Friday, September 27, 2024

You must have money

     Fort Sanders was a frontier settlement, formerly known as Fort John Buford, established to protect the tie-cutters and grading crws working west of Cheyenne. A few squatters had appeared before the railroad, but by the time the rails reached the site there were several hundred buildings, shacks and cabins of logs, sod, canvas, railroad ties and old wagon boxes, near the fort, and within hours Laramie, as it now called itself, was a booming town.

    Crispin Mayo and Reppato Pratt stood on the narrow platform at what passed for the station. "Seen towns like this before," Rep said; "if'n you got money you can git yourself trouble. Without it you cain't git the time of day."

(from The Man From Skibbereen, by Louis L'Amour)

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