‘BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER’
In the mid-1800s, the Whitmore family had a successful cattle ranching operation in Texas.
In 1857, after converting to the Mormon Church, the Whitmores left Texas with 3,000 head of cattle. The family at first settled in St. George, Utah but moved further and further North and East in Utah when Indian hostilities began and the patriarch of the family was killed.
Upon arrival in Price, the Whitmores began the First National Bank and the long-lived Price Trading Company.
In 1883, James M. Whitmore was elected as the Town President of Price. The Whitmores seemed to have the Midas touch.
Joe Walker was born in 1850 in Texas. Some have said that Walker’s mother was a Whitmore, thus making Walker a Whitmore cousin. Walker grew up in Texas but by 1890 had moved to Utah, following the Whitmores. Walker approached the Whitmores and claimed that they were cousins. Walker claimed that as a cousin, he was entitled to part of the Whitmore fortune and a sizeable herd of their cattle.
The Whitmores investigated Walkers claims but “found” that they had no merit. Walker was furious that the Whitmores would doubt his relationship to them and decided then and there that he would take his inheritance from the Whitmores by other means. Walker began to steal the Whitmore cattle.
IT’S NOT STEALING, IT’S RECLAIMING
Walker wasn’t alone in his livestock thievery. Walker befriended and enlisted the help of part-time Wild Bunch member C.L. “Gunplay” Maxwell. Maxwell was eager to help Walker steal livestock from the Whitmores, as at the time Maxwell was working as a guard for Preston Nutter, arguably the largest cattle baron in Utah.
Maxwell thought that by helping his friend Walker relieve cattle from the Whitmores, competitors of Nutter, he would earn the favor of Nutter.
In mid-March of 1897, Walker and Maxwell committed a daring theft of several of Whitmore’s prized thoroughbred horses.
Much to the embarrassment of Whitmore and the town of Price, the theft took place right downtown… near the Whitmore store. Whitmore gathered together a small group of men and searched for the horses and the rustlers. After a two day search, neither were found.
‘GUNPLAY’ MAXWELL, AKA THE SNITCH
Walker and Maxwell and their newly captured herd of horses headed for the San Rafael Swell. Shortly after arriving at a box canyon near Mexican Mountain, Maxwell and Walker had a falling out. Maxwell stormed out of the camp and returned to Price where he immediately met with J. M. Whitmore. Maxwell told Whitmore that he had been out prospecting in the San Rafael Swell when he ran across Joe Walker with a herd of horses that looked surprisingly like Whitmore’s horses. Maxwell suggested that Whitmore form a posse and Maxwell would guide them to Walker’s camp. He of course never said that he was actually involved with the rustling of the horses to begin with.
Whitmore contacted Emery County Sheriff Azariah Tuttle and informed him of the plan. Whitmore would travel to Castle Dale and meet up with Tuttle. Whitmore brought along M.C. Wilson, J. M. Thomas and of course, the ever helpful Gunplay Maxwell.
MEXICAN STANDOFF AT MEXICAN MOUNTAIN
On the morning of March 27, 1897, the posse rode into the Mexican Mountain area. As they rounded a bend, the posse was surprised to see an equally surprised Joe Walker cooking his meal. Walker jumped and ran for the box canyon, firing his rifle wildly as he ran. The posse dismounted and took up positions at the mouth of the box canyon. With Walker cornered in the canyon, the only way out was through the mouth of the canyon… but what concerned Tuttle was that Walker was considered a “Dead Shot” with a rifle. It was a Mexican standoff…at Mexican Mountain.
After several quiet hours with no activity, Tuttle became restless. Leaving Wilson and Thomas to guard the horses, Tuttle took up the middle, while Maxwell flanked him on the left and Whitmore flanked on the right. Walker opened fire. The first shot was aimed directly at Maxwell, his former friend… who had turned traitor. The shot struck Maxwell’s rifle and according to Maxwell, rendered the gun useless as the bullet split the barrel of the gun. Maxwell dove for cover near some boulders.
Walker’s second shot hit Sheriff Tuttle near his hip. The bullet shattered the lawman’s thigh bone.
