XP: Julesburg and Slade

Pony Express rider - rest area

When I travel for leisure, I do so without an agenda.  I have a rough endpoint in mind and a time when we have to be back, but other than that we kind of take the road in a general thataway direction and see where we go.  A zig instead of a zag took Ben and I down towards Julesburg, Colorado, and lacking a concrete plan for the day, we went with it.  We knew there was a Pony Express Station there, and knew that the infamous Jack Slade had been stationed there, but we found out enough for three or four blog entries.

The trading post that gave rise to Julesburg was established by Jules Beni.  Now old Jules wasn't exactly the very model of a stand-up citizen, in fact he was reputed to be quite the outlaw.   He worked as a station manager for the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express, which was the parent company of the Pony Express, both being owned by Russell, Majors, and Waddell.  Soon, the stagecoaches were being robbed and horses were going missing.  Company Inspector Benjamin Ficklin noted the discrepancies and brought in Jack Slade for a general clean-up, including firing Jules.

When Slade tried to discharge his duty, Jules shot him with a pistol and shotgun, severely wounding Slade, who vowed to wear one of Jules' ears on his watch chain.  Either the townspeople or a stage superintendent ran Jules out of town, either with or without trying to hang him.  Who knows?  In studying the American West, you find out that people didn't necessarily worry about facts getting in the way of a good story. To the amazement of everyone in town (including Jules Beni, who had left instructions for Slade's burial), Slade recovered and resumed his company duties.  Jules, apparently not heeding a good warning, stayed in the area buying, selling (and likely stealing) cattle.  In August of 1861, some of Slade's men caught up with Jules:

Earie prairie kitsch

"In the fulness of time Slade's myrmidons captured his ancient enemy Jules, whom they found in a well-chosen hiding-place in the remote fastnesses of the mountains, gaining a precarious livelihood with his rifle. They brought him to Rocky Ridge, bound hand and foot, and deposited him in the middle of the cattle-yard with his back against a post. It is said that the pleasure that lit Slade's face when he heard of it was something fearful to contemplate. He examined his enemy to see that he was securely tied, and then went to bed, content to wait till morning before enjoying the luxury of killing him. Jules spent the night in the cattle-yard, and it is a region where warm nights are never known. In the morning Slade practised on him with his revolver, nipping the flesh here and there, and occasionally clipping off a finger, while Jules begged him to kill him outright and put him out of his misery. Finally Slade reloaded, and walking up close to his victim, made some characteristic remarks and then dispatched him. The body lay there half a day, nobody venturing to touch it without orders, and then Slade detailed a party and assisted at the burial himself. But he first cut off the dead man's ears and put them in his vest pocket, where he carried them for some time with great satisfaction. That is the story as I have frequently heard it told and seen it in print in California newspapers. It is doubtless correct in all essential particulars" - Mark Twain in Roughing It

Earlier Pony Express Trail marker

In different accounts of the event, details vary wildly.  The locals say that one of Jules' ears was nailed to a fencepost, Twain says the he carried them in his vest pocket, others say that one ear went on Slade's watch fob and another he showed to buy drinks.  As with other legends, that of Joseph Alfred "Jack" Slade is likely exaggerated.  He is known to have killed a handful of men, mostly doing his job.  One thing is sure:  he was a mean drunk.  Slade met his end during a long drop to the end of a short rope, lynched by vigilantes on 09 (or 11) March 1864 in Virginia City, Montana for "disturbing the peace".

Twain tells a good story and the episode of Slade provides one of my favorite literary lines "And the next instant...he was one of the deadest men that ever lived":

"On one occasion a man who kept a little whisky-shelf at the station did something which angered Slade—and went and made his will. A day or two afterward Slade came in and called for some brandy. The man reached under the counter (ostensibly to get a bottle—possibly to get something else), but Slade smiled upon him that peculiarly bland and satisfied smile of his which the neighbors had long ago learned to recognize as a death-warrant in disguise, and told him to 'none of that!—pass out the high-priced article.' So the poor bar-keeper had to turn his back and get the high-priced brandy from the shelf; and when he faced around again he was looking into the muzzle of Slade's pistol. 'And the next instant,' added my informant, impressively, 'he was one of the deadest men that ever lived.'" - Mark Twain in Roughing It

Mark Twain Meets Slade - Roughing It

Slade pours Sam Clemens the last of the coffee

"In due time we rattled up to a stage-station, and sat down to breakfast with a half-savage, half-civilized company of armed and bearded mountaineers, ranchmen and station employees. The most gentlemanly- appearing, quiet and affable officer we had yet found along the road in the Overland Company's service was the person who sat at the head of the table, at my elbow. Never youth stared and shivered as I did when I heard them call him SLADE!"

"Here was romance, and I sitting face to face with it!—looking upon it—touching it—hobnobbing with it, as it were! Here, right by my side, was the actual ogre who, in fights and brawls and various ways, had taken the lives of twenty-six human beings, or all men lied about him! I suppose I was the proudest stripling that ever traveled to see strange lands and wonderful people."

