The Unexpected and Other Stories: Tall Tales from the High Plains & Beyond, #1

By Tom Rizzo

In this first book in the series Tall Tales from the High Plains & Beyond. In Book One: The Unexplained and Other Stories, you get up-close-and-personal with characters and events involved in the expansion and development of the American frontier. These sixty-nine true stories, presented in brief, snapshot narratives, feature ghosts, unsolved mysteries, lost treasures, flimflam men, cowboys on strike, a phantom train and other sometimes bizarre events, such as:

• Three prospectors take shelter from a winter storm in a place they dubbed Dead Man Cave and discover human bones and shelves of gold bars. Upon returning in the spring, they’re unable to locate the entrance.
• The engineer of a D&RG passenger train maneuvers across the Continental Divide and spots a phantom train bearing down on him. Unable to escape, he braces for a catastrophe
• During a wedding reception at a fort in New Mexico Territory, the doors fling open and standing in the entrance is the apparition of a dead soldier, once the suitor of the new bride.
• Emerging from a strange mist on the Platte River is a ghostlike sailing ship that carries the omen of death for anyone who sees it.
• Hoofbeats thunder across the remote hills of south Texas and cowboys gathered around a campfire witness a large black mustang carrying a headless horseman into the night.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tom Rizzo
• Release date: Jul 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781536551181

Book preview

TALL TALES FROM THE HIGH PLAINS & BEYOND

Book One

The Unexpected and other Stories

TOM RIZZO

Author, Last Stand At Bitter Creek

Copyright 2015 © by Tom Rizzo

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means; electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the author, except for providing a direct quote and providing reference to this book.

Contents

Introduction

ONE: Cavern of the Skulls

TWO: Vanished Without a Trace

THREE: Ghost Bandit

FOUR: Legend of Misery Hill

FIVE: Ghost of the White Horse

SIX: Ghost of White Woman Creek

SEVEN: Phantom Train of Marshall Pass

EIGHT: Dance of Death

NINE: Ship of Death

TEN: Widow, Wanderer, and Writer

ELEVEN: Ultimatum of Discontent

TWELVE: Headless Horseman of the Texas Plains

THIRTEEN: Lost Treasure of Canyon Station

FOURTEEN: Lost Gold of Dent’s Run

FIFTEEN: Mysterious Knights of the Golden Circle

SIXTEEN: Massacre at Devil’s Kitchen

SEVENTEEN: An Ambush Never Solved

EIGHTEEN: Footrace to Obscurity

NINETEEN: Mean Streets of Canyon Diablo

TWENTY: Loring’s Last Ride

TWENTY-ONE: Secret of a Buffalo Soldier

TWENTY-TWO: The Five-Hundred-Yard Kill

TWENTY-THREE: An Aura of Evil and Doom

TWENTY-FOUR: Petticoat, Poker, and Prostitution

TWENTY-FIVE: Politics, Personalities, and Pistols

TWENTY-SIX: The General Who Stole Spoons

TWENTY-SEVEN: Death at Daybreak

TWENTY-EIGHT: The Midnight Messenger

TWENTY-NINE: The Flimflam Man

THIRTY: Poor Excuses for Outlaws

THIRTY-ONE: The King is Dead

THIRTY-TWO: A Man of Nobility

THIRTY-THREE: Tall Tales of Calamity Jane

THIRTY-FOUR: Railroad Scam

THIRTY-FIVE: The Spy Who Wouldn’t Talk

THIRTY-SIX: A Town Too Tough to Die

THIRTY-SEVEN: Ben Hur & Billy the Kid

THIRTY-EIGHT: Stagecoach Mary

THIRTY-NINE: High Noon in Frisco

FORTY: Justice Denied

FORTY-ONE: Forgotten Hero

FORTY-TWO: Lee’s Mysterious Order

FORTY-THREE: Jim Be Nimble, Jim Be Quick

FORTY-FOUR: Requiem for the Open Range

FORTY-FIVE: Massacre at Rock Springs

FORTY-SIX: Annie Oakley Stands Her Ground

FORTY-SEVEN: Every Tombstone Needs an Epitaph

FORTY-EIGHT: News With a Wink

FORTY-NINE: A Town Frozen in Time

FIFTY: What Were They Thinking?

