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Published: September 30th 2014
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BASSETT RANGE
Dozens of stolen cattle roamed here. Lookout Mountain fades off to the east in the background. SEPTEMBER 7, 2014 Had breakfast the Village Inn in Craig, CO this morning. There was a guy in there that looked just like the “Angry Bluebird” picture. He was maybe five and a half feet tall and he must have tipped the scales at about 350. He was so damn fat that his shirt could not possibly cover the broad expanse of his belly. Fifty pounds of it hung below his shirt and above his belt. I bet the girls in there all thought it was very sexy. The egg white Mediterranean omelet was pretty good, but the men’s room needed attention. It is a hundred miles from Craig to Brown’s Park out to Maybell and then up Highway 318. Got plenty of pictures up there and had to come back out through Maybell and then down Highway 57 to Meeker. That stretch of road might well be the most scenic in America. As I was coming down it there was a fearful rain storm looming in the direction of Meeker. I came within a half a mile of it without catching a drop and decided to wait a few minutes until it blew over. I stopped in Palisades for
MATT RASH
More Bassett Range in the foreground. Matt had a spread just behind the crest of Lookout Mountain. a small sack of peaches. They grow mighty fine ones there. Maybe Charel will bake a peach cobbler with them when I get back home. After a drive of 346 miles I came to roost in Delta, CO at the oldest Days Inn on the planet. It seems to be in pretty good repair though for $67. Supper was in a place called the Stockyard; another Little Bill and a glass of diet Pepsi. It was okay, but the service was poor.
BROWN’S PARK Brown’s Park has always been known as a fairly remote refuge for outlaws. It is situated in a pretty narrow canyon of the Green River boundaried on the north by Lookout Mountain and Wyoming just beyond, by Utah on the west, and by Colorado on the east. When lawmen approached from any direction those they were in pursuit of simply moved into another jurisdiction. The narrow canyon offered a bit of shelter from the worst of the winter weather. The big dog among local ranchers was a man by the name of Bassett. He had a couple of daughters, Anne and Josie. Anne was feisty and attractive and the outlaws adored her. Josie was
ISOM DART
Lookout Mountain is truncated by the canyon. Isom's lonely spread was behind the crest. From Brown's Park there is still no vehicle access into that area. plenty feisty too but she was bit on the frumpy side. Anne had set her cap on a rustler named Matt Rash who had a spread to the north of Lookout Mountain. The south side of Lookout Mountain facing Brown’s Park is steep and rugged but has a gentle slope on the north side into Wyoming. It was a simple matter for Matt to steal cattle in Wyoming and herd them onto his range in Colorado. He could then drive them around the east side of the mountain and sell them to Bassett. The problem that Bassett faced was that his ranch was so remote that he had no ready market for his stolen cows. Matt Rash had a neighbor named Isom Dart. Isom was a black man best known for breaking horses. He lived in an isolated place because he had very little need for abuse by whites. Isom probably never bothered to steal a single cow out of Wyoming but he was surrounded by cattle stolen by Matt. The Wyoming stock detective, Tom Horn, studied the situation carefully and decided to just kill both Matt and Isom. By then Bassett had a well-stocked pasture and did not need
DUGOUT
John Jarvie and his wife, Nellie, built the two room dugout and lived in it as they were building their home and store. The lumber came from railroad ties that came floating down the river. many more stolen cattle. Particularly not when he had to buy them but could not easily sell them. A few miles above Bassett’s Ranch a community center sprung up around John Jarvie’s place. John settled in at the north end of the park around 1880. He built a dugout and corrals and a blacksmith shop and then a house and store and an irrigation system. He also put in a ferry to attract business to his store. When the house was finished outlaws began using the dugout. John was murdered during the robbery of his store on July 6, 1909. The miscreants loaded his body onto a boat and shoved it off into the river. It was found 8 days later near the Gates of Lodore. The killers were never found.
MEEKER The prominent New York newspaperman, Horace Greeley, was fond of saying, “Go West Young Man”. What he meant by that was to go west and purchase a parcel of my land. He owned extensive property along the South Platte River that came to be known as the Union Colony and later on as Greeley, CO. A man named Nathaniel C. Meeker founded the Union
JARVIE'S STORE
The store occupied the right side of the structure and the home occupied the left half. Both were quite small. It must have taken quite awhile to obtain all of the railroad ties needed. Colony with financial support from Greeley. Nathaniel was better and smarter and had higher moral standards than anyone else in Colorado. His snobbish superiority got him kicked out of the colony in 1878 but it was just the ticket to get him an appointment as Agent on the White River Ute Reservation. He had, after all, been agricultural editor of Greeley’s newspaper, the New York Tribune. The Utes, however, were not a farming people. They did not give a rat’s wrinkled red butt about principles of irrigation or crop yield per acre. The very last thing on their list of priorities was plowing a field behind a plodding mule. They were not fond of being preached at either; they already enjoyed a religion that perfectly suited their spiritual needs. When Meeker decided to plow the field that the Utes used for horse racing that was it. They beat him senseless and he called on the army for assistance. Major Thomas J. Thornburgh commanding at Fort Steele in Wyoming marched down to the rescue at the head of about 200 soldiers. The Utes, having a clear memory of the slaughter at Sand Creek 15 years earlier and knowing with full clarity
MASSACRE SIGN
The Utes should have killed Governor Pitken too. The sign is to the southwest of Meeker, about half a mile west of where Highway 57 terminates. what levels of perfidy white men were capable of stooping to, sent out a peace delegation to meet the soldiers while still well north of the reservation. They advised Thornburgh that they had nothing but peaceful intentions; they had requested a meeting with Meeker, that Thornburgh and five of his men could attend the meeting, but the rest of the soldiers must remain right where they were at for now. Of course Thornburgh, being a godlike army officer, ignored that reasonable suggestion and marched forward. As soon as he crossed Milk Creek and entered reservation land on September 29, 1879 he was attacked and killed along with a dozen of his men, 44 others were wounded. Most of their horses were also down. To add emphasis about peaceful intentions the Utes also attacked the agency and killed Meeker and all ten of his male employees. The women and children were taken hostage including Meeker’s wife Arvilla and their daughter Josephine. It was just exactly the outcome that Governor Pitkin was hoping and praying for all along. He had campaigned under the slogan that “The Utes Must Go”. He and his political hacks badly wanted the rich Ute lands for their
MASSACRE SITE
The White River Agency where the idiotic Meeker was killed was up against the low hills in the mid-ground. own selfish purposes. It is a most beautiful country. The peace was negotiated by the Uncomphagre Ute, Chief Ouray, with the result that the White River Utes were sent off to new lands in Utah. For his trouble Ouray and his people were kicked out of Colorado also. They too occupied land that the good governor sought. As it turned out the new tribal lands in Utah contain significant oil reserves. The female hostages were released after 23 days.
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