Grand Teton National Park (Wyo.); Jackson Hole (Wyo.)
But, in fairness to the old idea, which one is reluctant to abandon, it
must be conceded that among the authentic narratives, that have come
down to us from pioneer times, there are 1 or 2 which hold their own
with the choicest that wild west fiction has dared to offer, and these
bolster up to some extent the rather faltering case for Jackson Hole’s
former exceptional badness. Such a narrative is the story of Deadman’s
Bar.
There are few residents of the Jackson Hole country who have not heard
of the Deadman’s Bar affair, a triple killing which took place in the
summer of 1886 along the Snake River and which gave this section of the
river the name of Deadman’s Bar. It is the most grim narrative and the
most celebrated in the pioneer history of the valley, and its details
are sufficiently bloody to satisfy the most sanguinary tourist, thirsty
for western thrills.
EMILE WOLFF’S NARRATIVE
When Colonel Ericsson, Mr. Owen, and the writer visited Emile Wolff on
August 9, 1928, we found him stricken with the infirmities of old age
and confined to what proved to be his deathbed. Nevertheless his senses
were alert and his memory concerning the period in question keen and
accurate. The account he gave checked in detail with one he had given
Colonel Ericsson a year earlier, and his recollection of names and dates
agreed in most cases with evidence obtained later from other sources. In
his enfeebled condition, however, Wolff was so weakened by the telling
of his story that the interview had perforce to be cut short and certain
questions left unanswered. A few questions Wolff declined to answer with
the statement that there were features of the affair he would like to
forget if he could, and there were others he had never told anyone and
never would. What he had told other men, he said, he would tell us.
Concerning himself Mr. Wolff stated that he was 76 years old and a
German by blood and birth, having been born in 1854 in Luxembourg. He
received an education along medical lines in the old country. When still
a very young man, only 16, he emigrated to America, where he served for
some years in the United States Army in the Far West, part of the time
as a volunteer doctor. His first visit to the Jackson Hole region was in
1872 when he came to Teton Basin (Pierre’s Hole) for a brief period. In
1878 while serving under Lieutenant Hall, he came into Jackson Hole, his
detachment being sent to carry food to Lieutenant Doane’s outfit, which
had lost its supplies in the Snake River while engaged in a geological
survey of the Jackson Hole area[6].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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