CEMETERIES IN NATRONA COUNTY, WYOMING

 

LOCATION IN CITY          NAME OF CEMETERY

Casper               Highland (community owned)

 

Casper 5-7 miles W.     Memorial Gardens

 

Casper, 20-3- miles SW   Freeland

 

Midwest (near           Midwest

 

Pike Grave Stone, Douglas Park Cemetery, Douglas, WY.

   Underneath this stone in eternal rest
   Sleeps the wildest one of the wayward west
   He was a gambler and sport and cowboy too
   And he led the pace in an outlaw crew
   He was sure on the trigger and staid to the end
   But he was never known to quit on a friend
   In the relations of death all men are alike
   But in life there was only one George W. Pike

Pike, like many a cowboy, appeared in Wyoming having participated in a cattle drive north from Texas. Later he was employed by

Lee Moore. Moore, a Douglas ranchman, was suspected by the larger ranchers of having enhanced his herds through improper

means and was allegedly on the "death list" of Johnson County war fame. Moore fought on the side of the small ranchers at the siege

of the TA. But, bygones will be bygones. Moore's son LeRoy Moore married the daughter of W. C. Irvine, one of the leaders of the Invaders.

Today debate rages over whether Pike led the pace in an outlaw crew, the manner of his death, and the author of the epitaph.

Although, Pike was charged with rustling and with other crimes, Pike always seemed to be found not guilty. His reputation as a rustler allegedly resulted in a confrontation in a saloon with Robert Carey of the CY in which Carey threated Pike with death if he was ever found on the CY. Pike in his criminal trials was generally defended by well-known Douglas lawyer Frederick Harvey. Harvey allegedly helped spirit from the Douglas Jail the two trappers who had bunked with Nate Champion and Nick Ray at the KC. The two were being held as material witnesses to the murder of Champion and Ray. Harvey's siding with the invaders did not, of course, preclude him from defending rustlers. Harvey later sucessfully defended Will Reid who allegedly stole some of Pike's own cattle.

Harvey also represented Lewis Smith who was accused of stealing a Fiddleback steer. It is likely that the steer was actually stolen without Smith's knowlege by cowboys on the Merrill ranch.

As to Pike's death, in one version Pike died of a heart attack after winning a large hand in a poker game in a local saloon. Newly elected sheriff Charles Messenger was allegedly a participant in the game. Since it is impolite to quit when ahead, the remaining
players decided that if George could speak for himself he would have stayed to the end, he would not quit on a friend and the game
should continue. George was propped up and a bystander was requested to continuing playing George's hands. George's winning streak continued and allegedly he won enough to go off in grand style and pay for the tombstone pictured above right. In some sense,
one can perhaps see a rather punny allusion in the epitaph to how George played out life's last hand.

It should, however, be noted that it was reported by Bill Barlow's Budget that Pike died under more prosaic circumstances in the hospital of a liver ailment of long standing. Of course, it may be speculated if the story of the poker game were true, the participants
would not want it known as to the circumstances of Pike death. It would have been a bit embarrassing for the sheriff to be participating in a poker game with a reputed rustler, one whose surities had to make good on a forfeited bond on a felony charge the
very day before Pike's death. If Pike was indeed dying of the liver ailment, it might have provided an excuse for his non-appearance in the District Court and avoided the necessity of bond forfeiture.

Initially, Pike was buried north of town, but was moved to the Douglas Park cemetery in 1908 when the monument was brought up from Denver. Although, there are different versions of who composed the epitaph, a popularly accepted version is that it was written
by a bartender in Lee Pringle's College Inn Bar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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