The Cheyenne to Black Hills Stage Routes

I began reading The Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage and Express Routes with a great deal of doubt as to how far I would get before I would move on to something, say, less arcane and tedious. After all, I surmised, my father who had invested $1.50 in this drab looking tome had only made it 30 some pages before his bookmark found its final resting place. However, I have set a goal to read as many of my dad's Black Hills history books as possible and so I chose to begin with this.

As it turns out, it was a good choice.  The Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage and Express Routes (TCBHSER from now on) by Agnes Wright Spring is actually a well written and engaging picture of the struggles of early gold and fortune seekers as they sought to travel to the Black Hills from the south via the stage.

I assumed the author, Agnes Wright Spring, was just some well- meaning local amateur who wrote history as a hobby. Again, I was mistaken. Agnes Spring was born in Colorado in 1894 and was the first female to enroll in engineering courses at the University of Wyoming. She graduated in 1913 with a degree in civil engineering but was unable to find employment in that completely male dominated field. Eventually, she won a scholarship to Columbia University's Pulitzer School of Journalism where she became friends with Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt. In her lifetime, Agnes Wright Spring wrote 20 books, 13 short stories, and over 600 articles. and served as state historian in both Wyoming and Colorado. She is the only person to have ever been state historian for two different states. On the basis of her writing she was granted membership in both the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. She died in 1988.

I have traveled the route covered in TCBHSER hundreds of times over the past 35 years. Fortunately, I have always done it in an automobile with amenities such as heat, air conditioning, paved roads, and padded seats. Agnes Wright Spring describes a much different travel experience for those hearty enough to try to get from Cheyenne, Wyoming to the gold fields of the Black Hills of South Dakota from 1876 to 1887.

Even in a nice, comfortable car on a perfect day this is a dreary trip. Five or six hours pass by like time spent waiting in a dentist's office. A traveler might leave in perfect weather and encounter high winds, rain, snow, or hail at some point. Sometimes all of those in a single trip. The modern traveler also need not be concerned with road agents, Sioux warriors, or carnivorous beasts.

The intrepid fortune seeker of the stage route days had to deal with all of those things plus 60 hours traveling time in a Concord wagon that, while it was the Cadillac of its time, was still only equipped with wooden wheels and leather shock absorbers. Probably no lumbar feature in the seats, either.

And yet the coaches ran usually 3 times a week year round, hauled thousands of people to the Hills, and hauled many thousands of dollars of gold back to Cheyenne. The coaches also hauled mail and other vital supplies.

Agnes Wright Spring details the brave men who piloted the stagecoaches. Men such as the esteemed Johnny Slaughter who lost his life in a hold up, and George Lathrop, one of the best drivers and the man who drove the last run in February of 1887.  She also goes into great detail about the difficulties of getting the stagecoach operation off the ground, and the efforts of men like Luke Vorhees who kept it running efficiently. And finally, the author writes at length about the ever present road agents, desperate men who preferred to dig for their their gold in the safes of the stages.

Eventually, the coming of the railroad ended the era of stagecoach travel but as one travels along the route today the stage line stops are still evident. Places such as Chugwater and Lusk owe much of their existence to the stage. Other roadside markers and crumbling stage stops still bear witness to the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage and Express.

One final note: the town of Lusk owes its name to a rancher named Frank Lusk who sold some of his land to the railroad for a "reasonable price." That's it. Sorry it wasn't more interesting or exciting. Just a rancher's last name. Made a land deal. Probably bought some cows with the money. That is all.

The Black Hills in the Movies

I can hear it now, “wait just a gosh darned minute Mr. Blogger, there is no mention of  movies in the description of this blog” or “gee, yet another boring discourse on Dances with Wolves or A Man Called Horse.”

Let me explain. First of all, both Dances with Wolves and A Man Called Horse were adapted from print so technically they could fall into the scope of this blog. However, that would be too easy. Everyone has already seen or read or heard about these Black Hills classics. No, we will instead take a look at the decidedly non-classic 1948 film Black Hills starring singing cowboy Eddie Dean.

Eddie Dean was a 1930’s era country crooner who tried to make it in Hollywood and emulate the fame of singing cowboy sensations Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. He had roles in several B-grade movies but never approached the fame of his contemporaries.