Tuttle dropped where he stood. Whitmore took cover on the right. Sheriff Tuttle lay bleeding right out in the open in the mouth of the canyon. When darkness fell, Maxwell and Whitmore made for the horses. There, they decided to head back to Castle Dale to get help for the Sheriff; although no one had heard any sounds from him, nor had they gone over to check to see if he was alive or dead.
Then in a strange move that has puzzled more than one historian, the men decided that instead of riding hell bent for leather for Castle Dale in order to get Tuttle the help that he needed, they would herd the stolen horses back with them, lengthening the time it took to get back to Castle Dale considerably.
HELP COMES FROM A SURPRISING SOURCE
Now alone in the dark, fading in and out of consciousness, Tuttle finally called out to Walker and asked if he was still there. Walker shouted back that he was. Tuttle asked if Walker could give him some water. Walker said he would give Tuttle some water and would even come out without his guns so Tuttle would trust him.
Walker was true to his word and gave the wounded Sheriff water. According to some sources, Walker even helped to make Tuttle more comfortable on the ground. After tending to Tuttle, Walker packed up his camp and disappeared into the darkness.
Sheriff Tuttle laid at the mouth of the canyon all night and nearly all the next day before Wilson returned to the site with Dr. Winters from Castle Dale. Surprisingly, they found Tuttle in critical condition, but alive. Dr. Winters had brought a buckboard and after sedating Sheriff Tuttle, loaded him in the buckboard for the long ride back to Castle Dale. It is said that Sheriff Tuttle screamed in pain at every rut and rock that the buckboard hit on the way back.
I’M SORRY
Finally arriving back in Castle Dale, Dr. Winters tended to the Sheriff’s badly injured leg. For a time it looked like Tuttle’s leg would have to be amputated. Slowly the Sheriff began to improve. On May 6, 1897 while Sheriff Tuttle was still recuperating at home, he received a strange note. The note read: “I’m sorry you got hurt. If you’ll call it square I’ll send you three good horses. You can sell them to pay your doctor bill and if there’s any left over you can send it back to me.”
The note was from Joe Walker, and the horses he offered to Sheriff Tuttle actually belonged to the Whitmores.
THE MANY DEATHS OF JOE WALKER
In the meantime, men from Emery County were scouring the San Rafael Swell looking for Walker. Emery County was furious with Carbon County for their lack of assistance in the search. In fact, the Carbon County Sheriff, Gus Donant, was supposed to go along on the initial posse to capture Walker and the Whitmore horses but failed to show up. Emery County petitioned the State of Utah for assistance by sending additional men to help round up Walker.
Walker, still on the lam in the San Rafael Swell, quickly came up with a plan to get the law off of his tail. Walker dug his own grave. Walker placed an obvious grave marker with his name and date of death on a fake grave that he lined with rocks. It might have worked except that Walker took it a little too far. Instead of just making one fake grave, Walker made at least three fake graves in three different parts of the San Rafael. Joe Walker might have been dead, he just wasn’t dead in three locations!
Joe Walker was not captured in the San Rafael Swell and in fact went on the next month to help Butch Cassidy and Elza Lay pull off the Castle Gate Payroll Robbery.
However, Joe Walker eventually met his end at the hands of another posse, led once again by Gunplay Maxwell, a year later, but that my friends is a story for another day.
Walker is buried in the Price City Cemetery, ironically, stacked in the same grave as his former friend and traitor, Gunplay Maxwell… along with two other “outlaws.” Originally, the four outlaws were placed outside of the cemetery limits in the dump.
Azariah Tuttle recovered, although the wound left him crippled.
In 1911, Tuttle was given $2,500 ($71,428 in today’s money) by the State of Utah as a way of an apology for the ordeal he went through.
Tuttle used part of that money to invest in a gold mine in Downeyille, Calif. with his son-in-law.
In July, 1912, Tuttle was killed in an accident in the gold mine where he had been working.
According to reports, the 60-year-old Tuttle was killed when he fell into the mine shaft. Whether the accident was caused because of the injury to his leg will never be known… there have been rumors of foul play there too.
Sheriff Azariah Tuttle was returned to Orangeville where he was buried.
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