In the high-country mining camps of the 1860’s, death could come in a heartbeat. Delivered by a flash of temper from a stranger over a perceived wrong, or from a cold, calculating claim jumper. A mini ball fired into a miner’s back could kill a man, dropping him face down into the stream, or drowning him in the freezing water. In an angry outburst, your best friend could murder you over a long built up series of disagreements. I guess in the long run; it doesn’t matter much, at least, not after you’re dead.

Fulford and Nolan’s Creek sat on the side of the mountain, less than 200 yards apart. The gritty mining camps worked hard, played harder, but sometimes that play wasn’t pleasant. The twin towns sprang up overnight when miners panned for gold in the creek that meandered down the mountain. The lower community, Fulford, was larger, rowdier, and more decadent than the upper.

Nolan’s Creek contained a smaller set of buildings, was less refined, but also a tad less violent. Its saloons didn’t have fine décor. There were fewer strumpets and gambling houses, and things moved to the beat of a slower drummer. The lone church that served the twin communities stood in Nolan’s Creek. A tent building that for an hour each Sunday packed in the sinners from both camps. Harlot, miner, saloon owners, and respectable business owners stood and sat shoulder to shoulder. Listening as the preacher rained down fire and brimstone with a zeal that John the Baptist would have been proud to deliver. The congregation of misbegotten prayed, sang praises to the lord, and swore to be better people. Repentance was rare but sincere, at times, the same inhabitant week after week promised his Lord, but continued to fall short.

The worst of the cold of winter had passed, bringing the first signs of Spring. But this was the Rocky Mountains where it took a long time for the snow to clear. Working in the cold makes for short hours of digging or panning, and long hours cramped in tight cabins or in the saloons, gambling dens, and establishments of ill-repute of the twin towns.

Thick blankets of snow clung to the sides of the mountains. One could barely make out the small cabin, covered as it was with a bank of snow either side of the log establishment. Thick smoked curled from the stove pipe protruding from the snow covered timber roof. A short distance from the cabin door, the creek wound through the steep terrain. Nearer the cabin, a little higher than the humble cabin, a dark opening blemished the mountain. This patch of mountain real estate was the Elder/Decker claim.

The mine yielded little, yet demanded much in return. Bent backs, sore muscles, hours freezing in the cold water of the brook, or hard work digging deeper into the mountain. In return, she gave them enough crystal encrusted rock with golden veins, nuggets, and black sand to bank half what they could have made tending cattle down on the plains. Yet despite the mine’s reluctance to uncover her hidden prosperity, the two men dreamed of wealth untold.

The two rough and tough young miners, Casey Elder and Roger Decker, were best friends. The kind of friends nothing could divide. Nonetheless, the close confinement took a toll, and the two men had grumbled at each other for days. Angry words exchanged when they took their meals. Belligerent arguments and glances traded in the saloons. The two men quarreled for the first time in their partnership.

After two-and-a-half years of wearing the same Yankee blue uniforms, fighting side by side, a friendship grew. When they mustered out, the boys headed for Colorado Territory in search of a new life, partners for better or worse. They ate together; they lived in the same one-room cabin, worked in the same frigid creek water, or dug inside the same mine shaft. They even drank and gambled together in the same saloon. Often, they took turns with the same soiled doves.

The winter of 1865-’66 proved a harsh and unforgiving season, resulting in Casey and Roger being snowbound in the cabin for weeks at a time. Only venturing out between blizzards to head to the towns for a drink, a woman, some gambling, and much needed supplies. The tight confines of the one-room cabin consisted of their beds neatly tucked against the back wall, a potbelly stove between them, a small table in the middle of the room, a cook stove against one sidewall and an oversized fireplace on the other. The 15 by 18-foot room could get ... claustrophobic. It was inevitable that conflicts would arise in such tight quarters when every waking moment was spent with another person.

One morning something happened. A small insignificant thing. Roger Decker burnt a flapjack that made it into the middle of Elder’s stack. Casey Elder was always a picky eater. Elder would find something wrong with Roger’s cooking on an all too common basis. This time, however, he took it as a personal attack.

“What the hell is this?” he yelled at his partner.

“What?”

“It’s burnt,” Casey said, “the pancake in the middle is cooked to a crisp.”

“You’re crazy,” Roger Decker said. Looking at the blackened cake, he frowned, “Didn’t notice that.”

“The hell you didn’t,” Elder insisted.

“Trade plates,” Decker offered.

“You’ve eaten half of yours already,” Casey said. Standing up, he marched to the stove and poured coffee. “You done that on purpose.”

“You can have mine,” Roger said. Standing also, he grabbed his coat then exited the cabin, slamming the door behind him. Making his way to the stream he began his daily tasks, working the rivulet in their elusive search for golden flecks in the sluice. After working alone in silence for a time, Elder joined him.

After twenty minutes, Casey Elder looked at his friend and could see he still steamed in anger. He put his black sand in the bag hanging on his side and looked back at Decker. He wanted to apologize, but sorry wasn’t something Casey found easy to say. Wading out of the water, he moved back to the cabin in silence, to change clothes and warm up by the fireplace.

Not long afterward, Roger realized his partner had left. Typical, lazy SOB, he thought. “Always trying to get out of work,” Roger said, informing the trees, snow banks, cold stream, and critters in earshot, of his partner’s shortcomings. He followed the declaration with a long stream of profanities.

The boys had outside worries that gnawed at them, and the close confinement exaggerated every concern, both insignificant or justified. Elder and Decker had watched claim after claim fall victim to the greed of claim jumpers, primarily one man. Even though their mine did not produce a lot, there was value in not taking too much to a bank at one time. Catching the eye of a claim jumper intent on a fast solution to line their own pockets, could prove to be a deadly mistake. Gold causes greed, and greed begets violence and death.

The boys were sitting on most of their gold. Under the floorboards of their cabin, the lion’s share of the dust sat in coffee cans, leather sacks, wooden crates, glass jars, and some pottery they purchased in an unsuccessful attempt to beautify their abode. Torn between banking just enough to not bring attention to themselves and their mine, while living with the fear that someone would rob them of all that gold under their cabin, preyed on their minds.

Perhaps all those different concerns added to the two men becoming quarrelsome. The spring wore on as the snow refused to melt and surrender its grip on the land. The men grew more irritable with each other with each passing day. Trudging down the mountain, they made their way to the smaller town of Nolan’s Creek, and their favorite bar.