Daniel B. May: The Deadwood Cheyenne Line
Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!
I've been talking about one of the unknown and unsung heros of the
Old West who was a Kansas farmboy(I can relate) who headed West
to make his fortune and ended up being a Shotgun Messenger for the
Deadwood Cheyenne Stage Line. His name was Daniel Boone May.
This stagecoach route was the first successful "road" and form of
communication from Cheyenne to Deadwood but it was not a form
of travel for the faint of heart and was fraught with danger.
If the choking dust and heat of the summer didn't get to you then
maybe the bitter cold winds and chilling temperatures of the winters
and blizzards would. Not to mention the mud that would sink a
battleship in the rainy season and then you had the ever present
threat of robbers and bandits.
Deadwood Cheyenne Stage approximately 1878
source
The distance from Deadwood, South Dakota to Cheyenne, Wyoming
was roughly 300 miles and the stagecoach could travel about 60 to
70 miles in one day if the weather was dry. So in other words the trip
took 5 days. At least.
There were only two stations that I know of but I hope there were
more than that. I assume they had a watering station every 10 miles
or so for the horses and a larger station for changing horses and
where people could spend the night about every 60 miles.
Here's the only photo I could find of one of the stations. This one has
the ominous name of Robbers Roost:
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source
Apparently they had women folk there to cook the meals for the
passengers and such. Not exactly the Hyatt but with nothing but
sagebrush, cactus and bone-jarring terrain I reckon it was a
welcomed sight to the weary travelers.
The stage line started out with a bang in that the very first stage run
was held up by robbers.
The driver was a man named Johnny Slaughter and he got
slaughtered with buckshot to the chest, a blast from a shotgun blew
him off the stagecoach which spooked the team of horses and they
raced all the way to town. The thieves never got a thing because
they couldn't catch the stage!
After that men like Daniel Boone May were hired to guard the mail,
gold and passengers and Mr. May became famous for killing thieves
who tried to hold up the stagecoach. More on him tomorrow.
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck
ps- ya know....you might just be a redneck if:
You take a fishing pole into Sea World!
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well howdy there treeplanter, thank you and nateonsteemit so much and God bless you!
Always looking forward to these fascinating stories Janton
howdy there empress! thank you for your kind words, I'm glad you enjoy them, I like it that it gives us a glimpse into what life was like in those days.
thank you so much for reading and commenting. I guess according to Asher's new contest I should include the word "love" in here someplace! lol.
Poor Mr Slaughter! So many of these folks have really unfortunate names! And Robbers Roost? Who thought up that one? Once again, a great post!
hahha! I know isn't it amazing the names that these people had? I mean it's not funny what happened to Mr. Slaughter but my gosh it's bizarre!
At least as far as I know it wasn't one of the stations that got held up surprisingly.
Thanks so much for your kind words!
Thanks for always writing such interesting posts! I have traveled through that route numerous times and it's really fascinating how you can make the history of it all much more interesting and have it come alive. Nicely done! I just posted my second post of the day
yay! can you post one for me while you're at it? lol.
That's great and something about esteem make it so that you need to do one on Friday night? don't they know that's a party night?? the nerve! lol.
Thanks for the kind words. I saw a replica but probably an original spot on that route, it was a stage coach station and it looked very similar in design to the one in my post, I think it was a tourist thing. I'm sure one of their popular items is a toy stagecoach.
I think one of the main stagecoachs from that line is in a museum in Cheyenne or Deadwood.
Is that route from Deadwood to Cheyenne alot of desert and hills, canyons or just mostly flat?
I don't have many pictures between the two places! Lots in the Black Hills and then lots in the Big Horns. Hmmm. Seems like I should have a few let me go search again.
It's just my timing that is off for eSteem. I need to skip a vote and get it back on a morning schedule.
oh ok Melinda well I don't understand it but I don't need to so that's okay. The main reason you use esteem is what?
