The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1939-05-19
ADVENTUROUS
AMERICANS
By
Elmo Scott Watson
Long-Haired Sheriff


COMMODORE PERRY OWENS,
- born in Tennessee in 1852, went
to Texas in the early seventies and
spent II years there as cowboy
before becoming foreman of a COW
outfit in New Mexico. He wore his
hair ong-almost to his waist-and
carried his six-shooter on his left
side, the butt pointing forward. Old
! timers in the Southwest were doubt
full whether such "show-off" had
''real sand"
They found out he did have when,
singlehanded, he killed three Navajo
Indian cattle thieves. Then the peo-
pie of Northern Arizona decided he
was the man to clean up the out
laws in their section and elected him
sheriff of Apache county in 1887.
He broke up a band of l6 cattle
rustlers after killing Ike Clanton of
Tombstone fame and two others and
capturing his brother, Finn Clanton,
leader of the gang.
But his greatest feat was his sim
gle-handed fight with four members
of the Blevans gang, one of the fac
tions in the famous Pleasant Valley
war. In this fight, which took place
in Holbrook, Perry killed three of
the four, including Andy Cooper, one
Of Arizona's most dangerous gun
fighters. 1t was one of the most
desperate encounters at close quar-
tiers in the history of the state, not
even excepting the famous fight at
the o. K. corral in Tombstone.
Refusing reelection as sheriff,
Perry became a special agent for
the Santa Fee railroad, later express
messenger for Wells-Fargo and then
a United States marshal. He gave
up his man-hunting work in 1900
and became business man in Sell
igman where he died in 1919.
First in Yellowstone Park
w HAT an adventure it must
w have been for the first person
who saw the Yellowstone! John Col
ter, who for three years had served
in the famous Lewis and Clark ex-
petition, was the lucky man. He
had just left the party and estab-
hshed himself with the expedition
of Manuel Lisa from st. Louis who
travelled up the Missouri river to
trade with the Indians.
A fort was established at the Big
T@I N41fnr
ahead to notify the red men. With
courage typical of that period, he
began his lone expedition into terri
tory never before trod by even the
most courageous trappers and pi-
oneers of the time.
Informed by the Indians that
ahead lay a territory that was be-
deviled and that they would not PEN
citrate it, his curiosity and his adj
venturous spirit impelled him to ex-
plore it. He was well rewarded for
records show that, in 1908, he went
through and then completely encir-
cled what is now Yellowstone ma
tional park.
Alone, he saw before any other
person, the boiling springs, towering
geysers and strange mineral depos-
its. Not only was he a pioneer
among white men, but more adven-
turous than even the red men, being
years ahead of them in risking ex-
istence in land where the earth
trembled and groaned, spouted fire
and Kissed steam.
When Golfer returned, he told
such an amazing story of smoking
pits and the smell of birthstone that
the men of the fort laughed at him
and told others what they thought
were ridiculous stories of "Colter's
He'll" It was several years before
anyone else had the courage to veri-
fly his discovery.