TALES FROM THE OLD WEST

 "I get to ride shotgun!" This common term was coined for the Cheyenne-Deadwood Stage. Men like Wyatt Earp were hired to ride beside the driver with a shotgun to protect passengers and gold from highwaymen.

The discovery of gold in the Black Hills was the impetus for the Cheyenne-Deadwood Stage. After all, miners had to get to the gold fields, and the lucky ones had to be able to ship their gold back to Cheyenne. After the defeat of Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the Indians went on a bit of a rampage that delayed the beginning of the new stage line, but it started up in due course in 1876.

Indians weren’t much of a problem for the stage after this, but highwaymen were a common occurrence. Sam Bass and his gang robbed the stage four times in two months. In the fifth attempt the driver, Johnny Slaughter, was killed. His body was returned to Cheyenne where the hearse was pulled by six dappled-grays, matching the team he had driven on the Cheyenne-Deadwood trail.

In 1878 there was a robbery by Red Butte where a passenger and one of the outlaws were killed. Twenty thousand dollars worth of gold was stolen and buried nearby. Years later, a local farmer dug up the gold along with the potatoes he was harvesting. Oddly enough, he left town without saying a word to anyone.

The stage company built a special coach to protect the gold. The treasure box was bolted to the floor, the coach was lined in lead, and there were two portholes guards could use to shoot at the robbers. An association was also formed to take care of the robbers. Their thought was to make robbing the stage an unpopular activity. Their approach worked, and robberies became less popular after most of the robbers were killed by the association guards.

The Cheyenne-Deadwood Stage also transferred people back and forth between the two cities. The stage fare was $5 if you sat with the driver (being careful not to jostle the shotgun guard), $10 for a middle seat inside, and $15 for an inside seat by a window. It took fifty hours to make the 300-mile trip with stops every ten miles to change horses and stretch.

The Stage ran for more than eleven years until the Black Hills and Fort Pierre Railroad built a line to the mining district. One of the last cargos to make the trip on the stage road was a shipment of cats. In 1887, Phatty Thompson, an entrepreneur of the highest order, decided that his road to riches lay in selling pets to the dancehall girls in Deadwood. He paid Cheyenne boys twenty-five cents a cat to collect strays for him. He loaded the boxed cats onto his wagon and took off for Deadwood. Unfortunately, he tipped the wagon and all the cats escaped. It took him a spell, but eventually he managed to capture and reload most of the cats. Once he got to Deadwood, he sold the cats to the dancehall girls for $10 to $25 each.

Dobler, Lavinia, I Didn’t Know That About Wyoming, (Misty Mountain Press: Selah, WA) 1984.

Garst, Doris Shannon, The Story of Wyoming, (Douglas Enterprise: Douglas, WY) 1938.

Centennial Historical Committee, Cheyenne, The Magic City of the Plains (Cheyenne Centennial Committee: Cheyenne, Wyoming) 1967.

Pitcher, Don, Wyoming Handbook, (Moon Publications: Chico, CA) 1991.

Adams, Judith, Cheyenne, City of Blue Sky, (Windsor Publications, Inc.: Northridge, CA) 1988.

Cheyenne-Deadwood Stage Trail, Wyoming Tales and Trails, an internet site.
 

 

 RULES THAT CAN'T BE BROKEN

Some of the rules for proper stagecoach etiquette posted by Wells-Fargo might still be applicable for bus and auto passengers of today.  1.   Abstinence from liquor is requested, but if you must drink, share the bottle. To do otherwise makes you appear selfish and un-neighborly. 2.   If ladies are present, gentlemen are urged to forego smoking cigars and pipes as the odor of same is repugnant to the Gentle Sex. Chewing tobacco is permitted but spit WITH the wind, not against it. 3.   Gentlemen must refrain from the use of rough language in the presence of ladies and children. 4.   Buffalo robes are provided for your comfort during cold weather. Hogging robes will not be tolerated and the offender will be made to ride with the driver. 5.   Don’t snore loudly while sleeping or use your fellow passenger’s shoulder for a pillow; he or she may not understand and friction may result. 6.   Firearms may be kept on your person for use in emergencies. Do not fire them for pleasure or shoot at wild animals as the sound riles the horses. 7.   In the event of runaway horses, remain calm. Leaping from the coach in panic will leave you injured, at the mercy of the elements, hostile Indians and hungry coyotes. 8.   Forbidden topics of discussion are stagecoach robberies and Indian uprisings. 9.   Gents guilty of unchivalrous behavior toward lady passengers will be put off the stage. It’s a long walk back. A word to the wise is sufficient.

