The "Wild Man"

"Then and Now" Lea County Families and History, Vol I, 1977

As told By J. Will Taylor to Mr. & Mrs. C.O. Aldredge

Back when this was open range, we didn't have many fences. Some of our cattle would drift over on other ranges. It was always customary when you went to brand to let the other ranches know what day you was going to brand. They would send a cowboy to help you and pick up their strays.

     We had just got word that they was going to brand over at the McKenzie Ranch the next day. Dad said, "You saddle a orse in the morning and go and help them brand and bring in our strays." So the next morning about 3:00 a.m. I saddled up and headed for the Pecos River. The McKenzie Ranch was on the other side of the river. When I got to the river, it was up. I knew right then I was in for some trouble. I got off my horse and pulled my clothes off and tied them up high to the saddle horn. I got back on my horse, but the river looked like the Atlantic Ocean to him. He done the prettiest little jig dance you ever saw. When he did leave the bank he hit about 10 feet out in the river.  Everything went well until we hit swimming water; that horse would go down and get bottom and then jump just as high as he could. I saw I had to get my weight off his back, so I slid off of him and got him by the tail. He levelled out and went to swimming for the other bank, but when he got to where his feet could touch bottom he went to lunging again. I tried to get up beside him and get a hold of the saddle horn, but he was too fast for me and got away from me. He went out through them Salt Cedars as fast as he could go.

     There I was with just my hat and my birthday suit on. I looked up and down the river and saw where someone had camped. The lay an old toe sack and an old shoe. I tore the old sack open and tied it around my waist. I put on the old shoe, which was three sizes to big for me. I picked up an old stick to help hip hop along. I started out hoping I might run on to some cowboys rounding up some cattle or some sheep camp. I had gone about a mile when I looked ahead and saw a bunch a bunch of sheep; I knew that a sheepherder had to be around there somewhere. When all of a sudden from out from under some mesquite bushes jumped a Mexican boy! Boy, was he scared! There wasn't any use trying to head him, for he was headed for the boondocks. I went on over a hill and there was a sheepherder's camp which consisted of an old tarp stretched between two mesquite bushes and an old iron pot. I looked in the old pot and it was half full of "frijoles" (beans). I eat a bait of them beans because I was getting hungry. I took off across the country. I come up over a little rise and looked down in a little valley and there was two tents. I thought my worries was over, when out from them tents come two dogs- a curr dog and a bulldog. They was letting the world know that they saw the booger man. About that time two women came out of them tents. When they saw me they run back in the tents and one come out with a shotgun. By that time that bulldog was looking at me right in the eye. I saw right then that he had a bad craven for a bite of that toe sack. I let him get up close enough for my stick to reach him. I let him have it just as hard as I could, down across his head. It staggered him. The curr dog took tail and headed back for the tents. About that time that women cut loose with that shotgun. It was a good thing it was a shotgun and not a rifle or I might not be telling this story. I wasn't wanted around there so I headed back for the horse. I would around through the salt cedar bushes and there he was with the bridle reigns tangled up in a bush. We he saw me he sure throwed a fit. Them rollers went to working in his nose. I saw right there that some of Coronado's men rode some of his ancestors  up through this country a long time ago. That Spanish blood sure did boil up in him. He had saw cowboys with chaps on but, he had never seen anything that looked like that old toe sack. I gave him all the soothing horse talk that I knew. He finally stopped them rollers in his nose. I eased up and got hold of the bridle reigns and untangled them from around the bush. I led him back down the river, pulled the old shoe off, throwed down the old sack, washed my feet and put on my clothes and boots, got on my horse, and headed for the McKenzie Ranch. When I got there Mr. McKenzie had just come out of the ranch house from eating dinner. He said, "Well, we have all the cattle in the corral but we are not going to brand this afternoon. We have just got word that there is a wild man a loose over on the river. The boys are down at the corral saddling up now. We are going over there and help catch him."

     I looked all around to see that nobody was around, then I told Mr. McKenzie that I was the supposed wild man and what happened to me. Mr. McKenzie went down to where the boys was and said, " I don't think there is anything to that wild man scare. Let's go ahead and brand."

     After we got through branding, Mr. McKenzie said, " Will, if you will stay all night, I"ll help take your strays home for I want to see your Dad on some business anyway." So early the next morning we headed for the river crossing. When we got there the river had run down to where the crossing was easy. While we was crossing we looked down the river a ways and there was some men seining. We rode by and Mr. McKenzie asked them was they catching any fish. They said they wasn't seining for fish, they was seining for the wild mans body and that they had tracked the wild man to where he had come down to the river and found the old shoe and toe sack, but couldn't find any tracks coming out of the water. Mr. McKenzie said, " There's no such thing as a wild man." One of them fellers got real mad real quick. He said, " She shot at him yesterday and he liked to have nearly killed her bulldog." We rode off and brought the cattle on home, but on the way I made Mr. McKenzie promise me that he wouldn't tell anyone about me being the wild man because I could never live it down.