Hank Ingraham had just been up to Fort Laramie, and bought a team of condemned United States horses, and had paid thirty-seven dollars for the team. This was about 1883.
Charlie Oelrich ran across Hank on his way down the river to the feeding meadows in Mitchell Valley, and wanted to buy the team. Hank said : "They will cost you four hundred dollars." Charlie never hesitated ; he wrote him a check and took the team.
We are told that the men and women, who were a little behind their expected schedule, and consequently a little short on a few of the things that go to make life a merry jest, started for Cheyenne with the team going at a rapid pace. At the Big Willows on Horse Creek, in the Goshen Holes, there was a deep pool, and some one suggested that the party stop for a swim. This appealed to the popular fancy of the party, and the horses were sent forward at breakneck speed. On arriving there, those of the party were in such haste for the cool, inviting waters of the pool, that they forgot to tie the team, with the result that in a smashup that followed, one of the horses was killed. The other was ridden back to the ranch for a mate, while the crowd had abundance of time for bathing, and waiting for the return.
Charlie's wife was an actress, of whom it is said that she enjoyed the wild life of the old frontier, even though moral standards were frequently shattered by her associates.