. The conclusive proof that the majority opposed bearding the Indians lies in the fact that the entire train retreated four miles the next afternoon and twelve the day after in an atmosphere of apprehension and acrimony.

We can not so easily establish the attitudes of the leaders, how- ever. Word recorded that at this initial meeting "our guides tell us it is dangerous and have ordered a retreat until we can get reinforcements. That is the conclusion this evening." Robert Kirkpatrick recalled that Bozeman pronounced it madness to pro- ceed, but his brother contradicted this by claiming that Bozeman, Jacobs, Captain Brady, and apparently Gallegos advised going on.

cences of Robert Kirkpatrick," M.A. Thesis, 1961, Montana State Univer- sity, Bozeman; James Kirkpatrick, "A Reminiscence of John Bozeman," in John W. Hakola, ed., Frontier Omnibus, (Missoula: Montana State Uni- versity Press and Historical Society of Montana, 1962).

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS 31

Our best resolution of these contradictions, prompted by subse- quent events, is that all four leaders agreed that because of the women and children they should seek reinforcements, but dis- agreed on the course to pursue should reinforcements prove unob- tainable. But even this degree of discord among leaders soon triggered bitter arguments among their followers.

As a sullen compromise that satisfied no one, it was finally decided to send couriers back to Deer Creek to ask for a military escort, and to induce James Creighton's large Bannack-bound mer- chant train, which some knew to be following on the Platte road, to come out and swell their ranks. George W. Irvin and some nameless emigrant volunteered to join Gallegos on this mission. After dark of July 22, the trio stole out of camp to speed to Deer Creek. For the next week debate and apprehension shook the train as it retreated on alternate days back to the North Fork of Powder River, near present Kaycee, only about seventy-five miles from Deer Creek.

The couriers covered the 110 miles back to the telegraph station in good time, for they arrived there on July 25, as shown by the emigrant diary of Joseph A. Emery-^, who recorded on that day at Deer Creek that an emigrant train on a new cut-off had been turned back by Indians. The messengers transacted their business within three days, for they must have left on the 27th to reach the anxious train on the 29th, as Word's diary reveals.

Courier Irvin recalled that promptly on reaching the telegraph station they wired Fort Laramie for a troop escort and that the wire was relayed to the Omaha headquarters of Gen. Thomas J. Mc- Kean, commanding the military District of Nebraska. "The answer soon came that no aid could be rendered to the party by the mili- tary," Irvin wrote, because "all the country north to the Yellow- stone . . . was Indian country, upon which emigrants had no right to enter." This answer came by July 26, for on that day emigrant Lucia Park Darling-^, then camped at the Horseshoe Creek tele- graph station, recorded in her diary that "the command at Fort Laramie has forbidden the troops to help a train surrounded by Indians on the new route."

Since Lt. Col. Collins had gone to Ohio to recruit more com- panies to bolster his original four in guarding the two overland trails, Major Thomas L. Mackey, 11th Ohio Cavalry, was com- manding Fort Laramie^^. When his wire to Omaha yielded no

24Joseph A. Emery, "Omaha to Virginia City, May 31 -Sept. 25, 1863," microfilm of typescript, Montana Historical Society Library.

2f>Lucia Park Darling, "Diary, 1863," microfilm, Montana Historical Society Library.

-^Robert A. Murray, Fort Laramie, (Fort Collins: The Old Army Press, 1974), p. 86.

32 ANNALS OF WYOMING

authority, one way or the other, for reasons shortly to be disclosed, he could only follow his own judgement. He obviously felt that in the face of a troop shortage he could not afford to divert a detach- ment for several months, especially on a mission that by violating treaty rights could easily trigger an Indian war. He therefore not only refused the escort, but in effect outlawed the cut-off. Further- more, he wired the Deer Creek post, through operator Collister, to send out a guide as an agent of the military to bring the train immediately back to the Platte road. This latter is inferred from subsequent events and the confused recollections of Collister.

At this rebuff, the couriers may have tried to induce the Creigh- ton train to take the cut-off. According to several diarists who traveled off and on with this merchant train-^, it reached Deer Creek about July 26, but none mentions such a request. In any case it made no move toward the cut-off, presumably because of the army ban. Having thus failed in their mission, the couriers left to rejoin their stranded outfit. Gallegos apparently remained at Deer Creek, since no one mentions him again, but all accounts agree that John Boyer accompanied the other two to bring the train back. The fact that no new guide was needed for this purpose reinforces our inference that Boyer had been selected as the agent of the military to insure the train's return.

The couriers reached the stalled train on July 29, reporting the failure of their mission and that Boyer was sent to guide them back. At this proof that indecision and compromise had brought nothing but delay, dissension in the train reached new heights. "My old friend Bovier . . . ," Word recorded, "thinks it a shame that we did not go on; says Rafeil is a coward and ought to be shot. Says we could go through yet, but he cannot go with us. Could only get leave [permission?] to guide us to the Platte. He is in the employ of the government [paid agent to insure return?] and cannot do as he wishes."

A stampede of oxen the next day damaged some wagons and limited the retreat to one mile. As Irvin recalled, the majority had accepted the decision to abandon the expedition — but not John Bozeman and nine other bold men. As midnight flipped the calendar to July 3 1 , this resolute group set out on horseback, with one pack horse laden with provisions, determined to press on to Bannack despite the army ban and Indian threats. Only two of Bozeman's companions have been identified — George W. Irvin, who has left the only account, and Mike J. Knoch-^. I To avoid the Indian-infested plains, Bozeman wisely abandoned

2'Joseph A. Emery (see fn. 24); Lucia Park Darling (see fn. 25); R. D. Ross, "Journal of a Trip Across the Plains in 1863," North Dakota Histor- ical Society Collections, Vol. 2, p. 219.

28Burlingame, "Bozeman."

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS 33

his proposed cut-off to lead the party up the North Fork of Powder River into the concealing Big Horns. While crossing the range on the second night out, they lost all their grub in an accident to their pack horse. Pushing on down Ten Sleep Canyon they reached the Big Horn Basin and picked up Shelley's trail. After four nights of fast travel on empty stomachs, but without meeting Indians, they reached Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone.]

On this journey Bozeman proved hirhself a born leader. He inspired the famished men to their best and most cheerful effort, and guided them so true in the darkness that either he and Jacobs had indeed explored the area, or he possessed a keen instinct for country. Irwin was sufficiently impressed to write:

Bozeman was six feet two inches high, weighing two hundred pounds, supple, active, tireless, and of handsome, stalwart presence. He was genial, kindly, and as innocent as a child in the ways of the world. He had no conception of fear, and no matter how sudden a call was made on him day or night, he would come up with a rifle in his hand. He never knew what fatigue was, and was a good judge of all distances and when you saw his rifle level, you knew that you were not to go supperless to bed.

After veering west up the Yellowstone Valley, Bozeman led his party over the Bridger range into the Gallatin valley by a low pass that 1-90 approximates today — Bozeman Pass. As they approached the three forks, the appetizing aroma of frying bacon drew them to the lonely camp of two miners. The latter watched in awe as their entire larder vanished down ten bottomless gullets, but they were game enough to serve an electrifying dessert — word of a recent hot placer strike at Alder Gulch, which had nearly depopulated Bannack in favor of booming Virginia City. Boze- man's party rode in to these diggings on August 22-'', well satisfied that their cross-country exploit had beaten most of the emigrants there.

Meanwhile, John Boyer was shepherding the thwarted wagon train over a time-losing back-trail that proved dry and alkaline. The previous friction, and now second thought about their hasty retreat, were eroding even old friendships. As evidence of demor- alization. Word wrote that "the train is going helter-skelter, pell- mell, every man for himself, kind of busted up, and only part corraling together." As their hired leader, it was up to Jacobs to maintain cohesion, but some emigrant was plying both guides with whiskey. Perhaps Bozeman could have held their allegiance, but lacking such impressive leadership qualities, Jacobs failed. By the time they reached the Platte road at Red Buttes on August 9th, the train members were on the way to make Jacobs the scapegoat for their miseries.

'■^^Society of Montana Pioneers Register (Helena, 1899), indexed.

34 ANNALS OF WYOMING

Since guides became superfluous on the crowded road, the re- sentful train ignored Jacobs and promptly broke up. Some paused to rest at inviting camps, while others sought out other trains will- ing to adopt them. The crowning mortification came when they began to hear that a military escort had come out to their aid after all, only to find them gone! Sam Word heard the rumor in garbled form on August 9, the very day they reached the Platte road. The Kirkpatrick brothers got it in more accurate form a week or two later when halfway up the Sweetwater.

The newly-amplified truth is that on July 25, when Major Mackey relayed to Omaha the Deer Creek request for an escort, he first learned that departmental orders of July 19th had just transferred all the posts in present Wyoming from General Mc- Kean"s District of Nebraska to Col. John M. Chivington's District of Colorado-^^'. Although McKean relayed the wire to Chivington in Denver, it had to proceed by stage coach from Julesburg. This was the reason Mackey had to make his own temporary decision, which denied the escort, as we have described.

A Denver newspaper picked up the story, as follows :

A telegram received yesterday [July 29] at headquarters in this city from a party of emigrants at or near Clear Creek, about 100 miles out from Omaha [an error taken from the Omaha relay wire instead of the original Deer Creek wire] , requesting protection from a hand of Indians, who had assumed so threatening an attitude that the train dare not proceed further. It consists of about 100 [5/c] wagons en route to Bannack City. It had also sent an application to Fort Laramie for assistance, but without effect. The dispatch was for- warded to Col. Chivington, who was at Fort Halleck, preparing to go into the mountains [after Indians], when last heard from.^i

The dispatch, forwarded by stage coach, met the returning Chiv- ington, who promptly issued orders for Major Mackey to send an escort to aid the stalled train. These orders could not have reached Fort Laramie before John Boyer was guiding the train back to the Platte, but Mackey did send out Lt. William H. Brown with a detachment of his Company A, 11th Ohio Cavalry, as documented by the Denver paper:

Lt. Brown of the 11th Ohio Cavalry called on us yesterday [Sep- tember 16] to confirm the statements of Mr. Jacobs [to be quoted later] .... Lt. Brown was in command of the escort sent out to the train. He took three months' rations and had orders to escort the train to Bannack. When he arrived at Powder River, to his great chagrin the train had broken up and returned by different routs to the old road.

TTie Sioux and Cheyennes are constantly crowding back the Crows

^*^Official Records, War of the Rebellion, Vol. 22, Part II, p. 764. ^^DC&R, July 30, 1863.

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS 35

in that country. The Indians are a miserable set, very poorly armed, and with no real hostile intentions . . .32

The remnants of Jacobs' shattered train plodded on toward the Idaho mines. Some hurried on to take the Lander trail at South Pass and reach Bannack in the first week of September. Sam Word, taking the roundabout route through Fort Bridger and Salt Lake City, did not arrive until September 29. The Kirkpatricks lagged slowly to the middle reaches of the Sweetwater, where they met a trader to the emigrants who was about to leave for Denver. They decided to throw in the sponge and return with him. Back- tracking to the lower Sweetwater, they turned south toward the Cherokee Trail. Traveling slowly to hunt, they covered some sixty-five miles to intercept it west of the North Platte crossing. There they met a heavy migration from Denver to Montana, and promptly changed their minds again. Turning west, they pro- ceeded to Fort Bridger and then north to reach Bannack on October 16.

But what of the disgusted Jacobs? He abandoned his alienated charges no later than on the lower Sweetwater and headed for the Cherokee Trail and Denver ahead of the Kirkpatricks. On reach- ing Big Laramie Station, near present Laramie, on September 1, he had a conversation with a Bannack-bound traveler from Den- ver. This was N. H. Webster, whose diary at this date and place reads: "Had a long talk with John Jacobs this evening. He is from Bannack; before he left [obviously his train, not the city] there was a report of new diggings being found a hundred miles east of Bannack [at Virginia City] ; it was, he said, only reported; he did not know how true it was."-^^ Jacobs reached Denver about September 10.

This aborted attempt of 1863 to conduct the first emigrant train over a short cut east of the Big Horns delivered Bozeman, mostly via Shelley's route, to Virginia City, but Jacobs only to Denver. Both would guide trains to Montana next year, but by different trails, and the pair apparently never again associated together. From the moment of parting at the base of the Big Horns on July 31, 1863, Bozeman's career soared into full flight, while Jacobs' career ground looped.

Jacobs had no more than reached Denver when he called a public meeting to prom.ote another emigrant train that he proposed to guide over his short cut to the new mines. The Denver Com- monwealth carried an enthusiastic account of this meeting held on September 14 at the Old Criterion Saloon, saying, "Mr. Jacobs has the project in tow. He is an old mountaineer, having spent four-

^^DC&R, Sept. 24, 1863.

33N. H. Webster, "Journal to Montana, 1863," Montana Historical So- ciety Contributions, Vol. Ill, p. 300.

36 ANNALS OF WYOMING

teen years in this country and visited all the new diggings." The pilot painted a glowing picture of his cut-off, claiming it to be 400 miles shorter, well-wooded, well-watered, and strewn with promis- ing placer deposits the whole distance from Deer Creek to Gallatin City. The article noted that "Mr. Jacobs offered to pilot a party of 150 or 200 through this fall on the new route, if such a party can be made up to go." Another item indicated that he had applied to Col. Chivington for another escort, with results as yet unknown. ^^

The rival Rocky Mountain News ignored Jacobs and his public meeting, but confirmed that an application had just come to Chiv- ington to furnish an emigrant escort. It expressed the opinion that it should be refused, since the route unjustly violated treaty rights of the Indians to the country east of the Big Horns. This atypical observation of the Indian-baiting News can only be explained by its other pages, then filled with opposition to any trail that by- passed Denver. It could hardly have been ignorance that prompt- ed it to give an account, from no acknowledged source, of the aborted train, leaving the impression that it was still besieged by Indians, starving, and awaiting the recently requested escort!^''

It was undoubtedly misleading stories of this genre that brought Jacobs to the editor of the Commonwealth:

Mr. Jacobs called on us yesterday [September 16] to correct a wrong impression concerning the route advocated to the Beaverhead mines. The train that was stopped on it some time since was under his charge and consisted of 47 wagons, containing 88 men, besides their families. They were at the eastern base of the Big Horn moun- tains and were getting along well, when about 140 Indians, men, women and children, came to talk, beg and bluff, as is their custom. They were Sioux, and he was in Crow country, and he told them he had no quarrel wtih them, nor had they any business to stop him. They went away, and that was the last he saw of them. But the people composing the train became very scared and wanted to go back. To pacify them he sent for an escort, and when it arrived the most of the train had gone back and taken the old route. Had they been less chickenhearted, there would have been no trouble. Mr. Jacobs says there is no more real danger on this route than there is on the other. 3*5

That Jacobs' emigrants were apprehensive for their families and voted to return is true. That their leaders were unanimously bold and resolute we have been unable to establish. But to make a public charge that the emigrants had been "chicken-hearted" does establish one thing — that diplomacy was not Jacobs' forte. This incautious charge launched a fatal boomerang. But at the mo- ment, Chivington apparently took a dim view of furnishing another

■^WC&R, Sept. 17, 1863. '■^■'RMN, Sept. 17, 1863. ■^<^DC&R, Sept. 17, 1863.

