"After Durango took over from Animas City the place quickly became a brawling frontier town. This was the Saturday night town, the payday town. Every wisecracker with a mouth full of dust and a six gun came to town looking to shake off the last week of cow punching, or mine digging, or tree cutting, and on and on.

"During the rest of the week Durango was a supply center with beautiful ranches surrounding the town. The ranches were owned by wealthy cattle barons and they hired well known gun slingers to protect their property. One of the most notorious was the Stockton gang. This bunch pretty much did what they pleased around Durango. They were constantly fighting, and having shootouts with a rival gang from Farmington. Finally, the newspaper editor spoke out and published a demand for the Stockton gang to leave town. Ike Stockton himself went in to deal with the editor and was surprised to find he was a woman, Mrs. Romney. Her continued actions and those of the whole town finally drove the gang away.

"The Stockton gang left Durango and rode into Silverton next. Here they quickly ended up killing the Silverton Sheriff and getting a reward of $2,500 on each of their heads. Well now, it seems Ike Stockton was not involved in the killings. So, he proceeded to capture and turn in one of his own gang members for the reward money. The betrayed gang member was lynched. A few days later, Silverton Deputy Sheriff Jim Sullivan shot Ike Stockton himself claiming that he hated a traitor more than a murderer."

Source: Durango, Colorado online
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