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Ghost Cowboy is about real tales from the 19th-century American frontier, when the Old West was young. Most of the posts here are actual news items from the 1800s and early 1900s. We'll be adding "new" content every week. Travel with us and sign up for an account, and you'll be able to leave comments and post in our forums. Your trailmasters, Ken in Alabama and Dave in Virginia, don't get to saddle up and vacation out west as often as they'd like, so they started this site. Drop us a note.

frontiersman


AFFRAY BETWEEN ARMY OFFICERS


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Salt Lake Herald / April 11, 1880

About 10 o'clock Friday morning a rumor was afloat in town that a duel had taken place between two officers, and it gained credence when doctors were summoned to Fort Douglas. It finally came out that Capt. C. B. Weston and Dr. LeCompte had engaged in a shooting scrape that morning, but the particulars could not definitely learned, as those in a position to know anything about the transaction are unwilling to communicate it.

AN ARMY OFFICER'S DUEL.


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A STREET ENCOUNTER AT FORT DOUGLAS BETWEEN CAPT. C. B. WESTERN AND DR. LECOMPTE

Newspaper Account / March 27, 1880

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, March 26. -- Dr. Lecompte and Capt. C. B. Western, of the Fourteenth Infantry, engaged in a street duel at Fort Douglas this morning. Both officers were wounded, and it is thought that Capt. Western will not recover.

Camp on Clear Creek


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Camp on Clear CreekCamp on Clear Creek: Major C.B. McLellan's camp on Clear Creek, Arizona in March 1887. McLellan was en route to Fort Thomas, Arizona, when the photo was taken by Edgar Alexander Mearns.

Camp on Clear Creek detailCamp on Clear Creek detail: Soldiers standing around camp while horses and pack animals feed in the background.

BOTH THE DUELISTS KILLED.


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Newspaper Account / September 4, 1889

skullSALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Sept. 4 - Malad City, just over the Idaho border, has been thrown into excitement by a fatal duel occurred Monday afternoon between two young men. Abraham Likes and Jude Springs of Clark's Flat. They came there last Spring and went into partnership ranching. In a short time both fell in love with Jennie Trauts. Unable to settle the matter amicably, they resorted to the brookside with six-shooters, where each principal took position.

 

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