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS 37

escort after the summer's fiasco. For this and perhaps other reasons, Jacobs' promotional splash died aborning within a week. Hundreds of Coloradoans did leave for the mines that fall, but not with Jacobs nor by his proposed cut-off.

After lying low for a couple of months, the still-hopeful pro- moter tried again. Both Denver papers accepted a paid notice, dated December 16, that Mr. Jacobs was at old Jim Baker's ranch on Clear Creek, just outside of town, where he could be consulted by anyone interested in joining a company to take his cut-off the next spring'^'. Then on January 8 the Rev. L. B. Stateler presided at a public meeting of this company, at which they appointed officers and drew up articles of agreement specifying the conditions under which Jacobs would lead them through. The guide de- scribed "his new route . . . with the aid of his map .... He stated that he had spent 15 or 20 years in that section of the country and was familiar with every locality. "•^'^

This second promotional push seems to have been progressing favorably, but the lapse of time enabled the boomerang to strike back in JFebruary. The News spread on its front page a letter just received from thirty-nine of Jacobs' irate customers of the preced- ing summer, including Sam Word and Captain James Brady. This devastating missive, or missile, was dated at Virginia City, Idaho Territory, December 23, 1863, and read:

The undersigned, who were members of a train of near fifty wagons that attempted to come to this country last summer by a new route leading from the Platte R. above Fort Laramie directly north along the east base of the Big Horn Mts., desire to make a statement through your paper in their own behalf and for the benefit of the public at large.

Having learned recently from several sources not to be questioned, that Mr. John Jacobs, who is in your city engaged in trying to get a train of wagons to come through by the above route, is constantly representing that if it had not been for the cowardice of the members of the train referred to, he would have safely conducted it through, we have this to say — that Mr. Jacobs was in charge of our train; had full and entire control over it by the unanimous consent of all in it; that he represented that he had come through on the said route from this country at the instance of people here for the sole purpose of conducting immigration through, and we felt, from the professions he had made as to his knowledge of the country and acquaintance with Indian customs, that he was a fit person to take charge of the train. We were, however, disappointed in him. On the first appear- ance of danger he "weakened." A hundred or so Indians visited us and warned us not to go farther, and notwithstanding a marked majority of the train were emphatically in favor of going on [*/(■]. he argued against it, and taking the responsibility on himself, he turned us back, representing that we would likely all be destroyed if we went farther.

'^"^RMN and DC&R, Dec. 23, 1863. ^^RMN, Jan. 20, 1864.

38 ANNALS OF WYOMING

We take the responsibility of saying that Mr. Jacobs, as we believe, is a coward and unfit to take charge of a train. He may be a very good guide, and probably is; at least he ought to be well acquainted with the route referred to; but he is wholly unfit to command, owing to his consummate cowardice, to which all in our train will bear testimony. We have not a word to say against the route; we believe it to be a practicable one and think a train could come safely through on it with a firm man to command it. Mr. Jacobs, in that case, would answer for a guide, but he is unfit to act outside his place as such. We have deemed it due ourselves to say this much, having no interest whatsoever in the route.

We all here remark that Mr. John Bozeman, who is a firm and determined man and well acquainted with said route, having been over it several times, has just left here for the Missouri River at Omaha for the purpose of piloting immigration through by said route. He will leave the Platte River not far from Fort Laramie early in the season. We can recommend him to the public.

You will oblige us by giving this a place in your columns.-^^

Of course Jacobs, who had himself provoked this overdrawn letter, protested its publication, but the News merely challenged him to deny its authenticity and refused to give his project any further publicity. Jacobs watched in dismay as his second effort collapsed like a punctured balloon. The Rev. L. B. Stateler did proceed to the mines that spring, but not with Jacobs.

The closing paragraph of the letter, it should be noted, warmly recommended Bozeman as a competent leader and announced his recent departure for Omaha to pilot emigrants out early the next spring. He had indeed left Virginia City early in December with Milton S. Moody's outfit bound for Salt Lake City with a tempting cargo of gold dust. Since two of the notorious Henry Plummer's gang of road agents botched the job of robbing this party, the chroniclers of the Montana vigilantes have told of it and Bozeman's connection with it.^*^

Presumably Bozeman continued on to Omaha, though we have had no opportunity to scour its local papers. If so, he was late in starting back in the spring. He may have revealed the reason in a letter he wrote his mother two years later. "I have never been sick a minute in this country," he told her, "except when I had the measles two years ago."^^ If the crowds and contagion in Omaha laid the giant low, it would explain his delayed start in the spring of 1864.

Still other promoters were vying for the honor of taking the first successful train over the Bozeman trail. In the fall of 1863 an Omaha paper announced that a Mr. Comstock had already organ-

SQRMN, Feb. 3, 1864.

^fJThomas J. Dimsdale, The Vigilantes of Montana, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1953), Chap. 10; N. P. Langford, Vigilante Days and Ways, (New York: A. L. Burt Company, 1912), Chap. 28.

'*iBurlingame, "Bozeman."

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS 39

ized a company to leave there the next April 1 5 by this new route to Bannack^-. Nothing more is known of this outfit, but was its pilot William A. ("Buffalo Bill") Comstock, who had for some years traded and worked for the Overland Stage Line on the Platte and whose brother-in-law was Eleazer Wakeley, a supreme court judge in Omaha?^^

Sioux City and Yankton also entered the lists by promoting the rival Niobrara trail, which ascended the Missouri to the mouth of the Niobrara and then turned westward up the latter, parallel to the Platte, to intercept the old trader's trail to the Yellowstone. To publicize it, C. M. Davis, president of the Gallatin Townsite Co., returned to Yankton to hold a public meeting there on February 20, 1864. He read a letter from George L. Tackett, a veteran trader on the Platte, which sketched the old trader's trail in detail. As a lure for emigrants, the Yankton paper flaunted a table of distances from Sioux City via Yankton to Virginia City that to- talled 849 miles*^ Not until 1865, however, did Col. James A. Sawyer make the first exploratory traverse of the Niobrara route with a government-financed wagon road expedition.

The flood of emigrant traffic that headed for eastern Idaho in the spring of 1864 found itself on arrival in the newly-proclaimed Territory of Montana. Although several trains would for the first time successfully negotiate the Bozeman trail, a good many more would^choose the alternate route that Jim Bridger inaugurated that spring. )

Since both were cut-offs from the long-used Platte road, the frequent claim that they started from the Missouri, or Forts Kearny or Laramie, is hardly tenable. [ Throughout 1864 the Bridger Trail left the North Platte at Red Buttes, while the Bozeman trail left it about fifteen miles lower down near the eastern edge of present Casper at the lower Platte bridge, built and operated by John Richard, Sr., an old-time Indian and emigrant trader^"'. This should not be confused with the better known upper Platte bridge five or six miles farther upstream and originally built by Louis Guinard, but by this date also owned by Richard^^ It should be noted that in later years the departure for Bozeman's trail would move a good many miles farther downstream. 1 The course of Bridger's little-studied trail appears, with some

42See DC&R, Nov. 11, 1863.

43John S. Gray, "Will Comstock, the Natty Bumppo of Kansas," Mon- tana. The Magazine of Western History, Summer, 1970, p. 2.

44Yankton Dakotaian, March 1 and Feb. 18, 1864.

45John D. McDermott, "John Baptiste Richard," in Mountain Men, Vol. II, p. 289.

^6Robert A. Murray, "Trading Posts, Forts and Bridges of the Casper Area," Annals of Wyoming, Spring, 1975, p. 5. Hereafter cited as Murray, "Trading Posts."

40 ANNALS OF WYOMING

minor errors, on the road map issued by the Wyoming Highway Department. On the basis of trail diaries, checked against modern topographical maps, we calculate the distance from Red Buttes to Virginia City at about 510 miles; this is via Bridger's detour over the Bridger range, about thirteen miles longer than the more direct Bozeman Pass. On a similar basis, we calculate the distance from the lower Platte bridge to Virginia City by the better-studied Boze- man trail at about 535 miles; this is via Bozeman's Pass, but in- cludes a detour of twenty-five miles that all the trains of 1864 made by first striking the Yellowstone near present Billings. It should be noted also that Bozeman's trail merged with, and there- after followed on, Bridger's trail at the Rock Creek branch of Clarks Fork, near present Boyd, Montana.

For a large train, which inevitably included ox-powered wagons, fifteen to eighteen miles represented the maximum consistent day's drive. Since layovers for rest, washing, and repairs averaged one day a week, whether on Sunday or not, fifteen miles a day repre- sented a good standard rate of progress. A slower rate signalled extra trouble, deliberate leisure, or planned halts, usually for pros- pecting. This standard rate yields an expected transit time of thirty-four days over Bridger's^ and thirty-six days over Bozeman's route. /

Foreseeing the swollen migration of 1864, Col. Collins wrote from Fort Laramie on April 25 that an emigrant train coming from Denver was expecting to pick up an escort at his post, and asked for instructions on diverting troops for such purposes^^. The next day John S. Collins^*^, Idaho bound by the Lander trail, met Jim Bridger at Fort Laramie assembling his first train. Col. Collins released Bridger from his employment as post scout on April 30 to allow him to pilot these wagons through^^. With the Colonel's grateful blessing, he was intent on opening the safer route through the Big Horn Basin, which would require no military escort, j

Within a few days the expected train hauled in from Denver, some 200 miles and two weeks distant. It probably included the disgruntled John Jacobs, still hoping to pick up some followers. It certainly included the Rev. L. B. Stateler, who has left the only account of this train, skimpy and reminiscent though it is^*^. Addi- tional clues to this and other trains, however, may be gleaned from the register of the Society of Montana Pioneers; the latter can-

*~'Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Vol. 34, Part III, p. 304.

4^ John S. Collins, My Experiences in the West, (Chicago: The Lakeside Press, 1970), p. 21.

49Cecil J. Alter, Jim Bridger, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962), p. 304. Hereafter cited as Alter, Bridger.

50E. J. Stanley, Life of L. B. Stateler, (Nashville: The Methodist Pub- lishers, 1907), p. 175 ff.

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS 41

vassed Montana for residents who had come before the close of 1864, recording their points of departure, routes, and places and dates of arrival, albeit with some errors. Only B. F. Bisel and A. M. Morgan specified that they had come with Bridger's first train^'^.

With the wagons already recruited, Bridger soon started for Red Buttes, some 140 miles and ten days distant. Jacobs, having aban- doned the idea of risking the Bozeman route again, probably tagged along to organize late-comers to follow in Bridger's footsteps. Bridger tarried a few days at Red Buttes until his outfit totaled sixty-two wagons, according to Howard S. Stanfield, who came along some days after they had left. There are several references to Bridger's departure in May, but only the recently-published diary of Stanfield-''- fixes the date as May 20. j

In order to avoid the impassable Wind River canyon, Bridger ascended the east-flowing Poison Spider Creek for only a few days before winding northwest over sagebrush plains to present Lysite on a forks of Bad Water Creek, a west-running branch of Wind River. This was about seventy-five miles out, where James Rob- erts'''\ a diarist of a following train, recorded that Bridger had met a band of Indians, whose hostility turned to an effusive welcome on recognizing their old friend Bridger. Statleer tells the same story, identifying the band as chief Washakie's Shoshones.

\ At this point Bridger turned north up present Bridger Creek, crossing the rugged Owl Creek Mountains to a header of Kirby Creek, which he descended, circling west to its mouth on the Big Horn River just below the impassable canyon at present Lucerne. In this rough passage the Statelers' wagon overturned down a steep declivity, but without serious injury to any of the party. On this sixty-mile stretch Bridger traveled slowly, scouting out the trail and pausing for road work on the rough places for the benefit of following trains. )

As trail diaries make quite clear, Bridger immediately crossed to the open west bank of the Big Horn. All hands turned to felling trees, whipsawing the logs into crude lumber and construct- ing a fairly substantial ferryboat to cross the spring-swollen stream. Once across, they buried the boat for following trains to use, and headed forty-five miles down the west bank, as diaries reveal, to camp opposite the mouth of No Wood Creek at present Manderson.

^^^Socieiy of Montana Pioneers Register. (Helena, 1899), indexed. Here- after cited in the text by the key word register.

•''2Jack J. Detzler, ed., Diary of Howard Stillwell Stanfield, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969).

-"^James Roberts, "Notes of Travel, Wisconsin to Idaho, 1864," typescript in Wisconsin Historical Society Library.

42 ANNALS OF WYOMING

They soon turned west so as to strike in one day's drive the necessary water in GreybuU River, a western affluent of the Big Horn. Ascending the Grey bull to a suitable ford south of present Burlington, they then made a dry march of twenty-five miles north to present Garland, where they forded the Stinking Water, another western tributary now more euphoniously called Shoshone River. After this fording, about 230 miles out, the train laid over for a few days to rest and recruit the stock. Here we leave them tem- porarily to pick up the story of three other trains destined to over- take and join them at this halt. )

The first of these following trains was a small trader's outfit of ten wagons, according to Stanfield, and dubbed "the indepen- dents," apparently because they needed no hired guides. It in- cluded Baptiste ("Big Bat") Pourier^^, marked for a long and distinguished career as an army scout. His reminiscences reveal that he went as a hired teamster with John Richard, Jr., the half- Sioux son of the trader and owner of the Platte Bridges''^. The group probably also included Amede Bessette, another French- Canadian Indian trader who had been in charge of one of the bridges for two years-^^, and Jose Miraval and family, another old trader of New Mexican origins^". .They had left Red Buttes only a few days behind Bridger himself. ^

J The second train was an emigrant company that Jacobs had succeeded in recruiting at Red Buttes. Howard Stanfield found this group gathering there on May 25 and decided to join it by paying Jacob's fee of $5 per wagon. Not until May 30 did Jacobs assemble sixty-seven wagons and start out in Bridger's wake. In short order Stanfield was complaining bitterly that Jacobs as a guide was superfluous, and as a leader was dictatorial, cowardly, and a har. On June 7 they reached the Big Horn, where they found the independents searching for the buried ferryboat. On finding it, the latter crossed that afternoon and Jacob's train the next day. i

The third train was another emigrant outfit under Captain Al- lensworth, which left Red Buttes on June 2 to be quickly overtaken by others to swell the company to over one hundred wagons.

•"^"Baptiste Fourier," Eli Richer Interviews, Nebraska Historical Society Library, microfilm from Micro Photo Div., Bell & Howell.

•^'•'^Brian Jones. "Those Wild Reshaw Boys," Sidelights of the Sioux Wars, English Westerners' Special Publication No. 2, (London: 1967).

"'**Amede Bessette obituary, Dillon (Montana) Examiner, March 1, 1918; Amede Bessette, "A Story of Joseph A. Slade," typescript in Montana Historical Society Library.

•"''Fourier Interview, see fn. 54; 1860 Census, Miraval City, unorganized Nebraska Territory, Family #326; 1870 Census, Fort Fetterman, Albany County, Wyoming, Family #362.

