Today in Wild West History, Vol 1: The Last Stage Robbery
A murder in a snowstorm, a bag of missing gold, a bloody palm print, and a big yellow dog!
On December 5, 1916, the last ever stagecoach robbery in American history took place. On the road leading into the isolated mining community of Jarbidge Canyon, Nevada, a single shot rang out in a blinding snowstorm. When the coach delivering the mail and miners’ payroll failed to arrive, a search party was sent out. They located the coach and found the mailbag cut open with letters scattered around the scene, many of them stained with bloody finger prints. The payroll was gone. The driver was found beneath a blanket of snow — with a bullet in his head.
A break in the case came from an unlikely place — a big yellow stray dog. Having identified the dog’s tracks near the scene of the crime, they learned that the stray had recently befriended a sketchy local by the name of Ben Kuhl. A recently fired Colt .45 revolver with one missing bullet was found at Kuhl’s residence.
During the landmark Nevada Supreme Court murder case that followed, Kuhl was convicted based on a bloody palm print taken from one of the letters found at the scene. It was first time a palm print was used as evidence in an American legal case. Kuhl spent his life in prison. The payroll ($4000 in gold coins) was never found. Legend has it, the gold is buried somewhere in the hills of Jarbidge Canyon.
Today in Wild West History is an ongoing series from the VendettaDAO Web3 Gaming project. We want to help our community stay engaged and educated in the compelling lore of the Wild West. Who knows? Some of the stranger-than-fiction characters you read about may turn up in the Chalk River Metaverse.
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