August 7, 2023 |
Photo – Grand Encampment Museum – Bigfoot99 file photo
The Grand Encampment Museum is hosting a sold-out tour of a monument for two slain lawmen.
Every year, the Grand Encampment Museum takes people to historically important locations in and around Carbon County. Last summer, Museum Director Tim Nicklas led people to the ruins of Pinkhamton. James Pinkham was one of the earliest prospectors in the area and the town he founded bears his name. Pinkhamton now only consists of a few ruins in northern Colorado.
This year’s historic trek will be to a location associated with an infamous Carbon County outlaw, Big Nose George Parrot. Nicklas described the adventure he has planned for Saturday, August 19th.
Big Nose George Parrot was a notorious cattle rustler and highwayman. In 1878, Parrot and his gang gunned down deputy sheriff Robert Widdowfield and a Union Pacific detective named Tip Vincent.
Deputy Widdowfield and detective Vincent tracked Parrot to Rattlesnake Canyon, on Elk Mountain, following a botched train robbery near the Medicine Bow River. Parrot and his gang ambushed and killed the two lawmen.
The location of the murders is marked by a stone monument bearing the names of the two men. The marker is located on private property. Nicklas said the landowner, Fred Eschelman, was happy to allow the tour on his Elk Mountain Ranch. Nicklas said author Mark Miller will be on the trek. The museum director said Miller is related to the sheriff on duty when Parrot met his final fate.
Two years after the murders, Parrot, and another member of his gang, were arrested in Montana after drunkenly bragging about killing the two lawmen on Elk Mountain.
Parrot was extradited to Wyoming to face murder charges and sentenced to hang. Before the sentence could be carried out, Parrot attempted to escape by attacking jailor Robert Rankin. When news of the jailbreak spread, a mob of 200 Rawlins people dragged Parrot from the ail and hung him from a telegraph pole.
Parrot’s story didn’t end after he died. The outlaw’s skin was removed and turned into a pair of shoes. Governor John Eugene Osborne wore the skin shoes to his inaugural ball in 1893. The shoes and Parrot’s skull are now in the collection of the Carbon County Museum in Rawlins.
Nicklas said August 19th‘s $30 a person monument tour is already sold out. The museum director said the family of slain deputy Robert Widdowfield purchased half of the 30 available tickets almost immediately.
Nicklas said he didn’t want to take too many people onto the Elk Mountain Ranch property. The museum director said the low number of tickets was to show respect for the ranch owner while keeping the impacts on land low.
Nicklas said people were eager to participate in the monument trek. The museum director said the ability to legally enter Eschelman’s private land to see the monument is a rare occurrence.
The Grand Encampment Museum’s 2023 Annual Historic Trek to the Elk Mountain Ranch is Saturday, August 19th. All tickets have already been sold.