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS 43

Diarist Cornelius Hedges'"^ recorded that they hired as pilot a local Frenchman named Rouleau at $5 per wagon. This was Hubert Rouleau^''', another employee of John Richard, Sr. Despite some dissensiqn, they reached the Big Horn and ferried across on June 12. J

All three of these trains had forded the Stinking Water to camp with Bridger's resting outfit by June 18. The next day Bridger pulled out in the lead, ascending Sage Creek northward into Mon- tana to reach and cross Clarks Fork near present Bridger. Another twenty miles northwest took him to the crossing of Rock Creek near present Boyd, where Bozeman would later pick up the same trail. The route then led west to present Absarokee on Stillwater River, then west up the latter and across to and down Bridger Creek to its mouth on the Yellowstone. Halts had been made to allow prospecting in the mountains, but now Bridger hastened up the Yellowstone, crossing Boulder River at present Big Timber, and continuing twelve more miles to the crossing of the Yellow- stone, about 368 miles out. Here they halted again to build another ferryboat. )

The following companies paused even longer for prospecting, but some wagons hurried on, and this, together with complaints, especially in Jacobs' outfit, brought shifts in allegiance that de- stroyed the composition of the original companies. Nevertheless, nearly all gathered again at the Yellowstone ferry to celebrate the Fourth of July with Bridger. After ascending the north bank of the big river to the mouth of Shield's River, a grand division took place. Only twenty wagons stayed with Jacobs to take the shorter Bozeman Pass into the Gallatin valley. The rest followed Bridger on his detour that led north up Shield's River, west up Brackett's Creek and over the Divide, then southwest down Bridger Creek, where they spotted Jacobs a little ahead at the future site of Bozeman.

I Now on well-rutted roads, the wagons spread out as they headed west across the Gallatin and Madison Rivers, south up the latter, and then west again to mountain-girt Virginia City. They rolled in over a period of days with the peak centering on July 10. Bridger is said to have reached the Gallatin on July 6^*^, still some twenty miles from Virginia City. Based mostly on the pioneer register, A. M. Morgan and B. F. Bisel of his company arrived there on July 6 and July 8; Amede Bessette of the independents arrived on

s^Cornelius Hedges, "Diary of Overland Trip to Montana from Iowa, 1864," mss., Montana Historical Society Library.

s^Charles E. Hanson, "Hubert Rouleau," Mountain Men, Vol. 9, p. 347; Hubert Ruleau affidavit. Fort Laramie, June 27, 1866, in Bissonette Claim.

^^Mrs. E. Lina Houston, Early History of Gallatin Co. Montana, (Boze- man, 1933), p. n.

44 ANNALS OF WYOMING

the latter date, with Stanfield and J. L. Perkins of Jacobs' train made it on the 10th and 11th; Thomas Wilcox and Cornelius Hedges of Allensworth's company pulled in on the 9th and 10th. (Taking July 8 as an endpoint, Bridger pioneered his 510-mile route in fifty days, a substandard rate because of road-working, ferry-building, and prospecting halts. The other trains that bene- fited by his work in the van made it in as little as thirty-eight days, including layovers. As Bridger had foreseen, it was a completely safe passage, for none had encountered Indian trouble.

It was no triumph, however, for Jacobs. He had not only for- saken his own route, but had once again alienated his charges. He faded into complete obscurity, for we have found no further record of him.

\Six more identifiable companies safely traversed Bridger's route later in the season. James Roberts, the partial diarist already men- tioned, left Red Buttes on June 10 in a train of 129 wagons piloted by Joseph Knight*'^, another Indian trader from the Platte bridges; Robert Vaughn''-, who misnamed this guide as McKnight, reached Virginia City on July 13 to complete the thirty-four-day passage. Diarist William W. Alderson*''^ started on June 1 5 with Captain Joe Todd's company of 12 horse-wagons that traveled off and on with sixteen ox- and eighteen mule-wagons, but stopped to settle thirty days later at the about-to-be-born town of Bozeman on July 13th. (^Diarist William E. Atchison^^ left on June 22 with over one hundred wagons that had hired for $300 a guide he called Rocky Mountain Bob, who remains unidentified unless he was either Robert Dempsey or Robert Hereford, who had long shuttled be- tween summer trading on the road near Green River and winter cattle-herding in Montana^^. Atchison rolled into Virginia City on July 27 for a thirty-six day passage; Ethel A. Maynard^^, whose reminiscent letters place him in this same train, registered his arrival on July 28.

The incomplete trail letters of Franklin L. Kirkaldie^^ reveal that he left the Platte on July 13 with a company of seventy wagons captained by Joseph V. Stafford, a veteran of the California gold

•^1 Murray, "Trading Posts."

^''Robert Vaughn, Then and Now, (Minneapolis, Tribune Printing Com- pany. 1900), p. 22 ff.

^^William W. Alderson, "Across the Great Plains to Montana, 1864," typescript. Special Collections, Montana State University Library, Bozeman.

'•^William E. Atchison, "Diary of 1864," typescript, Montana State Uni- versity Library, Bozeman.

•^•''Stuart, Forty Years. See index.

<*''Letters of E. A. Maynard, Bozeman, March 20 and April 7, 1936, typescript, Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department.

«'Franklin L. Kirkaldie, "Letters of May 1, 1864-March 30, 1869," type- script. Montana State University Library, Bozeman.

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS 45

rush, who registered his arrival on August 24 at the Yellowstone after a forty-three day passage. A Bozeman Trail company found this outfit camped at present Livingston on August 25, and Staf- ford's obituary*^** reveals that he remained to help establish the new diggings at Emigrant Gulch, a few miles south up the Yellowstone, Still another train included the family of young Tom LeForge"^, destined to live among the Crows and win fame as an army scout; he disclosed that he came by the Bridger route late in the season with a trader's outfit from St. Joseph under Molette and Gus Beauvais, the latter presumably Francis Augustus Beauvais, the brother of Geminien P. Beauvais'", a well-known Indian trader on the Platte. >

: In the meantime, Jim Bridger was piloting a few disillusioned gold-seekers back over his trail. William E. Atchison met him on the Bridger detour on July 21, and Franklin Kirkaldie did the same at GreybuU River on August 1 . On reaching Fort Laramie he was promptly re-hired as post scout, with his contract apparently pre- dated to August 3^^ This employment was brief, however, for he left Red Buttes again on September 1 8 to make his second trip of the season to Montana. The diary of John Owen'-, a proprietor of Fort Owen in the Bitterroot valley a little south of Missoula, Montana, reveals that this party traveled very slowly, shortening the trail and doing considerable road work before reaching the Big Horn crossing. Sickness and straying oxen delayed their arrival at the Stinking Water until November 1, when Owen's diary termi- nated. Another member of the hapless party, Samuel Anderson, registered his arrival in Virginia City on December 18, having left the wagons snowbound on the Yellowstone. When Bridger re- turned is not of record, but all his work went for naught, as his trail carried no traffic in ensuing years. .

iOnly three major trains are known to have ventured over the rival Bozeman Trail in 1864.) Although Bozeman himself success- fully piloted the lead outfit, it did not leave the lower Platte bridge until after half a dozen trains had departed on Bridger's route. Dr. Burlingame's analysis^^ has long since puntured the once- popular myth that Bridger and Bozeman raced neck -and -neck

^^Joseph Stafford obituary, Helena Independent, March 21, 1915.

^^Thomas B. Marquis, Memoirs of a White Crow Indian, (New York: The Century Company, 1928), p. 4 ff.

■^(^Charles E. Hanson, "Geminien P. Beauvais," Mountain Men. Vol. 7, p. 35.

7iAlter. Bridger, p. 309.

"^Seymour Dunbar and Paul C. Phillips, Journal and Letters of Major John Owen, 1850-71, (New York: Edward Eberstadt. 1927). Vol. 1, p. 309ff.

"•^Burlingame, "Bozeman."

46 ANNALS OF WYOMING

across the wilderness, and the present findings scotch it entirely by furnishing refined dates for the passages of both.

If Bozeman had indeed wintered in Omaha, he did not leave before late April, and whether alone or with recruited followers is unknown. Unfortunately, no known diarists accompanied his out- fit. The best we have are the reminiscences of John T. Smith^^, a veteran of the California gold rush, who overtook Bozeman on the cut-off, and three pioneers who registered their arrivals with Bozeman's own train.

The first mention of Bozeman while he was still on the Platte road appears in the reminiscences of Robert Vaughn, who traveled the Bridger trail with diarist James Roberts in Joe Knight's com- pany. Neither at Fort Laramie on May 30, nor at the lower bridge on June 7, does Roberts mention Bozeman or his cut-off, but Vaughn recalled that he met the guide assembling a train for his route. He located this at Fort Laramie and adds that he also met Joe Knight there and chose his train; but Robert's record proves that the latter occurred at the lower bridge. The fact that Vaughn had a choice of cut-offs implies that by June 7 Bozeman was at the lower bridge recruiting wagons.

The next mention of Bozeman appears in the diary of William Atchison, who reached the lower bridge on June 20. Having noted that the Bozeman cut-off began there, he recorded: "Had quite a discussion whether this or the Bridger cut-off should be taken. The Bridger men prevailed and we drove five miles further to upper Platte bridge." This wording suggests that at least some wagons were there, committed to the Bozeman trail, but not Boze- man himself who had already left. Further evidence will be pre- sented to support this inference.

This preliminary evidence indicates that Bozeman's train left the Platte road between July 7 and July 20, an interval covered by no other available diaries, but we must pause to reject the previous best-guess date of July 1. It stems from a single, second-hand source, a son's uncritical editing of skimpy notes left by father Albert J. Dickson^^, who took the Lander route. Easily recogniz- able events recounted in this speculative expansion, when dated at all, are sometimes off by weeks! It cites July 1 as the date on a note, left on the trail by friends ahead, advising that they were leaving on Bozeman's trail, the editor implying with Bozeman himself. Unfortunately, this departure date applies to a late com- ponent of the Townsend train, which followed Bozeman, as we shall see.

''■4John T. Smith. "The Bozeman Trail, 1864," Bozeman Chronicle, Dec. 30, 1891.

75Arthur J. Dickson, Covered Wagon Days, (Cleveland: The Arthur H Clark Co., 1929).

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS 47

We can fix the date of Bozeman's departure as on or about June 18, by reasoning from information in the reminiscences of John T. Smith. He reached the lower bridge the day before Bozeman left, and after resting his stock, he followed on the third day after Bozeman left. Mitch Boyer, speeding alone on horseback, over- took Smith, who gave him a message asking Bozeman to wait two days. Smith then joined the waiting Bozeman at the Powder River crossing, the site of future Fort Reno about ninety-six miles out. Smith agreed to help Bozeman, but by following immediately behind so as to avoid Bozeman's fee of five dollars. They then proceeded in tandem for another 154 miles, passing the site of future Fort Phil Kearny and on to the Big Horn crossing at the site of future Fort C. F. Smith. There they celebrated the Fourth of July, the only date Smith gives, before tackling the difficult ford the next day.

Assuming the tandem trains traveled a standard fifteen miles a day, their arrival at the Big Horn on July 4 implies a departure from Powder River on June 27. If the overtaking Smith made sixteen miles day from the lower bridge, he had arrived there June 17, left on the 21, and Bozeman preceded him on the 18th. And if Bozeman left on the 1 8th, he made fourteen miles a day and waited two days at Powder River for Smith to overtake him.

This now suggests that when Atchison reached the bridge on June 20, he found Smith there on the eve of departure, and this prompted the debate, in which the Bridger men prevailed, probably because Smith's outfit was too small for safety. If we assume either faster or slower rates of travel, it jeopardizes this whole framework of close timing. We therefore adopt June 1 8 as Boze- man's departure date, at least until some direct diary entry calls for revision.

On leaving the Big Horn, the tandem trains headed northwest to strike the Yellowstone about two miles below present Billings, as Smith recalled. They then turned southwest, ascending the river to the mouth of Clarks Fork, then up the latter and its Rock Creek branch to present Boyd. This was the detour that added twenty-five extra miles. Jim Bridger in 1866 would eliminate this hog-leg by taking a rougher passage straight west from the Big Horn to present Pryor on Pryor's Fork and present Edgar on Clarks Fork. Picking up the tracks of Bridger's earher trains, Bozeman followed them to and beyond the Yellowstone ferry. Smith recalled also that part of the company took Bozeman's Pass, while he himself diverged over Bridger's detour.

By this time terminal scattering was spreading the arrivals at Virginia City. Only John L. Sweeney's arrival there on August 3 has been previously noted in the pioneer register, but both Isaac Dean and H. A. McAllister, who also specified traveling in Boze- man's own train, registered their arrivals on July 29. Bozeman and Smith must also have arrived at this earlier date, for Smith

48 ANNALS OF WYOMING

says that after a few days in the city the pair trekked back to the Gallatin Valley, arriving in time to figure in the first formal meet- ing of the Bozeman Townsite Association on August 9'^.

It was thus Bozeman, with no contribution from Jacobs, but with some trail-prospecting assistance from John T. Smith, who success- fully piloted the first emigrants over the trail that deservedly bears his name. He made the passage safely, without Indian interfer- ence, in forty-two days, including prospecting layovers. This transit time affords further assurance that our calculated departure date is not likely to be far wrong. ; Clearly, Bozeman and Bridger ran no race. Both traveled leisurely, with Bozeman starting a month later and arriving three weeks later than Bridger. i

The ill-fated Townsend train, also of emigrant composition, was the second to venture over the Bozeman trail. Its components had passed the scenes of several Indian raids along the Platte road above Fort Laramie, and would itself suffer a severe attack on the cut-off. How early it began to assemble is not clear, but when diarist Kate Dunlap'', heading for the Lander route, reached the lower bridge on June 27, she found "a number of wagons preparing to leave" by the new cut-off.

Several groups that left the Platte over a period of five days finally consolidated themselves out on the trail. Diarist T. J. Brundage'*^ left with the first group, as noted by Kate Dunlap, on June 29. Diarist Benjamin W. Ryan"^ followed with another sec- tion the next day. "E. W.,"^*^ who wrote a letter about their Indian battle to the Montana Post, just established at Virginia City, left with the last group on July 1st. By July 3, all had reached the rendezvous some thirty-four miles out.

While waiting for the late groups, Brundage and Ryan recorded that on July 1 they held an election of officers that chose A. A. Townsend of Wisconsin as captain. Brundage said they hired two French guides for $600 to pilot them as far as the Big Horn crossing. Ryan gave the pay as $4 per wagon and named them as "John Boyer and Raphael Gogeor." while Zera French^^, an- other battle chronicler for the Montana Post, referred to "our old guide, Boyer." There can be no doubt that these were the Deer Creek traders of the previous year's aborted train, the French John Boyer and New Mexican Rafael Gallegos. We take these pains in

^''Burlingame, "Bozeman."

■?"S. Lyman Tyler, ed., Montana Gold Rush Diary of Kate Dunlap, (Den- ver: Old West Publishing Co., 1969).

7*^Elsa Spear, ed., "Diary of T. J. Brundage, 1864," typescript, Montana State Historical Society Library.

TOBenjamin W. Ryan, "Bozeman Trail Diary to Virginia City in 1864," Annals of Wyoming, July, 1947, p. 77.

■^OLetter of "E. W.," Montana Post, Aug. 27, 1864.

siLetter of Zera French, Sept. 5, 1864, Montana Post, Sept. 17, 1864.

