The Sheriffs of Colfax County and Colfax to Santa Fe

Two Westerns by author Jimmy Dill:

The Sheriffs of Colfax County

The Sheriffs of Colfax County is a work of fiction set in the late 1860’s and early 1870’s. The primary setting is the New Mexico Territory and the surrounding territories and states of the West. The reputation of the West, as being wild and unruly, was often not exaggerated. It was not uncommon for disputes to be settled by the sixgun. County sheriffs and US Marshalls enforced the law, and kept a sense of order as best that they could. Judges administered justice swiftly. It was mostly fair, but always swift.

Mining in the West drew throngs of people seeking to get rich quickly. Outlaw gangs roamed the West looking to profit off of someone else’s labor. The increasing influx of white settlers and miners created conflict, and often violent encounters, with the numerous Indian tribes, who sought to retain their hunting lands and protect their way of life. Along the way were treaties, broken treaties, raids and wars, and ultimately relegation to reservations.

Many a conflict began, and sometimes ended, in the saloons of the wild West. A disputed card game resulted in the father of three Scott brothers being shot. The immediate avenging of the shooting, by one of the brothers who had worn a badge moments before, resulted in the shooting death of one of the Stokes brothers. What resulted from there was months of passionate attempts to achieve total revenge by both families. The paths to achieve vindication stretched from as far as Nevada, all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way, roles and facts seemed to change, but the goals remained unchanged. The final outcome could not have been easily foreseen, but ultimately the matter was laid to rest, with only one family member left standing.

Colfax to Santa Fe

For Rankin Scott, the former sheriff of Colfax County in the New Mexico Territory, Pine Canyon afforded him just the right amount of peace and solitude he needed to recover from the previous year. He had become the sheriff to avenge his brother’s murder. MacKenzie Scott had served as the sheriff of Colfax County before his untimely death.

Rankin’s year-long quest had taken him as far east as Boston, as far north and west as Idaho and Nevada, and as far south as the Mexican border. He was physically and mentally tired. The canyon, and his faithful dog, Buster, were perfect prescriptions for rest and healing.

The peace and solitude of the canyon were suddenly interrupted when he allowed his friend, Judge Walter Freeman, to talk him into becoming the sheriff of Santa Fe County. A dispute between the Apaches and the Army, and a stagecoach robbery, had lured Judge Freeman to Santa Fe. He had served as the Colfax County judge for many years.

Rankin hesitatingly joined Judge Freeman for this challenge.

Rankin fully expected to return to the solitude of Pine Canyon when his work in Santa Fe was done. However, Rankin found the challenges in Santa Fe to be everything he had expected and more. So much more that his return to the canyon was placed on hold, perhaps indefinitely.