The trail of the runaway horses took the emigrants to the head of "Lorren's Fork," then to the springs in the hills bordering Gonneville or Pumpkin creek. Now they had come back, but were going again. Abandoning his purpose of going to Ohio, the lone herdsman hereafter journeyed with them, showing them the way to Fort Laramie. He knew the route, the watering places, and the passes in the hills. They left the wagons where they stood.

At the head of Pumpkin creek valley, on the west line of the state, a part in Nebraska, and a larger part in Wyoming, stands an eminence. Its summit is six miles long east and west. It is five hundred feet above surrounding plains, and five thousand feet above the sea. Its rugged slopes and base cover fifteen or twenty sections of land.

When the granger came, it was called Sixtysix mountain.

There were sixty-six emigrants, moving along the base of this mountain, one fatal day, when they were beset with Cheyenne Indians. They took refuge in the hills and fought long and hard. It was days before the remnant of the sixty-six were overcome near a spring on the north side of the mountain, and here it was that Ed. Stemler fell, as the others had fallen, fighting stubbornly.

There is a superstition among the Indians about red hair, atid it is said this fact is all that saved him from the shocking fate, and the scalping meted out to the others.