Black Hills is the tale of a rancher named Hadley who discovers gold in a cave on his ranch. A crooked saloon owner named Kirby learns of the discovery, kills Hadley and seeks to wrest control of the ranch from Hadley’s son and daughter. Enter Eddie Dean (who plays the character “Eddie Dean”) and his sidekick Soapy Jones (played by Roscoe Ates, who played this character in fifteen different movies). Eddie Dean was on his way to the Hadley ranch for a vacation but stayed on as foreman after hearing of the murder of the elder Hadley. The remainder of the movie involves chases on horseback, fist fights, and wild gunplay as Eddie Dean seeks to keep the ranch in the hands of its rightful owners.

Black Hills clocks in at an even 58 minutes. The movie was distributed by Producers Releasing Corporation, the last film ever distributed by that B-movie giant. Black Hills was also the last starring role for Eddie Dean. It was a fitting farewell for both.

As can be expected, the low budget Black Hills has some interesting moments. There is a scene early on where four bad guys are chasing the younger Hadley in an attempt to rob him of his payroll. Eddie Dean shoots one of the crooks dead. A scene later all four of the bad guys are gathered in a saloon plotting their next move. We saw this same phenomenon in the Deadwood Dick saga where fatal gunshot wounds do not necessarily cause death. It’s as if the Black Hills is one giant Pet Sematary.

Other points of interest in Black Hills;
1. Eddie Dean is much smaller than the henchmen in this movie. Often, a casting director will compensate for a leading man’s lack of height by hiring even shorter opposing actors. This was evidently not a concern in this picture.
2. The character of Soapy Jones has no discernible function in this movie. In one scene, Soapy is introduced to the daughter of Rancher Handley who greets him as " Toapy."
3. Even in fake gunfights these guys must be the worst shots in the world. The antagonists fire at each other without effect for much of the movie. In one scene, Soapy Jones hides behind what appears to be no more than a giant tumbleweed and yet no bullets from the bad guys find him.
4. The high point of the movie is the song “Black Hills” written and sung by Eddie Dean. However, in the lyrics Eddie refers to the Black Hills of South Dakota. There was no South Dakota until statehood in 1889. The movie appears to take place much earlier than that but like all low-budget films time is fluid and non-essential.

In conclusion, Black Hills has nothing to do with the Black Hills. Much like the Deadwood Dick novels, the writers consider the Black Hills an imprecise area where cowboy-type stuff must have happened.  But we should not simply dismiss this movie as bad cinema. Westerns such as Black Hills were once quite prolific and helped perpetuate the archetype of the lone hero in American mythology. This lone hero still resonates in films such as Dances with Wolves and A Man Called Horse.

Black Hills is available on Netflix as an instant download.

Deadwood Dick - The Conclusion

I have struggled for some time to find a way to sum up Deadwood Dick, the Prince of the Road without simply copying the entire dime novel onto these pages. The novel simply defies summation. So I will do the best I can in brief.  Hold on, gentle reader, this is going to be a bumpy ride. (For best effect, read the following real fast and do not try to understand any of it.)

Ned Harris leaves the Flower Pocket in the capable hands of Harry Redburn, the man he just met and saved from the ruffians in the bar. Harris has some business to attend to and plans to be away for some time. Harry Redburn is also charged with looking after sweet, sad-faced Anita.

Shortly thereafter, the General, Walsingham Nix, shows up at the Flower Pocket. It seems the General saw a gold mine on the property in one of his drug-induced stupors.  It turns out the General was correct and he and Redburn become partners in the mining venture.

Meanwhile, Deadwood Dick is shot at close range while attempting to rob a stagecoach. The man who did the shooting was traveling with his son to the Black Hills with the very intention of killing Deadwood Dick. Fortunately, the wound to Deadwood Dick was not serious and he and his gang take the shooter and his  son as prisoners. Unfortunately, the shooter and his son escape in short order with the aid of two of Deadwood Dick's less than loyal henchmen.

What of Fearless Frank and the the woman he saved from Sitting Bull, the lovely Alice Terry? Well, they entered the Black Hills and ran directly into Ned Harris. It seems that Ned Harris and Fearless Frank have had a feud simmering for some time. Fearless Frank and sweet, sad-faced Anita were at one time an item and in the view of Ned Harris, Fearless Frank disgraced the sweet, sad-faced girl. Because Ned Harris is the brother of sweet, sad-faced Anita, he has no choice but to avenge her honor.

