Horse Thieves!

Prior to Captain Joe Walker and Joe Meek's arrival at Fort Crockett, a Sioux war party had raided the area and driven off 150 horses.  Unable to catch the rustlers, the men decided to invade a peaceful Snake camp and steal their horses instead.  40 horses were stolen in all.

Walker was furious about the theft and organized a posse of 30 men to go after the white rustlers. Included in Walker's posse?  Carson, Meek, Craig, and part of his California veterans who had left to go home but hadn't made it that far. 

They caught the rustlers on the Green River and captured the stolen horses, returning them to the Snake without bloodshed.

Next time...Walkara

The Good Samaritan

One story of the 1840s contributed to the legend of Joe Walker.  Joe Meek had become a loner in the fur business by the 1840s.  He set out for Fort Davy Crockett some 200 miles away on the Green River.  With not enough pelts to make the winter's provisions, or even  buy clothing, he started out on foot to meet his wife and son.

Along the way Meek was met by one of the early western tourists, Thomas Jefferson Farnham, a Vermont lawyer who wanted to establish a commune out west.  When he saw Meek he judged him to be very poor and without sufficient clothing.  Just after meeting Farnham, Meek reportedly fell on his rifle and was wounded. 

Without food, October was growing colder and Meek was growing weaker when 15 miles outside of Fort Crockett, Meek decided to stop and rest. If Walker hadn't have come by, Meek would have surely frozen to death, but Walker gave him buffalo jerky, furnished him with a horse and carried him to his destination.

Fort Crockett, by the way, was not really a fort, but was a one story building made of wood and clay with 3 sheds attached.  There was, however, good water,  pasture and good hunting nearby.  It was a favorite winter camp for remaining trappers and traders.

Next Time...Horse Thieves

A Band of Merry Men

Once Leonard was in place, Walker recruited some of the boldest and most experienced mountain men around - and also the most unruly and difficult to lead.  Enter Crazy Bill Williams, the savage, talk-to-yourself guy from the Santa Fe days, one Levin Mitchell who later became known as the most notorious frontier thief, George Nidever, one of the best rifle shots in the West, Powell Weaver and Bill Craig, who fled the East after killing a man, and finally Joe Meek, the partier who ran away at 16 after beating his teacher.

What a bunch of guys!  

Each man was given 4 horses, equal shares of blankets, buffalo robes, provisions and every article of comfort for an expedition of its kind.  The men looked on Walker as a "good leader, one of the best, a good hunter, a good trapper, thoroughly versed in Indian signs, and possessing a good knowledge of the mountains", said Nidever.  

Next Time...They're Off! 

The Midnight Wolf

There are many stories about the last rendezvous of 1833 that belonged to just the good ole boys.  Nearly anyone who had any reputation in the mountain fur trade was there and ready to party.  They sang, drank, gambled, fought, courted Indian women and of course, traded furs. 

Such folly involved one trader,  a wild, light-hearted young man by the name of Joe Meek.  True to the wanton abandon of these affairs, William Stewart wanted a place to entertain an Indian woman so he kicked George Holmes out the their shared tent.  

George Holmes was a New York gentleman so he wrapped a blanket around him and tried to sleep in the grass until he was bitten by a rabid wolf.  His screaming as he was attacked created more laughs than sympathy.  A midnight wolf hunt was suggested.

The next morning Stewart found Joe Meek trying to get up from where the whiskey had left him the night before.  Stewart told him he was lucky the wolf hadn't gotten him to which Meek replied, "It would have killed the wolf." 

Unfortunately whiskey couldn't save Holmes who became ill with rabies and died.  He was buried in an unmarked grave along an unmarked stream.   

Next time...Dreaming of the Ocean