Pony Express  station marker

"He was so friendly and so gentle-spoken that I warmed to him in spite of his awful history. It was hardly possible to realize that this pleasant person was the pitiless scourge of the outlaws, the raw-head-and-bloody- bones the nursing mothers of the mountains terrified their children with. And to this day I can remember nothing remarkable about Slade except that his face was rather broad across the cheek bones, and that the cheek bones were low and the lips peculiarly thin and straight. But that was enough to leave something of an effect upon me, for since then I seldom see a face possessing those characteristics without fancying that the owner of it is a dangerous man."

"The coffee ran out. At least it was reduced to one tin-cupful, and Slade was about to take it when he saw that my cup was empty."

Monuments and first townsite

"He politely offered to fill it, but although I wanted it, I politely declined. I was afraid he had not killed anybody that morning, and might be needing diversion. But still with firm politeness he insisted on filling my cup, and said I had traveled all night and better deserved it than he—and while he talked he placidly poured the fluid, to the last drop. I thanked him and drank it, but it gave me no comfort, for I could not feel sure that he would not be sorry, presently, that he had given it away, and proceed to kill me to distract his thoughts from the loss. But nothing of the kind occurred. We left him with only twenty-six dead people to account for, and I felt a tranquil satisfaction in the thought that in so judiciously taking care of No. 1 at that breakfast-table I had pleasantly escaped being No. 27. Slade came out to the coach and saw us off, first ordering certain rearrangements of the mail-bags for our comfort, and then we took leave of him, satisfied that we should hear of him again, some day, and wondering in what connection."

Slade's gun cabinet

Ned Beatty does a wonderful job playing Slade in the movie Mark Twain's Roughing It.  If you aren't into reading, this show does a good job at bringing this book about Sam Clemens' westward journey with his brother Orion to life.   In parts, they have actually managed to turn a phrase a bit tighter than Twain did originally.   During the Lincoln administration, Orion was appointed to be the secretary of Nevada Territory.  Filling the role of Mark Twain is James Garner, with Robin Dunne as the young Sam Clemens.  This movie will set you back $5-$10 on DVD.  Bought it, watched it, worth it.  If you've never read the book and would like to, it is available for free at Project Gutenberg.

Ned Beatty as Slade

Overland City - First Julesburg

Julesburg as a town has been as stubborn as old Jules and Slade.  The current town site is the fourth Julesburg.  This first Julesburg was established as a trading post by Jules Beni in 1859ish to capture the emigrant trail trade.  Soon a substantial town developed, including a station for Russell, Majors and Wadell's mail transport business - both stagecoach and Pony Express.  Homesteaders cabins, store, blacksmith shop, warehouses, stables and later a telegraph office were all located in Julesburg.  There were brothels and a billiards parlor where one could buy "the vilest of liquor at two bits a glass".  Fort Rankin/Sedgwick was located nearby.  Even the US Army couldn't uphold the law in this wild territory.

When Russell, Majors and Wadell lost the overland mail contract in 1862, they were bought out by Ben Holladay, who tried to rename the town "Overland City" to increase its respectability. The town flourished until 1865, its fate decided by forces out of its control.  On 29 November 1864, Colorado Territory militia under Col. John Chivington attacked Black Kettle's band of Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho on the Sand Creek Reservation, massacring 28 men and 109 women and children.  Ironically, among the dead were eight chiefs of the council of 44 - many of whom had been peace advocates.  Many of the surviving Cheyenne and Arapaho threw in with the Dog Soldier band of Cheyenne and Lakota and started raiding white settlements.  On 07 January 1865, the allied Indians defeated a garrison of 60 soldiers from Fort Sedgwick and 50 armed townspeople.   Raids commenced along the South Platte Valley, and the Indians returned to Julesburg on 02 February.  Finding the townspeople holed up in the fort, the Indians put the entire town to the torch, burning every building.

The town would rise from the ashes, moving to the northwest, anticipating that the Union Pacific Transcontinental railroad would come down the south side of the South Platte River.  Boy howdy, were they disappointed.  That is a story for another day, however.

Getting There

The Pony Express statue is located in a rest area/welcome center close to the intersection of I-76 and US-385 (Exit 180) on Co. Rd. 28 just north of I-76.  Follow the signs, the way is well marked.  Many local auto tour brochures can be found here, should you feel the urge to look around.  I don't usually rate rest areas, but this one has some interesting displays of local history.  The auto tour follows Co. Rd. 28 to Co. Rd. 29, crossing over into Ovid.  Taking US-138 and US-385 northwest back into Julesburg will take you past a suite of signs and all four townsites.

Waypoint: Latitude 40.938871 N; Longitude 102.361721 W
Street Address: 14999 Co. Rd. 28, Julesburg, CO 80737