I have been using if for well over a year. I started using the app on my phone because it was so much faster than the old laptop that I was using. I've pretty much been using it since they started and Good - Karma has been incredibly responsive to me. I remember early on I couldn't get the app to work and he told me to just switch nodes and my response back was "what's a node'? So within hours he added a feature to the app where I could easily just click an arrow and switch nodes!
I still do most of my posting and commenting from my phone. I use a Chromebook which is web-based and I am waiting patiently for them to come out with a web-based version of esteem.
I love being able to create drafts, add bookmarks, and have a list of all of my favorite people. It's easy to see a list of votes, mentions, replies, and who has the most comments for the month on the leaderboard! I'm On Top, so you just stay away!🤣🤣🤣
hahaha! hey the biggest thing or reason for me not joining is because I wouldn't want to mess you up. or mess up your winning streak! lol.
But you say they don't have it for a desktop computer yet? just phones?
Haha, an entertaining chapter janton, not for Johnny Slaughter though, poor man, probably did not know a thing. Maybe those night stops had 5 stars in the western days. Our modern world has made us soft, lol and haha.
howdy there angiemitchell! you know what I thought of when I saw Johnny Slaughter's name? I thought man, there is power in words and his whole life people were calling him a disasterous name and it makes me wonder if that didn't help bring it to pass like positive confessions help bring things to pass.
I guess that's way out there for some people but I know there is great power in the spoken word, especially if it is spoken in faith.
Yes, words and thoughts are very powerful, what one puts out into the universe comes about. By the way, how long does it take you to answer all the comments. I think it might be a full time job, lol.
hahaha! well for my little posts it doesn't take much but I am in the biggest contest on steemit. It's Asher's Engagement League and it's based on how many comments you make, the characters that you type for each week, how many people you talk to and vote for and a couple of other things so I am visiting so many posts and carrying on conversations with so many people, about 200 comments a day.
I've won the competition for gosh I don't know for sure how long now, at least 15 weeks I think.
The last I heard I lead in all categories over the entire platform but that takes 7 days a week and many hours each day, over 12 hours a day easy.
It's crazy but that's the only way I've been able to grow my account by winning a little bit of steem and then getting some people to my posts.
At least he died young and healthy
howdy sir badger! who died? You mean Mr. Slaughter? well that's one way to look at it! lol. thank you sir for reading and commenting!
😂 just Bein snarky
haha! love it besides I kinda agree with you sir badger! lol.
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I'm curious how he managed to fend off attacks. Although I suppose there isn't a lot to hide behind out there for an ambush by the thieves.
I'd like to talk to that lady with the big apron in the picture of that stop-off. She must have had some stories to tell.
howdy ginnyannette! well there were area's with trees and hills and I think perfect ambush spots. usually there were at least 2 guards riding on top but then he would ride behind sometimes and sometimes in front so it just depends on how the robbers attacked and well planned the attacks were. Two to four men, sometimes ever more on top with shotguns loaded with buckshot was a big deterrent.
I agree about that lady in the photo, wouldn't it be something to interview her? man..and wouldn't you like to watch all those people when they got to the stations at night..you could assess each one of them and see what they were about! lol.
Beautiful article on Daniel Boone May. you all article are different and interesting.. i like them. thanks for share with us...
howdy there tussar11! well thank you very much for your kind words and I'm glad you enjoy the stories, you also have great posts that I enjoy. Thanks so much for reading and commenting!
Interesting post! I think with a name like Mr. Slaughter, he should have looked for different employment...just as a safety precaution. I can't imagine traveling like that.
haha! howdy there nat-expressions! yes how would you like to have a name like that?? It was brutal compared to our standards but a luxury to them! lol. Thanks so much for reading and commenting!
Sweet Post!!
Leaves you wanting more..
haha! indeed it does sir, I mean make Greyhound look pretty nice.
Well I had a few people think that my posts were too long and I agreed
after thinking about it because people have short attention spans so I shortened the last two of them.
Thank you for your kind words and thanks for reading and commenting!