Keep digging for the stories

When not copywriting, I spend some of my time digging away at my family tree. That's how I discovered the story of Robert Widdowfield, a distant cousin who left the coal fields of Durham, England with his family for the coal fields of Wyoming in the 1800s.

Still frontier country back then, Robert was a mine worker and a deputy sheriff of Carbon County. Back in 1878, he was sent along with Union Pacific special agent, Henry 'Tip' Vincent to track down George Parrot and his gang after they tried to derail and rob a Union Pacific train.

After tracking the gang to Elk Mountain, Robert and Henry were both shot and killed at Rattlesnake Creek. Robert was just the second lawman to be killed in Wyoming, Henry was the third.

The gang escaped, but each member was eventually captured, including 'Big Nose' George Parrot himself. While waiting to hang, George tried to break out of the jail but failed. On hearing that he had tried to escape, the local townsfolk were so enraged, they stormed the jail and hung Parrot from the nearest telegraph pole in the street.

As there was no one to claim the body, it was passed over to two doctors. As well as performing some examinations, a Dr Osborne had Parrot skinned across the thighs, had the skin tanned and then made into a pair of shoes. Osborne wore the very same shoes for his inaugural ball when he was elected governor of Wyoming a couple of years later. The top of Parrot's skull was given to a nurse who used it as a door stop. Parrot's bones were then placed in a whiskey barrel and buried in the high street. It lay there till it was rediscovered in the 1950s.

The moral of the story? Keep digging till you find a great story. Because when you do it has the power to pull you right in.