SUNDAY MAGAZINE
ANN ARBOR, MICHIG &N, SUNDAY, JUNE 3, 1923
eLet'M e ining ompany
Placer Mining and the Providential Gentlemen
Tre is a district of limited area C. T JOHNSTON cial headquarters. Jeff Dunbar, an
along the Colorado-Wyoming boun1 outlaw from several schools of crime,
dary, where the highwayman, the rust- Unicrsit of Mihiga spent his week ends "shooting up"
ler, the horse-thief and their relatives saloons. I was never in a saloon
in other fields of criminal industry -w .ile this interesting pastime was in
found sanctuary ramtli pursuit of progress, but I have inspected the de-
officeis representing law and order ased areas soon oter the meetings
long after their activities were frown iad adjourned. Dunbar was a genius
ed upon by an unquestionued majoritysantisonexpet in his osn feldas
of Western people. The country tiso one cooxpew Iesu l ais
_ no one could view the results of i
which I refer lies alosg the Lit - ioandiwork without adiration. Butch
Snake River, a tiibular of Green Cassidy, another celebrity, was less
River. Toue Ricer has i's (sur e 5 nreninent i local society. It took
the Sierra Madre Mountains, soame of business trips several ties each year.
its tributaries comiing tris ynging on his absense or soon after his
and the others from Colorado. After " r w return, newspapers frequently pub-
the river receives enough water fromc - ihive accounts of railway robberies
these tributaries to dignify the titleI, It and similar exploits, thus enabling
wanders along in an uncertain way as those in position to put two and two
though undecided as to whether is together to arrive at conclusions,
would cast its lot with one state or the These conclusions were seldom di-
other. It finally leaves Wyoming for Dra-B a bs-l Schrer vulged to Mr. Cassidy. He had a
the last time near the mouth of Dry fhcag cadec of Fi .Iris reputation of being quick and effec-
Gulch,-a channel of more importance some 10 miles east of Dry Gulch. could purchase violin strings, dyna tive in argument and his opponents
than the name might signify,-some A scout, Joe Rankin, made his cele- mite or whiskey at the same counter generally lost interest in discussion
3 miles west of the mountains. brated horseback ride to Rawlins, a Perkins' private office was an arsenal as soon as sincerity and frankness ex-
The boundary between Colorado and distance of SO miles, to spread tie I!is theory of survival was completely ceeded caution. Johnny Red Shirt,
Wyoming is an astronomical line,- news of the massacre and call for expressed in his own laconic phrase- another social light whom I met, was
the 41st parallel of north latitude, help. Troops were dispatched from ology by, "Those who are alive learned on ordinary horse-thief. His abilities
Charles Lamb always exprcesed great Cheyenne, Fort Steele, Rawlins and early to shoot first.'" He was noti- were probably heredity, although the
respect for the equator. I sympa- Salt Lake City. These left the rai lfied by the sheriff one evening that environment was not altogether dis-
thixed with his feeling as I became road at Rawlins, traveled 65 miles to attachment papers would be served scouraging to his chosen field of ac-
acquainted with this boundary line. Baggs, just north of the Colorado- on him the following mornig, so tivity. After having been shot through
It was surveyed in 172 by the late Wyoming boundary and on Snakea during the night, he drafted all the the shoulder by a careless sheriff, he
W. A. Richards, Commissioner of the River,-where a astekade was built help he could muster and moved his was brought to Baggs, while I hap-
General Land Office under President The Indians were soon subdued. Mek- entire stock across the boundary line pened to be in town. On the follow-
Roosevelt. An astronomer from Hr- er was concernet in their civilization into Colorado. ing lay, he rode horseback between
vard ecompanied the cxpedition. and he died a martyr to his thecy. A physician by the nasse of Ricketts a two officers from aegs to Rawlins,
Monuments were set at each mtile on The valley eas been the home of lived on a ranch just west of Dixon :a distance of 65 iles. No ordinary
which numbers were inscribcd indi- sme unusal characters. c ld i ,e -as an able masn and highly prized eean, seec (e ssy wcuned in the tsh.toul-
eating the distance from the r th Baker, early pioneer, squaw man, ti b iy the people of thvllecy when not der, culd have stood such a trip. 1
east corner of Wyoming. s esto1' .t .r and guilI, e stablishee 1 hlsr is e under the influence of morphine. Rick- ls track of Johnny after le was
the Sierra Madre Mountains seat of in the mountains near the soure or etts had chosen between success, as sent to the penitentiary for five ears.
