The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-17
JULESBURG'S BAD NAME
ONCE ONE OF THE LIVELIFST
TOWNS IN THE WEST.
Scene of Indian Fights, Duels Be
tween Pioneer Settlers, Gambling
House and Dance Hall Diversions
and Tough Times Generally-Rec-
objections By Mark Twain.


in 1878, was the following unique de-
scription of Julesburg: THE Union Pa
cifc was contemplated to this place
the last of June, 1867, and all the gov
eminent freight for the season was
shipped to this point, to- be re-
shipped on wagons to its destination
to the north and west At that time
Julesburg had a population of 1900;
now the town is almost deserted. Dur
ing the lively times Julesburg was the
toughest of all towns along the Union
Pacific line. The roughs congregated
! there, and seldom a day passed but
what they had a man for breakfast
Gambling and dance houses consti-
tuted a good portion Of the town; and
it is said that morality ard honesty
I clasped hands and departed from the
I place. We have not learned whether
! they returned, and really have our
doubts about their ever having been
| there
! Did ever railway company, before or
since, advertise a town along its route
! in such remarkable language? No
wonder the town died, for die it did,
as will be seen later
: This paragraph caused investigation
! of the story of Julesburg, which is here
presented, mostly in quotations from
ceeding it is only fair to state that the
! fearful record Of wickedness does not
| in any way tarnish the fair fame of
the present town of Julesburg. county
seat of Sedgwick county, which, for
/ tunately, can prove an alibi to every
| charge in the Indictment.
| w b. Vickers, in Baskin'S History
| of Denver and Colorado" in describing
| the emigration OF 1858, says: In those
| days a journey across the plains was
! far from plain and pleasant sailing
\ There were but few outpoSts of civili-
| Zation, few personal comforts, and,
apart from an occasional mail or re-
| turning California miner, no society
worth speaking Of-not counting In
/ dams and buffalo society. Now and
then Pixies Peak pilgrim, vending
his way back TO America met the ad-
vanced guard OF tenderfeet and estab-
lished the now honored custom of fill
! ing their ears with such stories as only
! ColoradoanS can tell-the California
colloquist being merely an old-fash-
| toned handpress as compared with the
improved machinery propelling the
parts of speech of a. Colorado pioneer.
1.-The returning pilgrims almost in
variably followed the Platte route, in
tersecting the overland at what was
then known as the California cross
ing now Julesburg. Few spots in
Colorado are the center of more historic
interest than this small hamlet in the
extreme northeastern corner of the
state. From the fall of 1858, when the
first surge of emigration swept into
Colorado, until the Pacific railroad
passed by and left the place a mere
wreck OF it's former self, Julesburg was
widely known as the wickedest town in
America, a reputation fairly earned
and preserved while il remained a rail-
way terminus"
In that delightful mixture of fact and
fiction called "Roughing It. Mark
Twain describes as only he could de-
scribe his ride on stage coach from
st. Joseph, Mo-. to Carson City, New.
somewhere back in the 5O's-a dim era
of myth and legend seemingly almost
as remote as the landing of the pill
grims. Having introduced a story in
which Moses, the dehverer, is con-
trasted with Ben Holiday. the manager
of the great Overland stage line. as a
master of transportation, Mark Twain
says:
AT the fifth day out we arrived at
the Crossing of the South Platte alias
Julesburg.' alias Overland CITY, 470
miles from St. Joseph, the strangest,
quaintest. funniest frontier town that
our untraveled eye had ever stared at
and been astonished with.
1T did seem strange enough to see
a town again after what had appeared
to US such q long acquaintance with
deep, still, almost houseless and lifeless
solitudei We tumbled out into the
busy street. feeling like meteoric peo-
pie crumbled off the corner of some
other world. and Weakened up suddenly
in this. For an hour we took as much
interest in Overland City as if we had
never seen a town before. The reason
we mad an hour to spare was because
we had TO change our stage (for a less
sumptuous affair called a mud
wagon) and transfer our freight of
mails
Then Mark Twain describes the ford
ing near Julesburg, alias Overland
City" of the shallow. yellow, muddy
South Platte, with its low banks and its
scattering, fiat sandbars and pigmy
islands, melancholy stream strug-
Cling through the center of the enor-
nous fiat plain and only saved from
being impossible to find with the naked
eye by its sentinel ranks of scattering
trees standing on either bank"
But the Platte was up" though it
seemed low-down enough, and his re-
sDect Cor II increased when, "once or
twice in mid-Stream the wheels sank
into the yielding sands so threatening
ly that we half believed we had dread
ed and avoided the sea all our lives to
be shipwrecked in mud wagon in the
middle os = desert at last"
Before reaching Julesburg, Mark
Twain began to hear of SlaGe. an II
linoisan who had fed from home at
the age of 26, because of a quarrel in
which he had killed a man, and CON-
ing to st. Joseph, no, and become
trainmaster on a Caiift rnia-bouT d emf
igrant train
III.
had an angry dispute with one of his
wagon drivers, and both draw their re-
volvers. But the driver was the quick
er artist and had his weapon cooked
first. So Slade said IL was a pity 10
waste Eee on so small a matter and
proposed that pistols be thrown on the
ground and the quarrel settled by fist
fight The unsuspecting driver agreed
and threw down his pistol. whereupon
Slade laughed at his simplicity ana
shot him dead.
So Mark Twain glides along in his
delightfully."- picturesque and sarguin-
airy way, telling now Stale avoided
sheriffs, fought Indiars-oEce cutting
off the ears of three Indians whom he
had killed. and sending the several au-
raj aDDendages, wiCn mis- compliments,
to the chief of the tribe until his repu-
tation for energy, md. presumably. DO
likeness, procured for him the import
ant post OF overland division agent at
Julesburg, in place OF Mir. Jules, re-
moved
1t seems that Jules felt sore at being
supplanted and comreiled 10 SEE an
other man standing n his shoes in the
town named in his honor, and when
Siade accused him of secrcting a team
of stage horses, oman war was de-
clared. One day, as Slade entered a
store, Jules shot ut hiEl from behind a
door with "a double In rvef,,I shot,r1,o