The fame of the mountain does not extend far across the wide reaches of western prairie, except along the Texas trail, where from the Panhandle of the Lone Star state to Assinnaboine, the cow-punchers knew of the Daters and the famous Sixty-six brand.

Only a few have heard of the battle of Sixty-six mountain, and most of the early ranchmen assume that the cattle brand brought into use the name. Phil and Jim Dater, however, who came up the trail in 1872, and established the ranch, adopted the brand because the mountain already bore the name. There is as much confusion of opinions as to the origin of the name, as there is mystery connected with the events that are here related.

Several years befor Ed. Stemler came into the west, Eugene Ware made the discovery of an abandoned wagon train, near Trapper's rock, a score or more of miles up the Lodgepole, west from old Fort Sedgwick. Yet, it remained for Ed. Stemler to clear up the mystery of the wagon train, and to provide the only story of the battle of Sixty-six mountain, and which also gives an index to the naming of the mountain. The mystery of it is that Ed. connected up with these people, and that he lived and experienced events that transpired many years before he had come into the west. About the silence of the wagons, and about the solitude of Sixty-Six mountain, there is wrapped one of the great tragedies of the west ; and one person only can tell that story in all its graphic details. It forms one of the most interesting unwritten chapters of adventure, and frightful consequence, that has ever painted red spots on the frontier.