HOW IT ALL STARTED
HOW IT ALL STARTED
Pioche is situated at the northwest head of Meadow Valley. In 1864, the Francis Lee family settled the portion of the valley known as Panaca. Shortly after their arrival, a full scale colonization was underway. Within a month, about 18 families, mostly from St. George and Santa Clara, were busy putting in crops and building shanties. Along with the Mormons, arrived various adventurers and prospectors.
In the winter of 1863-64, Indians showed a rich deposit of ore in the mountains northwest of Panaca to William Hamblin, who, like his brother Jacob, was a missionary and frontiersman. The ore body was referred to by the local people as the Panaca Ledge. Mormons hastened to lay claim to the ore and also other areas of the valley that would produce ore. When news of the strike spread, gentile miners flocked to the mountains around Meadow Valley. Trouble increased month after month and year after year. Costly lawsuits resulted and in most cases the law ruled the Mormons' mineral claims to be irregular.
Secondly was the trouble between the settlers and the Indians. Paiute Indians were fast taking advantage of the kindhearted Mormons. Newcomers were harassed by the stealing of their livestock and raiding of their camps. The Mormons, in order to protect the little they had, started to build a fort. It is interesting to note that the mining company of Sherwood and Vandermartin was allowed by the Mormons to help construct this forth. They lived together in peaceful coalition when trouble was eminent.
A Frenchman and financier, F.L.A. Pioche, from San Francisco, was one of the first successful investors in this region. The settlers honored him by giving the town his name. News traveled slowly, but by 1868-1860, the cry was heard, "It's boom or bust in Pioche!" Thief, killer, rustler, gunman and lady of the night all rushed to Pioche to get their share of the riches.
In 1873, the Nevada State Mineralogist reported to the State Legislature that for a time Pioche was a scene of lawlessness and horrid murders which have scarcely had a parallel in the history of the West. Dodge City, Tombstone, Deadwood and others seemed calm in comparison. Pioche didn't have a newspaper for many years, so few knew that there were more than 200 victims of fast guns, knife fights and vigilante ropes. The saying goes that 72 men died in Pioche before one died of natural causes.
Franklin A. Buck, a college-educated businessman from California, wrote his sister a letter from Pioche, from which the following was taken:
"November 3, 1870
"You are right in thinking that we live here just as we please. If we want a hot whisky toddy, we have it. If we choose to lie abed late, we do so. We come and go and nobody wonders and no Mrs. Grande talks about it. We are free from all fashions and conventions of society, so-called with you. I like this.
"About one-half of the community are thieves, scoundrels and murderers and then we have some of the best folks in the world, and I don't know but our lives and property are just as safe as with you. You can go uptown and get shot very easily if you choose, or you can live peacefully. I will send you a paper with an account of the last fight...I was in hopes eight or ten would have been killed at least, as these fights are a pest in the community. Peaceful! Sure, if you stayed out of the way of the bullets."
Let's take another look as reported by a reputable businessman in 1871:
"In Pioche we have two courts, any number of sheriffs and police officers and a jail to force people to do what is right. There is a fight every day and a man killed every week. About half the town is whiskey shops and houses of ill fame."
Judging by the dozens of graves in Boot Hill, it would seem that Pioche's record makes it about the shootingest town in western history, regardless of what those who wish to hide the facts may say.