 STORIES NEVER TOLD

Although not as significant as the Overland Stage, probably no stage line has attracted more attention than the Deadwood Stage, also know as, the Blackhills Stage and Express Line. The frequent attacks upon the Deadwood Stage was a key piece of Wm. F. Cody's Wild West Show. The coach shown was constructed by the Abbot-Downing Co. in 1863 and the coach was shipped to the Pioneer Stage Co., San Francisco,  on the ship General Grant. The coach was taken by Cody to Europe  where it was billed as the "The Most Famous Vehicle Extant." Among those given rides in the coach on its European tours was the Prince of Wales, also known as Edward VII. There is a coach currently on an touring exhibit that is um is an original Deadwood Stage purchased by Col. Cody in 1911.

In the Summer of 1876 several attempts were made to reach Deadwood by stage from Cheyenne but turned back due to the danger of renegade Indians following their defeat of Custer at the Little Big Horn. On Sept. 25, however, Dave Dickey brought the first stage into Deadwood.

 The stage line initially ran from Cheyenne via Horse Creek, Bear Springs, Chugwater, Chug Springs, Eagle's Nest, Fort Laramie, Rawhide Buttes, Hat Creek north of Lusk (pictured below left, Stage Barn near Lusk, below right), Cheyenne Crossing and on up to Deadwood through Custer City. The line used both smaller coaches drawn by four horses and giant 18-passenger coaches pulled by six horses. The drivers often in arriving at their final destination would put on quite the show, thundering into town with the red and yellow Gilman and Salisbury coaches pulled by a matched team of six horses.

With the stages carrying gold, there was always danger from road agents (also known as desperados) present, indeed, to such an extent that the line used a ironclad coach named the "Monitor" for transporting gold. The Monitor, itself, was held up on September 26, 1878, near Canyon Springs Station. The guard, Gale Hill, was wounded and one passenger killed. The thief's had no trouble breaking open the supposedly impregnable safe used for safe keeping of the the gold. Hill died several years later from ongoing complications from his wounds. An armored stage known as "Old Ironsides" was also used for a three-year period on the Deadwood-Sidney run and was robbed only once.

During one two-month period the Deadwood stage was held up four times by the Sam Bass Gang, consisting of Bass,  Joel Collins, Tom Nixon, Bad Bill Heffridge and Jim Berry. The first stage coach driver killed was Johnny Slaughter on March 25, 1877, driving a stage bearing eleven passengers and $15,000. The stage was delayed by spring snow and mud and an untimely breakdown five miles north of Hill City. Two miles outside of Deadwood thief's led by Sam Bass attempted to rob the stage a fifth time. In the process Slaughter was killed, the horses bolted, running off toward town only to be stopped when the lead horses became entangled. Slaughter's body was returned by special coach to Cheyenne, where his hearse was drawn by six grand grays matching the team he had driven in Deadwood.

Others who traveled along the stage road included "Calamity" Jane,  who achieved fame and, allegedly, her name as a result of her saving Capt. Egan from Indians.  Unfortunately, Calamity Jane, as a result of alcoholism was a continuous calamity. In 1874, she was working at a hog ranch five miles west of Ft. Laramie. She signed on for several military expeditions as a bull-wacker but was fired when her gender was discovered. In 1876, she served several time in the Cheyenne jail for disturbing the peace. She then headed back to Deadwood but, after "Wild Bill"  Hickok's demise at the hand of Jack McCall, she continued to drift. On one stage trip  she was unable to pay her fare and her trunk was held as compensation by the stage line. It had only clothes and a photograph of "Wild Bill".  Reportedly, the last place the trunk was seen was in the attic of the pump house at Ft. Steele.

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