Look familiar? I found this at the BBC, but I don’t know the source.
I liked Kevin Connolly’s take on the photo, though he does not identify its provenance. I’ll be looking on the Earpian listservs to see who first verifies or debunks the cast of characters. Virgil Earp, for instance? Unlikely. Of course, not a woman to be found on that veranda. Really, put a long coat and hat and mustache on most men, add a vintage black and white print, and they do look alike.
Get out the magnifying glasses
Connolly writes:
If it is real, it is extraordinary: a moment when the myths and legends of the Old West crystallised for a moment into a single group photograph before evaporating again into the anonymity of the hot afternoon.
The 15 men in the picture are arranged along the wooden veranda of a hotel in the resort of Hunter’s Hot Springs in the summer of 1883.
In the fashion of the time, no concessions are made to the brutal heat. Waistcoats are worn, ties are neatly knotted, bowler hats are sported.
They are relaxed but formal.
One of the seated figures leans back confidently against the upper step behind him. Another looks slightly priggish with his legs crossed at the knees and his hands settled in his lap.
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 The lines between those who enforced the law and those who broke it were a little more fluid back then  |
They look tough. Like men who meet a lot of tough guys and generally find that they are tougher still.
Which is not surprising when you consider that this was a gathering of some of the most powerful and desperate figures from the old West in the dying days of its wildness.
If it is real.
The story is told that the 15 men include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Wyatt Earp, his brother Virgil and their friends Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson.
Theodore Roosevelt was US president from 1901 to 1908
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The lounging figure is – or might be – Judge Roy Bean, who conducted trials in the bar of the saloon he owned in Texas and encouraged jurors to buy drinks between cases.
A few feet away, apparently on an upturned crate, sits a figure identified as Theodore Roosevelt, the future president.
You would not, of course, find a modern hopeful for the White House posing nonchalantly with bank-robbing ne’er-do-wells, but these were different times.
We know the picture is genuine in the sense that it is a real photograph of 15 men from the 1880s. We just cannot be quite sure who they were.
We know it could be real, which is what makes it so fascinating.
Teddy Roosevelt did retreat into the western wilderness in 1883 after the death of his first wife and when Butch Cassidy, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson were all dotted somewhere around America’s ragged and dangerous western frontier.
The story goes that the men were brought together to celebrate the opening of new railroad track – a big event at a time when the steel arteries of the railways were carrying the boundless wealth of a booming America westward, hotly pursued by posses of hookers, crooks and lawmen.
Can anyone tell us who is actually in the photo?
It’s ridiculous. Butch Cassidy was 17 and in the Northwest. Teddy Roosevelt was in the NYS legislature and made his first foray into the Dakotas that year. That’s just for starters. I’m sure that Virgil Earp was in California by that time becuase it’s 2 years after he was crippled in an ambush. I could go on but you get the point.
I forgot to note that in 1883 it was only a short time after Doc Holliday finished the “vendetta ride” with Wyatt Earp (1882) and then went to Colorado for health reasons.
My name is Roger Lemer. I believe that the picture in my possession is proof of provenance that picture is true, The picture has names and sitting positions of all but three railroad workers and dated.My phone is 406-249-5489 I received the picture 25 years ago living in Montana. looking forward to here from you. thank you, yours truly Roger