The two men agree to a duel (yes, an 18th century duel; no random wild gunplay between these two good guys) with Alice Terry serving as the second for both men.  Fearless Frank wins the duel and leaves Ned Harris for dead.

Shortly after, Fearless Frank, aka Justin Mckenzie, and Alice Terry stumble upon the Flower Pocket. So does Deadwood Dick and his gang. It seems that the hidden canyon known as the Flower Pocket was not so hidden after all.

Harry Redburn attempts to keep control of the situation. He senses something between Fearless Frank and sweet, sad-faced Anita and refuses to let Frank near her. He also allows Deadwood Dick and his gang to stay but only if they guard the mouth of the canyon.

The whole thing comes to a climax when the man who shot Deadwood Dick earlier shows up in the middle of the night with his son and captures the Masked Man with the intention of finishing what he had started. It turns out the shooter is actually the uncle of Deadwood Dick and there is some issue of an inheritance or something. The plot is thwarted by Fearless Frank and Calamity Jane who save Deadwood Dick in the nick of time.

This is where the wheels really come off.  It turns out the lovely Alice Terry is the long-lost daughter of the dwarfish General. Maybe gene pools were less important in those days. The whole situation between Fearless Frank and sweet, sad-faced Anita was a big misunderstanding and they are really man and wife. And the biggest surprise of all?  Deadwood Dick is revealed to be none other than Ned Harris.

Please, gentle reader, do not struggle with the fact that Deadwood Dick/Ned Harris was shot twice in the chest with no seeming ill effects in the telling of this story. Or that nothing in the entire novel had any basis in fact. After all, this was the mythical Wild West of the dime novel in all of its glory.

Deadwood Dick, The Prince of the Road

After much delay we will look into the somewhat bizarre world of Deadwood Dick, The Prince of the Road, or The Black Rider of the Black Hills.  Again, it is important to remember that this tale was written in 1877, barely a year after the Deadwood gold rush began.

Edward Wheeler no doubt read other sensationalistic write-ups of the Old West and the colorful characters who populated the region, but he did not let any factual data get in the way of his story. Deadwood Dick is the story of a handful of settlers, gold-seekers, and general ne'er-do-wells who all come together in a small area of the Black Hills to determine their respective fates.

First we meet Fearless Frank, a strapping youth who saves a damsel in distress named Alice Terry from Sitting Bull and his band of warriors. As it turns out, Fearless Frank once saved Sitting Bull's life and so the two are old friends. All it took to secure the release of the lovely Miss Terry was a handshake. One side note; Fearless Frank travels the West in buckskins dyed to a scarlet hue. One can only wonder what other Western ruffians might have said behind his back.

We also meet early on The "General", a crusty old curmudgeon named Geoffrey Walsingham Nix. The "General" was "a little, deformed old man; hump-backed, bow-legged, and white haired, with cross eyes, a large mouth, a big head set on a slim, crane-like neck, blue eyes, and an immense brown beard, that flowed downward half-way to his belt about his waist."  The "General," as we learn later, had the unique and very valuable ability to see the location of gold mines in his dreams. All it took to kick this gift into gear was enough opium to send Geoffrey Walsingham Nix into dreamland.

Harry Redburn is the next player in the drama. Redburn is a naive Easterner who we first meet in a crooked card game in Deadwood. Redburn (whose last name mysteriously changes to "Blackburn" at one point in the novel) is saved from a card sharp by another strapping young man, a fellow we will first know as Ned Harris. Redburn and Harris narrowly escape after a shootout with the gamblers with the aid of one Calamity Jane. They make their way to a hidden canyon called the "Flower Pocket" where Ned Harris has built a cabin. At the cabin we first meet "sweet, sad-faced Anita", the sister of Ned Harris.

Finally, we meet Deadwood Dick, the masked, black-buckskin clad scourge of the Black Hills. Deadwood Dick is first seen gunning down a man foolish enough to offer a $500 reward for his apprehension. We also learn that the Dick, the Black Rider of the Black Hills, is only between 16 and 20 years of age. Young people were evidently tough in those days.

Next, The Plot of the Story, or This Thing Has Enough Twists and Turns to Make M. Night Shyamalan Jealous.

