The Spring Creek Raid.

Students of Wyoming's history are well familiar with the story of the Spring Creek Raid, which occurred on April 2, 1909, on the Nowood River outside of Ten Sleep, Wyoming.  The tragedy has been the subject of at least three well known books, including the excellent A Vast Amount of Trouble, Goodbye Judge Lynch, and Ten Sleep and No Rest, the first two by lawyer and historian John W. Davis and the third, and earlier work, by Jack Gage, a former Governor of Wyoming.

The raid is justifiably famous for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it may be the sheepman murder that most closely fits the way that we imagine the cattlemen v. sheepmen war of the late 19th and early 20th Century being.  Of course, the fact that it was an outright cold blooded killing no doubt causes it to be well remembered as well.  And then that the killings actually resulted in a trial which convicted the assassins is also worth remembering, as it demonstrated the turn of the tide of the public view on such matters.

The Wyoming historical marker sign that describes the killings does a good job of it, with perhaps the only thing omitted is that one of the ambushing party was armed with a semi automatic Remington Model 8 in .35 Remington, a very distinct arm for the time.  In basic terms, the raid occurred as several men connected with cattle raising in the area decided to enforce the "Deadline", a topographic feature of the Big Horn Mountains which meant it was a literal dead line.

The .35 Remington turned out to be critical in the story of the raid as it was an unusual cartridge for what was, at the time, an unusual arm.  The Remington 08 had only been introduced in 1905 and was a semi automatic rifle in an era in which the lever action predominated.  A lot of .35 Remington cartridges were left at the scene of the murders and investigation very rapidly revealed that a Farney Cole had left his Remington 08 at the home of Bill Keyes, which was quite near the location of the assault.  One of the assailants, George Saban, was known to not carry a gun and was also known to have been at the Saban residence the day of the assault.  Subsequent investigation matched other cartridges found on the location to rifles and pistols known to have been carried by the attackers.

Arrests soon followed and five of the assailants were ultimately charged with murder.  Two turned states' evidence.  The trials were not consolidated and only Herbert Brink's case went to trial.  To the surprise of some, he was convicted by the jury.  Due to prior trials for the killing of sheepmen being both unsuccessful and unpopular, Wyoming took the step of deploying National Guardsmen to Basin to provide security for the trial, which proved unnecessary.  The conviction was the first one in the area for a cattleman v. sheepman murder( Tom Horn had earlier been convicted for the 1903 killing of Willie Nickell, but that killing took place in southern Wyoming.

The killings were, quite rankly, uniquely cold blooded and gruesome, involving shooting into the wagons and setting them on fire.  Because of that, and the Brink conviction, the remaining four charged men plead guilty, rather than face trial.  Two plead guilty to arson, and two to second degree murder.

All were sentenced together, and Brink was sentenced to death.  His sentence was commuted, however, and he was released from prison, together with another one of the party, in 1914.  Another, George Saban, who was deeply affected by his conviction, escaped while out of the penitentiary and under guard, after being allowed to stay over in Basin in order to allegedly conduct some of his affairs.  His escape was successful and he disappeared from the face of the earth.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

August 25

1819 Allan Pinkerton, detective, secret service agent, born.

1850  Western humorist Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye born in Maine. He career as a humorist was launched while he was a postmaster in Laramie.

1916. National Park Service formed. The NPS took over a role which had been occupied by the Army, that of patrolling the National Parks. Their uniform still recalls the Army of 1916 to a small extent, in that they've retained the M1911 style campaign hat, in straw and felt, as part of their uniform.

On this, it's also the case here that the Yellowstone just ceased last year using the Army built courthouse, built in 1908, in favor of a newly constructed one. Still, that's pretty good service for a small Army courthouse really.

 In 1916, the cavalry branch, which had been heavily involved in patrolling the parks, was committed to the Cold/Lukewarm war with Villa. I wonder if part of the reason that the Park Service came into being in 1916 was because this mounted service was needed to free up the Army's mounted arm for it's primary military role?

1944  Seventeen sheep were slain by a mystery aircraft near Medicine Bow.  I wish I knew more details about this, but I don't.  The item is a Wyoming State Historical Society item, and must have been reported in a newspaper at the time.

1950 President Harry S. Truman orders the Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike.

1972  Congress authorized the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway.

2010   Governor Dave Freudenthal signed an executive order increasing protected sage grouse habitat by a net of 400,000 acres.

March 12

1836  The Battle of Refugio commences in the Texas revolution.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1886  The Legislature appropriated $500.00 for Governor William Hale's funeral and for a monument in his honor.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1888  Territorial Governor Thomas Moonlight hires the legendary Elwood Mead as state engineer.  Mead was the founder of Wyoming's water law, which he worked on from the period of 1888 to 1899.  He also worked on Colorado's water law during this period.  In 1907 he was appointed Chairman of the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission in Victoria Australia.  He returned to the US in 1911 and became a professor of Rural Institutions at the University of California.  He lead the Bureau of Reclamation in the Coolidge Administration.  Lake Mead is named after him.

1890  Big Horn and Weston Counties created.

1917  Buffalo Bill Memorial Association created.   Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1917   The Laramie Boomerang for March 12, 1917: Laramie Guardsmen to arrive on No. 19.
 

On Monday March 12, the news came that the Laramie contribution to the Wyoming National Guard had been mustered out of service and taken down to the Union Pacific depot in Cheyenne.

 

Union Pacific Depot in Cheyenne.

The unit was expected in Laramie that evening.

1918  Arthur D. Gilbert of Lost Cabin received a patent for a fish hook.

1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the first of his radio "fireside chats".

