I had heard of it before, but had never heard the story in its entirety until the side partner of "Shanghai" Pierce, dropped a few words that put me on the trail.
It was after the Union Pacific was builded, and the old Overland trails were falling into disuse, that Ed. Stemler came into the west, and the summit of Sixty-six mountain knew his homesick .grief and loneliness. Likewise the summits of Wild Cat mountain, of Big Horn and Bear mountains, and the High Divide of Flowerfield, or the Lone Pine eminence near the head of Lawrence fork.
One day he left his herds on the Flowerfield Swell and started for Ohio. He was riding down the Lodgepole when he came upon the
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
deserted wagons. The mystery of them appealed to him, and for the balance of the day, he rummaged in the chests found in the wagons. He handled the harnesses and rattled the chains. Night came on and after dark, the Shadows. The People came back to the wagons.
He walked among them, glad to companionship, and he heard their story :
They were a party of emigrants, and had left Julesburg several days previously; the grasses of the Lodgepole valley were so alluring to them and their worn stock, that when they reached the point where the Jules Cutoff left the valley for the table-lands, they were reluctant to follow the continental thoroughfare.
So, up the Lodgepole valley they continued for several miles. Here amidst luxurious grasses they formed the regular corral of their wagons by drawing them to a circle, and the stock was turned loose to graze.