How The Outlaw Trail Came To Be
Ivan R. Bosanko
October 28, 2008
Two pieces of paper had the biggest impact on our nation's mass migration of its people. One was The Emancipation Proclamation which spawned "The Underground Railroad." This system was designed to help former slaves gain their freedom thru a series of hidden shelters, travel arrangements and financial aid almost entirely made up of northern white sympathizers in their relentless quest to free the blacks from human bondage.
The other piece of paper, The Homestead Act of 1862, spawned the greatest single migration of settlers the world has ever seen, Under this act, a free quarter section of land,160 acres, in the West was offered to any citizen or intended citizen, 21 years of age or older, who would agree to settle the land. Between 1863 and 1890, nearly a million people filed and homesteaded this new land out West. Year after year, waves of homesteaders claimed more land, stretched more barbed wire and put down their stubborn roots, and moved deeper and deeper into the heretofore free public grasslands and open range. The inevitable result: open conflict with the cattlemen.
This continual crowding by the homesteaders forced the cattlemen to take to the trails once again in order to pasture their great herds of cattle. They found the intermountain wilderness of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, including remote sections of The Dakotas and Utah, much to their liking. Here the hated homesteaders had not yet penetrated in sufficient numbers to cause open war. And in the last true wilderness, the cattlemen made their stand: come hell or high water or unfriendly bullets, they were not going to be forced to move again!
With herds that stretched beyond what the eye could see, it meant that no cattle baron could protect every stray from being "fair game" to the pockets of converted homesteaders who followed behind these armies of endless hooves and tails. Rustling became a way of life. Anybody with the nerve or inclination to round them up and heat up a branding iron found themselves in the cattle business. Old cattle brands were replaced by new brands, many cleverly designed to cover or obliterate the original brand so that a "new bill of sale" eased everybody´s conscience at the cattle yards, cow towns and railheads of the West. Steamboat Springs, Colorado shipped more cattle to market then any place else at the turn of the nineteenth century. True, many of the brands were of dubious origin to be sure, but those who pocketed the sale money never claimed to be ´saints´ in the first place.
The lawless element also followed the trail herds west. Many were deserters from the Civil War, including those who plundered and pillaged the Kansas and Missouri borders before, during and after the bloody war between the states.
The 1849 California Gold Rush provided yet another migrant push into the intermountain and high desert regions. Many stragglers thru hardship, fate or circumstance, abandoned their dreams of striking it rich and settled for whatever means of survival were at hand-quite often at the expense of the large cattle companies. These vagrants became an integral part of frontier life and co-existed with the ever-growing and profitable business of cattle rustling. Thus was born an accommodation of sorts between a new breed of outlaws and the small rancher: an unwritten but entirely enforceable code of conduct based upon a mutual need for preservation and protection.
From Landusky, Montana, south of the Canadian border, stretching southward on both sides of The Continental Divide, pockets of help and refuge sprang up for those who could and would take advantage of this unique understanding between the cattle rustlers and the struggling ranchers. Soon both elements dabbled in this oft-times very risky business or profession.
At first this new breed of outlaws or cattle rustlers operated as loosely controlled gangs with little or no real planning, strategy or leadership, as evidenced by the flurry of hangings that took place whenever a lone tree, post or empty building with an exposed rafter could be found. Few bothered with the formality of a trial especially when a quick rope could deal with the problem much more quickly and efficiently.
All of this changed dramatically during the span of years between 1870 and 1910, when The Outlaw Trail really came into its own. Just as with The Underground Railroad, willing people could be found to make the system work. But totally unlike the railroad, a price was charged and expected by all parties concerned for services rendered. While there were no signs pointing to such a trail, those who used it and profited by it could´ve drawn a roadmap, either in their minds or on paper, it became that fixed in the intermountain regions of the wild, wild West.
This infamous trail spawned yet another enigma: three permanent hideouts for big-time cattle rustlers where stolen herds could be grazed and fattened without fear of interference or apprehension by the law. Hole-The-Wall in Wyoming, Brown´s Hole in northwestern Colorado, and Robber´s Roost in southern Utah offered just such accommodations. Though each location was quite different in size, appearance, and topography, each had three things in common: difficult to reach but easily guarded approaches or trails leading in, plenty of good grassland in which to pasture large herds, even thru winter if necessary, and friendly ranchers who could be counted upon.
There was an old saying during those early days along The Outlaw Trail, it went something like this: It makes no difference who rides the trail,for any man with a past to hide or a price on his head is free to roam "nameless" provided he´s good with a gun, fast on his mount, and more clever than the sheriff or posse chasing him. It also helped considerably if he can run as fast as he could lie or cheat, has eyes in the back of his head and is a fool when it comes to adventure and doom. Indeed in those early trail days, old age usually happened only when it was connected with an awful long string of luck!
George Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch, changed that description from then on. No one person ever captured the free frontier spirit any better or epitomized its rebellion against government control or encroachment then did Butch Cassidy. And no outlaw used the trail more to his advantage and treated those who hid or sheltered him any better than did Mister Cassidy. And no one was more careful to ensure that the unwritten code of conduct stayed ´in place.´ So much so, that it would be extremely hard to find even one documented case of abuse on either side during Cassidy´s era.
Cassidy brought a level of professionalism unmatched in history to his career of outlawing. So thorough, so well planned and so well executed were his daring robberies of banks and payrolls that he left his pursuers-literally and figuratively- in the dust. He introduced his infamous "Pony Express Relay System" of fresh mounts, fresh supplies, and more then willing ranch hands, as he and his carefully selected gang escaped time after time after time from any and all hot pursuit.
It should be noted that at this point, there often was little, if any distinction, between the outlaw and the lawman or bounty hunter hot on Cassidy´s trail. Many a lawman had indeed traveled both sides of the law and often as not straddled a precarious "middle-of-the-road" moral obligation when it came time to carry out his sworn duties. Some of the West´s most celebrated and dime-noveled exploits by men wearing a badge fit this category perfectly.
The emergence of Cassidy´s Wild Bunch caused people to take an entirely new look or attitude about those who traveled The Outlaw Trail. Up to now an outlaw was perceived to be some low-life character, a violent fool or idiot, who lived off Lady Luck and his gun. Too often he was seen in the public´s eye as some social misfit who deserved to be hunted down like an animal-because that´s what he was-by morally superior men wearing a badge empowered by the righteous law. This stereotyping of outlaw and lawmen was anything but the truth. In fact, many of those who rode the trail, contrary to common belief, demonstrated an uncanny wit and use of their brains, rarely matched by those on society´s legitimate side.
It is important to note that many honest ranchers and their families also lived along the trail trying to eke out a living on poor range or topsoil that barely supported an existence, let alone a reasonable living. These were a hardy, independent breed who wanted nothing better then to be left alone and who took instant dislike and distrust to strangers who circuited the trail trying to exert their moral and religious virtues upon the less educated and less experienced.
One old codger leaned back in his chair against his shack and summed up his way of life this way: "I´ll be damned if Cassidy or some tin-horned badge could ever make me leave this place even if it purt-near starved me out ever´ three, four years. I love my place and these mountains. It´ll take cold lead from a hot six-shooter by some behind-the-back sonofabitch to get me off´n it. And then by cracky, they´ll still have to plant me here, won´t they? I´d swear to it on a stack´a bibles three feet high…´course I ain´t much bothered by cipherin´ nor readin´… so you´ll just have to take my say on this matter, won´t you, stranger?"
And incidentally, for you history buffs, the same man signed both papers that changed forever the course of migration history in The United States. This action also indirectly led to The Outlaw Trail. His name: President Abraham Lincoln.
The other piece of paper, The Homestead Act of 1862, spawned the greatest single migration of settlers the world has ever seen, Under this act, a free quarter section of land,160 acres, in the West was offered to any citizen or intended citizen, 21 years of age or older, who would agree to settle the land. Between 1863 and 1890, nearly a million people filed and homesteaded this new land out West. Year after year, waves of homesteaders claimed more land, stretched more barbed wire and put down their stubborn roots, and moved deeper and deeper into the heretofore free public grasslands and open range. The inevitable result: open conflict with the cattlemen.
This continual crowding by the homesteaders forced the cattlemen to take to the trails once again in order to pasture their great herds of cattle. They found the intermountain wilderness of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, including remote sections of The Dakotas and Utah, much to their liking. Here the hated homesteaders had not yet penetrated in sufficient numbers to cause open war. And in the last true wilderness, the cattlemen made their stand: come hell or high water or unfriendly bullets, they were not going to be forced to move again!
With herds that stretched beyond what the eye could see, it meant that no cattle baron could protect every stray from being "fair game" to the pockets of converted homesteaders who followed behind these armies of endless hooves and tails. Rustling became a way of life. Anybody with the nerve or inclination to round them up and heat up a branding iron found themselves in the cattle business. Old cattle brands were replaced by new brands, many cleverly designed to cover or obliterate the original brand so that a "new bill of sale" eased everybody´s conscience at the cattle yards, cow towns and railheads of the West. Steamboat Springs, Colorado shipped more cattle to market then any place else at the turn of the nineteenth century. True, many of the brands were of dubious origin to be sure, but those who pocketed the sale money never claimed to be ´saints´ in the first place.
The lawless element also followed the trail herds west. Many were deserters from the Civil War, including those who plundered and pillaged the Kansas and Missouri borders before, during and after the bloody war between the states.
The 1849 California Gold Rush provided yet another migrant push into the intermountain and high desert regions. Many stragglers thru hardship, fate or circumstance, abandoned their dreams of striking it rich and settled for whatever means of survival were at hand-quite often at the expense of the large cattle companies. These vagrants became an integral part of frontier life and co-existed with the ever-growing and profitable business of cattle rustling. Thus was born an accommodation of sorts between a new breed of outlaws and the small rancher: an unwritten but entirely enforceable code of conduct based upon a mutual need for preservation and protection.
