On The Trail Of Black Cowboys From Nat Love To Sheriff Bart
Nat Love spent Christmas morning burying close companions. A dispute among friends over a saddle horse had ended badly. And in a scene straight from the movies, Arizona Bob had drawn his revolver, but A. Jack's hands reacted just a split-second faster. When the smoke cleared, five horses and three men — A. Jack, Arizona Bob and Wild Horse Pete — lay dead in the corral. The year was 1872 and Love's party had stopped only for a few days in what today is Holbrook, Arizona.
Love recalled the fight in his memoir, The Life and Adventures of Nat Love. He wrote, "In those days on the great cattle ranges, there was no law but the law of might." John Wayne couldn't have growled words more tried and true.