Saga of the Sanpitch Volume 13, 1981 - Sanpete County

Wilford Rasmussen
July 24, 1899
At the time, the "Kesko" cattle were summered (grazed) on the west mountains and thousands of
sheep, also, Sanpete cattle and sheepmen used both the east and west mountains on which to run their
livestock during the summer. Sheep were herded on the west desert in the winter. To find range for the sheep
and cattle in the spring and fall were our most trying times.
While our cattle were grazed on the west mountain, one July 3rd, a sheepherder came to Wales and
told Henry Lamb of cattle thieves he had seen on the mountain. Lamb asked Hy Coats, who at times resided in
Chester next to the John H. Seely ranch, if he had heard about the thievery.
According to a story told by Clive Coats of Gunnison in 1934, Hy had arranged with Andrew Peter Olsen
(Kesko) to investigate the matter of thieves on a trip to the mountains planned for July 4th. On this trip they
met Henry Lamb, who asked Kesko, "What do you think about all the cattle thieves on the west mountain?"
Kesko replied, "If you boys would stay home there would not be any thieving."
There were several versions of the same story afloat about the east mountain, too. One story was that
three strangers were seen driving a large bunch of cattle, some of which looked like "Kesko" cattle,
somewhere near the old Ephraim-Orangeville road, where it crosses the top of the mountain. Perhaps the
thieves were headed for Joe's Valley.
When the story was told to Kesko, he never let on that he had heard the story before, "but listened
very earnestly to their story and then thanked them sincerely for their interest in his cattle and promised them
that he would send two of his boys to the mountain the next day (July 24) to investigate the matter. Upon
hearing this, the herders said, "If your boys see our sheep will they kinda bunch them for us?"
I was one of the Kesko boys who was sent on this trip. When we returned to the valley that evening we
reported to our father that we had not seen the thieves nor any of the cattle. We had not even seen any cattle
tracks. However, we had seen two herds of sheep without herders, so we had obligingly remembered the
herder's request and had bunched both herds together.
Another time I talked to two men from Wyoming who spent the 4th and 24th of July at the Ephraim
celebrations. They were from Lone Tree, Wyoming, and told me about the 'shootout' they had had with the
sheepmen of that area. Now they had the Wyoming range, but did not have the money to buy the cattle to
stock it. Thus, they decided to go to the Arizona Strip and buy a small, mixed herd of cattle and then spend the
summer trailing them back to Wyoming. I have no doubt in my mind, that by the time they had crossed the
valleys, ranges, and mountains between Arizona and Wyoming, their herd was much larger than when they
had begun their trek.
As I remember back to my younger days, those holidays that came in July attracted everyone as 'honey
draws flies.' Holidays at that time were hard to come by, so they were enjoyed and appreciated. We really
looked forward to them, for they broke the monotony of our hard farm labor during the summertime.
Source: Personal recollection of the author.
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