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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126023
A motorcyc e -0 of the ast a By Don Lemaster When Matt Dillon wants a posse to hunt down the bad guy he recruits some local citizens and off they thunder in a cloud of dust. Well, that phase of history is over. No more wild chases on horseback, sticking to the trail for days, eating beef jerky and sleeping on 34 the ground in a horseblanket, For instan ce , the last big manhunt in the west took place in 1909 in California. All the participants , good guys and bad, are gone but a trailbike rider can trace th eir rou te, camp where they did and relive one of the greatest epics o f endurance in history. 1 stumbled on the story by accident while riding the high desert. Much of my time in the desert is spent around th e Yu cca Va lley and Twent ynine Palms area. There 's lots o f room and a considerable am o un t of h istory thereabouts. North of Yucca Vall ey an d Joshua Tree National Monument is the small community of Landers. 1 was out exploring on my faithful Yamaha Enduro when I sto pped at the m ini-mart there fo r a co ld d rink. A pamphlet 1 picked up at the store contained an account called The Last Man Hunt by the Linn Twins who are the honorary m ayors of Landers. They wrote abo u t an Indian named Willie Boy who had killed the father of a young Indian girl and then kidnapped her. The Linn Twins described the chase o f Willie Boy briefly and gave detailed directions to a spot just ten miles from Landers where the pursuit came to a violent conclusion. 1 like to do research on a story before 1 ride to the location and look it over. that way 1 know what to look for and pie ce the tal e together b et ter. Willie Boy was much more famo u s than 1 realized. Un iversal Pictures m ade a movie ti tl ed "Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here " starring Robert Redford and one of my favorites , Robert Blake. I also found that a great deal has been written abo u t the Willie Bo y pursuit. The best acc o un t , in my opinion, is the book by Harry Lawton on which the movie was based. Originally titled " Willi e Boy, " the later editions in paperback were retitled to match the film version. My plan was to retrace the route of the posse on my bike, maybe even cam p ing at the springs the fugitive and his pursuers used. That 's when my research showed an astonishing fact. Willie Boy had led the posse on a zigzag co urse over the desert for more than 500 m iles ! What made the feat even more unique was that Willie Boy was afoot and the sheriff's men were on horseback! Time dictated the next move. 1 would have to abbreviate my route, cutting off the zigs and zags Willie Boy took and seeing as many interesting spots as I co uld in a couple of da ys. The story, at least th e shooting part, began in the foothill town of Banning, California on September 26 , 1909. Many things led up to the killing, but the most important factor seems to have been that Willie Boy or "Swift Fox " as he was called by his Paiute relatives. was trying to live in a mixed world of Indian customs and those of the wh ites. He had eyes for a Ifi-year old Chemehuevi girl named Lolita, but her father Old Mike Boniface objected to the attentions that the 27 -year old Paiute was paying his daughter. So one day. while Willie Boy was practicing the whiteman's custom