FATHER ESCALANTE: He left Santa Fe to find a route to Monterey, California in 1776. He was one of a group of ten men led by Father Dominguez, who left Santa Fe in August of that year. As Escalante kept the diary of the expedition it is generally named for him.
Poorly armed (they seem to have had but one musket and a lance as weapons) and equipped, they traveled for five months over some very, very rough country. Although they did not reach their objective, turning back just short of Salt Lake City, they did discover a route and a way in which it could be done. Miera, the soldier and mapmaker, wanted to continue on but the fathers decided against him, and the party turned back.
The Escalante expedition passed through the area of this story on August 10, 1776. They camped the previous night near the site of present-day Hesperus, and the following night on the Mancos River, to the west.
The expedition explored much of what is now Utah, had many peaceful contacts with various tribes of Utes, although their preaching was not always welcomed. In spite of the difficulties encountered on the expedition, the Miera maps were the best of the region for many years.
PAT BERGLUND: A saloon-keeper, solid citizen, and friendly man.
VERN HUDDY: Killing was his business, and usually business was good. One of Bull Dunn’s followers.
OLLIE HAMMER AND TIN-CUP HONE: Followers of Bull Dunn, professional pistolfighters. Their trouble was they suddenly found themselves in faster company than they had been dealing with. You couldn’t scare such men as the Sacketts and Nick Shadow; they had to be shown. Tin-Cup proved the wiser man.
POWDER-FACE: Also, POWDER FACE. A wise old Indian trying to do the best for his people.
TREASURE MOUNTAIN
First publication: Bantam Books paperback, October 1972
Narrator: William Tell Sackett
Time Period: c. 1875–1879
The story of Treasure Mountain is well known in Colorado, and the location of the mountain itself is certainly no secret. Wolf Creek Pass, famous in song and story, curves around one side of the mountain, and it is there for anybody to see. As it is 13,442 feet in altitude, Treasure Mountain is hard to miss. According to the story the treasure was buried there about 1790, although some say it was earlier. The Spanish were bringing gold home from Mexico and Peru and the French did not understand why Louisiana was not producing as much. They did not grasp the idea that the terrain was completely different and that Louisiana was not gold country. They demanded gold, or else.
The governor outfitted a detachment of soldiers and sent them west to find gold, but at the time no line had been surveyed between territory that belonged to Spain and that which was claimed by France. When the French soldiers moved into Colorado the Spanish believed they were trespassing, but the French kept their presence as secret as possible. Nonetheless the Spanish became aware of it and, unwilling to start a war with a then-stronger country, they prevailed upon the Ute Indians to attack the French.
It was hit-and-run warfare. French soldiers were hunting for meat and did not return. Others traveled from one place to another and disappeared. There were sporadic attacks until the numbers of French soldiers were whittled down to a point where their numbers were no longer sufficient to carry the gold away.
The gold miners were soldiers and one of their officers was an engineer. The origin of the gold they mined has not been located but it was not on Treasure Mountain itself. Under directions from the engineer a shaft, or, some say, two shafts, were sunk into the ground, and the gold was carefully buried with every intention of returning with a stronger force to remove it.
In the meantime the Napoleonic wars had begun and France had much else to consider. Years passed, Louisiana was sold to Jefferson and the United States and a map of the gold came into the possession of a Frenchman who led his own expedition to recover it. They, too, fell to the guns and arrows of the Utes. So the gold remains where it was left.
However, the original commandant had permitted each of the soldiers to dig a little gold for himself, and some of this gold was brought away. At least one cache of such gold has reportedly been found in the area.
This story, with varying details, has been told and retold and various people have turned up with maps, most of them spurious. At least one map seems to have been accurate and its owners located the spot, but they came upon it late in the season. Unable to remain at that altitude but fearing that somebody else might come with an equally good map, they destroyed the landmarks. After all, they knew where the place was.
