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Wyoming Territory

Territory of the United States, organized by an organic act of Congress on July 25, 1868.[1]

Named for the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, derived from the Delaware Indian word mecheweami-ing, meaning "at/on the great plains."[1]

In November of 1873, the Laramie County Stock Association was formed in Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, to organize roundups, schedule cattle shipments, track cattle brands and prevent cattle rustling.[2] Philadelphia entrepreneur John Haskell moved himself and his wife, Daisy, to Laramie to join the association and take advantage of the Wyoming cattle boom.[3]

The Jeweled Gun: In April of 1876, John Haskell traveled with his wife, Daisy, from Laramie, Wyoming Territory, to Santa Fe to meet Henrique Fillipe to discuss breeding cattle.[3] During the Haskell's stay at the Fillipe Ranch, Daisy and Fillipe began a clandestine romance that led to a confrontation between Fillipe and Haskell. It escalated into a duel, resulting in Fillipe killing Haskell. To cover up the incident, Fillipe threw Haskell's body into a mine on his property and plotted with Daisy to recruit a stranger to pose as her late husband. Daisy hired Bart Maverick to play the part of John Haskell and escort her back to Laramie, but intended to kill him herself along the way to make it appear John Haskell was killed far from Santa Fe and remove suspicion from Fillipe. After Bart uncovered her plan, she and Fillipe were arrested by the sheriff in La Mesa and returned to Santa Fe for trial. Bart decided to continue on to Laramie and found Brother Bret already riding the Laramie stage out of Clayton.[4]

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According to Hoyle: In October[3] of 1876, Bret Maverick traveled from Cheyenne to Wagon Wheel with Samantha Crawford[5] on the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage Line.[3]

The Long Hunt: In February[3] of 1877, Bret Maverick won a poker game[6] in Fort Laramie[3] against a man who held four of a kind. Believing Bret to be a card cheat, he and a few others from the game chased Bret for miles[4] along the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage route[3] with the intent to kill him to get their money back. Bret was thrown from his horse near a ledge that Lefty Dolan was laying in wait to hold up the next stage. Dolan fired at Bret's pursuers, believing them to be a posse chasing a fellow road agent. Having heard each other's stories, Bret and Lefty decided to stop the stage, pay their passage and ride to the end of the line[6] to Cheyenne[3] together. A little ways further down the line, another stage robber and his partner held up the stage. Dolan shot and killed the partner, but received a fatal bullet himself. Dolan made a dying confession to Bret about killing a bank teller during a bank robbery in Dry Springs, Arizona Territory, in 1872. Jedd Ferris, an innocent man was serving a life sentence for the crime. Before he died, Dolan made Bret promise to do whatever he could to get Ferris out of prison. Bret reluctantly agreed[6] and in Cheyenne,[3] he found he was unable to concentrate on his poker until he had done something to prove Ferris' innocence.[6]