It has become the literary custom to recall our bonanza frontier less as an economic phenomenon than as a backdrop for bloodshed, mayhem, and assorted turns of vigor and violence. Early California, for example, is today known less as the scene of the accomplishments of James Fair, Charles Crocker, and Leland Stanford than as the arena for the armed forays of Joaquin Murietta, Black Bart, Dick Fellows, and various other gunmen. Since this is the accepted practice, it is entirely appropriate to introduce the gold-rush days of the Black Hills with a brief account of the banditry and thuggery which accompanied the early growth of that last frontier. The quotation at the head of this chapter is one verse of an old folk ballad, “The Legend of Sam Bass,” the not particularly inspiring saga of the life and death of an Indiana-born horse thief and road agent. Actually, Bass had little to do with the history of the Hills, and as anybody knows who has ever whistled or sung his song, the bulk of the chronicle concerns his struggle against the Texas Rangers. On the other hand, Sam Bass will long live in Black Hills history, for regardless of his other accomplishments he went to his glory bearing the credit for having originated the fine art of stage robbery in that Dakota wilderness. The Black Hills, like every other gold region, enjoyed but scant holiday from the pestiferous road agents. During 1875 and 1876, when the region was filling up, it seemed that there was plenty to occupy the imagination of every individual who was able to make the tortuous trip from the railroad. But by 1877 the area had calmed down to such an extent that idle hands could occasionally be counted in the dram shops, and the time was ripe for the devil to get in his work. From the point of view of geography the Hills presented ideal conditions for armed assault. The two major stage lines leading into the region were the Cheyenne-Black Hills Line, running through two hundred miles of desolate emptyland, and the Sidney Short Route, less long by some thirty miles, but passing through equally lonely country. In addition, one freight and stage line came in from the east, from Fort Pierre, and another from the north, following the general heading of Custer’s 1874 expedition. The gold, though, most often traveled the fastest route, out to the Union Pacific at Cheyenne or Sidney.