Who Was Deadwood Dick?

The Black Hills of South Dakota have hosted their share of legendary characters. Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Seth Bullock, and Potato Creek Johnny are names well known to anyone with even a passing familiarity with the area. There is, however, another name that exists in the mists of Black Hills lore;  that of  the masked, black buckskin-clad outlaw Deadwood Dick.

So who was this mysterious gunfighter and highwayman?  Deadwood Dick was the fictional creation of Edward Lytton Wheeler, a self-described sensational novelist who wrote the first installment of this series in 1877. 

Very little is known of the life of Edward Wheeler. He was born in Avoca, New York in 1854 or 1855 and moved to Pennsylvania in the 1870s.  He started writing short newspaper sketches in the mid-1870s and published his first novelette "Hurricane Nell, the Girl Dead-Shot; or The Queen of the Saddle and Lasso" in May of 1877.  Deadwood Dick appeared in print in October of that same year.  Wheeler wrote approximately 33 more Deadwood Dick stories until 1885. All available evidence indicates Wheeler died in 1885 at the age of 30 or 31.  However, there were 97 more Deadwood Dick stories published between 1885-1897 by various ghost-writers using the Wheeler by-line.  Because of  Edward Wheeler's success and the prolific output of the later ghost writers, Deadwood Dick lived on and became much more famous than his creator.

The novellette "Deadwood Dick, The Prince of the Road; or, The Black Rider of the Black Hills" is a great example of Edward Wheeler's craft.  Published in 1877 by Beadle's Half Dime Library, this story has all the elements of Western storytelling told by a man who had never been west of Philadelphia.  Wheeler probably got his background information on early Deadwood from sensationalistic newspaper and magazine accounts and added his own peculiar twist.  It is interesting to note that Edward Wheeler was writing these stories only a year after Deadwood came into existence. Therefore, while the real legends of Deadwood were being formed, Edward Wheeler was creating a sort of alternate Deadwood reality for his readers in the East.

In the next post we will learn of the exploits of Deadwood Dick, Fearless Frank, and sweet sad-faced Anita,
as they play out "Deadwood Dick, The Prince of the Road; or, The Black Rider of the Black Hills."

Hugh Glass - The Conclusion

We are nearly at the end of the story of  Hugh Glass and his remarkable crawl across the hills and prairies of  western South Dakota while suffering the wounds caused by an angry she-grizzly. In anticipation of the many questions readers will have at the end of this discussion,  I have decided to turn this last post into a Q and A format.

When did Hugh Glass reach the end of his crawl?

The best estimate is that Hugh reached Fort Kiowa near present day Oacoma, South Dakota in late October, two months after he was mauled and left for dead. He may have been helped by a band of friendly
Sioux Indians at some point and there is also evidence that he may have been strong enough to fashion a crude canoe when he reached the Missouri River which allowed him to float down the river for the last leg of the journey.

Did Hugh Glass get his revenge on Jim Bridger and John Fitzgerald, the men who abandoned him?

No, but it was not for lack of trying.  After Hugh reached Fort Kiowa he spent less than a month recovering before he took off with a party headed toward a post at the mouth of the Yellowstone River where he knew young Bridger was located. John Myers, author of The Saga of Hugh Glass speculates that Hugh forgave Bridger because of Bridger's age and inexperience. Frederick Manfred in Lord Grizzly has Hugh and Bridger get into a brawl where young Bridger more than holds his own and earns Hugh's forgiveness and respect.

Hugh Glass next set his sights on John Fitzgerald. He tracked Fitzgerald to Fort Atkinson in Nebraska and probably would have taken his revenge but Fitzgerald had since joined the army. All accounts agree that the military brass would have taken a dim view of Hugh had he killed one of their frontier troopers.

Hugh was able to expose Bridger and Fitzgerald as men who would accept a reward after abandoning a comrade so he did gain some measure of satisfaction. He also got his gun back.

Could Hugh Glass, or any man, really have survived such an ordeal?

There have been those who have doubted the whole Hugh Glass story. Most notably, J. Cecil Alter, a biographer of Jim Bridger, denied the whole episode ever took place. However, enough evidence has been uncovered through the journals and letters of Hugh's contemporaries that it almost certainly did happen. This
body of evidence is well chronicled in The Saga of Hugh Glass.

