Wyoming History: In Ghost Town Of Battle, Miners And Sheep Men Hated Each Other

Now a ghost town in the Medicine Bow National Forest, Battle, Wyoming, lived up to its name. The rugged Sierra Madre copper mining town survived just over a decade, but gunfights and murder were so commonplace that the editor of The Battle Lake Miner newspaper admitted he tried to paint a picture of a successful town full of “entertainment” rather than reporting on the saloon fights. “The raucous music of its honky-tonks was interrupted more than once by a miner-herder foray,” historians Mary Lou Pence and Lola M. Homsher wrote in their 1957 book “The Ghost Towns of Wyoming.”

Established in 1898, Battle was one of the earliest settlements in the Encampment district, located on the wagon road between the Ferris-Haggarty mine and the town of Encampment. It served as a freighting stop and a place for rest and revelry for teamsters and miners. The town was named for a battle fought in August 1841 between 500 Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne warriors and 23 Rocky Mountain Fur Company trappers. Trapper Henry Fraeb was killed instantly, and Jim Baker took command, telling his men, “Make every bullet count.” Under cover of darkness, Baker and his band escaped on foot toward Jim Bridger’s camp. From that bloody battle, the creek, lake, mountain, and future town were all named Battle.

When copper was discovered, hundreds of miners soon arrived, and eight small towns sprung up in the region. Battle, proximate to the Portland mine vein, began as a stop-over for freighters. The corporate platting in 1898 included the “necessary graveyard.” Otto Dahl and Mrs. Kinsella opened competitive hotels, “Old Paste-Faced Camilles” opened houses of forbidden pleasure, and several stores opened, including a Men’s Apparel Shop run by Miss Elizabeth Pettengill, who had been “deprived of the joy of choosing a husband’s clothes.” The town also had a newspaper and a schoolhouse, and miners quenched their thirsts at five busy saloons.

The ranchers did not like the presence of the rowdy miners and told their herders an occasional shot or two might correct the situation. The miners returned the lack of love in kind. “When the town of Battle was officially founded, resentment flared openly for a time, with six guns speaking commandingly,” Pence and Homsher said. “The imposing city hall might well have displayed a sign, ‘Sheepherders and Cowboys, Beware!'”

The highland sheepherders came to town despite the animosity, seeking companionship, but the women at the bawdy houses complained about the sheep ticks they left in their beds. One memorable fight involved Kid Blizzard, a gambler and gunman who took a dislike to several Mexican herders. A single gunshot cut through the tobacco fog. As the gun battle raged, some sheepherders escaped, leaving behind several dead comrades. Kid Blizzard fell flat, blood dripping on the ground—shot in the heel. The inquest on the sheepherders’ deaths read: “From cause unknown.” They were buried in one large, unmarked grave.

The completion of the Southern Wyoming Tramway in 1902 greatly reduced the number of freight teams coming through Battle. Between the loss of ore teams and the general decline of the district, the town was largely abandoned by 1905, the year the post office closed. The remaining buildings were removed by the government, which deemed the town a firetrap. By the 1950s, only seven graves were discernible, and only two had headstones. “Looking down from its high perch, Battle had a magnificent view of the vast terrain where millions of dollars went to pot,” Pence and Homsher said.