Dudes and Sagebrushers * * * * 19 



was an experience enjoyed only by adventurous spirits. The trip to 

 Yosemite on the Cannonball Express, which made the run at what was 

 considered terrific speed in those days perhaps ten miles per hour 

 going from the railroad terminal to the Valley in one day, was one full 

 of thrills. Today that same trip is an easy run of three to four hours. 

 The Cannonball Express carried the mail. The contract specified the 

 time limit allowed to make delivery in Yosemite Valley. Hence, speed 

 was essential. On one occasion, the Cannonball ran into a forest fire 

 on a narrow road high in the mountains, at a point where it was impos 

 sible to turn around. The flames were sweeping down upon the coach 

 and the situation was one of great danger. Calling to his passengers to 

 cover their faces, the driver whipped his horses to a frenzy and dashed 

 at full speed into the fire and through it. Not one of his frightened 

 passengers was injured, though his horses were badly burned and the 

 canvas cover to the luggage at the back of the coach was blazing when 

 the rolling vehicle came to a stop a mile or so beyond the blaze. 



Hold-ups were all too frequent in those days. Daring robbers would 

 fell a tree across the road and trap a stagecoach where it could not be 

 turned around to escape. Some of the bandits made off with great 

 hauls. Some were captured, some were not. One particularly daring 

 hold-up that has become notorious in story was staged about halfway 

 between Old Faithful Inn and the Lake, in Yellowstone. This nervy 

 bandit took a position behind a rock projecting into the road at a very 

 sharp curve, a point from which he could control the road for several 

 hundred yards in either direction. He spread out a blanket near the 

 road, and as the coaches came around the great rock he commanded the 

 drivers to stop. He directed the passengers to step out and empty their 

 valuables from their pockets to the blanket. The passengers were hud 

 dled on a hillside which the bandit controlled from his vantage point. 

 As the next stage appeared, he repeated the operation, keeping up all 

 the while a running conversation with his victims, joking about their 

 plight, bantering them, and generally keeping them in good humor. 

 This fellow single-handed actually held up the passengers of twenty- 

 eight stages in a row and made his get-away into the mountains with the 

 blanket containing about four thousand dollars. 



This bandit escaped from the park, his identity unsuspected, and 

 he would never have been caught had it not been for a quarrel with his 

 wife, who in revenge revealed his secret. He was then captured, tried, 

 and sentenced to a term in Leavenworth. Finishing his sentence, he 

 went to California, where he died recently eating an ice-cream cone ! 



Bandit stories and other yarns of adventure in the parks in the early 

 days, as told by the Old-Timers, are still a source of delight to the Dudes 

 as they gather for the evening lectures at the hotels and lodges. Some 



