River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-12-08
WILD RIDE IN MOUNTAINS.
Terrifying Experience of a Mining
Engineer with Drunken Stage
Coach Driver.

For genuine wild we& experiences
John t. Breckon, the well-known min
ing engineer, is prepared to recon-
mend to the tenderfoot a trip over the
state line which runs from Ketchum to
Stanley, on the middle fork of the
Salmon river in Idaho. Mr.. Breckon,
having just returned from that coun-
try and having made the trip one way
alone with a drunken stage driver and
the other with plenty of company as
drunk as the driver, is peculiarly quail
lied to speak On the subject, says the
Salt Lake Tribune. The mining en-
gineer makes many trips to wild parts
of the country, but he declares that he
has never encountered anything quite
SO wild as that particular stage ride.
I'm the first place you must know, y
said Mr.. Breckon, that there isn't a
rougher stretch of country anywhere
in the Rocky mountains than the 60
or 70 miles traversed by that stage
route. 1t is simply a succession of
precipitous mountains with deep can
yons between, and the road is contin-
ually describing almost impossible
angles. Austin Tiernan, John H. Nc
Chrystal and Otto Bossert had just
come out of the country as l was go
ing in, and they gave the stage driver
a tip to give me the ride of my life
over those mountains.
Il imagined, however, that they had
rather overdone the matter of prepar-
ing the driver for his stunt, for we had
no sooner started than he insisted that
l should do the driving while he took
nap. l handled the lines all right
until we reached Galena, which is at
the summit of the divide, and when I
looked over and saw the almost sheer
descent of five or six miles ahead of us
l baked and awoke the driver. He
felt a little grOuchy over being awak-
ened from sound slumber, and when
l gave him the lines he swung his
whip over those four horses in a way
that sent us fairly rolling down that
rocky slope-that is, we were rolling
when we weren't sliding.
81 never will know how we reached
the bottom without going over some
Of the perpendicular cliffs, but we did,
and it took us less than Is minutes to
travel five miles. For hair-raising
rides it certainly beat anything I had
ever experienced up to that time
"But on the return trip we had one
even more thrilling. There were seven
on the stage, and all were drunk ex-
cept another man and myself. The
keeper of saloon at one of the sta
lions started out after us in a light
rig and succeeded in passing the stage
This feat hurt the professional pride
of our driver and he watched for a
chance to get ahead again.
''He saw it when we came to a place
where the road had been built around
a deep canyon. The saloonkeeper
kept on the road and the stage driver
cut across the canyon at breakneck
speed. When the saloonkeeper saw
what was going on he whipped his
own horses into run. 1t was plain
that when at the point of the noun
tain either the stage must go into the
river or the saloon mans rig must go
up the mountainside.
GAS the stage had the better of the
argument in weight and strength the
other team took to the mountainside.
The saloonkeeper's buggy was smashed
to pieces and he and his companion
were thrown out on the jagged rocks.
They were too drunk to be seriously
hurt, but the saloonkeeper's under
lip was badly cut, fully an inch square
of it hanging by a slender piece of
flesh and skin. Someone took a jack
knife and cut off the lip and threw it
into the road.
"After this we proceeded to our des-
tiEation without special incident, the
experience having served to sonar the
crowd somewhat"