Friday, January 18, 2013

Black Bart, A History

My favorite bike ride runs from the river beach at Monte Rio on a quiet road along the south bank of the Russian River to Duncans Mills, then uphill to Cazadero and back. We stop for a bakery and for hot dogs at a Quonset hut. Fine stuff. I mention this because Black Bart used to enjoy holding up the Wells Fargo stage at Duncans Mills. He hated Wells Fargo for some reason, maybe the same reason we hate it. Black Bart specialized in holding up Wells Fargo, and at Duncans Mills he left behind the bit of doggerel that made him infamous:

I've labored long for bread
For honor and for riches,
But on my corns too long you've tread,
You fair-haired Sons of Bitches.

After a long and prosperous career, Bart (who robbed stage coaches on foot and then ran off into the woods and up steep hills no one wanted to climb) was caught and went to prison, and he was eventually released and disappeared.  Bart was a well dressed, middleclass bandit. He never killed anyone.

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