As I was growing up La Junta had some exciting times. Matter of fact there were folks who called the town downright wild and wooly. There was an Indian trading post in the center of what is now La Junta. Sometimes the Indians kicked up their heels, especially when a passing trader gave the bucks a few jugs of whiskey. One day a rumor started that the hostile Indians were going to come in and massacre everyone in town.

J.C. Denny, local stationmaster of the Santa Fe Railroad told folks that he would place a coach with an engine attached to it on the tracks just across from our home. If the Indians struck, a whistle would sound. People should jump on the coach and they would be hauled to safety. The Railroads were only for the rich folks to ride so I secretly hoped the Indians would give us a little scare, then we could ride in that railroad car, but they never attacked and things stayed peaceable.

When I was 10 years old there were pigs running in the streets. Everyone let their hogs run. Martin Stephens had a butcher shop on Trinidad Plaza and he had a bunch of hogs running loose. Buckets on back porches were being tipped over and hogs were getting in folks' gardens. Mama had a fit when they got into her garden. She threatened to make ham out of them. Oscar thought about trying to ride one of those pigs like a horse but they always ran away from him.

The city council heard so many complaints they decided to try to pass a rule that anyone in the city limits couldn't let their hogs run wild. Boy, those hog owners were upset, they figured that if a law like that was passed it would just be a matter of time before they'd have to shut up the cows, horses and chickens too.

Papa and two of my older brothers, John and Frank went to the city council the night they took a vote on it. They came home and said that the place was packed with hog lovers and hog non-lovers. The meeting lasted a long time because everyone wanted to say something. The council put it on a special ballot and the citizens voted to make the owners pen up their hogs. The trouble with pigs once running wild you can't hardly keep them in pens after that. They could still go under fences. Most of the hogs weren't in the streets anymore, but La Junta didn't settle down. It was still a wild and wooly town.

One day Albert came home in a tizzy. He'd gone uptown and he was near busting out with excitement.

"Guess what they've put in the square?" Albert bellowed.

"Settle down son," Mama said, but it didn't help because Albert didn't settle down a bit.

"They've set up some tents," he announced.

"Whatever for?" Mama asked.

"For gambling purposes."

"Gambling?" Mama was shocked.

"Yep," Albert said.

"Well, I'm sure when the Marshall sees them he'll make them get out of there."

"It was the Marshall who helped put them up," Albert snickered.

"Jim Marshall?" Mama sputtered.

"Yep." Albert reached into the breadbox for a cookie. "The same."

"Well, I never." Mama didn't even notice that Albert took a whole handful of cookies. Albert was 15 years old now and Mama said he was eating everything she could bake before it cooled off. He was always hungry.

"Oh, dear," Mama sighed. "Albert, you and Oscar stay away from those tents."

"Sure Mama," Albert said but I noticed a little smirk on his face.

Papa was upset when he heard the news, because he and some other fellows had helped Mayor Denny pretty up the park. They had scattered some grass seed and brought a few little trees to plant in the square. They had to carry water and pamper those trees something fierce. Folks were supposed to stay out of the park until everything was growing good.

When Mayor Denny saw those tents he was right down upset. He didn't hold with gambling.

"I hear that Mayor Denny went by those blasted tents," Papa said the next evening, "And caught Jim Marshall in there gambling."

"Now, Sam," Mama said. "There's no call for you to cuss."

"Sorry, Sarah," Papa answered. "It just makes me so mad."

"What'd he do, Papa?" Oscar asked. "What did Mayor Denny do?"

"Fired him right on the spot," Papa said. "Now the Mayor's gonna get rid of the canvas in the town square."

"I don't see anything wrong with those tents," Sammy said.

"Why son," Mama exclaimed. "They're gambling in those tents."

"What's wrong with playin' some games when you're tired?" Sammy asked. "It's relaxin' after a hard days work."

"Gambling is always wrong," Mama said. "It takes food from little mouths."

"Oh, Ma," Sammy laughed. "Most of the guys haven't got any little mouths to feed." It sounded like Sammy might know a bit too much about what was going on inside those tents.

Mama worried about my brothers. Sammy was staying downtown a little later every night.

It didn't do the Mayor any good to fire Jim Marshall because the town council rehired him. Mayor Denny got mad and fired Marshall again.

I wanted to see those famous tents but I was a girl and I couldn't sneak out like Albert and Oscar could. They carried all the news back to me though.

"Guess what?" Albert yelled as he came through the door a couple of days later.

"What now?" Mama sighed.

"The tents are gonna stay," Albert said. He shouldn't have said that because Mama got a might excited over that.

"I told you to stay away from those tents," she said and I heard her mumbling something about Sammy being a bad influence on his little brothers.