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS 49

order to correct the widely accepted, but much later and second- hand statements that these guides were young Mitch Boyer and John Richard, Jr.''-

When the consolidated train resumed the trail on July 4, it was a large one. Our four sources agree that it totaled 150 wagons, 369 (one says 375) men, 36 women, 56 children, and arms repre- senting 1641 shots without reloading. One source adds that they boasted 636 oxen, 79 horses, 10 mules, and 194 cows, with a total evaluation of $130,000! It was July 7 when the company halted for breakfast, eighty-six miles out according to Ryan, on the Dry Fork of Powder River some ten miles short of the site of future Fort Reno.

While preparing to resume the trek that fateful morning, a party of Indian warriors approached. John Boyer went out to parley and returned to report that they were Cheyennes under Spotted Cow, who had turned back Bozeman's train ths year before, and therefore not to be trusted, although they pretended only to want grub. After the nervous company furnished some provisions, Boyer shooed the warriors from the wagons. Fearing for the safety of a Mr. Mills, who had gone back in search of a stray ox, a party of mounted men went to his aid. T. J. Brundage, a mem- ber of this party, named the five others as his brother George Brundage, Asher Newby, E. Butterfield, Mr. Noton, and Dr. Crepin, a Frenchman.

After this party had ridden back about two miles, the Indians swarmed to attack them. The six managed to fight their way back to the corraled train with some aid from a rescue party, bringing Asher Newby with an arrow through his back. When Dr. Crepin's efforts to extract the arrow failed. Dr. Hall, an EngHsh surgeon with some military experience, took over and succeeded, with eventual recovery of the patient.

The trainmen, well-armed with long-range weapons, countered Indian efforts to bum them out and held them off in a battle that raged for several hours. As the sole casualty in this phase, A. Warren fell with a severe abdominal wound that proved fatal dur- ing the night. But three other fatalities occurred outside the cor- ral. Mr. Mills, in search of his strayed cattle, was missing; his scalp was found by a following train. Frank Huddlemeyer, out hunting, was riddled with arrows and butchered, while an unnamed man out prospecting never returned and was considered killed.

The shaken train buried the bodies of Warren and Huddle- meyer, and the next day resolutely resumed its progress. On reaching the Big Horn, July 20, Boyer and Gallegos turned back.

S2£)avid B. Weaver, "Capt. Townsend's BaUle on Powder River," Mon- tana Historical Society Contributions, Vol. 8. p. 283.

50 ANNALS OF WYOMING

as planned, carrying the train's mail. The company then followed Bozeman's detour to the Yellowstone and turned to pick up Bridg- er's trail. They made several halts for prospecting, one such party being run in by a horde of Crow Indians but without casualties. They did not reach the Yellowstone ferry until August 15. The passage took fifty-eight days, for Brundage did not roll in to Virginia City until August 25th, nor Ryan until two days later.

The third and final train on the Bozeman cut-off was composed of avid prospectors, many of whom diverged to the new gold strike at Emigrant Gulch. Diarists Richard Owens^^ and John Hack- ney"^ and reminiscence-recorder David B. Weaver^^ all reached the lower bridge on July, where they waited for more wagons to gather. On the 12th they moved a short distance out on the trail and waited some more. When sixty-seven wagons had assembled, they organized into four sections, each under its own captain, but all under Major Cyrus C. Coffinbury. On July 16 they started the journey in earnest.

It was this train that discovered the scalp of Mr. Mills and the ravaged graves from the Townsend train. They also followed Bozeman's detour to the Yellowstone, but halted longer for pros- pecting. After crossing at the Yellowstone ferry, they camped near present Livingston on August 25. There they found Captain Stafford's company, which had come by Bridger's trail, awaiting the return of emissaries they had sent upstream to Emigrant Gulch. The Coffinbury train followed suit, waiting several days. A good many from both trains decided to try their luck there, arriving on August 27, as told by David Weaver. Hackney and Owens soon proceeded on to reach Virginia City on September 8 to complete the slow passage of fifty-nine days.

( Canny Jim Bridger had solved the problem of a safe cut-off to Montana in 1864, but his route was promptly abandoned for reasons that remain obscure. The trail Bozeman pioneered that same season was easier to travel, but proved increasingly perilous. Emigrants dared not risk this route in 1865, because of the out- break of Indian hostilities and General Patrick E. Connor's Powder River Campaign against the hostiles later that summer. )

To protect the heavy emigrant and merchant travel over Boze- man's trail in 1866, General Henry B. Carrington brought out a sizeable force of troops to estabUsh and garrison new Forts Reno, Phil Kearny, and C. F. Smith. But their arrival before the consent

''^3Richard Owen, "Diary, Omaha to Idaho, 1864," typescript, Montana Historical Society Library.

84John S. Hackney, "Over the Plains to the Idaho-Montana Gold Fields in 1864," typescript, Montana Historical Society Library.

s^David B. Weaver, "Early Days in Emigrant Gulch," Montana Historical Society Contributions, Vol. 7, p. 73.

BLAZING THE BRIDGER AND BOZEMAN TRAILS 51

of the Indians had been obtained merely provoked what has come to be known as Red Cloud's War, which christened the road, "the bloody Bozeman trail." Bloody it was indeed, for in the spring of 1867 John Bozeman started from Bozeman for Fort C. F. Smith, only to meet death at the hands of some raiding Blackfeet Indians on the "safest" segment of the trail. The war ended with the Sioux treaty of 1868, which called for the abandonment of the Bozeman trail and its "protective" forts — until re-conquered in the Sioux War of 1876.^6

In the meantime, however, the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869 had furnished Montana with improved overland communications with both the east and west.

86John S. Gray, Centennial Campaign, The Sioux War of 1876, (Fort Collins: The Old Army Press, 1976).

52 ANNALS OF WYOMING

In Wyoming

Did you ever see the sunrise

And the high and roUing plains? Did you ever smell wet sagebrush

After sudden springtime rain? Have you ever felt the smart

And sting of gravel in your face? Then you've never known the

Glamour of that God-forsaken place — Wyoming.

Have you seen the clear cut sky line

When the evening shadows fall? When the mountains look like cardboard

and you hear the coyote's call? Have you seen the painted badlands

In their yellow, red and blue? Then you'll never know how lonesome

Life can be until you do — in Wyoming.

Have you seen the sand and sagebrush

Stretch for miles and miles away? While down the hills along the draws

The cooling shadows lay? It's lonesome and it's desolate —

It's off the beaten track But once you've caught the lure of it

You're homesick till you're back — in Wyoming.

— By Mrs. Cecil Howrey

W.P.A. Manuscripts Collection, No. 760 Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department

Asa S. Mercer and

''Zke nanditti of the Plains'^

A Reappraisal

By

Charles Hall

Charles "Pat" Hall, executive director of the Wyoming Bicentennial Commission, became interested in Asa Mercer and his book, Banditti of the Plains, long before he moved to Wyoming. Hall had been a part-time dealer in books about the American West, so he knew the accepted version of the story about the cattlemen's suppression of Mercer's book.

When he moved to Cheyenne Hall began his own investigation into the book's history. Over a period of three or four years he found much to add to the story at the Historical Research and Publications Division of the Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department and at the Western History Research Center at the University of Wyoming. He also visited with the Mercer family at Hyattville, and was allowed to borrow documents, including Mercer's own business journal, for microfilming. He has also talked extensively with Anita Webb Deininger, Buffalo, Mercer's grand- daughter.

His biggest find was at a garage sale in Cheyenne. The family of John Charles Thompson, long-time editor of the Wyoming State Tribune, was selling items that had been stored in the family garage. Hall bought an orange crate filled with documents relating to the Johnson County War. Included was the only known extant copy of the October 16, 1892, edition of The Northwestern Live Stock Journal, the Mercer publication the cattle- men actually did attempt to suppress.

From this find and others Hall has attempted to piece together the story, based somewhat upon logical supposition, about what really happened when Mercer's book. The Banditti of the Plains, was published in 1894. — Editor.

Once upon a time, there was a book printed in Cheyenne which told the true story of Wyoming state officials' complicity in the arson and murder of the Johnson County Cattle War.

The "cattle barons" couldn't afford to have the truth known, so they secured a court injunction against the book's publication and illegally confiscated all remaining copies. Then they raided the author's printing shop; beat him up; destroyed the plates of the book; broke up his press and burned the building to the ground.^

Later, these same cattlemen burned almost all known copies of

^N. Orwin Rush, Mercer's Banditti of the Plains, (Tallahassee: Florida State University Library, 1961), p. 13.

54 ANNALS OF WYOMING

the book, but a few were saved and spirited out of the state during a wild, midnight ride across the Colorado state line.^

The book's publication and the cattlemen's suppression of it were completely ignored by the contemporary press, indicating that a conspiracy of silence existed among local newspaper editors."

During the ensuing years since the book first came out in 1894, copies of it have been stolen from Wyoming public libraries or mutilated, thereby destroying the incriminating evidence. Even the copies in the Library of Congress were stolen.^

The newspaper published by the book's author was also sup- pressed. Very few copies of it survive today and the cattlemen have even stolen district court records of law suits involving the author of the book.^

Today, this book, The Banditti of the Plains, is one of the choicest items in the field of Western Americana. Even a copy in poor condition of the 1894 edition will bring $200 or more at auction or private sale.

With the exception of the facts about the book's value, every bit of the foregoing is just a fairy tale. How this wild legend was ever started is unknown, but it continues to be foisted off on the pubhc today. Such scholarly institutions as the University of Oklahoma Press, for example, have been duped by the tale.

The evidence to disprove the suppression story was always there. Why it wasn't found by other writers is puzzling. Perhaps, it was "too good a story" to ruin — too much a part of the Western mystique.

That mystique actually began with the Johnson County Cattle War and has grown in volume and importance to this very day. All our contemporary preoccupation with the romance of the cow- boy can be traced right back to this one conflict between "cattle barons" and "rustlers". Even the very meaning of the word "rustler" was changed by the Johnson County War. So, it is difficult to overstate the importance of this incident in the develop- ment of the west. The Johnson County War "signified an accom- plishment social and political revolution."^

Likewise, the suppression of a book is important, if it really happened. In the history of printing in this country, there have been very few attempts at suppression. This writer knows of only

2Letter, Phillip A. Rollins to James T. Gerould, Oct. 12, 1923, reproduced in the University of Oklahoma Press reprint of The Banditti of the Plains, Norman, 1954, p. xiv.

3Rush, Mercer's Banditti, p. 43. ^^Ibid, p. 45.

4Asa S. Mercer, The Banditti of the Plains, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954), xxxv.

^bid, p. 45.

ephillip A. Rollins, The Cowboy, (New York: Scribners, 1936), p. 344.

ASA S. MERCER AND "THE BANDITTI OF THE PLAINS" 55

three such attempts — all, interestingly, in the field of Western Americana. The Banditti of the Plains is supposed to have been one. The other two were A Cowboy Detective, by Charles Siringo, and The XIT Ranch and the Early Days of the Llano Estacado, by J. Evetts Haley. The Siringo and Haley books also contained material that defamed certain well-known characters. Court in- junctions against the publications of both books resulted in chang- es in the offensive material.

Only Banditti is thought to have been suppressed by illegal means, hence the importance of proving or disproving the sup- pression story once and for all.

The Banditti of the Plains was written by Asa Shinn Mercer and was published in 1894. It told, for the first time in book form, of the complicity of Wyoming's elected officials in the so-called Invasion of Johnson County by members of the Wyoming Stock- growers Association and their hired Texas gunmen in April of 1892.

Since the cattlemen had committed premeditated murder and arson and suborned state officials, including the governor, it was easy to believe that the later suppression of Mercer's book would have been the least of their crimes.

Mercer was a western publicist and newspaperman. He had been first president of the University of Washington. Were it not for his later links with the Johnson County War, Mercer had assured himself of a permanent niche in the history of the West in 1866, when he took a shipload of single women to the bachelor settlers of Washington Territory."

Since Mercer left no known memoirs, and almost no documen- tary evidence exists to prove or disprove the suppression story, it is necessary to know something of Mercer's background and business dealings in order to render some judgement about his reasons for writing the book and its alleged suppression. If we can disprove some salient parts of the suppression story, then it is logical to assume that all of it is probably false.

Mercer left Washington Territory in 1876 and moved to Texas where he edited and/or published, in rapid succession, four news- papers : the Bowie Cross Timbers, the Vernon Guard, the Wichita Falls Herald, and the Mobeettie Panhandle. In April, 1883, Mer- cer was attending a livestock meeting in Dodge City, Kansas, when he met S. A. Marney, the "roving commissioner" for the Texas Live Stock Journal of Fort Worth. It was Marney who suggested they form a partnership to pubUsh a livestock-oriented paper in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where the cattle trade was then booming.

'''Delphine Henderson, "Asa Shinn Mercer, Northwest Publicity Agent", Reed College Bulletin, January, 1945, pp. 21-32.

56 ANNALS OF WYOMING

Mercer thought it was a good idea and advanced Marney the money necessary for a two-month canvass "among the cattlemen and business firms of the city and territory."^ Then Mercer went to St. Louis where he purchased a press, type and the necessary office fixtures. The St. Louis Type Foundry had done business with Mercer when he was proprietor of the papers in Texas. That firm sold him the material he needed on credit. The total cost of the Country Campbell press, type and fixtures was something in excess of $3000.

Meanwhile, Marney had secured an office in Cheyenne in the old Wyoming Block, on the south side of 17th Street between Thomes and O'Neil Avenues, near the present downtown area.

The first issue of the Northwestern Live Stock Journal came out on Friday, November 23, 1883. It was an ambitious eight-page effort. J. B. Morrow, editor of the Cheyenne Daily Leader, gave the new publication a paragraph in his issue of November 25, noting: "The first number of the Northwestern Live Stock Journal came out yesterday. (sic) It is bright and newsy and presents a very neat appearance. There seems to be no reason why it should not succeed."

And succeed it did. During the first few months, the success of the paper seemed to be phenomenal. The Stock Journal soon increased from eight to sixteen pages on alternate issues and rival Cheyenne editors were appalled at the new publication's ability to sohcit advertising.''

In the spring of 1884, Mercer gave Marney a full half-interest in the firm, but the solicitor soon began to be a liability. The original agreement between the two men specified that Mercer was to be in charge of all editorial and office decisions and that Marney was to spend all his time on the road, soliciting business and advertising for the paper.

Marney suddenly developed a dislike for travel and began to meddle in office affairs. He had previously installed his brother- in-law, Frank J. Burton, in the office as bookkeeper. Matters came to a head on July 21, 1884, when Marney returned from a week on the road to find that Mercer had fired Burton and hired a man named Trimble to take his place. Marney demanded that Mercer reinstate Burton and in the ensuing argument Marney called Mercer "a damned liar." Mercer hit Marney in the face and the two partners fell over the office railing in the ensuing struggle."'

At this point. Editor John F. Carroll of the Cheyenne Demo-

^Cheyenne Daily Leader, July 22, 1884. '■^Cheyenne Daily Sun, July 23, 1884. ^'^Cheyenne Democratic Leader, July 22, 1884.

ASA S. MERCER AND "THE BANDITTI OF THE PLAINS" 57

cratic Leader takes over the story. Carroll tells it with much relish, getting in his first digs at the seemingly successful Mercer and Marney. The Democratic Leader devoted two full columns to the fight in the July 22 edition titling the story "A Woman's Weapon — She Smashes a Spittoon on a Man's Head."

