About the author

Linda Wommack

Linda Wommack is a Colorado native, and has enjoyed Colorado History since childhood. A distant relative to Bob Womack, of Cripple Creek gold fame, Linda has written of early Colorado history across the state in publications for the past ten years, and spends much of her time giving speeches and tours throughout Colorado, and also reviews books of historical nature for local and national publications.

Her most recent project, completing three years of research, is her fourth book, Published in the Fall of 1998, with an astonishing reprint in March of 1999, by Caxton Press.

Over 400 cemeteries are included in this well documented effort, containing over 1,000 mini-biographies of Colorado pioneers interred in Colorado's cemeteries.

Wommack's first book, Colorado Gambling: A History of the Early Days, was published in conjunction with legalized gambling, in 1991. Cripple Creek Tailings followed in the Spring of 1992, to help celebrate Cripple Creek's Centennial year. The city of Cripple Creek produced a book documenting the rich history in 1992, with Linda contributing. As a copy of her book Cripple Creek Tailings was placed in the time capsule of the statue of her distant ancestor, Bob Womack, which stands in that city's park.

Other published works include articles in such magazines as The American Epitaph, True West Magazine, Old West Magazine, Casino Player, The Colorado Gambler, The Tombstone Epitaph, Colorado Country Life, Solitude in Stone, and a recent monthly history column in The Rocky Mountain News.

Legend, lore, mystery, romance and even murder. There are only a few of the many controversies surrounding the life of "Queen Ann", the legend of Browns Park.

What a woman Ann must have been! She was small in stature, with dark hair, pretty features, and high-spirited in personality. By the age of eight, she could ride a horse, handle a gun, and curse as well as any man on the Bassett ranch There traits would later serve her well.

The area first known as Browns Hole stretches through clusters of sagebrush and tumbleweeds to the north, where a rock wonderland runs north by northwest to the borders of Wyoming and Utah. To the south, the rushing Green River winds throughout the valley. This was Colorados legendary "Outlaw Hideout." Brutal in summer, and worse in winter, only the strongest of pioneers, then and now, can survive.

In this rugged corner of Colorado, Ann Bassett not only lived and survived, but became a female enigma. She was the first white child born in Browns Hole (in 1878), the third child of pioneers Herbert and Elizabeth Bassett. Bassett had started a horse and cattle ranch, unaware of the growing hostilities in the area. Their newborn daughter would later become known as "Queen Ann," ultimately dominating the cattle ranches of the area.

Young Ann once found a sickly, stray calf, and brought the animal home. Her tender care and complete attention saved the calfs life. The manager of the Middlesex Company, which owned the calf, gave the animal to little Ann, although it carried the Middlesex brand. Later, a roving Middlesex cowboy spotted the grown calf and returned it to the Middlesex herd. Eight-year-old Ann confronted the manager of the Middlesex Company and with great determination, demanded her given cow be returned to her. Retrieving the cow, she took it back to the Bassett ranch and immediately persuaded one of the ranch wranglers to alter the brand on the cow. It was her first experience at a rumored career of cattle rustling that would remain throughout her life, and may have been the driving force that later gained her fame as she fought against the large cattle companies.

Following the deaths of her parents, Ann, now a young woman, took over the family ranch with one goal: to protect her familys interest and maintain the ranch. Known for her iron-willed attitude, Ann soon gained the title of "Queen Ann." She was head-strong in her ways, and quite demanding. Yet, her ranch hands were devoted to her. She was not arrogant or superior. Quite the contrary. She rolled her own cigarettes, in the days when women didnt smoke, and drank her whiskey straight. She became one of the most noted frontier women in Colorado, and gained a reputation as one of the toughest in the West.

Ann soon found herself in the middle of one of Colorados largest range wars. While struggling to hold onto her familys ranch, larger cattle companies tried to drive her out. The fighting over land became personal when Anns fiancé, Matt Rush, believed to have been a cattle rustler, was shot dead at his cabin. Ann and many others believed Ora Haley, owner of the large Two Bar Ranch, had contracted a hired killer to ambush Rush, and thereby further threaten the smaller ranches.

The hired killer was none other than Tom Horn, one of the first of the outlaw element to enter the Browns Park region. In 1894, Horn left the Pinkerton Detective Agency to work for the Swan Cattle Company in Wyoming, and became a hired gun for the larger cattle companies, extending into Colorado. It is said Horn received five hundred dollars per victim. Undoubtedly, he killed four men, two in Wyoming and two in Colorado, both in Browns Park. Ann claims in her memoirs a large cattle company (name not mentioned) contracted with Tom Horn to have her killed.

Further evidence supporting Anns claim of Horns hired gun tactics came with the death of Isom Dart. An ex-slave from the South, Dart worked for various ranchers in Browns Park, including the Bassett family.  In 1900, Tom Horn stalked Dart and shot him in cold blood, in the early morning at Darts cabin. Community members of Browns Park buried Isom Dart near his cabin at Cold Springs Mountain.

Outlaws frequented Browns Park and the Bassett Ranch in particular. The limited access became a haven to outlaws, and acquired the name "Hole in the Wall," a stretch of the Robbers Roost in Utah, a hide-out for Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch gang, as well as the notorious Harry Tracy and David Lant, to name a few.

Butch Cassidy first arrived in Browns Park in the summer of 1889, seeking refuge from his first major bank robbery, in the remote mining town of Telluride. Cassidy became popular with the community, dividing his time between friendly horse races and the hospitality of the Bassett ranch. The good-natured and fun-loving Cassidy became a regular a the barn dances, and soon cast his eye toward Josie Bassett, Anns older sister. The two became sweethearts for a time. Josie later claimed to have visited him in Nevada, and in Baggs, Wyoming, on several occasions in the 1930s. It was at Browns Park, that Butch Cassidy put together his infamous Wild Bunch Gang of outlaws. Cassidy would return to Browns Park several times during his outlaw career.

Ann wrote in her memoirs of her friendship with Elsa Lay, a member of the Wild Bunch: "He was a likable Englishman who came to the Bassett ranch often...we did not pry into his affairs, we had accepted Elza Lay as our friend, and friendship among our community was no light bond. We were in a constant struggle to protect our land and our interests on the range where our living was at stake. Bank robbers where not a menace to personal interests, and we had no reason to fear them."

Anns open kindness toward the outlaw element caused rumor and suspicion, including murder. Among the many rumors, she denied the most controversial: that she headed the Bassett Gang of outlaws and that she was a cattle rustler. The first denial is true, the Bassett Gang existed twenty years previously, consisting of three members: Matt Dish, Isom Dart, and Anns mother, Elizabeth. The second denial is highly questionable, however. Ann was brought to trial on a charge of cattle rustling, and later acquitted.

Yet it was Ann that made the Bassett family a force to be reckoned with in Browns Park. She successfully ran the family ranch and fought the cattle barons against a hostile attempt to take over her land. She was a woman in a mans world and she was winning.

Browns Park was the hide-out for outlaws until the turn of the century. With the end of the range wars, and the arrival of the railroad, the park became more civilized. Laws were enacted with respect to land ownership, and life for the rancher became somewhat peaceful.

As for "Queen Ann" of Browns Park, she continued to run the family ranch and kept in in the Bassett family, defeating all odds. Shortly before her death (in 1956) she answered a reporters question with this statement:

"Ive done everything they said I did and a helluva lot more."

Copyright © 2000 Linda Wommack. All rights reserved