From Landusky, Montana, south of the Canadian border, stretching southward on both sides of The Continental Divide, pockets of help and refuge sprang up for those who could and would take advantage of this unique understanding between the cattle rustlers and the struggling ranchers. Soon both elements dabbled in this oft-times very risky business or profession.
At first this new breed of outlaws or cattle rustlers operated as loosely controlled gangs with little or no real planning, strategy or leadership, as evidenced by the flurry of hangings that took place whenever a lone tree, post or empty building with an exposed rafter could be found. Few bothered with the formality of a trial especially when a quick rope could deal with the problem much more quickly and efficiently.
All of this changed dramatically during the span of years between 1870 and 1910, when The Outlaw Trail really came into its own. Just as with The Underground Railroad, willing people could be found to make the system work. But totally unlike the railroad, a price was charged and expected by all parties concerned for services rendered. While there were no signs pointing to such a trail, those who used it and profited by it could´ve drawn a roadmap, either in their minds or on paper, it became that fixed in the intermountain regions of the wild, wild West.
This infamous trail spawned yet another enigma: three permanent hideouts for big-time cattle rustlers where stolen herds could be grazed and fattened without fear of interference or apprehension by the law. Hole-The-Wall in Wyoming, Brown´s Hole in northwestern Colorado, and Robber´s Roost in southern Utah offered just such accommodations. Though each location was quite different in size, appearance, and topography, each had three things in common: difficult to reach but easily guarded approaches or trails leading in, plenty of good grassland in which to pasture large herds, even thru winter if necessary, and friendly ranchers who could be counted upon.
There was an old saying during those early days along The Outlaw Trail, it went something like this: It makes no difference who rides the trail,for any man with a past to hide or a price on his head is free to roam "nameless" provided he´s good with a gun, fast on his mount, and more clever than the sheriff or posse chasing him. It also helped considerably if he can run as fast as he could lie or cheat, has eyes in the back of his head and is a fool when it comes to adventure and doom. Indeed in those early trail days, old age usually happened only when it was connected with an awful long string of luck!
George Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch, changed that description from then on. No one person ever captured the free frontier spirit any better or epitomized its rebellion against government control or encroachment then did Butch Cassidy. And no outlaw used the trail more to his advantage and treated those who hid or sheltered him any better than did Mister Cassidy. And no one was more careful to ensure that the unwritten code of conduct stayed ´in place.´ So much so, that it would be extremely hard to find even one documented case of abuse on either side during Cassidy´s era.
Cassidy brought a level of professionalism unmatched in history to his career of outlawing. So thorough, so well planned and so well executed were his daring robberies of banks and payrolls that he left his pursuers-literally and figuratively- in the dust. He introduced his infamous "Pony Express Relay System" of fresh mounts, fresh supplies, and more then willing ranch hands, as he and his carefully selected gang escaped time after time after time from any and all hot pursuit.
It should be noted that at this point, there often was little, if any distinction, between the outlaw and the lawman or bounty hunter hot on Cassidy´s trail. Many a lawman had indeed traveled both sides of the law and often as not straddled a precarious "middle-of-the-road" moral obligation when it came time to carry out his sworn duties. Some of the West´s most celebrated and dime-noveled exploits by men wearing a badge fit this category perfectly.
The emergence of Cassidy´s Wild Bunch caused people to take an entirely new look or attitude about those who traveled The Outlaw Trail. Up to now an outlaw was perceived to be some low-life character, a violent fool or idiot, who lived off Lady Luck and his gun. Too often he was seen in the public´s eye as some social misfit who deserved to be hunted down like an animal-because that´s what he was-by morally superior men wearing a badge empowered by the righteous law. This stereotyping of outlaw and lawmen was anything but the truth. In fact, many of those who rode the trail, contrary to common belief, demonstrated an uncanny wit and use of their brains, rarely matched by those on society´s legitimate side.
It is important to note that many honest ranchers and their families also lived along the trail trying to eke out a living on poor range or topsoil that barely supported an existence, let alone a reasonable living. These were a hardy, independent breed who wanted nothing better then to be left alone and who took instant dislike and distrust to strangers who circuited the trail trying to exert their moral and religious virtues upon the less educated and less experienced.
One old codger leaned back in his chair against his shack and summed up his way of life this way: "I´ll be damned if Cassidy or some tin-horned badge could ever make me leave this place even if it purt-near starved me out ever´ three, four years. I love my place and these mountains. It´ll take cold lead from a hot six-shooter by some behind-the-back sonofabitch to get me off´n it. And then by cracky, they´ll still have to plant me here, won´t they? I´d swear to it on a stack´a bibles three feet high…´course I ain´t much bothered by cipherin´ nor readin´… so you´ll just have to take my say on this matter, won´t you, stranger?"
And incidentally, for you history buffs, the same man signed both papers that changed forever the course of migration history in The United States. This action also indirectly led to The Outlaw Trail. His name: President Abraham Lincoln.
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