"Mrs. Annie F. Mercer, the wife of A. S. Mercer, then appeared in the arena. Incensed and violent, she caught up a large majolica spit- toon which was close at hand and made an attempt to go to the rescue of her struggling husband. This time Burton caught her and disarmed her while Moore (another employee) made vigorous attempts to pull Marney off and separate the two men.

"Just at this point a new element of belligerency made its appear- ance in the persons of two children, a girl about ten years of age and a boy somewhat older, both children of Mercer, who came to the rescue, each with a rock in hand ready to strike a blow for their father.

"In order to head off this new danger. Burton let go of Mrs. Mercer and blocked the way so as to prevent these children from interfering. Released now and with opportunity, Mrs. Mercer again snatched up the spittoon and rushing around to where she could get the proper opening she dealt Marney a terrible blow on the back of the head, lacerating it in a dreadful manner and breaking the spittoon into a dozen fragments. "^

That ended the fracas. A doctor was summoned to treat Mar- ney's wounds — fortunately they proved to be superficial — and brother-in-law Frank Burton dashed away to file charges of aggra- voted assault against Mr. and Mrs. Mercer. Later in the day, Laramie County Prosecuting Attorney Frank Baird and Dr. Hunt, who had dressed Marney's wounds, appeared before a judge and requested that the charge against Mrs. Mercer be changed to assault with a deadly weapon (majoHca spittoon) with intent to kill."

Mercer paid a fine of $10 and costs, but his spirited wife had to post bond of $1000 pending her later appearance in district court. The charges, however, were later dropped.

Needless to say, this spelled the end of the Mercer-Marney partnership in the Northwestern Live Stock Journal. Mercer scraped up $2000 somewhere to buy out Marney's interest and sent his former partner packing.

During the next few days a lot of unanswered questions about the Stock Journal's success were going to be asked again and answers would be forthcoming. The first answer came the next day when the sheriff served a writ of attachment on the newspaper office to satisfy a claim of $457.90 filed against Marney by Francis E. Warren. It seems Marney had purchased furniture on credit from the Warren Mercantile Co., and then neglected to pay.

i^The doughty Mrs. Mercer was one of the "belles" he had transported to Washington Territory.

58 ANNALS OF WYOMING

Before the day was out, other Cheyenne business firms had served their own papers on the down-but-not-yet-out newspaper. Craig, Davis & Company held a bill against Mercer to the amount of $347 for furniture the editor had ordered for his new home. A painter named J. E. Tuttle served notice that Mercer owed him $60 for decorating costs on the same house.

During the next few days, Mercer and his attorneys did their best to scrape up enough to pay off the debts. First a mortgage of $1,064 was given to the Warren Mercantile Co. Mercer gave a similar mortgage on his furniture and carriage to Craig, Davis & Co.i-

Then Mercer began hounding Thomas Sturgis, secretary of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, to pay the money that group owed him for printing the WSGA's 1884 Brand Book. Sturgis came through on July 29 with an odd amount, $499.24, which was evidently just the sum needed by Mercer at the time, no more, no less.

Mercer paid $143.30 to the Stockgrower's National Bank "in satisfaction of the promissory note of Mercer & Marney" and a payment of $305.04 went to the St. Louis Type Foundry. ^-^ The Stock Journal was finally back in business again — mortgaged to the hilt, but back in business.

In the years to follow between 1884 and 1892, Mercer was involved in a series of problems with the newspaper's creditors. Only the fanciest of financial footwork kept the publication out of receivership and records indicate that some of the creditors never did get their money. The records of these lawsuits are still filed in the Laramie County District Court Clerk's office and there are no indications that any records have been tampered with or stolen.^*

Mercer continued to publish the Stock Journal without inter- ruption. In September of 1887 he relinquished total control over the newspaper in favor of a "partnership" of sorts with Thomas B. Adams, then secretary of the Wyoming Stock Growers Associa- tion. An entry in one of Mercer's business journals, found by the author, shows that "Asa S. Mercer has this day by bill of sale transferred all the material presses, cases, imposing stones, etc used in printing the Northwestern Live Stock Journal to the North- western Live Stock Journal Publishing Company. Officers, A. S. Mercer, President and Thomas B. Adams, Secretary."^^

^-Cheyenne Democrati Leader, July 24, 1884.

i3Manuscript receipt, Wyoming Stock Growers Association collection, Western History Research Center, Laramie.

i^See State Journal Company vs. A. S. Mercer, Civil Appearance Docket 5-196; A. S. Mercer vs. St. Louis Type Foundry, 5-130, and Annie Mercer vs. St. Louis Type Foundry, 5-329, Laramie County District Court records.

1 '-"Scrapbook of Asa Mercer," p. 242. loaned by the Don Mercer family.

ASA S. MERCER AND "THE BANDITTI OF THE PLAINS" 59

A check of WSGA records for the same period fails to reveal any official sanction of Adams' part in this rather odd publishing arrangement, but the inference is obvious. Thomas Adams, full time apologist for the WSGA, would surely use his good offices in the publishing company to make sure "the voice of the cattleman was heard in the land."

In the fall of 1892 the cattlemen and the Republican party did make an attempt to suppress one particular issue of the paper. That issue — of October 14, 1892 — contained the famous "'Con- fession of George Dunning", who was one of the hired gunmen on the invasion of Johnson County. Dunning's story of how he was hired by H. B. Ijams, then secretary of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, "for $5 a day wages . . . and $50 bounty for every man that was killed by the mob in the raid on Johnson County" set Wyoming right on its ear.

Coming less than three weeks before Election Day, the "Dun- ning Confession", though undoubtedly true, was well calculated to turn the tide of victory over to the Democrats. The Republicans were the party in office in April of that year when the Johnson County War had taken place. A Republican governor, Amos Barber, did everything in his power to help the invaders on their mission. The Democratic party knew the damning effect Dun- ning's confession would have upon Republican chances for an election victory and ordered 24,000 extra copies printed to dis- tribute throughout the state. ^"^

The regular issue of the Stock Journal had been printed and gone out through the mails to some 1400 subscribers on Friday, October 14. While Mercer's printers labored through Saturday to produce a sufficient number of copies for the Democratic party, the Republicans and cattlemen labored to think of a way to stop them.

They finally dragged out an old judgement of $1439.80, first secured against Mercer in 1891. The sheriff had already served papers on this judgement a couple of times and "no property could be found." The judgement in favor of the St. Louis Type Foundry was against Mercer and he had put everything into his wife's name.

The sheriff was ordered to serve the papers again by none other than Wyoming's Attorney General Potter, who was also implicated by the Dunning Confession and who just happened to be repre- senting the St. Louis Type Foundry in the matter!

So, the Republicans succeeded in closing down the Stock Journal office for two weeks and confiscated the 24,000 "hand-

Hyattville, for microfilming. Roll H-193a, Historical Research and Publica- tions Division, Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department, Cheyenne.

^^Cheyenne Daily Sun, October 18, 1892.

60 ANNALS OF WYOMING

bills" printed for the Democrats but they could do nothing about the copies already mailed out or sold on the streets. Editor John Carroll of the Democratic Leader said: ". . . one thing is certain, the paper was in enormous demand and would have sold like hotcakes on a frosty morning if copies could be anywhere pur- chased. During yesterday a dollar and even more was freely offered for a single copy of the paper. Those in town were worn threadbare with assiduous reading."^^

It was probably from this incident alone that the legend of sup- pression sprang. It has all the important parts — court injunction against the paper, closing down the printing office, confiscation of remaining issues — and undoubtedly, the Republicans and cattle- men burned those 24,000 copies of "Dunning's Confession" that were so illegally confiscated. But this had been the newspaper, not the book. The incident took place in 1 892, not 1 894. And no one destroyed the press and type or burned down the building.

One other similarity should be mentioned. The "Dunning Con- fession" was also an important part of The Banditti of the Plains. It was reprinted verbatim in that book. So true stories about a raid on Mercer's print shop and confiscation of the "Dunning Confession" could easily have come down to us as an attempt to suppress the book two years later.

Until recently, there were no known copies of the Northwestern Live Stock Journal in existence after 1887, leading some students of the period to speculate that the cattlemen must have done a much more comprehensive job of suppression than just one issue. ^^

The simple, unromantic facts are that many such newspapers did not survive because there was no reason to save them at the time. As we live through history day by day in our own period- icals, few of us have the foresight to save any of them or the descrimination to know which ones to save.

Thus it becomes extremely difficult to place in proper perspec- tive Asa S. Mercer's part in the Johnson County War. All we have today to go on are brief mentions in other contemporary news- papers, often biased politically, and a few scattered clippings in the Francis E. Warren scrapbooks at the Western History Research Center at the University of Wyoming.

It is interesting to speculate that the Johnson County Cattle War might never have taken place had it not been for an editorial that appeared in the Stock Journal in June of 1889. It is just as inter- esting— and even less a speculation — to theorize that the true story of what happened in that conflict would never have been told had

'^'Cheyenne Democratic Leader, October 17, 1892.

I'^The writer had the good fortune to discover a copy of the Stock Journal of October 14, 1892, the same copy which contains the "Dunning Confes- sion." It is believed to be unique.

ASA S. MERCER AND "THE BANDITTI OF THE PLAINS" 61

it not been for Mercer's decision to print the "Confession" of George Dunning.

If the foregoing sounds like the editor did a bit of jumping from one side of the fence to the other, such was certainly the case.

The extent of Mercer's loyalty to the cattlemen who patronized his paper was shown in June of 1889 following the tragic lynching of James Averell and "Cattle Kate" Watson, alleged "rustlers". Mercer applauded the murders in print and advocated more:

"There is but one remedy and that is a freer use of the hanging noose. Cattle owners should organize and not disband until a hundred rus- tlers were left ornamenting the trees and telegraph poles of the terri- tory. The hanging of the two culprits merely acts as a stimulus to the thieves. Hang a hundred and the balance will reform or quit the country. Let the good work go on and lose no time about it."i-'

Could this editorial have been the framework of an idea that led to the eventual planning of the Johnson County "Invasion?" Mercer was certainly privy to most of the stockmen's plans and, according to the later story of one cattleman, actually helped plan the "Invasion."

Thus, if Mercer had been the paid hireling of the cattlemen through the good years, then turned against them following their incredible attempt at wholesale murder in 1892, it is easy to under- stand why they held him in such contempt.

The picture of the courageous editor who printed the truth in the face of economic coercion and legal and physical harassment begins to pale before such evidence. Mercer had had ample time and innumerable opportunities to become "the courageous editor" before. It was only when he knew that the cattle business was in a terrible slump and felt quite sure the cattlemen were in a fix they'd never get out of that he suddenly acquired his "courage."

Mercer acted out of expediency. He had long-range plans to turn the Stock Journal into a Democratically aligned general cir- culation newspaper.-*^ If his publication of the "Dunning Confes- sion" turned the tide at the polls in November of 1892 — and it did — he expected political patronage from the new administration to help save his failing newspaper. He could not know that prob- lems within the Democratic administration and the financial crash of 1893 would alter these plans.

Mercer's motives for writing The Banditti of the Plains have also been set forth as altruistic. This is scarcely the case. He only

^'^Northwestern Live Stock Journal, quoted in the Laramie Boomerang, August 31, 1889.

2('The first issue of the Wyoming Democrat came out in early February of 1893. Evidence indicates that Mercer continued to publish the Stock Journal for a few weeks after that. He sold his press, type and equipment to J. D. Kurd on July 19, 1893.

62 ANNALS OF WYOMING

began to write the book after the Stock Journal and its sucessor, the Wyoming Democrat, had failed. As the new, and somewhat self-appointed apologist for Democratic - Populist principles in Wyoming, Mercer hoped that his book would influence the election of 1894 in the same way that the "Dunning Confession" had in- fluenced the election of 1892.

Besides the word-of-mouth folklore that is still bandied about by those in Cheyenne old enough to recall the first faint stirrings of the MercQT-Banditti legend, a significant amount of false infor- mation has been put into public print.

Prime examples are two of the popular reprints of Banditti, one by the Grabhorn Press and another by the University of Oklahoma Press. The forewords to both of these books have given far too much credence to the legend of the suppression of the first edition.

The foreword to the Grabhorn Press edition was written by James Mitchell Clarke, son of A. B. Clarke, one of the "Invaders" Clarke wrote:

"The book had scarcely appeared when a court order was handed down commanding that all the plates and all copies remaining in the publisher's hands be destroyed."

In the foreword to the later reprint by the University of Okla- homa Press, William H. Kittrell wrote:

"For his boldness in publishing this provocative book, Mercer paid dearly. Copies of the books were seized and burned. He was jailed. The plates were destroyed ... his publication was closed down, and he never completely recouped his fortunes."

These are the standard litanies of Mercer's difficulties, but there is absolutely no proof to justify the book-suppression stories when a researcher tries to run them down.

Only two men "who were there" have left any documentary evidence to prove or disprove the suppression of the book. One was Phillip Ashton Rollins who was, among other things, the author of a book entitled. The Cowboy, published by Scribners in 1922.

Rollins was the owner of a copy of the first edition of Banditti. He presented it to Princeton University librarian James T. Gerould in 1923 with a covering letter that said in part:

"The book was printed in 1894, was advertised, and was immediately suppressed by a court injunction in the course of a law suit instituted in Wyoming. All of the books printed were impounded and placed in the basement of a building in Cheyenne, to await the day when they would be destroyed by burning. There being ways and ways of pro- curing desirable things, several hundred of the books found themselves one night in a wagon drawn by galloping horses and headed for the Colorado line. The copy handed you herewith was one of those which began that night ride on the wagon. The marks on the back flyleaf represent in part, I am told, the doings of the fire hose that was called into play for a few moments. You will recognize some of the other

ASA S. MERCER AND "THE BANDITTI OF THE PLAINS" 63

marks as indicating the course of bullets. I saw these bullets started on their way."

And from this, too, sprang the legend. It is interesting to note that RoUins wrote 390 pages about the cattle industry and the romance of The Cowboy and never once mentioned the alleged "midnight ride" to Colorado. If he "was there" — if he "saw these bullets started on their way" — why didn't he record the details of this unique incident in his book? This writer believes that Rollins was probably in the vicinity of Cheyenne in 1892 and "heard" from someone about the raid on the newspaper and the confisca- tion of the "Dunning Confession" handbills. After acquiring a copy of Banditti, he concocted the story of the "midnight ride" to Colorado and his participation in it to explain the rumors he might have heard about the book.

Another man who "was there" was Ralph Mercer, son of Banditti's author. In answer to a written query from Lola Hom- sher, Wyoming State Historian, in 1954, Ralph Mercer wrote:

This is fiction. Father's book was never suppressed by court injunc- tion nor was he ever jailed.^i

There is a preponderance of secondary evidence to dispute the suppression story. For instance, a thorough search of the Laramie County District Court records shows there was never a court action of any kind brought against the book. Dockets and files agree in numerical order and there are no missing records of any kind.

N. Orwin Rush claims he searched Cheyenne newspapers and there was absolutely no mention of the publication of the book, nor its suppression. He implies a "conspiracy of silence" existed among other editors. This implication is ridiculous, given the volatile political and editorial climate of the times.

The book was printed in Denver at the job plant of The Rocky Mountain News under the supervision of Tom Patterson, editor of that paper, who was attempting to exert control over Democratic politics in Wyoming.

