by Tumbleweed_Tex » Tue Feb 08, 2011 6:42 pm
The other night, sitting around the community campfire, a voice came out of the darkness..."Tell us one Tex". What's a poor cowboy to do?
Buzzard Bill’s Gold
When gold was discovered in California back in ‘49, the only real purchaser/end-user of that soft yellow treasure was one Mr. Uncle Sam Gov’mint hisself. The raw material for future, official Gov’mint issue coins was literally available by the ton out there, and the purchase price was excessively appealing, especially when you yourself are setting the price thereof.
But hey, with Uncle Sam involved, there has to be a catch…right? Moving that fortune back east presented a real problem, due almost entirely to the fact that the Rocky Mountains stood smack dab in the middle between points west of A and points east of B.
As a result, the only feasible solution (while waiting for the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, and investing heavily within), was to load the hold of any available steamship, and wait patiently while the crew coaxed the turtle-paced vessel all the way around the tip of South America, and back up the east coast. Such a journey often spanned nine whole months.
Well now, we all know our Uncle Sam never was terribly smart. That having been said, it only took a steamer or two full of gold sailing into a hurricane and sinking to the bottom of the Caribbean before old Mr. Gov’mint decided to divert any inbound steamers into Galveston Bay during the summer months.
And so it was that one fine summer day in early June, the crew of the stern-wheeler Whispering Jan tied off to a well-used south Texas wharf, and slowly vented her steam. With all the traffic, no one was any the wiser to her cargo except one Big John Paisley, Colonel in the U. S. Army. Big John’s orders were clear, and the way he understood things, his very military career depended entirely upon his deft handling of the current situation.
The progress of the new railroad now depended entirely on Gov’mint funding, and the decision had been made to take a part of the Jan’s gold directly overland to the trailhead. Compared to the port of New York, a gold shipment from Galveston was closer, faster, and safer.
Now Big John was a meticulous officer. Carefully handpicking twenty of the best riders in the local cavalry, he ordered them to forsake their uniforms for civilian duds, and prepare for a two-month campaign. He then hurriedly purchased several hundred head of cattle, and made provisions to head north, in a make-believe “cattle driveâ€