1944  Nineteen cars of a Union Pacific train derailed near the location of old Ft.Steele.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

January 4

1846 General Mariano Paredes becomes the President of Mexico, announcing he will defend all territory he considers Mexico's. This made war with the United States inevitable.

While the US has usually been blamed for the Mexican War, and while Americans generally accept the blame, the Mexican role in causing the war is significant and perhaps paramount. The inevitability of the war came about when Gen. Santa Anna agreed to allow Texas to become independent as a result of the Texas' war of rebellion. Santa Anna was the head of state, and under the generally accepted rules of the time, his acknowledgment of Texas' independence had the force of law, even though it was conveyed in captivity, and even though he later disavowed it. Be that as it may, no ruler of Mexico could acknowledge it thereafter and expect to remain in power. Be that as it may, Texas was independent de jure and in fact, which Mexico could not reverse without an invasion.  Had Texas remained an independent state it is difficult to see how a renewed war between Texas and Mexico could have been avoided.  I frankly doubt it could have.

Upon becoming independent, union with the United States was inevitable. Upon incorporation into the US, no American government could not recognize Mexico's claim to territory that had been incorporated into the US.

Compounding the problem, there was no universal agreement on where the border between Texas and Mexico was. The US, under James Polk, took the position that it was the Rio Grande. Mexico believed it was to the north of there, although there was little traditional support for the boundary being there.. At the time, there was very little in the way of settlement north of the Rio Grande in any event, and the river was a convenient natural boundary, making the US position more sensible, if not more legal.  Nonetheless, the American claim to that section of territory rose the conflict from almost inevitable, if not inevitable, to immediately inevitable, which many historians have claimed Polk desired.

In the end, it was actually Mexico, not the US, that crossed the river with troops, sparking the war. Apologist have regarded it as a US invasion ever since, and even at the time, but it is difficult to see how the war could have been avoided by either party.

1847 Colt secures a contract to supply 1,000 revolvers to the US military.  These early Colt Dragoon revolvers were very substantial in size and revolutionized the arms of mounted soldiers.

This variant of .44 Colt revolver is generally known as the Walker Colt.  It was a monster sized revolver, weighing in at 4.5 lbs.  It's size was in part a safety measure by Colt, which was not certain at the time how much steel was really needed in a large caliber revolver.  There were not very many of them actually made (approximately 1,000), but the revolver did set the pattern for what would be a very successful series of "Dragoon" revolvers.

1896 Utah was admitted to the Union.

1897 Big Horn County organized.

1897  Wyoming  General Hospital, a hospital owned at that time by the state and founded to treat miners, burned in a fire.

1910  Orchard Opera house destroyed by fire in Lander.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1915  John B. Kendrick takes office as Governor.

1917   The Casper Daily Press for January 4, 1916: Wilson takes charge when mediators fail
 

The view from Casper, which was similar to the view expressed by Cheyenne's Leader.

The Cheyenne State Leader for January 4, 1916: Wilson to change Mexican policy
 

The United States, having failed to acquire Carranza's signature to the protocol, was reacting by giving Carranza what he wanted most, an American withdrawal.

From a century later, it's hard to see how this wasn't just implementing the protocol plus giving Carranza what he wanted.

The Inter Ocean disaster figured large in the press as well, as well as good fortunes for wildlife.

1918   The Wyoming Tribune for January 4, 1918. Bad day for Casper Electricity
 

As if there wasn't enough bad news around those days, a local power plant went up in flames.

I'm not sure which early Casper power plant that was, but I suspect it was the one that used diesel engines, believe it or not, which had been in operation at that time.  It had a limited number of customers, as the article makes plane, as a lot of Casperites in the then booming Casper likely weren't utility subscribers at the time, as odd as that may seem to us know.  When electricity became nearly universal in homes is something I've addressed before, and I don't know when it would have become universal in a place like Casper.

Does anyone who stops in here know when it became universal in smaller western and mid western towns and cities?

Electricty was introduced for customers in Casper in 1900, so it had been around that long, but the means and methods of generating it were still in a state of flux.  This article reports that the entire business district was out of power.

In other news, the Wyo Trib was accusing Nebraska of being frigid, which is odd.  The Tribune was predicting permanent nationalization of the railroads, which is something we know the unions would later ask for but would not receive.  And there seemed to be a boom in marrying young going on.  I haven't tracked the entire article all the way through, but I suspect that was one of the interesting marriage related events tied to World War One.  Chances are that couples were rushing to marry before the grooms deployed to France.  Fifteen is quite young indeed, and the author of the article seemed to take that view as well, but of course less than 50% of all Americans graduated from high school at that time.  This trend, however, can't be taken to mean too much, as we also earlier explored.

 

1921 Congress overrode President Wilson's veto, reactivating the War Finance Corps to aid struggling farmers. By some calculations, 1919 was the best year for farmers of any year in the nation's history, but it was followed by an agricultural depression soon thereafter. The economic downturn for farmers started about this time, and it did not end until World War Two. In part, this was due to the mechanization of US farms, whcih received a boost by World War One, and then which became the strategy for many farmers trying to hold on in more competitive times.

1925   The bank, hotel and Odd Fellows Hall were destroyed by fire in Hulet.  Attribution:  On This Day .com

1943  Lester Hunt takes office as Governor.

1965  President Johnson outlined the goals of his ''Great Society'' in his State of the Union address.

1974  South Vietnam officially announces that, in light of ongoing communist attacks, the war in South Vietnam has restarted.

1980   President Carter announces US boycott of Moscow Olympics.

Elsewhere:  1999  The Euro introduced.