FIFTY-ONE: The Dark Cell

FIFTY-TWO: A Man of Uncommon Courage

FIFTY-THREE: The Real McCoy

FIFTY-FOUR: Fast Times & Money Blues

FIFTY-FIVE: A Case of Black Valor

FIFTY-SIX: The First Train Robbery

FIFTY-SEVEN: A Bloody Easter Sunday

FIFTY-EIGHT: Tom Custer’s Ride to Glory

FIFTY-NINE: Black Flag Warfare

SIXTY: Legend of Pistol Pete

SIXTY-ONE: Closing the Communication Gap

SIXTY-TWO: Mystery of Dead Man’s Hand

SIXTY-THREE: Blazing the Chisholm Trail

SIXTY-FOUR: Ladies in Arms

SIXTY-FIVE: Last Man Standing

SIXTY-SIX: Tricks of the Trade

SIXTY-SEVEN: A Woman Scorned But Deceptive

SIXTY-EIGHT: Outlaw Gangs Ride the Rails

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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I N T R O D U C T I O N

TALL TALES FROM THE HIGH PLAINS & BEYOND

Book One: The Unexplained and Other Stories

Book Two: The Law Keepers

Book Three: The Law Breakers

When I was growing up, too many years ago, most of the public had a romanticized view of the Old West or Wild West, as it was known. Western films and novels presented the American West as a place of gambling, gunfights, and Indian raids. Skillful writers and directors developed a formula of storytelling that resulted in perception overriding reality.

Most people who settled in the West didn’t wake up in the morning and strap on a gun. Nor did they get involved in shootouts. There’s no denying the West presented a rugged and untamed challenge. The characters, conflicts, and creations involved in the actual expansion and development of this new frontier represented fascinating raw material that played such an influential role in American history.

The three books that make up the series Tall Tales from the High Plains & Beyond offer short and entertaining stories aimed at giving you an eagle’s nest view of the frontier and people who lived and died there. These men and women rival any character you’d meet in the pages of fiction.

•Book One: The Unexplained and Other Stories includes tales that border on the bizarre—ghosts, buried treasure, lost gold, a headless horseman, double- and triple-crosses, ambushes, mysterious disappearances, and stories of uncommon courage.

•Book Two: The Law Keepers features those who wore the badges of lawmen. Stories of:  courage, shootouts, showdowns, redemption, retribution, and sweet revenge—lawmen who sometimes acted outside the law to achieve the desired results.

•Book Three: The Law Breakers who roamed the frontier as stone-cold killers, cattle and horse rustlers, bank, stagecoach, and train robbers. Some even tried stepping away from lives of crime and becoming lawmen. Most of those who did, however, discovered it put them in a better position as lawbreakers.

When I went to school, history was little more than memorizing names and facts and figures—an exercise in boredom. History isn’t boring—particularly history of the American frontier. It falls to writers and teachers to bring these historical adventures to life, which is what I’ve tried to do with this series.

Enjoy!

Back to Contents

ONE

Cavern of the Skulls

A fierce wind swept across the towering picturesque mountain, causing a sudden drop in temperature, deepening concern among the three prospectors who saw the October sky darken to an iron gray.

Blizzard coming, warned one of the three, trying to outshout the howling wind that whipped across the Colorado mountain pass.

As the swirling winds began buffeting them, S.J. Harkman, H.A. Melton, and E.J. Oliver realized they didn't have much time to find shelter from the approaching 1880-winter storm. They were about two miles north of what today is today called Dead Man Camp but faced too difficult a task to make the trek that far under these conditions.

Huddled under on a ledge at the mouth of a canyon, one of the men spotted a crevice in the sheer granite wall. The trio made their way to the overhanging rock, found the gap, and squeezed through, thankful for finding shelter and safety from the bitter weather. Once inside, they ignited torches to get their bearings and found themselves standing in a narrow corridor with several passageways branching in different directions.

The roar of the wind made them realize this would be their safe harbor until the weather abated. The best way to pass the time, they decided, was to explore. As a precaution, they left one of the torches behind to mark the entrance, hoping it would burn long enough to help guide their return.

They agreed on which passage to follow and moved deeper into the mountain until the trail opened into a large, vault-like chamber. The flickering flames cast eerie shadows on the walls as each of them separated. Then, Melton stumbled over something on the earthen floor.

Bones, he said, looking down and seeing a skeleton.

More over here, said Oliver, who lowered his torch revealing the bones of five more skeletons.

