Dave
Well-known member
A while back I told about Peter French's crew being attacked by Indians and only having one gun for the crew. Well, recently I read a book about Ben Snipes. He was referred to as the Cattle King of the Northwest. A while back I shared one of the stories of an epic ride he made. He became extremely wealthy raising cattle in south central Washington and driving them to the gold fields up in British Columbia. His first such drive occurred in 1855. Ben and two young Indians drove several hundred steer up to the goldfields. This was about 600 miles of uncharted wilderness. Unlike the Texas cattle drives where you were headed to a rail head or some form of civilization, this was going from unpopulated wildress to farther into the wilderness. They had to swim the Columbia River in two places. This is about the time that the Indian wars were happening here. Before he left his main man, who was staying behind to watch the cow herd, advised him that he should take a gun. His reply was why would he need one both the Indians each had a gun.
He went on to grow a few hundred cows bought on credit into 150,000 head. He made some epic trail drives. And legendary rides to avoid outlaws. But through it all he never packed a gun. At one point he owned much of what is down town Seattle. He diversified into banking and the bank panic of 1893 bankrupted him. Some time after the dust had settle and he had lost everything one of his old ranch hands met him on a trail. He was herding along one lone cow. The cowboy asked him what he was doing. He said that he owned that cow and he was taking her to slaughter house and would go buy two with the money. As the cowboy rode on his way he shook his head and said anyone but Ben Snipes couldn't do it. But Ben...... When he passed away in 1906 he owned a small ranch with 100 cows.
My wife's great aunt was married to a man who rode for Ben. He died when she was pretty young and all she remembers of him was that he was tall. Ben's parents are buried on a hill top 6 or 7 miles from here. Ben is buried in the town we go to for shopping.
He went on to grow a few hundred cows bought on credit into 150,000 head. He made some epic trail drives. And legendary rides to avoid outlaws. But through it all he never packed a gun. At one point he owned much of what is down town Seattle. He diversified into banking and the bank panic of 1893 bankrupted him. Some time after the dust had settle and he had lost everything one of his old ranch hands met him on a trail. He was herding along one lone cow. The cowboy asked him what he was doing. He said that he owned that cow and he was taking her to slaughter house and would go buy two with the money. As the cowboy rode on his way he shook his head and said anyone but Ben Snipes couldn't do it. But Ben...... When he passed away in 1906 he owned a small ranch with 100 cows.
My wife's great aunt was married to a man who rode for Ben. He died when she was pretty young and all she remembers of him was that he was tall. Ben's parents are buried on a hill top 6 or 7 miles from here. Ben is buried in the town we go to for shopping.