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Stagecoach Robberies on the Coulson-Fort Benton Line
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The first mail deliveries through this area of Montana went by horseback three times a week from Coulson, to Martinsdale and then on to Fort Benton. In May 1882, T. C. Power and Bro. of Helena began the stagecoach line with the construction of 17 stations. The coaches they used were The Concord Coach built in Concord, New Hampshire. Wells-Fargo began a contract with the Power Stage Company on 11 October, 1885 and the Wells-Fargo express stations were in Lavina, Halbert, Ubet, Cottonwood, Lewistown, Maiden and Fort Maginnis.
http://theconcordcoach.tripod.com/abbotdowning/ http://www.wellsfargohistory.com/ http://mtlinks.com/Regions/Russell_Country/Fergus_County/Ubet/ubet.html http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mtnews/mtmaginnis.htm
In my research about stagecoach robberies in this part of Montana during territorial days I have found that the details on these robberies are sketchy at best and many times the details in the stories are conflicting. The first robbery of the Billings-Fort Benton stage took place at Fifteen-mile Point within days after the stage line began operation. There is a story of one stagecoach robbery when the gang of three robbers, having let the stage get by them, was chasing the stage when they came upon the strong box from the stage that had fallen off the back of the stage without the driver or shot gun rider seeing it. So the days work for those robbers was complete.
Coulson, Montana
The most famous of the stagecoach robberies was the one at Painted Robe Hill in 1888. There was a rumor that the stage carried gold bullion from the Spotted Horse Mine in Maiden or there was currency aboard for paying the soldiers at Fort Maginnis. A long grade led to the top of Painted Robe Hill at the top of which was a massive tree stump and several pine trees. As the stage horses slowly reached the top of the hill the leader of the gang, a thick-set man with a brown mustache and wearing a wide-brimmed white hat, rode out of his hiding place in the pine trees. He wore a handkerchief over the lower part of his face. He met the stage head on and shot down one of the lead horses. http://www.warmspringcreek.com/content2/03/index.html http://themaidengoldproject.com/history.html
One version of this story relates that the stage driver was also shot and that the stage shotgun rider was one of the gang that helped rob the stage. The man in the white hat was believed to be Jeff Kimball. He took the mail bags hoping to find the soldier's pay or some gold. There was a woman passenger aboard returning from the East to her home in Lewistown. The gang took her hostage and later released her unharmed a few miles north of Lavina. She walked into that town where she relayed her story. Another version of this same stagecoach robbery story says that the robbers took the strong box from the stage. A posse pursued the robbers but the possee was armed with only shotguns and the robbers had rifles so the possee soon gave up the pursuit.
Because most of the stagecoach robbers that struck the stage got away clean is one of the reasons that so few details are remembered. Also, when a train was robbed, as soon as the robbers cleared the train the train could continue quickly on to its next scheduled stop and then the railroad companies would pay the possees to chase the train robbers using the train. Pursuit with a stage with a horse killed or maybe driver killed could not be accomplished.
Fort Maginnis http://www.legendsofamerica.com/mt-forts2.html
The strong box from the Billings-Benton stage was found 34 years after the robbery in an old root cellar at Old Horse Camp Corrals 4 miles east of Lavina. The strong box was 27 inches long, 16 inches wide and 16 inches deep. This same strong box was on display at the John Henry Store in Anaconda, Montana for years. The Billings-Fort Benton stagecoach line ceased operation when the Great Northern Railroad was constructed through this area. http://montanayesterday.com/?p=311 http://goldwest.visitmt.com/listings/12326.htm
Gregan Wortmann
Some of my source for this travel blog article is from the book: Bicentennial Golden Valley County Heritage '76 by Minnie Krause and others; Bicentennial Committee (1976).
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