The Anaconda standard., 1899-03-26

locality was clearly peaceful. few
have engaged in a fight with the out
laws. who were retreating to their
granite fortress, and have lived to tell
ABOUT it. From these sources faint
idea has been gained of the character
of the place. Now and then one of the
band, while visiting town not many
miles away, has revealed a number of
things in his cups.
The exact locality of the retreat of
Mccarthy and his men is not known,
though there are persons who could
guide party within three or four
miles of it. The path runs through a
narrow canyon, and leaves it at par
ticularly wild and tortuous place for
serpentine trail running mile or more
up and down the heights. Again, at
the end of this trail, there is a passage
way blasted and cut through solid rock.
The termination of this shorter path
way brings the robber to the entrance
of the gathering place, which is nothing
less than great cave or amphltheater
in the center of the rock.
This is the throne room of the irish
man, and from this there run in all di-
rection tunnels, their openings artfully
concealed, so great are the precautions
of the band. and their other ends ter
minating at one or the other sides Of
the mountain. This is known from
statements made by miners and me-
chanics who We're taken by the gang
to do the work, and who were blind
folded while approaching and leaving
the place
But the most remarkable feature of
all is the fact, boasted of by more than
one of the gang, that the cave possesses
an excellent electric motor and dynamo,
taken there plecemeal on horeback. 1t
is even said that the system is used to
light the rocky recesses, but the chief
boast is that it is for another purpose
Robbers say that wires run from the
room of the chief to all approaches of
the fortress and communicate with
charges of dynamite. They have stat
ed that it would be possible for them
to annihilate a regiment of soldiers and
that the exploding of dynamite in the
approach from the west side would
close the passage instantly, after which
they could either lie in the cave with
security or escape from one of the
many openings and scatter over the
country.
The fortress is about Is miles fc1m a
settlement on the edge of the desert,
called Courthouse. 1t is about 80 miles
east and north of the county seat of
Grand county, Moab, and from this
place the band gets all it's supplies. In
fact, the town is almost owned by the
bandits, and none of the inha bitants
has sufficient courage to inform against
them. The common talk among cattle
men and mining men in this section of
the country is to be relied upon for the
story of the manner of living within
this remarkable place. It is said there
are about 200 men in the band, and it
| is known that many fugitive murderers
and escaped convicts, the latter from
all states, and especially from Color
in the number.
AS the country gradually fills up the
robbers are abandoning their practice
of holding up trains and travellers, and
are combining their depredations mostly
to herds of cattle and sheep. They are
said to operate extensive grazing pas
lures in the heart of the Blue or Book
mountains. They are experts at re-
branding cattle, and make a speciality
of gathering up stray mavericks. 1t
| Eas been known for years that they
have agents al different points. The
police believe that the band has repre-
sentatives in this city, Cheyenne and
| Denver, while there are firms in the
| East in collusion with the gang. Nc
Carthy ships his cattle East, where they
| are sold, and he receives the checks in
| return by mail. These checks are
cashed almost daily in Western banks,
though always through third party.
| For some time there has been stand
ing reward of $500 offered by the gov
members of the gang, dead or alive, ard
more than one have been shot and car
ried to Salt Lake Several of the out
laws have been tried for murders COM
mitted in the county, and in the town
Of Moab itself, but the juries invariably
acquitted the accused. People say5that
no one can tell who are members of
the gang and there is never a trial but
that one of them gets on the jury. The
men of the mountain Businesses always
pose as mountain herders and dress as
such. Mccarthy has spent large sums
in getting the best counsel to defend any
of his men who have been placed on
trial.
A former deputy United States mar
shall of Utah is authority for the state
ment that there are SO skeletons lying
in a gulch not a great way from the
mouth of McCarthy's canyon. The mar
shall says that he saw the place himself,
and that the skeletons represent persons
put out of the way by robbers who
feared they would reveal secrets they
had stumbled across. Mccarthy is said
ITO encourage such crimes, but story is
told of him to the effect that a pros
pector one day wandered too near the
hiding place of the gang, and Mccarthy
sent him $100 with instructions to leave
at once.