Attempts on Gus's life
1877

(From an interview with Gustav Becker in September 1938, as told to his son Alvin Becker)

     It was a constant necessity to carry a revolver, gun and knife wherever one went.  

     Gus Becker was coming home from the lower ranch, (Pratt Ranch) just after dark, one night, when someone standing in the willows near the store, started pumping his gun in the direction from which he heard the horses steps.

     Lead hit close enough to throw a bunch of gravel up in Gus Becker's face.  Gus quickly pulled his gun and started shooting in the direction from which the gun shots had come.

     The shots stopped and nothing more happened for a few more days.

     Then one evening, Gus went out down the river, away from the store, to get his horse which he had staked out in a place where he could watch it.

     By the time he got back to the store it was dark. Someone, standing in front of the store, started shooting at him, one bullet clipped his clothes.  He had left his gun in the store. So he jumped off his horse and walked along by the side of it for a while, then left it and crawled back to the store.  He went into the back door where he found his gun and throughly scoured the vicinity, as well as possible, in the dark.  No one was to be seen.  He never knew which of about twenty outlaws to suspect.

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