The winter brought deep snow, several avalanches, and storms, and when spring came they could no longer find the place. To those unfamiliar with mountains this may seem strange, but locating one spot on a vast sweep of mountainside can be next to impossible. The landmarks that seem so obvious can look very different when you return after a few months, especially when lightning may have struck a tree or if a boulder has been displaced by frost or heavy snow.
The trail Tell Sackett was riding when shot from ambush is easily recognized. It is now a road leading to the Bessie G Mine. The road passes through a notch not there in Tell’s time. He followed an old Indian trail that came over the ridge from the Junction Creek side. This is four-wheel-drive country.
The bench where Colborn Sackett hid his daybook is hidden behind trees and on the very rim of the dropoff into the basin of Bear Creek.
It is difficult to say at just what moment a story comes into being, or what it is that triggers the imagination. Often it can be a place or a situation, perhaps a bit of history that needs to be enlarged upon. The story of Treasure Mountain was a natural, but every time I walked into Cumberland Basin it demanded a story. A rider coming down the trail from the Notch was vulnerable, and the bench where Pa Sackett was killed was secluded and lovely.
All that high country fascinates me, and the High-Line Trail that is often called the Ute Trail I believe to be much, much older. In each area of the Rockies such trails are found, and always with simply local names, but I believe it is all one trail, perhaps a migration route, or more likely an ancient trade route for Indians.
When you are above where the canyons begin, the traveling is much easier. No climbing in and out of canyons or continually crossing streams is required. Also, you can see for greater distances. Of course, the route could only be traveled in the warm months, but Indians never traveled in the snow if it could be avoided. Winter was a time for staying in the lodge, and it was storytelling time, too.
Actually, if one wished he could travel from Alaska to Mexico following high-line trails, dipping down only between mountain ranges.
I feel those trails are thousands of years old. A government man was making a survey of the population of elk and found a Folsom point on the Ute Trail, and another found a broken Folsom point. And that takes us back a few thousand years, perhaps eight to ten thousand.
CUMBERLAND BASIN: It’s where the La Plata River begins, high up in the mountains, most of it around 10,500 feet, in a waving sea of wildflowers most times of the year. In the winter, early spring, and late fall it is many feet deep in snow. As it is right about timberline, there are patches of trees here and there, but the higher peaks are all smooth and green except for outcroppings of rock or old mines. The sky is usually a deep blue tufted with white clouds, but in the afternoon the clouds turn dark and there are rain showers, sometimes serious thunder storms. There’s a lake up there, some marshy spots, a few beginning springs, and a trail leading to the high-line trail along the ridges.
Don’t look for the crack from which Tell Sackett took Pa’s daybook. It’s gone. Souvenir hunters have carried rocks away until the place can no longer be recognized. Most of the old four-wheel-drive roads have been closed and if you want to go anywhere you walk. You walk slowly. At that altitude heart attacks come quickly if you hurry. Anyway, who wants to hurry when there’s so much beauty just to stand and see?
There are scattered clumps of spruce trees. The aspen don’t grow quite that high. The earth you wal
k on is tundra because at that altitude you are in an arctic region. The flowers you see will be those found in the Arctic Circle, in northernmost Siberia, Alaska, or Canada. It is not generally understood that as you climb a mountain the growth changes as if you were going north.
Be careful of the turf underfoot. Because of the short growing season, it takes the land a long time to recover from injury. Those riding motorcycles or jeeps should remember this.
COLBORN (PA) SACKETT: Father of William Tell, Orrin, Jim, Bob, and Tyrel Sackett, a mountain man, trapper, and hunter who had several times gone to the western mountains as a free trapper. And then he went once again and did not return. Ma wished to be sure he lay in a proper grave, if dead, and in any event wished to know what became of him. Traveling at the time was dangerous. Many men disappeared traveling eastern highways and byways, for there were long stretches of lonely road where anything might happen, but the sons of Ma Sackett also wished to know. Orrin Sackett traveled to New Orleans to make inquiries, to be followed shortly by William Tell Sackett.
New Orleans is not a strange city. Men from the mountains of Tennessee often rafted their goods down the river to sell or trade at the port. They had friends there and a few enemies.