There was ample notice of the publication of the book in both Cheyenne newspapers. The Cheyenne Daily Leader and The Chey- enne Daily Sun. As a matter of fact. The Cheyenne Daily Sun published a lengthy review of the book in its August 22, 1894, edition.

When Mercer and son, Ralph, went on the road promoting the sale of the book, mention was made of their visits in the Lusk, Buffalo, Sheridan and Douglas newspapers.

2iRalph Mercer to Lola Homsher, June 9. 1954, Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department.

64 ANNALS OF WYOMING

It is understandable that Mr. Rush could easily have missed paragraphs in the out-of-state papers, but how he avoided finding a full-column review in The Cheyenne Daily Sun is puzzling.

But the integral point of the suppression story concerns the "raid" of the cattlemen on Mercer's print shop and the destruction of his press and type and the burning of the building.

Assuming the incident — or any part of it — really happened, it is inconceivable that the contemporary press would have ignored it. Yet a painstaking search of all the available newspapers reveals no mention whatever of the alleged raid. A similar search of the records of the Cheyenne Fire Department shows that no call was made to 1713 Ferguson Avenue — where the Stock Journal was published — during the year 1894.

Yet the above paragraph is poor proof when compared with the fact that, in August of 1894 when Banditti was pubUshed, the Northwestern Live Stock Journal had been out of business for thirteen months!

How could the cattlemen have raided Mercer's office and de- stroyed his equipment in the fall of 1894 when he had sold that same equipment to J. D. Hurd in July of the previous year?

This evidence is irrefutable and proves that the raid on the print shop could not have taken place. --

There was a raid on the newspaper office and there was a "court injunction" and there was confiscation of printed material, but all these ingredients of the legend took place in 1892 and involved copies of the newspaper, not the book, which was published two years later when Mercer no longer had any printing facilities of his own.

Thus, in the light of research, the legend of the suppression of Banditti of the Plains and the motives of its author in writing the book do not hold water.

And it's a pity, too. Perhaps it was "too good a story" to ruin.

-^Cheyenne Daily Leader, July 20, 1893. The item reads: "A few weeks ago, without any preliminary convulsions, the Live Stock Journal passed quietly out of existence. Yesterday, J. D. Hurd, late of the Evanston Register, leased the plant and will conduct a weekly as was issued in the past."

}Slack Mills Sooner St Zhe J)avy Sxpedltm of 1868

By

Grant K. Anderson

"Great Overland Expedition to the Black Hills," boomed Yank- ton's Union and Dakotaian of December 14, 1867. The front page article announced plans for a caravan to depart from Yank- ton, Dakota Territory, the following spring under the leadership of Captain Peter B. Davy. It would, according to the Union and Dakotaian, "open up that beautiful and fertile region to settlement and cultivation and establish in her beautiful valleys a thriving and energetic people . . . who will prospect and bring to light the weight of her slumbering wealth and prospect her undeveloped and comparatively unknown mines." The coveted Black Hills gold fields would be opened at last to impatient miners.^

The immeasureable ore deposits of western Dakota Territory were rumored to exist in the early 1800s. Plains Indians undoubt- edly knew gold existed in their sacred Papa Sapa. However, they were not eager to share this information with the fur traders and explorers moving onto the Great Plains. Despite this attempt at secrecy, tales of gold appeared as early as 1804. In that year a Frenchman, writing to the lieutenant governor of Louisiana, made reference to the presence of nuggets in the Black Hills.^ Similar rumors appeared periodically during the next half century. Although the gold was located deep in hostile territory, adven- turous men set out for the Black Hills from time to time. Few returned, but those who did strengthened the belief that gold did exist in paying quantities.^

This presumption gained credence as the Army began exploring western Dakota Territory. In 1857, Lt. G. K. Warren led the first

i"Great Overland Expedition to the Black Hills," Yankton Union and Dakotaian, Dec. 14, 1867, p. 1.

^Watson Parker, Gold in the Black Hills, (Norman: University of Okla- homa Press, 1906, p. 6.

^Ibid.; Donald Jackson, Custer's Gold. The United State Cavalary Ex- pedition of 1874, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972), Harold E. Briggs, "The Black Hills Gold Rush," North Dakota Historical Quarterly, Jan., 1931; Harold E. Briggs, Frontiers of the Northwest, (New York: Appleton-Century Co., 1940).

66 ANNALS OF WYOMING

scientific expedition to the Black Hills. The detachment left Sioux City. Iowa, in July, bound for Fort Laramie. In the party was Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden, a geologist, who had first observed the area in 1855 with General William S. Harney. Lt. Warren ex- plored only the southern Hills region but he found traces of gold. Dr. Hayden spent time making observations and Lt. Warren noted the region's mineral wealth in his report. The report was not made public at the time, however, for fear it would create an Indian uprising.^

In 1859 Dr. Hayden continued his studies of the Black Hills. Captain W. F. Raynolds, Topographical Corps, was to assess the natural resources of the Yellowstone tributaries. Raynolds, ac- companied by Hayden, moved westward from Fort Pierre in June 1859. Mid-July found them near Bear Butte in the northern Black Hills. While encamped there small amounts of gold were discov- ered. Raynolds suppressed news of this exciting find for fear his men would desert. The party left the Black Hills several days later, remaining in the field for another year. Raynolds' report, published almost a decade later, concurred with Warren's — there was gold in the Black Hills. ^

Military exploration west of the Missouri River ended abruptly with the outbreak of the Civil War. The region was left to the Sioux as U. S. troops rushed south to battle the Confederacy. Nonetheless, civilian interest to open the Black Hills was beginning to gather momentum.

This civilian interest manifested itself from the very beginning of white settlement. The treaty of 1859 placed the Yankton Sioux on reservations and opened southeastern Dakota Territory to white settlers. Frontier communities sprang up along the Missouri River. From frontiersmen and reservation Indians early residents heard rumors of riches to the west. In particular, the city of Yankton possessed a keen interest in the mineral wealth of its territory. Dakota Territory was hardly organized when citizens planned to explore its mineral wealth.

Bryon M. Smith formed the Black Hills Exploring and Mining Association in January, 1861. With headquarters in Yankton, this was the first civilian organization devoted to opening the Black Hills to white settlers. Smith, an insurance man and pro- moter, held several public meetings in the territorial capital early in 1861. His message was warmly received as over half of

^Jackson, p. 4; Parker, pp. 15-16; James D. McLaird and Lesta V. Tur- chen. 'The Dakota Explorations of Lieutenant Gouverneur Kemble Warren, 1855-1856-1857," South Dakota History, Fall, 1973.

"Jackson, pp. 4-5; Parker, p. 16; James D. McLaird and Lesta D. Tur- chen. "The Explorations of Captain William Franklin Raynolds, 1859-1860," South Dakota History, Winter, 1973.

BLACK HILLS SOONERS: THE DAVY EXPEDITION OF 1868 67

Yankton's adult males became members. Prominent among these were Moses K. Armstrong, Wilmont W. Brookings, and Newton Edmunds, all of whom would play important roles in Dakota's history. Although enthusiasm abounded, the Civil War and Indian problems forced a postponement in opening the Black Hills."

In ensuing years civilian interest continued to grow. Dakota's territorial legislature frequently memorialized Congress for a geo- logical survey of western Dakota. The discovery of gold in Mon- tana in 1862 spurred Yankton's residents to increase their efforts. Requests were made for wagon roads across Dakota's plains to this newest El Dorado. A military installation to protect emigrants was also proposed for the northern Black Hills. ^

This renewal of activity also saw the rebirth of the Black Hills Exploring and Mining Association. Several well attended meetings were held in and around Yankton during January, 1865. To generate wider enthusiasm, a sixteen-page pamphlet was prepared for distribution throughout the East. George W. Kingsbury, of Yankton's Union and Dakotaian published the boomer literature which announced:

The Black Hills Exploring and Mining Association desires to call the attention of miners and emigrants to the new and short route to the gold fields which passes through Sioux Sity, Iowa and Yankton, D. T., thence in a nearly direct line to the Black Hills and the mines of Montana and Idaho . . . An expedition under the patronage of the government is now organizing for the purpose of opening the road with which the party of miners sent out by this association will unite.

If this governmental assistance could be secured, the Yankton organization was confident its goal would be attained.^

On March 3, 1865, Congress approved the survey and construc- tion of a road westward from the mouth of the Big Cheyenne River, through the Black Hills, to join the Powder River Road. W. W. Brookings, a member of the Exploring and Mining Asso- ciation's correspondence committee, was appointed superintendent of the project. Most of the surveying work was completed the following summer. Brookings optomistically foresaw an expedi- tion of several hundred miners accompanying the road builders into the Black Hills. As gold seekers began arriving in Yankton, he requested federal troops to escort the expedition.^

♦»Briggs, Frontiers of the Northwest, p. 28; Briggs, The Black Hills Gold Rush," p. 74.

'''Herbert S. Schell, Dakota Territory During the 1860's, (Vermillion: Government Research Bureau, University of South Dakota, August, 1954), pp. 37-38.

^Albert H. Allen, Dakota Imprints, pp. 7-8.

^W. Turrentine Jackson, Wagon Roads West: A Study of Federal Road Surveys and Construction in the Trans Mississippi West 1846-1869, (Berke- ley: University of California Press, 1952), pp. 297-311.

68 ANNALS OF WYOMING

No such escort was furnished, however, as governmental policy underwent a change. Newton Edmunds, Dakota's governor, had successfully negotiated a treaty with the Teton Sioux in 1865. In view of these treaty commitments the governor decided to abandon all road projects in western Dakota Territory. Rather than pro- vide an escort, the Army notified Brookings, in February, 1866, it would not permit the expedition to proceed. Without army support, efforts to send an expedition to the Black Hills were suspended.^-*

Despite this setback, interest in the region did not diminish. Yankton residents were encouraged when they gained Dr. Hayden, of the Smithsonian Institution, as an ally. Hayden, who had vis- ited the Hills with the Warren and Raynolds parties, planned to visit the region again during the summer of 1866.

In early October, 1866, Dr. Hayden returned to Yankton after successfully probing the Black Hills. He persuaded newly- appointed Governor Andrew J. Faulk to allow him to speak before a public meeting of the Dakota Historical Society. In a rousing presentation. Dr. Hayden spoke of the area's timber wealth, con- cluding his remarks by assuring his audience gold would be found in the Black Hills.^i

Such a glittering account breathed new life into the Black Hills Exploring and Mining Association. Under the continued leader- ship of Byron Smith, the winter of 1866-67 was filled with activity. More public meetings were held, speeches given, and resolutions passed. Plans were formulated for an overland expedition the following summer. A broadside, printed by the Association, pro- claimed, "Very many of the scientific institutions of the country will be represented and expect to accompany the expedition which will make the enterprise not only profitable, but an interesting one to all who desire to join it . , . the field is ample and all classes are invited to join . . ."i-

In response to such advertisements, gold seekers made their way to Dakota's capital. By the spring of 1867, 100 to 150 eager men were in Yankton ready to invade the Black Hills. In early June the Army stepped in once again. Generals William T. Sherman and Alfred Terry issued orders prohibiting the march westward. Despite a great public outcry there would be no opening of the Black Hills for another season. ^^

K'Schell, Dakota Territory, pp. 39-40.

iiMax E. Gerber, "The Custer Expedition of 1874: A New Look," North Dakota History, Winter, 1973, pp. 5-6; Parker, pp. 19-21; James D. McLaird and Lesta V. Turchen, "The Scientist in Western Exploration: Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden," South Dakota History, Spring, 1974.

i^Briggs, Frontiers of the Northwest, p. 28; Allen, Dakota Imprints, p. 14.

'■■^Robert F. Karolevitz, Yankton: A Pioneer Past, (Aberdeen, S. D.:

BLACK HILLS SOONERS: THE DAVY EXPEDITION OF 1 868 69

Late in November, 1867, Captain Peter B. Davy arrived in Yankton. A resident of Blue Earth City, Minnesota, Davy was a well-known guide and explorer. During the 1866 season he had led an expedition of 400 from south central Minnesota to the gold fields of Montana. From Fort Abercrombie the caravan had moved westward across northern Dakota Territory by way of Forts Berthold and Union, thence to the Montana diggings. On the return trip, Davy had explored a more southern route, through the Black Hills, which he felt would be shorter and better suited in his needs.^^

In Yankton he discussed a possible expedition to the Black Hills during the 1868 season. A meeting of citizens and territorial delegates was held December 7, 1867, in the home of Solomon L. Spink, territorial secretary. Governor Faulk, chairman of the proceedings, introduced Captain Davy who spoke at length on opening the region to settlement. Eight prominent orators, includ- ing Secretary Spink, Gudion C. Moody, and Brookings, also addressed the gathering. A resolution was passed to appoint a committee to confer with Davy. When Armstrong, F. J. DeWitt and Edmunds had been appointed to such a committee, the meet- ing was adjourned.^^

The committee met with Davy the next morning. It was pointed out that Smith, founder of the Exploring and Mining Association, opposed any expedition without a promise of military assistance. Despite this, the committee decided to cooperate fuUy with Cap- tain Davy. The four promoters then canvassed the business dis- trict for financial assistance. In a matter of hours, $1500 was raised to defray organizational and advertising expenses. ^^

In a letter to Kingsbury, editor of Yankton's Union and Dako- taian, Captain Davy publically acknowledged his gratitude:

Permit me through your valuable paper to return my sincere thanks to the citizens of Yankton and the Territory of Dakota for the very liberal encouragement they have rendered in aiding my efforts to open and establish a permanent route from the city of Yankton to that region of country known as the Black Hills.

And in consideration thereof, I would respectfully state they may rest assured that no effort should be lacking on my part toward making the matter a success . . .

Northern Plains Press, 1972), p. 50; Parker, p. 20; Briggs, The Black Hills Gold Rush," pp. 74-75.

i^Helen White, Ho! For the Gold Fields: Northern Overland Wagon Trains of the 1860's, (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1966), Jacob Armel Kiester, The History of Faribault County, (Minneapolis, Minn.: Harrison & Smith, printers, 1896), pp. 256-257, 282-283; Briggs, Frontiers of the Northwest, p. 29.

i5"Black Hills Meeting," Yankton Union and Dakotaian, Dec. 7, 1867, p. 3.

16/^,W., p. 3.

70 ANNALS OF WYOMING

I feel confident that my effort in opening a thoroughfare from Minnesota, through Dakota, the Black Hills, and Montana (so essen- tial to the interests of the public) will be crowned with success. i'''

The next days were filled with activity. Yankton was desig- nated as the expedition's terminal with June 1, 1868, as the depar- ture date. Armstrong, a member of the Exploring and Mining Association since its inception, was appointed secretary and gen- eral agent. It was decided that he would handle affairs in Dakota while Captain Davy would spend the winter of 1867-68 lecturing about the expedition throughout Minnesota.

An informational article was prepared for publication in the Yankton Union and Dakotaian. Entitled "Great Overland Expe- dition to the Black Hills," the article quoted Dr. Hayden's report discussing the region's geography and wealth of timber and gold. The advertisement proclaimed optimistically:

Already large numbers have signified their intention to accompany the expedition and it is confidently predicted before spring there will be congregated together at the City of Yankton, D. T. thousands of determined prospectors and miners bound for the pine clad tops of the Black Hills, seeking and finding sufficient of the precious ores to overflow their buckskin bags and make their hearts rejoice in the contemplation of better days.

