История Марка Твена и легендарных персонажей Уайлд-Вест в Парк-Сити

Every time I drive by the Kimball Junction stage stop, I think about the visit supposedly paid by Samuel Clemons, a.k.a. Mark Twain, in 1861. He wrote about the location in “Roughing It,” his second book, published in 1872. The stage stop remains standing in the form of the sandstone building you can see on the north side of I-80 just east of the Kimball Junction exit. During that stop, Twain had dinner with Heber C. Kimball and some “hospitable gentiles.” This may have been Twain’s first taste of “Valley Tan,” the name given to the local whisky distilled in the Salt Lake Valley. Though the Kimballs were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, they operated what is possibly the first saloon in the Park City area, which is interesting for a majority non-LDS community that would gain a reputation for its abundance and variety of saloons. The Kimball saloon was possibly in the addition seen to the left of the building in the included photograph. Although the imbibing of “ardent beverages” is forbidden by LDS today, the rules were less specific back in Twain’s day. Since the mining boom in Park City did not begin until the first silver discovery in 1868, Twain never had the chance to visit Park City’s infamous Main Street on that first visit West. But there are Park City stories like those told in “Roughing It” that could be straight from the prose of old Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass (another of Clemens’ pen names). Several of them involve a pair of colorful characters named Thomas Cupit and Jack Pape. Students of the Black Jack Murphy lynching will recall that Jack Pape was the arresting deputy, and Murphy was arraigned in front of Justice of the Peace Thomas Cupit. The arraignment happened on a Wednesday in 1883 and Murphy was found hanging from a telegraph pole by the Union Pacific Rail Station that following Sunday. The proceedings following the arraignment were entirely extrajudicial. Cupit and Pape show up in the historical record as early as 1873, before they arrived in The Park, related to some antics in Salt Lake City, where they operated a sequence of two saloons. In the first incident, at the Washington House Saloon, Pape ejected a patron using violent measures because the man refused to leave prior to the legally mandated closing time. Later that evening, as his partner Cupit was leaving the saloon, Cupit was fired upon. This being the Wild West, Cupit returned fire, resulting in a visit by the local law enforcement. In the second incident, two years later at the Overland Saloon, the business partners were arrested for “serving ardent beverages” on the sabbath. The outcome, following other previously reported interactions with law enforcement, is that they lost their license to serve liquor in Salt Lake City. This prompted the pair to pursue another Wild West solution — colloquially known as “taking a floater” — which brought them to Parley’s Park City, as it was then known. Although details are scarce, it was also reported that prior to departure, they took a rock to the head of the citizen who ratted them out. Upon arrival in The Park, each man opened his own saloon. They then clearly deduced that the way to avoid further arrests would be to become part of the legal establishment, Pape as a lawman and Cupit as a judge. Once again, this being the Wild West, they became party to a series of incidents, this time on the “right side” of the law. Or were they? On Sept. 2, Sandy Brumley and Jane Perkins will share further details of Cupit and Pape’s stories, as well as a variety of other topics related to the saloons and saloonkeepers of Parley’s Park City. Perkins is a founder of the High West Saloon, where Brumley is often found sipping their specialty cocktail known as “Dead Man’s Boots.” The lecture will take place from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Museum’s Education and Collections Center on 2079 Sidewinder Drive. Sandy Brumley is a Park City Museum researcher.