The arrival of the Sacketts would bring them new enemies, people who had no wish to have old mysteries examined nor questions asked that might arouse further questions.
ANDRE BASTON: One of those men who for personal reasons preferred to let sleeping dogs lie. He was a skilled swordsman, and an excellent shot, and his skills had resulted in the deaths of a dozen men. Never simply content to draw blood or for simple victory, he preferred to kill, and did so.
PAUL AND FANNY BASTON: They were cut from the same pattern, and all three hoped to inherit from Uncle Philip, as all three presently lived on what he provided.
PIERRE BONTEMPS: Brother-in-law to Andre, liked by Uncle Philip. He recruited Colborn Sackett and led the expedition west to find the French gold. Murdered by Andre and Pettigrew in the western mountains, he was a good man, daring and adventurous but not as careful of his company as he should have been. Yet, when dealing with relatives, what can you do?
HIPPO SWAN: A waterfront thug in New Orleans, recruited by Andre Baston. A big man, a very tough man, a man known around the riverfront dives in New Orleans and Mobile.
BRICK-TOP JACKSON: A notorious New Orleans character well known to the police of the time. The account of her life as told in my story is true. Her criminal record would cover a dozen pages of such a book.
THE CANTON HOUSE, MOTHER BURKE’S DEN, THE AMSTERDAM, THE BLUE ANCHOR AND THE BALTIMORE: All were infamous places at the time, as was MURPHY’S DANCE HOUSE. Whenever I mention such a place by name in any of my books you may be sure it is not a made-up or imagined place, but the genuine article.
SAINT CHARLES HOTEL: A famous place then and now. In those days it served the most fashionable clientele.
THE OLD ABSINTHE HOUSE: In New Orleans, a place visited by most tourists and famous for many years. The pirate Jean LaFitte used to spend time there, and it is home to a thousand stories.
THE TINKER: He reappears in this story. A pack peddler in the mountains, he has been a seaman, a trader, and many other things. A gypsy, he seems to have been everywhere, moves like a young man and might be young, but who knows his age or his background?
DIXIE LAND: As explained in TREASURE MOUNTAIN, the name is purported to have come from some ten-dollar notes issued at the time which had a ten on one side, a dix—French for ten—on the other side. People called them Dixies so the term came to mean the area where the notes came from: Dixie Land.
There are other explanations for the term. This, I believe, makes the most sense.
DOC HALLORAN: Who bought and sold cattle and horses, often racing the latter. He also appeared in the story of LANDO in that capacity.
WEBBER’S FALLS: In what is now Oklahoma, on the Arkansas River. There was once a nice little fall here, several feet high. Named for Walter Webber, a Cherokee of mixed blood, and a wealthy man for his time, it was a well-known stopping place on the river, visited by Washington Irving, among others. Webber was an important man, well-known on the plains. When Arrow-Going-Home, the Osage chief, wished to bring a halt to hit-and-run warfare and horse stealing with the Cherokees, it was to Webber he sent his messenger. During the Civil War, Colonel Stand Watie, a Cherokee chief, captured a Yankee wagon train at the Falls, and later Watie called a meeting of the Cherokee Legislature there.
FORT GIBSON: A military post in eastern Oklahoma, situated on the left bank of the Neosho above its meeting with the Arkansas. Built to bring an end to the fighting between the Osage and the Cherokee, the log-palisaded fort was finished in 1824 and became a famous place on the frontier. During a part of his western period Sam Houston lived here with Tiana. It was here also that Hatrack, a lady given to entertaining her passing lovers in the local cemetery, plied her trade. According to Herbert Asbury, who wrote an account of her, she is reported to have replied to one of her visitors, who offered her a dollar: “You know darned well I ain’t got any change!”
JUDAS PRIEST: A black man of some education and considerable skill with weapons who had more than one reason for befriending the Sacketts, and who went west with them. His brother Angus had been a slave to Pierre Bontemps, but more than a slave, he had been a friend as well.
