ProTEQ Firearms Academy
ProTEQ
Firearms
Academy
Lead Gulch...
...The ongoing, ever growing, never finished story of Lead Gulch, in Lemon Valley, on the Brannan Ranch...
Last Updated 10/18/15
Many decades ago L. U. Brannan (ProTEQ Pete's Father) settled the area as the original land grantee, establishing The Brannan Ranch. L.U. laid out the plans for a small settlement along the southwestern valley. In his will he deeded it plenty of room to grow. Eventually that tiny seed became the thriving Town of Lead Gulch. If he had lived; L.U. would have been pleased to see the changes, would have understood the growing pains, and would have told many stories about the early times, people, and places of Lemon Valley. I'll try to remember some of them tails as we sit here around the camp fire...
Built off in the wilderness (Stage 9), you would find the foundation remnants of the OLD Building first constructed by Buckshot Butt and his handy son Cockle Burr, who together with the steady help of JP Dickinson & Will Backer built the first Trading Post in the area. They traded with the Indians, the Trappers, L.U., the Soldiers, and later the Settlers while surviving at their lonely establishment. In time the Army built Fort Bran (just east of Stage 1) and under the guidance of Post Commander Tommy Buffalo provided the first established protection to defend the growing number of settlers moving into the valley. The soldiers found that task to be difficult in the shadow of the growing Indian encampment visible in the Hills to the North.
When minerals deposits were discovered by Breakstone DA he opened the ProTEQ Drilling & Mining Company North West of the Fort. That drew even more people to Lemon Valley who eventually expand the settlement into the prosperous town of Lead Gulch (Stages 1 through 6). Unfortunately trouble was always brewing there between the Town Folk, the Rowdy Miners, and those Drifters passing through.
The Bank co-owned by Crooked Finger & Mustache Greg, along with the Assay Office operated by Hoosier Greenhorn & Henry Remington provide a wealth of temptation to the likes of Blue Eyed Drifter, Rattle Snake John, and The Camby Kid. Added to the mix were those Saloons of Griz Hicks, Miss Kitty, and Billy Badlands, where card sharks like Black Feather Bill, Riverboat Gambler, and Long Nose Jake worked their treacherous trade. Just down the street another temptation was offered in them Sporting Houses run by Little Bine. It was hard for the town folks like blacksmith Crooked Cody & his wife Elpaso Susie, shop keepers Flintlock Fields and Calico Kim, or the millwright Ole Short Tom (with his wife Two Sons) to make a safe and honest living. The unlucky school teacher Calamity Sue was always challenged by them way word young ones like Spud and Idaho Kid. That woman Doc - ProTEQ Pearl had plenty of patients at her office who too often had been injured by gun hands like Putnamville Kid, Redneck Rebel, The Undertaker, or Loose Cannon. Sheriff ProTEQ Pete found his jail full every weekend and that kept Judge Silver Haired Duke busy on the bench. Poor old Pastor John had his hands full trying to guide the flock through that Valley of Death.......
………Old Buckshot found his once quiet and isolated Outpost was soon surrounded by the constant turmoil of the valley inhabitants. He missed them days in the wilderness, the solitude of the Pines on the Mountains, the quiet babbling of the brooks,………and it made him wonder what would happen in and around Lemon Valley's town of Lead Gulch way out there by the Buffalo plains of the Brannan ranch.
Stay tuned......more STAGES are coming......the Question is....will they be on wheels or............ Dug into the Dirt?
(ProTEQ Pete needs your tales told, so he can writ them down on this here history. He knows there are UNFINISHED lines to be add'n on to this page. Them would tales 'bout - the town folks, the miners, the travelers, the drifters, and them gun hands that passed through, lived in, or got buried at LEAD GULCH.)
