Where The Buffalo Roam 07/07/21

Southern Hills RV Park, Hermosa, South Dakota

We’re returning to Genesis 25.

Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren.  The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. ~ Genesis 25:21        If you jump ahead to verse 26, you’ll see that Isaac prayed for 20 years!  That’s a long time to wait for answered prayer.  It had to take an enormous amount of faith to wait upon the Lord to take another step in fulfilling His promise to Isaac’s father Abraham, that He would make Abraham’s descendants through Isaac as numerous as the stars (Genesis 15:5).

It’s a twenty-mile, scenic drive to Custer State Park.  And we spent our first day there.  We bought an annual South Dakota State Park Pass.  You can purchase a temporary one that’s good for 1-7 days, but for an additional $10, we can get into not only Custer, but any South Dakota State Park for a year.  Since we will be in the state till September 2nd, it will be well worth it.

Custer State Park, covers an area of 114 square miles. It is bordered to the north and west by Black Hills National Forest and to the south by Wind Cave National Park. It was named for George Armstrong Custer, who led an expedition that discovered gold along French Creek in 1874. The park was designated a game preserve in 1913 and was made a state park in 1919, primarily through the work of Governor Peter Norbeck.  In 1914 they purchased 36 head of bison.  Today, they have more than 1,500!  You’ll have to do your own research on General George Armstrong Custer.  I don’t have the time.  Sorry! I’m certain it’s a really interesting biography!

What did we do today?  We drove around oohing and ahhhing over the views, we did some hiking, and we drove some more.  What a place!

We gathered some great information from one of the Rangers in the Visitor Center – not only for Custer, but she also shared info for the Black Hills National Forest, which we’ll get to eventually.

We chose a trail, drove to the trailhead and headed out on a three-mile moderately strenuous loop trail called “Lovers Leap”  (don’t know the story behind that, and I’ve not the time nor the inclination to look it up 😊).

Along the way, God blessed us with His bounty!!  Red raspberries!  Growing right along the trail!  We suspect many people passing by didn’t realize what they were, possibly thinking they were blackberries that weren’t ripe yet.  Wow!  How wonderful!  We considered filling a bag and taking them with us, but since all we had was Blaine’s pack, they probably would’ve gotten smushed before we got back.  Hopefully someone else will enjoy them, too!

As we were nearing the end of the trail, we noticed a family stopped on the trail.  There were bighorn sheep on both sides!  Wow! 

As we continued our journey, we passed several people who told us of five rams next to the trail ahead of us, but we never saw them.  ☹

It took us two hours to complete the trail, and look how few pictures I took!  Trust me, I could’ve taken many more!  So far, my vow to take fewer is still holding.

As we were returning to where we’d left the Jeep, lo and behold, there were the rams!   Grazing in an open field alongside the road!  We could assume they came down from the mountain, but of course we can’t be certain they were the same ones. Still. There were five . . . 😊

The Peter Norbeck Education Center (the former governor, remember?) is where we left our Jeep, so we went into the building to look around a bit.  It’s a beautiful large log cabin the CCC built.  While we were in there, a guy came in and told the staff person that his grandfather helped build it!  How cool is that?!?

And then I happened to look out a window, and there were bighorn lambs frolicking in the meadow!  Six of them!  We left the Center and headed straight for that meadow!  How fun!  They raced, fast as they could go back and forth across the meadow, leapt into the air, and carried on just like little kids do – bringing smiles and laughter to everyone who stopped to watch, including us.

We ate lunch right there in the air-conditioned Jeep, and watched the bighorns.

Time for a drive.  There’s a designated “Wildlife Loop Road”, but there are also several dirt and gravel roads that spur off from that, so Blaine checked the map and took us home ‘the back way’.

Along the dirt road, we saw a buffalo!  Up close!  Sooooo cool!  Sooooo humongous! And surprisingly, not smelly.  Neither of us noticed an “animal” odor.  Maybe that’s why he was all alone.  Maybe the other buffalo don’t like that he bathes . . . .  Hmmm . . .

So, the dirt and gravel road we saw the buffalo on is called Lame Johnny Road.  Lame Johnny was also mentioned in some information we collected at some point, so I decided I had to find the reason behind such a strange name.  I found what I was looking for on hillcityprevailernews.com.  It’s pretty interesting and also pretty long.  I put it at the end so you can skip it if you want.