"I wasn't near them, Ma," Albert said, but there was guilt spread all over his face. "Council has hired Bat Masterson to be the town marshall."

"Bat Masterson?" Oscar yelled. Bat Masterson was a hero around our house.

Papa and my brothers still told stories of the big railroad war that took place a few years earlier between the Santa Fe and the Rio Grande. At that time both railroads were trying to lay tracks to Leadville. It was a mining town and there was a big boom up there. The Santa Fe was the first to try to put a trail through a gulch that folks called the Royal Gorge, but then the Rio Grande decided to try to stick their fingers in and get a piece of that pie. They were bound and determined to build a railroad through the gorge too. Trouble was it wasn't big enough for two railroads. Pa said that some of the Santa Fe people were held prisoners for awhile by the Rio Grande.

The Santa Fe sent to Dodge City and got Bat Masterson to come and do battle for them. They hired a gunman name of Doc Holiday too. He and Bat Masterson were fast with guns. The Santa Fe hired a whole bunch of other gunmen and they went into the Royal Gorge to guard the men who were surveying for the railroad. The Santa Fe built a fort up there to guard the men who were working. They put 500 riflemen at Raton Pass.

Then the fight moved to Pueblo. Bat Masterson was a U.S. Marshall by that time. Sammy always laughed because Masterson pulled a fast one on the Rio Grande. Bat Masterson and about 50 other gunmen were inside the roundhouse when the Rio Grande fellows pulled up. They were outnumbered, but seems Masterson took a bribe and they turned the roundhouse over to the Rio Grande. He had the last laugh because the Santa Fe had already decided they weren't going to hold the roundhouse anyway. The war was settled without any shots being fired but Bat Masterson was a hero to some of my big brothers, especially Sammy and Albert. Masterson and Doc Holiday were associates, word was that Bat didn't have any love for Doc Holiday, but they had both been on the side of the Santa Fe during those railroad wars.

Well, sure enough the town council sent to Pueblo and got Bat Masterson to come to La Junta. They hired him as town Marshall and put Jim Marshall in as his deputy. The town council figured Masterson was a good one to hire to help straighten out the Mayor.

"Mayor Denny's real upset over Bat Masterson being hired as Sheriff," Pa said that evening.

"Bat's always been a good Santa Fe man," Sammy said.

"Yes," Papa said. "But I hear he's quite a gambler."

"Nothing wrong with gamblin'," Sammy muttered.

"I don't hold with gamblin', son," Pa glared at him.

"Gambling always leads to trouble," Mama said.

After a couple of weeks I finally got to see the tents when we went to town. I even got a glimpse of our Town Marshall. Bat Masterson was a fierce looking figure even if he was dressed in fancy clothes with a black tie. I wouldn't want to tangle with him.

"I seen Sammy in one of them tents," Albert whispered.

"Ma will have a fit," Oscar said.

"I been thinkin' of tryin' my hand at gambling too," Albert said.

"You better not," I warned. "Ma will snatch you bald-headed."

"What she don't know won't hurt her," Albert said.

Mayor Denny had been in La Junta since the railroad first came in and he wasn't about to turn the town over to gamblers. He made a fast trip to Pueblo and brought back six gunslingers from Pueblo. The Mayor made them deputies to Bat Masterson. He intended for them to give Masterson a hard time. Some of them had fought on the side of the Rio Grande. Doc Holiday had switched sides, he was one of those six gunslingers.

"I hear tell Mayor Denny's paying the gunslingers $10 a day to get rid of the tents," Pa said. "There's trouble brewing."

"I don't see why they should be after Masterson," Sammy grumbled. "He's all right."

"Masterson's backing the gamblers," Papa said. "He's on the wrong side this time."

"Nothing wrong with gambling," Sammy insisted.

There was trouble brewing and Bat Masterson knew it. After a few days he gave his badge back to Mayor Denny. The La Junta Tribune reported that Bat Masterson said he could never fight his own deputies. La Junta's famous sheriff only lasted five weeks. Mayor Denny praised Bat Masterson. He said he was a real gentleman and wasn't aching for a fight.

The gambling tents were taken down and folks were mighty pleased with Mayor Denny for cleaning up the town, but my brothers were sorry to see Bat Masterson leave town. Word had it that he went on to Las Animas where he was town marshal for spell.

Right after that the tents disappeared and La Junta quieted down again. Seems there was still gambling, but they moved it into the back buildings and out of the city park. Albert told Oscar and me that Sammy had lost most of his paycheck so he was broke. Sammy wandered around looking like a lost dog for awhile but one day he met Hattie Jenkins and started courting her. He spent all his money on her now and Hattie didn't hold with gambling either. Ma breathed a big sigh of relief.