The following is another newspaper account of the San Miguel Valley Bank on June 24, 1889.

 The San Miguel Valley Bank Robbery - Overview

On Monday, June 24^th, 1889, between three and five outlaws rode into the small mining town of Telluride, Colorado.  The outlaws may have been neatly dressed in their best cowboy attire.  They may or may not have stopped at a bar across from the San Miguel Valley Bank to case the bank in advance.  Between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m., two, maybe three outlaws entered the bank without masks.  At least one outlaw remained outside the bank to tend the horses. Inside the bank were one, maybe two bank employees.  At least one of the men was Mr. Hyde, the bank teller.  Mr. Hyde may have been pistol-whipped during the robbery.

As the outlaws exited the bank, one outlaw missed his stirrups and fell to the ground. Or as he mounted his horse, in the excitement the horse reared, bucking him off.  He quickly remounted and the riders rode off firing their pistols into the air.  They may or may not have fired at a young citizen.

During the robbery, the outlaws made out with between $10,000 and $40,000.

As the outlaws rode out of town firing, they may have loosed either a racehorse or mule they had hidden along their exit to carry weighted silver and gold.

The outlaws may or may not have left $2,000 to pay off the Telluride Marshall to miss the posse and be out of town.

A few miles outside of town one of the outlaw horses came up lame.  Just before heading down Keystone Pass, the outlaws crossed paths with the rancher and businessman Harry Adsit.  Harry knew at least two members of the gang, which feared the outlaws.  Either they traded, bought, or stole a replacement horse from Adsit and left their lame steed as a souvenir. 

In town, the same Harry Adsit and the Sheriff raised a posse.  Meanwhile, the outlaws veered off the Keystone and followed the Southfork of the San Miguel River towards Ophir then towards Trout Lake in the direction of Cortez.

Harry Adsit was reportedly a good horseman and may have outrun the posse and come in contact with the outlaws above Trout Lake. Several stories report Adsit was surprised by the gang near Lizard Head Pass.  The outlaws may have played Adsit by taking his prize pistol and sending him away.  The outlaws may also have found a loosed or near-wild pony and used it to divert their pursuers.  The posse may have given up at that time or continued to track the outlaws for several days towards the Mancos region of Colorado. 

Later, a member of the gang, perhaps two, was arrested and held in the Telluride jail.  The outlaw or outlaws escaped jail several months later.

The money was never returned.

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Commentary

As you can see, there are many,  many overlapping facts or fiction we will investigate.  It is amazing how people can see or be involved in the same robbery and come out with such different stories.  Even within my family, I find different stories of how the robbery took place and when.  My uncle, Buck Elliott, told me of a story that the robbers had a string of horses set along the getaway route.  In the 1920s, someone from town reportedly discovered carcasses, presumed getaway horses that had died tied to a tree all those years before.  I have never been able to substantiate that story.  I did find a website claiming horses were discovered.

If you look at a map, Telluride sits in the Southwest corner of Colorado, not far from Four Corners as the crow flies.  

Telluride has an entirely different climate than you will find in the high desert of Cortez or Durango. Situated about 8,800 feet above sea level, Telluride has a damp Alpine climate.  Rarely does the temperature exceed 80 degrees and nights are always crisp.

The San Miguel Park Region was illegally settled in the late 1870s on Ute Indian lands. San Miguel (2 miles west of Telluride) was the first established community in the valley.  Because of space, access to mines, and the cost of land, settlers moved deeper into the valley.  Prior to 1880, that community was known briefly as the mining community of Columbia, which was the name of a mine in the Marshall Basin above Telluride. 

Although I can’t confirm it (yet), I believe the trading company Telluride Transfer gave seed to the name the community adopted.

Telluride Transfer

The city took on “Telluride” because the Transfer and the Boulder, CO region had discovered rare and valuable Telluride Ore.  It was likely pure marketing even though Telluride Ore was never mined in the Telluride region.    From 1880 on, the city and all regional newspapers referred to the city as “Telluride”.  The City of Telluride was not officially incorporated until 1887. I find no mention of “Columbia” after 1880.  As a side note, I have always loved the fictitious urban legend of “To-Hell-U-Ride” as the city’s name source.

June, my favorite month in Telluride, is typically the driest month. Everything is coming to life.  The weather is averaging almost seventy degrees and the sun shines most days.  Later in July, the monsoons will move up through Western Colorado keeping the San Juan Mountains near perfectly green and lush but rainy.  By 9:00am in the morning, the sun is generally just peeking into town over the peaks sucking up the dew that permeates the valley floor.  You might even find a little frost in late June.  My favorite smell is the willow that grows along the creeks and rivers.

This photo, less the buildings, would have been the same view the outlaws had when entering the town.  In the distance is Mt. Telluride along with Mt. Ajax with Bridal Veil Falls that flows just as spectacularly now as it did then.

Telluride sits in a boxed valley surrounded by thirteen- and fourteen-thousand-foot peaks. Today, when you drive West out of Telluride you reach Highway 145. 

If you continue West, Highway 145 makes a ninety-degree turn at Society.  Continue straight and you traverse down Keystone and run into Sawpit, then Placerville and Norwood.  Turn left and you head to Ophir, Trout Lake, Rico, then Dolores. Those would have been the possible escape routes.

In 1889, Highway 145 did not exist. It was much more difficult to get to Ophir; one could have taken a rough Boomerang Road towards the Alta Mines and then to Ophir.  During June, Boomerang can be impenetrable because of lingering snowpacks.  The common route to Ophir from Telluride in 1889 was down Keystone to the confluence of the San Miguel and South Fork of the San Miguel Rivers.  The road then followed the South Fork South to Ophir.  Today, the road is unpaved Colorado 63L.

Most accounts make it appear that the town was quiet at the time of the robbery.  That is unlikely.  By sunrise on a Monday the streets would have been filled with citizens, artisanal and wildcat minors as well as teamsters that continuously packed goods to and ore from the high country mines.

Next, I hope to present to my readers the newspaper, first and secondhand accounts of the robbery.  This will include firsthand accounts from Matt Warner, Tom McCarty, L.G. Denison, and the controversial Bill Phillips.  I will present Doc Shores’ secondhand account he claims was related to him by Telluride Marshal Jim Clark.  I will present research submitted by authors Charles Kelly, Jim Dullenty, Larry Pointer, Ann Meadows, and the Betenson Family, to name a few.  After that, I would like to investigate the main players purported to be involved directly or indirectly in the robbery.  Are they credible?  Does their fact check out? We will look at the San Miguel Valley Bank itself including its birth, fate, and characters owning and managing the bank.

After each account of the robbery, I will perform a summary of fact and (provable) fiction.  At the conclusion, we will compare the stories and attempt to gather some reasonable consensus.  I will present and support my theories and hope to hear yours.

If you have related stories to share, please let me know.