A careful search of the area produced no clues as to the identities of the victims. The three of them dubbed the chamber, Dead Man Cave. The discovery troubled them, the concern reflected in their faces. Melton lifted his torch and saw that shelves had been carved into stone walls, each of them supporting several odd-shaped stones. When he retrieved one, he was surprised by its weight.

Only when he began scraping away the surface grime did he and partners realize the stones were crude bars of gold. The other shelves, in fact, were filled with the same kind of objects. Tempering their excitement, they discussed the discovery, decided how to proceed, and waited for the storm to play itself out.

Slipping five of the gold bars into their packs, they backtracked to the entrance, where the torch they left still burned. The storm had ended, leaving several inches of new-fallen snow along the mountain trail, but they managed to negotiate their way to Silver Cliff, in the Wet Mountain Valley where they took the gold stones to an appraiser.

After a few tests, he valued them at $900 each. The news was exhilarating. And, the future held the promise of greater riches and a dramatic change in lifestyle. The news of their discovery leaked out, and the prospectors became instant - but reluctant - celebrities, according to a reported in the Denver Post. Despite public pressure, the prospectors refused to divulge the location of the cave.

The three of hem, however, drew up plans for a return trip to the secret treasure site as soon as the weather improved. In the spring, when the snow melted, and flowers began to bloom, the small expedition headed back, excited by the potential of great riches awaiting them. And, then, the unthinkable happened. They were unable to locate the entrance to the remote cavern. The entire area looked different. The terrain had changed. Repeating searches turned up nothing.  All attempts failed. By them and others.

The Fairplay Flume, a weekly newspaper, wrote: The men slipped off in the spring. But they never found the Dead Man Cave. . . . They went back frequently. Many others went back frequently. Nobody found anything.

As far as anyone knew, the gold bars of Dead Man’s Cave still await discovery, still gathering dirt on the shelves inside a dark, mysterious, hidden cavern, littered with the bones of skeletons.

Back to Contents

TWO

Vanished Without a Trace

On a crisp, clear Saturday morning, February 1, 1896, a father and son stepped into a buckboard at Lincoln, New Mexico, for their trip home to Mesilla. By nightfall, both had vanished.

Albert Jennings Fountain, and his eight-year-old son, Henry, disappeared near White Sands, New Mexico while traveling on a remote stretch of land called Chalk Hill. Fountain arrived in Lincoln in January seeking indictments against Tularosa Basin cattlemen Oliver Lee. The legal action accused Lee and his hired hands of practicing brand blotting—altering brands on other ranchers' cattle in such a way to resemble his own. The practice led to a widespread bitterness that eventually resulted in bloody range wars.

The 57-year old Fountain had established a reputation as a powerful and prominent force within the Republican Party and the entire state. He once defended Billy the Kid but built his reputation on his aggressive prosecution of lawbreakers. Fountain dedicated himself to jailing cattle rustlers.

The newly formed Southeastern New Mexico Stock Growers Association hired him as chief investigator and prosecutor, and he wasted no time is taking action. In a span of three months, he issued warrants for the arrest of the Slick Miller gang, a cattle rustling gang out of central New Mexico. Thanks to Fountain, fifteen gang members were convicted and sent to prison.

Fountain arrived in Lincoln with a wagon full of evidence. After hearing his arguments, the grand jury handed up thirty-two indictments. During a recess on the final day of court, an anonymous messenger stuffed a crudely scribbled note in Fountain's hand with this warning: If you drop this we will be your friends. If you go on with it you will never reach home alive. He'd been threatened before but with young Henry along, he grew worried.

Representing Lee and his gunmen, Billy McNew, and Jim Gilliland, was Las Cruces lawyer Albert B. Fall, who would later serve as a U.S. Senator, and Secretary of the Interior under President Warren G. Harding. Fall had no use for Fountain and once described him as exceedingly obnoxious to myself in a remark he made to A.M. Gibson, who wrote The Life and Death of Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain. Fall's successful defenses of Lee and the others made them almost invincible and allowed them to continue operating with impunity.

On the morning Fountain prepared to leave Lincoln, he gave Henry a quarter to buy candy. The boy took the change, a nickel, and a dime, and tied the coins into the corner of a handkerchief. With a pinto pony tied to the back of the wagon, the two headed southwest, across the Tularosa Basin, and past White Sands.

During the journey, a stagecoach driver by the name of Saturnino Barela waved them down to warn Fountain of three riders in the distance which