Clayton

In April of 1876, after riding east along the Rio Chama to the Rio Grande,[2] Bart Maverick wanted to take the southern trail to arrive in Santa Fe the next day. Brother Bret wanted to head north to Clayton where Adelaide lived, four days up the northern trail.[1]

But Clayton, New Mexico Territory, would not be founded for another eleven years![3] There must have been an earlier Clayton already established by 1876. Either that, or Bret was in for the longest four days of his life.[2]

Santa Fe

It seems very strange that by 1876, Bart Maverick had never yet been to Santa Fe.[1] Especially considering he and Brother Bret spent two years fighting Indians in New Mexico Territory out of Fort Union as Galvanized Yankees. It was that very credential that had encouraged Laura Miller to hire them as trail bosses for her cattle drive across Comanche country on the trail to Fort Adobe in Arizona Territory[4] in 1867.[2]

The Army certainly would not have let them, still prisoners of war, out on their own. Still, given Bart's wandering nature, it seems odd he never made it to Santa Fe in the ten years hence.[2]

Snow drifts

When discussing the qualities of barbed wire during a long stagecoach ride on the Santa Fe Trail in New Mexico Territory, the fence salesman cited — amongst others attributes — that barbed wire created no snow drifts. The cattleman, an opponent to the very idea of barbed wire, objected by saying "It don't snow in New Mexico!"[1]

But the cattleman lived in La Mesa[1] — the modern-day site of Raton — where the average annual snowfall is 27.2 inches a year, 2.2 inches greater than the national average.[5]

Henrique Fillipe's ride to La Mesa

On the night Daisy Haskell shot Bart Maverick, she telegrammed Henrique Fillipe to meet her in La Mesa, New Mexico Territory, for the funeral. He was to arrive a day and a half later. But Bart and Daisy had just traveled for four days by stage to La Mesa from Santa Fe, where Fillipe had seen them off.[1] How could Fillipe make the same trip in just a day and a half?

Perhaps Fillipe was no longer in Santa Fe when he received Daisy's telegram. Maybe he had following her stage, a day or two behind her all the way, and had less than half the distance left to travel.[2]

Bart's stage ticket to Laramie

The day Daisy Haskell and Henrique Fillipe were taken aboard the Santa Fe stage by La Mesa's sheriff, Bart Maverick bought a ticket for Laramie. That was his and Daisy's destination to begin with, and he wanted to get as far away from Santa Fe as possible.[1]

But didn't Bart already have a stage ticket for Laramie? He had been traveling with that intention with Daisy since Santa Fe.[1]

It may be that, because he had been traveling with Daisy posing as her husband, John Haskell, he wanted to cleanse himself of the entire affair and travel once again as himself.[2]

Some things in "The Jeweled Gun" are wild as the wind in Oregon, such as:

French opera

While watching a cock fight in Santa Fe, Bart Maverick and Daisy Haskell stood in front of a poster written in French, promoting an opera performance.[1] Not only does it seem incongruous for such a sophisticated bill to be posted for a public engaged in a street blood sport, but why would it be written in French for a Spanish-speaking audience? Since we know "The Jeweled Gun" takes place in the spring of 1876,[1] it is stranger still that the opera performance seems scheduled for dimanche, 16 octobre (Sunday, October 16). In 1876, October 16 fell on a Monday. The last time it fell on a Sunday was in 1870 and the next, not until 1881. It also appears the location of the opera was in the theatre district of Rue de Mimont in Cannes, France!

Bart's $1,000 bill

On close inspection, Bart Maverick's $1,000 bill is clearly not United States currency. It is a bill from the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

It may be that, in New Mexico Territory, such a bill was still legal tender, but the denomination would have been in pesos, not dollars, and 1,000 pesos would have been worth much less.

Stranger still is, judging by the design of the bill itself, it would not even be issued until after the Mexican Revolution in 1913, 37 years after the time Bart rode into Santa Fe.[1]

Bart's testimony

In La Mesa, the sheriff took Daisy Haskell and Henrique Fillipe into custody for the murder of John Haskell and the attempted murder of Bart Maverick. The sheriff escorted his prisoners back to Santa Fe to stand trial.[1]

As the lead witness, and the one who actually solved the crime, why didn't Bart return to Santa Fe with them to give his first-hand testimony at the trial? Perhaps because Daisy had given a full confession to the sheriff, and the sheriff had witnessed enough of the events himself as they unfolded, Bart was allowed to travel elsewhere while the sheriff took his place on the witness stand in Santa Fe.[2]

Luxurious accommodations

The morning after Bart Maverick uncovered the deadly plans of Henrique Fillipe and Daisy Haskell and Daisy gave a full confession, the sheriff escorted the culprits from the La Mesa Hotel onto the stage to face trail in Santa Fe.[1] But why are they leaving the hotel? Wouldn't they have spent the night in jail?