Daily Yellowstone journal., 1891-12-31
SIMPSONS ROCK AT TRINIDAD.

SIMPSONS ROCK At TRINIDAD.
Fourteen Days Constant watch and
Fighting, Then Death BY starvation.
Out at Trinidad. Colo. just south of
she town. is a huge. flat topped rock
ON the top of a hill perhaps 800 feet
high. Ii is called Simpsons rock. and
il is one of the historical points in the
west. Indeed it IS a fragment Of his
tory from that time when heroic deeds,
made sacred by the splitting of white
mans blood. ushered in the safe and
prosperous era Of white man rule
Simpson was a pioneer and came to
the place before the name of Trinidad
was heard. He was "a f~reighrer. and
finding NAM advantages about the
spot he prepared a home for his family
ON the bank of the Purgatoire river.
He had a wife and two boys i'm his
home al Santa Fe, and no man ever
more lovingly prepared a lodge for his
love than this rough driver fashioned
a dwelling in far away Trinidad lie
had everything i'm readiness as he passed
through TO the east. and meant 10 bring
out his wife and children on his next
trip west. But the Indians had risen
that fall and swept all the settlements
down the river. The found Simpsons
home just ready for occupancy, cap
tured the men he had employed 10 take
care Of il. and then lav IN wait without
disturbing a thing till the owner should
rome.
Simpson had seen signs of their raw
ages. and knew the knife aud brand
were devastating u e. country. He cir
eled around his CHERISHED home and
saw enough to wa % him. lie drove to
the foothills soutl OF the river. and be
gan preparations or "a guarded camp
The Indians did OF wait for barbados.
but attacked g. once. The helpers
were slaughter, at the first assault.
but Simpson. with one canteen of
water, fought lis way through the line
of screaming Utes and clambered up
the hill. They followed him as well as
they could, but darkness favored him,
and he gained the hills. Next morning
early they found him. and he retire ated
a little further up the hill. killing sew.
eral of his assailants from a better GOV
er. In the afternoon they drove HIN
from that, and he c~lambered a little
higher up. So the warfare went on.
He had shot 50 many they would not
leave him alive, but they could not
capture him. The second night Simp-
ann raFHaaHaI 70 rl. v-.ru- vL. 20 81.
hill. rolled up a shelter of stones in a
spot where he could command the one
approach. and waited. lie had eaten
nothing, and could hope for no food
The only chance for ]deliverance lay in
the possible coming of soldiers TO
avenge the massacre of settlers. Lying
there in the broiling sun by day and
the chilling air by night, the grim old
man watched sleeplessly, picking of
his enemies as they crept one by one
up the path.
Day after day, for a week. without
other food than cactus root, with no
water than that one canteen full. he
stood off his enemies. He never shot
tall a head was in sight. and he always
killed. Ten days, and he prayed for
death. Eleven, and he lost his cart
ridge belt. He found il, feebly crawl
ing about his little fort. on the evening
of the twelfth. He killed three Indians
on the thirteenth. In the thick dark.
ness before the dawn Of the fourteenth
he felt rather than saw an Indian at
the path. and shot without a waver.
He heard the voiceless Ute roll down
the precipice and pumped in another
cartridge.
That was his last. They found him
10 at noon, his dead eyes wide open.
his rife lying along the rock. his
pinched, heroic frame starved for food
and famished for water. 20 thin that
they spurned it with their feet. For
fourteen days ne had fought them. and
then he died defiant
Trinidad people have raised a cross
to mark his grave and 10 perpetuate
the memory Of the most hopeless, the
most surprising fight in all the Indian
annals. Chicago Herald.
The specie Room on S~hfpboard.