The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-21
CHAPTER VI

Inc quartermaster's depot at Gate
City was little more than a big corral.
with double row of low, wooden
sheds for the storing of clothing, camp
and garrison equipage. There was a
blacksmith and wagon repair shop. and
brick office building. Some cottage
quarters for the officer in charge and
his clerks, corral master, ETC., stood
close at hand, while most of the en-
ployes lived in town outside the gates.
"A slngle-track spur connected the de-
pot with the main line of the Union
Pacific only five hundred yards aWay.
and the command at Fort Emory. on
the bluff above the rapid stream, fur
nished much to it's disgust, the neces-
sary guard. A much bigger plant"
was in contemplation near a larger.
post ard town on the east side of the
great divide, and neither Fort Emory
nor It's charge-the quartermaster's de-
pot-was considered worth keeping In
repair, except such as could be accom-
plished "by the labor of troops
which was why, when he wasn't fight
ing Indians, the frontier soldier of thai
day was mainly occupied in doing the
odd jobs of day laborer, without the
recompense of one, or his privilege of
quitting if he didn't like the Job. That
he should know so little of drill and
less of parade was, therefore. not to he.
wondered at
But what he didn't know about
guard duty was hardly worth know
ing. He had prisoners and property Of
every conceivable kind-Indians, horse
thieves, thugs and deserters. MAGAZINES
and medicines, mules and munitions of
war. Everything had to be guarded.
Ihe tort lay mile to the west of and
TWO hundred feet higher than the rail-
way hotel in the heart of the town
1t looked down upon the self-styled
city, and most of it's womenkind did
the same on the citizens, who were.
it must be owned. a rather mixed lot,
The sudden discovery of gold in the
neighboring foothills, the fact that if
promised to be the site of the division
car shops and roundhouse, that the
trails to the Upper Platte, the Sweet
water, the park country to the south.
and the rich game regions of the Medf-
cine Bow all conferred there and that
stages left no less than twice a week
for some of these points, and the
whole land was alive with explorers
for hundred miles around-aIl had
tended to give Gate City a remarka BILE
boom. Cheyenne and Laramie. thriv-
ing frontier towns with coroner's Of
fees in full blast from one weeks end
to the other, and double force on
duty Sundays, confessed to and exhib-
tied pardonable jealousy Yet there
was wisdom in the warning of an old
friend and fellow frontiersman. who
said to Folsom, you are throwing
yourself and your money away, John.
There's nothing in those gold stories,
there's nothing in that yawp about the
machine shops; all those yarns were
started by U. P. fellows with corner
lots to sell. The bottom will drop out
of that place inside of a year and leave
you stranded"
All the same had Folsom bought big
blocks and built his home there 1t
was the nearest town of promise to
Hal Folsom's wild but beautiful home
in the hills, and, almost as he loved
Nell, his bonny daughter, did the old
trader love his stalwart son. Born a
wild Westerner reared among the
Sioux with only Indians or army boys
for playmates. and precious little