Across The Fence: The Spring Creek Raid

Ten Sleep, Wyoming, is situated in the western foothills of the Big Horn Mountains near a tiny tributary of the Bighorn River named Spring Creek. Little more than a couple of dozen miles due east of Worland, Wyoming the Spring Creek area was designated as sheep range in the 1890s by an agreed upon imaginary boundary called a "deadline." From the deadline, cattlemen grazed their herds to the west, sheep men tended their flocks to the east and serious consequences lay in store for sheep men who crossed the line.

Wyoming has long been regarded as cattle country, and rightfully so. In 1870 the cattle count in the state was little more than 8,000 head but by 1885 that number had increased to more than 1,500,000. Then came the big die off in the winter of 1886-87 and cattle herds were decimated. F. E. Warren, in partnership with M. F. Post owned the Spur Ranch in the Green River Valley of the Dakotas. Prior to the winter of 1886 they were grazing 15,000 head of cattle. Spring roundup in 1887 counted only 800 head, a 95 percent loss. This great die off of cattle prompted several cattlemen in the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and Nebraska, to diversify their livestock holdings and include sheep in the mix.

Sheep were thought to be better adapted to the harsh winters and also provided the potential of a ready cash crop of wool. Seven years after the great die off, in 1894, the Warren Live Stock Company in southeastern Wyoming had an inventory of 3,220 head of cattle and 63,433 sheep. However, many cattlemen were violently opposed to sheep on the range and the resulting warfare was eminent.

Tensions between cattlemen and sheep men escalated as open range continued to shrink. Each new homestead act brought increasing numbers of settlers to the region as homestead claims increased from 60 acres to 80, from 160 acres to 320 and finally, in some areas up to a full section of 640 acres. As open range continued to shrink cattlemen and sheep men reached tenuous agreements that provided for specific ranges that kept cattle and sheep separate. The lines of demarcation were known as deadlines, a more than subtle hint of possible repercussions against those who ignored the boundaries.

Most confrontations between the two factions were destructive and hateful. In most cases the victims were sheep when large numbers would be stampeded over cliffs or hundreds shot for sport by trigger-happy cowboys. Although the numbers are few, there were far too many human lives lost in the battle for grazing rights. As in most all wars, greed, hatred, prejudice, misunderstanding and intolerance are mixed together in a steaming cauldron that will sooner or later boil over. Such was the case in the Spring Creek Raid, also known as the Ten Sleep murders of 1909.

The battle had been brewing since the 1870s when Thomas Durbin brought 900 head of Churros, a breed of sheep from Mexico, to Cheyenne, Wyoming for sale as mutton. However, instead of ending up on the dinner table the sheep were pastured on the surrounding range and the flock grew. In 1871 Edward Creighton was running a flock of 10,000 sheep in southeastern Wyoming and the western Nebraska panhandle and in 1875 Morton F. Post added 5,000 sheep to his flock on Pole Creek, north of Cheyenne.

The Dingley Act of 1897 imposed a heavy tariff on imported wool that created a boom for U.S. production. In 1890 there were more than 700,000 sheep in Wyoming and by 1900 that number had surpassed 5 million. By contrast, cattle in Wyoming numbered 1.5 million before the Dingley Act was passed and after, in 1898, the number of cattle in the state dropped to slightly more than 700,000. In a state where cattle had been king, sheep had usurped the throne and in the Big Horn Basin in the early spring of 1909 the cauldron boiled over.

April 2, 1909 five men with two sheep wagons, several dogs and 2,500 head of sheep left Worland, Wyoming and headed east toward Spring Creek some 25 miles distant. Between Worland and Ten Sleep, on Spring Creek, the rangeland was cattle country. The deadline was near Spring Creek and the five herders were in violation of the "agreement" between cattlemen and sheep men. Joe Emge, a former cattleman turned sheep rancher and owner of the flock knew the risk and before departing from Worland purchased two repeating rifles and 1,000 rounds of ammunition. Joe openly declared that he would run off every cattleman in the area. Joe never got the chance to fire a single round from his new weapons.

Along with Joe was his partner Joseph Allemand, well liked in the area despite being a sheep rancher. Allemand's nephew, Jules Lazier, was along as a herder as well as Pete Cafferal, a local boy who had recently hired on with the sheep outfit. The last of the five sheep men was Bounce Helmer, the son of a local cattle rancher who had volunteered to go along to drive the sheep.

That night, Joe Emge, Allemand and Lazier camped on the west bank of Spring Creek while Pete and Bounce took the second wagon to the east side of the creek. Both camps had long since been settled in for the night when at least seven riders came charging into camp. There may have been more than the seven but only seven were known for certain. Some of the riders surrounded the camp on the east side of Spring Creek, captured and tied up Pete and Bouncer. The two boys were spared any further violence but their camp dogs were shot.

Others of the invading party surrounded the camp on the west side of the creek and began a long and deadly barrage of gunfire into the sheep wagon. Others shot the camp dogs there and also began the random shooting of several dozen sheep in the flock. When the gunfire ceased, Joseph Allemand stumbled from the wagon. Wounded in the onslaught, Joseph walked toward the gunmen with his hands raised but was shot down where he stood.

When no one else ventured out of the wagon the invaders poured kerosene on the kindling that was piled under the wagon and set a torch to it. Apparently Lazier and Emge were either dead or mortally wounded and were consumed by the flames. The second wagon was also torched.

After the raiders left Pete and Bouncer escaped their bindings and hightailed it to the nearest law. Neither Pete nor Bouncer could identify any of the raiders as they all wore masks and it was dark. Felix Alston was the Sheriff of Big Horn County at that time and by morning he and a posse were on their way to Spring Creek. The scene was gruesome. The dogs and several sheep lay dead around the two camps, Allemand's body lay near the smoldering ashes of the sheep wagon, bullet wounds to his head and neck. Among the ashes of the wagon, Sheriff Alston found the unidentifiable remains of two bodies, nearly consumed by the flames. Their identities were assumed to be Emge and Lazier.

Although several sheepherders lost their lives during the conflicts between cattlemen and sheep men, the Spring Creek Raid was the deadliest single raid in the Wyoming sheep wars.

The murders on Spring Creek disgusted the people of the community, especially the sheep men. In response the Wyoming Wool Growers Association offered a $5,000 bounty that was increased by $2,000 by the National Wool Growers Association. Big Horn County offered a $1,000 reward and the state of Wyoming threw in another $500.

Although the citizens of Wyoming were shocked at the brutal nature of the crime they were doubtful that any justice would be served. Sheep raiders in the past, despite apprehension and trial, had never been convicted in a Wyoming court of law. It was commonly thought that even if the raiders were identified and brought to trial members of the powerful cattle empire would insure that there would be no conviction.

But Sheriff Alston was determined that this time there would be justice. By May 6, 1909 seven suspects would be identified and jailed. Five of the seven would be convicted and the Spring Creek Raid would be the last of the deadly confrontations, in Wyoming, between cattlemen and sheep men.

(Next week I'll continue with Sheriff Alston's investigation and the identity of the seven raiders.)

M. Timothy Nolting is an award winning Nebraska columnist and freelance writer. To contact Tim, email: [email protected]