go into winter quarters and live on
the horses. One by one the pack
animals were destroyed, as the weary
weeks dragged into months, while the
five gamblers and Boone Helm lived
on horsemeat, cut wood, played cards,
and cursed their fate. Eventually
only the racehorse was left; this
animal was killed and its meat
smoked in chunks. With this supply
of food they decided to make a final
attempt to reach Fort Hall. It was
Fort Hall or perish. With clumsily
fashioned snow shoes, using the horse-
hide for thongs, they started breaking
trail, the strongest in front, the
weakest behind. Gradually the party
strung out, Burton and Helm in the
lead. The Kentuckian then proposed
to Burton that they push on and
abandon the rest of the party, and
Burton weakly agreed. Finally the
pair reached the Snake River, and
moved down it towards Fort Hall.
They had finished their share of the
horsemeat and were trying to exist on
prickly pear, the only edible thing
they could find. By now both men
were practically starving and Burton
was snow blind.

Helm Turns Cannibal

Finally Boone Helm decided to
strike out for Fort Hall alone, but
when he reached the stopping place
the buildings were deserted, and
there was neither food nor assistance.
Returning to the camp, where Burton
lay at his last gasp, Boone Helm com-
mitted the grisliest crime of his
career—he shot Burton, and then cut
parts of one of the dead man’s legs
off for food. He must have existed in
this way for a number of days, for
then he cut off Burton’s other leg,
and wrapping it up in a red flannel
shirt, slung it on his back and started

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on the trail for Salt Lake City. Eight
miles along the trail he met an Indian,
who was also nearly starving. But the
Redman wouldn’t touch the human
flesh offered him. The pair stayed to-
gether for two weeks, living on ants
and shrub called tobacco plant.

It was seven months after Boone
Helm and his party had left The
Dalles, that the Kentucky outlaw,
hollow eyed and dirty, his clothes
in rags, stumbled into the camp of
J. W. Powell, a fur buyer, who was
traveling from Fort Owen in the Bit-
ter Root Valley to Salt Lake City. In
Powell’s party were James Misinger,
an American, a French-Canadian
called Grand Maison, a half-breed and
three Indians. They had just made
camp one night on the Snake River
above Fort Hall, when an apparition
that was almost inhuman staggered
toward their fire. The gaunt and
emaciated killer told of the party of
five leaving The Dalles the previous
October, and how they had separated
and perished, all but he and Burton.
He told them that he was collecting
wood for the fire one night when he
heard a shot and he returned to find
that Burton, unable to endure the
hunger and cold, had committed
suicide.

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Boone Helm schemed to steal their horses

However, after Helm had told his
story, the Indian who had stayed
with him, came into Powell’s camp.
He was known to Powell as Mo Quip
and he told Powell the story of Helm
having a man’s leg wrapped in a
shirt.

Inclined to take pity on the Ken-
tuckian, Powell equipped Helm with
a horse, some clothing and moccasins.
A curious feature of the trip to Salt
Lake was when Grand Maison
showed Powell a wash leather bag of
gold coins that Helm had asked the
Frenchman to keep for him until they
reached their destination. There was
$1,400 in the bag. Powell returned it
to Helm when they reached Salt Lake.

Salt Lake City at that time was in
the throes of what nearly amounted
to insurrection. The original Mor-
mon pioneers had refused to recog-
nize the laws of the United States,
and, in fact had sent a number of
U.S. Government officials packing
back to Washington. U.S. troops were
ordered to occupy the territory, and a
so-called Army of Occupation under
General Johnson was in command.
However, apart from the tenseness be-
tween the Mormons and the Gov-
ernment’s troops, there seems to have
been plenty of civic life for Boone

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