Early
Law Enforcement
On the Dodge
By Ray Haueter - former
UPOA Historian,
UPOA President 1970 - 1971, now deceased
By
popular request, we reprint Ray's stories of Early Law Enforcement for
your pleasure
Note: Sometimes, when I try and find articles that I believe
may be of interest to the readers of the Utah Peace Officer, my mind has
a way of becoming more blank than usual. Over the years I have been able
to accumulate a fairly large library of Western history as well as individual
files on many of the more notorious outlaws who roamed the West in the
1800's and early 1900's. Also, I have been able to build some rather extensive
files on some of the lawmen during this same period of time. In trying
to decide what might be an interesting story for this issue, I decided
it might be of interest to the readers to do one on the life of many who
rode the "Outlaw Trail" . . . to describe some of the problems faced by
the outlaw in hiding from the law. I hope you will find this story to be
not only interesting, but also informative.
Matt Warner, a former member of the "Wild Bunch" and later a Justice
of the Peace and constable in Price, Utah, said: "It wasn't a case of just
one outfit of deputies trailing us, but posses was out scouring the whole
country, and we was running into fresh outfits every little while and had
to change our direction, or dodge into a rock or timber hide-out, or backtrack,
or follow long strips of bare sandstone where we wouldn't leave tracks,
or wade up or down streams long distances so they would lose our tracks.
We had to put into practice all the tricks we had learned as cowboys and
learn all the new tricks outlaws to know to stay alive. A big part of the
time we didn't dare to build fires at night or even in the daytime. So
when we did feel safe to build a fire, we would cook up baking-powder scones,
bacon, beans, enough to last several days. Then we would eat this
cold soggy, stale stuff without coffee in cold or dark camps. In
the daytime we would sweat, fry, or sizzle under the hot desert sun, or
ride for whole days with our clothes soaking wet in rainy weather, or sleep
in clothes on cold nights under one saddle blanket. It didn't make any
difference if one of us got sick, or nearly died with rheumatism or toothache,
or got a leg broke; he had to grit his teeth and trail right along anyway.
If he died, he did just like a horse or dog along the trail and didn't
receive any more burial than they would, and his body would be eaten by
the coyotes. That's what an outlaw had to face. That's the other side of
the adventure and romance of outlaw life."
The life of an outlaw could be and usually was, a matter of being
on the move most of the time. No outlaw, who had become very notorious,
could afford the luxury of a home and a permanent place to live. Before
the coming of the telegram, wanted posters were circulated by the mail
carried by stage coaches, most of which bore a reward notice for the person
who was named. These posters were prominently displayed in sheriff's offices,
post offices and places of business. If the reward was a large one, chances
are it would attract the attention of "Bounty Hunters" who would also take
the trail to collected the reward.
Most western towns were small in the early west, and any stranger
riding in was bound to attract some attention. Townspeople were hungry
for news of any kind and as such were inclined to talk a lot about anything
unusual they had seen or heard about.
Brands on horses and cattle were as important in the early west
as license plates are on cars today. Much could be told about a horse from
its brand as well as the cowboy who was riding it. A bill of sale was as
important as a car's registration and title. Outlaws passing through town
could be remembered by their appearance and the brand on the horse they
were riding rather than by the name they may have been using. Many times
names changed as often as the towns did. The James Gang and the Daltons,
under assumed names, are known to have visited in Brown's Park as well
as other locations in Utah when things got too warm for them in their own
territories.
Most outlaws carried a complete horse shoeing outfit and extra
shoes in their pack. If a horse should throw a shoe while its rider was
running from officers, it was about the same as a car having a flat tire.
He must either stop and shoe the horse or risk the horse going lame and
being unable to travel.
Matt Warner had many close brushes with posses trying to run
him down. This was in the late 1800's and early 1900's when the west was
becoming more settled and law enforcement was becoming firmly implanted
in the towns and settlements. Much of the wide open spaces was gradually
being taken over by towns, ranches and barbed wire. Communications were
becoming better with telegraph and telephone systems being installed. Local
officers were able to form networks to send and receive vital information
concerning wanted fugitives. The telegraph and telephone systems traveled
much faster than the running outlaw, putting law enforcement officers far
ahead of the wanted man. Warner gives this account of one such chase:
"When we left Big Hole, deputies was closing in on us from all
directions. We had to run through their lines at night. They was in sight
some of the time and local officers was warned against us and was guarding
the bridges and ferries and trying to head us off. We never camped at any
one hide-out more than a few hours. We never slept without one of us staying
on guard. We never unpacked or unsaddled our horses. When we would run
into what we thought was a safe hiding place for a few hours, we would
take the bridles off our horses so they could drink and eat grass and picket
them at the end of long ropes close by. If we had been surprised, we would
have been in our saddles and racing away within a minute or two.
When we left Big Hole, we had five horses. When we rode into Baker, the
first town we ventured near during the flight, we had only three horses
and they was nearly dead. We rode the other two to death on the trail."
