HomeMy Public PortalAboutBorden, Sheepherder Billgi7
by Roxanna Allen
What's in a name? Well, when you have a
name like "Three -Finger" Smith, "Sheepherder"
Bill Borden or "Hard Rock" Elliot there's got to
be an interesting story somewhere in your life.
Especially if your life was spent in the early
unsettled days of this country.
"three -Finger" Smith's life was filled with
adventures that you would never see on the late
show. The story of how he lost his fingers was told
by his son Henry and taken from Rafe Gibbs book,
"Beckoning the Bold".
"It seems that the father's muzzle -loading '
shotgun accidentally fired while he was talking to
a friend" the book reads. "He happened to have
both hands cupped over the barrel, and the shot
blew off the middle two fingers of each hand.
`Three -Fingered' Smith always shied away from
admitting the facts because he believed that no
man should be careless with a gun."
Smith was the lone survivor of the,Indian battle
that took place at the Cascade Falls on the
Payette River near the present town of Cascade.
Will Munday, Tom Healy, and Jake Groselose
were not as lucky. They are buried at the site.
Smith was wounded and traveled 30 miles, finally
reaching Cal White's mail station at Little Salmon
Meadows (old Meadows now). There he recover-
ed, but remained badly crippled from his wounds.
Smith made a rich strike at Florence and a
story is told that after the strike he took off to
Warren, where he proceeded to buy a sal+eon and
declare that "drinks were on the house". And, of
course, being that the "drinks were on the
house" he'd have a few himself. How many
saloons he bought is not known, but it was said
that in a hundred nights he went through a
$100,000 and ended up broke.
He finally made his home at his ranch at the
mouth of Elk Creek and spent the remainder of
his life there.
William "Sheepherder Bill" Borden claimed he
was a descendent of the famous Borden milk
Spawning grounds
Their strange names
fit their lives
t
products family. He lived in a cabin at the mouth
of Porphyry Creek, where he always raised a fine
garden. A well-educated man that had a
weakness for drink, "Sheepherder" Bill bade
several stakes and would proceed to drink up, all
of his profits.
Whiskey would prove to be the ruin of,
".'Sheepherder" Bill. He was burned in his cabin
when his whiskey still blew up, or so it was
supposed when the burned cabin was discovered.
Ernest "Hard Rock" Elliot,, a packer for the
mines, would go to Warren to celebrate Labor
Day. He would arrive with a long string of horses,
some loaded with whiskey, and a horse or two to
ride. He would unload at Missouri George's cabin
and put his horses out to pasture on Warren
Meadows. And then he would proceed to
celebrate. There would be about a week-long
spree of drinking with his buddies, which they
would call "hanging one on". After that it would
be out of the system and back to packing.
"Cougar" Dave Lewis was a government
packer and scout during the Sheepeater Cam-
paign. He was at the battle of Soldiers Bar and
was instrumental in having the monument placed
at Private Harry Engen's grave site there in
about 1925.
After the Indian wars, "Cougar" Dave stayed
in the Big Creek country with his guns and dogs,
hunting cougar for a living.
At the age of 93 he arose at his usual early hour
and had a bit of breakfast. He didn't feel quite up
to par, so he hiked out of the canyon and had a
friend take him to Boise. He died the next day.
Sylvan "Buckskin Billy" Hart is a nationally
known inhabitant of the Salmon River country.
He is a master craftsman of many arts, including
hand -hammered copper cooking utensils, hand-
made knives and guns, the tanning and sewing of
his buckskin garments, and the preserving of his
own food stuff.