Hugh Glass was a man singularly equipped to survive such a trial. Remember, he had lived through the horrors of pirate life, had been a prisoner of the Pawnees for four years where he would have gained a PhD in survival skills, and had been one of the earliest of the Mountain Men. Add in the revenge factor and you have the ultimate survivor.

Why isn't the story of Hugh Glass more well known?

Unlike other frontier legends like Buffalo Bill Cody or George A. Custer, Hugh Glass was not a shameless self-promoter. Had he kept journals and written letters to newspaper men back home telling of his adventures no doubt he would have a lake or mountain or 10-k race named in his honor. As it was, Hugh Glass was simply a man trying to earn a living in the best way he knew how.

Has Hollywood ever given the Hugh Glass story a try?

There is a 1971 movie called Man in the Wilderness starring Richard Harris that is loosely based on the Hugh Glass story. The bear mauling scene is especially well done and uses an actual bear rather than some over the top CGI creation.

What happened to Hugh Glass after this was all over?

Hugh Glass resumed his mountain man life after finishing with Bridger and Fitzgerald. He had several more exploits that would also be the stuff of legend if it weren't for the Crawl. Sadly, Hugh's luck ran out some time early in 1833 when he and another man were killed by a band of Ree Indians along the frozen Yellowstone River. It is not known what happened to his gun.


How can I learn more?

Lord Grizzly by Frederick Manfred is the best place to start. Although it is a work of fiction, it is true enough to the story to be informative as well as entertaining. I believe it is a Western classic.

John Myers The Saga of Hugh Glass is the only source I know of that contains the entire body of historical evidence to back up the Hugh Glass story.  It is an easy read but Myers' writing style is somewhat different.
It also details the rest of the amazing life of Hugh Glass.

The Crawl Part 2

Welcome back gentle readers. Sorry for the delay since the last post but holiday activities made it tough to make a blog entry. Besides, I wanted the anticipation for the final two entries in the Hugh Glass saga to build to a fevered pitch.

Now, where did we leave Old Hugh? Oh, right. He was nearly dead, abandoned, and left with only a rattlesnake for company.  Well, maybe.  At this point the story of Hugh Glass becomes one of second and third party testimony. In other words, all we really know of the crawl of Hugh Glass is what others passed on through the storytelling tradition. We can be reasonably certain that Hugh was mauled in late August of 1823.  We can also be reasonably certain he showed up at Fort Kiowa sometime late October of the same year. What happened in between is the stuff of legend.

Both John Myers in The Saga of Hugh Glass and Frederick Manfred in Lord Grizzly attribute Hugh's unbelievable motivation to survive to his need to recover his firearm from the men who had taken it from him.
It might be hard today to imagine the affection a Mountain Man would have bestowed on his gun.  The firearm was "at once ally, pet, and up-to-date miracle of industrial progress" according to Myers. The Mountain Man did not travel with dogs as they were considered too noisy and his bond with his horse was usually not strong because wilderness life made for a frequent change of mounts.  The gun was his only constant companion.

So Hugh Glass, broken and alone, set out on a crawl of perhaps two hundred miles to recover the object that meant the most to him and to exact a measure of revenge.

The beauty of Frederick Manfred's novel Lord Grizzly is his description of the Crawl. Manfred at one time strapped a board to his leg and crawled along the ground of the Minnesota River bluffs to see what Hugh Glass saw, to feel what Hugh felt. The result is a description that must be read to be appreciated. Frederick Manfred has Hugh progress from a man bent on survival to a man bent on revenge for the Lord's sake. It is an amazing read.

And yes, Hugh did at one point wake up next to a rattlesnake. The snake was fat and lazy from a recent meal so Hugh smashed its head with a rock and ate it. He also probably ate prairie dogs, insects, and any plants he could recognize as not poisonous. Remember the area Hugh crawled along was one of rough, hilly terrain populated by wolves, coyotes, bears, and buffalo. While Hugh Glass probably followed a river for most of his journey he would have found very little in the way of natural cover to protect him from the elements. He probably would have worn through his clothing and his wounds would have become infected. Mosquitoes would have found him to be a ready meal. No doubt buzzards kept a close eye on Old Hugh. Yet he survived.