No this isn't some sensational attempt to rewrite history by a wannabe "humanities scholar" looking for a government grant. This little treatise is respectfully written by a modern day Westerner, showing how an earlier generation of Westerners tried to establish regional movie companies in their Western communities, and made Western films that capture their lives and times like no other document.
In 1897 Tom Horn was about to head off to the Spanish American War as a muleskinner with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, and in 1897 Motion Pictures were being shown for the first time throughout the West. This comment by the Tucson Citizen upon seeing movies for the very first time, best sums up why "Roundup on the Y-6 Ranch" and "Pirates of the Plains" are so unique in preserving the story of those who lived their lives in the changing American West.
" It is life personified, actions photographed, reproduced, showing the happenings of our fellow men, not as historians would picture it with a pen, but as it would appear should we lift the veil from the face of the past and allow yourself to look back and
The Films
How the Tom Horn story relates to the Cheyenne Feature Film Company, the Colorado Motion Picture Company and their only surviving films begins with a much loved rancher, showman and president of the Cheyenne Feature Film Company, Charles Burton Irwin. Irwin first entered the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo in 1900 and won the steer roping championship in 1906. (Tom Horn won the roping event in 1901) In "Roundup on the Y-6 Ranch" the steel grandstand built in 1910 at the Frontier Days Rodeo grounds can be clearly seen and the Wild Horse and School Girl Relay Race events are shown. One of Irwin's trained buffalo from the Irwin Brothers Cheyenne Frontier Days Wild West Show is ridden as well. Irwin is renowned as pioneering the business of supplying stock to rodeos and it all began with his string of bucking horses that included "Steamboat" and "Teddy Roosevelt".
"Steamboat" may be in "Roundup on the Y-6 Ranch" but is not identified by title, although there is one title "Riding Famous Outlaw Horses" and another "Kid Moore trying to ride Teddy Roosevelt". "Steamboat" had originally been owned by Tom Horn's best friend and employer John C. Coble, who spent $100,000 on Horn's defense. After the trial Coble disposed of "Steamboat" and eventually committed suicide in Elko, Nevada in 1914. "Steamboat" suffered an injury and had to be put down in 1914 as well, and the story is that C.B. Irwin did the job using Tom Horn's 30-30 Winchester - might this have been the murder weapon in the Willie Nickell case?
The names of Charles B. Irwin and his brother Frank will always be associated with the Tom Horn execution. Not only were they among the few who remained loyal to Horn until the end, but on the gallows they sang "Life is Like a Mountain Railroad" to the condemned in the final moments of his life. While "Roundup on the Y-6 Ranch" does not picture Tom Horn himself or bring to light any new evidence about the trial, Charlie Irwin is pictured in the film and his Y-6 ranch is in the area where the events took place. The film is certainly the closest we can come to the "participants flesh and blood".
So how about "the real happenings"? That brings us to Otis B. Thayer who probably directed "Roundup on the Y-6 Ranch" and was one of the partners in the Cheyenne Feature Film Company. Thayer had come to Cheyenne as early as 1907 as part of a vaudeville company and 1911 he was working as an extra for the Selig Polyscope Company of Chicago making films in Colorado. In 1914 he founded the Colorado Motion Picture Company in Cañon City along with many of the influential citizens of that town. The first film they produced, which was distributed by the company that became Warner Brothers, was called "Pirates of the Plains".
Thayer directed and probably helped write "Pirates of the Plains", and as is often the case with writers, included elements in the plot that he had personal knowledge about. It might be too much of a stretch to say the film is loosely based on the Tom Horn story but still there are any number of elements that Thayer would have known about from his time spent in Cheyenne and associationwith C.B. Irwin.
As an aside, it is interesting to note that Cañon City was and is the location of the Colorado State Penitentiary and that the logo for the Colorado Motion Picture Company, which was chosen after a public contest, prominently includes a spur. The Colorado State Penitentiary prisoners of were well know for making spurs as prison industry and Tom Horn was known for braiding horse hair hat bands and ropes while he was in jail.
As to the "Pirates of the Plains" / Tom Horn parallels, both are a story of rustling and involve the Cattlemen's Association for starters. The murder victim in both cases is a more sympathetic character than just an average citizen. In the movie it is the Sheriff rather than a teenager, and the murderer who is actually the brother of theaccused, does examine the body but does not turn it over which was a major point in the Horn case.
In both stories the conviction is based on circumstantial evidence and there are scenes of the courtroom drama in the movie that include the girlfriend of the real murderer who is afraid to tell the truth, but who later reveals enough in a note to point out the true miscreant.
Then there are the jailhouse and gallows scenes. In the movie there are repeated scenes of the jail cell and of visits by the Priest, played by Otis B. Thayer himself. The incarceration, trial and execution of Horn was of tremendous interest as the story was unfolding and has been well documented, and there are reports of a Father Kennedy visiting Horn toward the end.
As "Pirates of the Plains" is reaching its climax, the heroine/fiancée of the condemned man helps theCattlemen's Association round up the rustlers and pursues the real murderer. She then uses a rifle to make a long shot which wounds the miscreant so she can extract a confession from him, after which she allows him to fend for himself and then begins the chase scene to save the innocent man from the gallows. The rifle and long shot were central to the Tom Horn case and the love interest in the Tom Horn case, Glendolene Kimmell tried her best to implicate Victor Miller for the murder at the last appeal. Charlie Irwin and others tried to obtain a confession from Victor Miller, but nothing worked in the end.
On the other hand in "Pirates of the Plains", the heroine with confession in hand, charges up the steps to the gallows, which were erected at the Colorado State Penitentiary and stops the execution at the last minute as the kindly Father looks on.
Could Otis B. Thayer have known some secret about the mysterious "Father Kennedy" who some say visited Tom Horn in his last hours? Thayer was in Cheyenne in 1907 according to the newspaper, so might he have been on the scene a little earlier or known about a final attempt at a jail break by Tom Horn? Why did Thayer himself play the Priest on the gallows in "Pirates of the Plains"?
Questions we will likely never know the answers to, but it is important to appreciate "Roundup on the Y-6 Ranch" and "Pirates of the Plains" as being unique documents which will ...
Copyright 2000 George C. Hall