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Copper Star
This story goes back a ways. My grandfather told it to me and his
grandfather told it to him. It goes back to 1871. Montana
Territory. Copper had been found in the hills and mountains of
Montana. Mining camps had sprung up all over. Some were gone almost as
soon as they appeared but others grew into towns and cities. This
story takes place in a camp near Livingston that was on the verge of
becoming a permanent settlement. But at the time it had no streets, no
buildings. There was a big tent that served as a saloon with a long
plank across two sawhorses for a bar. They served whatever they could
get or make. One recipe called for one gallon of grain alcohol, five
gallons of water, half a pound of sugar, and two generous handfuls of
tobacco for color and flavor. Not exactly refreshing but it did the
job.
Well, one day folks were gathered to discuss
a problem. Someone had been robbed the day before and they wanted to
know what could be done about it. See, the camp wasn’t really
organized and they had no way to pay for a lawman. Just then someone who’d
been listening rode forward and spoke, "I’ll do it." The speaker who
was offering to take the job of sheriff was a woman. She was known as Miss
Laura. She took in laundry around camp although she wasn’t really
happy doing it. But one of the ways you could tell that the camp was
growing into something bigger was that the miners were having their laundry
done. The folks looked at Miss Laura. She was beautiful.
She sat tall on her horse. She wore a red velvet coat in the style of
a duster and a black hat with a silver and turquoise band. And she
wore a colt revolver on her hip. They didn’t know what to make of her offer.
"We got no way to pay you." Someone said.
"I’ll do it on commission." She responded.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if someone gets robbed and I catch him I’ll keep ten percent of
whatever’s recovered."
"Well, what if it’s just someone fighting or causing some such problem?"
Somebody asked.
"Then we’ll agree on a fine and I’ll get ten percent of that." The
folks were looking at each other, some were laughing.
A mean looking miner stepped forward and asked, "What if it got nothing to
do with money. What if some bandit comes in and just wants to shoot
somebody?"
"Then" Miss Laura said putting her hand on her gun "I’ll keep whatever I
take off his body, after he’s dead." No one was laughing now.
Yes sir, she was as pretty as the Montana sky and tougher than a barrel of
penny nails. So, even though they were skeptical, they decided to give
her a chance. Hell, they had nothing to lose but a laundress.
One of the miners even fashioned her a star out of copper.
Things were peaceful for a while, then one night after a big strike in the
mines there was a fight in the saloon. Miss Laura showed up and got
right in between the two fellows who were fighting. They stopped dead in
their tracks. Now they were tough, ornery miners but they weren’t
animals. They had been raised right. They weren’t about to hit a
lady or even shove her out of the way. So the fight just sort of
stopped. The men were each fined five dollars and the sheriff got ten
percent. She kept that silver dollar for the rest of her life. A
funny thing happened around the camp after that. People seemed more
polite. Men would tip their hats when they passed. They’d say
excuse me and thank you. The place was becoming down right civilized.
Then one day a stranger came into camp. He headed straight for the
saloon. He ordered one drink then another and then another. The
bartender said that before he had his third drink he’d better show his
money. The stranger pulled out his gun and pistol-whipped the
bartender. He hurt him pretty bad. Then he grabbed a young
Chinese girl, who worked there as a cook, and headed outside. Miss
Laura was there to meet him.
"Let her go!" She ordered.
"Mind your own business woman, before you get hurt." He said. Miss
Laura pulled back her coat to show the copper star pinned to her shirt. "
This is my business." She said.
The stranger let go of the girl, scratched his chin and smiled. The
smile left when he heard the sound of the hammer pulling back on the colt in
her holster.
"Well" he said putting his hand to his gun, "I’ve shot one or two sheriffs
in my day but I ain’t never killed a lady." The stranger took his
stance and glared at the sheriff. "I guess there’s a first time for
everything."
There wasn’t. Not for him. Those that saw it said her bullet
went through him before his gun even cleared leather. It turned out
that he was wanted in two states and three territories. Miss Laura
collected a nice reward. The folks were real proud of their sheriff.
That camp grew into a town, then a city. Miss Laura stayed on for
awhile to see that the town got a good start then one day she just decided
to move on. No one knows why or where she might have gone. Some
say she went west to California and others think she went home to Boston but
if you’re ever near Livingston and you see a couple of old timers settin’ on
a porch drinking lemonade ask them if they’ve ever heard of Miss Laura, the
lady with the copper star.
—Howard Drucker
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