Lafe Cox and Al Hennesy, headed for Buck Creek
(Photograph, courtesy of Kirt Kitchen)
Lafe Cox (1914-2002) moved, with his parents Clark and Beulah Cox, to a ranch on Johnson Creek in 1927 where the family built a lodge known as the Cox Dude Ranch. In 1943 Lafe and his wife Emma Petersen Cox purchased the dude ranch from his parents. For the story about Lafe's and Emma's life on Johnson Creek and the Cox Dude Ranch, see Idaho Mountains, our home/life in Idaho's backcountry.
Al Hennessey (1875-1956) arrived in the Yellow Pine Basin sometime in the early 1900's. He homesteaded on Johnson Creek, present-day Bryant Ranch and Landing Strip. He built roads. He mined. He was the original discoverer of Stibnite.
"In 1903 Al Hennessey filed his homestead on the 160 acres of the Bryant Ranch (on Johnson Creek) and in 1906 "The Thunder Mountain News" reported that he had built three miles of road from Twin Bridges toward his ranch, called Morrison, and he had built a bath house on the hot springs." (Ernest Oberbillig in Sumner's "Yellow Pine, Idaho") In August of 1906 Idaho County granted him a saloon license.
Al's family in Montana told the following story: "Al had the habit of going periodic drunks and when he decided to sober up he would load some food in a backpack and head for the hills, telling no one where he was going or when he would return.
"On one of these forages, he never returned. A few years later a skeleton was found in a tunnel and as there was no way to identify it, it was decided it was Al Hennessey's bones and buried as such.
"One day, one of the brothers stopped at a saloon in Butte and saw a copy of a newspaper printed in Roosevelt, Idaho, and upon reading it found an item concerning Al Hennessey. They investigated and found it to be their lost brother." (Harry Withers in Sumner's "Yellow Pine, Idaho".)
The following news item appeared in "The Idaho Republic," January 26, 1906:
Al Hennessey, a sub-contractor on the mail route to Roosevelt, is supposed to have lost his life in a snow slide. His horses have been found dead, but no trace of the missing man has been secured.
Additional Reading
Cox, Lafe and Emma. -- Idaho Mountains, our home/life in Idaho's backcountry. Bookcrafters, Inc., 1997. This book is about Lafe's and Emma's life on Johnson Creek and the Cox Dude Ranch.
Two Funerals for Al Hennesy, True West, October 1976, by Ernest Olberbillig
Sumner, Nancy G. -- Yellow Pine, Idaho (printed privately)
Valley County History Project. Pan, Picks and Shovels. Stories gathered by the Valley County History Project.
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Copyright © 2009 - Sharon McConnel. All Rights Reserved.