Shots shattered the peace of the small sheep camp and, according to survivors, the terror lasted for two hours. It was early evening of April 2, 1909, and the Spring Creek Raid was about to make headlines across Wyoming.
The sheepherders had been camped at Spring Creek where it flowed into the Nowood River, just south of Ten Sleep, Wyoming.
Ranches were scattered throughout this region, including that of Elmer “Chatty” Chatfield. He personally knew the accused raiders and the victims.
The Big Horn County Rustler reported that the cowboys at the Greet Ranch a half mile away heard the gunfight. However, when they ventured out, they were ordered back.
“When the flames lit up the scene, they could see between fifteen and twenty horsemen around the scene,” the reporter said. “These horsemen wore masks made of gunny sacks.”
When the smoke cleared, three men, two sheep dogs, and dozens of sheep lay dead. Two men had burned in their wagon and a third had been shot when he stumbled out, his hands in the air to surrender.
Seven men were blamed for the massacre. Threats and accusations began to fly and men were frightened for their lives and their livelihood.
In the April 24, 1909, Rawlins Republican, it was reported that Chatfield was one of those in the crosshairs of the cattleman.
He had received a threatening letter just weeks later that was apparently from the men responsible for the raid on the Emge and Allemand sheep camp.
“The letter stated to the effect that he must leave the country,” the paper said. “Chatfield was formerly a cattleman but at present is interested in sheep.”
In an ironic twist of fate, Chatfield was also accused of being one of the murderers.
One hundred people were brought to the city of Basin to testify before the grand jury about the raid and Chatfield was one of these accused, according to a 1953 interview with Howard Bryan for his article, “Off the Beaten Path.”
"I had been seen the night before with one of the cowmen who was involved in the massacre," Chatfield said, “They thought I was mixed up in it. U.S. Marshall Joe LeFors came after me, and I spent two weeks talking to a grand jury before they turned me loose."
It was a perilous time in Wyoming and for men like Chatfield it was just part of life. When he was able to return home to Spring Creek, it was time to get back to work and make up for the time lost.
When he was 90-years-old, Elmer Chatfield wintered in New Mexico and was interviewed about his adventures by Howard Byran. Chatfield was still spry and full of vinegar, riding his horse, left. When Elmer Chatfield arrived in Wyoming in 1893, he homesteaded along the Spring Creek south of Ten Sleep. He is remembered for being one who could react well in emergencies and was known to have chased down horse thieves. He was accused by both the cattlemen and the sheepmen for being involved in the Spring Creek Raid on either side of the massacre. (Howard Byran; Catherine Sevenau, sevenua.com) 
Elmer Chatfield was a pioneer along the Spring Creek, south of Ten Sleep, Wyoming. He was known for helping to bring modern conveniences to his region such as helping to build the Big Horn Basin canals as pictured here. (Catherine Sevenau, sevenua.com) 
About 1898, Elmer Chatfield with draft horses and work crew near Ten Sleep, Wyoming. He is the one standing and holding his daughter. (Catherine Sevenau, sevenua.com) 
In 1906, just two years before the Spring Creek raid, the Chatfield children posed on Elmer and Della Chatfield’s ranch located just south of Ten Sleep on Spring Creek. (Catherine Sevenau, sevenua.com)
Born In A Storm
Chatfield was born June 8, 1863, in a homesteader's tent on the site of present Florence, Colorado.
His father, Isaac Chatfield, was a Union veteran of the Civil War who fought with Gen. Grant at Fort Donelson. The elder Chatfield was mustered out of the Army before the war was over and headed west behind a span of horses to take up a homestead.
It was a dangerous life even for a newborn.
"There was a big windstorm the night I was born," Chatfield told Byran, "And they tell me that a tent pole blew down and hit me on the head shortly after my arrival."
Chatfield grew up in Denver, then a small town, and earned extra money as a boy helping to fold the small issues of the Rocky Mountain News according to the feature written about him in the 1903 “Progressive Men of Wyoming.”
A Wild Youth
"I helped trail 2,500 head of cattle up the old Chisholm Trial for the Wilsons in 1883 and 1884," Chatfield said. "The famous trail was just a track that was beat out so you could follow it, with water holes at intervals."
Chatfield worked with trail herd crews moving cattle from Abilene, Texas to Dodge City, Kansas according to the 1962 Northern Wyoming Daily News.
When Chatfield arrived in Dodge City, he said it was a "plenty rough" town with plenty of gunfights.
"I've often seen cowboys ride their horses right through the swinging doors into Dodge City bars for a drink," he said. "One fellow there had a toll bridge with a pole across it which he let up when you paid your toll so you could pass.