Those interested in accompanying the expedition were advised to assemble in Yankton by May 20, 1868. It was determined to print the article weekly beginning with the December 14, 1867, issue through April, 1868.^^

By early December preparations were moving smoothly in Yankton. Captain Davy turned the operation over to his general agent, Armstrong, and returned to Minnesota. After stopping briefly at his Blue Earth City home, Davy began organizing the eastern branch of the expedition.

Monday, December 16, 1867, found the frontiersman in Wi- nona. He called on David Sinclair, editor of the Weekly Repub- lican and explained his idea. The same strategy used in Dakota was employed, as they agreed to call a public meeting to inform residents of the venture. The Weekly Republican discussed Cap- tain Davy's proposal pointing out benefits to be reaped by the state of Minnesota:

By opening this route the greater portion of trade and treasure which for years has been passing over the southern route will find the way through Minnesota to Chicago and eastern markets. In view of this fact it is a subject that should deeply interest the people of Minnesota as we deem it an ialiotory [^/cl step toward opening a lead-

i8"Great Overland Expedition to the Black Hills," Yankton Union and Dakotaian, Dec. 14, 1867, p. 1.

BLACK HILLS SOONERS: THE DAVY EXPEDITION OF 1868 71

ing thoroughfare to the rich settlements of Dakotah, Idaho and Mon- tana by giving encouragement to Captain Davy in this enterprise. 19

The following Wednesday, December 18, Mayor R. D. Cone pre- sided over a hastily called meeting in Winona's council room. A large turnout reportedly gathered to hear the soldier of fortune. Captain Davy assumed the floor and quoted at length from Dr. Hayden's report. He informed the audience of his plans to depart from Yankton the following spring. Other speakers followed Davy, all talking about the timber and mineral wealth of the Black Hills. No firm action was taken; however, a committee was ap- pointed to confer with local businessmen.-"

The preliminary actions completed. Captain Davy returned to his Blue Earth City home for the Christmas holidays. On Decem- ber 27, 1867, residents of that Minnesota community paid tribute to their voyager for his successful Montana expedition. Once again the good Captain spoke at length about the Black Hills and his plans for the 1868 season. The reception passed a series of resolutions which concluded:

RESOLVED: That the citizens of Blue Earth City do most cor- dially and heavily endorse the project of Capt. Davy and cheerfully recommend him and his plans to the citizens of this state and espe- cially to the cities east of us which must ultimately bear immeasure- able benefits by his success.21

In response to this, Davy designated Blue Earth City as a Minne- sota depot. The weekly Minnesota South West was enlisted to print accounts of the expedition. The Captain issued the same optimistic prediction of large numbers of recruits he had written for the Union and Dakotaian. As in the Yankton paper, this article would be printed on page one for the next several months. -- Davy next turned his attention back to Winona. He returned to the southeastern Minnesota city to determine what aid, if any, he would receive. A second meeting was called for January 3, 1868, at the courthouse. Mayor Cone again presided with Cap- tain J. D. Wood appointed secretary. The usual round of speeches was delivered. In the words of an observer, "The meeting through- out was orderly and attentive and an evident disposition was mani- fested to give the movement a push ahead." The gathering adopt- ed the resolutions passed by the Blue Earth City meeting of De- cember 27. In addition, a local provision was included:

RESOLVED: that a committee of two be appointed to receive subscriptions from the citizens of Winona to aid Captain Davy in or-

if>"New Gold Region — The Black Hills of Dakotah," Winona Weekly Republican, Dec. 18, 1867, p. 3.

^^Weekly Republican. Dec. 25, 1867, p. 3. -'^Yankton Union and Dakotaian, Jan. 11, 1868, p. 2. "-Minnesota South, West, Dec. 28, 1867, p. 1.

72 ANNALS OF WYOMING

ganizing his Black Hills expedition and advertising the city of Winona as his starting and outfitting point from the State of Minnesota. One half to be paid down — balance the first of March.2'^

In the next day's Winona's press the Weekly Republican and Daily Democrat bombarded their readers with details of the up- coming adventure. An account of Davy's 1866 expedition to Montana was presented and numerous columns were devoted to the wealth of the Black Hills. Benefits Winona would receive as a terminal point were also discussed. It appeared that these benefits formed the real basis of interest in opening the Black Hills. As an editor noted, "What we desire to especially impress upon the people of this city now is the importance of some early and con- centrated action to carry out with the best results the objects discussed in the first meeting of businessmen in the Council Cham- ber. In remarking upon this subject we shall not attempt to conceal a somewhat selfish motive which we design appealing to. Its vastly beneficial results are too apparent to inteUigent men to require much urging."-*

As the media was arousing interest in Winona, Captain Davy left to check preparations in Dakota Territory. In Yankton he reported conditions in Minnesota as "extremely favorable as far as the public sentiment is concerned." Subscribers of the Union and Dakotaian were assured that large numbers of Minnesotans would be arriving in the territorial capital the following spring to help open the Black Hills.^^

Mid- January 1868 found Davy and Brookings barnstorming southeastern Dakota Territory. Another round of public meetings was held with the now familiar orations delivered and resolutions passed. A favorable atmosphere prevailed and a newspaper ac- count reported the promoters were "well received and their im- portant enterprise encouraged in a substantial manner by the people. "^*^

Back in Yankton, Davy conferred with Armstrong. They re- viewed progress to date and recent developments. Armstrong commented on a letter Governor Faulk had received from Morris E. Ward of Cincinnati. Ward informed the Governor he was also planning an excursion to the Black Hills, via Omaha, during the 1868 season. When he learned of Davy's plans, Morris suggested a merger. His query went unheeded, however, as the Yankton

^■''Weekly Republican, Jan. 4, 1868, p. 1.

24"The Black Hills Gold Fields — Immigration" Daily Democrat, Jan. 9, 1868, p. 1; Jan. 8, 1868, pp. 1, 3; Jan. 10, 1868, pp. 1, 2. ~^Union and Dakotaian, January 25, 1868, p. 2.

BLACK HILLS SOONERS: THE DAVY EXPEDITION OF 1868 73

based group decided to continue with their present plans.-" Much of the meeting was devoted to the possibility of federal interven- tion. Another peace commission was in the field attempting to pacify the Sioux, thereby ending hostilities along the Powder River. Rumor had it a treaty was being negotiated which would place the Black Hills permanently in the hands of the Sioux. Such an agreement would be disastrous to their plans. Davy decided he would go to Washington to lobby against efforts to exclude white settlers from the Black Hills. In the meantime, Armstrong was to tour several midwestern states. It was hoped he would be able to gain new emigrants for the following spring as well as opposi- tion to any new reservation. In their absence, Brookings was placed in charge of affairs at Yankton.^'*

Both promoters visited in Sioux City on their way east. Davy immediately called on the editor of the weekly Register. He dis- cussed the expedition at length and submitted several articles. -** Armstrong, well known to Sioux City residents, arrived a couple of days behind Davy. He spent a few days with friends discussing the opening of the Black Hills. Disregard past failures, Armstrong told acquaintances, everything points to a successful journey come spring. "There is no better man for a trip than our friend M. K.," heralded the Sioux City Journal. Both newspapers filled future columns with glittering accounts of the upcoming invasion of the Black Hills. As the nearest railroad terminus, Sioux City also expected to reap benefits from Davy's adventure. ^^

From Sioux City, Armstrong traveled by rail to Chicago. He set up headquarters at the Briggs House and spent the next several days booming the expedition. Armstrong's presence in Chicago generated numerous articles among the metropolitan press. The potential wealth of the region was described as again Dr. Hayden's report was quoted verbatim. The opening of an overland route to the Black Hills would, according to the Times, mean "Chicago will reap the whole trade, not only of this new mineral field, but of all northern Montana." As in Winona, the possibility of economic gain was the cornerstone of support for the Davy expedition.^^

His mission completed in Chicago, Armstrong next sought the support of the legislatures of Wisconsin and Minnesota. He urged lawmakers to petition Congress against setting aside the Black

2"Morris E. Ward to Andrew J. Faulk, Faulk papers, Dakota Territorial Records.

-^Union and Dakotaian, Jan. 25, 1868. p. 2.

29"Black Hills Expedition" Sioux City Register, Jan. 25, 1868, p. 2.

'^^Sioux City Journal, reprinted in Union and Dakotaian, Feb. 1, 1868, p. 3.

^'^Chicago Times, Jan. 27, 1868, p. 4.

74 ANNALS OF WYOMING

Hills for an Indian reserve. The Chicago Times had already suggested such action to the Illinois assembly:

It would be well if the legislature of our own state would petition Congress against the policy recommended by the Indian Peace Com- mission which would result in locking up one of the richest and most accessible mineral fields in the northwest against the energy and enter- prise of the whiteman for the purpose of furnishing but a temporary hunting ground for the indolent and wandering Indian.

The matter is one in which the whole west is deeply interested.-'^^

Journalistic comments of a like nature were found regularly in both the Minnesota and Dakota press. Persistent editorials at- tacked the peace commission for its attempt to reserve the Black Hills for the Sioux. Such an act would retard the development of the entire frontier, they contended. The upcoming expedition furnished frontier editors with considerable copy in attacking such proposed treaty provisions. As one weekly put it ". . . let us hope that the bold adventerous are not to be tomahawked and scalped by these worst of Minnesota's foes." It was hoped the peace commission would find any area, other than the Black Hills, where the Indians could be deposited. '^-^

This support for Davy's expedition was also voiced in the halls of Congress. In February, 1868, Senator J. B. Wakefield of Minnesota introduced legislation to reopen road building in west- ern Dakota Territory. He proposed construction of a federal road from the western border of Minnesota to the Missouri River, and on to the Black Hills. Instead of closing the region to settlers, Wakefield maintained the government should assist the forthcom- ing colonization in every way.^^

Amid increasing public support, P. B. Davy returned to Winona in early February. He designated the city as eastern terminal of his expedition. From here the caravan would proceed through Rochester, Owatonna, Mankato, Jackson and Sioux Falls before joining with the Iowa and Nebraska contingents at Yankton around May 20, 1868. Peter Bauder, hotel operator and real estate promoter, was appointed agent for the Winona area. "Black Hills" headquarters in Winona was established in Bander's office at Washington and Second Street. Emigrants were continually urged to accompany the expedition hailed as "the largest that ever sought the gold fields to the West of us by way of Minnesota. "^^

Activity remained brisk throughout February. Davy traveled to

'^■■^Ihid.

^^The South West (Blue Earth, Minn.), Jan. 25, 1868, p. 4; Mankato Weekly Record, Jan. 25, 1868, p. 2; Union and Dakotaian, Jan. 18, 1868, p. 2.

345/. Paid Pioneer Press, Feb. 12, 1868, p. 1.

'■^•'Daily Democrat, Feb. 4, 1868, p. 4; "Headquarters," Feb. 7, 1868, p. 4.

BLACK HILLS SOONERS: THE DAVY EXPEDITION OF 1868 75

St. Paul, spending a week at the Merchants Hotel advertising his adventure. Bauder remained in Winona handling the inquiries that arrived daily. The Democrat of February 21, 1868, reported an emigrant had purchased two wagons and supplies for the jour- ney to the Black Hills. ^" The next week another five teams re- portedly were outfitted in Winona. -^^ Gold seekers in need of transportation were informed ". . . The Winona Wagon and Plow Manufactorary, Curtis and Mason, are getting up a number of wagons on contract for Captain Davy's expedition to be con- structed in part with Flavey's Patent Thimble Skein with the anti- friction Box Babbet Metal Linings." As the Democrat saw it "our businessmen are now receiving some of the many benefits to be reaped through the selection of Winona as a starting and outfitting point."^^

In the meantime, P. B. Davy was constantly on the move. From St. Paul the Captain conducted a whirlwind tour of Iowa before returning to his home state. March, 1868, found the wanderer canvassing south central Minnesota to establish additional depots. Almost a week was spent at Rushford in Fillmore County. No public meeting was called, but an informational pamphlet was prepared and B. W. Benson appointed agent for the area. The local press, the Southern Miwiesotian, wholeheartedly endorsed the scheme and admonished prospective fortune hunters, "Now is your time, boys, you will have to go to Alaska for adventure, if you let this opportunity pass unimposed."'^''

Waseca, terminus of the Winona and St. Peter Railroad, was also designated as a depot following a March 12 rally. James E. Child, editor of the weekly Waseca News, regarded it "the duty of every Minnesotian to to render encouragement to this great enterprise. "^*^ As so often happened, after Davy left town the local media was employed to generate enthusiasm. Follow up stories recounted suspected wealth of the Black Hills as well as Davy's preparations. The proposed line of march was laid out and Waseca residents advised "we are credibly informed that large parties are now ready in Montana and are only waiting until spring to start from the other direction to meet Captain Davy's expedition in the Black Hills.''^!

Child also viewed the expedition as a boon to Waseca's econ- omy. "Being located in a rich agricultural country," the journalist

^^Daily Democrat, Feb. 21, 1868, p. 4.

^'^ Daily Democrat, Feb. 28, 1868, p. 4.

^^Daily Democrat, March 11, 1868, p. 4.

3'>"Captain Davy's Overland Expedition to the Black Hills," Southern Minnesotian (Rushford, Minnesota), March 5, 1868, pp. 1, 4.

40"Capt. P. B. Davy's Expedition to the Black Hills of Dakota," Waseca News, March 20, 1868, p. 1.

41/fe/W.; News, March 13, 1868, p. 4.

76 ANNALS OF WYOMING

suggested, "its advantages for those desiring to purchase and outfit for the Black Hills are unsurpassed by any other locality." Editor Child made his point by advertising local enterprises such as wagon makers, livery stables, dry goods and grocery stores. The News apparently reasoned if the Davy expedition would stimulate the economy it should be promoted. In addition to opening the Black Hills, the venture was also bringing prosperity to local merchants. ^-

His work completed at Waseca, Davy returned to his home at Blue Earth City. The Captain spent a few days resting and draft- ing a news letter for distribution to the regional press. He ex- plained his recent travels and informed readers the news from the East and other quarters made him confident the Black Hills would be opened by his legions. Emigrant groups supposedly were form- ing as far away as Chicago and Milwaukee. Interested gold seek- ers were encouraged to contact the agent in their area at once as the June 1 departure date was growing near. To further publicize his adventure, the pathfinder was embarking on another trip through Dakota Territory, southern Iowa and Missouri. ^-^

On the eve of his departure. Captain Davy delivered a lecture at the Blue Earth City school on March 23, 1868. He predicted the expedition would be a complete success, noting the thousands who had indicated their plans to participate. Accounts stating the Black Hills would become an Indian reservation were un- founded, listeners were assured. In closing, Davy revealed the publication of a pamphlet outling the expedition. Carr Hunting- ton, editor of the local Minnesota Southwest had prepared the twenty-eight page guide which was to be distributed to prospective members throughout the country. ^^

"A FORTUNE FOR THE MILLIONS. GRAND OVER- LAND EXPEDITION TO the Gold Fields and Pine Forests of the Black Hills of Dakota" broadcast the pamphlet which adver- tised "WANTED 10,000 able bodies, energetic, hardy and indus- trious pioneers to join Capt. Davy's grand overland expedition." The avowed goal of the campaign was the mineral wealth of the region. Several pages were devoted to describing the region and documenting the existence of gold. Listed as references who could attest to the region's wealth were frontiersmen, congressmen, and the governors of Minnesota, Dakota and Montana.^*^

^^News, March 20, 1 868, p. 4.