We also saw pronghorn sheep, prairie dogs and white-tailed deer.

What a spectacular first day!  Thank You, Father!

Our campground made the news for the second night in a row.  What a nice story!  It seems a family from Texas was driving by and noticed the vandalism, one of their sons (maybe 12?) suggested they restore them, so the family came back and painted over the offensive red letters.  Isn’t that wonderful?!?  When we came home, we noticed they were fixed, but we assumed the campground people did it while we were gone today.

The only thing left for today, is the legend of Lame Johnny.  If you’re interested . . .

It is with some small humor that I read about the problems with Lame Johnny Road. My humor is not directed toward those folks presently involved with the road problems. Rather my smiles are directed toward this man called “Lame Johnny” who left the bonds of this earth to enter a spiritual realm some 140 years ago.

A younger lady has suggested that the name “Lame Johnny” may not be appropriate in this age of political correctness. Well, shades of Harney Peak! Should we refer to him as “Johnny-With-The-Altered-Gait?” I think not—these are some historical facts about this man. Let’s examine the short life of this Black Hills character.

Lame Johnny was born in Philadelphia Oct. 6, 1854, and his name was Cornelius Donahue. He was actually Cornelius II as his father was Cornelius and his mother was Elizabeth. He was a pretty smart fellow as he was a student at the prestigious Girard College. He did not graduate from this institution as he had a late start to his education and he turned 18 before graduation. A college rule was that students had to leave the school when they turned 18. He was a very good student and had an excellent academic record.

Cornelius Donahue, aka Lame Johnny, walked with a noticeable limp as he had suffered an injury from a fall from a horse when he was younger. He was somewhat evasive about this injury causing his physical problem as he had told his very good friend, Custer City’s own Doc Pierce, that he had been shot through the legs. Anyway, when he left his formal education he went to Texas to seek adventure as most of us younger folks are inclined to seek some challenges. 

Cornelius took a clerical job on a Texas ranch, but one day he was asked by his cowboy friends if he wished to join them on an escapade. They went on a foray and stole back some horses that some Indians had stolen from them. And they got some extra horses also. Cornelius thought this was great fun and he began to regularly appropriate other folk’s horses for “resale.” Things became uncomfortable for him in Texas and he left for further adventure in the Black Hills Gold Rush. 

In the Black Hills he decided to begin a new identity and became a deputy sheriff of Custer County. Never mind that the Black Hills was still  part of Dakota Territory and had no formal organization. At this time he called himself “John Hurley,” hence, Lame Johnny or Limping John.

Tiring of his lawman’s job and probably due to low wages, he went north and he became a bookkeeper at the budding Homestake Gold Mine. One of his tasks was to interview and hire new employees. Unfortunatley for our newly nicknamed Lame Johnny he was recognized as a wanted outlaw from Texas and  was forced to leave his employment.

He went back to Custer County and became self-employed. His self-employment duties involved a couple areas. One was horse-stealing and the other was stage robbing.  He must have been a friendly fellow as he was a good friend of Doc Peirce, who also became a well-known Black Hills character. 

Now, it is important to know that there was another character known as “Lame Bradley.” Lame Bradley and Lame Johnny together robbed at least one stagecoach and some robberies attributed to Lame Johnny may have been conducted by Lame Bradley.

I believe most of the stagecoach and traveling citizen robberies occurred on the Sidney to Deadwood line as Lame Johnny had his hideout not too far from the Sidney line. It is conceivable, though, that he may have gone on over to the west side and robbed travelers and stages on the Cheyenne to Deadwood line. On one occasion Lame Johnny stopped and robbed the stage and made the mistake of stealing the U.S. mail sacks. This became a federal crime.

Valentine McGillycuddy was the agent at the newly-formed Pine Ridge Reservation, ordered that Lame Johnny be arrested for stealing Indian horses and robbing the U.S. mail. Soldiers at Ft. Robinson near Crawford, Neb., located Lame Johnny and took him into custody.  He was to be taken to Deadwood for trial July 1, 1879.

The treasure coach was returning to Deadwood after delivering gold to the train at Sidney. Lame Johnny was taken aboard the stagecoach in the custody of James “Whispering Bill” Smith, a detective for the postal service. George Boland (who later became the first superintendent of Wind Cave National Park) and his spouse operated both the Horsehead Creek and Buffalo Gap stage stops.

