The Forgotten Stagecoach Station and Outlaw Hideout

Desert Springs, Iron County, Utah – Stagecoach Station

Our story starts here, in the southwest desert of Utah. A stagecoach station was located in what would be known as Desert Springs in 1868. This stagecoach station was one of the resting spots on the Salt Lake Line between Pioche, NV and Beaver, UT. These stations were located every 15 to 50 miles and would serve as resting places for weary travelers, a place to change out worn out horses and mules, and of course, a place for bandits to wreck havoc. These stations were usually run by families. This station also acted as a freighters camp since it was at the junction of the road from Beaver, Iron springs, mountain meadows, and Nevada mining camps. The next closest station was Sulphur Springs, located to the northeast near the future location of the Lund Railroad Station. 

In 30 years, the bustling railroad town of Modena would spring up south of Desert Springs, but in the meantime this little station has quite the story to tell. Located on the eastern side of the road opposite the Modena Cemetery, there isn’t anything left of the station except stories and rumors.  

Stagecoach Lines 

This stagecoach station was built to connect with the Gilmer and Salisbury stage line route from salt lake to st George from 1869 to 1876, the route was called “The devils gate and meadow valley Road” and it was known as one of the most dangerous routes in the west. 

During its heyday, Desert Springs was also the location of Hugh White’s stage coach line from Silver reef to Desert Springs, Jot Travis and John Townsends stage line from Silver Reef to Pioche through Desert Springs.

Home of the Outlaws

Although not much is known about the first few years of this station by 1875, this place was well known by the bandits of the Wild West. The most notorious of these were:

– Idaho Bill, aka William Sloane, who was connected to Ben Tasker and his gang, Idaho Bill meets his end at the age of 29. 

– Ben Tasker, he was an older man by the time he started his gang. It’s suspected he actually acted as a manager of the Desert Springs station until his arrest for murder of his long time butcher. 

Other members associated with both of these guys were Nate Hansen (who gets murdered in 1878), Al Winn, and Thomas Emmett.  

Desert Springs

Let’s back up a little, in 1872 Desert Springs supposedly had 16 people living there, although their names are currently unknown. Even though there should be an 1870 and 1880 census for this area as well, I have yet been able to locate the Desert Springs area on the Iron Territory census. I am still attempting to find this information though.

At one point, Desert Springs Station had a large building with a long table in the center, as well as several wings for travelers, along with a separate residence for the operator of the station, two outhouses, a cellar, stables and an array of corrals for the horses, a wind mill and large holding tanks. Water was $.10 to $.25 a bucket, depending on who was in charge, equal to almost $3-$7.50 a bucket today. This station could bring in anywhere from $23-30 a day, equal to between $700 and almost $1,000 today. Cooking 6 meals a day to keep everyone fed was also common.

Ben Bowen 

Ben Bowen is the first known proprietor of the Desert Springs Stagecoach station as early as 1873. He remained in this position until sometime in 1878, when it appears Ben Tasker took over. Tasker had already been living in the area for several years, his ranch was either to the south of the station where current Modena is, or to the north in the canyon. Ben Bowen and Tasker, who we will talk about in a minute, were very well acquainted.

Running this station was no easy task, dealing with break ins, robberies, being held at gunpoint, all seemed to be common occurrences. Obviously with such a hostile work environment, it was hard to keep employees around at the station since most ends up being threatened by the bandits. One of the station cooks told a story of a gun being held to his head while he cooked Idaho Bill and his gang some dinner, he quickly found another job after that night. 

Around 1878 Ben Bowen was approached by a man named Burke who convinced Bowen to help him mine in the Old Spanish mines in the Henry Mountain region. The Henry Mountains are where Capital Reef National Park is today. Apparently, Bowen thought it was a good idea and sold the station. These mines were rumored to be cursed and Bowen and Burke ended up dying within days of each other during their mining expeditions.  

The Walker family was also said to have operated this station for a short time, but it unclear when, however, it was before Tasker took over, but he was still well known at the station. 

Idaho Bill and Lost Gold

Idaho Bill is rumored to have lived on Ben Taskers ranch, which was located near Desert Springs. On one night, he and his gang were supposedly seen playing poker on a dead mans chest in the main room of the station. The identity of the unfortunate man is unknown. Idaho Bill along with Nate Hansen, were also responsible for the stagecoach robbery here in 1875 where he stole $2,000 worth of gold, which would be almost $50,000 today. While on the run, Idaho Bill supposedly buried his stolen gold on his way to Beaver, UT. He was arrested but escaped and the story goes that he made it to his father in laws ranch in Evanston, WY.  Evidently, his father in law is the one who kills Idaho Bill in 1881 when he saw him chasing his wife and mother in law with a gun. His stolen gold was apparently never recovered. 

Another robbery took place here in 1876 but lucky for Idaho Bill, the blame wasn’t put on him and the gold was recovered. 

The Notorious Ben Tasker 

Although not much is known about Ben Taskers early life, there are plenty of rumors to make your imagination go wild. He was said to be about 45 years old when he took over the station and I suspect Ben Tasker was not his true name. No one is sure where he came from originally, but he was said to have served as a colonel in the civil war for an infantry unit in Illinois. He was rumored to have been educated in church doctrine and was to be a pastor. He was said to be highly intelligent, studying law and learning how to talk his way out of anything. Tasker supposedly talked himself out of being convicted for his crimes around nine times, even though he was suspected of at least ten murders and was a notorious horse and cattle thief. 

