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2. Cowboys in Montana
- University of North Texas Press
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5 CHAPTER 2 Cowboys in Montana W hether they came up the trails from Kansas City, Missouri, a starting point for the Westward Movement, or by trailing a herd from Texas, to Ne w Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming, the brothers were in north-central Montana Territory by early fall of 1884.1 It is really just conjecture as to the route the y took, since there are onl y a few cryptic references in the available literature. The latter route can be infer red in part from a statement b y Pinkerton Detective Charles A. Siringo. Kid Curry, “at an early age drifted to Texas and Colorado to become a cowboy . In 1884 he got into a ‘jackpot’ in Pueblo, Colorado, and had to hit the high places to escape the offi cers of the law, several bullets striking the buggy in which he made his getaway.”2 This is in reference to Harvey supposedly being involved in a brawl or shooting at a roadhouse outside of Pueblo. Another brief mention is fromA. V. “Kid Amby” Cheney who said he worked with Kid Curry as a “rep” with the Circle C outfit late in the season in 1890. “The … Curry brothers … were southern cowboys who had come north and settled on a ranch near Landusky in the Little Rockies.”3 According to John B . Ritch, a Montana friend , the Curry boys told the Circle Bar outfi t “that they came up the trail but ne ver were they communicative as to their past or as to b y what trail they had reached the ranch.”4 Another possible scenario is that the y could have signed on with a trail herd coming up the Texas Trail at Dodge City, Kansas, more specifically the Western Trail, which had been in use since 1874. It “ran from the Rio Grande to San Angelo on the Califor nia Trail and due north across the Red and Canadian ri vers to Dodge City. It continued north by Ogallala, Nebraska, and the Che yenne-Black Hills stage route to Roundup, Montana.”5 The trail’s main destination w as the g rowing cattle town of Miles City, in eastern Montana. Also, since the trail went 6 Chapter 2 through the vicinity of Hulett, Wyoming, Harvey could have somehow met later outlaw pal George Sutherland Currie there. Contrary to what has been written in the past, and incredib ly is still written today, the brothers did not change their name to Cur ry because of respect for “Flatnose” Geor ge Currie who they may have met on his The Logan/Curry brothers in Montana, ca. 1890. Left to right: John, Har vey, Lonie. (Larry Pointer Collection, Box 21, Folder 15, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.) [54.172.169.199] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 06:59 GMT) Cowboys in Montana 7 parents’ homestead near Hulett, in nor theast Wyoming. If George’s birth date of March 20, 1871, is accepted , he would have been just thirteen years old when Harvey and Hank arrived in Wyoming in 1884. At this age and time he was not, as he w as later to become, an e xpert cattle rustler and horse thief. In fact, in 1886, when George was fifteen, the family moved to Chadron, Nebraska, where he found work as a grocery clerk or worked in a general merchandise store. It had to be in the late 1880s, cer tainly by 1890, when he left home and ar rived in Wyoming to become a member of the Hole-in-the-Wall gang of rustlers.6 Even if it could be substantiated that Hank and Harvey visited the Hole-in-the-Wall area while coming up the trail, which it cannot, George Currie would not have been there. The brothers supposedly arrived in Miles City , Montana Territory, possibly with a trail herd. Looking for w ork, they were told that co wboys could get emplo yment in north-central Montana, and w ere given directions to Rocky Point on the Missouri River. Their route took them northwest to the mining town of Maiden and the Fort Maginnis country, then about forty miles north to the little settlement of Rocky Point.7 Hank and Harvey hit town at Rocky Point, Montana Territory, in late summer or early fall, 1884.8 It was situated on the south clif fs of the Missouri River, about twenty miles south of the Little Rockies.The town “was a trading post...