Mike Bell has traveled thousands of miles from his home in England to stare at Wyoming’s empty fields and trudge down county lanes.
While others may just see sunflowers, bull snakes and sagebrush, Bell sees historic gunfights and can almost hear the crack of a whip as an outlaw chases down his victim.
The author of “Incidents on Owl Creek," published in February, 2020, has uncovered the story of the Horse Thief Wars in Wyoming by literally walking the paths of the outlaws and lawmen.
“Sometimes you can really only get a grasp of an event when you see the terrain,” Bell told Cowboy State Daily. “I went out to find where Slick Nard ambushed William Ewing and I found the place where this event took place. All of a sudden, it goes from being a monochrome event to a 3D color event because you can see the landscape which hasn't changed.”
Even though the attempted murder happened more than 130 years ago in 1894, Bell was able to find the site from eyewitness accounts and newspaper reports of the time.
The Murder Scene
According to historian Tacetta Walker in her book “Stories of the Early Days in Wyoming,” in 1894, Nard had become aware that Ewing was carrying his wages and would be traveling alone from the Town of Old Thermopolis.
When Ewing had traveled about forty miles, Walker said a masked man raised up out of a dry gulch at the side of the road and shouted, “Hold ‘em up!”
The sudden sight of the outlaw frightened the team, and they sprang forward and turned sharply to the left. The outlaw’s gun struck Ewing in his right arm, broke it, tore a hole in his stomach and then entered his left arm, breaking that arm. Ewing could not control the team.
The frightened team turned around and charged back up the road in the direction from which they had come. Ewing glanced over his shoulder and saw that the outlaw seemed to be having trouble with his gun. He was jerking on the lever that extracts the shell.
No sooner had Ewing turned back than the gun cracked again, and he felt a bullet graze his neck according to the account he later gave Ed Farlow, a pioneer and justice of the peace of Lander.
By this time, the team was sending up a cloud of dust and Ewing realized he was still alive and had a chance to get away. So, he began to shout at the team to urge them on. He survived and Nard was sentenced to prison.
The clue for Bell on locating the scene of this ambush was from the August 16, 1895, Fremont Clipper.
The attempted murder of sheepherder Ewing just outside of modern-day Worland is only one event of many that Bell has tracked down in his quest to understand what he says is one of the most important events in Wyoming’s early history, the Wyoming Horse Wars.
Alfred “Slick” Nard, a true outlaw and detestable person, had a place in this war. He was a horse thief turned deputy informant and had shot his best friend, Jack Bliss, for a bounty in 1892.
This is the story that first caught Bell’s imagination when he was near the scene where Nard had ambushed Bliss. This led Bell on his quest to learn all he could about the Wyoming Horse Wars of the early 1890s.
Slick Nard was one of the characters that Mike Bell has researched when trying to piece together the story of the Horse Thief Wars.
‘Famous’ Outlaw Jack Bliss
Bell first came to Wyoming in 1986 on a pack trip above Meeteetse. They were camped on Bliss Creek, and he asked one of his guides who Jack Bliss was.
“He said, as though I should know, that he's a famous Wyoming outlaw,” Bell said. “So I asked him to tell me about Jack Bliss, but nobody could.”
When no one was able to tell Bell who this Bliss character was, it stoked his curiosity.
“That started me with this notion of boots on the ground,” Bell said. “We were sitting in the campsite where Jack Bliss was killed in 1892. That then led me into trying to find out more about him, which led into finding about the horse thief ring and the horse thief wars.”
While the rich cattle barons were launching their attack against the small landowners in Johnson County, ranchers were launching their own war against horse thieves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
They had compiled a list and had sent spies out to track down the horse thieves with the intention of killing them rather than bringing back prisoners who could escape.
During this campaign of extermination, many arrests were made beginning with the Nutcher brothers in December 1891.
Bliss himself had been arrested in March 1892 and Butch Cassidy had been caught up in the net of the ranchers in April 1892.
Cassidy was fortunate because the gun aimed at him had misfired and he was only pistol whipped rather than killed.
Bell discovered that Jack Bliss was the top of this list and was indeed a famous Wyoming outlaw like his guide had said.
Bliss was considered one of the leaders of notorious horse thieves that the ranchers had sworn to exterminate, especially after Bliss escaped from jail.
The cowboys’ downfall was that they stole from everyone so, unlike the Johnson County War which was a class war, the horse thieves had made enemies of everyone.
Ambushed By Friends
Albert Slick Nard had once been Bliss’ partner in crime.
This meant that Nard knew his friend’s hideouts and could track him down with a little bit of incentive from rancher John Chapman. Bell said that Nard was most likely threatened with death and encouraged by the lure of a $2,000 reward.
The trail that Nard took went to a mining camp above the town of Arland, near present-day Meeteetse. Bliss was barricaded in a stone fortress twenty-three miles from the mining camp and supplied himself with food by pillaging miners’ cabins.
“Jack Bliss has had a bit of a history,” Bell said. “He's fled from Idaho for killing Nelson Bump. He's fled from Montana for borrowing other people's horses, which is frowned upon and now he's broken out of the jail down in Lander.”
After fleeing on a racehorse along the Big Wind River and through the town of Alamo, Bliss makes his way to what he perceives to be safety.
“He's now sitting quietly in his camp on what we now call Bliss Creek,” Bell said. “He's lit himself a fire. He's cooking himself some food. His rifle is propped up against the stack of rocks.”
Bliss’ borrowed horse is in the pasture and Bell imagines that Bliss is reflecting on the meaning of life. because in the spring of 1892, if you're a rustler of any sort, things are getting hard in Wyoming.
While Bliss is answering the call of nature, he is ambushed and killed by his former friends.
“This sent a very powerful message, which is no matter where you run, we'll find you,” Bell said. “If you don't surrender immediately, you'll be shut down. It also told the horse thieves, based on the intelligence they had, that their safe hideouts were no longer safe.”
When the ranchers launched their war of extermination, they went to the press and declared their intention and had the public support.
“They've got a fighting fund of $20,000, part of which I think they used to pay people like Nard to tell them where the horse thieves are,” Bell said. “They're very open that unless horse thieves surrender immediately, they're going to be dead.”
Almost Lost History
Whenever Bell gives his presentation about the Horse Thief Wars, he said that people are surprised that they haven't heard of it.
He said that is because the Johnson County War is the big thing in Wyoming in 1892 and was considered an illegitimate attack on settlers.
“On the other hand, the Horse Thief Wars were seen as a legitimate attempt to rid the state and surrounding areas of horse thieves who are preying on all people,” Bell said. “So it's forgotten because it was not as controversial as the Johnson County War.”
Bell is pleased to see that there is now more awareness about the Horse Thief Wars and as he explores the places these long-ago outlaws and posses had their confrontations, he hopes to uncover more stories about these nearly forgotten events.
Contact Jackie Dorothy at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
