Tidbits from “Notorious San Juans”

My new book “Notorious San Juans” is out this week so I’m posting a few juicy nibbles. It took a certain kind of person to come to the remote regions of the west and build a life. As shown by the tragic story of a man like Thomas Greatorex, good breeding and civic-mindedness was not always appreciated or rewarded. On the other hand, plenty of unruly fellows, like Ike Stockton or Kid Adams, found out the hard way that living beyond the boundaries of a regulated society was not always a free pass to raise hell. Justice in the San Juans was certainly uneven.

Cordula Carter Truby Henry Gilmore — The fascinating and tragic life of a young frontier woman

While researching for my book, Notorious San Juans, I encountered a fascinating young woman named Cordula “Dudie” Carter. She appears in the story “A Colorado Range War: The Cox-Truby Feud,” which took place in the wild region around the Colorado-New Mexico border, south of Durango.

Cordula Carter was 14 years old when she married Bill Truby on January 12, 1911. Bill was 27 years old. Only three months later, Bill Truby was shot dead by Ike Cox as a result of the feud.