the original monuments were cotton- Snake Rier while this part of the flse - ord Is cerionly spelled, and Although more than twenty-seven
wood posts shich disappeared within country was still Mexican ter.itory. te morphine habit. Having d cided years ave passed since I made my
a few years, although some remains One of the early towns, as one pro- in favor of the dfug, lie established first journey along the Little Snake
of decayed wood could be found rs ceeds downstream, is Dixon, Wyoming, his home among people who would River, I have never before written of
late as 1900. The geology of the val- seven miles east of Baggs. Numerous not cast the first stone. His course easy impressions of the valley and its
ley is varied. Coal measures abound interesting characters lived at or near naturally led to a suicide's grave, people. I have not feared contradic-
and many ranchmen mined their own Dixon. At a general store, conducted The element that most interested the tion although I can speak with less
fuel supply at the time of my first by Charlie Perkins near Dixon, one casual observer seeme4 tts have no spe- rescrve since receiving positive .as-
visit. With an astronomical line, surance of the death of Butch Cas-
potjrly located, ,a topography that sidy. I have felt that the men with
had not been mapped and a mixed whom I was then associated had had
geology,'the valley offered a paradise enough grief and that publicity would
for scientists who delight In the com- St ionly add insult to injury. In addi-
plications that arise due to over-lap- tion, many things of serious import
ping fields. It was something of an to them were more or less amusing
outrage, therefore, when society su- to se. Most of the principals of the
perimposed upon this tangle of natur- ROBERT BARTRON comedy that I witnessed in 19 and
al complexities a population that wa 1896 have now passed to another
equally confused and heterogeneous. Much, too much, has already been to our credit that one hundred and sphere, where, I hope, they have laid
While the valley nad been explored written of the Dodos. You have all fifty of the ten thousand thousand up treasures too frequently Ignored
priort to the completion of the Union heard of their thimble theatre with percenters have pulled the Dodos' first5 by promoters o. mining disappoint-
Pacific Railroad, 1569 to 1870, it It-f season onto the right side of success. ments.
not become a resort for the fugitive s for rows of back-breaking Sooner or later in nearly every com-
from justice until the railroad pro- be-ches, its seven foot proscenium, its munity a prophet appears to intro-
vided better transportation convenien- ladder cumbling down to the dressingI . To Change the Subject: duce a new era. The Snake River
es as well as an improved prospc. rooms at a near right angle, as well Surely everyone las seen Tony Valley escaped this sort of a calamity
for a more lucrative reard for viola- cc the ducky-daddies themselves. The Sarg's marionettes, or at least, his until along about the year 1894, when
lions of the senth commandment. actors are actually so cose to the kind of marionettes, the kind that one John Hardinburgh, suffering a
Some will doubtless recall somethIng audicence that one can feel their fran- jump and bounce and wiggle and lucid interval, due to a temporary
of N. S. Meeker, formerly editor o tic pantings as they forget their lines. shimmy. They are really most de- separation from alcohol, announced
the Greely Tribune and then Indian In all, the place, a deserted barn lightful and amusing; to use a sweet that the hills along Dry Gulch and
Agent at Fort Meeker, some 50 miles propped up by logs, is really incon- phrase, anyone from six to sixty in- in that vicinity contained placer gold.
south-west of the Little Snake River ceivable inadequate and uncomfort- stantly falls under the sway of their Hardinburgh had all of the essen-
Valley. Meeker had a theory that the able. But despite all these inconvenl-. ridiculous burlesque. The term quite tial attributes of a prophet; he be-
t _ Indian would be Improved by hard ences the illuminati patiently assem- describes them: a burlesque that is lieved in his theories and he believed
work. The Indians, failing to grasp ble three nights monthly to view the taken from the harlequinades and bur- in himself. le was in position there-
Mr. Meeker's logic, killed him early impassioned-if wordy-dissertations letta and mummery of a primitive fore, to make converts to his cause.
in October, 1879. To protect white of rhetoric instructors on the aeven people. lie did not aim to make a general ap-
people remaining at Fort Meeker, deadly sins, such as religion, let tis Their ultimate art, however, prob peal to mankind and he never dreamed
troops were immediately, sent from say, and labor, and love. It is all ably lies in the more rarified field of proving anything to his neighbors,
Fort Steele, a station located at the quite astonishing, this continued sup- of tragedy and poetic fantasy. With but in some mysterious way he sol
point where the Union Pacific Rail- port of the little theatre, and surely a picture of the familiar jecemeping-jack' his clans to a group of men lives-n
road crosses the North Platte River, most encouraging. Although Ann Ar- mpuppet before one, it ism to accep in Providence, Rhode island. It is
28 miles east of Rawlins. Most of the hor gave only feeble support to t m-t.is theory, which as yct sardly 5)stl that any prophet, engaged
detachment,-only a few hundrea cretest livieg Shakseseare c 1n been proven in -zretsie. T -eEact, :n a e ture of this ind, swanld thinlo
troops, under Major Thsrnturgt,- during 1S - reel fvisit, Vameers nevertol ass, sero-s (en o(on- of Pro4sec first. The namsers of
nver abushelent ansd killed by the In- "Ctoister" psTeed to e mpty herm iscr t. Noll m c Japan,teIr-]v ofl S g.t Prveih.d:er x vee5i ces - cc
lisens isnlIse Th vrure Getlch, a lrIeee- seed Striashimrg's "The Stronges-" sees scubmeme s flee mues Bt iay fall ea mt. 'Tcey si t - fe-i c--es
ta 5a R5 - rm t, cc C--considered "edliocre," at least it is (C.-n re.ec oim P- -i t)a