The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-02-11
HIS STORY ABOUT DEADWOOD
COACH DISPUTED.
SHAKY IN SEVERAL DETAILS
Former Black Hitler Tells What He
Knows Concerning Famous
Vehicle.

at may seem just a trife pre-.
sumptious on my part to attempt to
correct so famous a mar as Buffalo
Bill when it comes to matters of his
tory in connection with the early days
of that part of the country with which
he, above all other men, is supposed
to be familiar, but all the same I feel
constrained to challenge a statement
that recently appeared in a Washing
tho newspaper and attributed to him."
The speaker was a former resident Of
Deadwood and he addressed himself
to several men, among them a Ca
zette reporter, whom he happened to
meet in the Grand, yesterday.
"Bill, as you probably have read, has
offered to the National museum at
Washington an old stage coach that
he declares to be just fairly fragrant
with historic odors and chuck full as
it's old body can hold of links connect
ing the past with the present. The
stage he calls the 'Deadwood' coach
and the omanc he spins in connec-
ton with it shows that he has not
been in the show business all these
years without having learned the val
lie of advertising especially of the
catchy kind that is bound to be read.
Now, l happen to know a little my
self about the Deadwood' coach, in
fact of a great many of them, for the
time was when the numbering old We
hicles that have been displaced by the
| railroad were a prominent feature or
all of the three principal trails that
| ran into Deadwood from the two rail
roads with which in the early days of
the Black Hills they connected, if I
may be permitted to use the express
sion.
"The first of these stage lines had
their initial points On the Union Pa
cifc, one at Cheyenne and the other
at Sidney. Then another was stocked
| and entered the Hills from Bismarck,
connecting with the Northern Pacific.
Subsequently the company operating
on this road pulled off and ran in con
nection with the Northwestern from
Pierre, now the capital of South Da-
kota. But the first lines to be equip
ped and operated were those fro.@ the
| south, the Cheyenne and Sidney lines.
It is in connection with the Cheyenne
trail that Cody spins his little TO-
nance and gives alleged historical
value to the old wagon that he wants
to back into the Smithsonian Institu-
ton and get rid Of.
IF you have read his yarn you prob
ably remember that he said the stage
was built at Concord, N. H. a town.
by the way, that was famous for the
stages and stage harness made there
in the days when staging was n of
the big business interests of the coun-
try, and that it vas constructed in
1868. This part of his tale l am not
| prepared to dispute, but I must sa" he
was mistaken as to many other things
he said in connection with the relic
He says that it was placed in opera
ton on the Cheyenne-Black Hills
route in 1874. Now I am surprised
that Cody should be guilty of such a
serious mistake. In 1874 the Black
Hills was an unknown portion Of our
country. It was still a part Of the
Great Sioux reservation and as far as
known no white nan had eve put
foot beyond the foothills of that noun
moi yet explored the Hills and moth
ing was known concerning the wealth
hidden in those dark, f%orbidding noun
tains. 1t was not until two years lat
err, in 1876, that it became known for
q certainty that gold existed there
and it was in this year that the govern
ment treated with the Sioux for ces.
sion of the Black Hills, and in this
year also the first stage line to be
| operated into the Hills was e%stablish>
ed.
another little mistake the colonel
makes, and | see that the Pioneers
association of the Black Hills is talk
ing him up on this, is that in 1877
the coach was attacked by Indians
on Hat creek and the entire crew of
drivers and guards were killed. No
body, except Cody, seems to know of
any such occurrence, but even il it
had really happened, the stage would
not, as he says. have been abandoned
Stages cost too much money those
times to be abandoned after an attack
by, either Indians of road agents both
of whom occasionally made ii I'M
pleasant for the early day travellers.
Cody ic alec in error whom bo claims