Howdy friends, ah’m here to give you a bit more lowdown on
the history of Toe Nail Trail. Lots of yarns spun about the old
days, but I guarantee what I am about to tell you is the honest to
goodness truth. No varnishing of it at all, just the plain facts as
they was related to me by my great grandpappy, a god-fearing,
law-abiding, truth telling circuit rider along that trail.
Now Sneaky Pete wasn’t the only outlaw, desperado,
lawbreaking felon out there wandering Toe Nail Trail in the good
old bad days. I done told you about him in a previous conversation.
There was Wily Willie, the rustler, who was a specialist at
sneaking onto a spread in the dead of night to “find”
him a few choice head of cattle and then altering them cattle
brands so even the original creator wouldn’t recognize
‘em. Then there was Tricky Dickie the West’s most
conniving con man. This one could convince the town skinflint to
hand over every last dime he owned and could borrow for a chance to
make a fortune in one of Dickie’s pipe dream schemes. And
there was Crafty Carl an expert at hoodwinking gullible ranchers
into believing he could conjure up some rain with the various
contraptions he toted around in his wagon. Deceitful Dave ranked
right up there, as one of the best, if that would be a proper way
to describe him, forgers of documents in all of Texas.
And not to exclude the fairer sex, Devious Dora, a femme fatale
if ever there was one, who duped those poor love-starved cowboys in
a country with a considerable shortage of women, into marriage.
Funny thing though, she became a widow shortly after the nuptials
as those unfortunate men succumbed to a fatal accident of one sort
or another. She didn’t mention this to the next suitor, of
course, but rumor has it that she set a record even for those days
when men died young, of having been widowed twelve times! And it
was gossiped about that there might have been more ill fated men in
her past.
But the worst of them was Vicious Victor who robbed, tortured,
and beat his hapless victims and left them to die a lingering death
along the trail, in bitter cold winter weather or in the blazing
heat of West Texas summers. Left them there comatose and
defenseless against them critters that are always looking for a
free feast. And friend, them critters don’t always wait for
the demise of their dinner.
It got so bad with all those carcasses lying around out there
that the Buffalo soldiers from Fort Concho were called in to
apprehend this villain. A troop marched out of the fort one
blistering August morning and headed south to the western end of
the trail twenty-five miles to the south. They bivouacked along the
river that night before heading southeast down the trail toward Ft.
McKavett expecting to rendezvous with another troop of soldiers
coming northwest from Ft. McKavett to meet up with them
Well, it just so happened that the day the soldiers started down
the trail in search of their quarry, Vicious Victor had some
company out there in the wilderness. Tricky Dickie was headed down
the trail toward Fort McKavett while Vicious Victor was headed in
the opposite direction toward the dance halls and gambling to be
found in San Angelo. The Buffalo soldiers happened to overtake
Tricky Dickie and took him into custody on the spot. Then they
spotted Vicious Victor coming over a rise just down the trail a
piece. What do to with their captive? They needed to move fast and
he would just be a hindrance to them. Well, Sergeant Noah Count had
a thought. They’d just handcuff old Dickie to the nearest
fence line and come back for him after they had captured Victor.
And that’s just what they did!
Only problem was that when they came back after catching up with
Victor, all they found were the handcuffs and a pertinent piece of
Dickie. The rest of Dickie was nowhere to be found and since there
weren’t any other evidence of his presence, they just assumed
either he had been taken by something a little bigger than the
ravenous birds that were hovering about or he had decided he could
manage quite well without that aforementioned piece of his anatomy,
but not without his life. In any event, he weren't seen in these
parts again.
They had somehow lost the keys to the handcuffs during the chase
and so they had to leave the evidence behind when they headed up
the trail to Fort Concho. That evidence probably still remains
though its condition has deteriorated some over the ensuing
decades. You should mosey on down along the trail and see if you
can spot it just hanging around that fence line.
NOTE:
1. This cache is part of a series called "Toe Nail Trail
Challenge" created by Mermaid, Horny Toad and Mommio.
2.You will need to copy the 3-character code found on the log
and forward it to the cache owners when you have completed
all the caches in the series. You may e-mail mommio for a scorecard on which
to record your answers.
3. You must read the cache pages before attempting some
of the caches in order to have certain items with you.
4. NO hints will be given until someone has completed the
series.