Well, when he would see a bunch of cowboys riding for the bridge shooting their guns in the air, he would just 'up' that pole in a hurry and let them pass free."
Chatfield told Byran that he was a good friend of Bat Masterson, the famous frontier marshal who was then city marshal at Dodge. Chatfield also saw the first bullfight ever held in this country.
Later, Chatfield went to Aspen, Colorado, where he ranched, prospected and operated a grocery store.
During this time, he made headlines in the Fairplay Flume in October 1888 when he pursued horse thieves into Green River, Utah.
“The young man followed the thieves entirely alone, traveling day and night, and made the capture without any assistance,” the reporter said. “He was in one of the most dangerous parts of Utah Territory, where, had his mission been known, his life would have been worth but little. For perseverance and pluck the like as not been performed in Colorado.”
The horses had been stolen from Chatfield’s ranch near Emma and as soon as he discovered his losses he had set out in pursuit. His horses were apparently being run across the country by a band of desperate, organized horse thieves.
It was while he was still living near Aspen that the Ute Indians broke off their reservation and began to cause trouble near Meeker, Colorado, according to Bryan.
"I joined up with Sheriff Kendall who had a posse called the Kendall Rough Riders," Chatfield said. "After some fighting, and with the help of the militia, we managed to round up the tribe and send a few Indians to the penitentiary."
Chatfield said he was not always successful in his ventures and had a bit of tough luck with a silver claim at Aspen. He had worked it back about 50 feet when a man named J.C. Johnson offered him $8,000 for it. Upon recommendation of a banker, Chatfield decided to sell as he had not yet struck any silver in paying quantities.
"Johnson struck a big vein just after I sold the claim to him," Chatfield said. "Within a few weeks he sold half interest in it for $25,000.”
Elmer Ellsworth “Chatty” Chatfield lived a life of adventure in the ‘Wild West.’ Born in 1863, he rode the Chisholm trail to Dodge City, chased down horse thieves, lost a fortune at the silver mines of Colorado, and survived the range wars of Wyoming. (Catherine Sevenau, sevenua.com) 
Elmer Ellsworth “Chatty” Chatfield lived a life of adventure in the ‘Wild West.’ Born in 1863, he rode the Chisholm trail to Dodge City, chased down horse thieves, lost a fortune at the silver mines of Colorado, and survived the range wars of Wyoming. (Catherine Sevenau, sevenua.com) 
Della ‘Dell’ Chatfield left a singing career to follow her husband to a lonely ranch along the Spring Creek, just south of Tensleep in 1893. They raised their family among the cattle and sheep of their homestead. (Catherine Sevenau, sevenua.com)
Range Wars
In 1892, Chatfield married his cousin, Della, and with their young daughter went to Wyoming in 1893. Here he was to remain the next 60 years raising sheep and cattle in the Big Horn Basin.
There were three big cow outfits in the basin when Chatfield first arrived — the Two Bar, the Bar X and the Bay State. Chatfield said that big trouble started when some of the smaller cowmen began branding unbranded calves on the range.
This resulted in what was known as the Johnson County raid.
"Some of the big outfits hired a bunch of Texas gunfighters and hauled them and their horses to Wyoming in a railroad car," he said. "There was a lot of killing on both sides, and the militia had to break it up."
The 1903 “Progressive Man” described Chatfield as quite capable of handling these skirmishes and more. The writer said that Chatfield was “equal to every emergency that confronts him, making the best of his situation all the time.”
By 1903, Chatfield’s ranch near Spring Creek comprised of 520 acres of fine land which he had improved on with buildings, modern equipment and cultivated with crops. He owned 400 Shorthorn cattle of superior quality and a band of fine graded horses.
Chatfield also helped secure the conveniences of modern life for his community. He was one of the projectors of the telephone line into Ten Sleep, being now the treasurer of the local company.
An Old Saddle
When Bryan interviewed Chatfield in 1953, the 90-year-old retired rancher was spending his summers in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“Mr. Chatfield is an active man who gets around a lot and likes to talk,” Bryan said. “Few men of 90 are as active both physically and mentally as this pioneer of the old West.”
"I'd be as good as ever if I just had a new set of running gear," Chatfield had said, laughing and slapping his legs which occasionally gave out.
Chatfield was anxious for winter to end so he could get back among his friends in the Big Horn Basin.
"I'm just like an old, broken-down saddle horse," Chatfield said. "You take me out somewhere and turn me loose, and sooner or later I'll find my way home again."
Chatfield died in 1962 at the age of 99 and is remembered as one of the Big Horns Basin's real old-time livestock men and one tough SOB.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
