OCR Text |
Show genealogy Research of tho West 1; How some outlaws made their mark il tty Kerry Kss lU.rrn ",. ,iuMS around tho l.inwood. Utah l0Ki fnrVit was irauiAited by tho KaminS fiorfto Uke until iffltlvrtvalUKl the visit of Tom ?k rvoy 1-osan (Kid Curry) Si J. nowdat Bob Swift's 'tft o Bhwd" Sa,lH,n in the fa" old log saloon was a popular lf ,t of tlx- outlaws, situated within a nt ' of the I'tnh-WyominR Klines, and within only a few miles '? he outlaw stronghold of Brown's K k For two davs they holed up in a J proved by Bob Swift across a bridge spanning Henry s Fork lethev celebrated, drank, gambled Xd generally raised hell. ifter one night's gambling session, ?i'hflhreemen began to brag about their wess with a gun and repaired to a wbv meadow followed by a group of urioiison-lookers to put on a display of Markmanship in a contest, p,wd was an amazing character. : lm in old Mission. San Francisco in iLjj at the age of twenty-one he had lecome a Catholic priest, and on the ight of his final vows, strapped on a air of guns around his priestly robes, lot drunk, shot up the town of Sausalito, blifornia, and escaped to the sanc-Jary sanc-Jary of Brown's Park, Utah one jump fcad of the law. Ue spoke seven jnguages fluently, was a handwriting inert, a philosopher, deputy sheriff, Wrton detetective, deputy U. S. barshal, railroad detective, stock (elective, while at the same time aaintaining a close personal friendship iith such persons as Butch Cassidy, (id was the man who gave Harry A. jongabaugh the nickname "The iindance Kid." 'In addition, Dowd had been educated i the art of ballistics at the University (San Francisco and had once beaten q, ie notorious Jesse James in a " booting contest. It was he who taught pth the Sundance Kid and Matt lamer the "art" of shooting. There is no one to match him in the history llhe West, or anyone who ever came lose, a broad statement, but true. Tom McCarty, too, was an able iarksman, but perhaps not so im-Rssive im-Rssive as his companions. It was Kid jury who was to be most remembered r the particular trick he employed, Id one which modern gun enthusiasts ve unsuccessfully attempted to ptch. One witness to the event was kard Tolten, a Mormon school . kcher recently arrived from Beaver, " (ah, who related the incident: ."Curry put a red poker chip on the ick of his hand and then held his arm I shoulder high. He spread his legs st a little, then turned his hand and tipped the poker chip. Before that iker chip hit the ground, he had drawn P gun and emptied it - five shots in the jsh of an eye!" This feat is even more impressive oen one remembers that Curry used a Pgle action revolver, one which had to (cocked each time before it could be This writer's grandfather, Willard i Schofiold, witnossod yot anothor such display of markmanship shortly after tho Tipton (YVyo.) train roblx-ry when Cassidy, tho Sundance Kid, Kid Curry and several others rodo through tho country and stopped briefly at the ranch of George Solomon in Connor Basin, near present Manila, whore Schofiold was working putting up fence. After coffee in Solomon's cabin, the men began jesting with each other about markmanship. Sundance prodded Butch, calling him "an old man" and said he was rusty, whereas Butch retorted that Sundance was still wot behind the ears (there was but four years difference in their ages), so they repaired to a nearby grove of trees and small meadow and put on their show. Sundance was impressive, blowing tossed coins out of the air with unerring accuracy. For many years, this writer's grandfather possessed one of the dented coins. But Butch was more impressive, at least to Schofiold, for he mounted his white horse, and using only knee pressure, guided the mount around a tree at breakneck speed, and with a gun in each hand, placed bullet holes a neat one inch apart in a near circle completely around the tree. Many years later my grandfather took me to the spot and the marks on the tree were, and still are, visible. While having an established reputation with a six-shooter, Butch Cassidy was more effective in the use of a rifle, according to his contemporaries. con-temporaries. Whenever a supremely long shot was called for, Butch was always called upon for his rifle. The Sundance Kid was unique in the respect that he had been an iron worker in his youth, and often fashioned his own guns and parts. In addition, he loaded his own cartridges, and was an expert at breaking jails, on one occasion oc-casion in Montana, picking the lock of his cell by fashioning a horseshoe nail into a key! But it was not only the outlaws of the region who left their mark in markmanship. mark-manship. Mark Anson, an early day sheriff of Sweetwater Co., Wyo. (deputy sheriff) and later sheriff of Daggett County, Utah, was an impressive im-pressive marksman, often shotting coins out of the air. Jim Lamb, who supplied horses to the Wild Bunch for many years, was also an excellent shot, as was Sheriff John T! Pope of Vernal, the only sheriff brave enough to enter Brown's Park alone - and survive! The ultimate test of his reputation, considering con-sidering that the Park was infested with as many as 200 outlaws at one time! But there were others even more effective. Sheriff Sterling Colton of Vernal, Uintah County's first sheriff who served for fifteen years, was able to maintain the peace during a period of peak outlaw activity in the region, not on his ability to shoot (although he was an excellent shot), but on his ability for diplomacy. During his entire term in office, he was compelled to kill only one man, a Mexican horse thief who "holed up" in Dry Fork Canyon and refused to surrender. |