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Show Mr. Bcatty witnessed at the camp consisted in a chicken's head being stuck through a hole in a log, with the marksman who could draw first blood rewarded with chicken and the money wagered. From the files of the Utah Writers' Project, W. P. A. the camp for several years, hit upon a plan whereby he took with him a crate of pigeons, selling them to the miners for twenty-five cents a pair. The idea was that they should release the pigeons and try to pot them on the wing. Mr. Beatty records that sharpshooters invariably missed, and that the pigeons, pi-geons, with true homing instinct, would beat him home. Next week he would crate them up again and re-sell them to the same marksmen. marks-men. A pigeon would last indefinitely indefin-itely this way, and the profits were steady. Another shooting trick which TALES TOLD OF OLD UTAH MINING CAMPS Classic are the tales of blood and thunder from early western mining camps, and few camps were more famous, or should we say "infamous," "infam-ous," than the boom town of Silver Reef and Frisco in southern Utah. Among the more colorful tales for which these towns are famous, is the story of a "body remover," a stalwart hired in Frisco to follow a two-gun sheriff around and harvest har-vest the daily crop of corpses as the officer discharged his duty also his gun. Classic, too, are the tales of gambling, for when bigger and better gamblers are produced they will come from the mining industry. According to the recollections-of John T. Beatty, early pioneer resident resi-dent of Toquerville, a favorite gambling pastime at Silver Reef took the form of shooting matches. Mr. Beatty claims that the miners there were particularly poor shots, but were quick to boast their prowess and to demonstrate. Mr. Beatty, who hauled wood to |
