Hector of Sage Creek Mountain

[DreamWeaver <nvrider@home.com>]

(sorry Steph!)   Actually, this is sort of endurance related.  This summer 
on the 2001 XP we rode thru this area, and this story was in one of my 
Oregon-California Trails Assoc. guides --  there are actually more stories 
that are probably more interesting about the trail.  I mean, we all know 
that nobody on the XP would have carried anything dead around with them for 
weeks....... (next time I can't post, I'll know why) :+0  k

****
Sage Creek Mountain was the scene of one of the more bizarre acts of
archaeological vandalism that's taken place in SW Wyoming.  7 or 8 years
ago during the boom, some oil workers found an Indian burial.  Actually it
wasn't a burial but rather the body of the Native American had been shoved
into a narrow crevice of some rocks and covered over with sagebrush.  The
fellows who found him, named him Hector.  Rather than respect the rights of
the dead, they took Hector - who was nearly mummified although the corpse
was articulated and believed to have died around the 1880's or 1890's on
account of the winchester rifle and Colt pistol found with the body.  Well,
they took Hector and put him in the back of their pickup and drove him
around SW WY for a few weeks.  Finally, one night they got pretty drunk in
Kemmerer, WY and hoisted Hector up the flag pole in front of the city
building. Hector and as many of his belongings that could be found was 
taken back
near where he had been found and re-interred.