^■^South West, March 14, 1868, p. 1; March 21, 1868, p. 1; St. Charles Herald, March 20, 1868, p. 3; Weekly Republican, March 8, 1868, p. 3; March 18, 1868, p. 2; Daily Democrat, March 10, 1868, p. 4; March 17, 1868, p. 2.

445oH//? West, March 21, 1868, p. 1; March 28, 1868, p. 1.

^•''Peter B. Davy, and Carr Huntington, Capt. P. B. Davy's Expedition, (The South West: Blue Earth City, Minnesota, April 1868) p. 20, 24.

BLACK HILLS SOONERS: THE DAVY EXPEDITION OF 1868 77

But Huntington was quick to point out secondary benefits to be reaped by opening a permanent route from southern Minnesota to western Dakota. A settlement in the Black Hills would provide a link to connect the midwest with both the East and Pacific Coast. With this goal in mind, the circular invited:

. . . the attention of Farmers, mechanics, and other businessmen who have the pluck to emigrate and better their fortunes . . . secure a home, establish a business, and obtain a foothold in advance of thousands of the timid, who when they find the way is open, will pounce down upon the country.

Also "to consumptives and other invalids we would say, if you would wish to prolong your life and be restored to health make arrangements to accompany this expedition." Obviously, the pro- moters felt the Black Hills had something to offer anyone inter- ested in going.'**'

For those planning on making the journey, the guide contained the following instructions:

Everyone accompanying the Expedition should provide themselves with six months supplies, gun and ammunition, pick, pan and shovel. Those who can provide themselves with a horse to ride, it is desirable to do so. Oxen and a light thimble skein wagon are the best mode of transportation. A fee of ten dollars is required from each adult to defray the expenses of organizing the Expedition.

Emigrants were also told to "pay no attention to rumors (Indian or otherwise) the Expedition is certain to go through. "^^

As the departure date neared. Captain Davy hurried to Winona in early April, 1868. He spent several days at the eastern termi- nus finalizing plans for the first leg of the journey. The mild spring weather prompted the conductor to announce the caravan would depart Winona as soon as the prairie grasses were sufficient for grazing the work stock. He was hopeful the weather would cooperate, allowing him to arrive in Yankton by the May 20 meeting date.^^ This is borne out in a letter Davy sent to James Moloney, manager of the North Western Hotel in Sioux City, Iowa. He informed his agent he positively would be in Iowa by May 15, adding "everything looks favorable for a large party which will number thousands." Plans called for spending a day or two in Iowa before moving on to Yankton, the central collecting point. A week or so would be spent in Yankton, coordinating the various detachments and organizing for the final leg of the journey to the

46/fe/rf., pp. 18-19. 47/ft,W., p. 19.

■^^Wabasha Herald, April 2, 1868, p. 4; Dailv Democrat, April 8, 1868, p. 1.

78 ANNALS OF WYOMING

Black Hills. June 1 was still the anticipated departure date, the Captain assured his agent. ^^

By the end of April, gold seekers were anxiously awaiting the signal to begin. One detachment of Blue Earth City residents had already been dispatched to Yankton. Others remained, waiting, as the Winona Daily Democrafs April 30 issue indicates "there are ten or twelve teams already equipped at Wabashaw roady [sic] for a start as soon as the order is given by the gallent Captain: and so it is all over the State, in every community there are more or less getting ready to go." While last minute preparations were being made, Davy rested at his Blue Earth City home in an attempt to recover from an attack of lung fever.'''*'

Yankton, Dakota Territory, was also bustling with activity. Hills bound emigrants were arriving daily to join the Captain. A carnival-like atmosphere prevailed. Past failures were forgotten as confident prospectors prepared to settle the Black Hills.

Unknown to these emigrants, a message was received at Fort Sully, Dakota Territory, late in April, 1868, which would prohibit the expedition from departing. The Communique, issued to Brevet Major General D. S. Stanley, explained governmental opposition thus:

The country to which it [the Davy expedition] is proposed to ex- plore is unceded Indian territory and such an expedition therefore, if made, will be made in violation of the law. It is especially important at this time that this territory be preserved inviolate, as it is the region selected by the Indian Peace Commission for a reservation for the Sioux and other northern tribes. The Brevet Major General com- manding therefore directs that you prevent the proposed expedition, using force if necessary. Should you find that troops will be needed you will take them from any of the posts in your district at your discression. It is desirable to notify at once the organizer of the expedition that they will not be permitted to carry their design into execution.

To this end, Stanley contacted Dakota's Governor Faulk, who or- dered the directive published in Yankton's Union and Dakotaian.^^

The government's action produced strong opposition in the ter- ritorial capital. Once again the Army was threatening to exclude white settlers from the Black Hills. Some of the emigrants suggested an armed invasion of the Black Hills while others opti- mistically argued the government could be persuaded to rescind the order. Editor Kingsbury, vocal Davy supporter, urged mod-

495/owx City Register, April 11, 1868, p. 2, April 18, p. 2. soDaily Democrat, April 30, 1868, p. 1, April 24, 1868, p. 1; Union and Dakotaian, April 4, 1868, p. 2; April 11, 1868, p. 3. ^Wnion and Dakotaian, May 2, 1868, p. 2.

BLACK HILLS SOONERS: THE DAVY EXPEDITION OF 1868 79

eration while at the same time editorially requesting the Army reverse its position/"'-

Captain Davy was in Winona when informed the Army intended to terminate his expedition. He immediately sent a telegram to the Secretary of Interior requesting him to countermand the orders issued by the military. The soldier of fortune refused to abandon his scheme without a fight. Telegrams were also dispatched to congressmen and political leaders of several states asking their support in his struggle. The Captain also announced the fortune seekers assembled in and around Winona would depart for Yank- ton as scheduled. If and when governmental opposition could be removed, the caravan could still reach the Black Hills during the 1 868 season. With this idea in mind, Davy left for Yankton to personally continue the battle. '"'^

During the interval, Minnesota and Dakota editors speculated on the expedition's fate. Most voiced disappointment at the sud- den turn of events. Affairs were proceeding smoothly, and every- thing pointed to success, before the Army stepped in as it had in 1867. A majority of journalists still predicted success for Davy "in spite of the shortsighted policy which appears to have assumed a temporary ascendance among our authorities," as one publication termed it.^^ Editorial blasts were leveled at the peace commis- sion's action which meant ". . . the richest sections of Dakota Territory are closed to the civilized world — its useful and valuable minerals, its millions of pine, its wonderful and inexhaustible fields for scientific research are given over to the control of savages and uncivilized Indians who neither know the worth or can derive from them the remotest benefit."^^ To such editors, the governmental action amounted to nothing short of a complete surrender to the Sioux nation. They argued the reservation scheme would not bring peace to the frontier. Instead, the Army should assist in opening the Black Hills, garrison troops there, and place the Indians else- where. Other columns told of the preparations Davy and the men who planned to follow him had made. For any number of reasons, such frontier editors hoped "it may be found not inconsistent with the obligations of the Government to the Indians to allow the expedition to proceed. "^^ Much the same sentiments appeared regularly as journalists waited for a final decision regarding the Davy expedition.^^

52/Z,/W., May 2, 1868, pp. 2-3.

53Weekly Republican, May 6, 1868, p. 3; Daily Democrat, May 7, 1868, p. 4.

^^Union and Dakotaian, May 16, 1868, p. 2.

55/ijW., May 30, 1868, p. 3.

^^Mankato Union, May 8, 1868, p. 4.

^"^Cheyenne Daily Leader, May 15, 1868, p. 1; South West, May 16, 1868, p. 1.

80 ANNALS OF WYOMING

The enterprising Captain arrived in Yankton late on the evening of May 29, 1868. From local leaders he learned all appeals had been turned down and the expedition was doomed to failure. Gov- ernor Faulk, a Davy supporter from the beginning, had issued a directive stating he could not sanction an armed invasion of the Black Hills in defiance of military orders. "^^ Davy remained a few days in the territorial capital. He considered calling a public meeting but decided against it. Instead, the Captain met with several groups of supporters and explained what had gone wrong with his scheme. He also informed them it was senseless to con- tinue in their efforts to open the Black Hills. The area was re- served for the Sioux by the Laramie Treaty and the Army would use force if necessary to keep white men out of the region.

Before leaving Yankton in early June, Davy wrote the following letter to the editor of the Union and Dakotaian:

I do not desire to leave Yankton without first having expressed my unqualified thanks to Hon. M. K. Armstrong, Gov. Edmunds, Sec. Spink, Hon. W. W. Brookings, C. H. Mclntyre, F. H. DeWitt, yourself and others for the interest manifested in my behalf in the endeavor to promulgate and carry to a successful conclusion the Black Hills expedition.

These men have proven by their acts in the encouragement of the enterprise their devotions to the interest of the people of Dakota and deserve to be remembered with gratitude by every true Dakotan.

The development of the richest portion of Dakota would have re- sulted largely to its benefit, but for the present our enterprise has failed. All we can do is await our time when the futility of this Grand Reservation scheme will be made apparent to the Government at which time I hope I shall be able to control in some feeble degree the interest of the Nobleman of the West — the Pioneer of America. 59

Davy accepted the failure of his expedition philosophically. Upon settling affairs in Dakota's capital, he retired to his Miime- sota home and became active in local politics. He had known the risks involved when he gambled his time and money to open the Black Hills. What bothered him the most was the fate of those who answered the call to join him. Over 300 soldiers of fortune had assembled in Yankton by June, 1868. Most were young men who had given up good positions to accompany Davy westward. Disappointed at the sudden turn of events, a few returned to their homes. Most, however, booked passage on steamboats bound for the Montana mines. It would be another seven years before ad- venturers would be allowed to penetrate the Black Hills. ^*^

The Davy Expedition of 1868, although a failure, has earned its place in the history of Dakota Territory. True, there was nothing

^^Union and Dakotaian, May 30, 1868, p. 3. ^^Union and Dakotaian, June 6, 1868, p. 2.

^('George W. Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1915), pp. 870-871.

BLACK HILLS SOONERS: THE DAVY EXPEDITION OF 1868 81

novel about Davy's planned overland route from Yankton to the Black Hills. Throughout the 1860s visionary citizens had cast their eyes upon the region. Several attempts had been made to open the Black Hills before P. B. Davy arrived in the territorial capital. The same cast of characters — M. K. Armstrong, W. W. Brookings and Newton Edmunds among others — were found in every previous effort. The Captain was merely a new leader of an old group with an old idea. They hoped Davy, being a well- known guide and promoter, would be able to accomplish their goal where lesser men before him had failed.

Support for Davy's proposal came from a number of sources. Residents of Dakota wanted to develop the western portion of their territory to hasten statehood. What better way of attracting set- tlers, they reasoned, than opening the gold fields they were sure existed in the Black Hills. The lure of sudden riches had already attracted settlers to California, Idaho and Montana. Why not Dakota? For his part Governor Faulk felt the Hills area had to be settled before it was taken over by the newly created Wyoming Territory. In addition, a strong population in the Black Hills would go a long way toward ending hostilities in the region.

The effort to develop western Dakota Territory also found en- couragement in neighboring Minnesota. Some residents viewed the scheme as a chance for adventure. The possibility of economic gain, however, was the real basis for support by most Minnesotans. Towns such as Winona, Waseca, and Blue Earth City foresaw profits as shipping and outfitting points for a permanent settlement in the Black Hills. Such benefits were far more important to the people of Minnesota than the mineral and timber wealth of the Black Hills.

In spite of widespread encouragement, Davy knew the success of his mission rested on governmental support. Yankton residents had been trying for almost a decade to open the Black Hills. Thus far the Army had thwarted every attempt. The Captain had been let to believe the military would allow him to proceed in 1868. But once again federal authorities stepped in at the last moment to stop this largest and best organized of the Hills bound, fili- bustering expeditions. The Laramie Treaty of 1868 had placed the Black Hills in the hands of the Sioux for the time being. There would be no further Yankton based attempts to open the Black Hills until after the 1874 Custer Expedition.

82 ANNALS OF WYOMING

Unusual Nicknames

Nicknames prevalent throughout the West in early days have always intrigued those interested in Western lore. They were given to cowboys, gamblers and other Western characters, usually be- cause of some peculiarity of speech or manner, locality from which the person was said to have originally come, from some humorous incident in which the person named had a leading part, and even ironically, to bestow characteristics in which he was lacking.

Of these names, Hartville, both as mining camp and cow-town, had its full quota, and some of the most unusual are as follows:

Snake River Jack, Montana Bill and The Ogallala Kid, were names borne by men who "hailed from" these localities. Red, Blackie, The White Swede and Cotton (short for Cotton-top) were descriptive of coloring and complexion. Three-fingered Charlie needs no explanation, but he was a fiddler of no mean ability and was in great demand for playing at dances. Step-and-a-half John had been injured by a fall from a horse, and walked with one long and one short step. Sister Mary was so called from his softness of speech and his effeminate bearing.

Vinegar Bill was not sour of face as might have been supposed upon hearing him so addressed, but he had made the mistake of attempting to take a mighty drink from a jug which he thought contained liquor — and found it vinegar. Rattlesnake Dick was a mild-mannered man who was filled with abject terror at the sight of a rattlesnake. Calico Jack possessed a seersucker coat, which he sometimes wore. Woodbox Jim received his nickname when he returned to his home ranch, much the worse for drinking, and mistaking the woodbox for his bunk, slept in it until morning. Jerky Bill was a well-known small rancher, famous for his esca- pades, but the manner in which he received his name and was known throughout the country, has been forgotten.

—By Alice C. Guyol

W.P.A. Manuscripts Collection Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department

"J or t Platte, Wyoming,

J84J-J845: Kival of 7ort Za ramie

By

David W. Lupton

Bicentennial travelers following the Oregon Trail will undoubt- edly include on their tour a visit to the exciting Fort Laramie National Historic Site. Just north of the fort they will pass a monument in stone to still another fort — Fort Platte. One hun- dred and twenty-five years earlier their predecessors also passed a monument to old Fort Platte, but in the form of crumbling, faded white-washed adobe walls. Few could know that this roadside marker heralds a site which can boast a long list of famous visitors, exciting frontier incidents and trading activities that rivaled its better known neighbor, Fort Laramie.

What was the origin of this little remembered trading post? The answer lies in a letter of October 5, 1879, in which Lancaster Piatt Lupton wrote as follows:

"I left the Army in the year 1836. My resignation took effect on the 31st March 1836. In the fall of the same year about 15 Sept. I started on a trading expedition to the Rocky mountains. I established a trading post on the south fork of the Piatt [el river about 15 miles below Denver City, Colorado. A few years after I established another trading post on the north fork of the Piatt [e] river near the site of Laramie City. In a few years I exten'd my trade till my trading posts extended from the Arkansas Rivers to the Cheyenne River on the North, a distance of more than 500 miles."i

The post on the south fork of