Wood River Horse Thieves

The "Wood River Horse Thieves", now an NCOWS posse has it's basis in Wyoming History. These "out-laws" roamed the area in and around Park County Wyoming in the late 1800s. Unlike most "owl-hoots" the Wood River Horse Thieves was not identified with one outlaw band. Rather, this was a nebulous name given to any gang that committed a nefarious act in this part of the country. This is assuming the public and authorities did not know who the culprits were. For example, if there was bank robbery in the vicinity it would be blamed on the "Wood River Horse Thieves". If horses were stolen, it would be blamed on them. And so on and so on.

The Wood River is a river, well creek really...might be a river in the spring...anyway, Wood River is just southwest of the village of Meeteetse, Wyoming. So where is Meeteetse? South of Cody, Wyoming about 30 miles. The route from Cody to Meeteetse borders the Absaroka Mountain Range, which extends from Red Lodge, Montana to past Meeteetse. So where's Cody? Fifty-two miles east of Yellowstone National Park. One hundred twenty miles southwest of Billings, Montana. Meeteetse is near what was once a thriving community of Arland. That means it was once as big as Meeteetse is now (351). Meeteetse means "where chiefs meet" in the Indian language of Shoshone. Most enjoyable about being a part of the modern day Wood River Horse Thieves is that we are actually living in the Old West of the original horse thieves. Currently there are 10 owl-hoots riding with us. We have our own newspaper, the Wood River Ridge Runner.

Our emphasis is on black powder with no one shooting smokeless. We frown on being able to see the targets after a shot has been fired. Like NCOWS, authenticity is the rule of the day. We probably are more strict in dress than even NCOWS. Our current members (we all must use an alias) Yakima Red, Flatnose George Curry, Wooden Eye, Scarbelly Sam, Sweetwater, Drummer, Commodore Perry Walker, Cody Kid, Ice Cream Bob and myself Lucky Bill Thorington. At the present we are shooting at the Powell Rod and Gun Club in Powell, Wyoming. Several of our number also take part in historical re-enactments and street theatre performances.

If anyone in our area is interested in historically correct western action shooting we invite them to contact us for an application for membership at luckybill@coltershell.net