Close Encounters of the Glove Kind

Gold brought Isador Strassburger to Montana after its discovery of gold in 1861.  His journal relates a robbery in his writings:

" Had some experience with George Ives.  It was Sunday when he came in on horseback in front of my store and demanded a pair of gloves.  When I could not comply with his request, he drew a six-shooter, leveled it at me and me an SOB coaxed me for the gloves.  Being afraid to advance or retreat, I tried to reassure him of his waywardness and with a few more words, he took an axe that I had for sale and to my utter astonishment, left me unharmed and departed.  A few months later, he went to the happy hunting ground by way of the rope."

George Ives was a member of the infamous Plummer Gang in the time following the 1863 discovery of gold in the Black Hills. Bold and brutal, he came to a bad end with a murder, trial and hanging. They still hang him in effigy every year during "Vigilante Days" in Virginia City, MT There is also a legend that his ghost still haunts the site of his hanging!