When I was living in Washington, DC, I was friendly with Nancy Reagan's social secretary. One day as we drove through DC on my motorcycle, somehting made her think of her father who had been active in politics and business. She told me that he had been invited to the wedding of Baby Doe and Hoss Tabor which took place in Washington. Because of the notoriety of Baby Doe and how Horace had treated Augusta, his first wife.

It turned out that no other women showed up at the wedding. Tabor was a major force in the country because of his wealth and senators and i think even the President showed up for his wedding but not a single one of their wives did.

Tabor was wiped out when the government changed its monetary policy. I don't remember the details but it had to do with the gold and silver standards. The price of silver plummeted. The change of fortune was too much for Hoss who died not long after.

Baby Doe turned out to be a faithful wife and when Hoss died, his last words to her were that silver would come back and that she should keep his famous silver mine, the Matchless.

She never sold the mine. She lived out the rest of her life in a shack there. She had so little money that people in Leadville used to help her out, even having groceries delivered. A woman I met in Leadville told me she remembered a a girl seeing Baby Doe as an old woman coming into town and that it was her relative, I think a cousin, who as a young delivery boy found Baby Doe dead in the cabin one winter morning.

Hearing her tell the story made shivers run up my spine.

Sourdough