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Published: September 29th 2014
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BOSCH JUNK
The Custer County Museum is on the same street but a few blocks to the west as the Territorial Prison in Rawlins. I have never seen an actual German machine gun used in WWI. I suspect it may have killed a few Wyoming soldiers before it was taken. SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 Woke up to a glorious morning. Had the Santa Fe Chicken Skillet with over greasy eggs, ordinary pancakes and coffee down at Village Inn. Between the eggs and the sauce it makes for a dangerously drippy meal, but proudly I did not drip any of it on my clean shirt. Had an uncomfortable visit from my old pal giardia and had to make a brief stop at the Summit Rest Area. For some reason that rest area has a huge statue of Abe Lincoln’s head. It is the highest elevation point on the whole Interstate 80 route. The Carbon County Museum has an interesting exhibit on Big Nose George Parrot. He was treated badly by the good citizens of Rawlins back in 1881. They also have a captured 8mm machine gun used by the Hun during The Great War. The little town of Craig has a museum with a few notable artifacts too. They have what they claim is a Harry Tracy revolver, They have spurs once owned by Anne Bassett, and a holster made by Bob Meldrum after he got of jail. Settled in for the evening at The Valley Vista Inn in Craig, CO. This
BRIGHAMS BRIGHT IDEA
Had they known what they were letting themselves in for those people would have gladly stayed in England. place is up on top of a hill on the west side of town. Nice room for $67.72 with a great view. I am hoping for a pleasing sunset this evening. Supper was a pretty decent burrito at the Fiesta Jalisco. The iced tea was not too hot though. Tomorrow will head out to Brown’s Park, back to Maybelle and then down to Meeker, Rifle, Grand Junction, and Delta. Grand Junction has really good peaches this time of year.
MARTIN’S COVE The Mormons often take pride in the stupid things they do and are apt to zealously defend them. One of the things that they take a great deal of pride in is the handcart experiment. The thing that drove it was the Perpetual Emigration Fund. Those travelling to the Land of Zion (or was it Deseret?) could borrow from the fund against the expense of the journey. Wagons, teams to pull them, and subsistence supplies were expensive. The idea was to pay back with hefty interest the funds borrowed once the journey was completed. Of course the fund was terribly mismanaged and was soon bankrupt. Brigham had the bright idea of replacing the wagons with handcarts and
MORMON MUSEUM PANEL
Sure, those carefree people were smiling as they trudged merrily along the trail. They weren't hungry, they weren't tired, they had no blisters on their feet. They were never cold, wet, or miserable. I think the little happy bunny is a lovely touch. making the emigrants pull them long like a donkey. In the meantime the hard working missionaries in England had been immensely successful in gathering in new converts to the Faith. In 1856 there was a small army of converts eager to make the journey from Europe. Many of them got off to a late start in crossing the Atlantic. The next stage of the journey was by railroad to the end of the tracks at Iowa City. The most affluent of them were broke by then, but they couldn’t stay in Iowa City because there was nothing to eat there. Also there were no more handcarts ready. They had to wait while new handcarts were built and they were built cheaply as possibly using green lumber. Finally the last of them pulled out of Iowa City in a company led by Edward Martin. They were 579 strong, but the handcarts soon began breaking down. By the time the Martin Company reached Independence Rock on November 11, 1856 they were woefully short on supplies and over three months behind schedule. The next day they were caught in an early winter storm and forced to take shelter in a dreadful place that
HAND CART
Note the rawhide wheel tires. They were what was for supper. came to be known as Martin’s Cove. The Mormon guides continued on to Salt Lake City to get help. By the time help arrived back at Martin’s Cove 145 people had either frozen to death or starved to death. Those cheap handcarts made with the green lumber had rawhide wagon tires. It was what those folks were finally reduced to eating. The Mormons have recently purchased the Sun Ranch near Devil’s Gate and have converted it to nice handcart museum. Somehow they see the handcart experiment as a triumph to perseverance more than a tragedy caused by the incompetence and financial irresponsibility of their leadership; shame on them.
TIPTON TRAIN ROBBERY In the spring of 1900 members of the Wild Bunch met in Denver to discuss future opportunities. Among them were Butch Cassidy, Sundance, Harvey Logan, Ben Kilpatrick and Will Carver. The robberies of the bank in Winnemucca, NV and the Union Pacific Overland Limited #3 at the Tipton Coal Yard in Wyoming were the happy results. They all agreed to meet in Fort Worth, TX after the jobs were complete. Butch, Sundance and Will would knock off the bank, and Harvey and Ben would take
MARTIN'S COVE
Such a lovely place for so many to perish. When those unfortunate people finally reached Salt Lake City they should have shot Brigham Young. the train. They recruited a local horse thief named Will Cruzan to help with the train robbery. Cruzan was an adept horse thief and knew every place to hide there was in the country. The Pinkerton operative, Charlie Siringo, chased Cruzan for years and never came close. Cruzan was not as smart as he thought he was though. He should have gone to Fort Worth with the others but decided to stay in Wyoming and eventually was run down and killed snoozing in their beds by a weary sheriff’s posse. Cruzan brought in another local waddie named Sawtelle to hold the getaway horses during the robbery. A couple brothers named Bert and Ernest Charter provided fresh relay horses and pack animals for the escape. Tipton was a fine place to rob a train. It was remote, had good proximity to escape routes, and it was just a coal siding with no passenger depot. Westbound trains moved slowly out of Tipton because of the Table Rock grade. A slow moving train is much easier for a group of robbers to stop than a train that is zipping along under full steam. At 8:30 in the evening on August 19, 1900 Harvey
TIPTON TRAIN ROBBERY
Eastbound freight into the old Tipton Coal Siding. Trains no longer stop there even though they probably would not be robbed. crawled over the coal tender as it was going up the grade and ordered the engineer, Henry Wallenstein to stop at the top of the hill. Cars behind the express and mail were disconnected and began to rattle off down the hill towards Tipton until the conductor got the brake set. The express messenger, E. C. Woodcock, was the same guy who refused to open the door during the Wilcox Robbery and got himself blown up. He bravely refused to open it again until Wallenstein told him the dynamite charge was being set again. By then he had hidden some of the loot. It took three tries to blast open the through safe and the express car was demolished again, but the robbers made off with about fifty thousand dollars in gold coinage. The robbers were last seen headed south and were followed by three persistent groups of lawmen, but made a clean getaway.
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