One of these murders was of his business partner Nate Hansen, who is killed in 1878. Hansen had African American woman living with him who was either named Liza, Liz, or Jule. I have found all three names associated with this women in newspaper articles and stories, but for the sake of this story I will call her Jule. When Hansen is killed, Tasker takes this woman to live with him at Desert Springs. In later stories it was rumored that a five year old girl was also living with Tasker and Jule, but based on the age of the child I wonder if this was Hansens child with Jule. 

Ben Tasker was also said to be a very nice man as long as you were in good standing with him. If he did not like you, you probably didn’t last very long. When Ben took over the station in 1878, his rein didn’t last long. His previous ministry education obviously didn’t stop him from living a life of criminality, but his quick study of the law sure kept him out of jail for awhile. At his ranch close to the station, he supposedly built an underground stable, accessible with a trap door for quick and easy getaways. He also was said to have underground bunkers dug into the creekside for his stolen cattle. He would either change the brands on the cattle and resell them, or process the meat quickly. The meat from these stolen cattle was either fed to the travelers staying at the station or sold to the nearby mining camps for $.06 a pound or $1.80 a pound today, you can’t find meat that cheap anywhere! Whatever he didn’t sell he fed to his pigs, which I’m sure he also then fed to travelers at the station. He would sometimes joke with other cattle ranchers in the area that the meat they had paid to eat at his station was possibly theirs to begin with.

Murder of “Dutchy”

After years of selling meat from stolen cattle in the area, he was arrested for the murder of his butcher, Alfred Ferdinand Engleking. “Dutchy” was everyones nickname for Engleking, since he was, as you probably guessed, dutch. It’s not sure how many years they worked together, but Engleking was getting tired of Ben not paying him so he finally decided to leave. Ben could not afford to let this happen and so he followed Dutchy, killed him, and buried him in 1880. Dutchy’s body was later quickly discovered and Tasker was arrested and held in Beaver, UT. Tasker was able to bribe his guards, then escaped back to his ranch and after gathering his belongings and a good horse he left the area. Rumor has it he either escaped to Mexico where he again took up his previous life as a pastor or he was killed near Prescott, Arizona in 1882.

The Mysterious Jule

Side note about Jule: from what I could find, she was originally taken in by the William Maxwell household in Nevada in 1870 after her mother died. Born in Missouri around 1856, she was 14 in 1870. When the Maxwell family left Nevada she was then said to have gone to work for Nate Hansen, which I estimate she would have been 19 at the time and then goes to live with Tasker in 1878 at the age of 22. She was also said to be very kind and attentive to any children who stopped at the station. When Tasker is finally arrested in 1880, she was rumored to supply the horses for his escape from prison and then he paid her way to escape to California. She was also said to marry a George Waters and have a daughter named Lizzie Ann. I wonder if this is were the Liz/Liza names came from, since if this girl was really the child of Nate Hansen and she was living at Desert Springs, it’s possible people got the names confused. I wish I could find more information of Jule and Lizzie Ann. 

The Clark and Lynch Families 

From 1880-1885 the Clark family, previously from Pioche, NV, took over as operators of the stagecoach station. If you visit the Modena Cemetery, you will see the headstones of Vincent Charles Clark (1868-1882) and Charles Clark (1818-1885) and this is actually what led me to even discover that Desert Springs ever existed. Vincent’s life was sadly cut short when he and his brother, William who was 16 at the time, were cleaning their rifles. The one Vincent was cleaning was supposed to be unloaded, but it went off accidentally and shot young Vincent. He was 13 at the time of his death. Charles later died in 1885 at the age of 67 and they are buried next to each other. 

From what I can tell, the Clark family stayed in the area and the older Clark boys were successful with cattle raising until they decided to try their hands at mining up in Stateline in 1897. The Clarks ranch, known to the area as Clarks Well was east of Desert Springs along the road from Pioche to Milford. The cemetery was known as Clarks Graveyard for awhile until the name was changed to Modena Cemetery.

By the 1890s, the Lynch family had taken over  the station for several years and they owned a ranch a little further up into the canyon on the way to the Stateline area. The father John Lynch was said to have been a sherif in Lincoln County, Nevada. 

It’s possible the same ranch the Lynch family owned was the one used by Ben Tasker previously. From what I can gather, the Lynch family moved to the area around 1890 and thats when they claimed the water rights up in that canyon where there were a multiple of streams and springs. This early water claim  worked out well for the family when the Modena Water Company wanted to buy their water to supply the railroad station and town that was to be Modena. 

It’s rumored that when John Lynch died around 1898, his three sons Maurice, Johnny and Tom were paid $10,000 each to have access to the water, which is almost $1 million today. What’s odd is that Mary Elizabeth Lynch, the mother, was also said to have died in 1895 but her grave along with John Lynch’s grave, are nowhere to be found in the local cemeteries. Maybe they were put in unmarked graves on their ranch at the mouth of the canyon. 

Future of Modena

In 1902, with the funding of $30,000, three inch piping was laid up in the canyon down to Modena. With a 500ft drop in elevation it was the hope that this water would be plenty for the town. When Modena started to grow, it appears Desert Springs was still in use as a stagecoach station at least until 1908 when another robbery took place and a new blacksmith shop was opened there. It’s unsure when the station closed down for good, but likely it wasn’t too long after 1908, since by 1915 stagecoaches were hardly used for transportation.  

Want to learn more about Modena? A full history on the town is coming up next! In the meantime, if you have more stories to add to this history of Desert Springs, please contact me! I would love to hear it 

– PLEASE, if you choose to visit locations mentioned here, always leave no trace, respect all “no trespassing” signs and be mindful of any and all private/personal property you may encounter + if you have more to add to this story, please let me know. The information gathered was what I could find in county histories and newspaper articles –