McCLELLAN CREEK: Named for the Civil War general. Many of the officers who later became famed for their operations in the Civil War had previously served on the Indian-fighting frontier, and McClellan had been a part of the small force with Marcy when he was exploring in the western states.
VALLECITOS: Mentioned in TREASURE MOUNTAIN and featured in SACKETT. This was where Tell Sackett and Cap Rountree located some mining claims, and up on the ridge beyond was where Tell found Ange. If you’ve a notion for some hiking in the high country, and are prepared to camp out, you can get off the Durango to Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad at Needleton and follow Needle Creek up to Chicago Basin. You will be hiking up where the eagles soar and where a trail dips down into Vallecitos. Don’t try it unless you’re used to hiking and like high altitude, but it’s beautiful country and you’ll see some of the finest mountains in creation. When I first hiked up through Chicago Basin and over the pass into Vallecitos, Pearl Harbor was something off in a future nobody would have believed. We topped out in a thick cloud and when we came out of it the Vallecitos Basin lay before us. We’d seen a few men working claims back in Chicago Basin but there were no hikers in those days, and we were alone on top of the world. A half mile away as the eagle flies we could see a bear digging into the slide rock after a marmot. Across the Basin we could see the mountains where, in a story that would be written twenty years or so later, Tell Sackett would find Ange.
In those years I was just somebody who wanted to be a writer but the extent of my writing had been a few items in newspapers for which I did not get paid. Still, I was gathering impressions, absorbing information and preparing for what was to come. Nothing one learns is ever discarded.
During those early years I taught myself to observe and remember, and from where I stood that day I had before me an unbelievable panorama of mountains, of sharp peaks, jagged ridges, and the impossible green of meadow grass and forest. Here and there were spots of snow, some of which would last the summer through. We went on down the trail into the Vallecitos, but I did not forget, could not forget what I had seen and was seeing.
One does not need to see mountains to observe. Having traveled much, I am often asked if such travel is essential for a writer. My answer would be no. A writer must learn to see and to understand, and some of the greatest writers have restricted themselves to an area or a period and have done well. Stories are about people and how they live their lives. Each generation is inclined to believe theirs is the worst, and we Americans like to view things with alarm. We like to tell ourselves how bad things are, but no people on earth ever had it so good.
BRANDS: A
good rewrite man working with a running iron, some wire or a cinch-ring could alter any brand into the one he wished, and here and there it was done often, as in the case where Charley McCaire altered Tyrel Sackett’s brand. It was a hanging offense, if a man was caught, and ranchers in the earliest days seldom waited for a trial. The rustler received a suspended sentence—at the end of a rope from a branch of the nearest tree. The nearest court house and jail might be a hundred miles away and a busy rancher had little time for traipsing back and forth to deliver a prisoner and then testifying in court. If a man was caught with a tied-down calf and an iron in the fire, that was enough. In fact, one rustler was found hanging from a tree with a sign on his chest: Too many irons in the fire.
TRELAWNEYS: In the Sackett stories they were people who lived in the mountains nearby. They seem to have run as long on girls as the Sacketts did on boys, which seems to present a most pleasant situation. The Trelawney girls were as strongly individual as the Sacketts, however, and they might show up anywhere. Whenever they did, they knew how to take care of themselves.
JACK BEN TRELAWNEY: A good man with a gun, especially a shotgun loaded with rock salt and bacon rinds. It wouldn’t kill a man but could leave him with some anguished days and nights. Jack Ben was a man with several courtin’-age daughters, so he didn’t get much sleep, which no doubt had much to do with the shortness of his temper.
TALLY-BOOK: Also, DAYBOOK. You will see them referred to in several of my stories and elsewhere in western literature. A rancher usually kept, and a cowboy often did, a small notebook in his pocket for keeping a count of cattle on the range, brands he saw, or anything he might need to remember. Often these books were used beside a branding fire to keep a count of the brands on cattle. When a tally-book wasn’t available, many methods were used, such as tying knots in string, cutting notches, and anything else an inventive mind could think of.
Sacketts 00 - The Sackett Companion (v5.0) Page 13