Wild West Revisted

While I was attending high school in Malta, two south county ranchers were shot to death in the men’s restroom of a local saloon. The wild, wild west was not of the past; it was in the here and now!

During the same time frame, a north county farmer/mailman came up missing. His frozen body was found beneath a bridge north of Malta. It was a sad state of affairs, the victim of gunshot was a family man.

Ever after that, the bridge was named after the dead man. Many years later, I asked a retired businessman if the authorities ever had a clue into the mysterious death.

He seemed somewhat surprised [that] I didn’t know. Mr. G., the gunshot victim, had been engaged in a game of poker in a local saloon. He was exceptionally lucky in his winnings. That seemed to be his fatal mistake, as he was found penniless when his body was discovered.

As the story goes, the two south county ranchers decided the best place to secure their new wealth was beneath a large rock.

What they didn’t realize was that one man’s wife was listening to the conversation. Her desire for expensive clothes, while on a southern trip, was greater than both men’s greed. The disappearance of the money caused the end to the men’s friendship. The sordid affair became more so with the shooting in a local saloon.

This was the story related to me and evidently was common knowledge in parts of northeastern Montana – this in the Good Old Days!

Helen DePuydt is a regular contributor to the Courier and a member of a homesteading family in the Saco area. All of her stories are true.