Po8

acrylic on paper - 21" x 18.5"

July 1875, at Funk Hill 4 miles due east Black Bart, alias Charles E. Bolton or Boles, wearing a flour sack mask and a linen duster, waving a double-barrelled shot gun held up the Wells Fargo Sonora to Milton Stage. The first successful stage robbery in California. For eight years he was the “scourge and terror of California roads.” Often leaving a few lines of doggerel at the scene:

I’ve labored long and hard for bread,
For honor and for riches,
But on my corns’ too long you’ve tred,
You fine-haired sons of b------.

Twenty eight robberies later Bart again struck at Funk Hill, only to be wounded and to leave clues leading to his capture in San Francisco. Released from San Quentin January 23, 1888, he disappeared after getting off the train in Visalia.