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Diamondfield Jack & Castle Rocks

Jackson Lee Davis was an enforcer on the deadline. To the west of it, cattle country; to the east, sheep. Any animal or herder who crossed that line was in danger of the gravest sort. Enforcers rode the line day and night, often carrying a sidearm in addition to their rifle. That respect was often earned in powder and blood, fading away in the breeze and splattered across dry yellowing grass under a beating high-desert sun. On my way south through Idaho and into Utah on the C

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Diamondfield Jack & Castle Rocks

Jackson Lee Davis was an enforcer on the deadline. To the west of it, cattle country; to the east, sheep. Any animal or herder who crossed that line was in danger of the gravest sort. Enforcers rode the line day and night, often carrying a sidearm in addition to their rifle. That respect was often earned in powder and blood, fading away in the breeze and splattered across dry yellowing grass under a beating high-desert sun. On my way south through Idaho and into Utah on the C

Black Magic in Idaho

The night before, I had pulled off the highway to a pitch black landscape under a bright starry sky. I was in for a surprise when I looked out the camper that morning. As I pulled the shade, the morning sun reflected off a sturdy crust of icy snow with a vengeance for my corneas. I had parked in an expansive meadow with timber climbing the ridges on either side. After making coffee, I glanced out again and could see that I had parked in a popular cross-country ski area. The l

The Trail Through Tybo

From wild horses to atomic remnants, my journey across the desert just getting to Tybo had already been unexpectedly eventful. The day wasn't done with me yet. The road to get to Tybo is pretty tame as far as ghost town trails go. I had turned off highway 6, past the weathered air force base camp and airstrip used for the Project Faultless nuclear test, among other covert purposes. The area around Tybo is dry, with dust and dim sagebrush as my only companions for the first fe

Project Faultless on the Road to Tybo

When you're rolling across the wide open desert of central Nevada in early January, alone doesn't begin to describe the feeling. It's all cracking fence posts and rusty barbed wire. The few man-made sites you do pass are all marked keep out, no trespassing, or Property of the United States Govt. My day had begun hours earlier camping near some hot springs miles outside of Mammoth Lakes, California. I had stayed there for a few days after repeated storms blanketed the area wit

Red Rock Rebels: Outlaws of Paradox Valley

Paradox is a place that seemed to invite those estranged from society. The West is wide open, and many who crossed it in the 19th century were leaving society behind, at least temporarily. But to be estranged from it is altogether different. Some of the people who came to the Paradox Valley had no place among civilized men and no use for their laws either. One of those men was Axel Peterson. In 1910 he arrived in Paradox, a hard-drinking drifter in his mid-thirties. He looked

Wildfire and Mayhem on the Doorstep of Paradox

Driving north through the narrow end of Lion Gulch, the red rock walls suddenly open to reveal a sweeping view of the “Slaughterhouse of the West.” This is Paradox, Colorado, a settlement named for the strange, paradoxical course of the Dolores River, which cuts across the valley rather than flowing along it. Unfortunately, the valleys past is not as paradoxical. Its a history marked by violence and lawlessness in the 19th century and into the 20th, like many across the west.

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Diamondfield Jack & Castle Rocks

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Diamondfield Jack & Castle Rocks

Black Magic in Idaho

The Trail Through Tybo

Project Faultless on the Road to Tybo

Red Rock Rebels: Outlaws of Paradox Valley

Wildfire and Mayhem on the Doorstep of Paradox