Craig. Museum of Cowboy & Gunfighters. Memorial Day 2019 trip, part 3.

We really enjoyed watching the exposition of the first floor (Craig. Museum of Northwest Colorado. Memorial Day trip, part 2) and finally moved up to the second half of the museum. This exposition has its own name - Cowboy and Gunfighter Museum. And it starts with some stories about famous outlaws and bad/good guys who were fooling around. 

 

Jim Baker (read the story from the picture above) and Harry Tracy. Mountain man and outlaw guy, they both represent the Western lifestyle and either of them would be a good character for a movie.

The story of another guy - "Bad Bob" Melburn is sophisticated and not so simple. One of the fastest shooters and also an artist and exquisite saddle-maker. "Meldrum was widely known as Hair Trigger Bob because of his habit of shooting men, armed and unarmed, on the smallest provocation. The wooden grips on his .44 Colt revolver bore fourteen notches, each representing a man he had taken down. A cocky little fellow-barely five foot six and 140 pounds, with icy gray eyes glaring above a flamboyant mustache - he was especially truculent when drunk, which was often".

Born to career British infantryman Alexander Meldrum and his wife, Margaret, in 1866 at South Camp Aldershott, England, Bob Meldrum spent his youth moving from one home to another as his father was reassigned. When he was a teenager, the family came to the United States, where Meldrum would make a name for himself, one way or the other. Meldrum came west and made the open spaces with few laws his territory. If he needed a horse, he took one, and in 1894 this habit landed him in a jail in Montana.

His story in Colorado and Wyoming territories began in 1899, when he landed in Dixon, WY and took a job as a saddle-maker. He made headlines in 1900, when he recognized Texas fugitive Noah Wilkerson from a wanted poster. Meldrum promptly shot Wilkerson where he stood and then collected the $200 reward.

By 1902, Meldrum had drifted up to the mine fields of Telluride, where he was hired as a mine guard and deputy sheriff. Meldrum would shoot anyone he saw as a threat, and he added notches to the handle of his working gun after each shooting. He usually managed to justify the killings, so he walked free to kill again. After killing unarmed Olaf Thissal in 1904, the charges against Meldrum were dropped, and he returned to the Tomboy Mine.
In May 1904, Tomboy Mine officials presented Meldrum with a beautifully engraved Colt .45 pistol. You can see the copy of this revolver and its story (it is worth reading) in the exhibition.

His luck changed, however, when he shot local and popular cowboy Chick Bowen on the main street of Baggs, Wyo., in January 1912. Cowboy was whopping and making noise and Bob was sent to arrest him. After some arguments, Chick agreed to follow Bob, but when he bent over to pick up his hat, Bob shot him to death a few times. Bob was a town marshal at this time, but time changed and society wasn't that tolerant to shooting and killing anymore. It took three trials in four years, but Meldrum was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 5 to 7 years in the Wyoming Penitentiary. Meldrum was paroled in 1917 after he served 18 months only.
He went back to ranch work and opened up his own saddle shop. He seemed to quiet down during those years, or at least no record of additional killings are found. A fire destroyed the shop in 1926, and Bob Meldrum disappeared. No one knows what happened to him and how he ended up with his life... One more mysterious story of good guy / bad guy... You can find a couple of his drawings and samples of his leather work in the showcase.

So we walked around and read all the posters to get to know the gunfighters better. Once we were done, we moved to another room on this floor dedicated to cowboys and their daily lives. Oh man... this room was full of artifacts and bits of history.

 

Hm... not only bits of history, but also works of art. Just look at these saddles!

Showcase telling about Buffalo Bill's show displays some of his possessions, including his saddle.

 

More saddles of various styles and craftsmanship, guns and rifles are a big part of the exposition as they were a big part of the life and work of cowboys and rancheros.

 

Just look at these belts. Probably exactly what you expected, right?

What about those? Can you imagine these tough guys wearing beautiful bead-work belts working with horses and cows? That's right, they didn't. They wore those during the shows, fairs and on other special occasions...

Small accessories such as branding irons, stirrups, spurs... It's hard to even imagine all these shapes and different types... 

It looks like many of these guys were real dandies... They had pocket watches and such cute  watch fobs made as small guns in holsters :).

 

Here is a short video so you can have a better impression of this room:

We were glad we made this stop and spent some time in this amazing museum... But the road was calling and we still had some plans...

To be continued...

Pictures were taken on May 25, 2019.