Western Week

[Captain]

Anyone (beside me) watching the Western shows on AHC channel this week?
It has been good

[BarryBobPosthole]

What is AHC? I don't think I get that one?

Watched Crossfire Trail last night on Encore. A good old Louis L'amour"

BKB

[Captain]

American Heros Channel.
Great bunch a shows.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I will see if I can find it.

BKB

[Captain]

Check it here Posty.
http://www.ahctv.com/tv-shows/gunslingers/

[quercus alba]

Posthole I was really disappointed in Crossfire Trail. I'm a Lamour purist and the movie wasn't even close. They didn't even use the right name for the main character, it was Caradec not Covington. And the plot matched up so rarely it could be considered coincidence. If you didn't read the book, well tom selleck doesn't often mate a bad movie but I was thoroughly disappointed to the point that I wouldn't watch it for about ten years

[BarryBobPosthole]

Well, it was a made for TV movie, hence the Wilford Grimley, Mark Harmon, bad formulaic script writing, etc.

And honestly, I probably last read this book 30 years ago so I wouldn't remember much about it.

Last Stand at Saber River is a good one. So is The Quick and the Dead.

BKB

[jb]

I"ve seen most of those stories over the past year, they just combined them into reruns for Western Week.
Just got done watching the Bass Reeves episode.
Bass Reeves was a black lawman in the Indian Territory in the late 1800's died in 1910. Speculation is the "Lone Ranger" character was molded after Bass.
I have an old Colt SAA that was shipped to the small town of Paris TX in 1890, to a private individual (Russel Charles Stanhope) who I could not find any information on, but at the same time Bass Reeves lived in Paris TX.
Never know if this guy and my Colt ever crossed paths, neat to think they did.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/jbmich/Colts/004_zps8nzho2de.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/jbmich/Colts/006_zps2c36feb0.jpg

[BarryBobPosthole]

Bass Reeves is a pretty well known (and revered) figure in these parts. I don't know about the Lone Ranger, but I do know for a fact that Charles Portis made up the character of Rooster Cogburn in True Grit with Bass Reeves and a couple of other real life deputies in mind that worked in the I.T. around the time of Judge Parker's court.

It'd be really cool if that is one of his pistols.

BKb

[quercus alba]

Jesse James's brother was killed in the line of duty while a marshal for issac Parker

[DeputyDog]

Jerry, I did some searching on your guy. Look at the 5th column about the 4th line down. This is from the June 19th, 1888 Galveston Daily News.

7873

[BarryBobPosthole]

Jerry's eyes are older than mine and I can't make out a word.

Can you help a veteran?

BKb

[DeputyDog]

I was able to enlarge it on my puter.
Click on the image and you should be able to zoom in on it.

It's under the "personal" section and says "Russell Stanhope is visiting the city from Paris."

[DeputyDog]

I was also able to find him listed on the tax rolls for Aransas County Texas for the years 1892-1894.

[Captain]

7874

[jb]

Wow, you found more than I was able to for over a year of looking.
I wrote to the Paris Historical Soc, and heard he may have been a Dept. US Marshal, wrote to the Marshal's History Sec, in DC, got a nice letter back from both saying they had no record.
Would love to know what he did, the way the SAA was set up it appeared to have been used by someone who needed to be able to draw it quick, (ejection housing was missing) and the guns patina showed it was gone for a long time.
What search engine did you use and what did you enter to find what you did ?
Thanks

[Chicken Dinner]

JB - Have you seen this. It makes it look like Stanhope may have owned a gun shop in Paris, TX. and some of the other Colt's shipped to him were used in the Wyoming Range Wars:

http://jamesdjulia.com/item/2076-391/

[Chicken Dinner]

If you click on the link "Click here to view provenance", it looks like the .45lc is the other gun that was part of the two gun shipment. I don't see your serial number on "Major Wolcott's List" which is reproduced here:

http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/threads/johnson-county-war-wyoming-article-1892.94380/

[jb]

CD, you have really made my day, I've never been able to find any of this information even though I've written letters and posted on a number of Colt websites.
Thank you very much.
Looking at Major Walcotts list of guns taken in the Johnson County War I see one Colt SAA SN is only 37 numbers above mine, pretty amazing .
No proof mine ever was part of the Johnson County War, just the fact that it came from the same gun shop that sold guns to those gun fighters, but just a few months later, is pretty neat part of our Western history.

[Chicken Dinner]

I thought that was pretty cool myself. Owning a piece of history like your Colt that us connected even tangentially is awesome. Did you notice the asking price on that 45 that can be connected to Wolcotts men?

[BarryBobPosthole]

I found a comment about the guy in a discussion forum that said he might have been a deputy in Bartlesville, Oklahoma as well. I'll see if I can dig anything up there too.

BKb

[jb]

Thanks post hole.
Another interesting thing about the Colt is the front sight has been filed down and the ejector housing was removed early on, the patina on the gun is very even and no trace of an ejector housing is seen.
This usually indicates the gun was carried in a holster and made to make drawing the gun much easier. That was one reason I thought is was carried by a lawman, or outlaw.
Also, on the bottom of the grip (handle) there are nicely engraved initials "JCS"