By 1880 Wyatt Ear resigned his position as Assistant City Marshal of Dodge City and left for Tombstone with his brothers Virgil and Morgan. At the same time Bat’s run as County Sheriff would also come to a short end with his defeat in the next election. Over the next few years Masterson was continuously busy between Kansas and Colorado, where he served as City Marshal of Trinidad (Colorado) in 1882, but eventually returned to Dodge to work at the gaming tables.
He also developed an interest in arranging boxing matches, another trait he took from Wyatt, who was fortunate enough, however, to turn his life in a totally different direction with the turn of the century. And there was an additional facet of W.B. Masterson that emerged to everyone’s surprise, particularly with his frequent critical comments in the press-he liked to write: writing letters to editors, political editorials and sports commentary. Between writing, gambling, and occasionally serving in what skills he had left as a U.S. Marshals operating officer, by 1885, when Masterson ordered the seventh of his single-action revolvers from the Colt factory, he had become a frontier legend, and he was only 32 years old.
Throughout the latter part of the 1880s Bat was in and out of Dodge City; occasionally, as in June 1885, he was asked to step in as a Deputy Sheriff to help “settle” disagreements in which his reputation and the Colt Peacemaker revolver engraved in his holster were generally incentive enough (for the wise). This proved to be enough to ward off a mob about to lynch Prohibitionist Albert Griffin, who was leading a crusade to close Dodge City saloons.
Masterson stood in the doorway of the man’s room, his hand resting on the butt of his Colt, and ordered the crowd to disperse. Although not a fan of Masterson, Griffin later recognized that Bat had saved his sight that day.
In 1888 Bat finally said good-bye to Dodge City, moving to Denver, Colorado, where his main income consisted of deceiving gentlemen, promoting fights, and being the official referee for the new Colorado Athletic Association. An 1894 insert that appeared in Illustrated Sporting West called Bat Masterson “…one of the best boxing judges in America.”
The restless West into which Bat and Ed had ventured as young men in the 1870s had all but changed with the new century, as had Bat’s enthusiasm for life. In the summer of 1902 he took a train from Denver to New York City and began his career as a writer, journalist and sportswriter, beginning the series of articles in 1907 about his life that would become the basis for his book Famous Gunfighters of the Western Frontier.
Law representative and gunman William Barclay Masterson turned out to be one of the best sportswriters of the early 20th century, working until his death as a journalist and sports editor at the Morning Telegraph, always at his desk even on October 25, 1921 when his heart stopped and he passed to the pages of immortality at the age of 67.
An old saying goes that “there are bold gunslingers and there are old gunslingers, but there are no old and bold gunslingers.” Bat Masterson was one of the rare exceptions. Long after he left Dodge City, Bat continued to fuel the legend, not as a law enforcer or gunman but as a journalist; proving perhaps that the pen can actually be mightier than the sword, or the gun!
The first of the legendary Single Action Lawmen.
The single-action Bat Masterson revolver pictured here is the first in the new Legendary Lawmen series of engraved revolvers from the house of F.lli Pietta based on weapons actually carried by famous Wild West Sheriffs and U.S. Marshals Operatives. The Bat Masterson will be introduced in 2013 and available in two versions, the model shown hand-engraved by renowned Italian engravers Sergio and Mauro Dassa, and a less expensive version adorned with Pietta’s exclusive laser-made engravings. The Single Action revolvers will all be made with a factory-made action and faux-deer grips.
The hand-engraved Bat Masterson has a 5-1/2-inch barrel and sells for $2,230; the laser-engraved model will sell for $1,150. Both versions will be available by special order through Dixie Gun Works, dixiegunworks.com; 800-238-6785. Masterson’s copy of the J.C. Collins holster and gun belt was taken from originals attributed to Bat Masterson, and handmade by Alan and Donna Soellner of Chisholm’s Trail Leather; westernleatherholster.com; 678-423-7351. The original Colt Bat Masterson and rig to carry the weapon were provided courtesy of the William I. Koch.
Bat Masterson’s other side, which carries the “Big Fifty”
From the time Bat Masterson was a young buffalo hunter in his 20s and throughout his years as a law enforcement representative in Kansas, he always carried a Sharps rifle in the scabbard of his saddle. In the early 1870s it was the weapon his friends called “Big FIfty” a 54-caliber percussion model that Bat used successfully to help defend hunter settlements at Adobe Walls (East Adobe Walls Creek) in 1874. Billy Dixon, who fought alongside Bat at Adobe Walls, wrote, “Bat Masterson should be remembered for his valor; he was a good gunfighter and had no fear.”
Even as a law enforcement representative in Kansas Bat relied on Sharps when leading a patrol, preferring a long shot when most lever action rifles finished short. In his hunt along the broad plains for murderer Jim Kenedy, Bat shot the horse he was riding at a great distance, an unfortunate tactic but one often used to pursue outlaws because a man was easier to catch on foot. In Kenedy’s case the horse fell on him dragging him, and Bat, Wyatt and the rest of the team arrested him with ease.
While some law enforcerseschewed the Winchester lever action(eschewed the Winchester lever action) for a single-shot rifle, Bat Masterson made Sharps as famous a trademark as Colt single-action revolvers are.
The Sharps home model pictured is a 54-caliber carbine manufactured by ArmiSport Chiappa and available at Taylor’s & Co. taylorsfirearms.com.
Sources: Bat Masterson The Man and the Legend by Robert K. DeArment, 1979 University of Oklahoma Press. Guns of the American West by Dennis Adler, 2010, Chartwell Books Bat Masterson – The Lawman Series by R. L. Wilson, Colt’s Inc. 1967