At one of these locations meals were served. Lame Johnny was a friend of the Bolands as he often patronized their establishments. He related to Mrs. Boland that he feared for his life and Mrs. Boland sought to delay Lame Johnny’s trip to Deadwood. She was unsuccessful.

As the stagecoach went on its way to Deadwood, Lame Johnny became apprehensive and reported to his guards that there was a horseback rider riding parallel to the stage. He recognized the rider as Boone May, a stagecoach guard who had a reputation as a ruthless gunman. (More of him in the future.) When the stagecoach arrived at the then-heavily-wooded creek south of Fairburn, a masked man stopped the stage. Lame Johnny was forcibly removed and the stage was sent on its way. 

Later a freight team managed by Pete Oslund passed through the area and discovered the murdered Lame Johnny hanging from a tree. He was buried near the tree. Now, there are a couple confusing accounts about this sad and unfortunate event.

His headstone, which is now missing, once read:

Pilgrim Pause!
You’re standing on
The molding clay of Limping John.
Tread lightly, stranger, on this sod.
For if he moves, you’re robbed, by God

One is that a fellow named Jesse Brown was either riding in the coach or riding his horse behind the coach. Brown was a so-called stage guard and must have been returning with the treasure coach to Deadwood. This coach normally had two outriders on the trip to Sidney and the other rider may have been Boone May. Anyway, Brown said he was riding his horse and other accounts say he was riding inside the coach with his wife and daughters.

Another account said more than one masked man stopping the coach. After the event, Whispering Bill Smith appropriated someone’s horse and rode on ahead. He was seen no more. It is apparent to this writer that a conspiracy was afoot here. At any event, an innocent man who had apparently never physically harmed anyone and had many friends was murdered/lynched and was no more.

And how ironic is it that the stream and road where Lame Johnny died became known as Lame Johnny Creek and Lame Johnny Road. More ironic is that the western terminus of Lame Johnny Road in Custer State Park (CSP) is close to where Lame Johnny had his “hideout.”

There are many facts and anecdotes related to Lame Johnny. A no-nonsense rancher near Rockerville had his horses missing one morning. He dispatched his hired man to take a note to Johnny informing him that he would return his horses or there would be: “Hell to pay!” The next morning his horses were back in his corral.

Former local resident Jim Snider had a great uncle cowboy named Chauncey Parker who had a cabin south of Blue Bell near Wildlife Loop Road. One day Jim and Chauncy were around in Chauncey’s old pickup when the old guy nodded to a location near the Custer State Park buffalo corrals and reported that was the location of the hideout. This confirmed what my grandfather had told me.

This is an ideal hideout location as it cannot be seen from most directions. A sometimes confidant of Lame Johnny’s was James Fowler, aka Fly Speck Billy, who supposedly sometimes shared the hideout. Fly Speck was lynched in Custer in 1881 after murdering Abe Barnes. 

The Lame Johnny hide- out cabin became the abode of Count DeGrancy when he started Fleur de Lis horse ranch, which encompassed the area that became  southeast Custer State Park. The cabin burned and the count built new quarters and corrals farther up the north fork of Lame Johnny Creek.

Local resident June Stenson told this writer that she accompanied a park employee to the buildings and corrals in the 1960s where the employee burned the buildings under orders to do so. History lost.

Lame Johnny’s grave was violated at least twice. Once his remains had the shackles removed and one is in the state archives and the other is in the 1881 Courthouse Museum. Rancher Ed Lemmon of the Lemmon area related that one of his cowboys had taken Johnny’s skull for the gold teeth it contained. To Ed’s credit he immediately fired his cowboy/grave desecrator. 

Several years ago this writer read a piece in the volume called “Our Yesteryears” which is a history of Custer County. One cowboy’s account told of tracking a lost beef to a canyon where he discovered two caves that may have been an outlaw’s hideout. In the last several years I have walked nearly all the area from French Creek to Red Valley Road looking for these caves. I have found many Indian artifacts, rancher/homesteader artifacts and building remnants, caves and overhangs but nothing big enough to hold 20 horses as reported. 

Cornelius Donahue, aka Lame Johnny, aka Johnny Hurley, aka Limping John, may have been an outlaw and he may have been accused of some crimes, but he died an innocent victim. I would have liked to sit in some saloon in Custer, Fairburn or Buffalo Gap and enjoyed a frothy beer with this man. We must be content that a creek and road has been named for him.