Then, of course, were the unexpected things that could occur,
such as . . . in Matt's words, "We had three sacks with money in. Each
of us took a sack and was just on the point of dashing away when that fool
bronc of mine took a notion that he was at a rodeo show instead of a bank
robbery. He selected just that peculiar minute to put on his supreme performance
in bucking, to conquer me, and cure me for all time of trying to ride him.
I never rode a horse that bucked harder than he did before a stranger and
more surprised and startled audience under more inopportune circumstances.
I never tried harder in my life to stick a bronco, for if he throwed me,
he would throw me clear into jail." (Note: The above information
concerning Matt Warner is taken from the book "The Last of the Bandit Riders",
by Murray E. King.)
During this same period of time, an outlaw known as "Bill" Shanley
was running from a posse in the area of Hanksville, Utah, near Dandy's
Crossing on the Colorado River. There was no ferry there, but the river
was running low and with a good horse, he knew he could swim the river.
Having outdistanced the posse, Bill was sure he had sufficient
time to undress and tie his clothes in a bundle to keep them dry while
crossing.
Bill stripped down to his boots and spurs, with his cartridge
belt and six-gun around his neck, then climbed aboard his horse and rode
down to the river intending to cross. It was at this time he spotted a
horse and rider coming toward him from the other bank. Bill had no choice
but to put spurs to his horse and race into the brush that grew along the
river where he dismounted and with rifle in hand watched the other rider
put his mount into the water and begin swimming across.
As the rider came out of the water, Bill recognized him as an
outlaw friend of his who was being followed rather closely by a determined
posse. After dressing hastily in the brush, Bill and his friend made
a hard ride up river where they soon parted company. Bill took to the brush
where he spent a cold night without a fire and later made his way into
the Book Cliffs above Thompson, Utah. Winter was coming on and many men
"On the Dodge" were looking for a place to spend the cold months ahead.
Much of the cattle rustling and other outlaw pastimes came to a halt in
the winter. Hoof prints were too easy to follow in the frozen ground and
snow. Mountain passes were closed and off-trail travel was too difficult.
Now was the time to "dig a hole and climb inside, then pull the hole in
after you."
Sometimes it was rather difficult to find a place to "dig a hole"
where it would not be found. Robber's Roost could be a very unfriendly
place to spend the winter. Snow could get pretty deep, feed for livestock
could be hard to come by and trails could become slick and snow-packed.
Cold weather was a time to find another place to spend the winter. Many
of the outlaws followed the long trail south to warmer climates and found
work on some cattle ranch where they were not known or where no questions
were asked. Most of them were top hands with cattle, worked hard and kept
to themselves. Butch Cassidy and other members of the Wild Bunch were known
to frequent the area of Alma, New Mexico, not only in the winter, but after
some of their escapades up Wyoming way. He is also known to have spent
some winters in the Star Valley area along the Wyoming-Idaho border when
the snow was deep and the trails closed during the winter months.
Browns Park was also a well-known place along the Outlaw Trail
to spend the winter. Many of the lesser known outlaws not only worked there
during the cold weather, but also ran small spreads of their own in the
Park. Among these were the colored outlaw, Isom Dart, Matt Rash, Longhorn
Thompson, Joe Tolliver and others . . . some of whom later left the Outlaw
Trail and became law abiding citizens in the nearby communities.
Isom Dart and Matt Rash became victims of Tom Horn, who was hired
by the large cattle ranchers in the area, to chase the rustlers out of
the Park. They died of lead poisoning from Tom's rifle. Others left Brown's
Park to escape the same ending, never to return.
By the 1900's the days of the "Long Riders" were pretty much
in the past with most of those who had continued on the Outlaw Trail either
in prison, shot by posses or ran out of the country. Tom O'Day was an example
of one who had continued as an outlaw after many of his friends had given
up their lawless careers and settled down. He was caught by a sheriff's
posse on November 23, 1903, with a herd of stolen horses near Casper, Wyoming.
He was tried and found guilty of horse rustling and at the time he was
sentenced, the judge gave him a lecture that seemed to fit the occasion.
He said:
"In the early days of Wyoming it was the custom to rustle stock,
and if a list could be compiled of all the men who had gotten a start in
life by this method, it would make quite a large catalog. But those days
are past, and Tom, you ought to have quit when the rest of the boys did.
If I were to sentence you for all the crimes you have committed, you would
go to the penitentiary for the rest of your life; but your sentence shall
be only for the crime upon which you have been convicted . . . After you
serve your sentence, try and lead an honest life. You will find it pays.
There is but one result for those who steal."
The outlaw trail was a long and hard trail. The lonely and unmarked
graves are many and their contents will remain a secret as the trails they
rode. The hoof beats of their horses have long been silenced and the path
they travelled has become dim and vanished. The romance of the Old West
is still glorified in movies and books . . . and rightfully so. It was
a time of hardships, bravery and determination by those who helped tame
its wildness and settle the lonely valleys and plains far from civilization
as we now know it.
Justice was usually swift and sometimes harsh. There was no repeal
from the law of the rope. The judge and jury were often the rancher's posse,
the bounty hunter or the vigilante group who took the law into their own
hands. Law and order came slowly to the West and to those who were "On
the Dodge."
