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.

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