Volume 11 , Issue 2

Cole Younger Searches For Brass Bucket

Another former badman appeared in the Wichita Mountains country first. His name also appeared on the brassbucket contract.

Cole Younger had just completed a twenty-five year sentence for his part in the Northfield, Minnesota bank robbery. When he was released from prison, Cole made tracks for the Wichitas.

In December 1903, Younger was in Lawton, Oklahoma, a frontier boom town barely two years old. Cole was not particular about what he told the press. One paper reported in November that Younger was in Ardmore visiting a relative and planned to visit Dallas and the Texas Panhandle and then return home to Lee's Summit, Missouri about December 1st.

BUT... Cole changed his mind. On December 1st 1903 he was in Lawton. The papers reported, "Cole Younger was in the city Friday and Saturday with a view to locating there. Reports have it that he will go into the newspaper business. He was given a reception by the citizens and is pleased with the city."

How long Cole Younger visited is not known, but apparently Frank was not convinced that he found much.
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